OF NOTE

With this August 1988 issue, we commemorate the 116^th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, of whom the Mother wrote on 14 February 1961, ‘What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.’

 On 26 July of that same year, a disciple questioned the Mother on certain comments she had made a few days earlier, concerning the fact that Sri Aurobindo left his body before explaining what he had been doing, and that it was a path in a virgin forest: “One’s eyes are blindfolded and one knows nothing, one walks on…’ Then the Mother commented,

‘That continues to be true. When will we see the end? In a hundred years?’

(The Mother remained pensive for a moment)

‘It has come like this: twenty years.

‘Take it for what it is worth.’

How was the Mother’s ‘prediction’ expected to take shape? In twenty years from July 26, 1961, what would have happened to explain what Sri Aurobindo had been doing and where it was all leading? It is certainly not a ‘coincidence’ but a direct confirmation of the Mother’s clear-seeing that The New Way was published exactly 20 years almost to the day of her statement. And the central theme of The New Way is precisely ‘Sri Aurobindo’s secret’. Therefore, with this issue we also commemorate the 7^th anniversary of that publication.

  The Mother’s 18 July 1961 conversation reproduced in this issue will further demonstrate the connection between our work today and what the Mother had intuited its course would be in the future.

***

‘Our explanation of the evolution in Matter is that the universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality whose presence makes spirit the substance of things, – all things are there as the spirit’s powers and means and forms of manifestation. An infinite existence, an infinite consciousness, an infinite force and will, an infinite delight of being is the Reality secret behind the appearances of the universe; its divine Supermind or Gnosis has arranged the cosmic order, but arranged it indirectly through the three subordinate and limiting terms of which we are conscious here, Mind, Life and Matter. The material universe is the lowest stage of a downward plunge of the manifestation, an involution of the manifested being of this triune Reality into an apparent nescience of itself, that which we now call the Inconscient; but out of this nescience the evolution of that manifested being into a recovered self-awareness was from the very first inevitable. It was inevitable because that which is involved must evolve; for it is not only there as an existence, a force hidden in its apparent opposite, and every such force must in its inmost nature be moved to find itself, to realise itself, to release itself into play, but it is the reality of that which conceals it, it is the self which the Nescience has lost and which therefore it must be the whole secret meaning, the constant drift of its action to seek for and recover. It is through the conscious individual being that this recovery is possible; it is in him that the evolving consciousness becomes organised and capable of awaking to its own Reality. The immense importance of the individual being, which increases as he rises in the scale, is the most remarkable and significant fact of a universe which started without consciousness and without individuality in an undifferentiated Nescience. This importance can only be justified if the Self as individual is no less real than the Self as comic Being or Spirit and both are powers of the Eternal…’

                                                            Sri Aurobindo

                                                            The Life Divine

                                                            CE, Vol. 19, p. 755

***

The binary system, the world of devas and asuras, or gods and titans, gives way to a unitary cosmos. The method to achieve this formidable shift is the object of the supramental yoga. It is the goal of the early stages of the Work. And when we speak of our times as a transitional period, we mean that we are living the great transition from a binary to a unitary system. This affects each and every aspect of life: political, social, economic – in a word, the entire woof and warp of our present civilisation; and it affects, in the deepest strata, the individualised consciousness of the human being. When we say that a new species is being formed, we mean an individual enjoying a new and realigned consciousness, possessing a physical instrument capable of housing this newly structured consciousness. We mean an individual composed of a true centre, like unto a single central and binding Sun. This luminous core stands alone and uncontested at the centremost pivot of one’s being. It does not share its occupancy; it does not permit any usurpation of its power, any drain of its energy; it allows no interference in its ability to hold all the dimensions of consciousness-being in orbit of itself. It is the resplendent divine Will in the world, the Immortal among mortals. It is the unfolding Vision of the Supreme, objectivising the world through the individual soul, a creation ‘in its own image’.

This central Sun cannot emerge unless the binary condition is transformed. Consequently, the individual’s inherent truth, or dharma, cannot manifest in its fullest potency and effective capacity of realisation while the binary struggle ensues and tears down all that the creative consciousness seeks to build in our inner recesses of being. For the core of that Sun is where the inherent truth-seed is lodged. When the perfect alignment comes into being, the aspirant makes contact with that TRUE centre, and it is then allowed to occupy a recognised place in one’s existence. The aspirant then finds his/her life restructured around this truth-conscious Sun and is able to contribute his or her truth to the new gnostic collectivity, wherein there is a perfect blending of the unity and the multiplicity.

In a consciousness of this nature there is no tension – there is simply a pure expression of harmony. There is as well no tedious monotony or uniformity, enforced by external laws disconnected from the individualised seed of truth operating from within and extending outward in the process of an unfolding of the central Will. The collectivity becomes the channel for the expression of a unified multiplicity, a cosmos, a harmonised system in which no tension exists, no battle of the wills, no opposition to the central Will. Indeed, each member of the new collectivity becomes a channel for the expression of harmony and the spontaneous experience of a divine life.

To reach this state however a certain process must be experienced, precisely what we are living now in this transitional phase. The compact seed-period of this passage is 27 years. This stretches from 1971 to 1998. We close this remarkable century with the abolition of a binary system as the pattern for the structure of the human consciousness, and we enter the new century and millennium poised differently; individually and collectively we house a new consciousness which is unitary in its centremost core.

I have discussed the Mother’s contribution to this great change in the previous parts of this series. Being the embodiment of the Cosmic Divine, or the 6 Power in the descending scale of the Solar Line, the Mother faced the formidable task of clearing the way for a new perception of the cosmic reality. That is, she was entrusted with the task of creating the conditions for this great shift from a binary to a unitary system in the cosmic dimension. Religions and philosophical systems have provided seekers throughout the ages with records of various perceptions of the cosmic dimension. The mythologies of all civilisations record the manner in which the human being has perceived the cosmic manifestation in moments of enlightenment. All confirm this binary status.

In India there is an elaborate mythology as well – in the Veda and the Puranas and the great epics, the Ramayan and the Mahabharat. But above the dual play these tales describe there is ever the ultimate Brahman. In the intermediate level, however, Indian myths present a voluptuous world of Devas and Asuras in unending antagonism and combat. These titles, it must be pointed out, are names we give to forces operating in the universe – both in the subtle planes and in the denser, more material dimensions. The commingling of these forces on the subtle planes finds its expression on Earth ultimately. Everything that transpires ‘up above’, so to speak, finally converges ‘here below’. Our material world, the ‘reality’ which for many is the only concrete truth, is the plane of existence where the actions of those forces find their ultimate expression. Therefore the Solar Line is a descending scale: 9 to 6 to 3, the essential triune Powers. These are 9 (Transcendent), 6 (Cosmic) and 3 (Individual). The manifestation of these Powers in time is in the same descending order: first the 9 incarnates, closely followed by the 6 (and these two Powers performing a joint mission); then 60 years later by the 3.

The work of the first two, the 9 and the 6, corresponds to the subtle planes and involves primarily those ‘upper regions’. However, the importance of their contribution resides in the fact that 1) they deal with those planes – the transcendent and the cosmic – in ‘a new way’, that is, on the basis of an Earth orientation, no longer a direction which is otherworldly; they reorganise the energies in those subtle dimensions precisely for the purpose of introducing this new direction; and, 2) they are a part of a line, a manifestation involving four Powers spread out in time in their participation, but yet each one intrinsically connected to the other and all participating in a comprehensive, interrelated work of transformation. This latter is perhaps the single most significant aspect of this new Age. Never before have the four Powers appeared on Earth in this overlapping and integral manner. And on this basis alone the great shift we are describing can come into being.

We are now at the third level of this descending scale. In the early part of the decade of the 70s, there was a brief overlapping of the 6 and the 3. This lasted until the Mother had effected the transference of the Knowledge to the Third, thus completing a work which would allow the new field to emerge. The Mother left her body in November of 1973, immediately after the most important key of the new phase had been passed on: the Gnostic Circle, the tool with which the ordering process, the creation of a cosmos out of the chaos could be undertaken, the method to perceive and put into effect that ‘super-organisation’. From 1971 until 1973, the Mother was preparing her withdrawal in this way, by passing on the power, the knowledge and the condition of the field to the Third. With this heritage the later stage could come into being.

The goal of this new phase is to draw the transformative work of the Transcendent and Cosmic Divine in the subtle planes to this Earth plane – for the Third in the cosmic harmony is the Earth and the individual soul. It is only now that a new heaven can become established on a new Earth.

‘A new heaven and a new earth’…This is a pregnant phrase. It appears in the Rigveda and in more recent times in ‘The Revelation’ of St John. But the most significant aspect of this phrase is always overlooked in the countless commentaries and speculations on these texts. For what is meant by ‘a new heaven’? We can easily appreciate that ‘a new earth’ is demanded for the supramental transformation since this planet – religions have been unanimous in declaring – is the proverbial hell to be abandoned or transcended. We see that every aspect of life covering all four levels of existence as we experience it on Earth must be changed into some sort of ‘newness’ if this prophecy is to unfold, that we must no longer be mechanical in our experience of life but that a new consciousness must replace the old. Even our physical structure expresses the need for this newness, and the ‘earth’ in this context refers to our ultimate base and vehicle in this most physical dimension. But what does ‘a new heaven’ signify, by far the most important part of the prophecy? For unless this ‘new heaven’ manifests there can be no ‘new Earth’.

Consequently, when we discuss Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work as being largely restricted to the subtle planes, we mean that they brought into being this ‘new heaven’. They transformed conditions in those subtle spheres to permit the Earth to receive this ‘newness’ from above. Naturally this is an overlapping process. Above and below are worked on together. But the boundaries each member of the Solar Line must work within are clearly defined. Sri Aurobindo’s involvement with the transcendent plane meant the introduction of a new direction in the quest. That is, until his coming the direction assumed in any path was ‘the liberation of the consciousness’, which meant an ultimate, total emergence into the Transcendent beyond the cosmic manifestation. His formidable task was to halt that direction and bring about a reversal, complete and irrevocable.

Needless to say, this was a tremendous operation which required his total concentration and a complete withdrawal from outer activities. I do not propose in this series to discuss the minute details of his work. This has been done in part in THE NEW WAY. At this point I would like to concentrate on the Mother’s achievement; first because whatever she did contains the accomplished work of Sri Aurobindo, and secondly because hers is closer to us in time and immediately preceded this present phase. We are continuing in a direct sequence the work she carried out. The student can easily appreciate that in her contribution we find the contribution of Sri Aurobindo, borne along by Time in the irreversible unfolding of the supramental seed of truth.

Thus in Sri Aurobindo’s time, while he was engaged in a process restricted to the transcendent plane and for which reason he was obliged to withdraw from outer activity, the Mother was left to deal with the cosmic dimension. But these two Powers were embodied, and the work the Time-Spirit had arranged for them had to have correspondences in this physical plane. This was imperative given the new direction Sri Aurobindo introduced. They transformed conditions in those subtle spheres, but strictly for the purpose of establishing a divine life upon Earth. Hence all the details of their lives and joint mission will furnish irrefutable proof of these processes as described by the new cosmology. Sri Aurobindo’s withdrawal and aloofness from the world – that is, the removed condition of his personal field of yoga – is a clear indication of his action in the transcendent plane to reverse the direction in the evolution of consciousness. While the Mother’s total involvement with the activities of the Ashram provided her with a laboratory or field of yoga which could reproduce the conditions in the cosmic dimension, teeming with the intermingling play of forces. In both cases their respective fields of yoga were carefully arranged to enable them to bring the gains of those planes onto this planetary base, rooted in the Earth.

*

Some disciples close to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were aware of the nature of their work. But failing to have the complete vision of the entire Line, a certain negativism coloured their seeing, especially after the Mother’s passing. Disciples were then left to their own power of seeing, to piece together the mosaic she left but which, in their eyes, consisted of only just so many pieces and no more; hence the picture that emerged on this basis perforce had to bear the stamp of incompleteness and a scenario riddled with those ‘painful enigmas’.

One such disciple was Nolini Kanta Gupta, perhaps the first to embrace Sri Aurobindo’s yoga definitively. He went into exile with Sri Aurobindo at the time the British forced their retreat to Pondicherry, since Nolini was an associate of Sri Aurobindo in the freedom movement. Thereafter this involvement progressed from one of political collaboration to a relationship of master and disciple. He remained with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother throughout his life as one of their most faithful and loyal pupils.

Nolini Kanta Gupta lived a very long life, hence he was witness to the entire unfolding of Sri Aurobindo’s mission, as well as the years of the Mother’s solitary work from 1950 onwards, after Sri Aurobindo left his body. Toward the end of his life (he passed away in 1984), Nolini was faced with the disturbing fact of a laboratory in which an array of energies had been collected but no clear vision of the next and ultimate phase of resolution. One thing is commendable in his regard: unlike most disciples, Nolini did not allow sentimentality to disfigure what he perceived the conditions to be. He saw the naked reality and he often gave faithful expression to what he saw. An example is an article he wrote for an Ashram journal published several years after the Mother’s passing. I wish to reproduce this brief article in full because it is directly related to our present discussion – the Devas and Asuras, or the old binary system. The article is entitled ‘On the Brink’. It begins with a commentary on a verse from the Atharvaveda, II, 4, 2:

‘When the swan soars high up from out of the waters,

one of its legs it does not lift up,

if it lifted that leg also, there would be no today nor tomorrow

nor night nor day – nor the Dawn anymore.’

…Thus says the Vedic Rishi. Even so when the Mother withdrew from this earth we presumed that she did so with one foot only, the other foot she left planted here below for us to worship. Well, was that only a presumption or things have changed since?

Here on this earth we know a battle was raging and is still raging between the Gods and the Asuras; men are their agents and instruments. The battle is to decide the destiny of the earth and humanity. Mother was the leader of the divine army here. Now human beings are a very uncertain quantity. They themselves do not know on which side they are ranging. Some perhaps may know to some extent but that does not seem to count much in the actual reckoning of things.

Yes, the pity is that man does not know and yet so much if not the whole thing depends on him. For man as he is now is so far removed from godliness and so close to the asura that the battle upon earth between gods and asuras seems to be an unequal game. Man by actual nature is asuric; it is through aspiration that he is trying to be godly, but it seems he is now out of breath with his aspiration and has fallen back on his normal nature of the Asura.*

It was the intention of the Mother to implant the Divine upon the turbid soil of normal humanity, purifying it of its dross and suffusing it with the heavenly breath. If that is not done then she will have no other choice but to leave the field altogether to the Asura, in whatever camp or form they are, to fight it out among themselves and finally destroy themselves in the act, even like the Yadavas of old after Krishna’s retirement. Some Asuras may like to pretend to be divine precisely to ‘catch’ the voting strength of the human being, so to say, who may still seem to have a prejudice or predilection for divine things but the truth will be out and the pretenders will be compelled to disclose themselves exactly as they are.

Then only, consequent on the self-annihilation of the Asura can this earth be free and open for the incoming of the new race of beings born divine, not made. Whether any remnants of the human race will be left and in what condition, if any part of it could be incorporated or integrated into the new dispensation is a mystery that will remain so till the actuality reveals itself.

But I must not leave it at that, for there is always hope and cheer, vistas of escape; the tunnel ends at last and at the end there is always the light. The Lord says indeed: I am Time, the Destroyer of the world – but he also declares in no uncertain terms in his voice of assurance the resounding bugle-call of his panchajanya, the Divine Conch:

‘To this unhappy ephemeral world you have come.

Love me and live in me.

Take refuge in me alone;

I shall free you from all evil. Do not grieve.’

* Sri Aurobindo in one of his private notes discloses that most of his disciples were asuras, the bigger the disciple the greater the Asura. Maybe they came of themselves in order to surrender and be converted to the new life because impelled by a higher call. It may be that the urge wore off and the end had to be postponed for its fulfillment. It is significant what Sri Aurobindo says in his ‘Hymn to Durga’: ‘O Mother, give to our life and mind the Asura’s strength, the Asura’s energy and to our heart and intelligence a God’s character and a God’s knowledge.’

*

The appearance of this article caused a considerable uproar in the Ashram, the footnote in particular. To make confusion worse confounded, Nolini wrote that Sri Aurobindo’s statement on the asuric status of his closer disciples is to be found ‘among his private notes’. Thus it cannot be brushed aside as a casual comment but a statement to be preserved in writing for posterity. In the light of this present analysis regarding that same asuric influence among the Mother’s closest disciples, Sri Aurobindo’s declaration is not difficult to accept. Indeed, as Nolini writes, these powers did not flock to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for the purpose of transformation, though the nature of this transformation may be entirely different from what disciples presume. It is clear that Nolini was not acquainted with the intricate, intimate details of that ‘conversion’, hence the defeated tone of his piece.

Nothing at all had to be ‘postponed for its fulfillment’, as he writes in his footnote. However, for disciples who see only the Mother and Sri Aurobindo as instruments in this transformation and are unaware of the existence, and the imperative need, of a third and fourth power in the Line, the structure of their work cannot stand solidly on this Earth and one can easily be overtaken by a sense of hopelessness and defeat.

The role Nolini Kanta Gupta played in Sri Aurobindo’s work centres on an aspect of great consequence. His innate tendency drove him always toward a realisation of the static Peace, the transcendent Brahman Consciousness. Mentally, intellectually he could appreciate, perhaps better than anyone else in Sri Aurobindo’s entourage, that this sort of realisation was insufficient and incompatible with the full manifestation of the Supermind. But a mental appreciation is one thing. The fibre of one’s being is another. And Nolini’s inner fibre drove him constantly to an aloofness, to desire and to seek a state of uncontaminated Peace. On several occasions I had to confront this attitude in him. It allowed me to realise the tremendous difficulties Sri Aurobindo must have faced in ‘reversing the direction’ of the quest. Little is known among his disciples of the precise nature of his tapasya. When he wrote of the yoga he was doing – never in any great detail and always providing mere hints of his course – he made no detailed reference to this labour, this great reversal. But it must be pointed out that he is still engaged in this colossal shift. There is still something crucial, essential yet to be accomplished. We may call it, Sri Aurobindo’s ‘unfinished business.’ It is a work of the fourth level.

