Sri Aurobindo: His Contribution to Humanity"And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face"

Sri AutobindoBooklet No.2. Second Edition. January 1993.Title: A Fragrant Flower of Cambridge(Sri Aurobindo - His Contribution to Humanity)(Lecture delivered on  27th  April  1991  at  CambridgeUniversity)Author: Shri Copalttacharjee© Sri Aurobindo Society (U. K.)      No matter appearing in this booklet may  be  translatedor  reproduced  without  the  wrinen  permission of theauthor or Sri Aurobindo Society (U.K.)Published by Sri Aurobindo Society (U.K.)Printed by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press,Pondicherty - 605 002, IndiaIntroductory Address and University Life    It is a very proud moment for me  today,  to  standbefore this august assembly at King's College, Cambrid-ge,  which served as the alma mater of my  master,  SriAurobindo,  who  spent the most impressionable years ofhis life in this venerable Centre  of  learning.  Thereare  many  institutions in England which have played animportant role in the development and growth of the In-dian  mind  during  the last rwo centuries.  Oxford andCambridge, in particular, occupy an outstanding positi-on in this regard.                                       

  I think it will not be remiss if,  before  dwellingon the subject in hand, I revert briefly to my Master'sown experience of University life. In a lecture delive-red at the Baroda College, where he served as a profes-sor,  he recalls with great pleasure: "I think there isno  student  of  Oxford  or Cambridge who does not lookback in after days on the few years of his undergradua-te life. He goes up from the restricted life of his ho-me and school and finds himself in surroundings  which,with   astonishing   rapidity,  expand  his  intellect,strengthen his character, develop his social faculties,force out all his abilities and turn him in three yearsfrom a boy into a man."                         

Prelude   

Today, an inscrutable wind blows across the  world.All that seemed certain once,  now rests on the shadowyback of doubt.  All that was considered stable  is  nowperceived to be in a state of constant flux.  Under thepresent circumstances,  in the context of all the majorevents of our civilisation, past and present, I feel itwould not be an exaggeration if I said that  Sri  Auro-bindo  embodied  within himself the highest aspirationsand hopes of a humanity that is emerging  from  an  oldorder which is now crumbling and moving towards a resp-lendent future that is to be born.  We do not belong topast dawns but to the noons of the future!            

Theme   

The theme for our discussion today is: Sri Aurobin-do - His Contribution to Humanity.  I must however has-ten  to add that Sri Aurobindo represents a truth whichis too vast for the human mind to  comprehend.  He  hashimself written of this in no uncertain terms and I qu-ote:  "My life has never been on the surface for man tosee."  In the words of The Mother who was the spiritualcollaborator of Sri Aurobindo: "What Sri Aurobindo rep-resents  in  the history of the earth's spiritual prog-ress is not a teaching,  not even a revelation; it is amighty action straight from the Supreme."                 

I shall therefore make a modest  attempt  at  high-lighting  the  cardinal principles upon which rests hiscontributions to Humanity.                                

All the  tablets  of  history bear testimony to thefact that whenever man forgot the real meaning and pur-pose  of  his life and felt lost in the spiritual dark-ness of his being a mighty soul,  manifesting the powerof God,  has descended upon earth to help in the advan-cement of human consciousness in  consonance  with  theDivine telos or evolutionary aim in nature.  At presentmankind is undergoing a similar evolutionary crisis  inwhich  is concealed a choice of its destiny.  "Humanityhas arrived at a certain stage of general tension -ten-sion in effort, tension in action, tension in every daylife - and an over-activity so excessive,  a  restless-ness  so  widespread that the whole human race seems tohave reached a point where  either  one  has  to  breakthrough  a resistance and rise into a new consciousnessor fall back into an abyss of obscurity and inertia."     

There is  therefore  hardly a clear appreciation ofthe fact that the root-cause of these inordinate tensi-ons everywhere lies in the inner consciousness of modemman.  All the cacophonous upheavals in  the  political,economic,  social, moral and religious spheres are onlysymptomatic of a total spiritual bankruptcy from  whichmodern man suffers at the very core of his being.         

What then is Sri Aurobindo's solution to this prob-lem?  He  points  out  that what man faces today is notjust a social,  political,  economic,  ecological or  anuclear crisis but an evolutionary crisis.  The highestpower of consciousness at present available to man, na-mely the mental consciousness,  seems totally incapableof solving these problems.  The  very  accumulation  ofthese  intransigent  problems is an indication that thetime has come for man to transcend the  limitations  ofhis mental consciousness. In Sri Aurobindo's view: "Manis a transitional being; he is not final. The step fromman  to superman is the most approaching achievement ofearth's evolution.  It is inevitable because it  is  atonce the intention of the inner spirit and the logic ofNature's process."                                    

