{"id":3583,"date":"2013-07-13T01:49:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3583"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:49:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:46","slug":"09-postscript-vol-sri-aurobindo-in-baroda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/sri-aurobindo-in-baroda\/09-postscript-vol-sri-aurobindo-in-baroda","title":{"rendered":"-09_Postscript.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nWhat is there new that we have yet to accomplish? Love, for as yet we have only accomplished hatred and self- pleasing; Knowledge, for as yet we have only accomplished error and perception and conceiving; Bliss, for as yet we have only accomplished pleasure and pain and indifference; Power, for as yet we have only accomplished weakness and effort and a defeated victory; Life, for as yet we have
\nonly accomplished birth and growth and dying; Unity, for as yet we have only accomplished war and association. <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nIn a word, godhead; to remake ourselves in the divine image. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n\u2014 Sri Aurobindo <\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sri
\n\t\t\tAurobindo with Tilak and other Nationalists. December 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 171<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sri
\n\t\t\tAurobindo at Baroda in 1908 after the Surat Congress<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 172<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nPostscript<\/i> <\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nSri Aurobindo’s stay in Baroda and his involvement in
\npolitical activities for the freedom of his country described
\nin the preceding chapters should help us to understand his
\nspiritual development after his arrival in Pondicherry. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt is already seen that Sri Aurobindo began his practice of
\nYoga in 1904; but even before this he had a number of
\npreliminary spiritual experiences, such as the mental experience of the Atman or Self, the realisation of the "vacant
\nInfinite" and the awareness of the Godhead active within
\nhim and in the world. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nSri Aurobindo met Lele in January 1908, just after the
\nSurat session of the Indian National Congress, remembered
\nas one of the major turning points in the course of India’s
\nfreedom-struggle. Sri Aurobindo’s political influence was
\nthen at its height. He was recognised as one of the half-
\ndozen most prominent men in the country. Less than a
\nweek later he found himself closeted with Lele. Following
\nhis instructions, Sri Aurobindo succeeded in establishing "a
\ncomplete and abiding stillness of (his) whole consciousness." This led to the realisation of the "silent, spaceless
\nand timeless Brahman," the "inactive" side of the one
\nReality. This realisation which is otherwise called Nirvana,
\nand which often cannot be achieved even after a lifetime of
\neffort, had come to Sri Aurobindo in less than three days. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nMany, after obtaining this realisation, retire from a world
\nnow perceived as vain and illusory, to become absorbed in
\nthe peace or bliss of the Unmanifest. Such was not the path
\nof Sri Aurobindo. The force that had impelled him into the
\npolitical arena still drove him to action, and he did not resist
\nit. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nFour months after the Surat congress, Sri Aurobindo was
\narrested as a revolutionary conspirator. While under trial
\nfor the capital offence of "waging war against the king", he <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 173<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwas placed in solitary confinement in the jail at Alipore, a
\nlocality of Calcutta. Soon he was plunged in an intensive
\npractice of yoga. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe chief landmark of Sri Aurobindo’s Alipore sadhana
\nwas his experience of "the cosmic consciousness and of the
\nDivine as all beings and all that is." This was his second
\ngreat realisation, and with it disappeared the "overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the
\nworld" which had accompanied his first realisation, that of
\nthe silent Brahman. Sri Aurobindo was now aware that it
\nwas the "dynamic side of the Brahman, the Ishwara" (Lord
\nand Master) who had been moving him and continued to
\nmove him "in all his sadhana and action." <\/font><\/p>\n

\nDuring the year that he was imprisoned at Alipore, Sri
\nAurobindo had a number of ancillary experiences, some of
\nan "occult" nature. Among them were various types of
\nsubtle vision and hearing, the "first movement" of the
\npowers which lead to "utthapana" or levitation, and a
\nmultifarious experience of spiritual bliss. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBy this time-early in 1909-Sri Aurobindo had "realised in full two of the four great realisations, on which his
\nyoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded"; the silent
\nBrahman or Nirvana, the dynamic Brahman, the Divine as
\nall that is. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThese realisations represent the two ends impersonal
