At the Feet of the Master

The Third Year

Though I was living in a separate house from the Master with my wife, Srimati Pullamma, we were considered as members of the Ashram. In 1923, there were only about a dozen permanent disciples in the Ashram. There were several persons coming and making short stays and going. Even of the permanent disciples, Nolini and Moni and Bijoy, were going now and then to Bengal and returning to Pondicherry.

Pondicherry was a free port and so no customs duties were collected for articles that arrived at the port from foreign countries. So articles like watches, fountain pens, diamonds, silks, scents, motor cars and all luxury goods were 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than they were at Madras and other places. So smuggling was the order of the day and it was very dextrously practised in spite of the British customs and secret Police service. As wines were cheap, Pondicherry abounded in all kinds of wines and liquors sold at low prices and so people from Madras were making week-end visits to consume liquor or smuggle it by some means or other. The customs department was collecting heavy duties on wines, but yet there was no end to smuggling and drinking. The lower nature in man does not yield to rules and regulations. Unless there is a change in one’s consciousness, there is no progress in man for higher life.

Sri Aurobindo’s ideal was that “All life is Yoga.” And so, he lived in a crowded place like Pondicherry, with all its vices and attractions, but was simple and austere in his life. With the exception of the Mother, those residing with him or frequenting him, much less the Pondicherry public, knew what experiments he was making in Supramental Yoga. The great siddhi of the attainment of Nirvana, which was the life mission of Buddha, walked into Sri Aurobindo unasked for. He could silence all thought in three days, which was a miracle even according to his guide in this matter, Sri Lele, and realised silent Brahman. The identity with Lord Krishna and the vision of Krishna everywhere and the realisation of God in all, all in God and all as God, he got during his jail life at Alipore when he was an under-trial prisoner. In spite of all these great realisations, which gave him Mukti, liberation, what was he aiming at, in Pondicherry? That, he said, was to get into supermind, and act from the state of Truth-consciousness, stationing himself far above the mind, and bring down this Truth-consciousness into the mind, life, body and Earth and transform the whole of nature, including the subconscient and the inconscient. By the time he came to Pondicherry in 1910, he had all the siddhis including Jivanmukta state (complete liberation in body, mind, life) without much effort. But to reach supermind, above mind, is like climbing the Himalayas and reaching the highest peak, Mount Everest, and going beyond, through the intervening planes of illumined mind, intuition, and overmind. He said that it took ten years for him to reach supermind. And he was not content with reaching it, but said that there are higher levels in the supermind. In his birthday speech on 15th August 1923, he said that he had not reached the highest supermind. Beyond supermind there is still the Satchidananda level. In his Yoga, mere ascent to the supermind is not enough. The Truth-consciousness must be brought down to all the levels up to the material consciousness and hard Matter and one has to plunge into the depths of dark Inconscience and bring down the supramental light there also. Thus, matter and spirit have to be united. Mere descent is not enough. Transformation is also envisaged in this Yoga. First, psychic transformation; then, spiritual; and lastly, supramental transformation of the whole being from top to toe and below, have to be carried out. It is a mighty endeavour and only a great hero can attempt to do this vast sadhana, contend against the Dark forces, win the battles and secure the final

Victory. Such a mighty adventure was not clearly envisaged in the past by the ancient Vedic sages or others after them in India, or elsewhere, nor attempts made systematically to go through the fiery ordeal. Supermind must be brought down to the earth-consciousness at any cost. It is with this spirit, the Master began and continued the sadhana, along with the Mother to help him on the way.

When Sri Aurobindo was engrossed in such a mighty attempt to scale the heights of the being and dive deep into the abyss of Matter and bring the superconscious light into this troubled Earth in order to change it, all attempts by politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, C. R. Das, Motilal Nehru, Lajpat Rai and others requesting him to leave Pondicherry and lead the country in the freedom struggle and preside over the Congress sessions, etc., proved abortive. Sri Aurobindo, the mighty spirit, would not swerve from his chosen aim till he attained his goal. When he was charged with trying to do a thing not attempted by even Krishna, he wrote in one of his letters to a disciple, “If human reason regards me as a fool for trying to do what Krishna did not try, I do not in the least care. There is no question of X or Y or anybody else in that. It is a question between the Divine and myself — whether it is the Divine Will or not, whether I am sent to bring that down or open the way for its descent or at least make it more possible or not. Let all men jeer at me if they will or all Hell fall on me if it will for my presumption, — I go on till I conquer or perish. This is the spirit in which I seek the Supermind, no hunting for greatness for myself or others»”²⁴

Though the Master was absorbed in such a mighty and vast adventure into the Unknown, we had no clear perception of the magnitude of the undertaking, or the difficulties of the path. We had only vague notions of his writings and talks on Overmind and Supermind. By getting a little of the higher light from above or within, we become vain and begin to show off our learning. But as one treads the path, one feels like a pygmy before the mighty spiritual Giant.

