July 2022 Newsletter

July 2022 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 36.07 Singapore NEWSLETTER The Inner Journey Equanimity Equanimity Immutable peace and calm. Iberis Candytuft Small very dense rounded heads of tiny irregular four-petalled flowers; in white and shades of pink, purple and red. A floriferous low bushy annual or perennial herb. Equanimity and peace in all conditions, in all parts of the being is the first foundation of the yogic status. Either Light (bringing with it knowledge) or Force (bringing strength and dynamism of many kinds) or Ananda (bringing love and joy of existence) can come next according to the trend of the nature. But peace is the first condition without which nothing else can be stable. SRI AUROBINDO The more a person is quiet in front of all occurrences, equal in all circumstances, and keeps a perfect mastery of himself and remains peaceful in the presence of whatever happens, the more he has progressed towards the goal. THE MOTHER (http://www.blossomlikeaflower.com/2008/03/equanimity.html )

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 Guiding Light of the Month A deep and solemn chant, smiling and subtle, rises from my heart, and I do not know whether this chant goes from me to Thee or comes from Thee to me or whether Thou and I and the entire universe are this marvellous chant of which I have just become conscious. . . . Surely there is no longer any Thou or I or any separate universe; only an immense harmony is there, sublime and infinite, which is all things and of which all things will one day grow aware. It is the harmony of boundless Love, Love victorious over all suffering and all obscurity. July 23, 1913 Prayers and Meditations, The Mother From the Editor’s Desk Equanimity was chosen as the theme for this issue of is a certain inner mastery that probably keeps one poised our newsletter. According to the English dictionary the above and beyond the happenings of life. It is an agency word equanimity means calmness and composure, of transformation too, it appears. Let’s see what it is not, particularly in the face of challenging or adverse according to Sri Aurobindo. circumstances. Synonyms for the word include composure, calmness, self-possession, self-control, It is not mere quiescence and indifference, not a cool-headedness, presence of mind, and poise. Samata, withdrawal from experience, but a superiority to the Samabhavah, Samvritta, Samacittata though close present reactions of the mind and life. It is the spiritual equivalents of Equanimity in Sanskrit, express the way of replying to life or rather of embracing it and meaning of the phenomenon from a greater compelling it to become a perfect form of action of the psychological depth. For example, Samata is said to be self and spirit. It is the first secret of the soul’s mastery a state devoid of thought constructs and detachment in of existence. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga. the midst of the objects of the senses. There is contentment because one is free of attachment and is The attainment of Equanimity can also be taken as a sign non-dual. This is said to be liberation in life. Samata or of Divine Consciousness. Here is what The Mother equanimity is a primary goal of yoga and remains a says: All human beings are full of desires; their life is practice of resilience. Here is what Sri Aurobindo has to built by desires. The will of man is made of desire, his write about Equanimity (Letters on Yoga – II, The Basis needs are desires .. He can get rid of all these desires of the Sadhana): only by a constant vigilance and steady elimination. Each time that you feel excited or annoyed, each time Equanimity and peace in all conditions in all parts of that you are upset, you can be sure that there is a the being is the first foundation of the Yogic status. desire lurking behind the appearances. Either Light (bringing with it knowledge) or Force The sign of the true and Divine Consciousness is (bringing strength and dynamism of many kinds) or Ananda (bringing love and joy of existence) can perfect equality, constant equanimity and peace. Excitement, irritation, sorrow, depression, upsetting come next according to the trend of the nature. But belong all to the Physical Consciousness and must be peace is the first condition without which nothing surmounted in order to get rid of the Falsehood. else can be stable. One may also note how Sri Aurobindo draws a close It is time to plunge within ourselves and know the different states of our being and to fathom if equanimity parallel between ‘Equanimity’ and ‘Peace’. has a place amongst the many states we keep in Attaining a state of equanimity is not akin to remaining ourselves. Keeping equanimity within increases well- passive to the pricks and pains of life, or not reacting or being in all ways, beneficial for the perfectioning of the responding to circumstances or situations outwardly. It being so that that Perfection may pour itself into the vessel and manifest itself here in being, and in work. Savitri www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 Made whole the fragment-being we are here. At last was won a firm spiritual poise, A constant lodging in the Eternal’s realm, A safety in the Silence and the Ray, A settlement in the Immutable. His heights of being lived in the still Self; His mind could rest on a supernal ground And look down on the magic and the play Where the God-child lies on the lap of Night and Dawn And the Everlasting puts on Time’s disguise. To the still heights and to the troubled depths