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HIGHWAYS OF GOD

HIGHWAYS OF GOD

BY

M. P. PANDIT

I960

SRI AUROBINDO STUDY CIRCLE
MADRAS 5

<g> M. P. Pandit 1960

PRINTED IN INDIA

AT THE VASANTA PRESS, THE THEOSOPHIGAL SOCIETY, ADYAR, MADRAS 20

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

THE studies collected here were contributed
by the author to various Journals during recent
years. Some of the Questions, received from
the readers of the Journals with which the
-author is associated, are also included in this
series for their value in focussing attention
on the practical aspects of the Teaching of
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

CONTENTS

SECTION ONE

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND

PAGE

A Peep into the Beyond . . . -3

Death Rebirth -Soul Memory . . .24

The Great Mystery of Life Hereafter . . .31

SECTION TWO

YOGA AND PHILOSOPHY OF SRI AUROBINDO

The Guru in Spiritual Life . . . -39

Japa and Vrata . . . . .48

Manasa Puja Dhyana Kundalini . . .50

Mantra . . . . . . -53

Siddhis and Realisation . . . -55

God and the World . . . . -57

Work . . . . . . 59

Child Growth . . . . . .60

Student-life and Sadhana . . . .62

The Mother and the Asrarn . . , .64

On Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy . . . 67

Vlll HIGHWAYS OF GOD

SECTION THREE

HIGHWAYS OF GOD

PAGE

Message of the Veda . . . . - 75

Rtamjyotih . . . . . .81

Divine Body . . . . . 85

Aitareya Upanisad . . . . 89

Karma and Jnana . . . . 91

The Siddhars . . . . . -94

Dattatreya . . . . . .104

Pilgrim to the Self . . . . .107

Unto the Infinite . . . . 113

Zen . . . . . . .116

Subud . . . . . . 119

Upasani Baba . . . . . 124

Sai Baba ...... 126

SECTION FOUR

TRADITION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Cultural Heritage of India . . . 1 3 1

Manu ....... 140

Subramania Bharati . . . . 144

Section One
A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND
I

IT was a monastery in old China. One day the peace-
ful routine of the inmates was rudely disturbed by a
sudden hustle: pots were flying about and dust rising
high. It was immediately seen to be an unwelcome
activity of the spirits and an expert was sent for to
exorcise them. But the gentleman had bad luck. The
authors of the commotion took hold of his person,
pulled off his cap, loosened his robe and interfered with
his trousers with the result that he had to withdraw.
Others were called in but they fared no better; missives
rained from nowhere carrying words of vile abuse.

This is one of the happenings recorded in an
ancient Chinese book, Gossip from the Jade Hall, written
more than a thousand years ago. But such phenomena
occur even today in the heyday of scientific advance
and progress. We would narrate only a few typical
instances of which we have personal knowledge.

Rani was hardly ten. She was extremely anxious
to visit and talk to a holy woman, her mother's Guru,
who was seriously ill. But as ill luck would have it,
before the visit could be arranged, news came that the
lady had passed away. The girl was disconsolate and
wept bitterly for two or three days. Thereafter, with

4 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

the passing of days, she gradually forgot all about it, as
children always do. Now, some five or six months
later, one evening Rani was doing her home-work (from
school) standing near a big table in a Hall while the
rest of the family members were away in the dining-
room. All of a sudden she heard a rustle and looked
up. Imagine her surprise to find the very lady w T hom
she had once wanted to see now r sitting in a chair at the
table! With a shock the girl remembered, " but she is
dead?". The next moment the figure in the chair
smiled softly and asked: "Child, you wanted to see
me? " Rani could no more doubt w r hen she heard the
voice; it w r as a ghost. She was frightened and started
running away. But half-way she stopped as her courage
returned to her and she remembered wiiat the elders
had taught her so often, viz. there are no ghosts and one
must not fear. She felt ashamed of her cowardice and
came back to her book on the table. She looked at
the chair once again ; the occupant was still there but
now with a sad look. Her figure was a little larger in
size than during life-time. Rani, then, hung her head
down and continued her writing work and lifted her
eyes only when somebody in the house entered the
hall. The chair was vacant.

Another phenomenon. A landlord in Uttarpra-
desh, well-educated and cultured, had a dispute with
neighbouring agriculturists w r hich ended in open hostil-
ity. Soon afterwards stones started falling in the
premises of the landlord. Naturally, the hostile persons
were suspected and a due search made. But none
could be found throwing stones in the neighbourhood.
Guard parties were organised ; the police were called in.

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 5

But to no avail. Nobody could be traced and the stones
continued to fall as if from nowhere. The trouble
stopped only after the victim approached his spiritual
Guru for help.

Yet another kind. A couple had a series of quar-
rels and one day both the husband and wife committed
suicide by hanging themselves. Since then the house
became un-inhabitablc. For every day, at the same
time when the suicide was done, there was a commotion
in that room, noises ensued and altogether a weird
atmosphere was created. The house had to be given up
as a ' haunted house ' till to the good luck of the owner
of the house, the disturbance was eliminated as a result
of circumstances into which we need not enter here.

Instances could be multiplied. We will add only
one more case which received a good deal of publicity
and was treated to a searching enquiry before being
confirmed. It concerns u an eighteen-year old airman,
McConnell, and his room-mate, Larkin. On December
7, 1918, Larkin was sitting in front of a fire waiting
for his friend to return from a flight. He heard the
familiar rather rowdy entry typical of McConnell and
turned around toward the door. McConnell was
standing there in flying kit but, as usual, with a Royal
Naval Air Service cap instead of a flying helmet.
This, the only cap like it in the unit, was worn by him
as he had seen some service in the R.N.A.S. c Hello,
boy,' he said. c Hello! Back already,' Larkin replied.
'Yes', said McConnell. c Got there all right; had a
good trip. Well, cheerio. 5 And he shut the door
again. A few minutes later, at 3.45 p.m. another
airman came into the room saying that he hoped

6 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

McConnell would be back early enough for them to
go out that evening. Larkin told him McConnell was
already back and in his room.

At 3.25 that afternoon McConnelPs plane had
crashed many miles away and he had been instantly
killed. The exact time was known because the crash
had stopped his watch." l

Time was when phenomena such as these were dis-
missed as aberrations of fevered imagination which
could not stand the scrutiny of scientific tests. They
were ruled out of court as atavistic survivals of primi-
tive fear and taboo in weak minds. But such an em-
bargo could not, in the very nature of things, last for
long. The progressive section of human thought came
to recognise that certain classes of phenomena could
not be permanently shut out simply because they were
not explainable by the means developed by physical
Science to test the truth of physical phenomena. It
came to be recognised that these phenomena belong
to a different order of Nature than the physical and
they had perforce to be received and verified by means
appropriate to their kind. This led to the development
of what are called para-normal sciences, though the
phenomena they deal with are perfectly normal in the
circumstances in which they are manifest. Only to
our way of looking and thinking within the grooves of
the physical formula they appear abnormal.

Research Societies were started in Europe and
America during the last century, to study this class

1 Vide The Unknown Is it Nearer? (p. 114) By E. J. Dingwall
and J. Langdon-Davies. Pub. The New American Library,
New York.

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND /

of ' psychic phenomenon, 5 test the accuracy of the
reported cases and organise the knowledge so obtained
into a regular science. This science is still in an infant
stage but the move is in the right direction. We may
note, however, that while this approach from the
standpoint of modern empirical science is new, the
bulk of the knowledge that is being sounded and
gathered is already there in the mystic and occult
traditions of the older civilisations like those of India,
China, Egypt. What is this knowledge ? How far does
it explain occurrences of the kind we have described
above ? And to what extent does this knowledge em-
power one to regulate and determine the course of
such phenomena ?

We propose to deal with this subject in the light
of the Wisdom of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

II

I have a body. Apart from the physical body I
have other parts too. There is a life-energy moving in
and activating the material frame. So also there is a
mind encased in the living body. And there are still
others besides. It is these several constituents that go to
make up the total organism that is myself. So too in
the case of the universe around. The physical universe
which we see is not all. It is only one, the outermost
stratum or, as it is called, plane. There are other planes
or layers behind and above it. Thus, above and en-
closing this gross physical plane of the earth, there is a
subtle-physical plane, which opens out into a subtler
plane constituted of life-force; that in turn is followed

8 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

by what one may term the mind-plane and so on. The
universe thus, like the individual, consists of many tiers
or planes of existence. And what is interesting, the
various levels of existence in the universe, the macro-
cosm, are connected with their corresponding levels of
being in man, the microcosm. 1 . In fact each constituent
part of man, the physical body, the life or vitality, the
mind etc. derives from and is constituted of the stuff
of the corresponding layer of universal existence viz.
universal Matter, universal Life-energy, universal Mind
etc. And this is so because both the Individual and the
Universal are formulations from the same Eternal ; it is
the same Truth manifesting itself in two terms, on two
levels for a common Purpose.

1 The connecting nexuses are located in the human body.
They are the several centres or cakras or lotuses in the system of
the Tantras and the opening of these centres opens the doors of
active communication between the individual and the universal
Systems on their respective planes.

" We may imagine the body to be a kind of map or chart of
the earth. Each spot on the earth is represented by a
particular spot a certain group of cells, for example in the
body. If the consciousness ruling the body concentrates itself
upon that point and induces a change there, a corresponding
change can be brought about automatically on a larger scale in
the part and conditions of the earth with which it is connected.
Thus without going out and moving about, without being the
* man on the spot ' to know things c at first hand,' one can, sitting
in his room, by switching on a key, as it were, in one corner of
the body, set in movement a whole process of happenings in a
particular region of the earth. By a conscious re-disposition of
a few cells in your body, you can bring about a desired change
in world circumstances. The body is thus a control room for the
consciousness in respect of happenings upon earth. Naturally,
anybody cannot do that, but only a body destined and trained
for that purpose." (BODY, THE OCCULT AGENT in Toga of Sri
Aurobindo, Part VII, Based upon the Mother's Talks, by Nolini
Kanta Gupta.)

