Sri Aurobindo Center

of Los Angeles


The Quest
January 2022

Theme - Progress

The month of January and the new year was ushered in with a program expressing the aspirations of all seekers. Children and adults all gathered under one identity, happy children of the Mother, with an offering of a beautiful altar, readings, film, and music. There was a note of joy, light, and laughter that rang throughout the whole program; perhaps an echo of the light and song of the dawn of the glorious future that the Master and Mother have established upon earth?  

Engagements with the Center included a large project in the fumigation of the Center. Requiring a lot of preparation, the task was greatly facilitated by enthusiastic devotees spontaneously coming together to volunteer. The working of a secret guiding hand was unmistakable. Other activities included the maintenance of the gardens which always reinvigorates through the interaction with the life of plants. The presence of the relics, as always, attracts devotees from near and far. We hosted a devotee from the Lodi Ashram for a month.

Finally, the collective sadhana continues to gather intensity in the thrice-weekly meetings. The themes though varied inevitably settle upon deep inner inquiries, reflections, aspirations, and a sharing of insights from everyone; all indicative of the quest of the soul for the Divine. One is reminded of what the Mother wrote, "we do not want brilliant students; we want living souls".  The moments spent have become in a very real way a "collective sadhana", the phrase uttered by one of our members in an inspired moment.

 

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The Reason Why We are Here
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Progress: the reason why we are on earth.
***
The purpose of earthly life is progress. If you stop progressing you will die. Every moment that you spend without progressing is one step closer to your grave.
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Progress: to be ready, at every minute, to give up all one is and all one has in order to advance on the way.

The Mother, CWM Volume 15, Page 75

The Joy of Progress              
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Try to enjoy doing everything you do.

When you are interested in what you do, you enjoy doing it.

To be interested in what you do, you must try to do it
better and better.

In progress lies true joy.

6 January 1952
The Mother, CWM Volume 14, Page 303

***
… one is always in too great a hurry, one wants it to be over very quickly. When one has made an effort, “Oh! well, I made an effort, now I should get the reward for my effort.”

In fact, it is because there is not that joy of progress. The joy of progress imagines that even if you have realised the goal you have put before you—take the goal we have in view: if we realise the supramental life, the supramental consciousness — well, this joy of progress says, “Oh! but this will be only a stage in the eternity of time. After this there will be something else, and then after that another and yet another, and always one will have to go further.” And that is what fills you with joy. While the idea, “Ah! now I can sit down, it is finished, I have realised my goal, I am going to enjoy what I have done”, Oh, how dull it is! Immediately one becomes old and stunted.

The definition of youth: we can say that youth is constant growth and perpetual progress—and the growth of capacities, possibilities, of the field of action and range of consciousness, and progress in the working out of details.

The Mother, CWM Volume 8, Page 19

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Question: Sweet Mother, when we make an effort to do better but don’t see any progress, we feel discouraged. What is the best thing to do?

The Mother: Not to be discouraged! Despondency leads nowhere.

To begin with, the first thing to tell yourself is that you are almost entirely incapable of knowing whether you are making progress or not, for very often what seems to us to be a state of stagnation is a long - sometimes long, but in any case not endless - preparation for a leap forward. We sometimes seem to be marking time for weeks or months, and then suddenly something that was being prepared makes its appearance, and we see that there is quite a considerable change and on several points at a time.

As with everything in yoga, the effort for progress must be made for the love of the effort for progress. The joy of effort, the aspiration for progress must be enough in themselves, quite independent of the result. Everything one does in yoga must be done for the joy of doing it, and not in view of the result one wants to obtain.... Indeed, in life, always, in all things, the result does not belong to us. And if we want to keep the right attitude, we must act, feel, think, strive spontaneously, for that is what we must do, and not in view of the result to be obtained.

As soon as we think of the result we begin to bargain and that takes away all sincerity from the effort. You make an effort to progress because you feel within you the need, the imperative need to make an effort and progress; and this effort is the gift you offer to the Divine Consciousness in you, the Divine Consciousness in the Universe, it is your way of expressing your gratitude, offering your self; and whether this results in progress or not is of no importance. You will progress when it is decided that the time has come to progress and not because you desire it.