The Mother's own commentary on this is equally suc-cinct:                                                    

"There is  an  ascending  evolution in nature whichgoes from the stone to the plant, from the plant to theanimal, and from the animal to man. Because man is, forthe moment,  at the summit of the ascending  evolution,he  considers himself as the final stage in this ascen-sion and believes there can be nothing on earth superi-or to him.  In this he is mistaken. In his physical na-ture he is yet almost wholly an animal,  a thinking andspeaking  animal,  but  still an animal in his materialhabits and instincts. Undoubtedly, nature cannot be sa-tisfied  with  such  an imperfect result;  she tries tobring out a being who will be to man what man is to theanimal,  a  being who will remain a man in its externalform,  and yet whose consciousness will rise far  abovethe mental and its slavery to ignorance."                 

Sri Aurobindo, a Master patriot, who later became aMaster  Yogi,  is  a unique phenomenon in human historywith a significance for the whole world.  Although,  atthe  beginning  of his life,  his main objective was toliberate India from the foreign  yoke,  his  real  workstarted  when  he wrote:  "Trust the Divine power.  Shewill free god-like elements in you and shape  all  intoan expression of the Divine Nature."                 

  Sri Aurobindo's Life - A Brief Review    Now, before  we  launch ourselves on a study of hisaction,  contributions and discoveries, let us review afew events from his life which will enable us to reali-se that his physical existence upon earth was a  conti-nuous fulfilment of the Will of God.                      

Sri Aurobindo was born on the 15th of August  1872,in  Calcutta,  and  this  was the day ordained to be 75years later the Independence day of India. Sri Aurobin-do,  a Bengali by birth,  was educated from his seventhyear to his twenty-first year in England;  first at St.Paul's  School,  London,  and  then  at King's College,Cambridge. He wielded the English language as if it we-re  his  mother  tongue.  He  was a brilliant classicalscholar who made his mark not only  at  Cambridge,  butalso  in the open competition for the Indian Civil Ser-vices examination.  It may be also added  that  he  washighly proficient in French,  Italian and German.  Uponhis return to India,  in the year 1893, after delibera-tely absenting himself from the riding test for the ICSExamination,  he joined the Baroda State service  as  aprincipal Secretary to the Maharaja of Baroda.  Here hespent 13 years where he prepared himself  silently  forhis future mission.  During this period,  he learnt hismother tongue Bengali,  and achieved mastery over Sans-krit,  as  well  as  in several other Indian languages.Then,  suddenly,  he threw aside all the benefits of  asecure and enviable position in the Baroda State servi-ce in response to the call of the Nation. His fiery ar-ticles  and revolutionary activities soon projected himon to the national stage as the unquestioned leader  ofIndia's freedom struggle. In eight years he changed thefate of the Indian National Movement and was the  firstperson who, in close cooperation with Bal Gangadhar Ti-lak,  another staunch Nationalist, demanded Poorna Swa-raj  or  complete  Independence for his country and itspeople.  His pen was mightier than  the  sword  and  itdidn't  come  as a surprise when the British Governmentarrested him for sedition by implicating him in a falsebomb  conspiracy  case.  He was incarcerated in AliporeCentral Jail of Calcutta which was the milieu  for  hismajor  spiritual  experiences.  What the Government wasthinking about him at that time is very clear from somewords  of  Lord Minto,  the then Viceroy of India,  whowrote to Lord Morley, Secretary of State for India. Theletter said: "Aurobindo Ghosh is the most dangerous manwe have to deal with at present and he has great influ-ence with the student class. I believe every effort hasbeen made by his Indian friends to reclaim him and theytell me it is hopeless."                                