During the time of Sri Aurobindo’s embodiment as the 9 the first hard crust had to be broken so that this new and revolutionary direction could be consolidated in the Manifestation. Disciples like Nolini Kanta Gupta provided Sri Aurobindo with the proper ‘atmosphere’ for this work. Nolini was not one of those asuras Sri Aurobindo wrote of. His contribution was not a resistance but rather a somewhat obstinate clinging to the realisations of the past which Nolini had undoubtedly attained in former lives. The realisations of those lifetimes had to serve in this one as material for the supramental Avatar to mould into a supple and responsive substance, willing and ready to accept the new direction, able to lay those past achievements at the feet of the Master and surrender all attachment to that irresistible, compelling desire for an immutable static Peace.

Like so many others of Sri Aurobindo’s entourage, Nolini was not meant to participate in the third stage of the Manifestation. He might again appear with Sri Aurobindo in the fourth, but under entirely different conditions and circumstances.

The lack of a precise knowledge of the later stages of the work and especially of the details the new cosmology provides regarding the way in which the Supermind would operate in the world – namely through the mechanics of a new, gnostic time – is what contaminated, to a certain degree, Nolini’s seeing. He was extremely perceptive, so close to the full truth; and, above all, so courageous in giving expression to this seeing regardless of the consternation this produced in the Mother’s entourage. No one wished to hear of the true things, to learn of the true conditions. Everyone wanted – and they continue to want – obscuring veils to which they may cling tenaciously. Indeed, none wish to hear of the battle in which a number of close disciples embody that asuric force.

However, not possessing the full knowledge, Nolini could only see the work left unfulfilled and with no direct bridge to the future. He could not appreciate that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had actually completed their work in their respective incarnations and that what he might have intuited as a ‘postponement’ for a later fulfillment was, in fact, a transformation in its initial important stages right at the time he was giving expression to his concern. The way to perceive this was out of bounds for one seeking the immutable transcendent Peace. One had to accept the world, the battlefield in its true conditions. In a word, one had to accept the Becoming in equal measure to the Being.

A temperament such as Nolini Kanta Gupta possessed would inevitably find great difficulty in reconciling his innate tendencies (it ought to be pointed out that he was a native of the sign Capricorn and hence particularly inclined to seek the heights of the Transcendent) with the turmoil that was the condition in the Ashram (and in India) in the 1970s after the Mother’s passing. It was then that the definitive split occurred between the Ashram and Auroville, thus drawing a deadly cleavage in the Master’s work between these two arenas. While this constituted an irreparable loss for Auroville, which was then left orphaned before it had attained any sort of maturity or established any sound foundations in knowledge and power via the practice of years of strenuous and demanding yoga, the situation in the Ashram was no less alarming. It was immediately after the Mother’s passing that the great Negator secured complete control of the organisation. This was done surreptitiously and in stages, though entirely obvious to anyone of vision who knew the manner in which the work centred in the Ashram was to be carried forward into the future – that is, by assuring itself of sources of replenishment for the collectivity. During the time Sri Aurobindo and the Mother presided over the yoga and the Ashram’s affairs this replenishment was secure; admittance of new members on the basis of a higher seeing was done by them alone. At times their choices may have appeared ill-founded to the ordinary vision, however the people they admitted into this unique laboratory had a purpose to fulfil there, some to serve in an individual capacity, but most to offer an amorphous, unconscious ‘mass’. And this was related to the overall plan concerning the type of work we are discussing in this series. Thus new members had to pass a certain ‘test’ which consisted in the assessment by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother of that individual’s destiny and ability to contribute to the deeper purpose of the Ashram.

When the Mother left her body – indeed, for several years prior to her departure one could perceive the signs of the coming change – the situation shifted dramatically. Those replenishing founts were systematically brought under the exclusive control of the great Negator and his lieutenants.

The first to experience this change was, as mentioned in Part 2, the Ashram School. Insofar as the great Negator had a marked dislike for certain children and/or their parents, and an obsessive distrust of foreigners, the Mother accommodated his refusal to accept these students into the Sports Department, of which he was the director, by starting a parallel sports section. This is one example of her tendency to avoid confrontation while at the same time finding an alternate means for continuing her work. In this auxilliary sports group there were several dozen students of different ages. However, immediately after the Mother’s passing this parallel system, which had accommodated a number of worthy elements, was done away with. The rule was laid down then that no child could be admitted into the Ashram School unless he or she was simultaneously granted admission into the Sports Department, whose overlord was the great Negator. In all schools throughout the world when a child is granted admission by the overall authority of the institution, this automatically applies to all departments of the school. Thus the Sri Aurobindo Centre of Education is unique in the world in that it is the director of the Sports Department who is this overall, final authority because of his ultimate power of veto, so to say.

When this new regulation came into effect in 1974, the auxilliary body was dismantled; some students were taken into the main sports division and could then continue in the school, others were not and were thus obliged to leave, though they had been legitimately admitted by the Mother herself, in many cases years prior to her passing. In this fashion, the ultimate authority concerning admission or elimination of students resided in an individual bereft of any higher perceptive capacities, any wideness of vision or global consciousness, any sense of destiny and purpose – not to speak of the demands of a collective experiment of a unique order. Above all, such a crucial part of the community’s life was placed in the hands of one of the staunchest opponents of the Mother’s transformation (‘In 30 years I’ve seen enough…! Enough of HUMBUG!’).

Gradually this same control extended to the Ashram itself. It is now a rule that no new members are accepted as ashramites from ‘outside’. They must come from the ranks of the Ashram School. That is, since only graduates from the Centre of Education can become full-fledged members of the Ashram itself, in this indirect manner the great Negator has come to exercise complete control over the two main sources of replenishment in the community. And in this fashion he has secured that no individual in the future can enter the organisation who might provide a resistance to his dark rule and effectively act as a counterbalance to the negating course his direction has imposed upon that institution; and by consequence upon all those who are connected in any way with the fate of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram throughout the world.

On occasion there have been attempts to break through this iron crust of ignorance. I am reminded of one situation which arose in 1984, reported to me then by a group of students from the Centre of Education. Applications for admittance to the school were received from a few European children, whose parents had had a long association with Sri Aurobindo’s teachings and with the institution itself. Predictably, the great Negator, irredeemable xenophobic, refused them admittance. A delegation of students and teachers went to him to plead the case of these youngsters, but to no avail. If I recall correctly, his reply was that it was in their best interests not to come, it was not the right time. Knowing the limitations of his consciousness, we can readily understand what framework of reference provoked this pronouncement.

Thus, this was the condition of that collectivity when Nolini Kanta Gupta wrote his piece, ‘On the Brink’. Seeing this situation and its logical consequences, coupled with the collapse of Auroville, and finding himself helpless to deal with it though he was the seniormost trustee, understandably his vision became clouded by a film of negativism. He had no inclination to perceive ‘the new way’, whose foundations were being laid at the very time this pathetic situation was developing in both the Ashram and in Auroville. Therefore he could only write of ‘postponement’, unable to see in that dismaying chaos the harsh, legitimate conditions of the work via the play of circumstances controlled by the Supramental Shakti, with the aim of establishing the new centre of the work in an uncontaminated, virgin field.

*

In 1980 there was a radical shift in the organisation of the fledgling cosmos. An entirely new beginning surfaced in the very first week of January in that immensely important year of an acutely important decade. The physical ties with the old field were severed, like the severance of an umbilical cord at the time of birth. But this was merely ‘a beginning’, albeit new and revolutionary. The new field required for its consolidation a process of its own, in certain ways similar to the process Sri Aurobindo and the Mother experienced in the formation of the laboratory they created for their particular work, but in many ways diametrically different. The principal difference lay in the greater awareness of the intricacies of the new order and the way in which the new Power functions. This more conscious participation became possible because of the foundations in knowledge which were laid in the decade of the 70s in the Ashram itself, built upon the already formidable structure Sri Aurobindo and the Mother left. As I have stated, the chaos prevailing in those former arenas furnished the ingredients, the impulsion or compulsion for that foundation-laying and what subsequently became known as ‘the Yoga of the Chamber’, the yoga of the decade of the 1980s. The group that was to carry out this complex process settled into the locale established for the purpose on 2-3 July (1980), the very date of the Mother’s prophetic ‘hotel vision’, 23 years earlier; and the work accomplished in that location was accurately described by her then: the creation of a centre, and hence the first foundations of the new unitary cosmos.

As I have pointed out in the course of this series, there are no ‘coincidences’ in this work, in the way we have come to understand the word. Things do not happen disconnectedly, and if this appears to be the case, it usually means that clarity awaits further developments; our vision is normally too limited to be able to perceive the interrelation between events and a coherent development in processes which seem to be devoid of sense. The gain of an ‘acceleration of time’ through the practice of the supramental yoga is a formidable aid in perceiving this interconnection, inasmuch as it draws events closer together in time, thereby assisting the sadhak in appreciating a connection that would otherwise escape his vision due to lengthy intervals between one event and another.

Thus, July 2-3 1980, brought about a fundamental link-up with the Mother’s prophetic dream of the same date in 1957. In this context there is another date which played an equally significant role even in the present, as I have pointed out in the article ‘Matrimandir Disinformation – Once Again!’ [TVN, 3/2, June 1988]. This is April 7. Indeed, so accurate has this correspondence been that the person in the group, who served as the ‘petty tyrant’ to provide the tension and the atmosphere propitious for the emergence of the unitary system, was born precisely on 7 April.

The student may also observe that, as described in The New Way, this date corresponds to the base of the Pedestal in the Chamber’s Core. Thus it closes the all-important 3½ month period ‘contained in the Core’, a span of time particularly significant even in other traditions. In The New Way I have discussed this period in detail [see TNW, Volume 2, Chapter 2]. In ‘The Revelation’ of St John we find this to be the principal key – the 3½ measure – concerning the return of the Godhead St John prophesies in his text (see The Hidden Manna, Chapter 12); while in traditional Christian worship this period marks the birth and the death and resurrection of the Christ.

Students of the new cosmology are aware that there is an astrological significance in this time span. It stretches from the December solstice to the March equinox. The approximate ½ addition to the 3 months which constitute passage from solstice to equinox are the number of days in the Pedestal in the Chamber’s Core; precisely the period connected to the Fourth/Son Principle and the addition of the power which makes the manifestation of the Solar Line a supramental one. In the Pedestal the alchemical process is described of transmutation of the solar substance to the Mars energy of the Vedic Son, Agni. This is the same Godhead in the Puranas named, Skanda or Kartikeya, and in St John’s ‘Revelation’, the Mars War God. All of this concerns the transformation of matter and the realisation of immortality. All of this is ‘written’ in the detailed measurements of the Chamber-Core.

Thus, in bequeathing the Chamber’s plan to the Daughter of the Line, whose specific task is to put order into that carefully arranged Chaos, the Mother provided her with the key to an ‘immaculate seeing’. The objective of the work of the 1980s has been the revelation and practice of a yoga which, using the foundations in Knowledge of the 1970s, could carry these gains into the range of ‘real effective power’, as the Mother had anticipated as early as 1957. The sacred Knowledge is the foundation ever and always of this supramental yoga – and especially of the Yoga of the Chamber, as it has come to be known.

Indeed, in the 1980s the Chamber was ‘constructed’. This was a parallel work. While in Auroville the physical construction work was in progress during this period, in Kodaikanal a construction in consciousness was taking place, but in many ways no less ‘physical’. This parallel work counteracted the negative condition the structure in Auroville gave rise to, but on the basis of a very special strategy. The counterwork rendered the physical structure irrelevant. That is, its ‘power to sting’ was neutralised.

This discussion is necessarily an ‘esoteric’ one since we are dealing with hitherto unexperienced and unexplored realms of yoga, and, above all, that immeasurably elusive factor, time. For indeed Time was the cementing substance of this supramental Yoga of the Chamber. Time was the ally; Time was and is that effective Power.

The Measure of the Year acquires a unique significance in the Yoga of the Chamber. Indeed, the principal feature of the Temple’s central shaft is precisely this measure. Hence the Mother referred to the Ray of Sun playing upon the Globe as ‘the symbol of the future realisation’. It is a curious fact that when the Mother made this statement no one seemed intrigued or demonstrated a desire to find out what she meant. It was exactly 3½ years after her statement that the truth of that ‘symbol of the future realisation’ was revealed and its connection to the ancient Vedic Measure of the Year and the Divine Maya.

To render Time an ally in this unique process the ‘collaboration of material Nature’ had to be secured, – above all, by an acceleration of time. Consequently, immediately after the Supramental Manifestation of 1956, when the Mother perceived that ‘the time has come’ for that higher reality to become rooted in the Earth, this question of the collaboration of material Nature came up frequently and forcefully. The Mother received the assurance on 8 November 1957 that this collaboration would be given – Nature had agreed to the change, to lending her power to the establishment of the new creation. But the Mother was quick to give out a word of warning to her entourage. She cautioned disciples not to be misled into believing that ‘miracles’ would happen like in fairy tales, or that a magical control over the physical elements would be consequent to this promised collaboration. In addition, and this is the most important portion of her clarification, she remarked that these happenings ‘are visible only to a very deep vision of things – very deep, very comprehensive, very vast…One must already be capable of following the methods of the Grace in order to recognise its action’…[see TVN 2/6, February 1988, p. 21]. Coupled with the ability to perceive deeper than the surface phenomenon, there must be the ability to follow the action over vast periods of time. ‘It is an inner, psychological possibility which has come into the world, rather than a spectacular change in earthly events.’ ‘Patience is required,’ she tells her disciples, and ‘a very wide and very complex vision to understand how things happen.’

Our experience and involvement with the work proved from the very beginning the wisdom in the Mother’s words of caution. Indeed, this was and is a problem we face constantly: the desire for ‘miracles’, and, above all, the demand by most people that the Power should manifest in a way which each individual can understand; that is, reduced to a limited function within the boundaries comprehensible to the old consciousness and chained to a fixed pattern the mind finds comfortable and reassuring.

The patience the Mother requests is another key feature, because the action of time in this unique method is not visible immediately. Indeed, time is required, because in the passage of time the coherent thread of the action and the lines of the process become manifest. It is a work that cannot be done in a day. Nonetheless, it is not a process stretched over hundreds of years anymore, or even over many decades. The work I am describing is a revolutionary action covering a mere few decades. This is because of the ‘acceleration of time’ previously mentioned, given the breakthroughs in the supramental yoga. This indispensable acceleration is part of the collaboration of material Nature through the mechanics of the new gnostic time.

That collaboration would indeed be given; but it required an extremely quiet poise of the consciousness and a subtlety of vision to perceive its method and true workings. Time is the channel through which this entirely essential collaboration of material Nature is given expression and rendered the real and effective power.

This statement in itself is sufficient to draw an indelible line between the old and the new. The old spirituality led the seeker steadily towards a dissolution of the seeing Eye, into the Void, the Nothingness, however camouflaged this may have been. This was accompanied by a denial of Time, concurrent with a labelling of Nature as maya, or ‘illusion’. On the other hand, in the new way, Time is an ally and the effective creative power. However, the way to permit this superior collaboration of Time is to discover what I have called the Gnostic Time.

Gnostic Time becomes the effective ally when a centre is born – a true centre, in its recognised place. The Yoga of the Chamber I am describing had for its purpose the creation of this true centre, on the basis of a new axial alignment. The entire process was ‘written’ in the Mother’s original plan of her Chamber, wherein that precious secret is contained, a secret sought after assiduously in all quests involving the transformation of material substances. Consequently this special process was in fact a pioneering discovery of the precise method to establish a supramental creation in matter, on this Earth. This is the ‘message’ of the Chamber; this is its power and ultimate value, this is its coveted secret.

Perhaps this will explain to some degree my continuous references to certain dates in the course of this series. I have attempted in this way to familiarise readers with this ‘effective collaboration’ of material Nature and to encourage seekers to lay aside an illusory hunger for miracles and dazzling experiences and visions which bear no relation at all to the true transformation. However, the process I am describing is far more miraculous than any miracle our imaginations can conjure up; but to appreciate this, a new power of Seeing must emerge. The new way is the means to secure this Seeing and render it an effective power in the work, in the world, in the gnostic collectivity and in the individual consciousness.

*

Each year of this decade demanded a particular breakthrough. The group that came out of the old field was the channel for this new yoga. It was both an individual and a collective work, and the method to harmonise this action was through the collaboration of time. This is intrinsically connected to the cosmic harmony of our solar system. Each planet is a number-power and hence a year in a cycle of 9 years. The mechanics of this arrangement are explained in detail in my major works.

In this century the decade of the 80s is unique. In no other do we find a similar convergence of number and planetary power each year as in this decade, in the correct order starting with the first year of the decade. For example, 1980 equals 9 by the mathematics of unity (1+9+8+0=18=9). The 9 and the 0 are equal, and this particular 9 year, falling as it did in the very beginning of the decade, brings into play the 0 rather than the 9, for we have two 9 years in this decade, contrary to all the others in which there is only one. Thus the celestial body that was predominant in 1980 would be the Sun, the 0 of the system. This convergence is what gave the quality of ‘new beginning’ to 1980, in a far more marked degree than any other 9-power year.

Thereafter, 1981 equals 1 and the planet is Mercury, the first orbit from the Sun. This was indeed the first year into the decade. This pattern continues throughout the 1980s, ending with 1989 and Pluto. It provided a background by which we could appreciate the intricate details of the process through the Gnostic Circle. The Yoga of the Chamber of this decade is described in all its facets in that special diagram. In effect, the unitary cosmos which was born in this unique decade is synonymous with the Yoga of the Chamber and finds its blueprint in the Gnostic Circle.

