Over the next few days, rains are expected to batter Pudducherry. Yet, the devout, the seekers, the faithful and those in search of the eternal truth would be meditating at the Ashram and the Samadhis of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, irrespective of the hostile and inclement weather conditions.
Last year, I spent a considerable amount of time at the Samadhi, keeping my eyes closed and contemplating while my family was cycling in the French settlement area. My mind too was cycling, wrestling with innumerable thoughts and gradually settled down. Once we start accepting thoughts, they dissolve and the mind calms down and we can feel the inhalation and exhalation of breath. That is meditation, a state where we do nothing but are in a state of deep rest, according to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Sri Aurobindo was born on 15 August 1872 and left his mortal self on 5 December 1950. This piece is a tribute to the remarkable personality and tries to capture the life of this modern day master. Is it not ironical and significant that the Master was born on 15 of August (though 75 years earlier), the date India achieved freedom from the foreign yoke? He played a significant part in our freedom struggle, but later in life pursued the search for eternal truth.
He was occidental in upbringing, schooled at St Paul’s, England, from 1879 to 1884 and also admitted to King’s College, London. Since his academic record was without blemish, he secured a scholarship. Sri Aurobindo qualified for the Indian Civil Service in 1890 but because he did not attempt the rider’s test, was disqualified from the prestigious service. Around that time, he met the Gaekwads from Baroda and joined the princely state where he served for 13 long years (1893 to 1906). The seeds of freedom were obviously strongly embedded in his personality because he chose to work for an Indian principality rather than the oppressive British.
At Baroda, apart from discharging a variety of responsibilities, ranging from the revenue department, working in the Secretariat of the Maharaja and being the Vice Principal of the Baroda College, Sri Aurobindo mastered Sanskrit and other Indian languages, much to the delight of his father. From being a Burra Saheb, Sri Aurobindo established his connection with the Orient.
In 1905, Lord Curzon divided Bengal. This unjust action was nothing but the policy of Divide-et -empera policy practiced by the British. This prompted Sri Aurobindo to leave the establishment of the Baroda Principality and plunge into the freedom struggle of his native Bengal. Between 1902 and 1910, Sri Aurobindo took part in the Swadeshi movement. He, along with Tilak, attacked the moderate leadership of the Congress and were branded extremists.
The movement was called the Indian Sinn Fein or Swadeshi and espoused the cause of Swaraj. Much later, the Congress had taken up this doctrine. So in a way these leaders were pioneers in nourishing the dream of a free India. The struggle included the boycott of the British and foreign merchandise (which Gandhiji espoused subsequently), complete non-cooperation and the foundation of a system of Arbitration courts, the boycott of universities and colleges, and the creation of a network of national schools and colleges. Meanwhile, he founded a daily called Bande Mataram. Sri Aurobindo was tried for sedition, arrested, and later acquitted. He presided over the National Conference of the Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907 and was also implicated in the Alipore Conspiracy case along with his brother, Barindra. He was jailed for a year but was released unscathed. Sri Aurobindo also established two weeklies namely, Dharma in Bengali and the Karmayogi in English.
He was to be interned in 1910 for sedition, but the charges were quashed by the Calcutta High Court. There began the inner quest for emancipation — the spiritual search. He sailed to Pudducherry, heeding the call of his inner voice to devote himself to spiritual work and Sadhana. Around this period, the Mahatma became the beacon of our freedom struggle. Almost a case of one fighting from within and the other from without. This is the magic of the Divine. Perhaps nature conspired and conjured this drama. The man with those piercing, magnetic, yet compassionate eyes, yearned for the eternal quest and the slightly built man with broad ears and an enigmatic smile launched India’s freedom struggle.
Four years of practice of deep, silent Yoga helped spawn works such as The Divine Life, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Isha Upanishad, and Essays on Gita appear in the philosophical monthly called Arya, in 1914. As he was evolving spiritually and examining the contours of the eternal truth during his retreat, works like The Foundations of Indian Culture, The Secret Of Veda, The Future Of Poetry and The Ideal Of Human Unity were revealed to humanity.
Sri Aurobindo started practising Yoga in 1904 and worked to realize the essential elements of spirit and matter. He postulated that mind is in a state of ignorance, in search of truth. However there is a super mind and a much higher consciousness and this consciousness is what needs to be discovered. I gather it is the difference between the small and the big mind.
It is possible for a Sadhak to reach that state of super-mind or that elevated state of super consciousness through the practice of yoga, sadhana, observation and contemplation. This is the essence of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and teachings, in which we become aware of the self.
Mirra Alfassa is the Mother who had several psychic and spiritual experiences and came in contact with Sri Aurobindo. It was during her second coming in 1920 that began her real tryst with Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy and the search for the eternal truth.
Sri Aurobindo cast his mortal self on 5 December and the baton was passed on to the Mother. She left her mortal self on 17 November 1973. However, their work continues at Pudducherry, in the wonderful Auroville Complex. This is a wonderful place to meditate and realize one’s true self. Mother, in the documentary at Auroville Complex states that to establish another religion would be a big disaster. The attempt should be to continue with the existing tenets of yoga, rather than establish a dogma.’
Escape , however high, redeems not life,
Life that is left behind on a fallen earth.
Escape cannot uplift the abandoned race
Or bring to it victory and the reign of God.
A greater power must come , a larger light.’
— Sri Aurobindo
ravivalluri 