The famous Alipore trial of Sri Aurobindo created asensation all over the country. The British Government,in order to nail him,  brought an eminent public prose-cutor from England,  Mr. Norton, to ensure that Sri Au-robindo would be either hanged or imprisoned for  life.It  is very interesting to note that although Sri Auro-bindo is today recognised the world  over  as  a  greatphilosopher and seer, in the year 1908 he was not knownto the world as a great Yogi or visionary with his rea-lisations of the Supermind and the Life Divine. On thismomentous occasion,  when he had gone through a  periodof one year's undertrial detention, barrister C.R. Das,the future leader of Bengal,  appeared as  his  defencecounsel  and by a curious stroke of fate,  which cannotbut be explained as the Will of God,  the judge at  histrial was one Mr.  Beechcroft whom Aurobindo had beatento second place in Greek and Latin in the ICS  examina-tion. On the closing day of the cross-examination Beec-hcroft asked:  "Mr. Das, do you have any other evidenceto  produce before the court or shall we close the pro-ceedings of cross-examination?" C.R. Das, before a pac-ked  crowd in the Court room,  told Judge Beechcroft inan emotion-choked voice: "My Lord, if the pronouncementof  Freedom is a crime,  Sri Aurobindo Ghose will admithis guilt.  Therefore,  my appeal to you.  Sir, is thisthat  a man like this who is being charged with the of-fences imputed to him stands not only before the Bar ofthis  Court but stands before the Bar of the High Courtof history for all time to come.  Your honour, long af-ter  this controversy is hushed in silence,  long afterthis agitation and turmoil have ceased,  long after youand  I  are dead and gone,  he will be looked upon as apoet of Nationalism,  a prophet of Patriotism and a lo-ver of Humanity. His words will be echoed and re-echoednot only in India but across distant lands  and  seas."Obviously these were not the words of C.R.  Das but thevoice of God. Sri Aurobindo was honourably acquitted.     

Upon his release,  he addressed a vast gathering atUttar-para where he described the nature of his  spiri-tual experience in jail. It may be summarised as a rea-lisation of the omnipresence of God.                      

The Nation  rejoiced  at having found back its lea-der.  The-future Nobel prize winner and literary geniusRabindranath  Tagore made famous later by his Gitanjaliwrote:             

"Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee!     O friend, my country's friend,O voice incarnate free,  Of India's soul..."         

Under a  Divine Command from within,  Sri Aurobindowithdrew from politics when he was assured by the  sameCommand  that the Independence of India was certain andthat his work lay somewhere else - a  mission  for  thewhole  of humanity.  In the year 1910 he came from Cal-cutta to Pondicherry,  a coastal town in  South  India,which was then under French rule,  fur concentrated at-tainment and manifestation of the Supermind.  He  livedin  Pondicherry  for  forty  years of which twenty-fouryears were spent in near-seclusion.  He remained in hisroom  without  coming out,  not meeting anyone with theexception of The Mother and his personal attendants. Heremained totally engrossed in his work which was to ma-nifest the Supramental Force upon earth.  I will  laterexplain what Supermind connotes and how it operates. In1950, at the age of 78, on the 5th of December, Sri Au-robindo  left  his physical body as a strategic move inorder to work more effectively from the  occult  planesto hasten the Supramental Manifestation upon earth. Thephysical body, after he had withdrawn from it, remaineda-glow, surcharged with a concentration of light, defy-ing decomposition for more than 100 hours in a tropicalclimate,  which  was  a bewilderment to medical scienceand a reversal of nature's laws.  Well-known French andIndian doctors were unable to certify it as a dead bodyuntil,  on the 5th day, the Supramental Light withdrew.The  Mother  later  told a disciple that this light wasthe first visible proof of the Supramental Descent  andas  a result,  in spite of all the established opposingforces,  this Supramental Force would progressively  beable  to express unity in diversity instead of divisionand limitation,  truth instead  of  falsehood,  freedominstead of tyranny,  goodwill instead of jealousy, loveinstead of hatred and immortality instead of death.    Key Concepts in Sri Aurobindo's Teachings    To grasp what Sri Aurobindo  stands  for,  we  mustfirst  understand  the significance of a few words likeSpirit,  Yoga,  Evolution and  Supermind,  which  recurconstantly  in  all  his works spanning 30 volumes witheach volume containing on an average 500 foolscap  she-ets.                                                    

Some of his major works include The Life Divine,  TheSynthesis of Yoga,  The Ideal of Human Unity, The HumanCycle, The Foundations of Indian Culture, The Secret ofthe  Veda  and  his magnum opus in poetry,  Savitri.  Ishall now dwell a little while on Savitri.               

  In Savitri  he  recaptures  the fundamentals of allreligions, philosophies and yogic practices. He descri-bes  the cosmogony of the universe; from  the sevenplanes  of existence,  the various grades of conscious-ness. He describes them in vivid detail and unveils theoccult  geography of the universe.  That is perhaps thelargest part of the epic.                                 