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 9

Each of these planes is organised around a parti-
cular psychological principle of which it is a manifesta-
tion. Thus the plane of Life is constituted and governed
by the Life-Principle, the Mental plane by that of
Mind etc. Each plane has its own worlds, beings and
forces as has this material plane all cast in the
mould of its dominating Principle, with its own type,
norm, rhythm, and law. However, as in the individual,
so in the universe, these various planes are not inde-
pendent systems. They are all inter-related, they are
so many steps, paddni l , of the One Existence. There is
a constant movement, an interchange going on among
them and each draws upon and feeds the others.

Thus our life in this material world is not a self-
sufficient proposition. It is constantly acted upon and
moved by influences, by the pressure of forces from the
other, less gross and more subtle planes of existence
overtopping it.

Once we recognise that Matter is not the sole
truth of existence nor the physical senses the sole
testimony of reality, and that there are several planes of
Existence of which the physical state normal to us is
only a part, a projected segment, and that the worlds
constituting these orders form a gradation with a con-
stant interchange subtly going on among them, all supra-
physical or occult phenomenon stands self-explained.

The ancient Mystics recognised this truth of Crea-
tion. In their scheme of inner growth they pursued a
double line of development, viz. self-knowledge and
world-knowledge. They perceived the working of

1 To use the expressive term of the Vedic Rishis.

10 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

several forces and beings of different orders behind the
natural phenomena, subjectively and objectively, and
sought communion with these occult realities with a
view to gain increasing control over life-movements.
They also developed faculties in the being by which
they could enter, participate in and even regulate
the activities of the occult domains. The Knowledge
so gained and the practice systematised by these adepts
is there embodied in the occult tradition of each of the
surviving older civilisations.

Ill

We have seen that man is a composite being. He
has a physical personality, grounded in his material
body mostly concerned with fulfilling the bodily needs;
a vital personality centred in the dynamic life-force
that energises and courses through the body throwing
itself out into waves of self-affirmation and self-enlarge-
ment on the crest of Desire; a mental personality
shaping and shaped by the various movements of his
mind, its feelings and thinkings. And all these person-
alities are presided over and directed by a central
being, the soul. The ancients spoke of them as so many
persons, selves, purusas, each ensouling the other and
each having a body of its own. 1 Each self has its own

1 Verily, man, this human being, is made of the essential
substance of food (Matter).. . . this is his spirit and the self of
him. . . .

Now there is a second and inner Self which is other than this
that is of the substance of food; and it is made of the vital stuff
called Prana. And the Self of Prana fills the Self of food. . . .

Now there is yet a second and inner Self which is other than
this that is of Prana, and it is made of Mind. And the Self of
Mind fills the Self of Prana. . . .

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 11

sheath, the subtler self having a subtler sheath and all
together they form the instrumentation of the soul to
participate in life-experience and draw from it material
for its growth.

What happens to man when he dies ? Naturally,
we do not accept the all too simple explanation that
when man dies, he dissolves and that is the end of him.
Life is more purposive and man has meaning. He is a
soul which has a before and an after. The soul is an
evolving entity progressing from moment to moment
and birth and death are only stages in its career. At
the moment of death, it is only the physical body that
ceases to live. The soul in its subtle body consisting of
the several sheaths is intact, alive ; it sheds the physical
sheath on the physical plane and passes through several
worlds or planes of transit on its way to its place of
rest. It halts or is halted in each plane till its parti-
cular sheath corresponding to that plane is shed off and
it is free to move to the next.

Thus on leaving this gross physical plane of exis-
tence it enters the subtle-physical world, then the
vital-physical world, the worlds of life, vital worlds as
we would call them. The soul is sheathed in its vital
body and it has to tarry here till that sheath is dis-
solved. The sheath is so to say a formation of the vital

Now there is yet a second and inner self which is other than
this which is of Mind and it is made of Knowledge . And the
Self of Knowledge fills the Self of Mind. . . .

Now there is yet a second and inner self which is other than
this which is of Knowledge and it is fashioned out of Bliss. And
the Self of Bliss fills the Self of Knowledge. . . .

And this Self of Bliss is the soul in the body to the former
one which was of Knowledge. (Taittiriya Upanisad )

12 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

desires, passions and hopes of the person during life on
earth and they have to be worked out in this world
before the sheath is self-dissolved or could be discarded.
It is these worlds where the pent-up forces or unfulfilled
desires of man, good and bad, are given full sway and
spent out, that are conceived in popular imagination
as heaven and hell. 1 At times the intensities are so
strong that the vital parts embodying them project
themselves on the physical plane and fulfil their
cravings in a physical way: inordinate concupiscence
may and does exhaust itself through dogs, greed for food
through pigs and so on. That is how we see animals
as on occasions though they were possessed and indeed
so they are. It is easier for such formations from the
vital worlds to enter into the bodies of animals than
into human beings who are more conscious and so
more resistant.

It is this region extending from the subtle-physical
world to the higher worlds of the vital plane that is
the source of most of the abnormal phenomenon in our
physical universe. But to that we shall turn presently.
The soul after it is in a position to shed its vital sheath,
proceeds to the mental worlds where it dispossesses
itself of the mental sheath and then goes to its place of

1 " Hell and heaven are often imaginary states of the soul or
rather of the vital which it constructs about it after its passing.
What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or
lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one
remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created
by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also
worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with joyful
or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result
of things formed in the nature which creates the necessary affin-
ities." (Sri Aurobindo).

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 13

rest, to assimilate the essence of its life-experience before
it gets ready for its next embodiment.

This is the normal course taken by a soul after it
leaves the physical body. It may, however, happen
that the soul returns to the earth-scene for its next birth
almost immediately from the vital world, in which case
the memory of its past life is likely to remain awake in
some way. Again it may not be necessary for the soul
to shed off its vital and mental sheaths if they have
been strongly developed into individualised bodies
organised around the soul.

IV

These worlds in the supra-physical regions, viz. the
sublte-physical immediately next to this material world
of ours, the vital-physical world, the lower vital world
and the subsequent higher worlds are all inhabited by
forces, powers, entities and beings, participating in the
life of their respective habitats. Broadly speaking, they
can be said to be of two kinds : those which co-operate
and promote the Purpose of the manifestation of God in
Creation, and those which hinder and oppose. The
former are beings of light they are actually luminous
in varying degrees and the other beings of darkness.
Each has its own hierarchy. Thus among the hosts of
God there are the Pramathas, Ganas, Gandharvas, gods
and goddesses, Godheads and the Great Gods. In the
other line we have, in the ascending order, the Bhutas,
what are known as the elementals, in the subtle-physical
plane, the Pisacas in the physico-vital, Raksasas in
the lower vital, Asuras in the higher vital and the vital-
mental planes.

14 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Now, it is to these worlds that the being of the
departed person arrives, The being is all at sea in these
surroundings where it misses the protective security of
the physical body it had so long enjoyed and is help-
lessly exposed to the brush of forces and beings of an
altogether foreign rhythm. It depends upon the Karma
forged by him while on earth, upon the kind of ener-
gies stored up in him during the life-time, what sur-
roundings his being is drawn to and which class of
beings gather round the new arrival to help or hinder
his journey. It may be noted that the transit of the
soul can be delayed by pulls from the earth. This
pull may be due to excessive attachment to things of
the earth or due to the grief of those who mourn the
death; such grief acts as a drag and the soul is con-
stantly pulled back by it. So too it can be speeded up
and the obstructions loosened by the prayers and
benedictions from those on earth. It is for this pur-
pose that the Sraddha ceremonies and the like are
undertaken.

The duration of the halt in this region depends
mainly on the nature of the vital sheath which has to
be discarded or dissolved by the spending out of its
constituent desires, passions, attachments, etc. It is
during this period that the vital personality or more
usually, a part of it may be contacted by those on
earth; or ^ though that is rare it may itself visit the
earth-scene in its subtle vesture. Most of what is
known as supra-physical phenomena, appearance of
ghosts, communication with the dead through Mediums
or automatic writing, poltergeist activity etc., originates
from these environments.

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 15

GHOSTS

A ghost may be described as the appearance of a
dead person which impinges upon the senses eye or
ear of the living. But there are ghosts and ghosts.
For, some of them are no ghosts at all but simply
apparitions which are the result of anticipatory fear,
formation of one's own thought. There are, on the other
hand, genuine visits as when the departing soul in its
subtle body chooses to cross before one leaving its image
or producing a voice. In between there are other kinds.

There may be a strong desire on the part of the
dying person at the moment of death to see somebody.
This thought-projection can appear in form before him
either at the same time or a little later. In cases of
accident or sudden death a strong formation of thought
or feeling of the departed is left in the atmosphere
where the end takes place; it continues to be active
there either till it dwindles of itself or is dissolved by
other means. Such a formation goes on vibrating in
that environment giving rise to the phenomenon of
' haunted 3 locality.

It is also possible that a being from the lower vital
planes may choose the cast-away vital sheath of the
dead or part of it and appear on earth in that form.
Or it may be that extreme passions like hatred, anger,
revenge, etc., may goad some part of the vital per-
sonality to return to the earth to rid itself of their
intensities by working them out in the environment
which gave them rise. And lastly, there is the pheno-
menon of vital beings taking possession of people under
false claims of being their dead relatives.

