Victory over Death
Death is a bad habit. Expect nothing from death.
Expect nothing from death: life is your salvation. The Mother
Victory Over Death
Table of Contents
The Journey of Supramental Avatar 3
Why Sri Aurobindo is an Avatar?. 13
Our Attitudes towards Death. 18
Our Duty towards the Divine. 20
Time to Respect “Hour of God”. 23
Get the Divine Protection for our Soul after Death. 27
How to Protect the Departed?. 28
The Journey of Supramental Avatar
“No one can write about my life because it is not on the surface for men to see.” — Sri Aurobindo.
Man with his limited mind is incapable of reading and understanding Sri Aurobindo. Man’s mind is only capable of calculating, comparing, criticising and complaining. It cant see a vast supermind with so much impurity and imperfection.
Today is the Sri Aurobindo’s Mahaprayana Divas. It is also known as Maha Samadhi Divas. Why it is called Maha Samadahi, because this is the samadhi of the Eternal Divine. This is not ordinary Samadhi.
From Dr Prabhat Sanyal’s Book
A “CALL” FROM PONDICHERRY
ON the evening of the 29th November 1950, as I was resting after a heavy day, a servant brought me a telegram which read: “FLY — URGENT — MOTHER”. Never could I have imagined the amount of meaning there was in those few words.
The next morning, 30th November, I flew to Madras, only to find that the next train for Pondicherry did not leave until 9–50 p.m., and so I would reach my destination by 7-a.m. the next morning. It was a torment to think that after traveling 1000 miles in 5 hours it was now to take me twenty hours to cover 100 miles. I looked at the telegram — read it once again — No! I could not waste time, so I hired a car.
It took me an hour to obtain a permit from French Police.
The driver being assured of extras, my car literally flew along the roads to Pondicherry having only to stop twice at the inefficient and rude customs barriers — and by six in the evening I was at the Mother’s feet in the Ashram playground. As usual She greeted me with her heavenly smile, saying She had expected me that very evening. She then told me of Sri Aurobindo’s illness and asked me to examine Him; She added that She would be coming to his room after the programme was over in the playground.
On the way Dr. Nirod of the Ashram and my young colleague Dr. Satya Sen acquainted me with the history and present condition of the Master. Softly but quickly I ascended the stairs and entered the room. There I looked on the Master, my divine patient, semi-recumbent on His bed, seemingly unconcerned, eyes closed, like a statue of massive peace. I approached the bed, knelt by His side and made my pranams at His feet. Champaklal called: “ Look, Master, who has come “. There was a quiver on His face; heavy eyelids opened a little — then all was still again. But again Champakial called: “Master, see, Sanyal has come”. This time He opened His eyes fully, looked at me and smiled — Oh such a smile, serene and beautiful, it carried one to ecstasy, lighting the innermost corners of the heart.
He placed His hand on my head and lovingly patted it a few times — all thoughts vanished, it seemed my heart had stopped. I was overpowered with a mighty peace and calm. He had closed His eyes — except for His respiration all was still and a great silence reigned. Then Champaklal whispered delightedly, “He has given you a Darshan Smile and Blessing”. — It was a blessing no words could describe; only one who has seen it and known it in his heart could appreciate what it meant, it for it was an experience of the soul.
I waited for the opportunity to become the doctor. I asked Him what the trouble was and whether I could give Him any relief. I put to Him the regular professional questions, perhaps then forgetting that my patient was the Divine housed in a mortal frame, and He answered: “Trouble? Nothing troubles me — and suffering! one can be above it.” I mentioned the urinary difficulties. “Well, yes”, He answered, “I had some difficulties but they have been relieved, and now I do not feel anything.” Again there was silence.
We retired to the next room and I had a consultation with Nirod and Satya. His urine analysis report had arrived, showing slight albumen and sugar, specific gravity a little above normal. The Mother now entered the room and stood in silence near the foot of the bed and watched Sri Aurobindo. Soon She called me out into the next room where I explained the position to Her, that He was suffering from a mild kidney infection — otherwise there was nothing very serious as far as could be judged from the urine report.
The following morning, 1st December, was very encouraging; our Lord was absolutely alert and responsive and His temperature was normal. After His sponging He took His simple breakfast and even cracked jokes with us. I was giving Him a scalp massage and enquired if He was liking it or not. He remarked: “I know you went to England for your Fellowship but where did you learn massaging?”
I suggested that we would like to have His blood examined for a detailed bio-chemical examination, to which He smiled and retorted: You doctors can think only in terms of diseases and medicines, but always there is much more effectual knowledge beyond and above it. I do not need anything”. All of us were very happy by this most remarkable improvement and the day passed on.
The next day, 2nd December, there was little change except for a rise of one degree in temperature towards the evening. The day was a heavy one for the Mother as it was the second day of the annual display in the playground; but as soon as the activities were over She came to His room and stood at the foot of His bed. Her countenance was very grave but She did not say anything. I suggested, as the urinary infection was again flaring up in spite of continuous drainage, that we should try Antibiotics and Infusion therapy. Mother then warned me that orthodox methods of treatment were unsuitable for Him — not only would Sri Aurobindo not like them but they would be harmful.
She also reminded me that my patient was the Divine, “He will work out whatever is necessary.” I could only give some simple medicines to allay symptoms if any.
We doctors were in a state of perplexity; true, our patient was an Avatar; true, He had cured innumerable ailments in the sadhaks as also in Himself several times — would He not now cure Himself?
Champaklal once entreated Him in a favourable moment: “” He kept silent and showed rather a dislike for such questions Why don’t you use your force and cure yourself, Master?
December 3
December 3rd — After a rather quiet and restful night He looked better that morning and when the usual morning routine was over Nirod offered Him some fruit juice which He enjoyed.
The temperature had dropped to normal and so much was our relief that at 11 a.m. while making my Pranams to the Mother I ventured to suggest that as the Master was steadily improving I might perhaps leave that evening. The Mother remained silent; She looked very grave. I looked into Her eyes and felt a quiver, a pain in my heart. What had I said? Was She not willing? Why did I suggest my departure instead of waiting for Her to tell me ? I felt a wrench at my heart and I blurted out: “I would rather stay a few more days”. A smile lit all Her face. “Yes,” She said. In the afternoon the picture rapidly changed. The temperature had risen to 101 degrees`. There was a definite respiratory distress. The Mother came into the room at 4 p.m. and stood watching. All the afternoon we had found it difficult to get Him to drink water or fruit juice, so now we sought Her help. She brought the spoon near His lips. Immediately He opened His eyes, took a few sips and lapsed back into unresponsiveness. The Mother came with us into the ante-room and then for the first time declared: “He is fully conscious within but is losing interest in Himself”.
As the darkness closed in upon us our hearts grew heavier. At times Nirod or Champaklal would offer Him sips to drink and He would even remark on His choice of tomato or orange juice or something of that sort, then would lapse back into a state of unresponsiveness.
Not once would He say or at any time indicate that He was uncomfortable or thirsty, but if we changed His position or offered Him a drink He smilingly accepted it. The Mother came at 11 o’ clock at night as usual; the moment She offered Him a drink He was all alert and obediently drank a cupful of fruit juice — then again He lapsed into a state of repose.
