INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (1414,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:26','2021-11-23 17:21:26','<html>\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=windows-1252\">\r\n<title>MURARIPUKUR—</title>\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\"><b>\r\n<u>MURARIPUKUR—(1)</u></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">At \r\nlast I made up my mind finally to take the plunge, that I must now join the \r\nManicktolla Gardens in Muraripukur. That meant goodbye to College, goodbye to \r\nthe ordinary life.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25pt\" align=\"justify\">\r\nA little while ago, Prafulla Chakravarti had come and joined. Both of us \r\nbelonged to Rungpore, both were of nearly the same age, and intimate friends. \r\nThis too pushed me to my decision.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25pt\" align=\"justify\">\r\nI had already taken a vow about a year ago, in front of a picture of Kali at a \r\nsecret ceremony at dead of night, a vow written out in blood drawn from the \r\nchest, that I should dedicate my life to the whole-hearted service of the \r\nMotherland. With me there was a companion, and also a local leader who had read \r\nout the oath. This leader became a Sannyasin later on and rose to be the head of \r\na <i>Math;</i> he has since given up his body, so I have heard. My companion of that \r\nday is still alive; he did not give up the world and in fact became a very \r\nsuccessful man; at present he is enjoying his rest in retirement.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25pt\" align=\"justify\">\r\nI lived in a students&#39; Mess, one that had acquired quite a name. Among the \r\ninmates were Atul Gupta, Charu Bhattacharya (late of the Visvabharati), and a \r\nlittle before my time there was Naresh Chandra Sengupta. In my first year of \r\nCollege, Atul Gupta was in his fourth year, Charu Bhattacharya in his fifth and \r\nNaresh Sengupta had just passed out. I happened once to set foot in the room he \r\nused to occupy and there I found scattered about the floor a few pages torn out \r\nof a notebook which read very much like love letters. This seemed to me a little \r\nstrange, but later I. realised these were some pages from the manuscript of one \r\nof his novels.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25pt\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis decision to choose my path came while I was in my Fourth Year. That I would \r\ndefinitely join the Gardens was conveyed to Barin by Prafulla. He had already \r\ntold </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25pt\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page - 6</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;him about my antecedents, so one day I received a call— Barin would see me, as \r\nif at an interview for a post. Escorted by Prafulla, I arrived at his residence \r\nin Gopimohan Dutt Lane at Goabagan. This place acquired some renown during the \r\nAlipore case as a den of the terrorists. Next to the house there was a gymnasium \r\nfor the young men of the neighbourhood where wrestling and boxing and all kinds \r\nof dangerous martial exercises were practised.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis happened to be my first meeting with Barin. He received me with great \r\nkindness and had me seated next to him. I cannot now recall the details of the \r\nconversation we had, but perhaps there was nothing much to remember. One thing \r\nhowever I distinctly remember. He asked me if I had read the Gita. I said I had \r\nread it in parts. He handed me a copy and asked me to read aloud. I began \r\nreciting <i>&quot;Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre...&quot;</i> in a pure and undiluted Bengali style. \r\nHe stopped me and cried out, &quot;That won&#39;t do. One doesn&#39;t read Sanskrit here in \r\nthe Bengali style. Listen, read like this.&quot; He gave a recital in the Hindi \r\nstyle, that is, with the pronunciation current in the other parts of India.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat was my first lesson in Sanskrit pronounced in the Sanskrit way. Later I \r\nhave heard the correct Sanskrit accent so often from Sri Aurobindo himself. I \r\nhave heard him recite from the Veda, from the Upanishads, from the Gita. Today, \r\nI too do not read Sanskrit in the Bengali way, even when reading from an article \r\nin Bengali.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas settled that I would join the Gardens and stay there. But I did not give up \r\nmy rooms at the Mess. My books and papers and furniture<sup>;</sup>—a bedstead \r\nand the table-lamp, for there was no electric light in those days—were all left \r\nin charge of my room-mate, and I paid only an occasional visit. I attended \r\nCollege as well, but at infrequent intervals. College studies could no longer \r\ninterest me.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas about this time that I hovered around the newly founded National College in \r\nCalcutta for a short while. My aims were a little &quot;dubious&quot;. At the Gardens, \r\nthere </p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page - 7</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;used to be discussions about the bomb, so an idea came to my head: could not \r\nthe National College offer an opportunity to study the subject? I thought of \r\nreading Chemistry and by joining the Chemistry practical learn the principles \r\nof explosives. At that time the Superintendent (or perhaps Principal) was Satish \r\nChandra Mukeiji, Founder-President of the Dawn Society. I had met him several \r\nyears ago in the rooms of the Society.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me then narrate this earlier story in the present connection. I had just \r\ncome to Calcutta and joined the First Year. Atul Gupta took me to a meeting of \r\nthe Dawn Society. Benoy Sarkar was there, Radha Kumud Mukerji too was there, I \r\nthink—not his younger brother Radha Kamal who became one of my class-fellows in \r\nthe Third Year after he had passed the F.A. examination from Berhampore. Here is \r\na sketch of one of the Society&#39;s meetings. Satish Mukeiji took the chair. We \r\nwere about twenty or thirty young men in all. He read out a verse from the Gita: \r\n<i>yad yad vibh<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#363;</font>timat sattvam, \r\n<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>r<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font>mad-<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#363;</font>rjitameva v<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>\r\n</i>and gave a short explanation \r\nin a few words. Then we formed ourselves into small groups of four or five. We \r\nwere to discuss what is meant by &quot;<i><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>r<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font>man&quot;</i> and \r\n<i>&quot;vibh<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#363;</font>tim<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>n&quot;</i>, where is the \r\ndifference between the two, what do we understand by <i>&quot;<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#363;</font>rjita&quot; \r\n</i>? Each group was \r\nto discuss separately, each member was to say what he had to say, and finally \r\nall of us were to write out in the form of an essay our respective viewpoints. \r\nThe essays would then be submitted to the chairman for his consideration and \r\njudgment. I sat absolutely dumb in that first session, an ignoramus among the \r\nlearned, like a goose in the midst of swans. (I must have been about fourteen at \r\nthat time.) But I did not feel quite at ease in that atmosphere, I had an \r\nimpression it was all fine talk and dry debate, purely academic, one would say. Satish Chandra had no doubt wanted to use this as a means of forming the \r\ncharacter and not merely as an intellectual training, a way of moulding the \r\nlife, something that had been missing in our college education. I do not know to \r\nwhat extent he succeeded in actual fact.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page - 8</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis was about the middle of 1904. It was three years later, about the middle of \r\n1907, that I met Satish Chandra again. He could not have remembered about me, \r\nnor did I remind him. He asked me, &quot;You are a student of literature and \r\nphilosophy. Why do you want to read Science? &quot;I have read physics and chemistry \r\nfor my F.A. (that is Intermediate). I have a special attraction for those \r\nsubjects, that is why.&quot; However, the matter did not proceed very far, for I was \r\ngetting more and more engrossed in the life at the Gardens.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAlmost about the same period, I had thought of another childish plan, again in \r\nconnection with the making of a bomb: the thing had so got into my head. I was a \r\nstudent of the Calcutta Presidency College where the great Jaga-dish Chandra was \r\nprofessor at the time. Here was the idea and it was approved by my leaders—could \r\nI not join his laboratory, as some kind of an assistant? Then one could carry on \r\nresearch and experiments on bombs. But how to get hold of him? I thought of \r\nSister Nivedita. She was a great friend of Jagadish Bose and it was easy to \r\ncatch hold of Nivedita, for she was one among our circle of acquaintances. But \r\nthe occasion did not arise for this line of advance, for things had been moving \r\nfast at the Gardens.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me say a few words about our life there. But may I preface it with an \r\namusing incident? I have said that my attendance at College had been getting \r\nmore and more irregular. This attracted the notice of some of my class-fellows. \r\nOne day, I found one of their representatives arriving &quot;on deputation&quot; to meet \r\nme at the Mess. He began questioning me as an intimate friend and well-wisher \r\nwith a show of great kindness and affection. &quot;Tell me,&quot; he said, &quot;what has been \r\nthe matter with you? What makes you keep away from College? Has there been a \r\nmishap somewhere? You have been such a good student and so regular in your \r\nattendance, what could have come over you all on a sudden?&quot; I could guess what \r\nhe must have been suspecting: surely it had something to do with my morals—<i>chercher \r\nla femme</i>! Was that the case here? Comp-laints</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page - 9</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">and \r\nentreaties having failed, he finally sought to console and encourage me with \r\nthese words, &quot;Don&#39;t you worry. If Calcutta does not suit you, let us leave the \r\nplace and go somewhere else. The two of us could stay together, and if we worked \r\nhard for, say, three or four months, we would get ready for the examination \r\nwithout fail. Our absence from College would make no difference.&quot; To this I \r\nreplied in a grave tone, &quot;Very well, I shall think it over.&quot; Lest there should \r\nbe similar attacks in the future, I practically gave up the Mess.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">One \r\nwould not say that life at the Gardens had settled down to a definite routine \r\nyet, for we had just begun. There were about a dozen or fourteen of us in all. \r\nThere were occasional visitors from outside who would come for a short stay and \r\nthen go back to their work. Naren Gos-wami had come like that for a couple of \r\ndays, so had Bha-vabhushan who later became a Sannyasin. We began with readings \r\nfrom the Gita and this became almost a fixed routine where everybody took part. \r\nEven the local Inspector of Police expressed a desire to join in these readings \r\nwith us Brahmacharins. But he had to pay dearly for that. He did not realise \r\nthat these were no ordinary lessons in the Gita but served as a fagade for our \r\npreparations for the bomb. For this he was, as we heard, later dismissed from \r\nthe service. The poor fellow had wanted to acquire a bit of spiritual merit \r\nwhich seemed to turn against him.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">A \r\nbeginning however was made to introduce some kind of discipline and organisation. \r\nIt was decided that the entire group should be formed into two sections, one \r\n&quot;civil&quot;, the other &quot;military&quot;. The &quot;military&quot; section was to include the active \r\nmembers and the others were to serve as auxiliaries. The idea originally was to \r\nbuild up an armed force, a regular army in fact, with its full complement of \r\nweapons and equipment and trained by regular drills. The &quot;civil&quot; side was to \r\ndeal with external work like journalism, propaganda and recruitment. The \r\n<i>Yugantar</i>, and later the <i>Navashakti</i>, became our publicity organs. I was not much \r\nattracted by this &quot;civil&quot; side; I wanted to become one of </p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page - 10</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nthe &quot;military&quot; men. Prafulla who was one of those dreamy, &quot;introvert&quot;, \r\nintellectual types and a good writer and speaker took up the &quot;civil&quot; work. They \r\nused to say with a touch of humour, no doubt, that he was the Mazzini and I was \r\nhis Garibaldi. But no provision had yet been made to give this &quot;Garibaldi the \r\nnecessary training in military drill or the use of weapons. So, I had to begin \r\nwith the science of warfare rather than its art. Barin was at that time writing \r\nhis series on The Principles of Modern Warfare for the<i> Yugantar</i>. I too began my \r\nstudy of the subject. I started going to the Imperial Library (now the National \r\nLibrary) in Calcutta for my studies and research. Where could I begin? Well, it \r\nwas a book called <i>The Art of War</i> by the German military expert, Glausewitz, a \r\nbook where the very first sentence ran like this, &quot;The object of warfare is to \r\ndestroy the enemy and finish with him.&quot; I am not sure how this helped me add to \r\nmy knowledge of warfare or my skill in the art of fighting.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nDuring my last days in College, I used to study Mazzini in place of <i>King John or \r\nThe Faerie Queene.</i> One day I suddenly discovered that they had removed my Mazzini from the shelves of the library, and even the \r\n<i>Life and Death of Socrates</i> \r\nby Plato had disappeared. These books were no doubt supposed to turn the heads \r\nof our Indian students!</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAbout this time, I had been several times to my home town Rungpore. There at the \r\nlocal Library, I discovered a fine book on the history of Secret Societies. The \r\nbook gave the story of how subject nations aspiring for freedom began their work \r\nin secret. In it the story of Ireland and Russia had been given a good deal of \r\nspace. The secret societies in Russia had a system which was rather distinctive. \r\nIt should have been taken over by us, so I have heard Sri Aurobindo say. They \r\nwould divide the underground workers into little groups of not more than five. \r\nNo group could know the others, only those belonging to a particular group would \r\nknow its own members. Each group had a leader, who alone would know his \r\nimmediate superior</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page -11</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;placed \r\nin charge of only four or five of such little groups. Similarly, the leader of \r\nthe higher group would have dealings with the one next higher in rank who would \r\nbe in charge of the bigger groups, and so on, right to the, topmost man. Such a \r\nsystem was necessary, for in case someone got caught, that could not implicate&#39; \r\nthe entire organisation but only a handful of his acquaintances. One of the main \r\ninstruments in the hands of the police or the government for detecting a \r\nconspiracy is the confession extracted from the persons caught, whether by \r\ntorture, through temptations, from sheer bravado, or by whatever other means. \r\nUnder that system, no one could know anybody except the few members, of his own \r\ngroup with whom he came into immediate contact through his work, nor could he \r\nknow anything about the general plan of work; he had to carry out only the part \r\nassigned to him.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">At \r\nthe Rungpore Library I came across another book, namely, Gibbon&#39;s famous <i>Decline \r\nand Fall of the Roman Empire.</i> I ran through the lengthy volumes from end to end \r\nwith tremendous enthusiasm and added a great deal to my learning and knowledge. \r\nI had a hope that the book might throw some light as to how to bring about the \r\n&quot;decline and fall&quot; of the British rule in India. I regret much help did not come \r\nthat way.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow, to come back to the Gardens and our organisational system. Nothing could be \r\narranged by way of an armed force, for our work itself took another turn. A \r\nmilitary organisation was now to give place to a terrorist organisation. In the \r\nearlier stages, we did not have much faith in terrorist methods, for, as we had \r\nseen about Russia, this path led only to mutual assassinations, murder and \r\nrevenge seemed to follow in an endless succession, leading to no final issue. \r\nThat is why we had decided on the military solution. To that end, our efforts \r\nhad been directed towards forming a new military force on the one hand and on \r\nthe other towards sowing the seeds of revolt among the British Indian troops. I \r\nremember about a military police force stationed at Rungpore where the \r\ncommandant had </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page - 12</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nbeen won over to a large extent, although I could not say how it would have \r\nturned out at the end.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nthe event, it was none of these methods that brought us independence. Indian \r\nindependence has come in another way, the inscrutable way of Providence.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">As \r\nI was saying, we gave up militarism and turned towards the terrorist methods. \r\nThere had awakened in the country a keen demand and aspiration: must we bear in \r\nsilence and give no answer to this tyranny and oppression that seemed to go on \r\nincreasing day by day? So, we started getting ready for a fitting reply. It \r\nbrought in the first place a greater courage to the general public, though it \r\nremained doubtful if it helped relieve the oppression. And secondly, it gave \r\nsome satisfaction to men. Thus we directed our efforts to shooting at the \r\nLieutenant Governor, derailing his train, and assassinating tyrants in the \r\nofficial ranks. Governor Andrew Fraser, the District Magistrates Allen and \r\nKingsford, Mayor Tardivel of Chandernagore, these became the targets of the \r\nterrorists. The members of the Manicktolla Garden group were directly connected \r\nwith these activities. But there is one thing to be noticed about these attempts \r\nthat at least in the earlier stages almost all of them failed, with only one or \r\ntwo exceptions.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOne of the activities of the Gardens, apart from the attempts to manufacture \r\nbombs, had been to procure and distribute guns and rifles and pistols. Purchase, \r\ntheft and loot were the three methods of procurement. In this manner one might \r\ngather materials for terrorist purposes, but it could hardly meet the needs of \r\nan armed force. At the Gardens there was some shooting practice too, with \r\npistols. The trunk of a mango tree had been riddled with bullets— the police \r\ncould very easily find that out later. This reminds me of Prafulla Chaki. He \r\nused to say taking a revolver in his hand, &quot;I for one am not going to live on if \r\nthey get hold of me. I shall neither be tortured by the police nor will I let \r\ntheir baits to confess tempt me. Look, this is the way I am going to finish \r\nmyself.&quot; He would then open wide his mouth, push in the revolver muzzle and \r\npress the trigger with</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-13</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;his \r\nfingers, adding, &quot;This is the one sure way. In the other methods, one merely \r\nwounds oneself, very often with no serious danger to life. But it is much more \r\nrisky to live on after getting wounded, isn&#39;t it?&quot; Prafulla committed suicide \r\nafter the Muzzaffarpur bomb affair in exactly the way he had rehearsed—I should \r\nnot say &quot;suicide&quot;, for it was really an act of martyrdom.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow let me come out with some of my own exploits. I did not, as I have said, \r\nwant to be one of the law-abiding &quot;civilians&quot;; my aim was to be a &quot;military&quot; man \r\nwith his law of the bomb. But first I must prove my mettle in that line. So, \r\nthey set me a test. I was to carry a pistol and deliver it to a gentleman in \r\nJalpaiguri. You seem to laugh at this instance of my &quot;military&quot; ability. But \r\nperhaps you cannot now imagine what it meant in those days to carry a real \r\npistol. The police had its secret agents all over the place always on the \r\nlook-out for victims. If you happened to be a young man, if you dressed in a \r\nmanner even slighdy out of the ordinary, if there was anything the least \r\nsuspicious about your movements that might attract attention, it was enough. If \r\nthe police came and searched you and found a lethal weapon like a revolver in \r\nyour possession, you would get at least seven years—of that you might rest \r\nassured. Nevertheless, I managed to carry the weapon in a perfectly easy and \r\nnatural manner all the way to North Bengal and reached it to the address given. \r\nThis was the way in which they used to distribute weapons for future use to the \r\ndifferent centres at various places.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow that I had passed the first test almost without effort, there came a second \r\nhurdle to cross. Will you be shocked to hear that I was to join a gang of \r\ndacoits and take part in a real dacoity? &quot;Very well,&quot; I said to myself, for \r\neverything is fair in love and war—although I did feel somewhat uncomfortable \r\neven without my knowing it, for there was something about the whole affair that \r\nwas not palatable to me. But this had been decided upon as one of our methods of \r\ncollecting funds, for the moneys that came from gifts were not sufficient, and \r\npeople rather shied of making gifts for the</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-14</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;work \r\nof such secret societies. So we had to fix on loot. The mail runner was to be \r\nwaylaid and his bags looted, somewhat far away in a place in the Khulna \r\ndistrict. We left in a body and put up with a friend. There we had to spend a \r\ncouple of days arranging to stitch up the bags, for the money had to be carried \r\nback in bags, you see. But for some reason or other, the plan fell through and I \r\nfor one heaved a sigh, of relief. However there was one thing I had gained out \r\nof all this. It was a glimpse I could have of the river Kapotakshi, no longer \r\nlimpid like the &quot;pigeon&#39;s eye&quot; though, for it was all cluttered up with weeds—on \r\nwhose banks stood the birthplace of Michael Madhusudan and the mango grove where \r\nhe used to play about as a child. I did feel as if the breath of his poetry \r\nstill lingered about the atmosphere.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe household arrangements at our Gardens were of the most simple, natural and \r\nunpretentious sort, the aim being to avoid all unnecessary complications and \r\nsave our time and labour. The cooking was done perhaps only once a day and \r\nalmost every day it was <i>khichri.</i> For the second meal, something readymade bought \r\nfrom the market was found enough. We did the cooking ourselves and washed the \r\ndishes. The dishes and utensils were not of brass, they were all earthenware \r\nvessels, I believe. And the washing was done in the waters of the pond. What \r\nkind of pond it was could only be described by a Kalidasa, but perhaps some \r\nidea, could be had from Bankimchandra&#39;s description of the Bhima tank: &quot;the dark \r\nshades of the palms dancing to the rhythms of the dark waters&quot; and so on... . \r\nThat is to say, it had more of weeds and mud than water, not to speak of the \r\nfish and the frogs and other animal species, including a fair complement of \r\nserpents and things. But to us it seemed good enough and we used to take our \r\ndips there with great glee. In fact I had my first lessons in swimming in that \r\nvery pool. There were actually two pools and not one. and it would be difficult \r\nto decide which was the more &quot;untouchable&quot; of the two. The gardens around were \r\nin an equally poor condition. They were no gardens at all, for all was primitive \r\njungle, a tangle of shrubs and trees and creepers, with all </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-15</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nsorts of insects and reptile roaming within. And the house where we were \r\nsupposed to live was in ruins.<sup>1</sup></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut in spite of all, the place was absolutely quiet and silent, a reason being \r\nthat it was practically outside th^ city limits. The life we lived in such \r\nsurroundings could be compared with that of nomads. The strange thing is that \r\ndespite such irregular habits, or rather the habitual irregularities of our life \r\nthere, we never fell ill. The abundance of vitality and the enthusiasm and joy \r\nkept at bay all attacks of disease. It was very similar to the kind of life we \r\nlived here in Pondicherry during the first few years. Motilal when he saw us \r\nthen exclaimed in utter surprise, &quot;What! Is this the way you live? And you keep \r\nhim (Sri Aurobindo) too like this?&quot; Perhaps some day I may give you a picture of \r\nthat life of ours, that life of utter freedom which looked so rustic in the eyes \r\nof &quot;civilised&quot; people.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me end this story today with something nice and sweet. It was during my stay \r\nat the Gardens that I had my first meeting and interview with Sri Aurobindo. \r\nBarin had asked me to go and see him, saying that Sri Aurobindo would be coming \r\nto see the Gardens and that I should fetch him. Manicktolla was in those days at \r\nthe far end of North Calcutta and Sri Aurobindo lived with Raja Subodh Mullick \r\nnear Wellington Square in the South Calcutta area. I went by tram and it was \r\nabout four in the afternoon when I reached there. I asked the doorman at the \r\ngate to send word to Mr. Ghose—this was how he used to be called in those days \r\nat the place—saying that I had come from Barin of the Manicktolla Gardens. As I \r\nsat waiting in one of the rooms downstairs, Sri Aurobindo came down, stood near \r\nme and gave me an inquiring look. I said, in Bengali, &quot;Barin has sent me. Would \r\nit be possible for you to come to the Gardens</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\"><sup>\r\n<font size=\"2\">1</font></sup><font size=\"2\"> I have been there once later. It \r\nwas no longer the old Gardens but a ploughed field. There was no trace of the \r\njungle left, it had all been dug up. The pools too had been drained and filled \r\nand the house razed to the ground. The British authorities had dug up every inch \r\nof the area to see if any weapons might have been kept hidden anywhere. I have \r\nfound in the case of the Yugantar office also which stood next to the Medical \r\nCollege that it too had been pulled down and there was only a little plot of \r\nopen ground left in its place</font>.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-16</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nwith me now?&quot; He answered very slowly, pausing on each syllable separately—it \r\nseemed he had not yet got used to speaking Bengali—and said, &quot;Go and tell Barin, \r\nI have not yet had my lunch. It will not be possible to go today.&quot; So, that was \r\nthat. I did not say a word, did my namask<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ra and came away. This was my first \r\nhappy meeting with him, my first <i>dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>han</i> and interview.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-17</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\"><b>\r\nIll</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\"><b>\r\nMURARIPUKUR (2)</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow I come to the last phase of our life at Manicktolla Gardens, that is when we \r\nturned towards terroristic activities like the manufacture of bombs, collecting \r\npistols and rifles and making good use of them. The first chapter had already \r\nbegun with the <i>Yugantar</i> newspaper.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAs we took up these revolutionary activities, we discovered that it was not easy \r\nto carry on this kind of secret work unless there was, common in the country as \r\na whole, a keen desire and hope for freedom. What was needed was a favourable \r\natmosphere from which the revolutionaries could get the desired sympathy and \r\nsupport. One could not expect anything but opposition from a people cowed down \r\nby fear, shut up within its narrow selfishnesses and wholly preoccupied with its \r\ndull routine. That is why Sri Aurobindo started his daily newspaper, \r\n<i>Bandemataram</i>, which was the first to declare in clear language that what we \r\nwanted was the freedom of India, a total freedom, a freedom untrammelled by any \r\nkind of domination by the British. Its aim was to carry into the ears and hearts \r\nof our people a message of hope and faith and enthusiasm, a message that spoke \r\nof independence full and absolute, not the kind of freedom that looked to \r\nEngland for protection and help, and such independence too not as a distant \r\npossibility of the remote future, but an immediate gain of the morrow.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nEven so, Bandemataram had to keep within the letter of the law; its advocacy of \r\nfreedom had to follow as far as possible the lines of peace, its path had to be \r\nthat of Passive Resistance. But Yugantar shed off all the masks. It was the \r\nfirst to declare openly for an armed revolt and spoke in terms of regular \r\nwarfare. It wrote out its message in words of fire and spread it to the four \r\ncorners of the land. Balthazar the king of Babylon had once seen similar \r\nwritings on the wall of his hall of feasting, words that spoke of the imminent \r\ndoom of his empire. To the country and its youth the <i>Ygantar</i> gave</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;its \r\ninitiation of fire for nearly a couple of years. It was only after the <i>Yugantar</i> \r\ngroup had decided that the time had now come for action and not propaganda alone \r\nthat there came to be established the centre at Manicktolla Gardens in \r\nMuraripukur. The section entrusted with real work and the people concerned with \r\npropaganda were to form two distinct groups; one was to work in secret, the \r\nother out in the open. Hence the work of <i>Yugantar</i> was entrusted to the \r\npropaganda group. The gentleman who took charge was named Taranath Roy. Those \r\nwho had hitherto been on the staff of the paper left it and joined the \r\nManicktolla Gardens for intensive training and work. It was however agreed that \r\nhere too there would be two groups, one for regular work and the other for \r\npropaganda. Only, the propaganda here would be of a different kind, for here it \r\nwould not be possible to speak openly of armed revolt as that would be to draw \r\nattention of the authorities to the regular workers. It was therefore decided to \r\nhave a paper in Bengali with a policy analogous to that of <i>Bandemataram</i>. A paper \r\nnamed <i>Nava-shakti</i> was already there, owned and conducted by Sri Manoranjan \r\nGuhathakurta. It had a house rented in Grey Street (North Calcutta). An \r\nunderstanding was reached between the parties so that the spirit and letter of\r\n<i>Yugantar</i> could continue in and through Navashakti. The house was built more or \r\nless on the pattern of the one we had later at Shyamapukur. There were two \r\nflats. The one in front was used as the <i>Navashakti</i> office; Sri Aurobindo \r\noccupied the other with his wife, Mrinalini.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nA word about Manoranjan Guhathakurta will not be out of place here. In that \r\nepoch Aswinikumar Dutt and Manoranjan Guhathakurta of Barisal were two of the \r\nmighty pillars of nationalism. But whatever their achievements as political \r\nleaders and selfless patriots, as writers and orators, it was their greatness of \r\ncharacter that mattered more. By a great character I mean one in whom there has \r\nawakened in a certain measure and manifested to some extent the inner being and \r\nthe indwelling spirit; this is what Vivekananda used to call the awakening of \r\nthe Brahman in the individual.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-19</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nhad come to know Sri Manoranjan Guhathakurta personally and I had been to his \r\nhouse in Giridih and stayed with him more than once. Giridih being not very far \r\nfrom Deo-ghar, he was aware that we dabbled in the bomb. He was not only aware \r\nof it, he also gave us all his help and sympathy. It had even been suggested \r\nthat a factory for the making of bombs might be tried somewhere around the mica \r\npits he owned in that region. His eldest son Satyendra had been a schoolmate and \r\nfriend of Barin and the two were practically co-workers. This family had helped \r\nBarin a good deal by their offers of money and advice. But what I had in mind \r\nwas not these external things but an inner life. Manoranjan Guhathakurta had an \r\ninner life, a life of <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana.</i> His wife in particular was known for her\r\n<i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana.</i> \r\nIn his eyes the service of the country was an occasion and a means for the \r\nservice of God. But his saintliness or <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana</i> did not stand in the way of his \r\nstrength of character. In him there was a fine blend of strength and sweetness.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nManoranjan&#39;s son Chittaranjan became for a time a centre of great excitement and \r\nviolent agitation in those days. There was a session of the Bengal Provincial \r\nConference at Barisal which was attended by all the leaders like Sri Aurobindo \r\nand Bepin Pal. But there came a clash with the Government, the police raided the \r\npavilion and attacked the procession with lathis. The boy Chittaranjan went on \r\nshouting &quot;Bandemataram&quot; as the police beat him mercilessly. He fell down wounded \r\nand covered with blood but he did not cease his &quot;Bandemataram&quot;. This raised a \r\nfurious storm of protest throughout the country, which gave an opening to the \r\nterrorists too.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis shining example of non-violent resistance occurred long before the Gandhian \r\nera. To us who were in favour of armed resistance this kind of forbearance \r\nseemed intolerable. When, after this incident, the journalists and the poets \r\nbegan to sing in chorus, of &quot;Barisal of glorious virtue&quot;, we could not help \r\nadding with a little sting, &quot;thanks to those beatings&quot;.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nI have said that Sri Aurobindo came to occupy with Mrinalini a portion of the \r\nhouse in Grey Street. It was</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-20</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;here \r\nthat they arrested him later. The <i>Navashakti</i> too did not last long. In the \r\ncourse of their search, the police discovered in one of the rooms occupied by \r\nSri Aurobindo a lump of clay, which Mrinalini had brought from Dakshi-neswara as \r\na sacred relic. But the suspicions of the police were not to be allayed so \r\neasily. They thought it might as well be some kind of raw material for the \r\nmanufacture of bombs, so they had it sent to their chemical laboratories for a \r\nchemical analysis!</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow let me come to the story of this final rounding up. For some time past \r\nalmost all of us had been noticing one thing. Whenever we went out on whatever \r\nbusiness, for shopping or to visit people, somebody seemed to be following us, \r\nfrom a little distance no doubt but it was clear enough that we were being \r\nwatched. When we stopped, he too would stop; if we tarried a little, he too kept \r\nhimself occupied on some pretext or other. We talked about this among ourselves \r\nand made the great discovery that this must be what they called spying, and that \r\nwe must henceforth take extra precautions. So far, we had never had this kind of \r\ntrouble. Ours had been a secret society only in name, for the whole thing was \r\nout in the open. Anybody could enter the Gardens from anywhere at any time and \r\nmove about the place, for it was all open compound without any fencing or walls. \r\nThat is why on the morning of our arrest, a couple of boys from the \r\nneighbourhood also found themselves under arrest along with us. In piteous tones \r\nthey implored the policemen, &quot;We are innocent, sirs; we came here only for a \r\nmorning stroll&quot;. The poor innocents!</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe evening before our arrest, it was already getting dark and we were thinking \r\nof retiring for the night, when some voices came to our ears in a rather \r\npeculiar way, and lanterns were seen moving about in the dark. &quot;Who are you? \r\nWhat do you do here?&quot; the voices said. We did our best to give evasive replies. \r\n&quot;Very well, then, we come again tomorrow morning and will know more about it.&quot; \r\nWith these words, the strangers seemed to make their exit. Were these warning \r\nvoices? In spite of our dull wits, we could</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-21</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;understand \r\nat least this much that things were now getting rather serious and that we must \r\ntake our precautions. The first thing we decided upon was that we should leave \r\nthe place before daybreak and disperse. Upen told us later that he had wanted us \r\nto disperse immediately and make no further delay. But that was obviously not to \r\nbe, for it was destined that we should pass through the experience of jail. \r\nNevertheless, we did start doing something at once; that was to remove all \r\ntraces, by burning or hiding away or whatever other means, of anything that \r\nmight raise a suspicion against us. The very first thing that came to our heads \r\nwas this. There were two or three rifles in the house where Sri Aurobindo lived. \r\nThey were in the custody of Abinash (Abinash Bhattacharya) who lived with him \r\nand looked after Sri Aurobindo&#39;s affairs. Those rifles must be removed at once, \r\nthey could on no account be left there. Had the police found them on Sri \r\nAurobindo&#39;s premises, it might have been more difficult to secure his release. \r\nThe rifles were brought back, they were packed in two boxes bound with iron \r\nhoops, together with the few revolvers we had and all the materials for the \r\nmaking of bombs, and hidden away underground. Next, getting hold of all our \r\npapers that might contain names and addresses and plans, we set fire to them. \r\nThis went on far into the night. We could not however burn up everything. A \r\nnumber of names were still left intact and with the help of these clues, the \r\npolice subsequently searched a number of other places and made several arrests. \r\nHad I been able to make good my escape then, it would not have been difficult \r\nfor the police to trace me through my address; there was the Imperial Library \r\ncard issued in my name and it gave the address of my Calcutta Mess, 44/3 \r\nHarrison Road.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\nwent to bed after doing away with all we could, in the hope that we might run \r\naway by daybreak. But the running away did not materialise. In the early hours \r\nof the morning,—it was not yet light,—we were awakened by an eerie sort of \r\nnoise. We sat up in bed. But what was all this going on? Shadowy forms were \r\nmoving about the place,</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-21</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nthere was a clatter and a creaking of boots. Suddenly out of the dark silence, a \r\nconversation arose:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\">\r\n&quot;You are under arrest. Your name?&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\">\r\n&quot;Barindra Kumar Ghose.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\">\r\n&quot;Arabinda Ghose?&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\">\r\n&quot;No, Barindra Kumar Ghose.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&quot;Well, we&#39;ll see.&quot; </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe next thing I knew was a hand clapping on my shoulders. \r\n&quot;Come,&quot; said a voice.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSeveral people have expressed great surprise at this facile surrender on our \r\npart, as though we were goody-goody boys, innocent as lambs. Why, it has been \r\nasked, did we not give them fight and take a few lives before we surrendered? \r\nBut our aims were of another kind, our path, our very policy was of another \r\ncharacter. Our goal was not to die a martyr&#39;s death. We wanted to be soldiers. \r\nThe martyr is happy if he can give up his life. But the duty of the soldier is \r\nnot to give his life but to take the lives of others. The soldier seeks the \r\nmaximum protection for himself, he goes under cover, and he seeks to kill as \r\nmany of the enemy as he can. He does not think it enough that he should only \r\nsacrifice himself. No doubt there comes a time when it is no longer possible to \r\nfind a shelter or go under cover, it may not even be desirable. Then one throws \r\noff one&#39;s masks, one comes out in the open and acts in the way so vividly \r\ndescribed in these lines of Rabindranath:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThere began a scramble</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">As \r\nto who should be the first to give up his life;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat was the only hurry.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">Or \r\nelse, the way the Light Brigade of England acted at Balaclava in the Crimean \r\nWar:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nInto the jaws of Death,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nInto the mouth of Hell,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nRode the six hundred.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe Japanese soldiers too in one of their encounters with</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-23</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nthe Russians in the Russo-Japanese War did not wait to build a bridge over the \r\nramparts of a ditch; they made a solid bridge with the pile of their dead as \r\nthey jumped in&#39; one after the other and let the army march over their bodies. To \r\nsave oneself does not mean that one should, like Nandalal of the comic skit, \r\ntake a vow to &quot;keep oneself alive at any cost, for the good of the country and \r\nall&quot;, or live by the bourgeois doctrine that one should always save oneself \r\nanyhow, even by the sacrifice of one&#39;s wife,<i> <font face=\"Times New Roman\">\r\n&#257;</font>tm<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nam satatam rakset darairapi \r\ndh<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nairapi</i>.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat is why we used to tease Paresh Mallick and called him a descendant of \r\nNandalal. Have I told you the story? He was once deputed to present Kingsford, \r\nthe Presidency Magistrate, with a live bomb packed in the form of a book; the \r\nbomb was to explode as soon as the book was opened. Paresh went in the garb of \r\nan Englishman&#39;s bearer. We looked out every day for an account in the papers of \r\nsome serious accident to Kingsford. But nothing happened. He seemed to be \r\nattending court regularly and was apparently quite safe and sound. So we had to \r\nask Paresh at last if he had in fact reached the bomb to its destination or \r\nwhether he had thrown it away somewhere to save his own skin. However, the bomb \r\nwas found later among a pile of books belonging to the Magistrate. It had been \r\nlying there safely and caused no harm. The people were demanding vengeance upon \r\nKingsford because he had sentenced a young student, Sushil, to flogging, simply \r\nbecause the boy was involved in a tussle with the police. That was an occasion \r\nfor us terrorists. Sushil later on joined the revolutionary group at \r\nManicktolla.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe police had on more than one occasion suggested to Sri Aurobindo, in order \r\nthat he might feel flattered or perhaps even get excited and be moved to act \r\naccording to their wishes, that a strong and truthful and straightforward man \r\nlike him could certainly not adopt a false pose or act in secret; that he had \r\nthe courage to do openly whatever he considered to be his duty or the right \r\nthing to do; that he would never care to run away and hide himself; and that \r\nwhatever</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-24</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nhe did he would frankly acknowledge and say without hesitation, &quot;Yes, \r\nit is I who have done it&quot;. But Sri Aurobindo was not to be trapped like that. He \r\nheld that far more important than any question of personal honour or \r\nindignities, or a parading of one&#39;s capacity or virtue, was the work to be done \r\nand its success. He would cite the example of Sri Krishna in the Mahabharata \r\nstory; Sri Krishna had no intention of being caught by Jarasandha and he fled to \r\nDwarka in order to make ready for the adversary. That is why Sri Aurobindo did \r\nnot consider a retreat to be a bad thing always. &quot;We live to fight another day&quot;: \r\nthis should be the motto of the soldier. That is why he left standing \r\ninstructions with Barin and his group that they were not to admit anything \r\nimmediately they were caught by the police. They should keep their mouths shut \r\nand make whatever statements were necessary only when the time came at a later \r\nstage. It is however true that Barin and some of the senior members of the group \r\ndid make a full confession soon after their arrest. But they did that purposely, \r\nwith a view to save the party by the sacrifice of some of its members. They had \r\nhoped that by taking on themselves all the responsibility, the others might be \r\nproved to have been innocent, so that instead of all of us dying together, some \r\nmight still live on to carry the work forward.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNevertheless, we were all arrested in a body. The police made us stand in a line \r\nunder the strict watch of an armed guard. They kept us standing the whole day \r\nwith hardly anything to eat. Only towards the evening, some of them were kind \r\nenough to get us some fried stuff from the market. Our throats were so dry by \r\nthe time that we would have gladly taken a sip out of that famous pond of ours. \r\nIn the evening, the order came, &quot;Follow us&quot;. But follow where? I somehow had the \r\nfeeling that here was the end—&quot;Remember, O soul, the day of the Great \r\nDeparture.&quot; I could not conceive at the moment that a case would have to be \r\nframed against us, that there must take place a trial and there might be a \r\ncounsel to defend us. I thought on the contrary that they would take us straight \r\nto Fort William and finish us off with</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-25</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;a firing squad! I was in fact getting \r\nmyself ready for that. But things turned out rather differently. The British \r\nGovernment could not be so heartless after all. We were taken to the lock-up at \r\nthe Lai Bazar police station. There, they kept us for nearly two days and \r\nnights. This was perhaps the most trying time of all. We had no bath, no food, \r\nnot even a wink of sleep. The whole lot of us were herded together like beasts \r\nand shut up in a cell. The police showed by their manner how rude and bitter \r\nthey could be. Then, after having been through all this, we were taken to \r\nAlipore Jail one evening. There we were received with great kindness and \r\ncourtesy by the gentleman in charge. He said, &quot;Now there will be no more of that \r\nharassment by the police. You will find it quite comfortable here.&quot; And he had \r\nus served immediately with hot cooked rice. This was our first meal in three \r\ndays, and it tasted so nice and sweet that we felt as if we were in heaven.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-26</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>DEOGHAR</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe scene was Deoghar, though not exactly the town itself. About five miles \r\nbefore you reach the town, there is the Jesidih Junction on the main railway \r\nline. Nearly a mile from there, close to the railway line there was a house with \r\nonly a ground floor and quite neat and clean on the whole. All around were open \r\nfields—not the green meadows of Bengal but the barren red moorlands of Bihar. \r\nNot entirely unpleasant scenery though, for it breathed an atmosphere of purity \r\nand peace and silence. A little farther away there stood a larger two-storeyed \r\nmansion, perhaps the comfortable holiday retreat of some rich man.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe time was towards the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908. I was about \r\nseventeen or eighteen and had just finished with my college life.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe <i>dramatis personae</i> were (1) Barindra Kumar Ghose, (2) Ullaskar Dutt, (3) \r\nPrafulla Kumar Chakravarti, (4) Bibhuti Bhushan Sarkar, and (5) Nolini Kanta \r\nGupta.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe plot was to manufacture bombs. Hitherto, there had been only preliminary \r\ninvestigations and initial experiments and efforts. Now Ullaskar came out with \r\nhis Eureka. &quot;All is ready,&quot; he said, &quot;now there is going to be a real test. We \r\nhave to demonstrate with a live bomb in action.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut here I must add that although we had made the preparation of bombs our first \r\nobject when we chose this lonely and out of the way place, we were not entirely \r\nheartless men, that is, atheistic and given wholly to a materialistic \r\nphilosophy. It had been part of our plan to devote some time to the cultivation \r\nof an inner life too in that solitude. I remember how we would get up an hour \r\nbefore sunrise and sitting down in that calm atmosphere in a meditative pose we \r\nwould recite aloud with deep fervour and joy the <i>mantra</i> of the Upanishad:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<i>tilesu tailam dadhaniva sarpir</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<i><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>pah srotahsu aranisu c<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>gnih</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<i>evam <font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>tma<font face=\"Times New Roman\"> &#257;</font>tmani grhyate<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#768;</font> sau</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<i>satyena enam tapas<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> yo nupasyati.&nbsp;,</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&quot;As one gets oil out of oilseeds, as one gets butter out of curds, as one gets \r\nwater out of the stream, as one gets fire out of wood, even so one seizes the \r\nself out of the self, one who pursues it in truth and <i>tapasya.&quot;</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nWho could say at that hour that this was a place of the manufacture of bombs? It \r\nwould not have been far out to call it an Ashram, &quot;the abode of quiet joy&quot;, in \r\nthe Kalidasian phrase, <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nta-rasspadam-<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>sramam-idam.</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAnd it was precisely because of this that Barin got Lele Maharaj down here for \r\nour initiation and training in sadhana, the discipline of yoga, the same Lele \r\nwho had been of particular help to Sri Aurobindo at a certain stage of his own \r\nsadhana. But it was our bad luck that the whole thing misfired.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nWhen Lele Maharaj came to know that we had accepted the cult of the bomb, he \r\nraised an objection. Sadhana and the bomb, he said, did not go well together and \r\nthe kind of violent rajasic action we had in view was not at all conducive to \r\nthe purification of the heart. Besides, he added, although the freedom of India \r\nwas a desirable thing, was indeed desirable and necessary for all, it would come \r\nabout by another method, it would come inevitably and in a peaceful way, there \r\nwould be no need for bloodshed. We got disgusted and smiled at him with \r\nincredulity and even perhaps in derision. Englishmen would pack up their \r\nbelongings and leave of their own accord without as much as a grumble, like \r\nthorough gentlemen,—this looked rather like a fairy tale if not &quot;a tale told by \r\nan idiot&quot;. We were no Vaishnava devotees. We were Tantriks, worshippers of Kali. \r\nOur chosen deity was the Goddess of Death incarnate, with her garland of skulls. \r\nOurs was the heroes&#39; worship of strength. We had long been singing the proud \r\nrefrain:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-28</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nHave the hero-sons,\r\n&nbsp;O men, </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAdorned the Mother&#39;s forehead </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nWith the blood-red \r\nmark?</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThere was also a time when we had been proclaiming loudly </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nat meetings and \r\nshouting to the four quarters:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nCounting the beads and doing austerities,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAll your yoga and prayers and worship,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOblations and sacrifice and honouring the image of gods,—</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNothing of this will now avail in the least.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nMake of the arrow&#39;s sheath and the sword thy cult,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nFor the olden days are no more.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nIndia will not be saved, it cannot,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThrough the worship of the gods.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nUnsheath now the sword,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nFor these demons are not as of yore.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLele Maharaj threatened us with another warning, &quot;If you do not give up this, \r\nyou will not only not succeed but are bound to meet with danger, if not \r\ncatastrophe.&quot; How true his prophecy was we all know from the concrete evidence \r\nof what came to pass.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nHowever, we did not confine our studies to religious books alone, we had with us \r\nsome secular literature as well. It was precisely at this period that a \r\ncollection of Matthew Arnold&#39;s poems came to my hands. The book belonged to Sri \r\nAurobindo and must have been brought along by Barin. That Sri Aurobindo had \r\nstudied it minutely was evident from the book itself, for he had marked in red \r\nthe passages or lines which he had particularly liked. I still remember a couple \r\nof lines that had the good luck to get a red mark:</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nStrew on her roses, roses,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAnd never a spray of yew!</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe simplicity of feeling, the deep pathos, the fine felicity of rhythm in these \r\nlines had stirred my young heart too a great</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-29</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\ndeal. That was my first \r\nintroduction to Matthew Arnold. The greatness of the poet-laureate Tennyson had \r\nalready reached the ears of even the ordinary student at college, but Matthew \r\nArnold and Browning were still unknown. ,</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAll this is however quite beside the point. Let me come </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nback to the story.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe bomb was ready, I said, a real live bomb. It was mainly Ullaskar&#39;s \r\nhandiwork, we others had acted as assistants. It was now decided that the \r\ntesting would be done on top of a hill known as Dighiriya—it was not much of a \r\nhill but only a low range of hillocks—across the railway line, beyond the level \r\ncrossing. (There was an amusing incident in the Sessions Court in connection \r\nwith the man at this level crossing about which I may say something another \r\nday.) Of an afternoon, the five of us made for the hill. It fell to my lot to \r\ncarry the bomb. I carried it along with due care no doubt, but I had no idea of \r\nthe risks I carried. We were quite ignorant and inexperienced at the time. It \r\nwas nothing short of a miracle that we had no accident, the way I carried the \r\nthing; I realised that only a little later.