16 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

COMMUNICATIONS

It is to be noted that contact with the departed
being is possible only when it is in the worlds nearer
to the earth-atmosphere. But to establish contact with
it one has to be an adept in occult practice. What
passes for contact in seances of Mediums, automatic
writing etc., is rarely genuine. Mostly it is the beings
or spirits of the other world who masquerade as the
wanted person and misguide those below, amusing
themselves in the affair. They pick up something of
the remnants of memories and associations from the
discarded vital sheath of the departed, or draw upon the
subconscious being of the person seeking the contact
and talk knowledgeably. Or at times it is the sugges-
tions from the subconscious parts of the medium or the
sitters that are responsible for what is heard or talked,
without any intervention from above. It may also be
remembered that, except in rare cases, the soul does
not tarry in the earth-atmosphere for long periods. It
is said to be never more than three years.

POLTERGEIST PHENOMENON

Next we come to what is known as poltergeist
phenomenon. It consists of movement of objects with-
out any physical cause. Jumping of inanimate things
like chairs, tables, utensils, the swish and fall of stones
without anyone throwing them about etc. come under
this category. There are, as we have noted, several
grades of Being and Consciousness with their corres-
ponding grades of substance and energy in the Cosmos,

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND IT

It is possible, by appropriate processes, to convert one
state of substance and energy into another state all
being ultimately formulations of the One Being and
Consciousness. Thus a gross substance can be subtil-
ised; a material object may be treated to a process by
which its materiality is finely reduced, de-materialised.
So also a subtle and physically invisible substance can
be materialised. The know-how of this process is part
of the Occult Knowledge. It consists in the fuller
exploitation of the power of Mind-energy and Life-
energy over Matter.

It is thus possible for those who know the process,
or at least know the formula to set the process in opera-
tion, to cause poltergeist activity by precipitating
subtler substances into gross physical state or by activis-
ing and directing the mental or vital energies in such a
manner as to cause levitation. It is also possible in
another way. There is a certain class of spirits,
elemental beings, who have it in their power to materi-
alise and dematerialise things from their abode above.
These spirits are not harmful or wicked by nature.
They can be summoned to act on the physical plane
by certain means known to the practicants of the
Occult Science.

Occasionally these spirits may act without any
provocation from here, out of sheer mischief. At times
people miss things and it is impossible to trace them
even after the most gruelling search; all of a sudden
the things are later found in the most obvious places!
Some are benevolent and helpful as in the instance of
the personage who suddenly felt as if some one was
scratching her foot; she looked round, there was

2

18 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

nobody; but the milk on the stove was about to boil
over!

It goes without saying that the operations of these
beings can be controlled or stopped by one who has the
requisite occult knowledge to counter the move that
has called them into activity.

V

HYPNOTISM

There is another class of phenomena variously
called hypnosis, mesmerism etc. the common feature of
its various species being the exercise of control over the
movements of another without his consent or knowl-
edge. These are usually the workings of a conscious-
ness trained and raised to a considerable pitch of
power.

Normally man is aware of only a part, the surface
part of himself. We may call this awareness of himself
as his active or waking consciousness. But there are
large tracts of his being of which he is not so aware.
Yet those parts have a consciousness of their own and
we get glimpses of it during sleep or other periods when
the normal consciousness is at rest or suspended. This
belt of consciousness behind the surface awareness of
the mind is called the subliminal consciousness. Though
it is not directly active in the frontal being, it is its sup-
port and reservoir. All the sense-contacts, all impressions
and memories are there stored in its layers and they rise
up to the surface when the outer mind seeks for them. Its
range is much wider. In fact the active mentality is

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 19

only a projection, a superficies of that vast extension of
Consciousness in man, the Subliminal. This subliminal
is not merely behind the outer consciousness; it extends
deep below the levels of the conscious mind even as it
rises high above it. These ranges of the subliminal
being and consciousness are respectively termed the
sub-conscient and the super-conscient. These ranges
of consciousness are ever active, but behind the veil.
It is only when the activity of the limited outer mind
is quieted or suspended that the consciousness on the
deeper levels moves forward and begins to act overtly.
It is this subliminal that feeds the little conscious
self in the front. Man thinks that all his thought-
movements originate in his mind; but in fact most of
them are only waves that rise to the surface from the
deeper sea of the subliminal behind. It is this truth
of the Subliminal being more powerful and extensive
than the surface active consciousness that is seized upon
and forms the pivot of hypnosis and cognate phe-
nomena. For what happens in them is that the active
consciousness of the subject is suspended by a concen-
trated will-power and his subliminal is released into
operation. Thereafter the required suggestions are
directed and sown into this larger consciousness. Re-
ceived into the subliminal they find their way later
into the outer consciousness and effectuate themselves.
Similarly, on the suspension of the rigid functioning
of the normal mental faculties, the freer ranges of the
subliminal deliver up their contents with a readier res-
ponse^to-inhibited by restrictions of any kind.

s However, nobody can be hypnotised if he has a
will not to be hypnotised. If the will be strong, it is

20 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

extremely difficult to subdue the resistance; even if it be
anyhow neutralised, in the waking state, it is bound to
prevail on the deeper levels of the being. Another
point to be noted is that in this kind of phenomenon as
also in those others considered earlier, it is fear that
creates an opening to these outside movements to pro-
duce an effect in oneself. If there be no fear, no
being or force, however malevolent, from any world can
harm man. For he has a soul which is a spark of the
Divine and that none of them has. The Mother has
observed more than once that even the most ferocious
and hostile of these beings slink away if one faces them
without tremor and looks into their eye fearlessly. For
that one must have a courage and an inner strength that
flow from the soul.

VI

We have dealt with only a few kinds of the pheno-
mena which form the object of study and research in
what are known as the paranormal sciences. There
are many more of which students of Occult Science and
practice are aware. For there is no end to the myster-
ies of the manifesting Nature. The truths of material
Nature, truths of mind and life natures that are being
discovered by modern science are only a fragment of
the still undiscovered potentialities of the Cosmic Being.
We are not speaking at the moment of the powers of
the Soul which are yet more profound. The more we
study and develop our knowledge of this Occult Science^
the larger our control over the activities of Nature and
immeasurably quicker the progress in our ascension to

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 21

the heights of the Spirit. Occultism harmonised with
its ancient sister. Spirituality, can yet play a liberating
role in the evolutionary stress of mankind. For in the
authentic words of Sri Aurobindo:

" Occultism is in its essence man's effort to arrive
at a knowledge of secret truths and potentialities of
Nature which will lift him out of slavery to his phy-
sical limits of being, an attempt in particular to possess
and organise the mysterious, occult, outwardly still
under-developed direct power of Mind upon Life and
of both Mind and Life over Matter. There is at the
same time an endeavour to establish communication
with worlds and entities belonging to the supraphysical
heights, depths and intermediate levels of cosmic Being
and to utilise this communion for the mastery of a
higher Truth and for a help to man in his will to make
himself sovereign over Nature's powers and forces.
This human aspiration takes its stand on the belief,
intuition or intimation that we are not mere creatures
of the mud, but souls, minds, wills that can know all
the mysteries of this and every world and become not
only Nature's pupils but her adepts and masters. The
occultist sought to know the secret of physical things
also and in this effort he furthered astronomy, created
chemistry, gave an impulse to other sciences, for he
utilised geometry also and the science of numbers; but
still more he sought to know the secrets of supernature.
In this sense occultism might be described as the
science of the supernatural; but it is in fact only the
discovery of the supraphysical, the surpassing of the
material limit, the heart of occultism is not the im-
possible chimera which hopes to go beyond or outside

22 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

all force of Nature and make pure phantasy and
arbitrary ijiiracle omnipotently effective. What seems
to us supernatural is in fact either a spontaneous
irruption of the phenomena of other-Nature into
physical Nature or, in the work of the occultist,
a possession of the knowledge and power of the
higher orders or grades of cosmic Being and Energy
and the direction of their forces and processes
towards the production of effects in the physical
world by seizing on possibilities of interconnection and
means for a material effectuality. There are powers
of the mind and the life-force which have not been
included in Nature's present systematisation of mind
and life in Matter, but are potential and can be
brought to bear upon material things and happenings
or even brought in and added to the present systema-
tisation so as to enlarge the control of mind over our
own life and body or to act on the minds, lives, bodies
of others or on the movements of cosmic Forces. The
modern admission of hypnotism is an example of such
a discovery and systematised application, though still
narrow and limited, limited by its method and formula,
of occult powers which otherwise touch us only by a
casual or a hidden action whose process is unknown to
us or imperfectly caught by a few ; for we are all the
time undergoing a battery of suggestions, thought
suggestions, impulse suggestions, will suggestions, emo-
tional and sensational suggestions, thought waves, life
waves that come on us or into us from others or from
the universal Energy, but act and produce their effects
without our knowledge. A systematised endeavour to
know these movements and their law and possibilities,

A PEEP INTO THE BEYOND 23

to master and use the power on Nature-force behind
them or to protect ourselves from them would fall
within one province of occultism; but it would only be
a small part even of that province; for wide and
multiple are the possible fields, uses, processes of this
vast range of little explored Knowledge." " Its most
important aim must be discovery of the hidden truths
and powers of the mind-force and the life-power and
the greater forces of the concealed spirit. The highest
occultism is that which discovers the secret movements
and the dynamic supernormal possibilities of mind
and life and spirit and uses them in their native force
or by an applied process for the greater effectivity of
our mental, vital and spiritual being."

DEATH REBIRTH SOUL MEMORY

Q: Is it possible to have direct knowledge of birth and
'death as one has normally of other phenomena ?

A: It is, provided one develops the consciousness
for it.

