February 2022 Newsletter

February 2022 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 36.02 Singapore NEWSLETTER Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Flame of Aspiration A flame that illuminates but does not burn. Acer Maple Numerous species of mostly deciduous small to medium-sized very attractive trees and occasionally shrubs usually with palmately lobed leaves, often as wide as they are long; rich bright autumnal colourings vary from light yellow to deep red. “We can, simply by a sincere aspiration, open a sealed door in us and find... that Something which will change the whole significance of life, reply to all our questions, solve all our problems and lead us to the perfection we aspire for without knowing it, to that Reality which alone can satisfy us and give us lasting joy, equilibrium, strength, life. All have heard it - Oh! there are even some here who are so used to it that for them it seems to be the same thing as drinking a glass of water or opening a window to let in the sunlight.... We have tried a little, but now we are going to try seriously! The starting-point: to want it, truly want it, to need it. The next step: to think, above all, of that. A day comes, very quickly, when one is unable to think of anything else. That is the one thing which counts. And then... One formulates one’s aspiration, lets the true prayer spring up from one’s heart, the prayer which expresses the sincerity of the need. And then... well, one will see what happens. Something will happen. Surely something will happen. For each one it will take a different form.” (The Mother, Questions and Answers 1957-1958)

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 Guiding Light of the Month FOR the plenitude of Thy Light we invoke Thee, O Lord! Awaken in us the power to express Thee. All is mute in the being as in a desert crypt; but in the heart of the shadow, in the bosom of the silence burns the lamp that can never be extinguished, the fire of an ardent aspiration to know Thee and totally to live Thee. 8 November, 1914 Prayers and Meditations, The Mother In this February issue of our newsletter we continue to From the Editor’s Desk as take up the theme of aids along the way in this inner journey towards a supreme discovery. The aid that we It is characterised by “… a feeling of plenitude, of are dwelling upon here is Aspiration. force, of an inner flame which fills you. Aspiration can give you joy, but a very special joy, which has no excitement in it.” What is aspiraton? The online Oxford Learners We have looked in some considerable detail about the Dictionary defines aspiration as: a strong desire to nature of an aspiration and how it could be have or do something. In the Indian parlance, there differentiated from desire. In this path of yoga, it is a qualitative difference between aspiration and becomes necessary to know ourselves as we are and desire. In light of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, the deeper aspirations arising from some truer layer within. True aspiration, when fathomed, will be a dictionary definition of aspiration appears scarce and guard post allowing entry into uncharted territories of depleted. Sir Aurobindo says, “…in aspiration there is the Presence. True aspiration, when fathomed, becomes a beacon light on the way towards the a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend supreme discovery. The knowledge of our nature- and take possession — the more intense the call, the driven tendencies fueled by desire and the flame of an greater the self-giving.” Similarly The Mother explains ardent aspiration rising from the “bosom of the silence” can become a transformative agent. the difference between an aspiration and a desire. A The Mother’s words below will suffice in illuminating desire has a quality of taking or drawing to oneself as the place of aspiration in sadhana: opposed to giving and a holding back. Generosity is “Your aspiration is a drop of water which, instead of absent. She explains that, “In aspiration there is what I falling, rises. So, by dint of rising, it beats, beats, beats, and one day it makes a hole, by dint of rising; and might call an unselfish flame which is not present in when it makes the hole suddenly it springs out from desire” and there is “not a turning back upon oneself.” this lid and enters an immensity of light, and you say, Aspiration, she says, “is a self-giving, always…” and \"Ah, now I understand.\" that “aspiration is something which gives itself, not This month is a much anticipated one. We celebrate necessarily in the form of thought but in the movement, the 94th Birth Anniversary of The Mother on the 21st in the vibration, in the vital impulse.” Aspiration of February 2022. All Sri Aurobindo centres are gearing up for this grand occasion so full of Love and appears to be accompanied by the quality of generosity; Grace. Let us all come together as one family of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and offer our gratitude that it is offering everything; without holding back, we are in the fold of Divinity itself, to be able to be a part of this, graced by the golden dust of Grace. Let us everything one has, and one is, to the highest one prepare ourselves for this grand occasion with love and simplicity, and aspiration in sincerity. perceives. Where does aspiration come from? True aspiration, The Mother says, “springs up like a flame coming from the heart...” and not from the mind, as something thought out; “It springs up from you like a ready flame.” The Mother gives an example of aspiration by referring to the Vedas. These arose from some region as a flame. The Mother gives some indication of how to recognize true aspiration. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg Savitri But all is screened, subliminal, mystical; It needs the intuitive heart, the inward turn, It needs the power of a spiritual gaze. Else to our waking mind’s small moment look A goalless voyage seems our dubious course Some Chance has settled or hazarded some Will, Or a Necessity without aim or cause Unwillingly compelled to emerge and be. In this dense field where nothing is plain or sure, Our very being seems to us questionable, Our life a vague experiment, the soul A flickering light in a strange ignorant world, The earth a brute mechanic accident, A net of death in which by chance we live. All we have learned appears a doubtful guess, The achievement done a passage or a phase Whose farther end is hidden from our sight, A chance happening or a fortuitous fate. Out of the unknown we move to the unknown. Ever surround our brief existence here Grey shadows of unanswered questionings; The dark Inconscient’s signless mysteries Stand up unsolved behind Fate’s starting-line. An aspiration in the Night’s profound, Seed of a perishing body and half-lit mind, Uplifts its lonely tongue of conscious fire Towards an undying Light for ever lost; Only it hears, sole echo of its call, The dim reply in man’s unknowing heart And meets, not understanding why it came Or for what reason is the suffering here, God’s sanction to the paradox of life And the riddle of the Immortal’s birth in Time. Sri Aurobindo 3 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 Questions & Answers What is exactly meant by a sincere aspiration? An aspiration which is not mixed with any interested and egoistic calculation. (The Mother, Words of The Mother, 12 January 1934) It is to the sincerity of your aspiration that the Love answers spontaneously. (The Mother, Words of The Mother, 20 October 1934) Let your aspiration leap forward, pure and straight, towards the supreme consciousness which is all joy and all beatitude. (The Mother, Words of The Mother, 2 Feb 1935) We must aspire with all our being for the manifestation to come soon and complete. (The Mother, Words of The Mother, 2 Feb 1935) * What is the difference between aspiration and a demand? When you have experienced both, you can easily make the distinction. In aspiration there is what I might call an unselfish flame which is not present in desire. Your aspiration is not a turning back upon self— desire is always a turning back upon oneself. From the purely psychological point of view, aspiration is a self-giving, always, while desire is always something which one draws to oneself; aspiration is something which gives itself, not necessarily in the form of thought but in the movement, in the vibration, in the vital impulse. True aspiration does not come from the head; even when it is formulated by a thought, it springs up like a flame from the heart. I do not know if you have read the articles Sri Aurobindo has written on the Vedas. He explains somewhere that these hymns were not written with the mind; they were not, as one thinks, prayers, but the expression of an aspiration which was an impulse, like a flame coming from the heart (though it is not the \"heart\" but the psychological centre of the being, to use the exact words). They were not \"thought out\", words were not set to experiences, the experience came wholly formulated with the precise, exact, inevitable words—they could not be changed. This is the very nature of aspiration: you do not seek to formulate it, it springs up from you like a ready flame. And if there are words (sometimes there aren't any), they cannot be changed: you cannot replace one word by another, every word is just the apt one. When the aspiration is formulated, this is done categorically, absolutely, without any possibility of change. And it is always something that springs up and gives itself, whereas the very nature of desire is to pull things to oneself. The essential difference between love in aspiration and love in desire is that love in aspiration gives itself entirely and asks nothing in return—it does not claim anything; whereas love in desire gives itself as little as possible, asks as much as possible, it pulls things to itself and always makes demands. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 Aspiration always gives joy, doesn't it? Rather a feeling of plenitude—\"joy\" is a misleading word; a feeling of plenitude, of force, of an inner flame which fills you. Aspiration can give you joy, but a very special joy, which has no excitement in it. (The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 22 February 1951) * What is the difference between mental aspiration, vital aspiration and spiritual aspiration? A mental aspiration means that the thought-power aspires to have knowledge, for instance, or else to have the power to express itself well or have clear ideas, a logical reasoning. One may aspire for many things; that all the faculties and capacities of the mind may be developed and placed at the service of the Divine. This is a mental aspiration. Or you may have an aspiration in the vital; if you have desires or troubles, storms, inner difficulties, you may aspire for peace, to be quite impartial, without desire or preference, to be a good docile instrument without any personal whims, always at the Divine's disposal. This is a vital aspiration. You may have a physical aspiration also; that the body may feel the need to acquire a kind of equipoise in which all the parts of the being will be well balanced, and that you may have the power to hold off illness at a distance or overcome it fast when it enters trickily, and