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\nbroke through the thickets and chose a spot right on top of the hill. There we \r\ncame across a huge boulder rising steep and straight on one side about \r\nbreast-high and on the other sloping gradually to a distance of some ten or \r\ntwelve yards. The plan was that Prafulla would take his shelter behind the steep \r\nand abrupt side as he threw the bomb at the sloping rock and sit down behind the \r\nslab as soon as he made the throw, so that no splinters might hit him after the \r\nexplosion, as the bomb was to explode only on the slope by friction of the \r\nimpact. Ullas was to stand by Prafulla to see that everything got on well and \r\nboth were to duck behind the slab right after the throw. I climbed up a tree a \r\nlittle farther away so as to have a clear view of the whole scene. Barin and \r\nBibhuti took their positions around. As we lay in wait, —my eyes were glued to \r\nthe boulder,—suddenly I saw a spark of fire flash out over there with a puff of \r\nsmoke and such a terrific noise! The whole sky seemed to be getting broken up \r\ninto bits, and waves of sound went echoing forth</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-30</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;from one end to the other as if \r\nin a hundred simultaneous claps of thunder. Never again have I heard a noise \r\nlike that. I was of course beside myself with excitement and joy. With great \r\nglee I climbed down the tree and ran towards the boulder, shouting at the top of \r\nmy voice, &quot;Successful, successful!&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut how is this? What is this? What a gruesome spectacle! Prafulla lay limp on \r\nUllas&#39;s chest, Ullas held him in his arms. Slowly the body was laid down. One \r\nside of the forehead was broken through and a portion of the brain coming out. \r\nIt was an unbearable sight. We sat around and no one spoke a word. At last Barin \r\nsaid, &quot;It&#39;s all over, there is not a hope.&quot; The body lay motionless, showed no \r\nsigns of life. The eyes were closed, the face looked serene.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis is how it happened. We had thought that the explosive would catch fire only \r\nafter the bomb touched the ground and rubbed against a hard surface. But instead \r\nof that, the explosive had been so powerful, that is, so easily inflammable that \r\nit caught fire as soon as it came into contact with air on being thrown up. I \r\nsaid I had been carrying it in my hands: it might have caught fire and exploded \r\neven by that slight swing. That it did not was my sheer good luck.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow the problem was what to do next. What was to be done with the body? Burn it? \r\nor give it a burial? To bury it was out of the question, for to dig a hole in \r\nthat hard stone was impossible. Give it a cremation by lighting a fire in the \r\nbush? But that might attract people and the news might spread in the \r\nneighboring villages. Barin said, &quot;We need not do anything, let us go away \r\nleaving it as it is. This is a field of battle. Our first soldier has given up \r\nhis body in the battlefield, this is our first casualty.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">So \r\nfar, our eyes had all been riveted on the corpse. And now, suddenly, someone \r\ncried, &quot;Ullas too has been wounded.&quot; His clothing was riddled with holes and \r\ncovered with marks of blood all over. We removed the clothing and examined him \r\nas far as we could. Barin said, &quot;Our first task now is to look after him. Who is \r\ngone is gone. Now he must be saved. We must therefore hurry back. There is no</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-31</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;time now to discuss what is to be done with the dead body. We have to return to \r\nCalcutta this very evening and consult the doctor.&quot; There was a special doctor, \r\nthe renowned Indu Mallick, so far as I remember, who looked after us terrorists.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\nstarted down the hill, with not a word on our lips, our throats all choked with \r\nemotion, our minds stunned. The picture of the English poet came to mind: &quot;Not a \r\ndrum was heard, not a funeral note...&quot; I once blurted out with a suppressed \r\nfeeling, &quot;We were five when we came, only four are now returning.&quot; Barin gave me \r\na rebuke, &quot;No sentimentality, please.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">As \r\nwe walked down, I wondered if the frightful noise had not reached the people \r\naround. There was of course nothing like a human habitation anywhere in the \r\nneighbourhood. But people did come from the surrounding country to gather fuel \r\nin the thickets. However, nothing untoward happened and we returned safely. \r\nBarin and Ullas left for Calcutta that very night.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nEarly next morning I looked towards Dighiriya and seemed to see some kites and \r\nvultures flying over the hill. That evening, or it was perhaps the next morning, \r\nUpen arrived with Barin. Ullas was all right, they said, there was nothing to \r\nfear about his wounds. Upen wanted to have a look at the place. We started again \r\nfor that holy spot, and arrived on the scene. Even from a distance we could see \r\nthe body lying exactly as we had left it, dressed exactly in the same way, there \r\nwas no change whatever. Nor was there a sign of decomposition, on this the third \r\nday. We came back just as we had gone, leaving the body as it was.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas decided to end this particular chapter here. Lest the police should get \r\nscent, it would be wiser to break up camp and get away. Whatever materials we \r\nhad in our possession for the manufacture of bombs were packed up in a couple of \r\ntrunks and dispatched to the shop of a friend in Deoghar. The trunks were left \r\nhidden among other things in the godown at the back of the shop. What happened \r\nto them afterwards I do not know.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-32</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBefore leaving for good, we felt a desire to have a last look at Dighiriya hill. \r\nIt was the fourth day after the event. We climbed to the spot. But how strange! \r\nWhere was the body? There was not a trace of it anywhere. We searched about here \r\nand there but did not find even a shred of clothing. Could it have been carried \r\naway by beasts? But without leaving the slightest trace? The whole thing \r\nremained a mystery.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAfterwards, many kinds of rumours got afloat. Some, they said, had seen him in \r\nthe streets of Calcutta, a Sannyasin was supposed to have come across the dead \r\nbody and revived it, and so on. To set my doubts at rest, I once asked Sri \r\nAurobindo if there could be any truth in these stories, and what exactly had \r\nhappened to Prafulla. Sri Aurobindo said, &quot;All that is sheer myth. Prafulla is \r\nreally dead&quot;.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me end this Deoghar episode with a little picture that still sticks in my \r\nmemory. Within about a mile from our camp there was a village called Rohini. \r\nThere in a garden-house—it was almost covered with jungle when we saw the \r\nplace—still lived Sri Aurobindo&#39;s mother, Swarnalata Devi. The garden was full \r\nof various kinds of trees and shrubs. The house was a large-sized cottage, \r\nthough the walls and flooring were of masonry work; it had an old dilapidated \r\nlook for want of repairs. The local people called it the Memsahib&#39;s Kothi, the \r\nLady&#39;s House. Everybody called Sri Aurobindo&#39;s mother a Memsahib, the \r\nFashionable Lady. At that time, she was out of her mind and always remained shut \r\nup in her rooms. We passed several times through the gardens by the house, but \r\nshe could not be seen.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe holy legend of sacred Deoghar would not be complete if I were not to mention \r\nin this context the name of Sri Aurobindo&#39;s maternal grandfather, Rishi \r\nRajnarayan, who is called the Grandfather of Indian Nationalism. We saw the \r\nhouse where he once lived, where Sri Aurobindo used to come often. It stood in \r\nan open compound—it may have been a bed of flowers once—now a white mansion \r\nwhere no one lived, left lonely as a dream.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-33</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b><font size=\"4\">v</font></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>SHYAMPUKUR</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">On \r\ncoming out of jail, Sri Aurobindo found shelter in the house of his maternal \r\nuncle, Krishna Kumar Mitra; the place was known as the <i>Sanjivani</i> Office. Bejoy \r\nNag and myself had got our release along with him, but we could not yet make up \r\nour minds as to what we should do next; we were still wandering about like \r\nfloating weeds or moss. But both of us used to go and see him every afternoon.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAbout this time, he went out on a tour for a short while in the Assam area in \r\nconnection with political work and he took the two of us along. I shall speak \r\nabout that on another occasion. On return from the tour he told me one day that \r\nhe had decided to bring out two weekly papers, one in English and the other in \r\nBengali. The premises were ready, the arrangements were practically complete and \r\nwe could both of us come and stay there. He asked me if I had any practice in \r\nwriting. I said that I had never written anything beyond college essays, but I \r\ncould try. &quot;Then get hold of an English newspaper tomorrow,&quot; he said, &quot;pick out \r\nsome of the important items of news, write them out in Bengali and bring them to \r\nme. I shall see.&quot; I did that the next day. He seemed to be pleased on seeing my \r\nwriting and said that it might do. He gave me the task of editing the news \r\ncolumns of his Bengali paper <i>Dharma.</i> Half of it would be articles, etc., and the \r\nrest would be news. Needless to say, I accepted the offer. He added that for \r\nthis work he would give me a stipend often rupees per month and that I should \r\nnot take that amiss. For, he explained, this was for him a matter of principle \r\nas he did not consider it fair to exact work without giving its due reward. That \r\nwas why he offered this token payment and I should accept it as part of my \r\npocket-expenses. This was the first time I was going to earn any money.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">So \r\nwe came to stay at Shyampukur, on the Dharma and Karmayogin premises. There were \r\ntwo flats or sections. In the front part were set up the press and the office, \r\nand at</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;the back, in the inner appartments, so to say, we set up our household. \r\nThere were three or four rooms on the first floor and downstairs there were the \r\nkitchen and stores and things.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSri Aurobindo used to come here every afternoon from his uncle&#39;s place. He would \r\nfirst look to the work in the office and then come to our rooms. Till about ten \r\nin the evening he used to spend his time with us.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nis here that began our true education, and perhaps, nay certainly, our \r\ninitiation too. Three of us were permanent residents, Bejoy Nag, Suresh \r\nChakravarti and myself. But there turned up practically every day Ramchandra \r\nMajum-dar, Biren Ghosh and Saurin Bose (a brother-in-law of Sri Aurobindo) who \r\ncame with us to Pondicherry and stayed here many long years. A frequent visitor \r\nwas Ganen Tagore of Ramakrishna Mission who acted as the link with Sister \r\nNivedita. There were a few others who came once in a while. Sri Aurobindo had \r\nhis own novel method of education. It did not proceed by the clock, nor \r\naccording to a fixed routine or curriculum, that is, there was nothing of the \r\nschool about it. It went simply and naturally along lines that seemed to do \r\nwithout rules. The student did not realise that he was being educated at all. Is \r\nthere not something very similar about his <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana</i>? Of fixed rules and processes \r\ndetermined in advance there is none; it moves by different paths and along \r\ndifferent lines, depending on the time and circumstances; its form and movement \r\nvary according to the individual seeker. Even the seeker hardly seems to realise \r\nthat he is doing any <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana.</i> Does a fish living in water know that it has \r\nlearnt to swim?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">By \r\ngiving me that work of editing the news he made me slowly grow into a journalist \r\nunderwriter. Next there came to me naturally an urge to write articles. Sri \r\nAurobindo was pleased with the first Bengali article I wrote. Only, he made a \r\nslight change at one place, I remember. I had written &quot;In the past, India held \r\nto the illusionist view. But in the present age, she cannot afford to reject \r\nlife and the physical world; these she must accept.&quot; He corrected the first \r\nphrase to &quot;At a particular stage in our past.&quot; This my first article</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-35</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;was \r\npublished in the 11th issue of <i>Dharma</i> dated 15th November, 1909. I was twenty \r\nthen. Some of my other articles came out in Dharma afterwards. My writings in \r\nEnglish began much later.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow we started collecting a few books. At the very outset he suggested two \r\ntides: <i>Carlyle&#39;s French Revolution and Green&#39;s History of the English People,</i> \r\nperhaps in consideration of our taste for history and revolution. Arrangements \r\nsoon came to be made, all of a sudden and it seemed as if by accident, for our \r\ncoaching in Hindi as well. A Marwari gentleman who used to help Sri Aurobindo in \r\nhis journalistic work had a Pundit as his protege to whom he had to pay 70 or 75 \r\nrupees per month as an honorarium. So he asked Sri Aurobindo if instead of the \r\nPundit being paid for nothing he could not be made to give some service. It was \r\naccordingly agreed that the Pundit would come and teach us Hindi for an hour \r\nevery day. He was a Brahmin of the rigid orthodox type. But once in the grip of \r\niconoclasts like us, his orthodox habits were soon broken to bits. For instance, \r\nhe was made to drink water from taps in place of holy Ganges water brought from \r\nthe river by a carrier; he even accepted to eat sweets obtained from the market \r\ninstead of living entirely on his own cooking. Hindi has now embarked on its \r\ncareer of empire and perhaps it was in anticipation of this that Sri Aurobindo \r\nwanted to get us ready from that early date. But the Muse of Hindi did not \r\nprosper much in our hands.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas here at Shyampukur itself that Suresh Chandra had his first inspiration for \r\npoetry.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOne day, in the midst of all this, Sri Aurobindo asked me all of a sudden if I \r\nhad any desire to learn languages—any of the European languages, French for \r\nexample. I was a little surprised at the question, for I had not observed in me \r\nany such ambition or inclination. None the less, I replied that I would like to. \r\nThat is how I began my French. He said, &quot;At the National College (National \r\nCouncil of Education, now Jadavpur University) they have got the books I loaned \r\nto them. You take this note from me. They will give you a volume of Moliere&#39;s \r\nWorks.&quot; I started right away with </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-36</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\na play from this volume, <i>L&#39; Avare.</i> At several \r\nplaces in the margins he wrote out in his own hand the English equivalents for \r\nmy convenience. I still possess that volume with the marginal notes in his \r\nhandwriting.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSri Aurobindo himself began about this time his study of the Tamil language, \r\nwith a Tamil gentleman who used to come to the <i>Karmayogin</i> office. A rather \r\namusing incident has been narrated in this connection by Suresh Chakravarti. You \r\nshould read Suresh Chakravarti&#39;s account along with mine in order to get a more \r\ncomplete picture of our life at Shyampukur. His Reminiscences (in Bengali) have \r\njust been published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. While taking up the study of \r\nTamil, Sri Aurobindo did not have the faintest suspicion that he might have to \r\ngo to Tamil Nad one day and make that his permanent home.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nHere in Shyampukur and about the same time, there began for us another kind of \r\neducation, another type of experience, a rather strange experience I should say. \r\nEverybody knows about automatic writing, that is, where the hand of the writer \r\ngoes on automatically writing without any kind of impulsion, desire or direction \r\non his own part; he remains neutral and lets himself go.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nis said that through this kind of writing are brought down spirits or bodiless \r\nentities. The Western savant may say that all this is a play of the subconscient \r\nmind as the waking mind then abdicates. But that is a matter for argument. Let \r\nme here describe what actually happened. Sri Aurobindo showed us, or rather made \r\nus hear, not examples of automatic writing but of automatic speech. About eight \r\nin the evening, we would take our seats around him. The lights were put out and \r\nall was silent. We kept still for a while. Then slowly there came a voice from \r\nSri Aurobindo. It was clearly not his own voice, there were many voices each of \r\na different character and tone. The voice itself would say who it was. Some of \r\nthem I remember very well. Once someone came and said many fine things about \r\neducation, about literature, about our country. We got eager to know his name. \r\nAfter putting us off for a while he finally gave out </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-37</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">that he was Bankimchandra. \r\nThe talks were in English. He had used a word, &quot;obfuscated&quot;, and as none of us \r\nknew the meaning of this unusual word we asked him the meaning. His reply was, \r\n&quot;In our days we knew better English than you do.&quot; Another day, somebody else \r\nappeared and immediately announced himself in a terrible voice, &quot;I am Dan ton! \r\nTerror! Red Terror!&quot; He went on discoursing on the need and utility of all that \r\nbloodshed of the French Revolution. Another who came introduced himself thus, &quot;I \r\nam Theramenes.&quot; Theramenes was a political leader of ancient Greece. He spoke in \r\na calm and subdued tone and gave us a lesson in political matters. So many \r\nothers came like this, day after day, and taught us many things on various \r\nsubjects. Someone even raised the question of Hindu-Muslim unity and offered us \r\na solution as well.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nWho are these beings? Or, what are they? Do supra-physical beings exist in fact? \r\nAnd do they come and disclose their identity before men in this manner? It is a \r\nvery obscure and complicated affair indeed. Supraphysical beings do exist. But \r\nthe supraphysical world is not of a single piece. There are worlds upon worlds \r\nin a regular series, from the most gross to the most subtle; above the physical \r\nis the subtle-physical, above that is life, and above life mind, the series \r\ncontinues above mind also; and in each of these there are several layers or \r\nplanes. Any of the beings from any of these worlds or planes can manifest \r\nhimself. But he has to manifest through the instrumentality of the human medium, \r\nthrough the substance of the medium&#39;s mind, life and body. Therefore he cannot \r\neasily manifest his real nature or true being, he has to gather his materials \r\nfrom the medium&#39;s own substance. Very often it is the make-up of the medium that \r\npredominates and the being that manifests preserves very little of his own. But \r\nit may on the other hand be quite otherwise. All will depend on the capacity of \r\nthe medium. With an impure or unfit medium there will be a greater possibility \r\nof charlatanism and falsehood.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nmany cases it is not the true soul of a dead person that comes; what comes is \r\nsome portion of him, some fragments</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-38</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">of his mind, life or subtle body that may \r\nhave survived in the corresponding worlds or in some other worlds. By animating \r\nthese parts and using them as vehicles, some other being or entity or force may \r\ncome, as if a representative of the whole man. Or else it might even happen that \r\nan entirely different being presents himself under a false name. There is really \r\nno end to the complexities that may arise in these supraphysical worlds. There \r\nmay also be a medium who knows how to keep under his control the action and \r\nmodality of such appearances, that is to say, determine in advance the \r\nparticular beings or types of beings that will come or will not come, the kind \r\nof things they will say or will not be allowed to say. Or he may, if he chooses, \r\nopen the g^tes for anyone to appear, simply in order that he may watch and \r\nexamine what takes place. Needless to add that when Sri Aurobindo made himself a \r\nmedium, something like this used to happen.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">As \r\na record of one of his experiments along this line, Sri Aurobindo himself has \r\nsaid or rather left in writing something that ve all know. The book entitled \r\nYogic <i>S<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhan </i>was written entirely in this manner through his hand by somebody \r\nelse. And judging by the fact that at the time of the writing Sri Aurobindo had \r\nseen the subtle presence of Rammohan Roy around, it may be inferred that the \r\nbook was written or inspired by Rammohan Roy. Sri Aurobindo has likewise told us \r\nthat the subtle being of Vivekananda came to him in Alipore Jail to give him \r\ncertain instructions.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nMeanwhile there came to us running, one afternoon, a young man—Satish Sarkar—to \r\ngive Sri Aurobindo the news that Shamsul Alam, the Police Inspector who had been \r\nthe mainstay of Government in the Alipore bomb case, had just been shot down, on \r\nthe steps of the High Court, by Bifen (Birendranath Dattagupta). He added that \r\nhe too had been with Biren, but had managed to escape, although he doubted if \r\nBiren could have escaped. Biren actually got arrested and was hanged. Satish \r\nhimself absconded. Afterwards he came to us in Pondicherry and stayed here for \r\nsome time, perhaps for a year or so. We christened him &quot;Junior</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-39</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSinner&quot;—as he was, as it were, a younger brother to us. But he developed into a \r\n<i>m<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>y<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>vadin</i> (illusionist) and finally left us as he could not reconcile himself to \r\nour viewpoint. Afterwards he became a <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nnyasin.</i> He has an ashram and receives \r\nan allowance from Bengal Government as a political sufferer.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOur life in Shyampukur went on in its regular course, when, one evening as we \r\ngathered for our usual stance, our friend Ramchandra suddenly appeared with the \r\nnews that the Government had decided to arrest Sri Aurobindo again; everything \r\nwas ready, he said, and it might even be that very evening. Sri Aurobindo \r\nlistened to him in silence. Then he said, &quot;Come, let us move out just now.&quot; He \r\nhad received the Divine Command, as he told us later, to leave immediately for \r\nChandernagore. He came out of the house and made straight for the river-side, \r\naccompanied by Ramchandra, Biren and Suresh Chakravarti. Suresh has given an \r\naccurate and full account of what happened next, and I shall not repeat that \r\nhere. You should read it in his Reminiscences.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe story of this sudden exit or disappearance of Sri Aurobindo has appeared in \r\nseveral versions, with many distortions and not without a touch of colour. For \r\ninstance, someone has said that it was on Nivedita&#39;s advice and at her \r\ninsistence or request that Sri Aurobindo took shelter in French territory. \r\nAnother has given a vivid cinema-like picture of how Sri Aurobindo had to jump a \r\nwall, how he lost his way among the narrow lanes and finally landed on \r\nsomebody&#39;s doorsteps and the dramatic dialogue that ensued, and so on. But all \r\nthis is sheer myth and romance. Sri Aurobindo himself has left his record on the \r\npoint, and his companions of that evening have also written out the true facts.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThose of us who were left behind continued to run the two papers for some time; \r\nNivedita was of particular help in regard to the English journal. But \r\nafterwards, we too found it impossible to carry on and our pleasant home had to \r\nbe broken up. For news came that the police were after our blood; it became \r\nimperative therefore that we too should disperse and go into hiding. I have said \r\nthat there were three </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-40</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\npermanent residents in that house. Of these three, Suresh Chakravarti, at Ganen Tagore&#39;s instance, disappeared among the Tagore family, in \r\nthe house of Gaganendranath Tagore. Bejoy removed to a friend&#39;s in Calcutta \r\nitself. And I decided to leave for an obscure little village in distant Barisal; \r\nthere I put up with a friend of mine, Satish Chandra Sengupta who afterwards \r\nbecame professor of philosophy at the City College in Calcutta.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat expedition of mine was not less romantic than any Antarctic trip. First I \r\nwent by train; next came the ferry steamer that carried me across rivers; then I \r\nhad a country-boat that paddled along the little channels of East Bengal; and \r\nfinally I had to walk the last lap of my journey before reaching the \r\ndestination, Kumeru.<sup>2</sup> Perhaps I shall tell you about that romantic \r\nepisode in more detail later if there is luck. I spent a couple of months there, \r\nenjoying all kinds of delicious dishes and fine hospitality and lorded it over \r\nin the football fields out there. Then I got the news that the time had come for \r\nstarting on my travels again—this time on a far distant trip, to the verge of \r\nCape Comorin almost.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n1 If &quot;Sumeru&quot; could stand for the North Pole, surely &quot;Kumeru&quot; has a\r\nclaim on the South. - Translator</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-41</font></p><hr>\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b>V I</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>PONDICHERRY (1)</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry<sup>1</sup> and took shelter here. We might \r\nsay of course from another point of view that it was he who gave shelter to \r\nPondicherry within his own consciousness. But why this city in particular? There \r\nis indeed the usual view that he retired into French territory to escape the \r\nwrath of the British bureaucracy. But actually, all he wanted was to find a \r\nquiet spot where he might give himself to his own work undisturbed.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe place was so quiet that we can hardly imagine now what it was really like. \r\nIt was not quiet, it was actually dead; they used to call it a dead city. There \r\nwas hardly any traffic, particularly in the area where we lived, and after dusk \r\nthere was not a soul stirring. It is no wonder they said &quot;Sri Aurobindo has \r\nfixed upon a cemetery for his sadhana.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas a cemetery indeed. Whilst the Indian nationalist movement had been flooding \r\nthe whole country, nothing of that regenerating flood could find an entry here, \r\nexcept for one or two individuals who had felt a touch. It was like a backwater \r\nof the sea, a stagnant pool by the shore. There was here no such thing as a \r\npublic life or a youth movement or any kind of collective effort, or an \r\nexperiment in educational reform—there was no sign whatsoever of an awakening to \r\nlife.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">A \r\ncemetery it was no doubt, but one with its full complement of ghouls.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nthe first rank of these ghouls were the ruffian bands. Such creatures can appear \r\nonly in a highly tamasic environment. For, the greater the depth of inertia the \r\nmore is the need for keen rajasic excitement followed immediately by the silence \r\nof sleep. Pondicherry of those days had a still more notorious reputation for \r\nits cheap wine-shops and its rowdy tipsies. Of this type of ghouls there was a \r\nregular invasion from outside every week-end.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"left\">\r\n1 in 1910</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe ruffian bands—known locally as bands in French —were a peculiar \r\ninstitution now almost broken up. The French regime in Pondicherry was supposed \r\nto be in theory a reign of liberty, equality and fraternity. But in actual fact, \r\nit was the feudalism of pre-Revolution France that held sway here. Or perhaps it \r\nwas something worse, namely, the arbitrary rule of three or four high officials \r\nand rich men of ill-gotten means. The bands were in their pay and they were \r\nthere to do their bidding; the police had neither the will nor the power to \r\nintervene. On certain occasions, during the campaigns for political elections, \r\ncomplete anarchy seemed to reign in Pondicherry, while rioting and murder \r\ncontinued for days on end and blood flowed freely. People would not dare stir \r\nout of their houses, especially after dark. We were not openly involved in \r\npolitics, but some of our friends were. And Sri Aurobindo would sometimes send \r\nout some of us to meet them, even after nightfall and on purpose.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe local people marvelled at our dauntless courage.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">*</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">* *</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">These ruffian bands—these ghouls I was going to say— had turned against us too \r\non more than one occasion. Let me explain in a little more detail.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSoon after Sri Aurobindo came, he realised that a firm seat must be established \r\nhere, an unshakable foundation for his <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana</i> and\r\n<i>siddhi,</i> for the path and the \r\ngoal. He was to build up on the ever-shifting sands of the shore a firm and \r\nstrong edifice, a Temple of God. Have we not read in the Puranas and other \r\nscriptures that whenever and wherever a sage or a Rishi sat down to his \r\nmeditation and sadhana, there rushed upon him at once a host of evil spirits to \r\nbreak up his work? They seemed to have a special liking for Rishi&#39;s flesh.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThose who tried most to stop Sri Aurobindo from settling down and were ever on \r\nthe alert to move him from his seat were the British authorities. The British \r\nGovernment in India could never accept that Sri Aurobindo had come away to \r\nFrench territory for carrying on his yoga. Religion and </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-43</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nspirituality, these to \r\nthem were a mere subterfuge. They thought they knew what Sri Aurobindo was—the \r\none most dangerous man in all India, the source of all the trouble. Pondicherry \r\nwas the place from where were supplied the necessary instructions and advice and \r\nperhaps even the pistols and other weapons. Here was the brain-centre of the \r\nIndian independence movement. That Sri Aurobindo had been the mainspring of \r\nIndian independence they had been told by their life-instinct, although the \r\nsuperficial sense in which they understood it was not obviously the whole truth.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">At \r\none time, they made up their minds that Sri Aurobindo should be kidnapped in a \r\ncar with the help of one of the chiefs of the local &quot;bandes&quot;. We had to patrol \r\nall night the house in which Sri Aurobindo lived, lest there should be a sudden \r\nattack. I gather the ringleader behind this move showed repentance later and \r\nsaid that to act against a holy man and yogi was a great sin and that a curse \r\nmight fall on the evildoer himself.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNevertheless, force having failed they now tried fraud. An attempt was made to \r\nframe a trumped-up charge at law. Some of the local &quot;ghouls&quot; were made to help \r\nforge the documents—some photographs and maps and charts along with a few \r\nletters—which were to prove that we had been engaged in a conspiracy for dacoity \r\nand murder. The papers were left in a well in the compound of one of our men, \r\nthen they were &quot;discovered&quot; after a search by the police. The French police had \r\neven entered Sri Aurobindo&#39;s residence for a search. But when their Chief found \r\nthere were Latin and Greek books lying about on his desk, he was so taken aback \r\nthat he could only blurt out, &quot;II sait du latin, il sait du grec!&quot; —&quot;He knows \r\nLatin, he knows Greek!&quot;—and then he left with all his men. How could a man who \r\nknew Latin and Greek ever commit any mischief?</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nfact, the French Government had not been against us, indeed they helped us as \r\nfar as they could. We were looked upon as their guests and as political \r\nrefugees, it was a matter of honour for them to give us their protection. And \r\nwhere</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-44</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; \" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;it is a question of honour, the French as a race are willing to risk \r\nanything: they still fight duels in France on a point of honour. But at the same \r\ntime, they had their friendship, the <i>entente cordiale</i>, with Britain to maintain, \r\nand it is this that got them into a dilemma.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; \" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; \" align=\"center\">\r\n<font face=\"Arial Unicode MS\" size=\"5\">&#8258;</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\naddition to force and fraud, the British Government did not hesitate to make use \r\nof temptation as well. They sent word to Sri Aurobindo which they followed up by \r\na messenger, to say that if he were to return to British India, they would not \r\nmind. They would indeed be happy to provide him with a nice bungalow in the \r\nquiet surroundings of a hill station, Darjeeling, where he could live in \r\ncomplete freedom and devote himself to his spiritual practices without let or \r\nhindrance. Needless to add, this was an ointment spread out to catch a fly and \r\nSri Aurobindo refused the invitation with a &quot;No, thank you.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAfterwards came a more serious attack, perhaps the one most fraught with danger. \r\nThe First World War was on. India had been seething with discontent and things \r\nwere not going too well abroad on the European front. The British Government now \r\nbrought pressure on the French: they must do something drastic about their \r\npolitical refugees. Either they should hand them over to the British, or else \r\nlet them be deported out of India. The French Government accordingly proposed \r\nthat they would find room for us in Algeria. There we could live in peace; they \r\nwould see to our passage so that we need have no worry on that score. If on the \r\nother hand we were to refuse this offer, there might be danger: the British \r\nauthorities might be allowed to seize us forcibly.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\ncan recall very well that scene. Sri Aurobindo was seated in his room in what \r\nwas later called &quot;Guest House&quot;, Rue Francois Martin. We too had come. Two or \r\nthree of the Tamil nationalist leaders who had sought refuge in Pondicherry came \r\nin and told Sri Aurobindo about the Algeria </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-45</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">offer and also gave a hint that they \r\nwere agreeable. Sri Aurobindo paused a little and then he said, in a quiet clear \r\ntone, &quot;I do not budge from here.&quot; To them this came as a bolt from the blue; \r\nthey had never expected anything like this. In Algeria there would be freedom \r\nand peace, whereas here we lived in constant danger and uncertainty. But now \r\nthey were helpless. Sri Aurobindo had spoken and they could hardly act \r\notherwise. They had no alternative but to accept the decision, though with a \r\nheavy heart.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe story of Danton comes to mind: Danton the leader of the French Revolution. \r\nFor a long time he had been on the crest of the wave of revolution, a leader \r\nrevered by all. The wheel of his fortune was now on the downward turn and \r\nanother party, the extremists, had reached the crest. Orders were out for his \r\narrest, which meant the guillotine. His friends rushed to him to give advice. \r\n&quot;Flee, Danton, flee,&quot; they said, &quot;there is yet time, flee.&quot; Danton was unmoved \r\nand he replied in a calm and quiet manner. &quot;That cannot be,&quot; he said. &quot;On \r\nn&#39;emporte pas le pays a lasemelle de ses souliers&quot;—&quot;You cannot carry the country \r\non the heels of your shoes.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe Ashram has of course been subjected to fresh attacks later, and to some of \r\nthese many of you have been witness. But by then the Ashram had its foundations \r\nwell laid and the edifice had risen high. But in the days of which I have been \r\nspeaking there was no such thing as a foundation yet. Today the Ashram stands \r\nlike a banyan tree with head erect and branches spread all over; its body is \r\nsolid and immovable, the roots go deep and strong and firm., An attack may \r\ndislodge or even break a few leaves and branches, but nothing more serious can \r\nhappen. But in those days there was a possibility that the whole tree might get \r\nuprooted and such attempts too were there. The whole endeavour then was to find \r\na standing-room. Sri Aurobindo wanted, as the Vedic Rishis before him had done, \r\nto find a footing where there was none, <i>apade pada-dhatave.</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-46</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nthose days there was in the College de France in Pondicherry a French professor \r\nnamed Jouveau Dubreuil—later on he became quite a well-known name—who had been \r\nengaged in research in ancient history and archaeology. We knew him quite well. \r\nHe was at that time working on the early history of Pondicherry. From a study of \r\nthe ancient documents and inscriptions he discovered that the city of \r\nPondicherry, which I have called a city of the dead, had at one time been known \r\nas a city of the Veda, veda-puri. That is to say, it had a centre of Vedic \r\nlearning. And this Vedic college, our professor found from ancient maps and \r\nother clues, was located exactly on the spot where the main building of our \r\nAshram now stands.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAccording to ancient tradition, the Rishi Agastya came to the South to spread \r\nthe Vedic lore and the Aryan discipline. His seems to have been the first \r\nproject for the infusion of Aryan culture into the Dravidian civilization. Many \r\nof you may here recall the lines of Hemchandra the Bengali poet:</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nArise, O Mountain, arise,</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAgastya has returned;</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">A \r\nnew sign has been floated,</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThere&#39;s a racing flood of Light;</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAnd lo, the sky holds a new splendor of the Sun</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nHold this light, O Mountain,</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat it spread a new Dawn over the land;</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nMay it hold the new Knowledge,</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nMay it acquire a new life;</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nMay a new Dream come to us all.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nRaise, O Mountain, your blue dragon-mass.</p>\r\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe legend goes that as Agastya journeyed South, the Vindhya mountains bent low \r\nto give him passage, and that they have remained low ever since and would \r\ncontinue in that posture until the Rishi came back. In connection with this \r\nstory about the Vedic Rishi Agastya, one is almost automatically reminded of the \r\nendeavour of Sri Aurobindo. Like Agastya he journeyed South and set up a \r\npermanent seat</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-47</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;here to emanate a new Light—he was even known in these parts as Uttara Yogi, the Yogi of the North. In his lines of work and sadhana too we find \r\na strange affinity with Agastya&#39;s effort, at least in one respect. Agastya had \r\nbeen for years driving deep into the earth, in the abyss of the subconscient, \r\nfor he nourished both the worlds, earth and heaven; he along with his companion \r\nLopamudra had been striving for victory here upon earth itself, in their batde \r\nand the sacrifice with its hundred fiery tongues, j<i>ay<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>vedatra\r\n<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>atan<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font>tham<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>jim, \r\nyat samya<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ</font>c<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> mithunavabhyaj<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>va;</i> for the effort that had the protection of the \r\ngods could never fail, <i>na mrs<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> <font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>r<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ntam yadavanti dev<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>h</i>. To carry the effort of \r\nthe Vedic Rishis to a greater fulfillment, to make the victory complete in a \r\nhundred, nay, in a thousand ways, <i><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>atan<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font>tham,</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<i>sahasran<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font>tham,</i>—this precisely was Sri Aurobindo&#39;s aim.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font face=\"Arial Unicode MS\" size=\"5\">&#8258;</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSri Aurobindo was in Pondicherry for forty years. The first few years were spent \r\nin establishing a seat: he had to select a suitable spot and make a permanent \r\nabode where he could work undisturbed. This point about selecting a &quot;seat&quot; \r\noccurs in the story of all great spiritual aspirants and in all the disciplines. \r\nThe Tantriks had need of their &quot;seat of five skulls&quot;,<i> pa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ</font>camund<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font></i>. \r\nRamakrishna had his <i>pa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ</font>cavat<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#299;</font></i> the \r\ngrove of five banyans. But why this insistence on five? Perhaps the number stood \r\nfor the five main elements in man and the five worlds that constitute the \r\nuniverse,—what the Upani-shads term body, life, mind, supermind and spirit. The \r\nVedas too speak of <i>pa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ</font>caksiti</i>, the five abodes, <i>\r\npa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ</font>cakrsti,</i> the \r\nfive fields of culture, <i>p<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ncajana</i>, the five births or worlds. \r\nSri Krishna&#39;s conch of <i>pa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ</font>cajanya</i> may well occur to the mind. Lord Buddha too \r\nwhen he took his seat under the Bodhi tree is supposed to have said, &quot;I do not \r\nrise from this seat until my aim is attained, even though the body dry up or \r\nfall&quot; (:<i>ih<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>sane\r\n<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>usyatu me <font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>ar</i><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><i>&#299;</i></font><i>ram</i>).</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe site once chosen and the seat established, Sri Aurobindo had now to prepare \r\nthe ground. There were, as</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-48</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nhave said, shifting sands all around symbolising a changing world where all is \r\nin a state of flux, <i>yat ki<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ca jagaty<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>m jagat.</i> All that had to be cleared and \r\nfirm ground reached. He spent many long years, even as Agastya had done, in this \r\nspade-work. For he was to erect a huge edifice, a Temple dedicated to God. He \r\nhad once dreamed of a Temple for Bhawani, Bhawani Mandir, where he would install \r\nMother India. Now too he desired the same thing, a Temple for Bhawani, a \r\nTemple-city in fact.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat needed a solid, firm and immovable foundation. For this he had to dig into \r\nthe farthest abyss, to fix, one might say, the &quot;five supporting pillars&quot;. All \r\nthis he did single-handed during the first four years, from 1910 to 1914. Then \r\nthe Mother came. And although that was for a short time, it was then that the \r\nplans were clearly laid for the thing that was to be and the shape it was to \r\ntake,—this New Creation of theirs.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe work of building the foundation took him till 1920. From 1920 to 1926 he \r\nworked with the Mother in giving it strength, testing it and making it fit and \r\nadequate for carrying the future load. In 1926 there began the construction of \r\nthe superstructure, and along with that proceeded the work of installing the \r\npresiding Deity. This work of installation took twelve years to complete and the \r\nnext twelve were given to making it permanent. His task done, Sri Aurobindo \r\nstepped aside, for a new task, for taking up another line of work. But to this \r\nfoundation he lent the entire strength of his bare back, that his work and new \r\ncreation should stand\r\nimmortal and with its head erect.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font face=\"Arial Unicode MS\" size=\"5\">&#8258;</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAll that Sri Aurobindo had wanted to do with his body was to install permanently \r\nin an earthly form the Mother Divine. This Temple we call the Ashram has grown \r\nthrough the Power and Influence of her physical Presence, in order that she may \r\nmanifest anew. The Divine Mother of the worlds has installed herself here. In \r\nthe golden Temple </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-49</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nthe living Goddess is manifest with all her Powers of \r\nrealisation. She has herself taken charge of the Work now. And the power of her \r\nGrace is working towards the goal that the entire earth and the race of men grow \r\ninto a living manifestation of Herself.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-50</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>VII</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>PONDICHERRY (2)</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nhave said that this cemetery that was Pondicherry had been infested by ghosts \r\nand goblins. These had a special category known ordinarily as spies. The word \r\n&quot;spy&quot; carries with it, as you know, an association of all that is low and \r\ndisgusting and unspeakable, things of dark import. But did you know that the \r\nword is pure Sanskrit? It was <i>spa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>a </i>in the old Vedic language. The Vedic Rishi \r\ndescribes Indra as sending out these<i> spa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>a</i> to trace the movements of his \r\nenemies, the forces of evil that clustered round the god. So, the Vedic gods had \r\ntheir spies, just as the modern British government had theirs, though of course \r\nthere was bound to be a certain difference. These government spies tried to \r\ncollect information as to who came to our houses, who were the people who met \r\nus, what places we frequented and how our guests spent their time. That was why \r\nMotilal (Motilal Roy of the Pravartak group in Chandernagore) when he first came \r\nto Pondicherry had to come dressed as an Anglo-Indian, and he never entered our \r\nhouse, the Raghavan House of today, except by the backdoor and under cover of \r\ndarkness after nightfall.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nfact, all of us on our first arrival here had to come under false names, the \r\nonly exception being Moni (Suresh Chakravarti). He did not have to, for he had \r\nnot been one of the marked men like the rest of us and his name had not been \r\nassociated with any political trouble, as he was too young for that at the time. \r\nAnd in any case it would not have been wise to give him a false name to save him \r\nfrom the clutches of the law, for it was decided to rent our houses in his name \r\nand it was he again who was to act on our behalf in all official matters. Sri \r\nAurobindo called himself Jatindranath Mitra, though only for a short while. It \r\nwas under this pseudonym that he sailed from Calcutta as a passenger on the \r\n&quot;Dupleix&quot; and had presented himself before the doctor for the medical \r\nexamination. The fun of it</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">was that the doctor had no suspicion as to whom he \r\nwas going to examine, although he did exclaim on hearing Sri Aurobindo&#39;s accent, \r\n&quot;You seem to speak English very well!&quot; to which Sri Aurobindo replied, &quot;Yes, I \r\nwas in England for some time.&quot; Some time indeed—fourteen years! My name was Manindranath Roy, and eventually I came to be known as Monsieur Roy; some of my \r\nlocal friends of those days still know me as such and call me by that name. Roy \r\nand &quot;Sacra&quot; (that is, short for Chakravarti in French) became quite well-known \r\nfigures both in town and elsewhere on account of their football. Bejoy was \r\nBankim Basak—Basak for short—the noted half-back in our football team.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe British Indian police set up a regular station here, with a rented house and \r\nseveral permanent men. They were of course plainclothes men, for they had no \r\nright to wear uniform within French territory. They kept watch, as I have said, \r\nboth on our visitors and guests as well as ourselves. Soon they got into a habit \r\nof sitting on the pavement round the corner next to our house in groups of three \r\nor four. They chatted away the whole day and only now and again took down \r\nsomething in their note-books. What kind of notes they took we found out later \r\non, when, after India had become independent and the French had left, some of \r\nthese notes could be secured from the Police files and the confidential records \r\nof Government. Strange records, these: the police gave reports all based on pure \r\nfancy, they made up all sorts of stories at their sweet will. As they found it \r\ndifficult to gather correct and precise information, they would just fabricate \r\nthe news.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNevertheless, something rather awesome did happen once. We had by then shifted \r\nto the present Guest House. There were two new arrivals. One was a relative.of \r\nBejoy&#39;s, Nagen Nag, who had managed to get away from his family and had come to \r\nstay here on the pretext of a change of air for his illness. The other was a \r\nfriend and acquaintance of his who had come with him as a companion and help; \r\nhis name was Birendra Roy.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOne day, this Birendra suddenly shaved his head. Moni </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"left\">\r\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-52</font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nsaid he too would have his \r\nhead shaved, just because Birendra had done it. That very day, or it was perhaps \r\nthe day after, there occurred a regular scene. We had as usual taken our seats \r\naround Sri Aurobindo in the afternoon. Suddenly, Biren stood up and shouted, &quot;Do \r\nyou know who I am? You may not believe it, but I am a spy, a spy of the British \r\npolice. I can&#39;t keep it to myself any longer. I must speak out, I must make the \r\nconfession before you.&quot; With this he fell at Sri Aurobindo&#39;s feet. We were \r\nstunned, almost dumbfounded. As we kept wondering if this could be true, or was \r\nall false, perhaps a hallucination or some other illusion—<i>m<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>y<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>, nu matibhramo \r\nnu</i>—Biren started, again, &quot;Oh, you do not believe me? Then let me show you.&quot; He \r\nentered the next room, opened his trunk, drew out a hundred rupee note and \r\nshowed it to us. &quot;See, here is the proof. Where could I have got all this money? \r\nThis is the reward of my evil deed. Never, I shall never do this work again. I \r\ngive my word to you, I ask your forgiveness....&quot; No words came to our lips, all \r\nof us kept silent and still.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis is how it came about. Biren had shaved his head in order that the police \r\nspies might spot him out as their man from the rest of us by the sign of the \r\nshaven head. But they were nonplussed when they found Moni too with a shaven \r\nhead. And Biren began to suspect that Moni, or perhaps the whole lot of us, had \r\nfound out his secret and that Moni had shaved on purpose. So, partly out of fear \r\nand partly from true repentance, for the most part no doubt by the pressure of \r\nsome other Force, he was compelled to make his confession.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAfter this incident, the whole atmosphere of the house got a little disturbed. \r\nWe were serious and worried. How was it possible for such a thing to happen? An \r\nenemy could find his entry into our apartments, an enemy who was one of \r\nourselves? What should be done? Bejoy was furious, and it was a job to keep him \r\nfrom doing something drastic. However, within a few days, Biren left of his own \r\naccord and we were left in peace. I hear he afterwards joined the Great War and \r\nwas sent to Mesopotamia with the Indian army.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nDuring the Great War, Bejoy had his spell of bad luck.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-53</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat makes another story. I have said the British Indian police had set up a \r\npost here. It was placed in charge of a senior official, no less a person than a \r\nSuperintendent of Police. He was a Muslim, named Abdul Karim if I remember \r\naright, a very efficient and clever man, like our old friend Shamsul Alam of the \r\nCalcutta Police. We used to go to a friend&#39;s house very often, particularly \r\nmyself. This gentleman too, we found, was a visitor there and we used to meet \r\nhim as if by accident. He was very nice and polite in his manners. He even \r\nexpressed a desire once to have Sri Aurobindo&#39;<i>s dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an</i> so that he might pay his \r\nrespects. Sri Aurobindo did not refuse, he was given the permission. The \r\ngentleman arrived with a huge bouquet by way of a present and had the <i>dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an.</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe three of us, namely Moni, Saurin and myself, who had returned to Bengal \r\nafter an interval of four years, had to hasten back here almost immediately \r\nowing to the outbreak of War, for there was a chance that old criminals like us \r\nwould again be shut up in jail. As we had come back, Bejoy said he wished to go, \r\nfor he too wanted to have a change. He would return after paying a short visit \r\nto his people. He said he had been away for so long. But the question was: would \r\nit be all right for him to go? What did the French Government think? What would \r\nthey advise? It was informally ascertained from the Governor that he did not \r\nconsider it advisable to leave here, for the intentions of the British \r\nauthorities were not above suspicion. Abdul Karim too was sounded as to their \r\nintentions. He said the British Government meant us no harm, for he was well \r\naware that we were saintly people engaged in <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana</i> alone, and so on. But Sri \r\nAurobindo had serious doubts. Bejoy however was a headstrong man. He got eager \r\nto go and set foot on British territory, that is, offer his neck to the \r\nscaffold. And that is what happened. The moment he crossed the border and \r\nentered British Indian territory, he found the police waiting. They put him in \r\nhandcuffs, and for the next five years, that is, till after the War was over, he \r\nwas held in detention. Once he had managed to get away earlier with</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-54</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nonly a year&#39;s custody in jail; this time it was not so easy.