To write and express what Sri Aurobindo and his present spiritual mission stand for is a presumption on my part, because it cannot truly be done except by himself. What we can do is to give a mental idea and outline of the truth which he represents. To use ordinary and accepted phraseology in doing it will be misleading. Like the other religious and spiritual giants of India he has hardly any mission to preach. He has rather a Truth to unfold and manifest, he sits there silent in his plenitude and glory actually living that truth so that seekers may come, realise and attain.
According to what he says here, it is the principle of Love that is transformed into flame and finally into light. It isn’t the principle of Light that is transformed into flame when it materializes: it’s the flame that is transformed into light. The great stars give light because they burn; they burn because they are under the effect of Love. Love would be the original Principle—that seems to be what he is saying.
A. B. Purani’s Evening Talks
11-12-1938
Disciple: Is there no justice for the misdeeds of people like S, V and N? Surely they will have to bear the consequences of their actions? And yet how is it these people succeed in life?
Sri Aurobindo: Justice in this life? May not be. Most probably not. But justice is not what most people believe it to be. It is said that virtuous people will have happiness, prosperity etc. in another life while in this life they have the opposite effects. In that case, the people you speak of must have been virtuous in their previous life. There is justice in the sense that the virtuous and pious people advance towards Sattwic nature while the contrary one goes down the scale of humanity and become more and more Asuric. That is what I have said in the “Arya.”
(At this moment Mother came in and asked what was the subject of talk. Sri Aurobindo replied that X was asking about justice, –whether it exists. After some moments’ pause Mother said the following)
From CWM, Centenary Edition, Volume 13, page 381
(Regarding a Frenchman whose disappointed idealism led him to write an article critical of India)
Blinded by false appearances, deceived by calumnies, held back by fear and prejudice, he has passed by the side of the god whose intervention he implores and saw him not; he has walked near to the forces which will accomplish the miracle he demands and had no will to recognise them. Thus has he lost the greatest opportunity of his life ― a unique opportunity of entering into contact with the mysteries and marvels whose existence his brain has divined and to which his heart obscurely aspires.
This has a reference to the Mother’s Talk dated 29 May 1957 discussing a passage from The Supramental Manifestation. A divine life in a divine body is the formula of the ideal that is envisaged. But it is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of transformation. It might be also that it would take place by stages, that in practice it may be found that these intermediate levels would not be sufficient for the total transformation; they could bring down to the mind only a partial divinity or raise the mind towards that but not effectuate its elevation into the complete supramentality of the truth-consciousness. Still these levels might become stages of the ascent which some would reach and pause there while others went higher and could reach and live on superior strata of a semi-divine existence.
As we climb beyond Mind, higher and wider values replace the values of our limited mind, life and bodily consciousness. Aesthesis shares in this intensification of capacity. The capacity for pleasure and pain, for liking and disliking is comparatively poor on the level of our mind and life; our capacity for ecstasy is brief and limited; these tones arise from a general ground of neutrality which is always dragging them back towards itself. As it enters the Overhead planes the ordinary aesthesis turns into a pure delight and becomes capable of a high, a large or a deep abiding ecstasy. The ground is no longer a general neutrality, but a pure spiritual ease and happiness upon which the special tones of the aesthetic consciousness come out or from which they arise. This is the first fundamental change.
You have no enemies, you say?
Alas, my friend, the boast is poor,
For those who have mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes.
If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You’ve never set the wrong to right.
You’ve been a coward in the fight.
Charles MacKay (1814-1889)
National Education is a very vast subject. When I was told about the topic I did not in the beginning quite realise its implications. But as I started thinking about it, I immediately understood its importance. The sorts of difficulties about the idea of National Education that are encountered here do not present themselves in Bengal. Here in the Bombay Province it is not clear to many or it is not understood properly by them as to what exactly does National Education mean. The term ‘National Education’ with a specific connotation is suspected and men of wisdom dismiss it. On the other hand, in Bengal the necessity to explain the concept of National Education does not arise at all. There may be people in favour of it or against it; but National Education is something that is taken by them as an actual fact, something that has been experienced by them. There is no necessity in Bengal to explain it or discuss it to convince people about the sense it carries. But in your Bombay Province it has, at present, only a verbal implication. It has not yet gone beyond mere talk. That is also perhaps the reason why people are suspect of it.
I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people. I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity—your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.
Mirror of Tomorrow 