Oct 2019 Newsletter

October 2019 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 33.10 Singapore NEWSLETTER Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Candid Simplicity in the Vital One of the most difficult qualities for the vital to acquire. Oxalis Sorrel, Shamrock Small lavender pink to rose purple cup-shaped flower with five rounded petals and a light green centre with a yellow-tipped pistil and stamens; borne in few-flowered umbels. A small bulbous perennial herb with usually trifoliate leaves. In the passage of the lotus of the throat Where speech must rise and the expressing mind And the heart’s impulse run towards word and fact, A glad uplift and a new working came. (Savitri VII. 5)

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. Guiding Light of the Month ONE day, O Lord, Thou didst teach my mind that it could act fully as an instrument of manifestation of Thy divine truth, as an intermediary of Thy eternal will, without being limited in its realising constructions by the narrow field of possibilities of the external being. May 24, 1915 Prayers and Meditations, The Mother From the Editor’s Desk We are in the midst of understanding the Mind. We for a higher working to take place, since the mind is a identified that the mind, according to Sri Aurobindo, can potential instrument to be left in the hands of the Divine. be differentiated into 5 categories for a better study and It would be an interesting and worthy exercise to take a understanding of its working, namely the physical, the step back and identify this vital mind in us in a single vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual mind. We day. The revelations can come as a surprise. Behind received a glimpse of the Physical Mind in the last edition, every action planned, organized and supported by the as the mind which is in contact with the external, physical mind may be a desire of the heart, overt or covert. Or one things, always busy with them, and casting its action on may be shocked to witness a quagmire in the mind – a them. However, in its ordinary state, it is also said to be pell-mell of disorderly wants and needs and a scheming obscure, working in ignorance, fumbling, since it does not mind planning to attain these at whatever cost and the know. The main aim of Yoga will be to remove the shroud entire movement of the day goes in this way, to the of darkness and obscurity, shadows and ignorance in detriment of the fulfillment of needed and necessary order to bring light into the mind and enable it to perform work to see us through the day. Or one may, facing its truest function according to a Higher impulse or the limitations and obstacles in realizing dreams, find a mind Divine Will. living out its desires, and fantasies locked up within oneself, even running reels of images of persons - In this month’s issue of the newsletter, we cast a look at including oneself, probably as the main cast of the drama the Vital Mind. In the being, the seat of this vital mind is - actions, commentaries and dialogues with significant “between the throat and the heart.” It is that part of the others in our lives, in giving expression to the mind that is under the control or influence of the Vital unrealizable dreams. Being. Unlike the physical mind, the vital mind “is that part of the vital being which builds, plans, imagines, What kind of vital mind is ours? How does it function? arranges things and thoughts according to the life-pushes, How often does it take its place in our lives? How much desires, will to power or possession, will to action, does it dominate the way our mind works? How does this emotions, vital ego reactions of the nature.” The vital mind contribute to our progress and how much does it mind is distinct from the rationalising mind in that impede? These could be important questions along the “…it…is… occupied with force and achievement and way as we live out our lives according to our chosen aims satisfaction and possession, enjoyment and suffering, and goals. It will be useful to know the place of the vital giving and taking, growth, expansion, success and failure, mind in our lives and its forward movement and also put good and ill fortune etc.” It is likely that most of us can it in its right place without impeding the growth and relate with this mind ticking away in us. As a further expression of the living truth from within. Exercises in elaboration, “repetitive imaginary thinking” may ring a mind control, let alone spiritual sadhana, must louder bell in us. This is the mind which is always necessarily address the vital mind at work in us. imagining and thinking and planning, about what to do, how to arrange - going on and on in repetitions. However, Read on to understand more of this vital mind and how this mind acts randomly, without discipline, says Sri to put it in its right place and control, and where it does Aurobindo and usually makes the being lose not help at all. In this issue too, we present the concluding concentration on the things that have actually to be done section of Jared’s article on The human Cycle: The in reality. Like the physical mind, this mind too needs to Imminent Revolution. Here is also wishing everyone be understood and offered for transformation in order observing the Navaratri festival a wonderful time invoking The Mother Divine. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. 