Once a disciple wrote to the Mother:
A few days ago I wished to begin each day by making my Pranam to You. Since then, I wake up remembering You and I make my Pranam to You before anything else. It is Your Grace that has made this possible, and I hope that the Grace will hasten the constant remembrance.
The Mother replied with her Divine Compassion and Love:
Every day you will receive my response and my blessings for the day.
~ CWM, Vol. 18, p. 356
Remembering Her and offering my Pranams to Her, I take up the work for this special issue in the month of February 2024. On this auspicious occasion of the Mother’s birthday we bring a special issue on the theme – The Mother’s Grace. This issue also pays homage to the anniversary of the Golden Day, the Day of Supramental Manifestation. To mark the special day, we will also publish a special post on February 29.
Flip and Read: Our Sweet Mother
Of Remembering and Forgetting
“Although his ego claims the world for its use,
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, CWSA, Vol. 34, p. 542
Man is a dynamo for the cosmic work;
Nature does most in him, God the high rest:
Only his soul’s acceptance is his own.”
In our egoistic journeys through life, as we go through various trials and tribulations, ups and downs, we generally forget that there are powers and forces beyond us which are constantly protecting and guiding us. There are powers and forces beyond our highest intellectual capabilities which lead us in directions that eventually shape our choices and decisions. We may call these higher powers or forces by any name. We may call it the Divine. I call it The Mother.
In our ignorant intellectual debates on free will and destiny, we forget that in the ultimate analysis we are only instruments of a Cosmic Plan. And though blessed with a free will we have been put here on this earth to fulfil a tiny little part of the Supreme’s Grand Work. We forget that we are here to manifest in our small ways the Divine Will, to play our little part in the Divine’s lila.
“Often our thoughts are finished cosmic wares
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, CWSA, Vol. 34, p. 542
Admitted by a silent office gate
And passed through the subconscient’s galleries,
Then issued in Time’s mart as private make.
For now they bear the living person’s stamp;
A trick, a special hue claims them his own.
All else is Nature’s craft and this too hers.
Our tasks are given, we are but instruments;
Nothing is all our own that we create:
The Power that acts in us is not our force.”
We forget, therefore we have to remember. Only Her Grace can save us from this forgetfulness.
Because we are steeped in the Ignorance of our lower nature, enslaved by the prison of our physical-vital-mental selves, we forget that we are not really doing anything that we think we are doing. So we have to remember that even in our blind ignorance it is the Nature’s Will manifesting itself through the outward actions being done through our hands and minds. We forget that we only have a responsibility for our actions and no claim on their outcome.
“Even Nature’s ignorance is Truth’s instrument;
Our struggling ego cannot change her course:
Yet is it a conscious power that moves in us,
A seed-idea is parent of our acts
And destiny the unrecognised child of Will.Infallibly by Truth’s directing gaze
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, CWSA, Vol. 32, p. 272
All creatures here their secret self disclose,
Forced to become what in themselves they hide.
For He who Is grows manifest in the years
And the slow Godhead shut within the cell
Climbs from the plasm to immortality.
But hidden, but denied to mortal grasp,
Mystic, ineffable is the spirit’s truth,
Unspoken, caught only by the spirit’s eye.
When naked of ego and mind it hears the Voice;
It looks through light to ever greater light
And sees Eternity ensphering Life.”
We forget all this and that is why we are quick to take all the credit for the success of our actions and put all the blame on to the Divine or Nature if there is failure (or cry Bad Luck!). So we have to remember and offer all work to the Divine with no concern whatsoever for the outcome. We know we must do this, but still we don’t, we can’t.
We don’t do it because we forget. Only Her Grace can take away this state of forgetfulness.
We forget that all this is Hers, so we have to remember to offer it all to Her. We forget that we are only children of Hers struggling in Ignorance. So we have to remember that only Her Force and Her Grace can help us crawl out of this Ignorance and show us the Light.
Our Latest Flipbook
The Mother’s Grace
“All stumbled on behind a stumbling Guide,
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Vol. 34, p. 625
Yet every stumble is a needed pace
On unknown routes to an unknowable goal.
All blundered and straggled towards the One Divine.”
But why do we forget?
Perhaps there is a deeper necessity for this forgetfulness because all is part of the Divine Plan.
“This world was not built with random bricks of Chance,
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, CWSA, Vol. 34, pp. 459-460
A blind god is not destiny’s architect;
A conscious power has drawn the plan of life,
There is meaning in each curve and line.”