One has to thoroughly awaken his consciousness,
subject it to a discipline of purification and subtilisa-
tion, and learn to integrate it around his central being
in such a manner that when he departs from the phy-
sical body, he is fully conscious and passes to the here-
after in a well-knit subtle body fully aware of the
experiences in transit. His subtle body does not disinte-
grate; he keeps the core of this body intact so that
when he takes birth again after the required period of
rest, he does it as a conscious operation.

Naturally, only a developed being who has raised
his consciousness to a high degree of effectivity and
organised it around his soul, even while living, can do
this. Legend has it that such a person can, if he
chooses, leave his physical body temporarily, enter into
another with his subtle body so developed and partici-
pate in its experience of birth, death or whatever it be,
and then come back to his own body. Students of
occult science see nothing improbable in it.

Q,: Are Spiritualism and Spirituality the same?

A : Strictly speaking spiritualism is the doctrine of
the sole reality of the Spirit as opposed to materialism

DEATH REBIRTH SOUL MEMORY 25

which asserts the only reality of Matter or vitalism
which affirms life-force as the only truth. Spirituality
is the state of being spiritual (adhyatmikd). But by
usage, spiritualism has come to mean that province of
occult science which deals with what is popularly
Jmown as psychic phenomenon activities of discarnate
spirits, beings and forces in the supra-physical planes of
existence. It is confined to the study and culture of the
means to contact them, communicate with them and
enable them to participate in this world directly or in-
directly, through mediums or otherwise. Spirituality, on
the other hand, generally stands for a way of life which
believes in the supremacy of the Divine Spirit and strives
to discover and embody its characteristic values in a
manner that leads to an ultimate identification of oneself
with this underlying or governing Truth of all Existence.

Qj Is it possible to get back the memories of previous
lives and is there any method for it?

A: The soul carries with it the essence of its
experience in all its previous lives. In fact it builds its
developing Personality with this essential of all experi-
ence as its material. It is possible for one who has
attained to the deeper layers of his consciousness, i.e.
nearer the depths of the soul, to concentrate and
fathom this stored memory. Or it is possible, though
rare, that memory may well up by itself in the course
of the release of the powers of the soul in the process of
Yoga. It is to be noted, however, that this is not a
memory in detail of all events and circumstances; that
is very seldom. What is remembered is the nature of
the previous life-personalities and the central crux of
their experience preserved in the crypt of the soul.

26 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Cases of detailed remembrance of past lives the
relatives, the environments, the circumstances, etc.
of the kind reported in the Press now and then are
abnormal happenings when the departed soul makes a
premature return to the earth-life without going
through the normal period of rest and assimilation in
the psychic world of rest.

Q,: Can ancestors contact their descendants? What sort
of communication is an authentic experience?

A : Usually the departed do not stay in the earth-
atmosphere for more than three years at the longest.
The moment the pull of the earth is exhausted, the
soul proceeds to the other worlds to work out and shed
its subtle sheaths before going to its place of rest. The
earth memory lasts only as long as one is in the earth
ambit and that is not very long. Within this period if
the departed wish to contact any one left behind on
earth, they can do so either by projecting themselves
in th,eir subtle form or sending an emanation from
themselves either in the waking, state of the individual
(giving rise to the phenomenon of ghosts etc.) or in the
dream state.

Of course in these matters one cannot be too
careful, for other beings and spirits are always on the
lookout for opening to masquerade as the departed
and mislead those on earth, amusing themselves in
the process.

Q,: I went to some old ruins where some legends and
myths are told about the ancient site. I had bad nights when
all kinds of imaginary figures came into my dreams. Is one
to take the experience as authentic fact connected with the old
legends or is it just a result of imagination?

DEATH REBIRTH SOU L MEMORY 2 7

A: In places like this even when the power or
presence presiding either directly or indirectly through
human agencies, has departed leaving the field in
decadence or ruins, there continue to be strong impres-
sions and their formations in the environmental atmos-
phere. They are sustained by the beliefs of the people
in the region and often take shape in the receptive
layers of the subtle mind, e.g. dreams. There is of
course a good deal of mixture in these things and
the original formations get diluted in the course
of time.

Q: What is meant by saying that the soul is immortal?.'
Where does the soul go after death?

A: The soul is a portion, amsa, of the Divine. The
Divine is immortal, above birth and death, and the
soul naturally shares Its nature of immortality. It does,
not die with the death of the body. Each soul is a part,,
a self-projection of the Divine Spirit in manifestation.
It takes on countless bodies, one after another, in order
to participate in the Creation and evolve itself here
into a progressively fuller image of the Parent Divine..
It takes birth with a view to gather certain experiences
needed for its growth; during the life-time it collects all
the material and when that is done it sheds the body
and goes to its place of rest the psychic world to
assimilate the essence of the experience so gathered..
After this period of assimilation and rest, the soul again
takes birth for the next round of experience and so on.

The soul does not, of course, pass direct to its-
station of rest after leaving the physical body. It has
to pass through several planes of existence, shedding its.
subtler bodies or sheaths on the way, the duration and 1

"28 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

nature of the passage depending upon thekarmic effects
of the course of life just terminated.

Q,: If it is the soul that decides what experiences to take
in its next birth, why is it that some souls have experiences of
pain, poverty and distress, while some others of pleasure,
plenty and happiness? What is the factor that prompts the
soul in its choice?

A: The soul in evolution takes birth for growth.
And it grows by experience. It chooses such experiences
as are most conducive to its further growth from the
stage at which it has arrived. Thus the soul fixes, at
the time of its departure from the body, the mould of
its personality, the type of the experiences necessary
for its formation, in the next incarnation. It may well
be that it chooses experiences of a difficult and strenuous
kind in order to ensure a rapid and secure growth, for
the fuller development of its potentialities of strength
and power. It is to be remembered that what is felt
by the outer man as pain and suffering need not appear
so to the soul within which draws the essence, the rasa
of all experience and assimilates it in the stuff of its
growing personality. What decides the choice of the
soul is not whether an experience or a set of experiences
is painful or pleasurable, but what type of conditions
best promote its upward march in the course of its
evolution.

Qj: Is it true that marts mind is originally pure and it
gets soiled due to his sins? If so what is the way out of that
sin?

A: Yes, the true nature of mind is a pure con-
sciousness. It is still and self-existent. Thoughts and other
movements flit across it like images on a white screen.

DEATH REBIRTH SOUL MEMORY 29

The mind is not at all made up of ideas and thoughts.
These come into the spaces of mind from outside and
shape themselves there in suitable forms. Besides, there
are other parts in the being of man, his body, his life-
energies, etc., all of which give rise to impulsions in the
nature of passions, desires and the like which come up
into the mind and formulate themselves. It is these
movements which constantly crowd into the mind that
cover up the true transparent nature of the mental
apparatus. They are movements not of what is called
c sin', papa, but of merit, punya also. For in truth there
is neither sin nor merit. All are movements of Nature;
they differ in degrees. Some are gross, some more
refined. But all are activities of the three Gunas and
settle themselves like a film on the pure mirror of the
mind.

The way out is to dissociate oneself from these
activities of Prakriti, leave them alone on the surface
layers and withdraw to the deeper or higher levels of
the consciousness. If this practice is persisted in, then
gradually one becomes conscious of the purer strata of
the mind and it is possible to station oneself on these
and live out from there.

Qj Men like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini were instruments
of anti-Divine Forces. Would they continue to be such
eternally or is there a possibility of their turning to the Divine?

A: It depends on what type of beings they were.
If they were evolving beings who chose these particular
experiences or were somehow led and used by the
occult forces for their own purpose, then it is certainly
possible for them to go in for quite different kinds of
experiences in other incarnations. The soul chooses

:30 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

.all varieties of experience to further its growth. There
is nothing to prevent it from choosing exactly opposite
types of experiences in successive births.

But if these men were not evolutionary but typal
beings from another world who took birth in this to
prevent or delay the consummation of the divine
.spiritual evolution in progress, it is a different matter.
Here too the possibility of their conversion by the
Divine Power cannot be ruled out. Normally, how-
ever, they remain constant and true to their type.

THE GREAT MYSTERY OF LIFE
HEREAFTER *

The Sunday Times invited articles from twelve emi-
nent individuals of different beliefs on life after death
and the present book is a collection of the series.
Notable personalities like Dorothy Sayers, Basil Hen-
riques, Bertrand Russell, E. N. da C. Andrade, Sangster,
G. Humphreys, the Aga Khan speak from their respect-
ive standpoints and the whole forms a most interesting
conspectus of the world-thought today on the subject.

Briefly stated, the Christian looks upon human life
as a term of probation, an opportunity for the indi-
vidual to make his Choice : If he chooses the Lord, then
he is gathered up into the bosom of the Almighty in
Heaven; if he rejects, whether wilfully or by weakness,
he departs into a state of continual separation from
God, what is commonly called Hell. The Jewish and
Islamic faiths too envisage entry of the faithful in the
immediate presence of the Creator. All reject the theory
of reincarnation. This life is given only once; thereafter
man continues but in the way of another realm beyond
the ken of human eye.

To the Buddhist, life never dies; it is only the
forms of life that die. They die and take birth again

1 Publishers : Hodder and Staughton, London.

32 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

under the inexorable drive of Karma, endlessly, till by
some process the chain is loosened and the being dis-
solved in Nirvana. Death is a kind of sleep before the
being resumes its career to work out its unexpended
causes.