The distress continued now with little sign of abating and The Mother took me into the ante-room remarking: “I don’t know, He has no interest in Himself “. I suggested intravenous medication from the next day onwards, but She advised me not to disturb Him.
The long night passed, a long and worrying night. Nirod and Champaklal kept watch throughout. — If there is a quiver of the lips, it may be that He wants a drink_ If a shake of the hand — perhaps He needs His handkerchief. They are there to serve Him; that is their sadhana — life dedicated to the service of their Master. — I remembered Sri Aurobindo one day telling me of his early days of sadhana, when he used to sit up all through the night. Champaklal, then a mere boy, would lie on the stairs below, waiting for any summons. On another occasion some time before, I mentioned to Sri Aurobindo that Dr. Nirod would change the medicine when needed; He remarked. “Nirod is no doctor to me”.
We continued keeping a careful watch on the urinary flow and He was still passing 50 ozs. in 24 hrs. at specific. gravity of 1012- 1010. Nirod would sit by the bottle and watch each drop as it fell and if there was any delay, which was often the case, he would immediately draw my attention to it.
December 4th — At dawn His temperature had dropped to 99 degrees. The respiratory distress was negligible and He seemed bright and responsive.
The morning duties were over and we settled Him in His usual sitting position. There He sat majestic and serene. At about 9 a.m., The Mother came and helped Him to take a light breakfast. As She walked into the ante-room, the room used for our consultations, I smiled to Her and said; “The Master seems cheerful again and taking interest”. The only answer She made was “Mmm” and then went out of the room.
I settled by the side of the bed and gently massaged the Master’s body while Nirod and Champaklal were attending to their duties. After a little while He opened His eyes and asked the time. I told Him 10 o’clock, I saw He was in a mood to talk so I ventured: “How do you feel”?
He replied, “I am comfortable.” There was a pause; He looked at the clock and then asked how Bengal was faring, especially the refugees. I narrated to Him their pitiable plight and implored: “Surely the Divine can help them?”
My Lord answered, “Yes, if Bengal seeks the Divine.”
He closed His eyes and went into silence (samadhi).
But alas, it was only a brief lull — a belied hope. From midday the respiratory difficulty reappeared with greater amplitude and the temperature went up to 102 degrees. This time signs of distress could be seen in the face but there was not a word, not a protest.
The Mother came about 1 p.m. She watched for some time before entering the adjoining room with me. Then She said, “He is withdrawing”.
Though He looked apparently unconscious, whenever He was offered drinks, He would wake up and take a few sips and wipe His mouth himself with His handkerchief. To all of us it seemed apparent that a consciousness came from outside when He was almost normal, and then withdrew when the body quivered and sank down in distress. He was no longer there!
By 5 o’clock again He showed signs of improvement. He was quite responsive. We helped Him out of His bed. After which He walked to the arm-chair to rest. For the moment He seemed a different personality. He sat there with His eyes closed — calm and composed with a radiating consciousness. We remarked on the majestic beauty of His form as He sat there; such calm and beatitude brought to my mind the Vedic Rishis. But this did not last long. After three quarters of an hour He became restless and wanted to be back in bed. Respiratory distress appeared with redoubled momentum. From midday onwards the urine output which had been good all these days definitely diminished and the distress was very prominent. Though He seemed to be unconscious He was not, which was evident by the fact that He drew Champaklal several times to His breast and kissed him lovingly and this Divine compassionate embrace was extended to Nirod and myself. It may be mentioned that this emotional behaviour was evident here for the first time; but He had taken nothing to drink the whole day.
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Divine Hug
Sri Aurobindo was a person who would never express His affection or his love publicly as He was very introvert. But just day or two before He left His Physical, at that time, he went into an, apparently, to a state of coma, but again he would come back whenever the Mother used to come to His room to offer Him a glass of water or fruit juice. Sri Aurobindo used to get up from his comatose state and took whatever the Mother was offering. On one occasion, a day before He left his physical, whenever he came out of that state, Champaklal was sitting just next to him. He would get up and hug Champaklal and kiss him. This was His way of expressing His Gratitude to Champaklal who rendered his services for the Master, for 27 long years, and who sat at His Lotus feet 24x7 like His bodyguard. And during these days, Sri Aurobindo used to get up from bed, and hug Champaklal tightly and kiss him on his forehead. It was the Divine’s way of expressing His Gratitude for His Most Loyal man, Champaklal. He not only hugged him once but many times during these period. Inside the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo never expressed His love for him in any tangible way or a visible way despite his 27 years of unflinching service. But just before leaving His physical, Champaklal got the Divine hug from his beloved Guru or Avatar and Sri Aurobindo gave him the answer to his inner being and expressed his gratitude in the most silent way.
I guess from my little mind, Champaklal might have been the only person inside the Ashram who had got the Divine hug. Divine has his own way of expressing His Gratitude for His most loyal servant.
The Mother came back after Her usual attendance at the playground. She laid her garland at the foot of the bed, a thing which She does daily, and stood watching Sri Aurobindo. She looked so grave and quiet that it almost distressed me. I went to the ante-room to wait for Her. She entered and I gave Her the report and told Her that Glucose had been given by Satya and we wanted to arrange for intravenous infusions etc. She said quietly and firmly, “I told you this is not necessary, He has no interest in Himself, He is withdrawing”.
We sat round His bed, wondering why He was losing interest in Himself; He, if He so desired, could certainly cure Himself as He had done on so many other occasions, — Nirod has seen Him curing the illnesses of others. But now at this crucial hour He had no interest in Himself! Was He going to sacrifice Himself?
At about 11 p.m. the Mother came into the room and helped Sri Aurobindo to drink half a cup of tomato juice. A strange phenomenon — a body which for the moment is in agony, unresponsive, labouring hard for breath, suddenly becomes quiet; a consciousness enters the body, He is awake and normal He finishes the drink, then, as the consciousness withdraws, the body lapses back into the grip of agony.
At midnight the Mother came again into the room, looked intently for some time as if there was a silent exchange of thought between them; then She left.
At 1 a.m. (5th) She returned and again looked at the Lord and stood at the foot of the bed. There was no sign of agony, fear, or anxiety on Her face. Not a thought, not a feeling could I fathom in Her expression. With Her eyesShe asked me to go into the other room and She followed me in. She asked, “What do ;you think? Can I retire for one hour?” This is a significant hour: The Mother retires — Her consciousness leaves Her body, none are to call or enter Her room then. This is imperative. — I murmured, “Mother, this is beyond me.” She said, “Call me when the time comes.”
I stood behind the Master and started stroking His hair which He always liked. Nirod and Champaklal sat by the side of the bed and were caressing His feet. We were all quietly watching Him. We now, knew that anything might happen, any time, only a miracle could save us and the world. I perceived a slight quiver in His body, almost imperceptible. He drew up His arms and put them on His chest, one overlapping the other — then all stopped. Death, the cruel death that was waiting so long — we had been keeping vigil for it — had descended on our Lord. I told Nirod to go and fetch the Mother.
It was 1–20 a.m..
