Daily Offerings from Alokda

In an autobiographical poem, Sri Aurobindo reveals the deeper truth behind his own writings:

Seer deep-hearted

Seer deep-hearted, divine king of the secrecies,
Occult fountain of love sprung from the heart of God,
Ways thou knewest no feet ever in Time had trod.
Words leaped flashing, the flame-billows of wisdom’s seas.
Vast thy soul was a tide washing the coasts of heaven.
Thoughts broke burning and bare crossing the human night,
White star-scripts of the gods born from the book of Light
Page by page to the dim children of earth were given.
[CWSA 1: 655]

This very much applies to the words of Sri Aurobindo. They are mantric in nature and their action is not confined to the limits of our understanding. In fact, our human understanding is a double-edged sword. It can clarify the inner sense of the word if the mind is quiet and receptive to the one who has released the word-power. Or it may, indeed very often in normal human life, obfuscate the understanding and even create confusion by sieving the words through the net of our preconceived ideas and opinions about things. This is a common problem that many encounter when they read Sri Aurobindo. When the mind is in a dull state because the mental faculties have not been adequately used, it tends to fall asleep. The idea-forces contained in these powerful words then sink into some subconscious terrains of our complex nature and then work their way upwards from there. There is an action but a slow and one and the reader, living in the surfaces of life may not be fully aware of the occult action of the words going on within. But something else within him knows and therefore returns again and again to the writings even though the mind is unable to comprehend what is being revealed through the words. The soul still hears and if it is sufficiently awake, responds.

Or the mind may be restless, disorganized, filled with all sorts of ideas and opinions gathered from here and there and everywhere thinking that by doing so it will grow in wisdom and knowledge. Little do we know that wisdom is as far from knowledge as knowledge is from information! Wisdom is the light that grows within the soul; in that Light we see our self and the world anew. Knowledge, as it is used in the spiritual parlance (and not a scholarly knowledge which counts for little from the spiritual point of view) is the reflection of this growing Light in the inner being of man. This knowledge frees us from ignorance and bondage to fixed ideas and opinions and rigid dogmas and narrow views of existence. On the other hand, Wisdom leads us to Oneness. As to Information, it is merely a raw data, often inadequate data that conceals more than it reveals (leaving apart the falsifying and distorting action of the limited and imperfect human instruments). It cannot lead us to knowledge. Rather when knowledge awakens and an inner sight leaps out of Wisdom’s eyes then alone we can make the right use of information, understand its true import and the distortion lent to it by our own sensory apparatus. That is why the wise have always insisted on first clearing the obstructions in our understanding, purifying the mental instruments, awakening to the Truth within rather than losing ourselves in the maze and haze of the first raw data that is presented to us through the inadequate senses and the mind.

But even when we have carefully overcome these two difficulties we may still be caught and trapped by an idealized mentality whose shadowy brilliance breaks the Sun into multiple rays adding which we cannot constitute the original plenitude of the Light contained in Sri Aurobindo’s words that are vehicles of the Supramental Truth. Of course, still lower down the ladder of and idealized Mind we have our own ideas of what this World and God and Spiritual thought is or should be. These ideas are most often not the product of any patient reflection but merely the gathering of flowers from the garden of Religious scriptures and musings of someone else plucked from the tree of Philosophical thought. These things, useful aids as they may be in their own domain and at a certain stage of our mental evolution, interfere with the deeper spiritual understanding.

Sri Aurobindo reveals the various kinds of impurity that arise in our instruments of understanding itself. 

“The first cause of impurity in the understanding is the intermiscence of desire in the thinking functions, and desire itself is an impurity of the Will involved in the vital and emotional parts of our being. When the vital and emotional desires interfere with the pure will-to-know, the thought-function becomes subservient

to them, pursues ends other than those proper to itself and its perceptions are clogged and deranged. The understanding must lift itself beyond the siege of desire and emotion and, in order that it may have perfect immunity, it must get the vital parts and the emotions themselves purified….

The second cause of impurity in the understanding is the illusion of the senses and the intermiscence of the sense-mind in the thinking functions. No knowledge can be true knowledge which subjects itself to the senses or uses them otherwise than as first indices whose data have constantly to be corrected and overpassed. The beginning of Science is the examination of the truths of the world-force that underlie its apparent workings such as our senses represent them to be; the beginning of philosophy is the examination of the principles of things which the senses mistranslate to us; the beginning of spiritual knowledge is the refusal to accept the limitations of the sense-life or to take the visible and sensible as anything more than phenomenon of the Reality….