\nand personal, nirguna<\/i> and saguna <\/i>of traditional spirituality. Each of them, to one who has attained it, is complete
\nin itself. Indeed the two are often considered to be mutually
\nexclusive. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nSri Aurobindo was acquitted and released from jail ‘in
\nMay 1909. Still absorbed in sadhana, he re-entered the
\npolitical field, and soon found himself again the object of
\nunfriendly British attention. Early in 1910, one night at the
\noffice of the Karmayogin<\/i> (an English weekly started by Sri
\nAurobindo), he received information of the Government’s
\nintention to search the office and arrest him. While considering what should be his attitude, he received a sudden <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 174<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncommand from above to go to Chandernagore in French
\nIndia. He obeyed the command at once, for it was now his
\nrule to move only as he was moved by the divine guidance
\nand never to resist and depart from it; he did not stay to
\nconsult with anyone, but in ten minutes he was at the river
\nghāt,<\/i> engaged a boat plying on the Ganges and in a few
\nhours he was at Chandernagore where he went into secret
\nresidence. He sent a message to Sister Nivedita asking her to
\ntake up the editing of the Karmayogin<\/i> in his absence. This
\nwas the end of his active connection with his journal. At
\nChandernagore he plunged entirely into solitary meditation and ceased all other activity. Then, there came to him a
\ncall to proceed to Pondicherry. A boat manned by some
\nyoung revolutionaries of Uttarpara took him to Calcutta; there he boarded the Dupleix<\/i> and reached Pondicherry on
\nApril 4, 1910. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt is interesting to note that before Sri Aurobindo’s arrival
\nat Pondicherry, a famous South Indian Yogi had made a
\nprediction which, in Sri Aurobindo’s words, was that
\n"thirty years later (agreeing with the time of my arrival) a
\nYogi from the North would come as a fugitive to the South
\nand practise there an integral Yoga (Poorna Yoga), and this
\nwould be one sign of the approaching liberty of India. He
\ngave three utterances as the mark by which this Yogi could
\nbe recognised and all these three were found in the letters
\nto my wife…"\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

\nAt Pondicherry, from this time onwards Sri Aurobindo’s
\npractice of Yoga became more and more absorbing. Ten
\nyears afterwards he wrote to his brother Barin: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n"What I started with, what Lele gave me, what I did in
\njail all that was a searching for the path, a circling around
\nlooking here and there, touching, taking up, handling,
\ntesting this and that of all the old partial yogas, getting a more or less
\ncomplete experience of one and then going off in pursuit of another. Afterwards,
\nwhen I came to Pondicherry,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9 Sri Aurobindo, On Himself and on The Mother.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 175<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n this unsteady condition ceased. The indwelling
\nGuru of the world indicated my path to me completely, its
\nfull theory, the ten limbs of the body of the yoga." Thus, it
\nwas only after his arrival in Pondicherry that "a certain
\nprogramme" was laid down that he thereafter followed. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nHe passed on in search of a more complete experience
\nuniting and harmonising the two ends of existence. Spirit
\nand Matter. Most ways of Yoga are paths to the Beyond
\nleading to the Spirit and, in the end, away from life; Sri
\nAurobindo’s rises to the Spirit to redescend with its gains
\nbringing the light and power and bliss of the Spirit into life
\nto transform it. Man’s present existence in the material
\nworld is in this view or vision of things a life in the
\nIgnorance with the Inconscient at its base, but even in its
\ndarkness and nescience there are involved the presence
\nand possibilities of the Divine. The created world is not a
\nmistake or a vanity and illusion to be cast aside by the soul
\nreturning to heaven or Nirvana, but the scene of a spiritual
\nevolution by which out of this material Inconscience is to
\nbe manifested progressively the Divine Consciousness in
\nthings. Mind is the highest term yet reached in the evolution, but it is not the highest of which it is capable. There is
\nabove it a Supermnind or eternal Truth-consciousness which
\nis in its nature the self-aware and self-determining light
\nand power of a Divine Knowledge. Mind is an ignorance
\nseeking after Truth, but this is a self-existent Knowledge
\nharmoniously manifesting the play of its forms and forces.
\nIt is only by the descent of this Supermind that the perfection dreamed of by
\nall that is highest in humanity can come. It is possible by opening to a greater
\ndivine consciousness to rise to this power of light and bliss, discover
\none’s true self, remain in constant union with the Divine
\nand bring down the Supramental Force for the transformation of mind and life and body. To realise this possibility has
\nbeen the dynamic aim of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 176<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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