And then  he narrates how man has grown up from thepure physical,  concerned with his  creature  comforts,the tamasic man,  the rajasic or vital man and from therajasic man into the sattwic or mental man.  He discus-ses the various gradations of the mind, why life is ma-imed,  why death enters at all into the cosmic  scheme,why if    the goal, we feel so much  of  sufferingand  pain?  He  also discusses the problem of free-willand determinism.                                          

Coming back to Sri Aurobindo's cardinal concepts wefind that,  in his dictionary,  spiritual does not meanmerely cultural or moral, but in his own words: "Spiri-tuality in its essence is an awakening to the inner re-ality of our being,  to a Spirit,  Self, Soul, which isother than our mind, life and body, an inner aspirationto  know,  to feel,  to be that,  to enter into contactwith a greater reality,  beyond and pervading the  uni-verse, which inhabits also our own being."                

The word Yoga has the same root as the English word"yoke". Yoga is a disciplined process of inner develop-ment which attempts to yoke the  individual  soul  withthe more-than-human, the divine, the perfect. Yoga doesnot mean,  as is  popularly  understood,  extraordinaryphysical postures and breathing exercises.  Yoga is thecover term for a range of mainly psychological  discip-lines  used in India tor bringing about a change in hu-man consciousness.                                       

  Unlike most philosophic schools and Yogic discipli-nes in India and the West which have counselled the es-cape and release of the individual soul from the Empireof Ignorance, dismissing terrestrial existence as radi-cally  opposed  to  the incommunicable stillness of theSpirit,  Sri Aurobindo's Yoga takes the body,  the lifeenergies and the mind to be the instruments of the souland seeks to-perfect them.  The Yoga of  Sri  Aurobindodoes not lead to dissolution but gives man a new birth,and enables him to play his part in the cosmic evoluti-on  as  a channel of the Divine's Will in the becoming.Thus,  in Sri Aurobindo's words: "The ascent to the di-vine life is the human journey,  the Work of works, theacceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man's real businessin  the  world  and the justification of his existence.Without it he would be only an  insect  crawling  amongother  ephemeral  insects on a speck of surface mud andwater which has managed to form itself amid the  appal-ling immensities of the physical universe."                Another seminal concept is Evolution. Evolution, asit  is widely understood,  is a biological concept usedin the West to explain the gradual  emergence  of  moreand  more  complex  forms,  an emergence beginning withuni-cellular organisms and culminating in man.  It  wasSri  Aurobindo's  distinctive  contribution when he wasable to show that Yoga and Evolution are but two  pers-pectives of a single process.                             

Sri Aurobindo has himself explained that  the  con-cept  of  Supermind was not entirely his new discovery.As early as in the Vedas of India there was the  visionof it as Satyam Ritam Brihat - the True, the Right, theVast - and it was symbolised as the  Sun  of  Knowledgeshining in the highest heaven.  But either it was expe-rienced in a deep trance from which  its  whole  impactcould  not  be transmitted or was seized as a pale ref-lection on the several grades between it and the mentallevel  -  gradations  of consciousness distinguished bySri Aurobindo upwards as Higher Mind,  Illumined  Mind,Intuition,  Overmind and finally Supermind.  On each ofthese levels the Spirit has an organised  existence  inwhich  it  is self-revealed,  each carries something ofwhich our universe seems a half-lit image-echo, but thespirit's self-revelation differs in intensity from gra-de to grade. In the Overmind it is so intense that mostYogis and Mystics have hardly looked further, they havebelieved the ultimate Omniscience and Omnipotence to behere,  and yet this greatness has not the secret of thetotal transformation.  No more  than  grand  hints  andglimmerings  of  the  Supermind  have been caught up tonow.  If there had been a clear and concrete seizure ofit, its precise potentialities in reference to the evo-lutionary process would have been gauged.  The realisa-tion of the Supermind's significance and intention,  bya wide-awake union with its TruthConsciousness,  is SriAurobindo's  contribution to spiritual experience.  Thesystematic detailed exposition of them is his contribu-tion to philosophy.  And the direct application of themto the problems of individual and collective living  inhis  Ashram at Pondicherry is his contribution to prac-tical world-work. We see here an exploration of the Di-vine inseparably linked with worldly life, irrespectiveof caste, colour, creed, nation and race.             