Almost immediately the Mother entered the room. She stood there, near the feet of Sri Aurobindo: Her hair had been undressed and was flowing about Her shoulders. Her look: was so fierce that I could not face those eyes. With a piercing gaze She stood there. Champaklal could not bear it and sobbingly he implored, “Mother, tell me Dr. Sanyal is not right, He is alive.” The Mother looked at him and he became quiet and composed as if touched by a magic wand. She stood there for more than half an hour. My hands were still on His forehead. My mind wandered. He lay, my Guru, Rishi Sri Aurobindo, Avatar of the new era of the dawn, a thing past! Only a few seconds ago I was watching and hoping for a miracle to happen; could there be a more appropriate time than this? Sri Aurobindo is no more! He was alive, and now He is history. Thoughts kaleidoscoped in my brain. I could almost see thousands of people passing by the bed, whispering aloud — “Here lived Sri Aurobindo.” But it cannot be; I am standing here by His side, my hands almost touching Him, I am watching Him breathe, yes, every movement, all is much more quiet now, — I could not think; any more. A sharp pain went through my head. I looked at the Mother. Softly She came to me and touched my head, stilled my thoughts, quietened my mind. No trace of agony was left, I could now think normally. I asked Her, “What is to be done, we have to arrange for the last offices.” She quietly said, “He will be given Samadhi, under the Prayer tree. in the pace where the giant maidenhair plants are arranged.” So, this place had been earmarked beforehand; such is the way of the Divine!
The Mother also reminded me of the formalities that had to be observed, a French doctor must certify the death first. Then only members of the Ashram and the public could be informed. Nolini Gupta and Amrita were called and stood there as if stunned. Pavitra stood at the feet of the Master, tears rolling down his cheeks.
We were busy in dressing the Lord. The Mother had already agreed to my request to call the Ashram photographers (sadhaks) to take the last pictures.
…. …. … I looked at the sky. Look!…There, Sri Aurobindo is rising again — the eternal Sun bursting forth with a million rays.
As the day wore on, longer and longer became the stream of people, eager but calm and patient, to have a last Darshan of the great Rishi. In the afternoon I again entered the room where our Lord lay serene and majestic. A never-ending stream of people, laymen, clergymen, doctors, lawyers, rickshaw pullers, labourers, rich men, poor men, all filed past the sage, silent but inspired. At dusk the Ashram door was closed. The Mother blessed me, asking me to come again early in the morning. I left for Golconde. Champaklal and Nirod were keeping vigil night and day.
December 6th — I entered Sri Aurobindo’s room before dawn. Mother and I had a look at Him; how wonderful, how beautiful He looked, with a golden hue. There were no signs of death as science had taught me, no evidence of the slightest discoloration, or decomposition. The Mother whispered, “As long as the supramental light does not pass away, the body will not show any signs of decomposition, and it may be a day or it may take many more days”. I whispered to Her, “Where is the light you speak of — can I not see it?”
I was then kneeling by Sri Aurobindo’s bed, by the Mother’s feet. She smiled at me and with infinite compassion put her hand on my head. There He was — with a luminous mantle of bluish golden hue around Him.
With the morning came the procession of_people, taking a last glimpse of the Divine Master. The Mother said to me, “People do not know what a tremendous sacrifice He 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!’”
After that night, there dawned on us the third day of Sri Aurobindo’s passing. The Mother and I had a look at His body. As yet there was no sign of decomposition. The French surgeon corroborated the findings, this being required by the law of the state.
The Mother: December 7
The Mother declared to the Ashramites:
Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness 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 and more perfectly consecrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime Work.
— — — — — — — — —
I (Dr Sanyal) was talking with the Mother, in Her room. In my own foolish way I voiced my apprehension for Her health and the strain She put on her fragile frame. She smiled at me, and asked, “Do you think I get all this energy from my frugal meals? Of course not, one can draw infinite energy from the universe when needed!”
She also added, “No, I have no intention of leaving my body for the present. I have yet a lot of things to do. So far as I am concerned, it is nothing to me. I am in constant contact with Sri Aurobindo”.
Sri Aurobindo’s sudden decision of withdrawal stirred the minds of us all. Was it a retreat? Or was it a means used by Him to attain something for the earth? Who can answer?
With our limited mental logic, whatever we try to explain will only be part of the truth, or may even be a distortion. What we need is a supreme faith in Him that if many a battle is apparently lost the ultimate victory of the war is inevitable. Sri Aurobindo has no doubt withdrawn from us, from our physical eye, but the Mother is continuing the fight for humanity as the Mahashakti.
the golden tint had persisted: the eyes closed serenely had yet radiated the Greater Life, not the extinction of life. Might it not be that Sri Aurobindo intended to return to the body?
On the 8th December, the Mother asked Sri Aurobindo in their occult meeting place to resuscitate, to return to life, but he answered, according to her testimony: That seemed to be final;
“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.” “the lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding the body” “, said the Mother on the 8th,
While we all feel as if we were sliding down the incline to disappointment, — for the world torn with dissension, distrust, hatred and greed, looking for a ray in the sky, a divine gesture — for the uplift of humanity — a transformed humanity — the Mother holds out HOPE.
I took leave of the Mother on the 7th evening — taking a last look at the Master’s luminous body, — the Divine in a mortal frame, beautiful, calm, and still without a sign of decomposition.
I naively asked the Mother, “Why was I not allowed to treat the Lord as I would have done in the routine way, and why was I called in?” Mother consoled me by saying, “We wanted you to be here, not so much for treatment.” The Mother blessed me three times and all my sorrows, my disappointments, my doubts vanished, and my mind was aglow with hope. I bowed at Her feet. and looked up to see the Divine Mother, the Mahashakti smiling at me.
From this entire experience of Dr Sanyal, I could gather:
- The Divine Avatar was refusing to be treated by mere medicines. He was withdrawing from the physical form as the Earth consciousness was not ready to receive the Supramental Force.
- He assured us that He would come back again when the Earth will be receptive and conscious.
- He promised us that he Arrival of Supramental is a certainty …
- Humans cant treat the Divine and His prabrutti.
Why Sri Aurobindo is an Avatar?
1. Medical Mystery:
Despite in a state of uraemic coma, which usually does not allow any return to consciousness. But Sri Aurobindo was able to open his eyes at
frequent intervals and asked for a drink or inquired what the time was! He was hugging Champaklal many a time even from that stage.
He was asking about the current situation in Bengal till the 4th December 1950. He was even sitting in the chair in a fully conscious way.
2. It was conscious self-withdrawal from him.
3. Even half an hour before the breathing ceased and the heart stopped beating, Sri Aurobindo looked out from his calm compassionate eyes, spoke the name of the doctor by his side and drank some water. This was the strangest uraemic coma in medical history.
4. Normal kidney if gets infected, accumulates body poison and system gets discolored in a very short time. But His entire physical was emitting a ray of lights, golden lights. His hair color and body turned complete gold. Some golden hairs is kept at Sri Smriti in Delhi Ashram. Everyone must visit this Ashram once to see the Golden hair.
5. There was not a slightest trace of decomposition even after 90 hours of his departure. Mother had to indefinitely postpone it, saying:
The funeral of Sri Aurobindo has not taken place today. His body is charged with such a concentration of supramental light that there is no sign of decomposition and the body will be kept lying on his bed so long as it remains intact.