His equal spirit gave its vast assent: A poised serenity of tranquil strength, A wide unshaken look on Time’s unrest Faced all experience with unaltered peace. Indifferent to the sorrow and delight, Untempted by the marvel and the call, Immobile it beheld the flux of things, Calm and apart supported all that is: His spirit’s stillness helped the toiling world. Inspired by silence and the closed eyes’ sight His force could work with a new luminous art On the crude material from which all is made And the refusal of Inertia’s mass And the grey front of the world’s Ignorance And nescient Matter and the huge error of life. As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone He slowly chipped off the dark envelope, Line of defence of Nature’s ignorance, The illusion and mystery of the Inconscient In whose black pall the Eternal wraps his head That he may act unknown in cosmic Time. A splendour of self-creation from the peaks, A transfiguration in the mystic depths, A happier cosmic working could begin And fashion the world-shape in him anew, Sri Aurobindo Perfect Equanimity – Sign of true Divine Consciousness www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg All human beings are full of desires; their life is built by desires. The will of man is made of desir3e, his needs are desires .. He can get rid of all these Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 Questions & Answers What is the way to establish unity and homogeneity in our being? Keep the will firm. Treat the recalcitrant parts as disobedient children. Act upon them constantly and patiently. Convince them of their error. In the depths of your consciousness is the psychic being, the temple of the Divine within you. This is the centre round which should come about the unification of all these divergent parts, all these contradictory movements of your being. Once you have got the consciousness of the psychic being and its aspiration, these doubts and difficulties can be destroyed. It takes more or less time, but you will surely succeed in the end. Once you have turned to the Divine, saying, “I want to be yours”, and the Divine has said, “Yes”, the whole world cannot keep you from it. When the central being has made its surrender, the chief difficulty has disappeared. The outer being is like a crust. In ordinary people the crust is so hard and thick that they are not conscious of the Divine within them. If once, even for a moment only, the inner being has said, “I am here and I am yours”, then it is as though a bridge has been built and little by little the crust becomes thinner and thinner until the two parts are wholly joined and the inner and the outer become one. Ambition has been the undoing of many Yogis. That canker can hide long. Many people start on the Path without any sense of it. But when they get powers, their ambition rises up, all the more violently because it had not been thrown out in the beginning. A story is told of a Yogi who had attained wonderful powers. He was invited by his disciples to a great dinner. It was served on a big low table. The disciples asked their Master to show his power in some way. He knew he should not, but the seed of ambition was there in him and he thought, “After all, it is a very innocent thing and it may prove to them that such things are possible and teach them the greatness of God.” So he said, “Take away the table, but only the table, let the table-cloth remain as it is with all the dishes upon it.” The disciples cried out, “Oh, that cannot be done, everything will fall down.” But he insisted and they removed the table from under the cloth. Lo, the miracle! The cloth and all that was upon it remained there just as though the table was underneath. The disciples wondered. But all on a sudden the Master jumped up and rushed out screaming and crying, “Nevermore shall I have a disciple, nevermore! Woe is me! I have betrayed my God.” His heart was on fire; he had used the divine powers for selfish ends. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 It is always wrong to display powers. This does not mean that there is no use for them. But they have to be used in the same way as they came. They come by union with the Divine. They must be used by the will of the Divine and not for display. If you come across someone who is blind and you have the power to make him see — if it is the Divine Will that the man shall see, you have only to say, “Let him see” and he will see. But if you wish to make him see simply because you want to cure him, then you use the power to satisfy your personal ambition. Most often, in such cases, you not only lose your power but you create a great disturbance in the man. Yet in appearance the two ways are the same; but in one case you act because of the Divine Will and in the other for some personal motive. How are we to know, you will ask, when it is the Divine Will that makes us act? The Divine Will is not difficult to recognise. It is unmistakable. You can know it without being very far on the path. Only you must listen to its voice, the small voice that is here in the heart. Once you are accustomed to listen, if you do anything that is contrary to the Divine Will, you feel an uneasiness. If you persist on the wrong track, you get very much disturbed. If, however, you give some material excuse as the cause of your uneasiness and proceed on your way, you gradually lose the faculty of perception and finally you may go on doing all kinds of wrong and feel no uneasiness. But if, when once you feel the least disturbance, you stop and ask of your inner