Daily Notes and Reflections by Alokda

The atmosphere was solemn but not heavy. There was a lightness and a Light that one always felt in the Master’s Presence. But the solemnness of the occasion was because of the Master’s ‘illness’. The Master had not been well for the last couple of weeks, and now he seemed to be withdrawing, suddenly, as a sun assumes the crimson golden hue of dawn just before setting in the western seas, the Master came back to his full outer awareness and smiled at the grave faces that had gathered around him in the dusk.

The Master broke the silence, or rather enriched it by his sweet and liquid voice that always seemed to come from some far-off world: ‘What makes your faces so grave?’ One among them answered with a rather low voice: ‘your illness Master and the fear we all share that you may leave us.’

There was a pause as if between the destruction and creation of worlds. The Master seemed to have lapsed again. But he came out of his trance soon enough. Slowly, he responded to the disciple’s anxiety:

‘But where am I leaving you? Do you think I am this body?’ The Master pinched his flesh at places while saying so, and continued: ‘None of us are mere physical bodies alone. Only you are not conscious of it whereas I am fully conscious of my deathless Self and the many births before. And the deathless Self is immortal. It does not die.’

The conversation had started. Another continued the thread: ‘you are God, aren’t you?’

The Master paused a while: ‘yes, but it is also true of all of you, only you do not know it.’

The disciple: ‘But you are God in a special sense, an avatar, the Supreme incarnated in a material body. You are not like us struggling from below upwards.’

The Master: ‘yes, but so were Krishna and Christ and Buddha avatar, conscious of their Godhead. Do you think an avatar is not subject to the laws of earth, when he takes up a human body.’

And the disciple: ‘we thought so, an avatar is free from the laws that govern us mortals.’

The Master said with a great force in his words: ‘None of us is a mortal. Bondage is an illusion, Death is an illusion. There is none bound, none dies. Have you forgotten the great injunction of Sri Krishna, “It is only forms that perish, the soul is immortal.” Did he not also say, “There was never a time when I or these kings were not there, nor when they will not”.’

The Master looked at them with a powerful gaze. Then as the glow softened, he continued: ‘Do you think that Sri Krishna, Christ, Buddha are dead and gone? Have I not told you my own encounters with them, especially with Sri Krishna, the eternal friend and lover of all mankind in whose arms of ecstasy I spent days and weeks. How could I if he were no more. In fact, an avatar never leaves the earth. He comes for the earth and stays here as a permanent part of the earth consciousness so that all who rightly strive may be helped by him and arrive.’

The disciples looked puzzled. Of course, they had read all this but somehow seemed to forget it. How foolish of them to believe that the Master could ever leave them. The Master as if read their thoughts: ‘How could I ever leave you. No, I will be present upon earth till the work for which I have come is done. Only you would not see me with your physical senses.’

‘That makes a great difference to us,’ one of them pleadingly complained.

But the Master reassured: ‘But my help will always be available just as ever those who have a subtle vision can even see me.’

‘But your physical presence….’

The Master revealed: ‘Do you think the Divine takes up a physical body only to guide a few handful of people who are near him? He can and does do that even without assuming a physical body. The experience of many devotees and saints testifies this.’

The disciple insisted ‘But still your physical presence makes a great difference.’

The Master looked at them with great compassion: ‘It does serve as a concrete example but one cannot profit by physical nearness alone. The Master is a doorway to help you discover the Divine Master within you. One too often forgets that simply because the Master is physically available and readily accessible. In fact, the help of the Master is not so much by the words he utters and the letters to which he replies for these can be readily misinterpreted. His real help reaches out as a silent but powerful influence to all who are receptive and open. And this help and influence is not dependent upon the physical Presence though men find it easier to open to someone who is concretely visible in flesh and blood. But that is man’s limitation, not the Master’s. He acts without hands and feet, speaks without the tongue and influences us even while he is bodiless. Indeed that is the Master’s mode of action even while he is in the body.’

A little puzzled the one with a logical reasoning asked: ‘Then why does God take up a body at all if He can guide men and the world without taking up a human body? And if He does, why does he seem to suffer and even fall ill and die like ordinary mortals?’

‘Oh that is another matter. It is not about Guidance but about doing something with physical matter or the earth substance. The Divine takes up a human body as a field of action directly upon Matter and the physical conditions of earth. Now also He acts but from behind, through many layers that clothe and conceal Him. Therefore the work upon earth seems so abominably slow, difficult, and painful. But by taking up a physical body, the Divine can bring the very physical substance and earth-nature directly in contact with the Divine Forces from another plane of a higher consciousness. That helps earth and embodied beings progress as a whole, collectively and not just few special chosen men. It makes the earth cover as if in one giant leap of a few decades or centuries what it would otherwise take millenniums to realise.’