Thus, in each year of the decade a portion of the Chamber was ‘constructed’ through a special yoga. But the possibility to carry out this new process was determined as far back as 1975/76. This was when in the physical construction in Auroville the room with a hole in the centre became incorporated definitively in the building. This left an interesting ‘void’ at the centre, and in that ‘empty space’ the process of ‘construction’ of the central shaft and core of the  Mother’s vision was undertaken. To be more specific, because of that hole in the floor, it was possible to ‘neutralise’ the negative action of the disharmonious measurements.

The two efforts have proceeded at equal pace: in Auroville construction on the OUTER body, devoid of a true centre (expressed in the hole in the centre of the room); in Kodaikanal and the new virgin field, the focus of the supramental yoga has been the construction of the Chamber’s centremost Core. We have installed that core and central shaft of light by a unique and revolutionary process of yoga – the only basis upon which a true sacred atmosphere and power can be instilled into a real temple – that is, construction from the centre outward, with all that this implies in a supramental creation: a centre true and recognised and in its place.

The accuracy of the measurements and design implies that there is a consciousness presiding over the construction that has lived the experience those measurements describe. That this accuracy was not a part of the physical construction in Auroville merely indicates that the unique and revolutionary process the Mother set on its way with her breakthrough vision of the Temple has not been the lived experience of the community occupying that physical space that is Auroville.

Because of this, because there is this discrepancy between the two ‘constructions’, there has been the need to counteract the disfigurement of the physical building. The wrong alignment, the false measurement of the chamber’s walls, and the various other elements that have been distorted in the physical execution, called forth a strenuous yoga which culminated in a life-and-death turning point in the work, in India, in the world. The item to be ‘installed’ at that critical juncture was the Globe of the Core; the time was 1983 and the number-power of the year was 3. Its planetary correspondence was the Earth itself. Indeed, in that sacred precinct the Globe is the Earth, for the symbol is in truth the thing symbolised in this unique supramental yoga.

Thus in 1983 that ‘true centre’ had to come into being as the centremost point of convergence of the entire ‘temple’, its axial alignment. This was by far the most important phase in the Yoga of the Chamber, for what this new alignment signified was the unveiling of a true Centre and by consequence the establishment of a revolutionary new pattern in the evolution of consciousness on the planet: the emergence of effective terms of the new unitary cosmos and the dismantling of the old binary system.

The placement of this true centre drew into play a force of devastating contraction, converging on the presiding consciousness to bring it to a point. An extreme contraction of this sort causes death in the human being; but in the Yoga of the Chamber that crushing contraction had to be experienced without the escape of death. And the process had to be lived in a fully awakened state of consciousness; moreover, the element used for this convergence and tightening was the play of circumstances, the crushing imposition of a hostile periphery – just as the wrong diameter of the room constructed in Auroville presses in upon the centre and seeks to force it into the void. Time was needed for consolidation, and by consequence this ‘death’ experience was stretched over 9 months, – from 17 April 1983, to 17 January, 1984.

When this revolutionising experience was completed the true centre was born. In the work at that time this was only a solitary point, nothing more. Then 1984 brought the inclusion of the four-sided Pedestal in that remarkable 4-power year; this introduced the great Reversal.

In practical terms this process, covering the first half of the most important 9 cycle of the century and taking us up to mid 1984, brought a reversal in the ‘direction’ of the Supramental Shakti’s action to bring about the great Birth. Prior to this reversal there was a compelling contraction and hence a stripping away of all that might impede the true centre from occupying its uncontested position at the centre of the new emerging cosmos. That is, the binary threat, constant and relentless in this third phase of the work from 1975 onwards, finally ceased to exist as a real possibility in the summer of 1984. This period, it must be pointed out, was the 4.5 Orbit of the entire decade in terms of the calendar/Gnostic Circle synchronisation, and it marks indeed the great Reversal. The reader may recall that the object of this discussion is the Mother’s hotel vision, which also occurred at this very same orbital crossing in time – the critical 4.5 Orbit, the point in the Gnostic Circle which represents a shattering and hence a collapse into the void, an imprisonment of a certain quantity of energy which, if released, would provide the fuel for a rise to previously unattainable heights due to the energy withheld.

To counteract this collapse one element is required: an indestructible core that is the outcome of a true, recognised centre of real and effective power. The energy salvaged from the Void goes to the creation of a core; the planet involved is Mars, and hence in the Yoga of the Chamber all those who participated were natives of Aries and Scorpio, the two signs ruled by Mars in the zodiac.

This core was placed at the centre in 1984, and this was the whole purpose of the Yoga of the Chamber. It brought into being the Fourth Power (Mars is the 4^th planet) as an integral part of the System, that ‘saviour’ energy. In the Core of the Mother’s Temple this energy is the property of the pedestal’s Supreme Power Point. The pedestal is the ‘support’ of the Globe (the Third). In the ancient Veda it is the magical white steed, vehicle of Agni, the divine Will, working in the world. Therefore I am able to state that the Mother’s original plan of her Chamber/Temple brings into this unique century the essential truth of the most ancient scriptures in the world, the Vedas. These inspired texts have become obscured for seekers who are in quest of a Beyond or a Transcendence disconnected from the other powers – the Cosmic and the Individual Divine. Similarly, in a cogently related development the Mother’s original plan suffered disfigurement in its physical manifestation, for the wrong alignment due to an inaccurate axial measurement is the means the Falsehood has used to perpetuate its rule at the very heart of the Mother’s work. In simple terms, the alignment in the disfigured construction in Auroville perpetuates the binary system with its severe limitations by impeding the true centre and a unitary model from emerging, which demands a proper axial alignment. Since this involves the Globe in the Core of the chamber, and this Globe in turn is the object in the room connected to the Third of the Solar Line (the pedestal is the Fourth), it is not surprising that those in charge of Auroville should have adamantly refused to allow that Third Power to correct the wrong alignment which they insisted on incorporating in the temple from the beginning. Equally revealing is the fact that one of the first items to be done away with in the revised plan was the Core consisting of the Globe and Pedestal (representing the Third and Fourth Powers, respectively). A ‘void’ was left instead. However, the true Centre can only be unveiled by one who is that, and, by consequence, who has the capacity to undergo the Yoga of the Chamber and sustain, without the escape of physical death, contraction of the consciousness to an infinitesimal point – that ‘centre that holds’. It is this point, the product of the correct alignment of the two principal universal directions, contraction and expansion, that gives rise to the true centre.

A penetrating understanding of the force lodged in the physical temple in Auroville will help to explain why matters took the turn that they did. Hence I shall move back in time in this review to the 1970s once again and the decade’s 4.5 Orbit of that 9 cycle, to provide material which will assist the student in understanding a process which is to be perceived in the inner dimensions first and foremost, if any sense is to be made of the surface happenings. Central to this part of the discussion is that ‘seed-date,’ let us call it, 2-3 July.

Prior to 1980 the date of the Mother’s Hotel Vision (2-3 July) surfaced significantly in the Yoga. Indeed, the earlier synchronisation, which I will now describe, made the exodus of 1980 a certainty. It is necessary to relate exactly what transpired on that date in 1975, insofar as the experience that came to me in the early hours of 3 July can explain a great deal about the subject of this analysis: the nature of the Ignorance and its hold over the Earth. But a certain background must be provided for the full dimensions of the experience to come forth. The main element was the Mother’s temple and the consciousness lodged in Auroville which presented a determined resistance to the true work.

The student will recall that in 1975 serious efforts were made to save the original plan of the Temple’s inner chamber. In this context it is well to refer to the June 1988 VISHAAL, and in particular Appendix 1 of its Supplement, which was written in May, 1975. That memorandum to the then administrator of Auroville offers a hint of the atmosphere that provoked the experience I shall now describe.

By the summer of 1975 it was clear that the presiding architect of the Matrimandir would not agree to alter his plans of the inner chamber, especially the crucial issue of the room’s diameter and consequently the temple’s axial alignment. A culmination was reached in the affair in the very beginning of July. We had entered the critical 4.5 Orbit of the decade. At that very time the construction had also reached a critical point: immediate revision of the plans was required before concreting was resumed after a 3-month delay, otherwise the room’s inaccurate diameter would be rendered a ‘concrete’ fact. Interestingly, the shipment of cement required to carry out this crucial phase of the construction was mysteriously held up for three months, until this point in gnostic time was reached – the decade’s 4.5 Orbit. Thus by the end of June cement finally arrived and the builders eagerly pressed forward with their plan: the Divine Measure was then rendered almost impossible to retrieve. A year later, at the very same time of the year, it was lost for good.

Thus in July of 1975 I had my first close encounter with the Ignorance, with the knotted consciousness lording over the Earth’s evolution and in control, by consequence, of the Mother’s temple. Like a technician or a scientist, I was intrigued – to put it mildly – and wished to know the exact nature of the force I was obliged to deal with. How was it able to maintain its rule? Why, above all, was it so utterly closed to the light and the power of truth? What, exactly, was its purpose or meaning in creation and why was it ‘tolerated’, similar to the great Negator in the Mother’s entourage.

One of the most fundamental realisations of my life took place in 1971. At that time I was shown by direct experience, in a process that stretched over many months that the Divine consciousness was over and above ALL powers in the universe. It was in control of all affairs on Earth and working through everyone and everything. A realisation of this nature is often confusing; it leaves a certain reticence in the being. How to act and when, if the ultimate controller of everything is the Supreme?

The acute sense of discouragement due to the failure to have the true plan readopted, and realising what this portended for the future of Auroville and everything connected to it, made me resolve to ‘get to the bottom’ of the matter, in the only way consonant with the practice of yoga. The first imperative is to understand the ROOT of the problem in subtle and inner dimensions, be this transcendent, cosmic or on the level of the individual. It is in those subtle recesses that forces operate which project their play upon the denser planes. If there is here a ‘knotting up’ of energies, reflected in the gross limitations of the human consciousness and the relentless opposition to the Divine Truth on this planet, then the cause of this twist must be found in those subtle spheres. Thus I wanted to explore that region and, by firsthand knowledge, come to understand what was the exact nature of the force presiding over affairs in Auroville, and especially in the issue of the Mother’s temple.

In the early hours of 3 July 1975, I plunged down and down into the deepest recesses of being. This was a conscious downward plunge in that it was a reversed direction which, for want of a better word, we must describe as ‘downward’. To be more accurate, it was a plunge into the core of material being. That is, every effort was made by an intense concentration of power, or ‘tapas’, to carry the consciousness in an inner plunge entirely different from the usual ‘direction’ assumed in spiritual practices: upward, above, away, detached from this hard and closed vault of matter. It is this domain that is lorded over by the Ignorance. This is made possible by the binary condition in the cosmic plane which does not permit an instrument to evolve on Earth with a true centre and hence a superior alignment of energies, which could then introduce a creation reflective of the Cosmic Truth or the unitary system, no longer the Cosmic Ignorance with its heavy cross of duality. Interestingly, the element that forced me to take this plunge was the loss in the Mother’s temple precisely of that superior alignment in the chamber, representative of a new humanity.

To be clear, a plunge of this nature cannot be undertaken unless a certain stage is reached in the practice of the integral yoga. To do so before a solid foundation has been successfully established via a special process for this end is to risk mental derangement with permanently damaging results. Above all, the mental instrument has to be sound, the limits of that instrument have to be known. In other words, just how deeply can one plunge into these nether regions without experiencing collapse into the abyss of consciousness and an irreparable loss of balance? A sound vital instrument is also demanded because without a ‘tamed’ vital it is not possible to generate the necessary power for such an experience.

Impelled by the seriousness of the situation, caution was put aside and the plunge was undertaken: the consciousness seemed to enter a vortex whose inward, downward direction carried the perceiving Eye into the deepest, densest strata of material being. This was lived in a totally awakened state. At no time was awareness of this physical dimension lost. There was no trance, no severance of the link with the external world. The consciousness was thoroughly poised here, in this dimension. But at the same time, by this yogic plunge, I came to explore the innermost, densest strata of matter – the inner structure, we could say. I was carried into its heart.

My burning question concerned the role of the Ignorance. In a world in which the Supreme Consciousness was the ultimate power, as countless experiences had already proven, what was the ‘truth’ of the Ignorance? How could this darkness, this ‘density’ of consciousness prevail over the divine luminosity and sustain such a stark defiance of the Supreme Will?

What I discovered revolutionised my consciousness. At the same time it provided direct proof of the nature of the Supermind and the manner in which it operates in the world: At the heart of matter, at its centremost core, there is what can only be described as a ‘seed’, a Golden Seed. This is the compact essence of the Transcendent; it reconciles transcendence and immanence. This ‘seed’ is the Truth-Consciousness. It is involved, lodged in the deepest recesses of matter. We might imagine, as some do, a sort of ‘black hole’ in the heart of a particle or in the core of a sun, or at the centre of a galaxy. But actually it is a golden Seed, a particle of Truth-Consciousness.

The important confirmation received in this experience was the manner in which this golden Seed maintains control over the evolution of Itself from this compact involution. It was Time that offered the mechanism by which the Divine Will, ‘inhabitant’ of this Seed, was given expression in the world.

I saw the Ignorance in this plunge. I perceived the nature of its hold and the reason for its resistance to the truth-conscious Will. The Ignorance is borne along by this compact Seed and the power of Time. It is ‘ignorant’ simply because it is oblivious of the real Power in control. This perception came by way of an identification with Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld of Greek tradition, the Divine Mother’s daughter who is abducted by the Dark God Pluto and carried away to his kingdom where she rules by his side. This kingdom is the deepest strata of material existence. It is the area that until now has been closed to the Light, meaning that the ‘links’ between various connecting strata from the central Seed to the outer periphery have not been unveiled and made consciously operative in the evolution of the species on Earth. The rule of the Ignorance can last only as long as those gaps remain. Closing them, the new world and the new race are fully established on this planet. This describes the work we are engaged in, for the only means to close those gaps is by the establishment of a true centre in a unitary system.

I saw, I was Persephone in her golden chariot with the Dark Lord by her side, – the ‘masked Transcendent’, or that enigmatic Fourth. The black steeds pulling this chariot with unsurpassable strength and steadfastness and an unparalleled determination were the powers of the Ignorance. But the only factor that characterised them as ‘dark’ was their utter obliviousness of the real power directing their movement: the Divine Pair that held the reins and guided their formidable surge forward in a direction those forces could never perceive, so limited was their vision, like horses equipped with blinkers to block out everything that does not fall within the immediate range of their linear sight.

Thus, the decisive aspect of the experience, which answered my question as to the true nature of the Ignorance, was the fact that none know the true Controller. Powers of Ignorance are characterised by their conviction that they are the doers of action, they decide, they choose, they determine the way. They ignore entirely that they are merely the instruments of the Supreme Shakti, even in their negation. And this is the condition of the human race presently lorded over by the Ignorance, because a true centre is lacking which can unveil that Golden Seed, centre of the new alignment.

Paradoxically, it was this total unconsciousness that I saw to be the most precious contribution of those black steeds of immeasurable power. This added a special ingredient to the evolution in this transitional phase: the speed, the acceleration of the process was ensured by this formidable resistance born of a determination and a one-pointed focus due to the unconsciousness of linear vision. This then hastens the collapse of the old and thereby facilitates the rise of the new. How magnificent then are those lines in Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Hymn to Durga’ quoted by Nolini Kanta Gupta: ‘O Mother, give to our life and mind the Asura’s strength, the Asura’s energy and to our heart and intelligence a God’s character and a God’s knowledge.’

These lines capture the essence of the transformation brought about by what I have described as a shift from a binary to a unitary system, whereby the ‘lower’ hemisphere of the human being with its less luminous faculties but tremendous force are brought into harmony with the higher, through the establishment of a true centre. This combination alone can change our civilisation.

Emerging from the atmosphere of those deeper, denser realms, I began jotting down these perceptions – cryptically, in a sprawling script. When I reread these notes I find them coloured by the intensity of an experience in a ‘new direction’, a path entirely rooted in matter, reconciling the Being and the Becoming:

3 July 1975

‘This is the great change.

‘The perfect and total control of Truth. The manifestation of the Supermind is this. Before, one accepted all things as coming from the Divine with a passive, perhaps sattwic resignation. But now one sees, one knows that one can accept the Ignorance because the Ignorance is a key element, immediate and compelling, for the quicker establishment of the Truth. It is the very Ignorance, even because of its ignorance, that carries us quicker to the goal. It has accelerated our pace. Therefore I bow to thee, O Ignorance and all they instruments, I bow to thee.

‘O glorious Kore – Queen of the Underworld, Queen of the Ignorance. The Divine Mother’s sacrifice, her precious Thea, carried into the kingdom of the Dark God to compel the Ignorance to move in harmony with Time, Saturn, Persephone’s father. Persephone is the Supramental Truth in matter – Persephone is the Earth. The core of the Earth is the Supramental Truth.

‘In these days, once more Persephone has compelled the Ignorance to do the commands of Truth. Everything is as it should be, even the Ignorance – O Saturn, O Time, O Matter, O Matrimandir…’.

The dawn of July 3^rd came, the work began again. But for weeks thereafter I was overcome by uncontrollable laughter at the comical, clownish condition of the human being. His poise of consciousness, his total identification with his ‘commanding’ status was so amusing that I could not observe it without these outbursts. Above all, it was his physical poise that was so comical. The way the human being carries himself is entirely reflective of this pompous display, especially the male of the species. One witnesses this attitude in males of many species, but in the animal kingdom it is entirely straightforward and true; it is not the result of a mental aberration, which is what makes the human being in certain ways inferior to the animal. (I will discuss the contribution of the animal kingdom to the New Way in a future VISHAAL.) There were particular individuals who seemed especially pompous to me in my sensitised state of consciousness. In fact, the more meek and humble the outer demeanour, often the more inwardly pompous was the individual. For instance, the then administrator of Auroville.

