We are
assembled
today to
celebrate
the 87th
Jayanthi
of the Seer
of the New
Age or the
Prophet of
the
superman,
Sri
Aurobindo.
This also
happens to
be the
birthday
celebration
of New
India, the
Free India
for which
Sri
Aurobindo
fought and
lived and
achieved
through the
tapasya or
Yoga. This
coincidence
of the two
birthdays is
a divine one
and so was
it
considered
by Sri
Aurobindo
himself as
the sanction
of God to
his first
dream
necessary
for the
realisation of
his second
dream, the
dream of
supramental
humanity.
His passing
away nine
years ago
has only
accentuated
the
realisation
of that
dream. His
spirit is
moving and
shaping the
lives of
innumerable
individuals
and it is
not a little
due to the
loving
service of
the Mother
who has been
carrying on
the Sri
Aurobindonian
burden and
tradition
illustriously.
During the
past ninety
years many
mighty
events have
happened in
India and
the world. A
very great
age of
science and
economic and
political
history
emerged and
has reached
peaks of
achievement
which no
amount of
criticism of
materialism that
has animated
it can close
its eyes to.
The success
of
materialism
is solid and
even
philosophy has
become a
hand maid of
such shifts
of the
needs of the
age. Side by
side however
mystic minds
who
saw the
threat to
spirituality in
the areas of
commerce and
politics
dominated by
materialistic
science and
hedonistic
goals, saw
in this
development
an
opportunity
to transform
these trends
into
vehicles of
a higher
consciousness that
could wield
power over
the course
of cosmic
history.
Their vision
sub
specie
aternitatis
saw
the
possibility
of historic
materialism
and
scientism
towards
divine
evolutionism
which had
been passing
through the
ages of
natural,
emergent
and creative
evolutionisms.
Such then is
the slow
interweaving
of the
threads of
materialism
and
mysticism,
which we
have been
witnessing
in the
movements
known to us
as
Theosophy,
Christian
Science, and
Sri
Aurobindo’s
divine
evolutionism.
The old
order has
been
severely and
rudely
shaken. The
new order
has been
slowly
defining its
goals
hesitantly
and
experimentally.
Morals and
ethical
values are
in the
crucible. A
new ethical
theory is
the need;
and
pragmatism
does not
provide
except
social and
relativistic
ideals.
Small
traditions
built round
‘closed’
ethos or
cultures are
finding
their
dissolution.
This is an
age that
has also
seen the
collapse of
empires and
old regalia.
This is an
age that
sought to
erect new
foundations
for
democracy
that was by
ancient
thinkers
dismissed as
self-contradictory
to human
Nature and
utopian. The
impossible
ideal was
sought for
under the
wings of
science and
evolution. A
great thing
indeed in an
age when men
of vision
called for
the birth of
Hero
(Carlyle),
the
Obermann,
Superman,
and Messiah
and Avatar,
and who
* Address
delivered at
the 15th
August 1959
celebration
under the
auspices of
Sri
Aurobindo
Pathamandir,
Calcutta.
worshipped
such men as
Napolean,
Hitler,
Mussolini
and other
dictators
who seemed
to satisfy
the craving
for being
worshipped
and
worshiping.
As one
critic1
in the
heyday of
Dictatorships
in the
period
between
1930-1940
wrote, it is
not so much
the
dictators
tending to
become
scupperers
and it not
so much an
act of
unfaith in
the
extraordinary
man but the
faith in the
‘ordinary
man’ that
makes
democracy a
tremendous
force.
That our
extraordinary
men of this
age have
fully
justified
disbelief in
them is a
fact of
capital
importance.
Mankind is
sick of
them. When
the great
thesis of
superman was
put forward
as a
biological
desideratum
or a
spiritual fulfillment
of man the
world
climate was
all in its
favour
but the
abortive
manifestations
of the same
in the
personalities
of the
political
adventures
who behaved
already as
‘beyond all
good and
evil’ and
‘above
morals meant
for men’ had
led to firm
disillusionment.