‘Oh yes, we can see that; how your coming revolutionized the entire face of the earth. The very atmosphere has changed,’ a disciple observed, but then added, as if with a tinge of doubt: ‘That is why all the more we cannot understand your illness. We have seen and experienced your powerful Presence and its Influence several times ourselves and in the world. To say the least, we have seen you cure such intractable illnesses in others. So why or how could you not cure yourself!’

The Master spoke as if enigmatically: ‘May be I could cure myself but would not. May be I wish to experience all that human beings experience including illness and death so that I can change their law. How could I do it unless I experience it? How can how ca I change the law unless I fully know it? It is easy to pass beyond the law and remain above it, it is also easy enough to superimpose the law of one plane upon another, but it is extremely difficult to change the law of one plane into another.’

The disciples looked quizzically at each other: ‘What does that mean, we do not quite grasp that.’

The Master: ‘It is easy, for example for a yogi to keep his body alive and healthy for a long period by superimposing upon it the vital force, or else, to simply rise above his illness and be free within of all reactions. That is how miracles ordinarily work. But when you want to change the material laws, then it is another thing altogether. In the previous two, you rise above them or else momentarily suspend or hold them in abeyance for whatever period you wish to with a constant superior control. It is like policing. The presence of the police controls the thief so long as they are vigilant but it does not change a thief or criminal. For that you have to enter into the criminal’s mind and consciousness and know it by a kind of identification, of course without losing your own identity. It is a deliberate process. You do this not out of any weakness but out of strength, to understand how they think and operate, what is their origin due to. And all this so as to change them. That is transforming the law.’

‘But won’t that upset the balance,’ one reflectively demurred.

‘It would do so only if the law were such at the origin and fixed for all times. But that is not the case. Earth and physical life has become what it is not because it is radically and incurably false in its origin. Quite the contrary. Its origin, as indeed the origin of all things is Truth and Consciousness and Bliss. But, in the course of time it has become almost its opposite.’ The Master paused, reflectively, as if the whole course of earth’s history stood before him in one panoramic flash.

‘But why did this fall from Glory come out,’ someone steeped in tradition asked seizing upon the pause.

The Master once again turned towards them: ‘Oh! haven’t you read, I have written all that in great detail elsewhere.’ Some of them could notice the touch of gentle irony in the Master’s words, haven’t you read, as if observing human complacency. For these were his way, gentle and subtle yet unfailing in pointing us the road of Light.

He continued: ‘Nevertheless, the fact that everything has issued forth from the Divine and contains His Presence within it, therefore everything is not only potentially Divine but also destined to become more and more so through an evolutionary process. Matter too, despite all its inertness and unconsciousness is divine in its origin and in human beings it has already reached a point wherein it can be divinised. The Divine descends upon earth and takes a physical body to redeem matter and liberate the godhead concealed in it.’

With a flash of intuition one observed: ‘Oh! like that story of Ahalya who becomes stone due to a curse and then turns into a goddess by the grace of Lord Rama’s touch.’

But another ventured to ask: ‘Is that the reason why Divine comes again and again upon earth and takes up a physical body? Is this the second coming spoken of in the great traditions of Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism?’

The Master answered: ‘The second coming is not a religious event. It is not the resurrection of a certain creed or Church or a theology nor is it to save a particular religious group. The second coming is precisely this, — this complete victory of the Divine upon earth, this reign of Truth and Light in this world, the Divine advent in all His Glory and not as He is presently concealed in the thick cloak of a human body. The second coming is about the coming of the Divine in a divinised body, a body befitting the Mighty Presence.’

The disciples were awestruck. How much vast was the Master’s vision and how small and narrow our ignorant beliefs. After a long silence one asked, ‘So you will come again.’

The Master nodded in ascent, and added: ‘Yes in a divinised body. For only such a body can truly fuse and express all the diverse aspects of the One Divine who comes as Krishna, Christ, Buddha and the rest.’

One pleaded: ‘How will we recognise you?’

And the Master said: ‘That is one reason why I must depart. So that you open your inner eyes and find me there. For they who have this inner vision will always find me for they know me as the Supreme Godhead who has assumed this form. For them the form is the door to the worlds of Light and Truth. But those who see the form alone and know Me only by my external personality will try to make a cult and a religion or an intellectual creed and dogma and philosophy out of it. That is what man has always done so far with the Divine. But with the second coming all this will cease, for the Divine will no more be hidden by the form nor will He need the imperfect figures of idea and philosophy or religion to express Himself in this world. The second coming is the great return, the return of the Divine as the revealed and not a concealed sovereign and king upon earth. That will also be the establishment of the Divine Kingdom here, the dream of all religions and the hope of mankind.’

The Master’s words fell silent in the fast gathering night. But a hope stole in the heart of earth and the Light of a New Dawn waited in the Eastern sky for the appropriate hour.

