Monday, February 25, 2008

Dr. Nadkarni inculcated ‘Savitri’ as a mantra in his life

Mangesh V. Nadkarni From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mangesh Vithal Nadkarni Born March 6, 1933 Kodibag, Karwar, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka
Died September 23, 2007 Puducherry - Auroville
Occupation Professor, Scholar, Writer and a Disciple of Sri Aurobindo
Nationality India Subjects English Debut works Epic poem Savitri
Influenced V. K. Gokak , Subbanna Ekkundi, Gourish Kaikini

[edit] Childhood
Dr. Mangesh V. Nadkarni (1933-2007) was born in Kodibag and raised in Bankikodla, a little village in coastal Karnataka, which is the most picturesque part of the west coast where the Sahyadri Mountains hug the Arabian Sea. Literature, folk art, spiritual lore, music and sports kept him enthralled during his school days.

[edit] Academic life
His teachers in Anandasharm High school gave impetus to his imagination and taught him to perceive the sheer excitement of ideas, leading him to the path of his inner quest. Subbanna Ekkundi and Gourish Kaikini were among his finest teachers there. Dr. Nadkarni had a brilliant academic career and completed his Postgraduation in English Literature from Rajaram College, Kolhapur, and began his teaching career in Rajkot. Later, he moved to Anand where he was Professor of English in Nalini Arts College. During his college career, he was a student of Professor V.K. Gokak , an outstanding man of letters, and a great teacher of literature who influenced Dr. Nadkarni towards Sri Aurobindo ’s philosophy. Mangesh did his Ph.D in Phonetics from UCLA California, USA, and was Professor of Linguistics at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. He later taught at the National University of Singapore (1985-93). His younger brother Sundar Nadkarni was a writer, poet in Kannada and a Professor of English in Gujarat.
He was married to Meera Mallapur from Mumbai. His mother was Indira Kaushik from Karwar.

[edit] As a Disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
The influence of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy on him was gradual and he found it intellectually most liberating and satisfying. He was a Yogi on the path of continuous progress, and a renowned exponent of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He lectured extensively in India and abroad on Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy and vision. Dr. Nadkarni was a master of the English language and spoke brilliantly on ‘Savitri’, a 24,000-verse epic poem by Sri Aurobindo. The poem recounts the saga of human victory over ignorance and the conquest of death. Reading ‘Savitri’ is itself considered a practice of integral yoga and a potent vehicle of aspiration. Dr. Nadkarni inculcated ‘Savitri’ as a mantra in his life.
He will be remembered for his vast knowledge, eloquence, sense of humor, melodious voice, smiling face and a magnetic, lovable personality. He was the personification of Sweetness and Light and carried an aura of Ananda with him. The soul incubates in the body as the bird in the egg; cracking the shell, the bird waddles away. Lament for the shell or rejoice for the baby bird?

[edit] His work - a few of them are listed
1. The kingdom of subtle matter, The glory and the fall of life.
2. The Traveler of the worlds: Approaching the second book of Savitri.
[edit] Notes [edit] External links
1. [
Science, Culture and Integral Yoga]
2. [
Nadkarni's contributions to Sri Aurobindo Invocations]
3. [
Nadkarni's village and high school]
Retrieved from "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangesh_V._Nadkarni"
Categories: Scholars People from Karnataka Professors Literature Sri Aurobindo 1933 births

Sunday, February 24, 2008

One religion, one people is the concept preached by the Mother. No difference in humanity is the Divine Mother’s religion

www.newstodaynet.com Sunday, 24 February, 2008 Home Nation Special Report
Flower that bloomed this day, years ago
The Matri Mandir set in an area of 62 acres reflects the Mother’s spiritual beliefs (Inset Annai)
G Ramanarayanan Thu, 21 Feb, 2008,01:25 PM

