Peace: March 2008

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Collected Works of The Mother

Each volume can be viewed and downloaded in PDF format. At the end of the list below is a zipped file containing all the PDFs.

All texts are copyright Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and are for personal use only. Unauthorised reproduction or distribution in any form, including material and electronic, is prohibited.

The contents of the volumes are:

Volume 1	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Prayers And Meditations 313 prayers and meditations, most of them written between 1912 and 1917. Selected by the Mother from her diaries, these prayers are a record of her spiritual experiences at that time.	1.66MB
Volume 2	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Words of Long Ago Writings and talks from 1893 to 1920. The volume includes early essays, talks to seekers in Paris, essays written in Japan, and Tales of All Times, some stories for children.	1.36MB
Volume 3	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1929–1931 Conversations about Yoga and life. The Mother answered questions raised by disciples in 1929 and 1930–1931. The volume also includes her commentaries on The Dhammapada, with a translation of that text.	1.46MB
Volume 4	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1950–1951 Talks by the Mother including comments on her essays on education, on her Questions and Answers 1929, and on Sri Aurobindo's The Mother.	1.68MB
Volume 5	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1953 Talks by the Mother including comments on her Questions and Answers 1929.	1.80MB
Volume 6	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1954 Talks by the Mother including comments on her essays on education and on three short works of Sri Aurobindo: Elements of Yoga, The Mother and Bases of Yoga.	1.88MB
Volume 7	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1955 Talks by the Mother including comments on Sri Aurobindo's Bases of Yoga, a chapter from The Human Cycle, two chapters from The Synthesis of Yoga, and the Mother's play, The Great Secret.	1.85MB
Volume 8	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1956 Talks by the Mother including comments on Sri Aurobindo's Synthesis of Yoga (Part One) and his Thoughts and Glimpses.	1.72MB
Volume 9	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Questions and Answers 1957–1958 Talks by the Mother including comments on Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Glimpses, The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth and the last six chapters of The Life Divine.	1.98MB
Volume 10	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 On Thoughts and Aphorisms Commentaries on Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Aphorisms, with the text.	1.75MB
Volume 11	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Notes on the Way Conversations with a disciple between 1964 and 1973 about the Mother's "sadhana of the body" and the experiences she was undergoing towards the end of her life.	1.49MB
Volume 12	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 On Education Essays on education and self-development; correspondence and conversations with students and teachers of the Ashram school and captains; and three plays: Towards the Future, The Great Secret and The Ascent to Truth.	7.57MB
Volume 13	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Words of the Mother Short written statements on Sri Aurobindo, herself, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville, India and other nations.	9.68MB
Volume 14	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Words of the Mother Short written statements on Yoga and life, dealing with the individual's relationship with the Divine, the path of Yoga, qualities needed in Yoga, difficulties of spiritual life, and human relationships and work.	4.14MB
Volume 15	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Words of the Mother Short written statements on Yoga and life: the Divine and the universe, adverse forces, religion, occultism, morality, war, wealth, government, transformation, illness and health, messages, prayers and talks.	5.33MB
Volume 16	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Some Answers of the Mother Correspondence with fourteen persons—disciples living in the Ashram and students of the Ashram school. The Mother answered questions about life and Yoga.	2.11MB
Volume 17	PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 More Answers of the Mother Correspondence with six persons—disciples living in the Ashram and students of the Ashram school. The Mother answered questions about life and Yoga.	5.02MB
All PDFs	Collected PDFs Zipped file of all the above PDFs.	49.7MB

Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Sadhana

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
The contents of this document are copyright 1972, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, India. You may make a digital copy or printout of this text for your personal, non-commercial use under the condition that you copy this document without modifications and in its entirety, including this copyright notice.

Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Sadhana

[Sri Aurobindo]

The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient sages of India that behind the appearances of the universe there is the Reality of a Being and Consciousness, a Self of all things, one and eternal. All beings are united in that One Self and Spirit but divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of their true Self and Reality in the mind, life and body. It is possible by a certain psychological discipline to remove this veil of separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the Divinity within us and all.

Sri Aurobindo's teaching states that this One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things release itself entirely and it become possible for life to manifest perfection.