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut why dwell on this dark tale of the lawless wilds and the demons and beasts. \r\nTheir ranks are still powerful and I do not wish to add to their strength by \r\ntalking about them. Now let me say a few nice things, about some good people, \r\nfor such people too had their abode here. At the very outset I should speak of \r\nthe Five Good Men. It is quite possible that there was a law in French India \r\nthat applied to foreigners. But now the law was made stringently applicable to \r\nrefugees from our own country. It was laid down that all foreigners, that is, \r\nanyone who was not a French citizen, wanting to come and stay here for some time \r\nmust be in possession of a certificate from a high Government official of the \r\nplace from where he came, such as a Magistrate in British India, to the effect \r\nthat he was a well-known person and that there was nothing against him; in other \r\nwords, he must be in possession of a &quot;good-conduct&quot; certificate. Or else he must \r\nproduce a letter to the same effect signed by five gendered of standing \r\nbelonging to Pondicherry. I need hardly say that the first alternative was for \r\nus quite impossible and wholly out of the question. We chose the second line, \r\nand the five noble men who affixed their signatures were these: (1) Rassendren \r\n(the father of our Jules Rassendren), (2) De Zir Naidu, (3) Le Beau, (4) Shanker \r\nChettiar (in whose house Sri Aurobindo had put up on arrival), (5) Murugesh \r\nChettiar. The names of these five should be engraved in letters of gold. They \r\nhad shown on that occasion truly remarkable courage and magnanimity. It was on \r\nthe strength of their signatures that we could continue to stay here without too \r\nmuch trouble.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe story of these local leaders reminds me of another incident. When I came \r\nhere first, I had to adopt a subterfuge in order to ward off all suspicion. I \r\nposed as if I had come from Chandernagore, that is, from one part of French \r\nIndia to another, as a messenger carrying a letter from one political leader to \r\nanother. I had a letter from the leader of a political party in Chandernagore to \r\nbe delivered by hand to his opposite number in Pondicherry. The Gentleman for</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-55</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nwhom I brought the message was called Shanmugabhelu; I forget the name of the \r\nChandernagore Genevan. The letter suggested that he might help me find suitable \r\naccommodation for my stay here. I came and saw Mr. Shanmugabhelu at his \r\nresidence with that letter. My pronunciation of the name as Shanmu-gabhelu must \r\nhave shocked those of you who know Tamil! I found the huge Mr. Gabhelu leaning \r\non an easy-chair, surrounded by his henchmen and discoursing in tones of \r\nthunder—although the thunder must have been of the dry autumnal sort, for his \r\nparty was Radical Socialist, something like our Moderate Nationalists who \r\nshouted but produced nothing. He spoke in clear French. &quot;Sommes-nous des \r\ncitoyens fran^ais, ou non?&quot;—&quot;Are we French citizens, or are we not?&quot;—he shouted. \r\nThis was a plaint addressed to the French authorities, a petition and protest: \r\n&quot;Where exactly do we stand here in the matter of rights?&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAmong our first acquaintances in Pondicherry were some of the young men here. \r\nThe very first among them was Sada—you have known him, for he kept up with us \r\ntill the end. Next came Benjamin, Rassendren and a few others. Rassendren joined \r\nus again at the end of his career; in his early days he had been our playmate. \r\nGradually, they formed a group of Sri Aurobindo&#39;s devotees. The strange thing \r\nabout it was that they were all Christians. We did not have much of a response \r\nfrom the local Hindus; perhaps they were far too orthodox and old-fashioned. The \r\nCercle Sportif was our rendezvous. There we had games, we arranged picnics, as \r\nyou do today, we staged plays, and also held study circles. Only students took \r\npart.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAfterwards, when the Mother came in 1914, it was with a few men chosen from out \r\nof this group that she laid the first foundation of her work here; they formed \r\nthe Society called &quot;L&#39;Id£e Nouvelle&quot;.<sup>4</sup> Already, in her Paris days, a \r\nsimilar group had been formed around her, a group that came to be</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n1 We publish after this article a notice relating to the Society called &quot;L&#39;Idee<br>\r\nNouvelle&quot;, which originally appeared in the first number of the Arya, in August<br>\r\n1914. - Editor.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-56</font></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;known as the Cosmique, a record of whose proceedings has appeared in part in the Mother&#39;s \r\nWords of Long Ago <i>(Paroles d&#39;Autrefois)</i>. Here, in Pondicherry, she started \r\nbuilding up an intimate circle of initiates simultaneously with the publication \r\nof th<i>e Arya</i>.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me speak now of a strange incident lest you should miss the element of \r\nvariety in our life of those days. We stayed at the Guest House then. The Mother \r\nhad finally arrived. The Great War was over, I mean the first one. And with the \r\ndeclaration of Peace, nearly all the political prisoners in India had had been \r\nreleased. Barin, Upen, Hrishikesh had all come back from the Andamans, although \r\nthey were still hesitating as to whether they should join us here in the life of \r\nyoga or continue for some time longer their work in the outside world.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOne day, something rather extraordinary happened. Into our compound there came a \r\nSannyasin. He had a striking appearance, tall and fair, a huge turban wrapped \r\nround his head, a few locks of hair hanging down upon his shoulders. There were \r\nthree or four disciples too. He begged for Sri Aurobindo&#39;s <i>dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an</i>. \r\nBut the<i> dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an</i>.orian turned out to be somewhat spectacular. There he disclosed his identity. \r\nConcealed behind the thick cloak of Sannyasa was our old comrade Amarendra, \r\nAmarendranath Chatterji, the noted terrorist leader for whose capture the \r\nBritish Government had been moving heaven and earth, that is, the worlds of the \r\ndead and the living, and also raising hell in the world of the underground. \r\nPerhaps they had set a price on his head too. And here he was in person! There \r\nwas a wave of joy and excitement, mingled with some apprehension as well, for no \r\none knew what the British or the French would do in case the news got abroad.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAmarendra had suddenly disappeared one day. He lived the life of a primitive \r\nsavage in the jungles of Assam; he had been selling poultry and eggs at the \r\nsteamship stations along the rivers of East Bengal, in the garb of a Muslim \r\ncomplete with lungi and fez. And so many other things he had done just in order \r\nto avoid the Government&#39;s vigilant eye. </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-57</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nIt was a long romantic tale. Finally, he \r\nmade himself a Sannyasin, became a Guruji. Near Tanjore he set up his Ashram. \r\nDisciples gathered, his mantras and teachings brought him fame; he styled \r\nhimself, if I remember aright, Swami Kaivalyananda. The British Government were \r\ncompletely fooled.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe Swamiji, our Amarendra, came here to obtain Sri Aurobindo&#39;s instructions as \r\nto what to do next. This, as I have said, was after the end of the War, when \r\npractically all the political prisoners had been set free and even those \r\ndeported to the Andamans had been allowed to come back. He wished to know if he \r\ncould now disclose himself and also what he was to do afterwards. He was advised \r\nto go back to Calcutta and await the turn of events for a while. The Swamiji now \r\nordered his disciples back to the Ashram and said that he would like to live in \r\nsolitude for some time.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat was the end of Swami Kaivalyananda. He had had his nirvana and his place \r\nwas taken by Amarendra Chatteiji. The disciples had in the meantime gone back to \r\ntheir Ashram. There they kept waiting, but the months passed without any news of \r\nGuruji. They came here at last to find out where their Guruji was. Where indeed?</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nmet Amarendra for the last time just before I came away to Pondicherry for good. \r\nI had been to his shop. It was a drapery stores known as the Workers&#39; \r\nCooperative that served as a veil and a meeting ground for terrorist activities. \r\nHe knew all about me and also that I was on my way to Pondicherry. As a parting \r\ngift, he handed me a shawl from his stores, adding, &quot;Payable when able.&quot; I \r\ndistinctly remember the phrase. I came in touch with him again long after this. \r\nHe became a devotee and disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and remained a \r\nfaithful follower till his death.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwill not be out of place here to say something about the sort of education and \r\ntraining we received in those early days of our life in Pondicherry. One of the \r\nfirst needs we felt on coming here was for books, for at that time we had hardly \r\nanything we could call our own. We found that at the moment </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-58</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">Sri Aurobindo was \r\nconcentrating on the Rigveda alone and we managed to get for him two volumes of \r\nthe original text. He had of course his own books and papers packed in two or \r\nthree trunks. It was felt we might afford to spend ten rupees every month for \r\nthe purchase of books. We began our purchases with the main classics of English \r\nliterature, especially the series published in the Home University Library and \r\nthe World Classics editions. Today you see what a fine Library we have, not \r\nindeed one but many, for there is a Library of Physical Education, there is a \r\nMedical Library, there is a Library for the School, and there are so many \r\nprivate collections. All this had its origin in the small collections we began \r\nevery month. At first, the books had to lie on the floor, for we had nothing \r\nlike chairs or tables or shelves for our library. I may add that we had no such \r\nthing as a bedding either for our use. Each of us possessed a mat, and this mat \r\nhad to serve as our bedstead, mattress, coverlet and pillow; this was all our \r\nfurniture. And mosquito curtains? That was a luxury we could not even dream of. \r\nIf there were too many mosquitos, we would carry the mats out on to the terrace \r\nfor a little air, assuming, that is, that there was any. Only for Sri Aurobindo \r\nwe had somehow managed a chair and a table and a camp cot. We lived a real camp \r\nlife. I should add that there were a few rickety chairs too, for the use of \r\nvisitors and guests. And lights? Today you see such a profusion of electric \r\nlighting in every room and courtyard; we have mercury lights and flash lights \r\nand spotlights and torch lights; we are even getting well into the limelight! \r\nThere is light everywhere, &quot;all here is shining with light&quot;, <i>sarvamidam vibh<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ti.\r\n</i>In those days, on the other hand, we did not even have a decent kerosene lamp or \r\nlantern. All I can recall is a single candle-stick, for the personal use of Sri \r\nAurobindo. Whatever conversations or discussions we had after nightfall had to \r\nbe in the dark; for the most part we practised silence. The first time there was \r\nan electric connection, what a joy it gave us! It came like a revelation almost. \r\nWe were in the Guest House at the time, had shifted there only a little while \r\nago. We were out one afternoon for</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-59</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;our games (that is, football), and it was \r\nalready dark by the time we returned. As we opened the door and entered the \r\ncompound, what a surprise it was! The place was full of light, there were lights \r\neverywhere, a real illumination^ The electricians had come and fitted the \r\nconnections whilst we had been away. They had fitted as many as four points for \r\nthe entire building, the Guest House that you see, two for the first floor and \r\ntwo downstairs!-</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\nwere able to purchase some French books at a very cheap rate, not more than two \r\nannas for each volume in a series. We had about a hundred of them, all classics \r\nof French literature. I find a few of them are still there in our Library. \r\nAfterwards, I also bought from the secondhand bookshops in the Gujli Kadai area \r\nseveral books in Greek, Latin and French. Once I chanced on a big Greek lexicon \r\nwhich I still use.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nGradually, a few books in Sanskrit and Bengali too were added to our stock, \r\nthrough purchase and gifts. As the number of books reached a few hundred, the \r\nproblem was how to keep them. We used some bamboo strips to make a rack or \r\nbook-stand along the walls of our rooms; the &quot;almirahs&quot; came later. I do not \r\nthink there were any &quot;almirahs&quot; at all so long as we were in the Guest House. \r\nThey came after the Mother&#39;s arrival, when we shifted with our books to the \r\nLibrary House. That is why it came to be called the Library House.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis account would be incomplete without a few details as to our housekeeping. \r\nAs to the furniture, I have already said the mat alone did duty for everything. \r\nOf servants we had only one; he did the shopping. But as we did not know his \r\nlanguage, we had just memorised a few words connected with shopping and we \r\nsomehow managed to make him understand with the help of these words and a good \r\ndeal of gestures. Bejoy had his standing instructions: <i>meen moon anna</i> (fish \r\nthree annas)—it was lucky meen in Tamil is the same as in Bengali—<i>ille</i>, then \r\n<i>nal \r\nanna</i> (if not, then four annas), the Tamil equivalent of &quot;if&quot; or &quot;then&quot; being \r\nbeyond the range of our knowledge. Today we have practically one </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-60</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nservant per \r\nhead, thanks to the boundless grace of the Mother. Sri Aurobindo used to smile \r\nand make the comment, &quot;We have as many servants as there are sadhaks here.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\ndid the cooking ourselves and each of us developed a speciality. I did the rice, \r\nperhaps because that was the easiest. Moni took charge of <i>dal </i>(pulses), and \r\nBejoy being the expert had the vegetables and the curry. What fell to the lot of \r\nSaurin I do not now remember—Saurin was a brother-in-law of Sri Aurobindo, a \r\ncousin of Mrinalini&#39;s. Perhaps he was not in our Home Affairs at all; his was \r\nthe Foreign Ministry, that is, he had to deal with outsiders. We had our first \r\nreal cook only after the Mother&#39;s arrival, by which time our numbers had grown \r\nto ten or twelve. There was a cook who had something rather special about him: \r\nhe had been to Paris and made quite a name there on account of certain powers of \r\nforeseeing the future and other forms of occult vision which he possessed. The \r\nMother had these powers tested in the presence of some of us. He was asked to \r\ntake a bath and put on clean clothes and then made to sit with us. The Mother \r\ntook her seat in a chair. We did a little concentration in silence and then the \r\nMother asked him, &quot;What do you see? Do you see anything about anybody present \r\nhere?&quot; and so on. He gave truly remarkable answers on several occasions. And yet \r\nhe had had no sort of formal education, he was absolutely illiterate, had only \r\npicked up some French by ear. Another cook who came later has become, as you \r\nknow, quite a celebrity thanks to his spiritist performance. The story has \r\nbecome well-known, it is now almost a classic. Sri Aurobindo has referred to it, \r\nthe Mother has spoken and written about it, the well-known French poet and \r\nmystic Maurice Magre who had been here and lived in the Ashram for some time has \r\nrecorded it in one of his books. You must have heard or read what Sri Aurobindo \r\nand the Mother have said on the subject. I do not wish to add anything of my \r\nown, for I was not an eye-witness; I had been away in Bengal for a while.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow that we are on this topic of cooks and cooking, let me add a few words about \r\nmyself in this connection. I had, as</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">page-61</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nsaid, some practice in the work of the kitchen and I took it up again later on. \r\nFor some time—we were about fifty in all by then—I did some serving in addition \r\nto cooking once a week. What kind of cooking was that? In those days<sub>?</sub> \r\nwe used to have pudding for dinner three times a week, ordinary rice pudding, \r\nfried rice pudding, and tapioca pudding. I did the tapioca. It was rather in the \r\nfitness of things that the hands that had once been used to making bombs should \r\nnow do some sweets.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">At \r\none time, one of our main subjects of study was the Veda. This went on for \r\nseveral months, for about an hour every evening, at the Guest House. Sri \r\nAurobindo came and took his seat at the table and we sat around. Subramanya \r\nBharati the Tamil poet and myself were the two who showed the keenest interest. \r\nSri Aurobindo would take up a hymn from the Rigveda, read it aloud once, explain \r\nthe meaning of every line and phrase and finally give a full translation. I used \r\nto take notes. There are many words in the Rigveda whose derivation is doubtful \r\nand open to differences of opinion. In such cases, Sri Aurobindo used to say \r\nthat the particular meaning he gave was only provisional and that the matter \r\ncould be finally decided only after considering it in all the contexts in which \r\nthe word occurred. His own method of interpreting the Rigveda was this: on \r\nreading the text he found its true meaning by direct intuitive vision through an \r\ninner concentration in the first instance, and then he would give it an external \r\nverification in the light of reason, making the necessary changes accordingly.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSri Aurobindo has taught me a number of languages. Here again his method has \r\noften evoked surprise. I should therefore like to say something on this point. \r\nHe never asked me to begin the study of a new language with primary readers or \r\nchildren&#39;s books. He started at once with one of the classics, that is, a \r\nstandard work in the language. He used to say that the education of children \r\nmust begin with books written for children, but for adults, for those, that is, \r\nwho had already had some education the reading material must be adapted to their \r\nage and mental development. That is why, when I </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-62</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\ntook up Greek, I began \r\nstraightway with Euripides&#39; <i>Medea,</i> and my second book was Sophocles&#39; \r\n<i>Antigone</i>. I \r\nbegan a translation of <i>Antigone</i> into Bengali and Sri Aurobindo offered to write \r\na preface if I completed the translation, a preface where, he said, he would \r\ntake up the question of the individual versus the State. Whether I did complete \r\nthe translation I cannot now recollect. I began my Latin with Virgil&#39;s Aeneid, \r\nand Italian with Dante. I have already told you about my French, there I started \r\nwith Moliere.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nshould tell you what one gains by this method, at least what has been my \r\npersonal experience. One feels as if one took a plunge into the inmost core of \r\nthe language, into that secret heart where it is vibrant with life, with the \r\nquintessence of beauty, the fullness of strength. Perhaps it was this that has \r\nprompted me to write prose-poems and verse in French, for one feels as if \r\nidentified with the very genius of the language. This is the method which \r\nWestern critics describe as being in <i>medias res,</i> getting right into the heart of \r\nthings. One may begin a story in two ways. One way is to begin at the beginning, \r\nfrom the<i> <font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dik<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nda</i> and \r\n<i>Genesis,</i> and then develop the theme gradually, as is done \r\nin the Rama-yana, the Mahabharata, the Bible. The other method is to start \r\nsuddenly, from the middle of the story, a method largely preferred by Western \r\nartists, like Homer and Shakespeare for instance.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut it was not found possible for Sri Aurobindo to continue with his own studies \r\nor even to help us in ours. For, as I have already hinted, our mode of living, \r\nour life itself took a different turn with the arrival of the Mother. How and in \r\nwhat direction? It was like this. The Mother came and installed Sri Aurobindo on \r\nhis high pedestal of Master and Lord of Yoga. We had hitherto known him as a \r\ndear friend and close companion, and although in our mind and heart he had the \r\nposition of a Guru, in our outward relations we seemed to behave as if he were \r\njust like one of ourselves. He too had been averse to the use of the words \r\n&quot;Guru&quot; and &quot;Ashram&quot; in relation to himself, for there was hardly a place in his \r\nwork of new creation for the old traditional associations</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-63</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;these words conveyed. \r\nNevertheless, the Mother taught by her manner and speech, and showed us in \r\nactual practice, what was the meaning of disciple and master; she has always practised what she preached. She showed us, by not taking her seat in front of \r\nor on the same level as Sri Aurobindo, but by sitting on the ground, what it \r\nmeant to be respectful to one&#39;s Master, what was real courtesy. Sri Aurobindo \r\nonce said to us, perhaps with a tinge of regret, &quot;I have tried to stoop as low \r\nas I can, and yet you do not reach me.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas the Mother who opened our eyes and gave us that vision which made us say, \r\neven as Arjuna had been made to say:.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>sakheti matv<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257; </font>prasabham yaduktam </i></b> </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>he Kr<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;</font>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;</font>n<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;</font>a he y<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dava he sakheti </i></b> </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>aj<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nat<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> \r\nmahim<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nam tavedam</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>may<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> pram<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>d<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>t \r\npranayena v<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>pi.</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>yaccavahasarthamasatkrtosi</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>vih<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ra-<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>ayy<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>sana- \r\nbhojanesu </i></b> </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>eko&#39;thav<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>pyacyuta tvat-samaksam</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>tat ks<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>maye tv<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>m-aham-aprameyam&nbsp;&nbsp; </i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&quot;By whatever name I have called you, O Krishna, O Yadava, O Friend, thinking in \r\nmy rashness that you were only a friend, and out of ignorance and from \r\naffection, not knowing this thy greatness; whatever disrespect I have shown you \r\nout of frivolity, whether sitting or lying down or eating, when I was alone or \r\nwhen you were present before me,—may I be pardoned for all that, O thou Infinite \r\nOne.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">page-64</font></p>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','index','','publish','closed','open','','index','','','2021-11-23 17:21:26','2021-11-23 17:21:26','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/index/',0,'post','',0),(1415,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<html>\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=windows-1252\">\r\n<title>X</title>\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\r\n		<tr>\r\n			<td>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>X</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\"><b>I \r\nBOW TO THE MOTHER</b></p>\r\n			<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThose of you who came to the Ashram as children recognised the Mother and called \r\nher by that name practically from your birth, that is, from the moment you began \r\nto recognise things. We the grown-ups did not have that privilege. It has taken \r\nus a long long time to open our eyes and know. We have lost valuable time, \r\nalmost wasted it. But, as you know, it is never too late to mend and it is \r\npossible to recover and even to make amends for lost time; there lies an \r\ninteresting secret.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut as I was saying, you did not have to be told about the Mother, for you have \r\nalmost been born and brought up in her lap. In our case somebody had to \r\nintroduce us to the Mother, for we had been born and brought up in a \r\nstep motherly lap, although that too was one of her own forms, her form of Maya.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe first time I heard about the Mother was shortly after our arrival here. It \r\nwas Sri Aurobindo himself who told us about a French lady from Paris who was a \r\ngreat initiate. She was desirous of establishing personal contact with Sri \r\nAurobindo. That the Great Soul whom she meant was no other than Sri Aurobindo \r\nwould be evidenced by a sign: she would be sending him something that he might \r\nrecognise. That something was Sri Aurobindo&#39;s own symbol—in the form of a \r\ndiagram, known as Solomon&#39;s Seal. Needless to add, after this proof of identity, \r\nsteps were taken to facilitate her coming. Monsieur Paul Richard was at that \r\ntime much interested in spiritual thought and practice and he could find an \r\nopportunity for coming here: he wanted to find out if he could get elected as \r\none of the Representatives of French India in the French Parliament and he stood \r\nas a candidate for election. In those days, there used to be two elected \r\nrepresentatives of French India, one in the Upper Chamber, the <i>S<font face=\"Times New Roman\">é</font>nat,</i> the other \r\nin the Lower House, the <i>Chambre des D<font face=\"Times New Roman\">é</font>put<font face=\"Times New Roman\">é</font>s.</i> I have already spoken to you about \r\nthis business of</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-75</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;elections; this was a real bloody affair with murders and \r\nmob-attacks that caused terror among the populace.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe first time he came here for canvassing, he was alone. The Mother accompanied \r\nhim the next time. To all<sub>r</sub>out-ward appearances they arrived here to \r\ncanvass support for the elections, although M. Richard did not in the end get \r\nvery many votes. But this provided the occasion for the Mother to meet Sri \r\nAurobindo and gather a few trusted friends and devotees. In this connection the \r\nMother had to pay a visit to Karikal once. This was her first direct experience \r\nof the actual India, that is, what it is in its crude outward aspect. She gave \r\nus an amusing description of the room where she was put up, an old dilapidated \r\nroom as dark as it was dirty and a paradise for white ants. Thus it was that the \r\nDivine Mother, One who is fairer than the fairest and lovelier than infinite \r\nbeauty had to come down and enter the darkness and evil of this human life; for \r\nhow else could these poor mortals have a chance?</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nWhen it first came to be bruited about that a Great Lady like this was to come \r\nand live close to us, we were faced with a problem: how should we behave? Should \r\nthere be a change in our manners? For we had been accustomed to a bohemian sort \r\nof life, we dressed and talked, slept and ate and moved about in a free \r\nunfettered style, in a manner that would not quite pass in civilised society. \r\nNevertheless, it was finally agreed that we should stick as far as possible to \r\nour old ways even under the new circumstances, for why should we permit our \r\nfreedom and ease to be compromised or lost? This indeed is the way in which the \r\narrogance and ignorance of man assert the glory of his individuality!</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe Mother arrived. She would meet Sri Aurobindo in company with the rest of us \r\nat our afternoon sessions. She spoke very little. We were out most of the time, \r\nbut also dropped in occasionally. When it was proposed to bring out the <i>Arya\r\n</i>she \r\ntook charge of the necessary arrangements. She wrote out in her own hand the \r\nlist of subscribers, maintained the accounts herself: perhaps those papers might \r\nbe still available. And afterwards, it was she herself who helped M.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-76</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nRichard in his translation of the writings of Sri Aurobindo into French for the \r\nFrench edition of the <i>Arya.</i> The ground floor of Dupleix House was used as the \r\nstack room and the office was on the ground floor of the Guest House. The Mother \r\nwas the chief executive in sole charge. Once every week all of us used to call \r\nat her residence accompanied by Sri Aurobindo and had our dinner together. On \r\nthose occasions the Mother used to cook one or two dishes with her own hands. \r\nAfterwards too, when she came back for good, the same arrangement continued at \r\nthe Bayoud House; I have told you of that before. About this time, she had also \r\nformed a small group with a few young men; this too I have mentioned earlier. A \r\nthird line of her work, connected with business and trade, also began at nearly \r\nthe same time. Just as today we have among us men of business who are devotees \r\nof the Mother and who act under her protection and guidance, similarly in that \r\nperiod also there appeared as if in seed-state this particular line of activity. \r\nOur Sauren founded the Aryan Stores, the object being to bring in some money: we \r\nwere very hard up in those days—not that we are particularly affluent now, but \r\nstill...The Mother kept up correspondence with Sauren in connection with these \r\nbusiness matters even after she left here for Japan.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">At \r\none stage, the Mother showed a special interest in cats. Not only has she been \r\nconcerned with human beings, but the animal creation and the life of plants too \r\nhave shared in her direct touch. The Veda speaks of the animal sacrifice, but \r\nthe Mother has performed her consecration of animals in a very novel sense; she \r\nhas helped them forward in their upward march with a touch of her Consciousness. \r\nShe took a few cats as representatives of the animal world. She said, the king \r\nof the cats who ruled in the occult world—you might call him perhaps their \r\nSuper-cat—had set up a sort of friendship with her. How this feline brood \r\nappeared first in our midst is somewhat interesting. One day all of a sudden a \r\nwild-looking cat made its appearance at the Guest House where we lived then; it \r\njust happened to come along and stayed on. It was wild enough when it came, but \r\nit soon turned</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-77</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;it into a tame cat, very mild and polite. When it had its \r\nkittens, Sri Aurobindo gave to the first-born the name of Sundari, for she was \r\nvery fair with a pure white fur. One of Sundari&#39;s kittens was styled Bushy, for \r\nit had a bushy tail, and its ancestress had now to be given the name of \r\nGrandmother. It was about this Bushy that the story runs: she used to pick up \r\nwith her teeth all her kittens one by one and drop them at the Mother&#39;s feet as \r\nsoon as they were old enough to use their eyes—as if she offered them to the \r\nMother and craved her blessings. You can see now how much progress this cat had \r\nmade in the path of Yoga. Two of these kittens of Bushy are well-known names and \r\nbecame great favourites with the Mother; one was Big Boy and the younger one was \r\nKiki. It is said about one of them—I forget which, perhaps it was Kiki —that he \r\nused to join in the collective meditation and meditated like one of us; he \r\nperhaps had visions during meditation and his body would shake and tremble while \r\nthe eyes remained closed. But in spite of this sadhana, he remained in his \r\noutward conduct like many of us rather crude in many respects. The two brothers, \r\nBig Boy and Kiki, could never see eye to eye and the two had always to be kept \r\napart. Big Boy was a stalwart fellow and poor Kiki got the thrashings. Finally, \r\nboth of them died of some disease and were buried in the courtyard. Their \r\nGrandmother disappeared one day as suddenly as she had come and nobody knew \r\nanything about her again.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe style in which these cats were treated was something extraordinary. The \r\narrangements made for their food were quite a festive affair; it was for them \r\nalone that special cooking was done, with milk and fish and the appropriate \r\ndressings, as if they were children of some royal family,—all was according to \r\nschedule. They received an equally good training: they would never commit \r\nnuisance within doors for they had been taught to use the conveniences provided \r\nfor them. They were nothing like the gipsy-Bedouin cats of our Ardhendu.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nthe days before the Mother came, we used to have a pet dog. Its story was much \r\nthe same. All of a sudden one day </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-78</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">there appeared from nowhere in our earliest \r\nresidence a common street dog—it was a bitch; she too came and just stayed on. \r\nSri Aurobindo gave her the name of Yogini. He used to tell a story about her \r\nintelligence. It was already nightfall and we did not know that she had not yet \r\ncome in. She came to the front door, pushed against it and did some barking, but \r\nwe heard nothing as we were in the kitchen next to the back-yard. Suddenly she \r\nrecalled that there was a door at the back through which she might perhaps gain \r\nentrance or at least draw our attention. She now ran around the three corners of \r\nthe house and appeared at the back door. From there she could make herself heard \r\nand was admitted. She too bore some puppies and two of them became particular \r\nfavorites with Sri Aurobindo. I cannot now recall how they were called.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nYou all know about the deep oneness and sympathy the Mother has with plants, so \r\nI leave out the subject today. As with the world of animals and men, so with the \r\nbeings of the supraphysical worlds—from the little elves and fairies to the high \r\nand mighty gods, all have had their contacts with the Mother, all have shared in \r\nher Grace as you may have heard, but the Grace could mean at times thrashings \r\ntoo!</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nToday I leave aside the Mother&#39;s role as our Guide on the path of sadhana or \r\nyogic discipline. Let me speak in a very general way of an aspect of her \r\nteaching that concerns the first principles of the art of living.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe core of this lies in elevating our life to a cleaner level, and the first \r\nand most important need is to put each thing in its place. The training that the \r\nMother has throughout been giving us—I am not here referring to the side of \r\nspiritual practice but to the daily routine of our ordinary life—is precisely \r\nthis business of putting our things in order. We do not always notice how very \r\ndisorderly we are: our belongings and household effects are in a mess, our \r\nactions are haphazard, and in our inner life we are as disorderly as in our \r\nouter life, or even more. Indeed it is because we are so disordered within that \r\nthere is such disorder in our outer life. Our thoughts come to us pell-mell and \r\nour brains are crowded with straying bits of random thought.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-79</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nWe cannot sit down \r\nquietly for a few minutes and pursue a particular line of thought with any kind \r\nof steadiness or order. Our heads are full of noise like a market-place without \r\nany peace or restraint or harmony. If the mind is in such a state, the vital \r\nbeing is still worse. You cannot keep count of the strange desires and impulses \r\nthat play about there. If the brain is a marketplace, the heart is no better \r\nthan a mad-house. Well, I shall not now enlarge further on the state of our \r\ninner being. One of the things the Mother has been trying to teach us both by \r\nher word and example is this, namely, that to keep our outer life and its \r\nmaterials in proper order and neat and tidy is a very necessary element in our \r\nlife upon earth. I do not know to what extent we have yet been able to \r\nassimilate this teaching in our individual or collective living. How many of us \r\nhave realised that beauty is at least half the sense of life and serves to \r\ndouble its value? And even if we do sometimes realise, how many are impelled to \r\nshape our lives accordingly? The Mother taught us to use our things with care, \r\nbut there was more to it than this. She uses things not merely with care but \r\nwith love and affection. For, to her, material things are not simply inanimate \r\nobjects, not mere lifeless implements. They are endowed with a life of their \r\nown, even a consciousness of their own, and each thing has its own individuality \r\nand character. The Mother says about material things what the ancients have said \r\nabout the life of plants, that they have in them a consciousness that responds \r\nto pleasure and pain, <i>antah-samj<font face=\"Times New Roman\">ñ&#257;</font>h bhavanti ete sukha-duhkha-samanvit<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>h.</i> We are \r\nall aware how carefully the Mother treasures old things and does not like them \r\nto be thrown away simply because they are old. The reason for this is not \r\nniggardliness or a conservative spirit; the reason is that old things are to her \r\nlike old friends, living companions all.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me illustrate the point with something Sri Aurobindo once said. One of the \r\ninmates had written to him that as the gate of his house seemed to have got \r\njammed and could not be opened, he had to make it open by giving it a strong \r\nkick. The door did open but it hurt the foot rather badly.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-80</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSo what he wanted now \r\nwas some ointment along with Sri Aurobindo&#39;s blessings. Do you know the answer \r\nhe had from Sri Aurobindo? &quot;If you kick at the door, the door will naturally \r\nkick back at you!&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">As \r\nI told you in the beginning, the Mother did not appear to us, the older people, \r\nas the Mother at the outset; she came to us first in this garb of Beauty. We \r\nreceived her as a friend and companion, as one very close to ourselves, first, \r\nbecause Sri Aurobindo himself received her like that, and secondly because of \r\nher qualities. Now that we are on this subject of her qualities, although it is \r\nnot necessary for a child to proclaim the virtues of his mother, I cannot here \r\nrefrain from telling you about another point in her teaching. This concerns \r\nsomething deeper. The first time Sri Aurobindo happened to describe her \r\nqualities, he said he had never seen anywhere a self-surrender so absolute and \r\nunreserved. He had added a comment that perhaps it was only women who were \r\ncapable of giving themselves so entirely and with such sovereign ease. This \r\nimplies a complete obliteration of the past, erasing it with its virtues and \r\nfaults. The Mother has referred to this in one of her Prayers and Meditations. \r\nWhen she came here, she gave herself up to the Lord, Sri Aurobindo, with the \r\ncandid simplicity of a child, after erasing from herself all her past, all her \r\nspiritual attainments, all the riches of her consciousness. Like a new-born \r\nbabe, she felt she possessed nothing, she was to learn everything right from the \r\nstart, as if she had known or heard about nothing.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow to come back to a personal experience. The first thing I heard and came to \r\nknow about the Mother was that she was a great spiritual person. I did not know \r\nthen that she might have other gifts; these were revealed to me gradually. First \r\nI came to know that she was a very fine painter; and afterwards that she was an \r\nequally gifted musician. But there were other surprises in store. For instance, \r\nshe had an intellectual side no less richly endowed, that is to say, she had \r\nread and studied enormously, had been engaged in intellectual pursuits even as \r\nthe learned do. I was still more surprised to find that while in France she had \r\nalready</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-81</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nstudied and translated a good number of Indian texts, like the Gita, the \r\nUpanishads, the Yoga-sutras, the Bhakti-sutras of Narada. I mention all this \r\nmerely to tell you that the Mother&#39;s capacity of making her mind a complete \r\nblank was as extraordinary as her enormous mental acquisitions. This was \r\nsomething unique. In the early days, when she had just taken charge of our \r\nspiritual life, she told me one day in private, perhaps seeing that I might have \r\na pride in being an intellectual, &quot;At one time I used to take an interest in \r\nphilosophy and other intellectual pursuits. All that is now gone below the \r\nsurface, but I can bring it up again at will.&quot; So, I need not have any fears on \r\nthat score! It was as if the Mother was trying to apologize for her deficiencies \r\nin scholarship. This was how she taught me the meaning of humility, what we call \r\nDivine Humility.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">As \r\nI was saying, this capacity for an entire rejection of the past has been one of \r\nthe powers of her spiritual consciousness and realisation. It is not an easy \r\nthing for a human being to wash himself clean of all his past acquisitions, be \r\nit intellectual knowledge or the habits of the vital, not to speak of the body&#39;s \r\nneeds, and step forth in his nude purity. And yet this is the first and most \r\nimportant step in the spiritual discipline. The Mother has given us a living \r\nexample of this. That is why she decided to shed all her past, forget all about \r\nit and begin anew the a-b-c of her training and initiation with Sri Aurobindo. \r\nAnd it was in fact at the hands of Sri Aurobindo that she received as a token \r\nand outward symbol her first lessons in Bengali and Sanskrit, beginning with the \r\nalphabet.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut all this is simply an attempt on the part of the small to comprehend \r\nsomething of the Vast; it is as if a particle of sand was trying to reflect a \r\nlittle of the sun&#39;s rays, a dwarf trying to catch at the high tree-top with his \r\nuplifted arms, a child prattling of his mother&#39;s beauty.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nthe beginning, Sri Aurobindo would refer to the Mother quite distinctly as Mira. \r\nFor some time afterwards (this may have extended over a period of years) we \r\ncould notice that he stopped at the sound of M and uttered the full name Mira as \r\nif after a slight hesitation. To us it looked rather </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-82</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">queer at the time, but \r\nlater we came to know the reason. Sri Aurobindo&#39;s lips were on the verge of \r\nsaying &quot;Mother&quot;; but we had yet to get ready, so he ended with Mira instead of \r\nsaying Mother. No one knows for certain on which particular date at what \r\nauspicious moment, the word &quot;Mother&quot; was uttered by the lips of Sri Aurobindo. \r\nBut that was a divine moment in unrecorded time, a moment of destiny in the \r\nhistory of man and earth; for it was at this supreme moment that the Mother was \r\nestablished on this material earth, in the external consciousness of man.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me now end this story for today with a last word about myself.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nhave said that so far the Mother had been to us a friend and companion, a \r\ncomrade almost, at the most an object of reverence and respect. I was now about \r\nto start on my annual trip to Bengal—in those days I used to go there once every \r\nyear, and that was perhaps my last trip. Before leaving, I felt a desire to see \r\nthe Mother. The Mother had not yet come out of her seclusion and Sri Aurobindo \r\nhad not yet retired behind the scenes. I said to him, &quot;I would like to see Her \r\nbefore I go.&quot;—Her with a capital H, in place of the Mother, for we had not yet \r\nstarted using that name. Sri Aurobindo informed the Mother. The room now used by \r\nChampaklal was the Mother&#39;s room in those days. I entered and waited in the \r\nProsperity room, for Sri Aurobindo used to meet people in the verandah in front. \r\nThe Mother came in from her room and stood near the door. I approached her and \r\nsaid, &quot;I am going,&quot; and then lay prostrate at her feet. That was my first Pranam \r\nto the Mother. She said, &quot;Come back soon.&quot; This &quot;come back soon&quot; meant in the \r\nend, &quot;come back for good.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-83</font></p>\r\n\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"right\"><b><font size=\"2\"><a href=\"-00_Contents\">\r\n			<span style=\"text-decoration: none\">HOME</span></a></font></b></p>\r\n\r\n			<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;</td>\r\n		</tr>\r\n	</table>\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-12_I bow to the mother','','publish','closed','open','','12_i-bow-to-the-mother','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/12_i-bow-to-the-mother/',0,'post','',0),(1416,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<html>\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=windows-1252\">\r\n<title>VII</title>\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\r\n		<tr>\r\n			<td>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>VII</b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<b>PONDICHERRY (2)</b></p>\r\n			<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nhave said that this cemetery that was Pondicherry had been infested by ghosts \r\nand goblins. These had a special category known ordinarily as spies. The word \r\n&quot;spy&quot; carries with it, as you know, an association of all that is low and \r\ndisgusting and unspeakable, things of dark import. But did you know that the \r\nword is pure Sanskrit? It was <i>spa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>a </i>in the old Vedic language. The Vedic Rishi \r\ndescribes Indra as sending out these<i> spa<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>a</i> to trace the movements of his \r\nenemies, the forces of evil that clustered round the god. So, the Vedic gods had \r\ntheir spies, just as the modern British government had theirs, though of course \r\nthere was bound to be a certain difference. These government spies tried to \r\ncollect information as to who came to our houses, who were the people who met \r\nus, what places we frequented and how our guests spent their time. That was why \r\nMotilal (Motilal Roy of the Pravartak group in Chandernagore) when he first came \r\nto Pondicherry had to come dressed as an Anglo-Indian, and he never entered our \r\nhouse, the Raghavan House of today, except by the backdoor and under cover of \r\ndarkness after nightfall.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">In \r\nfact, all of us on our first arrival here had to come under false names, the \r\nonly exception being Moni (Suresh Chakravarti). He did not have to, for he had \r\nnot been one of the marked men like the rest of us and his name had not been \r\nassociated with any political trouble, as he was too young for that at the time. \r\nAnd in any case it would not have been wise to give him a false name to save him \r\nfrom the clutches of the law, for it was decided to rent our houses in his name \r\nand it was he again who was to act on our behalf in all official matters. Sri \r\nAurobindo called himself Jatindranath Mitra, though only for a short while. It \r\nwas under this pseudonym that he sailed from Calcutta as a passenger on the \r\n&quot;Dupleix&quot; and had presented himself before the doctor for the medical \r\nexamination. The fun of it</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-51</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">was that the doctor had no suspicion as to whom he \r\nwas going to examine, although he did exclaim on hearing Sri Aurobindo&#39;s accent, \r\n&quot;You seem to speak English very well!&quot; to which Sri Aurobindo replied, &quot;Yes, I \r\nwas in England for some time.&quot; Some time indeed—fourteen years! My name was Manindranath Roy, and eventually I came to be known as Monsieur Roy; some of my \r\nlocal friends of those days still know me as such and call me by that name. Roy \r\nand &quot;Sacra&quot; (that is, short for Chakravarti in French) became quite well-known \r\nfigures both in town and elsewhere on account of their football. Bejoy was \r\nBankim Basak—Basak for short—the noted half-back in our football team.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe British Indian police set up a regular station here, with a rented house and \r\nseveral permanent men. They were of course plainclothes men, for they had no \r\nright to wear uniform within French territory. They kept watch, as I have said, \r\nboth on our visitors and guests as well as ourselves. Soon they got into a habit \r\nof sitting on the pavement round the corner next to our house in groups of three \r\nor four. They chatted away the whole day and only now and again took down \r\nsomething in their note-books. What kind of notes they took we found out later \r\non, when, after India had become independent and the French had left, some of \r\nthese notes could be secured from the Police files and the confidential records \r\nof Government. Strange records, these: the police gave reports all based on pure \r\nfancy, they made up all sorts of stories at their sweet will. As they found it \r\ndifficult to gather correct and precise information, they would just fabricate \r\nthe news.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNevertheless, something rather awesome did happen once. We had by then shifted \r\nto the present Guest House. There were two new arrivals. One was a relative.of \r\nBejoy&#39;s, Nagen Nag, who had managed to get away from his family and had come to \r\nstay here on the pretext of a change of air for his illness. The other was a \r\nfriend and acquaintance of his who had come with him as a companion and help; \r\nhis name was Birendra Roy.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOne day, this Birendra suddenly shaved his head. Moni </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-52</font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nsaid he too would have his \r\nhead shaved, just because Birendra had done it. That very day, or it was perhaps \r\nthe day after, there occurred a regular scene. We had as usual taken our seats \r\naround Sri Aurobindo in the afternoon. Suddenly, Biren stood up and shouted, &quot;Do \r\nyou know who I am? You may not believe it, but I am a spy, a spy of the British \r\npolice. I can&#39;t keep it to myself any longer. I must speak out, I must make the \r\nconfession before you.&quot; With this he fell at Sri Aurobindo&#39;s feet. We were \r\nstunned, almost dumbfounded. As we kept wondering if this could be true, or was \r\nall false, perhaps a hallucination or some other illusion—<i>m<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>y<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>, nu matibhramo \r\nnu</i>—Biren started, again, &quot;Oh, you do not believe me? Then let me show you.&quot; He \r\nentered the next room, opened his trunk, drew out a hundred rupee note and \r\nshowed it to us. &quot;See, here is the proof. Where could I have got all this money? \r\nThis is the reward of my evil deed. Never, I shall never do this work again. I \r\ngive my word to you, I ask your forgiveness....&quot; No words came to our lips, all \r\nof us kept silent and still.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis is how it came about. Biren had shaved his head in order that the police \r\nspies might spot him out as their man from the rest of us by the sign of the \r\nshaven head. But they were nonplussed when they found Moni too with a shaven \r\nhead. And Biren began to suspect that Moni, or perhaps the whole lot of us, had \r\nfound out his secret and that Moni had shaved on purpose. So, partly out of fear \r\nand partly from true repentance, for the most part no doubt by the pressure of \r\nsome other Force, he was compelled to make his confession.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAfter this incident, the whole atmosphere of the house got a little disturbed. \r\nWe were serious and worried. How was it possible for such a thing to happen? An \r\nenemy could find his entry into our apartments, an enemy who was one of \r\nourselves? What should be done? Bejoy was furious, and it was a job to keep him \r\nfrom doing something drastic. However, within a few days, Biren left of his own \r\naccord and we were left in peace. I hear he afterwards joined the Great War and \r\nwas sent to Mesopotamia with the Indian army.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nDuring the Great War, Bejoy had his spell of bad luck.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-53</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat makes another story. I have said the British Indian police had set up a \r\npost here. It was placed in charge of a senior official, no less a person than a \r\nSuperintendent of Police. He was a Muslim, named Abdul Karim if I remember \r\naright, a very efficient and clever man, like our old friend Shamsul Alam of the \r\nCalcutta Police. We used to go to a friend&#39;s house very often, particularly \r\nmyself. This gentleman too, we found, was a visitor there and we used to meet \r\nhim as if by accident. He was very nice and polite in his manners. He even \r\nexpressed a desire once to have Sri Aurobindo&#39;<i>s dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an</i> so that he might pay his \r\nrespects. Sri Aurobindo did not refuse, he was given the permission. The \r\ngentleman arrived with a huge bouquet by way of a present and had the <i>dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an.</i></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe three of us, namely Moni, Saurin and myself, who had returned to Bengal \r\nafter an interval of four years, had to hasten back here almost immediately \r\nowing to the outbreak of War, for there was a chance that old criminals like us \r\nwould again be shut up in jail. As we had come back, Bejoy said he wished to go, \r\nfor he too wanted to have a change. He would return after paying a short visit \r\nto his people. He said he had been away for so long. But the question was: would \r\nit be all right for him to go? What did the French Government think? What would \r\nthey advise? It was informally ascertained from the Governor that he did not \r\nconsider it advisable to leave here, for the intentions of the British \r\nauthorities were not above suspicion. Abdul Karim too was sounded as to their \r\nintentions. He said the British Government meant us no harm, for he was well \r\naware that we were saintly people engaged in <i>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dhana</i> alone, and so on. But Sri \r\nAurobindo had serious doubts. Bejoy however was a headstrong man. He got eager \r\nto go and set foot on British territory, that is, offer his neck to the \r\nscaffold. And that is what happened. The moment he crossed the border and \r\nentered British Indian territory, he found the police waiting. They put him in \r\nhandcuffs, and for the next five years, that is, till after the War was over, he \r\nwas held in detention. Once he had managed to get away earlier with</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-54</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nonly a year&#39;s custody in jail; this time it was not so easy.