The witness in us, thoughts and imagination
More and more I see that by giving ourselves entirely to the Divine, all our personal problems - problems of the collective life, even the problems of the world - are practically solved, for by our act of surrender we become aware of the Divine, we become aware of our soul and its line of work and development, how it can take part in the divine plan, in the world plan. In our mind, our thoughts have different worlds. By careful observation we can gradually separate and classify the thoughts. We may say there are purely bodily thoughts, then vital thoughts, then mental thoughts from mind regions, then soul thoughts or psychic thoughts: but these too are often mixed and cannot be put in a clear-cut way in one class or another. The aspiration, which is like a wordless need for something higher, truer, durable, eternal, comes from the soul. The speculative mind trying to pierce the mystery of existence through thought process can also become an aspiration. The impulses, feelings which seek a more refined pleasure or delight or search for a durable love can be the beginning of a true vital aspiration. The body itself, in a mute way groping and longing for a perfect and painless existence, can participate in the aspiration. The mind can watch as a witness over all the activities going on in it. This separation of the witness, the observer, is a very important step in this yoga. When we discover the true witness, self, in the mind, we find that it is truly impartial, but has a deep view of things and is not attached to our personal way of thinking. It is a true outsider in the sense that it cannot become accomplice of our thoughts. It is the representative of the Divine in our mind. We have to become more and more quiet and detached in order to disengage it and distinguish it from the flux of thoughts. What you call fantasy or imagination or dreaming comes from different regions. For instance, a chocolate mountain is a vital imagination, or a push-button organisation is a mental imagination, peace and harmony among the nations is a psychic imagination. The nearer we come to the soul and its perception, the truer are the images, fantasies and dreams. Many of the imaginations could be a direct or slightly veiled and indirect perception and feeling of some reality in this world or in other subtle worlds. Morbid people have an unconscious access to many unpleasant and dangerous and ugly ranges of consciousness in the vital worlds. Optimists are forward-looking people - they live in tomorrow in a better world. To be an optimist is a sign of wisdom. The spiritual optimism comes from a true and deep perception of our deliverance in the Divine, in His Beauty, Joy and Harmony. So, all you have to watch is: that you do not harbor any unhelpful, sad, gloomy, tragic, dangerous and destructive imaginations. Instead, you should always imagine happy, beautiful, harmonious, helpful thoughts. They have a tremendous power of creation. The dreamers create the new world. Sri Aurobindo says something like this” God dreams and Time realizes His dreams.” So let us find our soul which is always one with the divine, then dream. In any case, we will not be able to do anything else for we will be constantly dreaming God’s own dream. God is never unhappy. Tragedy is the lot of the broken pot, not of the potter. We must cease to be the pot and become one with the Creator and His marvelous rapture.
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N.Guha Roy 1978
Prayer of the devoted violins
We all need utmost goodwill and gentle thoughts and prayers
to go through the difficult and tragic life on earth.
Let our life be a compassionate choir of devoted violins vast,
wide, deep, soft and swift and embrace the whole creation
O Mother Divine, flow in dense rain showers
Of ecstatic vibrating violin music in our body and soul.
O Mother Divine, come down on the wings of praying violins
And heal our groaning bones, aching nerves and flesh.
Liberate the psyche in a coma locked in a secret chamber.
O Mother Divine, transmute our animal bodies into majestic temples
To house the Eternal Lord and His Mate.
O devoted violins play a sublime symphony of gratitude
In honour of our Guide,Teacher of supreme harmony and beauty,
Our gentle and sweet Douce Mère.
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo come to fetch the soul of the violinist
( last painting of Niranjan Guha Roy - 2004)
Remembering the Divine in all our actions
Our effort must be to remember the Divine at all times, in all circumstances in action and at every waking moment of our life. Then in course of time the remembrance will gradually extend in our sleep as well. But that would take a very long time. If we succeed in remembering the Mother during any action we may be doing we would feel a general weakening of all resistance to the Divine in the mind, especially the vital and then the body consciousness. This will permit a better receptivity of the Mother's Force from above and a better and stronger inner awakening of the soul. The psychic being will come out from behind the veil and be more prominent in our active consciousness. Those who have in any way accepted Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as their spiritual Guides and Teachers are certainly more evolved beings than the common man.