23 April 1958
CWM, Volume 9, Page 316

Psychic Fire
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Let us keep flaming in our heart the fire of progress.

21 June 1954
CWM Volume 15, Page 76

***
Student: Sweet Mother, Sri Aurobindo writes:

“A psychic fire within must be lit into which all is thrown with the Divine Name upon it.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga,
SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 155

Isn’t the psychic fire always lit?

The Mother: It is not always lit.

Student: Then how to light it?

The Mother: By aspiration.

By the will for progress, by the urge towards perfection.
Above all, it is the will for progress and self-purification which lights the fire. The will for progress. Those who have a strong will, when they turn it towards spiritual progress and purification, automatically light the fire within themselves.

And each defect one wants to cure or each progress one wants to make—if all that is thrown into the fire, it burns with a new intensity. And this is not an image, it is a fact in the subtle physical. One can feel the warmth of the flame, one can see in the subtle physical the light of the flame. And when there is something in the nature which prevents one from advancing and one throws it into this fire, it begins to burn and the flame becomes more intense.

8 August 1956
CWM, Volume 8, Page 251

***
… the thirst for progress, the thirst to know, the thirst to transform yourself, and above all the thirst for Love and Truth - if you keep that, you go faster. Truly a thirst, a need, you know, a need. All the rest has no importance, what you need is THAT.
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No more bonds - free, free, free, free! Always ready to change every- thing, except one thing: to aspire. That thirst.
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The "Something" we need, the Perfection we need, the Light we need, the Love we need, the Truth we need, the supreme Perfection we need - and that's all. The formulas - the fewer the formulas, the better. A need, a need, a need . . . which only the Thing can satisfy, nothing else, no half measure. Only That. And then, move on, move on! Your path will be your path, it doesn't matter; any path, any path whatever...

7 October 1964
The Mother, Agenda Volume 5, Page 149

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Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.

The Mother, CWM Volume 12, Page 33

Divine Influence                                   
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Progress is the sign of the divine influence in creation.

The Mother, CWM Volume 15, Page 75
 

26 August 1967
The Mother, CWM Volume 11, Page 76

Everybody and everything can always progress and I am always working in view of a possible improvement, knowing that the greatest difficulty brings always the greatest victory and I trust that you are with me for that.

The Mother, CWM Volume 15, Page 77

Inspiring Pilgrims of the Divine                                    
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Nolini, affectionately called Nolini–da, the suffix that means “elder brother” in Bengali, was born in present-day Bangladesh, then part of British India. At 15, after completing his school education with honors, he came to Calcutta, the capital of then British India, to pursue higher studies and joined Presidency College, an elite seat of learning. Sri Aurobindo’s elder brother Manmohan Ghosh was his teacher in this college, from whom he got important lessons in composition and poetry.

Soon he plunged himself into the Indian freedom struggle through Sri Aurobindo, rejecting the prospects of a lucrative academic career - he was 18 then. He was arrested and incarcerated along with Sri Aurobindo for their revolutionary activities. After they were acquitted, Nolini-da continued to accompany Sri Aurobindo, worked as a sub-editor under him, and later followed him to Pondicherry. In 1919 he got married and continued to travel between Pondicherry and his family home in Bengal till 1926 when the Ashram was established and never left thereafter. He had three children, who along with their mother joined the Ashram in the ’40s. Nolini-da continued to serve the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in various capacities till the end of his life, looking after their correspondence, as a trustee of the Ashram Board, and the General Secretary of the Ashram.

It is difficult to write about an unobtrusive person like him; because his life was not at the surface. If we observe carefully, we will see that his life flowered in along the following broad lines:

And all these aspects developed centering Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. To summarize, he was an early and sincere practitioner of the Integral Yoga.

