July 2020 Newsletter

July 2020 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 34.07 Singapore NEWSLETTER Psychic Education Psychic Work A work governed by harmony. Pink shower, Rainbow shower; Apple-blossom cassia Small fragrant five- petalled flowers with curving exserted star that open deep pink and fade to white; borne in large dense rounded clusters; a spreading tree. With psychic education we come to the problem of the true motive of existence, the purpose of life on earth, the discovery to which this life must lead and the result of that discovery; the consecration of the individual to his eternal principle. (On The Mother, K.R.Srinivasa Iyengar)

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Guiding Light of the Month “O my sweet Master, my heart is a flaming chapel, and Thou art seated there permanently like the sublimest of idols; so it is that Thy form appears to me, clothed in magnificence, in the midst of the flames consuming my heart for Thee, and at the same time, in my head, I see Thee, know Thee as the Inconceivable, the Unknowable, the Formless; and in this double perception, this double knowledge, lies the plenitude of contentment. “ May 31, 1914 Prayers and Meditations, The Mother From the Editor’s Desk In this issue of our newsletter, we continue with The Mother says, “With psychic education we come to Psychic Education, after considering the Psychic Being the problem of the true motive of existence, the purpose in the last issue. In Sri Aurobindo’s words, the Psychic of life on earth, the discovery to which this life must lead “is something that comes direct from the Divine. In its and the result of that discovery: the consecration of the individual to his eternal principle.” origin it is the nucleus pregnant with divine possibilities that supports this lower triple manifestation of mind, Whosoever has an inkling of the limitations of the outer life and body.” It is that part in us that the vast majority being, of the mind, life and body, whosoever yearns for of humanity barely fathoms, let alone live it. However, a better way of being beyond all mental, moral rules, live it, that is the call of Integral Yoga. Why is it so expressing a higher principle in existence may be just difficult to come in touch with the Psychic within our about taking a first step into the conscious discovery of own being? Sri Aurobindo writes, in The Synthesis of the psychic being. When will this turning be? Sri Yoga: “…it is still in all but a few a smaller portion of the Aurobindo provides the answer: being — “no bigger in the mass of the body than the thumb of a man” was the image used by the ancient seers “But it is only when the life turns towards the Divine — and it is not always able to prevail against the that the soul can truly come forward and impose its obscurity or ignorant smallness of the physical power on the outer members; for, itself a spark of the consciousness, the mistaken surenesses of the mind or Divine, to grow in flame towards the Divine is its true the arrogance and vehemence of the vital nature.” It life and its very reason of existence.” Each of us need to appears as if the Psychic being is not in the habit of contemplate on this. Are we turned ‘godwards’, wholly, demanding or imposing. It appears far from it, to be truly? If no, what are the other things in life we are bidding its time, going along with the erring outer nature turned towards and why? Do we remember the higher steeped in ignorance without even knowing it, till a time Principal every time? Why does forgetfulness besiege comes when the outer nature itself realises its folly and us? These are fundamental questions posing our daily limitations and consciously goes offers itself to be living. Uncovering the secret deity within, against all the associated with and taken over by That which is beyond odds decked up against itself may not be an easy task. the dualities experienced by nature as it is now. However, the work towards the discovery of that in us that guides, lights up the way forward, must begin, be it Psychic education suggests a possible intervention in with little baby steps. the way things are. In it lies the promise of a hope, that one may pass “over the edge of the mortal mind” and The Mother assures, “The starting-point is to seek in reach further beyond to something substantial and real, yourself that which is independent of the body and the moveless and eternal; something which knows and circumstances of life, which is not born of the mental lends a sure, guiding hand leading the finally willing formation that you have been given, the language you speak, the habits and customs of the environment in being Godwards. ‘Education’ implies a conscious which you live, the country where you are born or the working upon, upon the mind, heart or the body to age to which you belong.” Let’s read on and take our transform it from its ordinary habitual functioning in baby steps with trust and patience borne by an ardent error, ignorance and limitation to something more. aspiration. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Savitri For knowledge shall pour down in radiant streams And even darkened mind quiver with new life And kindle and burn with the Ideal’s fire And turn to escape from mortal ignorance. The frontiers of the Ignorance shall recede, More and more souls shall enter into light, Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner hear And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight And human wills tune to the divine will, These separate selves the Spirit’s oneness feel, These senses of heavenly sense grow capable, The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy And mortal bodies of immortality. A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell And take the charge of breath and speech and act And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns And every feeling a celestial thrill. Savitri, Sri Aurobindo Power of Psychic Expression The psychic obtains its power of expression when it governs the whole being. Antirrhinum majus Snap dragon www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 3 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Questions & Answers You wrote to me that it is not easy to come in contact with the psychic being. Why do You consider it difficult? How should I begin? I said “not easy” because the contact is not spontaneous – it is voluntary. The psychic being always has an influence on the thoughts and actions, but one is rarely conscious of it. To become conscious of the psychic being, one must want to do so, make one’s mind as silent as possible, and enter deep into the heart of one’s being, beyond sensations and thoughts. One must form the habit of silent concentration and descent into the depths of one’s being. The discovery of the psychic being is a definite and very concrete fact, as well who have had the experience know. THE MOTHER (The Psychic Being, Selections from the Works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother) The following talk is based upon The Mother’s essay, “Psychic Education and Spiritual Education”. Once the being has entered into contact with the psychic, why does the psychic again hide itself? It is not the psychic that hides itself, it is the being which returns to its ordinary consciousness!... It is difficult for it to remain at its highest. One slides down, falls back. Only, the second time the discovery is easier. And each time the road is easier until one no longer falls back. Sweet Mother, I don’t understand this: “Normally this discovery [of the eternal principle in oneself] is associated with a mystic feeling, a religious life, because it is mainly the religions that have concerned themselves with this aspect of life. But it need not necessarily be so: the mystic notion of God may be replaced by the more philosophical notion of truth and still the discovery will remain essentially the same, but the road leading to it may be taken even by the most intransigent positivist.” What is it that you don’t understand? I mean that what one thinks is not of much importance because thought is formed by the surroundings in which one is born and the education one has received — but that is only one way of saying things. And you can say them in all sorts of ways: they remain what they are. What is it that you don’t understand? I did not understand the explanation of the psychic you have given: “One could say, for example, that the creation of an individual being is the result of the projection, in time and space, of one of the countless possibilities latent in the supreme origin of all manifestation which, through the medium of the one and universal consciousness, takes concrete form in the law or the truth of an individual and so, by a progressive development, becomes his soul or psychic being.” It is a little philosophical.... You know the difference between what is subjective and what is objective? You know it! Well, imagine precisely this Reality we were speaking about, which is at the origin of all things, passing from the subjective to the objective state. That is, what was within becomes as though projected outside. It is the same thing: it is the state that changes. And so, within it there are all the possibilities of objective existence; within they are unexpressed, unmanifested; outside they are projected, as a picture is projected on the cinema-screen: we see it before us. And every element that was a possibility within, a law, becomes the law of a realisation. And every one of these possibilities becomes the reality of a being, of an individuality if you like, of something existing objectively. And it is that law which is www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. the origin of the centre of the psychic being: it is the truth of the being or the law of the being. The Buddha called it the “law”, he spoke of the Dharma. It is the truth of the being. It is that which binds it again indestructibly to its origin. And that is the starting-point of the psychic being. And so, even as this develops, like the picture on the screen, it takes a more and more complex