How long shall our spirits battle with the Night?
Aswapati is advised by the divine Voice to wait for the arrival of the transfiguring hour and the moment it finishes speaking there is a supernatural hush everywhere, as if the deep and luminous occult connotation is that the wisdom and absoluteness of it cannot be questioned in any way; what is said is said and nothing need be added to it or subtracted from it. Authority is there in it but it is not imperious, overbearing in any indignant or miffed sense. There is behind it a calm consideration in the love and joy of her motherhood; it carries a divine sweetness and nothing is dismissed, nothing spoken to give rise to cause hurt. The result is there is the Eternal’s peace filling the vast spaces between the operative transcendental and the cosmic movement where things have to happen. Nothing stirs, and there’s no response. Indeed, who can speak out when the last word, absolute and wise, has been uttered by the augustest Power?

But Aswapati stands up and makes a passionate advocacy for the cause of this mortal world, a plea on behalf of this frail and ignorant creature of the earth. He was carrying the “world’s desire” with him, a desire for the light and truth and love and joy in the life lived in greatnesses of the spirit. He has gone behind the veil that separates the bright and the dark, the cosmic ignorance and the superconscient knowledge, the great truth of sun-worlds and the falsehood of the moonless starless nights, gone behind all that is evil and all that is good; he has perceived the hidden meaning behind this well-intended material creation, packed with divine possibilities, as much as he has witnessed the supporting majesties that hold up and promote it. Behind the cosmic mask there is the glory and the beauty and that glorious and beautiful should not stay away in her lonely grandeur, alone and unconcerned with the plight of this suffering man here upon earth. Effectively Aswapati says: “Enough is enough. The unhappiness and the wretchedness man, this soul of delight, has been carrying are too heavy for him to bear and they have been there for too long, oppressive and pulling him back from the authentic prospects of his growth, growth without limits. All this must change immediately, and there is no question of things happening in the pace of slow and tiresome toilsome time.” Aswapati goes even to the extent of saying that the divine Mother has been kind of cruel to her own children. He really wonders if it is she who could at all bind her own sons to the hard doom, to the grinding mill like an ox. There had come through long centuries the builders of the godhead of the race, but they had to accept painful defeat and the brute yoke of Death. There came the sages and the rishis and the avatars and the prophets, there came great vibhutis of the concerned gods and goddesses, there came the Buddha and Krishna and Christ—but, Death remained unconquered. They had to pass through the Calvary of the earthly consciousness, they have to bleed, get scourged, wear the ignominious crown of thorns. To put it in the extreme sense: (Savitri, pp. 609-10)

The Avatars have lived and died in vain,
Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice;
In vain is seen the shining upward Way.
Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun;
She loves her fall and no omnipotence
Her mortal imperfections can erase,
Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line
Or colonise a world of death with gods.

Aswapati therefore hammers home the point that, in spite of the effort and toil and quest of the Master-builders of the world, things have basically remained as they were, full of hurting and wounding mortality, the mortal carrying the miserable lot of the mortal. Enemies within and enemies without have been defeated several times but they continue to keep on coming up, again and again. The Mother in her prayer dated 16 August 1914 puts it in the deepest poignancy of the psychic:

For three days I waited in an ardent prayer, hoping to see the new things… and all the obstacles surged up to veil, retard, deform Thy manifestation. And now we do not seem any nearer the goal than before. O my sweet Master, why hast Thou told me to leave the blessed place in Thy heart and return to earth to attempt a realisation which everything seems to prove impossible?... What dost Thou expect of me that Thou hast torn me away from my divine and wonderful contemplation and plunged me again into this dark, struggling universe? When Thy force descends towards the earth in order to manifest, each one of the great Asuric beings who have resolved to be Thy servitors but preserved their nature’s characteristic of domination and self-will, wants to pull it down for itself alone and distribute it to others afterwards; it always thinks it should be the sole or at least the supreme intermediary, and that the contact of all others with Thy Power cannot and should not be made except through its mediation. This unfortunate meanness is more or less conscious, but it is always there, delaying things indefinitely. If even for the greatest it is impossible in the integral manifestation to escape these lamentable limitations, why, O Lord, impose upon me the calvary of this constraint?... If Thou willest that it be thus, Thou shouldst rend the last veil and Thy splendour come in all its purity and transfigure the world! Accomplish this miracle or else let me withdraw into Thee.

That’s the greatest danger—if the miracle is not going to be accomplished, she would like to withdraw from the entire effort. Very foreboding indeed, frightening with the consequences of another pralaya, the dissolution of the creation!

RYD

But Aswapati replied to her
How long shall our spirits battle with the Night? definitely, that long they shall opt to remain in the Night, in the darkness of the Ignorance, till they recognise their potential and work for it in the grace of the Divine. Can they come out of it, can come out of their own and escape Death and Fate; can they become the conquerors of Nature? Can their aspiration rise to that height, acquire that intensity? Finally, the battle is in the physical. Only when the physical shall open to the supramental will it be won, the difficult battle. Aswapati has done it in himself and now it has to happen in the vast cosmic working. He is at present forcing the issue by willing the incarnation of the divine Wisdom herself.

It is most significant that it is here, after 340 pages, or in the 11438th line of the Savitri-narrative, midway through the storyline, that for the first time the name of the Protagonist of the Epic, Aswapati, appears. What restraint and calm luminous self-possession! what wonderful art! and what finesse, finer than the fine! That is the Yogi-Poet himself! Aswapati has done the triple yoga-tapasya, Individual-Universal-Transcendental yoga-tapasya, the Yoga of the Supreme himself in the terrestrial context. His soul is liberated, his spirit is free; he has walked through all the realms of this vast creation, without bounds, identified himself with the Virat Purusha, the Cosmic Being in all his million poises, met even the Black Vishnu, bore wounds that are difficult to heal, even as his body was lapped by a tenebrous tongue, took the journey to discover this wide world-failure’s cause, saw the visage of the dark and fearsome Unseen, discovered the fount of the world’s lasting pain; even as he progressed he linked the cosmic extensions to the Eternal’s sphere, offered his surrendered heart to one who stands at the peak of the creation. It is before her that, presently, he is arguing the case of the mortal creature. It is then that Aswapati has become Aswapati, the Lord of the Life-Forces, with the swift and strong reins in his firm hands; it is then that he is hailed as the Son of Strength. It is now he questions the divine Wisdom and asks her: How long shall our spirits battle with the Night, bear the yoke of Death? What daring! what intimacy! what identity!

Are we supposed to become Aswapatis in the same manner? Are we supposed to do the rigorous and difficult Yoga of the great occult Supreme? He did so much for us, “worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, he who willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us,” he who was engaged in a work “severe and painful”,—is it that we can ever do? Impossible. To even think that way will be plain silly, presumptuous, to say the least. Indeed, after all, who are we? what are we? The problem and poignancy can be felt most keenly in the Mother’s anguish she recorded on 3 September 1919 when she was at Oiwak´e in Japan:

Since the man refused the meal I had prepared with so much love and care, I invoked the God to take it. My God, Thou hast accepted my invitation, Thou hast come to sit at my table, and in exchange for my poor and humble offering Thou hast granted to me the last liberation. My heart, even this morning so heavy with anguish and care, my head surcharged with responsibility, are delivered of their burden. Now are they light and joyful as my inner being has been for a long time past. My body smiles to Thee with happiness as before my soul smiled to Thee. And surely hereafter Thou wilt withdraw no more from me this joy, O my God! for this time, I think, the lesson has been sufficient, I have mounted the Calvary of successive disillusionments high enough to attain to the Resurrection. Nothing remains of the past but a potent love which gives me the pure heart of a child and the lightness and freedom of thought of a god.

