Evolving Towards a Consciousness of Unity by Lori Tompkins

Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven (The Empyrean);from Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy, Paradiso Canto 31



[I wrote this article in July of 2011 and I almost forgot about it. Here it is, an offering for the New Year.]


In 1908-1909, while spending a year in jail for being a seditionist against British rule in India, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) came to the

Politics

                                                            Politics


Sri Aurobindo withdrew
from politics; and, in his Ashram,

a most important rule is that one must abstain from all politics

― not because Sri Aurobindo did not concern himself with

the happenings of the world, but because politics, as it is

practised, is a low and ugly thing, wholly dominated by

falsehood, deceit,

Aju Mukhopadhyay's recent books

Two recently published books by Aju Mukhopadhyay on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The blurbs of the books give glimpses of their life and work.

 

Sri Aurobindo’s Creative Literature

Sri Aurobindo could be a remarkable dramatist and fiction writer too apart from poet but he was either engaged as a secret revolutionary leader or a political leader in the open field; either professor,

Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Children

Alliance Française, Calicut (Kerala), India

Affable Writer: Aju Mukhopadhyay

An Interview by: Dr. T. S. Chandra MouliAju Mukhopadhyay, the poet, critic and biographer, is a bilingual writer of fictions and essays. He has done some important translations on his way. He has authored 12 books in Bangla and 16 in English. His works have been recognized with awards by such bodies as The Writers Bureau, Manchester, Poets International, Bangalore, International Library

India forever India by Aju Mukhopadhyay

                                                          India, a vast country like a continent, containing almost all
the physical, mineral and environmental varieties of the world, a fountain
head of spirituality, was the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations on
earth. I think like Swami Vivekananda that it was the swing of my childhood,
grove of my youth and it is the

Did Sri Aurobindo & The Mother Foresee This Time? By Bhaga

Yes, we are rapidly coming already towards the last part of this famous Year 2012 that is supposed to mark the end of things as we know them, and the beginning of… Something Else.

Did Sri Aurobindo and the Mother foresee such a special period as the one we find ourselves in presently?

In Sri Aurobindo’s great poem, ‘Savitri’,  there is a passage when Ashwapathy, the King in ancient India who

Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo

Courtesy: "LIFE" Magazine, May 30, 1949







Ramana Maharshi -
Initiation in Mantras is must



Question
: Can anyone get any benefit by repeating sacred syllables [mantras] picked up
casually?
Ramana
Maharshi: No. He must be competent and initiated in such
mantras. This is illustrated by the story of the king and his

In the Lap of the Mother - Prof. Jhumur Bhattacharya

Courtesy: "Femina " Magazine, February 1, 2004

Henri Cartier-Bresson's Photos of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with Diary Notes

NOTE FROM BRESSON’S PERSONAL DIARY:

‘Four times a year, Sri Aurobindo puts in an appearance
before
his disciples. They are allowed to file past him, one by one, and

many deposit  flowers in a hold at his feet. He
sits immovable for

hours, in a sort of tabernacle with silk ornament.
Next to him is

the Mother, his counterpart in divinity, in long gold veils
covering

her forehead down

Mahatma Gandhi’s aborted attempt to meet Sri Aurobindo by Sandeep Joshi

In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian freedom struggle, sought to meet Sri Aurobindo because they had never met in person before.  The latter declined the request because he didn’t want to break the seclusion that he had been observing since 1926.  Strangely, the Mother who had no such restriction also declined to meet him.  By combining the correspondence available in the

The Supramental Harbingers: Sri Aurobindo and The Mother

 




SEQUENCES

TITLE

YEAR


27.
SRI AUROBINDO SACRIFICES HIS BODY1950

28.
THE ASHRAM SCHOOL1951-1955

29.
MANIFESTATION OF THE SUPRAMENTAL1956-1958

30.
THE MOTHER ‘ON A DANGEROUS BRINK’1959-1962

31.
THE MOTHER’S NEW BODY1963-1967












































SEQUENCE – 27: SRI AUROBINDO SACRIFICES HIS BODY : 1950
TOPIC 1:Incident a)
In April 1950, The Mother allowed, for

Hidden Cartier-Bresson images exhibited for first time

Friday, 14.09.2012


An image entitled "The Mother playing tennis" from the album ‘Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram’ by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. ©AFP









Long-hidden photographs from French master Henri Cartier-Bresson are to
be exhibited this weekend for the first time, shedding light on a little-known
and controversial project of his in India, AFP reports.