A third cause of impurity has its source in the understanding itself and consists in an improper action of the will to know. That will is proper to the understanding, but here again choice and unequal reaching after knowledge clog and distort. They lead to a partiality and attachment which makes the intellect cling to certain ideas and opinions with a more or less obstinate will to ignore the truth in other ideas and opinions, cling to certain fragments of a truth and shy against the admission of other parts which are yet necessary to its fullness, cling to certain predilections of knowledge and repel all knowledge that does not agree with the personal temperament of thought which has been acquired by the past of the thinker. The remedy lies in a perfect equality of the mind, in the cultivation of an entire intellectual rectitude and in the perfection of mental disinterestedness.”    [CWSA 23: 313 – 315]

That is why the Mother advises us to remain quiet and not try to understand the words but simply wait for the understanding to develop in a receptive state:

“To read my books is not difficult because they are written in the simplest language, almost the spoken language. To draw profit from them, it is enough to read with attention and concentration and an attitude of inner goodwill with the desire to receive and to live what is taught.

To read what Sri Aurobindo writes is more difficult because the expression is highly intellectual and the language is much more literary and philosophic. The brain needs a preparation to be able truly to understand and generally a preparation takes time, unless one is specially gifted with an innate intuitive faculty.

In any case, I advise always to read a little at a time, keeping the mind as tranquil as one can, without making an effort to understand, but keeping the head as silent as possible, and letting the force contained in what one reads enter deep within. This force received in the calm and the silence will do its work of light and, if needed, will create in the brain the necessary cells

for the understanding. Thus, when one re-reads the same thing some months later, one perceives that the thought expressed has become much more clear and close, and even sometimes altogether familiar.

It is preferable to read regularly, a little every day, and at a fixed hour if possible; this facilitates the brain-receptivity.”   [CWM 12: 203]

The word has power, even the ordinary word releases into the psychological and occult atmosphere certain energies that have concrete and lasting repercussion upon earth. The physical scientists would perhaps even say that the word contains within it certain vibrations that have an impact and influence on the very structure of matter and its behaviour. The biologists would note the influence of sound upon the cells. The psychologists of course know very well the power of words and its impact upon building (or destroying our lives). For the spiritual seeker, it has always been said that one must be careful about not only what one speaks and writes but also about what one thinks. It not only impacts those around us but also the person who uses speech as an instrument for expressing certain states of consciousness. Surely a spiritually realized person can pass on his influence even in silence, but not all are ready to open and receive this silent influence that is often much more potent than words. Man lives largely in the external consciousness and needs something to touch him there and through that penetrate deeper into his inner layers. The word does this work. A word of Wisdom and Power not only penetrates the inner being but also touches the outer surface layers of life with sound impact and moulds not just the inner but also the outer character of man. This was the secret of the mantra that the ancient Rishis knew so well. The mantra was the highest possibility of speech and by its power could unlock an inner door as well as create a powerful outer atmosphere that would prevent the entry of all sorts of forces and energies that are harmful to the seeker of a higher life. Very simply, the word is a vehicle that contains within it the state of consciousness of the person who has used it as a means of expression. It is a capsule of rejuvenating Light or benumbing poison depending upon how it is used, the person used it and the secret purpose towards which it is directed.

The Mother beautifully explains this in one single word, in response to a query:

Q) You put something in Your words which enables us to see the Truth that words cannot convey. What is it that accompanies Your words?
A) Consciousness.
[CWM 13: 27 December 1967]

And Sri Aurobindo has written the following autobiographical poem:

The Word of the Silence

A bare impersonal hush is now my mind,
A world of sight clear and inimitable,
A volume of silence by a Godhead signed,
A greatness pure of thought, virgin of will.

Once on its pages Ignorance could write
In a scribble of intellect the blind guess of Time
And cast gleam-messages of ephemeral light,
A food for souls that wander on Nature’s rim.

But now I listen to a greater Word
Born from the mute unseen omniscient Ray:
The Voice that only Silence’ear has heard
Leaps missioned from an eternal glory of Day.

All turns from a wideness and unbroken peace
To a tumult of joy in a sea of wide release.