Thousands of devotees flocked to Annai Ashram at Puducherry on her 130th birth anniversary today.
At Auroville Matri Mandir where the huge golden spiritual structure is being put up - a congregation dhyana mandir which is so designed that the sun’s rays converge at a point and fall on to the mudra at the centre - was the destination of one and all. .
One religion, one people is the concept preached by the Mother. No difference in humanity is the Divine Mother’s religion. Sri Aurobindo, her spiritual guru, from whom she learned the nuances of yoga - the foremost the Kundalini yoga (mother of yoga).
The Mother - Annai was born in Paris on 21 February 1878. Her house was at the boulevard Haussmann near the Opera. Her dad, Maurice Alfassa, was a Turkish banker from Adrianople, whilst her mom, Mathilde Ismaloun, came from Cairo.
The Mother was thus of Turkish-Egyptian descent, a fact which is significant in so far as these two countries are on the threshold between West and East.
It became evident later that the Mother came to know how to bring together these two worlds in a happy combination of ideas into a complex.
She was given the name Mirra and grew up in Paris where she was to spend the early part of her life. Her parents had moved to France a year before her birth and stayed put there.
Even in her tender age Mirra became conscious of her special purpose of life, her mission on earth: ‘I started contemplating or doing my yoga from the age of four. There was a small chair for me on which I used to sit still, engrossed in my meditation.
'A very brilliant light would then descend over my head and produce some turmoil inside my brain. Of course I understood nothing, it was not the age for understanding.
'But gradually I began to feel, I shall have to do some tremendously great work that nobody yet knows.’ (Utterances of the Mother on self which have been remembered and recorded by her disciples).’
After some years, the Mother married Paul Richard, a well-known and well-read philosopher who was keenly interested in Eastern and Western spiritual life as well as Vedantic yoga.
He had also political plans and so in 1910, in connection with an election campaign, he came to Puducherry, which was at that time part of French India.
He also wanted to consult an advanced yogi and therefore went to see Sri Aurobindo who was in exile outside British India.
Here it is to be noted that Sri Aurobindo’s life, which was later to merge more and more with that of the Mother.
Sri Aurobindo was born in Kolkata on 15 August 1872. He went to England for education along with his two brothers. Sri Aurobindo spent fourteen years in that country. He first stayed with an English family at Manchester, then he joined St Paul’s School in London and later studied at King’s College in Cambridge. He passed the open competition for the Indian Civil Service, but got himself disqualified by not appearing himself at the riding examination.
By then the Mother was back to Puducherry, in India, the small town in the South-East where Sri Aurobindo had been pursuing his integral yoga-path from 1910. Her return was now for sure and she never again left India, the country of her choice. Her relationship with Paul Richard was at this stage coming to a breaking-point since she could follow her destiny now and establish an ever closer spiritual collaboration with Sri Aurobindo. It was probably clear to Paul that the Mother was now completely giving herself to Sri Aurobindo and that there was a kind of collaboration and development in their relationship which he could not follow any more.
He could recognise Sri Aurobindo as a great yogi and sage, but he did not want to become his disciple and may have tried also to draw the Mother away from him. But this effort was bound to fail and so he left Puducherry.
The Mother had foreseen this development in a significant vision which Sri Aurobindo once related to a disciple: ‘The Mother (Mirra), Richard and I were going somewhere. We saw Richard going down to a place from which rising was impossible,
'Then we found ourselves sitting in a carriage the driver of which was taking it up and down a hill a number of times, At last he stopped on the highest peak. Its significance was quite clear to us.’
And so it was to others who follow the path on which the Mother who left a trail years ago.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Piyush Kanti Bandyopadhyay birth centenary

BIRTH CENTENARY February 23 at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, 8 Shakespeare Sarani; 6 pm: As part of Dadabhai’s (Piyush Kanti Bandyopadhyay) birth centenary programme, Piyushalok presents the release of Chatushtoy, a complete anthology of a collection of four earlier-published (1931-41) books of verse by Dadabhai, and the launch of Katha Chhilo Bhalobasibar, an audio CD of the reading of Dadabhai’s self-composed poems. Also, Dadabhai’s songs to be rendered by Sukti Subhra Dey, Subhankar Bhaskar, Sikha Dey and Pratul Mukhopadhyay. The Telegraph. Front Page > Calcutta > Timeout Saturday , February 23 , 2008