Bertrand Russell, the scientist, refuses to counten-
ance any possibility of life after death. To him, there
is no such persistent entity as the soul or self to survive;
memory is the sole test of survival, and memory is
inseparable from the brain; it disappears in the dis-
solution of that physical organ. We do not know what
Dr. Russell would say about cases of individuals who
have shown a remarkable memory verified and corro-
borated of their previous lives. We need not dwell
more upon this matter, for Dr. Russell belongs to a class
of scientists that is fast getting out of date. The
advanced thought of Science today is well represented
by da Andrade who points out that the methods and
standards of physical science cannot and should not be
extended to spheres of different dimensions ; they have
their own criteria. The question of life after death, the
larger domain of the truths of spiritual existence is out-
side the scope of the sense-bound scientist. Da Andrade
holds up the counsel of Goethe: " The greatest happi-
ness of the thinking man is to have fathomed those
things which are fathomable, and to reserve those which
are unfathomable for reverence in quietude."

A particularly interesting paper in the collection
is from Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding. To speak in
his own words: "There exists in the universe an absolute
and ultimate Intelligence to which we have given the
name of God, and that God has for his own mysterious

THE GREAT MYSTERY OF LIFE HEREAFTER 33

purposes decreed that pure undifferentiated Spirit shall
descend through grades of ever densifying matter into the
densest form of physical matter such as rock and metal.
This is known as the process of involution becoming
more involved. From this nadir it starts its return journey
through the vegetable, the animal and the human stages
up to the angelic, gathering all experience, and thence
back again to the Ultimate Source. This is the process
of evolution, the ladder which we all climb whether we
know it or not . . . Man has to acquire all the ex-
perience which life in a physical body can give him . . .
many earth-lives are necessary before the True Self
the Immortal Spirit which has been clothed in these
successive bodies is free from the wheel of Rebirth
and can pass on on its way towards the Unity."

Lord Dowding perceives that man has more states
of being than the physical alone; he has an etheric
envelope or e double ', an astral, then the mental states.
" In a natural death the etheric double is slowly shed
by the personality at the same time as the physical body
and the soul is then free in the astral world; but in the
case of a sudden death the etheric double is not at once
disposed of, and this leads to what is known as an earth-
bound condition. The astral world ranges from those
bright regions which may be thought of as paradise (but
not Heaven), down to the deepest and darkest depths
of Hell for Hell is a very real condition. The astral
level is primarily emotional and the lessons of the astral
are to subdue the emotions of fear, lust, greed and the
like, and to foster the emotions of love and veneration.
As the process continues, conditions become progres-
sively more pleasurable. The soul is then ready for

$4 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

translation to the mental world, which may be thought
of as Heaven. Here the rebellious lower mind has to be
mastered, and the lessons of that life time assimilated
into the aura of the True Self in preparation for entry
into incarnation once again."

This approach comes surprisingly close, in certain
respects, to the ancient Indian Wisdom as developed
by Sri Aurobindo and summed up here by Arabinda
Basu. In this thought, the universe is conceived as a
willed creation of God for a plenary manifestation of
His inalienable Knowledge, Power and Bliss. Every
human soul is a delegate from the Eternal Divine put
forth to work out this Purpose individually and collec-
tively. The soul like nature progresses from ignor-
ance to Knowledge, from darkness to Light, from pain
and suffering to Happiness and Joy, through a long and
multiple course of Evolution. At death, the soul
which is encased in a mentalised living body sheds its
several vestures or sheaths, what are called the Kosas,
of physical matter, anna, of life, prana, of mind, manas
etc. and goes on to its place of rest where it assimilates
the essence of its experiences and prepares itself for its
next birth. The popular conceptions of heaven and
hell apply to the conditions the soul has to pass through
immediately after the death of the body and before it
reaches its destination. If one has strong desires and
passions like lust, greed, hate and anger yet unful-
filled, then they have to be exhausted and the soul is
held captive till they are so spent and the vestures
dissolved.

The nature and the duration of the soul's sojourn
after death is determined by the state of consciousness

THE GREAT MYSTERY OF LIFE HEREAFTER 35

attained by the being during its life time. Does it keep
the individuality of its earthly career? It does, if the
personality has been developed well enough around
the central core of the Spirit.

Section Two
YOGA AND PHILOSOPHY OF SRI AUROBINDO

THE GURU IN SPIRITUAL LIFE

" DEAR is Plato, but dearer still is truth" thus is
Aristotle said to have expressed himself regarding his
venerable teacher Plato. That, we think, sums up in a
line the innate relation in the West between the
teacher and the disciple, at its highest. In the West a
teacher has no traditional claims for regard and fealty
as in the East. He holds the same position in society
as any other professional or perhaps a technician whose
services are sought for special purposes. His equipment
is to be made use of as far and as best as possible. His
position is analogous to that of a ladder. Considerations
of loyalty, sentiment do not come into the relation.
Outside the class-room, the student and the teacher
meet as Mr. Brown and Mr. Thomas. Individualism is
a marked trait of Western upbringing and any relation
that involves the subordination or surrender of one's
individuality to another is anathema to one brought up
in that way. No wonder the peculiar relation that
obtains between the teacher and the taught in the
East strikes such a mind as something objectionable.
For in the East, the teacher is not merely a pedagogue.
He is one to whose care the interests of the student as a
whole are entrusted. He is regarded as one who
moulds the mind of the pupil and shapes his life in a
more effective way than the parents themselves. The

40 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

personal relation that is encouraged and springs up
between him and his charge is the lever round which
rotates the entire experiment. This is particularly so
in spiritual life in the East where the Guru or the
Master occupies a key position. It is accepted as an
axiomatic truth that no novice can enter deep into the
path of the Spirit and progress unless he is initiated and
helped forward by one who is, to say the least, already
on the path. The novice trusts himself to the Guide
in whose word and power he has implicit faith, renders
into his hands the clay of his being to be shaped into
the form of fulfilment. He holds back nothing and in
the measure in which this whole-hearted relation is
established in full freedom, the Sadhana or the course
of the discipline runs towards its fruition. The objec-
tion that one loses individuality and personality in the
bargain is really baseless as we shall see later.

But who is a Guru, a real Guru ? This is a ques-
tion that needs to be answered because the average man
is bewildered by the profusion in which ingots of baser
metal tend to crowd out of sight ingots of pure gold.
Gresham's Law seems to hold good here also. Again,
there is the perplexing phenomenon of half-baked
teachers producing showy results and multiplying
their trade.

In spiritual life a Guru is one who embodies a
particular realisation pertaining to the path he has
chosen. He has not merely realised but has the
competence and the capacity to communicate that
realisation to others. The Guru need not always be
one who has attained to the highest status in the line;
he can very well be one who has established himself

THE GURU IN SPIRITUAL LIFE 41

in touch with the Power or Godhead that presides
over his path. If he can function as the channel for
infusing into others the influence of the Power to which
he is open, that is enough. Those that trust him, have
faith in him, receive help and guidance from the
source-Power whatever the imperfection and failings of
the teacher in other respects. For it is not through the
ordinary human parts of the Guru that the disciple
usually receives help. The part that attracts the soul
of the seeker is also the part that functions as the
channel or point of contact with the higher Power and
Grace and naturally, that is the very best of his being.
As long as that part is not eclipsed or submerged by
others, the disciple continues to benefit by his contact.
So much for teachers of the common run.

The ideal Guru, however, is one who has actualised
the possibility of spiritual realisation in his own
person and, as we said, who can re-create his own
realisation or realisations in others. How does he
do it? And in whom does he effect the change? In
those who throw themselves open to him in trust, in
surrender of the inner being. The disciple is aflame
with an aspiration to dedicate himself to the Ideal
which is embodied for him in the Guru ; he has the
faith that this Ideal which is there before his eyes
realised or in the process of being realised in the
person of the Guru can also be rendered in his own
being with the help of the former; he offers his will,
his strength of personality to the Guru, so that he could
mould it and use it for the effectuation of the purpose.
In a word, he makes a genuine surrender of his own
being, throwing it open exclusively to the constant

42 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

gaze and work of the Power or the Sakti of the
Guru.

The Guru works, as Sri Aurobindo has pointed
out, through Teaching, Example and Influence. He has
his teaching which is a presentation, in terms under-
standable to the human mind, of his perception and
realisation of the Truth, the means he has used and
perfected for its attainment and the procedure- to be
adopted by those who seek to follow him. It goes with-
out saying that instructions are laid down only in their
broad lines and the Guru varies them in detail to suit
the nature and need of each individual soul. His
instructions are therefore living directions a feature
which one would miss in the enjoinrngs of the Sastras.

Apart from the living touch which he imparts to
the instructions there is his example, the effulgent exam-
ple of the divine realisation radiating from him. The
compelling fact of his high elevated status is a constant
reminder and awakener of the flame of aspiration in
the disciples to grow into the image of the Master.
This living demonstration of the practical possibility of
the divine realisation in a human frame, the possibility
of living out one's life in all its details from the deeper
base of the Spirit, eliminates from sincere aspirants all
eventuality of doubt, fear and despair regarding the
practicability of the higher life, the life of Truth amidst
the thousand imperfections of the earth, and confirms,
and promotes the Godward urge in those around him.