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 The Vital Mind There is a part of the nature which I have called the vital mind; the function of this mind is not to think and reason, to perceive, consider and find out or value things, for that is the function of the thinking mind proper, buddhi, — but to plan or dream or imagine what can be done. It makes formations for the future which the will can try to carry out if opportunity and circumstances become favourable or even it can work to make them favourable. In men of action this faculty is prominent and a leader of their nature; great men of action always have it in a very high measure. But even if one is not a man of action or practical realisation or if circumstances are not favourable or one can do only small and ordinary things, this vital mind is there. It acts in them on a small scale, or if it needs some sense of largeness, what it does very often is to plan in the void knowing that it cannot realise its plans or else to imagine big things, stories, adventures, great doings in which oneself is the hero or the creator. What you describe as happening in you is the rush of this vital mind or imagination making its formations; its action is not peculiar to you but works pretty much in the same way in most people — but in each according to his turn of fancy, interest, favourite ideas or desires. You have to become master of its action and not to allow it to seize your mind and carry it away when and where it wants. In sadhana when the experiences begin to come, it is exceedingly important not to allow this power to do what it likes with you; for it then creates false experiences according to its nature and persuades the sadhak that these experiences are true or it builds unreal formations and persuades him that this is what www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 3 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. he has to do. Some have been taken away by this misleading force used by powers of Falsehood who persuaded them through it that they had a great spiritual, political or social work to do in the world and led them away to disappointment and failure. It is rising in you in order that you may understand what it is and reject it. For there are several things you had to get out of the vital plane before the deeper or greater spiritual experiences could safely begin or safely continue. The descent of the peace is often one of the first major positive experiences of the sadhana. In this state of peace the normal thought-mind (buddhi) is apt to fall silent or abate most of its activity and, when it does, very often either this vital mind can rush in, if one is not on one’s guard, or else a kind of mechanical physical or random subconscient mind can begin to come up and act; these are the chief disturbers of the silence. Or else the lower vital mind can try to disturb; that brings up the ego and passions and their play. All these are signs of elements that have to be got rid of, because if they remain and other of the higher powers begin to descend, Power and Force, Knowledge, Love or Ananda, those lower things may come across with the result that either the higher consciousness retires or its descent is covered up and the stimulation it gives is misused for the purposes of the lower nature. This is the reason why many sadhaks after having big experiences fall into the clutch of a magnified ego, upheavals, ambition, exaggerated sex or other vital passions or distortions. It is always well therefore if a complete purification of the vital can either precede or keep pace with the positive experience — at least in natures in which the vital is strongly active.2 From Letters on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo, pp. 179-181 The Mental Vital or Vital Mind It is the mental part of the vital that is there between the throat and the heart. The place of the mind is from the crown of the head to the throat (where is the physical mind); from below the throat to the heart is the emotional heart or the [higher] vital (mental emotional, emotional feelings); the navel and abdomen [are the seats of] the middle and lower vital. * It is not possible to say with any precision what the resistance in the higher vital parts will be, what form it takes, because it may take different forms with different natures. It is quite normal that there should be some resistance almost at every point to the descent of the higher consciousness; for the different parts of the present nature are each more or less attached to their own established way of seeing, acting, feeling, reacting to things and to the habitual movements and formations of their own domain which each individual has made for himself in the past or in his present life. What is needed is a general plasticity of the mind, the vital, the physical consciousness, a readiness to give up all attachment to these things, to accept whatever the higher consciousness brings down with it however contrary to one’s own received ideas, feelings, habits of nature. The greater the plasticity in any part of the nature, the less the resistance there. By the higher vital parts of the nature I mean the vital mind, the emotional nature, the life-force dynamis in the being. The vital mind is that part of the vital being which builds, plans, imagines, arranges things and thoughts according to the life-pushes, desires, will to power or possession, will to action, emotions, vital ego reactions of the nature. It must be distinguished from the reasoning will which plans and arranges things according to the dictates of the thinking mind proper, the discriminating reason or according to