Sri Aurobindo/ The Mother/ Auroville

by Johannes Aagaard

Sri Aurobindo had no guru. He received some spiritual help but no real guru initiation. Consequently, he never belonged to the old monastic order, but was on his own. He expressed himself on this point as follows: "Though generally a touch from the guru is necessary, it is not indispensable. In my case there was no touch from a guru — I got an inner touch and practiced yoga." He received some spiritual guidance in 1907 from Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele 82) through whom he learned the utter silence and infinite calm of the Supreme Brahman, beyond time and space. And he later got much help and inspiration from his "shakti," Mira Richard, the Mother. 83)

He made use of various yoga systems, but claimed not to see them as essential. "The Hathayogic methods can be dispensed with — though there is no objection to their partial use, — the Rajayogic will only enter as an informal e1ement." 84) Aurobindo seemed, however, to have an esoteric and secret part to his yoga. He expressed it thus: "The detail and method in later stages of the yoga which go into little known or untrodden regions, I have not made public and I do not at present intend to do so." 85)

Aurobindo was directly influenced by Vivekananda. When in jail he claimed to have heard the latter’s voice for days. Furthermore, he had direct contact with the Theosophist master K.H. (Kuthumi), who told him, however: "Your master is different." 86) He had vivid visions of Lord Krishna and "passed many nights in his arms." 87) But first and last he was a yogi. His system is called "Integral Yoga," and yoga for him was always associated with "Yogiraj Shiva." 88) His aim was to integrate and synthesize all yogas into his own form of maha-yoga, 89) but the uniting bond was the Tantric kundalini system, and his system included aspects 90) and methods of siddha yoga.

Aurobindo first of all went his own way. He decided "to see God face to face" and thus achieve siddhi, as he described it to his young wife in 1905. Consequently, he left his old world in 1910 and started anew in Pondicherry in 1910, where he lived until his death in 1950. 91) He tried to make himself "the automatist of the Lord," putting himself totally at the disposal of the divine. 92) Aurobindo had at an early stage achieved what in his tradition is called atma-siddhi.93) But he wanted to get further in spiritual development, and this is where the distinctive character of the Aurobindo system comes in, the growth into the Supermind. 94)

This development for Aurobindo was not meant as an escape from this world of form and matter but to be another way of living in it. 95) Aurobindo developed throughout his life and used all his powers to bring truth down to the level of matter. He made his own person available as a laboratory, intending to become the first supermind in this world. 96) The purpose of his form of siddhi-yoga was to bring down a consciousness, a power and a light of truth, a divine reality, destined to raise earthly consciousness and to transfigure everything here on this earth.97)

In 1926 it was made clear to his many disciples in Pondicherry that "the siddhi of the supramental" was nearer, and on November 24, 1926, (since then celebrated as "the Siddhi Day,") something happened which was interpreted to mean that the Divine had descended to earth. It was, however, not the Supermind, but something described as the Overmind ("the Krishna consciousness"), which had been attained. The direct result was that Aurobindo abdicated, the Mother took over, and everything in the movement was put under her supervision. 98)

In some versions of the event the descent of the Overmind was into Aurobindo only, but in other versions it came into both him and the Mother.99) Before the maha-yogi managed to summon down the definitive Supermind, he died, ("The Mahayogi left his mortal body in 1950"); and this was understood as part of the final victory. 100)

According to Aurobindo, Tantra expressly differentiates itself from the Vedic methods of Yoga. The main difference, often repeated by him, is that a Tantric yogi does not draw back from manifest nature and its difficulties, but confronts them, comes to grips with them, and conquers them. The aim of Tantra is not escape, as is the case with the traditional systems of yoga, but is a transformation of a man’s integral being. 101)

His Integral Yoga is principally a yoga of syntheses, i.e., a synthesis:
between Vedanta and Tantra.
among the many different systems of yoga.
between Western occultism and Eastern Tantra.
between Krishna-bhakti and speculative gnana-yoga.
to some extent between Hinduism and Christianity. 102)

But the decisive force at work in his system is quite clearly a modified Tantric approach. Aurobindo at the core of his ideology was a Tantric master who tried to unite matter and the divine. His Shakti orientation and the role of the Mother indicates as much. Aurobindo himself developed the ideology of the Mother as a central part of his system. 103) Shakti was his alter ego, doing everything for him as on his behalf. He was Shiva, i.e., a residing, passive being.

