Yet shall Truth grow and harmony increase
The day shall come when men feel close and one;
Meanwhile one forward step is something gained
Since little by little earth must open to heaven
Till her dim soul awakes into the light.1
-Sri Aurobindo
The yellow flowers were dropping from the huge tree spread
like and umbrella over the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in
Pondicherry as if in a shower of divine blessings. The residents of Sri
Aurobindo Ashram and visitors poured in to pay their obeisance. After words,
they settled down in the vicinity of the Samadhi for some time in a meditative
mood. As I hastened to take my place on the ground I felt my innermost core
touched by the aura of serenity that enveloped the place. I prayed for Divine
Grace to know more about the spiritual association of the Ashram with the Bahá'í
Faith.
The flow of my thoughts was interrupted when I was Uttama, a young Ashramite and
a teacher at the Sri Aurobindo School, whom I had met earlier and talked about
my purpose. She had remembered having read about the meetings between
'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Mother. Presently we had some discussion about the Bahá'í
Temple at New Delhi and Uttama told me that most of the Ashramites had heard
about the Temple and wee impressed by its architectural design. She also said
that most of the Ashramites were aware of the Bahá'í teachings and the life of
'Abdu'l-Bahá because the Mother had spoken very highly of him. She recommended
a few books on the subject and suggested that I look them up at the Ashram's
Archives and library.
Pondicherry, which houses the World Headquarters of the Sri Aurobindo Movement,
is a coastal town in the South of India, about 160 kilometres from Madras. It is
the place which Sri Aurobindo, an Indian revolutionary-turned-spiritualist chose
to carry forward his life's mission after he was forced to leave his home town
in West Bengal during the last years of India's freedom struggle (1910). He was
joined in 191 be a French lady, originally called Mirra (Alfassa) Richard who
believed that she had been in spiritual communication with Sri Aurobindo before
actually meeting him. Later she was known as 'The Mother'. Sri Aurobindo vested
his full authority in her and it was she who looked after and furthered the
affairs of the Ashram throughout his life and after words till her death in
1973. A present some 2700 Sadhaks and Sadhikas live and carry out their daily
activities in the 400 buildings of the Ashram. Sri Aurobindo Society has now 400
centres in India and 30 abroad. The writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
have been published in 30 and 16 volumes respectively.
The division of Sri Aurobindo, which advocates spiritual enrichment of life on
this planet, inspired the Mother to lay the foundation of an international city
named Auroville 12 kilometres away from Pondicherry where people from some 55
nationalities are now permanently settled. Here the Mother also laid the
foundation of a Temple in 1968 known as Matri Mandir (Mother Temple). In the
foreground is the inaugural lotus shaped urn in which sand from many countries
was poured at the time of the foundation laying ceremony. Many world languages
are inscribed on its surface.
The Mother met Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1913 during his second visit to France .2
This period according to her own testimony was the most important for her
spiritual growth .3 She
attended may Bahá'í meetings held at the homes of Monsieur and Mme Dreyfus
Barney, M. and Mme Scott and Miss Edith Sanderson. These were the early French
Bahá'ís and some of them had taken pilgrimage to Akká. They were the constant
companions of Abdu'l-Bahá whenever he visited France. Hippolyte Dreyfus was the
first Bahá'í of the France and he translated into French 'Some Answered
Questions' compiled by the famous Laura Clifford Barney, his wife. Te mother in
her 'Causeries' manuscripts mentions having met these friends and having
attended these meetings. She sometimes spoke at these gathering herself.
In one of her published talks, the Mother mentioned that one day 'Abdu'l-Bahá
asked her to speak in his place because he was not well. She was 'startled',
unprepared as she was to hear such a request, herself not being a Bahá'í.
However after some persuasion she went and delivered a talk on living the life .4
In this meeting on March 10, 1913, she thus spoke of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. "But
'Abdu'l-Bahá is not content to give us this teaching, he is living it, and
therein lies all his power of persuasion." And she continued, "Indeed
who has seen 'Abdu'l-Bahá and not felt in his presence this perfect goodness,
this sweet serenity, this peace emanating from his being." 5
Needless to say that the Mother was greatly impressed by the person of
'Abdu'l-Bahá and though formally she was not a Bahá'í she had great faith in
the things taught by 'Abdu'l-Bahá .6
This is why she held long discussions with 'Abdu'l-Bahá on spiritual subjects.
