Friday, April 20, 2012

The Six Visions


(condensed from Mother´s 2nd Vision)
... as I turn round to identify the source of this light, I see a young boy of about fourteen  surrounded by a beautiful white radiance in which iridescent gleams can be seen. His flaxen hair falls in shapely curls upon his shoulders; his complexion is fair and delicate; his long eyelashes rest upon rose-tinted cheeks, for his eyes are downcast... Then the old man speaks.He tells the child, "Thus you are about to fulfil the task entrusted to you, which you have accepted of your own free will; you will accomplish it in accordance with the instructions I have given you.. be of good heart... the victory is sure.
Then, without word or gesture, the child slowly and solemnly turns... and see him leave... and walk swiftly  looking straight before him...
...allowing me to look with wonder on a great river, its waters flowing silver beneath the moonlight, its banks overgrown with a splendid and luxuriant vegetation... the trees with their crests that seem to touch the sky... the mountains... their summits covered with perpetual snow.
In the midst of this immensity I see a tiny oval of moving white light; it is the child walking firmly and surely upon his way, his head high, without fear or weakness.
This scene is full of grandeur; I contemplate it and muse, I muse and understand: what a man at the height of his strength would find hard to achieve if he were alone, a child can accomplish almost without difficulty if he is sustained by the power and love of those who are one with him.
                                                               

(condensed by Mother´s 6th Vision)
In faultless hierarchical order.. an immense host is deployed...they await a signal from the leader at their center, who is all radiant with iridescent light. But at once my gaze is drawn to a young man whose height and majesty tower above all the others. An ample amethyst cloak, lined with dazzling white, falls from his shoulders.
All stand still in rapt silence, for he is about to speak. He speaks, and his voice rises solemn and sweet. He speaks, and I understand what he is saying: "The time draws near. Let all prepare themselves, the host of earth and the host of heaven. Let those who work and endure lose neither courage nor patience. Though invisible to all but a few, the work is proceeding swiftly. On one side a growing order and harmony is driving towards the denser spheres whatever confusion and disorder still prevail. On the other hand, upon earth, the seed which has been sown is ready to rise amid a field of men of ardent and enlightened goodwill. The valiant host of evolving supermen is making ready so that when the time comes its efforts may be joined to ours. Soon a hymn of joy shall ring forth, the paean of triumph and glory."

Rejoicing in these words, I make my way back towards earth, bearing the glad tidings, and in my descent I am followed by the white dove with crimson feet. After passing the dark chasm, I look back and I see... Oh, what do I behold! ... The dark heavy cloud is supported by a huge cross, and both cloud and cross are borne by a being of colossal size. The entire burden of iniquity and disorder weighs upon him, who leans over mankind like a wonderful and living protection. His long hair falls on either side of his beautiful face, which is turned towards earth with a look of infinite tenderness and pain..

Oh yes! I almost work with ardor and energy to hasten the hour when the awesome effort of this sublime man will no longer be needed to hold the dark cloud in check and prevent it from crushing the wretched men of earth, unawakened and as yet unable to defend themselves!
 http://intyoga.online.fr/text_idx.htm,
 http://www.odinring.de/eng/vision6.htm

Mother, or the Yoga of the Vision


What in Sri Aurobindo was a torrential and enlightening flow of thoughts, in Mother was the Vision. In this, they were complementary. Mother -knew- by means of Vision, she dealt with visions as one deal with thoughts. It was her nature, lunar and oracular as the ancient priestess of the elysian temples. In her´s human shape, the Goddess dare intimate a while  with the humans, lifting a moment the veil that blinds Matter from Revelation.
The King of the Snakes or the gnome pays her homage as their natural mother and superior, she dealt with them as we deal with persons, and really, her nature results unfathomable to a description. Sri A. said she was an incarnation of the Universal Mother, and thus was considered by whom had the privilege to live around her.