6. Even when the body was put into the case, there was neither actual decay nor the odour of death, though marks were present to indicate that the miraculous preservative light had begun to depart. The Ashramites who were holding the body were witness to eternal fragrance that was coming out of His Physical, usually unseen in a normal body.
7. All of a sudden a couple of months before the fateful December 5, Sri Aurobindo startled his scribe by saying: “I must finish Savitri soon.” He used to write 400–500 lines of Savitri daily, and He used to write from a highest level of consciousness. He used to write 7 different books once upon a time. This time he got another request to write an article for Bulletin.
8. Even when his disease had advanced, he did not fail to respond to the call of the afflicted. To give an example: as he was engaged in the final drafting of the last two cantos of Savitri, there came an urgent call for help from a sadhika living outside. The lady was suffering from a mysterious disease; some doctors said it was coronary thrombosis, some diagnosed cervical rib and some others cancer and they all suggested different remedies. She, on the verge of death, took refuge at the Guru’s feet and wired to him that she would rely on his force alone, even were she to die of it. News began to come in daily, by letters or wires. Suddenly no news at all for two or three days! Sri Aurobindo became worried and enquired again and again if any communication had arrived. At last he remarked, rather vexed, “How am I to save her if I don’t get any news?” After this rude jerk news began to flow in and we are happy to find her settled in the Ashram in sound health. Those who have received this inner sweetness and solicitude, directly or indirectly, will ever treasure it in their hearts as the very grace of Heaven.
9. A day may come when she must stand unhelped
On a dangerous brink of the world’s doom and hers.
*
In that tremendous silence lone and lost
Cry not to heaven, for she alone can help.
She only can save herself and save the world
We must not be bewildered by appearances. Sri Aurobindo has not left us. Sri Aurobindo is here, as living and as present as ever and it is left to us to realise his work with all the sincerity, eagerness and concentration necessary.
-The Mother
What is Death
Death is not nothingness, death is only a transition between two earthly lives upon earth, and the nature of transition depends upon the quality of the previous life. To die does not solve the problem or overcome the difficulty.
Death is a passage between two worlds.
Expect nothing from death. Life is your only salvation.
It is in life that you must transform yourself. It is upon earth that you progress and it is upon earth that you realise. It is in the body that you win the Victory.
- Death is the phenomenon of decentralization and scattering of the cells making up the physical body.
- “Consciousness is, in its very nature, immortal, and in order to manifest in the physical world, it clothes itself in material forms that are durable to a greater or lesser degree.
- “The material substance is in process of transformation to become an increasingly perfect and durable multiform mode of expression for that consciousness.”
The Mother: I have reached the conclusion that there is really no such thing as death. There is only an appearance, and an appearance based on a limited outlook. But there is no radical change in the vibration of consciousness. The importance attached to the difference of state is a merely superficial difference based on an ignorance of the phenomenon itself. One who could retain a means of communication would be able to say that as far as he himself is concerned, it doesn’t make much difference. But that is still something being worked out: there still remain grey areas and some details of the experience are missing.
Do we Really Die?
I wonder why people fear Death? The soul is immortal and passes from one life and body to another. Soul is timeless. It is beyond Time and Space. Besides, for the people of Integral Yoga, fear has no place.
Sri Aurobindo: Who shall slay thee, O soul immortal? Who shall torture thee, O God ever-joyous?
Why there is Death
- The material or physical causes of death are not its sole or its true cause; its true inmost reason is the spiritual necessity for the evolution of a new being.
- …the cells contained in the body, or composing the body, are held in form by a centralization of the consciousness in them, and as long as that power of concentration is there, the body cannot die. It’s only when the power of concentration disappears that the cells scatter. And then one dies. Then the body dies. — (Mother’s Agenda, 17.12.69)
- “I am on my way to discovering the illusion that must be destroyed so that physical life can be uninterrupted…. Death is the result of a distortion of consciousness.
ü Death is a result of death of consciousness.
ü Death happens when we are unwilling to grow in consciousness.
ü Death happens when we refuse to help in evolution of consciousness.
ü Death happens when we hanker for and indulge in money, power and sex.
ü Death happens due to sex which creates Death of Consciousness.
ü Death happens when we defy Truth, and live and work in falsehood, because Mother says Falsehood is the ally of Death.
ü Death and decay happen when we concentrate only on ourselves, when we indulge in satisfying ego and desire. Concentration on the Divine alone brings life and growth and realisation.
Decentralisation of the Body
Everything does not disperse all at once; it takes a long time.
The central will of the physical being abdicates its will to hold all the cells together. That is the first phenomenon. It accepts dissolution for one reason or another.
i. One of the strongest reasons is the sense of an irreparable disharmony;
ii. the other is a kind of disgust with continuing the effort of coordination and harmonisation.
iii. In fact, there are innumerable reasons, but unless there is a violent accident, it is above all this will to maintain cohesion which abdicates for one reason or another, or without reason. It is this which inevitably precedes death.
Who experiences Death?
- Some of the living are already half-dead. Many of the dead are very much alive.
- Only those years that are passed uselessly make you grow old.
- A year spent uselessly is a year during which no progress has been accomplished, no growth in consciousness has been achieved, no further step has been taken towards perfection. Consecrate your life to the realisation of something higher and broader than yourself and you will never feel the weight of the passing years.
- It [death] is a universal force — the happening or change called death is simply one result of the working of the force.
Our souls weep if they do not get the right atmosphere. They are forced to retreat, or decide to go back to Eternal if outside circumstances separate them from the Divine. Our Job is to love the Divine sincerely and deeply without getting affected by the outer circumstances.
Suggestion of Death Comes from?
This suggestion of death comes from the “ego” when it feels that soon it will have to abdicate. Keep quiet and fearless. Everything will be all right.
You speak of absolute renunciation, but to give up the body is not the absolute renunciation. The true and total renunciation is to give up the ego which is a much more arduous endeavour. If you have not renounced your ego, to give up the body will not bring freedom to you.
1. The Divine alone is:
Ø True — all the rest is falsehood
Ø Real — all the rest is illusion.
Ø Love — all the rest is selfish sentimentality
Ø Life — all the rest belongs to the kingdom of death
Ø Light — all the rest is semi-obscurity
Ø Support — that never fails.
Ø Light and Vastness, Truth and Compassion.
Ø Unmixed and never fails.
Ø Our object.
2. Time of Death
When we refuse to grow in consciousness, our decay and death starts.
The Mother: It is not to your feelings about death that I object, because I know for certain that one dies only at the moment decreed by the Supreme. To fear or to wish death in fact makes no difference; when your time is come you go, according to the Will of the Lord; and His Will is necessarily the wisest.
Our Attitudes towards Death
1. ONE must know how to give one’s life and also one’s death, give one’s happiness and also one’s suffering, to depend for everything and in all things upon the Divine Dispenser of all our possibilities of realisation, who alone can and will decide whether we shall be happy or not, whether we shall live or not, whether we shall participate or not in the realisation.
2. We have to be ready for adventurous journey towards a new World. We are bound to go uncharted territories of life and work in another Space and Time.
A voyager upon uncharted routes
Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown,
Adventuring across enormous realms,
He broke into another Space and Time.
We must know how to give our life and also our death, our happiness and also our suffering.
From birth to death, life is a dangerous thing.
The brave pass through it without care for the risks.
