June 2022 Newsletter

June 2022 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 36.06 Singapore NEWSLETTER The Inner Journey Faith Faith You flame up and triumph. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose- of-China Medium-sized double flower, variegated in red and white. Faith is the soul's witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us, even in the absence of all indications, feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving. SRI AUROBINDO [Faith] is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self- exceeding. And that which receives the influence and answers to 'the call is ... the inner soul which better knows the truth of its own destiny and mission. SRI AUROBINDO Faith is certainly a gift given to us by the Divine Grace. It is like a door that suddenly opens upon an eternal truth, a door through which we can see it, almost touch it. ... In the ignorance and darkness of the beginning, faith is the most direct expression of the Divine Power which comes to fight and conquer. THE MOTHER (http://www.blossomlikeaflower.com/2008/04/faith.html )

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 Guiding Light of the Month As soon as all effort disappears from a manifestation, it becomes very simple, with the simplicity of a flower opening, manifesting its beauty and spreading its fragrance without clamour or vehement gesture. And in this simplicity lies the greatest power, the power which is least mixed and least gives rise to harmful reactions. 12 February, 1913 Prayers and Meditations, The Mother From the Editor’s Desk as In this June issue of our newsletter, we turn our attention The Divine order must and will prevail, is the essence to Faith. In Sanskrit, it is termed śraddānam or also of the faith within. So it shall be for one who holds on written as śraddha to that faith as to a rock when flood waters are (https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english- sweeping through the environs, uprooting everything sanskrit/faith/faith-meaning-in-sanskrit; on its path. So are we told, “At every moment all the https://kosha.sanskrit.today/word/en/faith/iast). unforeseen, the unexpected, the unknown is before In English, faith, in this context, is “a strong belief in a us—and what happens to us depends mostly on the supernatural power or powers that control human intensity and purity of our faith.” destiny”. There must be more to Faith than this. Let’s explore. It is faith that is recommended on the path of sadhana or yoga. Sri Aurobindo alludes, “….the first requisites According to The Mother, faith “is a certitude which is are faith and patience. The ardours of the heart and the not necessarily based on experience and knowledge.” It violences of the eager will that seek to take the is then not dependant wholly on the mind, the intellect kingdom of heaven by storm can have miserable or any mental knowledge of the thing fathomed. There reactions if they disdain to support their vehemence is some other basis to this phenomenon called faith. The on these humbler and quieter auxiliaries.” For faith, Mother says, “Faith is spontaneous knowledge in the since it comes from another source within, from the psychic.” Now, we know that there is something above deeper reaches of the heart space, with or without the or beyond the mind that holds faith, that one knows in support of the mind and its notions, makes one wait, this domain called the psychic, with certitude, without as it no longer alludes to feasible, concrete, the backing of mere mental formulae or reasoning. The materialistic measures of outcomes. It is based, as Mother goes on further to express faith as the mentioned. in the “psychic”. Summing up this “confidence in the Divine and the unshakeable certitude exploration on faith are The Mother’s poignant words: of the Divine’s Victory” and this “does not depend on circumstances.” In fact, The mother says that “A faith “People do not know how important is faith, how faith that depends on material proofs is not faith – it is a is miracle, creator of miracles. If you expect to be bargaining.” It is clear that faith is based on a deeper lifted up and pulled towards the Divine, He will come inner sense of the right and might of things and a to lift you and He will be there, quite close, closer, certainty that that higher truth will prevail, no matter ever closer.” what. Faith carries with it a positive ring, an expectance that a higher will shall operate and establish its order in Let us find that faith in our own lives. Let us the uncertainty and chaos of things here. understand its nature and quality and its abode; let us feel it more and more, in its presence and also let us It is evident now why one should hold faith. Life, as the feel how life is, in its absence. Invoking that Faith that mind would like to have it, is not all that clear cut. There is there deep in us, let us manifest it in all of our life, are uncertainties, snares, sharp unexpected turns, from the time we awake, till we sleep and through haziness, darkness often. Since faith is something that sleep. May faith be with us, colouring with its pretty one keeps deep within, and undetermined by hue all our thoughts, our feelings, our actions. Let’s circumstances and material proofs, it is naturally turn the pages and allow the words to guide us. something that can carry us through all ordeals of life. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg Savitri Peace A faith she craves that can survive defeat, The sweetness of a love that knows not death, The radiance of a truth for ever sure. A light grows in her, she assumes a voice, Her state she learns to read and the act she has done, But the one needed truth eludes her grasp, Herself and all of which she is the sign. An inarticulate whisper drives her steps Of which she feels the force but not the sense; A few rare intimations come as guides, Immense divining flashes cleave her brain, And sometimes in her hours of dream and muse The truth that she has missed looks out on her As if far off and yet within her soul. A change comes near that flees from her surmise And, ever postponed, compels attempt and hope, Yet seems too great for mortal hope to dare. A vision meets her of supernal Powers That draw her as if mighty kinsmen lost Approaching with estranged great luminous gaze. Then is she moved to all that she is not And stretches arms to what was never hers. Outstretching arms to the unconscious Void, Passionate she prays to invisible forms of Gods Soliciting from dumb Fate and toiling Time What most she needs, what most exceeds her scope, A Mind unvisited by illusion’s gleams, A Will expressive of soul’s deity, A Strength not forced to stumble by its speed, A Joy that drags not sorrow as its shade. For these she yearns and feels them destined hers: Heaven’s privilege she claims as her own right. Just is her claim the all-witnessing Gods approve, Clear in a greater light than reason owns: Our intuitions are its title-deeds; Our souls accept what our blind thoughts refuse. Sri Aurobindo 3

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 Talk with The Mother This talk with The Mother is based on Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Elements of Yoga’, Chapter 4, “Sincerity” and Chapter 5, “Faith” as seen below: “Q: What is the right attitude to stick on to this path till the Supramental Truth is realised? “A: There is the psychic condition and sincerity and devotion to the Mother.” SRI AUROBINDO What is “the psychic condition”? The psychic condition? That means being in relation with one’s psychic, I suppose, being governed by one’s psychic being. Sweet Mother, I don’t understand very clearly the difference between faith, belief and confidence. But Sri Aurobindo has given the full explanation here. If you don’t understand, then… He has written “Faith is a feeling in the whole being.” The whole being, yes. Faith, that’s the whole being at once. He says that belief is something that occurs in the head, that is purely mental; and confidence is quite different. Confidence—one can have confidence in life, trust in the Divine, trust in others, trust in one’s own destiny, that is, one has the feeling that everything is going to help him, to do what he wants to do. Faith is a certitude without any proof. Mother, on what does faith depend? Probably on Divine Grace. Some people have it spontaneously. There are others who need to make a great effort to have it. How can faith be increased? Through aspiration, I suppose. Some have it spontaneously… You see, it is difficult to pray if one doesn’t have faith, but if one can make prayer a means of increasing one’s faith, or aspiring, having an aspiration, having an aspiration to have faith… Most of these qualities require an effort. If one does not have a thing and wants to have it, well, it needs great, great, great sustained efforts, a constant aspiration, an unflagging will, a sincerity at each moment; then one is sure, it will come one day—it can come in a second. There are people who have it, and then they have contrary movements which come and attack. These people, if www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 their will is sincere, can shield their faith, repel the attacks. There are others who cultivate doubt because it is a kind of dilettantism—that, there’s nothing more dangerous than that. It is as though one were letting the worm into the fruit: it eventually eats it up completely. This means that when a movement of this sort comes—it usually comes first into the mind—the first thing to do is to be very determined and refuse it. Surely one must not enjoy looking on just to see what is going to happen; that kind of curiosity is terribly dangerous. It is perhaps more difficult for intellectuals to have faith than for those who are simple, sincere, who are straightforward, without intellectual complications. But I think that if an intellectual person has faith, then that becomes very powerful, a very powerful thing which can truly work miracles. Mother, where does determination come from? Usually it is in those who have a will and bring their will to bear upon their actions. If one has faith in the Divine and also trust, what is the difference between faith and trust? Faith is something much more integral—that is what Sri Aurobindo has written—much more integral than trust. You see, you