Perhaps one such meeting has been mentioned by Balyuzi in his book on
'Abdu'l-Bahá in these words: "That night (May 18,1913) He ('Abdu'l-Bahá)
sat up with M. and Mme Richard (the Mother and her husband) until midnight,
talking about mysticism and Sufi tenets and practices, in answer to their
questions." 7
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá took leave to them, she spoke movingly of him in a gathering
on June 9,1913 in these words: "Last Monday 'Abdu'l-Bahá took leave of us;
in a very few days he will leave Paris and I know many hearts will feel a great
void and will grieve…Yet only the body is leaving us…. His thought will
remain faithfully, with us, and his unchanging affection will enfold us, and his
spiritual influence will always be the same, absolutely the same. Whether
materially he is near or far matters little, for the divine forces elude
completely the laws of the material world: they are omnipresent, always at work
to satisfy every receptivity, every sincere aspiration." 8
True indeed was the Mother of her words, for 38 years later she spoke of him in
the Ashram at Pondicherry in India with the same reverences, "I knew
'Abdu'l-Bahá very well…He was the son of the famous Bahá'u'lláh who had
been put into prison for spreading ideas that were more progressive and broad
minded than those of the Sufis, and was resented by orthodox Muslims….He
('Abdu'l-Bahá) had an excellent nature. I liked him very much…" 9
While the mother remembered 'Abdu'l-Bahá for his glorious life, she could never
forget what he had told her of the sacrifices of the earlier believers in
Persia. In one of her talks on sacrifice she refers to Sulayaman Khan about whom
'Abdu'l-Bahá himself had told her. Giving out details of his persecution by
fixing lighted candles in the holes made in his body she writes of his joyous
feelings because he was being persecuted for his faith. "Suffer! It is one
of the most beautiful hours of my life…." She says, he is reported to
have said when someone spoke to him about his sufferings. The Mother concludes
with the remarks that generally people who have "suffered tortures for
their faith, that is, for their highest thought, their most sublime ideal, have
always felt a kind of divine grace helping them and keeping them from
suffering…." 10
We also know that Sri Aurobindo himself had the knowledge of the mission of Bahá'u'lláh.
Speaking to a disciple on March 7,1924 who told him that there were indications
that Muslims fanaticism might disintegrate he commented that it would not be
sufficient to "change their whole outlook. What is wanted is some new
religious movement among the Mohammedans which would remodel their religion and
change the stamp of their temperament. For instance, Bahá'ísm in Persia that
has given quite a different stamp to their temperament."11
Sri Aurobindo, though did not know very many details of the Bahá'í Faith, but
he was aware of its growing influence in Europe and in the West.
On April 5, 1924, a letter from an American Bahá'í teacher was read out to
him. A disciple asked him if he knew about the 'man' who started Bahá'ísm. Sri
Aurobindo began confessing his ignorance, but went on to give some details about
Bahá'u'lláh saying that He "had a vital being which received the
Light…" Among the powers of Bahá'u'lláh, he describes His power of the
word 'which is regarded as the sign of the prophet', remarkable power of
telepathy', great power of Malediction', etc. He also knew of Bahá'u'lláh's
tablets to the ruling monarchs of the time of his prison. He gives the number of
Bahá'ís at the time at " about eleven million of which two millions are
in Europe." 12
Talking of the religions in the United States of America, he says that Bahá'ís
is just what suits the common mind. Talking of Islam, he emphasized that
Mohammedans should turn towards the Bahá'í Faith: "If the Mohammedans get
a religion of that sort it is much better than what they are having now." 13
It may not be very difficult to presume that a major portion of what Sri
Aurobindo knew of the Bahá'í Faith, he learnt it from the Mother. On the other
hand, though, the Mother had first hand contacts with the Master, she was not
deeply read in the Bahá'í scriptures and made many factual errors when
speaking of 'Abdu'l-Bahá 14 (this
despite that fact that she had access to more that 30 Bahá'í books which are
even now kept in the Ashram. Some of them are signed by one Dorothy Hodgeson who
was active in the Faith along with the Mother in Paris). The same is evident in
some of Aurobindo's statements about Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. A careful
study of the statements made by him, though very few in number, seems to convey
the impression that he thought of Bahá'u'lláh as a Prophet of Muslims while he
considered himself to be essentially a Hindu. 15
In keeping with the Hindu tradition, Sri Aurobindo's work is naturally mystic in
nature and as such is associated with the practice of Yoga.16
His aim was to bring upon earth a Supramental Consciousness, a
power through which all life will become "the expression, the flowering in
forms of the Divine Unity manifesting in the world."17
This dream of spiritualization is not much far removed from the Bahá'í ideals
of world unity through a universal faith. The means, which appear more mystic in
the case of Sri Aurobindo at first glance, are not very different either. For
instance, giving out the goal of the Ashram which is meant to be the cradle of
the new world, he says, "This Ashram has been created with another object
than that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of
the world but as a centre and a field of practice for the evolution of another
kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved be a higher
spiritual consciousness and embody a great life of the spirit."18
It is therefore not unnatural that both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother commended
the Bahá'í Cause, though in their own way and according to their limited
understanding of its teachings.
©Prof. Anil Sarwal
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