Man does not accept the divine meal prepared for him by the Divine himself. No wonder, our souls continue to battle with the Night. “My body smiles to Thee with happiness”—will this happen to man who refused the feast that was prepared for him. Woe unto him, thrice woe, of the physical, the vital, the mental. But Aswapati is not going to give up. He is going to put the entire force of his yoga-tapasya in the exceptional deal. He has the key to the problem in his hand, in his blazing soul, the golden key, in the divine Wisdom herself taking the human birth. He cannot rest content with the mortal days, and he demands the light of the never-dimming everlasting Sun. In fact, he questions the divine Wisdom that, if it is her work which he is doing here, then why can’t break here the splendour and the gleam that she is, why does she not win the victory by coming down here. Who else can do it, if not she? It is totally beyond the scope of the human, it cannot be the job of the Purusha who will will and provide the support to the executive Prakriti; he wills, she acts. It is her job and she should accept the responsibility.

RYD

A larger seeking man
Aswapati is somewhat impatient. He doesn’t want things to get shaped simply by the tiresome process of nature or Prakriti, doesn’t want things to happen in the laggard process of Time which also has tortuous and meandering, even injurious convoluted, tendencies. Yet there is no doubt that, one day, the miracle will materialise, and he knows it with certainty; but as it is a limping “slow-paced” miracle, it cannot be acceptable to him. The advice received by him was not to awaken the “immeasurable descent” too soon, too prematurely, lest, under its swift and fiery tread the creation itself could get crushed. There does exist a distinct danger in the present context of things, and wakeful Aswapati also sees it, recognises the calamitous pitfalls in it. Not only that; in the pragmatism of things and events he attends to it with alertness. Therefore the authentic question is: Can this deliberate and well-intentioned slow-paced process in someway be activated and quickened, speeded up without meeting the adverse effects? The thinker and toiler, the treasurer of superhuman dreams who Aswapati was, must be greatly concerned about realities of the transcendental action in the remote field of darkness and ignorance, and in their realisation he should be rather reasonable and realistic with reference to the hostilities that abound here. As regards the eventual outcome, that in this new yoga of earth-consciousness, the terrestrial world also is going to be God’s place of wonderful habitation, iśāvāsyam idam sarvam, there need be the least apprehension; this world is God’s and sure enough he lives in it, he the Lord and the Resident, and there need be no nervousness about the transforming miracle happening, be that sooner or later. But the tangible differences come up in the effectivity of Time; the question is: when? Aswapati himself speaks of the divine reasoning behind the working of the evolutionary process. He admits that the divine Wisdom moves with infallible steps, steps that might appear to us mysterious, even puzzling; but there is the calm logic of Infinity’s pace and inviolate is the sequence of that calm logic. But he wants that “when?” to be answered by the “now, right now.” Surely, he can’t rest content with mortal days for too long; surely, too long it had been that the mortal has been battling with the Night. In fact, essentially, he has already done whatever had to be done.

Behind the works of Time Aswapati has already seen the golden possibilities waiting to rush to the earth. He also recognises the fact that these possibilities can turn into realities only in the bidding, in the ministry of the divine Executrix; the block that is lying across the path of this Event she alone can remove. It is only the Grace that can save this creation from the dangers, known or unknown, the divine Shakti who can effect the total change. That is the reason why he approaches her and pleads to her to descend on the earth to accomplish the task. Even as from his “slumber’s cell” a power arose he saw, in the vision of the unfolding sequel, the arrival of the pioneers of the new creation, the flame-pioneers, the sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn. He is now reasonably certain that, soon the divine successor will arrive here and take charge of the suffering humanity, of this imperfect world. But all that can happen only if the mighty creatrix herself incarnates in a living form. She alone can “unlock the doors of Fate” who all along has kept mortality tied to ignorance and death. That is Aswapati’s plea. It is the plea of the Supreme born as a Yogi on earth and made to the transcendental Power, to Para Shakti who stands behind the luminous possibility in this manifestation, who herself must now take the mortal birth. It is here on earth that the Godhead has to invoke the supreme Force, Purushottama has to offer his prayer to the Adi Prakriti and, through it, compel her to do what he wills. This is the imperative if there has to be a divine manifestation upon earth.

The thrust of Aswapati’s pleading to that Goddess is that, although the world is full of misery and suffering and the human creature lives annulled, frustrated, spent, yet there has to come in the unfolding sequel

A larger seeking man with nobler heart
A golden vessel of the incarnate Truth,
The executor of the divine attempt
Equipped to wear the earthly body of God.

This is the specification which Aswapati is seeking to get satisfied. Man has to be the seeker of great Truth, he must have a righteous heart and golden must be his body, hiraņya tanu, must be equipped to wear the earthly body of God. Such a claim had never been made in the spiritual history and such a claim can never be met by the frail and feeble mortal. Aswapati’s concern is to see that the earthly body of God becomes ready for the divine attempt. What else can avoid, eliminate, the process of decay-disintegration-death? That means, he must climb to the supreme source of creation and invoke there the transcendental Shakti to help the quest of man on the upward path; that is his human potential and it is in her alone that it can get fulfilled.

Let us read here the Mother’s prayer dated 23 July 1913:

O Lord, inconceivable Splendour, may Thy Beauty spread through all the earth, may Thy Love be kindled in every heart and Thy Peace reign over all. A deep and solemn chant, smiling and subtle, rises from my heart, and I do not know whether this chant goes from me to Thee or comes from Thee to me or whether Thou and I and the entire universe are this marvellous chant of which I have just become conscious… Surely there is no longer any Thou or I or any separate universe; only an immense harmony is there, sublime and infinite, which is all things and of which all things will one day grow aware. It is the harmony of boundless Love, Love victorious over all suffering and all obscurity. By this law of Love, Thy law, I want to live more and more integrally; to it unreservedly I give myself. And all my being exults in an inexpressible Peace.

In that immense harmony, in that chant in which “Thou and I and the entire universe” have become one is the boundless Love, “Love victorious over all suffering and all obscurity”, Love that conquers immortal Death.

RYD

Dear RY,

Thank you for this profound comment.

As I read it, tears came to my eyes and I felt such a deep love for Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and their Work to manifest here on Earth, as you say:

'Love victorious over all suffering and all obscurity', Love that conquers immortal Death.

Feeling this has further deepened my aspiration to be a vehicle, however small, for this so necessary Evolution, and for that I am very grateful.

I have a question re one part of your comment:

...The thrust of Aswapati’s pleading to that Goddess is that, although the world is full of misery and suffering and the human creature lives annulled, frustrated, spent, yet there has to come in the unfolding sequel

A larger seeking man with nobler heart A golden vessel of the incarnate Truth, The executor of the divine attempt Equipped to wear the earthly body of God.

This is the specification which Aswapati is seeking to get satisfied. Man has to be the seeker of great Truth, he must have a righteous heart and golden must be his body, hiraņya tanu, must be equipped to wear the earthly body of God. Such a claim had never been made in the spiritual history and such a claim can never be met by the frail and feeble mortal. Aswapati’s concern is to see that the earthly body of God becomes ready for the divine attempt. What else can avoid, eliminate, the process of decay-disintegration-death? That means, he must climb to the supreme source of creation and invoke there the transcendental Shakti to help the quest of man on the upward path; that is his human potential and it is in her alone that it can get fulfilled. ...