 

He was a meritorious student, who was introduced to Sanskrit at an early age by his father. His incomplete formal education continued under the guidance of Sri Aurobindo. Once during the prison days, he requested, out of curiosity, to Sri Aurobindo if he could recite something in Greek, who recited from Homer to his disciple. Later he studied Greek, Latin, French, and Italian under the direct guidance of Sri Aurobindo. Much later when he was the general secretary of the Ashram, amongst many other tasks one task was to dust the books in Sri Aurobindo’s room. Sri Aurobindo would occasionally raise his head and gaze at Nolini-da. In the later part of November 1950, at such a moment, Sri Aurobindo had asked him, “Nolini, what is the spelling of the word “Pheidias”? His disciple answered that there are two spellings depending on the variant used, and then he pronounced both the versions. Sri Aurobindo had answered, “I thought so”. This was, perhaps, the homage from the student to whom he taught Greek one day, and that was their last interaction.

Though laconic in his speech, he wrote profusely in various Bengali and English magazines, published both in mainstream media as well as in the Ashram circle on a wide range of topics such as Indian and world literature, social, political, and economic thoughts, English translations of Tagore’s poetry, translations of other poets, Vedas, and the Upanishads, and finally – the yoga of Sri Aurobindo. His sadhana of language bore fruit in his Bengali translation of Savitri, his last work and homage. His collected works of eight volumes were published from the Ashram.

Once an editor who received a Bengali article from Nolini-da was so impressed with the style and language that he mistook it as coming from Sri Aurobindo and published it under his name. There is a pleasant twist of language here, both “Aurobindo” and “Nolini” mean lotus in Bengali, and Gupta means “hidden”. Hence, he surmised that Sri Aurobindo assumed this nickname to avoid the tight vigil of the British Intelligence. Nolini-da’s French poems were appreciated by celebrated French poets such as Maurice Magre and Sylan Levi.

He was an excellent soccer player, called football outside the United States, since his childhood. He was a prized player of his local team of his town, and later for the Pondicherry Club and at the Ashram. Originally a right-footer, he developed his left footwork in his Pondicherry days to become a complete player. He had the skill to play for the reputed Calcutta clubs. Football in British India was a great leveler, an avenue to channel the frustrations, a field to fulfill the dreams of a chained race, a place to compete with their rulers. The game was more than a mere game and these footballers were loved and respected in society. He was a keen athlete, when the Ashram playground was opened by the Mother for people younger than 80, he was one of the first ones to participate enthusiastically and practiced physical culture as part of the Yoga. In the ashram sports events of the 1950’s he regularly participated in 100 M, 200 M, and 400 M races, Relay races, Jumps and Throw events, consistently achieving prize positions beating much younger peers. He was well in his 60s then, a true child of the Mother who resumed playing tennis in her 70s in the tropical Pondicherry heat.

He was an early assistant and comrade of Sri Aurobindo, accompanying the Lord in his adventures from the freedom struggle to the occult experiments of automatic writing, following him to Pondicherry, dedicating his life. Like the Arjuna of the Mahabharata, an ideal student, who behaved like a friend with Sri Krishna, till the latter revealed his true self. Nolini-da too stayed with his Lord, shared the towel and food in the early days of economic hardship, till the Mother came and by her example taught others how to behave in speech and manner with the Guru. When the Mother joined Sri Aurobindo for good in 1920, there was resistance in accepting Her in Sri Aurobindo’s circle. Nolini-da, who then addressed her as Mirra Devi (Devi though can be translated as Goddess, but that was the respectful way of addressing women in Bengali), was one of the early acceptors of the Mother as “The Mother”. In the early days of his life, when Nolini-da was a young boy, he participated in a protest procession against the Government, when protests were banned. He was arrested by the police, and taken to court for the hearing. Looking at Nolini-da’s tender age someone had advised him to tell the judge that he did not know protests were banned, instead, Nolini-da owned up and said that he knowingly participated in the march. When he was criticized for his naivety, the sincere soul responded that the foundation of a noble venture like the freedom movement, cannot be founded on lies.

We will be robbing our readers of delight if we do not write anything about his sadhana and inner progress, but being a true Yogi, he spoke very rarely about himself. He never projected himself as a thinker, a writer, a worker, or a sadhak. He lived quietly like a white shadow of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, with his personal wish merged with theirs.

