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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="center"><b>
II</b></p>
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<br>
<b>THE SITUATION OF TODAY</b></p>
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<br>
<b>11-2-1965</b></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="justify">It 
is not of today, nor of yesterday, but also of the day before yesterday and the 
day before and the day before. The story is as old as human consciousness 
itself. Whether it will be the same tomorrow remains to be seen.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">It 
is the fate of all spiritual endeavour to raise in its wake a contrary movement 
that declares and demands its negation. The Buddha says: surrounded as we are by 
enemies, let us not be inimical to them. The Christ, as we all know, when being 
led with a crown of thorns on his head and the cross on his back, heaved a sigh 
and prayed to the Lord to pardon all those who did not know what they were 
doing. In the early centuries of the Christian era when Rome sought to spread 
her gospel of Christendom and extend its frontiers, the vandals rose up against 
it and from their barbarian soil of Germania swept through the countries like a 
hurricane, laying waste everything before them till they reached the Holy City 
itself, pillaging and ravaging it, desecrating the basilica, —leaving their name 
as an immortal legacy to mankind for deeds of theirs. And centuries later, the 
little maid of Orleans, Jeanne d&#39;Arc, was burnt alive, because she said that she 
saw the angels and heard their voices and conversed with God. And Mohammad—whose 
glory today rings reverberant in all the four corners of the globe—in his day 
was tracked from place to place like a hunted animal. Since then the situation 
seems to have worsened, not improved; for even as late as the enlightened 
nineteenth century, towards its end, we find a poignant picture, by the great 
dramatist Ibsen, of the social crisis of today, how the people, the masses, are 
not capable of recognizing their own secular good—not to speak of any higher 
spiritual welfare—and one who does or tries to do a really good turn to them is 
dubbed &quot;An Enemy of the People&quot;</p>
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<font size="2">Page-127</font></p>
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Today the opposition is infinitely greater. The call now to humanity is for an 
infinitely greater change—an inner change in the consciousness and an outer 
change in life and material existence. Also the change is to be a radical 
change, that is to say, from the very root, not merely a superficial reform. The 
aim is not to leave the world as it is or just a little better in some way, if 
possible; but to remould it in the very substance and constitution of the 
Spirit. And the ultimate goal of earthly life is not the Divine&#39;s crucified 
body, but the perfected glorious body.</p>
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Naturally the old habits, the millennial forces, the ignorant and obscure 
movements of instinct and tradition cannot suffer such an upsetting. Earthly 
creatures, wherever they are, cannot bear the light that descends to illumine 
the earth. Its impact is too strong: the beings that abide in cool shades or 
cosy darkness struggle and wriggle, they fear to be dissolved ; they desire no 
change. But the decree has gone forth. And earth moves...towards the Light.</p>
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Sri Aurobindo founded the Ashram to give a form to the descending light, to make 
of man an angel, not leaving him to remain an animal or half animal as he now 
is.</p>
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The Mother&#39;s dream from her childhood was to find a place upon earth where men 
would be free, happy, wise, pure, one in love, above want, dwelling in the 
plenitude of prosperity, both inner and outer. She was building up, she is 
building up a structure in that direction, naturally under the restrictions and 
conditions of prevailing circumstances, seeking to open them out for the play of 
a higher order of consciousness, a superior status of being, a luminous mode of 
life.</p>
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Opposition from the stagnant order, opposition from domains that do not want man 
to be free from his past and present and become a being of the future, is 
inevitable in the nature of things. Opposition is also meant to be a test and a 
training for perfection. Through troubles, tribulations, through whatever 
accidents and incidents that happen, we move unfailingly to the Divine 
Fulfilment.Trials and tribulations are not new to the Ashram.</p>
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<font size="2">Page-128</font></p><hr>
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From the first day Sri 
Aurobindo planted the seed here more than half a century ago, it has been 
buffeted by bad weather. He was advised to quit, offered a cozy retreat in the 
Himalayas by the Imperial British. The French regime offered him an equally 
agreeable resort, a peaceful haven on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. And 
even among well-wishers here, some were eager to take him out for a joy ride 
to...an unknown destination. But Sri Aurobindo had made his choice. This is the 
holy spot, this is the seat for his sadhana and siddhi—Pithasthan. The Mother 
has not abjured his choice, she continues.</p>
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Even so the Buddha had taken his seat under the Bo-tree and declared: I am here 
and I do not move. Let my body dry up, I sit firm and go through, to the end.</p>
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The passage to heaven, Sri Aurobindo says, lies through hell. Here is his 
warning and beckoning:</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
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Here must the traveller of the upward way—</p>
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For daring Hell&#39;s kingdoms winds the heavenly route—</p>
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Pause or pass slowly through the perilous space,</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="justify">A 
prayer upon his lips and the great Name.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent:25px" align="center">
<font face="Arial Unicode MS" size="5">&#8258;</font></p>
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&nbsp;</p>
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Where the red Wolf waits by the fordless stream </p>
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And Death&#39;s black eagles scream 
to the precipice...</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
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The nether forces can never divert or deflect the Divine Decree. That alone is 
carried out and fulfilled. And in His Will is our peace.</p>
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When a mountain surges up, lifts its peak high in the heaven, an opposite 
movement is generated that seeks to drag it down and bring it to the original 
level ground—the result being formidable glaciers and cataracts and landslides 
hurtling down. But through these accidents and incidents—they are no more than 
that—the mountain remains firm, the living structure that is to be there abides 
in its integrality and greatness, although the accidents look</p>
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<font size="2">Page-129</font></p><hr>
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&nbsp;like a tearing and 
a mauling of its body.</p>
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Through all contraries and adversities, through all things that are broken and 
torn, through all that pass and disappear grows slowly and emerges irrevocably 
that which the Supreme wills towards the final consummation. And one day we all 
shall see</p>
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&nbsp;</p>
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Built is the golden tower, the flame child born.</p>
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<font size="2">Page-130</font></p>

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