Alok Pandey

A group of young and old had gathered ashore the sea. They had never seen the sea before, only read and heard about it. Soon a discussion followed. One who had neither read nor heard much simply exclaimed at the marvellous sight before him: “vow! What a vast expanse of water. Who can ever measure it?” Another who was well-versed with books on sea rushed into impress by his erudition, “oh, you seem to be quite ignorant. Actually, quite a few have ventured but two among these, truly bravest among them tried to sail across the entire sea. Of these only one returned after ten long years. And of the other, one knows not the fate whether he was drowned or drifted to some friendly or hostile isle”.

Surprised by his knowledge one turned to ask: ”is it true that the sea has many riches in its store?”

“I don’t know exactly what riches the sea has”, replied another eager to join the conversation and contribute his bit as well, “but I have heard through word of mouth that there are some rare jewels in its depths”

“And some dangerous creatures as well”, said another unable to resist, “the kind of which we do not see on land or near the shores”.

And the knowledge able man again: ”oh he is talking of sharks and whales”.
“And mermaids too”, said one who was simple and full of wonder among them. And he added with a solemn religion tone, “And these mermaids can grant you boons of many kinds and pearls and riches if you would pray to them.” A knowledgeable scientist whose scientific books had not mentioned anything about mermaids and boons strongly ridiculed these stories as fiction and imaginations.

Soon the group of men divided into two camps. One was with the scientist and argued against the mermaids and boons. The other was with the simple credulous man who joined him even to pray to the mermaids for these treasures. This religious man had learnt a few incantations from his grandfather written in some sacred text thousands of years old. This grandfather himself who had never seen a mermaid or even the sea and died a penniless man had in turn learnt this formula from his great grand father who in turn from his great grand father and so on and so forth.

While all this was going on, a third group broke away from both and tried to philosophically reason out about the sea and its various possibilities. These again divided into several sects and sub-sects, some argued that the sea had nothing in its depths since they could see nothing, neither whales and sharks nor mermaids and pearls. He felt this speculations was a waste of time. All that the sea has are some fishes and turtles and all that one can know and needs to know is how to ply a boat on the waves and how to cast a net to catch the fish and crabs and prawns. Others ridiculed the shallowness of this group who could see nothing beyond the tip of their nose and immediate utility. Still others simply said “ Lets stop arguing and just enjoy this lovely sight and the beautiful sunrise”. All however agreed on one thing that none knows fully about the sea and none an ever know. Even they doubted if the story of the lone sailor crossing the sea itself was not a hoax. Yet none would venture to find out lest they met the unknown fate of the other sailor. A known insecurity is better than an unknown certainty, they thought.

And as they thus debated and discussed some tired and weary of the stories and philosophy of theories and dogmas of proofs and doubts of arguments and counter-arguments of joy and the wonder and fear of the dangerous waves slept off. The others too followed these to the world of dreams with familiar lands and faces love. Some dreamt of the roaring sea and the storms that sweep the surface. Yet others dreamt of unknown far off isles inhibited by strange and unknown people.

But one youth among them kept awake, Unknown to others he was building a boat whole night. And when the sun rose and there was daybreak once again nothing had changed in the life of these men except for him who was young in spirit. Unseen to the eyes of those left behind on the shore he had sailed off to the delight of danger with faith and courage as his companions. They saw him not again and pondered over his fate. But the youth had gone far into the deeps gathering pearls and delighted playing with storm with the lightning stars as his guide. When the winds blew softly, he conversed with mermaids who informed him to keep clean of the dangerous waters and hostile isles. And as he moved on pressed by a need in his soul, a hope stole through the heart of those left behind. A hope that the storms can be weathered and the rough waves tamed and the great sea conquered.

Alok Pandey

The Master was taking a stroll in the garden. The group of disciples surrounded him like bees around a flower that had turned the Light and Power of the sun into a sweet and strengthening nectar for their thirsty struggling souls.

Feeling the mood of the moment, one among them asked as to how come in this world of beauty there came to dwell evil and suffering. The Master became pensive and took them to a nearby place where the gardener had just thrown some seeds into the ground. Pointing to the soil and the seed below it he asked them why must the seed of this beautiful flower destined to partake of the sun be put underneath the soil into a dark space and breath the waste and the mire and rot on the surface and struggle to reach the top against the heavy resistance of the earth.

‘To throw its roots deep’, said one. ‘To cast off its hard shell’ said another.