have trust in the Divine, in the sense that you are convinced that all that comes from Him will always be the best for you: whatever His decision and whatever the experience He sends you or the circumstances in which He puts you, it will always be what is best for you. This is trust. But faith— that kind of unshakable certitude in the very existence of God—faith is something that seizes the whole being. It is not only mental, psychic or vital: it is the whole being, entirely, which has faith. Faith leads straight to experience. Can’t trust be total and entire? Not necessarily. Well, there is a shade of difference—however, I don’t know, it is not the same thing. One has given oneself totally to the divine work, one has faith in it, not only in its possibility, but faith that it is the thing which is true and which must be, and one gives oneself entirely to it, without asking what will happen. And so, therein or thereon may be grafted a certitude, a confidence that one is capable of accomplishing it, that is, of participating in it and doing it because one has given oneself to it—a confidence that what one is going to do, what one wants to do, one will be able to do; that this realisation one wants to attain, one will attain. The first does not put any questions, does not think of the results: it gives itself entirely—it gives itself and then that’s all. It is something that absorbs one completely. The other may be grafted upon it. Confidence says: “Yes, I shall participate, realise what I want to realise, I shall surely take part in this work.” The other one has faith in the Divine, that it is the Divine who is all, and can do all, and does all… and who is the only real existence—and one 123gives oneself entirely to this faith, to the Divine, that’s all. One has faith in the existence of the Divine and gives oneself; and there can also be grafted upon this a trust that this relation one has with the Divine, this faith one has in the Divine, will work in such a way that all that happens to him—whatever it may be, all that happens to www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 him—will not only be an expression of the divine will (that of course is understood) but also the best that could happen, that nothing better could have happened to him, since it is the Divine who is doing it for him. This attitude is not necessarily a part of faith, for faith does not question anything, it does not ask what the consequence of its self-giving will be—it gives itself, and—that’s all; while confidence can come and say, “That’s what the result will be.” And this is an absolute fact, that is, the moment one gives oneself entirely to the Divine, without calculating, in a total faith, without bargaining of any kind—one gives oneself, and then, come what may! “That does not concern me, I just give myself”—automatically it will always be for you, in all circumstances, at every moment, the best that will happen… not the way you conceive of it (naturally, thought knows nothing), but in reality. Well, there is a part of the being which can become aware of this and have this confidence. This is something added on to faith which gives it more strength, a strength—how shall I put it?—of total acceptance and the best utilisation of what happens. There is a state in which one realises that the effect of things, circumstances, all the movements and actions of life on the consciousness depends almost exclusively upon one’s attitude to these things. There is a moment when one becomes sufficiently conscious to realise that things in themselves are truly neither good nor bad: they are such only in relation to us; their effect on us depends absolutely upon the attitude we have towards them. The same thing, identically the same, if we take it as a gift of God, as a divine grace, as the result of the full Harmony, helps us to become more conscious, stronger, more true, while if we take it—exactly the very same circumstance124—as a blow from fate, as a bad force wanting to affect us, this constricts us, weighs us down and takes away from us all consciousness and strength and harmony. And the circumstance in itself is exactly the same—of this, I wish all of you had this experience, for when you have it, you become master of yourself. Not only master of yourself but, in what concerns you, master of the circumstances of your life. And this depends exclusively upon the attitude you take; it is not an experience that occurs in the head, though it begins there, but an experience which can occur in the body itself. So much so, that—well, it is a realisation which naturally asks for a lot of work, concentration, self- mastery, consciousness pushed into Matter, but as a result, in accordance with the way the body receives shocks from outside, the effect may be different. And if you attain perfection in that field, you become master of accidents. I hope this will happen. It is possible. It is not only possible, it is certain. Only it is just one step forward. That is, this power you have—already fully and formidably realised in the mind— to act upon circumstances to the extent of changing them totally in their action upon you, that power can descend into Matter, into