In the early days of the ashram, though he was engaged in various activities, he remained aloof - ‘a man of few words' and behaved impersonally, which some ashramites interpreted as arrogance and rudeness. Once a sadhak complained to the Mother for what he considered Nolini-da’s rude behavior. Sri Aurobindo wrote to him about it. As a result, he called the sadhak and apologized to him. On another occasion, the hair-cutting saloon was to be opened. Nolini-da was approached to perform the ceremony; he flatly refused. The person wrote to the Mother and proposed another name, instead. Then, the next day, Nolini-da went to see the Mother, she asked him why he had refused. On coming down, he hastened to the saloon and opened it. These incidents reflect his obedience, the first requisite of a disciple. Once when someone asked him when did he decide to pursue yoga, he had answered, "I never thought of anything, I just followed what Sri Aurobindo told me to do". Sri Aurobindo would ask ashramites like Sahana to deepen their understanding of Integral Yoga from Nolini-da. Similarly, he was in the counsel of the Mother, She would not let her writings in the Ashram Bulletin publish unless She consulted him. He was very conscious of this trust of the Mother’s in him, unflattered of the Divine attention, he considered very carefully before suggesting any emendation, however insignificant they were. It was an education for others to watch their interaction. The Mother consulted him on other matters, or sent ashramites to his tiny room for advice; he never answered Her instantly; he waited for a few seconds before replying, a perfect student following the guidance of his guru(s).

We can gauge from the words of Sri Aurobindo to Nirodbaran, “I always see the Light descending into Nolini.” to the heights that he scaled. On another occasion, Sri Aurobindo commented, ‘If Nolini is not doing my yoga, who is doing it?” A few months before his passing when he was bedridden, Nirodbaran had asked him in which plane his consciousness was stationed, his answer was, “Why, with the Mother!” when further plodded he answered, “In the Overmind, in the cosmic consciousness.”, one of the rare occasions that he spoke. But not only in spiritual heights, but he also walked in this world spreading the higher light that he received. Many experienced peace and joy in his calm presence and received affection from him.

Known to be an aloof personality, he came out of his shell after the Mother’s physical departure, he gave himself out freely, though maintained his impersonality. He poured his warmth and love to all, occasionally playing the role of a grandfather to school children. He continued to teach French to adults, read out his works in his room, ashram school, and playground to nourish the community with a spiritual atmosphere. Once a young lady was affected by a mighty emotional turmoil, in the grip of her despair, she stopped eating. Like a loving father, Nolini-da sent her a message: “Tell her I too will not eat if she does not.” The fathomless love behind these words lessened the heartache and thus by love and not by admonition he brought her out of the abyss. Especially after he dreamed of the Mother in 1977, where the Mother gave him the message of complete refuge in Her, he spoke only of the Mother to his visitors, at lectures, to the outgoing students of the Ashram College, whom he said - irrespective of where they are in this world, they will be bound by the “Golden Chain” of the Mother.

He lived simply, but not unduly ascetic. Early in his life, he had thought thrice to renounce everything and take Sannyas, but perhaps he was bound by the Iron chain of the twin Avatars, which as per his own words was the bond by which the Mother kept people physically bound to her in the ashram. Perhaps the trend of his life can be summed up in his own words:

Give yourself wholly and ever more and more.
It is your unreserved giving that will create the spaciousness to hold safely the gift from the Divine.

In 1969 the Mother wrote on his birthday card:
Happy Birthday Nolini en route towards the Superman…

Such was Nolini-da, a soul dedicated to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Key References:
Collected Works of Samir Kanta Gupta -Vol 4
Guptayogi Nolinikanta Gupta - Amalesh Bhattacharya
Nolini's Athletics - Chinmoy (Auromaa website)
Nolini-da - His Ashram Life by Nirodbaran
Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta -Vol 2
Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta -Vol 7
The Human Nolini-da by Shyamkumari

Sadhana of the Body                                   
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To be a leader one must master one’s ego, and to master one’s ego is the first indispensable step for doing yoga. And this is what can make sports a powerful aid for the realisation of the Divine.