Though the Master was in such high and superb altitudes, he condescended to come down to our level, and speak and joke with us compassionately. He gave advice on all matters, political or otherwise. To political leaders who approached him, he gave proper advice. To others like poets, philosophers, artists, social workers, planners, economists, nay, to one and all who sought his advice, he did not deny the same but put them on the right lines. Many Yogis, who came to test him and show off their superiority, became humbled. Aspiring souls were given a helping hand and his touch was dynamic, and magnetic.

At that time, Mother’s greatness was not visible to all. My wife was seeing visions in meditation about the descent of great Shaktis into the Mother and when I narrated inadvertently some of these things to my fellow-sadhakas, they would not believe them. It was only after the Master retired into the background in November 1926, asking the disciples to look up to the Mother for guidance, that her hidden greatness was revealed to them. Of course, it was but natural for the sadhakas at that time to regard only the Master as their Guru, as the Mother had not revealed her status completely to all. There was also the racial prejudice among some about the Mother. This was natural among the half-baked sadhakas and others, as the political fight against the British was going on and there was hatred of all foreigners. But the Mother was a true Indian in an European body. She had occult training under Theon in Algeria and France, and was pursuing Yoga in Paris, on lines similar to that of Sri Aurobindo. The ways of the Divine are mysterious. Only persons of true knowledge, understanding and feelings can see things in their true light. The Mother was and is an enigma to many. Even after repeated writings and averments by the Master that the Mother is his collaborator, and a person of

equal status and attainments, with the same consciousness embodied in her as in himself, some are not able to so regard her. This is Maya.

In January 1924, some Congressmen came from Kakinada (A.P.) and wanted to see the Master which they could not. They were taken to the French Police station and there they picked up a row with the French Police while registering their names (which was the practice in those days when people came to see Sri Aurobindo). Sri Aurobindo said that it was an attempt of the outside forces to disturb the peace established by him in the Ashram. As no purpose was served in seeing the political agitators and non-cooperators who were frequenting the Cuddalore jail, near Pondicherry, in masses, the Master was avoiding them generally. This was of course misunderstood by many in their zeal to get a look at the Master, somehow.

In January, group meditation was stopped and evening sittings discontinued. Particular weekdays were given to each sadhaka to see or meditate before the Guru. There was disappointment at this development, but this step was taken on account of spiritual necessity by the Master. At about this time, Dilip Kumar Roy, a famous musician and writer came to have darshan of the Master. In February, Dhurandhar, from Maharashtra had darshan of the Master. At about this time, my old friend Tirupati came to stay in the Ashram, fresh from political jail, clad in a loincloth. He would not board a rickshaw drawn by human beings and he was very fastidious about dress, food and outer habits. Some time afterwards, he took up the true attitude regarding all these things, after the touch of the Master.

People from different parts of the country, with varied temperaments and tastes and habits flocked round the Master. The world is constituted by different elements and there is unity behind the wonderful diversity in creation. By Yoga, centuries of evolution are compressed into a few years or even a few months and perfection of one’s being attained.

The atmosphere round the Master was surcharged with pure vibrations of peace, light, power and Ananda. One could smell the fragrance of lotuses from his transparent, lustrous body. He had an elevated broad forehead, with a broad chest, and smooth, soft and glowing hands and feet, visible to all. He had magnetic, shining eyes with an aquiline nose. Dressed in dhoti, part of which was used by him now and then to cover his upper part of the body, he used to walk majestically for long hours with dishevelled hair in his room or verandah, meditating on others and the world. There was light talk, jokes and criticism when the disciples and visitors assembled before him for talks and he heartily enjoyed the same, coming down to their level.

I came to the end of my financial resources by the end of May 1924. I painfully intimated this fact to the Master and he sympathised with me. He had himself no funds at the time to maintain us. He never appealed to anybody or the public for funds at any time, in any manner whatsoever. If any devotee obliged him with funds knowing his dire wants, he would consider the source and accept the same. The Arya, which was a source of a small income, stopped long ago. Under these circumstances I took leave of the Master, and left his august presence with my wife in June 1924 with great regret.

During the last six months of my stay, sadhana was very intense in the Ashram. The stage of experiences gave place to the lowering of consciousness into the vital and body where the churning of the being started. The difficulties of the lower being had to be faced and the ignorant nature subject to pain and suffering had to be transformed. Sri Aurobindo’s ideal was “not a retreat from the difficulty of life in the world into the silence of the Ineffable, but the bringing down of the peace and light and power of a greater divine Truth and consciousness to transform life”, and his endeavour was to pursue this ideal. The lower impulses in me which rose up with the churning of the being had to be offered up to the Light and after a process of purification, transformed. Life in the outside world had to be faced,

and Karma Yoga, according to one’s swabhava, nature, and swadharma, law of the inner being, had to be performed. So my stay with the Master ended for the time being.