What is the greatest difficulty on the way to our realization of the Divine? We all know more or less what is demanded from us by the yoga, what we must do to follow the yoga, we all know more or less our spiritual obligations and duties and conditions laid down by the yoga. What prevents us from achieving our aim and goal is not so much our incapacity but our unwillingness to leave behind the familiar ways and habits. In short, especially the vital refuses to give up its favorite haunts . Now in the process of yoga we come to a serious point. The soul, the psychic being inside gets stronger and brighter by the influx of the Mother Force from above, now powerfully active in the earth atmosphere but the outer physical being refuses to budge an inch, like the obstinate donkey who says, "tempt me with as many carrots as your want but I won't give up my favorite field of thistles." Well something has to give in, either the divine power must withdraw and the psychic stop growing or the donkey must move forward, otherwise an explosion is inevitable. And that is happening in everyone without exception under the pressure of the supramental consciousness dominating the earth evolution. Either give in to the Divine or disappear, get blown up, lose the balance . This is the inevitable process of the change-over from the human to the divine consciousness. Of course, it is not possible to change our habits overnight, but if a good beginning is made, not just a pious unfulfilled resolution to follow the Divine, then one is more or less safe and enjoys the protection of the Mother who will give us strength and protect us on the upward way. She will change our weakness into strength and power if only we wish to belong to Her in all sincerity. She will take out all the painful spines in our flesh, one by one and release us into Her light, peace, joy and beauty.
To conclude, it is for our own safety on the road that we should do what we know as the right and the best thing to be done, not to postpone it indefinitely but set our teeth and with all our courage, take the decisive step forward to belong truly to the Mother. This is what She expects from us and this is what will make Her happy in our relation with Her. We must not keep Her waiting.
Om Douce Mère, help me to overcome my obstinate resistance.
Om Sri Aurobindo, our kind and benevolent Teacher, be with us always.
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N.Guha Roy
Paintings - Aspects of the Mother Divine
Fierce for the dark hypocrisy , lies and falsehood
Passionate protecting mother for the sincere aspirants to the Light
She is Herself the symbol of absolute love and dedication to the Supreme.
She is the Fire burning, purifying, transforming the argile into gold
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Ananda - Mother of FelicityHer smile, Her gaze, the music of Her presence
Penetrate the soul in a flow of benedictions.
Luminous Felicity,
She emanates a magnetic grace like the fragance of a flower
An eternal unending Felicity binds us all in Her embrace
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The Mother of Divine Love
Her love is like subtle delicate perfume purifying our house of life,
A charming melody turning softly around our soul.
She pours Her love like a sacred rain
Tansforming slowly the arid earth in a garden of roses.
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Gentleness , tenderness , compassion incarnate.
She fills our hearts with her appeasing sweetness
And heals all our wounds with her smile.
In our immortal soul, we discover the infinite sweetness
Of the smile of the Divine Mother
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Divine willThe supreme Force , always at work
She directs in detail the evolution of the earth.
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Sincerity, simplicity, humility incarnate
This is our Douce Mère
She is incredibly humble, supremely simple, accessible
Clear as the crystal. She is our infaillible friend.
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Only the supramental force can gradually create a new divinised matter.
The yoga of Sri Aurobindo is extremely difficult, impossible by one’s own effort alone.
Unless we really aspire to be free from the iron grip of the lower nature anddesperately want to leave behind our animal humanity and rise to divinity, nothing much happens, we remain tied to ignorance and suffering.
The divine life cannot be imposed on anyone who is not ready for the evolutionary mutation, whose psyche is not sufficiently formed.
The divine life means complete freedom from desire, greed and passion, a life entirely consecrated to the supreme Lord, to His Shakti and Will, to be shaped, remade, animated and moved by the Divine Mother alone.
We become aware of the Divine, His infinity, His eternity, His light and bliss.
All the beings, things, events and happenings and all the worlds and universes are His own manifestation, gradual unfolding of His hidden splendour.
By His Grace, when we emerge into light, live in His marvellous presence we realise that we have no real existence by ourselves apart from Him. We are only a portion, a spark of His sun, an instrument for His play.
But this is only half the story. Our soul now free is given to the Divine.
Our physical being created through long biological evolution remains anchored to the soil of the earth by heavy gravitational pull of matter.
Inwardly we are illumined, detached, tranquil, unaffected by lower nature. Mind is full of Light, sees the Divine everywhere, even the vital being has lost its turbulence and become a faithful docile instrument. But the body is hardly different from any other body, dull and heavy, subject to the bio-chemical process, beyond our effective control, subject to animal reactions, disease, decay and final disintegration.
The cells of the body function meticulously, automatically driven by an inconscient power with utmost precision in a huge complex system.
Unless this inherent nature-power in the body cells is radically transformed by a superior Force descending from the highest spiritual planes above, we will remain imprisoned, a conscious soul in a death-bound body.
Only the supramental force can gradually create a new divinised matter.
And this supramental force is no other than the supramental Mahashakti.
No human effort or ambition can divinise matter, only the Divine Mother.
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N.Guha Roy