The most dynamic instrument of the Guru, how-
ever, is the influence he is able to exercise, the strength
of his personality that is radiated. The disciple may or
may not have the necessary intellectual equipment to

THE GURU IN SPIRITUAL LIFE 43 -

comprehend the teaching of the Master. He may or may
not have discrimination enough to profit by the example.
But he cannot escape the aura of his Master's influence.
Influence here may be described as the impact of the
Guru's personality on the being of the disciple. Once
the latter is allowed by the Master to come into the
orbit of his radiance, the influence is at work. The
soul of the seeker is constantly exposed to the warming,
elevating and even transforming touch of the sunshine
emanating from the being of the Guru. Unripe souls
get ready to ripe; ripe souls get ready for fruition. In a
significant imagery the whole process has been likened
to a ceaseless burning fire in whose presence logs of
wood, in all conditions of dryness, are gathered. Sooner
or later, each log dries up, absorbs the heat of the
atmosphere and attains the necessary readiness to take
up the flame in itself. Wherever there are such Masters
of realisation, we find around them devotees and disci-
ples in varying degrees of development some highly
competent to receive the help and make a real success
of themselves, but some hopelessly inadequate in their
equipment. Yet they are there because of the pressing
need of their souls which seek to draw the needed
nourishment and hasten their growth in the contribut-
ing and sustaining ambience of the Guru's benevolence.
For he is really " a Presence pouring the Divine Con-
sciousness and its constituting light and power and
purity and bliss in all who are receptive around him "
(Sri Aurobindo). The influence is inescapable. It is
absorbed by all in some part of their being or other; it
is only a question of degree. The results of the working
of the influence are also inevitable in their appearance ;

44 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

only it is a question of time. Those who have been
vigilant, receptive and ready will naturally find in
themselves the most glorious manifestations of it; the
others will find their period of preparation speeded up.

II

It may be asked, why is the Guru indispensable,
why his intercession is invested with such fundamental
importance ? Is it not possible for one to realise the
Divine directly on his own ? Why should anybody
:stand between man and his Maker? The Divine is
omnipresent and every one with sincerity and effort
should be able to first get into touch with it and then
to progressively realise it.

We would not deny the sheer logic of this position.
We would not deny either that there have been
instances however rare and singular where spiritual
realisation has been seen possible without a human
Guru, as a direct revelation. Such instances have been
there, but are rare. They have been so sparse and the
circumstances attending them are such as rather indi-
cate some special purpose worked out through special
means. Usually the ardent aspirant gets initiated into
the realm of the Spirit by one who lives in and for the
Divine Reality. That is the tradition of the mystics
everywhere; it is, especially in India, a settled question
and the established tradition of thousands of years of
spiritual history is there, not without reason and support,
to meet the demands of the actual intricacies of the
deeper and mystic life. Indeed, there is a gap felt by
the novice, the initiate, at the outset between himself

THE GURU IN SPIRITUAL LIFE 45

as he is here and the Divinity far above and far in the
depths. The gulf between the human soul and the
Godhead is so vast as to appear almost unbridgeable.
The Guru, in all mystic paths, fills up the hiatus. He
has built up in his own person the perfect path which
he reveals to those whom he accepts as his disciples; he
has called down and holds in himself the Powers of
strength, knowledge and illumination necessary for
working out the Sadhana and which he ceaselessly
pours into the disciple, known or even unknown to
him. He is the canalised centre of the Divine especially
active for a particular purpose and as such, an embodi-
ment of the Truth of the Path over which he presides.
That is why it is said that the Guru is God himself to
the disciple.

Again, it is a fact of spiritual experience that
initiation, oral or otherwise, is not just a formal affair
signifying acceptance by the Guru. Whether it is ini-
tiation by means of a Name, of a Mantra or a silent
launching of the being on its career of destiny, the
Guru infuses something of himself, some emanation of
his own Tapas-sakti into the disciple. And it is this
living power of realisation that abides in him as the
presence of the Guru, protects him, guides him and
helps in the labour by its own strength. This influence
of the Guru once received cannot be got rid of easily;
it is there present in the being even when it is not
overtly active. We recall to our mind the instance of
a brilliant product of modern education who had no
serious belief in these matters concerning the spiritual
and occult sphere. He was, however, once prevailed
upon by friends to take diksa, initiation from a Guru

46 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

of uncommon attainments. The latter gave him a
Mantra. But the young man, as he then was, did
not pursue the matter; he was not serious about it.
Events took him to another shrine. Nearly thirty years
later, one night when he found himself in a critical
situation all help seemed to fail and his heart sank.
Suddenly from the depths of his being there arose the
very voice in which the Mantra was first communicated
to him three decades ago and went on reverberating,
infusing fresh strength into him and saw him through.
The Guru had left the physical body long ago. No
contact had been maintained for years together. Yet
the emanation from the Tapasvin was there and in
the hour of need gave its succour. It is pertinent to
recall here the observation made by Sri Aurobindo, in
a different connection, that the influence of the Guru
can continue to act even after the close of his earthly
career.

Human nature is endless in its variations and even
in spiritual life no set uniform course can be laid down.
Adjustments, modifications become necessary in keep-
ing with the need and temperament of the nature, and
this could be done only by the Guru who has complete
knowledge both of the path and the competence of the
disciple. The Guru has always a fuller and better
appreciation of the capacities and needs of the disciple
than the latter himself has in his half-lit knowledge.
The Guru gives full value to the personality of the
disciple, in fact he helps it to grow into its highest
potential by rounding off the corners, by opening up
avenues of development hitherto lying closed or un-
suspected in his being. He takes up the raw ore and

THE GURU IN SPIRITUAL LIFE 47

transmutes it into a finished bar of gold. It needs not
to be added that certain conditions are to be fulfilled
by the disciple in order that the Guru may get the
needed impulsion and scope to work out the intention.
But that is another subject.

JAPA AND VRATA

Qj: What is the place of Vratas like periodical abstinence
from food, Japa etc., in Sri Aurobindo* s Toga? Is it necessary
to give them up on taking to this Sddhana ?

A: These and similar vratas form part of the
religious life which is usually preparatory to the
spiritual. They have in that scheme a definite utility
in the purification of nature, subtilisation and the in-
gathering of mental faculties and so on. Among other
things they constantly serve to remind man of the in-
complete nature of his normal life and the fact that
there is another order of existence to which he has to
open himself for a completer and more satisfying living.
When one takes to spiritual life, specially the Sadhana
of the Purna Yoga, these devices are no longer neces-
sary. But he is not required to abandon them; they
can be made use of for whatever limited purpose they
can serve.

In this Yoga the entire reliance is placed on the
Divine oakti to whom a complete surrender is made.
It is this Power that works in the Sadhaka to bring
about a change in his consciousness centrally and then
extend its pressure for a transforming change to the
other parts of the being. The effort that is called for
to fulfil the aim of this Yoga is something superhuman ;
no human will can achieve it unaided and hence the

JAPA AND VRATA 49

stress on the Yoga-Sakti to lead the Sadhana. There
is no need here to resort to physical or mental means
like the vratas in which the human will plays a large
part. All that they could achieve and much more
is effected by the Sakti in proportion to the opening
and the receptivity in the ddhara.

MANASA POjA DHYANA KUNDALINI

Q: What is the place for Manasa Puja in Sri Auro-
bindcfs Toga?

A : The same as in any other Yoga where it is
practised. Mdnasa-pujd, mental worship, inner adora-
tion, means the evocation before the mind's eye of the
form of the object of worship of a Devatd as prescribed
in the Scripture, of an image or idol, or of the Guru
himself and the offering of one's devotion and love to
that Form in utter surrender.

This process not only gathers the threads of one's
consciousness and centres it round a particular object
of contemplation; it awakens the heart's emotions,
directs them continually upward and thus purifies
them. The activities of the mind too are regulated;
their habitual tendency to go outward is arrested by
this conscious direction to the centre of adoration and
by and by they converge spontaneously on the object
of one's worship. Thus Manasa Puja helps the aspirant
in the ways of concentration, purification and orienta-
tion of his wttis, Sowings of mind and heart, Godward.

We may add, however, that this Puja as such is
not an indispensable part of this Yoga. It can be
practised with good results as indicated. But the same
and perhaps fuller benefits could be derived by other
means. Besides it is a question of temperament.

MAN AS A PUJA DHYANA KUNDALINI 51

Q: How is one to do Saguna Dhydna and Nirguna
Dhydna step by step ?

A : Saguna Dhyana, meditation on Form and Nirguna
Dhydna, meditation on the Formless, are not two dif-
ferent processes to be adopted successively, one after
the other. Nor are they to be understood as one
inferior and the other superior. It is the svabhdva,
nature, temperament of the individual which deter-
mines what kind of meditation is more natural and
therefore more effective for him. It may also be that
for the same person one type of meditation may be
spontaneous at one stage and at another the other
kind. Whether it is on Form or on the Formless,
what matters is that the meditation should be an
effortless, natural flow of the consciousness on the
object of meditation and a steady but continuous
absorption by the consciousness of the nature of
what is meditated upon. In these matters one has
to follow the predominant trend of the state of one's
being.

Q: Is the awakening of the Kundalini a necessary step
for progress in the Toga of Sri Aurobindo ?

A : No, it is not necessary to rouse the Kundalini
Sakti in this Yoga. In the Kundalini Yoga and
other lines of effort where the Kundalini plays the major
role, the principle is to rouse this latent Power in the
body, unite oneself in consciousness with it and by a
prescribed discipline lead it upwards through various
centres in the subtle body to its highest centre at the
crown of the head where it culminates into an ecstatic
Samadhi. The stress is on the individual Sakti within
one's body.

52 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga, the aim is not to achieve
Samadhi. It is to raise the whole of human nature
into a divine super-nature; the means is an utter
surrender in aspiration to the Supreme Sakti who<
effects the transformation of the Yoga. Samadhi can
only be one of the main steps in this effort and that
too can be achieved in other ways. The various centres
of consciousness are opened here also but not in the
successive order, upwards from the base, of the
Kundalini Yoga. They rather open by themselves as
a result of the pressure of the Sakti which is invoked
in oneself. Here it is not the Sakti from below, but
the Mahasakti from above that carries out the opera-
tions of the Yoga. Along with other centres of con-
sciousness, in the course of this working, the energy
stored in the Muladhara comes to be released and
activised but that is not the same thing as the basic
arousal of the Kundalini Sakti in other Yogas.

