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In the Mother's Light Rishabhchand
About In the Mother's LightThe essays and reflections collected in this volume trace the broad outlines of the Mother's spiritual experiences, primarily through a deep reading and study of her Prayers and Meditations. The author writes about her mission on earth to prepare humanity for the fulfilment of its highest aspirations and a complete identification with the Divine consciousness. Essays on such subjects as the psychic being, sincerity, service, and yogic action look at some of the basic concepts of the Integral Yoga in the light of the Mother's words and experiences, and five essays towards the end of the book emphasise the convergence of vision existing between Sri Aurobindo and the Mother even before they first met in 1914. The book was first published in 1951 and revised and enlarged in 1967. REVIEW
The author explains that the progress of man, spectacular in its material achievements, has, however, not met with similar success insofar as his nature is concerned, because he still remains a welter of contradictions and disparate elements. While he strives for peace and harmony and to express all that is noble within himself, his penchant for greed, cruelty and perversity pulls him in the opposite direction. He is like Sisyphus, the Greek mythological character who is forever doomed to roll a huge rock to the top of a hill only to see it falling back down from its own weight. The author, however, points out that these atavistic tendencies in man's nature as well as the "forces of resistance" were designed by Providence to help him understand what needs to be changed and guide him to a higher life. There are several essays that enumerate and deal with the nature of these defects, their origins, their deceptive forms and disguises, how they need to be tackled in order to transform them into positive energies, and finally psychological pitfalls that one can expect to encounter during this long and arduous process. At this point the author makes the practical observation that the difficulty man faces because of his inherent contradictory nature is rendered even more intractable because defects once eliminated from the conscious nature often rise up from the subconscient and the inconscient, two lower levels of awareness dealt with at length in the book, to hound him again and again, leading to a regression. The only method that the individual has at his disposal is a sincerity of aspiration and an integral self-surrender to the Divine Mother who has come down on earth as a representative from the Supreme to lift not only a few select souls but all of humanity out of its present predicament. In some moving passages of her prayers, we read how her presence on earth is revealed to her as a necessity not for herself but for humanity. She had from a very early age already established a deep connection with the highest consciousness, but her endeavour and the dedication of her entire life, like that of Sri Aurobindo, has been to bring that consciousness down to this earth for the benefit of all. The author reiterates again and again that this unique aspect of the Mother's as well as Sri Aurobindo's yoga, the Integral Yoga, is something that has not been attempted by anyone else. Although, as he points out, there is mention of it in the concept of the Chatushpada Brahman of the Upanishads, no such endeavour has been postulated by any other school of thought, much less recorded by mystics or saints in any part of the globe. To realise the Divine Consciousness at the highest possible level has been the goal set by many spiritual seekers and religions, often to the detriment and neglect of the secular life. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, however, have raised the bar, arguing for the inevitability of divinising life and matter, transforming the very cells of our body and creating the passage to a new species that will be "what man is to the animal". Anything else remains unsatisfactory and incomplete. The last five chapters of this book deal with an interesting and unique insight from the author. He points out that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo had always shared this same goal of a divine life here on earth, even before their meeting on 29 March 1914. He quotes extensively from their writings prior to their meeting to illustrate his point under four headings: 1) The Divine Union, 2) Physical Transformation through service in an integral surrender, 3) Conquest of the Subconscient and the Inconscient, and 4) The Divine Manifestation and the Divine Life. The book is a testimony to the erudition and scholarship of the author and is recommended to all who have chosen to lead a higher life in the Light of the Mother. Gautam Chatterjee Gautam, who studied at SAICE and earned a master's degree from the Institut Universitaire d'Études du Développement in Geneva, has worked as an interior designer, furniture maker and builder for the last twenty years. Interested in history, economics, sociology, metaphysics, and the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, he also teaches history at SAICE. June 2012 |