and precise form in the manifestation. But the reality of that form is one, it is bound to the One. And all the units are linked together and reproduce the One. Is it not easier?... (Looking at the child) It is still more difficult! But indeed, that’s what I have said here. Sweet Mother, you have said: “Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.” Yes, that’s quite simple! It is very clear! Yes, but if I want to progress in sports, for instance, then that would be a personal progress, wouldn’t it? Eh? What? In sports? No, the value of the will depends on your aim. If it is in order to be successful and earn a reputation for yourself and be better than others — all sorts of ideas like that — then that becomes something very egoistic, very personal and you won’t be able to progress — yes, you will make progress but still it won’t lead you anywhere. But if you do it with the idea of being open, even in the physical, to the divine Influence, to be a good instrument and manifest Him, then that is very good. Not clear? Yes. Physical things are not necessarily more egoistic than mental or emotional ones. Far from it. They are often much less so. Egoism does not lie in that, egoism lies in the inner attitude. It does not depend on the field in which you are concentrated, it depends on the attitude you have. It does not depend on what you do, it depends on the way you do it. Sweet Mother, you say: “Never take physical happenings at their face value. They are always a clumsy attempt to express something else, the true thing which escapes our superficial understanding.” But, Mother, it is said one must not be pessimistic, and here you have said, “They are always a clumsy attempt...” This means that the material world, just as it is, is very awkward at expressing the truth which is behind. That is obvious. I believe we don’t need to reflect very deeply to perceive that, unless there are people... Yes, in “The Four Austerities” I speak of those who are perfectly adjusted in life and find everything wonderful, but I haven’t yet met many of these who can believe it all their life through. I am speaking of optimists — one is optimistic so long as one is healthy and very young, and then, as soon as one begins to be less strong and less healthy, optimism vanishes. But still, if one has a little sense and sensibility, it is easy to see that everything is not for the best in the best possible world, for if you yourself are comfortable and have all you need, if you are getting on well and have no cares, that does not mean that there are not millions of beings in altogether hard and painful situations. Then, it may be very easy to think only of oneself. But it is not something very advisable. I knew people who were very rich and had never had the chance to come into contact with those who had nothing or hadn’t enough, and for them it was something unthinkable. I knew a lady (I knew many) who lived in a very fine apartment with many servants and all possible comfort — she had always lived thus and had never known any but easy circumstances — and one day I spoke to her about someone, a person of great worth and merit but who had nothing, hadn’t enough to eat — and I asked her to help that person, not with money for he would not have accepted it, but with some work or by inviting him to pass some time with her (for she had a philosophical mind and could have helped intellectually). So I told her: “You know, he doesn’t always eat his fill.” I saw that she did not understand. I said: “Well, yes, he does not always have enough money www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. to buy food — buy bread and what he needs to eat.” — “But surely there is always bread and food in the kitchen!” (Laughter) She said that so spontaneously! THE MOTHER (Questions and Answers 1954) Introduction to Psychic Education In one of her classes at the Ashram Playground The Mother said, “Essentially there is but one single true reason for living: it is to know oneself. We are here to learn—to learn what we are, why we are here, and what we have to do. And if we don’t know that, our life is altogether empty—for ourselves and for others.” — THE MOTHER These powerful words of The Mother say it all. But what does she really mean when she says that the reason for living is “to know oneself”? Does it mean that one knows oneself when one has found out that one has a beautiful voice and likes to sing or that one dislikes mathematics? These things are knowledge about our surface nature, but the true knowledge about ourselves is an inner knowledge of our true eternal self. What The Mother means is that, if we really want to know ourselves and learn why we are here, we have to come in conscious contact with our soul. Why? The soul is a spark of the Divine himself. It is our inmost self. Only the soul in us knows the truth and can help us to take decisions that are based on truth. Our outer being (which is made up of our mind, our emotions and personality, and our body) is meant to give expression not only to the qualities of the soul but also to