The perfection of everything, even the Ignorance, even the resistances, the obstructions, made action in the world somewhat difficult in the days immediately following this experience. My inclination was to stand back and admire this perfection unfolding in each thing, dark or light, daily offering gratitude for the ability to perceive so cardinal a working. Human beings were puppets on strings which the Divine Puppeteer moved at will. This seeing left me almost paralysed, so intense was the desire not to ‘interfere’ in Its workings. The correct balance in this respect proved to be the most difficult aspect of Sri Aurobindo’s revolutionary integral and supramental yogas: when to act, when to refrain from action in full knowledge and not because of a tamasic or inert condition of the instrument. This delicate balance is indispensable for the work of the Divine in the world, because inaction can often be more damaging than an impulsive haste, and in many cases it masks a more knotted consciousness and hard-crusted ego, self-serving in the extreme. Indeed, the key lay in a new evaluation and experience of the ‘gunas’ of Hindu tradition, Rajas and Tamas, and by consequence the middle poise, Sattwa: Creation, Preservation and Destruction were the key subjects. They were the subjects of the Mother’s hotel vision exactly 18 years earlier – to the day.

The new cosmology provides another important ingredient for understanding these experiences connected via the 9-year cycle. I have referred to several such connections on the backdrop of the Gnostic Circle’s 9-year pattern. The first was the Mother’s original hotel dream-vision, which we may call the seed-experience of it all; then there was my yogic ‘plunge’ in 1975 on the same date. In addition there was the group’s assembling in the location where the creation of the centre and the shift from the binary to the unitary cosmos would take place; this also was on 3 July (1980).

On the basis of the knowledge provided by the Gnostic Circle, what is the common denominator of these experiences? What key does the diagram offer for understanding their precise nature and the reason why their timings were so essential?

In the cycle of 9 years there is a halfway mark (the 4½ year) which is a critical passage in time (at this point of the evolution). In the zodiac, the cardinal direction of this 4.5 Orbit, as I have called it, is West and the corresponding sign is Libra. In the Rig Veda, as well as in the more recent Egyptian and Greek traditions, this point is the gateway to the Underworld, the kingdoms of Yama or Pluto, Lords of the Dead in those mythologies. In the 9-year cycle according to our calendar, the exact time of this passage is 1-5 July, at the halfway mark of the cycle, which always begins in a 9 number-power year, 1980 for instance. Thus, July 1-5 of 1957 is another halfway mark of the cycle starting in 1953 (=9), then 1-5 July, 1966, and again 1-5 July 1975 and 1984, and so on. The correspondence in our solar system (with time) as demonstrated in the Gnostic Circle is the Asteroid Belt – the orbit containing the shattered remains of some colossal, once whole celestial body. It is this ‘shattering’ that describes the yoga of that Orbit and time period. Throughout the ages a conscious plunge of the nature I have described, with the perceiving Eye intact and awake, has been impossible, since the density of matter precluded this penetration; the structure of the human instrument rendered such a plunge unsustainable because the contraction experienced would force the being out of the physical body entirely. The balance of the consciousness was too fragile due to the off-centre axes, and there was therefore nothing to hold that Eye together in this plunge into such a thick density where contraction holds elements together by compression. The ‘shattering I refer to results in the disassembling of the individualised consciousness which holds the cells together, as the Mother explained on the basis of her ‘revelation’, quoted in the last issue of VISHAAL. The human consciousness, ill-poised as it is, cannot survive this contraction, and remain intact and assembled.

The means to counteract this situation, to find some way of ‘liberation’, has always been escape, – to the heights, into the transcendence, and, above all, a dissolution (shattering) of the perceiving Eye to attain this end via a trance-like, otherworldly experience of reality whenever the limits of contraction were reached. It is this Orbit that describes the Void of many paths, particularly the Buddhist. The experience I have related here of a plunge into the deepest strata of material creation, always partially experienced and ill-understood given the inadequate poise of the perceiving instruments, has produced the concepts of an ‘illusory’ condition of our universe and ‘reality’ attributed solely to a Consciousness essentially uninvolved in material creation, unconditioned, unburdened by the devastating intensity of compressed power that a creation in matter demands. It can be appreciated that if some part of my consciousness had been attached to the old direction, thereby deflecting certain key energies such a plunge requires, when emerging from this experience and seeing the mechanical, pompous and unconscious condition of the human being, I could have easily expressed my experience in the old terms of ‘maya’, or illusion. But seeing the Supreme Consciousness controlling creation in and from the deepest strata by not allowing any dissolution of the perceiving Eye through those ‘voids’, or ‘gaps’, nor any dissipation of the energy, this limitation was overcome, the old escape ceased to exist.

There is a final point to make concerning this ‘plunge’, perhaps the most important of all. Let me remind the reader that this experience was provoked by the fact that concreting was right then being carried out in the construction of the Mother’s temple in Auroville that was cementing the wrong axial measurement of the inner chamber and hence the alignment of the entire structure. In addition, and this was the most perplexing factor, a shipment of cement had been held up for three months, thereby impeding this conclusively damaging phase of the construction to be undertaken until entry into this critical Orbit in early July. This mystifying ‘control’ in order to secure the timing of this negative action exactly on the decade’s 4.5 passage and what can be called the region of the Ignorance in the Measure of the Year, was what compelled me more than anything else to undertake this plunge into those nether regions and discover the ‘truth’, if any, of that darkness. What did this accurate timing really mean? Was it an indication of a harmony, a ‘rightness’ which therefore implied the sanction of the Supreme Mother?

The experience confirmed that everything was as it should be and that this controlled synchronisation permitted this act of asuric defiance to occur at the only time of the year (and decade) which could make the act meaningful, a controlled part of the Plan and in perfect harmony with gnostic time, where all elements, positive and negative, contribute spherically to the realisation of the goal. Hence I wrote in my notes… ‘Persephone has compelled the Ignorance to do the commands of Truth…’.

But this seeing in itself was not sufficient to dispel the sense of acute discouragement. It allowed me to see the connection with the Measure of the Year, to verify once again the remarkable control of the power and the role Time plays in the supramental manifestation. However, that was insufficient to show me the purpose of the Ignorance. Why was this darkness necessary at all?

Thus, the aspect of this experience which lifted the veils fully was the perception of the acceleration the forces of the Ignorance provide. Those forces contain the power, they ‘hoard it’, just as the Rigvedic myth describes. This withholding accumulates energy, thereby providing for a certain ‘combustion’, let us call it, which speeds up the process. When this is experienced consciously, with the eye of consciousness awake throughout the experience and with material Nature ‘collaborating’, then the release of that precious energy, hoarded in the nether regions collectively and individually, is the means to ‘close the gaps’, to experience Whole Time, to draw that heaven, or Swar of the Veda, upon this Earth. This constitutes the ‘rise from below’ which the Descent requires for the complete manifestation of a truth-conscious creation; and the four Powers of the Solar Line are the instruments by which these ‘gaps’ are closed: the 9 and the 6 transform the upper regions and draw the gains in those planes onto the Earth, while the 3 and the One (or the Fourth), work ‘here below’. They break through the crusts in a rise of the power to join the heights.

The Ignorance hastens the evolution but only when a process is set in motion by the Solar Line based on the knowledge that a reversed direction is the key to the release, which thereby draws to itself the ‘collaboration of material Nature’. A plunge of this order must offer no ‘escape’, no alluring exits – just like in the original plan of the Mother’s chamber where there are no doors in the encircling twelve walls (and unlike the disfigured construction in Auroville with the walls pierced by two openings). This provides the key to the new way: the old escapes are to be resisted; the consciousness must remain rooted in material creation at all times; the contraction must serve to force the combustion so that release occurs and speed is generated for the acceleration the rise to the Summit of Whole Time demands.

That contraction is produced by the crushing play of circumstances, or the convergence onto the presiding consciousness of a hostile periphery.  That periphery in the physical construction in Auroville is represented by the encircling walls of the room which are pressing in on the centre/core, to force it literally into the void, to crush it out of existence. The inaccurate floor diameter bears this significance, hence the Yoga of the Chamber was demanded due to the totality of conditions prevailing and the need for an integral transformation; once again those harsh conditions of ‘the field’ had to be respected as legitimate ingredients in the work: their purpose was, as I have stated, to oblige us to do the Yoga of the Chamber and provide the atmosphere thereof.

Thus, the wondrous aspect of this plunge of discovery was that it confirmed the rightness of that false measure – in a world in which the Ignorance still holds sway. But the Yoga of the Chamber has introduced a radical alteration in this state of affairs.

Above all this revelation confirmed the need for an impeccable knowledge as the foundation of the process. For without that special Gnosis one may see the place of these powers but not the complete process, the summit toward which all lines are being spherically drawn. The supramental gnosis allows us to hold that Truth before us always, no matter what the immediate appearances may seem to indicate. Gnostic Time is therefore time with a sense, a purpose unfolding coherently in its workings so that we may move forward into this hitherto unexplored dimension with the TRUST and the CERTAINTY that the Divine Consciousness is the ultimate Controller and that the goal of the present travail is only one: the establishment of a new Heaven upon a new Earth.

An understanding of this nature can only become our solid base in the Yoga when the ‘rightness of the wrongness’, so to speak, is fully perceived on the backdrop of the gnostic pattern – the Divine Measure of the Year. Thus my July 3^rd experience, 18 years after the Mother’s first revelations of the process we subsequently lived, brought that revolutionary perception of the exact function of the Ignorance, its own truth, in a creation where nothing is devoid of Truth, where all creation is the Manifest Divine, and hence must bear this seed of truth-consciousness in its heart. Indeed, as Sri Aurobindo writes concerning the downward plunge of the manifestation… ‘that which is involved must evolve, for it is not only there as an existence, a force hidden in its apparent opposite … but it is the reality of that which conceals it [italics our own], it is the self which the Nescience has lost and which therefore it must be the whole secret meaning…’ .

When such a seeing comes, to desire to seek the heights of the immutable Transcendent loses all attraction, and the anguish and suffering of this transitional labour are born with a different appreciation of their purpose. The trans-cosmic Divine, the shadow of which is the Void and the Nothingness, lacks the fullness of Itself when it is the be-all and end-all of the quest. It lacks that exquisite harmony of the play of the One and the Many, it lacks the miracle of the individual soul through which it can enjoy itself in the manifestation, see itself unfolding in the material creation of its deepest essence through the Supramental Shakti, its executive Power who controls the play through gnostic time. To perceive that play of the Shakti the individual consciousness must be transformed to see Whole Time, to perceive how gnostic time contributes that great Sense to the manifestation. In the remote heights this integral realisation of the All is withheld: the Transcendent, the Cosmic, the Individual – triune complementary Powers of the Eternal.

The incarnations of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the 9 and the 6 of the Solar Line, respectively, when taken as entities separated from the subsequent incarnations of the 3 and the One (or the Fourth) who complete the FOURFOLD descent, would represent the old creation exclusively. When their embodiments are isolated in this way, the dual structure of the Cosmic Ignorance and the inferior Purush-Prakriti mould are reinforced. Two powers alone can only result in a binary system, never a descent embracing all the powers of the Eternal whose integral essentiality alone can provide for a process that closes the gaps between the four levels of existence. Without the Third, for example, there is no effective way to introduce that true centre, for it is precisely the mission of the Third Power to give birth to the ‘point’ which, in turn, is the centremost Fourth. And that is the first imperative for the shift from the Cosmic Ignorance to the Cosmic Truth, with all that this implies for the future of the planet. This centering provides the bridge to the future (the realm of the Fourth). It radically alters the old formula and carries the new creation to a new triune poise in a new unitary cosmos. The 4^th power then reverses the direction, roots this new creation solidly in matter, closes the circle as it were, and then the expansion begins and this becomes the culminating truth which overtakes the Earth’s evolution of the species.

But the cry ‘Only Sri Aurobindo and the Mother!’ sounded by the devout of the incomplete manifestation, is the deadliest tool of the Falsehood to seek to maintain its rule in a binary system; for when the integral Gnosis has descended in such a spectacular, self-evident manner, unique in the history of the planet’s spiritual evolution, to continue clinging to the old and incomplete creation is to agree to ‘join the ranks of the petty tyrant’ for good.

I realise that this statement will cause considerable consternation in the ranks of the old guard of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s entourage. But it is a statement that must be made clearly and forcefully, since not to do so at this immensely important juncture would be to strengthen the hands of those retrograde forces, those instruments of a deadening Inertia who seek to impede ‘the new things from manifesting’, who seek to obstruct the warriors of the Divine from constructing that Bridge to the future and ushering in the new dawn of an integral, fourfold supramental creation.

No path until now has opened up this integral new way. The difficulties we meet in our pioneering journey are real; they cannot be ignored or avoided. But Gnosis adds the comforting wisdom we need to bear lightly this evolutionary burden during this transitional phase. The negating forces which the Void throws up from its shadow realm are transformed when they are compelled to see the ‘rightness’ of  their negation and how this, more than any other tool of the Supreme, is made controlled use of to hasten the transformative work in this transitional stage. They will cease to exist as obstructive elements when the Void is thoroughly filled by the true Centre. The Yoga of the Chamber has brought into being this magical Point that holds even the hostile periphery in the orbit of its perfect unfolding, the unfolding of a Divine Purpose.

All of this is made possible because of the magnificent nature of the material manifestation, because of the oneness of creation, because of the superlative relatedness of all things – in a word, because of the awesome control of everything by the Supreme Shakti, the Being no less than the Becoming. And this by virtue of the element all spirituality has ever been fleeing from: the power of time. My yogic plunge of 1975 confirmed the action of time in the supramental manifestation by a direct identification and seeing. Our collective yoga spread over these two all-important decades – the 1970s and the 1980s – has borne out the soundness of the fourfold foundations in gnosis of our work, central to which is the new Gnostic Time.

‘Skambha’, June of 1988

(concluded)

‘…There will necessarily be great changes but they are not bound to be catastrophic. When there is a strong pressure from the overmind forces for change, then there are likely to be catastrophes because of the resistance and clash of forces. The supramental has a greater – in its fullness a complete mastery of things and power of harmonisation which can overcome resistance by other means than dramatic struggle and violence.’

*

‘…As far as I can see, once the supramental is established in Matter, the transformation will be possible under much less troublesome conditions than now are there. These bad conditions are due to the fact that the Ignorance is in possession and the hostile Powers an established authority, as it were, who do not care to give up their hold and there is no full force of Light established in the earth-consciousness which would not only meet but outweigh their full force of darkness.’

Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Yoga

CE, Vol. 22, pp. 33-34

In The Times of India, New Delhi, dated 7 April 1988, the following news item appeared under the title, ‘More than just another temple in the making’:

Auroville, April 6 (PTI)

Not far from the beach township of Pondicherry, a small community of people are set to create an architectural marvel.

The Matrimandir – an exotic structure being built by devotees of the Mother, is more than a temple.

Its single beam of light coming in through the roof to fall on a perfect glass sphere – was envisioned by the Mother as were the dimensions of the room and communicated to her disciples.

The room is expected to be completed later this year and the glass sphere, being made by the famous Zeiss Company of West Germany, is due to arrive here in a couple of months.

The glass sphere, as described by the Mother, is 70cms in diameter, a dimension which most glass companies in India found impossible to achieve and perfect.

The vision seen by the Mother was that of a single beam of light coming in through the roof of the otherwise completely sealed 12-sided room, and falling on the sphere to create a divine effulgence.

‘This is difficult to achieve.’ Says Piero, an engineer – volunteer at Auroville, who is supervising the construction.

He has developed the prototype of the heliostat, which will track the sun throughout the day and ensure that the source of light is constant.

Apart from this, four reflectors are to be used on the roof of the room to either augment sunlight on cloudy days or keep the beam on the sphere during the night time.

Joan, the lady who handles the information centre at Bharat Nivas in Auroville, explains that the sphere had to be perfect – this was the Mother’s dream. The sphere is exactly of the dimensions envisioned and the room is within a millimetre of the dimensions given by the Mother.

The room is suspended inside a massive concrete mesh globe mounted on four concrete supports. The entire structure is higher than a three-story building.

‘It is the centre of our life here,’ says Joan (all Aurovilians go only by their first name). She goes on to explain how beautiful the area would be once the landscaping is complete and the 12 gardens and lakes come up.

Even if the divinity of the entire structure is lost to the not so spiritually inclined, the Matrimandir would definitely be a structure of great architectural beauty and scientific interest.

The mandir will perhaps be one of the most high-tech spiritual centres in the country, with its precision lighting, computer controlled sun tracking and the architecture somewhat reminiscent of the early generation of science fiction films.

This article confirms many things. But before all else I should point out that the date of its publication, 7 April, is significant in terms of the ongoing work. This is the date, 15 years earlier, of the Mother’s recorded encounter with the great Negator, the subject of Part 2 of ‘The Mother’s Dream’ which is presently being featured in VISHAAL. Similar to that encounter, this article is also a form of unmasking.

But its contents should not surprise us. This sort of misleading propaganda has been put out periodically by the builders of Matrimandir in Auroville. Their purpose is quite clear. They wish to convince the public that what they are building follows the Mother’s original plan in all its details and measurements (‘…to within a millimetre of the dimensions given by the Mother…’).

Of course this is not so. Or has the chamber’s diameter stretched itself to the required 24-metre INNER measurement by some freak intervention from above, some miracle? This would be heart warming, but I doubt it is the case, because Sri Aurobindo’s work is not one of miracles but transformation. It is a question of poising the consciousness around a new and higher Axis, precisely what is symbolised in the correct axial measurement of the Temple, now lost in that physical building coming up in Auroville. But the consciousness presiding over Auroville affairs is the old and untransformed one. This present news item is another proof.

It is pointless to discuss all the variations from the Mother’s original plan here. I have done elaborate analyses of these deviations elsewhere. The seeker in quest of true Knowledge has now a wealth of material to study so that contact can be made with the real content of the Mother’s original vision. The reason why I am presenting this particular news item rather than the numerous others which have appeared with similar content over the past ten years is simply because the date of its appearance forces me to do so, coming on the heels of the in-depth analysis of the Mother’s Yoga of Transformation in which this date, 7 April, was memorable and played such a significant role for posterity and the cause of Truth. As students of the new way know, there are no ‘coincidences’ in this work. Time is an ally in our endeavour, and this is just one example of its confirmative action.