Cartier-Bresson

Mere Mann ke Andh Tamas mein By Jagjit Singh

Album Name: Maa Lyrics : Members of Sri Aurobindo Society PondicherryRelease Year: 1993Company: HMVGenre: Devotional

Sarveshwari Jagdishwari Hey maat by Jagjit Singh

Album Name: "Maa" Lyrics : Members of Sri Aurobindo Society, PondicherryRelease Year: 1993Company: HMVGenre: Devotional

Mother and Political Leaders

The Miraculous Touch of the Mother

Remembering a Guru

Remembering a Guru - by SRIDHAR-CHAAMA




Born on August 15, 1872, Aurobind Ghose blossomed into Mahaan - Sri Aurobindo by donning many
roles: a shrewd student, high profile officer, professor, revolutionary,
patriot, a loving husband, poet, philosopher, yogi, guru and visionary. At
seven, along with his two elder brothers, he was sent to England for studies. Despite
securing the 11 rank (

Om Anandamayi Chaitanyamayi - Jagjit Singh

On Sri Aurobindo --- Prof. Manoj Das

                   












Of all
the spiritual Masters, why did you choose Sri Aurobindo and decided to stay in
the Ashram for the past 47 years? 



 It
is not that I chose Sri Aurobindo; it is he in his infinite Grace chose me,
like so many others! But answering your question in a less mystifying way, I
should say that I ‘evolved’ into Sri Aurobindo’s world. My quest for the
meaning

Sri Aurobindo’s Eyes

     If the face is in general the index of the mind, what then in
particular are the eyes? The deepest chambers of one’s heart may be revealed
through them. Through the eyes the pages of the dim past and the distant future
may be unfolded. Mother used to judge the psychic and the spiritual gift of
many sadhaks through the mirror of their eyes, even as seen in their photos.
The future of

Religion: The Mother Departs

She was born in France 95 years ago, the daughter of a Parisian
banker of Egyptian lineage. Dark-haired and beautiful, she might have grown up
in that age of fin de siecle elegance to become one of those delicate
butterflies that flutter through the paintings of Renoir. But even as a child
Mira Alfassa had had mystical experiences, and the Paris salon she commanded
was a circle of devotees

Former American President's Daughter died in India

President's Daughter as Disciple of Yoga

American President's Daughter had lived in Sri Aurobindo Ashram

(Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921.)



                                                            Margaret Woodrow Wilson in 1912



Religion: Dishta of Pondicherry




Monday, Feb. 08,
1943




On
southern

Does Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry Stand the Test of Critics and Time?

“I was a poet and a politician, not a philosopher!” Sri
Aurobindo said. (Sri Aurobindo to Dilip. Ed. Sujata Nahar and Shankar
Bandopadhyay. Pune and Mysore; SariKrishna Mandir Trust and Mira
Aditi. V-2.p.100)

     Whereas the poet claims himself to
be a poet contributing so much in poetry, above 50000 lines, experimenting in
various metres including those of the other languages like

Who is the Mother? What is her Work? What she really said?

Mother’s Work

While in her body,
Mother entrusted certain works to certain persons according to the suitability
of one’s inner conditions, according to the necessity of time and place, which
she must have reconsidered had she been a witness to it till today. From a letter
of Sri Aurobindo dated 28.9.1933 we find that this point was hinted at, “As for
Mother, one will not find in her this

"Aurobin Dogos" in the book “The Lost Footsteps”

 
















        Silviu
Craciunas’s only book, “The Lost Footsteps” is a record of his experiences in
Rumania as a nationalist leader fighting against the Soviet occupation of his
State, in his own way. It is not a novel but more than a novel. It is an
autobiography but not in the conventional way. It speaks of the reality in
intimate fashion. The book is a human document against

REVIEW OF “CONCEPT OF MAN IN SRI AUROBINDO’S POETRY” BY SHRUTI BIDWAIKAR

                                                             





     The poetic genius of
Sri Aurobindo has attracted many a scholars and poetry lovers. Some simply
admire his poetry and some choose to think and write about them. The Concept of Man in Sri Aurobindo’s
Poetry by Dr. Jitendra
Sharma is an admiration of and reflection on Sri Aurobindo’s poetic
genius. 