Friday, February 22, 2008

Sam Spanier, the founder of Matagiri, passed a few weeks ago

In Memoriam: Sam Spanier Verite ILC Studio ::: 7:30 PM
Dear Friends,
Many friends in Woodstock and Auroville came to know of Sam Spanier and Matagiri. Hundreds of visitors from the Ashram and Auroville came to visit over the years. We had a gathering in his memory shortly after we arrived in India at the Ashram and we are coming together once more at Verite in Auroville on Friday February 22nd at 7:30 pm. We'll have a memorial in Woodstock on the May 3-4th weekend before his birthday. Warmly, Julian

Film on Sam
Artist, yogi, wise elder, the founder of Matagiri the first Aurobindo centre in the USA, passed a few weeks ago.
A short film on his life, and an opportunity to honour his life and soul journey will be screened at the Verite ILC Studio, Friday 22 Feb, at 7.30 pm. All are welcome
Bhavana
posted by AVnet

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

We may do a bit of archival exploration while going through his relevant Savitri-drafts

The Mind of Light and the Yoga of Physical Transformation
by RY Deshpande on Wed 20 Feb 2008 01:45 AM PST Permanent Link

Can we say that the Mother’s work of physical transformation is a triumph? There are people who express doubts about it; they maintain that both she and Sri Aurobindo had promised it in the here-and-now, at this particular juncture, during this birth of theirs, right today, in our own lifetime, and not in some other age, in the distant future. In the strictest literal sense, for those who put forward scholarly dialectical arguments, the answer to the question if transformation is a triumph would then simply be ‘No.’

This is particularly so when they even go to the strangest extent of saying that Sri Aurobindo's retirement after getting the Overmind siddhi in the physical, in November 1926, was due to "inner despair". If not this assertive ‘No’, at the best, as if to accommodate or patronize the believers of the Avataric success, their line of thinking would be to concede a highly condescending ‘Yes’. But then is that the kind of a report the Guardian Spirit is going to give to the Eternal that she who had come "to open the doors of Fate, the iron doors that seemed for ever closed" forgot her mission, that the power he kindled in her body failed,

His labourer returns, her task undone? [1]

However, such a question simply belongs to the category of the physical mind and could perhaps be ignored. Or else the answer itself would be in the manner of the physical mind passing judgements on matters beyond its domain, matters that are totally occult-spiritual. Both lack perception and in the deeper sense one need not be much concerned about the question. There has to be another vision and another observant intuition, intuition born of wide luminous knowledge that comes only by identification with the spirit of the things. But in the absence of it one can at least be perceptive and try to understand the situation more open-mindedly, open-heartedly. Rational mind surely has the capacity to grow; it can acquire gnostic sense cognisant of spiritual shades and nuances and it should be promoted. The discerning insight of enlightened reason could be a sufficiently good guide.

Firstly, it should be recognised that what the Mother accomplished was something not only marvellous; it was also unique in the earth’s entire evolutionary history and that it is in full harmonious conformity with the aims and objectives of the Yoga of the Supramental Descent and Transformation. We must not forget that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were dealing with the problem of the material world, a world that arose out of the Inconscience and that their method was more concerned with the basics than with the transient flashing miracles which avail nothing.

Although this world arose out of the Inconscience, both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother found that there is also sufficient truth in it to become overtly and manifestly truth-conscient in its truth-dynamism. The Mother’s intense yoga-tapasya proceeded in the depths of Matter, invoking in it, in the very density of darkness, the Will of the Lord himself. She suffered greatly in the process, painful as the resistance of the tamasic and brute ignorant material Nature is; at the same time, and undaunted by it, she won several grim battles while carrying this God-given mission...

But a question, a strange question, is at times asked whether Sri Aurobindo had realised the Mind of Light in himself at all. This may appear somewhat odd with its oddity implying that he was only theorising about the Mind of Light when he wrote those eight articles for the Bulletin of Physical Education during 1949-50. It is however hard to believe that the convincing Agenda he had put forward in his absolutely the last sequence of prose-writings could have originated without any experiential basis: that would have reduced him to a mere armchair philosopher and denied the status of a Yogi par excellence who indeed he was. Nor would it have concerned us in any deeper sense.

His was a world-redeemer’s task[10] and tirelessly he had carried out the God’s Labour and “willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all”[11] for this woe-begone mortality. His dynamism was committed to the action of the Spirit in the very inertia and resistive opacity of the material life...