the mental intuition or a direct insight and judgment. The vital mind uses thought for the service not of reason but of life-push and life-power and when it calls in reasoning it uses that for justifying the dictates of these powers, imposes their dictates on the reason instead of governing by a discriminating will the action of the life-forces. This higher vital with all its parts is situated in the chest and has the cardiac centre as its main stronghold governing all this part down to the navel. I need not say anything about the emotional nature, for its character and movements are known to all. From the navel downwards is the reign of the vital passions and sensations and all the small life-impulses that constitute the bulk of the ordinary human life and character. This is what we call the lower vital nature. The Muladhara is the main support of the physical consciousness and the material parts of the nature. * www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. It [the vital mind] is a mind of dynamic (not rationalising) will, action, desire — occupied with force and achievement and satisfaction and possession, enjoyment and suffering, giving and taking, growth, expansion, success and failure, good fortune and ill fortune etc. etc. * That [repetitive imaginative thinking] is the ordinary activity of the vital mind which is always imagining and thinking and planning what to do about this and how to arrange about that. It has obviously its utility in human nature and human action, but acts in a random and excessive way without discipline, economy of its powers or concentration on the things that have really to be done. * The things which come to you in this way in sleep or waking are of the nature of vital mind imaginations and activities about things and work and whatever presents itself to the mind. On all things that present themselves to the mind, the vital imagination in man is able to work, imagining, speculating, building ideas or plans for the future etc. etc. It has its utility for the consciousness in ordinary life, but must quiet down and be replaced by a higher action in Yoga. In sleep it is also the vital plane into which you enter. If properly seen and coordinated, what is experienced in the vital plane has its value and gives knowledge which is useful and control over the vital self and vital plane. But all that is coming to you through the subconscient in an incoherent way — this is the cause of the trouble. The whole thing has to be quieted down and we shall try to get that done. When I spoke of your opening yourself, I meant simply that you should fix it in your mind that the help is coming and have the will to receive it — not necessarily that you should open yourself by an effort. * The source from which these imaginations1 come has nothing to do with the reason and does not care for any rational objections. They come either from the vital mind, the same source from which come all the fine imaginations and long stories which men tell themselves in which they are the heroes and do great things or they come from little entities attached to the physical mind which pick up any random suggestion anywhere and present it to the mind just to see whether it will be accepted. If one watches oneself closely one can find the most queer and extraordinary or nonsensical things crossing the mind or peeping in on it in this way. Usually one laughs or hardly notices and the thing falls back to the world of incoherent thought from which it came. * It is again the vital mind. It has no sense of proportion or measure and is eager to be or achieve something big at once. * All that [pleasurable imaginations] is the vital mind—it has in everybody the habit of such imaginations. It is not very important, but of course it has to be got rid of, as the basis is ego. * The vital mind in the ordinary nature cannot get on without these imaginations — so the habit remains for a long time. To be detached and indifferent is the best, then after a time it may get disgusted and drop the habit. * www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. That kind of talking [in one’s mind to another person] is very common with the vital mind. It is a way it has of acting on the subtle plane on things in which it is interested, especially if the physical action is stopped or restricted. 1 ThedisciplehadimaginedthathewastheBuddha.—Ed. From Letters on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo, pp. 188-192 The Human Cycle: The Imminent Revolution By Jared Quek Part 3 (Concluding Part) Visions for the Future Extrapolating from Sri Aurobindo’s writings, we could fix some firm possibilities. The first, and most certain, is that we could look forward to the development of a new type of science and technology that will make all our previous achievements look like trifles. What our scientific age has achieved so far is a discovery, or perhaps even just a recovery of a systematic knowledge of the physical, and an application of it to solve certain surface problems. In the future foreseen by Sri Aurobindo, groups of individuals will break the barriers and begin the knowledge and mastery of the subtle physical, the vital and the mental universes, and their associated energies. Consider how the mastery of electricity, or the elements of the periodic table, has fundamentally changed our civilisation. Imagine then, the mastery of hundreds of forces as significant as electricity, and a ‘periodic table’ with hundreds of layers and millions more elements. Imagine also a direct