The prudent take precautions.
The cowardly are afraid of everything.
But ultimately, what happens to each one is only what the Supreme Will has decided.
Two Incidents where Mother replied about Death of someone
X had reached a stage of her development marked by a predominance of the sattwic nature, but not a strong vital (which works towards a successful or fortunate life) or the opening to a higher light, — her mental upbringing and surroundings stood against that and she herself was not ready. Her early death with much suffering may have been the result of past (prenatal) influences or they may have been chosen by her own psychic being as a passage towards a higher state for which she was not yet prepared but towards which she was moving. This and the non-fulfilment of her capacities would be a final tragedy if there were this life alone. As it is she has passed towards the psychic sleep to prepare for her life to come.
***
You can explain to X that the death of his nephew had nothing to do with their [his family members’] obscurities and imperfections — it was part of his own Karma — each person has his own destiny and follows its line; to be in a certain family and with certain relations is only a temporary incident in its course. The sadhak should be free from these attachments and regard these happenings as ordeals to be passed through with equality and faith in the Divine — doing his best for those who are in his charge but not disturbed by results.
What happens after death?
It is a very intricate and difficult question to tackle and it can hardly be answered in a few words. Moreover it is impossible to give a general rule as to why there are these close inner contacts followed by a physical separation through death — in each case there is a difference and one would have to know the persons and be familiar with their soul history to tell what was behind their meeting and separation. In a general way, a life is only one brief episode in a long history of spiritual evolution in which the soul follows the curve of the line set for the earth, passing through many lives to complete it. It is an evolution out of material inconscience to consciousness and on towards the divine Consciousness, from ignorance to divine Knowledge, from darkness through half-lights to Light, from death to Immortality, from suffering to the Divine Bliss. Suffering is due first to the Ignorance, secondly to the separation of the individual consciousness from the Divine Consciousness and Being, a separation created by the Ignorance — when that ceases, when one lives completely in the Divine and no more in one’s separated smaller self, then only suffering can altogether cease.
Each soul follows its own line and these lines meet, journey together for a space, then part to meet again perhaps hereafter — often they meet to help each other on the journey in one way or another. As for the after death period, the soul passes into other planes of existence, staying there for a while till it reaches its place of rest where it remains until it is ready for another terrestrial existence. This is the general law, but for the connections of embodied soul with embodied soul, that is a matter of personal evolution on which nothing general can be said as it is intimate to the soul stories of the two and needs a personal knowledge. That is all I can say, but I don’t know that it will be of much help to her, as these things are helpful usually only when one enters into the consciousness in which they become not mere ideas but realities. Then one grieves no longer because one has entered into the Truth and the Truth brings calm and peace.
— — — — — — — — — — -
Never to be in a hurry for the funeral
Normally the consciousness of the departed ought to feel no pain for what happens to the body after his or her departure. But there is in the material body itself a consciousness called the “spirit of the form” which takes some time to get completely out of the aggregated cells; its departure is the starting point of a general decomposition, and before its departure it may have a kind of feeling of what happens to the body. That is why it is always better not to be in a hurry for the funeral.
Our Duty towards the Divine
1. We should never grieve. Because He is present every moments, in the subtle physical. If we turn within, we can see a glimpse of Sri Aurobindo in our subtle physical. Mother used to chant OM Namoh Bhagavate and used to feel the presence of Sri Aurobindo every moment. We have to master over life and death, with the Grace of the Divine Mother.
Until one is the master of life and death, one knows nothing!”
– The Mother
The Mother: To grieve is an insult to Sri Aurobindo who is here with us, conscious and alive. 14 December 1950
3. We are all living here in this world as a gift from the Divine.
We are eternal souls, living in eternal moments. We are living in a net of death in which by chance we live.
A net of death in which by chance we live.
All we have learned appears a doubtful guess,
The achievement done a passage or a phase
Whose farther end is hidden from our sight,
A chance happening or a fortuitous fate.
The moment’s thought inspired the passing act.
Sri Aurobindo (in Savitri)
Is Immortality Possible?
Immortality: It is not the survival of the mental personality after death, though that also is true, but the waking possession of the unborn and deathless Self of the which body is only an instrument and a shadow.
- Sri Aurobindo
Immortality is a life without beginning or end, without birth and death, which is altogether independent of the body.
It is the life of the Self, the essential being of each individual, and it is not separate from the Universal Self. This essential being has a sense of oneness with the Universal Self.
Immortality is not the indefinite survival of the body.
Can our Body become Immortal:
The body can survive indefinitely only if, in the first place, it becomes fully conscious of this immortal Self and unites with it, identifies with it to the extent of having the same capacity, the same faculty of constant transformation which would enable it to follow the universal movement.
This is an absolutely indispensable condition if the body is to endure.
Because the body is rigid, because it does not follow the movement, because it cannot transform itself rapidly enough to constantly identify itself with the universal evolution, it decomposes and dies. Its fixity, its rigidity, its incapacity to transform itself, make its destruction necessary, so that its substance may return to the general realm of physical substance and so that the body may be remoulded into new forms in order to become capable of further progress.
But usually, when one speaks of immortality, people think of physical immortality — it goes without saying that this has not yet been realised.
Sri Aurobindo says that it is possible and even that it will happen, but he lays down one condition: —
the body must be supramentalised, it must have some of the qualities of the supramental being, which are qualities of plasticity and constant transformation.
And when Sri Aurobindo writes that the body is “only an instrument and a shadow”, he is speaking of the body as it is now and will probably continue to be for a long time to come.
It is only the instrument of the Self, a very inadequate expression of this Self, and a shadow — a shadow, something vague and obscure in comparison with the light and precision of the eternal Self.
How this shadow, this instrument, can serve the development of the soul, and how by cultivating the instrument one can be of help to future lives, are questions which are not without interest.
The quarrels of religious sects are like the disputing of pots, which shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalising nectar. Let them dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in whatever pot and attain immortality. This is a miracle that men can love God, yet fail to love humanity. With whom are they in love then ?
Time to become World-Soul
We have to become a world soul. Our soul is not limited to one family, one country, one religion. But it belongs to universe. We have to live in a broadened and widened consciousness and grow our soul in that atmosphere. We cant be narrow minded and live with anger, jealousy etc.
The World-Soul
Infinite, coeval with the mind of God,
It bore within itself a seed, a flame,
A seed from which the Eternal is new-born,
A flame that cancels death in mortal things.
All grew to all kindred and self and near;
The intimacy of God was everywhere,
No veil was felt, no brute barrier inert,
Distance could not divide, Time could not change.
From this world-Soul proceeds each new birth of the Eternal and it is “A flame that cancels death in mortal things”. One can feel “a sense of universal harmonies”, and “eternity of truth and beauty and good and joy made one”. From this centre, all finite life seemed to proceed and he saw that “A formless spirit became the soul of form”.
I contain the whole world in my soul’s embrace. Sri Aurobindo.
Time to Respect “Hour of God”
We must respect the God-given time and place
We must respect the Hour of God. Let us not make it an Idiot Hour by wasting it like idiots.
An idiot hour destroys what centuries made,
Man sows misery with his own hands and reaps the results: “He walks by his own choice into hell’s trap”, “Nothing has been learnt from time and its history”.