Supermen
came under a
cloud and
there are so
signs that
it is
passing. In
the
meanwhile
the people
or democracy
of the
people seeks
to be
stepping
into the
scupperers’
shoes.
Indeed we
have been
discovering
a new
phenomenon—that
the word
‘people’ has
hardly a
Reality, for
behind all
the
camouflage
there are
intriguing
men who
seize
power and
hold it ‘for
the people’.
Dictatorship
continues in
a new grab.
It is the
inevitable
phenomenon
of power
that it
should be
tied up in
the hands of
one or a few
and never
the all. The
eclipse of
the superman
today only
shows that
the types of
supermen we
got so far
or who were
thrown up
have not
been truly
such. Sri
Aurobindo when
he
criticised
Nietszche’s
Superman
perhaps
hardly
visualised
that he
would have
experimental
verification
of his
criticisms.
There is all
the
difference
between god-consciouness
and
asura-consciousness.
Mankind has
chosen not
to have the
latter. Does
it need the
other? If
not ,
can it ever
realise
the truly
significant
choice of
democracy as
the
self-rule of
the ordinary
man? Man has
been
built from
below. He
carries
within him
what our
evolutionists
have
discerned as
strains of
his
materialistic,
plantistic,
animalistic
past. Some
have
withered as
not so very
useful but
some others
have been
persisting
even
vestigially.
May be there
is an inner
secret in
such
persistency
of
tendencies
and organs.
He has been
discerning
farther
shores of
being, as
and when he
had arrived
at a
particular
stage. He
has been
given the
credit for
being able
to adapt
himself.
This
capacity to
adapt
himself to
his new
surroundings
through
apparently
biological
and placed
in the
life-impulse
is not all.
There is a
stage when
man discerns
that not all
kinds of
adaptation
give meaning
and value to
life. Life
itself
discovers
other values
to be its
need than
mere
persisting
in a
vegetative
stupor or
animal
turpitude.
It is this
apprehension
of higher
than life
which life
discerns
however
unconsciously
that leads
to the
widening of
its
horizons.
Mind itself
presages
the same
and seeks
the
supermind on
vijnana and
the
ananda as
its
fulfillment.
It is of
course not
to be
expected
that it has
the full
apprehension
of what they
are but it
has the
glimpse that
enchants and
encourages
it to move
1 Y.Y. in
New
Statesman
and Nation
(July
1934.)
forward or
upward to
it.
This
becomes
its goal or
ideal. All
ideals are
indeed in
the last
resort forms
or functions
that go to
satisfy,
assuage,
complete or
fill up the
individual
and such are
true ideals
that can
really
satisfy and
others are
false or
chimerical
when they
cannot
justify
their
claims.
Indeed man
has at his
stage
discovered
that certain
values are
just
chimerical.
Indeed at
one stage in
India and
elsewhere
the world
with all its
glamour for
wealth, sex
and desires
and power,
and
lordship,
indeed all
the basic
perfection’s
of Godhead
such as
aisvarya,
virya,
tejas,
sakti,
bala and
jnana have
turned out
to be
chimerical.
They are
virtues for
the
divine not
the
human-alas.
The theory
of illusion
of the world
is a
reactive
metaphysics of
disillusionment
of the
threefold
aims of
man—dharma,
artha,
and
kama.
One virtue
however was
left with no
content at
all— namely,
freedom itself
from the
snare of the
world and
its
allurements.
However a
modern
reappraisal
of the
situation
demanded a
new and
radical
approach to
the problems
of human
existence since
all ancient
modern
solutions
have tended
to fail
after
initial
success. To
this
situation
Sir
Aurobindo
brought a
radical
integral
vision.
Sri
Aurobindo nearly
forty two
years ago in
his
Renaissance
in India
spoke about
the eternal
and
permanent
features of
Indian
Culture and
stated that
though they
are
spirituality,
prolific
abundance of
life and
energy and
strong
intellectuality,
yet it is
the first
that is the
directing
principle in
all her
adventures
in the
fields of
science and
arts,
logic and
intellectuality.