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut why dwell on this dark tale of the lawless wilds and the demons and beasts. \r\nTheir ranks are still powerful and I do not wish to add to their strength by \r\ntalking about them. Now let me say a few nice things, about some good people, \r\nfor such people too had their abode here. At the very outset I should speak of \r\nthe Five Good Men. It is quite possible that there was a law in French India \r\nthat applied to foreigners. But now the law was made stringently applicable to \r\nrefugees from our own country. It was laid down that all foreigners, that is, \r\nanyone who was not a French citizen, wanting to come and stay here for some time \r\nmust be in possession of a certificate from a high Government official of the \r\nplace from where he came, such as a Magistrate in British India, to the effect \r\nthat he was a well-known person and that there was nothing against him; in other \r\nwords, he must be in possession of a &quot;good-conduct&quot; certificate. Or else he must \r\nproduce a letter to the same effect signed by five gendered of standing \r\nbelonging to Pondicherry. I need hardly say that the first alternative was for \r\nus quite impossible and wholly out of the question. We chose the second line, \r\nand the five noble men who affixed their signatures were these: (1) Rassendren \r\n(the father of our Jules Rassendren), (2) De Zir Naidu, (3) Le Beau, (4) Shanker \r\nChettiar (in whose house Sri Aurobindo had put up on arrival), (5) Murugesh \r\nChettiar. The names of these five should be engraved in letters of gold. They \r\nhad shown on that occasion truly remarkable courage and magnanimity. It was on \r\nthe strength of their signatures that we could continue to stay here without too \r\nmuch trouble.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe story of these local leaders reminds me of another incident. When I came \r\nhere first, I had to adopt a subterfuge in order to ward off all suspicion. I \r\nposed as if I had come from Chandernagore, that is, from one part of French \r\nIndia to another, as a messenger carrying a letter from one political leader to \r\nanother. I had a letter from the leader of a political party in Chandernagore to \r\nbe delivered by hand to his opposite number in Pondicherry. The Gentleman for</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-55</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nwhom I brought the message was called Shanmugabhelu; I forget the name of the \r\nChandernagore Genevan. The letter suggested that he might help me find suitable \r\naccommodation for my stay here. I came and saw Mr. Shanmugabhelu at his \r\nresidence with that letter. My pronunciation of the name as Shanmu-gabhelu must \r\nhave shocked those of you who know Tamil! I found the huge Mr. Gabhelu leaning \r\non an easy-chair, surrounded by his henchmen and discoursing in tones of \r\nthunder—although the thunder must have been of the dry autumnal sort, for his \r\nparty was Radical Socialist, something like our Moderate Nationalists who \r\nshouted but produced nothing. He spoke in clear French. &quot;Sommes-nous des \r\ncitoyens fran^ais, ou non?&quot;—&quot;Are we French citizens, or are we not?&quot;—he shouted. \r\nThis was a plaint addressed to the French authorities, a petition and protest: \r\n&quot;Where exactly do we stand here in the matter of rights?&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAmong our first acquaintances in Pondicherry were some of the young men here. \r\nThe very first among them was Sada—you have known him, for he kept up with us \r\ntill the end. Next came Benjamin, Rassendren and a few others. Rassendren joined \r\nus again at the end of his career; in his early days he had been our playmate. \r\nGradually, they formed a group of Sri Aurobindo&#39;s devotees. The strange thing \r\nabout it was that they were all Christians. We did not have much of a response \r\nfrom the local Hindus; perhaps they were far too orthodox and old-fashioned. The \r\nCercle Sportif was our rendezvous. There we had games, we arranged picnics, as \r\nyou do today, we staged plays, and also held study circles. Only students took \r\npart.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAfterwards, when the Mother came in 1914, it was with a few men chosen from out \r\nof this group that she laid the first foundation of her work here; they formed \r\nthe Society called &quot;L&#39;Id£e Nouvelle&quot;.<sup>4</sup> Already, in her Paris days, a \r\nsimilar group had been formed around her, a group that came to be</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n1 We publish after this article a notice relating to the Society called &quot;L&#39;Idee<br>\r\nNouvelle&quot;, which originally appeared in the first number of the Arya, in August<br>\r\n1914. - Editor.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-56</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;known as the Cosmique, a record of whose proceedings has appeared in part in the Mother&#39;s \r\nWords of Long Ago <i>(Paroles d&#39;Autrefois)</i>. Here, in Pondicherry, she started \r\nbuilding up an intimate circle of initiates simultaneously with the publication \r\nof th<i>e Arya</i>.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nLet me speak now of a strange incident lest you should miss the element of \r\nvariety in our life of those days. We stayed at the Guest House then. The Mother \r\nhad finally arrived. The Great War was over, I mean the first one. And with the \r\ndeclaration of Peace, nearly all the political prisoners in India had had been \r\nreleased. Barin, Upen, Hrishikesh had all come back from the Andamans, although \r\nthey were still hesitating as to whether they should join us here in the life of \r\nyoga or continue for some time longer their work in the outside world.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nOne day, something rather extraordinary happened. Into our compound there came a \r\nSannyasin. He had a striking appearance, tall and fair, a huge turban wrapped \r\nround his head, a few locks of hair hanging down upon his shoulders. There were \r\nthree or four disciples too. He begged for Sri Aurobindo&#39;s <i>dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an</i>. \r\nBut the<i> dar<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>an</i>.orian turned out to be somewhat spectacular. There he disclosed his identity. \r\nConcealed behind the thick cloak of Sannyasa was our old comrade Amarendra, \r\nAmarendranath Chatterji, the noted terrorist leader for whose capture the \r\nBritish Government had been moving heaven and earth, that is, the worlds of the \r\ndead and the living, and also raising hell in the world of the underground. \r\nPerhaps they had set a price on his head too. And here he was in person! There \r\nwas a wave of joy and excitement, mingled with some apprehension as well, for no \r\none knew what the British or the French would do in case the news got abroad.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nAmarendra had suddenly disappeared one day. He lived the life of a primitive \r\nsavage in the jungles of Assam; he had been selling poultry and eggs at the \r\nsteamship stations along the rivers of East Bengal, in the garb of a Muslim \r\ncomplete with lungi and fez. And so many other things he had done just in order \r\nto avoid the Government&#39;s vigilant eye. </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-57</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nIt was a long romantic tale. Finally, he \r\nmade himself a Sannyasin, became a Guruji. Near Tanjore he set up his Ashram. \r\nDisciples gathered, his mantras and teachings brought him fame; he styled \r\nhimself, if I remember aright, Swami Kaivalyananda. The British Government were \r\ncompletely fooled.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThe Swamiji, our Amarendra, came here to obtain Sri Aurobindo&#39;s instructions as \r\nto what to do next. This, as I have said, was after the end of the War, when \r\npractically all the political prisoners had been set free and even those \r\ndeported to the Andamans had been allowed to come back. He wished to know if he \r\ncould now disclose himself and also what he was to do afterwards. He was advised \r\nto go back to Calcutta and await the turn of events for a while. The Swamiji now \r\nordered his disciples back to the Ashram and said that he would like to live in \r\nsolitude for some time.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThat was the end of Swami Kaivalyananda. He had had his nirvana and his place \r\nwas taken by Amarendra Chatteiji. The disciples had in the meantime gone back to \r\ntheir Ashram. There they kept waiting, but the months passed without any news of \r\nGuruji. They came here at last to find out where their Guruji was. Where indeed?</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nmet Amarendra for the last time just before I came away to Pondicherry for good. \r\nI had been to his shop. It was a drapery stores known as the Workers&#39; \r\nCooperative that served as a veil and a meeting ground for terrorist activities. \r\nHe knew all about me and also that I was on my way to Pondicherry. As a parting \r\ngift, he handed me a shawl from his stores, adding, &quot;Payable when able.&quot; I \r\ndistinctly remember the phrase. I came in touch with him again long after this. \r\nHe became a devotee and disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and remained a \r\nfaithful follower till his death.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwill not be out of place here to say something about the sort of education and \r\ntraining we received in those early days of our life in Pondicherry. One of the \r\nfirst needs we felt on coming here was for books, for at that time we had hardly \r\nanything we could call our own. We found that at the moment </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-58</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">Sri Aurobindo was \r\nconcentrating on the Rigveda alone and we managed to get for him two volumes of \r\nthe original text. He had of course his own books and papers packed in two or \r\nthree trunks. It was felt we might afford to spend ten rupees every month for \r\nthe purchase of books. We began our purchases with the main classics of English \r\nliterature, especially the series published in the Home University Library and \r\nthe World Classics editions. Today you see what a fine Library we have, not \r\nindeed one but many, for there is a Library of Physical Education, there is a \r\nMedical Library, there is a Library for the School, and there are so many \r\nprivate collections. All this had its origin in the small collections we began \r\nevery month. At first, the books had to lie on the floor, for we had nothing \r\nlike chairs or tables or shelves for our library. I may add that we had no such \r\nthing as a bedding either for our use. Each of us possessed a mat, and this mat \r\nhad to serve as our bedstead, mattress, coverlet and pillow; this was all our \r\nfurniture. And mosquito curtains? That was a luxury we could not even dream of. \r\nIf there were too many mosquitos, we would carry the mats out on to the terrace \r\nfor a little air, assuming, that is, that there was any. Only for Sri Aurobindo \r\nwe had somehow managed a chair and a table and a camp cot. We lived a real camp \r\nlife. I should add that there were a few rickety chairs too, for the use of \r\nvisitors and guests. And lights? Today you see such a profusion of electric \r\nlighting in every room and courtyard; we have mercury lights and flash lights \r\nand spotlights and torch lights; we are even getting well into the limelight! \r\nThere is light everywhere, &quot;all here is shining with light&quot;, <i>sarvamidam vibh<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ti.\r\n</i>In those days, on the other hand, we did not even have a decent kerosene lamp or \r\nlantern. All I can recall is a single candle-stick, for the personal use of Sri \r\nAurobindo. Whatever conversations or discussions we had after nightfall had to \r\nbe in the dark; for the most part we practised silence. The first time there was \r\nan electric connection, what a joy it gave us! It came like a revelation almost. \r\nWe were in the Guest House at the time, had shifted there only a little while \r\nago. We were out one afternoon for</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-59</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;our games (that is, football), and it was \r\nalready dark by the time we returned. As we opened the door and entered the \r\ncompound, what a surprise it was! The place was full of light, there were lights \r\neverywhere, a real illumination^ The electricians had come and fitted the \r\nconnections whilst we had been away. They had fitted as many as four points for \r\nthe entire building, the Guest House that you see, two for the first floor and \r\ntwo downstairs!-</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\nwere able to purchase some French books at a very cheap rate, not more than two \r\nannas for each volume in a series. We had about a hundred of them, all classics \r\nof French literature. I find a few of them are still there in our Library. \r\nAfterwards, I also bought from the secondhand bookshops in the Gujli Kadai area \r\nseveral books in Greek, Latin and French. Once I chanced on a big Greek lexicon \r\nwhich I still use.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nGradually, a few books in Sanskrit and Bengali too were added to our stock, \r\nthrough purchase and gifts. As the number of books reached a few hundred, the \r\nproblem was how to keep them. We used some bamboo strips to make a rack or \r\nbook-stand along the walls of our rooms; the &quot;almirahs&quot; came later. I do not \r\nthink there were any &quot;almirahs&quot; at all so long as we were in the Guest House. \r\nThey came after the Mother&#39;s arrival, when we shifted with our books to the \r\nLibrary House. That is why it came to be called the Library House.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nThis account would be incomplete without a few details as to our housekeeping. \r\nAs to the furniture, I have already said the mat alone did duty for everything. \r\nOf servants we had only one; he did the shopping. But as we did not know his \r\nlanguage, we had just memorised a few words connected with shopping and we \r\nsomehow managed to make him understand with the help of these words and a good \r\ndeal of gestures. Bejoy had his standing instructions: <i>meen moon anna</i> (fish \r\nthree annas)—it was lucky meen in Tamil is the same as in Bengali—<i>ille</i>, then \r\n<i>nal \r\nanna</i> (if not, then four annas), the Tamil equivalent of &quot;if&quot; or &quot;then&quot; being \r\nbeyond the range of our knowledge. Today we have practically one </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-60</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\nservant per \r\nhead, thanks to the boundless grace of the Mother. Sri Aurobindo used to smile \r\nand make the comment, &quot;We have as many servants as there are sadhaks here.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">We \r\ndid the cooking ourselves and each of us developed a speciality. I did the rice, \r\nperhaps because that was the easiest. Moni took charge of <i>dal </i>(pulses), and \r\nBejoy being the expert had the vegetables and the curry. What fell to the lot of \r\nSaurin I do not now remember—Saurin was a brother-in-law of Sri Aurobindo, a \r\ncousin of Mrinalini&#39;s. Perhaps he was not in our Home Affairs at all; his was \r\nthe Foreign Ministry, that is, he had to deal with outsiders. We had our first \r\nreal cook only after the Mother&#39;s arrival, by which time our numbers had grown \r\nto ten or twelve. There was a cook who had something rather special about him: \r\nhe had been to Paris and made quite a name there on account of certain powers of \r\nforeseeing the future and other forms of occult vision which he possessed. The \r\nMother had these powers tested in the presence of some of us. He was asked to \r\ntake a bath and put on clean clothes and then made to sit with us. The Mother \r\ntook her seat in a chair. We did a little concentration in silence and then the \r\nMother asked him, &quot;What do you see? Do you see anything about anybody present \r\nhere?&quot; and so on. He gave truly remarkable answers on several occasions. And yet \r\nhe had had no sort of formal education, he was absolutely illiterate, had only \r\npicked up some French by ear. Another cook who came later has become, as you \r\nknow, quite a celebrity thanks to his spiritist performance. The story has \r\nbecome well-known, it is now almost a classic. Sri Aurobindo has referred to it, \r\nthe Mother has spoken and written about it, the well-known French poet and \r\nmystic Maurice Magre who had been here and lived in the Ashram for some time has \r\nrecorded it in one of his books. You must have heard or read what Sri Aurobindo \r\nand the Mother have said on the subject. I do not wish to add anything of my \r\nown, for I was not an eye-witness; I had been away in Bengal for a while.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nNow that we are on this topic of cooks and cooking, let me add a few words about \r\nmyself in this connection. I had, as</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n&nbsp;<font size=\"2\">Page-61</font></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nsaid, some practice in the work of the kitchen and I took it up again later on. \r\nFor some time—we were about fifty in all by then—I did some serving in addition \r\nto cooking once a week. What kind of cooking was that? In those days<sub>?</sub> \r\nwe used to have pudding for dinner three times a week, ordinary rice pudding, \r\nfried rice pudding, and tapioca pudding. I did the tapioca. It was rather in the \r\nfitness of things that the hands that had once been used to making bombs should \r\nnow do some sweets.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">At \r\none time, one of our main subjects of study was the Veda. This went on for \r\nseveral months, for about an hour every evening, at the Guest House. Sri \r\nAurobindo came and took his seat at the table and we sat around. Subramanya \r\nBharati the Tamil poet and myself were the two who showed the keenest interest. \r\nSri Aurobindo would take up a hymn from the Rigveda, read it aloud once, explain \r\nthe meaning of every line and phrase and finally give a full translation. I used \r\nto take notes. There are many words in the Rigveda whose derivation is doubtful \r\nand open to differences of opinion. In such cases, Sri Aurobindo used to say \r\nthat the particular meaning he gave was only provisional and that the matter \r\ncould be finally decided only after considering it in all the contexts in which \r\nthe word occurred. His own method of interpreting the Rigveda was this: on \r\nreading the text he found its true meaning by direct intuitive vision through an \r\ninner concentration in the first instance, and then he would give it an external \r\nverification in the light of reason, making the necessary changes accordingly.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nSri Aurobindo has taught me a number of languages. Here again his method has \r\noften evoked surprise. I should therefore like to say something on this point. \r\nHe never asked me to begin the study of a new language with primary readers or \r\nchildren&#39;s books. He started at once with one of the classics, that is, a \r\nstandard work in the language. He used to say that the education of children \r\nmust begin with books written for children, but for adults, for those, that is, \r\nwho had already had some education the reading material must be adapted to their \r\nage and mental development. That is why, when I </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-62</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\ntook up Greek, I began \r\nstraightway with Euripides&#39; <i>Medea,</i> and my second book was Sophocles&#39; \r\n<i>Antigone</i>. I \r\nbegan a translation of <i>Antigone</i> into Bengali and Sri Aurobindo offered to write \r\na preface if I completed the translation, a preface where, he said, he would \r\ntake up the question of the individual versus the State. Whether I did complete \r\nthe translation I cannot now recollect. I began my Latin with Virgil&#39;s Aeneid, \r\nand Italian with Dante. I have already told you about my French, there I started \r\nwith Moliere.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">I \r\nshould tell you what one gains by this method, at least what has been my \r\npersonal experience. One feels as if one took a plunge into the inmost core of \r\nthe language, into that secret heart where it is vibrant with life, with the \r\nquintessence of beauty, the fullness of strength. Perhaps it was this that has \r\nprompted me to write prose-poems and verse in French, for one feels as if \r\nidentified with the very genius of the language. This is the method which \r\nWestern critics describe as being in <i>medias res,</i> getting right into the heart of \r\nthings. One may begin a story in two ways. One way is to begin at the beginning, \r\nfrom the<i> <font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dik<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nda</i> and \r\n<i>Genesis,</i> and then develop the theme gradually, as is done \r\nin the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bible. The other method is to start \r\nsuddenly, from the middle of the story, a method largely preferred by Western \r\nartists, like Homer and Shakespeare for instance.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\nBut it was not found possible for Sri Aurobindo to continue with his own studies \r\nor even to help us in ours. For, as I have already hinted, our mode of living, \r\nour life itself took a different turn with the arrival of the Mother. How and in \r\nwhat direction? It was like this. The Mother came and installed Sri Aurobindo on \r\nhis high pedestal of Master and Lord of Yoga. We had hitherto known him as a \r\ndear friend and close companion, and although in our mind and heart he had the \r\nposition of a Guru, in our outward relations we seemed to behave as if he were \r\njust like one of ourselves. He too had been averse to the use of the words \r\n&quot;Guru&quot; and &quot;Ashram&quot; in relation to himself, for there was hardly a place in his \r\nwork of new creation for the old traditional associations</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-63</font></p><hr>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;these words conveyed. \r\nNevertheless, the Mother taught by her manner and speech, and showed us in \r\nactual practice, what was the meaning of disciple and master; she has always practised what she preached. She showed us, by not taking her seat in front of \r\nor on the same level as Sri Aurobindo, but by sitting on the ground, what it \r\nmeant to be respectful to one&#39;s Master, what was real courtesy. Sri Aurobindo \r\nonce said to us, perhaps with a tinge of regret, &quot;I have tried to stoop as low \r\nas I can, and yet you do not reach me.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">It \r\nwas the Mother who opened our eyes and gave us that vision which made us say, \r\neven as Arjuna had been made to say:.</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>sakheti matv<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257; </font>prasabham yaduktam </i></b> </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>he Kr<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;</font>s<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;</font>n<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#61477;</font>a he y<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>dava he sakheti </i></b> </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>aj<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nat<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> \r\nmahim<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>nam tavedam</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>may<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font> pram<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>d<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>t \r\npranayena v<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>pi.</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>yaccavahasarthamasatkrtosi</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>vih<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>ra-<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#347;</font>ayy<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>sana- \r\nbhojanesu </i></b> </p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:25px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>eko&#39;thav<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>pyacyuta tvat-samaksam</i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left:50px\" align=\"justify\">\r\n<b><i>tat ks<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>maye tv<font face=\"Times New Roman\">&#257;</font>m-aham-aprameyam&nbsp;&nbsp; </i></b></p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"justify\">\r\n&quot;By whatever name I have called you, O Krishna, O Yadava, O Friend, thinking in \r\nmy rashness that you were only a friend, and out of ignorance and from \r\naffection, not knowing this thy greatness; whatever disrespect I have shown you \r\nout of frivolity, whether sitting or lying down or eating, when I was alone or \r\nwhen you were present before me,—may I be pardoned for all that, O thou Infinite \r\nOne.&quot;</p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\">\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page-64</font></p>\r\n\r\n<hr>\r\n			<p align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><b><font size=\"2\"><a href=\"-00_Contents\">\r\n			<span style=\"text-decoration: none\">HOME</span></a></font></b>\r\n\r\n			<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;</td>\r\n		</tr>\r\n	</table>\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-09_Ponicherry-2','','publish','closed','open','','09_ponicherry-2','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/09_ponicherry-2/',0,'post','',0),(1417,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-016_Poetry and Poetic Inspiration.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">POETRY AND POETIC INSPIRATION\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> I have said: &quot;Poetry is sensuality of the mind&quot;. How is it so? It is because poetry is in relation with the forms and images of ideas—forms, images, sensations, impressions, emotions attached to ideas are the sensual or, if you prefer to call it, the sensuous side of things. All such relations are sensuousness. And poetry concerns itself with this idea of mind and thought. It approaches the world of ideas through their appearances, through the play of sensations and emotions around them. It is not like philosophy or metaphysics which endeavours to look into the inside of ideas. Poetry, on the other hand, cannot be poetry unless it evokes, that is to say, unless it gives a form, a sensuous form to the idea. I have used an epigrammatic phrase to express this truth and even chosen the stronger word to give an edge to it. People are called sensual when they are occupied solely with the sensations of the physical life, with the forms and formations and movements of the material world, when they live with their senses and enjoy the things of the senses. The same tendency instead of going out towards the external life, the physical world, when it turns towards objects of the mind, towards ideas gives rise to poetry. Poetry is a world under the aspect of the beauty\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-52</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">of form. It expresses the beauty of an idea, the harmony of rhythm of a thought, giving all that a concrete shape or image: it becomes a play of images, a play of sounds, a play of words. Thus instead of a sensuality of matter, we have a sensuality of the mind. I have not taken the word in a pejorative sense, nor in a moral sense; it is simply descriptive.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI do not mean, in other words, that such a view, the poetic view, necessarily prevents you from seeing the truth of things. It only describes the way of the poets\' approach as poet. Indeed, if it were a choice between reading a book of good poetry and reading a book of metaphysics, personally I would prefer poetry, for that is less arid! My definition of poetry, I assure you, is not a condemnation, it is only a description, a statement of fact, namely, that poetry is the sensual or sensuous approach to truth. It is perhaps a somewhat paradoxical way of putting the thing; it is meant to strike the thought, to awaken it to the perception of a reality which is usually obscured by the habitual, traditional or &quot;classical&quot; way of thinking.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIf you mean by inspiration that the poet does not think when he writes a poem, that is to say, he has gone beyond all thought, has made his mind silent, silent and immobile, has opened himself to inner or higher regions and writes almost automatically, well, such a thing happens perhaps once a thousand years. It is not a common phenomenon. A Yogi has the power to do that. What you normally mean, however, by an inspired poet is\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-53</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">something quite different. People who have some kind of genius, who have an opening into other and higher regions are called &quot;inspired&quot;; persons who have made some discovery are also included in that category. Each time you are in relation with a thing belonging to a domain superior to the normal human consciousness, you are inspired. And when you are not totally bound to the very ordinary level you do receive &quot;inspirations&quot; from above. It is the same in the case of a poet. The source of his creation is elsewhere up above the ordinary mind; for that he need not possess an empty vacant mind.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-54</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-016_Poetry and Poetic Inspiration','','publish','closed','open','','016_poetry-and-poetic-inspiration','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/016_poetry-and-poetic-inspiration/',0,'post','',0),(1418,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-001_Pre_Content.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n<img alt=\"1-60 - 0001-1.jpg\" src=\"/Nolini/The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo Part - 8/_images/1-60 - 0001-1.jpg\" style=\" width:268.80pt; height:426.24pt;\"\n<br></p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE YOGA\nOF\nSRI AUROBINDO\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">Part Eight\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">NOLINI KANTA GUPTA.\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM \n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">PONDICHERRY \n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">1956\n</p>\n	<hr></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><i>Publishers: </i>\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">First Edition......   November, 1956\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><i>All rights reserved</i>\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press \n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">Pondicherry </p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nprinted  in  India</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-001_Pre_Content','','publish','closed','open','','the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-001_pre_content','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-001_pre_content/',0,'post','',0),(1419,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-009_Sleep and Pain.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">SLEEP AND PAIN\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>How would one be able to sleep when one has extreme bodily pain?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThat requires some kind of yogic power. The best way, the absolute one, is to get out of the body.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen the body suffers, when you have high fever, for example, when you are sick, sick to the last degree, the only thing to do then is to come out of the body, come out with your vital being. If you are a yogi and have the knowledge, you remain outside the body but just above it so that you are able to look at it. You can see your own body if the vital form in which you go out is sufficiently materialised. You see your body and with the consciousness and the power which you have then, you can direct the rays of the Force upon the spot where the body suffers. This is a top process, but it gives the absolutely sure means of getting cured. If the power and the knowledge is there, it is infallible. You can cure any disease with that and in a short time. Only it means a considerable education and training. You cannot improvise it. But as a matter of fact men help themselves naturally and automatically when the pain becomes unbearable; they faint. To faint is to get out of the body. So persons who are not too much tied down to\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-27</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">the body faint away when the bodily suffering becomes too strong. Only, when you go out of the body, leaving it as an inert mass, there must be someone near sensible and intelligent enough. The body must not be shaken violently to make you wake up. If people by the side are seized by a panic and hurl buckets of water upon your head, the result may be worse. Otherwise, the fainting fit passes quietly, little by little, into a restful condition as there is no longer the consciousness recording the bodily suffering. In the so-called fit the body becomes gradually quiet and immobile, so that it may rest in spite of the suffering.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are lesser means with lesser results. These too are not very easy either. One is to cut the connection between the brain and the part that suffers. The brain not receiving the vibration, the pain is no longer felt. In fact, this is what doctors do when they operate under anaesthesia. The nervous connection round the affected part is made insensitive and the pain is not felt or it is reduced to a minimum. But here you have to do it with your will and consciousness; and that requires an occult power. Some can do it automatically, but their number is very few. If you are unable to go so far, there is another way which should be within your reach. Do not concentrate or dwell upon your pain and suffering; withdraw your attention and direct it elsewhere. The more you think of your pain, the worse it becomes. If you are busy observing its signs and signals, almost awaiting its attack, you surely welcome it in a way, you indulge it\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-28</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">and help its continuance. That is why you are advised in that condition to do some light reading or hear things read out, so that the attention may be diverted.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen you go to sleep the ideal is to enter into integral rest, that is to say, immobility of the body, peace in the vital, absolute silence in the mind and the consciousness coming out of all activity and passing into Sachchida-nanda. If you can do that, then when you get up, you get up with a feeling of extraordinary power, perfect joy and so on. But it is not easy to do it. Still it can be done. It is the ideal condition.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nGenerally, however, it is never like that; most often, practically the whole length of your sleep is wasted in all kinds of disorderly movements: you toss about in your bed, kick and jump and even talk and shout. That means you have no rest at all.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nUsually there is a whole group of dreams, useless and tiresome, that prevent you from resting. You must avoid all that. You can avoid them, if just before you go to sleep you make a little effort at concentration, that is to say, try to be in relation with what is best in yourself, through an aspiration or a prayer. You do that and go to sleep. Now, if you have done your concentration in some way successfully, you are likely to get a kind of dream, rather experiences in sleep which you remember, which are useful indications or signs about problems for which you had had no answer; it may be on the subject of certain circumstances where you have to take a decision and are unable to do so; or it may be\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-29</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">something in your consciousness which is not clear to you in your waking state, because you are not in the habit of noting or recognizing it normally, but which you feel in some way doing harm. All these things may appear to you in a revealing symbolic dream. Things are clear which were obscure before. And this does not depend upon what you have been or were doing the whole day long, but much upon the way in which you get into sleep. A minute of sincere aspiration just before going to sleep is sufficient to make of your sleep a powerful help instead of an agent for obscuration.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is also a proper way of getting out of sleep, as there is a proper way of getting into it. Instead of jumping out of the bed as soon as you are awake or moving about in it, you should keep quiet and still as you awake; you awake slowly without the least movement in your limbs; you feel a sort of vague impression left in you of something that has happened, somthing peculiar and even strange. Keep yourself still and observe, observe closely and attentively. Slowly you perceive a kind of half memory emerging of an activity in your past night. Remain concentrated and always still and immobile, gradually something like the tail-end of a dream appears and if you pull at it, follow it up, that is to say, backward —always keeping yourself quiet—you can recollect practically the whole of your dream, quite an interesting activity of yours in the night.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou do many things at night in your sleep. You forget most of them. If however you recall them, become\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-30</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">conscious of them, you can begin controlling them. Before being conscious, without being conscious of a thing, you cannot have control over it. It is by being conscious that you get the power for control. If you can control your activities in sleep, you can have a restful sleep. Sometimes when you get up you find yourself more tired than when you went to bed. It is because you are in the habit of doing very many useless things in your sleep, running about wildly in your vital, wandering chaotically in your mind etc., etc. Naturally when you get up you do not seem to have tasted any rest. Sometimes you get into bad quarters, dark and ugly regions and you struggle there, fight there, receive blows, give blows and you are prostrate in the end. All that you can avoid, when you become conscious and gain control.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">* \n*</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen one sees oneself dead or dying, it may mean several things. It may mean a spiritual death or a vital death or the death of some part in you that is to go; in the last case it means a progress in the consciousness. It may be also a premonition. The significance depends upon the context.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-31</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-009_Sleep and Pain','','publish','closed','open','','009_sleep-and-pain','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/009_sleep-and-pain/',0,'post','',0),(1420,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-025_Sadhana must be done in the Body.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">SADHANA MUST BE DONE IN THE BODY\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are people who are disgusted with life. They want to go away in the hope that it will be better the next time. But we tell you: It is no use running away from your body, it will not be easier without a body. On the contrary, it will be much more difficult. The body is meant for you to do Yoga. We are upon earth here and it is precisely during the period of our life upon earth that we can make progress.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou cannot progress outside the life on earth. The terrestrial life, the material life is essentially the life for progress. It is here that we develop and advance. Outside the earthly life you take rest, otherwise you remain unconscious. You can have this period of assimilation, period of rest or period of inconscience elsewhere. But for periods of progress you must come to the earth and in the body.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSo when you take a body it is for making progress and when you leave it the period of progress ends. Now true progress means Sadhana, in other words the most conscious and the most rapid progress. Otherwise there is a progress with the march of Nature and that takes centuries and centuries, hundreds of centuries to move just a little forward.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-89</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTrue progress is done by Sadhana. By Yoga you can do a thing in a brief space that would otherwise take a long, interminable period. But it is always upon earth and with the body that this can be done, not elsewhere. So that is why while you are in the body you must profit by it, not to lose time, not to say, \'later on, later on\'. It is much better to do the thing forthwith. Years that you pass without making progress are years wasted, you can only regret for it afterwards.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">* \n*</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nEvery human being here upon earth, whoever he is and whatever he is, has within him a psychic being, only in various degrees of evolution. An embodied person possesses many other things e.g. states and forms of consciousness. His task upon earth is to transform these elements which form as it were, the part of universe given to him for his work of transformation. And even if he has a vaster mission beyond his own person, he cannot do that unless he has done the personal work first. You cannot change the outside world unless you have begun changing your own self. It is the first and indispensable condition and it is true for all, young or old, small or big. It is for this reason that life has been given to the psychic being: it is man\'s opportunity for progress. The span of earthly life is the time for progress. Outside earthly life there is no progress. The possibility and the means for the progress are only there in earthly life.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-90</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">So one must begin with oneself. When the work has been done with regard to oneself then only one can begin elsewhere. But first, work at home.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou go to kill yourself when you are a coward. The psychic comes with a definite aim to gather a certain sum of experiences, to learn, to make progress. If you go away before the work is done, you have to come back and do it over again but in circumstances much more difficult than before. Whatever you avoided in one life, you will find reappearing in a more difficult form. Without going very far, take for example this small difficulty in your life, the examination you have to pass. If you do not go through it, if you turn your back, you will have to pass it another time and that time it will be more difficult.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nMen are so ignorant. They think that there is life and that there is death, life is a bundle of troubles, death brings about peace. But it is not at all like that. Generally when one goes out unnaturally, in a fit of ignorant and obscure passion, one enters straight into a vital world, made of all these passions and ignorant movements. The trouble they want to avoid they meet again but without having the protection that the body gives them. For if ever you had a nightmare i.e. a bold promenade into the vital world, you know that you come out of it by waking up, in other words, by rushing into your body. But when you have wilfully destroyed the body, you have lost your protective armour. You have to live in a continual nightmare. It is not very pleasant.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-91</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo avoid a nightmare you have to be in your psychic consciousness; for when you are in that consciousness nothing troubles you or brings you anxiety. It is only when you are in a movement of ignorance that you do not have the courage or the strength to face a danger.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>What is the source of cowardice?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIgnorance is the source. Ignorance is the cause of all evil. I think, however, that one becomes a coward when one is tamasic i.e. one fears to make an effort.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-92</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-025_Sadhana must be done in the Body','','publish','closed','open','','025_sadhana-must-be-done-in-the-body','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/025_sadhana-must-be-done-in-the-body/',0,'post','',0),(1421,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-008_A Sign and a Symbol.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">A SIGN AND A SYMBOL\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>It is said that if you see a shooting star and make a vow at that time, the vow is sure to be fulfilled. Is it true ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt means that you must be able to formulate your aspiration during the time the star is visible, that is to say, a very short time. Now, if an aspiration can be formed and formulated in such a short time, it shows that the aspiration is there all the while quite at the front of your consciousness. Of course, the thing is true of the spiritual aspiration only: it is not applicable to matters of ordinary life. So I say that if you are capable of articulating your aspiration in a split second, it means that the object of your aspiration lies in front and dominates your consciousness. And necessarily whatever dominates your consciousness is likely to be quickly realised.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI had the occasion to make the experiment and have the experience. It happened exactly as you say. I saw a shooting star and as it passed, at the precise moment, leaped out of my consciousness the words: <i>To realise for my body union with the Divine. </i>\nit was \ndone.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nObviously, the star was not the cause. It was because the thing dominated my consciousness, I thought of nothing but that, I willed nothing but that, I acted not\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-25</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">but for that. Usually, it seems, it takes a whole life time to have the realisation—the minimum is thirty-five years, it is said. But it was done in my case within twelve months.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt was because I was wholly concentrated upon the aspiration that I could formulate it in the twinkling of an eye that the passage of the star represents—not as a mere vague impression—but in clear precise words: <i>To realise for the body union with the Divine.<b>\n</b> </i>What is important is not the \nstar, but the aspiration. There is no need of a shooting star to be there in \norder to have the experience quickly, what is needed is that the whole being \nmust concentrate its will upon one point.</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-26</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-008_A Sign and a Symbol','','publish','closed','open','','008_a-sign-and-a-symbol','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/008_a-sign-and-a-symbol/',0,'post','',0),(1422,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-026_On Food.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">ON FOOD</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> I believe the primitive man was \nvery near to the animal. He lived more by instinct than by intelligence. He ate \nwhen he was hungry without any kind of fixed rule. He might have had his own \ntastes and preferences, we do not know much about it; but we know that he lived \nmuch more physically, much less mentally or even vitally as now.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Originally very material in \nnature, much like the animal, man in the course of his progress through \ncenturies or millenniums became more and more mental, more and more vital. And \nas he grew more mental and more vital, refinement became possible, the \nintelligence increased, but the possibility too of perversion and deformation. \nIt is one thing to educate the senses so as to bring into them every variety of \nrefinement, growth, knowledge, appreciation, taste and all that, meaning a \nprogress in consciousness: it is quite another to be attached to the object of \nyour sense, to have greed, to be a glutton.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> You can make a very thorough \nstudy of taste, for example: you can acquire a detailed knowledge of the \ndifferent tastes of different things, the association of idea or notion with \ntaste, which means not perhaps a\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-93</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">progress in the vital, but at least a development of this \nparticular sense. That is permissible but there is a great difference between \nthat and eating out of greed, thinking of food all the while, eating not because \nof its need but because of desire and gluttony.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Indeed, people who try to develop \ntheir taste are rarely very much attached to food. They cultivate their taste \nfor developing, refining their senses, not for the sake of eating. In the same \nway the artist, a painter for example, trains his eyes so that he can know how \nto appraise the beauty of form and colour, line and design, composition and \nharmony that is found in physical nature. It is not mere desire or hunger that \ndrives them, it is taste, culture, development of the sense of sight, \nappreciation of beauty that is his preoccupation. Generally, artists who are \ntruly artists, who love and live their art, who are in search of beauty are \npeople who have not many desires. They live in their aesthetic sensibility, in \ntheir senses turned to the enjoyment and creation of beauty. They are not of the \nkind of people who live by their vital impulses and physical desires.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> In a general way, education, \nculture, refinement of the senses are the means of curing movements of crude \ninstinct and desire and passion. To obliterate them is not curing them; instead, \nthey have to be cultivated, intellectualised, refined. That is the surest way of \ncuring them. To give them their maximum growth in view of the progress and \ndevelopment of consciousness, so that one may attain to a sense of harmony and \nexactitude\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-94</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">of perception is part of culture and education for the human \nbeing. Men cultivate their intelligence in the same way: they read, they think, \ncompare and contrast, they make a study. In this way their mind enlarges, it \nbecomes wider and more comprehensive than the mind of those who live without a \nmental education, who possess only a few ideas that perhaps even contradict each \nother. They are moved wholly by these as they have no other, they think those \nare the only ideas that should govern them: such minds are extremely narrow and \nlimited. On the other hand, they who have cultivated their intelligence, who \nhave studied and thought, who have widened their mental range a little and so \ncan see and note and compare other ideas and possible notions discover easily \nthat it is sheer ignorance and absurdity to be attached to a limited set of \nideas and to consider that alone as the expression of truth.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> This training of taste, this \neducation of the senses is a very good, a necessary means to prepare the \nconsciousness for a higher development. There are persons who are very crude and \nvery simple in nature. They can have a strong inspiration and arrive at a \ncertain spiritual growth but the foundation will always remain of a somewhat \ninferior quality: and when they come back to their ordinary consciousness they \nfind there great obstacles: for the stuff is missing there, there are not, in \nthe vital and physical consciousness, elements enough to enable it to support a \ndescent of the higher force.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-95</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>How does fasting bring a state of receptivity ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Usually the vital being is \nconcentrated very much in the body. And when the body is well fed, it takes its \nforce and energy through the food—it is one way of absorbing energy, almost the \nonly way, at least the more important way, under the existing conditions of \nlife, but it is a tamasic way.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> This energy that one takes in, if \nyou reflect upon the matter you will easily admit, is the vital energy that is \nin the plant or the animal and logically it is of an inferior quality to that \nwhich should be man\'s who is supposed to be on a higher level in the scale of \nspecies. So it is impossible to eat without absorbing a large quantity of \nunconsciousness. Inevitably that makes you heavy and dense. And if you are in \nthe habit of eating much, a good part of your consciousness is engaged in \ndigesting and assimilating what you eat. Thus if you do not take food, that \nalready frees you from this unconsciousness that you have no longer to \nassimilate and transform within you: that liberates energy in you. Then, as \nthere is an instinct in the being to make up for energy spent, if you do not \ngather it from food i.e. from below, you make automatically an effort to draw it \nfrom the universal vital energy which is free around you. And if you can \nassimilate that energy, assimilate it directly, then there is no limit to your \nenergy.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is not like your stomach which \ncan digest only a limited quantity of food and this food again can give\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-96</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">out only a portion—a very small portion—of its energy. For after \nthe energy spent in swallowing, masticating, digesting etc. how much of it still \nremains available? If, on the other hand, you learn—you learn instinctively, it \nis a kind of instinct—to draw from the universal energy which is freely \navailable in the world and in any quantity, you can take it in and absorb as \nmuch as you are capable of it. Thus, as I have said, when there is not the \nsupport from below coming from food, the body makes an automatic movement to get \nthe wanted energy from the environment. It gets at times, more than enough, even \nan overdose and that puts you in a state of tension or stimulation. And if your \nbody is strong and can remain without food for some time, then you can maintain \nyour poise and utilise the energies in all ways—to make inner progress, for \nexample, to become more conscious, to change your nature. But if your body has \nnot much reserve, it gets easily weakened by fast, then there occurs a \ndisharmony between the intensity of the energies you absorb and the capacity of \nthe body to hold them and that upsets you. You lose your poise, the equilibrium \nof the forces is broken and anything can happen. In any case, if such a thing \nhappens, you lose a good deal of self-control, you get excited and this \nunnatural excitement you consider as a higher state of consciousness. But it is \nan inner unbalance, nothing more. Otherwise, in that state your senses get \nrefined and receptive. Thus when you fast and do not draw energy from below, if \nyou smell a flower, you feel nourished, the perfume you</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-97</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">breathe in serves as food, it gives you energy and this you \nwould not have known but for the fasting.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> In this condition certain \nfaculties become intensified and that is taken as a spiritual effect. But in \nreality it has very little to do with spirituality. However, instead of thinking \nall the while about food, how to get it and eat, if one were to take to fasting \nfor the sake of freeing oneself from the bondage of food preoccupation, rising a \nlittle in the scale of consciousness, it would be a good thing. If you have the \nfaith it will do you good, it will purify you, make you progress a little. In \nthat way it is all right: it will not do any harm to our body excepting making \nit a little thinner. But if you fast and then continuously turn back to it and \nthink of the food that you might have eaten or are likely to eat after the \nfasting, well, such fasting is worse than feasting.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Materlinck,—you must have heard \nof him, the author of BLUE BIRD—was a very corpulent person. As he had some \nsense of beauty he disliked corpulency, and in order to reduce it or keep it \nwithin bounds, he took to fasting for one day a week regularly. As he was an \nintelligent man, he did not on that day give any thought to food, but he kept \nhimself wholly engaged in writing and studying. Fasting was of use to him.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The moral then is this: you must \nnot think about food: you should regulate your life in such an automatic manner \nthat you have not got to think about it. Eat at fixed hours, reasonably—calmly, \nquietiy, composedly. Do not eat too much; for then you will have to concern\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-98</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">yourself with digestion: that would be a disagreeable thing; it \nwill make you lose time. Eat just what is necessary. You must give up all desire \nand attraction, all vital movement. When you eat only because the body needs \nfood, then the body will tell you in a very precise and exact manner when it has \njust the amount necessary. It is only when you have notions in your mind or \ndesires in your vital, when for example, you are in love with a particular item, \nthat you eat in multiples of the quantity needed and oppress your body and make \nit lose its natural perception.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-99</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-026_On Food','','publish','closed','open','','026_on-food','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/026_on-food/',0,'post','',0),(1423,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-015_Thought and Imagination.