We will see, how the power of vision is a knowledge integrated into that brilliant sphere of thoughts which Sri A. represented. So to say, two polarities of a same power of knowledge. The Intuitive and the Over-Rational.  Tough we shouldn't fall into too simplistic divisions.
In fact, the human beings learn both from that systematical study and scrutiny of the mind in search of the unquestionable truth, as much from the knowledge that comes with the direct occult and wordless perception. The first is represented by the yoga of knowledge, Raja Yoga, of which Sri A. would be a worth exponent, the nature of the second makes it rather inaccessible to scrutiny and rely on ancestral  tantric or lunar  practices and rituals in India or elsewhere, which cant be considered integral expressions of that Mother-knowledge.
Mother's note-books are certainly a good and trustworthy source of information wishing to explore a bit farther this fascinating field of occult knowledge and power, and we have a lot to learn from her Visions.



Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Evolution, the Yoga of Nature II

The fact that Sri Aurobindo ties so intimately Evolution, Life, and Yoga it hasn't a precedent on yogic literature, in fact, the references of canons on Yoga as that of Patanjali and other important works on the matter, rather look at earthly existence with the eyes of the sadhu and the ascetic, to which life in the body is but a provvisional ill. Least would be an ascetic worried about evolution of that life.
By this plural tiding, we have a reassessment of the concept and role of older yoga connecting it to a more scientific perspective and in accordance with the requirements of a modern inquiring mind, together with a "spiritualization" of the scientific, evolutionist point of view.

Sri Aurobindo not only tied yoga to evolution, but even made that yoga evolve. A fuller life in the body was never the aim of the older yoga, which always saw the body as an obstacle and a proscript from diviner spheres of existences. Sri A. shacked that belief in its very foundation, and re proposed the body as worth to share  the spiritual adventure. This is the most remarkable and progressive difference between  his Yoga and the previous ascetic or religious tradition searching for salvation in the "after-life", a Yoga definitive in its postulate: it is here and into this body that the spiritual realization has to be achieved.

"We have turned space into a gulf of peace
And made the body a Capitol of bliss.
What more, what more, if more must still be done?”

And we can really say that from that moment, Yoga was definitively transformed, revitalized and will never get back on its previous bases. As a result of his intervention, we have a quite modern positioning of his yoga, its tiding with evolution is due to the fact that in contradiction with the evolutionist, Sri Aurobindo considers evolution as a process which has not reached yet its purpose.
We have seen above that Sri Aurobindo considers the present times as the moment in evolution when the human race finally starts to perceive the driving forces of Life and Yoga.
It is more of a supposition, as there exist written registers of commentaries of Mother on the beginning of a -factual manifestation- upon earth of the Supermental Consciousness, the name they coined for that approaching possibility and Force.

FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION
(During the common meditation on Wednesday the 29th February 1956)
This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of 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, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.
(English text in CWM, volume 15, "Words of the Mother 3", page 202 published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry, diffusion by SABDA

The evening I told you about these things, I identified myself totally with Nature, I joined in her game. And this movement of identification provoked a response, a sort of new intimacy between Nature and myself, a long movement of a growing closeness which culminated in an experience which came on the eighth of November.

Suddenly Nature understood.
She understood that this new Consciousness which has just been born does not seek to reject her but wants to embrace her entirely, she understood that this new spirituality does not turn away from life, does not recoil in fear before the formidable amplitude of her movement, but wants on the contrary to integrate all its facets. She understood that the supramental consciousness is here not to diminish but to complete her.

Then from the supreme Reality came this order, "Awake, 0 Nature, to the joy of collaboration." And the whole of Nature suddenly rushed forward in a great surge of joy, saying, "I accept, I shall collaborate."
And at the same time, there came a calm, an absolute tranquility so that the bodily vessel could receive and contain, without breaking, without losing anything, the mighty flood of this Joy of Nature which rushed forward as in a movement of gratitude. She accepted, she saw with all eternity before her that this supramental consciousness was going to fulfill her more perfectly, give a still greater strength to her movement, a greater amplitude, more possibilities to her play.