The Master smiled and exclaimed ‘That’s the answer to your question. Suffering is like the waste and the mire and Evil like the darkness and the resistance that man’s soul must face so that it can also throw its roots deep into the earth and its surface crust soften in due time. The surface crust is the ego-self, that source of all evil and suffering. When inner being is ready by the pressure of the world forces, when it has cast its roots deep and strong, then the ego-self slowly dissolves and the deeper soul emerges into Light and Freedom. It is delivered out of the womb of darkness and is ready for a new adventure into Light and its climb towards the sun. But if the seed is stripped bare of its hard crust prematurely and exposed too early to the light of the sun and the immense freedom of space then it may simply burn off and be blown away by the strong winds before its roots have steadied it. So also what we call error and evil and suffering are simply necessary intermediary steps and stages in man’s ascending growth towards Light and Freedom.’

‘What then is sin and what then is virtue and good’, enquired another.

The Master observed as he moved from one flowering tree to another: ‘Look at the buds, their petals closed upon each other, their fragrance trapped inside. That is the first stage of the flower. It is as if it was trying to not only feel and hold but also to capture and possess the light it so badly needs and to keep the fragrance to its solitary self that is meant to be its gift to the world. So also with man. Selfishness is the only sin since it induces man to try and appropriate things for its solitary self and give out nothing in return to the world. The result is that it remains dark inside and closed outside. But a time comes when the bud begins to trust the Light that it feels and opens out to it and all that surrounds it in a spontaneous gesture of self-giving. And, lo and behold! – its self-giving is instantly rewarded by the fullness of its bloom and its generous uncalculating gift of fragrance turns into sweet nectar inside. Man is selfish in his early stages of growth but soon he must realise that selfishness is a trap since it prevents him from getting the very thing that he most needs and wants. With this awakening and the pressure of Light and its own secret nature there comes in him the trust and the confidence to open out and reach out and give itself first to the world around it which alone he sees with his half open eyes and then to the sun that it begins to perceive as its eternal source, the secret master of its journey, the fosterer who turns all things to honey within him. Then man becomes a link between the earth and the heaven.’ Then with a mystic pause he added, ‘Selfishness too, that origin of all sin, is a preliminary stage in human growth. This too must pass away as man begins to trust God within and His play around and gives himself freely to both or rather to God and His play in the world.’

The Master sat down quietly on a little rocky promontary in the garden, his gaze as if fixed into infinity, his look encompassing the whole of space in a single glance, his heart one with all things in their eternal essence. And the disciples sat around him wondering whom to admire, the sweet fragrance of the flowers that gave themselves generously to everything around them or like the earth that shared the joy and the struggle and the sorrow of all things giving shelter and place to each thing that must wait for its season to turn ripe and to blossom emerging out of the darkness into the Light, or like the sun that gave itself to the creation and though far and high beyond the reach of earth and its creatures yet was the secret source and support of all. And as they thus contemplated their inner and outer gaze was fixed upon the Master who was to earth and men, at once the flower and the earth and the sun.

Alok Pandey

The Master had the deepest love and compassion for the struggling soul of man upon earth but his compassion was not blinded and he seldom seemed to encourage acts of charity and philanthropy of the kind practiced by rich men. He neither discouraged nor encouraged it. But in general he observed that it had little to do with true spiritual growth and did not want people to confuse one for the other.

On being asked he would simply reply, – “What does humanity needs most, – food and comfort for the body or release from the bondage of Ignorance by the growing Light of his soul?”

When questioned whether a poor man can think of God, he would laugh and say with the ring of experience that it is often the poor whose hearts are more open to God than the rich ones. Too much money was not necessarily a sign of some special Grace. Rather it was often a curse, for it put the man into so many traps and bonds that made it even more difficult to break than if he were less privileged materially.” But he agreed that spirituality had little do with riches or poverty and a rich man as well as a poor one may be deeply spiritual if they have arrived at the inner readiness. Only it made it more difficult for the rich to turn to God.

“So should one discard one’s wealth if it comes in the way of our spiritual progress?”

“How about using it divinely”, the Master would say. “It is easier to discard a difficulty rather than transform it and turn it into an opportunity to serve God’s purpose in the world. If God has given us wealth we should turn it for the good of the world, but not through blind pity but as guided by the Divine Vision.”

“By distributing it to the poor,” asked one unable to get the true import of the Master’s statement.

“No that is the worst way since it would encourage lethargy and stifle the heart and soul of another who receives money as charity. Wealth that is received without any effort often leads to its misuse except in the rare few.” The Master replied.

“So should one build hospitals and schools for free and for the poor?” asked another.

“And increase diseases and the ills that modern education brings with its almost exclusive emphasis on man as a biological entity whose only goal is to survive!” quipped the Master. He went on to add, – “there is no use repeating the past follies blindly. What humanity needs most is a new vision in the mind, a new hope and faith in his heart, a new impulse and will to live for greater aims and deeper goals. Instead of opening hospitals and multiplying diseases why not find out the root cause of human maladies and the master remedy. We need educational institutions that can embody the new Light.”

“But that is a vision,” complained another. “How can I use my wealth to further a vision?” he asked.