sovereignty of the mind and spirit over these forces without the mediation of cumbersome machinery, or as Sri Aurobindo puts it, ‘a science which would bring the powers of the physical world into a real and not only a contingent and mechanical subjection’. That was, perhaps, what was attained by the greatest of the Atlantean line of ‘mages’ and seers. The possibilities of such mastery are unfathomable. It is for good reason that the coming new science ‘would cast into insignificance even the last miraculous achievements of material Science’ (The Human Cycle, 252). The second possibility is that there is going to be a strong and wide application of this new science to the purposes of spirituality. While our current science and technology are mostly used for the external welfare of humanity, with minimal application to inner growth, one should expect otherwise for the new science. Clearly one could expect the new science to be able to do everything that the old science can do, whether in the fields of medicine, communications, business, transport, energy, materials, military hardware and so on — and do them better, Indeed, it should fully subsume the physical sciences since the new ‘Atlantean’ science includes the knowledge of the physical as a base and indispensable foundation. However, the mastery and knowledge of the mental and vital layers, and their intricate interaction with the physical and subtle-physical, allow for much more important spiritual possibilities. Certainly, Sri Aurobindo believes that the occult science can potentially be an immense help to spirituality. In The Life Divine, he lists the development of occult knowledge as one of the four paths in which the spiritual consciousness in humanity has been preparing its emergence (the other being religion, philosophy and direct spiritual experience). The holistic aim of occultism can include the knowledge of ‘the secret movements and dynamic supernormal possibilities of mind and life and spirit’ that empowers ‘the greater effectivity of our mental, vital and spiritual being’. The one model that Sri Aurobindo mentions is Indian Tantra, which ‘was not only a many-sided science of the supernormal but supplied the basis of all the occult elements of religion and even developed a great and powerful system of spiritual discipline and self-realisation’ (909). www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. Through empowering deep and wide self-knowledge and mastery, the new science can permit a far more precise and efficient inner transformation for individuals. There are powers of the mind and the life-force which have not been included in Nature’s present systematisation of mind and life in matter, but are potential and can be brought to bear upon material things and happenings or even brought in and added to the present systematisation so as to enlarge the control of mind over our own life and body or to act on the minds, lives, bodies of others or on the movements of cosmic Forces. ...we are all the time undergoing a battery of suggestions, thought suggestions, impulse suggestions, will suggestions, emotional and sensational suggestions, thought waves, life waves that come on us or into us from others or from the universal Energy, but act and produce their effects without our knowledge. A systematised endeavour to know these movements and their law and possibilities, to master and use the power or Nature-force behind them or to protect ourselves from them would fall within one province of occultism: but it would only be a small part even of that province; (907-8) Furthermore, by allowing a clear knowledge of the higher forces and planes of the Truth, the new science also permits a divine chemistry that empowers more effective transformation and conscious collaboration with the divine Grace. The science can also lead to effective methods of spiritual defense and hygiene against the dark forces that corrupt spirituality. With the much greater accumulation of spiritual force and experience in our age, and with the mistakes of Atlantis in our subliminal collective memories, it is possible that this time, the Atlantean science will be used on a wide scale for spirituality. Indeed, even in the Atlantean age, it is possible that the small elite of the civilisation did deploy their inner sciences for spiritual realizations—just that they failed to generalise their gains. Possibly, the Integral Tradition that the Mother often spoke of, that branched off into the Vedic and the Chaldean spiritual branches, may well have its ultimate origins in Atlantis. Finally, it is quite possible that ‘the greatening of his mental and psychic being and a discovery, bringing forward and organisation of his subliminal nature and its forces, the utilisation of a larger mind and a larger life’ ( The Human Cycle, p.251) that Sri Aurobindo predicts, is itself made possible by a recovery of the occult science working with the greater Spirit that has descended on the earth - especially since the supramental manifestation of 1956 and the descent of the surhomme consciousness in 1969. Perhaps it is the added ingredient of a highly developed occult science with a spiritual aim, that will give the necessary power, precision and knowledge that empower a mass breaching of barriers and the development of the first communities with widespread access to their subliminal consciousness. In this context, the Mother has stated that ‘occult knowledge without spiritual discipline is a dangerous instrument, for the one who uses it as for