the physical substance itself, the cells of the body, and give the same power to the body in relation to the things around it. This is not a faith, it is a certitude that comes from experience. The experience is not total, but it is there. This opens new horizons to you; it is the path, it is one step on the path leading to transformation. And the logical conclusion is that there is nothing impossible. It is we who put limitations. All the time we say, “That thing is possible, that other, impossible; this, yes, this can be done, that can’t be done; oh yes, this is true, it is feasible, it is even done, but that, that is impossible.” It is we who all the time put ourselves like slaves into the prison of our limits, of our stupid, narrow, ignorant sense which knows nothing of the laws of life. The laws of life are not at all what you think they are nor what the most www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 intelligent people think. They are quite different. Taking a step, especially the first step on the path—one begins to find out. Mother, here it is written: “Q: Is it a sign of sincerity to confess one’s weakness and faults to the Divine and to others? “A: Why to others? One has to confess them to the Divine. “Q: But if one does some wrong to a person, is it not necessary to confess it to him? Is it enough to confess it to the Divine? “A: If it concerns the other persons, then it can be done.” It is harmless. You can do it if it gives you pleasure! Fundamentally, if it sets you at rest and allows you to progress, if you feel you must do it in order to progress, it is very good. Sweet Mother, can it happen that a person is very insincere but unconscious of his insincerity? I think in a case like this, he is no longer insincere, he is wicked; for if one knows that one is insincere and persists in one’s insincerity, it is wickedness, isn’t it? It means that one has bad intentions, otherwise why would one persist in one’s insincerity? I said: if one is unconscious. Then how can one be conscious and unconscious at once? It is just this that is impossible. If one is conscious of one’s insincerity, one can’t be unconscious of it. It is impossible. The two can’t exist simultaneously. But if one is insincere and doesn’t know where this insincerity lies? Oh! One doesn’t know?… That is because one is not sufficiently sincere and doesn’t look at oneself. For, I guarantee this, if you are conscious that you are insincere, you know where it lies. Otherwise you could not be aware of your insincerity. For instance, in a certain circumstance one knows, knows that one should do this: “I should do this”; and at the same time one does not wish to do it, eh! And so, within oneself one finds a means, a sort of way of deceiving oneself and not doing it, because one does not want to do it— ah, that happens very often! [Laughter] And then, if at that moment, the moment when you are doing this little inner work to find an excuse for not doing what you don’t want to do, if at that moment you become aware that you are insincere and still continue to do it, this means that you are perverse. If you ask me, this is what I call being wicked, bad. But if you realise that you are insincere, this means that you are www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 conscious that you are insincere, and how can you say “I am not conscious of my insincerity”?… Ninety times out of a hundred one does it without knowing. That indeed is the misery. It is that one deceives oneself with such facility, finds good tricks for not doing what one doesn’t want to do, or the contrary: for doing what one wishes to do when one knows very well one shouldn’t do it—it is the same thing. So you give yourself good reasons, and, unhappily, as I said, most men are so unconscious that they do it without even realising it. They think they are very sincere: “No, sincerely, I thought I had to do it”—like that, quite innocently. But that’s because they are not sincere, not at all because they are quite unconscious. But if one is just a little conscious of what is happening within, one perceives very well the little trick one has played and how one has found—has somewhere been so cleverly unearthing, an excellent excuse for doing what one wanted to do. Even when one knows very well one ought not to do it. It is these two, you see: a play between unconsciousness and insincerity, insincerity and unconsciousness, in this way. But if you tell me, “I am conscious of my insincerity”, then naturally at that moment this fact faces you: Have you decided to remain in the darkness or do you want to progress? There, the problem comes up. If you are conscious of your insincerity, you have only one thing to do: that is to put a red-hot iron on it and make yourself sincere. That is the feeling. You must take a red-hot iron: it burns well, and then… ouch!