Man’s life “is an episode in a meaningless tale”.
How the Divine Acts:
The Divinity acts according to the consciousness of the Truth above and the Lila below and It acts according to the need of the Lila, not according to men’s ideas of what It should do or should not do. 1934
Why should the Divine be tied down to succeed in all his operations? What if failure suits him better and serves better the ultimate purpose? What rigid primitive notions are these about the Divine!” 1935
The Mother says: The Divine never withdraws from you; it is you who move away from the Divine and imagine the contrary, as the earth might think it is the sun that is moving and not its own self.
Sri Aurobindo: It is not for personal greatness that I am seeking to bring down the Supermind. I care nothing for greatness or littleness in the human sense…If human reason regards me as a fool for trying to do what Krishna did not try, I do not in the least care. There is no question of X or Y or anybody else in that. It is a question between the Divine and myself — whether it is the Divine Will or not, whether I am sent to bring that down or open the way to its descent or at least make it more possible or not. Let all men jeer at me if they will or all Hell fall upon me if it will for my presumption — I go on till I conquer or perish. This is the spirit in which I seek the Supermind, no hunting for greatness for myself or others. — 1935
All world is a movement of the Spirit in itself and is mutable and transient in all its formations and appearances; its only eternity is an eternity of recurrence. Cosmic consciousness is that of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic nature, with all the beings and forces within it. The consciousness of the individual is part of this, but a part feeling itself as a separate being. But there is a wall of separative ignorance between. Once it breaks down he becomes aware of the cosmic self, of the consciousness of the cosmic nature, of the forces playing in it, etc.
Death of Death
To rise beyond this death, he has to turn from the falsehood to the Truth; he has to turn to the Light … Sri Aurobindo
Be thyself, immortal, put not thy faith in death;
for death is not of thyself, but of thy body.
As long as the world isn’t changed, death doesn’t matter in the least, and when the world is changed, there will be no more death, that’s all. Or else it will be death for plants, death for animals, death for man (man as man), and for them, it will be a quite natural state, there won’t be anything to feel sorry about.
Death as it is understood, on the inner level, means the loss of consciousness…. That would be the most… the most dreadful and horrible thing, if it were possible. But it’s not possible. If you have consciousness, it cannot be lost. Some things don’t have consciousness yet, so little by little, little by little, they learn to have it; but the consciousness you have cannot be lost, that’s not possible. All the deaths in the world cannot take it away from you, and that’s why I smile — try, mon petit!
It’s impossible. Consciousness is something eternal. Consciousness is divine, consciousness is eternal, and NOTHING can destroy it. Appearances are another matter.
And it’s only unconsciousness that’s destroyed (meaning that there is an appearance of destruction), but not consciousness.
So then, all the drama — all the tragedy, all the horror, all the dread, all of it — is vital fabrication.
Well, those who are God’s warriors don’t allow themselves to be affected by that. One smiles, “Yes, yes, you may put on a big show, we don’t care; go ahead with the big show if you enjoy it.” As for us, we know it’s only a show — an ugly show, if you like, it’s not pretty, but it’s just a show.
Death Must Die
if I were really put in contact with what I have called “the death of death.” It was the unreality of death. From a COMPLETELY material standpoint. It was a question of cells and of the consciousness in the cells. Like when you are within an inch of something: “There it is! I’m going to catch it, there it is!…” But then it fades away. It has stayed as an impression A few seconds’ experience which gave me the sense that the most central problem was solved. And then….When it is like that, it will be interesting.
(Mother opens “Savitri.” She intended to translate “The Debate of Love and Death.” The book opens “by chance” on the last lines of Death’s defeat, which Mother reads aloud:)
And [Death] left crumbling the shape that he had worn,
Abandoning hope to make man’s soul his prey
And force to be mortal the immortal spirit.
“One dies only when You will it.”
The Mother: I don’t remember in detail (I wrote it down), but the idea was like this: the Lord makes you die only with your consent — your consent is necessary for you to die. And unless He decides, you can never die.
Those two things: for you to die, something (the inmost soul, that is) must consent, the soul must say yes, then you die; and when the soul says yes, it’s for the Lord to decide. Ever since that experience, there had been the certainty that you can die only when the Lord wills it, that it depends entirely and exclusively on His Will, that there are no accidents, no “unforeseeable mishaps,” as human beings think — all that doesn’t exist: it’s His Will. From that experience till this latest one [the death of death], I lived in that knowledge. Yet with the feeling of… not quite the unknown but the incomprehensible. The feeling of something in the consciousness which doesn’t understand (what I mean by “understand” is having the power to do and undo, that’s what I call “to understand”: the power to realize or to undo, that’s the real understanding, the POWER), well, of something which eluded me. It was still the mystery of the Infinite Supreme. And when that experience [the death of death] came, then, “Ah, there it is! I have it, I’ve caught it! At last, I have it.”
I didn’t have it long (laughing), it went away! But my position changed. It’s one more thing I see from above; I rose above, my position is above.
I have always observed very carefully every time somebody died here in the Ashram, and well (one or two persons have died since that experience, in particular the old doctor’s sister), well, since then it has been ABSOLUTELY DIFFERENT. It was something I saw from above. There was no longer any
mystery. But if you ask me to explain… That I can’t — words, the mind, no. But the POSITION of the consciousness was different — the position of the consciousness. Altogether different.
And it happened the same way every time. But it may take years to turn into a conscious power.
And IN THE PRESENT CASE, the conscious power would mean the power to give or prevent death equally; to effect the necessary movement of forces — almost… almost an action on the cells, a mechanical action on the cells. With that power, you can give death, you can prevent death. But there is NO LONGER any of that sensation people have of a brutal clash between life and its opposite, death — death is not the opposite of life! At that moment I understood, and I never forgot: death is NOT the opposite of life, it is not the opposite of life.
How to Escape from Death
If you wish to escape from death, you must not bind yourself to anything perishable. One can conquer that alone which one fears not, and he who fears death has already been vanquished by death.
In order to be able to conquer death and win immortality, one must neither fear death nor desire it.
The target at which we are aiming is immortality. And of all the habits, death is surely the most obstinate (persistent, headstrong).
No Fear of Death
Sri Aurobindo: O Death, our masked friend and maker of opportunities, when thou wouldst open the gate, hesitate not to tell us beforehand; for we are not of those who are shaken by its iron jarring.
Death is sometimes a rude valet; but when he changes this robe of earth for that brighter raiment, his horseplay and impertinences can be pardoned.
Q. Why has death been associated with sorrow ever since the beginning?
Human ignorance and egoism are the cause of sorrow. But this sorrow has also played its part in the evolution of humanity.
— — — — — — — — — — —
Mother had innumerable opportunities to study death — the phenomenon of the corpse — since her experiences as a young woman in Tlemcen, which I have related elsewhere.10 One day I asked her if one could have “the experience of death without dying”? With her usual sense of humour, she replied:
The Mother: Surely! You can even have the experience materially if … if death is brief enough not to give the doctors time to declare you dead!
Needless to say, Mother had little esteem for medical science: “I am an atheist of medicine,” she said to me, laughing. And we are reminded of Sri Aurobindo:
We laugh at the savage for his faith in the medicine man; but how are the civilised less superstitious who have faith in the doctors? The savage finds that when a certain incantation is repeated, he often recovers from a certain disease; he believes. The civilised patient finds that when he doses himself according to a certain prescription, he often recovers from a certain disease; he believes. Where is the difference?