Truly her
spirituality
is basically
related to
the search
for the
infinite freedom coupled
with the
harmony of
the whole.
They never
could fall
apart from
one another.
In a sense
here is an
organic
unity and
organic
infinity which
is the
supreme characteristic
of Indian
spirituality.
Whatever
trends of
secularism
were
there—they
have always
been and
still
continue to
be, even in
India of
today and
once
again,—they
are just
partial
views of
Reality or
goals,
chosen for
pragmatic
attainments.
They always
lapsed into
inanities
and
puerilities.
However the
fundamental
integrality
of the
Indian
spiritual consciousness even
during the
periods of
mayavada and
other
worldliness,
revealed
itself
through the
abundant
multifarious
urge for the
infinite in
the
‘finite’;
the process
of
infinitising
the finite
has been one
of the chief
or dominant
notes of
great and
eternal Art
and nowhere
has this
been
expressed
than in
Indian Art.
Nor is it
uniform
multiplicity
of
manifestations.
The very
diversity of
the
manifestations
of the
Infinite in
the finite
many reveals
that no real
frontiers
could be
raised
between the
finite and
the
Infinite.
Already in
those days
Sri
Aurobindo anticipated
that the
fascination
of the
Indian
mind for
western
modes of
thought and
action and
dress would
pass away
and throw up
the
resources of
the
Spiritual India
to the
front. It
appeared for
a while that
anticipation
would be
justified.
Forces
indeed there
were at the
time that
promised the
reversal of
the trend of
europeanising
of India or
occidentalising
of the
Orient.
However now
it appears
it was an
optimism
that is
unproved by
events after
the world
war II and
the clock
has been put
back because
of the
so-called
need to meet
a global
perspective.
A more basic
return to
Spiritual India
that is the
mother of
the
Universal
culture is
the need.
Sri
Aurobindo’s
call for the
restoration
of
satya and
rta is
indeed the
call to
dharma of
the
individual
and the
Divine in
Yoga.
Today the
problem of
Indian
crisis is
being
diagnosed
more
accurately,
as not only
comprising
svadesi,
svarajya but
also
svadharma and
svatantrya.
These are
basic
concepts
that have
been most
powerful in
maintaining
the unique
tradition of
India that
realised
wonderfully
the harmony
between
cosmic
dharma and
individual
dharma and
value and
worth that
can only be
realised
in the
context of
his freedom.
Sri
Aurobindo saw
most clearly
that true
spirituality depends
on the
significant
metaphysical
truth realised
and
practiced by
the ancient
seers— the
eternal
manyness
of the
eternal One
Being. The
individual
souls in a
sense are
the eternal
many related
to or
inherent in
or basically
inseparable
from or
organic to
the One
Reality known
to Indian
Upanishadic
thought as
Brahman.
That the
basic
Reality
cannot be
reduced to
the mere
abstract or
absolute One
nor could it
be retained
as a
fulgurated
many but as
only as many
in one and
one in
many. This
is the truth
to which Sri
Aurobindo
had drawn
our
attention as
inherent in
the letter
and
spirit of
the Vedanta.
Thus
reconciliation
of the
many-one
that Sri
Aurobindo envisaged
is unique
and rescues
his
philosophy and
ipso
facto
his
sociology
and
political
philosophy
from
becoming
identified
with the
absolutism of
either the
idealistic
or
materialistic
variety. His
is an
integral
pluralism1,
as it may
appropriately
be called,
as indeed it
has been as
well as
integral
monism.
The integral
pluralism of
Sri
Aurobindo insists
on the
supreme
value of
each
individual
in the many
and seeks
his
evolution to
the status
or poise of
the Supreme
Divine of
whose many
it is one.
Indeed India
has been
striving in
her
spiritual aspiration
for the
emergence of
the
individual
divine. This
is the real
content of
freedom or
moksa ;
for in it
is concealed
the delight
of
existence that
is the
nature of
the Divine
Saccidananda.
There is
resolved the
apparent
contradiction
of the four
poises of
our
development
as a nation
and as
individuals,
by the basic
acceptance
of their
Reality and
value,
satya and
dharma.