MANTRA

Q: What is a Bija Mantra? Can it be effective even
when it is not received from, a competent Guru ?

A: All manifestation is through Sound, Sabda-
Brahman.

Bija-Mantra is seed sound. It may consist of a
syllable or a number of syllables. The sound or dhvani
produced by the utterance of the syllable (or syllables)
is, in the Mantra Sastra, the equivalent in human
speech, the vaikhan expression, of the original subtle
sound-vibration which is produced by the movement of
the forces (of Consciousness) while manifesting a thing.
That subtle sound, matrkd, is the true Name of the thing
manifested and to repeat it is to call the thing into
awareness, into active being. This is the main princi-
ple of the Mantra.

Thus the manifestation of a Devata which is an
emanation, a self-formulation of the Supreme Godhead,
is accompanied by a characteristic sound. This mdtrkd
is the sound-form of that Deity. This sound-value
rendered in terms of human speech is the Mantra, the
sound-body of the Devata on the human level. When
this sound is uttered the vibrations that go forth are
the very vibrations that were active when the Devata
first manifested and consequently they urge the same
manifestation again. Hence it is that to utter a mantra
is to invoke the Deity signified by it.

54 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

It goes without saying that the evocation, to be
effective, must carry the power, the consciousness with
which the original sound-vibrations were instinct. With-
out it the Mantra is a dead word. The Mantra-caitanya
must be awakened and made active. And that only a
Guru, one who has already realised and holds in him-
self something of the dynamics of the Mantra, can do. 1
When such a one communicates the Mantra to another,
he not only speaks the Word, but also transmits in his
very utterance the caitanya, the life-power of the Mantra^
so that when the recipient repeats it, it is a Word which
is loaded with its innate power-charge that is released
into action.

1 Theoretically it is of course possible for one to energise and
enliven a Mantra by his own tapasya. It is also possible to receive
the living Mantra directly from a Higher Source, as has happened
at times. What is important and indispensable is that the Mantra
must vibrate with the power that underlies its manifestation.

SIDDHIS AND REALISATION

Q: Some yogins bury themselves under earth for days to-
gether. How is this siddhi related to the realisation of Brahman ?
What is the state of mind and breath under such conditions?

A : Normally such feats are done by adepts in
Hath a Yoga. By strenuous discipline of Asanas in which
the physical body is trained and accustomed to long
periods of immobility and by sustained regulation of the
inflow and outflow of breath, a control is acquired over
the body and the life-force to such an extent that their
normal operations can be suspended for considerable
lengths of time. In feats of this kind, there is a prolonged
kumbhaka; the performer holds the breath within, with-
draws his active consciousness from the physical body
which is kept in a state of utter immobility and lives in
his subtle body maintaining only the indispensable
thread of connection with the outer frame. The normal
mind stands tranced as it were.

Naturally, all this has nothing to do directly with
spiritual life, much less with spiritual realisation. It is
a gymnastic, an extraordinary development of certain
faculties of the being, which can be done by practice
and the necessary will, without regard to any faith in
the existence of the Soul or God, even as feats of the
intellect like the satdvadhdna could be so done.

Realisation of Brahman is a totally different matter*
It is a fact of the consciousness. It is one's consciousness

56 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

that has to change, to grow and settle into the state of
Brahman. The ordinary human consciousness has to
leave its moorings in Ignorance and grow increasingly
into the nature of the Consciousness that is Divine.
Hathayogic practices and siddhis of the kind spoken
above cannot effect this change of consciousness. At
best they can only help to purify and subtilise the
physical body and life-energy in which the conscious-
ness is housed, so that they can be more supple and
responsive to the touches of the Spirit growing within
by other means. But that could be effected in other
ways much less laborious and strenuous.

Q: It is said that saints are not conscious of bodily pains
or ravages of diseases of the body? Is that true?

A : It is both true and not true. For it is only
when the normal active consciousness is withdrawn
from the body and held in a trance, samadhi, that there
is no awareness of bodily pain. But the moment one
leaves the trance-state, the consciousness naturally
comes back to its station in the physical frame and
shares all the pain the body is undergoing.

Q, : Who is a Rishi in the Indian conception ?

A: The Rishi is a Seer (darsandt rsih}. He sees
beyond the range of the senses and knows the truth,
the right law of things. He is one who has sounded
life in its fullness and transcended it in his experience.
He has arrived at a liberating Knowledge above the
boundaries of human mentality. Yet his heart beats
in unison with the rest of the fellow creatures in the
universe and he pours out the gains of his Knowledge
for the advancement of the collective Good.

GOD AND THE WORLD

Q, : If God is there in stone, in the animal, in the heart of
man, why is it that He is not seen by the devotees?

A : Because of the veil of Ignorance that covers the
true vision of man. Normally one sees by the physical
eye which seizes only physical objects. But beyond the
range of the physical senses there are realities which
cannot be reached by the human eye. They can be
perceived only by another, subtler eye, the Eye of the
eye, caksusah cdksuh, which is there in the being of man
concealed under the folds of Ignorance. It is only
when this veil is removed and the inner eye opened
that man is able to sight the Truth behind appearances,
see the One who lurks behind every form.

This can be done by an inner discipline, Yoga,
which proceeds by enlarging one's consciousness, ex-
tending the sphere of his awareness of himself and of
others, and awakening and activising the dormant
faculties of the being by a ceaseless dissolution of the
densities that normally cover them. Or, the opening
may come about by the sheer Grace of God. Whatever
the means, one has to have the adhikdra to participate
in the vision of the Godhead.

To take an analogy, even in the material world
there are objects which cannot be seen by the normal
human eye; one has to equip himself with appropriate

58 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

means to increase the range of the physical sight, before
he is able to bear witness to their existence. Similarly
to perceive the supra-physical truths of the Universe,,
the appropriate mode of seeing is to be brought into
operation. One needs to attain to the requisite state
of consciousness in which alone the eye of the soul is
always open to the revelation of the Divine in All.

Q : What is the meaning of Vivekananda? s saying that a
yogin who has realised gains control over the entire world?

A: In this context, realisation means the attain-
ment of union with one's own inmost self, atman, which is
one with the Self of All in the world. Or it can be the
realisation, by a progressive enlargement of one's con-
sciousness, of oneness with the cosmic Consciousness,
union with the universal Brahman. In either case he
is one with the Divine at the base of things in the
universe: his will is in unison with the Divine Will at
the head of the cosmos and consequently the power of
his will partakes of the character of the Divine Will
which is absolute. His will is a willing from the Divine.

WORK

Q, : Can work and the worker get merged into one? And
is work possible in such a condition?

A : Certainly it is. When the consciousness of the
doer is fully gathered up, concentrated and energised
in the activity he is engaged in, no practical distinction
is felt between the work and the worker. One is only
that work and nothing else. It is not an uncommon
experience in work whose nature calls for a high degree
of concentration of the mental faculties, e.g., that of the
scientist or mathematician, that at times the worker
loses all sense of external surroundings and is so rapt
that both the work and the worker are one movement
of consciousness.

Work is not only possible, but perhaps, the best
work is done under such a condition. For then the
external mind is completely withdrawn from its custo-
mary meanderings; the mental consciousness is not
only tuned to the precise requirements of the work but
settles in a state in which what is needed at the moment
streams into it from the larger or subliminal conscious-
ness behind of which it is only a frontal projection.

Of course it is understood that we are not here
speaking of Yogic action which is a different subject
altogether.

CHILD GROWTH

Q : A child takes in, involuntarily., the tendencies in the
vuter world, good or bad. What should be done to safeguard
the child from these influences and to direct its growth
Godward?

A : Without doubt, to keep the child in surround-
ings favourable to a healthy growth of the soul, mind
and body. The immediate environment should be kept
pure, free from the play of gross desires and passions.
That means the adults in whose atmosphere the child
lives have to lead a clean life turned towards the higher
values of Truth, Beauty, Harmony and Love. In such
an environment the darker elements of Nature do not
thrive, outside influences are automatically sifted and
the ingrained tendencies of the soul find the necessary
impetus to blossom and flower. The child, be it noted,
is best led by example. Practice, not precept, should
be the rule for the guardians; for that is what the
young imbibe effortlessly all the time.

If it is desired to encourage the spiritual possi-
bilities of the soul to manifest themselves, a suitable
atmosphere has to be created. Prayer, worship, read-
ing of scriptures are some of the recognised means in
tradition. But here too, there is nothing so effective
as the influence generated by the actual living of the
spiritual life by somebody in the environs, in moulding
the life of the developing soul.

CHILD GROWTH 61

All these, we must remember, can only exercise a
contributory role. The main and the decisive factor is
indeed the purpose for which the soul has taken birth,
the lines of experience it has chosen for itself while
entering the body. Also, the soul chooses the environ-
ment most suited for working out its purpose.

STUDENT-LIFE AND SADHANA

Q : What is the Sddhana for a student aspiring for
'God-life? Can studies and devotions to God go together?

A: Sadhana means an exertion, a discipline, to
achieve an object. In the present context the sadhana
.aims at self-perfection through realisation of God. For
this purpose one has to prepare, control, purify and
elevate all of himself so as to be fit to tread the Noble
Path. The period of student-life is ideally suited to
equip oneself to this end. It is at this stage that habits
are formed, directions taken and the foundations of the
future life laid. If one is lucky enough to awake to
the Call of the Higher Life at this early age it is indeed
a great blessing. His is a wonderful opportunity to
prepare himself in all the parts of his being with an
exclusive preoccupation since he has no other responsi-
bilities to claim his attention yet.