It seems to me that Sri Aurobindo's emphasis on this aspect of Aswapati's "challenge" to the Divine could be read as a call for a more proactive Yoga vs. the quiescent tendency of previous Indian yogas. I'm wondering if his inspiring story of Aswapati can be interpreted as an example for all of us of a new kind of more responsible partnership with the Divine in the Earth's and Cosmos's Evolution? Perhaps now is the time when such a proactive mode is both more possible than in earlier periods, and perhaps even necessary given humanity's increasingly "Koyaanisqatsi" (Life out of balance) behaviors?

~ ron

Dear Ron

I am touched by your response. I don’t know how I got the phrase “Love that conquers immortal Death”; but I must owe to sciy the opportunity that came to me for these greatly self-educative postings.

Your observation:

It seems to me that Sri Aurobindo's emphasis on this aspect of Aswapati's "challenge" to the Divine could be read as a call for a more proactive Yoga vs. the quiescent tendency of previous Indian yogas. I'm wondering if his inspiring story of Aswapati can be interpreted as an example for all of us of a new kind of more responsible partnership with the Divine in the Earth's and Cosmos's Evolution? Perhaps now is the time when such a proactive mode is both more possible than in earlier periods, and perhaps even necessary given humanity's increasingly "Koyaanisqatsi" (Life out of balance) behaviors?

I have simply fallen in love with your “proactive yoga”, the most apt description that we can have for the Aurobindonian pursuit. If we have to go by the etymological sense then it is the perfect “Aryan” attitude that we see in it, Aryan the pioneer, the plougher who prepares the land for the new creation, the pusher or builder-promoter of the spirit’s boundless opportunities. The greatness of Sri Aurobindo’s Aswapati is, he wills independently in the truth of the manifesting truth, the manifesting spirit; which means, there is no clash in what was suggested to him in the divine wisdom and what he is proposing, in fact he is insisting in getting it done, a truth-idea recognising the validity of another truth-idea. The play of the free-will in the multifold dynamism of the Truth is, in my opinion, the true hallmark of the Yoga of the Future Aswapati is already engaged in. It is in it that the authentic human potential will flower and bear fruit. But, undoubtedly, that needs intense yoga-tapasya, and for it the divine help is always there, the Grace. We have to get ready to receive that Grace, that Bhagavadkripa. The more we do it consciously the more it becomes luminous and rewarding. Will we apply ourselves to it? That’s the question.

RYD

The great calamity for the world
Aswapati presents a poignant argument how, thought-racked, we live upon the wheel of life, pay the price with the blood of heart and get back nothing: (Savitri, p. 342)

Too little the strength that now with us is born,
Too faint the light that steals through Nature's lids,
Too scant the joy with which she buys our pain.
In a brute world that knows not its own sense,
Thought-racked upon the wheel of birth we live,
The instruments of an impulse not our own
Moved to achieve with our heart’s blood for price
Half-knowledge, half-creations that soon tire.
A foiled immortal soul in perishing limbs,
Baffled and beaten back we labour still;
Annulled, frustrated, spent, we still survive.

The grim state of affairs he is describing to the divine Wisdom is sorry and pitiful, and it only shows the grave dimension of the problem, its enormity and the horror that goes with it; this problem, this forbidding difficulty ought to be solved if there has to appear the new creation upon earth. Can we even get to the depth of this situation small as we are in every respect? It is not even a human problem; it belongs to the dark and precipitous cosmic working, is present at the base of the things as if planted with a purpose, sinister and evil, menacing. Let us read the dream the Mother once had (31 January – 1 February [1915?]) just to get a feel of the kind of dreadful powers that rule the world, the terrible powers of the dark Inconscience. (Words of Long Ago)

At the top of a very high tower standing on a high mountain, in a room so vast that it seemed to be low, I was leaning against the far wall, and facing me was a window looking outside. On my left a raised throne with several steps, and on the throne sat the Lord of Nations. This I knew although I had not looked at him. To my right at the far end of the immense room, in a kind of alcove lit from above, sat a young woman—a nation. She was a small, dumpy child with very dark hair and a pale and mat complexion. She had put on a wedding-dress, with a crown of white flowers on her head (the dress was mostly white with some blue and a few touches of gold). I knew that I had helped this nation to dress in this way, and to climb the mountain and the tower to come up to the room. She had come to offer herself as a bride to the Lord of Nations, and for this purpose she was to undergo a series of ordeals that the Lord wanted to impose upon her in order to know whether she was worthy of him. These ordeals were the ordeals of Terror.

For the first ordeal he had a full glass as well as a decanter brought to her. And she was to drink the contents of both. To her they seemed to be blood—human blood newly shed. And He, from the height of his throne, was saying to her, “Drink this blood to show that you are not afraid.” The poor child was trembling with disgust and did not dare touch the ghastly beverage. But at that hour, Lord, You had given me the full consciousness and power of the Truth. From where I stood I could clearly see the transparent purity of the water which the glass and the decanter really contained. And while the child was still hesitating and the Lord was taunting her in a biting tone, “What! you are trembling already! This is yet only the first ordeal, the easiest of all, what will you do next?”… Then, heedless of the consequences, I cried to the child in a language that the Lord did not understand, “You can drink without fear, it is only water, pure water, I swear it.” And the child, trusting in my word that dispelled the suggestion, began to drink calmly… But because of the force with which I had spoken, the Lord suspected something and turned towards me in fury, rebuking me for speaking when I should not. To which I replied—still heedless of the consequences which I knew to be inevitable—“What I say is not your concern since You cannot understand the language I have used!”… Then the memorable thing happened… The room suddenly grew as dark as night and in this night a still darker form appeared, a form I perceived distinctly although no one else could see it. This form of darkness was like the shadow of the light of Truth within me. And this shadow was Terror.

Immediately the fight began. The being, whose hair was like furious serpents, moving with hideous contortions and terrible gnashing of teeth, rushed upon me. If with only one of her fingers she were to touch my breast at the place of the heart the great calamity for the world would occur, and this had to be avoided at all costs. It was a fearful battle. All the powers of Truth were concentrated in my consciousness; and nothing less was needed to fight against so formidable a foe as Terror!

Her endurance and strength in combat were remarkable. At last came the supreme moment of the fight. We were so close to each other that it seemed impossible that we should not touch, and her outstretched finger drew nearer, threatening my breast… At that precise moment the Lord of Nations, who could see nothing of the tragic battle, stretched out his hand to take something from a small table at his side. This hand—unawares—passed between my opponent and myself. I was then able to take support from it and Terror, for this time definitely vanquished, sank to the ground like a dark dust without power or reality… Then, recognising the one who sat on the throne, and doing homage to his power, I leant my head upon his shoulder and said to him joyfully, “Together, we have conquered Terror!” Such was my dream—and with it You gave me the full understanding of it. For all this I give thanks to You, as for a priceless gift.

The Mother knew even in her early days of occult pursuit that the Lord of Nations must be conquered if there has to be a radical change in the evolutionary course. In her dream she sees a much greater danger, coming from the Terror let loose by him, the real Terror no human agency can tackle, withstand, a Terror that only the super-Durga in her all-winning golden strength can slay. In it the Mother had already exercised her greater will by making the Asura's bride-to-be drink the glass full of human blood, by telling her that it contained nothing but pure water. The Asura did not understand her language and she made him shut. That itself is a great victory. What fearlessness!