We are all aware of the supramental ship of the Mother carrying different beings of the old creation as a prototype towards the New Creation. The beings are representative and at various levels in their individual evolution. Some are more ready; others ready in some parts but not in other parts; still others need to go back and prepare till they are ready for the great transit. Another interesting thing is that this great transit is a collective one. The ship is carrying different types of people from different parts of the world!

How are these different samples of humanity linked to each other in time and space? Of course the central link, the true link is the Divine Mother who is the captain of the ship as well as the mediatrix between the old and the new creation. At least that is the work she has chosen to undertake in Her present avatara. But how are these different samples of humanity interlinked individually and collectively, even as they have gathered together around Her!

Here an image comes to us, the image of the Supramental tree.
The image unfolds itself as follows:

The Mother brought down with Her the mantra of eternal life concealed in the higher hemisphere. It is the word of New Creation, the Real-Idea concealed in the folds of earthly darkness but revealed in the Supramental Truth-Consciousness. This word is the seed of New Creation which she brings down just as Shri Krishna in a previous age brought down parijata, the tree of aspiration for divine life, upon earth at the insistence of Satyabhama, who was herself an aspect or power of the Divine Mother hoping to plant upon earth the heavenly tree. This time, and for this age, the Divine Mother brings the seed of the New Consciousness and hands it over to Sri Aurobindo when she meets Him for the first time, in this embodiment, so to say. But the earth is not ready. ‘The debt to Rudra must be paid before the heart of man can be ready for peace.’ The first Great War follows and it shakes the earth and its nations and it shakes men and nations as if a thunderbolt or lightning strikes a field turning its foliage to ashes. The foliage of old creation is burnt down though the stump remains. The ash from the burning down of the old goes on to enrich the soil. Shiva and Kali dance over the earth; – he smearing the ash over his body and thereby sanctifying it, she drinking the poisonous blood of the old creation thereby purifying it.

The Mother returns in 1920 and for the next few years there begins an unprecedented work not witnessed before in earth’s history. For the soil of our earth – nature will not readily accept this new seed. It is not ready and has to be made ready by tilling and watering the soil. This first phase of the work is the early part of the Ashram. The soil of earth – nature is thoroughly tilled by the twin avatara. The soil is watered constantly by Divine Love so that it can have the right constitution, neither too hard as a rock nor too soft as sand, so to say. When the tilling is complete and the soil can hold the light of the sun and the air from higher regions then the next phase begins.

This first phase is largely over with the siddhi day. Six years of cleansing of the past and six years of ceaseless tilling of the soil brings down Sri Krishna’s Light into our earth-stuff to play freely with matter. This Light itself will now further prepare matter to receive the Supramental Sun necessary for the seed of New Creation to sprout. A great inner rite and ceremony of consecration follows. It is the formation of the Ashram formally, so to say. The digging is done deep into the soil so as to plant the seed. The digging takes long as it must be fairly deep, nay the very deepest. It must go right upto the very heart of inner darkness, the inconscient foundation of the earth. Once dug, the yajna must be performed so that the whole environment is purified and the toxic things kept out of harm’s way. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother light the fire of aspiration deep into the earth nature. The rites of this yajna is simple, – to put all of oneself into this fire of a new aspiration so that the descending Grace may purify the earth further. This is a long painstaking, laborious and thorough work. The Supramental seed cannot co-exist with any impurity. It is the seed of the immaculate truth, the purest diamond of God.

As They dug deeper, there came out from the chasm beings and creatures and forces that had taken shelter in the dark underbelly of the earth, the animal past imprinted in our subconscient nature. And as the descending Truth drew closer to the sap of life embedded within the earth as a hidden treasure, there rose up from earth the resistance of the vital forces that had held it in their sway. The seed cannot be implanted in such an atmosphere. Like Shiva, Sri Aurobindo drank this poison stuff and at once the ground was cleared for the deep sowing. The moment of Death became also the moment of eternal life:

‘A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour
A branch of heaven transplant to human soil
Nature shall overleap her mortal step
Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will.’
Sri Aurobindo

The digging deep in ‘a horror of filth and mire’ enduring ‘a thousand wounds’ in an effort to reclaim the land from the fiefdom of old for sowing the Tree Divine, led, as we know, to the other great war of the previous century. Nevertheless the seed was sown in matter or rather extracted out of it when Sri Aurobindo Himself chose to go down into the ‘bottomless pit’ for the battle with the forces of the Abyss. It would take another six years (29th Feb 1956) before the first rays of the descending Supramental Light touch the seed of Divine Life. The link is established, the higher mystery is joined to the lower, the betrothal of earth and heaven is accomplished and the New Consciousness begins to nurture and nourish the golden seed.

