All
things shall change in God's transfiguring hour
The spiritual journey of Man has a revolutionary and evolutionary turning since
Sri Aurobindo. He and Mira Alfassa, known as The Mother, have given to
Spirituality a totally new turn and meaning, a completely new purpose and
value.
A true spirituality does not any more mean fleeing from the world and life. We
need not go to the forest, forsaking the social life and ‘renouncing’
everything, and become a recluse or a monk or a sannyāsin, after you attain the
fiftieth year of your life and then strive to attain nirvāna or moksha and be
free from the cycle of birth and rebirth for ever. Thereby by doing so, we
allow the world and creation to go on, as it is going on now, in spite of the
attainment of nirvāna or moksha by several yogis, seekers, saints. The world
continues to remain as it was, in ignorance and darkness, in suffering and
struggle and death. After nirvāna or moksha, we still allow the Divine, the
Supreme, to incarnate in human form several times, but we will regard the
coming back as a bondage of ignorance.
As the principle of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the Divine, is Truth, then
this Creation, which is but a Manifestation of the Divine, cannot be false.
When we are a part of the Manifestation, there is no reason why should we
withdraw ourselves from the Manifestation.
Here on earth, the Divine is manifesting Himself — through Evolution — from
Matter to Mind, and then onwards towards the supramental race in a supramental
world. This is Evolution. As Mind has evolved and is evolving, the principle of
Supermind will also descend on earth and be evolved.
Evolution aims at ultimately manifesting That which is the Source of this
Manifestation, the Supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (in Sanskrit and other
Indian languages, Sat-Chit-Ananda or Sachchidananda), the Divine. This
principle of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is involved in Matter. That has
become Matter. What is involved in Matter, is being evolved.
The aim of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga is not the attainment of nirvāna or moksha, not
a freedom from the world and the cycles of birth and rebirth. The aim is not
spiritual selfishness. The aim is not to say that others may continue to
suffering, but we will leave this whirlpool.
However, we know that the mankind, along with this earth, is at present in a
great turmoil and chaos and disharmony. There is unrest, struggle, warfare and
violence everywhere.
Yet, man has the inborn capacity to conquer and master and transform all his
imperfections and all darkness and ignorance around him, to grow into a
creative, constructive, perfect and divinized higher being. The human society
may also grow accordingly, conquering all darkness within and without,
surpassing all racial, religious, linguistic, political and other artificial
barriers, divisions and differences.
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother do not speak of the Realisation of the Divine, of
the Soul or the Psychic being, but also of an integral transformation of the
entire human personality — his mind, and life and body, also of his ascent to
the several planes of the Superconscient and to the Supermind.
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother aims at the total transformation of the human
existence and the world. They want to change the world, the human lot. They
know the bright and joyous future that the Divine has designed for this earth.
They told us : don’t leave this world, change this; don’t give up yourself,
transform yourself.
This is the Truth. We must participate in this Truth. We must cooperate with
the Divine. We must march onwards, by transforming ourselves, towards becoming
the supramental race in a supramental world. That is the only Way now left for
us, for the human beings.
Sri Aurobindo has said that the time has come when man must surpass himself.
Man is not perfect. He is not complete. But he has the aspiration and dream for
attaining perfection and completeness.
Out of Man, the Superman shall manifest. Man has to become the basis for the
advent of the Superman. He has to become the Superman. The purpose of the
appearance of man must now be fulfilled. Man’s surpassing himself will do that.
Man has to collaborate with the new Evolution, or the evolutionary forces will
ignore him and go beyond him and find out its own means.
If we do not accept the Truth, if we do not try to change ourselves and the
World, if we choose to continue with Old World
of ignorance and darkness, of suffering and struggle and death, then result of
our choice will be the Abyss.
The Mother has told us :
Men, countries, continents!
The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.
OOOO
This march onwards towards the Supramental Manifestation on earth is not only
an Idea or Ideal only. This is not an abstract ‘spiritual’ teaching. It is a
practical Truth, a practical necessity.
The Ascent to Supermind and the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness on
earth makes the Evolution from Man to Superman possible.
Sri Aurobindo said:
“The supramental change is the thing decreed and inevitable in the evolution of
the earth-consciousness; for its upward ascent is not ended and mind is not its
last summit. But the change may arrive, take form and endure, there is needed
the call from below with a will to recognise and not deny the Light when it
comes, and there is needed the sanction of the Supreme from above.”
Supermind is out of reach of the common ordinary mind. But when Man reaches the
higher regions of mind, namely the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the
Intuitive Mind, and then the Overmind, as defined by Sri Aurobindo, he can have
the glimpses and the touch of Supermind. It may be very difficult, even appear
to be impossible. But when the Supramental Consciousness is present on earth,
things should be now easier, much easier.
Now the Supermind is actively present on earth. Let me quote the oft-quoted
message of the Mother from Mother’s Agenda Vol.1:
First Supramental Manifestation
(During the common meditation on Wednesday
The 29th February 1956)
This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was present amongst
you. I had the form of a living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was
facing a huge and massive golden door, which separated the world from the
Divine.
As I looked at the door, I knew and willed in a single movement of
consciousness, that ‘the time has come’, and lifting with both hands a mighty
golden hammer I struck one blow on the door and the door was shattered to
pieces.
And then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon
earth in an uninterrupted flow.
The Mother has said in this connection:
The Manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a
living fact, a reality. It is at work here, and one day will come when the most
blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to
recognise it.
OOOO
The Mother had a Dream which is materializing As Auroville.
In Her “The Dream” The Mother has written :
“There should be somewhere upon earth a place … where all human beings of
goodwill, sincere in their aspiration, could live freely as citizens of the
world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of
peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instincts of man would be used
exclusively to conquer the causes of his suffering and misery, to surmount his
weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a
place where the needs of the spirit and the care for progress would get
precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the seeking for
pleasures and material enjoyments….
In brief, it would be a place where the relations among human beings, usually
based almost exclusively upon competition and strife, would be replaced by
relations of emulation for doing better, for collaboration, relations of real
brotherhood.”
Barin Chaki
11-02-2007
Posted
by Barindranath Chaki
at 9:25 AM