Daily Questions

It is not the untimely death but the state of consciousness that is important. Suicide is generally committed in a state of extreme mental agony which one continues to carry after death. There is also the question of deliberately cutting off the thread of your life thereby becoming an additional immediate cause of suffering to others by escaping from one’s challenges and responsibilities.

Dying on a battlefield is different, especially if one is truly charged with the spirit of sacrifice for the country or the cause. Here the future destiny may even be beautiful and glorious since sacrifice brings favor from the higher powers.

Sudden accidental deaths generally throw the person in quite a disoriented and confused state. It is helpful if someone can send such a person thoughts of peace and love.

As the Mother told us on 12 April 1953,”When I asked Him (December 8, 1950) to resuscitate his body, He clearly answered: “I have left this body purposely. I will not take it back. I shall manifest again in the first supramental body built in the supramental way.”

She confirmed this further in another statement also where She spoke about Sri Aurobindo being the last avatar in a human body. In the Hindu tradition also Kalki is regarded as the last human Avatar. Besides if we see the trajectory of Sri Aurobindo’s life and work we shall find that He had done the maximum that could ever be done and achieved within the frame of the human body. Whatever was left ‘incomplete’ so to say was to be further accomplished by the Mother which is what She did and achieved with the Supramental Manifestation on the 29th February 1956.

Yes there is something that still remains to be done and that also they have mentioned. It is that part wherein humanity has to become ready to receive the Supramental consciousness and progressively transform itself. The individual work within Their body was complete, or we may say as complete as could be done within the course of their life. The collective work had also been initiated on a sound and secure footing following the supramental manifestation and the creation of Auroville and various society centres across the world. Naturally the collective work spans across many more lifetimes than an individual work. This is so because of the interdependence of the individual and the collectivity. It is this that is being worked out now and will go on until the world is reasonably ready to receive and manifest the supramental consciousness. At least a certain number of human beings have to be ready for this evolutionary leap and it is this that is being done and those who can sustain and go through the process of change who are being prepared. This will go on until a critical point is reached whence the prepared ones will be suddenly lifted and taken up and integrated with the supramental creation that is being formed in the subtle physical plane. When ready it will precipitate itself into the gross physical world. Once this happens the rest of the humanity will rapidly undergo either a sublimating change creating a higher and more harmonious humanity that will become as the chain in the evolutionary ladder between the ape and the supramental beings while the rest who lost the moment and wasted the energies of the New Creation in furtherance of their egoistic empire will collapse and sink back into the animal kind with their energies integrated not the animal states. This is what the Gita also indicates about the Asuras.

Their coming again with the same old physical body would not serve any further purpose as whatever could be done while in the physical body has already been done. If we read carefully the first statement cited above it is also evident that the supramental body will not be formed through the normal birth. It will be formed by a pressure from above of bodies formed in the subtle physical and slowly crystallising into moulds being prepared here. This is the occult side of any evolution, which goes unseen. With the supramental creation this is how it is going to be What it means practically is that those who have sincerely taken to the supramental yoga will reach a point wherein they would depart seemingly much like anybody else but it will be another way of dying. Instead of losing and scattering the fragments of vital and mental sheaths they will be largely organized around the psychic and only small portions will be left off. The rest of it will be prepared through special processes in the subtle physical where Sri Aurobindo and the Mother dwell in their permanent abode. This process can be understood as the slow infusion of the supramental substance into the elements organized around the psychic. Thus more and more beings will be ready to enter and assume a more concrete body upon earth, a body less concrete and more plastic and luminous than what we have now but more concrete than what the subtle physical holds.

Aspire, aspire for it. If the aspiration is genuine the Divine will grant it. He will create the means and lead us towards the work He has intended for us. Meanwhile we should prepare ourselves for it through the karmayoga of the Gita. It involves mainly the practice of nishkama karma, equanimity, inner remembrance of the Divine in all circumstances, making an offering of our daily actions to the Divine. The more we get rid of preferences, egoism and desires, the better we become for the Divine Service.

Q: My mother has passed away, we all are in shock, not able to accept her death and want to talk to her, don’t know what to do? 

ALOKDA: The shock of the family is understandable. But it is important to understand that each soul has its own unique journey and while she is no more accessible to the senses, yet all is never destroyed. She must be traveling through the inner worlds towards the divine realm to rest and restore herself before returning again. It is not a good thing to disturb her during this passage. It will only delay her transit through the mid worlds. The right thing is to pray for her, send her thoughts of peace and love as a beautiful farewell gift from the family. It will support her on the journey. 

The importance of sacred Relics of Divine beings and personalities has always been known. Touch is intimately connected to the earth and objects invariably carry the impression (and the vibration) of the person who has used them. It was this truth that was at the basis of many practices in India. The difference between these and the sacred Relics (hair, tooth and nails) is that while the objects used by a divine being carry the stamp because they have been touched or used physically (it is a contact through the body) whereas in the latter it is the body itself carrying the unforgettable stamp of the consciousness of the divine being directly upon the body itself. With Sri Aurobindo it becomes even more special since unlike other Yogis, Sri Aurobindo specifically worked to transform the body by infusing the supramental consciousness into it. This is a singular example in the spiritual history of mankind. Therefore its immense importance cannot be compared to other sacred Relics.

As to the Ashram, it is and will always remain very special because it is not just Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s physical body lying in the Samadhi but even more importantly their taposthali (seat of tapasya) where everything, from their rooms, the walls and floors and the soil and the very air contains something of them soaked in it very tangibly.

Yoga is a journey towards the Divine. And the journey includes the bags and baggages that we cannot leave behind. But if we are earnest in our pursuit, especially if we have full faith, then the Divine either takes up our baggage or lightens up its weight gently leaving it by the side if necessary or else transforming what we consider as a difficulty into an opportunity for progress or even an instrument for His service and action.

A beautiful question. The house should be regarded as a temple and ourselves as trustees. Beauty and harmony of the inner and outer is the key to a house consecrated to the Divine. The eye should be on perfection and each object treated consciously as there is in them also a living Presence.

This is the essence. The relation between the husband and wife should one of equal partners who help each other grow and progress towards higher ideals. At the core of their relationship should be the aspiration for the Divine or at least a higher ideal. A mutual sharing of common ideals, interests and affinities at different levels makes the relationship harmonious and beautiful.

Children should be conceived consciously, if the couple wishes to, and brought up consciously in an atmosphere of peace, harmony and love. Parents should be the living example of the qualities they want the children to possess.

Quarrels, anger, distrust destroy the house whereas love, harmony, peace and truth nurture and nourish it.

This in a way is the gist of it.

Of course there is a sweet and sunlit path. In fact they advocate this sunlit path for all. But very few are able to walk upon it. It requires absolute faith and complete surrender as well as an increasing sincerity. If one has that and keeps to it through whatever ups and downs yet may come, then one is well on the royal road to the Divine. But wanting yoga so that one has no outer difficulties indicates a mixture in motive. To seek the Divine only to save oneself from difficulties is an inferior form of bhakti. One can take that route but it means the time taken will be long. Besides, as such, one cannot avoid certain difficulties in life. They arise from the very nature of life and our attachments and desires. And these things bring a certain degree of suffering regardless of path or no path. The difference however is that those sincerely turned towards the Divine go through them in a relatively unaffected way while others often get submerged by them.

Astrology is not a scam but an ill-understood Science and hence some of the astrologers may well be taking advantage of the dubious space and passing off as genuine ones. In any case it is not an accurate Science especially in terms of its predictive value as the workings of destiny are quite complex and the signs of the stars are only a rough notation.