… that’s the way. For a moment it hurts a little, afterwards one is left in peace. Sweet Mother, you have written: “Sincerity is the key to the divine gates.” What does that mean? It is a literary image, my child, an imaged, figurative, literary way of expressing the fact that with sincerity one can attain everything, even the Divine. If one wants to open a door, a key is necessary, isn’t it? Well, for the door separating you from the Divine, sincerity works as a key and opens the door and lets you in, that’s all. Good night. THE MOTHER (CWM, Questions & Answers, 1954) What is the difference between faith, belief and confidence ? Faith is a feeling in the whole being; belief is mental; confidence means trust in a person or in the Divine or a feeling of surity about the result of one's seeking or endeavour. What do people mean by \"blind faith\" ? The phrase has no real meaning. I suppose they mean they will not believe without proof —but the conclusion formed after proof is not faith, it is knowledge or it is a mental opinion. Faith is something which one has before proof or knowledge and it helps you to arrive at knowledge or experience. There is no proof that God exists, but if I have faith in God, then I can arrive at the experience of the Divine. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 What is the difference between psychic faith, mental faith, vital faith and physical faith ? Mental faith combats doubt and helps to open to the true knowledge; vital faith prevents the attacks of the hostile forces or defeats them and helps to open to the true spiritual will and action; physical faith keeps one firm through all physical obscurity, inertia or suffering and helps to open to the foundation of the true consciousness; psychic faith opens to the direct touch of the Divine and helps to bring union and surrender. What is meant by \"dynamic faith\" ? Is not all faith dynamic? Faith can be Tamasic and ineffective, e.g. \"I believe the Mother will do everything, so I will do nothing. When she wants, she will transform me.\" That is not a dynamic but a static and inert faith. Even after the sadhaks have complete faith and surrender, have they to wait long to get the higher experiences by the Divine Grace? If the faith and surrender are complete in every part, it is not possible that there should be no experience. (Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo) A Sapphire tale – by the Mother (1906) ONCE UPON a time, far away in the East, there was a small country that lived in order and harmony, where each one in his own place played the part for which he was made, for the greatest good of all. […] This orderly and harmonious country was ruled by a king who was king simply because he was the most intelligent and wise, because he alone was capable of fulfilling the needs of all, he alone was both enlightened enough to follow and even to guide the philosophers in their loftiest speculations, and practical enough to watch over the organisation and well-being of his people, whose needs were well known to him. At the time when our narrative begins, this remarkable ruler had reached a great age—he was more than two hundred years old—and although he still retained all his lucidity and was still full of energy and vigour, he was beginning to think of retirement, a little weary of the heavy responsibilities which he had borne for so many years. He called his young son Meotha to him. The prince was a young man of many and varied accomplishments. He was more handsome than men usually are, his charity was of such perfect equity that it achieved justice, his intelligence shone like a sun and his wisdom was beyond compare; for he had spent part of his youth among workmen and craftsmen to learn by personal experience the needs and requirements of their life, and he had spent the rest of his time alone, or with one of the philosophers as his tutor, in seclusion in the square tower of the palace, in study or contemplative repose. […] (The king asks his son to find a wife…) But as you know, according to age-old custom, no one may ascend the throne who is not biune, that is, unless he is united by the bonds of integral affinity with the one who www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 can bring him the peace of equilibrium by a perfect match of tastes and abilities. It was to remind you of this custom that I called you here, and to ask you whether you have met the young woman who is both worthy and willing to unite her life with yours, according to our wish. […] (Meotha asks for time to find his wife…) I wish therefore to travel the world for a year, to observe and to learn. I ask you, my father, to allow me to make this journey, and who knows?—I may return with my life’s companion, the one for whom I can be all happiness and all protection. […] Amid the western ocean lies a little island valued for its valuable forests. One radiant summer’s day, a young girl is walking slowly in the shade of the wonderful trees. Her name is Liane and she is fair among women; her lithe body sways gracefully beneath light garments, her face, whose delicate skin seems paler for her carmine lips, is crowned with a heavy coil of hair so golden that it shines; and her eyes, like two deep doors opening on limitless blue, light up her features with their intellectual radiance. Liane is an orphan, alone in life, but her great beauty and rare intelligence have attracted much passionate desire and sincere love. But in a dream she has seen a man, a man who seems, from