 These three  contributions render Sri Aurobindo themost important influence  for  humanity's  future.  Thespiritual  India  of history is reaching its climax andgiving modern times a stimulus of the profoundest crea-tivity.                                               

Avoiding Misconceptions    It must  be  stressed  however that Sri Aurobindo'sevolution and Darwinism are not the  same  thing.  Dar-win's  theory of Natural Selection is a biological pro-cess,  whereas Sri Aurobindo's evolution relates to thegrowth of consciousness.  Further, it has nothing to dowith Hegel's metaphysical theory of evolution.  An  un-warranted  comparison between Bergson and Sri Aurobindois also often made.  Again Sri Aurobindo's Superman, isoften  mistakenly identified with Nietzsche's Superman.These somewhat hasty misconceptions based on  semanticsneed to be eschewed.                                      

It is the uniqueness of Sri Aurobindo that his the-ory  of  evolution not only synthesises the best in theEastern and Western systems but also opens up new  vis-tas and uncharted horizons.                           

Sri Aurobindo's Catholicity    Sri Aurobindo was proud of India and proud of Asia,but from the beginning he had also cultivated a  globaloutlook, and his concern ultimately was with the futurehealth of the human race itself. His dispassionate glo-bal  view helped him to appreciate the admirable traitsin other nations and peoples - England's practical  in-telligence,  France's  clear  logical brain,  Germany'sspeculative genius, Russia's emotional force, America'scommercial energy - but he also thought that the West'smastery of the arts of material life was certainly  notenough.  Asia's  awakening was necessary to restore thebalance; "Asia is the custodian of the world's peace ofmind,  the physician of the maladies which Europe gene-rates," he said.  And in Asia,  India has the lead roleto play.                                             

  The Failure of Western Remedies    The classless society prophesied by Marx and Engelscannot materialise  because  democracy,  socialism  andcommunism  haven't  been able in actual practice to endthe human tendency to egoistic separativity, assertive-ness and rivalry and their attendant evils of exploita-tion in economic life,  corruption, violence and liqui-dation in political life. It is only when the spiritualrevolution resulting in the cracking of the  human  egocomes  about  that  the godheads of the soul - justice,liberty,  equality, brotherhood — will be realised on apermanent  basis in a "Kingdom of Heaven" as was dreamtof by Christianity and the Hinduism of old.  That wouldbe the Gnostic society of the future.                    

  "Prophets of a new humanity have followed one anot-her, religions, spiritual or social, have been created,their beginnings were at times full of promise: but, ashumanity  was not transformed at heart,  the old errorsarising from human nature itself have reappeared gradu-ally  and  after  a time it was found that one was leftalmost at the same spot from where one had started withso much hope and enthusiasm."                             

We must clearly recognise the fact that  Sri  Auro-bindo  does  not  intend to "give his sanction to a newedition of the old fiasco" - an inner development, withthe  outer nature still remaining the same:  the Supra-mental consciousness alone has the power to deal victo-riously  with  both the inner and the outer problems ofhuman existence.                                          

This is  the message for humanity from Sri Aurobindo.                                                   

Negotiating the Arguments of the Positivists    But some people of the  positivistic  school  arguethat the Supermind is not something that is going to beaccessible to us in the near future,  at least  not  inour lifetime.  Its coming is still in the distant futu-re,  and how distant we do not know for certain. But inthe meanwhile we have urgent problems confronting us onall sides.  There are hunger,  poverty, lack of housingand  medical  care.  Children  are dying in hundreds ofthousands every year for want of nutritiously  adequatefood.  Then  there are the terrors of a nuclear holoca-ust, of population explosion, of pollution and ecologi-cal disaster,  etc. etc.; the list is endless. Would itnot be unwise to busy ourselves at this  juncture  withsomething as vague and distant as the Supramental cons-ciousness when we are threatened by so  many  of  theseproblems?                                                 

This has been explained by Shri Nolini Kanta Gupta,an exponent of Sri Aurobindo's teaching.  He points outthat men have attempted social, political, economic andmoral reforms from time immemorial.  It is not that re-formers and do-gooders have appeared on earth  for  thefirst time now. Many of them did get busy with the taskof getting something done in the physical and  materialworld.  But  they found that achieving something in thematerial world such as procuring food for each and eve-ry person,  clothing and housing, is also an ideal. Butthe mystery is that it is not always the ideal  nearestto  the  earth  which  is the easiest to achieve or thefirst thing to be done.  Do we not see before our  veryeyes  how some very simple innocent social and economicchanges are difficult to carry out - they bring in the-ir train,  quite disproportionately, gestures and move-ments of violence and revolution. This is so because weseek  to cure symptoms and not to touch the root causesof the disease.  For even the most innocent-looking so-cial,  economic and political abuse has at its base farreaching attitudes and life-urges -  even  a  spiritualoutlook - that have to be sought out and tackled first.Even in mundane matters we do not dig  deep  enough  orrise high enough. We must first realise that: "No mate-rial organisation is capable of bringing a solution  tothe miseries of man. Man must rise to a higher level ofconsciousness and get rid of his ignorance,  limitationand  selfishness in order to free himself from his suf-ferings."                                             