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THOUGHT AND IMAGINATION\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen you think of a person or a thing you are immediately there and come into contact with the object of your thought. But this happens in the thought world only; you know nothing of the vital or physical context of the object. Thought is conscious of thought only in the mental world; by your thought you can be conscious of the mental atmosphere of the distant object, of the thought of the person to whom you go, but nothing else, absolutely nothing of his vital or physical.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIf you want to know of the vital you must go to the object vitally; it means an exteriorisation that leaves the body at least three-fourths in trance. And if you want to see things physically, you will have to go out in your most material subtle physical; that leaves the body in an entirely catalyptic condition. These things cannot be done without someone by your side who has the right knowledge and who can protect you.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut the mental exteriorisation happens constantly. It puts you in relation with the mental world. If you are very conscious and the person you see in thought is also very conscious, then you can know of the ideas and opinions which the person might form at that time, but even then only indirectly, you do not know directly.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-47</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen you imagine a thing, it means that you make a mental formation which may be near to the truth or far from it according to the quality of your formation. There are people who have this power of formation to such an extent that they are capable of realising what they imagine. They imagine some thing and they make such a strong well-shaped formation that they succeed in materialising it. They are truly creators. There are not many like that, but there surely are a few.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou can meet a dead person also in your thought if he continues to be in the mental world; you can be in contact with his mind and have a sort of mental vision of his life there. But if he is gone to the psychic world, then thinking of him is not sufficient; you must know how to go into the psychic world and meet him there.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe mind has its own power of vision; it is not the vision of the physical eyes, but it is yet vision, perception through forms. It is not imagination which is a quite different faculty. Suppose you figure to yourself an ideal being to whom you attribute all conceptions of ideality you have. You say he must be like this, he must be like that, his thoughts are like this, his character like that; you fill up all the details and build up the being. Well, that is the work of imagination. Literary men, novel-writers, always do this kind of construction. Of course, there are writers who take up things from life; but there are others who imagine things and impose them upon life. A character, a concourse of circumstances, a whole chain of events, they spin out of their head.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-48</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">And if they are powerful and possess sufficient creative force, it is quite possible there may be one day actually a physical human being embodying the type imagined.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou can make use of imagination for a high purpose. With its help you can recreate your inner and outer life. You can wholly build your life if you know how to use it and have the power. As a matter of fact, it is the most ordinary and primary way of creating and forming things in the world. I had always the impression that if one had not the capacity of imagination, one would not make any progress. Your imagination always goes ahead of your life. When you think of yourself, usually you imagine what you would like to become —that comes first, the prevision, and then you follow it up; you continue to imagine and realise, realise and imagine. Imagination opens the way to realisation. It is very difficult to move unimaginative people. They see only what is just in front of their nose, they feel only what is there at a given moment. They cannot advance, they are blocked by the immediate present. It is imagination that makes the whole difference.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nMen of science also have and should have a large power of imagination; otherwise they would discover nothing. Imagination, is in reality, the capacity to project oneself out of realised things towards things realisable and pull them in by the very power of projection. It is true there is a progressive and there is a regressive imagination. There are people who always imagine all possible catastrophes and have the power even to make them\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-49</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">come. However, imagination has its good use. It sends out, as it were, <i>antennae </i>\ninto a world that is not \nyet realised, and they catch hold of something there and draw it here. \nNaturally, it means an addition to earth\'s atmosphere, addition of things that \ntend towards manifestation. Imagination then is an instrument that one can train \nand discipline and use at will. It is one of the principal faculties that should \nbe developed and made serviceable.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nEven, you can imagine the Divine and come into contact with Him. You do in fact come into contact with that which you imagine. Do you know you cannot imagine anything that is not somewhere? It may not exist here upon earth, but it is and must be elsewhere. As I say, it is impossible to imagine anything that is not contained in the universe in principle at least. Otherwise it would not be there even as an idea.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe universe is progressive. That is to say, more and more things constantly manifest themselves there. Now, imagination is a faculty by which you go beyond the range of manifested things; if you have progressed so far as to imagine things that are not yet manifested, you already help in bringing down these things and making them part of the manifested reality. Naturally, you must know how to go beyond the manifested universe in order to be able to imagine what is not there. And there are many, many such things.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFirst of all, you must know how to get beyond the terrestrial manifestation, in order to be able to imagine\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-50</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">a new thing in it. And how many millions of years has earth existed! What has been the output of new things there? Countless, for no two things upon earth are exactly the same, although they may be very similar. It is not easy with your mind to get out of the earthly atmosphere. But if you have succeeded in doing that, you have to get out of the universal life. To enter into contact with all that has been here upon earth since the beginning of its appearance till the present day and then to enter into contact with the universal of which the earth forms only a tiny particle from its beginning to its formulation today—this is not sufficient. You have still to go beyond, beyond the universal, into the transcendent, the unmanifest. Then you can think of imagining and bringing down something new into the manifestation and upon earth. Not that one cannot do this. But it is not so easy.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-51</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-015_Thought and Imagination','','publish','closed','open','','015_thought-and-imagination','','','2021-11-23 17:21:27','2021-11-23 17:21:27','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/015_thought-and-imagination/',0,'post','',0),(1424,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-031_Meditation and Wakefulness.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">MEDITATION AND WAKEFULNESS\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo have good meditation or contact with the inner world, if you are obliged to go into Samadhi, then your normal consciousness will remain always the same without changing. In other words, people who have a higher consciousness only in deep meditation, once they come out of it, are not worth more than what they were before. All their defects are there which they get back as soon as they get back their previous consciousness.<sup>1 </sup>Such people never progress; for they never establish a connection between their deeper consciousness, the truth of their being, and their external being. They take off their external being like a robe and put it aside in a corner telling it &quot;keep quiet, my dear friend, you bother me&quot;—and they enter into contemplation, meditation, their deep experience or realisation; and when they return they put on their robe again which has not changed in the meanwhile, even might have become more dirty\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<sup>1</sup> Sri Ramakrishna used to tell a story in this connection. When asked about the purificatory virtue of a dip in the Holy Ganges he answered that the sins leave you as soon as you are about to enter the waters, but they keep waiting on the shore, and directly you are out they pounce upon you and settle in you as merrily as before.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-117</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">than ever. So they remain where they are or become worse, in their outward nature, in spite of their meditation. If you want to change your external being, you must remain conscious of it and while being conscious have other experiences: you must not lose contact with it if you wish to derive full benefit out of your experiences.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are many such people who meditate for long hours, some almost all the time; but if by chance they are disturbed in their meditation by someone calling them or making noise, they fly into a rage, shout and abuse the whole world; they become more nasty than they would have been had they remained ordinary men without trying meditation. The reason is, as I say, that they neglect to associate their outer life with their deeper consciousness: they cut themselves into two, there is one bit that is within making progress and another bit outside that goes from bad to worse, for it is left wholly uncared for.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-118</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-031_Meditation and Wakefulness','','publish','closed','open','','031_meditation-and-wakefulness','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/031_meditation-and-wakefulness/',0,'post','',0),(1425,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-011_Spirits in Trees.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Spirits in Trees</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>You told us the other day that there are spirits who remain bound to trees. How are they to get free ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhy should they get free?\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>You told us how the spirits in the trees got freed when someone was kind to them and said prayers on their behalf.</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYes, but that was in the story. It was a Christian legend and put in that way to illustrate a lesson. It was to show that if you are wicked you suffer even after death, that it is a virtuous life that saves you from misery. In reality, however, there is no question here of sin and punishment; it is not that spirits get attached to trees in order to be punished. When a person dies, his vital being leaves the body and goes out; but it finds itself in unfamiliar and inhospitable surroundings, especially if there is no one, none among his friends and relatives upon earth, to help him in the proper way, to guide or protect him in the new country where there are hostile beings to harm. In such a situation a tree is often a very ready shelter, a big old tree with friendly branches spread out, possessing a strong vitality. It is the sap, the element of water coursing in the substance of the tree,\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-36</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">that is to say, the support of its life-power, to which the vital being of the dead man is drawn as its physical support and shelter. There is no question of forced imprisonment and a desire to be freed.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>Are they not harmful, these spirits?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn what way? Usually they do not seem to be so.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>But we hear stories of people who are possessed by them and troubled and tortured.</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThose are of a different kind. They are beings belonging to the vital world and are hostile forces. Here we were speaking of the remnants of the vital being of a dead man. But even in cases of possession by hostile forces or beings, the real truth is most often of another kind. Usually these beings or spirits, as they are called, are nothing more than creations of men. That is to say, it is fear that produces them; it is a mere mental formation which is taken to be a reality. And the greater the fear, the more concrete and effective the formation appears to be. I have had to deal with hundreds of such cases and I have found that there are very few which contain anything more than imagination. Some time ago, I was told of a tree nearby that was the haunt of a ghost. Our milkmen were afraid of the ghost and had seen it! I sent Amrita to burn some incense there and go round the tree a few times and tell the people it was\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-37</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">gone. Well, it was indeed gone; for it was not a very substantial being. As I said, most of the spirits are the creations of our fear.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>How long do spirits of dead people live in their trees?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThat depends. There are entities that stay or live only for a short time; there are others that have a stronger formation and may stay on in their shelter for a thousand years, if the trees live to a thousand years.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>Do such spirits go out of animals also and possess trees ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nNot likely. A certain growth and organisation of the vital being is necessary to be able to persist after death. The vital being of an animal is too unformed and fluid, too bound to the body to continue as an independent entity. When an animal dies its vitality almost immediately disintegrates and merges into the general forces of Nature. It is only in man where there is a mental being to organise the vitality into some sort of an individualised form that the persistence of that form is. possible after the dissolution of the body.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-38</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-011_Spirits in Trees','','publish','closed','open','','011_spirits-in-trees','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/011_spirits-in-trees/',0,'post','',0),(1426,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-038_Buddha and Shankara.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">IV\n<br>\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">GENERAL</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">BUDDHA AND SHANKARA\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(I)\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo escape from life is a teaching based on the view that life is an illusion. The teaching began with Buddha. Buddha said that life or existence is the fruit of desire and that there was only one way of getting out of the misery, namely, to go out of existence. Shankara continued in that line. He added, however, that existence was not merely the fruit of desire, but that it was altogether an illusion and that so long as one lives in that illusion, one cannot realise the Divine. For him the Divine—the Supreme Divine—did not exist. I believe his view was something to that effect. In any case, for the Buddha there was no God.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBoth of them came in contact with something true and real. Buddha had surely an inner contact with something which, in relation to the outer life, appeared to him as non-existence and in this non-existence all the consequences of existence disappeared. There is indeed such a state. And it is said that if you remain in that state for more than twenty days, you are sure to lose your body. I believe it is so, if the condition becomes exclusive. But also it can be an experience that remains behind, exists in a conscious way and yet not exclusively.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-143</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">In other words, the contact with the world and the outer consciousness is maintained and supported by something which is independent of them and free. It is a state in which you can make truly a great progress in your external consciousness; for then you can detach yourself from everything and act without attachment, without preference, in an inner freedom that expresses itself in the outer life. Once you have attained the inner freedom, this conscious contact with the eternal and the infinite, you must return to action without losing that consciousness and allow it to influence the whole of the consciousness turned to action.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThat is what Sri Aurobindo calls bringing down the Force from above. That way lies the only chance of changing the world; for you seek there a new Force, a new domain, a new consciousness and you put that in contact with the external world. Its presence and its action will bring changes inevitably, a total transformation, we hope, in the external world.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(2)\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is no doubt that Buddha had the first part of the experience; but he never thought of the second part, for it was contrary to his own theory. That theory was that one must escape. And it is obvious that there is only one way of escaping and that is to die. And yet, as he had said it himself very well, one may die and yet\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-144</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">remain attached to life and continue to be in the cycle of rebirths without having the liberation. As a matter of fact, it is through the successive sojourns upon earth that one grows till one arrives at this liberation. For him the ideal is that where the world exists no longer. It is as if he accused God for having committed an error by creating a world and the only thing to be done is to repair the error by annulling it. Naturally, as thoroughly reasonable and logical, he did not admit the existence of God. But then by whom was the error committed? When and how did it come about? He never answered these questionings. He simply said that the world began with desire and with the end of desire it must end.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nHe was on the brink of saying that the world was purely subjective, that is to say, a collective illusion, and if the illusion ceased the world would also cease. But he did not go so far. It was Shankara who took up the line and completed the teaching.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn the more ancient wisdom, however, if one goes back to the teaching of the Vedic Rishis, for example, one finds no idea of escape from the world; they sought a realisation upon earth and they even conceived a golden age when this realisation would be achieved.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is without doubt since the teaching of Buddha that the idea of escape came in; and that has gradually undermined the vitality of the country for it meant an endeavour to cut oneself away from life. The outward reality became a false illusion and one should have nothing to do with it. The natural result was that one \n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-145</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">cut oneself away from the universal energy and so vitality went on diminishing, and with diminishing vitality, all possibility of terrestrial realisation also diminished.\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(3)\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSome say that the Buddha was an Avatara, others say he was not.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo use the names as known in India, I think it is the Avataras of Vishnu (the aspect of the Divine that builds and preserves), who come to prove that the Divine can live upon earth; whereas, each time that Shiva has manifested (the aspect that works to transform and destroy), it was in persons who have tried to fight against illusion and demolish what existed.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI have reasons to think that the Buddha manifested something of the Shiva power. It was the same compassion and comprehension for all misery and it was the same force that destroys, evidendy with the intention of transforming, but destroying more than constructing.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nHis work does not seem to have been very constructive indeed. It was necessary to give a practical training to man not to be egoistic. In that way it proved to be useful.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut taken in its fundamental principle it has not helped much in the transformation of earth and earthly life. It has not encouraged the descent of a higher Consciousness into earthly life; instead it has very strongly encouraged\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-146</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">the separation of the Consciousness, which he said was the only truth, from all external expression,\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAnd as to the existence or manifestation of the Divine upon earth, they who believed in Buddha have now made him a God. You have only to look at the Buddhist temples and all their divinities to know that human nature has always the tendency to deify what it admires.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-147</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-038_Buddha and Shankara','','publish','closed','open','','038_buddha-and-shankara','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/038_buddha-and-shankara/',0,'post','',0),(1427,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-037_Love Divine.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">LOVE DIVINE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n&quot;The intensity of Divine Love does not produce any perturbation in any part of the being&quot; <i>(The Elements of Yoga). </i>\nWhy should it? If there is aperturbation, \nit is more likely that a different kind of love was in question. If it is Divine \nLove, there can be no perturbation, for each one receives it according to his \ncapacity,</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nDivine Love is there in its full intensity, as a tremendous force. But most people, 99 out of 100, feel nothing at all. What they feel is exactly in proportion to what they are, what they can receive and hold. Indeed, you are always bathed in an atmosphere vibrant with Divine Love. Sometimes, on rare occasions, for a few seconds perhaps, there is all on a sudden just the impression of something, and you say: &quot;there, the Divine Love came to me!&quot; Well, it is a way of saying: the true fact being that for some reason or other you happened to be just a little open and you had the perception of the thing that is always with you. The Love is there, the divine consciousness, too, is there in the same way. They are one, after all. They are there all the while; only you do not feel it or do so only spasmodically. Once in a way you find yourself, without any rhyme or reason\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-137</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">as it were, in that happy state and you declare that the Divine Love has at last turned towards you! But, as I say, the matter is not like that. There came about an opening in you, perhaps no more than a pinpoint, and that was sufficient for the thing to rush in; for the atmosphere is surcharged with it and wherever there is a possibility of its being received, it is received. The same is true of all things divine. They are there: you do not receive or perceive them, because you are closed, shut off, blocked up. You are occupied, most of the time with other things. You are full of yourself, packed with it, and there is no room for anything else. You are not merely passively filled with yourself, but very actively, you are furiously busy with yourself. How can you notice then the marvellous things that are about you, around you? You get a glimpse unawares, perhaps when you are asleep; but it fades away soon. Man\'s ego is a formidable thing; the whole universe, to him, is a mere function of the ego. You are the centre and the entire creation revolves around you. Such is your vision of the universe. You do not see it as it is; you see only yourself when you look at it.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo begin, then, you must be able to come out of your ego. You will have to enter, as the first step, into something like a state of inexistence. Thereafter only you will begin to see things as they are, that is to say, from a height. If you want to see things as they truly are, you must become absolutely like a mirror—silent, peaceful, immobile, impartial, with no preference, in a state of\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-138</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">total receptivity. You will begin to see many things that did not seem to be there before, but only now becoming active. Well, you may very well have gone inside one of these things instead of being shut up into a minute spot in the infinite universe, which you call yourself. There are many ways by which you can come out of yourself. Anyhow that is the one thing to be done, if you wish to see the world as it is, not as it seems to be a function of yourself.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nNow to come out of the ego, you must have naturally, first of all, the will to do so. The surest way to do it is to give yourself to the Divine, not to pull the Divine towards you but to abandon yourself to Him. That is how you start forgetting yourself. Usually when people think of the Divine, the immediate impulse in them is to pull Him (or whatever they represent Him to be) towards themselves, within themselves. The result generally is that they receive nothing; and they complain: &quot;Oh, I called and called, I prayed and prayed, but there was no answer, I received nothing, nothing came&quot;. But before complaining, ask yourself if you had offered yourself. You would find that instead of offering yourself you had pulled. Instead of being generous, open-handed and open-hearted, you were a miser, a beggar. When you pull you remain wholly within yourself, shut up, sealed within your ego. You raise a wall of separation between you and the thing that is around you and wants to come in, which is thus not admitted, almost deliberately refused entrance.   You enclose yourself\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-139</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">within a prison and grumble that you have nothing, feel nothing. At least if you had opened a window you would have had something of the light and air about you.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-140</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-037_Love Divine','','publish','closed','open','','037_love-divine','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/037_love-divine/',0,'post','',0),(1428,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-033_Personal Effort and Surrender.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">PERSONAL EFFORT AND SURRENDER\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is no difference in the end between the two if the goal to attain is the Impersonal Divine, that is to say, if you want to unite and identify yourself with the Impersonal Divine, merge into it. But if your aspiration is to reach what is beyond, what Sri Aurobindo calls the supramental Reality, then there comes in a difference, a difference in the goal as well as in the way. For the way to the supramental realisation is essentially the way of surrender. It is a question of temperament perhaps. And if one has the temperament, the disposition, the path of surrender is infinitely more easy: three-fourths of your trouble and difficulty are got rid of automatically. But it may prove hard going for some.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nNow as regards the result, in one case, I may say, it is linear, it ends at a point, as it were; in the other case, the path is spherical and ends in a totality. Each one individually can reach his origin and the optimum of his being; the origin and the optimum of one\'s being is the same as the Eternal, the Infinite, the Supreme. If you reach your origin, you reach the Supreme, but you reach along a single line—do not take the image literally, it is only a description to make the thing easy to understand. So it is, I say, a linear realisation terminating\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-123</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">at a point and this point is one with the Supreme, your maximum possibility. By the other way, you arrive at, what I call, a spherical realisation; for it gives you the idea of something that contains all, it is not a point but a totality that excludes nothing.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe relation of the whole and its part does not hold good here; for there is no longer any division. The very quality of the approach is different. Can you say that a perfect identification with one drop of water would give you the knowledge of what the sea is? And here the perfect identification in question is not merely with the ocean but with all possible oceans. And yet the perfect identification with one drop of water does give you the knowledge of the ocean in its essence; but in the other way you know the ocean not merely in its essence but in its totality. It is however very difficult to express the reality of the truth. What can be said to put it as clearly as possible is this: in the line of personal effort, when one depends solely upon one\'s personal strength, all that has been individualised maintains the virtues of individuality and hence also, in a certain sense, all the limitations necessary for this individuality. In the other case, when you have surrendered your individuality, you not only enjoy the virtues of individuality but also you are not subject to its limitations. It is almost high philosophy, I am afraid. It is not clear therefore. But that is all I can say.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-124</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-033_Personal Effort and Surrender','','publish','closed','open','','033_personal-effort-and-surrender','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/033_personal-effort-and-surrender/',0,'post','',0),(1429,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-032_Dealing with a Wrong Movement.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">DEALING WITH A WRONG MOVEMENT\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is a great difference between pushing a thing away simply because you do not want it and changing the state of the consciousness so that the thing you do not want becomes completely foreign to your nature. Usually when you have a movement in you which you do not like you drive it back and repel, but you do not take the trouble of finding in yourself that which served and serves still as a support to the movement, the particular tendency, the turn of consciousness which enables the thing to enter into the consciousness. If, however, instead of a gesture of mere condemnation and suppression, you enter deep into your vital consciousness and find out the support, that is to say, the small vibration of a special kind embedded far in a corner, often a corner so dark that it is difficult to see it is there, if, in spite of all difficulty, you concentrate and follow on the track of the thing, the origin of the movement, then at the end you discover quite a small snake-like thing, coiled up, quite small, not bigger than a pea, but very black and embedded firmly. There are then two procedures: either to throw a light so intense, the light of the truth-consciousness, so strong upon the point that the thing is dissolved or to seize the little object as with a pair of\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-119</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">pincers, pull it out and place it before your consciousness. The first method is radical, but you have not always at your disposal the light of the Truth and you cannot make use of it whenever you like. So you have to take to the second method. You may follow it, but it will give you pain, a pain as great as when a tooth is being pulled out. I do not know if any of you had the ex-perince, but it is painful. Usually, however, what you do in the presence of an undesirable movement is to try to wipe it away—gently, I suppose—or cover it up; thus things continue as before. You do not have the courage and so things do not change. Yes, it gives you pain; the pain is usually here in the heart. But if you have the courage, it is better to pull out the thing than to temporize with it; pull it out and put it in front of your gaze; it dissolves. That makes an end of it and you are cured. The thing will not come into you any more to trouble you. But the operation is radical and it has to be done as an operation.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn the beginning you need a great perseverance in seeking out the thing. For normally when you are in search of these things, the mind comes in and deploys a thousand and one reasons and favourable explanations so that you may not pursue the enquiry. It tells you: &quot;no, it is not your fault at all; it is the circumstances, it is the people, it is things coming from outside, it is this and it is that,&quot; all excellent excuses, and if you are not firm in your resolution, you let things go on and you are where you were; the thing will come back to trouble\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-120</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">you again and you have to begin all over once more. But if you have done the operation, everything is done with. Do not trust the mind and its explanations. It might inspire you to say: &quot;yes, yes, on other occasions it was like that, I admit, I was indeed in the wrong; but this time, I am sure, it is not my fault etc., etc.&quot;. If you do not deal firmly with your adversary, it will be always there, hiding in the subconscient, lodged there comfortably, coming up any day you are off your guard. I have seen people cherishing the evil in this way for more than thirty-five years. And if one does not go about it in the right way, there is no reason why the things should not continue life after life. The only safe way then is to do the operation, cost what it may. For it gives you the final relief. I say, when you throw the spot of light upon the place, it burns, it seres. But you must bear it. You must have the sincerity that does not allow you to draw back, to cover up the place and retire. You must instead throw it wide open, receive the blow straight upon you.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI have told you to seek out the place where the hidden thing lies. The black thing has many a cosy corner in your being. There are people who have it in the head, some in the heart, others down below; but wherever it is when you track it down it has the same look, the little black creature rolled up, not bigger than a pea but hard and firmly set, a microbe-size snake coiled up. If it is something in the head it becomes somewhat difficult to discover. For the head is full of wrong ideas and it\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-121</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">is not easy to put it into order for pursuing the right track. A comparatively easier place to discover and to cure is in the heart, though here it gives the greatest pain. But here it is found more easily and cured also most radically. Down below in the vital things are very confused and obscure. All things are mixed up in a veritable chaos. The movements are also more violent, more uncontrollable and ignorant. Here are all the movements of anger, pride, ambition, passion, all attachments and sentimentalities, the hunger that you call love. And there are a hundred others. There are as many kinds in the head too. There it is the perversions of thought, all the betrayals, the betrayals of your soul. It is inconceivable how one betrays one\'s soul, in how many ways, how persistently, the decisions, the points of view, the favourable explanations which your brain supplies to buttress you against your perception that you have done something wrong. You have to disentangle all this, put each thing in its place, throw upon each the light of your true consciousness and judge—burn, purify or transform.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-122</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-032_Dealing with a Wrong Movement','','publish','closed','open','','032_dealing-with-a-wrong-movement','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/032_dealing-with-a-wrong-movement/',0,'post','',0),(1430,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-035_Opening to the Divine.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">OPENING TO THE DIVINE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou are to open yourself to the Divine and receive Him. Usually you open yourself in all directions to everything and everybody in the world. You open your surface being and receive there all influences from all quarters. So inside you there comes about what we can call a hotch-potch of all contrary and contradictory movements: and that creates difficulties without number. Now instead of that, live away from the surface, from the outside and open up to the Divine and receive nothing but the Divine force. If you can do that, all difficulties practically disappear. But, of course, the trouble is there. Unless one is alchemically conditioned, it is an impossibility to have relations with people, to talk to them, to deal with them, have interchanges with them and yet not absorb something out of them. If one can surround oneself with an atmosphere that acts as a filter, then all that come from outside are checked and sifted before they reach you or touch you. That needs a good training and a large experience. That is why people in ancient days who wanted an easier path took to solitude, into the depths of the forest, on the top of a hill or under a cave so that they might not have to do with people— for that naturally reduces undesirable  interchange.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-127</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">Only, it has also been found that such people begin to take an enormous interest in the life of animals and plants instead of men: for it is indeed difficult to do without interchange with something or other. So the best thing would be to face the problem squarely, to clothe yourself with an atmosphere totally concentrated on the Divine so that whatever passes across is filtered in its passage. And further, there is the question of food. The body is obliged to take in foreign matter in order to subsist, it would therefore absorb at the same time a fair quantity of inert and unconscious forces or that of some not very desirable consciousness. I once spoke to you of the consciousness that one absorbs with food, there is also unconsciousness that one absorbs in the same way. That is why in many systems of Yoga you are advised to offer first to the Divine your food and then eat: it means calling down the Divine into your food before absorbing it. Offering means putting in contact: the food is put in contact with the Divine i.e. put under His influence. This is a very good, a very useful procedure; if you know how to do it, it would diminish very much the labour of the inner transformation that one has to do. For in the world we live in solidarity with all others. You cannot take in a single breath of air without absorbing the vibrations, the numberless vibrations that come from all kinds of movement and all kinds of people. So if you want to keep yourself intact, you must, as I have said, maintain yourself in the condition of a filter allowing nothing undesirable to enter. Or put on a mask as\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-128</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">one does when crossing an infected and poisoned locality, or do something similar.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOne must have around oneself an atmosphere so condensed, condensed in a spirit of total surrender, that nothing can enter without being automatically filtered. There are wicked thoughts, evil will about you, harmful formations sent out by bad people. The air pullulates with these: dark noisome bacilli. It is so troublesome to be always on the look out, at every step to be on one\'s guard, to move slowly with care and cautions and precautions; even then one is not sure. But if you cover yourself with the cloak of light, the light of a happy, sincere surrender, and aspiration, that is a wonderful filter, that gives you automatic protection. The undesirable forces not only cannot enter, they are thrown back upon their originator, the attackers themselves become their own victims.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-129</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-035_Opening to the Divine','','publish','closed','open','','035_opening-to-the-divine','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/035_opening-to-the-divine/',0,'post','',0),(1431,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-030_Prayer and Aspiration.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">PRAYER AND ASPIRATION\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(I)\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhat you do has an inevitable and absolute consequence. This is a necessary concept at a given moment of the evolutionary process. It is meant to prevent men from becoming completely egoistic or doing what they do in a totally unconscious manner. There are many who are like that, the majority, I suppose; they follow their impulses and do not ask what consequences their actions will have for themselves and for others. It is good then if someone told them with a severe air: &quot;Take care, that has consequences which last long, very long&quot;. There are religions that rose to warn you: &quot;You will pay for that in another life&quot;, &quot;If you commit this sin, you will go into hell for eternity&quot; and so on. That is, however, a most fantastic story that man has invented; still, people are frightened and checked in someway. It spares them a moment for reflection before they run after their impulses, not always, sometimes the reflection comes after, a little late.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn all religions people who declared that the consequences of Karma are rigorous and who gave these absolute rules, must have done so, I believe, to put themselves in place of Nature, to pull the strings that move ordinary men. For these rules are mental construetions,</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-112</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">more or less sincere perhaps, cutting things into bits and telling you: &quot;Do \nthis, do that; it is not this, \nit is \nthat.&quot; People are confused, frightened, they do not know what to do at the end.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhat they must do is to get to an upper floor. And they must be given the key to open the door. The key is (1) \na sufficiently sincere aspiration, or \n(2) \na sufficiently intense prayer. I said\n<i>or, </i>but \nit may \nnot be so; there are people who like the one and there are people who prefer the \nother. But in both there is magic power and one must know to use them.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are \nsome who detest prayers. If they entered \ndeep into their heart, they would see that it is pride, even worse than that, \nvanity. There are people who have no aspiration, they try but they are not able. \nThey are not able, because they have not the flame of the will, nor have they \nthe flame of humility. Both are necessary. To change one\'s Karma one needs a \ngreat humility and a great will-power.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe Divine Grace counteracts the Karma wholly; the Grace melts Karma, as the sun melts butter. If you have an aspiration sincere enough, or, a prayer intense enough you can bring down into you something that will change everything.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(2)\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI have already spoken to you of the different planes of consciousness. On the purely material plane (separating</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-113</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">it from the vital), it is all absolutely mechanistic: there things follow each in a rigid chain of cause and effect. If you want to find the cause of a thing, you will have to find the cause of the cause; and if you want to find the effect of a thing you will have to find also the effect of the effect. The causes and effects linked together form a closed ring. Only, into this purely material plane there can intervene and does intervene the vital plane, as for example in the vegetable kingdom.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe vital plane has a totally different determinism, which is its own. And when you bring the vital determinism into physical determinism, that makes a combination which changes everything.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAbove the vital plane lies the mental plane. The mental plane too has its own determinism in which all mental things are chained together in a rigorous sequence.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nEach of these planes has what may be called a horizontal determinism.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut, as I say, there is also a vertical movement. That is, the mental descends into the vital and the vital descends into the physical. Thus there are three determinisms which intervene and produce something that is quite different.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhere the mind intervenes the determinism will necessarily be different from the determinism where it does not intervene. In the higher animal life there is already an intervening mental determinism which is quite different from the determinism on the vegetal plane. Above these planes there are others up to the highest.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-114</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">The highest plane is the plane of absolute freedom.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIf you are capable of traversing all these planes in your consciousness, so to say, in a vertical line and reach the highest and then, through this joining up, if you are able to bring down this determinism of perfect freedom into the material determinism, then you change everything. And all the intermediaries also will undergo the change. Because of these changes it will all look like total freedom. For the intervention or the descent of one plane upon another will have unforeseen consequences for the lower one. The higher planes may foresee, but the lower ones cannot. Being unforeseen, things and events have then an air of the absolutely free and the totally unexpected.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is only when you live consciously and constantly on the highest level, that is to say, the level of the supreme consciousness, that you are able to see that everything is absolutely determined, but at the same time by the very complexity of the intermixture of these determinisms everything is absolutely free. You may call this phenomenon as you like, but it is a kind of absolute determinism and absolute freedom combined. It is the level where there are no contradictions, where all things exist and exist in harmony without contradicting each other.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(3)\n</p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nEverything is possible. It is a gradual unfolding along\na highway, as it were, which is unknown and unknowable\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-115</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">to you. In the universe all will be unfolded. But in what order and in what way? Everything is there absolutely, eternally but static. Everything is going to come out into the material world, naturally, more or less one after another. What course will the unfolding follow?\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nUp there, it is the domain of absolute freedom. Who tells you that a sufficiently sincere aspiration, a sufficiently intense prayer cannot change the course of the unfolding? It means everything is possible. This is one wonderful grace that has been granted to human nature. Only one does not know how to make use of it.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSo, in spite of the most absolute determinism in the horizontal line, one can, if one is able to cross it and reach the highest point of consciousness, change what appears to be absolutely determined.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAll theories are mere theories, that is to say, mental conceptions which are only representations or images of the reality, they are not the reality at all. When you say &quot;determinism&quot; or &quot;liberty&quot;, you say only words. All that is very incomplete, very feeble description of That which Is, in truth, within you, around you, everywhere. And if you are even to begin to understand what the universe is like, you must come out of these mental formulas; otherwise you will never understand.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIndeed, if you live just for a minute only by this absolutely sincere aspiration, this adequately intense prayer, you will know more things than by meditating for long hours.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-116</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-030_Prayer and Aspiration','','publish','closed','open','','030_prayer-and-aspiration','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/030_prayer-and-aspiration/',0,'post','',0),(1432,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-005_Organise your Life.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">ORGANISE YOUR LIFE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">Moral notions have nothing to do with the growth of the inner being. I regret to say it, but the two are ill-assorted mates and go opposite ways. You may fall totally sick by doing a very unselfish act, on the other hand you may continue to be hale and hearty while doing the most egoistic acts.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is a great difference between a moral consciousness and a consciousness that is the expression of truth. I tell you again it is infinitely more difficult to have a. consciousness expressing the truth than to have a moral consciousness. For any blockhead who knows social rules and follows them has a moral consciousness, but to have a consciousness of the truth, one must not be a blockhead, that is the first condition.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAll the misadventures of life come from a lack of organisation of life. You live from moment to moment, take things as they arrive, somehow or other. Or, you try a mental organisation which does not at all agree with the truth and is therefore thwarted at each step. But if life is organised according to a higher principle, without the gropings that usually attend it, that is to say, following every minute a precise indication with regard to what is to be done and how it is to be done, then things can be arranged without mishaps.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-13</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nGenerally speaking, it is better to choose one\'s work carefully, take up only as much as one is able to do and do that well; often you take up too much and in that too much there are a good amount of useless things which can be cut out or diminished considerably without affecting the result. I do not make this an absolute general rule. I am stating only an experience of mine. If you are all attention to the inner indication and you refuse to be pushed about by the waves coming from outside—movements of other people\'s will, routine circumstances or adverse forces that do not want the things to be done—I say, instead of being driven hither and thither, if you receive the clear precise inner sign and follow it without evading or hesitating, with a strictness even that may be displeasing to others—so much the worse for the others—in that case you find that you do become in some sort master of circumstances, they organise themselves favourably and you are able to do more work in less time.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is a way of diminishing the time taken for a work and that is by increasing your concentration. There are people incapable of concentration; it tires them. But it is like carrying a weight; you can get used to it. So, first you have to master this power of concentration; for that you have to calm your mind and in that calmness, concentrate, go on concentrating on the point that you have to deal with, on the work that is to be done, whatever it is. The concentration comes with a kind of driving force, quiet but extremely powerful; and you</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-14</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">go forward without hesitation. Then you can do in a quarter of an hour what might normally take full one hour. That saves you a good deal of time. You can, instead of continually passing from one work to another, stretch yourself for a while and have complete rest. The rest gives you relaxation to all the limbs that were under tension while you were working, that is to say, brings new strength to them and you can start again another spell of concentration.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-15</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-005_Organise your Life','','publish','closed','open','','005_organise-your-life','','','2021-11-23 17:21:28','2021-11-23 17:21:28','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/005_organise-your-life/',0,'post','',0),(1433,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-017_Divine Living.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">DIVINE LIVING\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWe always give the name &quot;Divine&quot; to all that we are not and want to become, all that seems infinitely higher than not only everything we have done but everything we can possibly do, all that is beyond our present capacity and conception.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI am perfectly sure that if we went back into the past a few thousands of years, we would find that when one spoke of the Divine it was of a being somewhat like one of the &quot;overmental&quot; gods. But now, the way of living proper to these overmental divinities who governed the earth and created many things upon earth for a very long time, seems to us very inferior to what we conceive as the Supramental. This Supramental again which we now call the Divine and which we seek to bring down upon earth will have the same effect upon us a few thousand years hence as the Overmental has upon us now.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn other words, in the manifestation, in his Self-expression the Divine is progressive. Outside and beyond manifestation, He is something we cannot conceive of. But when He manifests Himself in this status of constant becoming, He manifests more and more of Himself, as if He has reserved for the final end the most beautiful things of His being.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-55</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAs the world progresses, what He expresses of Himself in the world becomes more and more the Divine.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSri Aurobindo has used the word Supramental in order to be clear to people who live in the evolutionary external consciousness and who are aware of the way in which the terrestrial world has developed, telling them that it is something greater than the creation of man whom he always calls mental being. He calls it Supramental to say that it is beyond mind.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut we can also say that it is something more divine than what has been manifested before. For the Infinity is there; that has no limit. Thus there will always be a growing perfection. What appears to us as imperfect today must have appeared as something perfect, to which certain epochs of history yearned and aspired.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAnd there is no reason why the movement should stop. If it stopped it would mean an end of things—a new <i>pralaya.</i>\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-56</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-017_Divine Living','','publish','closed','open','','017_divine-living','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/017_divine-living/',0,'post','',0),(1434,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-010_The Mind^s Bazar.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE MIND\'S BAZAR\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou can\'t imagine what a bazar there is in the head. It is something terrible. If you look truly objectively at what passes there you will be shocked. You have then to put it in order, see into it clearly and arrange; you have to note that two contradictory ideas do not run together on parallel lines.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI know a considerable number of persons who shelter in their head contrary ideas, not at all synthesised— there is no question of synthesis here—but cohabiting like two brothers engaged in eternal quarrels and contradictions, that is to say, the two ideas cannot live together, unless you lift them up and reconcile and unify in a higher and wider view; but that means work of a superior kind. People often do not even perceive that they are contradicting themselves with their conflicting ideas, they are not disturbed in any way. If I should give you examples—they are innumerable—you would laugh at the ridiculousness of incompatible ideas associating together.