others, if it falls into impure hands. Spiritual knowledge without occult science lacks precision and certainty in its objective results; it is all-powerful only in the subjective world. The two, when combined in inner or outer action, are irresistible and are fit instruments for the manifestation of the supramental power. ‘ In the coming decades, we will see the development of an advanced ‘inner science’ - and its combined action with the Spirit should prove irresistible in opening the doors to first the age of mental subjectivism and then to the true spiritual age. What will help this process immensely is that the memories and arts of old Atlantis are likely to re-surface individually and collectively as we re-enter into the age of mental subjectivism. From a dim dream of confused contradictory voices, we shall enter the clear daylight where Atlantis is no longer myth but history. This process should take many forms—from subjective uncanny ‘memories’ of individuals to archeological discoveries of Atlantean artifacts and sites that revolutionize our thinking. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. The Atlantean Stones and the Future The most important rediscovery will be that of the ‘Atlantean Stones’. Testified to by traditions of varying reliability, though not directly by Sri Aurobindo or the Mother, they represent the apex creation of the Atlanteans. At the very beginning of their civilisation, the founding Ancestors mapped the inner worlds, possibly up to what Sri Aurobindo later called the ‘Overmind’ plane, and mastered their spiritual and occult energies. They then sought to incarnate many of these forces on earth so that those who come after them can work with these forces with much greater facility. Working together, they forged numerous living and conscious ‘stones’, each incarnating in their physical and subtle bodies carefully chosen forces. Collectively, the stones form a ‘circuitry’ that readily makes available on the physical plane a vast range of important occult energies that are usually reached with immense difficulty. It is as if the ladder of creation has been flattened, turned into a wheel and pressed onto the earth. Unlike the cumbersome machinery of the modern world, the stones, like other living beings, have subtle bodies that allow their energies to be reached and channeled with concentrated thought and will from anywhere—so long as the user is properly empowered and has the requisite knowledge. Subsidiary artifacts also exist to allow the more efficient channeling of the stones and their powers—but these are not essential. Collectively, this ‘infrastructure’ empowered the mass efficient weaving of miraculous feats, machinery and artifacts inconceivable in our current cycle of civilisation. The Atlantean stones allowed for such great power and potential for abuse that access to them was carefully guarded. Likely, there were always few who were initiated into their full use and deployment. Many, however, probably tapped unconsciously or in fragmentary fashion into these blazing ‘gates’ of power (as was the intent of the Ancestors). Fundamentally, the Ancestors intended the stones as irrevocable gifts to humanity to accelerate its inner and outer development. The existence of the stones was certainly one key reason why the use of occult forces reached such extreme development in Atlantis –their access to these forces was much more direct than ours. Perhaps the stones were lost in the destruction. But what if, in an almost complete configuration, these stones still exist, hidden away by the Atlantean survivors long ago? That, at least, is what certain traditions testify. While speculative and not attested to directly by Sri Aurobindo, it is logical that a mental subjectivist age carries the potential for the recovery of these stones and the memory of their use. A decisive intervention from the Ancestors is also possible as the world reenters the ‘Atlantean arc’, allowing the world to recover in some fashion the use of the stones (which would, however, remain physically hidden for a long time). Such a recovery will enable fledging communities experimenting in mental subjectivism to have a readily accessible foundation of power and technology that will greatly accelerate their progress. It is also possible the stones, in particular some of those that were allegedly ’weaponised‘ in the final days of violence, will serve as a defense against egotistic political and economic powers that may well increase greatly in power in this century. It may even be that the stones may be one of the main keys for the final formation and materialisation of the ‘supramental body’. Discussing the constitution of the supramental being, the Mother said in the Agenda (30 September 1966): ‘This would be a transformation infinitely greater than that from the animal to man; this would be a passage from man to a being who would not be built in the same manner, who would no longer function in the same manner, who would be like the condensation and concretisation of “something”.... Up to now, that corresponds to nothing we have yet seen physically, unless the scientists have found something I do not know about….It seems to me that between what exists at present, the way we are, and that other form of life, many intermediary stages will be needed.’ In their other works (e.g. The Supramental Manifestation on Earth, Notes on the Way), the Mother and Sri Aurobindo gave tantalizing hints on the nature of this Body and indeed, the Mother gave a description of her prototypical supramental body in the subtle physical in the Agenda. Without going into details here, the constituting supramental material substance and the radically different functioning and structure of the body of the supramental species make it very likely that this body may need to be directly ‘materialized’, instead of www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. being born through the normal animal way. Sri Aurobindo wrote about such an occult method in his final writings: It should be possible and it is believed to be possible for an object formed in this subtle physical substance to make a transit from its subtlety into the state of gross Matter directly by the intervention of an occult force and process, whether with or even without the assistance or intervention of some gross material procedure. A soul wishing to enter into a body or form for itself a body and take part in a divine life upon earth might be assisted to do so or even provided with such a form by this method of direct transmutation, without passing through birth by the sex process or undergoing any degradation or any of the heavy limitations in the growth and development of its mind and material body inevitable to our present way of existence. It might then assume at once the structure and greater powers and functionings of the truly divine material body which must one day emerge in a progressive evolution to a totally transformed existence both of life and form in a divinised earth-nature. It is this direct materialization of the supramental body and substance that is one of the cardinal challenges that the humanity of the mental subjectivist cycle must address. The birth of a new science, the recovery of humanity’s lost memories, and perhaps, the surfacing in some unexpected fashion, the master artifacts of old Atlantis – all these will lead to a revolution and likely make possible, in hitherto impossible fashion, the birth of the first supramental beings with truly supramental bodies. Doubtless, there are many other issues, both individual and social, that must be solved before the superman can ‘reign as king of life’. It will be the future ‘nations of the dawn’ which will prepare the way for the final transition. Among them, this writer believes, will be a restored Atlantis. Purged of the mistakes of the past, Atlantis shall rise once more as a glorious home of wisdom and a teacher of humanity. It shall again be the mighty guardian of the stones and an architect of new ones that incarnate the forces of a greater age. And after the End, when the new heaven and new earth have arrived, the Ancestors themselves shall walk in supramental bodies among their people, guiding and blessing them once more. It is to this extraordinary future that Sri Aurobindo points. August - September Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse -August 25th Meditation on Book One, Canto Two, The Issue. From Picture 12 to 17 Mr Ramadoss and Mr Kiran Sule took up the lead. The summary of the passages follows: Savitri was not a creature helplessly subjected to the operations of Time and Fate, at the mercy of every circumstance and impulsion that came by. She embodied a Consciousness and a Force that were not products of terrestrial workings but wholly independent of them. Her exterior was only a frame, a vibrant and wakeful frame, for the puissance that ensouled it. Laws of matter are such an enclosing barrier that at every moment the organised dualities of Nature, e.g. good and bad, pain and pleasure, light and shadow, lay siege to man’s being and counter whatever he does with its inevitable contrary. There is also the spectre of Karma. Each action produces a result and the action of today is often plagued by the reaction of yesterday. The laws are long established, as old as Matter itself and they over-shadow the domain of the physical world with their rigidities and impersonal uniformities. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. And life itself, organised in matter and enclosed in its formation, cannot proceed farther than the limits set to its career. Within that span life may spread itself, unearth secrets from the womb of Time, but once the fixed boundary is reached, life is devoured by Death. On all fronts the material world is a closed system. Mr Ramadoss also referred to “On Education” By The Mother. When Man reaches this Truth, the 4 aspects which are Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty will express spontaneously in his being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind will be the vehicle of infallible knowledge, the vital will manifest an invincible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and harmony. September 1st - Passages from All India Magazine – Eternal Birth The passage chosen for contemplation for this day was titled ‘The Aim of this Yoga’ from AIM, August 2016. In a gist, Sri Aurobindo compares the traditional Yoga systems with the Integral Yoga. He highlights the strengths of the ancient systems of Yoga and draws in the strength of Integral as a complete approach to bringing down the Divine manifestation into the earth plane, there drawing our attention then to the need of a system of Yoga that oversees the entire transformation of nature, as is the possibility in integral Yoga. In order to effect the manifestation of the Divine here on earth, he urges the discovery of our truest personality, our inner quality or truth, put in many words. More than a mental formula applied to life, he urges the living out of