that the body may always function normally, harmoniously, in perfect health. That is a physical aspiration. A spiritual aspiration means having an intense need to unite with the Divine, to give oneself totally to the Divine, not to live outside the divine Consciousness so that the Divine may be everything for you in your integral being, and you feel the need of a constant communion with Him, of the sense of his presence, of his guidance in all that you do, and of his harmonising all the movements of the being. That is a spiritual aspiration. (The Mother, Questions and Answers (1953): 7 October 1953) When the sun sets and all becomes silent, sit down for a moment and put yourself into communion with Nature: you will feel rising from the earth, from below the roots of the trees and mounting upward and coursing through their fibres up to the highest outstretching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing,—a longing for something that brings light and gives happiness, for the light that is gone and they wish to have back again. There is a yearning so pure and intense that if you can feel the movement in the trees, your own being too will go up in an ardent prayer for the peace and light and love that are unmanifested here. (The Mother, Questions and Answers (1929 - 1931): 2 June 1929) Aspiration is like an arrow, like this (gesture). So you aspire, want very earnestly to understand, know, enter into the truth. Yes? And then with that aspiration you do this (gesture). Your aspiration rises, rises, rises, rises straight up, very strong and then it strikes against a kind of... how to put it?... lid which is there, hard like iron and extremely thick, and it does not pass through. And then you say, \"See, what's the use of aspiring? It brings nothing at all. I meet with something hard and cannot pass!\" But you know about the drop of water which falls on the rock, it ends up by making a chasm: it cuts the rock from top to bottom. Your aspiration is a drop of water which, instead of falling, rises. So, by dint of rising, it beats, beats, www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 beats, and one day it makes a hole, by dint of rising; and when it makes the hole suddenly it springs out from this lid and enters an immensity of light, and you say, \"Ah, now I understand.\" It's like that. So one must be very persistent, very stubborn and have an aspiration which rises straight upwards, that is, which does not go roaming around here and there, seeking all kinds of things. (The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 13 July 1955) When the consciousness feels imprisoned within its too narrow external mould, what should be done? You must particularly not be violent, for if you are violent, you will come out of it tired, exhausted, without any result. You must concentrate all the forces of aspiration. If you are conscious of the inner flame, you should put into this flame all that you find strongest in you by way of aspiration, of a call, and hold yourself as quiet as you can, calling, with a deep reliance that the answer will come; and when you are in this state, with your aspiration and concentrated force, with your inner flame, press gently upon this kind of outer crust, without violence, but with insistence, as long as you can, without getting agitated, irritated or excited. You must be perfectly quiet, must call and push. It will not succeed the first time. You must begin again as many times as is necessary, but suddenly, one day... you are on the other side! Then you emerge in an ocean of light. If you fight, if you are restless, if you struggle, you will get nothing at all; and if you become irritable you will only get a headache, that is all. Yes, it is that. To gather together all your power of aspiration, make of it something intensely concentrated, in an absolute tranquillity, to be conscious of your inner flame and throw into it all you can that it may burn ever higher and higher, and then call with your consciousness and, slowly, push. You are sure to succeed one day. (The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 12 February 1951) Aspire for it, want it. Try to be less and less selfish, but not in the sense of becoming nice to other people or forgetting yourself, not that: have less and less the feeling that you are a person, a separate entity, something existing in itself, isolated from the rest. And then, above all, above all, it is that inner flame, that aspiration, that need for the light. It is a kind of—how to put it?—luminous enthusiasm that seizes you. It is an irresistible need to melt away, to give oneself, to exist only in the Divine. At that moment you have the experience of your aspiration. But that moment should be absolutely sincere and as integral as possible; and all this must occur not only in the head, not only here, but must take place everywhere, in all the cells of the body. The consciousness integrally must have this irresistible need.... The thing lasts for some time, then diminishes, gets extinguished. You cannot keep these things for very long. But then it so happens that a moment later or the next day or some time later, suddenly you have the opposite experience. Instead of feeling this ascent, and all that, this is no longer there and you have the feeling of the Descent, the Answer. And nothing but the Answer exists. Nothing but the divine thought, the divine will, the divine energy, the divine action exists any longer. And you too, you are no longer there. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 That is to say, it is the answer to our aspiration. It may happen immediately afterwards—that is very rare but may happen. If you have both simultaneously, then the state is perfect; usually they alternate; they alternate more and more closely until the moment there is a total fusion. Then there is no more distinction. I heard a Sufi mystic, who was besides a great musician, an Indian, saying that for the Sufis there was a state higher than that of adoration and surrender to the Divine, than that of devotion, that this was not the last stage; the last stage of the progress is when there is no longer any distinction; you have no longer this kind of adoration or surrender or consecration; it is a very simple state in which one makes no distinction between the Divine and oneself. They know this. It is even written in their books. It is a commonly known condition in which everything becomes quite simple. There is no longer any difference. There is no longer that kind of ecstatic surrender to \"Something\" which is beyond you in every way, which you do not understand, which is merely the result of your aspiration, your devotion. There is no difference any longer. When the union is perfect, there is no longer any difference. Aspiration The Value of Aspiration What you say is quite true. A simple, straight and sincere call and aspiration from the heart is the one important thing and more essential and effective than capacities. Also to get the consciousness to turn inwards, not remain outward-going is of great importance — to arrive at the inner call, the inner experience, the inner Presence. The help you ask will be with you. Let the aspiration grow and open the inner consciousness altogether. * One has only to aspire sincerely and keep oneself as open as possible to the Mother’s Force. Then whatever difficulties come, they will be overcome — it may take some time, but the result is sure. * One has to suppose that [the Mother’s] force everywhere around and call it in — if one feels it, so much the better, but even otherwise if there is faith and power in the call, it can flow in. * One must rely on the Divine and yet do some enabling sadhana — the Divine gives the fruits, not by the measure of the sadhana but by the measure of the soul and its aspiration. Also worrying does no good — “I shall be this, I shall be that, what shall I be?” Say “I am ready to be not what I want, but what the Divine wants me to be” — all the rest should go on that base. * I mean by the measure of the soul’s sincerity a yearning after the Divine and its aspiration towards the higher life. * www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 But why allow anything to come in the way between you and the Divine, any idea, any incident; when you are in full aspiration and joy, let nothing count, nothing be of any importance except the Divine and your aspiration. If one wants the Divine quickly, absolutely, entirely, that must be the spirit of approach, absolute, all-engrossing, making that the one point with which nothing else must interfere. What value have mental ideas about the Divine, ideas about what he should be, how he should act, how he should not act — they can only come in the way. Only the Divine Himself matters. When your consciousness embraces the Divine, then you can know what the Divine is, not before. Krishna is Krishna, one does not care what he did or did not do; only to see Him, meet Him, feel the Light, the Presence, the Love, the Ananda is what matters. So it is always for the spiritual aspiration — it is the law of the spiritual life. Don’t waste time any longer in these ideas of the mind or in any starts of the vital — blow these clouds away. Keep fixed on the one thing indispensable. The Meaning of Aspiration There is no deep meaning [of aspiration] — the meaning is plain. It is the call of the being for higher things — for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness. * It [aspiration] is the call in the being for the Divine or for the higher things that belong to the Divine Consciousness. (To “aspire” always means to call for higher things.) * Aspiration is a turning upward of the inner being with a call, yearning, prayer for the Divine, for the Truth, for the Consciousness, Peace, Ananda, Knowledge, descent of Divine Force or whatever else is the aim of one’s endeavour. * Aspiration is to call the forces. When the forces have answered, there is a natural state of quiet receptivity concentrated but spontaneous. * Aspiration is a call to the Divine, — will is the pressure of a conscious force on Nature. * Aspiration is a call in the being, it is not opening. Aspiration & Desire One should be satisfied with what one gets and still aspire quietly, without struggle, for more — till all has come. No desire, no struggle — aspiration, faith, openness — and the grace. * There is no doubt the mixture of desire in what you do, even in your endeavour of sadhana, that is the difficulty. The desire brings a movement of impatient effort and a reaction of disappointment and revolt when difficulty is felt and the immediate result is not there and other confusing and disturbing feelings. Aspiration should be not a form of desire, but the feeling of an nner soul’s need, and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine. It is certainly not easy to get rid of this mixture of desire entirely — not easy for anyone; but when one has the will to do it, this also can be effected by the help of the sustaining Force. * www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 If there are good desires, bad desires will come also. There is a place for will and aspiration, not for desire. If there is desire there will be attachment, demand, craving, loss of equanimity, sorrow at not getting, all that is unyogic. Aspiration