Sri Aurobindo Or The Yogi Of The Life Divine- 9th installment- To Thee Our Infinite Gratitude
Aju Mukhopadhyay
24 August 2008, 08:51Continued From Part Eight
Most of the time when death snatches his life, a mortal is rudely shocked. But a yogi may give up his life voluntarily, when its term is fulfilled or when he decides to leave for some great cause. Buddha entered the Nirvanic world, a Pawahari Baba had silently prepared his funeral pyre and sacrificed his body and a Vivekananda fed his most beloved disciple and prepared her for the great event of his own passing away. More such incidents have been recorded in Indian spiritual history. Sri Aurobindo decided to leave his body for a sublime cause.
Sri Aurobindo cared little for his personal needs. But we know from his yoga records that he cured the ailments of his body by his yogic force. He cured the illness of others too, even at a far away distance.
At midnight on 23 November 1938, Sri Aurobindo slipped over a tiger skin and fell down. The knee bone on his right leg was badly broken. It was simply plastered- the needed operation was never done. He cured himself by his yogic force. In 1940 it was medically diagnosed that he had prostatitis, though at a preliminary stage. Within a few months he cured himself.
After 10 long years the disease reappeared with greater force. His disciples did not pay much attention at the beginning as it was presumed that he would cure himself again. Instead of doing that he became very grave. His usual smile and light banters with his associates stopped. A gloomy atmosphere ensued. Gathering courage, Satyendra, one of the attending doctors, asked him the reason of his being so serious. The reply was that it was a very critical time.
Here we may pause a little to understand the place assigned to the body in Sri Aurobindo’s Purna Yoga or Integral Yoga. According to it, not only the mind and other higher faculties of life have to be spiritualized and transformed but the spiritual light and force have to be brought down to the lowest level to transform the body so that it can hold the divine light. His plan was to divinize the whole life, each part of it, so that life ultimately becomes divine. Differing with the past spiritual traditions, he held that the worldly life was not an illusion. The body was not to be shunned or allowed to be atrophied. The aim of his yoga was not an individual liberation into the other world or an escape into Nirvana. His aim was to transform the body down to the cells to pave the way for the emergence of the new species- the Supramental Being.
If we follow the course of events, as related by Nirodbaran in his book, Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo and by Dr. Prabhat Kumar Sanyal in his article, “A Call From Pondicherry” (Mother India. December 1991), it will be evident that the master had chosen to sacrifice his body at a particular point of time as a strategic retreat, asking the Mother to continue their yoga in her body, as it was more suited for the purpose.
Savitri, the spiritual epic poem, is one of the great works of Sri Aurobindo, the composition of which began in the early part of the twentieth century and continued in Pondicherry even almost up to the time of his departure from earth. A revision was going on in the chapter called, “The Book of Fate”. He used to dictate lines after lines to his chosen scribe. The work was getting delayed for various reasons. He said, “Take Savitri, I want to finish it soon.” It was some time in October 1950, the disciple remembered. But it was unusual to hear such a thing from Sri Aurobindo, who seemed always to live in eternity. He felt quite relieved when it ended. He was not interested to revise the last two chapters of the epic, quite unusually.
Thereafter the symptoms of the disease spread with a fury. The doctors suggested an operation, suggested the use of catheter, but Mother did not approve of such things. The patient cured himself, at least temporarily. Ten days passed. Then came the Darshan day on 24 November 1950. This time an unusually large number of aspirants, including the ailing ones, were given permission for darshan or seeing Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in person, queuing up before them in line. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother sat majestically on their chairs, as usual. Thousands of devotees filed past them and were blessed, as usual. The atmosphere was vibrant with love and peace. Silence was impregnable. Sri Aurobindo had no sign of serious illness in his body. He ate with appetite.
Two more days were very important; 1st and 2nd December, the anniversary dates of the ashram school, when all the students would be involved in making the annual show of drama and physical demonstration, a celebration. Dr. Prabhat Kumar Sanyal, the famous surgeon from Calcutta, received a telegram from the Mother on 29 November, “Fly-urgent-Mother.” On 30 November he found the master on his bed, ‘Seemingly unconcerned, with eyes closed, like a statue of massive peace.’
On 1 December Sri Aurobindo was in a jolly mood. He laughed heartily. But when he heard that Sanyal was proposing to thoroughly check up his blood, the yogi said, ‘You doctors can think only in terms of disease and medicines, but always there is much more effectual knowledge beyond and above it. I do not need anything.’
1 and 2 December were over, more or less peacefully. He seemed to dislike such questions as ‘Why don’t you use your Force and cure yourself, Master?’
On the third morning he was better but his condition worsened as the day wore on.