A new age
has dawned
with the
crisis
attending
upon the
individual.
The only
true value
the
individual
has is his
svatantrya or
independence
according to
his inward
and
spiritual dharma.
A crisis
like the
present was
not
unanticipated
by the great
pioneers of
spirituality.
Quietly they
had prepared
the people
for the
1 Integral
Pluralism means
the real
eternal many
in the One.
It has been
stated
similarly
about
Visistadvaita
that it is
visistadvaita.
return to
spirituality by
their
life and
teaching.
Man has to
change
himself
radically;
his
preoccupation
with
matter and
hedonism
should not
degenerate
into
sense-found
pursuits; a
return to
the ideal of
the
spiritual man
who does not
refuse to
recognize
and
transform
lower
values of
the mental,
vital and
the physical
material or,
in the
context of
the society,
the
intellectual,
emotional
and material
values (
such as
dharma,
artha and
kama)
has been
discerned as
the radical
call of the
inward
spirit of
man. The
inner man
revolts
against
matter for
matter as it
is in the
contradiction
of his
being. Yet
the integral
man is a
necessity
and he must
either be
born or
made. The
secret of
transformation of
the mental,
vital and
physical man
(or the
intellectual,
emotional
and
mechanical
man to use
the language
of the
teachers of
the Fourth
Way) lies in
the
descent of a
higher kind
of force.
This is the
force that
makes the
human being
rise to a
level of
awareness of
the higher
worlds of
freedom open
to man.
Mere appeals
to our
ancient
traditions
is of no
use. A new
force has to
be brought
into play in
the
world and a
force far
higher than
what mankind
has yet
known. Our
recent
mantras of
‘Return to
the
Upanishads’,
‘Return to
the
Gita’
or ‘the
Veda’ or ‘Shakti’
or the more
omnibus term
‘Return to
Religion’
have left us
almost with
a sense of
impotence
though
doubtless
they have
awakened man
somewhat to
his mighty
past and may
be a
mightier
future.
However a
new force is
needed and
it has to
have the
power to
free man
from his
modern
chains, the
chains of
pseudo-science
and
sense-bound
methods of
science and
their ends.
However the
spirit moves
slowly
conquering
its
territory by
insinuating
itself. The
truth of the
collective
is now being
annulled or
corrected by
the more
basic truth
of the
individual.
There is the
call of the
infinite and
the eternal
to the
individual
for
something
that should
awaken and
fulfil
it. It is to
this
spiritual voice
that Sri
Aurobindo had
listened and
obeyed and
he has given
us the
mantra of
the New
Man—the
superman—one
who rejoices
in the
freedom of
all
individuals
rather than
strives to
annihilate
and absorb
them all
into
Himself. The
spiritual
evolution of
man to the
status of
the godhead
who is a
perfect
being in and
through the
cosmic and
transcendent
consciousness and
acts by the
logic of the
Infinite is
the
inevitable
step. He is,
if we adopt
the ancient
notions now
revived, one
who is
characterised
by
svarajya,
svatantrya and
svadharmya.
Sri
Aurobindo undoubtedly
saw that
great
endeavours
require true
men of the
highest
spirituality,
the
yogins.
He saw
beyond India
too and saw
the grand
possibilities
of India
becoming the
saviour
of the
world. India
is to be the
cradle of a
new race of
supermen,
who manifest
in
themselves
the oneness–manyness
in a harmony
of action or
dynamic
existence.
They would
lead
humanity in
fellowship
all over the
Earth. The
dream of all
religions
–the Kingdom
of God on
Earth as it
is in Heaven
can only be
truly
realized
when
God-consciousness descends
to transform
all into its
own nature,
beyond the
pleasure-principles
and
ego-principles
that are
dominating
mankind.
Religions
generally
have failed,
though
individual
men among
them have
not. It is
the
sadhana in
and through
individuals
and their
steady
aspiration
towards
God consciousness or
gnostic
being that
can rescue
religions
from being
pompous
institutions
rather than
real schools
of
spiritual training.