We are perhaps led to this forgetfulness so we may focus on the external world and all the actions that we must pursue. It is this action in the outer world that allows us to manifest and express outwardly what we may have experienced as part of an inward growth, whatever little that may be.
“This world is God fulfilled in outwardness.”
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, CWSA, Vol. 34, p. 624
Without the outward action we may not be able to translate any inner change into a concrete and sustained transformation. Without a reasonable dose of forgetfulness we may not be fully immersed in the outward action. And without such an immersion an identification with the task may not be there. Without which the task may not become a natural expression or outpouring of whatever part in us that has begun the journey of a deeper, wider and upward progress.
So you see, Her Grace works even in such forgetfulness!
Because it helps us progress in a completer way. Not on the path of the ascetic, but the sunlit path of transformation of all parts of our being.
In the ultimate analysis, this simultaneous inner and outer journey is what helps us correct the multiple defects of the different parts of our physical-vital-mental nature. Only this can over time lead to a dynamic change of our outer nature which is essential for our evolutionary progress. And for the purpose of our individual growth, this ‘back and forth’ between the outward external action and an inward redirecting of energies is what keeps us ‘testing’ for ourselves whether we are really changing. And for that we are given this experience of forgetfulness.
But we must remember that we are also given the ability to remember. We are given this because we must remember what we forget. It is this remembrance that takes us back inward. To the inner chambers where all journey is supposed to take us. And it is Her Grace which reminds us that we must go to that inner freedom when everything outward attracts us and wants to keep us imprisoned.
The journey is long, full of ups and downs, moments of light and shadow.
There will always be moments when darkness would become overpowering and we will struggle for light. When our aspiration will begin to fade and despair and doubt will test our faith. In those moments we must remember Her and Call Her. And call for Her Grace. Because with that first step – namely, by relying on Her Grace alone, by having complete trust on Her Force, everything else becomes possible.
“The effort demanded of the sadhak is that of aspiration, rejection and surrender. If these three are done the rest is to come of itself by the Grace of the Mother and the working of her force in you. But of the three the most important is surrender of which the first necessary form is trust and confidence and patience in difficulty.”
~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 32, p. 139
See Our Flipbook: Guidance from the Mother
Offerings in this Special Issue
Our guiding light feature reminds us that only the Mother’s Grace can pull us out of any darkness or despondency we may fall into as we walk the sunlit path of Integral Yoga.
We feature a few selections from Champaklal’s book Prarthana ane Udgaro, translated into English from Gujarati under the title Prayers and Aspirations by Sudha and Don Fisher. These selections serve as important reminders for all sincere aspirants. Walking on the Sunlit Path shown by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo requires one to fully rely on and put all one’s trust in the Mother’s Grace.
Do we really believe in God? Read this translation by Narendra Murty of one interesting extract from Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali journal. In this passage, the noble laureate speaks of how his mother’s love made him aware of the Divine Grace in his life.
The Golden Day
The month of February this year is extra special, because this year we also celebrate the anniversary of the Golden Day, the day of Supramental Manifestation.
On the evening of 29 February 1956, during a collective meditation at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram playground, a stupendous event happened. It opened the gateway for the next future of the earth-consciousness. The manifestation of the Supramental in the earth consciousness was achieved. The Mother described this realisation in these words:
“This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine.
“As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that “the time has come”, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
“Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.”
(29 February 1956, CWM, Vol. 13, pp. 51-52)
In our Book of the Month feature, we highlight some precious reminiscences of K. D. Sethna (Amal Kiran). They speak the working of the Mother’s Grace. The precise reason for featuring these extracts in the current issue has to do with the connection to the Supramental Manifestation.
From our archives:
Vishnu’s Fourth Stride: From Humanity to Divinity
As we mark the anniversary of this day which marked the beginning of a New World, let us contemplate on our destiny as human race. At this critical turn of human history, man must choose his destiny — to become a new man with a new consciousness or to go down into inconscience and no more be a man. We feature an essay by Nolini Kanta Gupta on Human Destiny – the critical choice, which was first published in Sri Aurobindo Circle, 1960.
In continuation of the first two parts of Mangesh Nadkarni’s essay Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri and Vyasa’s Savitri published in the last issue, we bring the remaining two parts.
As always, we offer this work at the lotus feet of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
In gratitude,
Beloo Mehra (for Renaissance Editorial Team)
~ Design: Beloo Mehra & Biswajita Mohapatra