the decisions made by the soul. The outer being should not be the decision taker, because it cannot see the truth. That is so because of the process of evolution. In the evolution God first created out of himself matter. But in matter his consciousness is hidden so completely that it appears to be without consciousness; it is called inconscient. Rocks belong to this most inconscient layer of the creation. Since it was God’s wish to reveal himself more, plants evolved. This process went on and he unveiled himself even more in the form of animals. And then man, the thinking animal was created. Though man is the highest form of evolution till now, his body, vital and mental have still a lot of the original ignorance of matter in them. That is why these parts of ourselves cannot take the best decisions. It is only when we learn to listen to our divine centre, our psychic, that we can take decisions in harmony with our highest aim. When we are in contact with our psychic centre we experience the world in a different way: everything becomes more beautiful, we stop making judgements, we see the deep harmony that exists in spite of outer appearances and we spread loving goodwill and harmony ourselves. We realise that it is important to make our body, vital and mind strong and pure, supple and open, so that they can express the psychic element in us as perfectly as possible, without distortions. But one does not find the soul just like that. Usually a long preparation is necessary. To prepare ourselves for the discovery of the psychic being is a beautiful journey, but it does need effort and determination on our part. We have to make a repeated effort to start living within and to create inside ourselves an environment where the psychic can come to the front. We need determination because our mind, our vital and our body have formed habits and preferences that they will not give up easily. God does not impose himself, but is ever present and ever ready to help us. Similarly the psychic, our divine centre, does not impose itself. It has to be invited constantly. We invite it by sincerely wanting to know its truth, by becoming quiet and pure enough to hear its silent voice and by choosing to follow it. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Besides the fact that only the soul in us can know the truth and guide us, there is one more good reason to start our inner journey. “We are on earth to progress,” says The Mother. This is the reason for taking birth after birth, because our psychic can only make progress here on earth when it takes on a human body. Today the importance of making progress has a new dimension thanks to the marvelous work done by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo has said that in the next step of the evolution the Supramental consciousness will reign on earth. The Supramental consciousness is also called the Truth consciousness. To be able to be part of the Supramental creation our psychic being will have to be continuously in front. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo devoted their whole life to bring this new consciousness down in the earth atmosphere. On 29th February 1956 it came down. Years later The Mother declared that the Supramental consciousness was sufficiently established on earth and that the New World that would be able to express this consciousness was born. She invited everybody who wanted to become part of this new creation to prepare themselves for it in all sincerity. Knowing this, you can understand how important it is for students who have a whole new life in front of them, that teachers are able to make them aware of the existence of the world within themselves and that we help them to discover and remain in contact with their psychic being. Is this not giving an added meaning and a new urgency for going on an inner quest ourselves? We can only help our students, our children well, if we ourselves have consciously begun and experienced the search for our psychic centre. This search and discovery will give true meaning to our lives. It is the task of teachers in integral schools to create an environment that helps students to find the deeper aim of their lives. When we have started ourselves to look and live within we discover a new dimension in our life that extends itself to our work and makes it more beautiful. Real integral education is to create a classroom environment where concern for the deepest, truest part in the students is consciously integrated in every aspect of the teaching-learning process that we facilitate. (Psychic Education Workbook, based on the workings of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother, Neetje Huppes ) www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Psychic Aspiration Constant, regular, organised, gentle and patient at the same time, resists all opposition, overcomes all difficulties. Ixora chinensis Ixora Mother on Psychic Education When the best has been achieved through physical, vital and mental education, there will be a cardinal insufficiency still: for, firstly, they