{"id":1654,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1654"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:17","slug":"48-the-ashram-and-its-atmosphere-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram\/48-the-ashram-and-its-atmosphere-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-48_The Ashram and Its Atmosphere.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\tThe Ashram and Its Atmosphere <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Ashram Precincts
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tX <\/span> <\/i>told me that Y <\/i>has said that there is a very strong circle of Mother’s protection around the main Ashram house, and a
\nless strong one in the other houses. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is not the house, it is the inner nearness that matters.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhat is true is that there is a strong force going out from here and it is naturally strongest at the centre. But how it affects
\nthere, depends on how one receives it. If it is received with simple trust, faith, openness, confidence, then it works as a complete
\nprotection. But it can so work too at a distance. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 January 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMother said once that all the houses were sanctified by her
\npresence and there were no houses more favoured than others. This appeals to me. For if it was otherwise I would of course
\ntry to get into a room within the Asram precincts, as people often say that there the atmosphere is ever so much better.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe atmosphere of the houses as houses is pretty much the same
\n in all the Asram. But people make their own atmosphere as
\nwell; a number of people living together may create one that is agreeable to this person and disagreeable to another. A single
\nman also may leave a vital atmosphere in a house which is felt by others who follow him or, even if they do not feel it, they may be
\ninfluenced by it for a time \u2014  that I have observed often enough. The surroundings also have sometimes an effect. But all that is
\nvery secondary \u2014  one ought to create one’s own atmosphere (of course of the right kind) and keep it, then other vibrations will
\nfall away from it.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhat are the Asram precincts? Every house in which the
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>630<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nsadhaks of the Asram live is in the Asram precincts. People have a queer way of talking of the houses in this compound as
\nthe Asram \u2014  it has no meaning. Or do they think the Mother’s influence or mine is shut up in a compound?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n12 January 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Atmosphere of the Ashram
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen I sit on the staircase to your room, I feel something very special there. But now I find that wrong things are coming in
\nwhen I sit there. I hope I am not disturbing the atmosphere. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe force is there in the atmosphere, but you must receive it in
\nthe right way \u2014  in the spirit of self-giving, openness, confidence. All the rest depends on that.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 January 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI was surprised to learn that X <\/i>and Y <\/i>are staying in the town. How, after being in the Ashram for two years, can they bear
\nthe outside atmosphere? Z<\/i>, who just returned from a visit home, tells me he could not endure the atmosphere over there.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is certainly strange. Most people after the atmosphere here cannot tolerate the ordinary atmosphere. If they go outside, they
\nare restless until they return. Even A<\/i>‘s aunt who was here only for a few months writes in the same way. But probably when
\npeople get into the control of a falsehood as X <\/i>and Y <\/i>did, they are projected into the unregenerated vital nature and no longer
\nfeel the difference of the atmosphere. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n30 May 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is easier to feel the presence in the atmosphere of the Asram
\nthan outside it. But that is only an initial difficulty which one can overcome by a steadiness in the call and a constant opening
\nof oneself to the influence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 August 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>631<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nI have translated the first four pieces of Maurice Magre’s “<\/span>L’Ashram
\nde Pondich\u00e9ry<\/i><\/span>“1<\/font><\/sup> into Gujarati. There are some
\nexaggerations in his perceptions: “<\/span>les hommes les plus sages<\/i>
\nde la terre<\/i><\/span>” and “<\/span>Ce sont des Parfaits entre les hommes<\/i><\/span>“. This is too much to say about us sadhaks. I find it almost impossible
\nto put such sentiments in Gujarati, as people there would find them overblown.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tMagre like many others got an immediate strong impression of the atmosphere of the Asram
\n\u2014  most feel it as an atmosphere of
\ncalm and peace, something quite apart from that of the ordinary world. He thought it was the atmosphere of the people. Besides,
\nof the few who saw him, he saw only the best. Also many here if not most have something in their appearance different from
\npeople outside, something a little luminous, which a man of sensitive perceptions like Magre could feel. The other side becomes
\napparent only if one stays long and mixes in the ordinary life of the Asram or hears the gossip of the Sadhaks. People from this
\ncountry, Gujaratis or others, more easily see or feel this side and do not feel the rest because they enter at once into relation with
\nthe exterior life of the Asram. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 February 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere are two atmospheres in the Asram, ours and that of the
\nsadhaks. When people with a little perceptiveness come from outside, they are struck by the deep calm and peace in the atmosphere and it is only when they mix much with the sadhaks that this perception and influence fade away. The other atmosphere
\nof dullness or unrest is created by the sadhaks themselves \u2014  if they were opened to the Mother as they should be, they would
\nlive in the calm and peace and not in unrest or dullness. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 March 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 <\/span> Maurice Magre, <\/i>A la poursuite de la sagesse<\/span>
\n<\/span> <\/font> (Paris: Fasquelle, 1936), pp. 99 \u00ad 104.<\/font><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>632<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThe Ashram’s Physical Expansion
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIs having more houses a sign of progress?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is a sign of physical expansion. The progress depends upon what is behind; if the inner progress is not there, the physical
\nexpansion is of no great use. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 July 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf the Asram expands very much and there are no houses avail
\nable in Pondicherry, naturally the extension will be somewhere in the villages nearby?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere was some idea of that years ago, but circumstances took another turn and it did not materialise.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 April 1935  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>633<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ashram and Its Atmosphere   The Ashram Precincts   X told me that Y has said that there is a very strong circle of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","wpcat-37-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}