The Mother and the Practice of Sri Aurobindo's Ideals    It is said that a drop of practice  is  worth  morethan an ocean of theory. Has Sri Aurobindo remained on-ly of academic interest to us or have his  ideals  beenput into practice?                                        

The task of implementing Sri Aurobindo's Vision wasdevolved upon the mother. She was born in Paris on 21stFebruary,  1878, and came to Pondicherry on 29th March,1914. There she recognised the Master at first sight.      In 1954, Pondicherry merged politically with India.On  this  occasion the Mother made an open declaration:"I am French by birth and early education,  I am Indianby  choice and predilection.  In my consciousness thereis no antagonism between the two,  on the contrary theycombine very well and complete one another. I know alsothat I can be of service to both equally,  for my  onlyaim  in life is to give a concrete form to Sri Aurobin-do's great teaching and in his teaching he reveals thatall  the  Nations are essentially one and meant to exp-ress the Divine Unity upon earth through  an  organisedand  harmonious  diversity." Thus it was She who gave aphysical formulation to the ideals of my Master.      

Sri Aurobindo and World Events    It may be asked by some of you what  Sri  Aurobindodid for Humanity. Many would feel that a person who wasconfined to his room for nearly 24 years could not havedone  anything  tangible  to  alter the course of humanhistory. But let me assure you to the contrary. Sri Au-robindo  was not only keeping a close watch on all thatwas happening in the world and in India,  but  activelyintervened whenever necessary, but solely with a spiri-tual force and silent spiritual action.                   

When the  First World War broke out,  Sri Aurobindosaid that it would mark the end of colonialism and  thereawakening  of Asia which was for him a very importantstep forward. He pointed out that the German militarismwas driven by the national ego and not the soul of Ger-many,  and therefore it had to fail.  That was  a  verybold statement at that time.                              

At about that time when a  sadhak  expressed  fearsabout the freedom of India,  Sri Aurobindo told him ca-tegorically that the Indian freedom was  certain,  thatthe instruments would be found, and that he himself wasworking on what India would do with her freedom.          

During World War II,  Sri Aurobindo sent his spiri-tual force to work upon Churchill who was then found tobe  a fit instrument of the Divine to counter the demo-niacal forces led by Hitler who  then  represented  theforce of retardation and negation of the spiritual lifeand consciousness.  The same man who had  fought  toothand  nail  to lift the foreign yoke was now openly len-ding his support to the allied cause. He sent a specialemissary  to  Delhi  to direct the political leaders ofthe time to lend their unstinted cooperation  and  sup-port to the war effort.                                   

Churchill's ouster after the war to  pave  the  wayfor  India's  freedom is clearly indicative of the factthat he was an instrument used for a  specific  purposeand discarded later when he opposed the Divine Will.   Sri Aurobindo's Five Dreams    Sri Aurobindo had five dreams.  His first dream re-lated to the freedom of India. And yet this freedom wasfissured.  Sri  Aurobindo  explained why.  He said thatwhen he had initiated the movement for India's freedom,his consciousness was established at the Overmental le-vel, and because of that the freedom was fissured, eventhough  a way out had been offered with the Cripps mis-sion.  If Sri Aurobindo's  consciousness  had  operatedfrom the Supramental level, the freedom would have beenwhole.  In his Independence-day message he says: "Indiais free but she has not achieved unity, only a fissuredand broken freedom. But by whatever means, the divisionmust  and will go.  For without it the destiny of Indiamight be seriously impaired and  even  frustrated.  Butthat must not be."                                        

Sri Aurobindo's second dream was the freedom of theAsian peoples.  After 1947 we find that gradually colo-nies have broken down and Asia has earned her  freedom.Today  most of these countries are politically and eco-nomically free.  Japan is one of the  largest  economicpowers in the world. South Korea and some of its neigh-bouring countries have made giant leaps in economy.       