cannot by themselves be integrated, and, secondly, even their sum will only be a frustrating incompleteness. It is psychic education alone that can team the other three purposively together, and also link them to the creative centre. Unfortunately, current educational systems have no idea of psychic education – thus tragi-comically playing Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. In their early years, children do have intimations of a higher consciousness which may puzzle or even startle their parents and elders. Wordsworth reminiscentially sang: There was a time when meadow, grove and stream, The Psychic The earth and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream… Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy… Yet the Boy beholds the Light however fitfully, and even the Youth is by the “vision splendid” attended on his way. “Every human being carries hidden within him the possibility of a greater consciousness” wrote the Mother, “a good many children are under its influence”. The crux of the educational problem is therefore to safeguard this light of consciousness, and make it illumine all thoughts, all actions, all feelings and give it a new direction and a new tone to our entire life. Hence the paramount need for psychic education: With psychic education we come to the problem of the true motive of existence, the purpose of life on earth, the discovery to which this life must lead and the result of that discovery; the consecration of the individual to the eternal principle. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Whether this awakening comes as the result of a mystic break-through, or of a spurt of intense religious feeling, or yet as the culmination of a course of philosophical inquiry, “the important thing is to live the experience”. On one hand, unlike the body, the vital and the mind, of which we are almost constantly aware, the psychic being or soul seems generally to this elusive thing is verily the deeper reality about ourselves, and it profits us little to have gained the many mansions of apar a vidya or phenomenal knowledge if we have not also won the key to the psychic presence or the soul within. But, then, how does one set upon this adventure of consciousness, this pursuit of the psychic being? The Mother talks to us directly, and the winged words go home: The starting-point is to seek in yourself that which is independent of the body and the circumstances of life, which is not born of the mental transformation that you have been given, the language you speak, the habits and customs of the environment in which you live, the country where you are born or the age to which you belong. You must find, in the depths of your being, that carries in it a sense of universality, limitless expansion, unbroken continuity. Then you decentralise, extend and widen yourself; you begin to live in all things and in all beings; the barriers separating individuals from each other break down. You think in their thoughts, vibrate in their sensations, feel in their feelings, live in the life of all. What seemed inert suddenly seems full of life, stones quicken, plants feel and will and suffer, animals speak in a language more or less inarticulate, but clear and expressive; everything is animated by a marvellous consciousness without time or limit. And this is only one aspect of the psychic realisation; there are others, many others. All help you to go beyond the barriers of your egoism, the walls of your external personality, the impotence of your reactions and the incapacity of your will. (On The Mother, K.R Srinivasa Iyengar) April – May Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse May 24th 2020 – Meditation on SAVITRI with HUTA’S Painting. Book 1-Canto 3 Because of COVID 19 Lock down, the session continued to be a Zoom meeting hosted by our dear Sanjay and facilitated by our dear Ramadoss. We took turns reading the SAVITRI LINES in the Paintings. After meditating on each painting there was a discussion on the participants’ insight. Some of us were just staring at the paintings like enjoying the beauty of the colourful rose, while Sri Ram, Ramdoss and KV Rao came out with brilliant elucidation of the SAVITRI LINES with the Paintings! Following are the PAINTINGS WITH SAVITRI Lines we meditated on. The painting on the left depicts beautifully the intense tapas of KING Aswapathy to bring the DIVINE GRACE on the MOTHER EARTH to save her from chaos and help the souls to ascend in the higher consciousness. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. This picture on the right amazes us with how King Aswapathy’s entire being including the very cells of his body are illuminated by a spontaneous knowledge which could perceive the greater Powers working in and above every physical aspects of the world. Inspiration is always simple and spontaneous, not slow and laboured like reason. It does not arrive at a conclusion after a long process of reasoning. It is a ray or a current from a direct Knowledge that is self-existent on the heights of the spiritual being. The mind needs to be silent, freed from all activity and agitation, in order that the play of inspiration may be recognised and its content grasped in its purity and fullness. When properly received, this message of inspiration is found to deliver the secret elements of harmony. Inspiration found her home in Aswapathy; she was no more an erratic visitor as she is wont to be in common humanity. She entered through the wide doors of his expanded being and occupied the chambers of his mind. She enlivened his thought-faculties moving them infallibly in the direction of Truth. She impelled his speech to express precisely what was perceived within; and because the utterance carried faithfully the truths that were pre recognised by inspired thought, it always proved prophetic. Thought must be guided by true inspiration and speech must be faithful to the thought- perception www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg The picture and lines bring to us the Divine state of SAVITRI who has transcended the stages of TRUTH being formulated by mind in words warring with the lower planes of mentality. SHE is the PURE KNOWLEDGE in full bloom with Eternal calm. Savitri lines have a mantric effect in us, with our soul yearning to free itself from the clutches of all lower elements in us and experience that INFINITE CALM. 10 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. Ordinarily the different parts of the being are variously developed and each follows its own trend, with the result that there is a good deal of disharmony among the members, a clash of pursuits, avoidable wastage of energy. It is a sign and part of progress to organise the activities of all the members into a whole, gather and integrate them around a central Idea or Motif, so that each falls into its appropriate place and all together promote a developing harmony. This took place naturally in Aswapathy. The emotions, the thought-movements, the deeper aspirations of the soul all these were lit up by the spirit and radiated a common light. Even when the general system is awakened to the call of the higher life and participates in it under the lead of the more developed parts like the mind or the heart, there are areas which are reluctant to receive the transforming light. They prefer to continue in their long accustomed obscurities, wallow in their quagmires of petty desires and mechanical rounds. These are the lower ranges of the life (and also the physical) being which need to be exposed to special concentrations of higher light and power before they fall into line with the rest of the being in progression. The Divine is not only Bliss and Power but also Knowledge. The Divine Consciousness is Self-aware and All-aware. That is because it is the Divine Consciousness that has become this All. As one grows in being towards the Divine, one participates in a progressive measure in this omniscience of the Divine. This action of the Divine Consciousness as Knowledge, an all-comprehending Knowledge from on high, takes many forms in its communication with the mind across the barriers that intervene. MAY 31st 2020 – Continuation of Savitri with HUTA’s painting Because of COVID 19 Lock down, the session was a Zoom meeting hosted by our dear Sanjay and facilitated by our dear Sri Ram www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. The inspiring goddess entered a mortal’s breast, Made there her study of divining thought And sanctuary of prophetic speech And sat upon the tripod seat of mind: All was made wide above, all lit below. In darkness’ core, she dug out wells of light, On the undiscovered depths imposed a form, Lent a vibrant cry to the unuttered vasts, The word “Tripod” in the above lines brought out the discussion on the significance why Sri Aurobindo has used three times the word “Tripod” in the whole of Savitri. KV Rao referred the book “Invocation” Symbolism of Tripod in Savitri.pdf Which gives the following significance of TRIPOD. Aswapati’s breast is the sacred cavern, the sanctuary of prophetic speech, which the inspiring goddess chooses as the place for revealing higher truths; his mind, silent and receptive, is the tripod seat on which she sits to make her revelations of light. Reference was made to the most famous tripod of ancient Greece, the Delphic Tripod on which the Pythian priestess took her seat to deliver the oracles of the deity. Simplifying it could be that King Aswapathy’s body, mind and spirit was as stable as a tripod for Inspiring the Goddess to sit in the PADMASAN position on his Consciousness like MAHA SARASWATI to bring in the light of AWARENESS, EXISTENCE and ETERNAL BLISS into him and flow into the wide world vastness June 7th 2020 - continued reading the passages from Chapter 1 from the book “THE MOTHER” by Sri AUROBINDO. Our dear Sanjay being the host, dear Sri Ram facilitated the reading of the passages from where we stopped the previous Sunday. KV Rao, Sri Ram and Ramadoss’ insights into the passages made the session very interesting. The passages brought the illumination in us about how the living presence of the Truth (Divine grace) can be installed in us only when our mind and heart work in unison to shut the gates of hostile forces which are the unnecessary, futile and vagabond thoughts and not get pulled and pushed by them. If we are really sincere and serious about the Divine grace and Power to be a constant companion in us, our surrender should be true and complete. Just a passive surrender will bring about no transformation integral. As our love for the Divine grows stronger, no inimical forces dare to enter our being to disturb our supreme bliss. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 12 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. To go for an analogy, when the summer clouds arise from behind the mountains and spread in a valley, the farmers will be happy looking forward to the rain that will bring life to their crops and quench their thirst, but their hope will utterly be ruined when a strong current of wind comes from nowhere and kick the clouds away. In the same way our soul looks forward to the Truth to rein and not get tossed hither and thither by inimical forces and get lost in the vast amphitheatre of the world. June 14th 2020 - The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo. Zoom meeting. Self-consecration: page 84 to 85 We revisited the passage done in the month of May. KV Rao, Sri Ram and Ramdoss gave valuable inputs. Sri Aurobindo emphasises that the egoistic desire in us will firmly hold on to our “will” not allowing us to conquer the lower elements. But instead of fighting to kill the egoistic desire, we should aim for the transformation of that lower “will” to an Enlightened Will. Further he reiterates that whatever the Truth gained in the personal level should be spread in the wider world. Recently I watched the movie “Poorna”. Poorna is inspired by the real-life story of a 13 year and 11 months old tribal girl, Poorna Malavath from Telangana of Nizamabad district in the combined Andhra Pradesh state of India, who became the youngest girl in history to climb Mount Everest on 25th May 2014. She overcomes so many stumbling challenges to achieve her passion of reaching the summit of Mount Everest at such a young age proving to the younger generation that nothing is impossible if there is a will. Such a wonderful aspiration and inspiration this young girl brings about in any age of spectators. The same will apply in the spiritual field also. Sri Aurobindo assures us that our soul’s journey going beyond clamours of egoistic desires will find the “Will of Ananda” which is speaking of the aspect that loves us deeply and wants to draw us back to His love — that responds to the highest in us and draws the highest from us, which is a supreme blessing. - Jayalakshmi PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2020 Important Notice Dear Members, please take note of the following announcement regarding visiting the centre: In line with phase 2 of the relaxation of the circuit breaker measures in Singapore, members shall be able to visit the centre strictly complying with the following measures: Visiting members 1. enter the premises using the SAFE ENTRY QR Code posted at the entrance. 2. have your temperature taken. 3. record entry as well as temperature in a note-book dedicated for this purpose. 4. observe a 1-metre safe distance between others. 5. vacate the centre as soon as the activities conclude without mingling or lingering on. 6. wear a face mask at all times. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 13 Psychic Education

Psychic Education Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2020. 7. may wear a face shield if facilitating meditations, readings and performing their speaking duties and must be at least 1 metre away from any other individuals. 8. will not be permitted to sing and give live performances in the centre. 9. should not be sharing prayer and other common items (e.g. books, prasad, flowers). Members are to bring along their personal books and items instead, where required. 10. will keep the door and windows of the centre open to naturally ventilate the space. DATE TIME DETAILS 8 AM Monthly Morning Walk * 5 July 2020 Sunday 6 PM AIM Magazine Reading and Discussion 12 July 2020 6 PM Thematic Study Circle by Rakesh: Sunday The Synthesis of Yoga 19 July 2020 6 PM Thematic Study Circle by Rakesh: Sunday The Synthesis of Yoga 26th July 2020 4 PM Youth Programme Sunday 6 PM Savitri Circle by Mr. Ramadoss * Please see below for details. NOTE: In view of the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, please note the following: 1) There will be a collective meditation, but the brunch and the walk is cancelled PREVIEW OF FORTHCOMING SUNDAY MORNING WALKS WALK NO DATE PLACE HOST 420 02/8/20 TBA Mr Arjun Madan & Family Printed and Published by The Sri Aurobindo Society of Singapore 2A Starlight Road 01-07, Singapore 217755. Ramadoss: 97354063 or [email protected]; Anand Patel:[email protected]; Email: [email protected] Visit our website at: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 14 Psychic Education