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI propose to give you a task. You have ideas on things. You must surely have ideas on the world, life, the why of existence and the whence and the whither, wherefore we are here, our present occupation, our future realisation \netc., etc.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-32</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">Now try to put all these ideas in front of you and then arrange them. Will you find it easy? Surely it will amuse you and you will discover amazing things. First of all, the very work itself of exposition, that is to say, simply placing the ideas side by side in front of you, all the ideas that you have on a given subject, as if you were writing out a composition given in your class, will bring to you funny revelations. If you had not already the habit of holding to a central idea, a central immutable truth, if that were possible, around which you arranged all the collateral ideas, organised them in a logical order, if, I say, you did not do anything like that before, you would find yourself, if not in a sad, at least in a funny situation. You can\'t imagine how many contradictory thoughts you are thinking in the course of an hour without the least surprise! For example, take this subject: &quot;what is the goal towards which life is moving?&quot; or &quot;why do men take birth only to die?&quot; —take a subject a little general and even somewhat abstract like this and not the problem of why football today and not basket-ball—things can be easily explained away there—and then try to line up all your ideas on the matter; you will see how queer the affair is.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>How to distinguish between an idea that is one\'s own and an idea coming from elsewhere (a book or a person) ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is nothing like an idea belonging to oneself and an idea belonging to others. No one has an idea</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-33</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">exclusively his own. There is an immensity out of which one can draw according to one\'s personal affinity. Ideas are a collective possession, a joint property. Only there are different stages. There is the most common or commonplace stage where all of us have our brain sunk in a crowded mass of impersonal notions. It is the stage of Mr. Everybody. The next stage is a little higher, that of thinkers, as they are called. There are other stages further up, many others, some beyond the domain of words, others still within the domain of ideas. Those who can mount sufficiently high are able to catch something that looks like light and bring it down with its packet of ideas or its bundle of thoughts. An idea brought down from a higher region organises itself, crystallises itself into a variety of thoughts that are capable of expressing the idea in different ways. Then, if you are a writer, a poet or an artist and bring it further down into more concrete forms, then you can have all kinds of expressions, infinite ways of presenting a single idea, a single small idea perhaps, but coming from a great height. If you can do that, you know also how to distinguish between the pure idea and the manner of expressing it. If you are unable to do it by yourself, you can take the help of others, you can learn from persons and books. You can, for example, note how one particular idea has been given so many different forms by different poets. There is the pure or essential idea, then there is the typal or generic idea and then the many formulations. You can exercise your mind in this way,\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-34</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">teach it suppleness, subtlety, strength and other virtues, \n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">In fact, if you wish to be truly intelligent, you must learn a bit of mental gymnastics, even as you have to do physical gymnastics if you wish to have a strong capable body. People who have never done mental gymnastics have a small elementary brain; all their life they think like children. Mental exercise means that you must know how to do it and do it seriously. First of all, it means that you must not have fixed convictions, namely, that this idea is right and that one is wrong, this formulation is correct, the other one is inexact or that this religion is true, the other is false and so on. If you go on in that train you become very soon stupid, a blockhead. What you have to do, say, in the matter of religion, is to take up all the religions one by one and see how all have expressed the same human aspiration for the Absolute of some kind. You can compare and contrast, understand, weigh and balance, the game will be extremely interesting. Now, when you have mastered all the ideas, seized all the modes of expression, you can try to go beyond, look at them and smile at the eternal discussions mankind indulges in. You are then master of your mind and no longer subject to what seems to be the commonest habit of mankind—getting into a fury simply because someone does not happen to think like you.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-35</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-010_The Mind\'s Bazar','','publish','closed','open','','010_the-minds-bazar','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/010_the-minds-bazar/',0,'post','',0),(1435,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-000_Contents.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	THE YOGA OF SRI AUROBINDO</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Part Eight</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Contents</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	<a href=\"the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-001_Pre_Content\">Pre-Content</a></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	<a href=\"-002_Publishers-Note\">Publisher\'s Note</a></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	</p>\n	<div align=\"center\">\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">I .<i>To the Children of the Ashram</i><b>\n</b>\n</td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-003_Choosing-to-do-Yoga\">Choosing to do Yoga</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-004_Order-and-Discipline\">Order and Discipline</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-005_Organise-your-Life\">Organise your Life</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-006_Doing-for-Her-Sake\">Doing for Her Sake</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-007_Will-and-Desire\">Will and Desire</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-008_A-Sign-and-a-Symbol\">A Sign and a Symbol</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-009_Sleep-and-Pain\">Sleep and Pain</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-010_The-Minds-Bazar\">The Mind\'s Bazar</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-011_Spirits-in-Trees\">Spirits in Trees</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-012_Are-not-Dogs-more-Faithful-than-Men\">Are not Dogs more Faithfulthan Men?</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-013_The-Work-Here\">The Work Here</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\"></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">II.<i> Thought and Thought-Power</i></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-014_Thought-the-Creator\">Thought the Creator</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-015_Thought-and-Imagination\">Thought and Imagination</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-016_Poetry-and-Poetic-Inspiration\">Poetry and Poetic Inspiration</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-017_Divine-Living\">Divine Living</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-018_Perfection-and-Progress\">Perfection and Progress</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-019_Psychological-Perfection\">Psychological Perfection</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-020_The-Origin-of-Desire\">The Origin of Desire</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\"></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">III.<i> Sadhana</i>\n</td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-021_Asceticism\">Asceticism</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-022_Are-not-th-e-Ascetic-Means-Helpful-at-Times\">Are not the Ascetic Means Helpful at Times?</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-023_Human-Birth\">Human Birth</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-024_Regarding-the-Body\">Regarding the Body</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-025_Sadhana-must-be-done-in-the-Body\">Sadhana must be done in the Body</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-026_On-Food\">On Food</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-027_Meat-Eating\">Meat-Eating</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-028_Faith-and-Progress\">Faith and Progress</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-029_Value-of-Religious-Exercises\">Value of Religious Exercises</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-030_Prayer-and-Aspiration\">Prayer and Aspiration</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-031_Meditation-and-Wakefulness\">Meditation and Wakefulness</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-033_Personal-Effort-and-Surrender\">Dealing with a Wrong Movement</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-033_Personal-Effort-and-Surrender\">Personal Effort and Surrender</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-034_The-Surrender-of-an-Inner-Warrior\">The Surrender of an Inner Warrior</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-035_Opening-to-the-Divine\">Opening to the Divine</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-036_To-Melt-into-the-Divine\">To Melt into the Divine</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-037_Love-Divine\">Love Divine</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\"></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">IV.<i> General</i>\n</td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-038_Buddha-and-Shankara\">Buddha and Shankara</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-039_The-Significance-of-Dates\">The Significance of Dates</a></td>\n	</tr>\n	<tr>\n<td width=\"45%\"></td>\n<td width=\"809\">\n<p class=\"para\">\n<a href=\"-040_The-Value-of-Money\">The Value of Money</a></td>\n	</tr>\n</table>\n	</div>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-00_Contents','','publish','closed','open','','the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-00_contents','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-8-00_contents/',0,'post','',0),(1436,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-006_Doing for Her Sake.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">DOING FOR HER SAKE</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhatever you do—study or sports—you must think of the Divine in doing it. It is not a very difficult thing after all. At first you may do it as a kind of preparation to make you capable of receiving the divine force, and then as service to help in the collective work. You can do it not for personal gain but in order to be ready for the Divine Work.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThis seems to me indispensable. If you keep the ordinary point of view, you will always find yourself in conditions that are not wholly satisfactory and incapable of receiving all the forces that you can receive.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> If you are doing long jump, for \nexample, it should not be merely for the pleasure of doing it, it is with the \nidea of making your body more perfect in its functioning, an instrument more fit to receive the divine forces and to manifest them.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIndeed, everything that you do must be done in this spirit. Otherwise you do not profit by the opportunity, the favourable circumstances that are given to you.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe Consciousness is there pervading everything and seeking to manifest in all movements. And if you, on your side, tell yourself that the effort, the progress you make is to enable you to receive this Consciousness and\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-16</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">to manifest it, then the work will naturally be done much better and more quickly.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAnd this seems to me to be the most elementary thing. For, to tell you the truth, I would be astonished if it were otherwise. For your presence at a place organised as it is would have no meaning if it were not for that. What would be its use? There are any number of universities and schools in the world that are much better manned and equipped than ours. If you are here, it must be for a special reason. It is because here there is a possibility of <i>absorbing </i>\nconsciousness and progress. If you do not \nput yourself in a state in which you receive it, you lose the chance that you \nare given.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhat do you think about it? Is it mere chance or simply because your parents have put you here that you are here, you might as well have been anywhere else? You should put these questions to yourselves. At thirteen one can begin questioning very well, especially if one finds himself at a place which is not quite ordinary. Why one is here, for what reasons, what is the purpose of being here?\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIf you had asked this, you should have gone and sought for the answer somewhere within you. For the answer is within you, nowhere outside. If you go deep enough you will find an answer very clear, very interesting. If you go deep down, into a silence where all external things are silenced, you will see there within a Flame of which I speak so often and within this Flame you will see your destiny. You will see the aspiration of centuries that</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-17</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">has accumulated little by little to lead you through countless births to the great day of Realisation. This preparation has taken thousands of years and it is now arriving at its fruition.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAnd when you have gone deep enough to find that, you will see and feel that all your incapacities, weaknesses, all that in you denies and does not understand, all that is not yourself; it is simply a robe which fits you to a certain extent only and which you have put on for the occasion only.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut you must understand. If you wish to see yourself truly capable of profiting by the opportunity, doing what you wanted to do, what you aspired to do long long ago, you must little by little turn to the Light, the Consciousness, the Truth and bring them into these obscure elements of your external robe. It is only then that you will understand fully why you are here, not only understand but become capable of doing what you are here for.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThrough centuries it has prepared itself in you, not naturally in this body, which is the most recent, but in your true being: for centuries it has been waiting for this occasion. You see how wonderful it all is! You see the things that one has hoped for since long long ago, for which one has prayed so much, laboured so much, find now the hour when they are being realised. It is the hour when great things are being done. One must not miss the occasion.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-18</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-006_Doing for Her Sake','','publish','closed','open','','006_doing-for-her-sake','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/006_doing-for-her-sake/',0,'post','',0),(1437,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-013_The Work Here.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE WORK HERE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFrom the worldly standpoint, from the point of view of result achieved, certainly things can be done better. But I am speaking of the effort put in, effort in the deepest sense of the word. Work is prayer done with the body. With that effort in your work the Divine is satisfied, the eye of the Consciousness that has viewed it is indeed pleased. Not that from the human standpoint one cannot do better. For us, however, this particular endeavour is one among many; it is only one movement in our sadhana. We are engaged in many other things. To raise one particular item of work to something like perfection requires time and means and resources which are not at our disposal. But we do not seek perfection in one thing, our aim is an integral achievement.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAn outside view may find many things to criticise and criticise much, but from the inner view what has been done has been done well. In an outside view, you come with all kinds of mental, intellectual formations and find there is nothing uncommon in what is done here. But thereby you miss what is behind: the <i>sadhana. </i>\nA deeper consciousness would see the march \ntowards a realisation that surpasses all. The outside view does not see the life \nspiritual; it judges by its own smallness.</p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<br>\n</p><p class=\"pageno\">Page-41</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are people who write wanting to join our University and they ask what kind of diploma or degree we prepare for, the career we open out. To them I say: go elsewhere, please, if you want that; there are many other places, much better than ours, even in India, in that respect. We do not have their equipment or magnificence. You will get there the kind of success you look for. We do not compete with them. We move in a different sphere, on a different level.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut this does not mean that I ask you to feel superior to others. The true consciousness is incapable of feeling superior. It is only the small consciousness that seeks to show superiority. Even a child is more developed than such a being; for it is spontaneous in its movements. Rise above all smallness. Do not be interested in any other thing than your relation with the Divine, what you wish to do for Him. That is the only thing interesting.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-42</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-013_The Work Here','','publish','closed','open','','013_the-work-here','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/013_the-work-here/',0,'post','',0),(1438,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-028_Faith and Progress.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">FAITH AND PROGRESS\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>When one makes an effort, makes a little progress, one gets satisfied and is proud of it. That spoils everything. How to get rid of this fault ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is because one looks at oneself while doing a thing. It is the habit of constantly observing oneself as one works or lives. Certainly you must observe yourself; but more than that you must be sincere and spontaneous —spontaneous in what you do and not turning towards yourself all the while, judging, criticising, sometimes even severely. That is often as bad as patting oneself with satisfaction.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou must be sincere in your aspiration, you need not even know that you are aspiring: you should become the aspiration. When you can do that, you feel an extraordinary strength. One minute of such an experience prepares you for years of progress. When you are no longer a person, an ego that is always looking at itself, when you are the very action you do—especially in the act of aspiration—well, I say nothing can be better than that. When it is not a person that aspires, when the aspiration shoots up in a concentrated momentum, one can go very far. Otherwise there is a mixture of vanity, self-sufficiency, even self-pity, all kinds of petty movements which spoil the affair.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-103</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>What are the conditions for a descent of faith ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe most important condition is trust, a childlike trust, the candid feeling that knows that needed things will come, that there is no question about it. When the child has need of anything, he is certain that it is coming. This kind of simple trust or reliance is the most important condition.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOne must aspire, it is indispensable; but there are people who aspire yet with so much conflict within them, between faith and want of faith, trust and distrust, between optimism that is sure of victory and pessimism that is just waiting for the catastrophe to come etc., etc. If such is the state of your being, you may aspire but nothing will come out of it. You say, &quot;I aspire and I get nothing&quot;; that is because you are demolishing your aspiration all the while by your want of trust. But if truly you have the trust, things would be different. Children, for example, when they are left to themselves, when they have not been deformed by elderly people, have a great confidence that everything will be all right. When they have an accident, they never think that it will be anything serious. They have the spontaneous conviction that it will be set right soon and that helps things to get right soon. When you aspire for the Force, ask for the Divine\'s help, if you do it with an unshakable certitude that the thing will come, in that case, it is impossible for it not to come. In fact, as I say, such a conviction is in itself an inner opening. There are people\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-104</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">who are naturally and automatically in this condition. Whenever or wherever there occurs an opportunity to receive something from above they are there present. And there are others who always fail to be on the spot when there is an occasion for the descent: they close themselves at the right moment. But they who have the childlike reliance, they never miss an opportunity. It is a very curious phenomenon. Apparently there may not be much difference between the two types. Both may have the same goodwill, the same aspiration, the same desire to do one\'s best, but he who has a happy confidence in him, who does not question, who does not ask if he will have the thing or not, whether the Divine will answer or not—for, to him that is not the question, it is understood and taken for granted: &quot;The thing I need I shall be given&quot;, he says, &quot;if I pray my prayer will be granted, if I am in difficulty and I ask for help, the help will come, it will not only come but settle everything&quot;—I say, the person who has such a spontaneous, candid, unquestioning reliance gets the best conditions under which an effective descent can occur; its action then is marvellous.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is with your mental contradictions and doubts that you spoil everything, with this kind of ideas that enter into you when you are in difficulty: &quot;It is impossible, I shall never come to the end of it, suppose the situation gets worse, suppose I am to roll down etc., etc....&quot; In this way you build up a wall between you and the Force that you want to receive.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-105</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe psychic being has this trust, has it in a wonderful manner, without a shadow, without a question, without contradictions and when it is there, there is no prayer that remains unanswered, no aspiration unfulfilled.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-106</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-028_Faith and Progress','','publish','closed','open','','028_faith-and-progress','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/028_faith-and-progress/',0,'post','',0),(1439,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-034_The Surrender of an Inner Warrior.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE SURRENDER \nOF AN INNER WARRIOR</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt means the \nthe vital when it is converted. The \nconverted vital is for the Divine like a warrior. The vital in man is the \nregion of power and it is that which drives him to fight, to fight and conquer.\nIt \nis the most difficult element to deal \nwith: for it is this capacity to fight that also produces in the vital the \nspirit of revolt and independence, the will to follow its own will. But when the \nvital understands and is converted, if it is truly surrendered to the Divine \nWill, then its fighting capacity turns against anti-divine forces, the forces of \nobscurity that prevent the transformation: the powers of the vital are strong \nenough to conquer the enemies. The antidivine forces are in the vital world: \nfrom there they spread upon the physical. But their own seat is in the vital and \nit is the converted vital that can effectively deal with them. But the \nconversion is difficult.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe higher vital finds it much less difficult to surrender, for it is under the influence of the mind and sometimes even of the psychic; it understands them more easily. It is less difficult than the lower vital, for the latter is essentially the stronghold of desires and blind impulsions. The lower vital, even when it surrenders, when it does what it is asked to do, is not wholly happy, it suffers\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-125</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">and only pushes down the impulse to revolt, it obeys unwillingly and does not collaborate. Unless it collaborates in joy and true love, nothing can be done, the transformation cannot come.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe surrender can be happy only when it is sincere. Or rather one can turn round the thing and say, if the vital is not happy, you must know for certain that it is not perfectly sincere. If it is not happy, that means there is some reservation, something that would like the thing to be otherwise, something with a will of its own, its own desire, its own aim and which is not satisfied, not completely surrendered, not sincere in its surrender. But if one is sincere in his surrender one is perfectly happy automatically: he enjoys an inexpressible happiness. Therefore if there is not this inexpressible happiness, it is a \n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nNow if you wish to discover that part, you have to aspire, to insist, throw the light—pray, if need be. There are many other ways. Sometimes a surgical operation too is necessary, put the red hot iron into the wound, just as you have to do when there is a nasty abscess that does not want to burst.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-126</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-034_The Surrender of an Inner Warrior','','publish','closed','open','','034_the-surrender-of-an-inner-warrior','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/034_the-surrender-of-an-inner-warrior/',0,'post','',0),(1440,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-019_Psychological Perfection.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">PSYCHOLOGICAL PERFECTION\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is a flower to which we have given this name. It is the familiar <i>Champa. </i>\nThe flower has five petals. Each petal \nrepresents a quality or movement of consciousness, the five qualities or \nmovements making up the psychological perfection. In the beginning I named \nthem(1) Surrender, (2) \nSincerity, (3) Faith, (4) Devotion and (5) \nAspiration. Of course the meaning can be changed. In fact, when I give the \nflower to someone, I do not always mean the same qualities. I change according \nto the need of the person and at the moment. However we can have all the same a \ngeneral scheme. In any case, in all combinations and to whomsoever I may give, \nthe first among the qualities is and must always be <i>Sincerity. </i>For, if there is no \nsincerity, one cannot move even half a step. So sincerity is the first thing \nnecessary and should be always there.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThis can be translated by another word, if you like. That would be transparence. Let me explain.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen someone comes to me and I look at him, I look into his eyes, straight into his eyes. If the person is sincere, that is to say, <i>transparent, </i>\nI enter into him through his eyes and I \nsee his soul clearly. But when I look and see in the eyes a cloud, and then a \nscreen or continuing\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-63</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">farther I meet a wall or something very black and when I find I have to pass through all that and drill holes at places to go through, even so at the last minute I am not sure if I do not stand against a bronze wall that refuses all entry, then in such cases I do not find the soul and the person I can declare to be not sincere. Literally, such a person is not transparent. So, then, this is the first thing.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe next item which is also obviously necessary for all progress is Faith. There is also another word for it which although seemingly limited, possesses for me at least a greater importance; I mean, trust. If your faith is not made of a complete trust in the Divine or if you begin to lose the trust, then you gradually lose faith in the Divine Power or in the Divine Goodness or in the trust that the Divine has in you. These are the three great stumbling-blocks.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt happens at times, if not quite often, that starting with a faith which you describe unshakable, the faith that the Divine alone does everything and can do everything, that whatever occurs in me or in others, everywhere, is the work of the Divine and of none other than the Divine, you continuing to the logical end, apparently at least, till after a time you begin to accuse the Divine of the most frightful misdeeds, make him a veritable demon being the author or abettor of all the evils in the world.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOr you say, you have faith in the Divine, but as to this world, you know what it is and you put no trust in it.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-64</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">You say: &quot;In the first instance, I suffer much, I am unlucky, much more unlucky than any other person&quot;— one is always more miserable than one\'s neighbour, be sure—&quot;life is unkind to me. Now, if the Divine is divine, all kindness, all generosity, all love and harmony, how is it that I am so unfortunate? The Divine must then be powerless. Otherwise, how can he leave me in un-happiness, if he is so kind?&quot; That is the second stumbling-block. The third one is this. There are people who are too modest, full of an excessive and misguided humility, who say: &quot;Surely the Divine has rejected me, I am good for nothing, He can do nothing with me, it is better for me to give it up all.&quot; Such difficulties will always crop up, if along with faith you do not have complete trust in the Divine.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nNext in the series comes <i>Devotion, </i>\nCertainly, devotion is very good; but here too, unless it is accompanied \nwith many other things, it can lead you into much error. For with devotion one \nkeeps one\'s ego also. Out of devotion you may behave most egoistically. You \nthink of your devotion, only of your devotion, that is to say, you think of \nyourself alone, you do not think of others, of the world, of the work that you \ndo and ought to do -you become formidably egoistic. And when you see that the \nDivine, for some reason or other, does not answer your devotion with an \nenthusiasm you expect of him, you despair and fall into one or all of the three \ndifficulties I spoke of just now. Either the Divine must be cruel-we know of \ndevotees who throw all their</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-65</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">anger upon the Divine, accusing him of neglect and cruelty; or then they think, &quot;I must have made a grave blunder, I am hopeless in his eyes and I am rejected.&quot;\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nNow, there is a movement which one can have and constantly along with devotion, as complementary to it—a sense of gratitude, that the Divine exists and one feels a kind of gratefulness, born of wonder, which fills you truly with a sublime joy; the very fact that the Divine exists, that there is something in the universe which is the Divine, that it is not merely a monstrosity that we see here below, brings a flow of unspeakable gladness in you. Every time the least thing puts you in contact with this sublime reality of the Divine\'s existence, whether directly or indirectly, your heart is filled with a feeling so intense, so marvellous, the feeling precisely of a profound gratitude which has of all things the sweetest savour, that no other joy can bring. So I say devotion by itself is incomplete, it must have gratitude as its companion.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWe come to the next term. I spoke to you once of courage; I said courage means \nthe taste for adventure, the supreme adventure. This taste for the supreme \nadventure is Aspiration—aspiration that seizes you wholly and throws you without \ncalculation or reserve, without the possibility of withdrawal, into the great \nadventure of the discovery of the Divine, the great adventure of meeting the \nDivine and the still greater adventure of realising the Divine. It means \nthrowing oneself into an unknown venture without looking backward,</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-66</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">without asking even for a moment what is going to happen—for if you ask where you are going to fall, you never start, you remain fixed where you are, your both feet firmly rooted on the spot, fearing lest you lose your balance. That is why I call the thing courage. But truly it is aspiration. The two go together. True aspiration is something full of courage.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWe have till now, then, four elements. The fifth one I wish to add is Endurance. For, if you are not capable of facing your difficulties without getting discouraged, without abandoning it, because it is too difficult, and if you are not able to bear blows, pocket them and go on never minding—for the blows come because of your faults and mistakes—you cannot go very far: at the first turning where you lose sight of your small habitual life, you despair and give up the game.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nEndurance in its physical expression is perseverance. That is to say, you must be prepared to do a thousand times, if necessary, the same thing over and over again. You take a step forward, you think you are firmly placed; but there will always crop up something or other which brings back the old difficulty. You think you have solved the problem, you will have to solve it again: it will come in a slightly different form, but it is the same problem. You must be ready to face the problem, go through the same difficulties a million times. That is how you are sure to arrive at the goal.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWe have left out one very important factor—Surrender. Now Sri Aurobindo says that surrender is the first and\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-67</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">absolute condition for doing Yoga. Without it there is no Yoga. So we can say that it is not one of the qualities required, but that it is the primary indispensable attitude for one to be able to begin Yoga. If you have not decided to surrender you cannot start on the path. But to make this surrender total and complete all the five that we have enumerated are needed. This is then what I propose. We put Surrender on the top at the head; for to do the integral Yoga, one must first of all take the resolution to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, that is the one way. Afterwards, one must have the five psychological perfections.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-68</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-019_Psychological Perfection','','publish','closed','open','','019_psychological-perfection','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/019_psychological-perfection/',0,'post','',0),(1441,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-012_Are not Dogs more Faithful than Men.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">ARE NOT DOGS MORE FAITHFUL THAN MEN?\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYes, for it is their nature to be faithful and they have not man\'s mental complications. What prevents men from becoming faithful is the complexes of their mind. Most men are not faithful because they are afraid of being dupes, afraid of being cheated, exploited. Also behind the faithfulness they have there is always a large dose of egoism hidden, there is a bargaining more or less conscious, a give and take: \'I am faithful to you. You too must be faithful to me, in other words, you must be nice to me, must not exploit me etc.\' Dogs do not have these complexities, for they have a very rudimentary mind. They have not this marvellous capacity of reasoning which drives man to commit such foolishness. But, of course, we cannot go back to the dog state. What we have to do is to rise higher, to become a super-man, to have the dog\'s quality on a higher level, if I am allowed to say so, i.e. instead of being faithful instinctively, blindly, half-consciously, through a kind of binding need, it must be a conscious, willing, deliberate faithfulness, above all, free from egoism. There is a point where all the virtues meet: it is the point that is beyond egoism. If we take faithfulness or devotion or love or\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-39</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">the will to serve,—all these when they are above the level of egoism are similar to one another in the sense that they give themselves and ask no return. And if you get up a step higher, you see they are done not through the sense of duty or abnegation but out of an intense joy that carries its own reward, which needs nothing in exchange, for it is joy itself. But for that you should have risen very high where there is no longer any turn-back on oneself, these movements that draw you down—that kind of sympathy for oneself, the self-pity that one feels for oneself and says &quot;Poor me!&quot; This is a most degrading sentiment and it pulls you immediately into a dark hole.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou must leave that far behind if you will have the joy of faithfulness, the joy of self-giving, that does not notice at all whether it is properly received or not, whether there is an answer or not. Never to wait for a return in exchange for what one does, wait for nothing, not through asceticism or the sense of sacrifice, but because of the joy of being in that consciousness: that is sufficient, that is much more than what one can receive from anything outside.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-40</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-012_Are not Dogs more Faithful than Men','','publish','closed','open','','012_are-not-dogs-more-faithful-than-men','','','2021-11-23 17:21:29','2021-11-23 17:21:29','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/012_are-not-dogs-more-faithful-than-men/',0,'post','',0),(1442,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-014_Thought the Creator.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">II\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><b>THOUGHT AND THOUGHT-POWER</b>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THOUGHT THE CREATOR\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nHuman thought always creates forms in the mental world. It is a creative force. You are creating thought-forms constantly and sending them out into the atmosphere around; they go abroad to do their work. You are yourself surrounded always by such formations. No doubt there are people who cannot think clearly; they form around them only a kind of whirl. But they who think clearly and strongly create thought-forms that go out to accomplish their task and return when they are re-thought. There are cases of people who are troubled by their own formations that return to them or upon them as if to possess them and which they cannot get rid of; they do not know how to unmake a form which they make. When you have made a particularly strong formation, it remains always linked to you; it comes back again and again hitting your head and gathering force. In the end it is a necessity to you. There is a whole world of mystery to learn in this matter. Men live in ignorance; they have powers of which they are thoroughly unconscious or know very little.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBuddhists, I mean those who are in the more orthodox tradition, do not believe in God or an eternal Reality; they do not believe in gods either, that is to say, in beings who are truly divine. They, however, know admirably to use the mind and the mind\'s power. The Buddhist\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-45</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">discipline makes you master of the mental instrument. A person following the Buddhist discipline came to me once and said that he had made an experiment: he had formed a being with his thought, he had created something like a Mahatma. He knew and it is a proved fact that these mental formations after a time begin to have a personal life, independently of the author,—although they may be connected with him, yet they are quite independent, in the sense that they have a will of their own. But now he was facing a formidable difficulty. He said: &quot;Do you know I have formed my Mahatma so well that he has become a personality quite independent of me and comes all the while to trouble me? He comes, scolds me for this and that, advises me in this matter and that and wants to control my life altogether. I am unable to get rid of him. I find it extremely difficult and do not know how to go about it. As I say, my Mahatma has become extremely troublesome. He does not leave me to be at rest. He interferes in all my activities, prevents me from doing my work and yet I know it is my own creation and I am unable to do away with it.&quot; He explained to me how he tried to get rid of the thing. I then told him it was because he did not know the trick. I showed him the process and the next morning he came happy and beaming, saying &quot;it has left&quot;. He could not cut the connection; even then cutting the connection is not sufficient, for the being would continue to live apart and independent. What is needed is to re-absorb what one created, to swallow what was put out.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-46</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-014_Thought the Creator','','publish','closed','open','','014_thought-the-creator','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/014_thought-the-creator/',0,'post','',0),(1443,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-040_The Value of Money.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE VALUE OF MONEY\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe more one has money, the more one falls into a calamity. It is indeed a calamity, my children.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is a catastrophe to have money. It makes you stupid, it makes you avaricious, it makes you wicked. It is one of the biggest calamities in the world. Money is a thing which one should not possess unless and until he is without desire, without attachment. When one has a consciousness as wide as the earth, then only one can have all the money there is upon earth and that would be good for everybody. But until then as much money you have, so much the curse there is upon you. I will tell this to the face of everybody, even to the face of the man who considers it a merit to be rich. It is a calamity; it is also perhaps a <i>disgrace, </i>\na fall from the Divine Grace, the \nexpression of a Divine discontent.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is infinitely more difficult to be rich and also to be wise, intelligent and generous—to be generous, please note,— when one is rich than when one is poor. I have seen and known many persons in many countries; the most generous persons were always the poorest. As soon as the pocket becomes full, you are seized as if with a malady, a sordid attachment to money. I assure you it is a malediction.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-151</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSo the first thing to do when one has money is to give it away. But as you should know, it must not be given without discrimination. Do not give it in the way a philanthropist does; for that only fills him with the sense of his kindness, his generosity, his importance. You must do it with a <i>sattwic </i>\nsense, that is to say, see where is the \nbest possible use of it. Everyone then has to find in his own consciousness, the \nhighest consciousness he has, what is the best possible use of the money one \nhas.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAs a matter of fact, money has value only so far as it is in circulation. For each and everyone money has worth only if and when it is spent. Man has taken care to choose for money a material that does not deteriorate, gold and silver, for example, but all the same it rots, from the moral point of view, if it does not circulate. Nowadays paper is used in place of metal, but if you keep the bundle of paper in your drawer, you will find in course of time all your hoarding worn out, eaten up. Worms and insects would present you with a lace-work that your Banks would refuse to accept!\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are peoples and religions who say that God makes them poor whom he loves. I do not know if it is true, but one thing true is this that when one is born rich or when one becomes rich, in any case when one has much, that is to say, in material wealth, it is certainly not a sign that the Divine has chosen him for His Grace; he must needs make a good deal of <i>amende honorable </i>\nlife is to walk on the hstraight road, the \ntrue path towards the Divine.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-152</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWealth is a force; it is, I told you once already, a force of Nature. It should be a means of circulation, a power in movement, even as water that flows is a power in movement. It is something which serves to produce, to organise. It is a convenient means—for at bottom it is only a means—for the full and free circulation of commodities. And this force must be in the hands of those who know how to make the best possible use of it, in other words, in the hands, as I have already said, of those who have abolished in them, who are somehow freed from, all personal desire, all attachment. To that must be added also a vision wide enough to understand the needs of the earthly life, a complete knowledge capable of organising those needs and using this force to meet them.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOver and above this, if such people possess a higher spiritual consciousness, then they can use the force to build slowly upon earth something that will be able to manifest the Divine Power and the Divine Grace. It is then that this force of money, of wealth, this power of Finance, instead of being a curse, as I have said, would be a blessing for the welfare of all. The saying goes that it is the worst people who become the best. I hope the best do not become the worst, for that would be sad indeed.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe greatest power, when used ill, can be a very great calamity; the same power used well can be a blessing.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAll depends on the use that is made of a thing. Each object has a place, a function, a true use in the world. In the world, as it is, however, very few things are used\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-153</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">for their true purpose, very few things are in their right place. The world is in a frightful chaos. That is why there is all this misery, all this suffering. If each thing were in its own place, all in a harmonious poise, the whole world would progress without any necessity of getting into the state of misery and suffering in which it is now.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-154</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-040_The Value of Money','','publish','closed','open','','040_the-value-of-money','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/040_the-value-of-money/',0,'post','',0),(1444,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-007_Will and Desire.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Will and Desire</p>\n<br>\n	<p class=\"para\">\n<i>What is the difference between Desire or Wish and Will?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThey are not the same thing. When, for example, you see that a thing is to be done and that it is good to do it, then normally your reason decides and judges; then it is your will that sets to work and makes you do what is necessary for the work to be done. Thus will is the power of execution which should be at the disposal of what has been decided by you or a higher force. It is a thing coordinated and organised: it acts according to plan and is in full self-control. Wish or desire, on the other hand, is an impulse. There are people who are full of desires, but have no will; they are eaten up with their desires, as it is said. You go nowhere if you have not even the will to fulfil your desires. The little bit of will most people have is indeed put at the service of their desires. Will is a force capable of deliberation and organisation and can be used for any purpose in view.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen you have the will, it means you have the capacity of sustained effort for a definite end. A desire, on the contrary, is something violent, passionate and momentary; it is very rarely a durable thing. It has not the stuff, the substance and organisation of a sustained effort.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-19</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">When desire gets hold of you, it can make you do anything, but in a fit of impulse, not in a methodical and consistent manner.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>Why do children have the habit of always asking for things—material objects, I mean?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nPrecisely because they are full of desires. Perhaps when they were conceived, they were imbued with the vibrations of desire, and as they have no control over themselves, they give free vent to their feelings. Older people are also full of desires, but they are too shy to show them. They are ashamed of these things, they fear they will be ridiculed and so hide them. Children are more simple and straightforward; when they want anything, they speak out. They do not think that it is not proper or wise to reveal themselves. They do not reason in that way. People, of course—ordinary people, I mean—live constantly full of desires, only they do not express themselves, sometimes they do not even avow it to themselves. But it is always there, this sense of the need for things. Directly you see a beautiful object, you are at once seized by the idea of possessing it. It is childish, it is even ridiculous. Ninety-nine persons out of a hundred do not get at all the things they desire. And of the one per cent how many are interested in the thing once they have actually got it? A child is even more like that. Give him what he wants, a second after he will not even look at it.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-20</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\"><i>How to help a child to get out of this habit?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is more than one method. First of all, it is to be known whether one may not altogether stop the child from expressing freely what he thinks and feels. People do this usually and constantly. They scold, they punish and the child takes the habit of hiding his desires. That does not cure. If you always tell the child, &quot;No, you won\'t have it&quot;, you simply instal this idea in him: &quot;Yes, when I am a child, I am not given anything, I must wait till I grow up; well, when I am a man I shall have all that I want&quot;. So I say it is not a cure; the task is not easy to bring up a child. There is however the other way of which I spoke, to give him what he wants. But the difficulty is that the next moment he will ask for another thing and continue to do so without end. For it is a law, the law of desire, that it is never satisfied. So you can change your method and tell the child, supposing it is intelligent enough: &quot;You see, you wanted so much to have the thing and now that you have it you don\'t care, you ask for something different. You will do the same with that also.&quot; But if it is a shrewd child he would reply: &quot;Well, the best way to cure me of my desires is to give what I ask for.&quot;\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nMany hold this last idea all their life. When they are told to overcome their desires, they answer, &quot;The best way of overcoming them is to satisfy them.&quot; But what is needed is not merely to change the object of desire, but change the impulse, the movement itself. For that pur-\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-21</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">pose, a good deal of knowledge and understanding and experience is required. That you cannot expect of young children. First of all, they do not possess the capacity for reasoning and you cannot explain the matter to them, they will not understand your reasons. It is why the parents have normally no other go than to cut them short, saying: &quot;Stop, you bother us.&quot; That is how they get out of the difficulty.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is not a solution. The task is hard, demanding continuous effort and unshakable patience. There are people, a good many, who, although no longer children, yet continue to be so all their life: they too do not understand reason. If you tell them, they are not reasonable and that it is not possible to be continually satisfying their desires, they simply think: &quot;These people are quite unpleasant, they are not amiable.&quot; That is all.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhat one may try, in respect of a child, is to turn the direction of his desires, let him desire better things, better because more true and also more difficult to obtain. For example, when you see a child full of desires, put into him a desire of higher quality, that is to say, instead of desiring purely material objects which can give only a temporary satisfaction, one could awaken in him the desire to know, to learn, to become great and so on. That would indeed be a very good beginning. As these things are more difficult to secure, it will serve to develop, to strengthen his will. Even if the difficulty is of a physical kind, if, for example, you give the child a doll to prepare, a Chinese\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-22</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">puzzle to solve or a game of Patience, the effort helps in the development of concentration, perseverance, a certain clarity of ideas etc. You can in this way divert the child\'s will from wrong pursuits to right ones. True, it needs constant attendance and application on your part, but that seems to be the surest way. It is not easy, but it is the most effective.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo say &quot;no&quot; does not cure, but to say &quot;yes&quot; does not cure either. I knew some persons who allowed their children to do as they pleased. There was one child who tried to eat anything he could get hold of. Naturally he fell sick and got disgusted in the end and cured of the habit. Still the method means risk. For example, a child one day got hold of a match-box and as he was not stopped, burnt himself in playing with it, although thereafter he did not touch a match-box any more. The method may be even catastrophic. For there are children who are dare-devils—most children are so— and when a desire possesses them they are stopped by nothing in the world. Some are fond of walking along the edge of walls or on house tops; some have an impulse to jump into water directly they see it. Even there are some who love to take the risk of crossing a road when a car is passing. If such children are allowed to go their way, the experiment may prove fatal sometimes. There are people who do allow their children to have this liberty and take the risk. For they say prevention is not a cure. Children who are refused anything do not usually believe that what is refused is bad, they consider that a\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-23</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">thing is called bad simply when one wishes to refuse it. So would it not be better, it is argued, to concede the liberty? The theory is that individual liberty must be respected at all costs. Past experiences should not be placed before beings that are come newly into the world; they must get their own experiences, make their own experiements free from any burden of the past. Once I remonstrated that a child should be warned about a possible accident, I was answered it was none of my business. And when I persisted saying the child might get killed, the answer was, &quot;What if? Each one must follow his destiny. It is neither the duty nor the right of anybody to interfere in the affairs of others. If one goes on doing stupid things one will suffer the consequences oneself and most likely stop doing them of one\'s own accord—which is hundredfold better than being forced by others to stop.&quot; But naturally there are cases when one stops indeed, but not in the way expected or wished for.