But while the former steps in evolution were taken by Nature without a conscious will in the plant and animal life, in man Nature becomes able to evolve by a conscious will in the instrument. It is not, however, by the mental will in man that this can be wholly done, for the mind goes only to a certain point and after that can only move in a circle. A conversion has to be made, a turning of the consciousness by which mind has to change into the higher principle. This method is to be found through the ancient psychological discipline and practice of Yoga. In the past, it has been attempted by a drawing away from the world and a disappearance into the height of the Self or Spirit. Sri Aurobindo teaches that a descent of the higher principle is possible which will not merely release the spiritual Self out of the world, but release it in the world, replace the mind's ignorance or its very limited knowledge by a supramental Truth-Consciousness which will be a sufficient instrument of the inner Self and make it possible for the human being to find himself dynamically as well as inwardly and grow out of his still animal humanity into a diviner race. The psychological discipline of Yoga can be used to that end by opening all the parts of the being to a conversion or transformation through the descent and working of the higher still concealed supramental principle.

This, however, cannot be done at once or in a short time or by any rapid or miraculous transformation. Many steps have to be taken by the seeker before the supramental descent is possible. Man lives mostly in his surface mind, life and body, but there is an inner being within him with greater possibilities to which he has to awake - for it is only a very restricted influence from it that he receives now and that pushes him to a constant pursuit of a greater beauty, harmony, power and knowledge. The first process of Yoga is therefore to open the ranges of this inner being and to live from there outward, governing his outward life by an inner light and force. In doing so he discovers in himself his true soul which is not this outer mixture of mental, vital and physical elements but something of the Reality behind them, a spark from the one Divine Fire. He has to learn to live in his soul and purify and orientate by its drive towards the Truth the rest of the nature. There can follow afterwards an opening upward and descent of a higher principle of the Being. But even then it is not at once the full supramental Light and Force. For there are several ranges of consciousness between the ordinary human mind and the supramental Truth-Consciousness. These intervening ranges have to be opened up and their power brought down into the mind, life and body. Only afterwards can the full power of the Truth-Consciousness work in the nature. The process of this self-discipline or Sadhana is therefore long and difficult, but even a little of it is so much gained because it makes the ultimate release and perfection more possible.

There are many things belonging to older systems that are necessary on the way - an opening of the mind to a greater wideness and to the sense of the Self and the Infinite, an emergence into what has been called the cosmic consciousness, mastery over the desires and passions; an outward asceticism is not essential, but the conquest of desire and attachment and a control over the body and its needs, greeds and instincts are indispensable. There is a combination of the principles of the old systems, the way of knowledge through the mind's discernment between Reality and the appearance, the heart's way of devotion, love and surrender and the way of works turning the will away from motives of self-interest to the Truth and the service of a greater Reality than the ego. For the whole being has to be trained so that it can respond and be transformed when it is possible for that greater Light and Force to work in the nature.

In this discipline, the inspiration of the Master, and in the difficult stages his control and his presence are indispensable - for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much stumbling and error which would prevent all chance of success. The Master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only helps by his teaching and still more by his influence and example but by a power to communicate his own experience to others.

This is Sri Aurobindo's teaching and method of practice. It is not his object to develop any one religion or to amalgamate the older religions or to found any new religion - for any of these things would lead away from his central purpose. The one aim of his Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinise human nature.

August, 1934

Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Vol. 26, "Sri Aurobindo on Himself", pp. 95-97.

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Last update: 17 Feb. 1996.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Aurobindo -selection from Savitri.

Integral Yoga Literature - By Sri Aurobindo

Selections from the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library

From Volumes 28 and 29, Savitri

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
The contents of this document are copyright 1972, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, India. You may make a digital copy or printout of this text for your personal, non-commercial use under the condition that you copy this document without modifications and in its entirety, including this copyright notice.

from Book Eleven, Canto One, p.710-711, "The Eternal Day: The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation"

For knowledge shall pour down its radiant streams
And even darkened mind quiver with new life
And kindle and burn with the Ideal's fire
And turn to escape from mortal ignorance.
The frontiers of the Ignorance shall recede,
More and more souls shall enter into light,
Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner hear
And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame
And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight
And human wills tune to the divine will,
These separate selves the Spirit's oneness feel,
These senses of heavenly sense grow capable,
The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy
And mortal bodies of immortality.
A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell
And take the charge of breath and speech and act
And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns
And every feeling a celestial thrill.
Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come
Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind;
A sudden bliss shall run through every limb
And Nature with a mightier Presence fill.
Thus shall the earth open to divinity
And common natures feel the wide uplift,
Illumine common acts with the Spirit's ray
And meet the deity in common things.
Nature shall live to manifest secret God,
The Spirit shall take up the human play,
This earthly life become the life divine.