Another reason for presenting this piece to our readers is that it displays the quality of the collective consciousness presiding over affairs in Auroville. For the disturbing factor in the above piece is the manner in which it reveals an intent to deceive. This is a situation I have had to contend with from the beginning of my efforts to have the Mother’s original vision of the room adopted, rather than the architects’ revised version. Sincere disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, who may still consider Auroville to be a valid integer in the Mother’s work, and who wish to join their destinies to that project have to ask themselves now if this is the consciousness they wish to have lodged at the heart of that endeavour.

In the newspaper report, ‘Joan’, the spokesperson for the builders, states that ‘the room is within a millimetre of the dimensions given by the Mother’. But let me point out that the dimensions this ‘Joan’ refers to are taken from the first plan drawn up for the Mother by Udar Pinto, an engineer in the Ashram, immediately after her vision and at her request. The student would do well to reread the Matrimandir Talks  reproduced in TVN, 1/5 and 1/6 of December l986 and February 1987, to gain a background regarding the ‘error’ I will now describe. And it is this erroneous measurement that the builders claim is so exact. If they had been unaware of this error there would be no deception on their part, this is clear. However, the facts are different. It is precisely this item to be rectified that was the focal point of our efforts to have the true vision executed rather than the architects’. And all along, even while knowing that Udar Pinto’s drawing contained this error, and even while they had every possibility to rectify the mistake before construction of the room began, they refused to alter their plans and incorporate the dimension the Mother had repeatedly insisted upon during the 18 days in which she dealt with this question of ‘changes’ with her disciple and the architects. (See the Matrimandir Talks cited above.) Thus these facts, along with others which we have documented, prove that there is a wilful attempt to deceive the public.

The reason is quite obvious. The builders no doubt feel confident that no one will take a measuring tape and verify the dimensions of the room – even if the powers-that-be in Auroville would permit entry into the chamber for such a purpose. Furthermore, to make matters more secure in their favour, the curious measurer would be shown that original drawing done by Udar Pinto to support their position, in which this error is contained. Then they would be able to declare that the room is ‘within a millimetre of the dimensions given by the Mother’, and none would know the difference.

The error in question concerns the room’s diameter. The Mother wanted the chamber to measure 24 metres inside, wall to wall. In the Matrimandir Talks she makes this abundantly clear, and those Talks were circulated privately to the architects and builders in the first half of 1974, long before the chamber was built. But the first drawing placed this 24-metre diameter measurement OUTSIDE the walls. Thus calculating the thickness of the walls, the chamber would come to measure close to one metre less than the desired 24. So what, it may be argued. Then, of course, why be concerned with dimensions at all?

It is patently absurd to suppose that a client would request an architect to make a room 24 metres in diameter and intend the measurement to be taken OUTSIDE the room’s walls! But, leaving aside this simple logic, the Mother herself emphasised the inner 24-metre measurement in the transcribed Talks (‘It is understood that the 24 metres ends at the walls…’).

If Udar Pinto’s erroneous plan is the document the architects are using to support their outer wall measurement before the innocent enquirer, then we must demand from them a certain degree of consistency. That same plan contains a number of other errors, like 11 columns instead of the stipulated 12. Does this mean that, in spite of the Mother’s request for 12 columns, even if the architects were to reincorporate them in the executed building, then they should only place 11 in the room since this is what the original plan indicates? Or else there is the question of the pedestal with Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in the Temple’s core. The original drawing gives a square base of a certain height and width. The height is arranged in order to accommodate the interlaced triangles of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol. But the symbol Udar Pinto used is the old one; it was revised by the Mother in 1964 and that one was then adopted as the official symbol. To be consistent, the builders of the temple should also make the pedestal as Pinto had drawn, erroneous as it was. They are not doing so. They have made a pedestal concoction of their own that bears no relation to Udar Pinto’s, much less to the true Seeing.

These are the inconsistencies in behaviour which are continuously surfacing in this question of the correct plan for the Matrimandir. I have been pointing them out for a long time, but to no avail; no one seems to care or to be concerned that these behavioural patterns reflect undesirable states of consciousness. Indeed, those involved in Auroville affairs sometimes go to pathetic and often ludicrous extents to justify their pigheadedness. One such example was an article in an Auroville journal, written by one of the Matrimandir workers, Rudh Lohman (now deceased), criticising my position in all sorts of derogatory ways and ending his exposition by quoting the Mother on the altered perceptions of the 4^th dimension, that the inside of a balloon is outside, and so forth. On this basis he ingeniously concludes that the OUTSIDE measurement of the room’s diameter is fine, since that was the Mother’s way of perceiving things! Needless to say, this sort of argument only results in making something of an imbecile out of the Mother. That her vision was so convoluted and contorted as to require these mental acrobatics is certainly hard to accept. But what does a position of this nature say of the person who holds it? Or of the publishers who print such nonsense?

At this point it is well to explain how Udar Pinto made the error that he did – placing the measurement of the room’s diameter outside the encircling walls rather than on the inside where it belongs. If we observe the drawing he made for the Mother the issue becomes immediately clear. He was using the Mother’s 12-petalled circular symbol as a guideline; indeed, her symbol does provide the horizontal plan of the chamber. Therefore, on this basis, he first drew a circle and gave this figure the value of 24 metres diameter in his geometric construction. But then, instead of placing the 12 walls of the dodecagonal room he was drawing at the outside of this circle, he started filling in the circle and placing all the items indicated by the Mother on the inside of its periphery. This meant that in effect the room, instead of bearing a 24-metre diameter, as the Mother requested (which he did incorporate in the first circle), became close to one metre less, depending upon the thickness of the walls.

In his haste to present the first drawing to the Mother, it is evident that Pinto had no time to study what he had drawn, for in so doing he would have immediately understood the problem and rectified his mistake. Thereafter, when this error was pointed out it seems to have become a sore point and bruised egos were the result. It was difficult to discuss the issue dispassionately; it appears that each one had his own reason for protecting this error and ensuring its survival in the final construction. If there had been real sincerity in dealing with this crucial matter, it would not have required any great intelligence to realise what was amiss in Pinto’s drawing. Alas, this simple intelligence and goodwill were never present. There was only chaos, confusion, clashes of ego and bad will. To illustrate, the architects in charge, Piero and Gloria Cicionesi, consistently refused to attend any meetings we convened to discuss these important points. At the most, what I have from Gloria Cicionesi is an ‘Open Letter to Patrizia’, as a reply to my document, What is Wrong with Matrimandir? which circulated in the Ashram in January/February of 1977. In her Open Letter she goes to great lengths to explain why the changes HAD TO BE MADE – for structural reasons. At the very same time her husband, Piero, was in Europe issuing a written statement to my German publishers to the exact contrary: all structural problems had been solved and the original plan was being implemented in its entirety! I refer to this statement and what it generated further on.

From Gloria Cicionesi’s letter to me I will reproduce for VISHAALreaders what she had to say concerning this issue: the 24-metre diameter. Her mother tongue is not English, but I prefer to reproduce her own words in spite of grammatical mistakes. The reader can make the necessary adjustments. The date of her letter is 18 April, 1977:

‘It is true that Mother has said “the 24mt. ends to the walls”. However, the plan was made with the 24mt. ending to the outside of the walls, and as She herself has held the plan in her hands and given it to the peoples no one thought is possible to question it, as She did not insist on this dimension being the floor dimension, at least not clearly enough for us to intervene. The walls were given by her the thickness of 30cms. But later on, the engineers consulted in Madras, when studying the various problems raised by such an extraordinary concrete structure, asked for the thickness of 40cms.’

Needless to say this is a shocking statement and fully reveals the deceptive consciousness which has been ever present in Matrimandir affairs: the Mother blessed the plan with her touch when she gave it to the architects, therefore that error could not be changed after this sacred act – but they had no difficulty in changing any and every other item in that holy plan to suit their designs. Faced with this sort of consciousness, the following was the reply I gave to this point of Gloria Cicionesi’s Open Letter. By then I was in no mood to mince words:

‘1) 24 metres floor diameter: Your justification for the incorporation of this error is unacceptable. There was ample time to have rectified this mistake when the matter could still have been done on paper. Now to bring the measurement to its correct point will unfortunately entail a loss of time, energy and money.

‘Once and for all the insistency that the Mother held the plan which contained the mistake and then gave it to the architect, making it impossible after that sacred gesture to alter any errors found therein, must be fully unmasked and brought to an end. If such were the case, then the public, and consistency and coherency, would demand that not only do you respect the error of the 24 metres, but that you also respect the other error found in the plan she held and gave you; you would have to put only eleven columns in the Room instead of twelve, as the plan indicated. Moreover, you must respect every other detail therein, especially the entrance from below, the 15 steps with all their exact dimensions, the pedestal and globe as indicated on the plan, and the thickness of the walls, etc.

‘As you have already altered these, then you had best stop using this argument… “as She herself has held the plan in her hands and given it to the peoples no one thought is possible to question it…”

‘Next you state,  “…as She did not insist on this dimension being the floor dimension, at least not clearly enough for us to intervene.” This statement gives us the right to seriously question the competence of those who are handling the construction of Matrimandir. When one asks for the diameter of a room to be 24 metres, that this should “end at the walls”, what is one measuring? The ether? With such a lack of understanding of one of the basic and elementary items of architecture, it is no wonder such a self-evident matter has been made so impossible.’

 

I continue thereafter to refute each of her points and also to enumerate the many official published statements which attempt to deceive the public, encouraging disciples and devotees of the Mother to believe that her plan was being implemented in all its original details. As the reader can observe, matters have not changed much in the intervening eleven years since the time of the above open correspondence. We are all clear about the fact that the measurement had to be inner and that the Mother’s own words to this effect must suffice and not anyone else’s ‘interpretation’. And since the main point rejected by the presiding architect was precisely this question of changing the measurement to accommodate the inner 24-metre diameter, then what ‘miracle’ has transpired since our last fruitless efforts in this direction to make it now possible for the builders to claim in Indian newspapers that ‘to the millimetre’ the dimensions are the Mothers?

On March 20, 1977, the original architect of the temple, Roger Anger, issued the following statement:

‘As I have already said many times, I have no objection at all if the dimensions of the inner chamber of the Matrimandir are changed and the pillars are put.’

Even at the time of this statement to change the inner dimensions would

have required a considerable amount of demolishing and reconstruction, since the four major supporting ribs of the room were already in place. Yet Roger Anger had no effective voice or power over the construction any more. Piero Cicionesi had taken complete control and he refused consistently even to meet with us and discuss the issues. Thus the fact that the chief architect’s approval had been secured was of little avail. Those overseeing the work on the site simply refused to comply.

Kai Sievertsen, the draftsman who made all the diagrams for The New Way, worked closely with me on this question of precision and accuracy. At my request he made a survey of the room in the early part of January, 1977, before I issued my document to the Ashram. The idea was to check the measurements for ourselves before ‘going public’. We wanted to be sure before proceeding further that the 24-metre inner diameter had not been incorporated since the dissemination of false statements had had its effect in creating doubts in people’s minds. His measuring on the site confirmed that the measurement was outer; he also made several precise drawings based on his findings to show what the position was of the construction concerning this point. The drawings are in my files.

How then, I am forced to ask, can the builders issue a statement now that the dimensions are ‘within a millimetre’ of exactitude, since no rectification was ever done? As I have stated, this is clearly another attempt to dupe the public.

I believe readers of VISHAAL would also be interested in another aspect of this story – a rather unusual one. There was an astrologer-clairvoyant in Bangalore, a Mr. Jain, who was receiving numerous visits from an ashramite, insofar as Mr. Jain seemed to possess rather remarkable powers of seeing. This ashramite would visit me from time to time for a game of chess, when he would describe his trips to the astrologer in quest of his readings.

It seems that the astrologer’s system was the following: the client would bring him a given number of questions in a sealed envelope; they had to be either 3, 6 or 9. This was placed unopened on the astrologer’s table. The client was then requested to select a card from a stack. The chosen one would indicate to the astrologer what category the questions belonged to and where the answers were to be found from a collection of very old leaves. On the basis of the selected card Mr. Jain would search for the correct parchment and proceed to answer the questions from its contents.

On one occasion this ashramite asked Mr. Jain a question about me. He was told various accurate things, that this would be my last birth (Indians are always keen to know that liberation from the coils of birth and death is at hand!), and that I would attain ‘tremendous spiritual knowledge’ and would bring the light to hundreds of thousands of people. The interesting part was that without seeing the questions at all, the astrologer also gave my friend the first initial of my name, stated that I was a woman and that I lived in a town on the sea whose name began with a ‘p’. This was Pondicherry where I was then living.

The astrologer’s reputation for accuracy came to be known to a certain group of people living in Auroville. At that time, late 1974, these people wanted the Mother’s plan readopted in all its details, since they were studying sacred geometry and felt they had a certain authoritative voice in the matter. But they considered that the OUTER measurement of 24 metres (then the main issue) was the harmonious one. As proof they cited the fact that such an outer wall measurement would give a neat 6 metres breadth to each of the 12 walls in the chamber, This was ‘proof’ of its correctness for them and therefore no rectification in the architects’ plan was required in that particular matter. Of course I contested this position, above all citing the Mother’s own words regarding the need for an inner 24-metre diameter. Thus we were at odds on this point.

Hearing about Mr. Jain’s amazing powers, one of the members of this group, named Constance, set out for Bangalore with a question concerning the temple and its plan. With his customary proficiency Mr. Jain proceeded to discuss the Temple, its plan, and so forth, without any knowledge of the contents of the sealed envelope. He referred to the plan drawn up by Udar Pinto as the only one to follow. However, there were some mistakes in it, he declared. He referred to the diameter of the room and insisted that the error had to be rectified: it should be INNER room measurement, wall to wall, In addition, he provided Constance with the authoritative source in ancient Indian sacred texts on temple building, where the rule for this dimension could be found.

I had a certain contact with that group at the time and this incident was reported to me immediately after it took place, and all these details were written out. Needless to say, the accuracy of Mr. Jain’s reply was astonishing, to the point where he even gave the engineer’s name and with specific reference to the error in his plan. Yet the seer also stated that the Mother was very happy ‘with Udar Pinto and only Udar Pinto’ for his work, regardless of the error that had to be rectified.

This episode took place in 1975, at the height of the debate with the architects over this measurement. It should be pointed out that if this had been a case of mind-reading or a capacity to ‘see’ what the closed envelope contained, Constance had different ideas in his mind than the astrologer’s reply. He upheld the OUTER measurement and no doubt had desired to receive a confirmation for his stand. Thus the fact that he was contradicted certainly adds weight to the objectivity of the reply.

This incident generated a certain amount of interest in both Auroville and the Ashram among those who were involved in the matter. I believe that in any other spiritually oriented community this astrologer-clairvoyant’s reading would have been sufficient to make the builders of that community’s temple immediately accept to make the due rectifications. Here was an outside opinion, unemotional, uninvolved in the politics or the frenzy which by then the matter had generated. Yet in Auroville nothing of the sort happened. Mr. Jain’s verdict followed the same fate as my findings, and the same fate as the Mother’s own insistency. The architects in charge just would not budge.

And while on the subject of clairvoyants, there is another interesting anecdote regarding the Temple. In July of 1977, when the episode was nearing its unfortunate and conclusive end, I received a letter from one of my brothers, from Rome, Italy. It was dated July 11, 1977. In it my brother describes a meeting he had with a friend, an unexpected encounter in the Pantheon Square. (I mention the place because the Pantheon, curiously, has a design similar to the Mother’s chamber, with an opening in the ceiling in the centre of the structure.)

My brother was unaware that this person had clairvoyant tendencies. She began ‘seeing images’ and relating what she was seeing. She told him various accurate things about a work he was doing at the time…’details that only I knew about.’ When she finished with this matter, my brother wrote

‘…Then she went on to talk about you. Said you were going through a difficult period and that you might have to consider leaving the ashram this year. Nonetheless this was very good for your personal development, as it would bring the solitude necessary for a deeper realisation. She saw the temple controversy and said that the original measurements must be insisted on. She saw a connection with Egypt. She also mentioned you may have to go outside your immediate circle for help in this situation. She couldn’t see far enough ahead to see the outcome, so obviously you are not to know for now.’

Again in this prediction there is a considerable degree of accuracy, especially concerning the need to leave the Ashram for a deeper realisation. Though the time factor was not correct, this did come to pass, yet when my brother wrote, this was not even remotely envisioned. But the turn of events did allow for this exodus and the ‘deeper realisation’ came to pass.

This clairvoyant was only a casual acquaintance of my brother. I do not believe she even knew he had a sister, much less anything of the temple episode or that ‘the original measurements must be insisted on’.

When I review the numerous documents and extensive correspondence on my files regarding this issue, I see what an utter confusion had gripped that collectivity. It was truly as I have described in ‘The Mother’s Dream’ – simple and plain chaos. For example, Udar Pinto, the sympathetic but erring engineer, wrote the following to me on 12 May, 1977, when I had pointed out certain contradictions in the statements he was issuing:

‘…This is a strange note of mine as I contradict myself in it. I see that I have mentioned all along that the 24-metre measurement was outside the room, now I seem to say it is inside. I really cannot understand myself and so how can anyone else understand me or trust this poor memory of mine?

‘However, I repeat that all this can be solved if we all agree that after due discussion and consultation the final decision is taken by someone who has been entrusted by the Mother to do so. This, I now see, is Shyam Sunder (the then administrator of Auroville). So we leave it to him to say what is to be done, after he has consulted with those concerned. This is my clear direction now.’

In my reply to the above, I contest the authority he was attempting to

invest in Shyam Sunder. Already in 1975 I had had my fullest experience of Shyam Sunder’s poise of consciousness. Overtaken as he was by personal ambition, he was hardly the one to uphold truth in this matter:

‘…It is good to have another clear statement of your views on this issue, especially the question of the 24 metres and that of authority.