India is  still to take its economic leap.  India'sgreatest problem - its enormous population -  may  wellturn  out  to be its greatest asset.  When that massivepopulation gets down to work, when it begins to be pro-ductive, when it decides to build new things, that willmark India's resurgence as a mighty economic power. Butmore  important  will be its spiritual contribution forthe rest of mankind.                                      

The third  dream  of Sri Aurobindo was a compulsivemovement towards world unity. In his scheme, world uni-ty will not come in one single stroke.  First there wo-uld be the formation of regional  groups  of  countriesco-operating with one another.  These groups would thenform the basis for the new world order. Don't we alrea-dy find that his dream has at least in part been reali-sed?  Gorbachev's call for a united Europe  and  recentdevelopments  of  a European Economic Community are il-lustrative of the fulfilment of Sri Aurobindo's dream.    

His fourth  dream  was  the re-emergence of India'sspirituality. India would be the Guru of the world, theMother said.  Not necessarily in the form of saints go-ing out of India to preach and establish Ashrams.  Moreimportantly  Indian thought and philosophy is establis-hing itself in the world,  primarily in the  fields  ofscience and psychology.  It is establishing itself withthe intelligentsia of the world,  here,  which is whereit really counts.                                         

The fifth dream was a new step in the evolution  ofhuman   consciousness,   a  step  beyond  mind  to  theTruth-Mind.  Here again we find philosophers and scien-tists responding first.  Without exception every philo-sopher worth his name, every scientist worth his visionhas  proclaimed the possibility of a state beyond mind.Sir Arthur Eddington, Sir James Jeans, Erwin Schroedin-ger and a host of other illustrious men have all affir-med this.                                                 

Many yogis have confirmed that after 1956, the yearof the Supramental Manifestation,  there has been a ma-jor  precipitation  in  their yoga.  Obstinate problemsthat have been dogging yogis all over  the  world  havesuddenly vanished, common barriers in yoga have sudden-ly crumbled.  We have to take their word for it  as  wemay not have experienced these things.                    

All five of Sri Aurobindo's dreams  are  definitelyin the process of realisation,  precisely in the mannerthat he envisaged them.                               

Sri Aurobindo's Teachings   

Finally, what in essence is  Sri  Aurobindo's  yogaand method of practice?  To summarise in his own words:"The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of  theancient  sages  of India that behind the appearances ofthe universe there is the Reality of a Being and  Cons-ciousness,  a Self of all things,  one and eternal. Allbeings are united in that One Self and Spirit but divi-ded by a certain separativity of consciousness,  an ig-norance of their true Self and Reality in the mind, li-fe and body.  It is possible by a certain psychologicaldiscipline to remove this veil of separative conscious-ness  and  become aware of the true Self,  the Divinitywithin us and all.  

                                       "Sri Aurobindo's  teaching states that this One Be-ing and Consciousness is involved here in Matter.  Evo-lution  is  the  method  by  which it liberates itself;consciousness appears in what seems to  be  inconscientand  once having appeared is self-impelled to grow hig-her and higher and at the same time to enlarge and  de-velop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life isthe first step of this release of  consciousness;  mindis  the second;  but the evolution does not finish withmind,  it awaits a release into  something  greater,  aconsciousness  which is spiritual and Supramental.  Thenext step of the evolution must be towards the develop-ment  of  Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power inthe conscious being.  For only then will  the  involvedDivinity in things release itself entirely and it beco-mes possible for life to manifest perfection.             

"But while the former steps in evolution were takenby Nature without a conscious will  in  the  plant  andanimal life,  in man Nature becomes able to evolve by aconscious will in the instrument.  It is not,  however,by the mental will in man that this can be wholly done,for the mind goes only to a  certain  point  and  afterthat can only move in a circle.  A conversion has to bemade,  a turning of the consciousness by which mind hasto change into the higher principle.  This method is tobe found through the ancient  psychological  disciplineand practice of Yoga.  In the past, it has been attemp-ted by a drawing away from the world and a disappearan-ce into the height of the Self or Spirit. Sri Aurobindoteaches that a descent of the higher principle is  pos-sible  which will not merely release the spiritual Selfout of the world,  but release it in the world, replacethe mind's ignorance or its very limited knowledge by aSupramental Truth-Consciousness which will be a  suffi-cient instrument of the inner Self and make it possiblefor the human being to find himself dynamically as wellas  inwardly  and grow out of his still animal humanityinto a diviner race.  The psychological  discipline  ofYoga  can  be used to that end by opening all the partsof the being to a conversion or transformation  throughthe  descent  and working of the higher still concealedSupramental principle.                                   

