Supramental Incarnations – Sri Aurobindo
SRI AUROBINDO (1872 – 1950)
The Supramental Avatar
“…the greatest Master is much less a Teacher than a presence pouring the divine consciousness
and its constituting light and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive around him.”
– Sri Aurobindo
Mantras of Sri Aurobindo
O … m … Namo Bhagavathe Sree … Aurobindaya
Sri Aurobindah … sharanam Mama.
“Sree … Aravinda Sree … Aravindaya Nama O … m …
Sri Aravinda Sri Aravinda … Mirra Aravinda Nama O … m …”
“Since the beginning of earth history, Sri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations, under one form or another, one name or another.”
“Man is the creation of yesterday, Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow ;the coming of the supramental being.”
“Sri Aurobindo came on earth from the Supreme to announce the manifestation of a new race and the new world, the supramental. Let us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness”.
SIGNIFICANCE OF SRI AUROBINDO’S SACRIFICE OF HIS PHYSICAL BODY
” It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice,
Offered by God’s martyred body for the world…
He who has found his identity with God
Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.”
– Savitri : The last three lines were one of the three
passages dictated last by Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo’s body was charged with such a concentration of Supramental light (with a luminous mantle of bluish golden hue around him, as seen and recorded by Dr.Sanyal, Sri Aurobindo’s disciple and personal physician) there was no sign of decomposition of the body for more than four days.
Courtesy: Sri Aurobindo: A biography and a history by
Dr.K.R.Srinivasa Iyengar
“Sri Aurobindo has given up his body in an act of supreme unselfishness, renouncing the realization in his own body to hasten the hour of the collective realisation.”
“People do not know what a tremendous sacrifice Sri Aurobindo has made for the world. About a year ago, while I was discussing things, I remarked that I felt like leaving this body of mine. He spoke out in a very firm tone, ” No, this can never be. If necessary for this transformation, I might go, you will have to fulfil our yoga of supramental descent and transformation.”
“When I asked him to resuscitate he (Sri Aurobindo) clearly answered: ” I have left this body purposely. I will not take it back. I shall manifest again in the first Supramental body built in the Supramental way.”
“Our Lord has sacrificed himself totally for us….He was not compelled to leave his body, he chose to do for reasons so sublime that they are beyond the reach of human mentality.”
“The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly resonsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain; what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly.”
“We stand in the presence of Him (Sri Aurobindo) who has sacrificed his physical life in order to help more fully his work of transformation. He is always with us, aware of what we are doing, of all our thoughts, of all our feelings and all our actions.”
“Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is acheived, not only as a conciousness which guides and illumines but also as a dynamic presence in action. In unmistakable terms Thou hast promised that all of Thyself would remain here and not leave the earth atmosphere until earth is transformed. Grant that we may be worthy of this marvellous presence and that henceforth everything in us be concentrated on the one will to be more perfectly consecrated to the fulfulment of Thy sublime work.”
– The Mother in 1950
SRI AUROBINDO ON ST.PAUL, SWAMI RAMALINGAM AND VAISHNAVA SAINTS
“….although St.Paul had remarkable mystic experience and certainly much profound spiritual knowledge (profound rather than wide, I think)- I would not swear to it that he is referring to the supramentalised body (physical body). Perhaps to the supramental body or to some other luminous body in it’s own space and substance, which he found sometimes as if enveloping him and abolishing this body of death which he felt the material envelope to be. This verse (Corinthians 53,54) like many others is capable of several interpretations and might refer to quite supraphysical experience. The idea of a transformation of the body occurs in different traditions, but I have never been quite sure that it meant the change in this very matter. There was a Yogi sometime ago in this region who taught it, but he hoped when the change was complete, to disappear in light. The Vaishnavas speak of a divine body which will replace this one when there is the complete siddhi. But again is this a divine physical or supraphysical body? At the same time there is no obstacle in the way of supposing that all these ideas, intuitions, experiences point to, if they do not exactly denote, the physical transformation”.
24-12-1930
“I should like to have more information about the fact that Swami Ramalingam built a temple symbolic of his path and the aim of his sadhana. The temple had no image in it but seven screens of seven colours: black, blue, green, red, gold, white and mixed (Mayashakti, Kriyashakti, Parashakti, Icchashakti, Janashakti, Adhishakti and Chitshakti) indicating the seven planes of conciousness. On a fixed day in the year a crowd of pilgrims assembled there to see the temple opened screen, by screen ultimately revealing an effulgent sun. The meaning is that when the Sadhaka passed through the seven planes the last one perfected in him the golden body by changing the physical body into light”.
– Some talks of Sri Aurobindo before 1926(from old notes) as
published in ‘Mother India’ May 1974
“The endeavour towards this achievement (i.e.supramental transformation) is not new and some yogis have acheived it, I believe- but not in the way I want it. They acheived it as a personal siddhi maintained by yoga-siddhi – not a dharma of the nature” (On Yoga Tome I-P.102)
“The complete change down to the physical was only sought for by a few and then more as a “siddhi”than anything else, not as the manifestation of a new Nature in the earth-conciousness”- (Ibid,p.110)
– Sri Aurobindo
T.R.THULASIRAM’S NOTE ON THE ABOVE REMARKS OF SRI AUROBINDO
Sri Aurobindo, who held the view that none had ever before attempted the supramental transformation, made a drastic revision of his stand-point in the later part of his life, and observed that he came to believe that some yogis had in the past acheived the supramental transformation of mind,life and body, though as a personal yoga-siddhi, and not for changing the earth-nature.
– Arut Perum Jothi &Deathless Body (Vol I,Appendix III)
“Sri Aurobindo’s Supramental Integral Yoga distinguishes a personal yoga-siddhi from a natural collective siddhi which imply according to our understanding the fixing of the powers of transformation and deathlessness of the body into theearth-nature or at the least an endeavor towards such fixation by bringing intomanifestation the Divine Light on the earth(universally or at one’s place) as a preliminary requisite”
– T.R.Thulasiram in his book Arut PerumJyothi&Deathless Body (Vol II,P.532)
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF 24th NOVEMBER 1926 (SRI AUROBINDO’S SIDDHI DAY – THE DESCEND OF SRI KRISHNA IN TO THE PHYSICAL
WHAT EXACTLY DID HAPPEN?
In Sri Aurobindo’s words:
It was the descent of Krishna into the Physical.
“Krishna is not the Supramental Light. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually bringing, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading towards his Ananda“.
At the crest as it were of these rising stairs of “brilliant” experiences, the Mother herself came to possess the key to the creation of a fascinating new world, a world of the gods. She related to Sri Aurobindo what had been happening;
“Perhaps I showed a little enthusiasm in my account….then Sri Aurobindo looked at me…and said: ” Yes, this is an Overmind creation. It is very interesting, very well done. You will perform miracles which will make you famous throughout the world, you will be able to turn all events on earth topsy-turvy, indeed….It will be a great success….And it is not success that we want; we want to establish the Supermind on earth. One must know how to renounce immediate success in order to create the new world, the Supramental world in it’s integrality.”
With her inner conciousness, the Mother at once saw that Sri Aurobindo was right. She returned to her room, concentrated for a few hours and willed the Great Renunciation; and so the new creation that was almost on the brink of precipitation receded and dissolved and ceased to be.
Equally significant was the fact that now the way stood open for the evocation and establishment of the Supramental Conciousness itself on the earth. To realize the possibility, it became necessary for Sri Aurobindo to withdraw into seclusion.
– Courtesy: On the Mother (the chronicle of a manifestation and ministry)
by K.R.Srinivasa Iyengar, P.240,245, Published by
Sri Aurobindo Ashram.