“Surely wealth will not give you the new vision for that can only come through personal growth,” the Master responded. “But if you have sympathy for the new vision and one has wealth then it can be put at its service. For to express this new vision upon earth and reach it out to the many who are still blind, you need both, men of vision who can carry it afar and also men of action to organize it. So also you need men of wealth to create new institutions and support old ones that would embody this new Light. That indeed is the best service that one can render for earth through wealth.”

A rich man proud of his philanthropy asked what the Master thought about those rich people who spent a lot of money on charity.

The Master had a hearty laugh and remarked, – “It is often like the case of a robber sharing a little of his loot with those whom he has looted and thereby assuage his guilt and flatter his ego.” But then not wanting to disappoint the man he added, – “Well if a rich man wants to distribute money or open hospitals that is his business and if he has nothing more to give and no other vision to uphold, then let him do that especially if that be his calling. But he should not think that he is doing something very great to solve the problem of humanity or that what he is doing is greater than the poor man is quietly seeking God in his hermitage.”

“But don’t the hermitage and the ashrams also need money? And is it not a waste of life for a young man to spend the prime of his youth doing nothing except seeking God and live on the wealth of others when he could earn that wealth for himself and be independent,” asked the rich man again unwilling to give up.
“And what makes you feel that the young man seeking God is doing nothing. Try doing it and you will understand that it is far more difficult to seek God than to earn bagfuls of money.” The Master calmly replied.

The rich man would not concede, – “But why should others support his quest, to whose benefit when he could easily earn.”

The Master became serious to see the degree of human resistance to Light. He responded: “The young man seeking God is doing a great benefit to the society. Firstly, he is earning spiritual wealth that the others are not ready to earn. Once he earns it he to shares this inner wealth with others as the great Masters and their erstwhile disciples do. In fact their gift is much more than the money that you give for their needs. You look after their physical needs while they look after your spiritual needs. So who is the gainer?”

“But such disciples and such Masters are few ad far between, what about the others. Are they not parasites upon society,” he argued one last time.

“On the contrary even the failures in the spiritual path do a service to mankind for they at least keep the fire of the soul alive by their sheer effort. And when even one succeeds he makes it easier for many others to follow. Even if he does not speak about it his mere presence brings the earth in contact with forces of Harmony and Peace and Light. He is like a silent dynamo that energises the earth and rejuvenates its sick body by digging out from our nature’s deeps the streams that sooth and heal man’s mind and heart and soul. They are like beacon Lights if not Lighthouses for man to follow on the dangerous roads of destiny to the great discovery that awaits us all one day. The seeker of Light is the spearhead in this eternal collective quest of man who makes the way for others to follow and even if he falls he becomes a brick to bridge the way towards the future. Do you then still feel with the superficial thinkers that the spiritual man is simply a do-nothing or is it simply that his great contribution goes unnoticed and he cares little for it either.” The words of the Master fell upon listening ears and the earth suddenly woke up to fresh and sublime memories that stirred in its silent deeps, memories of spiritual heroes and martyrs whose life was a burning example and without whom this world would long have sunk to perdition or gone to blazes.

The Master had trod many a ways. So a disciple asked him once as to how many spiritual paths were there?

“As many as there are human beings” replied the Master rather laconically, and then added after a pause, “there are as many paths as there are aspiring souls and yet in reality there is only one path.”

“And which path is that?” asked one who had a special liking for a particular way hoping to get approval of his methods.

But the Master responded rather quizzically, – “well, it is the path that is no path!”

Seeing the puzzled look on the faces of the disciples he explained by taking them to the sea shore where the sun was just beginning to rise and its first reflections fell upon the waters. A small section of the sea was lit up by the sun as its rays fell upon it. He asked one of them if he saw a path of light over the waters? “Yes, of course, right in front of me.” The eager disciple noted.
Bidding him to stay there, the Master took another a few steps further and asked if he also saw a path of light upon the sea in front of him.

“Yes of course, it is there right in front,” said the second. And so on and so forth as they moved ahead each one noted a path of light upon the sea right in front irrespective of how much ever far they went.

“There you are,” said the Master, “see how the one path becomes the many depending upon the angle of your vision, the starting point of your journey, the route you take and the goal you set in front of you. In fact there is only one path and that is the universal path of the sun through whose help we climb to the Light and Force that governs the world. It is the sunlit path. But men are not yet wide and their vision too narrow, so they break the path into several streams and oppose it to each other.”

Alok Pandey

“Master, what is truth?” asked a disciple who for years had been struggling to understand this.

As was his method of instruction, the Master pointed towards a glass of water that was lying on the table and asked of the disciple, “What is that?”

“The water of course!” replied the disciple, somewhat  surprised at the suddenness and the simplicity of the question, but wondering what depth lay behind this simplicity that the Master would disclose.