‘I have one point I would like to have clarified in your memo, and for this reason I am writing to you. Under point 9, b, you quote passages from the Matrimandir Talks, the Mother’s conversations with Satprem about the Inner Room vision. These passages confirm the measurement as being inside. You state: “From this it seems that according to the Mother’s vision as shown to Satprem, the 24-metre measurement is inside the room. Hence the apparent contradiction from this, and with my own experience of the Mother’s working. I conclude that it need not be made a point of dispute whether the 24-metre measurement is inside or outside.”

‘The objection I have is that you fail to state that the Mother at

the time she made those comments quoted in your memo was precisely discussing your drawing with Satprem, referring constantly to it. It was not a ‘vision shown to Satprem”, but the vision as drawn by you. It is only unfortunate that at that moment Satprem did not tell the Mother of the discrepancy [Udar’s error regarding the floor’s diameter]. In all fairness I believe this must be clarified because it considerably alters the point you make.

‘About authority. When one needs a bridge one goes to an engineer for the design; when one needs a dress one naturally goes to a tailor; when one builds a temple the authority rests with the one who knows of temples, I would suppose. With all due respect, does Shyam Sunder know anything of these matters? It might be unfair to put him in a position to decide on matters he is not versed in.

‘Once more, I thank you for your letter and wish to express to

you our gratitude for the fact that, had it not been for your original drawing, many details of the Mother’s vision would have now been lost.’

It is well to provide VISHAAL readers who are interested in this matter with a complete copy of a memo I sent to the then administrator of Auroville, Shyam Sunder, on 9 May, 1975, since apart from giving the background for my refusal to accept him as any ‘authority’ in this issue, it also brings to light the prevailing attitude when we sought to have the Mother’s plan adopted. We are presenting it in the Supplement to this issue of VISHAAL as Appendix 1, under separate cover.

Thus between the summer of 1974 and the fall of 1977, concerted efforts were made to rectify, above all else, this particular error. But the matter reached a dead end. The architect in charge had had his way.

*

The news item under discussion unmasks the self-serving ‘logic’ of the

builders and highlights what I have been discussing in ‘The Mother’s Dream’: the exaltation of the ego of the instrument. There is hardly a better way to give a practical example of this condition than by presenting a reply I was forced to write to the editor of Gazette Aurovilliene, the Mother’s official organ for Auroville news. We reproduce this reply in full as Appendix 2 of this issue’s Supplement. Its subject matter is pertinent to our discussion since my ‘Note to the Editor’ centres on the manipulation of the public, using Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s words for this purpose. And now there is this most recent statement in The Times of India issued by the same builders of the Matrimandir. For what is the impression this article conveys?

The Mother’s Temple has become, in effect, the builders’ temple. But to

use the word ‘temple’ is incorrect; the builders’ display piece would be more accurate. As their statements to the press reveal, the object they are building, to quote the newspaper, is ‘an architectural marvel’. It is a technological and engineering colossus – and it has very little to do with the real essence of the Mother’s Temple. The technological aspect should be secondary; first comes its sacred content. That special and coveted quality emerges when the Seer’s vision is reproduced in full. This has not been done in the Matrimandir, and hence the journalist aptly writes:

‘Even if the divinity of the entire structure is lost to the not so spiritually inclined, the Matrimandir would definitely be a structure of great architectural beauty and scientific interest.’

This is a pathetic comment for it is entirely true of the builders themselves – ‘not so spiritually inclined’ – to the extent that any attempts to use the sacred and spiritual content as a basis for rectification was hotly combatted and even ridiculed (see the adjoining Appendices). Yet The New Way stands as testimony to the greatness of that higher content. No ‘architectural marvel’ in the world can compete with that sacred content. For the problem with our society today is precisely the fact that technology, rather than serving the higher consciousness of an evolving humanity, has come to serve the inferior nature of the mental species. We seek in our work to rectify this situation. Therefore it should not be surprising to find that this old consciousness, with its deceptive, self-serving interests, should have lodged itself at the very heart of the Mother’s work. It is there that the battle is fought for the world. India, more than any other country, has to face this problem today. Yet right on her soil there is this ‘architectural marvel’ which stands as a symbol of the refusal of the old creation to accept the higher Truth.

Yet in the field of technology itself, a dispute of this nature would be decided a priori in favour of the authoritative designer’s model. Let us take as an example the creation of an aircraft. What would happen if an aeronautical engineer were to pass on his design for a new supersonic craft to the manufacturers, and during its assembling various overseers of the project were to introduce significant changes in the design, with no understanding of aeronautics nor the overall purpose of the craft but basing their innovations entirely on aesthetic considerations or similar irrelevant concerns? And what if these interfering agents actually succeeded in producing this revised model. Knowing the background and the incompetence of the revisers, would anyone accept to board such a craft? Would it fulfil its original purpose? Would it even be able to stay aloft?

The situation with the Mother’s Temple is no different at all. A unique structure of this nature has a purpose, a function. This may be elusive, impossible to pinpoint with our insensitive faculties, but this does not abrogate the Temple’s destined function, which some do perceive and experience. And these are the ones authorised to hold that no changes should be made by interfering architects who know nothing of these matters, who know only what they have learned in western universities of secular design and function. Similar to the aircraft in our example, to enter such a ‘temple’ and thus to allow one’s consciousness and inner being to be manipulated by these agents is to invite trouble.

The builders of the Matrimandir in Auroville are disseminating false information to counteract my work which highlights the lamentable state of affairs their rigidity gave rise to. I would not choose to engage my energies in this sort of debate, but sometimes it is impossible to avoid the issue, given the work I am destined to do. Among other things, this consists in revealing a new body of knowledge – higher knowledge – in which the Mother’s original vision is central. Indeed, it is the cornerstone of the structure. But the possibility for this vision to take its rightful place in the heart of the new gnostic structure, lies in the accuracy of its measurements and design. I have proven this amply in all my written works, in particular the three volumes of The New Way. No unbiased person can fail to recognise these facts. Thus, in the normal course of fulfilling my duty, my responsibility to this work, it is inevitable that from time to time this issue will arise and must be faced. The two versions – the Mother’s as presented in my work, and the architects’, as presented in the building they have constructed in Auroville – stand side by side. They offer a choice to seekers: Does one want to accept as the central symbol of the Mother’s work a structure that simply extols science and technology and the ego of the instrument, or does one cling to the truth of the original vision and its sacred and higher content as the true centre of the new creation?

The Mother made it clear that she did not want any changes in her plan

– and she gave the reason why. On 17 January 1970, just before she abandoned any further attempt to convince the disciple and architects to follow her instructions, she stated,

‘…Because, you see, to accept changes, it is necessary that I be certain that the origin of the inspiration is of the same quality as mine. For the building, I know very well that people are needed who know their job and who do the work. But for the inspiration it is necessary that I be certain that the origin of the inspiration is AT LEAST of the same level as mine…And I am not sure, because I saw it so clearly. And immediately with Paolo’s ideas I saw the mixture. His ideas are all mental, I can guarantee it because it is easy for me to see that. Well, they bring all the same MIXTURE that there is in everything that is done in the world. And that…what is the use in beginning again, again, again…?’

And further on she declared, ‘…Who is there who knows? It is only when one sees. There is not one who sees’.… And she concluded the matter, saying,

‘I LOOK, isn’t that so, someone gives me a paper as you have just done when you gave me that drawing [the architect’s version of the chamber]. I look in this way and I see very well what in that paper is the result of something from above and what has become mixed and what is…. Like that. But one is not going to say it! – to begin with, they would not believe me.’

Would they believe me, if they had not believed the Mother? The answer lies in the building in Auroville. It might also be instructive to point out that these crucial passages concerning precisely the question of changes and the Mother’s feelings about the issue, were deleted from the transcripts of the Talks when they were circulated at the time we were dealing with this very question: Had the Mother accepted the changes? Like Gazette Aurovilliene this selective editing is another example of the sort of willful deception I am exposing. These crucial passages were released and published only in June of 1981, long after those changes had been made concrete. On my part, I have sustained from the very beginning exactly what the Mother had sustained before me. The Appendices we are presenting in the Supplement to this issue are the proof, as well as the three volumes of The New Way. I believed in the beginning that pure logic and higher knowledge, not to speak of devotion to the Mother, would hold sway and oblige the builders to see the rightness of this issue. But that was not the case at all: the more we sought to have the plan rectified, the more resistance sprang up – until finally, by 1977, rectification became impossible.

Well and good. But insofar as the architects and residents of Auroville

knew the issues then, had access to all the information required to help them decide what the Mother wanted, and yet they preferred to go the way of the exaltation of the ego of the instrument, why do they now bother at all to mention the question of ‘exact dimensions’ in their statements to the public?

First of all, as mentioned previously, it is to counteract my position regarding the changes; and secondly, perhaps the critical juncture Auroville has reached is the cause.

In November of 1980, the Government of India took over the project due to disputes between two factions over control, with the stipulation that after a certain number of years, once the problems had been sorted out, the Government would hand over the management of the project to those it considered fit to administrate its affairs. The time of that decisive hand-over has now been reached, therefore it would seem that the increased spate of disinformation concerning Matrimandir is an attempt to convince the Government, and the people of India to whom sacred geometry and sacred architecture are of great importance, that all is well, that my contentions are false, that the dimensions are exact ‘to the millimetre’.

But all is far from well. In November, 1980, I found myself obliged to make a recorded statement to the Government in the form of a petition. The issue then was the very one we are discussing here: disinformation on the part of the architect in charge, Piero Cicionesi. Not only was it a blatant case of misrepresentation of facts, it was also a gross interference in one of my own publications.

That petition and the points it raised are still valid today. Better than anything else, it can give sincere seekers an idea of the forces we are dealing with in our work. Therefore the editors of VISHAAL are presenting the entire petition as Appendix 3 in the Supplement to this issue.

A far more truthful attitude on the part of the builders of Matrimandir would be to dismiss the question of measurements entirely. They have proven time and again that they have no regard for such matters; their only concern is their own experience. Let them admit this openly and stop seeking to dupe the public. But the fact that they do not do so carries this matter into another dimension altogether. It concerns deception, duplicity, falsehood – lying, plain and simple. And when followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother now face the prospect of Auroville being placed in the hands of these elements, the question is no longer an ‘esoteric’ one. The Matrimandir lost its true sacredness in 1976; that can no longer be retrieved. The issue now at stake is truth or falsehood, in the most human terms, at the most basic level. To pretend that a new world can arise out of an Auroville which is lorded over by a consciousness that sees no harm in duping the public, willfully and calculatedly, is to deceive oneself pathetically.

In the constricted space of the old consciousness, can we discuss ‘truth’ at all? The old creation is described by the theory of relativity. There is no objective truth within the boundaries of the mental creation. Everything depends on where observation is made and positions shift constantly on unstable foundations laid in sand, – just like the shifting opinions we were forced to deal with in our fruitless efforts of those former times. It is this mental prison that made the Mother declare unequivocally that the architects’ changes were ‘all mental’, only a consciousness equal to hers had any right to introduce changes.

If Auroville had remained ‘the only hope’, matters would be bleak, to say the least. And so, we give thanks to the Supreme for Truth and Light and Power and Knowledge, for clarity of vision and the courage to live it daily. We thank God for these things that do live on and are victorious, for the ‘true and recognised centre’ and the new creation that arises from that pure Seed. We do give thanks for the New Way.

P.N.-B.

‘Skambha’, April 1988

N.B.  The three Appendices to this article can be found in the Supplement for this issue, under separate cover.

The transcript I have presented in Part 2 of this series, the Mother’s disturbing encounter on 7 April, 1973, with one of her closest aides, throws up another of those ‘painful enigmas’. Sincere disciples, courageous seekers of truth in quest of knowledge, must admit the existence of this enigma; at the same time, they must seek illumination and strive to attain a full understanding of the problem, the reason for its existence and the way it must be resolved.

The enigma is this: How could the Mother have kept such an abomination by her side for decades, tolerating his abuses, his constant humiliating outbursts, his injustices and brutalities to all but his close lieutenants, his ignorance, his dullness of consciousness, – in a word, his asuric nature? So close was he kept by her that as her physical incapacities increased he even slept in her room at night in the event that she might require some assistance. The sincere disciple is wholly justified in questioning the Mother’s wisdom in such a situation, especially in view of the recording in circulation of one of her encounters with him. This transcript unquestionably unmasks the severe limitations of his consciousness. Thus, why was he allowed to maintain his commanding position for so long during the Mother’s lifetime and even now?

The answer to this ‘painful enigma’ lies in the nature of the problem we are dealing with in the question of a ‘supramental transformation’. At the same time, to attain an understanding of this process, the hold this force has must be discussed. Where does its power lie? How has it been able to withstand the force of Truth for millennia and defy ‘conversion’?

It has been able to do so by an extraordinarily simple tactic – so simple that it is easily overlooked. This power by its harsh resistance, its closed, black hole consciousness, its brutishness has always forced the way of destruction upon those it confronts on the individual level and all the way up the scale to nations as a whole. Wars are an example of this imposition.

The tactic is ingenious, for, as Sri Aurobindo has written in one of his aphorisms, ‘If I cannot be Rama, then I would be Ravana, for he is the dark side of Vishnu.’ Ravana is the asuric power the divine Rama must conquer. That is, if the light is not my kingdom, I will oblige the Divine to recognise my dark though equal status by my opposition to the Supreme’s rule; I will occupy an equal position by compelling others to operate on my terms. And this, above all else, has kept the planet under the rule of the Ignorance for so long. Until now there has been no effective method to deal with the situation this strategy creates.

In analysing this logic we discover the centremost ‘knot’ that needs to be undone for the reign of Truth to become established. It consists in the passage from a binary to a unitary system, as I described in Part 2 of this article. We shall now analyse this in depth, but first it is necessary to lay emphasis on the fact that in order for a unitary system to come into being, the entire field in which it is to arise, or be organised, or ordered, has to be of an intrinsically different quality to that in which the old creation has arisen. Hence at the outset there is a specific requirement, and it is this that the Mother had to contend with. While not actually participating in the ordering process or the creation of a cosmos, for this to be possible she had to refrain from dealing in ‘the old way’ with the nuclear energies gathered around her for the purpose of creating the atmosphere in which to carry out her work. Failing to do so would have introduced the old seed into the heart of the process, which would thereby ensure its propagation and hence the contamination of the new that was seeking to be born.

This required refraining from using the method of destruction; but it must be stated that the question we are dealing with is not the use of violence or not in the way it has come to be understood. Destruction in this context has little to do with violence, as moralistically defined, particularly in our present times. Rather, the manner in which the old creation secured its continued sovereignty has been by forcing its elimination from the system due to its thick skinned resistance to the power of Truth. Its ingenuity resided in the fact that it even agreed to its own destruction, if that was demanded in order to have the old method prevail and hence the continuity of the mental creation with its inferior processes. But at the heart of the matter, the real sovereign in the affair is Death – the ultimate Destroyer.

In this too we must be clear about what death signifies and where its hold on the species lies. For it is  the unconsciousness of the process, the disintegration of the perceiving instrument and the soul’s plunge into total oblivion that are the powers Death utilises to secure its reigning position. The human race is thus born into unconsciousness, strives throughout life to gain a semblance of a conscious awareness, and leaves this plane by a plunge once again into total oblivion. Thus our race, this mental human being, can be described as a creation of Ignorance; essentially we are children of the Lord of Falsehood. It is this condition that we seek to transform as warriors of the Divine in this Age of the Supermind.

I have mentioned the work of the nagual don Juan and the line of Toltec seers he belongs to in the previous issue of VISHAAL. There too the ultimate conquest is over death, a conscious passage to the beyond by the mastery of a process which confers on the warrior the ability to leave this plane by a manner in which ‘the sting of death’ is absent. This ability was the property not only of the nagual himself but of the entire party of apprentices. Collectively they mastered the method by which this willed simultaneous departure was possible without the destruction of the perceiving Eye.

In Sri Aurobindo’s yoga there is a similar aim. But, while the teachings of the nagual’s line appear to centre on the individual liberation and conquest of death, in Sri Aurobindo’s work the aim is universal. The Supramental Manifestation signifies a great shift in the structure of the human consciousness, and ultimately in the species as a whole, by introducing a fundamental change in the evolutionary pattern – by stamping a new image in the cell. The means to achieve this high aim forms the basis of our present work. The method I am describing here, which involves a radically different approach to the powers of the Ignorance, is the way to create a new evolutionary blueprint.

Having this universal aim it is clear that the supramental yoga can never be an exclusively individualistic affair. The process requires a superior harmonisation of the individual and the collectivity. But this is a select collectivity in the initial stages. However, by this I do not mean an ‘elect’ or an ‘elite’. This select collectivity comprises powers of light and darkness, as this essay is demonstrating. The issue is to gather together diverse representative energies in order to form a microcosm in which the conditions can be reproduced that are adequate to bring about this great change. And at the outset these energies must be collected, combined, intermingled in a new way, by a method that is intrinsically different from the old process which produced the mental human being. Central to the method is an awareness of the nature of the problem and at all times the capacity to deal with the elements that require transformation on the basis of a conscious participation.

To use the Mother’s entourage as an example, disciples are misled when they believe that the success of the endeavour lay in the transformation of one or even a number of disciples. This is not the question at all. Individuals such as the great Negator participate by lending their energies, twisted as they are, dark as they may be, for the consolidation of an embryo system. They participate not to secure their own transformation but rather to provide the Mother with the proper field or laboratory in which SHE can do the Yoga of Transformation for the greater Earth-field. This means engaging in a method that produces a new cellular combination and hence introduces into the evolution something entirely new. It is the next step in the Earth’s affirmation as a planet where a superior species is to be housed.