The
transformation of
man cannot
obviously be
undertaken
by the
institutions
of religions
as they
stand. It is
therefore by
a different
technique
that the
divine consciousness
is likely to
descend to
illuminate
every
heart and
make it
love the
divine and
detach
itself from
the lower
values. Sri
Aurobindo saw
that nothing
but the
transformation
of the earth
consciousness
can justify
man’s
faith in the
omnipotence
of the
Divine
force. It is
not the will
to power nor
the will to
imagine nor
even the
apparent
sacrifices
that man
makes that
lead to the
transformation
of the earth
consciousness
either
individually
or
collectively.
It is one of
the profound
intuitions
of Sri
Aurobindo
that saw
clearly the
ancient
truth that
the divine
force alone
can change
or modify
human
consciousness
and much
more and
that too in
a shorter
span of
time. The
unique and
differentiating
doctrine of
Sri
Aurobindo
however is
that though
avatars have
been many
and they
have brought
down great
realisation
yet the
evolutionary
possibility
of man is
not
exhausted;
it as to be
completed by
the
incorporation
at first of
a new kind
of
transmuted
mind or the
Supermind in
the texture
of the
physico-psychic
frame of man
by means of
Yoga. Such
an
incorporated
mind divine
shall have
to become
native to or
‘emerge’ in
the future
humanity.
This
phenomenon
cannot be
such as
might make
men think
that it is
not
inheritable
or
transferable.
On the other
hand it can
be inherited
or
transferred
because of
the changes
that the
Force is
capable of
moving in
the very
constitution
of man which
is governed
by the three
strands
sattva,rajas and
tamas undergo
change and
there such
that not one
of them
remains as
such. A
fourth force
transforms
their
ignorance into
knowledge,
their
darkness into
light, their
changeableness
into
immutability.
Spiritual
evolution and
the birth of
the
superman is
the only
solution to
our
terrestrial
maladies. It
is in order
to
demonstrate
its great
possibilities
and power
that Sri
Aurobindo dedicated
himself to
the bringing
down of that
divine supermind to
integrate
itself in
the homo
sapiens, not
as a graft
indeed but
as an occult
principle
inherent in
the yearning
of man
towards
fulfillment
and
completion
and freedom.
The real
truth of the
individual
yearning
lies in this
higher
fulfillment.
This
fulfillment
is its
inevitable
end or
goal to
which it has
been moving
through
ignorance enjoying
pain and
pleasure,
sorrow and
frustration,
disease and
disaster.
This goal
however is
not a
prefigured
plan already
ready for
being
accomplished
or already
accomplished
but a
growth and
evolution which
proceeds
diversely
and not
uniformly.
The
infinity of
the Divine
or rather
the
infinite manyness
of the one
Divine
reveals the
most varied
and
unpredictable
possibilities
for the very
nature of
the
Supramental
Reality or
the Divine
is that
freedom
which
exhibits
that the
unique
multiplicity
of His
oneness is
also the
harmony of
the
transcendent
lila.
The
transformation of
man thus is
inevitable:
the very
vastness of
the
undertaking
in the
world,
rolled into
one with
such speed
and
precipitousness,
has posed
quite a
challenge to
the human
mind. That
the human
mind has not
hesitated to
accept the
challenge
with its old
and tested
and tried
instruments
of its past
and present
manufacture
in all
fields of
human
life is a
fact
witnessed to
by the
innumerable
international
organizations.
However
there is an
element of
dialectical
frenzy,
altogether
irrational,
seizing the
minds, and
one is not
certain at
all whether
there can be
a solution
to these
problems
except that
man has
indeed
himself to
undergo
transformation.
It is
undoubtedly
pessimistic
to say that
man has to
commit
harakiri
for the sake
of his
transformation and
this some
serious
thinkers do
not wish to
accept as a
solution.
But the
human heart
and man’s
emotive and
idealistic
being,
notwithstanding
all their
optimism,
are facing
an enormous
crisis in
mutual
relations
and
dealings,
both
collective
and
individual.