“And what is water? Can someone tell me that?” The Master seemingly inquired.

One went on to describe its properties, its colour, taste, smell etc.

And the Master…”But that is only what your senses perceive or report to you. That tells us about how human beings experience contact with water. So it is a relative truth and not the reality of water.”

Another ventured who seemed like a scientist: “well, scientists have analysed the structure of water molecules and it is made up of a certain combination of hydrogen and oxygen atoms.” He confidently spoke.

The Master smiled and asked him: “That is only its structure as you perceive it through your mathematical models. It tells us what constitutes the material aspect of water. But this does not tell us why this combination has certain properties and not others. It still does not explain about the truth of water.”

The scientist nodded in approval and added: “But this is as far as science has gone and perhaps can go.”

“But not art and aesthetics, not the poet and the mystic.” The Master observed turning to the rest of his disciples.

One spoke, an artist and a poet perhaps: ”Well, water is the giver of life because it is itself a symbol of life, ever flowing, ever moving, ever changing its course though ever the same in its depths.”

The Master seemed happy with this answer, but turned to a mystic who was quite indrawn as if in a silent contemplation. Gathering himself outward, the mystic spoke: “It is a symbol of our mind that reflects the Self. If it is still, it reflects the inner truth; if it is moving and restless, it distorts it.”

And another, who had developed the occult vision responded: “Water is Consciousness limiting itself in certain form and functions. It is the gross representation of a subtle reality. The force of consciousness that makes things flow is the inner truth of water.”

The Master smiled and even as the disciples were wondering at the many ways of looking at, perceiving and understanding water, he spoke with the authority of someone who knows something because he has made it: ”All these are so many facets of the reality of water, depth upon depth, each complementing the other. Yet, even if we were to sum up all these things we would still miss out the essential as well as the total truth of water. And that cannot be described in words but known only through an experience of identifying with it.”

The Master fell silent and the disciples fell into a contemplative mood reflecting upon the meaning of those strange but powerful words. And as their meditation grew deeper and profound, one began to enter deeper and deeper into the truth of what is known and recognised as water. He entered past the truth of the senses. He entered deeper and went past the truth of the atomic void and its mysterious magic that lends shape and form to apparent nothingness. Further he pressed and saw the world of symbol figures and the flow of energy and all nature through the shape and form of water. He went on till he met the very being of water appear before him as the godhead who stands behind the flux and flow of the vast current of life. For a while he felt that this was the last bedrock, the inner foundation of water. But prompted by an inner something he concentrated till his whole being became one with the great godhead of his vision. And he felt himself flow everywhere and become the movement of the cosmic whorl. In the being of water, he saw all other beings grow one in unity. He saw the Light of the stars and the dust of the planets, he saw the splendour of the sun and the heat and fire that built the worlds. He saw the winds raising the dead to life and again contracting them till they collapse and die. And he saw behind these godheads and their wonderful artistry, the work of a great cosmic Intelligence weaving the dance of creation. He slipped past the world of forms as if carried by some giant wave of bliss. And past that vast stupendous dance of creation, at its center and core, he beheld the deathless One from whom all emerges and issues forth as if from an unseen womb, by whom all sustains as if by a fixed unalterable law, to whom all returns undone as if by a magician’s skill. Rapt in his vision and full of an unspeakable joy, he got up and exclaimed; “The truth of water as indeed the truth of everything else is a wonder wisdom, a knowledge and power ineffable, an infinite delight.”.

The Master smiled and spoke not, neither affirming nor negating. But the disciple understood through an inner contact. And others wondered and tried to fathom the meaning of the disciple’s words and still more of the Master’s rich and pregnant Silence. 

Alok Pandey 

There is sometimes a tendency to draw all kinds of conclusions about the life and works of the Master and the Mother based on what they have written. At other times one draws conclusions based on what one has seen or experienced in one’s personal life with or without physical contact with Them. One must, however, remember that however much one may have read, understood or known it is impossible to fathom the heart of the supreme Mystery that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are. What They have revealed is surely not even a fraction of what they knew and what they have withheld. In a sense, it is true of any spiritual scripture such as the Gita, for instance. The Scripture is a guide but the Master is the incarnate Wisdom and even beyond. Since Wisdom is but one aspect of the Supreme, there are also many other, in fact, infinite aspects. There is most importantly Love whose single touch is far more powerful than hours of reading of scriptures and even reflections and deliberations.

Even if all the scriptures and all the truths that have been expressed so far about the Divine and will yet be spoken were to be kept together on one scale and the Divine Master, the embodied Divine, the scales would completely tilt on the side of the Master. It is perhaps this quality of the Master that he was called as a Guru, which means two things. One is that it indicates the one who takes us from darkness towards the Light. But the other meaning is equally significant, perhaps even more so. The word also means ‘heavy’. He is heavy with Wisdom, with Strength, with spiritual Power, with compassion, with Grace and Love. An ideal disciple or a seeker after Knowledge is therefore always eager to know not just what the word means but also what is hidden behind it and even more what has never been said or uttered by the Master. He receives not only the Word but also the Silence pregnant with infinity.