The uniqueness of our planetary home is that here such a process is being enacted. The glory of our times is that right now this great change is taking place; and perhaps for the first time we are able to participate in this change in a totally CONSCIOUS fashion. But it is a mark of the human being’s hard-crusted ignorance that he cannot appreciate the grace that is being offered by human birth at present. One is trapped in the illusion of pain and suffering and the conviction that that is the only possible experience opened to the individual on this Earth. Such is the extent of the negation that pollutes the atmosphere of the planet.

To introduce something entirely new there must be a detailed knowledge of the method by which this can come into being. A stumbling block to this understanding is the human being’s moralistic consciousness. This was evident in Mohandas Gandhi’s non-violent movement, which played itself out entirely on the ethical, socio-religious plane and never touched the higher dimensions of the soul and spirit. Hence its limitation and the resultant degeneration at the end of his leadership when the outcome of his efforts seemed to produce an even greater upsurge of senseless violence. But we find this limitation amidst Sri Aurobindo’s followers as well. The prominence of the ‘ego of the instrument’ in his entourage is an example of this failing. Disciples believe that the success of his work resided in the transformation of the individuals destiny had brought to him and the Mother for their work. But what does transformation signify in the context of the supramental change?

Amongst the Mother’s disciples it is believed in a rather sentimental fashion that the transformation of the great Negator which she had been assiduously seeking for centuries, lay in his ‘conversion’. In our minds this appears to be something on the order of a born-again Christian experience. Perhaps he had to ‘see the light’ according to the old mould. But in actual fact, a consciousness of that nature cannot ‘see the light’ and is not meant to. The problem to be solved is of another order. Throughout the ages this force has imposed its ways on the evolution of consciousness. It has succeeded in prolonging the destructive method as opposed to the creative. What this signifies in its deepest essence is a cutting away of the element that refuses to be integrated into the unitary system. Indeed, because of this a unitary system with a central Sun has never been able to manifest. Such a system demands that ‘each thing be put in its right place’, as the Mother stated concerning her hotel vision and the analysis of its symbols. If what we consider to be the dark element has no place in the system, then how is it to be removed? And if it is removed, where does that leave the question of integrality? It is clear that this has been a major obstacle in the realisation of a life divine on Earth, since the nature of God is all-encompassing. God is in the light as well as the dark. The supreme Reality is a unity manifesting through diversity. Hence if we wish to establish a supramental creation on Earth, reflecting this Divine Integrality, then we are obliged to contend with the greatest paradox the mind has ever had to face: In the new creation of truth and light, what is the place of the darkness?

Off and on in this analysis I have stated that the dark powers contributed to the Mother’s Yoga by their opposition, by obliging her to do her Yoga. I have stated that ALL powers, those dark as well as light, are contributing to the establishment of the new way. The dark force contributes by its negation which creates a certain combination of energies in the fledgling System that reproduce the larger field to be transformed. The forces of the light contribute by their affirmation, by engaging in the creative process almost exclusively. However, the roles shift from time to time. Especially at the third level of the Work. At that point a different phenomenon occurs which we shall discuss in detail.

But to complete the point I wish to make regarding the adverse elements in the Mother’s entourage, the success of the endeavour lay not in the individual’s transformation (read, conversion) but in the Mother’s ability to resist dealing with those energies in the old way, by the method of cutting out the resistant forces and thus withholding that precious ingredient of integrality from the creative process. Once she had succeeded in attaining this goal, the fate of the negators is immaterial; they are no longer ‘cosmically’ relevant. I believe that this will help sincere seekers comprehend this ‘painful enigma’ in its true nature and the Mother’s strange insistency in keeping the great Negator by her side at all costs, tolerating what no other spiritual guide would ever have tolerated. For the question had very little to do with him as an individual, but rather the element he contributed to a process that extended far beyond the individual sphere. Nonetheless, the full transformation demanded a more complete process which was not a part of the Mother’s destined work. It is a work of our times.

In Sri Aurobindo’s epic, Savitri, the manner in which the Goddess deals with the Dark Lord is similar. The transformation she brings about in this power is not by a process of annihilation but rather by the expansion of the Light, by a creative effulgence and an undeniably superior ‘logic’ and gnosis in her debate with Death. In fact. when this is achieved she even tells the Lord of Death to be her instrument still for a while longer (in her mission on Earth), announcing in this way that the dark force is equally a power of the Divine during this transitional phase and that ALL powers, the dark and the light, are participants in this great change.

Even as we consider the individual to be unduly important in the Avatar’s work, we give an exaggerated importance to the collectivity as a whole that surrounds him in the initial stages. This collectivity drives the Avatar to complete his or her mission by reproducing on a microscopic scale the conditions of the greater Earth-field. This is the sole purpose of the need for ‘petty tyrants’ who surround the members of the Solar Line, for it is necessary to have these conditions reproduced in the true centre, where the precise lines of the supramental creation are being drawn. Disciples furnished these conditions. But one easily loses sight of this fact and the egos of these participants becomes inflated rather than eliminated by this exaggerated self-importance, to the extent that the participant believes that his transformation draws the lines of the system, that his contribution and offering are the decisive factors. This is only true when the Yoga reaches the third level, that of the Individual Divine. Then the lines expand to include a harmonisation of the One and the Many, the individual in the collectivity.

The real mechanism in this great transition the Earth is experiencing is quite different. For a successful crossing to a higher destiny, the larger field has to be recreated AT THE TRUE CENTRE of the work, for the true Realiser who has the power, by the dictates of the Time-spirit, to accomplish this for the larger body. For this reason I refer to these Powers as ‘evolutionary avatars’, to distinguish them from the ordinary ‘avatar’, – a title that has been sufficiently abused in India today. The line of evolutionary avatars I refer to comprises the Hindu Line of the Ten Avatars, but the confusion the Buddha introduced in this Line is part of the work the Avatar must deal with, the ‘error of the Buddha’ Sri Aurobindo referred to; it is an intrinsic part of the problem the binary system presents in the evolution of consciousness on the planet.

Thus others may experience what the Evolutionary Avatars experience, but this has no bearing on the evolutionary process. The only way a real change can be introduced into that sphere, which will result in a new and higher species, is when the solar Line succeeds in creating a ‘cosmos out of the chaos.’ That is, when the new System comes into being which orbits a higher Axis. This is the significance in the Mother’s words regarding ‘the true centre’, a recognised centre with real effective power. This power comes only when the right connection is made with Time. The lines of the new system are drawn by Time, from the centre outward, from the seed and extending, by the power of Time, to the full periphery of the circle.

When I write of ‘the new time’, I mean time as an ally in the creative process – no longer the Destroyer, no longer the power that draws us irrevocably to an ultimate and conclusive disintegration of the perceiving Eye. The new Time, or the gnostic Time, is the element in the new way that allows us to participate in the transformation by a conscious evolution. It extends itself out from the zero/womb of the compact seed of itself. For the fact is we cannot create without time; and the revolution the new way brings is in this uncontaminated seed of gnostic Time at the heart of the new creation.

‘Petty tyrants’ such as the great Negator the Mother had to face daily are the negative ingredients in this transitional stage of the process. Inasmuch as the condition of the Earth is still one of ignorance and a predominance of the adverse forces, this negative contribution is essential (‘…Death, be still my instrument a while…’). However, at the third level of the Manifestation another possibility surfaces and hence the individual’s realisation takes on a different meaning. While initially the contribution may be negative, the wholeness of the Knowledge at that point permits the negative element the real possibility of transformation.

In the Mother’s time this greater potential was not a consolidated part of the Work. In effect, the negative elements in her entourage continue entrenched in that same mire of old. What is more lamentable, they have participated in a formidable process without understanding at all what the nature and purpose were of that process of which they were such intrinsic parts. Indeed, in this very question of understanding the process lays the possibility of any true transformation. But while the Manifestation was incomplete and the Knowledge was yet deprived of its wholeness, that understanding could not come about and provide an objectively sound foundation. And this brings our discussion to the question of the composition of the ‘new field’, for it is only in this enhanced environment that the greater potentials of the supramental transformation can find scope for developing.

To illustrate a key aspect of this transformation, let me reproduce certain notes which the Mother made during an experience she had had on 17 December, 1969. (I have reproduced the entire transcript of the ‘revelation’, as she called it, in TVN, 3/1, April 1988, page 36-7.) Needless to say, that ‘revelation’ was an exact forerunner of the present work involving will, centrality, and the shift of the axis in the human species. The experience came to the Mother when she had been asked, ‘What is death?’ She wrote down,

‘Death is the consequence of the decentralisation of the Consciousness contained in the cells composing the body.’

This implies that life in a physical body is a question of the cells being held together by a centralisation of some sort. In the new way this is found to be so; moreover, the next step entails precisely a shift in that inferiorly poised body-axis to a higher positioning, – the emergence hence of a ‘true centre’. The Mother foresaw that next step when she wrote,

‘The very first step toward immortality is to replace the mechanical centralisation by a willed centralisation.

‘Decentralisation produced by Nature is mechanical. It must be replaced by a willed centralisation.’

This is a compact description of the properties of the new unitary system in contrast to the binary pattern which is characterised by its mechanical nature, lacking any conscious involvement of the will. This ‘new centralisation’ is not mechanical. The entire process is conscious and willed, and, above all else, it hinges on a ‘true centre’ for it is a centre with ‘real effective power’ which permits an organism to emerge that is free from a mechanical and unconscious existence.

*

Today we are faced with the urgent need to deal with this essential matter: the implementation of a ‘new way’ as the basis upon which the gnostic system will arise, rather than the old method of destruction which prolongs the rule of Death. Collectively we cannot escape this demand since our arsenals are bursting with the tools for a total annihilation of humanity. Concerned individuals throughout the world are seeking to counteract the forces of destruction in the effort to call an end to the threat of a nuclear holocaust. But the reason for the failure of these individuals and groups in their obviously sincere efforts to introduce a better system is that they do not have any sound knowledge of, first of all, how the present system actually came into being, what its purpose has been, and how it propagates itself; and secondly, how this system can be effectively undone and replaced by a new and higher order. Lacking this precise knowledge all analyses of the subject are shallow and do not provide the elements which will disclose the core of the matter. Consequently they fail to bring about any change. In fact, with rare exceptions, these efforts ultimately become a part of the collapse civilisation is experiencing.

An example is the spread of Eastern thought throughout the world which has served to sow confusion, it would seem, rather than increase the Light and the Power needed to dislodge the forces of negation from their ruling position, inasmuch as the Eastern philosophy that has reached the West is itself a part of the old creation. It is presently a potent tool for drawing creative energies away from the world by emphasising, directly or indirectly, the ‘illusory’ nature of creation, a heaven or a salvation beyond this Earth, a ‘nirvana’ or a ‘samadhi’ that is extra-terrestrial and extra-cosmic. This has put the final seal on the impossible-to-transform condition of material creation.

What then constitutes this ‘new way of creation’ as opposed to destruction? The answer lies in the need for a ‘centre with real effective power’, as the Mother foresaw in her extraordinary vision. And to reach that stage where the centre as she described it could come into being, a major shift had to come about: the transformation I have described as a shift to a unitary system from the present binary system.

We can understand the position quite easily in its cosmic correspondence: our Earth is called a ‘binary system’ because it has a single partner in its orbit of the Sun, – the Moon. Both Earth and Moon are engaged in an orbital dance around the system’s central Sun. In a manner that better serves our purposes, we can take as an example a binary system of two suns, as we find in our galactic neighbour Sirius, to describe the human condition. One sun is luminous, the other is dark. The latter appears to feed off of the luminous object and creates a pole of tension which, if disturbed, would seem to threaten the entire system with collapse.

Let us now extend this to the individual’s condition – man as a microcosm, a reduction of the macrocosm; and by consequence we may extend the image to describe the condition of our civilisation and even the very physical structure of the human being.

The apex of the old creation, the actual mental species, is a product of a binary pattern. There are two ‘centres’ within the individual vying for supremacy. In actual fact these ‘centres’ support each other; they are the elements which sustain the old species; they are the foundations of the old world. And they are not centres, properly speaking. To be precise, this binary pattern is the reason why the ‘true recognised centre, with real effective power’ has not come into being until now. The binary condition prevents a true centre from emerging and producing a superior model.

In the actual binary pattern of the mental human being, common to all who inhabit a bodily instrument as it is presently constituted, these axes represent a ‘higher’ and a ‘lower’ focus. In the evolution of consciousness on the planet, tension between the two foci has increased, resulting now in a clear-cut dichotomy: spirit and matter. There is no question of a harmonisation or an integration of these pivots of human existence in the old system with its binary structure, since that creation was founded on this play of tension and confrontation. This is its inherent ‘seed’. If left to itself without the introduction of anything beyond it or higher, the only possible development for the old creation is a greater and greater hardening of the system until a brittleness results which, like Sri Aurobindo’s Ravana in the aphorism, calls down upon itself a definitive catastrophe, rather than allow the introduction of any attenuating element. It cannot give up its equal status with its partner on the other end of the pole. The system thrives on this play of tension based on dualism.

Consequently, the extreme importance of the Mother’s careful treatment of that force of Negation is obvious, for the really critical aspect of her Yoga of Transformation was the manner in which she kept the great Negator by her side, who embodied for her that brittle and destructive process, and consistently refused to be carried away by his rages, histrionics, brutalities, into the old pattern. Had she annihilated his power, which was what he sought consistently to force upon her, we would then be justified in claiming that she had ‘failed’ her Yoga.

Yet there are not many who understand the nature of her Yoga. The confusion must be considered legitimate when we realise that we are dealing with various interrelated dimensions of existence. The Mother was engaged in the preparation of a new field in the cosmic dimension; but the ultimate aim is the transformation of the individual consciousness and the physical instrument. Thus the binary system she dealt with was the Cosmic Ignorance wherein the Light and the Dark opposing each other are legitimate pillars. It is this binary Cosmic Ignorance that has given us all the religions we know and have come to cherish so fervently, even as we witness their divisive influences in action almost daily, – in Ireland, in the Middle East, in the sub-continent, and throughout the world to greater or lesser degrees. Religions are inherently divisive in character, a fact we must acknowledge; and since the new creation is emerging these old refuges are being dismantled before our eyes. The rise of fundamentalism in all religions on all parts of the globe is simply the indication that the Cosmic Ignorance, to which every religion owes its allegiance, has been undermined at its roots by the successful supramental yoga.

The religions that have emerged from the Middle East are examples of the stark dichotomy that characterises the binary system, teaching as they do the separation between the dark and the light, and, above all, conferring on ‘Satan’ an equal status of objective existence. Any system which propagates a dichotomy of this nature, with material creation on one side, lorded over by Satan, and heaven and God on the other, is simply a true reflection of the dualistic qualities of the binary system.

We witness a hardening process in our civilisation in the rise of fundamentalism, and its occasional companion terrorism. Interestingly, the two often go hand in hand, their advocates come from a similar mould. The fundamentalist is the one most prone to utilising terrorism to re-establish a faith that he feels is losing its purity and original intensity due to societal developments which he believes are inimical to the contents of his faith. In such an instance the fundamentalist becomes Ravana and prefers open combat on the side of the dark power, believing that the ultimate good he wishes to establish justifies his sinister methods. In effect, it is a desperate attempt to keep the binary system intact.

This is the predictable development in a system that is being intrinsically undermined by one simple factor: the rise and the establishment of the new, unitary cosmos.

To bring this discussion closer to our work we may look at the cosmology of the old system compared to the new vision of the cosmos that has developed on the basis of the supramental manifestation and the ‘new time’. In traditional astrology we find a binary system central to the pattern. The geocentricity of traditional astrology has been hotly criticised by present-day scientists and held as a reason for condemning the art: astrologers of the ancient world were ‘ignorant’, they claim, unmindful of the fact that in our planetary system the sun is central and not the Earth. But the point is that the system of astrology we inherited from the ancient world simply reflected the stage of evolution of the human consciousness in a most accurate manner. The binary Earth-Moon complex at the centre of the system perfectly describes the mental being, the highest specimen Nature has developed so far. On the other hand, in the Gnostic Circle, the new vision of the cosmos and the blueprint of the evolution of the truth-conscious species, we observe that the Sun is central. Earth and Moon and their binary partnership are put in their rightful orbit, the third position from the central Sun. The two systems, when studied together – the old astrology and the new cosmology – perfectly convey the great shift that humanity is experiencing today.

*

We come now to the question of ‘order’ or ritam, as it is called in ancient Vedic texts. The major achievement of the new cosmology is its ability to ‘put each thing in its rightful place’. This may appear to be a trivial matter, but it is the secret for transition to a higher order. Only in the supramental creation do we find each thing in its rightful place. And on the basis of this ‘ordering’ the transformation of the negative or dark element in the system becomes possible. The very fact that we are now able to engage in this ordering process is the surest indication that the victory is at hand.

Thus, concerning the great Negator, for example, it is not a question of brutal conquest or of annihilating that force or cutting it out of the system. Rather, its conquest is an act of unmasking. However, this is a complex matter. Bearing as it does a singular importance in the Work, we are obliged to discuss this issue in considerable depth. At the same time this will provide the student with the means to learn which tools are used for the conquest, which weapons the warrior of the Divine is legitimately allowed to utilise in his struggle with the adverse powers that seek to obstruct the rise of the New.

Knowledge and the power of Truth are the principal weapons at our disposal. On the basis of this combination we are able to ‘put each thing in its place’. If we apply these tools to the Mother’s work and the adverse elements in her entourage, concurrent with a discovery of each person’s role in the drama, we realise that a new yardstick has emerged, entirely different from the moralistic ethos of the old creation. Thus there is no objective falsehood in the sense that there is no equal status given to the dark power by virtue of its binary imposition. Everything is contained within a unitary system, with a single central luminous Sun of Truth-Consciousness. All powers within this system conspire to give expression in the material universe to the central Will. Hence in the analysis of her hotel dream the Mother mentioned this very factor: a community held together around a central unifying will. Indeed, the principal focus of the struggle can be termed a ‘battle of wills’ – for it is Will that is the driving force in the universal manifestation.