and Pulling Pulling comes usually from a desire to get things for oneself — in aspiration there is a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend and take possession — the more intense the call, the greater the self- giving. * It is certainly a mistake to bring down the light by force — to pull it down. The supramental cannot be taken by storm. When the time is ready it will open of itself — but first there is a great deal to be done and that must be done patiently and without haste. Lack of Aspiration Naturally the more one-pointed the aspiration the swifter the progress. The difficulty comes when either the vital with its desires or the physical with its past habitual movements comes in — as they do with almost everyone. It is then that the dryness and difficulty of spontaneous aspiration come. This dryness is a well-known obstacle in all sadhana. But one has to persist and not be discouraged. If one keeps the will fixed even in these barren periods, they pass and after their passage a greater force of aspiration and experience becomes possible. You are finding it still difficult to bear the interval periods when all is quiet and nothing being done on the surface. But such interval periods come to all and cannot be avoided. You must not cherish the suggestion that it is because of your want of aspiration or any other unfitness that it is so and, if you had the constant ardent aspiration, then there would be no such periods and there would be an uninterrupted stream of experiences. It is not so. Even if the aspiration were there, the interval periods would come. If even in them one can aspire, so much the better — but the main thing is to meet them with quietude and not become restless, depressed or despondent. A constant fire can be there only when a certain stage has been reached, that is when one is always inside consciously living in the psychic being, but for that all this preparation of the mind, vital, physical is necessary. For this fire belongs to the psychic and one cannot command it always merely by the mind’s effort. The psychic has to be fully liberated and that is what the Force is working to make fully possible. * No doubt the true and strong aspiration is needed, but it is not a fact that the true thing is not there in you. If it had not been, the Force could not have worked in you. But this true thing was seated in the psychic and in the heart and whenever these were active in the meditation it showed itself. But for the sake of completeness the working had to come down into the physical consciousness and establish the quietude and the openness there. The physical consciousness is always in everybody in its own nature a little inert and in it a constant strong aspiration is not natural, it has to be created. But first there must be the opening, a purification, a fixed quietude, otherwise the physical vital will turn the strong aspiration into over- eagerness and impatience or rather it will try to give it that turn. Do not therefore be troubled if the state of the nature seems to you to be too neutral and quiet, not enough aspiration and movement in it. This is a passage necessary for the progress and the rest will come. (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga) * www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 Find that Something Power of Aspiration We can, simply by a sincere aspiration, open a sealed door in us and find... that Something which will change the whole significance of life, reply to all our questions, solve all our problems and lead us to the perfection we aspire for without knowing it, to that Reality which alone can satisfy us and give us lasting joy, equilibrium, strength, life. All have heard it - Oh! there are even some here who are so used to it that for them it seems to be the same thing as drinking a glass of water or opening a window to let in the sunlight.... We have tried a little, but now we are going to try seriously! The starting-point: to want it, truly want it, to need it. The next step: to think, above all, of that. A day comes, very quickly, when one is unable to think of anything else. That is the one thing which counts. And then... One formulates one's aspiration, lets the true prayer spring up from one's heart, the prayer which expresses the sincerity of the need. And then... well, one will see what happens. Something will happen. Surely something will happen. For each one it will take a different form. (The Mother, Sunlit Path) January 2022 Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse 2 January 2021: Savitri Reading Circle The session continued with meditating again on the passages from Savitri- The Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation- Book 11- Canto One from page 710 to 711. Sri Aurobindo, saw the TRUTH looming behind the simple story of Savitri narrated in our scriptures which emphasising the virtue of conjugal fidelity. Satyavan is one who carries the soul of truth, has descended into this domain of ignorance and death, Savitri the saviour is the daughter of Savitr, the creator, the creative splendour. Savitri is charged with the task of the transformation of earth-life. The canto ends with the beautiful and positive assurance from God of Death to Savitri, that Truth will prevail on the Earth. When the Supreme Truth takes charge of the Earth, muddiness of the mental lake gets eliminated, Pure Sun of Knowledge, the Eternal Truth, gets reflected clearly. The clearest and truest reflection of the Eternal truth is the God - Principle. The earthly beings come to manifest the Divinity and become the one Eternal Truth Absolute! When the voice of the Supreme withdraws with the sanction: “this earthly life becomes the life divine”, Savitri’s soul comes down to the earth drawing with her, ”like a flower hidden in the heart of spring” Satyavan’s soul as well. From http://www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/savitri-study/book-savitri-study/pre- content-study The canto ends with the following: “A power leaned down; a happiness found its home. Over wide earth brooded the infinite bliss”. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 10 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 9 January 2022: Reading on Synthesis of Yoga The session started with Guru Stotram following which some passages from Book 1, The Yoga of Divine Works, Chapter V, The Ascent of the Sacrifice – 1, pages 125 to 127, were taking up, read and a sharing carried out by the participating members, led by Rakesh. 16 January 2022: Secret of the Vedas We started on 16-5-2021, our study of the topic ‘Agni, the Illumined Will ’- (Rig Veda Madala 1, Sukta 77) – ‘The secret of the Veda’ written by Sri Aurobindo. We completed the study on 19-12-2021. At this juncture it was decided, that a review session through discussion with our participants will be useful and beneficial, helping us to make improvements for our further studies. Initially the discussion was more on whether we should continue the topics from ‘The Secret of the Veda’. General feeling amongst participants were that the subject of study is rather too deep and more difficult to understand. Then the discussion was on finding the alternatives. Here, Jared came out with a suggestion to take up the study of ‘The Life Divine’ in a slightly different manner. There are 2 books, each containing 28 Chapters. In general, Sri Aurobindo has begun each Chapter with an introduction, translation of Mantras picked up from not only Rig Veda, but also from several Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. Due to this method, we will be studying those that are more familiar to us. This portion of the book will be our main focus. With this understanding the participants showed their approval too. Our 1st session on this new topic will be on 20-02-2022. 16 January 2022: Question and Answers by The Mother, Reading on the Five Dreams This session was conducted by Venkatesh. We continued with the fifth and last dream of Sri Aurobindo. Then finally Venkatesh summed up the essence of the whole speech. 23 and 30 Jaunary 2022: Readings and Reflections: The Inner Journey In these two sessions, we read Psychic Education from ‘On Education’ by The Mother. We read what being in the state of psychic consciousness involved, the obstacles and how these may be surmounted through a change in attitude and consistent practice that will lead towards a transformation of the many parts of the nature. We concluded with the reading of this chapter by going through the 10 aids that The Mother offers for this supreme discovery. We then started our reading of ‘What is the psychic being?’ extracted from Collected Works of the Mother, Volume 3, p. 62-64. Here is an extract from what we read, explaining what the psychic world or being is: “It is a world of harmony, and everything moves in it from light to light and from progress to progress. It is the seat of the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Self in the individual being. It is a centre of light and truth and knowledge and beauty and harmony which the Divine Self in each of you creates by his presence, little by little; it is influenced, formed and moved by the Divine Consciousness of which it is a part and parcel. It is in each of you the deep inner being which you have to find in order that you may come in contact with the Divine in you.” - Jayalakshmi, Ram, Krishnamurthy, Shailaja, Jayanthy www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2022 DATE TIME DETAILS 8 AM Monthly Walk Savitri Circle by Venkatesh Rao 6 Feb 2022 Youth Programme Sunday 6 PM 7 PM 13 Feb 2022 6 PM Study Circle by Rakesh : Sunday The Synthesis of Yoga 5 PM Vedic Mantras from The Life Divine by Krishnamurthy and Jared 20 Feb 2022 Mother’s Questions and Answers by Shailaja Sunday 6 PM 7 PM Youth Programme 21 Feb 2022 7 PM The Mother’s Birthday Darshan Day 27 Feb 2022 6 PM Readings and Reflections: The Inner Journey by Jayanthy Sunday *Details can be found in the SAS Whatsapp Group www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 12 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration

Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. February 2022 The Mother’s 144th Birth Anniversary Celebrations 21 Feb 2022 Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore 2A Starlight Road, #01-07 Singapore Morning Meditation 9.00 am (Centre Premises limited to 10 people)* Meditation with readings from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo Evening Programme 7.00 pm (Centre Premises limited to 20 members rest to join online) Meditation with the Mother’s Organ Music ( via zoom) Reading of Mother’s Prayers Darshan Message from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry ( From Center by Chairman) Welcome Address by Chairman Sri Aurobindo Society Singapore ( From Center) Offering by Youth Group on Zoom Musical offering by Guru G Sridhar of Sifas and colleagues from Center *(Center will remain open for members to offer their prayers) Printed and Published by The Sri Aurobindo Society of Singapore 2A Starlight Road 01-07, Singapore 217755. Anand Venkat: 86126067 or [email protected]; Anand Patel:[email protected]; Email: [email protected] Visit our website at: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 13 Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Aspiration