It is with this background that we shall now turn to some of the works of Sri Aurobindo knowing the inherent limitations of the human mind but also knowing the infinite Grace of the Divine Mother that can make the dumb speak and the deaf to hear and understand.

Let us close or rather begin with an invocation to Her:

“But thought nor word can seize eternal Truth:
The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun.
In our thinking’s close and narrow lamp-lit house
The vanity of our shut mortal mind
Dreams that the chains of thought have made her ours;
But only we play with our own brilliant bonds;
Tying her down, it is ourselves we tie.
In our hypnosis by one luminous point
We see not what small figure of her we hold;
We feel not her inspiring boundlessness,
We share not her immortal liberty.
Thus is it even with the seer and sage;
For still the human limits the divine:
Out of our thoughts we must leap up to sight,
Breathe her divine illimitable air,
Her simple vast supremacy confess,
Dare to surrender to her absolute.
Then the Unmanifest reflects his form
In the still mind as in a living glass;
The timeless Ray descends into our hearts
And we are rapt into eternity.
For Truth is wider, greater than her forms.
A thousand icons they have made of her
And find her in the idols they adore;
But she remains herself and infinite.”
[Savitri:276]

We must have a synthetic understanding with as total a vision as possible of their complete vision and yet be plastic enough to admit that all that we understand today is nothing compared to what we will understand tomorrow and the day after. This wideness and plasticity is most needed when we deal with their writings that cover every aspect of life from every angle of vision without losing, even for a moment, the total picture. It is as if a Master-artist was filling a vast canvas with a meticulous eye on each detail but all the time keeping the full picture and every other detail in it constantly in his universal mind. Everything is there but in its just place and right proportion. If we take the word or the sentence out of this totality and put it as an exclusive truth then it turns into a falsehood by such misplacement. A certain understanding and formulation may have been needed for us at a certain point of time and a certain stage of development but if we do not constantly enlarge our vision and scope then this understanding begins to get petrified and turns the high spiritual truths contained within a body of words into a fixed and narrow formula or a dogmatic religion. Or worse still by repeating it too often, especially without an effort to live it, we turn the living body of Truth into a dead and sterile corpse whose carcass we carry as Shiva carrying Sati on his shoulders until Vishnu breaks the dead body into pieces so that Sati may be reborn as Parvati, Sati must pass through the flames of sacrifice to be thus reborn. So too, the word must pass through the flames of our inner aspiration to reveal its inmost truth.

When we thus make an effort we shall ourselves see how Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s Works are arranged in a hierarchical manner. There is a context to everything, a context at once inner and outer; and a purpose, a purpose that goes beyond mere understanding and living. It is to lead us to the heart of Love that the Divine Incarnate embodies. Each of Sri Aurobindo’s Works is a step of the Infinite Shakti that leads us closer and closer to Her and it is only when we have found Her that the real truth behind the luminous words is revealed to us by Her Grace. It is Her Grace that leads us to the vast and luminous heart of the Lord where the word stands self-revealed. This, after all, is the real, if not the only, purpose of his words, – to take us closer to the Divine and His workings in creation and all these countless revelations to lead us to Her Feet where knowledge rests in a blissful Silence. This is the grand revelation towards which the all-powerful Word of the Avatar leads us.

Indeed it is only to the degree that we grow close to Her that we can truly understand. Words of Sri Aurobindo are like illuminated stairs that lead us towards Her. Of course the world experiences are also a staircase that takes us to Her but it is a dark and dangerous staircase. The ascension through the Word is swifter and safer provided we read it with the fire of aspiration to grow closer to the Divine. But if we get lost in mere outer meanings and pedagogy and analysis of the structure and the sentence then we shall be like the man who kept staring and appreciating a mountain from the foothills but never really tasted the bliss of rising into the skies which is where the mountains were meant to lead him. The more we ascend, the better we understand the mountain, in its totality and its specific details. The same is true of Sri Aurobindo’s books. The more we read about a given subject from different works of his, the better we understand the many-sided and all-encompassing vision contained within them. The more we put into practice what we read, the more we grow closer to the intrinsic sense of the Word rather than its outer meaning. The more we let the power within the Words penetrate deeper into the different layers of our consciousness, the more they do the work of illumining and awakening different parts of our being to the greater Truth-Light. Sound and sense is our mind’s contact with the Word. The soul however opens out to the state of consciousness contained within it and grows by this strengthening wine ‘born from the presses of Light’.