In his system of Integral Yoga the Vedantic mukti (liberation) is integrated with the Tantric bhukti (pleasure and enjoyment), but in a spiritualized way. The cruder forms of Tantra seem to be absent. 104) Though he operated with the serpent power and the six chakras, etc., everything being aimed at uniting the Shakti and Shiva at sahasrara at the top of the skull, the way this system was used by Aurobindo was new. "In our yoga there is no willed process of the purification and opening of the center, no raising up of the kundalini by a set process either. Another method is used, but still there is the ascent of the consciousness.., there is the opening of the centres and of the planes... therefore, there is, I have said, a Tantric knowledge behind the process of transformation in this yoga." 105)

It is thus essential to note that in his discipline his exercises do not begin at the bottom, at muladhara, but from the heart centre: From there he aims at awakening the purusha (spirit), and if it happens the lower kundalini Shakti arises automatically. 106)

One further point is important for distinguishing the Aurobindo Tantra from traditional Tantra. In his system there is both an upward and a downward movement, and the ascent comes at the beginning. Starting from matter as an evolutionary process, Aurobindo focuses, however, on the descent of the divine and a final transformation of matter. He wants to transform the whole world by bringing down to the human level the divine force which he has reached by means of the ascent. This is quite new in yogic ideology. 107)

The Mother (Mira Richard)
"As soon as he (Aurobindo) withdrew from his physical envelope the supramental light made its permanent base in the Mother’s body, beginning with the brain-mind. This is what is known as the "Mind of Light." 108)

What in reality took place in the relation between the aged Aurobindo and the strange, energetic woman Mira Richard is buried in the past, but the indisputable fact is that she took over not only his leadership, but also his guruship. She became in practice the expected supermind, but always as a sort of shadow of his power. 109)

She maintained the expectation of his return. She said, "One can’t fix the precise time of his return. It may even be five hundred years later. I can’t say anything, since the knowledge has not come to me. I only say things when I get them. This much I have said: Sri Aurobindo will be the first to have the supramental body." 110)

In 1956 she stated unequivocally that the supermind had taken over: "Previously everything worked under the pressure of the Mind of Light. Sri Aurobindo secured this working when he left his body. Now it is the Supermind that directly guides and governs. The manifestation is just over two and a half months old and yet a new situation — an absolutely new situation — has come into being." 111)

In Mira Richard, the Western occult tradition blended with, the revised Tantric tradition of Aurobindo and created a synthesis. She claimed to have studied in Algeria under an occult master, called Theon, at the beginning of this century; and in Paris in 1912 she joined a group of occult seekers. 112)

In her life time a highpoint in the development of the Aurobindo-movement was the inauguration of the AUROVILLE project on February 28, 1963: a township planned for 50,000 people on the outskirts of Pondicherry, and belonging to humanity as a whole. Its aim was to function as a bridge between the past and the future and as a site for material and spiritual research. 113) After the Mother’s death, however, a series of conflicts among the disciples have caused a serious crisis for the project.

Aurobindo groups are now found in many parts of the world. Apostles of the Auroville ideology are spreading the message of the Father and Mother. Among the messengers are two worth mentioning, M.P. Pandit and Sri Chinmoy.

M.P. Pandit joined the Aurobindo Ashram in 1939 and has been closely connected with this center for many years. His many books provide one important dimension to its teaching. 114)

The most explicit confession of the Tantric sadhana M.P. Pandit gives in his defence of "the secret ritual," included in Light on the Tantras. 115) In this book he combines mukti and bhukti, the bliss of the finite and the infinite world, as he defines them. 116) He gives a useful definition of Tantra in these words: "The Sastra aimed to take man as he is, utilise his natural proclivities for his own advancement…." 117)

Sri Chinmoy lived 20 years with Aurobindo, but left to become the apostle of siddha yoga in the West (1965 in the USA), as expressed not least by his symbolic service at the United Nations in New York in the meditation room of this organization 118) and by the hundreds of books, the thousands of poems and songs, and the enormous number of paintings and musical compositions, which he has produced. Who is who in guruism by Johannes Aagaard Update IV 3 Oct. 1980 (analytical art.) Topics Links