When was this prerequisite complied with, fulfilled? At what point of time in Sri Aurobindo’s yogic life? We may do a bit of archival exploration while going through his relevant Savitri-drafts looking for possible clues if they are anyl. And the findings are interesting indeed. Fortunately for us the drafts at places do bear the dates of composition and these are pretty useful.

The “Mind of Light”-line—“His brain was wrapped in overwhelming Light”—in this form belongs to a revised version in Sri Aurobindo’s own hand and the date at the end of the Canto put by him is 6 September 1942. The first occurrence of this line pertains to a manuscript of the period prior to 1936 and it runs as follows: “His brain was swathed in overwhelming light.” At this stage of drafting Aswapati’s cosmic ascent on the world-stair occupied only one page which now stands expanded into several Cantos, in thousands of lines. The revision of “swathed” and “light” to “wrapped” and “Light” should be considered of capital importance. It suggests the definite entry of the Mind of Light in him by 1942.

The yoga-tapasya of the next eight years was chiefly concerned with the collective action of this achievement. Indeed, it is because Sri Aurobindo had realised the Mind of Light in him that he could gift it to the Mother at the time of his passing away on 5 December 1950. The subsequent saga presenting the Mother’s work, dealing with the cellular transformation, unfolds its manifesting aspect, it by now having become a part of the earthly evolution heading brightly towards the Supramental Descent and Transformation.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Sri Aurobindo's writings on himself

Sri Aurobindo's Writings

Volume 35
Letters on Himself and the Ashram (TO BE PUBLISHED) Sri Aurobindo's letters between 1927 and 1950 on his life, his path of yoga and the practice of yoga in his ashram. In these letters, Sri Aurobindo writes about his life as a stu­dent in England, a teacher in Baroda, a political leader in Ben­gal, and a writer and yogi in Pondicherry. He also comments on his formative spiritual experiences and the development of his yoga. In the latter part of the volume, he discusses the life and discipline followed in his ashram and offers advice to the disci­ples living and working in it. Sri Aurobindo wrote these letters between 1927 and 1950 — most of them in the 1930s.

Volume 36
PDF last updated: 18 Dec 07 Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest Sri Aurobindo's writings on himself (excluding the letters in volume 35, Letters on Himself and the Ashram) and other material of historical importance. The volume is divided into four parts: (1) brief life sketches, autobiographical notes, and corrections of statements made by others in biographies and other publications; (2) letters of historical interest to family, friends, political and profession­al associates, public figures, etc; also letters on yoga and spiritual life to disciples and others; (3) public statements and other communications on Indian and world events; (4) public statements and notices concerning Sri Aurobindo's ashram and yoga. Much of the material is being published here for the first time in a book.

Volume 37
Reference Volume (TO BE PUBLISHED) Index, glossary, editorial notes, supplementary texts. This volume will include a complete index to the Complete Works, a glossary of Sanskrit and other Indian terms, a chronology of Sri Aurobindo's life, a bibliography of his works, a note on editorial method, a list of emendations and errata, and supple­mentary texts not included in the main works.

Glossary to the Record of Yoga (TO BE PUBLISHED) A glossary to and structural outline of the Record of Yoga (volumes 10 and 11). This unnumbered volume — an appendix to Record of Yoga — will contain an alphabetical index of Sanskrit words and a structural outline of the seven-limbed yoga that Sri Aurobindo practised between 1912 and 1927. (A temporary glossary is available on this website under the heading "Research".)

The Mother's Collected Works ashram visitors darshan selected works research music publications image gallery Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Mother's consciousness and mine are the same, the one Divine Consciousness in two

Bernard's site for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

"As for the Mother and myself, we have had to try all ways, follow all methods, to surmount mountains of difficulties, a far heavier burden to bear than you or anybody else in the Ashram or outside, far more difficult conditions, battles to fight, wounds to endure, ways to cleave through impenetrable morass and desert and forest, hostile masses to conquer - a work such as, I am certain, none else had to do before us.

For the Leader of the Way in a work like ours has not only to bring down and represent and embody the Divine, but to represent too the ascending element in humanity and to bear the burden of humanity to the full and experience, not in a mere play or Lila but in grim earnest, all the obstruction, difficulty, opposition, baffled and hampered and only slowly victorious labour which are possible on the Path.But it is not necessary nor tolerable that all that should be repeated over again to the full in the experience of others.