his garments, to come from a distant land; and the sweet and serious gaze of the stranger has won the heart of the girl— now she can love no other. Since then she has been waiting and hoping; it is to be free to dream of the handsome face seen in the night that she is walking amid the solitude of the lofty woods. The dazzling sunlight cannot pierce the thick foliage; the silence is hardly broken by the light rustle of the moss beneath the footsteps of the walking girl; all sleeps in the heavy drowse of the noonday heat; and yet she feels a vague unease, as if invisible beings were hiding in the thickets, watchful eyes peeping from behind trees. Suddenly a bird’s song rings out clear and joyful; all uneasiness vanishes. Liane knows that the forest is friendly—if there are beings in the trees, they cannot wish her harm. She is seized by an emotion of great sweetness, all appears beautiful and good to her, and tears come to her eyes. Never has her hope been so ardent at the thought of the beloved stranger; it seems to her that the trees quivering in the breeze, the moss rustling beneath her feet, the bird renewing its melody—all speak to her of the One whom she awaits. At the idea that perhaps she is going to meet him she stops short, trembling, pressing her hands against her beating heart, her eyes closed to savour to the full the exquisite emotion; and now the sensation grows more and more intense until it is so precise that Liane opens her eyes, sure of a presence. Oh, wonder of wonders! He is there, he, he in truth as she has seen him in her dream… more handsome than men usually are. —It was Meotha. With a look they have recognised each other; with a look they have told each other of the long waiting and the supreme joy of rediscovery; for they have known each other in a distant past, now they are sure of it. She places her hand in the hand he offers her, and together, silent in a silence filled with thoughts exchanged, they wend their way through the forest. Before them appears the sea, calm and green beneath a happy sun. A great ship sways gently near the shore. Meekly, trustingly, Liane follows Meotha into the boat which awaits them, drawn up on the sand. Two strong oarsmen put it to sea and soon bring them alongside the vessel. Only as she sees the little island disappearing below the horizon does the girl say to her companion: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 10 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 “I was waiting for you, and now that you have come, I have followed you without question. We are made for each other. I feel it, I know it, and I know also that now and forever you will be my happiness and my protection. But I loved my island birthplace with its beautiful forests, and I would like to know to what shore you are taking me.” “I have sought you throughout the world, and now that I have found you, I have taken your hand without asking you anything, for in your eyes I saw that you expected me. From this moment and forever, my beloved shall be all to me; and if I have made her leave her little wooded isle, it is to lead her as a queen to her kingdom, the only land on earth that is in harmony, the only nation that is worthy of Her.” (https://auromere.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/autobiographical-story-by-mirra-alfassa/ ) April, 2022 Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse 3 April 2022: Savitri Reading Circle, Book Seven: Canto 5, Psychic Being in Savitri – The Finding of the Soul The session continued with meditating again on the passages from Savitri - The Finding of the Soul- Book 7- Canto 5, from page 526 to 527. Our ancient sages like Agastya, Atharva and Angiras created many slokas like Aditya Hrudayam and Sri Lakshmi Narayana Hrudayam etc.. for the benefit of seekers of the Divine Knowledge and blessings. Our modern Sage Sri Aurobindo has blessed us with “SAVITRI HRUDAYAM” Our meditation on the reading of Savitri brings us close to our Soul for the experience of the Divinity hidden in us. The following passages are taken from “Savitri Study” by MP Pandit. He has made the study more assimilating to our understanding and immersing! www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 “A being stands, immortal in a general transience; deathless, she plays with mortal things. Through her wide eyes of serene happiness unaffected by pity and sorrow, Infinity turns to look at finite forms. She observes the silent tread of Time and the passing scenes of the everlasting play; she shares in the mystery of the determining Will, participates in the Comedy of the Divine Play; she is a conscious representative of the Spirit, God’s delegate in our humanity, friend and companion of the Universe, ray of the Transcendent; she has come into the small dwelling of the mortal body to play, as it were. Her master movement here is to take joy in the world; her eyes are bright with the intensity of this game. For all the bliss and grief of life on earth, she has a smile on her lips; she welcomes both. Her reaction to pleasure and pain is one of laughter. She perceives all things as a show put on by Truth disguised in the garments of Ignorance while