     Separating Sri

Interview with the Mother about the Return of Sri Aurobindo

At the beginning of May 1952, during one of my visits to the
Ashram from Bombay, I met the Mother in her room at the Playground. It was on
the eve of my departure. What she had said at the end of 1950 about Sri
Aurobindo coming back in a supramental body had been in my mind pretty often in
the period after it, acutely missing him as I had done—missing him not only as
a most compassionate and

Meeting of the Pope [Paul VI] with the Mother (Vision)

                           



I had a visit from the Pope! The Pope [Paul VI] had come to Pondicherry (he does intend to
visit India), he had come to Pondicherry and asked to see me (quite impossible things materially, of course, but they were perfectly simple and straightforward). So I saw him. He came, we met each other over there (in the music room), and we actually did speak to

Remembering The Mother: A Gift of Healing and Forgiveness

A Course In Miracles International offers an unusual gift for Mother's
Day




"That’s what is frightening! That all those
things which are so real, so concrete, so frightening for us do not exist.
That, we are simply trapped in a falsehood." 

Wisconsin Dells, WI
(PRWEB) May 13, 2012

A Course In Miracles International is

Luminous Preservation of Sri Aurobindo’s Body

(Though Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his physical body on
December 5, 1950, the body did not show any signs of decomposition till four
days later. The body was aglow with a special light which the Mother confirmed
as being the light of the Supramental.)

Regarding the preservation of Sri Aurobindo’s body for several days
after his withdrawal: You are right; the mere fact of preservation

Where music and spirituality meet, with Anie Nunnally

In the summer of 2011 I had the pleasure of participating in the AUM Conference in Lodi, CA. The Conference gathered  many spiritually oriented people who receive inspiration and guidance from the teachings of  Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. For 3 days we all joined in to hear insightful lectures, participate in meditations and workshops, and receive offerings of poems and music.

Spirituality

“… the old spirituality was an escape from life into the divine Reality,
leaving the world just where it was, as it was; whereas our new vision, on the
contrary, is a divinisation of life, a transformation of the material world
into a divine world. This has been said, repeated, more or less understood,
indeed it is the basic idea of what we want to do. But this could be a
continuation

A Rare Interview of Sri Aurobindo

(This is a rare interview of Sri Aurobindo which he gave to a
correspondent of the Empire, a Calcutta-based daily
journal, on 15 August 1908. The interview took place in the Alipore
Magistrate’s Court on the date of Sri Aurobindo’s thirty-sixth birthday. The
spellings have been kept intact.)



Ever since the commencement of the trial until Saturday Arabindo
[Sri Aurobindo] has

Meeting with Sri Aurobindo

       It was unbearable for
me to stay in the demanding environment of Nasik, and I thought of visiting Pondicherry
and meeting the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The students of this ashram were very
devoted and firm in the conviction that the way of life they led was supreme.
The day I arrived at Pondicherry there was a concert given by a famous musician
who was a disciple of Sri Aurobindo.

The Supramental substance and New Birth

I may say that by the very fact that you live upon earth at this moment… you absorb with the air that you breathe this new supramental substance which is spreading in earth’s atmosphere and it is preparing in you things you will manifest all of a sudden, as soon as you have taken the decisive step.