Get the Divine Protection for our Soul after Death
We should know and practice the intimacy with the Divine when we are alive and when we are conscious with Her Grace. At this stage, if we are able to feel the nearness and closeness to the Divine in psychic, vital, mental and physical level, we can feel the same nearness even after we leave our physical.
The Mother says: If the vital being is, during one’s life, incapable of feeling the nearness, the deep intimacy, how can one reasonably hope it will suddenly be able to do so just because it has left the body? It is ignorant childishness.
How to Prepare for Death?
The joy of death is rediscovering one’s immortal: The sorrow of rebirth is forgetting it.
Death is not at all what you believe it to be. You expect from death the neutral quietness of an unconscious rest. But to obtain that rest you must prepare for it.
When you die you lose only your body and at the same time the possibilities of relation with and action on the material world. But all that belongs to the vital world does not disappear with the material substance; all your desires, attachments, cravings persist with the sense of frustration and disappointment, and all that prevents you from finding the expected peace.
To enjoy a peaceful and eventless death you must prepare for it. And the only effective preparation is the abolition of desires.
So long as we have a body we have to act, to work, to do something: but if we do it simply because it has to be done, without seeking for the result or wanting it to be like this or like that, we get progressively detached and thus prepare ourselves for a restful death.
We must acknowledge Kurukshetra; we must submit to the law of Life by Death before we can find our way to the life immortal…
*
From the viewpoint of spiritual knowledge, decrepitude and decay — disintegration — are quite simply and undoubtedly the result of a wrong attitude.
How to Protect the Departed?
I can understand the shock your wife’s catastrophic death must have been to you. But you are now a seeker and sadhak of the Truth and must set your mind to rise above the normal reactions of the human being and see things in a larger greater light. Regard your lost wife as a soul that was progressing through the vicissitudes of the life of Ignorance — like all others here; in that progress things happen that seem unfortunate to the human mind and a sudden accidental or violent death cutting short prematurely this always brief spell of terrestrial experience we call life seems to it especially painful and unfortunate. But one who gets behind the outward view knows that all that happens in the progress of the soul has its meaning, its necessity, its place in the series of experiences which are leading it towards the turning-point where one can pass from the Ignorance to the Light. He knows that whatever happens in the Divine Providence is for the best, even though it may seem to the mind otherwise. Look on your wife as a soul that has passed the barrier between two states of existence. Help her journey towards her place of rest by calm thoughts and the call to the Divine Help to aid her upon it. Grief too long continued does not help but delays the journey of the departed soul. Do not brood on your loss, but think only of her spiritual welfare.
What has happened must now be accepted calmly as the thing decreed and best for his soul’s progress from life to life, though not the best in human eyes which look only at the present and at outside appearance. For the spiritual seeker death is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but only departed. Look at it as that and shaking from you all reactions of vital grief, — that cannot help him in his journey, — pursue steadfastly the path to the Divine.
*
One can help the departed souls by one’s good will or by occult means, if one has the knowledge. The one thing that one should not do is to hold them back by sorrow for them or longings or by anything else that would pull them nearer to earth or delay their journey to their place of rest.
SABCL Vol.22: pp.462, 436 Sri Aurobindo
How should the news of death be received, especially when it is someone close to us?
Say to the Supreme Lord: “Let Thy Will be done”, and remain as peaceful as possible.
If the departed one is a person one loves, one should concentrate one’s love on him in peace and calm, for that is what can most help the one who has departed.
*
If at the time of death the vital being is attacked in the vital world by hostile forces or entities, does it not look for a shelter somewhere?
Yes, it is for this reason that in all countries and in all religions, it is recommended that for a period of at least seven days after someone’s death, people should gather and think of him. Because when you think of him with affection (without any inner disorder, without weeping, without any of those distraught passions), if you can be calm, your atmosphere becomes a kind of beacon for him, and when he is attacked by hostile forces (I am speaking of the vital being of course, not the psychic being which goes to take rest), he may feel altogether lost, not know what to do and find himself in great distress; then he sees through affinity the light of those who are thinking of him with affection and he rushes there. It happens almost constantly that a vital formation, a part of the vital being of the dead person (or at times the whole vital if it is well organised) takes shelter in the aura, the atmosphere of the people or the person who loved him. There are people who always carry with them a part of the vital of the person who is gone. That is the real utility of these so-called ceremonies, which otherwise have no sense.
CWM Vol.16: p.418; Vol.4: pp.204–205 The Mother
My God is love and sweetly suffers all.
1. Why are men obliged to leave their bodies?
Because they do not know how to keep up with Nature in her progress towards the Divine.
2. Should one respect the body of a dead person? If so, how?
One should respect everything, living and dead, and know that
everything lives in the Divine Consciousness.
The respect should be felt in the heart and the inner attitude.
3. Is the Divine there in the body of a dead person?
The Divine is everywhere; and I repeat that for the Divine there are no living or dead — everything lives eternally.
4. What should we do to make the soul happy, so that it reincarnates in good conditions, for example in a spiritual environment?
Have no sorrow and remain very peaceful and quiet, while keeping
an affectionate remembrance of the one who has departed.
5. Do souls weep?
When something separates them from the Divine.
6. How can one stop someone from weeping?
Love him sincerely and deeply without trying to stop his tears.
Sri Aurobindo on Death
Alive in a dead rotating universe
We whirl not here upon a casual globe
Abandoned to a task beyond our force;
Even through the tangled anarchy called Fate
And through the bitterness of death and fall
An outstretched Hand is felt upon our lives.
It is near us in unnumbered bodies and births;
In its unshaken grasp it keeps for us safe
The one inevitable supreme result
No will can take away and no doom change,
The crown of conscious Immortality,
The godhead promised to our struggling souls
When first man’s heart dared death and suffered life.
One who has shaped this world is ever its lord:
Our errors are his steps upon the way;
He works through the fierce vicissitudes of our lives,
He works through the hard breath of battle and toil,
He works through our sins and sorrows and our tears,
His knowledge overrules our nescience;
Whatever the appearance we must bear,
Whatever our strong ills and present fate,
When nothing we can see but drift and bale,
A mighty Guidance leads us still through all.
After we have served this great divided world
God’s bliss and oneness are our inborn right.
A date is fixed in the calendar of the Unknown,
An anniversary of the Birth sublime:
Our soul shall justify its chequered walk,
All will come near that now is naught or far.
*
Yet is it joy to live and to create
And joy to love and labour though all fails,
And joy to seek though all we find deceives
And all on which we lean betrays our trust;
Yet something in its depths was worth the pain,
A passionate memory haunts with ecstacy’s fire.
Even grief has joy hidden beneath its roots:
For nothing is truly vain the One has made:
In our defeated hearts God’s strength survives
And victory’s star still lights our desperate road;
Our death is made a passage to new worlds.
This to Life’s music gives its anthem swell.
*
Our being must move eternally through time;
Death helps us not, vain is the hope to cease;
Our life’s repose is in the Infinite;
It cannot end, its end is Life supreme.