State
policies
cannot annul
or assuage
the sorrows
of the human
breast.
Educational
regimentation,
by whatever
name called,
can hardly
touch the
core of the
problem.
There is
something
radically
wrong in
such
optimism.
What is
wanted is a
total change
in the human
logic or
mind, in the
human goals
and means.
Nowhere has
this been
more
demonstrated
than in the
recent
past.
Civilization
is on trial.
A mind that
can grasp
the problems
in their
complexity
and unite
the knots
that have
been tied is
the need.
Further the
human
tinkerings
with
Nature are
bringing for
the problems
of greatest
concern to
mankind as a
whole. A
mind that
works with
division and
separation,
by analysis
and
opposition,
can hardly
cope with
it. Thus we
come back to
the solution
divined by
Sri
Aurobindo—the
need for the
emergence of
the
divine mind
in man.
Clear and
definite
indeed was
this
conclusion,
and Sri
Aurobindo’s
amazing
intuition is
incomparable
in the sense
of having
anticipated
that no
other
solution was
possible,
historically
and
ideologically;
he saw that
the sooner
mankind
seized this
opportunity
the better
it was. A
mere
universal
religion of
humanity on
either the
socialistic
or
materialistic
or any other
form cannot
lead man out
of the
critical
danger.1
He himself
believed
that this
solution is
an
undiscovered
fact for all
the ancient
seers seem
to have
attained the
truth-
consciousness or
bypassed it
to the
ultimate Saccidananda,
but that did
not permit
itself to
possess and
inhabit man
as he is.
The
Supermind did
not come
down to
reside and
modify the
human
species
itself. The
earlier
rsi-consciousness
did not see
this
possibility.
We shall not
here discuss
the exact
nature of
their
consciousness
but this
much can be
said that
their
consciousness
did not
admit of the
transformation of
the lower
levels of
matter,
life and
mind but a
dissolution
of them. It
was
transcendent
to the
terrestrial
or the
so-called
phenomenal
levels.
Since it was
seen that
these
dissolve at
the touch of
that
consciousness
they have
been
considered
to be not
only
contradictory
to the
1 In the
words of Sri
Aurobindo "While
it is
possible to
construct a
precarious
and quite a
mechanical
unity by
political
and
administrative
means, the
unity of the
human race,
even if
achieved ,
can only be
secured and
can only be
made real if
the religion
of
humanity which
is the
highest
active ideal
of mankind,
spiritualises
itself and
becomes the
general
inner law of
human
life".
Ultimate Spirit but,
in a quaint
sense,
phenomenal
and
illusory.
The
Jivanmukta of
the past
conception
is firstly
not fully
free for he
patiently
bears with
his last
links of
karma whilst
being
internally
free or has
the
assurance of
being free.
He has burnt
to ashes his
terrestrial
connections.
Not so the
Jivanmukta
of Sri
Aurobindonian
conception.
He is not
detached
from the
earth
consciousness but
he is not
attached to
it either as
it is. He
seeks its
transformation in
all its
levels
material,
vital and
mental. The
very
qualities of
prakriti such
as
sattva,
rajas, and
tamas which
act as
reactive
forces of
Nature in
the
ignorance begin
to function
as powers of
truth,
consciousness
and delight
in the
knowledge.
He is
cosmically
directed
even whilst
being the
individual
many of the
One supreme.
It is one
who is born
of the
Divine—brahmaja—and
knows
himself to
be such (jna),
and who in
all his
affairs and
dealings is
firmly
devoted to
that one
supreme
secret of
integral
unity in
God with all
else in
creation and
beyond – he
knows
himself to
be the One
Divine in
the
manyness
of His
Integral
Being. Such
is not
merely the
vision of
man but his
realisation.
The
practical
school for
achieving
yogic
transformation was
founded by
Sri
Aurobindo.
The
execution of
this
undertaking
has been
characterized
by diligence
and psychic
power. His
guidance of
his
disciples is
characterised
by faultless
technique.
His own
verifications
of ancient
yogic
practices of
all levels
coupled with
his superb
educational
techniques
suited to
the genius
of India and
Spirituality is
a landmark.
