SAIEN

Fire burns while water cools, Fire and water annihilate each other. Yet when they meet at your feet Sweet Mother, They harmonise into special nuptials. Birthing a fire of aspiration, Moist with waters of surrender. And self-giving becomes waters that flame. This newborn fire soars high, Calling down the Golden downpour, And everywhere earth begins to blossom towards its long-awaited ‘Gold.’ - Anahita Sanjana (India)

Enthusiasm and gratitude. They represent the powers of aspiration and receptivity in the being, along with the impulse to surrender the ego and widen to embrace the Divine. For those interested in the transformation of life in the world, it is not sufficient to simply have a direct connection to the Divine if it remains passive and does not work to upgrade and address the activities of the mind, the life-energy and the body in the world. The steps needed are first, to establish the active connection to the spiritual powers, which takes place through aspiration by the psychic being. Second, there is needed a descent of the higher force and its reception and action in the being. The psychic influence on the external being is subtle and is evidenced by an opening to that influence by the mind-life-body complex, as evidenced by the focus, the enthusiasm in the being, and the receptivity of the being to that influence and its action, as evidenced by the sense of gratitude. Gratitude, in tur...

My father's uncle Kantilal A. Dave was a student of Sri Aurobindo at Baroda (he is seen standing near the right shoulder of Sri Aurobindo in the photograph with 8 students). I used to visit Sri Aurobindo Nivas (Baroda) since 1967, prior to it was given to Sri Aurobindo society. That was a government bungalow and I being a government servant had to visit that sacred building of whose history I was unaware of! I started visiting regularly after reading few articles and subsequently became Youth Co-ordinator and then in 2003 Secretary of Baroda branch (till 2013). I was also a core group member of the Sri Aurobindo Society at Puducherry. It was decided to install a bronze  bust of Sri Aurobindo at the prominent VIP road at Baroda on 15th August 2004. Dr. Karan Singh ji was the chief guest. We decided that a 30” bronze bust be prepared by the “Bronze woman of India” Smt. Jasu behan Shilpi from Amdavaad. She quoted the price as Rs.130,000/- when I went to her studio. I conveyed it to my...

Recently, I have been working with the nature of Intelligent Will. In the Bindu Lab conducted by Sushanta Banerjee, I came in touch with Draupadi’s anger that transformed into a determination for justice. Draupadi, like Savitri, is a daughter of fire. Since then, in the past year and a half, I have been examining the nature of my will and its effectiveness to transform old and repetitive patterns of behaviour. In some sense, this is the continuation of my work with the Enneagram 1 and its hypothesis of a mechanical personality. When am I being an automaton and when am I acting out from a living intelligence? The reflections on this work were crystallised with a peer group of process workers. In this group, I examined tendencies that created undesirable consequences that I wanted to stop (my tendency to deny anger) as well as new ones I wanted to cultivate (learn to trust my capacity for right action). My most significant insight about transforming old, undesirable tendencies and estab...