April is a special month. On April 4 in 1910, Sri Aurobindo arrived in Pondicherry, his “cave of tapasya”. And in 1920 on April 24th, the Mother arrived in Pondicherry to be always with Sri Aurobindo and collaborate in the Supramental Yoga. Their work was to bring down a new consciousness on the earth, which is the key to unlocking the evolutionary crisis facing humanity.
This new supramental, Truth-consciousness alone is capable of not only manifesting a new creation but has also accelerated the very pace of evolutionary process working behind the outer march of humanity and world.
In most of the old yogas, the aim has been to draw back altogether from life and enter into a greater divine Truth where one lives no longer in the mind and the ego, and grows into the inmost truth of one’s being above mind, life and body. But in Integral Yoga, “the aim is to transform mind, life and body into an expression of this divine Truth and to make the outward as well as the inward life embody it” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 35, p. 728).
This is definitely a new turn and an inevitable culmination of the gradual unfolding of Divine Truth in manifestation.
Integral Yoga concerns itself not only with rising out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but also aims “to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter.” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 19)
This change of consciousness, at the cosmic level, is about the change from Mind to Supermind as the founding principle of all creation, all manifestation.
Offerings in this Issue
We have two offerings to mark these two special dates – April 4 and April 24. An essay by Nolini Kanta Gupta summarises the new future which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother brought down with their Supramental Yoga. Another one by M. P. Pandit gives a a peek into the Yogic work of the Mother and throws light on another important dimension to their supramental work.
Starting with August 2021, we have explored — briefly but in multiple dimensions — the first 8 attributes in the Mother’s symbol: Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, and Courage.
These eight, the Mother once said concern the attitude towards the Divine, and the next four – Goodness, Generosity, Peace and Equality – towards humanity. (Agenda, Vol. 13, p. 41)
In this issue, we take up Goodness. As always, we explore various dimensions of the significance of Goodness as a soul-quality for transforming inner and outer life at both the individual and collective levels through the 21 articles included in the issue.
READ MORE OF THE EDITORIAL BY BELOO MEHRA AT:
Towards a New World – Work of the Dual Avatāra
Renaissance, April 2022 issue contents:
On Goodness (clickable links):
- Doing Good by Conquering Oneself
- Sri Aurobindo on Morality and Yoga
- Sri Aurobindo on the Essence of Ethics
- Sri Aurobindo on the Principle of Evil
- From the Dhammapada: On Goodness and Vigilance
- Of God, Universe, Good and Evil
- Goodness in Sri Aurobindo’s Aphorisms
- Resolving the Inner Revolts by Calling the Mother
- The Mother on True and Sublime Charity
- Goodness in Bhartrihari’s Nitishataka
Special on Goodness Towards Animals (clickable links):
A Special Article for Teachers (clickable link):
Continuing Series (clickable links):
- Goodness and Fragrance of Sweet Alison (Flower Meditation)
- Sādhanā: To Transfigure Egoism into Goodness (Sādhanā)
- सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः – May All be Free from Illness – 11 (Health and Healing)
- Major Somnath Sharma, PVC – The ‘Saviour of Kashmir’ (Part 2)
Insightful Conversations
To access the journal: https://journal.aurobharati.in/
To access directly the soul-qualities covered so far:
Sincerity | Humility | Gratitude | Perseverance | Aspiration | Receptivity | Progress | Courage
