 Good morning everybody. Very welcome to Auroville. We are here in Nidangestavs of Sertitu. I am Luca, old-time Aurovillian and matrimandic coordinator, another role in the community of Auroville. This is Amrit, much older Aurovillian than me. He has been here from the beginning. He has dedicated all his life in spiritual activity and spiritual work. This is the second session that we are doing. We are doing over the integral yoga of Serobindo, a traditional path. So we would like to deepen up the subject. Last time we arrived summarizing that we arrived to explain that the Serobindo Yoga, the Supramental Yoga, has been anyway composed by the hard Krishna Realization and so the Brahma Realization to lead later over to the Supramental Realization. What we would like to allow today, and Amrit will be the one able to do so, to see the connection between the traditional yoga, all this singular path that led to the creation of the integral yoga of Serobindo. So now I would like very much to let the speech to Amrit that he will explain the relation between tradition and the modern integral yoga of Serobindo Purna Yoga. So Amrit, could you expand a bit more what you have told us on the first session? Okay. Now, it's very clear if one examines Serobindo's own history of spiritual realizations that particularly the first two initial realizations of Serobindo in 1908. In 1908, his first realization which he achieved within three days was the realization of the Supreme Brahman. It was a pure, advaitin realization. Advaita is a form of spiritual endeavor in India where you find what is real and what is unreal. And in the Advaita, there are three propositions. The first is that the only reality is the Supreme Brahman and the Supreme Self. The second proposition is that all else is Maya. It is illusion. It is not real. Basically, this is based on the perception that what is permanent is real and what is impermanent is unreal because it passes and dies. So, in the Advaita, these two propositions are what Serobindo realized in his first experience. He realized the Supreme Brahman as the true reality and all else as unreal. Now, there is a third proposition of Advaita. The first again to repeat is the only reality is the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Self. The second is all else is unreal. It is Maya. But the third one is that all is the Supreme Brahman, including that which is unreal. These all are part of the Brahman consciousness. So, it is this that Sriobindo realized in the second experience. While he was in the same year, in 1908, he was in the Alapur Jail. And in the jail, he had the realization of Vasudeva or Krishna which is the indwelling deity within the heart of all beings. So, he saw Vasudeva as the reality in everything, in material things, in the earth, in all beings, in human beings, in animals, in everything. So, it is this that is the third proposition of the Advaita that all, including that which is unreal according to the first two propositions, all of this is a manifestation of the Supreme Brahman. Now, Sriobindo realized this. He saw Vasudeva, the divine in everything. He saw this divine in the other prisoners. He saw it in the cell that he was jailed in. He saw it in the judge. He saw it in the lawyers. He saw it in all beings and everything. Everything he saw was only Vasudeva, Sri Krishna. These two realizations of Sriobindo, that of the first two propositions of Advaita, that is he saw that the only reality was the Supreme Brahman. All else is unreal and yet everything is a manifestation of that Brahman. These seem contradictory but they are not. So, these two realizations led to Sriobindo's yoga, integral yoga of the three transformations. Now, what are the two transformations? The first transformation is the psychic transformation. Now, this is also a part of Advaita and this is also part of the traditional yogas. So, like the great proponent of Advaita was Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai. He said that the Supreme Brahman is seated in the heart as yourself. And it is basically the same as the Supreme Brahman that is in all things. And it's basically what the tradition called the soul, what in Christianity we know as the soul in our heart. But there is a slight difference between the, how to say, the way that Ramana proposed and the way that Sriobindo both emphasized the soul. But there were slightly two different aspects in Ramana's way. It is, what is most important is this reality of this immutable, eternal, unchanging aspect of the self of the Brahman. And this is seated in the heart also. So, that which is seated in the heart according to Ramana is the unchanging self. But in Sriobindo's yoga it is the other aspect. You see, it's like two sides of the same coin. And this corresponds to the two forms of Advaita. Ramana was the proponent of absolute non-dualistic Advaita which emphasized this reality, unchanging reality behind everything. Sriobindo, he realized this but he also took another side of it. You see, there are two forms of Advaita. There is the absolute non-dualistic Advaita which emphasizes the unchanging, permanent, eternal reality of