self, “What is the cause of this?” then you do get the real answer and the whole thing becomes quite clear. Do not try to give a material excuse when you feel a little depression or a slight uneasiness. When you stop and look about for the reason, be absolutely straight and sincere. At first your mind will construct a very plausible and beautiful explanation. Do not accept it, but look beyond and ask, “What is it that is behind this movement? Why am I doing this?” Finally you will discover, hidden in a corner, the little ripple — a slight wrong turn or twist in your attitude that is causing the trouble or disturbance. One of the commonest forms of ambition is the idea of service to humanity. All attachment to such service or work is a sign of personal ambition. The Guru who believes that he has a great truth to teach to humanity and who wants many disciples and who feels uncomfortable when the disciples go away or who seizes on anybody that comes and tries to make him a disciple, is evidently following nothing but his ambition. You must be able, if you are ready to follow the divine order, to take up whatever work you are given, even a stupendous work, and leave it the next day with the same quietness with which you took it up and not feel that the responsibility is yours. There should be no attachment — to any object or any mode of life. You must be absolutely free. If you want to have the true yogic attitude, you must be able to accept everything that comes from the Divine and let it go easily and without regret. The attitude of the ascetic who says, “I want nothing” and the attitude of the man of the world who says, “I want this thing” are the same. The one may be as much attached to his renunciation as the other to his possession. You must accept all things — and only those things — that come from the Divine. Because things can come from concealed desires. The desires work in the subconscious and bring things to you which, although you may not recognise them as such, nevertheless do not come from the Divine but from disguised desires. You can easily know when a thing comes from the Divine. You feel free, you are at ease, you are in peace. But when something presents itself to you and you jump at it and cry out, “Oh, at last I have it”, then you can know for certain that it does not come from the Divine. Equanimity is the essential condition of union and communion with the Divine. (Questions & Answers 1929-1931) Equanimity as the foundation of Integral Yoga The ordinary life undulates between inspired action, drudgery, boredom and leisure. Our response to the events of the day is shaped by our memory of the past. Abuse, poverty, illness and betrayal leave their www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 mark on our consciousness making us polarized, disheartened, bitter or hard-charging. To uplift the abased life, the first goal of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is the practice and perfection of equanimity (Samata in the words of the Gita) in every aspect of life. Instead of renouncing everything and retiring to some cave/ashram/monastery to meditate, the secret is to live in society and absorb the impacts without inducing stress. To be equal in all circumstances is the first step in perfection because it disengages the Spirit (Purusha) from the material consciousness (Prakriti). It is from the poise of equanimity that we rise into true freedom. The rest of this article covers various aspects of equanimity. It is not mere quiescence and indifference, not a withdrawal from experience, but a superiority to the present reactions of the mind and life. It is the spiritual way of replying to life or rather of embracing it and compelling it to become a perfect form of action of the self and spirit. It is the first secret of the soul’s mastery of existence. (Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga – II: The Action of Equality) Passive Equanimity True equanimity is attained only after memory of the past is purged, and this occurs when the power of greater consciousness has descended into the body and completely cleansed the subconscient. After that, all action becomes spontaneous and driven by an inner guide, attuned to the Divine Will. In complete consciousness, stress does not exist and psychological aging ceases. Until this transformation occurs, one has to undergo a protracted daily ordeal, where one applies the power and calmness gained during meditation to steadily endure the shocks of life. The intermediate stage of equanimity is necessarily forced and deliberate rather than limpid and instinctive. In the initial stages, one aspires for Passive Equanimity and in this step, there are three approaches which can be delineated, predicated on the temperament of the spiritual aspirant. 1. Karma: For the dynamic person of action, the method of endurance which reposes on the power of will is recommended. Instead of shrinking in revulsion from unpleasantness, one must suffer and bear with perseverance and fortitude. Similarly, one must become equal to pleasant reactions and not get carried away by them in exhilaration. 