Very few people understand this, and generally those who are against this outer discipline of sports, this concentration on the material realisation, are people who completely lack control over their physical being. And to realise the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo the control of one’s body is a first indispensable step. Those who despise physical activities are people who won’t be able to take a single step on the true path of integral yoga, unless they first get rid of their contempt. Control of the body in all its forms is an indispensable basis. A body which dominates you is an enemy; it is a disorder you cannot accept. It is the enlightened will in the mind which should govern the body, and not the body which should impose its law on the mind. When one knows that a thing is bad, one must be capable of not doing it. When one wants something to be realised, one must be able to do it and not be stopped at every step by the body’s inability or ill-will or lack of collaboration; and for that one must follow a physical discipline and become master in one’s own home.
It is very fine to escape into meditation and from the height of one’s so-called grandeur look down on material things, but one who is not master in his own home is a slave.

10 April 1957
The Mother, CWM Volume 9, Page 82

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The taking up of life and Matter into what is essentially a spiritual seeking, instead of the rejection and ultimate exclusion of them which was the attitude of a spirituality that shunned or turned away from life in the world, involves certain developments which a spiritual institution of the older kind could regard as foreign to its purpose. A divine life in the world or an institution having that for its aim and purpose cannot be or cannot remain something outside or entirely shut away from the life of ordinary men in the world or unconcerned with the mundane existence; it has to do the work of the Divine in the world and not a work outside or separate from it.

Sri Aurobindo
SABCL, Volume 16, Page 8

Even within the limits of its present evolution it is difficult to measure the degree to which the mind is able to extend its control or its use of the body’s powers and capacities and when the mind rises to higher powers still and pushes back its human boundaries, it becomes impossible to fix any limits: even, in certain realisations, an intervention by the will in the automatic working of the bodily organs seems to become possible. Wherever limitations recede and in proportion as they recede, the body becomes a more plastic and responsive and in that measure a more fit and perfect instrument of the action of the spirit.

Sri Aurobindo
SABCL, Volume 16, Page 14

If a total transformation of the being is our aim, a transformation of the body must be an indispensable part of it; without that no full divine life on earth is possible.

Sri Aurobindo
SABCL Volume 16, The Divine Body, Page 24
 

True Harmony between the Body's Need and the Food Taken

Too much eating makes the body material and heavy, eating too little makes it weak and nervous —one has to find the true harmony and balance between the body's need and the food taken.

True Need of the Body

It depends on what you can digest. If you can digest, there is no harm in taking more since you  feel hungry. All these things depend upon what is the true need of the body and that may differ in different cases according to the constitution of the body, the amount of work done or exercise taken. It is possible that you have reduced your food too much, so you can try taking more.

Sri Aurobindo, SABCL
Volume 24, Page 1467

Inadvisability of Suppressing Hunger

To suppress hunger like that is not good, it very often creates disorders. I doubt whether fatness or thinness of a healthy kind depends on the amount of food taken—there are people who eat well and remain thin and others who take only one meal a day and remain fat. By underfeeding (taking less than the body really needs) one may get emaciated, but that is not a healthy state. The doctors say it depends mostly on the working of certain glands. Anyhow the important thing is now to get the nervous strength back.

As for the liver also eating little does not help, very often it makes the liver sluggish so that it works less well. What is recommended for liver trouble is to avoid greasy food and much eating of sweets and that is also one way of avoiding fat. But to eat too little is not good—it may be necessary in some stomach or intestinal illness, but not for the ordinary liver trouble.
 
Sri Aurobindo, SABCL
Volume 24, Page 1469

A force in her that toiled since earth was made,
Accomplishing in life the great world-plan,
Pursuing after death immortal aims,
Repugned to admit frustration’s barren role,
Forfeit the meaning of her birth in Time,
Obey the government of the casual fact
Or yield her high destiny up to passing Chance.
In her own self she found her high recourse;
She matched with the iron law her sovereign right:
Her single will opposed the cosmic rule.

Savitri, Page 19,
Book 1: The Book of Beginnings,
Canto 2: The Issue

Altar at Sri Aurobindo Center, Los Angeles
 

Water Lily at the Pond of Sri Aurobindo Center, Los Angeles
Significance: Emotional Wealth