*
We are chased by a self we cannot now recall
And moved by a spirit we must still become.
*
All here is a mystery of contraries:
Darkness a magic of self-hidden light,
Suffering some secret rapture’s tragic mask
And death an instrument of perpetual life.
Although Death walks beside us on Life’s road,
A dim bystander at the body’s start
And a last judgement on man’s futile works,
Other is the riddle of its ambigious face:
Death is a stair, a door, a stumbling stride
The soul must take to cross from birth to birth,
A grey defeat pregnant with victory,
A whip to lash us towards our deathless state.
The inconscient world is the spirit’s self-made room,
Eternal night shadow of eternal Day.
Night is not our beginning nor our end;
She is the dark Mother in whose womb we have hid
Safe from too swift a waking to world-pain.
We came to her from a supernal Light,
By Light we live and to the Light we go.
Savitri — Sri Aurobindo
CWSA Vol.33: pp.59, 194, 197, 199
CWSA Vol.34: pp.600–601
The Mother on Death
As long as there is death, things always end badly. Only victory over death will make it possible for things not to end badly.
-There is only one true guide: the inner guide.
Death is an accident
We have put it into our head to conquer this accident (death).
The right to a complete terrestrial immortality. A race between transformation and death
-There are those who are born warriors: they feel their right to a complete terrestrial immortality vibrating in themselves.
-The victory can be sure and lasting only if it is total.
-A race between transformation and death.
Going out of one’s body
-Having gone out of one’s body (death) one keeps the ability to put what is disturbed back into order.
-The small number of beings who are capable of bringing down a higher determinism into the material determinism…The “layers of determinism”: the physical existence has a determinism; the vital existence has a determinism, the psychic existence, the higher existences have a determinism-the supramental existence has a determinism. If at a given moment, when the entire physical determinism necessarily brings death, you suddenly enter into contact with the supramental determinism and you succeed in joining the two, you change your physical determinism completely. Death, which had been determined by the physical determinism is abolished, and the conditions change and are pushed back.
They would prefer to die than lose their habits. The layers of determinisms
-They would prefer to die and keep their habits than to live immortally and lose them.
That
-The name you give it matters little. It is quite simply that .Theway one speaks about it is of no importance, what is important is to followthe path, your path, any path-yes, to go there.
Even as we have a physical body, we have other more subtle bodies which also have much more refined senses, much more precise and much more powerful than our physical senses.
-You go out of your body, you are tied by something resembling a thread ;if the thread is cut, it is all over. Life also is ended.
There is a moment, in the collective life, when one belongs to a group, when the choice must be made, when the purification must be done. Sometime this becomes very serious; it is almost a question of life and death for the group: it must make a decisive progress if it wants to survive.
Death is a bad habit.
Expect nothing from death
-We carry in ourselves, with ourselves, around ourselves, the atmosphere created by our acts. That is what you breathe every minute of your existence and that is the misery, it is a perpetual uneasiness.
-Expect nothing from death: life is your salvation.
-Sri Aurobindo always said the greatest obstacle to true understanding and participation in the Work is common sense.
Everything wages war on you
-It’s a bludgeoning, my child!
-It would seem that if one wants to use his body to act upon the universal corporeal substance, there’s no end-no end to difficulties, no end to the battles!
-You wage war against nobody : everything wages war against you !
“Mother is old” …If my body can last till it’s a hundred.
-What’s difficult is my contact with the Ashram people. They think about how old I am all the time, that’s the trouble ! “Mother is old…” It creates a bad atmosphere.
- The adverse forces are not only trying to convince everyone but me too that this is how it’s going to turn out (death).
-I know if my body can last till it’s a hundred, then we will be on the other side, the difficulty will be over.
- It’s a labour to climb the stairs.
- Its all remedy is to call, to call the Supreme: it goes on repeating its mantra.
To die unto death
-That is to become incapable of dying because death has no more reality.
-This “to die unto death” was filled with such joy! And easy, easy, simple, natural.
- One step on one side and one step on the other side. The impersonality
-”Death,” it’s so absurd ! It’s like passing from one room to another: you take one step like this, you cross the threshold, and then you are on the other side, and then you come back.
-This sort of impersonalisation of the material individuality is very important for the exactness of the Action. The perfect equanimity takes on its true meaning only in the body: when it becomes a mechanical action of vibration. At that point one understands why it must be like it is. A mechanical comprehension of the vibration. We are on the right track.
Life and Death are the same thing
- Pushing this knowledge to its limit: life and death are the same thing, simultaneous. It’s only the consciousness that moves back and forth. But it’s fantastic!
- Death might be that the consciousness hasn’t been brought back to its true position fast enough.
The ubiquity of the cells. Something else must take place after death
- I had a series of fantastic cellular experiences: you become a forest, a mountain, a house …And it’s the sensation of the body. A sort of ubiquity in the cells.
- It is clear that if this becomes natural, death can no longer exist. There must be some difference, even in the behaviour of the cells, when you leave your body. It must be another phenomenon that takes place
Death is not a solution. We are after another solution
- It’s only if you are very attentive to the vibration of the cells, that you can see the supramental movement. It’s not a feeling, not even a sensation, even less a thought; so if you aren’t very attentive you don’t notice it. You must be very, very detached from the movement of thought to notice it.
- There is always something that comes from a very absolute region which makes me feel the uselessness of death: death is not a solution. So we are after another solution. There must be another one.
-In reality, the will to progress is still quite impregnated with desire: there isn’t the smile of Eternity behind it..
I won the victory in death. Death must be vanquished.
-Savitri : I won the victory in death.
-She couldn’t win the victory in life because she lacked death and she had to conquer death in order to conquer life.
-Death must be vanquished, there must be no more death. It’s very clear.
Undo death. It is the Mind of the cells that will find the key
-Death: I am after the process that will lead to the power to undo what was done.
- Is it not necessary to feel or live how it got twisted this way in order to straighten it out? That’s the question.
-It’s the Mind of the cells that will find the key.
-I have the experience of the two vibrations, but the transition from one to the other is still a mystery. Because it cannot be explained either when it goes this way or when it goes that way.
It is the mind of the cells that holds the key to death, or rather to non-death: the state in which death and life change into something else and this opposition ceases to exist.
Death is not the opposite of life! It is the same state, the same muddle of “something” we call existence, in which from time to time we catch death for good, but in fact it was always there, we were born with it — we were born into it, one could say. Our cells constantly wind the habit of defeat and death, it is their “idiotic goodwill.” But if we change that vibration, that mode of winding, and give them another vibration — solar and free — to repeat again and again, everything changes! Then life is no longer life as we know it, which is only suspended death, false time, false space, false matter, and death is no longer death as we know it, which is only the disappearance of our false way of looking, our false material scene — it is something which continues, with or without a body, in true time, in true space, true terrestrial and material matter. It is “over-life,” the shattered fishbowl which is not the death of the fish but the beginning of another species or another reign on earth. Yes, a “new phase of life on earth.”
Sources:
- K.D. Sethna’s “The Passing of Sri Aurobindo’,
- Nirodbaran’s ‘Sri Aurobindo: “I am Here, I am Here”’ and
- Dr. Prabhat Sanyal’s ‘A Call from Pondicherry
- CWM and CWSA