But the scene changed and a greater darkness assumed a yet darker figure. If only the Terror could touch the Mother's breast, and all would be undone; the world would collapse. But at the precise moment something else happened and the Terror was vanquished. The hand that intercepted between the Mother and the Terror was no doubt the Asura's but he was not even aware of his own movement; nor did he realise the serious consequences to himself, consequences that would ensue from this inadvertent act of his to him, in his destruction. There was Somebody yet behind them who took charge of the situation and the calamity was averted. She saw this Somebody sitting on the throne and it is to Him that the Mother offered her thanks. It looks as though the Lord of Nations himself became instrumental in overcoming the great danger that was otherwise going to occur, to everybody, including himself. He became that Somebody's instrument in the great act. The Mother recognised the one who sat on the throne and did homage to His power. Surely, this does not imply the Lord of Nations, she was not paying homage to the Lord of Nations, but to the supreme Lord himself. And let us remember when this happened.

This happened in Pondicherry and Sri Aurobindo’s physical presence provided the full protection to the Mother. She was living in it and in it she could go even to the darkest region without fear,—because he was always there.

RYD

Kali the Mother
Just about five years ago, to be precise on 24 August 2002, there was a posting in the Jyotilist that creatively described an imaginary conversation, entitled Confessions of Darkness. The conversation was inspired by Sister Nivedita’s Kali the Mother. It was spine-chilling and caused, quite understandably, disquieting fright in the souls of the timid and the weak. But, instead of dispassionately and calmly discerning the occult imperatives present in this complex world, the posting rather led to lot of bad blood and violent reactions. As a matter of fact, those imperatives are a sad reality which cannot be wished away, cannot just be ignored when matters concerned with human progress and human civilisation have to be realistically assessed. While the imaginary piece picked up some major prominent political figures, showing perhaps the personal opinion or prejudices of its creator, the deeper truth is that we all harbour in us those very characters, harbour them in varying degrees; there are parts, weird parts of human personality which easily lend themselves to those dark and terrifying powers. They, those horrifying-petrifying powers are basically archetypal, immovably present in the universal possibilities. Let me just paraphrase here the contents of the posting which might be contextually significant regarding what Aswapati is arguing about.

Six Powers are seated around a table in one of the nether worlds. They are dark and hooded and seek to exercise their influence on Earth through selected instruments. It is they who become the Dark-side of their instruments. They are about to share their tales of darkness, of their exercise of inter-world influence and of the exploits of their chosen instruments, to determine who is the darkest of the lot.

Six straws of varying length lie concealed in a magic pack. Its magic lies in allowing the straw of correct length to be pulled to reflect the measure of darkness of the puller. The six take turns to draw the straws.

"I the Terror have killed 8,000 Americans, 3,000 Israelis, a few hundred Europeans, and assorted others from around the globe. My major victory was the destruction of the World Trade Center and annihilation of part of the Pentagon through the ingenious hijacking and suicide missions of four commercial aircraft. But that is not all. I have mobilized thousands of disillusioned youth from all over the world and given them a purpose to live and to die for. "

"Dark-side of Terror", said the Dark-side behind Commerce, after a little pause. "Indeed your deeds are ghastly, but look. I have drawn a longer straw than you. Let me tell my tale of influence." He looked around at the somber images on the table, and then continued. "I am, as you are aware the power behind the Dark-side of the greatest nation that ever was. Stockpiles upon stockpiles of nuclear weapons are harboured in expanses of my deserts. Technology finally fulfils its role, even reaches its acme, in the creation of destructive and defensive weapons that this greatness houses. The world has seen nothing of our power yet. You see, Dark-side of Terror; I am darker, because under the pretext of freedom and glory, I sweep across the world, blow up innocent civilians, and put puppet Governments in place."

"That, O eternal colleagues, is indeed diabolical. But listen to what I have to say," gloated the Dark-side of Duplicity. "Arose the great Law-giver, God praise him, mighty father of our nation. He rescued us from the clutch of weakness, and gave us deliverance in this great land of ours. Here we grew exceptionally strong when the CIA used us to keep Russia in check. And now, daily, we gain more land from the neighbouring country. It was we who trained and provided arms to weaken it. It was we who worked for the secession of its eastern states. We will destroy the slightest deviation from our great and time-proven beliefs. We exist to set her ablaze and tear her apart, and fulfill our dreams of a Pan-Religious world order, ruled from the very heart of her capital." There was a silence as a tremble passed around the table.

Then the Dark-side of Hitler spoke. For, he had drawn a longer straw than the Dark-side of Duplicity. "Dark-side of Duplicity, your plans are dastardly. But still, they are only plans, potential horrors only. Perhaps you seek to grow to my stature. For, I have done it all. I have plastered much of the earth with the blood of inferior men, women and children. I tested the limits of endurance of the human species through the Jewish race. I have killed thousands who did not have the right jaw structure, or who lacked a noble profile. For, it was the birth of a superior race that I was bringing into being. I was soon to set my sight on India to exterminate the growing lights that threatened my reign. But my plans for my superior, totalitarian rule were somehow foiled."

Images of the horrors of World War II emanated into the room, as the Dark-side of Hitler smugly looked on. Then, after a few moments, the fifth voice spoke. The straw that it had pulled was the longest thus far.

"I am the Dark-side of Naïveté, and I remain the darkest of you all. For, few know what they are up against when they interact with me. I have covered the truth of India with my truth. And my truth has become the truth of India. This is the nature of my darkness." Turning to the Dark-side of Hitler, he continued "Dark-side of Hitler, people and nations knew what they were up against when you extended your forces to conquer the earth. The issue was black and white. But me, very few know the truth of what I stand for. My name is chanted across the world and I am quoted, referenced, and idolized as the savior of humanity. My darkness is darker because I appeal to love or some figure of love to open itself, to compromise, to become subservient to any destroying force that roams across the world, in the hope that the destroying force will be overcome. "

All looked in wonder at this hooded power whose frail, shaven, white-clad instrument, stick in hand, had accomplished so much without even a hand-gun.

When all had settled, the final voice with the longest straw arose. "I am the child of Mother Kali, and you know me not. For I act anonymously through the dangers of time, moved by the great will of my Mother. At times I raise tempests, fires, and plagues. I have blotted out putrid cities through commanding the oceans to flood it with tidal waves, and have commanded the earth to split and swallow up festered nations. At times I enter into the breast of chosen instruments who become martyrs for an hour, to fulfill Her will. For when all else fails, Her power changes the world. Hers is the Lord’s dark face, his Terror, his forbidden Name, who cares not for comforts or the trivial amusements of life. She cares only for the advent of truth and destroys all that stands in the way. Slay the past in preparation for the future. For that is what Kali's instruments must do now. Care not for what is deemed right and wrong by the human reason and moralistic code, but cut through with any manner of action to the core of the issue. If the way is not taken now, if the necessary path not followed, then Hitler’s armies may rise again, to attempt again, the squashing of any hint of light. Hearken therefore, to the message of Kali, do not let the perversions of time have free hold over Life. Become strong now and do what is needed so that the true way may be followed. And use any means that the Mother Kali inspires you with. Her power is the darkest because it stands behind your darkest powers. You are nothing but her forceful sons gone astray." The child of Kali then looked around the table a last time, and concluded—"I am the child of Mother Kali, the Lord’s dark face, his Terror, his forbidden Name, who cares not for comforts, or the trivial amusements of life, but cares only for the advent of truth and destroys all that stands in the way."