On fourth morning he was apparently better. He again occupied his chair. A disciple desperately asked again whether he was using his Force to cure himself. He said, “No.” “Why?” was the next question to which his reply was, “Can’t explain, you won’t understand.”
Sitting on his chair he asked about the refugee problem of Bengal. From the noon his condition again became critical. Mother was observing him very keenly with her occult insight. A number of times she repeated that Sri Aurobindo was not interested any more in himself and that he was withdrawing from his body. She also remarked that the master had always been pulling down the Supramental Light within himself. She did not permit the doctors to take any drastic action. She said that whatever is needed he would do himself. At 5 pm he came out of his bed and sat on his chair- calm and serene- for some 45 minutes. Then he went back to his bed. At one point of time he caressed his dear disciple Champaklal. He kissed and blessed him repeatedly, showing rare emotion, unheard of throughout his life. Sometimes he allowed his body to suffer as a natural consequence of the disease, but he did not suffer.
Again the disease tightened its grip; again he plunged into eternity, beyond the touch of any disease. Mother came to his room at 11 pm and helped him drink half cup of tomato juice. She came again at 12 and at 01am of the fifth. There was a silent exchange of thoughts between the two, it seemed. About quarter past one he asked his disciple Nirodbaran to serve him some fruit juice. After sipping a little he again plunged into his deeper self. But it was not a coma, Dr. Sanyal confirmed. He further wrote,
“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!”
He was surrounded by his disciples and doctors. Dr. Sanyal wrote, “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 am.”
No miracle occurred this time. The end was announced at 1.26 am by Dr. P. Sanyal and the French physician, Major Barbet of Pondicherry Hospital. Until then the disciples had been vacillating between hope and despair.
With reference to her work of transformation on her body, Mother later said, “Sri Aurobindo did something equivalent, although much more total and complete and absolute, when he left his body- because he had the experience, he had that, he had it.” (Satprem. Mother or the New Species. New York; Institute of Evolutionary Research. P.161.) She saw him supramentalised, seated on his bed.
Word went round. By the evening of the fifth 6000 people queued past the Master’s body. Rich and poor, rickshaw-pullers and workmen, all filed past, silent but inspired.
A thing to be noted here is that Sri Aurobindo did not allow his photograph to be taken by anybody for more than 25 years, after the twenties of the last century. When a famous French photographer, Henri Cartier Bresson, visited Pondicherry, he was permitted to photograph him in April 1950.
The tremendous supramental Light and Force, which Sri Aurobindo had accumulated in his body, was there after his leaving the body- a golden-blue light cascading from above, flooding his body- was witnessed not only by the Mother but also by a few disciples. This force entered into Mother’s body. “I felt the rubbing of the passage.” She said later.
A passage from the conversation between Mother and Dr. P. Sanyal on 6 December, as it is in Sanyal’s A Call from pondicherry, will make the point clear.
“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”
Sri Aurobindo’s body remained intact, radiant till 9 December, when his body was put in samadhi chamber. The French doctor permitted the body to remain for public view for about 112 hours as a special case. At 5 pm on 9 December 1950 the body was placed in a rosewood box with all solemnity. The box was lined with silver sheets, fixed with silver screws and silver nails and satin. It was then placed in a vault, now the Samadhi, under the big copper-pod tree, named Service Tree by the Mother. The whole ceremony was performed under the Mother’s guidance and supervision, under the setting golden sun. The outer walls of the white marble samadhi still carries the parting words of the Mother inscribed in red ink:
To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before Thee who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before Thee we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to Thee.
In spite of all her knowledge and power, Mother felt lonely. She said: “You just cannot imagine- you cannot imagine what a grace it is to have someone you can totally rely on, to let yourself be led with no need to look for anything. I had that, I was very conscious of that as long as Sri Aurobindo was here, and when he left his body, it was a terrible collapse…. You cannot imagine. Someone you can turn to with the certainty that what he says will be the truth.” (ibid. p.152)
We know that Mother had been working for transformation of her body with the supramental consciousness, till the last day of her life in 1973. He had been helping the Mother in her work of transformation of her body, even after he had left his body, from the subtle-physical plane. She said, “This was the work Sri Aurobindo had given me. Now I understand. And I see, I see now how his departure and his work- so immense, You know, and constant, in that subtle-physical- how much that has helped. How he helped prepare things, change the structure of the physical.” (Satprem. Mother or the Mutation of Death. V-3. New York; Institute of Evolutionary Reasearch. P. 44)
Sri Aurobindo told her that he had purposely left his body and that he would not take it back, and that he would come back in a supramental body, built in a supramental way.
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Sri Aurobindo Or The Yogi Of The Life Divine. 8th instalment- The Ideal Of Human Unity Towards The Rebirth Of India