that Supreme spirit in Nature. Here is a small excerpt from the reading: “The old yogas failed to transform life because, they did not go beyond mind. They used to catch at mental experiences but when they came to apply them to life they reduced it to a mental formula. For example, the mental experience of the infinite or the application of the principle of universal Love.” September 8th - Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo We read two passages from Chapter 1, Life and Yoga. Mr Rakesh took up the lead to start reading the passages. Man lives mostly in his surface mind, life and body, without the awareness of his latent powers within. The term Yoga encompasses Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga etc. The Synthesis of all the above yogas help man to open the ranges of this inner being and to live from there outward, governing his outward life by an inner light and force. Raja yoga and Hathayoga are based on the psychological workings of man just like the scientific handling of force of electricity or of steam for a better life for mankind. Raja yoga deals with the study of our inner psychological elements to bring about a higher level of mastery over the present out of control emotions and thoughts. Hatha yoga deals with the mastery of vital forces and functions which we feel as indispensable. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 10 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. Similarly, Yoga of Bhakti and Yoga of Knowledge are like wifi with which we can connect to the supernal ecstasy and supernal infinity of consciousness. Sri Aurobindo says no yoga is separate, it is the synthesis of yoga that makes a true yogin who elects to stay with his fellow men, participate in their life and thus lend them the help of his liberated consciousness and power and not flee from the world to a seclusion in the forest or cave. “All life is Yoga” is the signature of Sri Aurobindo who synthesises all the yogic systems, and offers Integral Yoga as one to be infused into our day for our self-advancement. September 15th - Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo We read the first 4 passages from chapter 3 - The Threefold Life. Ms Jayanthy took the lead. Sri Aurobindo makes it very clear that Nature has given us the bodily life, the mental existence to unveil the spiritual being in us. The perfected physical and mental existence bringing a harmonious rhythm is necessary to bring out the now concealed spirit to irradiate the life and mind. The passages prompted a lively exchange of views from the participants. Mr Ramanathan referred to Mandukya Upanishad and gave a detailed explanation of the four states of consciousness depending on which layers of the mind are active. These are waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and turiya (state of nonduality). Mr KV Rao simplified the following passage. Evolution from plant to animal and from animal to mankind has taken place, but the physical nature has not progressed, it seems to stick to the same with constant reproduction. Life cannot be immortal in an individual form but the idea of form permanent in the consciousness creates the universe and keeps the material life in a fixed cycle with Self-preservation, self-repetition and self-multiplication. Reading these passages makes one want pause awhile from our outer life and make a search in our inner being to experience the Divine hidden in us! September 22nd - Meditations on Savitri In today’s session we looked at Book 1, Canto 2, The Issue, from Passage 1 to 6 which make up first of two sections, together with Passage 7. This was the beginning of a glimpse into what the epic poem is all about with Savitri as the central role on one hand, and about the decisive action awaiting Savitri as she readies herself for the mighty task, for the liberation of the whole of the human race and of earth. It vividly describes the moment when Savitri needs to ungarb herself and stand in one with her secret soul, the fount of a stupendous force. The setting of the ensuing episode is before us. There is an indication of that place that “Had left in her deep room for thought and God.” Passages 5 and 6 gave us a description of the greatness of Savitri, elevating her to heights unreachable perhaps by any human; there is also a promise that this Savitri, who is like a “…golden temple door to things beyond”, too is immanent in us. All we need do really is, let these words sink in us while we allow within ourselves an expansion in silence and stillness as we read these lines from Passage 5 that describe Savitri’s stature: All in her pointed to a nobler kind. Near to earth’s wideness, intimate with heaven, Exalted and swift her young large-visioned spirit Voyaging through worlds of splendour and of calm Overflew the ways of Thought to unborn things. Ardent was her self-poised unstumbling will; www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. Her mind, a sea of white sincerity, Passionate in flow, had not one turbid wave. September 29th – Concentration (Workshop-cum-Sharing session) This session was conducted by Jayanthy as a workshop with collective sharing. There were six participants. Everyone was invited first to get in touch with a calm and quiet space deeper within, to enlarge this space and be within it, if possible with all walls gradually removed. Then members were posed these question which they were suggested, be received in the space within. A sharing session continued where the answers to the questions