2. Jnana: For the predominantly intellectual person, the method of indifference which reposes on the power of discrimination is recommended. It is an attitude which regards the passions of the mind as born of illusion of the outer mentality, partial truths which need to be illumined with the greater power of the Divine Mind. 3. Bhakti: For those of devotional nature, the method of submission to the Divine Will is recommended which reposes on the power of Love. This is founded on an unegoistic acceptance (not resignation or apathy) of the workings of manifestation and complete surrender to the Divine. This also loosens the knot of the ego like the other two approaches. We discuss next how the practice of equanimity has to permeate all three levels of the being (mental, vital, physical) and cover all external aspects of life. Mental Equanimity The attachment to one’s intellectual judgements, beliefs and imaginations, the inane repetitions of the habitual mind, and the insistences of the dynamic mind must be replaced by the impartiality of an equal vision. One must function as the witness, standing back from thoughts, accepting all ideas, tracing their source, relating them to each other and seing them in their proper perspective. One must be able to watch the space between two thoughts. Vital Equanimity www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 The turmoil of the emotional being has to be decreased by steadying the breath and increasing the interval between the impulse and the response. As the Mother Mirra Alfassa pointed out, Someone comes and insults you or says unpleasant things to you; and if you begin to vibrate in unison with this anger or this ill-will, you feel quite weak and powerless and usually you make a fool of yourself. But if you manage to keep within yourself, especially in your head, a complete immobility which refuses to receive these vibrations, then at the same time you feel a great strength, and the other person cannot disturb you. If you remain very quiet, even physically, and when violence is directed at you, you are able to remain very quiet, very silent, very still, well, that has a power not only over you but over the other person also. If you don’t have all these vibrations of inner response, if you can remain absolutely immobile within yourself, everywhere, this has an almost immediate effect upon the other person. (The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 22 February 1956) Physical Equanimity In the words of Nolini, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo, Equality of the external being means good health, a solid body, controlled nerves – when you are not shaken by the least shock, when you are calm, quiet, poised, balanced. In that condition you can receive into you a great force in yourself from above (or, from the environing energy around you) and yet not get upset. If one of you at any time had received some such force, he must have known by experience that without a perfectly sound physical health, one could not contain or hold it. You cannot remain still, you are restless, you move about, talk, cry, weep, jump or dance, just to throw out the energy you are unable to hold. You scatter about what it is not possible for you to gather and assimilate. In order to be able to gather and assimilate the force, the body and the nerves must be quiet and strong. Equanimity towards People Our reactions to people are driven by personal feelings. We might (subtly) differentiate between people who are old and young, attractive and unappealing, rich and poor, intelligent and dull, etc. One must become conscious of such biases and begin to set them aside. As Sri Aurobindo said, “The first result of the equal mind and spirit is to bring about an increasing charity and inner toleration of all persons, ideas, views, actions, because it is seen that God is in all beings and each acts according to his nature and its present formulations. When there is the positive equal delight, this deepens to a sympathetic understanding and in the end an equal universal love“. (The Synthesis of Yoga – II: The Action of Equality) At times, one may also have to admonish someone if the need arises but even that is done with the understanding that the frontal personality is transient, that its faults are temporary, while the soul behind that personality is Divine. Equanimity towards Events The inner elations or depressions produced by turbulence of outer events has to cease. The darkness of winter should not make one depressed and radiant sun of the spring is no reason for ebullience. One must strive to attain the tranquility described in verse 2:69 of the Gita: “That which is day to the many becomes night for the sage; that which is night to the many becomes day for the sage” (see more here). A similar attitude must be applied to political upheavals and natural disasters. One must act as required under trying circumstances but always look beyond these disturbances and realize that such turbulence is part and parcel of human life and will persist even beyond one’s lifetime. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 What is not Equanimity It is important at this point to outline what is not equanimity. At times, one may also observe within oneself affectations of equanimity which have to be rejected. These include • an equality of disappointed resignation or apathy. (e.g. “I am going to fail anyway so let me stay out of it”) • an equality of pride. (e.g. “whatever happens, I am still great”) • an equality of hardness and indifference. (e.g. “I dont care. Do whatever you want.”) Precise and perpetual self-observation is obligatory to not get carried away by such facades. Active equanimity This protracted and patient ordeal brings its fruits in due time, when the perfection of Passive Equanimity and deepening calm of meditation opens into the stage of Active Equanimity. In this phase, there is an inner joy of the soul is awakened and the senses become indifferent to pleasure and pain. Life begins to feel lighter and worth living, while the boredom and drudgery which characterized life so far seem to recede. On becomes, as the Gita says, an Atmarati (one who delights in the joy of the Soul). Action in the world is increasingly founded on an feeling of inner unity with all beings and all contact with life becomes a meeting of the soul with the Divine itself. As Sri Aurobindo points out, “Complete equality takes long to establish and it is dependent on three things – the soul’s self-giving to the Divine by an inner surrender, the descent of the spiritual calm and peace from above and the steady, long and persistent rejection of all egoistic, rajasic and other feelings that contradict equality“. (Letters on Yoga – II: The Foundation of Sadhana – IV) (https://auromere.