The
importance
of ‘fronting
the psychic
being’ in
education
cannot be
exaggerated
– it is
precisely
this lack
that has led
to our
modern
educational
institutions
being merely
what they
are.
One more
important
aspect of
psychic
training or
yogic
trainings
which has
been not
adequately
realised
even in
interested
quarters is
the
principle of
spiritual transmission of
the Highest
energy or
the
transforming
Spiritual
force. No
one who has
not reached
that level
can possibly
be the
conduit of
that force.
If a lesser
personality or
one who has
reached a
level that
is not the
very highest
tries to
bring down
that energy
it will not
come and
even if it
does it will
not flow in
a continuous
way or flow
in a
tortuous
way.
In Yoga of
the
conscious
path it
becomes
imperative
that the
individual
himself has
to open
himself to
the
descending
grace of
God which
can be the
transmissional
force. But
the grace
must be
called to
the
transmutive
or
transformative
function. An
integral
transformation of
man into
supermanhood
is the
minimum
prayer that
is needed on
the part of
the
individual.
Once this is
available
and the
Master
chooses his
disciple for
the
transformation,
he opens up
lines of
inner
ascent progressively
opening up
the planes
of
being from
which he had
descended so
that there
can be
integration,
conscious or
superconscious,
so as to
arrive at
that
gnostic
being who is
one with all
in the
Divine and
for the
Divine or
the
Ultimate.
It is
firstly
therefore
necessary
that this
divine transmissional
force should
work through
the Master,
secondly,
that it
should
operate
steadily and
without
weakening or
lag in the
individual
removing all
that
obstructs
the ascent.
True, the
Supreme can
never be
obstructed
finally or
definitively
once He
happens to
take up the
work of
transformation.
But it is
this
activity of
that Divine
transmitive
force that
grants the
individual
his faith in
the Master
in his own
destiny.
Man’s
constant and
continuous
surrender and
prayer to
the Divine
Master goes
a
wonderfully
long way to
achieve this
descending
power and
draw it into
himself till
it fills him
fully – this
is the
exeperience
of
ananda that
is
ananta.
Sri
Aurobindo undoubtedly
has created
the very
conditions
for that
great
descent and
transmission of
the
Spiritual Force
divine. That
it is
already at
work in the
consciousness of
men all the
world over
is becoming
increasingly
clear. Men
are finding
the need for
a
larger,—diviner—vision
that
embraces and
ennobles all
reality.
Sri
Aurobindo has
provided a
definite
philosophy for
this
evolution of
man which
would prove
to be more
satisfying
than mere
philosophies
of the
intellect.
Rightly, he
has shown
that an
intellectual
philosophy
does not
work. It is
only a
philosophy
that
embraces the
whole man
that can
satisfy all
and provide
for his work
in the world
with
intelligence
and skill.
The very
applications
of the
psychic
activity in
a collective
life will
show how the
higher kinds
of force
act. The
activity
loses its
sting of
attachment
and
suffering.
Slow though
the process
of
divine evolution is
it is yet
under way.
It is also
quite true
to affirm
that great
spiritual personalities
are at work
on other
levels and
although Sri
Aurobindo has
passed away,
the Work is
going on
because his
living
Presence has
not failed
and the work
is the
Ultimate Master’s.
The Power at
work will
produce
powers and
personalities
commissioned
to bring
down the
supramental
and
superconscious
force
without
interruption
for
transforming
man
everywhere.
Can I
predict that
the
centenary of
the birth of
Sri
Aurobindo may
well see the
realisation of
that Vision
and
Reality of a
transformed
society of
divinised
men? The
Unity of the
Human race
cannot be
achieved
otherwise
than when
men find
themselves
in the
Divine as
inseparable
many of that
One. So may
the
Mantra of
Sri
Aurobindo
taken from
the Veda –
om namo
devaya
janmano
– ring in
the Age of
Supermen –
divine men –
who rejoice
in universal
truth,
knowledge-
power and
delight for
all..