  "This, however,  cannot  be  done  at  once or in ashort time or by any rapid or miraculous  transformati-on.  Many  steps  have to be taken by the seeker beforethe Supramental descent is possible.  Man lives  mostlyin his surface mind, life and body, but there is an in-ner being within  him  with  greater  possibilities  towhich  he has to awake - for it is only a very restric-ted influence from it that he  receives  now  and  thatpushes  him  to a constant pursuit of a greater beauty,harmony, power and knowledge. The first process of Yogais therefore to open the ranges of this inner being andto live from there outward,  governing his outward lifeby  an inner light and force.  In doing so he discoversin himself his true soul which is not this outer mixtu-re of mental, vital and physical elements but somethingof the Reality behind them, a spark from the one DivineFire.  He  has  to learn to live in his soul and purifyand orientate by its drive towards the Truth  the  restof  the nature.  There can follow afterwards an openingupward and descent of a higher principle of the  Being.But  even  then  it is not at once the full SupramentalLight and Force for there are several ranges of consci-ousness  between the ordinary human mind and the Supra-mental Truth-Consciousness.  These  intervening  rangeshave  to be opened up and their power brought down intothe mind,  life and body.  Only afterwards can the fullpower  of  the  Truth-Consciousness work in the nature.The process of this self-discipline or sadhana is  the-refore  long and difficult,  but even a little of it isso much gained because it makes  the  ultimate  releaseand perfection more possible.                          

    "There are many things belonging to  older  systemsthat  are necessary on the way - an opening of the mindto a greater wideness and to the sense of the Self  andthe  Infinite,  an  emergence into what has been calledthe cosmic consciousness,  mastery over the desires andpassions;  an outward asceticism is not essential,  butthe conquest of desire and  attachment  and  a  controlover  the body and its needs,  greeds and instincts areindispensable. There is a combination of the principlesof  the  old systems,  the way of knowledge through themind's discernment between Reality and the  appearance,the heart's way of devotion, love and surrender and theway of works turning the  will  away  from  motives  ofself-interest to the Truth and the service of a greaterReality than the ego.  For the whole being  has  to  betrained  so that it can respond and be transformed whenit is possible for that greater Light and Force to workin the nature.                                           

  "In this discipline, the inspiration of the Master,and  in the difficult stages,  his control and his pre-sence are indispensable - for it  would  be  impossibleotherwise  to  go through it without much stumbling anderror which would prevent all chances of  success.  TheMaster  is  one who has risen to a higher consciousnessand being and he is often regarded as its manifestationor  representative.  He  not only helps by his teachingand still more by his influence and example  but  by  apower to communicate his own experience to others."       

This is Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and method of  practi-ce.  It  is  not his object to develop a religion or toamalgamate the older religions or to found any new  re-ligion  -  for any of these things would lead away fromhis central purpose.  The one aim of his Yoga is an in-ner  self-development  by which each one who follows itcan in time discover the One Self in all and  evolve  ahigher  consciousness than the mental,  a spiritual andSupramental consciousness which will transform and  di-vinise human nature.              

Finally, the world can ignore Sri Aurobindo at  itsown  peril.  He does not concern himself with those whodo not take him seriously,  for he had himself foreseenthis possibility.  In an illuminating passage, he says:"The way of Yoga followed here has a different  purposefrom  others,  - for its aim is not only to rise out ofthe ordinary ignorant world consciousness into the  di-vine consciousness,  but to bring the Supramental powerof that divine consciousness down into the ignorance ofmind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest theDivine here and create a Divine Life and  Matter.  Thisis an exceedingly difficult aim and difficult yoga;  tomany or most it will seem impossible. All the establis-hed forces of the ordinary ignorant world consciousnessare opposed to it and deny it and try  to  prevent  it,and  the  seeker will find his own mind,  life and bodyfull of the most obstinate impediments to its  realisa-tion.  If you can accept the ideal wholeheartedly, faceall the difficulties,  leave the past and its ties  be-hind  you  and  be ready to give up everything and riskeverything for the divine possibilities,  then only canyou  hope  to  discover  by experience the truth behindit." It is this same thought which bodies forth in mys-tical poetry in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri:              

A few shall see what none yet understands         

God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleepFor man shall not know the coming till its hour    And belief shall be not till the work is done.     The world is preparing for a big change and the respon-sibility to bring this about lies with us.  Whether  welike it or not:                                       

The frontiers of the ignorance shall recede,       

More and more souls shall enter into light...      

Nature shall live to manifest secret God,          

The Spirit shall take up the human play,           

This earthly life become the life divine.