And suddenly I heard, as if they came from all the corners of the earth, those great notes one sometimes hears in the subtle physical, a little like those of Beethoven's Concerto in D-major, which come in moments of great progress, as though fifty orchestras had burst forth all in unison, without a single false note, to express the joy of this new communion between Nature and Spirit, the meeting of old friends who come together again after having been separated for so long.


Then these words came, "O Nature, material Mother, thou hast said that thou wilt collaborate and there is no limit to the splendour of this collaboration."
And the radiant felicity of this splendour was sensed in perfect peace.
That is how the message for the new year was born.
The Mother
in CWM, volume 9, "Questions and Answers 1957-1958" pages 245-248  published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry diffusion by SABDA
***
From: Evening Talks
Disciple: You said that in 1934 Supermind was ready to descend but not a single Sadhak was found prepared. So it withdrew. But you told me once that the descent of Supermind does not depend on readiness of Sadhaks.
Sri Aurobindo: If none is ready to receive how will the Supermind manifest itself? But instead of thinking of Supermind one has first to open oneself to Intuition.
 ***

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Evolution, the Yoga of Nature

Sri Aurobindo
The fact that Sri Aurobindo gave attention and wrote about Evolution, a man otherwise  dedicated to yoga and  introspection,  it is not a secondary point all trough his writings, and should require our attention. Of course, for a man who has stated that: "All Life is Yoga", Evolution too would fall under this law.
And yet, life is for the evolutionist purposeless and circumstantial, while Yoga has the supreme aim to liberate the human being, so, if Life is Yoga they share a common purpose. At least, this is the logical conclusion of that statement. 
And Evolution, would became the trend, the material trend toward that freedom.A travel towards the Light starting between the darkness of a nescient Matter.
We can see, that if Sri Aurobindo took in consideration the Evolution, was to go farther beyond the laws that governs matter towards these which govern Life itself. The spiritual laws that governs Life and Yoga. Life intended as a motion of Matter and Mind towards the Spirit. Evolution, is the Yoga of Nature. As much Yoga is the Evolution of Man.


So that Sri Aurobindo gave attention to Evolution describing what it is beyond its more material laws, because Evolution is Life and Life is Yoga. From this point on the discourse of Sri Aurobindo definitely took distance from the evolutionist and proceeded further on, concerned on how that spiritual laws would benefit the individual and the collective, had they been able to keep in touch or consciously live with that  spiritual Forces which regulates Life and Yoga.
Sri AurobindoBecause, under the evolutionist's circumstances and necessities, man soon or later would get consciously in touch with that Forces which before led him unconsciously. An unavoidable evolutionist necessity, a law of Nature.
Such a point in the walk of the human race would be one of transcendental importance, and unique in the whole of its history.
The most outstanding thing is that Sri Aurobindo didn´t place that point in a distant future but now, in the present days.

In this vision of things the universe will reveal itself in its unity and totality as a manifestation of a single Being, Nature as its power of manifestation, evolution as its process of gradual self-revelation here in Matter".
(Sri Aravinda Gosh)

A total surrender to the Truth

The boon that we have asked from the Supreme is the greatest that the earth can ask from the Highest, the change that is most difficult to realise, the most exacting in its conditions. It is nothing less than the descent of the supreme Truth and Power into Matter, the Supramental established in the material plane and consciousness and the material world and an integral transformation down to the very principle of Matter. Only a supreme Grace can effect this miracle.
The supreme Power has descended into the most material consciousness but it has stood there behind the density of the physical veil demanding before manifestation, before its great open workings can begin, that the conditions of the supreme Grace shall be there, real and effective. And the first condition is that the Truth shall be accepted within you entirely and without reserve before it can be manifested in the material being and Nature. A total surrender, an exclusive self-opening to the divine influence, a constant and integral choice of the Truth and rejection of the falsehood, these are the only conditions made. But these must be fulfilled entirely, without reserve, without any evasion or pretence, simply and sincerely down to the most physical consciousness and its workings.