the self. But the second form of Advaita is called Tantric Advaita. In the Tantric Advaita they take the other side of the soul which is the side of the Shakti. This side is very much connected with the Earth, with the manifestation, and it evolves. The Shakti is a trans-return for energy or feminine aspect of the Divine. For those that are not acquainted with this vocabulary. The energy aspect of the Divine, of the Brahman, is in fact the evolutionary aspect. It is the aspect that is connected with the Earth, with all living beings, with the creation. In fact, without that aspect of the Divine there is no creation. So basically what the Tantric Advaita says is that this aspect of the energy, of the creative energy of the Divine is part of the Supreme Brahman. It is also part of that immutable self. So when you talk about the realization of the soul in the heart, actually it's a dual aspect. You have that aspect that is immutable that doesn't change. And this is what Ramana emphasized. But you also have a part of the soul that evolves through different lives. This is the secret of reincarnation and of the different lives that people take. Reincarnation is not that we are reborn in our old personalities. It is the soul that takes birth in a human body and each time it takes birth it evolves. It changes, it grows like a baby. First it is like a spark and then slowly this spark grows into a baby and then it evolves, it grows as we grow and it becomes fully formed. This process of evolution is in fact the secret of creation. Why there is creation and why ultimately this process of evolution will lead to what Sri Aurobindo calls the third transformation, the super mental transformation. Maybe it's worth it to mention that so far on the religion level this revolution in the soul is subject to the principle of karma, to the karmic principle on the level of the religion. Before to arrive to the yogic where this kind of principle gets somehow purified and the soul is able to evolve through the final realization of what they call liberation on the level of religion. But we are talking about yoga, so the karmic principle is another element of this whole evolutive play of the soul. In fact this is precisely why people do yoga. Why it is necessary to come into inner contact with that soul because it aids in the evolution of that soul. Now this is a very complex thing which is very difficult to understand. I think most of us cannot really understand why it is like that. But the fact is the only part of a human being that is free from karma is actually the soul. Even that evolving entity it becomes, but this is in relation to the manifestation. In relation to the reality it is always permanent, it is always unchanging. But in the part that faces towards creation it takes these experiences of creation and it evolves. Like a child evolves upon the earth. But this evolution is a free evolution. It is not like say for example when we live in our bodies upon the earth we are subject to karma. We are subject to like say we make a lot of mistakes, we create more karma. This is why according to the Buddha we have on earth the three sufferings that afflict human beings. One is disease, the other is old age and the other is death. These three things are because we are born in a world through karma. What Shri Bindo is aiming at is a different way of procreation because this karma is propagated through sexual rebirth, sexual means of taking birth. So in order to free ourselves from this karma there has to be a new way of reproduction. Now this is what Shri Bindo developed was aiming at through his integral yoga and the three transformations. But without the traditional yogas, the realizations of the traditional yogas that is the first is the psyche, the realization of your own soul. The second is the spiritual realization, the realization of the universal self, the universal and transcendent self of the Supreme Brahman. These two realizations are the basis for his third transformations which is the supplemental transformation. In other words without these two basic transformations you cannot do the third, it's impossible. So this is why the realizations of the traditional yogas in India are very much the basis of Shri Bindo's yoga of the triple transformation. He has evolved a certain process for this also which he describes in the synthesis of yoga and he also describes in the small book particularly of the mother. What he has done, he has taken the essence of many of the traditional yogas and he has formulated certain principles what he calls aspiration, rejection and surrender. Now this is the heart basically of his yoga and these triple principles of aspiration, rejection and surrender he has invoked the Shakti because it is through the Shakti that these three principles are the opening through which you can offer yourself to the Shakti and because you know by our own efforts it is very difficult to achieve what he wanted. It has to be by a grace and this grace is affected by two things. One by the power of the Shakti and two by your effort of this triple which we call the triple efforts. So combining the effort from your side and