It looks as though 11th September must have been in the year 1201. Arab invasions of India via the Khyber Pass are not unknown to us, new to us. They changed the course of history. The speed of horses and the rattling of swords still din into our ears. We had to pay the price for sleeping the blissful sleep of mediaeval ages. The spirit was buried too much in the dull sloth of ignorance and inertia, too much lost in the dryness of abstract thought. The vitality had been fully sucked out by the thirsty mouths of time. But now is another lesson to be learnt by the progressive spirit of mankind. The crude vital forces that descended have shattered the too confident postures of sophistication and technology, of affluence. Nothing avails when somehow and somewhere we make room for their assault. The Asura knows too well when and how, and of course where, to strike. He can also quote scriptures and, regardless of any consequences, achieve his own purpose. But could it be a part of man’s struggle? Does it not show how imperfect man is and what a long way he has yet to go till he reaches perfection? There is a metaphor: “After Moses freed his people from Egypt, Israel had to wander full 40 years in the desert wilderness, until everyone who came out of Egypt died, and it is the new generation purified in the desert that finally makes it to the Holy Land. So also it has been opined that there is intelligent life somewhere in the universe, much more intelligent and advanced than man. But they do not like to visit us because of our violent nature.”

The vehement caution to such formulations makes considerable sense when we have to see the context in the backdrop of sober reason. Too radical thoughts for the general collectivity can rebound and cause more damage than the good they are purported to bring to us. The danger of such ideas slipping into the vitalistic hands is also genuine and one should always be on one’s guard. We may not be aware of our souls, we may not be in touch with our spirit, we may not be the receivers of secret or occult messages, we may not get intuitions which are authentic and pretty infallible, we may even mistake noble things coming from the relatively lower regions of truth to be the absolutes, we may not be in the midst of Rishis and Saints. Hazardous then is the proposition to promote radicalism. Irretrievably dangerous it will be if it is going to be dark radicalism.

But when we were in the midst of Rishis and Yogis what did we do? We never approached them for guidance, never heeded their advice when they came forward with it. On the contrary, we ridiculed them. We suffer and suffer we will until the price is paid. If there is falsehood, particularly when it is an armed falsehood, can it be removed by the goody-goody notions of mutuality and togetherness of the Western brand, of reason and logic? This is not to understand the basic psychology of the ancient conflict between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. That will be a contradiction in terms. The obligation of the promoters of reason to us is to tell us how to deal with the adverse forces. And when and where have reason and logic solved any problem? Will the problem of Palestine, for instance, be solved by them? No hope. The roots of the dark forces are deeper than all these and what is necessary is for us to prepare ourselves as the instruments of light. Each one, each individual and each nation, has to find one’s own dharma, one’s own inner truth and live in it. We have to make sure in the process that we do not lend ourselves to the hostile suggestions. How do we assure it? Unless there is a psychic touch in our life the hope is nil. To live in fine arts, lofty reason, enlightened will, magnificence of feelings and emotions rising from the trueness of love, cherishing the ideals of freedom and carrying on the quest of values in it could be the beginning towards it.

The imaginary piece may look too fierce, too aggressive and hence too frightening. It may even look too unrefined, uncouth, rustic, even barbaric, too violent, trampling over sensibilities. In it there is mostly the monstrous Beast with blood-red horns than Man or God. But when you convert it into an allegory and name it The Pilgrim’s Regress, you might start seeing it making some sense also. Remove the proper names from it and call them as some strong impersonalized characters, call them Terror-Commerce-Duplicity-Darkness-Naïveté-Sword and touch it up here and there. Remove the names of places and put something else, and the piece will then start working on us with some force, that we better wake up and do something about this terrible world. Then perhaps we will light the Fire of Yajna and pull out six other boons of wonder. Let us do that.

RYD

The Children of Wotan
Sri Aurobindo wrote this poem when the World War II had already caused irreparable loss, marking a decisive stage towards annihilation of human values and human civilisation. All the progress made through the long and gruesome centuries was on the brink of destruction. The inglorious Battle of France began on 10 May 1940 and the German armoured units had swiftly pushed through the Ardennes; in the second operation dated 5 June, just within a fortnight, they outflanked the Maginot Line, the thrust being to seize larger territory of France. The French government collapsed like a house of cards and Paris was occupied on 14 June. On 22 June the Second Army Group was forced to surrender and within three days France catapulted, on 25 June. The dance of the dark and terrible Kali was at its fiercest. “Paris shall be destroyed, Paris shall be destroyed”—the air was filled with the deafening cry in the march of the triumphant Devil and there was no opposition, none could stand the onslaught. French army didn’t have reserves, none, “acune” as its commander told Churchill when he flew to France. Her military casualties were appalling, in such a short duration, a hundred thousand dead as against twenty-seven thousand Germans. About half a million civilians would die in bombings. On 18th of June, Churchill made a speech to the British Parliament. "The battle for France is over," he warned. "The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us." The Battle of Britain was about to begin. Paris must be saved, Sri Aurobindo at once knew, and started applying his yogic-spiritual force to mould the course of history. Dunkirk showed the first success in the deep occult battle. It is in this context we must read Sri Aurobindo’s Children of Wotan, written in August 1940, just a month after the collapse of France:

“Where is the end of your armoured march, O children of Wotan?
Earth shudders with fear at your tread, the death-flame laughs in your eyes.”
“We have seen the sign of Thor and the hammer of new creation,
A seed of blood on the soil, a flower of blood in the skies.
We march to make earth a hell and call it heaven.
The heart of mankind we have smitten with the whip of the sorrows seven;
The Mother of God lies bleeding in our black and gold sunrise.”

“I hear the cry of a broken world, O children of Wotan.”
“Question the volcano when it burns, chide the fire and bitumen!
Suffering is the food of our strength and torture the bliss of our entrails.
We are pitiless, mighty and glad, the gods fear our laughter inhuman.
Our hearts are heroic and hard; we wear the Orion:
Our will has the edge of the thunderbolt, our acts the claws of the lion.
We rejoice in the pain we create as a man in the kiss of a woman.”

“Have you seen your fate in the scales of God, O children of Wotan,
And the tail of the Dragon lashing the foam in the far-off seas?”
“We mock at God, we have silenced the mutter of pries at his altar.
Our leader is master of Fate, medium of her mysteries.
We have made the mind a cypher, we have strangled Thought with a cord;
Dead now are pity and honour, strength is only Nature’s lord.
We build a new world-order; our bombs shut Wotan’s peace.”

“We are the javelins of Destiny, we are the children of Wotan,
We are the human Titans, the supermen dreamed by the sage.
A cross of the beast and demoniac with the godhead of power and will,
We are born in in humanity’s sunset, to the Night is our pilgrimage.
On the bodies of perishing nations, mid the cry of the cataclysm coming,
To a presto of bomb and shell and aeroplanes’ fatal humming,
We march, lit by Truth’s death-pyre, to the world’s satanic age.

A dark force had descended on mankind and it had to be met, and met decisively, with a superior luminous force. Wotan—how apt the description we have in the poem! Let us have some idea about this dark occult god, powerful, overbearing, and his children Sri Aurobindo is mentioning in the context of the world-shattering events. Going to the Internet sources, we have the following about these anti-gods anti-man:

Wotan, in Norse Mythology was a warrior sovereign and is often seen as the primary god. The Nazis used the archetype of Wotan because of his "Warrior-King" traits, but many of even the top ranking officials believed in the Mythological character as more than merely Archetype. Josef Goebbels, in his conference notes once made the remark regarding what was to be let known about the Nazi agenda for the post-war period, said, "We will of course not let them know about Wotan. (Woden)". More remarkably, Wotan, or Odin, was rumored to have hung himself on a tree to obtain knowledge which was granted him, and gave his victory in doing so gave him the ability to travel freely in the nether-worlds (like hell) or in the heavens. The Nazis at the highest level intended after Europe was in their control, to assimilate the Church, and re-interpret such central doctrines as Christ’s crucifixion and victory over death, with the keys to Heaven and Hell in terms of old Norse Legend, or as it was referred to as 'volkish mysticism'. Wotan or Odin is also said to have learned runes in this way, which fascinated the Nazis. (the swastika is an example of a rune).