 Whether that will help you or not to take this decisive step is another question which has

'Concept of Man in Sri Aurobindo's Poetry' : An Interview with Dr. Jitendra Sharma by Khurshid Alam

                                                               














CLRI Que 1: Hi Jitendra, can you share the reason why you selected Sri Aurobindo Ghose’s works as your research topic while there are so many Indian writers in English? Particularly now there are a good number of Man Booker Prize winners also.Ans: Sri Aurobindo, a great politician, philosopher, freedom-fighter, mystic,

Meditation

Matrimandir@AurovilleThe capital period of my intellectual development was when I could see clearly that what the intellect said may be correct and not correct, that what the intellect justifies is true and its opposite also is true. I never admitted a truth in the mind without simultaneously keeping it open to the contrary of it. And the first result was that the prestige of the intellect was

Money Power

Q: Divine Mother, could we have a message from you to pass along to those in the United States who may be ready to aid in the fund-raising work we are doing? A: The Mother: Money is not meant to make money; money is meant to make the earth ready for the New Creation.  **********************************************************************************


”You must neither turn with an ascetic

" Bogus Ma Ki Jai" ("Victory to the false Mother")

Found the following anecdote as recounted in the booklet "Sidelights on The Mother" by M.P.Pandit :

A sadhak who was behaving erratically asked a young boy to shout " Bogus Ma Ki Jai" ("Victory to the false Mother")
Someone reported this to Mother and suggested that the sadhak might be sent away. Mother heard everything and remarked that it had proved good with some who were sent away. But one

DISAPPOINTING WORLD-CONDITION AND NEW CREATION

Q: I am disconcerted at what is happening in the world. Everywhere misery is rampant, people are losing faith in everything and even the intellectuals like Tagore, Russell and Rolland are clamouring for an end of the age. How is it that things should be marching headlong into a quagmire such as this? I sometimes fear that eventually you and the Mother will retire into an extra-cosmic Samadhi

Difficulties due to Hostile Forces

It is a fact always known to all yogis and occultists since thebeginning of time, in Europe and Africa as in India, thatwherever yoga or Yajna is done, there the hostile Forcesgather together to stop it by any means. lt is known thatthere is a lower nature and a higher spiritual nature - it isknown that they pull different ways and the lower is strongestat first and the higher afterwards. It is

Wishing upon a shooting star

There is a very common belief in many countries – that if one makes a wish on a shooting star, the wish is fulfilled. Many of us hope that we will see a shooting star and this will happen. We also wonder what is the truth behind this belief. This question was once asked to the Mother. Here is her beautiful and revealing answer :Q. It is said that if one sees a shooting star and at that moment

Night is darkest before dawn

“I know that this is a time of trouble for you and everybody. It is so for the whole world. Confusion, trouble, disorder and upset everywhere is the general state of things. The better things that are to come are preparing or growing under a veil and the worse are prominent everywhere. The one thing is to hold on and hold out till the hour of light has come.”


 “The extreme acuteness of your

Sri Aurobindo speaks on Himself

I had no urge toward spirituality in me, I developed spirituality. I was incapable of understanding metaphysics, I developed into a philosopher. I had no eye for painting — I developed it by Yoga. I transformed my nature from what it was to what it was not. I did it by a special manner, not by a miracle and I did it to show what could be done and how it could be done. I did not do it out of any

Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy

Q. You wrote to X that though people call you a philosopher you have never learnt philosophy. Well, what you have written in the 'Arya' is so philosophical that the greatest philosopher of the world can never expect to write it. I don’t mean here the bringing down of the new Truth, but the power of expression, the art of reasoning and arguing with intellect and logic.
Ans. There is very little

Problems of Ego

April 2, 1972(Meeting with Auroville’s architect, N. and U. – N. is the Secretary of the Sri Aurobindo Society and U., his rival, the Secretary of Sri Aurobindo’s Action. The architect gives Mother a flower.)What is it?I think it’s “Supramental Clarity” or Vibration.(Mother speaks in English)
I will tell you that we are preaching unity – unity of humanity – and we are all quarreling – horrible

ON PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT - Some Words of Advice from The Mother

Q. Sweet Mother,

When department heads or superiors make mistakes or commit an injustice towards their subordinates, what should be the attitude of those affected by these errors? Should one keep silent and say, "It is none of my business", or should one try to point out the mistake to them?

Ans.  Neither the one nor the other.

First and always, we must ask ourselves what our instrument of

A Choice

November 26, 1972(A Note by Mother in English)

Before dying falsehood rises in full swing.

Still people understand only the lesson of catastrophe.Will it have to come before they open their eyes to the truth ?I ask an effort from all so that it has not to be.