the grace of this supreme Shakti which can lift you up this is the essential practice in Shri Bindo's yoga but he also says very clearly the main thing first by whatever means is to attain the spiritual consciousness of the first two transformations the psychic which is the most important in the very beginning and the spiritual, psychic here, the spiritual here and these you know oh okay okay now you know even his yoga of the triple efforts aspiration, rejection, surrender there are many people when they first come to yoga they don't understand it's very difficult to understand because you know it's very in the traditional Indian yogas they say there are three levels of practice the first is called anava upaya this means physical practices like doing puja, doing japa very very concrete ways to meditate and the second way is called shaktupaya which are practices that are more subtle like Shri Bindo's way is a shaktupaya practice just as Ramana Maharishi's practice of who am I that is a shaktupaya practice because it already presupposes a certain level of spiritual maturity self-inquiring practice suggested by Rama shaktupaya practices already require a certain understanding so this is why for most people it's advisable to follow more concrete practices like puja, japa even in the ashram where the main yoga is the yoga of mother and Shri Bindo people do they go to the samadhi they touch the samadhi they pray and this is in fact anava upaya practice they circle the samadhi these are all anava upaya practices because they're very concrete and it's also very important it's very important people think that because it is physical it is lower this is not true mother was quite clear about this she said for complete realization you have to have a realization from the very physical up to the highest and all the levels in between you cannot neglect anything and she listed what it was she said the physical it is a need of the physical to worship concretely to touch the feet of your guru to circumambulate to repeat the name of your whatever the divine so these are all physical practices that are necessary for the human being to express himself physically then she said the other level is the vital level which is the occult level it's all the levels in between the physical and the mental and she said these occult levels are also necessary you have to have a knowledge of this and the third was the mental level of what she called spiritual mental comprehension of the spiritual principles that are the basis of your spiritual efforts she said this is the level of spiritual philosophy then the highest level is the level of spiritual experience so she said all of these levels are necessary for a full realization of the yoga now this is very much a part of the tantric Advaita it's not so much a part of the non-dualistic absolute Advaita of Ramana but it is very much a part of the tantric Advaita that is like say there are certain schools in India that are part of this tantric Advaita one is Kashmir Shaivism which is very close to Shri Bindo's conception another is the Kaola school another is Sri Vidya dedicated to Sri Chakra the Kaola school is the school of the Sri Vidya of Sri Chakra and this is precisely why when mother was doing her yoga of transformation she called a tantric yogi called Pandaji to her and she meditated with her and during this period he transferred to her all this knowledge of the tantra of all these levels of reality because it was necessary for her work of transformation and in fact she said it was mentioned in a letter that was sort of transmitted to Pandaji through Saddam mother says in three months I have done what would have otherwise taken me ten years of Saddam so this knowledge of these interconnected levels of reality Sri Bindo also speaks about it and this knowledge is very necessary so now if you examine Sri Bindo's what he evolved as his yoga there are a lot of similarities with for example in the tantric Advaita of the Kashmir Shaivism school you have what are called the Tatvas they call them the evolutions of consciousness and this is very similar to Sri Bindo's analysis of the different levels of reality now the one thing that is new, somewhat new in Sri Bindo's yoga is that in the psychic realization he has emphasized the evolutionary element of the psychic dream and he has formulated on the basis of the traditional realization the aspect of transformation now this is not totally new because he said himself the Vedic wishes knew about the supramantu but they did not bring it down upon the earth that was what is different he said in his yoga though there were partial attempts like say for example in South India in the Siddha tradition particularly in Tamil Nadu you had some very great yogis like Ramanigam Swami and Sri Bindo mentioned there is a yogi in South India who has achieved a higher level of physical transformation than I have and I think evidently he was referring to Ramanigam Swami because the mother also mentioned she said Ramanigam Swami's mantra Jyoti Arun Perun Jyoti Arun Perun Jyoti Arun Perun Karane Arun Perun Jyoti now what does this mean? mother said that this was an aspect