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe matter gets difficult and involved, if you make a theory and try to follow it. In reality, each case is different and to be able to deal with each adequately needs a whole life-time occupation.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-24</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-007_Will and Desire','','publish','closed','open','','007_will-and-desire','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/007_will-and-desire/',0,'post','',0),(1445,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-023_Human Birth.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Human Birth</p>\n<br>\n	<p class=\"para\">\n	Last week I spoke of birth and how a soul enters into a body. I told \n	you that the body is formed in a very unsatisfactory manner almost \n	in the case of every person, the exceptions are so rare that one \n	need not mention them. I told you that because of this obscure birth \n	man is made to carry with him quite a bundle of things which later \n	on he has generally to get rid of, if he wishes to progress truly in \n	life. I told you in effect that you are made to come by force, \n	conditions are imposed upon you by force, and by force you obey the \n	laws of heredity. Now, I am asked who or what is it that forces? I \n	shall answer as clearly as possible.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The body is formed by a man and a \nwoman who are the father and the mother; these when they form the body have no \nmeans to ask of the being whom they are bringing into the world whether he likes \nit or whether it is agreeable to his destiny. They impose upon the body, by the \nforce of necessity, an atavism, an environment and subsequently an education \nwhich are almost always obstacles to future growth. A growing soul or a soul \nfull-grown taking birth in a body has to fight against these circumstances that \nare forced upon him by the animal birth in order to find his true path and \ndiscover his own self in its fullness.</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-81</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is possible, however, for the \nparents, instead of doing the thing in the animal way, driven by mere instinct \nand desire, most of the time even without wanting it, to do it with a conscious \nwill, aspiring, praying almost that the body they are about to bring forth \nshould be a form suitable to clothe a soul coming at their call. I have known \npeople,—there are not many, of course, still there are some,—who chose especial \ncircumstances, prepared themselves, holding an attitude of concentration, \nmeditation and aspiration, invoking some exceptional being to come into the body \nthey were to form. For that one must have also an occult knowledge which people \ngenerally do not possess.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> In ancient times, in some \ncivilisations and even now in some countries, the expectant woman is put \nspecially in a surrounding of beauty and harmony and peace and ease and very \nnormal physical conditions so that the coming child may be formed under the best \ncircumstances. Evidently this is as it should be, for it is within human \npossibilities. Human beings have developed enough not to consider it as an \nexceptional thing. And yet in fact, it is an exceptional thing, for there are \nvery few people who think of it, most are in the habit of producing children \nwithout giving a thought to it. But the least that is expected of man is that he \nshould be somewhat conscious and do things he has to do in the best of \nconditions.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Now, a fully formed conscious \nsoul wanting to take birth looks generally from its psychic domain for a\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-82</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">corresponding psychic light upon some place on earth. In its \nprevious birth, before leaving the earthly atmosphere, it chose, as the result \nof its total experience in that life, the conditions of its future life, not in \ndetails, but more or less in a general way. Such cases are very exceptional. We \nhere perhaps can speak of it, but for the majority of the human population, even \namong the most educated, the question does not arise.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Normally we are dealing with a \nsoul that is growing, which is in the process of its growth. Now, there are all \nthe stages of growth, from the tiniest spark that is becoming a little light up \nto the fully conscious and fully formed being. This ascent of the soul in order \nto become a mature conscious being, having its own will and deciding its own \ndestiny, takes thousands of years.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> When, however, it is a free and \nconscious soul that seeks to take a body again upon earth, it begins to work \nupon the body even before the birth. Such being the case, it has no reason not \nto accept the inconveniences that result from the ignorance of the parents. It \nhas chosen its place for a reason which is a reason not of ignorance: it saw a \nlight—which may be simply a light of possibility; but there was a light and that \nis why it came there. And when from the domain of the psychic it looks upon the \nearth and has chosen its place of birth, the choice has sufficient discernment \nin it not to have made a gross mistake.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> In any case, even in the very \nbest of situations, when a soul comes down consciously and when it has \nconsciously\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-83</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">worked in the formation of the physical body, so long as the \nbody is formed in the usual animal way, the soul will have to struggle and to \ncorrect all that comes from this human animality.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The parents have naturally a \nparticular formation, they have a particular kind of good or bad health; at the \nvery best, they have a lot of atavistic tendencies, habits, subconscious and \neven conscious complexes, deriving from their own birth, their environment and \nthe life they led. And even if they are remarkable people, in their own way, \nusually they carry a quantity of things that are contrary to the true psychic \nlife, I mean, even if they are the very best, the most conscious. And when the \nparents have done their utmost to give their children the best education, the \nchildren come in contact with all kinds of other people who have a great \ninfluence upon them especially when they are very young; these influences enter \ninto the subconscious and they have to be fought against later on.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> So I say, because of the way in \nwhich the body is brought into being at present, you have to face innumerable \ndifficulties, corning more or less from the subconscient, that rise to the \nsurface with which you have to fight if you want to be free entirely and develop \nnormally.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-84</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-023_Human Birth','','publish','closed','open','','023_human-birth','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/023_human-birth/',0,'post','',0),(1446,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-021_Asceticism.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">III\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">SADHANA\n</p>\n<br>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">ASCETICISM\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> You have seen Sannyasins lying \nupon nails. Why do they do that? Perhaps to prove their saintliness. But when \nthey do so in public, well, the suspicion is legitimate that it is something \nlike a pose. There are some perhaps who do the thing sincerely and seriously, \nthat is to say, they do not do merely to make a show. In their case we might ask \nwhy they do so. They say it is to prove to themselves their detachment from the \nbody. There are others: they go a little further and say that one must make the \nbody suffer in order to free the soul. But I tell you that the vital has a taste \nfor suffering and imposes suffering on the body because of this perverse taste \nfor suffering. I have seen children who, when they got hurt, would press the \npart hurt in order to get more pain and it was a pleasure to them. I have seen \nbigger persons also doing the same thing—morally I mean. It is a very well-known \nfact. I always tell people \'If you are unhappy, it is because you want to be \nunhappy. If you suffer, it is because you like suffering, otherwise you would \nnot have the thing.\' I call it an unhealthy state; for it is contrary to harmony \nand beauty; it is a land of unhealthy need for strong sensations. Do you know, \nChina is a country where they have invented the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-73</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">most atrocious kinds of torture, unthinkable ways? When I was in \nJapan I asked a Japanese who liked the Chinese very much, why it was so. He told \nme: \'It is because the people of the Far East, including the Japanese, possess \nvery dull sensibility. They feel very little; unless the suffering is very \nstrong they feel nothing.&quot; They were obliged to use their intelligence for the \ndiscovery of extremely strong sufferings. Well, all people who are inconscient \nor tamasic, the more inconsicnet they are the greater the tamas,have their \nsensibility blunted; they need strong sensations if they have to feel them. This \nis what usually makes them cruel, because cruelty gives very strong sensations. \nThe nerve tension produced in you when you impose suffering on some one, well, \nit does bring a sensation: they need that in order to feel, otherwise they would \nnot feel. It is for that reason that whole races are particularly cruel. They \nare inconscient, inconscient vitally. They may not be unconscious mentally or \notherwise. But they are unconscious vitally and physically, physically above \nall.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>If one has a sense of beauty can he be cruel ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is a psychological problem. It \ndepends upon the region where there is the sense of beauty. There may be a \nphysical sense of beauty, a vital sense of beauty and a mental sense of beauty. \nIf you have the moral sense of beauty, that is to say, a sense of decency and \nnobility, you can never be cruel. You will be always generous;\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-74</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">your movements will consist of fine gestures. But, as I say \noften, man is composed of many different bits pieced together. For example, I \nfrequented very much the artists. I knew all the great artists of the end of the \nlast century and the beginning of the present. I lived among them. They had \nreally a great sense of beauty. But morally some were very cruel. It is because \nwhen you see an artist in his study at work you find him living in an atmosphere \nof great beauty, but when you see the gentleman at home, he is a different \nperson, having very little contact with the artist he was. Here he becomes \nvulgar and commonplace. Many of them are indeed like that. But there are always \nexceptions. Some have a unified personality, that is to say, they live their art \nand are truly generous, fine.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-75</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-021_Asceticism','','publish','closed','open','','021_asceticism','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/021_asceticism/',0,'post','',0),(1447,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-022_Are not th e Ascetic Means Helpful at Times.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">ARE NOT THE ASCETIC MEANS HELPFUL AT TIMES?\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI do not think. You cure nothing in that way. You give yourself the illusion that you are progressing, but you are really freed of nothing. The proof is that as soon as you stop the practices, the old things come back violently with a vengeance.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut naturally all depends upon the meaning you attach to the word. If it means not yielding to your desires, then it is not asceticism, it is common sense, it is good sense. By asceticism people usually understand fasting, bearing biting cold or burning heat, lying on a bed of sharp nails, that is to say, torturing the body in some way or other. That gives you only self-importance or spiritual egoism, nothing more. You acquire no true control or mastery in this way. People do it because it is so simple and easy, because it satisfied your vanity. You make a show of your ascetic virtues and under the guise hide many other things.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is much more difficult, however, to master one\'s impulses quietly, deliberately, prevent them from bursting out instead of mortifying the body with ascetic feats. It is much more difficult not to be attached to things that one possesses than to possess nothing. Yet\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-76</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">it is a simple truth that has been recognised through ages. To be without possessions or to reduce one\'s possession to a minimum is easy: difficult it is not to be attached to whatever you happen to possess. It means a higher degree of moral value. Try to do this simply and you will know what it costs: when a thing comes to you, accept it and use it and if it goes away, for some reason or other, let it go, without regret, without trying to hold it back; not to refuse it when it comes, not to regret when it leaves—naturally, I speak of material objects, things required for use in life.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nPhysical asceticism does not cure. For the defects are within. You are afraid of contacts from outside and you go to caves and jungles and hilltops, to live all by yourself. But you need no borrowing from others; you carry a sufficient load yourself. In fact if they were not in you, you would not have even detected them in others. You catch the infection from outside, simply because you carry the germs inside. Great waves of passion, one can say with much truth, roll through men, they are not generated in them. But if there is anyone perfectly pure, with no possibility of any passion in him, then such waves may be passing across for centuries together, he will not be affected or touched by them. He may see them, look at them as they pass, like a storm across the sky, but he will not feel.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen there is an answering vibration in us to the vibration outside, it means that the vibration is already there within, otherwise no outside vibration can enter\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-77</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">or make an impression. The explanation of a panic —a general fear entering into each and every one of a crowd—lies there. A panic, however, can be stopped, if there were one or two who can resist, who are not touched, who are outside the vibrations. Such individuals can save the situation and prevent the stampede. The thing has happened often. A movement, a vibration, a force is contagious, because the ground of contagion is already there.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>Why does not the effort towards progress come always spontaneously, especially for us who are here in the Ashram ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is because the physical nature in man is usually tamasic. Effort is natural to the vital. But the vital generally makes the effort for its own satisfaction. I do not think that the physical nature left to itself moves spontaneously in the direction of effort; it needs some activity but of a subdued kind.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nHere the thing is somewhat different. The principle of education or training followed here is that of liberty. Life is organised on the basis of maximum freedom; in other words, rules and regulations, injunctions and prohibitions are reduced to a minimum. If you compare our way with that followed by parents in the world with their constant admonitions: don\'t do this, that is forbidden, must do this but not that etc., etc., you will find the difference. At the school and the college, everywhere, there are rules infinitely more strict than are found here.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-78</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">So, because no absolute conditions are put upon you for your progress, you do it when it pleases you and you don\'t do when it does not please you; you take things quite easily.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOf course there are some who do make the effort spontaneously. And that from the spiritual point of view has an infinitely greater value. You make the progress, because you feel within you the need to do so, because it is an impulse that wells up from your depths, not because you are driven by a compelling force outside. What you do spontaneously and sincerely of your own accord is something part and grain of yourself. You do a thing not because if you do it you will be rewarded and if you do not do you will be punished. It might happen however sometimes that something comes to you or into you and gives you the impression that your effort is appreciated, but the effort is not due to that. Indeed, things are arranged in such a way here that the satisfaction of having done and done well is the best reward one has and one punishes oneself thoroughly by doing badly or not doing; no other punishment can be more real or more concrete. All this is immensely significant and valuable from the standpoint of spiritual growth, much more than things produced by external regulation and pressure.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>What is exactly a spiritual experience?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is something which puts you in contact with a consciousness higher than that you have ordinarily. You five\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-79</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">in a certain state and you do not even know what it is like. That is the ordinary consciousness. Suddenly you become conscious within you of something very different and much superior — that is a spiritual experience, whatever it may be. You may formulate it in a mental idea or you might not, you may explain it or you may not, it may last or it may not, it may be quite momentary. But if there is this difference in the essential quality of the consciousness, signifying something coming from above, from a greater height, something pure and true, purer and truer than anything you normally experience, that I call spiritual experience, although there are a thousand things that belong to that category.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-80</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-022_Are not the Ascetic Means Helpful at Times','','publish','closed','open','','022_are-not-the-ascetic-means-helpful-at-times','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/022_are-not-the-ascetic-means-helpful-at-times/',0,'post','',0),(1448,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-027_Meat-Eating.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">MEAT-EATING\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>What happens when one eats meat?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI will tell you then a story. I knew a young woman, a Swedish, who was doing Sadhana. Normally she was a vegetarian, by habit as well as by inclination. One day she was invited to a dinner. She was given fowl to eat. She did not like to make a fuss and quietly ate her fowl. Now at night she found herself, in dream of course, in a basket and her head in between two bits of sticks and being shaken, shaken to and fro. She felt very unhappy, very miserable. And then she saw herself head down and legs up in the air and being shaken, shaken continually. She was thoroughly miserable. All on a sudden she felt she was being skinned, peeled and how painful it all was! And then some one came with a knife and cut off her head. She woke up at that. She told me the story and said she never had such a frightful nightmare in her life. She had thought nothing of this kind before going to bed; it must have been simply the consciousness of the poor chicken that entered into her and she experienced in dream all the agonies of this creature when it was being carried to the market, her feathers pulled out and in the end the head severed. That is what happens. In other words, along with the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-100</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">meal that you take, you absorb also, in a large or small measure, the consciousness of the animal whose flesh you swallow. Of course it is nothing serious, but it is not always pleasant. Yet obviously it does not help you to be more on the side of man than on that of the animal kind. Primitive men, we know, were much nearer the animal level and used to take raw meat: that gave them evidently more strength and energy than cooked meat. They used to kill an animal, tear it to pieces and bite into the flesh. That is how they were robust and forceful. Also it was for this reason perhaps that there was in their intestines an organ called appendix in a much bigger size than it is now: for it had to digest raw meat. As men however started cooking their food and found it more tasty that way, the organ too gradually diminished in size and fell into atrophy; now it does not serve any purpose, it is an encumbrance and often a source of illness. This means that it is time to change the diet and take to something less bestial. It depends, however, on the state of the consciousness of each person. An ordinary man, who leads an ordinary life, has ordinary aspirations, thinks of nothing else than earning his livelihood, keeping good health and rearing a family, need not pick and choose, except on purely hygienic grounds. He may eat meat or anything else that he considers helpful and useful, doing good to him.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut if you wish to move from the ordinary life to a higher life, the problem acquires an interest. And again, for a higher life if you wish to move up still farther and\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-101</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">prepare yourself for transformation, then the problem, becomes very important. For there are certain foods that help the body to become more refined and others that keep it down to the level of animalhood. But it is only then that the question acquires an importance, not before. Before you come to that point, you have a lot of other things to do. It is certainly better to purify your mind, purify your vital before you think of purifying your body. For even if you take all possible precautions and live physically with every care to eat only the things that help to refine the body, but the mind and the vital remain full of desire and inconscience and obscurity and all the rest, your care will serve no purpose. Your body will become perhaps weak, disharmonious with your inner life and drop off one day.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou must begin from within. I have said a hundred times, you must begin from above. You must purify first the higher region and then purify the lower. I da not mean by this that you should give yourself up to all the licences that degrade the body. I do not mean that at all. I am not advising you not to control your desires. What I mean is this: do not try to be an angel in the body before you are already something of the kind in your mind and in your vital. For that will bring about a dislocation, a lack of balance. And I have always said that to maintain the balance, all the parts must progress together. In trying to bring light into one part you must not leave another part in darkness. You must not leave any obscure corner anywhere.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-102</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-027_Meat-Eating','','publish','closed','open','','027_meat-eating','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/027_meat-eating/',0,'post','',0),(1449,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-024_Regarding the Body.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">REGARDING THE BODY\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">The fatigue of the body comes from an inner disharmony. There may be many other apparent reasons, but all amount to that fundamental circumstance viz. a want of balance among the different parts of the being. That may occur on a day when, for example, you had a lot of energy and you spent too much. But such is usually not the case with children. They spend and continue to spend till they are not able to. A child is very active till the last moment when it drops dead asleep. A minute before it was moving about, running, shouting, all on a sudden it falls down into deep sleep. And that is how they grow and gain strength. So the trouble does not lie in spending. Spending is easily repaired by necessary rest. Fatigue and lethargy too come from a different source.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nPeople think they have only to continue to do what they do every day, perform the same work, with the same state of consciousness regularly and everything will be all right. But things do not happen that way. All on a sudden in the midst of the regular movement, you do not know why or how, a part of your being— some feeling, or thought—makes a progress, discovers a new thing, receives a light or a higher impulsion.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-85</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">That part shoots out, as it were, and goes forward: the other parts remain behind. That brings about a disharmony and it is quite sufficient to cause fatigue, even much fatigue. Truly, however, this is not fatigue, but a desire to keep quiet, to concentrate, to remain within oneself and build a new harmony between the disparate parts. And such a state or period is quite necessary which is a period of assimilation of what one has learnt, of harmonisation of all the limbs.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWith regard to their physical being, men live in a formidable ignorance. How many of you know the exact quantity of food and the kind of food the body requires? Yes, simply this, how much to take and when to take? You do not know. You are taught all kinds of things. You learn why and how this earth moves or the sun does not, why or how the triangle consists of two right angles: your faculties of imagination and discrimination are set to the task and get sharpened. But this little bit of exact knowledge you do not have —the quantity of food you must take and the hour when the body needs it. It may be you are not unaware at times of this exact need. But to know properly demands a discipline, continuous labour for years perhaps. Years indeed you require when it is a matter of control over your mind, of attaining a consciousness subtle enough to enable you to come in contact with the elements of transformation and progress, to know how to dose for your body the exact amount of physical effort, material activity, expenditure and reception of energy, how to\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-86</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">secure the proportion between what is received and what is given out, how to utilise energy to reestablish equilibrium that was broken in order to push forward new cells that were lagging behind and then how to build up conditions for a further step in upward progress to be possible etc., etc. The task is formidable. And yet that is the thing to be done if you want the body to be transformed. First of all, you must bring the body into complete harmony with the inner consciousness. That means a work in each cell of the body, in each small activity, in each movement of the organs. Only that and nothing more can keep you busy day and night with no other thing to look to. It is not easy to maintain the effort, the concentration, the inner vision in a continued manner.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou have to enter into the disposition of the cells, your inner physical organisation if the body is to answer to the force that descends. First of all, you must be conscious of your physical cells, you must know their different functions, the degree of receptivity in each, which of them are in good condition and which are not. Even the simple thing you do not know whether you are tired or not, not to speak of why you are tired. You do not know if you have a pain somewhere, and why it is there. It is exactly for this reason that you run to the doctor. For you have the illusion that the doctor would know better to look into what is there inside your body and what is happening there. That does not seem to be quite rational, but there is the habit. Who can look into oneself so precisely, accurately, positively as to know exactly what\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-87</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">is out of order, why it is out of order, how it has come to be so? all that is a matter of pure observation. And then only arises the problem of doing the thing that will bring about a new order which is a much more difficult business. And yet this is only the a, b, c of body-transformation.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-88</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-024_Regarding the Body','','publish','closed','open','','024_regarding-the-body','','','2021-11-23 17:21:30','2021-11-23 17:21:30','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/024_regarding-the-body/',0,'post','',0),(1450,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-018_Perfection and Progress.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">PERFECTION AND PROGRESS\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nPerfection is a relative term. A thing may be perfect in relation to the present or the past; it may not be so in relation to what is to come. Creation is a perpetual movement, a perpetual progression. Each time a new consciousness manifested upon earth, it was very natural for men of the epoch to have the impression that it was the final definitive realisation, at least a very great progress.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nStill we must note that even for an animal, say an elephant or a dog, human capacities appear as marvellous; they feel, the dogs do, that man possesses almost divine powers. So men too from the stage where they are have a hint of things beyond; that is why we are not wholly satisfied, we have the feeling in spite of all things achieved that there is something else which escapes, indeed the true thing escapes, we turn around it, but never touch it. It means that man is ready for a further progress. If it were not so, if he were satisfied only with what he can do, he would try to do that alone, better and better perhaps, but in the same groove. However, it is not that: he seeks something else, something quite different, which is truly true, on which one can count, which does not crash down when one supports oneself\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-57</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">upon it, something durable, permanent, the Rock of Ages. This need of eternity, of an absolute good and absolute beauty awakens exactly at the moment when one is ready to receive a new consciousness.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFor a very long time, perhaps from the very beginning —I do not mean from the beginning of human evolution, for there have been earlier periods when, before the true man appeared, intermediate beings at first were tried who were much nearer the animal; I mean the beginning of a sufficiently developed human form when it became ready to receive something from above—there have been always and there are still individuals who carry in them this need of the eternal and the absolute. It is only little by little, very gradually, through cycles of enlightenment and obscurity that something like a collective consciousness in humanity awakes to the need of such a higher existence. And today this necessity seems evidently very general, cutting across all turmoils and stupidities of mankind: that shows that the time is near.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYes, for a very long time, men were told, &quot;It will be, it will be&quot;, were given the promise. It was promised, thousands and thousands of years ago, that a new consciousness, a new world, something of the Divine would manifest itself upon earth; it was always in the future, somewhere in the revolution of the ages. One had not this feeling, this sensation that it is here and now.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBy far the larger part of humanity, in fact, most of it, need to make a very great effort to imagine what the future may be like. Its consciousness is so much tied\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-58</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">down to what is that it finds it difficult even to imagine that things can be otherwise. When what shall be becomes, for at least the consciousness of a group of individuals, an inevitable necessity and what has been and is appears to it as an absurdity that cannot last, then and then only comes the moment for the change to happen, not before.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe question still remains whether the thing can happen and will happen individually before it happens collectively. But no individual realisation even can be complete or approach perfection, unless and until it is in harmony with a group consciousness representing a new world. There is always an interdependence between the individual and the collective so much so that an individual realisation is bound to be restricted and diminished in an irresponsive atmosphere. Earth life as a whole has to follow a certain curve of progress in order that a new world and a new consciousness may appear in it.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSo the future realisation does depend, partially at least, upon you, individually and collectively. Have you ever tried to conceive what the new consciousness may mean, what the new race and the new world would look like?\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is evident that the advent of man upon the earth has changed the terrestrial conditions. One cannot say that this has been to the greatest good of all, for it meant much suffering in many places. Also it is evident that the complication which the human being has brought with him into life has not always been favourable to him\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-59</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">or to others. Bur from another point of view it did mean a progress, a marked progress among the lower species. Man mixed himself up with the life of animals, with the life of plants, even with the life of metals and minerals; it was not, as I said, to the great joy of all those with whom he busied himself; but in any case, their conditions of life were changed by this interference. In the same way, it is likely that the supramental being, whatever he may be, when he comes, will change considerably the life upon earth. We cherish this hope in our heart and in our mind that all the ills the earth suffers from will be, if not completely cured, at least to a large extent alleviated and that conditions of living here will be more pleasant and harmonious, at least tolerable for all. That is quite possible. In man, the mental consciousness that he incarnated acted, by the very force of its nature, for its own satisfaction, for its own growth, without much consideration for the consequences of its actions. The Supramental, on the other hand, will act differently; that is our hope, at least.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nHuman life, however, is brief and naturally there is a tendency in man to shorten the distances in proportion to his dimensions. Still there will come a time when the thing will happen; there will be a moment or a movement that will at last land into the reality. Once upon a time there came a moment when the mental being could appear upon earth. The start may be poor, very incomplete, very partial, but after all there was the start. Why should not the same thing occur now?\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-60</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">to me—they who are more for profiting by what they possess than for risking to lose all in the hope of something that may or may not happen tomorrow, I assure you, such people will not notice the change even if it happens right under their nose. They will say, &quot;It is all right, we do not care, there is nothing to regret&quot;. Quite possibly; but after all, they might have to regret, we do not know.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn any case, that is what I mean by sincerity. That is to say, if you regard the new realisation as the only thing truly worth living for, if what is is intolerable, not only for oneself, perhaps not so much for oneself as for the whole world, one feels the need of it if one is not small and egoistic; one feels that the present has lasted too long and one can do nothing but take up all that one is, all that one can and throw oneself completely—head foremost, without looking backward, without considering what may happen or not—into the adventure. It is far better to jump into the abyss, than to stand on the brink shivering.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-62</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-018_Perfection and Progress','','publish','closed','open','','018_perfection-and-progress','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/018_perfection-and-progress/',0,'post','',0),(1451,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-039_The Significance of Dates.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DATES\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>Does a particular date or a series of date\'s carry any special significance ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe way of framing a calendar is a convention. If the convention is made general, as there is an attempt now to do, it can become a very powerful formation. But in order to become significant for many, many must first accept it. I mean by a formation an image infused with a force that makes it something living, an image which can be used as a symbol. There are people who may form images and use them as symbols, but all is done only for themselves, as in the case of dream-symbols. These are purely subjective and valid in so far as those people are personally concerned.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut if your calendar is adopted by almost the whole of mankind, then the symbol is capable of acting upon a very wide field. You can act upon the major population through this formation. As it is purely conventional, I repeat, it is fruitful only in the measure in which it has been accepted. If instead of millions of people who are now following the European calendar there were only three or four persons, then it would be symbolic only for these few. The thing itself has no value, its value depends upon the use you make of it.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-148</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe conventions are useful as symbols, I said,— that is, they are a means to put you in contact with what is more subtle, to put what is material in contact with the more subtle. That is their use.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nHere comes also the error which people make in respect of stars and horoscopes. For all that is simply a language and a convention. If you accept the convention you can use it for a particular work. But it has value and importance only in proportion to the number of people who believe in it. But if you simplify, the more you do so the more the thing becomes a superstition. For, what is superstition? It is the abuse of generalisation from a particular.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI always give the example of a person passing under a ladder. A man was working on its top-rung and accidentally he dropped his instrument on the person below who got his head broken. The witness of this whole incident then made a general rule that to pass under a ladder was a bad sign. Well, it is superstition pure and simple.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIn fact, much of our knowledge originates in the same way. Thus, a certain medicine is found, because of favourable circumstances, to cure a number of people of a particular disease. Then it is announced that the medicine is an absolute remedy for that disease. But it is not true. If the same medicine is given to a hundred persons, it will affect them in a hundred different ways: sometimes the reactions are quite opposite. In no two cases will the result be similar. Therefore it is not the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-149</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">Virtue of the medicine itself that effects the cure. It is a superstition to believe in the absolute efficacy of medicines.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut going further we can say that there is very little difference between science and superstition! The only difference is in the manner of expressing oneself. If you take care to say like the scientists, &quot;it seems it is like that, one might conclude that things appear like that&quot; etc., etc., then it is no longer superstition. But if you assert point-blank, &quot;it is like that&quot;, then you land in superstition.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-150</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-039_The Significance of Dates','','publish','closed','open','','039_the-significance-of-dates','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/039_the-significance-of-dates/',0,'post','',0),(1452,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-020_The Origin of Desire.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE ORIGIN OF DESIRE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFrom where does desire come? Buddha said that it came from Ignorance. It is almost that. Desire is something in the being which imagines that it requires an object other than itself for its satisfaction. This is sheer ignorance, proved by the fact that in 99 cases out of a hundred when one has the thing desired, one no more cares for it.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAt its very origin, I think, it was an obscure need for growth or increase. In the lowest forms of life we find love transformed into an instinctive and irresistible need for enlarging, swelling, absorbing, adding to it another body. This need to take in is desire. So perhaps if you go back far enough into the last depths of inconscience, you will see that the ultimate source of desire is love: it is love in its most dark and inconscient form. It is, as I said, a need for accretion, an attraction for an outside object in order to embrace it, swallow it, make it part of itself and so grow bigger. Now, suppose you have before you something beautiful, harmonious, pleasing: if you have the true consciousness, you enjoy and are happy to the full, by simply looking at the thing, by having an inner contact in consciousness with the beauty and harmony that is there. And there the matter ends. You have the joy and that is all. Such a movement is very common in the artist. He sees a beautiful\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-69</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">person, he has the joy of observing the grace of the form, the harmony of the movements and all that. But it does not go beyond. He is perfectly happy, perfectly satisfied when he has seen something beautiful.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAn ordinary consciousness, on the contrary, I mean, very ordinary, flat as ordinary things are, when it sees something beautiful, whether it is a material object or a person, it immediately jumps at it, shouting, &quot;I must-have it!&quot; It is pitiable, isn\'t it? And even then with such a consciousness you cannot enjoy beauty, for the anguish of desire will pursue you. You lose true enjoyment but do not get anything in return. There is no happiness in desiring something. It only puts you in an unhappy state. Buddha also said that there was a greater joy in overcoming a desire than in satisfying it. Everybody can make this experiment and have the experience. It is-quite interesting to do so.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen you give up a desire, there occurs at the moment an inner communion with your psychic being and that is why one gets a greater joy in rejecting a desire than in fulfilling it. Besides, when you do satisfy your desire always there is a bitter after-taste somewhere. There is no desire which when satisfied does not leave this bitterness in you, as when you have taken too sweet a thing, the mouth becomes full of a bitter taste. The nature of desire is like that. You must try to throw it away, but sincerely. You must not pretend doing it and keep the thing in a corner. In that case it will surely bring misery to you.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-70</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-020_The Origin of Desire','','publish','closed','open','','020_the-origin-of-desire','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/020_the-origin-of-desire/',0,'post','',0),(1453,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-003_Choosing to do Yoga.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE YOGA \n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">OF</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">SRI AUROBINDO \n</p>\n<br>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">I\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">TO THE CHILDREN OF THE ASHRAM\n</p>\n<br></p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">CHOOSING TO DO YOGA\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo do Sri Aurobindo\'s Yoga means to seek to transform oneself integrally, to have this single aim in one\'s life: that alone exists, nothing else. You feel it in yourself whether you want it or not. If you do not, you can have a life of good will, service, understanding; you can work in many other ways. But between that and doing Yoga there is a great difference.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nTo do Yoga you must want it consciously, you must know first of all what it is,—know what it is and then take the resolution. And once the resolution is taken you must waver no more. When you go to it, you must take it up fully conscious of what you are doing. When you say &quot;I want to do Yoga&quot;, you must know what you are deciding about. That is why when I have spoken to you I have not laid much stress upon this aspect of the thing. I have surely spoken about it and even perhaps a good deal—I am here to speak, and you to listen; but what I mean is that whatever I may have said generally, it is only when individually one comes to me and says that he wants to do Yoga, that I say &quot;yes&quot; (or &quot;no&quot;, if necessary). For such persons things become different, the conditions of life become different, particularly inner things and conditions.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-3</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAlways there is a Consciousness here and it acts constantly to rectify your position: all the while it puts you in the face of obstacles that prevent you from progressing, it makes you dash your nose against your own errors and \nblindnesses. But this happens only in the \ncase of those who have decided to do Yoga. For others the Consciousness acts as \na light, a knowledge, a force for progress, so that you may reach the maximum of \nyour capacities, develop yourself as far as possible in an atmosphere as \nfavourable as it may be, leaving you, however, completely free to choose.</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe decision must come from within. All who come consciously for Yoga, knowing what Yoga is, have to accept conditions of life very different from those that others enjoy—externally perhaps there may not be any difference, but internally there is a wide gulf. There is a kind of absoluteness in the Consciousness that does not allow any deviation from the Path: errors committed become immediately visible with such consequences that one cannot deceive oneself any longer and things take a very serious aspect.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou all, my children, I may tell you,—I have already told you many times and I still repeat, you live in an uncommon freedom. Externally there are a few small restrictions, for, as we are many and have not the whole earth at our disposal, we have to submit ourselves to some discipline to a certain extent, so that there may not be too much disorder; but internally you live in wonderful liberty, no social restraint, no moral restraint, no intellectual\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-4</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">restraint, no fixed principle, nothing is there, save and except a light. If you wish to profit by it, you get the profit; if you do not want, you are free not to profit by it.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut the day you make a choice, and when you do it with all sincerity and you feel within you a radical decision, things become, as I say, quite different. There is the light and there is the way to follow, straight on, one must not turn aside. It deceives none and none can deceive it. Yoga, you must know, is not just a play. When you choose, you must know what you have done. And when you have chosen your way, you must stick to it. You have no more right to hesitate. You have to go ahead. That is all.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThe least, however, that I expect from you is the will to do things well, an effort towards progress, the desire to be in life something better than oridnary humanity. You are brought up, you have grown up under conditions that are unusually luminous, conscious, harmonious, full of good will. And in answer to that it is proper that you should be upon earth in some way an expression of that light and harmony and good-will. That would be something fair.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOne can do the Yoga, the Yoga of Transformation—of all things the most difficult—only when one feels that one is here, upon earth, for this alone and has nothing else to do, that this is the sole reason of one\'s existence. Even if you have to toil hard, suffer, struggle, it is of no consequence: &quot;This alone and nothing else&quot;,—then it\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-5</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">is a different matter. Otherwise I tell you: Be always happy, be always good; be good, meaning, be more understanding, know that you are growing up under exceptional conditions, try to live a life higher, nobler and truer than the ordinary life and let a little of this Consciousness, this light and this benevolence express itself in the world.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">* \n*</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nIt is not for a personal and egoistic aim that you seek perfection, it is for the sake of manifesting the Divine, it is to put all at the service of the Divine. You do not do Yoga with the intention of perfecting yourself personally, for your own sake, but for the divine work that has to be done, for the fulfilment of the Divine Will\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSo long as a personal aspiration is there, a personal desire, an egoistic will, it is a mixture, it is not the exact expression of the Divine Will. The only thing that counts is the Divine, His Will, His manifestation, His expression. You are for that, you are that, and nothing else. If there happens to be a feeling of I, of ego, of the individual person, it means that you are not yet what you ought to be. I do not say that the thing can be done forthwith, but that this is the truth of the matter.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFor, on this level, on the spiritual level, too many people,—in fact, the majority of those who take up the spiritual life—do Yoga for personal reasons, all kinds of personal reasons: some because they are disgusted with\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-6</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">life, others because they are unhappy, some others because they wish to have more knowledge, others again because they want to be spiritually great, yet others because they want to learn things so that they may teach them to others, and so on, there are a thousand personal reasons to do the Yoga. But there are not many to do the simple act of giving oneself to the Divine — this act in all its purity and consistency — so that the Divine may take one up and do with one what He wants. With that you go straight to your goal and never run the risk of making a mistake. But all the other motives are mixed up, tainted with ego and they can lead you hither and thither and far away from the goal.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThis feeling that there is for you only one reason for existence, one single motive, the total complete perfect consecration to the Divine, to such a degree that you are unable to distinguish between yourself and the Divine, you become the Divine wholly, absolutely, without any personal reaction whatsoever intervening: this is the ideal attitude. And that is the only one with which you can progress safely in life, protected from everything, protected even from yourself—for of all dangers the greatest is that which comes from one\'s own self, one\'s egoistic self.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-7</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-003_Choosing to do Yoga','','publish','closed','open','','003_choosing-to-do-yoga','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/003_choosing-to-do-yoga/',0,'post','',0),(1454,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-029_Value of Religious Exercises.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">VALUE OF RELIGIOUS EXERCISES\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>What is the value of religious exercises (such as fapa etc.)?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThese things, if they help you, are all right; if they do not, naturally they are of no use. The value is quite relative. It is worth only the effect it has on you or the measure of your belief in it. If it is an aid to your concentration, then, as I say, it is welcome. The ordinary consciousness takes to the thing through a kind of superstition; one thinks, &quot;if I go to the temple or to the church once a week, for example, if I say my prayers regularly, something good will happen to me&quot;. It is a superstition spread all over the world, but it has no spiritual value.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI have been to holy places. I have seen monuments considered as very highly religious, in France, in Japan and elsewhere; they were not always the same kind of temples or churches nor were they the same gods but the impression they left on me, my experiences of them were everywhere almost the same, with but slight differences. There is usually a force concentrated at the place, but its character depends entirely upon the faith of the faithful; also there is a difference between the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-107</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">force as it really exists and the form in which it appears to the faithful. For instance, in a most famous and most beautiful place of worship which was, from the standpoint of art, a most magnificent creation one could imagine, I saw within its holy of holies—a huge black Spider that had spread its net all around, caught within it and absorbed all the energies emanating from the devotion of the people, their prayers and all that. It was not a very pleasant spectacle. But the people who were there and prayed felt the divine contact, they received all kinds of benefit from their prayers. And yet the truth of the matter was what I saw. The people had the faith and their faith changed what was bad into something that was good to them. Now if I had gone and told them: \'you think it is God you are praying to! it is only a formidable vital Spider that is sucking your force.\' Surely it would not have been very charitable on my part. But everywhere it is almost the same thing. There is a vital Force presiding. And vital beings feed upon the vibrations of human emotion. Very few are they, a microscopic number, who go to the temples and churches and holy places with the true religious feeling, that is to say, not to pray or beg something of God, but to offer themselves, to express gratitude, to aspire, to surrender. One in a million would be too many. These when they are there, get some touch of the Divine just for the moment. But all others go only out of superstition, egoism, self-interest and create the atmosphere as it is found and it is that that you usually breathe in when you\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-108</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">go to a holy place; only as you go there with a good feeling, you say to yourself &quot;what a peace-giving spot!&quot;\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI regret to say it. But it is like that. I tell you I have purposely made the experiment a little everywhere. Perhaps I came across at times in far-away small corners—like a small village church, for example—places where there was real peace and quiet and some true aspiration. Barring that, everywhere it is but a web of adverse vital forces that use everything for their food. The bigger the congregation, the more portentous the vital deity. Besides, in the invisible world it is only the vital beings that like to be worshipped. For, as I have said, that pleases them, gives them importance. They are puffed up with pride and are happy; when they can have a troop of people adoring them, they reach the very height of satisfaction.