A moral ethos is characterised by its inability in society to integrate certain energies which had become ‘knotted’ in the course of the evolution of consciousness. This knotting up, if it may be so-called, results from the fact that evolution on Earth has never been an INTEGRAL process. It is only now that this aspect is being introduced; and it is the key feature of the Supramental Manifestation, the result of a descent of the four powers constituting the Solar Line. This fourfold overlapping manifestation has not occurred before on this planet. The knotting up of energies in the old creation resulted from the gaps in the System and the descent of only partial aspects or rays of the supreme Power. There was no wholeness prior to the advent of the Solar Line in this new Age. We may be even more specific: the wholeness demanded of the Supramental Manifestation did not become unveiled and active until March of 1976. At that time the Fourth Power was uncovered – precisely the principle of Integrality. This then fulfilled the prophecy of a fourfold structure as the basis of supermind’s action on Earth through involution and evolution, since Sri Aurobindo had allotted the Square as the geometric symbol of Supermind, hence utilising the ancient method of symbols in higher knowledge to announce its fourfold essence. Indeed, it is only a four-sided figure that has stability; anything less cannot truly be said to represent a divine ‘creation in matter’, the goal of the new Manifestation.

Thus given the incompleteness or unsoundness of the old creation, precious energies have been diverted into the void, producing a ‘knotting up’. These have defied integration throughout the aeons of evolution on this planet. They continue to be the obstructing elements, on the individual and collective scale. In the language of the new cosmology, we refer to this situation as fragmented Time rather than the experience of Whole Time as conveyed in the Gnostic Circle, the major key of knowledge in our work today.

However, the fourfold nature of the Manifestation became an integrated reality in March, 1976. From that time onward the real ability to ‘put each thing in its right place’ in the context of the Daughter’s ‘super-organisation’ has been a primary focus of the Work. Indeed, the several volumes of The New Way are the outcome of that 1976 breakthrough. They bear testimony to this enhanced capacity of seeing which such wholeness and integrality allow.

But in this transitional phase to undertake an ordering of this nature means dealing also with the negative elements, their ‘rightness’ as well; failing to do so results in unwholeness and fragmentation and the divisive perceptions of the past which we seek to outgrow. Consequently, in my work I have brought into relevance these negative factors, risking in the process criticism from those quarters that do not understand the meaning of integrality, or its need, and the necessity to see the place of ALL aspects of creation, positive or negative, and their combined contribution. The uninitiated consider that only the good must be stressed and we must concern ourselves strictly with that if we wish to be ‘spiritual’. However, this attitude, so prevalent in spiritual communities, closes out any possibility of being channels for the new creative consciousness to accomplish its all-encompassing work in the world.

Nonetheless, the matter is not a simple one. To put the negative element in its ‘rightful place’, in the context of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work requires a consciousness which is not moralistically oriented. For this reason one of the most interesting discoveries the Mother made in her sojourn in the supramental world on 3 February, 1958, [see TVN 2/6, page 25] was the startling realisation of an entirely different value system there. The Mother discovered that attitudes and actions here which we consider to be ‘wrong’ according to her impeccable seeing of that higher reality were in fact good!

What then, we may ask, lies at the root of this question of ‘rightness’? For we are touching upon immensely important points in this inquiry, which have been the causes throughout the aeons for the divisiveness we experience on Earth, between nations and between individuals.

Rightness, each element in its ‘rightful place’, implies a correct time placement, which in turn means that its inherent truth and purpose are being fulfilled. But central to this issue is the essential nature of that ‘purpose’. Its symbol in the new cosmology is the Sun, the figure Sri Aurobindo saw to be the symbol of the Supermind. The ability to live the fulfilment of that Purpose implies an attunement to the ‘pulse of the Supreme’ which I have described in Part 2. And for this there must be a ‘true centre’ which in turn provides ‘real effective power’.

To draw the matter to a concrete example, during the Mother’s final decades of life she was that Centre for the work. In the Ashram, she held all the peripheral parts of the circle (the disciples) to herself, bound them within her ‘system’ and carried them along in her Yoga as positive or negative contributing forces, giving them both a legitimate place in the Work. That is, a true centre obliges all the parts of the periphery to fulfil ITS PURPOSE.

When the Mother finalised her Yoga and proceeded to withdraw, this was the beginning of a shift. Throughout the decade of the 70s this shifting of the centre and its purpose was being cemented at the heart of the Work. Concurrently there was an enhancement in progress: the basic lines of the Manifestation had expanded, the Powers had increased to four.

Being the Centre during those last three difficult decades of her life, the Mother gave a sense of rightness and purpose to the members of her entourage with whom she was carrying out the transformative process. Thus an adverse element such as the great Negator cannot be labelled ‘evil’ in the old moralistic sense, insofar as he was a precious ingredient in her work, without which the Mother could not have been successful.

Hence the ‘rightness’ of the great Negator’s contribution consists in its temporal placement. But his remained valid only so long as the Mother provided the ‘centre that holds’, which at that stage of the Yoga comprised the preparation of an atmosphere for the new field and seed to emerge. When the Mother left this plane, that centre, that binding nexus, ceased to operate since its purpose had been fulfilled. It then moved down the Line.

One of the clearest proofs we have of this situation is the fact that the Mother wished to have her encounter with the great Negator recorded so that it might be an element in his subsequent unmasking, because his role had come to an end. Anyone who has had contact with the Mother realises that she would have avoided at all costs exposing her secretary-disciple and others to the notorious rages of the great Negator, whose insufferable character she knew better than anyone else. Yet, as the transcript reveals, inconsistent with her character and habitual practices, she thrust the disciple into a head-on collision with this irredeemable and abusive consciousness. Therefore I sustain that the encounter she had with him on 7 April 1973, was a part of her ‘stalking’ and cannot be understood otherwise; it had little or nothing to do with the question of trance and sleep, or whatever. Its purpose was to lay the basis for the subsequent unmasking of that power since its ‘time had come’. The centre was moving on to another level. A precious element in the public unmasking was, of course, the recording of her encounter. In actual fact the great Negator unmasks himself.

It is interesting to observe what happens in an organism when this stage is reached. Continuing with our example, we observe that the great Negator was precipitated into the void left by the shift of the Centre. The Mother passed on her knowledge and power to the next in the Line – in a most accurate and careful manner. But the individuals who worked with her in her former activity were left orbiting an empty shell as it were. The centre was removed according to the laws governing this Manifestation once she had concluded her work. And at that point the void was entirely filled by the consciousness working through those negative obstructing elements, since like attracts like and the emptiness draws the Shadow to itself. It is only at that stage that we can begin to speak of wrongness and concrete opposition to the Divine. When this occurs we are justified in stating that the organism has lost its purpose, insofar as the power of Time has moved on and the central nexus has shifted. Indeed, this is the specific characteristic of a development of this nature: the void implies a lack of a divine Purpose. In place of the luminous Sun we find a shadow, a dark sun. It is this emptiness that everyone then orbits, held together by an illusion, by an unreal substance, while convincing themselves that they are still ‘doing the Master’s work’. In actual fact, they are simply being held prisoners in the fortress of the great Negator where there is no regeneration, held prisoners of ‘the past that seeks to endure’ and obstruct the manifestation ‘of the new things’ of the future.

This development is entirely understandable when one is familiar with the role Time plays in the Supramental Manifestation. Whole Time means integrality, an integration of the three times around a central Axis and Purpose. The ‘bridge’ the Mother and the Third conjointly build involves bridging the three times, past, present and future around a core of ‘simultaneous time’, or the gnostic seed. In the allotment of the Work, the Third (the Individual Divine) deals with the present; to the Fourth belongs the future. But in the Supramental Manifestation these are integrated principles by virtue of the fourfold structure. The 4^th Power adds to the Solar Line this wholeness, without which the victory cannot be conclusive and embrace the four levels of existence: spiritual, mental, vital and physical; it cannot be carried over and extended in the material creation. And by virtue of this culminating wholeness and consequent extension he is known as the principle of Victory, because when this Power is incorporated into the process, unveiled or ‘recognised’, then alone can we truly speak of a manifestation of the Supermind organised for Earth use. Until then the Bridge is yet incomplete. It is still ‘up there’ with no real connection ‘here below’.

But that is history now. The Bridge was completed and Time was made whole as of 1976. And true to the ‘rightness’ which the new cosmology explains, thereafter the great Negator eliminated that Fourth Principle of Integrality and Victory from the Ashram School. This action was entirely consistent with his place and role in the process, for in so doing he secured the perfect implementation of the Divine Plan by forcing the shift to a new and cleansed Base.

The old base is then observed to be an empty shell with a shadow in place of the central divine Purpose; and this pretends then to be its ‘binding force’. In fact, these are the ‘illusory ties’ the Mother commented on in the analysis of her hotel dream. Indeed, at that point the organisation (the ‘walls of the hotel’) seeks to stand in place of that Centre and loyalty to ‘the Ashram’ or ‘the Church’ is mistaken for attachment to the Divine and the true Centre. An empty shell can only house the things of the past.

I am reminded by this of a dream – while we are on the subject of dreams. A member of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram described this dream to me in the late 1970s, while I was living in Pondicherry. The gist of it was that she had entered the Ashram’s main building, where one finds the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and there she saw all the ashramites, her colleagues, moving about with blind men’s canes, tapping their way around as the blind do in their unfortunate condition. She was naturally shocked by this sight. At that point another ashramite came up to her and said, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right. One soon gets used to the darkness!’

This same person had a remarkable dream-vision in the early morning of 23 July 1984. I shall present its description in her own words. This dream provides us with an excellent symbolic portrayal of the process I have described involving the bridging of the three times. She wrote:

‘… [It was] some place in Pondicherry, unrecognisable or unfamiliar though. If you stood facing the ocean – the ocean [was] to your left, a very old, ancient, historical, very big castle in the centre and wild virgin woods to the right. This castle was so large and spread out that it had many minarets. The castle was very much on the sea, for at times the tail of the huge waves would touch the walls of the castle.
‘You were sort of sitting at a distance, a little away from the entire scene, almost like a watchman – guarding, taking care of the three: the ocean, …the ancient castle, and the virgin woods.
‘The time in the dream was very early Monday morning and when I woke up it was very early Monday morning.
‘I happened to pass by that way and saw you waiting there in the chair. Of course my heart began to race, but my eyes couldn’t believe what they saw. I walked faster and moved towards you. You were indeed there…’

After this meeting the subject sought my address (in Kodaikanal) and then reported that the dream ended as ‘…we parted, you to continue your duty, I to come home.’ She concludes her description by specifying the quality of the dream: ‘It was one of those rare, strong dreams which is reality and not a fleeting dream. I couldn’t believe it was a dream.’

In actual fact this vision bore the characteristics of a soul experience rather than a dream. Its most interesting aspect is that the subject had no understanding at all of the process she was seeing represented symbolically and hence she was unaware of the real content of the dream. Yet true to an innate capacity she possesses to dream in extraordinarily sophisticated symbols, she saw in this vision not only the condition of the community in which she lives, but the complex workings of a very new process.

The dream is quite clear in its meaning, provided one understands the symbols. This ashramite was seeing time in its three periods – past, present and future. Time’s present was represented for her by the castle. This becomes the symbol of the actual centre of her universe (it was the centrepiece of the scene), her lived experience and hence the condition of the community of which she is a part. The Mother saw that collectivity’s habitat or consciousness represented by a hotel in 1957. Twenty-seven years later (the third multiple of 9) and in the same month, and in fact at the decade’s 4.5 Orbit once again (July 1984, while in the 1950s it was July 1957), this ashramite saw that same habitat of consciousness represented not by a hotel but by a castle, equally a static symbol; in this case more so by virtue of its enclosing walls.

The present and the collective experience she is a part of are described by the castle with many minarets, high walls, closed in, etc., as castles usually are. Being the central image of the dream it is important to understand why the dreamer selected this image to represent the present. She has lived in the Ashram from a very young age; she graduated from the Ashram School and then joined its faculty. And today, without the active, living presence of the Mother, it has become a community where ‘the things of the past’ are preserved. Indeed, it has a very formidable past which it conserves, just as she expressed in her description of the castle with many minarets, very old, ancient, historic. The Ashram, now with its more than 60 years has accumulated a long history, a weighty heritage starting from the days of Sri Aurobindo’s involvement with the Indian freedom movement. It has earned a position on the historical map of India, as well as a place on the pilgrim’s itinerary.

The other ‘times’ are also accurately represented in the dream’s symbology: the ocean washing the castle’s walls is the past. We are reminded by this of St John’s ‘Apocalypse’, in which the past is also seen by the prophet as the sea. The ocean is also a symbol of consciousness.

In this dream the two – past and present – bear a connection by virtue of the waves beating upon the castle’s walls. The subject makes a specific point of this: ‘The castle was very much on the sea, for at times the tail of the huge waves would touch the walls of the castle.’

In point of fact, it is the consciousness of the past that nourishes the present and gives rise to an imagery recalling a ‘preserved past in the present’ as the central symbol. We may contrast this with the Mother’s dream where that same community is represented by a hotel with nothing in evidence in its imagery that would place it in the past, for the Mother was not dealing with time in her yoga and the fossilisation had not yet taken place. Whereas my dream of a hotel symbolising India did indeed offer an image of an ancient past in a ‘neutral’ present (the hotel symbol – not a castle, symbol evoking the past), but which had to be transformed, remade to serve the present. In this case, the ashramite’s dream does not offer any signs of a renovation. The past is preserved in the present, – ancient and closed, hence the symbol of a castle and not a hotel. But there is a further confirmation of this in the dream itself.

Along with her careful written description the dreamer also provided me with a drawing of the scene and its three principal elements. She drew the ocean connected to the castle. However, the most significant part of the vision, which might not have come to light had she not made the drawing for me, was the fact that the symbol of the future – the virgin woods – bore no connection to the present or to the past. In her drawing she indicates clearly that the woods are distanced from them both; there is a separation and the woods are off in the far corner of the page, while the castle and the ocean are on the other side. In the foreground she drew a chair which I was occupying as I sat…‘guarding the three – the ocean, the ancient castle and the virgin woods…’

What is remarkable in this instance is the subject’s ability to dream beyond the boundaries of her conscious awareness in such an accurate and enlightened manner. In this and in many other instances, she was something like a Pythoness of ancient Greece, who provided seekers with profound wisdom through symbols of which she had no conscious knowledge. Likewise, this dreamer had no understanding in her conscious mind of the connection between the dream’s symbols and my work with Time; in particular, the need to bridge the three times. The community she is a part of is that castle – Diti’s stronghold – and it has no means of replenishment except the waves of the past. There is no other dynamism in the imagery. All movement stops at the castle’s walls. At that point everything is closed in. Nothing extends beyond. Nothing moves.

What is missing is the connection with the future (the virgin woods). The fact that the dreamer describes them as ‘virgin woods’, indicates the unknown quality of the future. Its unexplored and perhaps ominous condition (‘wild virgin woods’) is something distant, removed, separated from the other ‘times’ she has seen in the dream. Time is the lived experience of consciousness in our material universe. It is not an abstract factor but materialises itself in the details of our lives on this planet. Thus while these symbols in the dream represent Time in its three phases, concurrently the symbols portray the dreamer’s experience of life, her lived experience of time. The lever that can draw the movement forward, unblock it, activate the present is a connection not with the past alone but specifically WITH THE FUTURE. For when that is cut off, the dynamism required to release energies, which in  this case are seen to be hoarded in the preserved past of the present, is absent. The present is thus simply a ‘womb of the past’, its tomb.

I would add at this point that the entire theme of the Rigvedic myth is this very one: the ‘rays’ (or ‘cows’) are hoarded by the adverse forces, Diti’s offspring, and these rays are time’s energy. The ‘cave’ wherein the ‘cows’ are kept is the womb of the past, the tomb of the light. The release that is effected and the victory of the tenth month of the year is the passage to a higher poise which the released energy allows; hence, the experience of Whole Time and the integration of all the planes of existence. The content of the dream we are presently analysing is decidedly Vedic.

Interestingly, this dream took place at the very close of Diti’s month, July, and that is the power which is symbolised by the castle and its secure high walls, cutting it off from the future, thus representing the status quo. In The Magical Carousel I have portrayed this same power in Chapter 4. In this modern myth the Queen of Night is equivalent to Diti of the ancient Vedic myth. And true to this person’s interesting capacity to dream beyond her awareness, she saw her present precisely in the form of a castle. For the castle symbolism in the Queen of Night or Diti’s kingdom is not a random selection. It is, like the Mother’s hotel, evocative of a static, unregenerative habitat.

My ‘duty’ in the dream is more than clear. Though I am not a resident of the place (the dream makes this point), my duty is to watch over the process, the bridging of the three times and the integration. But for this subject and her community that integration has not occurred; hence I am simply ‘watching’, ‘guarding’. In my experience with dreams I have rarely come across such a fine example of the soul speaking to a dreamer in its most vibrant, dispassionate and neutral spirit. There are no threats, no ominous messages or judgements, no castigations. There is just a pure statement of facts, providing the seeker with all the elements of ‘choice’ and ‘recognition’, with the total freedom to make use of them or not, to accept or not the gifts her soul is offering. And the soul, like the watchman of her dream, patiently waits for the time when its light can emerge from the Queen of Night’s formidable castle of the midnight darkness and the vigil can end. This dream seems to be a projection of the Mother’s call to students to ‘fight the battle of the future’ against ‘the past that seeks to endure’, for the time of the NEW THINGS has truly come.

We now reach the final part of our analysis of the Mother’s dream: its connection with the present and the remarkable synchronicity of events we have been experiencing as we move forward in this exciting adventure. Therefore, in the concluding Part 4, I shall discuss, among other things, the important ‘collaboration’ of physical Nature, on a factual basis, insofar as it was such a fundamental part of the Mother’s 1957 experience. The manner in which Nature is collaborating in the establishment of the new gnostic creation, though entirely different than what many would expect, is no less startling and wondrous.

‘Skambha’, April 1988