of the supramantu she said it was the aspect of Ananda Arun Perun Jyoti means there is the great light vast light Arun Perun Jyoti Arun Perun Karane there is the vast light of compassion Karane now mother said that this was an aspect is an aspect of the supramantu and it seems Ramanigam Swami had realized this in fact he had transformed his body to such an extent it was immediately emitting so much light that is why he covered it with a white cloth because he said unfortunately people were attracted to him for the wrong reasons so he had to hide himself we have all over Tamil Nadu this little temple in his picture he is a very famous saint here in Tamil Nadu so this siddha tradition in South India particularly in Tamil Nadu why do you think Shri Bindu came here? it's actually an atmosphere that is very compatible with his yoga the siddha tradition in Tamil Nadu because this tradition in India of the Tamil people is a very ancient, very ancient tradition with a very deep spiritual aspect a lot of it has been lost now but it is still there in the memory of the people here what is that? it is still there in the memory of the people here in South India which Ramalingam was also somehow coupled to Tiruvallu that's where the locality was Tiruvallu well also of course you know what Shri Bindu says is that Rishi Agastya came here and maybe this is another reason but the fact is that it is here in Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu that Shri Bindu had his basic realization that led to the real beginning commencement of his work and that happened on November 24, 1926 and this was Shri Bindu's city day and he said Krishna it was the descent of the Krishna consciousness into the subtle physical and this is what allowed him to begin his work of transformation and also the beginning of the ashram which led of course also to the beginning of Orville they are interconnected this is why Orville is so important you know I think we are coming Orville has been past its 50th birthday which is a miracle because very few communities throughout the world that had been founded at the same time in the 60s have survived Orville is one of the few, perhaps the only one that has really survived intact and there is a reason why it has survived because mother has installed here a force which is the receptacle of the force is the Matamandir I mean there are so many things one can talk about in terms of the Matamandir and its relationship to the three transformations of Shri Bindu that Shri Bindu talks about the crystal for example is the psyche the crystal in the Matamandir chamber that is the main building in the center of the city that mother instructed us to build as she instructed very precisely and the sun which the rays of the sun descending and hitting the crystal that represents the spiritual realization and there is also implicit in the Matamandir which you call the super mental transformation it is hidden in the chamber and this third aspect this is you know the Matamandir was built to help people within Orville or whoever who comes from outside also to help them realize the first two the psychic and the spiritual and that as a basis for the third to happen now what is the third? Shri Bindu hints about it in his book the mother he says there are four aspects of the mother he says however there is a fifth aspect which he calls the Anandamai actually in the Matamandir you have the four aspects Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasattva they are the four pillar of the matrimandi structure that matters to you and they represent the four aspects of the Shri Mother, of the Shakti now these aspects of the Shakti are very much a part of the Tantric Advaita and they serve certain functions the four functions but Shri Bindu says there is a fifth aspect which he has not named he simply says at the end of the mother she is the Anandamai who is the mother of transformation so it is this aspect that the Matamandir represents the Anandamai and this is the secret also to you know if you talk about these realizations of the Supreme Brahman even the psychic for most ordinary people most of us it's very difficult most people even don't know what you are talking about when you talk about the Supreme Brahman or the Supreme Self or the Divine in the heart because most have not experienced it but Shri Bindu says even so there is an easier way in which is accessible to all human beings and he says humility in the heart what is humility in the heart? it is to realize that physically we are only fragments very small things in the entirety of the universe that are egos this is what he says is how you overcome ego because you cannot follow a spiritual path and you cannot do Shri Bindu's yoga of transformation until you overcome your ego and how do you overcome your ego? the first way is through having these realizations of the Supreme Brahman and of the Divine in all things automatically the ego starts to weaken perhaps even disappear most human beings are not capable of that so he says there is another way you have humility in the heart you realize that in relation to the universe you are almost nothing you are a speck