Thor was the god of thunder, the son of Wotan. A warrior god also, he was known for his magic hammer which would destroy what it was thrown at, and return to Thor's hand. He rode around middle earth in a goat-drawn carriage. "His abode was Thruthheim [Land of Strength] ". The strength and war nature of both Thor and Odin (Wotan) were essential themes in Nazi theology. Not only were these Gods Aryan, but they were filled with Magic and Power: many of the top leaders in Hitler’s Inner Circle such as Himmler, Goebbels and Hitler himself began to envision themselves as god-like, taking on the characteristics of the Norse gods and Great German historical leaders such as Heinrich I. Grandiose plans and egos sought after black arts and occultism and ancient volkish rights in order to accomplish the world domination these men held as forefront.

In Norse mythology there was a 'Race of Giants' who were seen as enemies to the major gods. There lived in a land translated as "Giantland", or Utgard, the capital city of Jotunheim Utgard lay across an ice bridge, and there were two basic kinds of giants: frost giants and fire giants. A few giants who had married gods, became deified, although of a lower nature. Thus, especially toward the end as the psychotic zeitgeist of the Nazis grew, they saw themselves as god-like, battling demonic giants.

One of the sons of Thor and Jarnsaxa, he was lesser in position than his brother Magni. He was considered a god of battle, and while not much worship was attributed to him, he was worshipped by the "berserks' or warrior-bearlike-creatures which instilled fear in their enemies. He is coupled with Magni in his manifestation of the war-warrior image.

Magni was the more formidable of the two sons of Thor. Next to Thor, he was the only god who could lift and use the Magic Hammer. Known for power and strength, and couple with his brother, a god of war, the two represented ferociousness, fearlessness, and war without conscience to the true believers of these Norse archetypes. These archetypes run parallel to Nazi philosophies of battle and 'the war effort'.

The wife of Thor was deified by her marriage to Thor, having come from the Race of Ice/Frost Giants tracing to Ymir: Wotan made the earth from his body. She is given a lesser place in the realm of gods, not only because she was half giant, but her female role places her outside the realm of importance. The Nazi's view of women as primarily mothers and progenitors was similar.

Disir was a female spirit noted as the same as idisi, which gave victory to some men in battle but could bind others. Encyclopaedia Mythica compares them to the Valkyries, but others note them as family protective spirits. The Alfar is a Scandanavian archetype of a dwarf-like entity which causes disease and distress3; some see them as thus able to protect against such.

Called 'battle-maids' or 'swan-maids' because of their swan-feather attire, the Valkyries were women/spirits that gathered the slain in battle and placed them in attendance to the Gods. The premier Valkyrie was Brynhild, who married a valiant mortal upon coercion because had allowed a wrong king to be slain. Again the war nature of the mythology is forefront, focusing on the powers that win war and cause failure and defeat such as disease, ice, 'giants' or great opponents, etc. Given the events of WWII especially toward the end, the war-mythology of Norse mysticism would have been easily assimilated.

Valhalla, often equated with concepts of heaven, would be more appropriately associated with the Elysian Fields of the Ancient Romans and Greeks. It was considered a utopia and place of perfection, but was most often aligned in its fulness with the ideal reward of the warrior or soldier. Even in this place of abundance for 'warriors' mock battles were fought during the day, and great feasts enjoined at night. Valhalla was in Asgard and mankind dwelt in Midgard.

Asgard was the dwelling place of the Norse Gods. Valhalla was there. A Great Palace housed the gods, while the fallen warriors attended and dwelt in the rest.

The dwelling place of mankind. Earth; the Middle Dwelling Place. This is the idea of a 'middle earth' where life as we know it takes place. This imagery was used in Tolkien .

Aswapati witnesses all these retrograde events and the spirit-slaying powers that will set back the clock of destiny by long millennia. Can things be left to time to work them out? This is his poser to the divine Wisdom.

RYD

I am the dance of death
Adolf Hitler wrote the following poem in 1915 when he was serving in the German Army on the Western Front. This was probably translated by John Toland and reproduced in his Adolf Hitler.

I am the dance of death that is
behind all life
the ultimate horror
the ultimate ecstasy
I am existence
I am the dance of destruction that
will end this world
the timeless void
the formless devouring mouth
I am rebirth
Let me dance you to death
Let me dance you to life
Will you walk through your fears to dance with me?
Will you let me cut off your head
and drink your blood?
then will you cut off mine?
Will you face all the horror
all the pain
all the sorrow
and say "yes"?
I am all that you dread
all that terrifies
I am your fear
will you meet me?

I often go on bitter nights
To Wotan's oak in the quiet glade
With dark powers to weave a union –
The runic letter the moon makes with its magic spell
And all who are full of impudence during the day
Are made small by the magic formula!

Sri Aurobindo said that Hitler was the greatest menace the world had to face and that he would stop at nothing to achieve his sinister object, even to destroy the whole civilisation,—wrote Nirodbaran in his Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo. In the course of one of his sessions with the disciples attending on him, Sri Aurobindo asked Dr Rao: “Do you know that Hitler is trying to get a foothold in South America and doing extensive propaganda there?” He himself answered: “It can lead to attack against the USA. He is now practically master of Europe. If he had invaded England after the collapse of France, he could have been in Asia by this time… Now another force has been set up against his. Still the danger has not passed. He has 50% chance of success. Up to the time when France collapsed, he was remarkably successful because he had behind him an Asuric Power which guided him; from that Power he received remarkably correct messages.”

In a letter to a disciple written in 1942 about the danger of the Nazi victory: “You should not think of it as a fight for certain nations against others or even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance… There cannot be the slightest doubt that if one wins, there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the work that has to be done will be subjected to the conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there will be a reign of falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country do not dream of and cannot yet all reaslise. If the other side that has declared itself for the free future of humanity triumphs, this terrible will have been averted and conditions will have been created in which there will be a chance for the Ideal to grow, for the Divine Work to be done, for the spiritual Truth for which we stand establish itself on the earth. Those who fight for this cause are fighting for the Divine against the threatened reign of the Asura.”

In the course of a conversation with the attendant-disciples, in 1940: “Had it not been for Hitler, I wouldn’t have cared what power remained or went down. Now the question is whether the new world-order is to come after much suffering and destruction or with as little of it as possible. Destruction of England would mean victory for Hitler and in that case, perhaps after a great deal of suffering and oppression, and reaction to them, that world order may come or may not, or it may come only after Pralaya! Of course the issue has been decided by the Divine Vision and there can be no change. But nobody knows what the decision is.”

In a poem written within six weeks after the start of Second World War Sri Aurobindo describes Hitler as the dwarf Napoleon and calls him a Titan Power supporting this pigmy man, a crude instrument of a mighty Force, violent and cruel, devil, child and brute, a screaming orator with a strident tongue,

Now the world for his eating a ripe fruit,
His shadow falls from London to Korea,
Cities and nations crumble in his course…
And man who emerged as Nature’s conscious power,
Shall sink into the deep original night
Sharing all her forms that went before
The doom of the mammoth and the dinosaur.
It is the shadow of the Titan’s robe
That looms across the panic-stricken globe.
In his high villa on the fatal hill
Alone he listens to that sovereign Voice,
Dictator of his actions sudden choice,
The tiger leap of a demoniac skill.
Too small and human for that dreadful Guest,
An energy his body cannot invest,—
A tortured channel, not a happy vessel,
Drives him to think and act and cry and wrestle.
Thus driven he must stride on conquering all,
Threatening and clamouring, brutal, invincible,
Perhaps to meet upon his storm-swept road
A greater devil—or thunderstroke of God.