These three phases, the phase of a general preparation of the soil, the digging and the rite of purification, finally the sowing of the seed are accomplished on a small scale in Pondicherry. But now the seed begins to sprout and the earth is a little more ready (because of Their labour) to receive more seedlings. Branches extend themselves out of the plant, some main and others side branches that would serve as conduits to carry the sap of a New Life outwards and offer it through the sun to the earth atmosphere. These are a few of the main branches opened by the Mother after the Great Descent of the New Light upon earth. These in turn gave rise to smaller branches and twigs that are the many centers spread across the world. Once these twigs grew strong enough, and as a natural consequence the leaves came out as foliage covering the branches and the main trunk. These leaves provide an interphase and an exchange with the earth atmosphere. It is through the leaves that the tree absorbs the energy of the earth and releases its own back into the earth atmosphere. This foliage of many colours supported on many a different twigs is Auroville, the first outwardly visible manifestation of the New Consciousness. More appropriately perhaps, it is the precursor to the emergence of flowers and fruits into the arena of the world.

Now the Supramental tree is still small. It is still not fully visible in the forest of this world though more and more of humanity is beginning to take notice of it. The first few phases of the work were not meant to be noticed and could not have been noticed or understood by the world at large, but the later few phases are bound to be noticed and cannot be ignored. And as the flowers and fruits bloom on this tree the seekers of Divine Life will be attracted more and more to it and in an increasing numbers. Some would make one part of the tree or other their home. Of these the most difficult part is the root and the main trunk. It is the largely unseen work wherein one has to be willing to bear the burden of the rest of the tree, to patiently extract the possibilities enclosed in the seed and pass it upwards for the world to manifest it through the touch of the sun and the exchange of forces with the outside world. This work needs an entire self giving, a self effacing spirit of glad sacrifice for the Work, a sincerity that is one-pointed and free of the taint of every ambition and desire, a strong adhara to bear the pressure from below and above without being crushed or broken apart, an unsleeping aspiration linking the seed with the sun and, a deep faith and will to sacrifice everything for this Work and for this Work alone. The Central Influence radiates from here, from this seed sprouting from within; the chief difficulties are represented here, in the roots sunk deep into the inconscient foundations of our nature. The burden is greatest here but so are the peace and delight supporting it. The close proximity with the seed means drinking from the possibilities concealed in It but also going down and sometimes struggling in the darkness below. The branches of the tree serve another purpose in the work of New Creation by freely transmitting the sap to and fro. The foliage serves as a cradle for the fruits and the flowers. The fruits and the flowers are the individual souls that have been prepared through all this labour to realize the Life Divine in some measure. Through these the fragrance and sweetness of the New Consciousness shall spread to all.

The full tree already exists in the subtle worlds and is trying to manifest here upon earth in the physical world. But there are missing pieces or misplaced cells. That is the source of disorder in this world. For the world to be perfect with each thing in its true place where it should be, this tree should also be perfect. For even the tree of Truth-Consciousness has to work itself out in the conditions and circumstances of our material existence that are very different from the Truth above where the Supramental tree exists in its native home. But as the tree grows it will come closer and closer to the Truth that it represents. The Divine gardener is busy bringing the earthly tree as close to its image of truth. Now He shifts this element, plucks away this leaf to put it back into the roots so as to nurture and nourish the whole tree. Now He pulls and draws the sap upwards and throws up the energy of the whole tree into a fresh leaf and a new shoot. And through all this falling and rising, shedding and springing, churning and mixing all is being drawn into a single plan. For a deep oneness is the truth and origin of life and a deep oneness shall be its high culmination as well.

‘O Sun-Word, thou shalt raise the earth-soul to Light
And bring down God into the lives of men;
Earth shall be my work-chamber and my house,
My garden of life to plant a seed divine.
When all thy work in human time is done
The mind of earth shall be a home of light,
The life of earth a tree growing towards heaven,
The body of earth a tabernacle of God.’
Sri Aurobindo: Savitri; p. 699