of dust and realizing this you open yourself you know there is a power in this universe whether you call it the Supreme Brahman or the mother or whatever but it is easier with the mother aspect because we are familiar with that so we take the mother and we surrender and we have a humility in the heart and allow her to lift us up this is also an essential part of Shri Bindu's yoga is that this humility in the heart leads to if you are sincere about it it leads to other experiences like you feel gratitude gratitude for everything whatever happens it happens because it is the will it is this gratitude opens you also to other things like the grace if you can open to the grace it will lift you up and you don't have to make the only effort you have to make is receptivity to be receptive and to be open and to allow the Shakti to lift you up and this is the minion of the Matamandu and this is the meaning of why all of us are here in Orville because without this we cannot be a community there will only be egoistic conflicts there will only be you know one ego trying to impose itself on other egos it will never work so this process of humility in the heart as Srimando says opening yourself to some of these other qualities of gratitude of grace will allow you allow Orville as a community to become one and to evolve and I think this is a kind of maybe even why a lot of the things that are happening now are happening is to show us this and even if it's a small group you know, not everyone but at least some people if they can do this it will help it will be it may take a long time for Orville to evolve to that point but I have myself a very strong certainty that it's going to happen it may take 50 more years it may take 100 more years but it will happen Mother said 200 years she said the real Orville will not manifest for 200 years and I think that is a very conservative aesthetic very funny interesting statement anyway we better be ready for long time projection but if he has come it will come anytime even long time he is very welcome as well well you know I've been an Orville from the beginning more or less from 54 53 years or so and one has seen a lot and the thing is the very good thing about all these experiences is that what it shows is that a lot of these sort of conflicts we have as human beings are absolutely worthless they are nothing but in fact it's not our dedication of Orville to the human unity does not mean that is there mean that we have to achieve it through moment of difficulty because you don't achieve something if you don't go through a test and that's what Orville is also so the human unity is not achieved we eat our tool to achieve that particular spiritual condition that allowed us to manifest this human unity that is also very important so all these moments for me they are necessary as a test we are like a big test field where our aspiration finally will be proved if we succeed in what is our spiritual aim of also collective living and collectivity but I still believe in Orville that is the best place to severely reach what we want to reach we have so many chance or many double face or many pocket what you are you are what you achieve you achieve so in this I think we are very very happy to be in Orville and we will continue to take the support of this big project of mother to achieve what we want to achieve what you say is true there is no doubt Orville is an excellent pace to be what we want to change because if you don't change you suffer and we do suffer and you know that is why the mother emphasized what she called the sunlit path what is the sunlit path there was once the secretary of the mother her name was Maggie Leachy Maggie Leachy what is the secret of your spiritual progress and she said I take everything good or bad as a grace from the mother this is why what Srimando said about humility in the heart the sense of gratitude for everything and the acceptance of the supreme grace is a very good way and the easiest way to progress because through this way you can actually overcome to a large extent your egoistic personality because we're all born with this it's a very heavy karma of all human beings but you can deal with this through this method it's actually a very easy method if you're sincere to follow and the whole problem with Orville at present is that people discuss these things all the time in meetings how to do this, how to do that we should do this, we should do that and no one gets to the essence of it I think if people understood that there is a conscious power of the Shakti in Orville and if you open to it it will guide you to do the right thing I thought this was my experience at Mata Mandir when I worked there I could feel that there was a guidance and it was a question of not letting your own ego get in the way let it work be as sincere as you can work hard and it will work open yourself if Orville can do this whatever we talk about human unity and about transformation this will happen automatically we thank you very much with this wishful word we enjoy very much full of hope for our program we thank you very much for your input and we hope to have longer and more from you