In Hitler’s Germany the ten-year olds took the oath as follows: “in the presence of the Blood Banner, which represents our Führer, I swear that I shall dedicate all my force and all my strength to the saviour of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give my life for him, so help me God. One Volk, one Reich, one Führer!”

About “Wotan's oak in the quiet glade” and the “high villa on the fatal hill” we get a vivid idea from the researches Georges van Vrekhem has done in his book Hitler and his God: “The place of preference where Hitler went to receive his inspirations was his villa on a mountain in the Bavarian Alps, the Obersalzberg, just above Berchtesgaden and very near to Salzburg. Hitler discovered Berchtesgaden in 1922 through—who else?—Dietrich Eckart when he went there in hiding when he was wanted by the authorities for libellous writings… In 1925 he bought Haus Wachenfeld, supposedly with money from the Bechsteins, and rechristened it Berghof. And how was the place built for Hitler? “The Kehlsteinhaus was built for Hitler on the initiative and under the supervision of Martin Bormann, and the construction cost the life of many slave labourers. For the structure was built on top of the Kehlstein peak and could be reached only by a lift in a shaft of 110 metres, hewn out in the rock. The view through the large bay windows was breathtaking.” Apropos of Hitler’s rendezvous with the Power that guided him, the Lord of the Nations, Georges Vrekhem quotes François-Poncet: “He meditated there… On all the sides the eye plunges, as it would from an airplane in flight into an immense mountain panorama. At the foot of the semicircular mountain range one perceives Salzburg and the surrounding villages, dominated as far as the eye can see by a horizon of mountain peaks, with forests and green meadows on their flanks. Close to the house, which seems suspended in the air, a steep rock rises almost vertically. The whole, bathing in the twilight of an autumn day, is grandiose, primitive, almost hallucinatory. The visitor asks himself whether he is awake or dreaming. He would like to know where he happens to be standing. In the castle of Montslavat where the knights of the Grail living…?”

Finally the inevitable happened—Hitler met the thunderstroke of God. But the Force of God had to work a lot for that to happen. Let us read the Mother:

Not long ago there was a historical instance, that of Hitler, who was in contact with a being whom he considered to be the Supreme: this being came and gave him advice, told him all that he had to do. Hitler used to retire into solitude and remain there as long as it was necessary to come into contact with his “guide” and receive from him inspirations which he carried out later very faithfully. This being which Hitler took for the Supreme was quite plainly an Asura, one who is called the “Lord of Falsehood” in occultism, but who proclaimed himself the “Lord of the Nations”. He had a shining appearance, he could mislead anybody except one who really had occult knowledge and could see what was there behind the appearance. He would have deceived anybody, he was truly splendid. Generally he used to appear to Hitler wearing a silver cuirass and helmet; a kind of flame came out of his head and there was an atmosphere of dazzling light around him, so dazzling that Hitler could hardly look at him. He used to tell Hitler everything that had to be done—he played with him as with a monkey or a mouse. He had decided clearly to make Hitler commit all possible extravagances till the day he would break his neck, which did happen. But cases like this are frequent, though on a smaller scale, of course. Hitler was a very good medium, he had great mediumistic capacities, but he lacked intelligence and discrimination. This being could tell him anything whatever and he swallowed it all. It was he who pushed Hitler little by little. And he was doing this as a distraction, he did not take life seriously. For these beings men are very tiny things with whom they play, as a cat plays with a mouse, till finally they eat them up.

Then, in answer to a question: “When Hitler died, did the Lord of Falsehood pass into Stalin?”

It is not altogether like that that things happen, but it is something similar. This being did not wait for Hitler’s death, it is there you make a mistake. These beings are not at all tied to a single physical presence. The being in question could very well possess Hitler and at the same time influence many others. Hitler was got rid of because he had behind him a whole nation and a physical power, and if he had succeeded it would have been a disaster for humanity, but there was no deluding oneself about it; it was not sufficient to get rid of him in order to get rid of the force that was behind him—that is not so easy. I must tell you that the origin of these beings is prior to that of the gods; they are the first emanations, the first individual beings of the universe; so they cannot be got rid of so easily, by winning one war. As long as they are necessary for the universal evolution they will exist. The day they lose their utility, they will be converted or will disappear. Besides, they know that they are nearing their last hour and that is why they are doing as much damage as they can.

We are very familiar with the trick the Mother played on Hitler, even as at one crucial juncture she impersonated the Lord of the Nations and guided his disciple to attack Russia when the War was actually going well for him. The deed was done—by her.

RYD

The gruesome history
In the context of the dark forces that had descended upon earth, let us see some of the recent world-events—only to get an idea about the enormity of the evolutionary problem and to appreciate what Aswapati is proposing to the divine Wisdom.

During the early phase of the War, Hitler was marching triumphantly with his panzer divisions and Paris succumbed too meekly and ignobly, too quickly. Having won the Battle of France decisively, he now turned his attention to winning the Battle of Britain. Not only that; he fixed 15 August 1940 as the day on which he would complete his conquest of Western Europe and broadcast from Buckingham Palace. That was occultly charged with ominous connotations, demanding immediate counter-measures; for, 15th August is the birthday of Sri Aurobindo. Things looked too ill-omened, gloomy, threatening, hostile and menacing. “When Sri Aurobindo heard of this,” reports Nirodbaran, “he remarked ‘that is the sign that he is the enemy of our work…’ But 15 August turned out to be a turning point for Britain. On that day 180 German planes were shot down in British skies… A month later, on the same date, 15 September 1940, Sri Aurobindo said smiling: ‘England has destroyed 175 German planes, a very big number. Now invasion will be difficult. Hitler lost his chance after the fall of France. He has really missed the bus!’ ” Another force was set up against him. In the Mother’s War, Sri Aurobindo took full charge of the situation. Behind Hitler’s success he saw the working of a powerful Asura in the task of “enslavement of mankind to the tyranny of evil.” This would have been a setback for the course of spiritual evolution for which Sri Aurobindo was working. None knew about it.

Not only did he apply his yogic force when such catastrophic events were taking place; he and the Mother also made a monetary contribution to the War fund. In their letter to the Governor of Madras dated 19 September 1940, they declared: “We feel that not only is this a battle waged in just self-defence and in defence of the nations threatened with the world-domination of Germany and the Nazi system of life, but that it is a defence of civilisation and its highest attained social, cultural and spiritual values and of the whole future of humanity. To this cause our support and sympathy will be unswerving whatever may happen; we look forward to the victory of Britain and, as the eventual result, an era of peace and union among the nations and a better and more secure world-order.”

Who in this world of ours had the idea of the disaster that was waiting for mankind in the victory of the Nazi way of life, of Hitler’s running over nations and countries? None. It seems that we had lost our heads and our souls. In India there was, if at all, the charismatic appeal to the gullible to side with the devil in his doings. The one who had proclaimed himself as the Lord of the Nations, the Asuric power of Falsehood, had found in Hitler his perfect instrument in the gruesome task of annihilation of the world. In one of the conversations with his attendant-disciples, Sri Aurobindo had remarked that victory of Hitler would mean setting the clock of evolution by fifty thousand years.

In severe contrast to that, here was Mahatma Gandhi with the ethico-religious mind recommending submission to the Falsehood that was at the basis of this dark creation. His Times letter in July 1940 addressed to the Britishers runs as follows: “I want you to fight Nazism without arms, or, if I am to retain the military terminology, with non-violent arms. I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island, with your many beautiful buildings. You will give all these but neither your souls nor your minds. If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves man, woman and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.”