she is crossing stretches of Time to Immortality. She is able to face all with the unperturbed peace of the strong spirit. She is aware of the struggle of mind and life in this onward course even as a mother feels and shares her children’s lives, and she puts out a small portion of herself — a being of the size of the thumb — into the hidden chamber of the heart, in order to face and bear the pangs of life … forgetting her original nature of bliss, to share the suffering and endure earth’s wounds and participate in the incessant labour of the universe, Angushthamatram (Katha Upanishad). Man is able to go through all because this small portion of the Divine Spirit, the soul, is within him. This soul in us joys and suffers, exults in victory, strives for the highest. It identifies itself with the mind, life and body and bears all their pangs, anguish and defeat, bleeds with the strokes of fate and hangs upon the Cross of suffering imposed by Ignorance. All the while the soul that thus acts on the stage of the human life is supported by the deeper unscarred, immortal self. Through this portion projected in us, the secret Spirit pours into us her glory and her powers and raises us from the gulfs of misery and suffering towards the heights of wisdom; through it she gives us the strength wherewith we can accomplish our daily tasks, the sympathy wherewith we can share the grief of others, the little capacity wherewith we can help our fellow men. And all this we have to do because we have to play our part in this drama in which the puny human form acts the role of the huge universe and we, humans, carry the struggling world on our shoulders. This is our soul, the small and marred godhead in us. In this portion of divinity projected in the human being, the Spirit lodges the greatness of the divine Soul manifesting in Time to uplift the striving human soul from lesser light to greater light, from lesser power to greater power, till it reaches and stands as a king upon a divine peak. The human soul is frail in its body but carries an unconquerable strength in its heart. In its struggling climb to the heights, this striving spirit in a mortal, human shape is upheld by the unseen hand of God. In this chamber of flame and light meet the divine, presiding Soul — the secret Deity — and the striving human soul of Savitri, one calm and immortal, the other — its human part — struggling. They gaze at each other and both come to know who they are. Then with the speed of a magical transformation, both the divine and the human portion rush into each other and become one”. From http://www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/savitri-study/book-savitri-study/pre- content-study May 2022 Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse 1 May 2022: Savitri Reading Circle, Book Seven: Canto Five, Pg. 528 onwards, “The Finding of the Soul” – The Psychic Being in Savitri Sri Aurobindo’s description of Savitri’s tapasya to make this earthly body the home of the Mighty Mother of the Universe gives us an inspiration and aspiration to sever the wall of ignorance between our mind and Soul and make our heart a blooming lotus for the Mother of Dharma to make Her Home. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 12 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 “Savitri beholds sitting in the heart an image of the Primal Power with the form and face of the mighty Mother. She is armed — she bears the weapon and the symbol whose hidden power cannot be imitated by any magic; she is manifold in her manifestation, yet she is one. There she sits, a Force guarding all. Her arm is uplifted in the celebrated gesture of saving, of protection. Below her feet lies the sacred lion, symbolising some innate cosmic strength, a silent, gathered, flaming mass of living Force”. From http://www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/savitri-study/book-savitri-study/pre- content-study Here are poignant lines from the canto that was read: That subtle world withdrew deeply within Behind the sun-veil of the inner sight. But now the half-opened lotus bud of her heart Had bloomed and stood disclosed to the earthly ray; In an image shone revealed her secret soul. There was no wall severing the soul and mind, No mystic fence guarding from the claims of life. In its deep lotus home her being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house. Savitri, Sri Aurobindo, Book Seven, Canto Five, Pgs. 527-528 8 May 2022: Reading on Synthesis of Yoga This session was conducted by Rakesh based on a passage from The Synthesis of Yoga. 15 May 2022: ‘Reality Omnipresent’ – Chapter 4 , Sri Aurobindo’s Life Divine Sri Aurobindo begins this chapter by quoting ‘Verse 6 of Chapter 2 - from ‘Taittiriya Upanishad’ with his translation - “If one knows Him as Brahman the Non-Being, he becomes merely the non-existent. If one knows that Brahman Is, then is he known as the real in existence.” In our session, we covered Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the above and also took up (as a revision) the Verses 2 and 7 (of Mandukya Upanishad) from the earlier Chapter 3, since the subject was the same. For this session, we decided to primarily