The Mother reminds us:
“There is a world of ideas without form and it is there that you must enter if you want to seize what is behind the words. So long as you have to draw your understanding from the forms of words, you are likely to fall into much confusion about the true sense; but if in a silence of your mind you can rise into the world from which ideas descend to take form, at once the real understanding comes. If you are to be sure of understanding one another, you must be able to understand in silence. There is a condition in which your minds are so well attuned and harmonised together that one perceives the thought of the other without any necessity of words. But if there is not this attunement, there will always be some deformation of your meaning, because to what you speak the other mind supplies its own significance. I use a word in a certain sense or shade of its sense; you are accustomed to put into it another sense or shade. Then, evidently, you will understand, not my exact meaning in it, but what the word means to you. This is true not of speech only, but of reading also. If you want to understand a book with a deep teaching in it, you must be able to read it in the mind’s silence; you must wait and let the expression go deep inside you into the region where words are no more and from there come slowly back to your exterior consciousness and its surface understanding. But if you let the words jump at your external mind and try to adapt and adjust the two, you will have entirely missed their real sense and power. There can be no perfect understanding unless you are in union with the unexpressed mind that is behind the centre of expression.” [CWM 3:64–65]

Herein comes the third and most important major difficulty when we turn to the word of any scripture. It is this that very often we bind ourselves to the letter and not the spirit, the outer sense rather than the deeper inner meaning, the mental understanding rather than the truth being revealed to us. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo repeatedly caution us not to turn their luminous writings meant to awaken and inspire rather than instruct and systematize, into fixed systems of thought or rigid dogmas of life. Worse still to use them as means to justify our own weaknesses (given the vastness of their writings) while pointing figures at others. Such a misuse of their words would be the proverbial ‘devil quoting the scriptures’. The word is a means of ascension but not the final culmination of yoga. If born out of the yog agni  of tapasya as indeed all words of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are, it can purify us, uplift us, refine us but the final act of entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord is effected by the free surrender of all that we are and do and understand. The powerful Word can carry us to the abode of the Lord on wings of fire like the Garuda, but to enter the shrine of Truth where sleeps the Great Being in the heart of Time and its infinite unfolding afloat the great ocean of infinite Knowledge, we must step out of the vehicle and step inside the house of the Lord bare feet and humble with faith as the only lamp of Light. There the Word ceases and understanding fails, a holy darkness wraps us in its sacred shroud and passing through the mystical gates of the Unknown we step into Light and Freedom and Bliss and Truth. What is of greater importance than mere reading and intellectualizing is to meditate on the living truths contained in the words with a will to live it.

“A concentration which culminates in a living realisation and the constant sense of the presence of the One in ourselves and in all of which we are aware, is what we mean in Yoga by knowledge and the effort after knowledge. It is not enough to devote ourselves by the reading of Scriptures or by the stress of philosophic reasoning to an intellectual understanding of the Divine; for at the end of our long mental labour we might know all that has been said of the Eternal, possess all that can be thought about the Infinite and yet we might not know him at all. This intellectual preparation can indeed be the first stage in a powerful Yoga, but it is not indispensable: it is not a step which all need or can be called upon to take. Yoga would be impossible, except for a very few, if the intellectual figure of knowledge arrived at by the speculative or meditative Reason were its indispensable condition or a binding preliminary. All that the Light from above asks of us that it may begin its work is a call from the soul and a sufficient point of support in the mind.” [CWSA 23: 55 – 56]

It means that we should be careful of limiting the Divine by our own understanding of His too luminous Words! Both the Mother and Sri Aurobindo have often cautioned us about this tendency to quote their words and worse still think that our own understanding is the one true understanding of it. The Mother clearly reminds us:       

“Men find a book or a teaching very wonderful and often you hear them say, “That is exactly what I myself feel and know, but I could not bring it out or express it as well as it is expressed here.” When men come across a book of true knowledge, each finds himself there, and at every new reading he discovers things that he did not see in it at first; it opens to him each time a new field of knowledge that had till then escaped him in it. But that is because it reaches layers of knowledge that were waiting for expression in the subconscious in him; the expression has now been given by somebody else and much better than he could himself have done it. But, once expressed, he immediately recognises it and feels that it is the truth. The knowledge that seems to come to you from outside is only an occasion for bringing out the knowledge that is within you. The experience of misrepresentation of something we have said is a very common one and it has a similar source. We say something that is quite clear, but the way in which it is understood is stupefying! Each sees in it something else than what was intended or even puts into it something that is quite the contrary of its sense. If you want to understand truly and avoid this kind of error, you must go behind the sound and movement of the words and learn to listen in silence. If you listen in silence, you will hear rightly and understand rightly; but so long as there is something moving about and making a noise in your head, you will understand only what is moving in your head and not what is told you.” [CWM 3: 51 – 52]