It is because we have the complete experience that we can show a straighter and easier road to others - if they will only consent to take it. It is because of our experience won at a tremendous price that we can urge upon you and others,

"Take the psychic attitude; follow the straight sunlit path, with the Divine openly or secretly upbearing you - if secretly, he will yet show himself in good time, - do not insist on the hard hampered, roundabout and difficult journey." Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) Letter from May 5, 1932in "On Himself", SABCL, volume 26, page 464

The Mother's consciousness and mine are the same, the one Divine Consciousness in two, because that is necessary for the play. Nothing can be done without her knowledge and force, without her consciousness - if anybody really feel her consciousness, he should know that I am there behind it and if he feels me it is the same with hers. Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) Letter from November 13, 1934in "On Himself", SABCL, volume 26, page 455

There are two ways of doing Yoga, one by knowledge and one's own efforts, the other by reliance on the Mother. In the last way one has to offer one's mind and heart and all to the Mother for her Force to work on it, call her in all difficulties, have faith and bhakti. At first it takes time, often a long time, for the consciousness to be prepared in this way - and during that time many difficulties can come up, but if one perseveres a time comes when all is ready, the Mother's Force opens the consciousness fully to the Divine, then all that must develop develops within, spiritual experience comes and with it the knowledge and union with the Divine.Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) (date unknown - between 1926 and 1938)

Published in "Mother India" November 1987, page 679 as referenced in "The Integral Yoga - Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice", a compilation of selected letters made by Archives and Research Library at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry by Peter Heehs and Bob Zwicker, published by Lotus Light publications, USA.

When in your heart and thought you make no difference between Sri Aurobindo and me, when to think of Sri Aurobindo will be to think of me and to think of me will mean to think of Sri Aurobindo inevitably, when to see one will mean inevitably to see the other, like one and the same Person, - then you will know that you begin to be open to the supramental force and consciousness. 4 March 1958 The Mother (1878-1973)

in CWM, volume 13 "Words of the Mother"page 32 (page 33 is a facsimile in Mother's own handwriting - the highlight is hers)SABCL and CWM are published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherrydiffusion by SABDA SABDA has now its own website (catalog and prices)
Meanings of the Symbols in Mother's own handwriting: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother & Center of Education.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Nightwind

Coming Events Thursday, 21 Feb
Introduction to organic farming ::: Buddha Garden Community Farm ::: Thu ::: 10:00 AM
Exhibition: South Calcutta Artists "Academy" Art Exhibition ::: Aurelec Cafeteria (till 17 March) ::: Thu ::: 10:00 AM
‘South Calcutta Artists’ Academy’ ::: Aurelec Cafeteria & Art Gallery ::: Thu ::: 8:00 AM
AV40: "Mother and Auroville" - exhibition ::: Savitri Bhavan (until 4 March) ::: Thu ::: 9:30 AM
"Quest "- an art exhibition ::: Creativity Hall ::: Thu ::: 3:00 AM
INFINITE MATTER : Group show by Auroville Artists ::: Gallery Square Circle : Kala Kendra ::: Thu ::: 11:00 AM
Joy of Heart Festival - Painting exhibition ::: "Le Colibri" at Sve-Dame ::: Thu ::: 9:00 AM
AV40: "Savitri Walk" exhibition by William Netter ::: Emerald Forest ::: Thu ::: 10:00 AM
AV40: Janaka House Exhibition (by appointment) ::: Janaka House, Ravena (till 29th) ::: Thu ::: 3:00 PM
Joy of Heart Festival - Belly Dance workshop ::: "Le Colibri" at Sve-Dame ::: Thu ::: 4:30 PM
Joy of Heart Festival –Capoeira workshop ::: "Le Colibri" at Sve-Dame ::: Thu ::: 6:00 PM
Joy of Heart Festival –Art of Play ::: "Le Colibri" at Sve-Dame ::: Thu ::: 7:30 PM
1-Month JOY OF HEART Festival –Evolving Contemporary Art Installation ::: "Le Colibri" at Sve-Dame ::: Thu ::: 9:30 AM
AV40: "Nightwind" performance and participatory workshop ::: New Creation "new studio" space, near La Piscine ::: Thu ::: 9:30 AM