posed were shared. The questions were: 1. What concentration means to me, 2. When do I concentrate the most and 3. What facilitates my concentration. The sharing was candidly and calmly shared. All the sharing enhanced the contemplative atmosphere engulfing the group. References were made to Vivekananda on the nature of the mind as a maddened monkey. Reference was also made of Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita which gives a vivid set of instructions on what concentration is, and how to go about concentrating. A passage from The Mother on how one could still the mind was read after which we concentrated on the closing New Year music by Sunil da. - Jayalakshmi and Jayanthy PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 2019 DATE TIME DETAILS 8 AM Monthly Morning Walk * 6 Oct 2019 6 PM AIM Magazine Reading and Discussion Sunday 13 Oct 2019 6 PM Thematic Study Circle Part I : Sunday The Synthesis of Yoga 20 Oct 2019 6 PM Thematic Study Circle Part II : Sunday The Synthesis of Yoga 27 Oct 2019 4 PM Youth Programme Sunday www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 12 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. 6 PM Savitri Circle * Please see below for details. October 2019 MORNING WALK – NO. 410 Date: Sunday, 6th October 2019 Time: 8:00 A.M. sharp for warm up exercise. Walk Venue: Eastern Coastal Loop walk Meeting Point: Rhu Cross Roundabout (Opposite to Costa Rhu Condo) (Bus stop no: 90079) Public transport Bus numbers 11, 158 and 158A Contact No: Mr SN Venkat (9668 3658) Hosts: Family of Late Uncle Shashi Lal Kashyap 19, Broadrick Road, Singapore 439488. 63441876 (Home) Mobile: 97548463 (Praveen) (RSVP Email ID: [email protected] Note: All are encouraged to attend the Walk. Those, however, who are not able to join the Walk, the hosts would be very happy that they directly come and join in the brunch by 10:15 AM. Prayers and meditation will commence sharp at 10.30 A.M. All are requested to be punctual. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 13 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. PREVIEW OF FORTHCOMING SUNDAY MORNING WALKS WALK NO DATE PLACE HOST 411 3/11/19 Chestnut Nature Park Mr Kiran Sule and Family 412 1/12/19 413 6/1/20 Coney Island Mr Ritesh Thacker and Family West Coast Park Mr Kiran Kumar & Swathi Along the Way… September Walk Review (walk no 409) The Sri Aurobindo Sunday walks. Fond memories that connect me with my grandfather. For as long as I can remember, the Sri Aurobindo Society’s sessions in October have been held at my house. My grandfather and I would celebrate our birthdays together, the dates being only two days apart. While most of my family members probably have some memory associated with the Sri Aurobindo Society, this annual celebration was truly personal. It had been a while since I’d been on a Sunday walk, the last one being in March at Pasir Ris Park. So when the email came for this month’s walk at MacRitchie Reservoir, I told my dad I’d like to go. He convinced my mom and brother to join us too. 1st of September arrives and we head to MacRitchie Reservoir bright and early. Fun fact: MacRitchie Reservoir is Singapore's oldest reservoir and was completed in 1868. At the reservoir, we meet up with the rest of the group which is already there - a few familiar faces and a few new ones. Having just completed National Service and probably looking like the fittest of the group, my brother, Amit, was designated to conduct the warm-up. So we stretch our legs and warm up our muscles, and after a mini photo-taking session, embark on a 90-minute nature trail. Do you know where to find Singaporeans who are in a good mood? On a Sunday morning at a nature trail! It must be the fresh oxygen, vitamin D and endorphins from exercising that radiate this positive energy all around. It's amazing how a simple smile and a string of cheery ‘good mornings’ can instantly lift your mood and pave the way for a great day ahead. A much-needed respite from the urban jungle that is Singapore city, walking through MacRitchie Reservoir was a delight. Most of the path was shaded from the sun by tall lush trees and the weather was www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 14 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind

Mind Part II: The Vital Mind Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2019. pretty cool. We even caught a family of monkeys chit-chatting and a monitor lizard casually swimming in the reservoir. Along the way, the group dispersed slightly; every one walking at a pace they were comfortable with. Yet we were sending each other WhatsApp locations occasionally in a collaborative effort to be on the same path and reach the destination together. And, reach we did! On a personal note, I achieved my daily steps goal within 3 hours of waking up - definitely a first. At about 9.45am the group assembled back at our starting point and headed towards Mr Rao's house for a calming meditation session and a delicious, hearty homemade breakfast. That was the end to a beautiful Sunday morning and a great start to the rest of the day. I look forward to next month’s walk, welcoming all of you to our home once again next month! - by Aditi Kashyap Printed and Published by The Sri Aurobindo Society of Singapore 2A Starlight Road 01-07, Singapore 217755. Saurab: 86559940 or [email protected]; Sanjay: 98750767 or [email protected]; Email: [email protected] Visit our website at: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 15 Mind Part II: The Vital Mind