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/equanimity-as-the-foundation-of-integral-yoga/) June 2022 Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse 5 June 2022: Savitri Reading Circle, Book Seven: Canto Five, Pg. 528 onwards, “The Finding of the Soul” – The Psychic Being in Savitri This evening, we started our Savitri appreciation from pg. 530 and completed Canto 5 by the end of the session. It was conducted by Prabhu Deva, Venkatesh Rao, being away. It was a lively session and everyone got a chance to read the lines of Savitri. After each reading, we paused to share our comments before the next set of lines were taken up. Salient points were highlighted. This experience was further reinforced by reading reference notes and comments from M.P. Pandit. All of us delved into the richness of the lines. Here are a few lines read during the session: An inner law of beauty shapes our lives; Our words become the natural speech of Truth, Each thought is a ripple on a sea of Light. Then sin and virtue leave the cosmic lists; They struggle no more in our delivered hearts: Our acts chime with God’s simple natural good Or serve the rule of a supernal Right. 12 June 2022: Reading on Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 This evening, we took up two paragraphs from pgs. 144-146, from The Yoga of Divine Works, Synthesis of Yoga. To get a strong foundation of the yoga, it is necessary to begin a practice of self-observation and self-analysis where all the threads of consciousness that tie us to the world are one by one observed, and followed to their source to see where they arise. By doing this steadily and patiently, it becomes possible to have a true understanding of our nature and a growing sense of a silent, pure witness behind the surface nature. This witness, as it becomes stronger, can sanction or refuse the many different movements of thoughts, feelings and reactions so that more and more the adhar becomes a true and ready vessel for the Yoga-Shakti. The Master of the yoga then can to do His work in us and through us so that we become a true instrument of the Divine. 19 June 2022: ‘The Destiny of the Individual’ – Chapter 5, Sri Aurobindo’s Life Divine We meditated upon Life Divine Chapter V - The Destiny of the Individual. This chapter starts with Verses 11 and 14 of Isha Upanishad which essentially says \"By the Ignorance they cross beyond Death and by the Knowledge enjoy Immortality .... By the Non-Birth they cross beyond Death and by the Birth enjoy Immortality.\" A brief description of the structure of the entire Isha Upanishad was first discussed from the traditional angle. Thereafter we deliberated upon the inner meaning of the terms, \"Ignorance(Avidya)\", \"Knowledge(Vidya)\", \"Non-Birth(Asambudhi)\" and \"Birth (Sambudhi)\" in the light of Sri Aurobindo's work on ‘The Life Divine’. 26 June 2022: The Inner Journey – Readings and Reflections The passage selected for this session was one by Sri Aurobindo on the psychic being. It reads: When the psychic being comes in front, there is an automatic perception of the true and untrue, the divine and the undivine, the spiritual right and wrong of things, and the false vital and mental movements and attacks are immediately exposed and fall away and can do nothing. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga, vol.24, The Triple Transformation, p.24. As connectivity was disrupted, members were requested to contemplate on the passage and share their reflections in the next session. - Rakesh, Ramanathan, Jayanthy 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 www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 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. “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 www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 10 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 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: • 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: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11 Equanimity

Equanimity Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. July 2022 “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.” - Jayalakshmi, Krishnamurthy, Jayanthy PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2022 DATE TIME DETAILS 3 Jul 2022 8 AM Monthly Morning Walk * Sunday 6 PM Savitri Circle by Venkatesh Rao 10 Jul 2022 6 PM Thematic Study Circle by Rakesh: Sunday The Synthesis of Yoga 7 PM Youth Programme 17 Jul 2022 5 PM Secret of the Veda by Krishnamurthy and Jared Sunday 6 PM Mother’s Questions and Answers by Shailaja 24 Jul 2022 6 PM Readings and Reflections: The Inner Journey by Jayanthy Sunday 31 Jul 2022 6 PM Bases of Yoga by Jared Quek Sunday *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 12 Equanimity