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Nolini's face was a mask, but Pranab uttered the fatal words in his grave voice, "Mother has left her body"

Arrived 17th November, the fatal day. It was my birthday, too. There was no question of having her darshan, but we could not imagine that things were so serious. Everything went on as usual, even the weekly cinema-show that evening. In the afternoon friends came to wish me 'Bonne Fête' and I was busy entertaining them, but my mind was not there. As soon as I could make myself free, I went up. I was sitting outside; Kumud opened the door of the Mother's room and asked me if I could find Pranab and call him. It was about 7 p.m. He had gone out for a short while. He came running. The doctor was also sent for before his usual time. Dyuman who never went up at that hour was also there. So Was Andre. Near about 8 p.m. he came out to go home. His face was grave and calm and bore no indication of disaster. But what about Dyuman or the doctor? What made them stay on and why had Pranab been urgently called back, - these were the questions disturbing my mind. The situation must be critical, I felt. Gautam, a young sadhak who had served the Mother personally, had come from his home to spend the night with us. I was moving to and fro pricking my ears for every little sound, went to bed for a while in Sri Aurobindo's room as usual and got up at a sudden noise. It was about midnight. I rushed out and saw that Nolini was coming down from the Mother's room followed by Pranab. Nolini's face was a mask, but Pranab uttered the fatal words in his grave voice, "Mother has left her body." The shock was too great to bear and the loss too deep to be told.
It was decided that the news should not go abroad at the moment. The body was to be brought down first and kept in the Meditation Hall.
Page - 165
Pranab carried her in his arms and brought her down to the landing from where some of us helped him carry her to the Meditation Hall. There the Mother's second couch had been kept ready and the body was placed upon it. It was about 3 a.m. Then the people were informed of the unbelievable painful truth.
The rest of the story is too well-known to be repeated.
Page - 166 Location: Home > E-Library > Works Of Disciples > Nirodbaran > Memorable Contacts With The Mother > The Last Ray

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Many have been the past births attributed to The Mother

RY Deshpande Fri 01 Feb 2008 05:47 AM PST
Many have been the past births attributed to the Mother—Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Mona Lisa, Queen Elizabeth I, Mirabai, Catherine the Great, apart from some of the earlier Egyptian births. But there is no clue about her being there in the time of Vedic or Upanishadic glory. Maybe, Vladimir could say something about this. Importantly, however, here was all along “the Divine working within the ordinary human limits,” as Sri Aurobindo writes to young Nagin Doshi in the mid 1930s. In a few cases, when some of these possibilities were pointed out to Sri Aurobindo, he did not set them aside, inferentially taking that as his approval. Yet “vividness” of their memory is quite reassuring in several instances.
In the Record of Yoga Sri Aurobindo himself has noted down the past births of some of the early disciples. He did disclose to Dilip Roy some of his (Dilip’s) past appearances during various periods. Similarly, when Amal asked about Harindranath Chattopadhyaya being the incarnation of Shelley, Sri Aurobindo replied:
“I imagine Shelley was not an evolutionary being but a being of a higher plane assisting in the evolution.”
Could that be the reason that he wrote of falling on the thorns of life and bleeding? About Amal’s own past births:
“…I would be inclined to wager that you were not only in Athens (that is evident) but in England during the Restoration time or thereabouts, in Renaissance Italy, etc…”
Well, what can we say about these deep matters? One can be pretty romantic about them and drift in whatever direction one might like to drift. This is a hazardous proposition, a dangerous proposition, in fact as Sri Aurobindo writes to Amal, it is a “perilous game”, and not of much avail to us, as we are not equipped to use that knowledge in moulding in any way our present or future life. Yet some of the clues about the past births of the Mother or Sri Aurobindo could be, not scientifically-rationally but perceptively-intuitively used to re-look into the history as otherwise we maintain to understand it. That whole era could be reconstructed in that perception-intuition by marshalling science and rationalism themselves. But I’d request you again to elaborate on the “good guesses” made by Amal. RYD