focus on the ‘Silent Brahman’ which made us revise the verses of ‘Life Divine’. Following are Sri Aurobindo’s translation: Verse 2- “All this is Brahman, this Self is the Brahman and the Self is fourfold” Verse 7 - “He who is neither inward-wise, nor outward-wise, nor both inward and outward wise, nor wisdom self-gathered, nor possessed of wisdom, nor unpossessed of wisdom, He Who is unseen and incommunicable, unseizable, featureless, unthinkable, and unnameable, Whose essentiality is awareness of the Self in its single existence, in Whom all phenomena dissolve, Who is Calm, Who is Good, Who is the One than Whom there is no other, Him they deem the fourth; He is the Self, He is the object of Knowledge”. Sri Aurobindo on the silent and the active Brahman: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 13 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 • They are not different, opposite and irreconcilable entities, the one denying, the other affirming a cosmic illusion; they are one Brahman in two aspects, positive and negative, and each is necessary to the other. • It is out of this Silence that the Word which creates the worlds forever proceeds; for the Word expresses that which is self-hidden in the Silence. It is an eternal passivity which makes possible the perfect freedom and omnipotence of an eternal divine activity in innumerable cosmic systems. On the following comment by Sri Aurobindo: (in Chapter 4) “Man, too, becomes perfect only when he has found within himself that absolute calm and passivity of the Brahman and supports by it with the same divine tolerance and the same divine bliss a free and inexhaustible activity”. This can be referred to his own book: “Letters on Yoga: The Foundation of Sadhana” -containing the following: • ‘At last, you have the true foundation of the sadhana. This calm, peace and surrender are the right atmosphere for all the rest to come, knowledge, strength, Ananda. Let it become complete.’ • Calm, even if it seems at first only a negative thing, is so in reality, difficult to attain, that to have it at all must be regarded as a great step in advance. • Calm is not a negative thing; it is the very nature of the Sat-Purusha and the positive foundation of the divine consciousness. • Aspire for the rest of the divine consciousness, but with a calm and deep aspiration. It can be ardent as well as calm, but not impatient, restless or full of rajasic eagerness. 15 May 2022: Question and Answers by The Mother, Aspiration, Rejection and Surrender The Questions and Answers dated 28 April 2951 continued to be the focus in this session. The question on page 365 was taken up, which read, “Is it (physical tamas) the same thing as laziness?” and the Mother’s answer was read following some sharing and comments. Sri Aurobindo’s answer was, “Not quite. Of course, laziness is a kind of tamas, but in laziness there is an ill-will, a refusal to make an effort — while tamas is inertia: one wants to do something, but one can’t.” 22 May 2022: The Inner Journey – Readings and Reflections The passage that was read two months ago was revisited as members took turns to read while pauses were taken to highlight some salient points in each paragraph. Then we read the passage for the day, titled, “One True Joy”. This passage explained joy as the result of a one-pointed aspiration for the Divine and to live His will. That joy, it is implied, is a far superior joy, an unmistakable “sign of victory”. The concluding line is a clear indicator of one’s condition if joy was not to be, and of the work that needs to be done with and on oneself: “So long as you cannot be in joy, a constant, calm, peaceful, luminous, invariable joy, well, it means that you have still to work to purify yourself, and sometimes work very hard. But this is the sign.” 29 May 20022: Sri Aurobindo’s Letters on Yoga – Foundation of Sadhana In this session, we read passages off letters on the foundational importance of peace and silence. It was a meditative session and brought us in focus of what needs to be attempted first before all else, if at all any transformation of the being is to be possible. Here is a poignant excerpt from one of the passages we read: “The first thing to do in the sadhana is to get a settled peace and silence in the mind. Otherwise you may have experiences, but nothing will be permanent. It is in the silent mind that the true consciousness can be built.” www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 14 Peace

Faith Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. June 2022 - Jayalakshmi, Krishnamurthy, Jayanthy PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF MAY 2022 DATE TIME DETAILS Monthly Morning Walk * 5 Jun 2022 8 AM Savitri Circle by Venkatesh Rao Sunday 6 PM 6 PM Thematic Study Circle by Rakesh: The Synthesis of Yoga 12 Jun 2022 Sunday Youth Programme 7 PM 5 PM Vedic Mantras from The Life Divine by Krishnamurthy and Jared 19 Jun 2022 Mother’s Questions and Answers by Shailaja Sunday 6 PM 26 Jun 2022 6 PM Readings and Reflections: The Inner Journey by Jayanthy Sunday 7 PM Youth Programme *Details can be found in the SAS Whatsapp 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 15 Peace