Putting such an ultra-Christian doctrine on the highest pedestal of ethical excellence, making it an eminent principle of administration in the daily mode of life of the individual as well as of a whole society is not only to dwarf them; in fact, in its cruellest sense it is to turn all towards anti-humanity. And what is the efficacy of such a doctrine in its functioning? It sucks away the life-blood of a nation; it strangles the spirit of freedom and happy enterprise; it kills with a dark knife the very soul of man. A great humane and respectable virtue meant for another kind of pursuit is converted into a deadly weapon of destruction to push everything into the abyss of spiritual oblivion, into the sunless worlds that are enveloped in blind gloom, andhena tamasāvratah, as the Isha Upanishad would declare. Was the Mahatma promoting the Rule of the Asura? It seems so, if not consciously and deliberately but unwittingly. Did not the same thing happen at the time of Cripps’s Mission in 1942? Woe to the nation who turns its blind eye to the Rishi dedicated to the Divine cause. The Mother did say that, now calamity will befall India.

Similar thing happened in another context. Take the example of the Ottoman Empire. In any case it was breaking down at the end of the First World War. But in India it was seen as a blow to the prestige of Islam. Therefore, it became a part of political calculation to oppose the move. Thus was born the harmful Khilafat movement. As regard India’s freedom struggle Mahatma Gandhi writes as follows: “To the Musalmans Swaraj means, as it must, India’s ability to deal effectively with the Khilafat question.” He further adds: “It is impossible not to sympathise with this attitude… I would gladly ask for postponement of the Swaraj activity if we could advance the interest of the Khilafat.” What was there in the Ottoman Empire that we should have sold ourselves for it? When the Western world was making tremendous strides in different branches of learning, in science, technology, industry, commerce, here was a decadent regime that had outlived its purpose. Khilafat could not be more precious than Swaraj. In it India’s freedom had a lower priority. In it India was denied India’s nationhood. This was unfortunate, if not calamitous. As against this strangeness, Sri Aurobindo saw the imperative of India’s freedom for the fuller and proper spiritual growth of the mankind.

The Mahabharata says in despair: “I raise my hands and call out to men but no one listens to me. Why should we not act in accord with dharma for the realisation of all that we desire?” Why we don’t listen to dharma, a life based on spiritual principles? If dharma is an efficacious means to make progress, then why none pays heed to it? That indeed is the question we have to answer. If dharma is a power to shape our lives in the values of the spirit, we have to also be receptive to receive the gifts of that power. It seems that we have to pass through another cycle of social evolution.

If we trace the history of human society, we notice the four stages that marked the collective growth. We have gone through the symbolic age of the mystic-spiritual sense of higher life. Then came the mode of conventionalised living with sets of rules of conduct. Soon began the period of reason and of the exploration of material nature. We are still under its sway with its gains and with its problems. But if real progress is to be made this too should pass away. The dharma of different epochs must advance into the dharma of the timeless truth. Soon kāla dharma must become kālātīt dharma. There must begin now the dharma of the intuitive-perceptive greatness of man ready to step into the vastness of the spirit. That is the sanātana dharma.

But we cannot think of the empyrean if we live in the darkness of the abyss. In spite of the tremendous strides made by civilisation we have the blood of time drenching our souls. During 1933-45 the Nazis under Hitler exterminated 6 million Jews, 1.5 million gypsies and millions of other undesirables. Pol Pot in 1975 abolished private property, markets, banks, currency, newspapers, schools, hospitals and religion and summarily executed 1.7 million people of Cambodia. In the 1970s hundreds of thousands were killed in Uganda. Up to the beginning of the twentieth century 40 million people were slayed in wars and 133 million in genocide. During the last hundred years some 37 million in wars and 170 million in genocide lost their lives.

This record is no different than the record of, say, Chengis Khan. When his son-in-law was shot dead by an unknown arrow, there was a massacre of 1.75 million people. He and his successors down to Timur Lane slaughtered 30 million Chinese, Indians, Persians, Arabs, Russians, Europeans. Loot, murder, rape, terrorism, only meant that some grey-bearded vital force was let lose in sanguinary destruction. What else is there in Iraq today, really what else? In Sri Lanka? In Kashmir? What happened at Lal Masjid in Pakistan? The last century saw the shameful killing of 160 million people in wars. Such is the human record, notwithstanding the mighty things we witness now and then. Is there a human remedy for this? Aswapati sees none.

How are our values going to stand against such implacable forces? How? They cannot. But, in the meanwhile, we can do our bit. There is only one way, and that is by summoning our best into action. The values of the individual, the values of each nation, the values of the world, each has to invoke that which sustains it. Painful is the path and full of danger. Thick is the shadow and there’s no sword to cut it. Long is the course and heavy the price. But there can neither be a short-cut, there’s no easy path. We have to invoke our best and act in sincerity by abiding in the values of the spirit. Impose not yourself on others.

Take the American example. Its greatness flows directly from a deep source, “a spirit of respect for the individual, a spirit of tolerance for differences of faith or politics, a respect for freedom of thought as the necessary foundation for all creativity and a spirit of unity that encompasses all kinds of differences. Only a society which worships freedom could constantly renew itself and its sources of power and wealth.” This is what New York Times wrote editorially on 2 October 2001 in connection with the rebuilding of America after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. That is the American dharma and it shall always prove rewarding if followed in all earnestness. But the counterweight of commerce weighs pretty heavily on its soul.

At times America may look like a “shining city atop a hill.” It means that, there can also be another kind of dharma. Gorbachev speaks of “Revolution from Above.” According to it, revolutionary changes will be initiated and implemented by the State authority. Perestroika is held to be such a revolution. Revolution means construction as well as destruction. Both are effected by the State. But howsoever an inverted pyramid it may look, perhaps the State as an instrument of social changes conveys to us a sense of another dharma. It has disregard for the dignity of society.

But our affliction is of a different kind. Matthew Arnold complained about it long ago. It is the disease of epistemological disintegration of the intellectuals. The Western civilisation through Reason entered into the Age of Anguish, without any apparent remedy to cure it. Can the relentless wheel be halted? Can mankind be redeemed?

Pitirin A. Sorokin sees our way of life in a state of epochal transition. There is ruin all around. There is the thick atmosphere of gloom spread over us. But if mankind can avoid the catastrophe of world wars, there can be the hope of seeing the dawn of a new magnificent order. We are waiting to greet the coming generation of that dawn.

But the problem is not simple. To the proposition of Alexis Carrel’s “Man the Unknown”, Teilhard de Chardin adds “Man to be”. This is certainly a great improvement, a most welcome improvement. But that does not yet offer solution to the affliction we suffer from. We suffer from the Heideggerian angst. Modern Man is in a state of alienation. He has lost faith; he has lost belief in himself; he has even lent himself to the Marxian sun under which there can exist no God.

From the age of rational thinking we have to move on to the age of intuition. Perhaps here the Indian soul can be the leader of the march. It must stand an unveiled deity. A Vedic Rishi asked for horses and cows and sons. He wished to live for a hundred autumns. At the same time he lived in shining company of the gods of heaven. He won great splendours of immortality upon earth. In the Upanishadic age Satyakama yearned for the knowledge of the Eternal. But he had to qualify himself to receive it. He was told to rear four hundred cows till they became one thousand. Then only could he be fit to receive brahmajnāna. Thus was prepared the soul through work in life to enjoy the heavenly fruit of immortality.

This means that we must get back to the native power of the spirit. We must discover it and live in it. This is the great agenda for us to work upon. If spiritual unfolding is the hidden truth, then man as he is cannot be the last term of thi