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nBut if you take a truly divine being, that is not the thing he likes or appreciates. He does not like to be worshipped; worship does not give him special pleasure. But if he sees anywhere a fine intuitive sense, a good feeling, a movement of unselfishness or spiritual enthusiasm, he considers that as infinitely more valuable than prayers and Pujas. I tell you seriously, if you place a true god upon a chair and compel him to remain there all the time you are doing him Puja, he can amuse himself by letting you do, but surely it gives him no happiness, none! He feels neither flattered nor satisfied nor glorified by your Puja. You must get that idea out of your head. There is an entire region between the spiritual world and the material, belonging to the vital beings and\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-109</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">it is this region that is full of such things as are liked by them, because they are their food. They are happy, they feel important when men call them, pray to them, make their offerings to them: the being that has the largest number of adorers is the most satisfied, the most glorified, the most puffed up. How can you imagine that a true god, a god even of the Overmind—although those of this region are already somewhat touched by human frailties—that is to say, one who has the higher consciousness, would get any pleasure out of these things? I repeat, an act of real kindness, intelligence, unselfishness or fine understanding or sincere aspiration is for him an altogether higher and more valuable thing than any petty religious ceremony. There is no comparison. You speak of religious ceremonies. There is, for example, a being called Kali; there are many Kalis, of many varieties, installed in temples and houses. All of them almost are vital beings and forces, some are ugly and terrible. I have known people who had such a fear of Kali—their household Kali—that they trembled at the thought of offending her in any way, of committing the least fault that would displease her; for that means Kali\'s vengeance. I know, I know very well these entities: they are beings of the vital world, they are vital formations—the forms are given by the human mind and what forms! To think that men worship such terrible and demoniac things!\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFrom this standpoint it is good that for a time humanity should come out of the religious atmosphere, full of fear\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-110</p>\n	<hr></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><b>III</b>\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nand blind superstitious submission by which the adverse forces have profited so monstrously. The age of negation, of atheism and positivism is from this view quite indispensable for man\'s liberation from sheer ignorance. It is only when you have come out of this, this abject submission to the evil forces of the Vital that you can rise to truly spiritual heights and then become there collaborators and right instruments for the forces of the Truth and Consciousness and Power. The superstitions of the lower levels you must leave far behind to rise high.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-111</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-029_Value of Religious Exercises','','publish','closed','open','','029_value-of-religious-exercises','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/029_value-of-religious-exercises/',0,'post','',0),(1455,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-004_Order and Discipline.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">ORDER AND DISCIPLINE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">I\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou must become conscious of yourself, conscious in every detail. You must organise what you call yourself around the psychic centre, the divine centre of your being so that you can possess a single, cohesive, fully conscious being: as this centre is wholly consecrated to the Divine, if all the elements are organised harmoniously around it, they too get consecrated to the Divine. Thus, when the Divine wills it, when the time comes, when the work of individualisation is complete, then the Divine permits you to let your ego melt in Him, so that you may exist for the Divine alone. But it is the Divine that takes the decision. You should have done the whole preliminary work first, become a conscious being, solely and exclusively centred around the Divine and governed by Him. When your ego has served its purpose in forming a complete individual out of you, when that work is perfectly, fully achieved, then you can say to the Divine, &quot;Here, I am ready now; do you want me?&quot; The Divine generally says, &quot;Yes.&quot; Then everything is worked out, everything accomplished. You become a true instrument for the Divine\'s work. But the instrument must be built up first.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-8</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou are sent to school, you are asked to do exercises (both mental and physical); do you think it is just to put you to trouble? No, it is because a surrounding is absolutely necessary where you can learn to form yourself. If you tried by yourself this work of individualisation, integral formation, all alone in one corner, you would be asked nothing till you have done it; but you are not likely to do it, not a single child would do it, he would not even know how to do it or where to begin. If a child is not taught how to live, he would not be able to live, he would not know how to do anything. The most elementary movements it is not able to do unless it is taught. Therefore if every one were to go through the whole experience, unaided, in the matter of forming his individuality, he would be dead long before he could begin to exist even. That is the utility of the experiences of others, accumulated through centuries, of those who have had the experience and who tell you, &quot;If you want to go quick, and learn in a few years what needed centuries to learn—well, do this, do that, this way, that way, read, study, attend to your lessons at school, in the playground.&quot; Once you are on the way, you can find your own method if you are a genius. But in the beginning you must know how to stand on your legs and walk. It is not easy to go all by oneself. That is why one needs education.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-9</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">II\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are children who are very disorderly. They do not know how to keep things tidy. They do not know even how to keep things. They lose or spoil them. There are several reasons for it. First of all, very often it means that the child lacks sufficient vitality. The vital is not strong enough to take care of external objects. Another reason may be that he does not find interest in the physical life; his interest may lie in the direction of mental occupation, imagination or dreaming etc. Or again it may be a lack of self-control and discipline.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAnyway the result is the same. That is to say, confusion. There are children who, when they undress, throw their clothings right and left or, when they have done their task, do not know where they put their books and paper, pencil, or ink pot; it takes a lot of trouble to find them again or bring them together. In reality, all this shows an undisciplined nature, a character that is not methodical; it shows that not only in the outside but internally too the person is disorderly. There are people, perhaps considering themselves big, who even have a contempt for physical objects. But Sri Aurobindo says, people who cannot take care of things do not deserve to have them, have no right to ask for them. As I say, it shows a kind of acute egoism, much inner confusion.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere are people who live in rooms apparently clean and tidy. But open a cupboard, pull out a drawer, you\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-10</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">will find there a battlefield: all is mixed up. They have a head too that is very much like that—a poor small head where ideas are in the same condition as the objects outside in the cupboard. They have not organised them, put them in order. You may take it as an absolute rule. I have never seen a man who keeps things in a disorder and yet possesses a logical brain. In him ideas like the objects are thrown together pell-mell, the most dissimilar and contradictory ideas form a jumble, they are not organised, harmonised into a higher synthesis.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nSo to know a man\'s character you need not spend your time in talking to him, you just go and open a drawer of his or open his almirah, you will know. But I may speak of someone—I shall tell you presently who it is—who used to live in the midst of heaps of books and papers. You enter into his room, you find piles of them everywhere. But if by chance, you were, to your misfortune, to displace a single sheet of paper, he would know perfectly well and would ask immediately who was it that had disturbed the papers. There were masses of things, on your entering you would not find your way. But each thing had its place—notes, letters, books, all in order— and you could not mishandle them without his knowing it. Well, it was Sri Aurobindo. In other words, you must not confuse orderliness with poverty. Naturally if you have a few things—a dozen books and a limited number of objects—it is easier to have them properly arranged. But what is to be aimed at is a logical order, a conscious intelligent order among a multiplicity of objects. That\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-11</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">requires a capacity for organisation. It is a capacity which every one must acquire and possess, unless of course you are physically disabled—when one is ill or sickly or maimed and has not the required strength: even then there is a limit. I know of sick people who could tell you: &quot;Open me that drawer, you will find on the right or on the left or at the bottom such and such a thing.&quot; They could not themselves move and handle the things but knew where they were. Apart from such cases, the ideal must be one of order, organisation, like that of a library for example, where you have thousands and thousands of books that are yet all arranged, classified, docketed and you have only to name a title and in a few minutes the book is in your hand. Of course, it is not the work of a single person; even then, the pattern is there as an example to follow.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou too must organise your affairs in the same way. You need not follow another\'s method or system. You have your own rule, that which is convenient and true for you—but it must be well planned and properly laid out.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-12</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-004_Order and Discipline','','publish','closed','open','','004_order-and-discipline','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/004_order-and-discipline/',0,'post','',0),(1456,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-036_To Melt into the Divine.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">TO MELT INTO THE DIVINE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>How to melt into the Divine? That is to say, how to get dissolved in the Divine, lose one\'s ego ?</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nFirst of all, one must wish for it, will for it, aspire for it with perseverence. Everytime the ego shows itself, you must give it a tap on the nose, until it receives so much of it that it gets tired and gives up. Generally, however, one does not administer the tap but cherishes the miscreant, justifies its presence. When it shows itself, one says, &quot;After all it is right&quot;; although in most cases, one does not even know it is the ego, one takes it for one\'s self. The first condition then is to consider it essential that one should have no more ego. You must understand what is meant when you say you no longer want it. It is not so easy. For while in your brain you turn and turn the idea \'I do not want ego, I do not want to separate from the Divine\', in life it has no effect; when actually you do a selfish or egoistic act, you find it quite natural; it does not even give a shock to you.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWe must begin by understanding what the thing really means. There are many stages or steps in it. First of all, you must distinguish between two things (1) selfishness and (2) egoism. Selfishness is a crude form and it should not be very difficult to get rid of it,\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-130</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">at least a good part of it. You can get over it simply by having a sense of the ridiculous. You do not see how absurd a selfish man is. He always thinks of himself, bringing everything round to himself, ruled by considerations of his small person, putting himself at the centre of the universe and trying to organise the universe, including God, around himself, as if he was the most important item of the universe. Now, if you just try to look at yourself from outside in a dispassionate way, see yourself as in a mirror, you immediately recognise how ridiculous your little person is. I remember I read in French, translated of course, a line from Tagore which amused me very much. It was about a little dog. The dog was seated in the lap of its mistress and considered itself to be the centre of the universe. Yes, the picture struck in my mind. I knew actually a little dog who was like that. There are many of the kind, perhaps all: they want that everybody should be busy with them and they succeed in doing so.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou have to go a long way before you can think of merging your ego, your self in the Divine. First of all, you cannot merge your ego or your self until you are a completely individualised being. And do you know what does that mean—\'to be completely individualised\'? It means one capable of resisting all external influences. The other day I received a letter from someone who says that he hesitates to read books; for he has a very strong tendency to identify himself with what he reads; if he reads a novel or a drama he becomes the character pictured\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-131</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">and is possessed by the feelings and thoughts and movements of the character. There are many like that. If they read something, while they read they are completely moved by the ideas and impulsions and even ideals they read about and are totally absorbed in them and become them, without their knowing it even. That is because ninety-nine percent of their nature is made of butter as it were: if you press your finger it leaves a mark. That is the ordinary man\'s character. One takes in, as one comes across, a thought experienced by another, a phrase read in a book, a thing observed or an incident eyes fall upon, a will or wish of a neighbour, all that enters pell-mell intermixed—enters and goes out, others come in—like electric currents. And one does not notice it. There is a conflict, a clash among these various movements, each trying to get the upper hand. Thus the person is tossed to and fro like a piece of cork upon the waves in the sea.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nInstead of this unformed and unconscious mass, one has to become conscious, cohesive, individualised, that which exists by itself and in itself, independently of its surroundings, that which can hear, read, see anything and will not change because of that. It receives from outside only what it wishes to receive. It rejects automatically what does not agree with its purpose: nothing can leave any impression upon it, unless it wishes to have the impress. It is thus that one begins to be individualised. And when one is an individual, then only can one make a gift of it, for unless you possess a thing\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-132</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">you cannot give it; when you have or are nothing you can give nothing. So in order that the separate ego may disappear, one must be able to give oneself wholly, totally without restrictions. And to be able to give, one must exist and to exist one must be an individual. If your body were not rigid as it is—the body is indeed terribly rigid—if it were not something quite fixed and if you had not this solid skin around the skeleton, if you were the exact expression of what you are vitally and mentally, it would be worse than the gelatinous jelly fish. All would enter and melt into one another, what a chaos and confusion would it be! That is why a rigid form is given at the outset. And you complain: the physical is so fixed, it lacks plasticity, suppleness—it lacks the fluidity that enables one to melt into the Divine! But it was a necessity. For if you were out of your body and entered into the regions behind—the vital,—you would see how things stand there: things get mixed, separated, intertwined, all kinds of vibrations, currents, forces that come and go, struggle and fight, seize each other, absorb each other, repulse each other! Very difficult to find a personality in all that. It is only forces, movements, impulsions, desires. Not that there are not individuahties and personalities there too! But they are Powers. They who have individualised themselves in such a world are either heroes or demons!\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAnd then in the mind, if you become conscious only of the physical mind, apart from what belongs to the brain, independent of the head, you will see that it is\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-133</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">really a market place, as it has been called: everything enters here, all kinds of ideas and notions cross and recross and move about, jostle one another, knock against each other—there are even accidents sometimes. There you can search, but search in vain to find where your own mind lies.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nOne needs years of labour—organising, selecting, building up very diligently, very carefully, very rationally, very cohesively, in order simply to form oneself: to form, this simple thing, for example, to think in one\'s own way. You believe you think in your own way, you do not know how much you depend for your thoughts upon the people you speak to, upon the books that you read, upon your varying moods; yes, it depends not unoften upon your good or bad digestion, upon the fact of your being closed in a room or free in the open air, upon the scenery around you, upon sun or shower. You do not notice it, but you think of different things in different ways according to conditions or situations which have nothing to do with your own self. So, I say, to have your thoughts coordinated, cohesive, logical, you would need a long, very long work in minute details. And then, that is the most important part of the thing, when you have come to a beautiful mental structure, well-shaped, very strong, very powerful, the first thing you will be told to do is that you must break it up, if you wish to be united with the Divine! And unless and until you have done the first part you cannot do the second part, unless you form yourself you cannot give yourself, you would\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-134</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">have nothing to give to the Divine. Your are nothing more than a mass of inchoate things which are not yourself. First you must exist, you must be, before you can give yourself.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nAt the present moment in the actual state of things what one can give to the Divine is one\'s body. But that is precisely the thing that one does not give. Yes, try to consecrate your work, your bodily labour; even there, there are so many things that are not true or correct.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou may naturally ask how to melt the body in the Divine? You say you understand somewhat melting the mind, melting the vital, thoughts and emotions, ideas and aspirations into the Divine, but the body? It cannot be melted as in a cauldron! And yet that is the only thing upon which you can put your personal name—although that too is only a convention—and say this is I. Of course if you look at yourself in a mirror, you see clearly you are not what you were twenty years ago, you are now quite different, quite unrecognisable. Still you have the perception that it is the same person, yourself. You can begin your giving by that which is most formed, most known to you as yourself.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nI do not mean to confront you with complicated movements. What I say is this that if you speak of melting into the Divine or uniting with the Divine, you must first of all know what you are. You are apparently the ego. It is there. The ego is meant to make you conscious, an independent, individualised being—that is to say, you must not be a market place where all kinds of\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-135</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">movements mix and jostle; you must be able to exist in yourself. The ego is for that and that is why you have a skin, to form a closed circle (allowing, of course, things to infiltrate through its pores, so to say, but it must be at your will and bid).\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou must form yourself, you must be conscious of yourself—not in a general way but in every detail. Every detail of what you call yourself must be organised around one centre, your true self, the divine being in you, so that the whole may be a cohesive organised entity. When thus wholly conscious, harmoniously organised around the divine centre, then it can be wholly consecrated, united to the Divine: then the time comes, the Divine permits the true union to be made. When the individualisation is complete then He lets you merge your ego into the Divine, you live and exist for the Divine alone.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-136</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-036_To Melt into the Divine','','publish','closed','open','','036_to-melt-into-the-divine','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/036_to-melt-into-the-divine/',0,'post','',0),(1457,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-002_Publisher^s Note.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><i>PUBLISHERS\' NOTE</i>\n</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n	<blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n	<blockquote>\n<p class=\"para\">\n<i>The writings included in this volume, like those in the three preceding volumes of the series, are based on talks given by the Mother to the young children of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. They were originally published in Journals connected with the Ashram, during the years\n</i>1955—1956. </p>\n	</blockquote>\n</blockquote>\n	</blockquote>\n</blockquote>\n	</blockquote>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-002_Publisher\'s Note','','publish','closed','open','','002_publishers-note-4','','','2021-11-23 17:21:31','2021-11-23 17:21:31','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/002_publishers-note-4/',0,'post','',0),(1458,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-012_The Origin.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE ORIGIN\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> One has forgotten. From the fact \nof separation from Sat - Chit - Ananda comes forgetfulness of what one is. You \nbelieve you are, does not matter what, a boy, a girl, a man, a woman, a dog, a \nhorse, any thing : a stone, the sea or the sun. You think you are all that, \ninstead of thinking that you are the One Divine. Indeed, if you had continued to \nthink that you are the One Divine, there would have been no universe at all. The \nphenomenon of separation seems to have been indispensable, otherwise it would \nhave remained always as it was.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> But once the curve has been \nfollowed up and the Unity re-established, having profited by the multiplicity \nand division, the Unity found is of a higher quality : a Unity that knows \nitself, instead of a unity that does not know itself, for there is nothing else \nthere which knows the other. Where the Unity is absolute, who or what can know \nthe Unity ? Hence the need of the appearance of something which is not that, in \norder to know what it is.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-65</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\"> I believe this is the secret of \nthe universe. Perhaps the Divine truly wanted to know Himself, then He cast \nHimself out of Himself and looked at Himself. And now He wants to take the joy \nof this possibility of being Himself with the full knowledge of Himself. It \nbecomes much more interesting.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> All physical life has the vital \nas its origin. The vital has the mental reality as its origin. The mental itself \nhas another origin. And so on.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Nothing can be manifested upon \nearth physically unless it has at its origin a higher truth. Otherwise the world \nwould not exist. If it were something flat, having its origin in itself, it \nwould very soon cease to exist. It is because there is a force, an energy that \ndrives, behind the manifestation that life continues to exist. Otherwise it \nwould quickly exhaust itself.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> The original Will was towards \nforming individual beings that would be capable of becoming conscious again of \ntheir origin, although the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-66</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">procedure of individualisation compelled the individual to feel \nitself separate in order to be an individual. And the very moment it is \nseparated, it is cut off from the original Consciousness, at least apparently, \nand falls into inconscience, for the only thing that is the Life of life is the \nOrigin.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is this inconscience that \nbrings it about that you are not aware any longer of the Truth of your being. \nThe secret of all deformation in the world is this inconscience which has been \nproduced by the fact of separation from the Origin. And that explains why there \nare ugliness, wickedness, illness, suffering and death. It is because of this \ninconscience that although the Origin is there, it cannot manifest itself. It is \nthere, therefore the world exists, but it is deformed in its expression, because \nit manifests itself through inconscience, ignorance and obscurity.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The only way to set everything \nright is to be conscious again and it is very simple.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> There is only one Origin. This \nOrigin is the Truth at its perfection, for it is the only thing that truly \nexists. It has exteriorised itself, projected itself, scattered itself, and by \nso doing has produced what we see, a mass of very fine, very brilliant brains in \nsearch of that which they have not yet found and which they find at last; for \nwhat\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-67</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">they are in search of is within them. The remedy is within the \nheart of the Evil.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> There is what we call the Truth, \nthe foundation of all things, because if that was not there nothing would be. \nThere is nothing which does not carry within it an eternal Truth, otherwise it \nwould not be. The universe would not exist one-thousandth part of a second if it \ndid not contain in itself a Truth.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> And once you have found the \ntruth, you find the Origin, you find out why things are what they are and the \nmeans of changing them. If you are in contact with the Divine, you have the key \nto everything. You know the how, the why, the process by which that may change. \nSo there is somethig to be done. It is so interesting.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> You represent a little mass of \nagglomerate substance that forms your self. Enter into that and find the key. \nYou cannot say : &quot;That is beyond me, that is too great for me.&quot;.Go within the \nlittle person and you will find the key that opens all the doors.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> You are That, you are in That. To \nmake you understand more easily, I may say, That is within us, That is part of \nour consciousness\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-68</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">somewhere. Otherwise we would never be able to be conscious of \nit. If we did not carrythe Divine within ourselves, in the essence of our being, \nwe would never be aware of Him, it would be an impossible task.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> You can turn the problem the \nother way round. The very moment you conceive and feel in one way or another, or \neven, to begin with, you admit that the Divine is within you and you are also \nwithin the Divine, that itself pushes the door a little, half-opens it. And if \nsubsequently a great aspiration comes and an intense need to know and to be, \nthen you can glide in. When you have glided in, you become conscious of what one \nIs.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> There is only one thing to be \nfound, not two.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> If Science moves forward in a \ndefinite direction, if it progresses sufficiently, if it does not stop on the \nway, it will find the same thing as what the mystics found.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> If one goes round long enough one \nmust come back to the same point. And once you come back, you have the \nimpression that there was never anything to find outside. Yes, it is like that, \nthere is nothing to find outside yourself.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-69</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-012_The Origin','','publish','closed','open','','012_the-origin','','','2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/012_the-origin/',0,'post','',0),(1459,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-001_Pre_Content.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n<img alt=\"Part%209%20-%200001-1.jpg\" src=\"/Nolini/The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo Part - 9/_imagesPart%209%20-%200001-1.jpg\" style=\" width:268.80pt; height:425.52pt;\"></p>\n	<hr align=\"left\">\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	THE YOGA OF SRI AUROBINDO</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<hr align=\"left\">\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nTHE YOGA OF\nSRI AUROBINDO</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nPart Nine</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nNOLINI KANTA GUPTA</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nsri aurobindo ashram </p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	pondicherry</p>\n	<hr align=\"left\">\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nPublishers: Sri Aurobindo Ashram </p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Pondicherry</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><i>\nAll Rights Reserved</i></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nFirst   Edition  \n... July, \n1958</p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nSri Aurobindo Ashram Press </p>\n	<p class=\"paracenter\">\n	Pondicherry</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\nprinted in India</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-9-001_Pre_Content','','publish','closed','open','','the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-9-001_pre_content','','','2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/the-yoga-of-sri-aurobindo-part-9-001_pre_content/',0,'post','',0),(1460,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-011_Modern Taste.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE MODERN TASTE\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> From the standpoint of artistic \nand literary taste and culture, the present world is a thing of extremes. On one \nside, it is trying hard to discover something very noble, and on the other, it \nis sinking into a vulgarity which is infinitely greater than the vulgarity, say, \nof two or three centuries ago. In those times people who were not cultured were \ncrude, but their crudeness resembled the crudeness of animals and had not much \nperversion in it—there was something certainly, for as soon as the mind appears, \nperversion also comes in. But in our days, what does not rise to the peak, \nremains on level earth, is a crudeness of the most perverted kind; that is to \nsay, it is not only ignorant or stupid, it is ugly, dirty, repulsive, it is \ndeformed, it is vile, it is extremely low. What makes it so is the wrong use of \nthe mind. If there were no mind, this perversion would not exist. Now what is \nugly is ugly from all points of view.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> There are things that are \nconsidered beautiful these days. I have seen photographs and reproductions\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-62</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">which arc frightfully vulgar in the perverted sense, and yet \npeople are uproarious about them and find them pretty. That means there is \nsomething there which has not only no culture and development, but has developed \nin the wrong way, that is to say, is deformed, which is worse, for it is much \nmore difficult to straighten a perverted and deformed object than to enlighten \nthat which is merely ignorant or without education.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> I believe there are certain \nthings that have become great instruments of perversion and among them I name \nthe Cinema. The Cinema could have been, and I hope one day it will be, an \ninstrument of education and culture. But for the moment it is largely an \ninstrument of perversion, a truly hideous perversion: perversion of taste, \nperversion of consciousness, a moral and even a physical ugliness. And yet it is \nsomething which can be serviceable for education, for progress, for artistic \nculture and growth. It can be made a means for the spread of the sense of the \nbeautiful and the creation of things beautiful in a way much more general and \naccessible to all than it was possible in the older methods. But what could have \nbeen better, is not better but has become worse.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-63</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\"> As I said, we are in a period of \nexcesses; we move from one excess to another. If it is not an excess of zeal \ntowards perfection, we fall back into the opposite excess of perversion. As we \nlive in the midst of such a world, if we carefully note we shall find that we \nautomatically share in the universal vulgarism, unless we are watchful over \nourselves and bring down into our being the light of our highest consciousness; \nat every step we run the risk of grave errors of taste, in matters spiritual \nalso.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-64</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-011_Modern Taste','','publish','closed','open','','011_modern-taste','','','2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/011_modern-taste/',0,'post','',0),(1461,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-021_The Mother on Herself.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">Section Four \n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"><i>The Mother on Herself</i>\n</p>\n<br>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE MOTHER ON HERSELF\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(I)</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nYou must be very very persevering. I will tell you a story—my own story.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen I began to practise occultism, as I started working with my nights, making them conscious, I found that between the subtle-physical level and the most material vital there was a small region, very small indeed, that was not developed well enough to serve as a conscious link between the two. So what happened in the most material vital was not being accurately translated into the consciousness of the most subtle physical. Something was lost in the passage which was however not quite empty but only half-conscious, not adequately developed. I knew there was only one way, namely, to go on working for the development. I started working sometime in February, I suppose. One month, two months, three, four months passed with no result. I continued. Five months, six months.   Then in July or August   I left my home  in  Paris for the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-109</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">country-side. I came to a very small place near the sea-side and stayed with friends. There was a garden there. And in the garden a fine green turf and flowers and trees all round. It was a pretty little quiet place. It was very quiet, very silent. One day I lay myself down on the grass, flat on the face resting on my elbows (among the grass). Suddenly the whole life of this nature, the whole life of the intermediate region I am speaking of, which is most living in the plant and in physical nature, all this domain became all on a sudden, unexpectedly, without any transition, absolutely living, intense, conscious, wonderful. This was the result of the continuous activity of six months that did not give any result till then. I did not know it; just a little favourable condition and the result is there. It is like the chick in the egg. It is there for a long time but you do not see it. You ask doubtfully if there is any chick at all inside the egg. And then suddenly&quot; a crack, a small hole—the egg bursts and the chick comes out, quite formed and whole and entire. It took all this time to form itself. So it is like this. When you wish to prepare something within you it is like the preparation of the chick inside the shell. It takes a long time and there is not the least result. But you must not be discouraged. You must\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-110</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">continue your effort, as before, regularly as if the whole eternity were before you, thoroughly disinterested in the result. One day the result bursts upon you, the whole result of all your work.\n</p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(2)\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\">\nWhen I look at people and when I am occupied with them, I have the will—I do not say it is always possible — anyhow, I have the will to see in them their psychic being, their ideal, what they want to do, what they want to become, to hold it and bring it out to the surface. That is all my work. What I see, I try to draw to the front. When I do this, apart from a very few instances when people are somewhat conscious, I am not always sure of the kind and degree of their external consciousness. And when I put questions to someone, it is to know the difference between what he is conscious of and what I see. I am doing this all the while. And that is why it seems as if I did not know.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\">\nThere is a vast difference between what you know of yourself and what I know of you. What I know of you is evidently what you ought to become. Your external being one can see well.</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-111</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">But between that and the inner being that I see there is the vital-mental region which is the most important thing from the human point of view; for what one has to become must be repeated there first, if it is to be materialised. But as I say, the gap is wide between what you know of yourself, what is actively conscious in you and what you are in the truth of your being. This intermediary region is somewhat difficult for me to be familiar with or comprehend : for it is a cloudy region for me, a domain of falsehood. You must note the distinction between a lie and a falsehood. A lie is that which is altogether unreal, which has not been, which is not there. A falsehood is that which is not true, in the sense that it is not the expression of your truth— not at all—and yet, it is that of which you are mostly externally conscious. Very very few are there who have the inner perception of what they want to become, what they want to do, what the truth of their being is. There are not many of that kind. For some, the thing comes and is then veiled —just a lightning flash for a moment and then all is dark. For me it is a perpetual question to know what is the state of the superficial consciousness which is for me so unreal, so untrue. There is such a contradiction between the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-112</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">brutal fact of the daily activity and this image I \nmake to myself of what everyone of \nyou should be: I keep this image always intact by all the power of my \nconsciousness so that you may realise it. That is yourself, your own self.\nIt \nis not this ignorant, stupid, insincere, \ndishonest being thatyou call yourself.</p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">(3)\n</p>\n<p class=\"para\">\n</p>\n<p class=\"para\">Once upon a time, long long ago, when I was in Paris, I used to see Madame D. N. almost daily. She was full of ideas and told me : &quot;You should not think of action, it means attachment to action. When you want to do something it indicates that you are still tied to the things of the world&quot;. I answered : &quot;No, nothing is more easy. You have only to imagine all that has been done before, all that will be done hereafter and all that is being done now, you will immediately perceive that your action is nothing but a breath, one second in eternity and you are no longer attached to it&quot;. I did not know the text of the Gita at that time. And I had not the complete text, the text that I am here putting somewhat in my own way: &quot;And detached from the fruit of action, act&quot;. I did not know the Gita, but what I said\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-113</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">\nwas in effect what the Gita taught. You should act not because you believe in your action. You act because you should act. That is all. It is however a condition that may prove dangerous sometimes. For instead of willing with a sovereign will to action you simply look and let things happen.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-114</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-021_The Mother on Herself','','publish','closed','open','','021_the-mother-on-herself','','','2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/021_the-mother-on-herself/',0,'post','',0),(1462,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-005_Psychic Being.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">THE PSYCHIC BEING\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The psychic is like an electric \nwire that connects the generator with the lamp; the lamp being the body, the \nvisible form. Its function is likewise, that is to say, if the psychic were not \nthere in Matter, it could have no direct contact with the Divine. It is because \nof the psychic presence that there can be a direct contact between Matter and \nthe Divine. And every human being can be told : &quot;You carry the Divine within \nyou, you have only to enter within yourself and you will find Him.&quot; It is a \ndirect, special, transmuting infusion into the most inconscient and obscure \nMatter to awaken it once more step by step to the Divine Consciousness, the \nDivine Presence and finally the Divine Himself.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is a thing characteristic of \nearthly creatures. It is a speciality of the earth. But only in the human being \ndoes the psychic become more conscious, more formed and also more independent; \nit is there individualised. It is the presence of the psychic that makes of man \nan exceptional being, so much so that beings of other domains in the Universe, \nthose, for example,\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-15</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">belonging to what Sri Aurobindo calls the Over-mind, the demi-gods \nand even the gods are very eager to take a physical body upon earth so that they \ncan have the experience of the psychic. These beings possess certainly many \nqualities which men have not, but they lack this direct Divine Presence which is \nquite exceptional, which is a fact of the earth and is found nowhere else. All \nthese inhabitants of the higher worlds, of Higher Mind and Overmind and other \nregions do not possess a psychic being.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Naturally, the beings of the \nvital world do not have it either. They do not regret it, they do not want it. \nIn their origin, of course, they descended directly from the Divine, but that \nwas only in their origin and it is so long ago. Now they have no direct contact \nwith the Divine within them, they do not have the psychic being. If they had \nconverted themselves under these conditions nothing would have remained of them. \nBecause they are made wholly of the opposite movement. They are entirely made of \nself-assertion, despotic power, alienation from the origin and the utmost \ndisdain for all that is pure and beautiful and noble. Those only, very rare, \namong them who wish to be converted do one thing immediately take a physical \nbody. But\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-16</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">others do not want it; that ties them, restricts them to a rule \nwhich they refuse.\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is a fact—I do not like to say \nit often to him, for he has such a high opinion of himself that he needs no \nencouragement, but it is a fact and hence I am obliged to state—that man has \nthis exceptional virtue of having in him the psychic being. But to tell you the \ntruth he does not seem to turn it to good account, he does not appear to \nconsider it at all as a desirable thing, so far as one can judge from the manner \nin which he treats this Presence. He prefers to it his mental ideas, he prefers \nto it his vital desires, he prefers to it his bodily habits.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> There is a story in the Bible \nwhich I always liked. Two brothers were there, Esau and Jacob. Esau returns home \nhungry and tells his brother Jacob that he is very hungry. He was so hungry that \nhe proposed to his brother, &quot;Listen, if you give me your plate of pottage—Jacob \nhad prepared a dish of pottage—I will give over to you my birthright.&quot; One can \nunderstand the story in quite a superficial way. But it has a deeper meaning. \nThe birthright is the right of being the son of\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-17</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">God. And the man was ready to give up his divine right in order \nto eat because he was hungry. It is a very old story, but it is eternally true.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> At its origin, the psychic begins \nby a kind of a divine spark within oneself, a spark of the divine consciousness. \nOut of this spark will slowly emerge an independent conscious being which will \nhave its own action and its own will.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The progress of the psychic \nconsists in its formation, building and organisation. It grows into a conscious \nindividuality through successive lives; for there can be progress only upon \nearth, in the physical world; it is not possible everywhere. In the psychic \nworld there is a kind of rest, full of beatitude. One remains there as one is, \nstill, without moving.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The progress is like the progress \nof a child that grows. It is a continuous growing. For a long time, in most \nhuman beings the psychic is a continuously growing entity. It is not a fully \nindividualised, fully conscious being and master of itself. It needs to be born \nin many lives one after another so that it may build itself and become fully \nconscious.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-18</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\"> But that has an end. There comes \na moment when the being is fully built up, fully individualised, fully master of \nitself and its destiny. When one such psychic being incarnates in a human body, \nit makes a great difference. This human being is, so to say, born free; he is \nnot bound to circumstances or surroundings or heredity like ordinary human \nbeings. He comes into the world and he has the impression that he is come \npurposely to accomplish something, he has a work to do, a mission to fulfil.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> From that point of view the \nprogress of his growth has ended. That is to say, it is no longer necessary for \nhim to be reborn in a body. Till then reincarnation was obligatory. For it is in \nthe physical life and in the physical body that he grows little by little until \nhe becomes a wholly conscious being. But once he is completely formed, he is \nfree, in the sense that he can, at will, take a body or not take.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> When a psychic being incarnates, \nit throws itself down into inconscience, because the physical world and even a \nhuman consciousness, whatever it may be, are very unconscious in comparison\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-19</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">with the psychic consciousness. It is as if it fell on its head \nand it is stunned. Generally, but for some rare exceptions, for a long time it \nknows nothing; it does not know where it is, what it does, nor why it is there, \nnothing. It is in a great difficulty to express itself, especially in a baby who \nhas not a brain but only the embryo of a brain. So it is very rare for a child \nto show that it contains within itself an exceptional being. That happens, but \ngenerally it takes time.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The psychic awakes slowly from \nits dazed condition and slowly it becomes aware that it is there for some reason \nand by choice. But the intensive mental education that one usually receives \nshuts out completely the psychic consciousness. Then a mass of circumstances, \nhappenings of all kinds, emotions and sensations and various other things are \nneeded to open the inner doors and to enable one to begin to remember—remember \nthat one has come from another world, one has come for a very definite reason. \nIf the psychic however had chanced to fall upon a little knowledge instead of \nfalling into a world of ignorance, there could have been a quicker contact.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">\n&#8258;\n</p>\n<p class=\"paracenter\"></p>\n<p class=\"pageno\">Page-20</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\"> There are not very many fully \ndeveloped souls upon earth. Evidently those who have reached a certain culture, \na certain growth, a certain individualisation have instinctively the tendency to \ncome together and form groups. It is then that we come across in particular \nepochs and climes fully formed beings gathering together. But you must not \nbelieve that that gives in any way the exact measure of human culture and \ngrowth. That is only a spray of foam on the surface. Even among those who \nalready form a selection, there is not perhaps one in a thousand who can be \ncalled truly an individual being, conscious of himself, united with his psychic \nbeing, governed by his inner law and therefore partially at least if not wholly \nfree from external influences; because being a conscious entity when these \ninfluences come he sees them, those that seem to agree with his inner growth and \nnormal development he accepts and those that contradict he rejects. And instead \nof being a chaos, or in any case a frightful mixture, he is an organised \nindividual being, conscious of himself, moving in life knowing where he wants to \ngo and how to go.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> That is the best of mankind that \nNature is capable of producing. They are men still, but the\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-21</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">top of mankind. They are ready to become something else. But \nunless and until one becomes that, one remains in greater part an animal with \nonly just a little beginning of manhood. It is only that that one can call Man. \nAnd I am saying this in the hope that you will become such a one.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-22</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-005_Psychic Being','','publish','closed','open','','005_psychic-being','','','2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/005_psychic-being/',0,'post','',0),(1463,1,'2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN\">\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252\">\n<title>-004_Meditation.htm</title>\n</head>\n<div align=\"center\">\n	<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n	<td>\n<p class=\"paracenter\">MEDITATION\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Collective meditation, of which \nthe most external form is collective prayer, has been practised from ancient \ntimes for different reasons, in different ways, and with different purposes. \nGroups of persons, whether belonging to the same Church or not, come together to \nexpress a common feeling; in certain cases, it is to sing together in praise of \nGod, to chant a hymn of gratitude, expressing love, adoration, thankfulness. In \nother cases,—there are many historical examples of this—people gather together \nfor a common invocation, to ask something from the Divine in the hope that a \nprayer done collectively will have more effect than an individual prayer. Thus, \nin Europe prophets announced that in the year one thousand of grace there would \nbe the end of the world; everywhere crowds assembled to implore the divine \nprotection and to pray that the catastrophe might be averted. More recently in \nmodern times, when the king of England, George VI, had an attack of pneumonia \nand was almost on the point of death,\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-11</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">the British people gathered not only in churches but even in the \nstreets in front of the royal palace, to pray in common and to ask God to save \ntheir king. This is of course a most external form, I could say, a most worldly \nmeditation in community. Besides, in all groups of Initiation, in all spiritual \nschools of ancient times and naturally in modern times also, meditation in \ncommunity has always been practised; here the purpose is evidently very \ndifferent. People gather together to make a collective progress, to open \nthemselves to a force, a light and an influence; it is somewhat like that which \nwe all try to do here. There are two ways to proceed, and both are excellent. \nFor individual meditation, first of all, one must prepare to meditate, that is \nto say, after sitting down in a position, at the same time comfortable enough \nnot to be too cramped,—and not too comfortable either lest you should fall \nasleep, one establishes the calm and the silence, not only externally but \ninternally and then one gathers as far as possible one\'s consciousness which is \ngenerally dispersed in all kinds of thoughts and preoccupations. One brings back \nthe consciousness as completely as one can, and concentrates it in the region of \nthe heart, towards the solar-plexus, so that all the active energies which are\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-12</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">in the head, all that make the brain active are turned and \nconcentrated on this point. This may be done in a few seconds, or in a few \nminutes. It depends upon each one; when you have prepared yourself in this way, \nyou have the choice between two attitudes : active and passive.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> What I call an active attitude is \nto concentrate on the person who guides the meditation with the will to open \nyourself to receive what is being given to you or to the force with which you \nare put in contact. It is active, because here there is a will which acts and an \nactive concentration to open yourself to someone or something.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> The passive attitude is simply \nthis : after having concentrated in the way I told you, to open yourself as one \nopens the door : imagine that in the centre of the heart there is a door, then \nyou open the door and remain still and silent in expectation. Naturally, you may \nuse any other similar image; for example, the image of a book that you open \ncompletely, a book with all the pages white, that is to say, very peaceful and \nthen wait for what happens.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> These two attitudes are equally \neffective; you may adopt one or the other, according to the day, according to \nthe occasion, according to the mood you feel disposed to. Or you may\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-13</p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"para\">adopt one and hold to it if it is easier for you and if it is \nmore advantageous.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Now, in our special case, I will \ntell you what I am trying to do.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> It is now nearly one year that we \nhad one Wednesday the Manifestation of the Supramental Force. Since that moment \nthe Power is working very actively, even if very few people are able to perceive \nit; and I think that the time has come now to help it as much as we can by \nmaking an effort towards collective receptivity. Of course, the Force is not \nonly acting in the Ashram, it acts in the whole world and everywhere; wherever \nthere is receptivity it is working; the Ashram has not the exclusive monopoly or \nreceptivity in the world. But as we are all here, knowing more or less what has \nhappened, we can collectively, —individually I hope everyone is doing his best \nto profit by the circumstances—facilitate its action by trying to unify the \nground, produce a particularly fertile soil, so that the maximum of collective \nreceptivity may be obtained and that there be the least possible wastage of time \nand energy.\n</p>\n<br>\n<p class=\"para\"> Now that you are warned, it is \nfor you to make an effort in this direction.\n</p>\n<br><p class=\"pageno\">Page-14</p>\n	</td>\n</tr>\n	</table>\n</div>\n</html>\n','-004_Meditation','','publish','closed','open','','004_meditation','','','2021-11-23 17:21:32','2021-11-23 17:21:32','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/004_meditation/',0,'post','',0),