Studies are no impediment. Far from it; they can
be his means for self-development. For an all-round
spiritual life, the body is to be built up into a strong
and resilient ddhdra; it must be developed into a clean
temple for God to live in. The best use should be made
of the available facilities of physical culture for this
purpose. The mind must be trained to grow into a
means and receptacle of Knowledge; studies prepare the
mind progressively in the climate of the intellect. They

STUDENT-LIFE AND SADHANA 63

help to cultivate the faculties of concentration, applica-
tion and discrimination and others which go to develop
the mind into a power for the realisation of the Ideal.
Used towards this end, studies themselves become
devotion. Similarly the energies and emotions within
are to be given an orientation towards the Truth, the
Good and the Beautiful. There are plenty of oppor-
tunities in the life of the student to develop himself in
all these directions that lead to God.

Once the choice is made for the Godward Path,
every detail in life acquires a new meaning; everything
has its significant bit to contribute. Studies, games,
other activities incidental to student-life all these can
be and are meant to be used for the growth of the
being towards its own perfection. The student must
look upon everything in this light, welcome the wide
opportunities for self-development and self-perfection
he gets during this period and utilise them in a spirit of
dedication and gratitude to God.

THE MOTHER AND THE ASRAM

Q: Does it make any difference, whether one does
sddhana outside the AST am or within it? Is the same progress
possible there as in the Asram ?

The Divine Mother has cut down personal contact with
the sddhakas to the minimum these days and emphasises on inner
contact. What difference would it make then to practise yoga
living in the Asram or outside?

A: It depends upon the individual.

In this sadhana much depends upon the extent to
which one is awakened in his central, the psychic part.
For it is through this psychic centre within that the
sadhana is guided and led. If the psychic being is
fully awakened and brought forward to govern all of
one's movements then it need not make a difference
at any rate in the early stages whether the sadhana is
done in the Asram or outside. But if this condition
is not or only partially fulfilled then it becomes neces-
sary to live under the direct Influence, in the proximity,
of the Guru. For only so can the psychic influence
and control be kept constantly operative and growing.
Conditions in the outside world are not usually favour-
able for the maintenance and growth of this psychic
contact; they tend to cloud it. The flame gets cover-
ed by smoke. The constant impact of forces and
influences from a milieu involved in the common

THE MOTHER AND THE ASRAM 65

round of life in ignorance is always a corroding
factor.

Things are naturally different in the environs of
the Guru, the Mother. There is such a thing as
Her aura which overspreads the surroundings for
some miles with a dynamic charge of the spiritual
Power and Joy radiating from Her Person, vibrations
which are incessantly active to dissipate every weaken-
ing formation and to give impetus to every upward
aspiration. In such an atmosphere there is an effort-
less outflowing of the powers of the soul and a natural
unfoldment of the Spirit.

A word about the " cutting down of personal con-
tact" by the Mother. There has been certainly a
reduction in outer forms of individual physical contacts.
But personal contact or rather opportunity for it remains
the same as ever. The Divine as embodied in the
Mother is always accessible to all sincere seeking;
contact with her can be established only on the basis
of an inner relation arising out of deep devotion, love
and surrender to her. Only such a relation could be
truly personal and living, not any number of outer
meetings without this inner rapport.

Q : Is it possible to establish outside a collective life of
the type that flourishes in the AST am?

A : It should be possible if similar conditions were
created.

If a sufficient number of seekers of the Truth of
this Ideal were to pool themselves together in a spirit
of total dedication and drawing their inspiration from
the supramental Mahasakti active in the person of
the Mother, pursue this Yoga both individually and

6 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

collectively, such a colony could well reproduce the
life in the Asram elsewhere too. And in fact this is
exactly what the present Sri Aurobindo Centres and
Circles are expected to grow into in the fullness of
time.

ON
SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY

Q : The conception of Double Soul in this Philosophy is
wrong as it is contrary to the tests of Advaita which does not
recognise any difference between Paramdtman and Jivdtman, let
alone countenance a division in the dtman of man. If, as Sri
Aurobindo asserts along with the Upanisads, all is Brahman
including Matter , " sarvam khalu idam Brahma," how
comes this duality in the human soul ?

A : Sri Aurobindo's distinction between the desire-
soul and the true soul corresponds to a very practical
truth in the constitution of the being of man in evolu-
tion. The soul, the true soul, is a spark from the
Divine and it is there in the inmost depths of the being.
Of that, man is not normally aware. What he is aware
of as the centre and what functions as the main fulcrum
of his personality is the formation around the central-
ising agent of his ego, formed and kept going and
growing by the driving force of Desire. It is this head
of desire that ordinarily governs the movement of the
body, life and mind. It is only when one turns from the
normally extrovert direction of life and looks inward
that one begins to get conscious of the real soul which
is seated in the deeps of the heart-cavern, hrd guhd,
supporting from behind one's entire life-movement.

It is obvious that this living centre of the Spirit in
the individual cannot be the same as the c soul ' on

68 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

the surface being, what is in fact a contrivance an
important one though in the mechanism of Nature in
its process of centralisation and motivation of the diverse
forces and energies with which the evolving being is
endowed. True, this entity of desire-ego derives from
the soul in the sense that it owes its existence to and
depends ultimately on the support or sanction extended
by the soul even as do the other parts of the being >
viz., the physical, the vital and the mental. But it is
a temporary formation of Nature whereas the soul
within is an eternal portion of the Divine.

It is to be noted that the soul is not what is termed
Atman in the Upanisads and other scriptures. The
atman, the self of the individual, jivatman, does not
enter into evolution but stands above and presides over
it. What enters and participates in the evolutionary
movement is a delegate from the jivatman, a representa-
tive portion, what we call the soul which is a develop-
ing entity supporting, from within, the evolutionary
career of the individual in the triple formulation of
mind, life and body, and itself growing into a person-
ality assimilating the essence of the experiences gathered
during each life-period. Till this soul acquires a de-
finite individuation and power and moves from behind
the veil to a position of direction and control, as it is
intended to do, it is the outer formation, the pseudo-soul,
that acts as the monitor and guiding agent. It functions
and continues as long as it has this purpose to serve.
It dwindles and drops away as the real soul develops
and takes its rightful place as the leader of the evolution.

It will be thus seen that there is no question of
any division in the Atman. The Atman is always sole

ON SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY 69

and entire, aloof from these dynamics of manifestation.
But the manifestation is not the less real or less divine
for that reason. The movement is as much divine as
the status, since both are poises of the One; the Many
that constitute the manifestation are as much the Real-
ity as the One that releases them into movement
out of itself. Sarvam khalu idam Brahma', indeed, all is
Brahman, Brahman in essence, and all shall be realised
as Brahman in pervasion once the perceiving intelli-
gence recognises the purely temporary and local character
of the many formations of Nature and their consequen-
ces, in her evolutionary labour towards the plenary
revelation of the Godhead in this oceanic Existence. 1

Q, : In believing that when a sufficiently large number of
persons attain to a high spiritual state, there will commence the
reign of God on earth, the very Vaikuntha here, Sri Aurobindo
accepts the Christian dogma of the Kingdom of Heaven upon
Earth. But such an eventuality is impossible. For, if it were
to come about, all would melt into Brahman and the world
would go into a pralaya. Besides, it would be against the
cosmic purpose and process of variation.

A : There is a world of difference between the
Christian conception of the Kingdom of Heaven upon
Earth and Sri Aurobindo's vision of the Divine Life
on Earth. The former anticipates a change in the
nature of the world as a result of an intense moral
purification, religious emotion and the elevation of man
to the purer heights of the sdttvic mind from the turbi-
dities and densities of the lower levels of consciousness.

1 Sri Aurobindo has given a very lucid exposition of the
.subject in the pages of The Life Divine. There is also a section
in the On Toga, II, pointedly dealing with this topic.

70 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

But the latter holds that no radical change in the life
of humanity is possible unless the centre of conscious-
ness is lifted clean above the Mind and its dualities,
and a still higher Consciousness, a supreme Power of
Knowledge-Will, is set operating on Earth. It follows
that the solution to the cosmic problem does not lie in
any number of individual liberations into the Spirit
there have been quite a number of them so far but it
lies in the descent of this New Dynamics above the
Mind, the Supermind.

The Perfection that is envisaged as a result of the
established reign of the supramental Power on earth is
in the full revelation of the Glory of God, the free
outflowering of the Divine powers of Knowledge, Will,
Harmony and Joy here in the universe, under the condi-
tions of the terrestrial manifestation. It is not a trans-
cription or repetition of the perfect world of Mahas as
it is on its own plane; Sri Aurobindo has pointed out
that there would be no purpose at all in simply re-
peating the same type of creation elsewhere. Vaikuntha
on earth means much more than Vaikuntha in its ori-
ginal station above. All the ordered Truths and
potencies in the supramental Gnosis shall stand worked
out and manifested on this scene of unfolding evo-
lution, it is Vaikuntha arriving at its own fulfilment in
what initially seemed its opposite.

There is thus no room for fear that this variegated
Creation shall have to dissolve into the featureless
unity of Brahman. On the contrary, the multiplicity
in manifestation will acquire its just value and ex-
press the manifold Splendour of the One in all its
fullness.

ON SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY 71

Q : Sri Aurobindo has stated that Sri Rama's conscious-
ness was a highly developed human kind whereas Sri Krisna's
was divine. It follows he does not consider Sri Rama an
Avatar.

A : No, it does not. For, in the first place, what is an
Avatar ? An Avatar is a special Descent of the Divine
in the world with a special purpose : to help the pro-
gress of Creation in its evolutionary endeavour. When-
ever the central Consciousness in evolving Nature has
to take a decisive turn at crucial junctures in its upward
ascent, it needs a special help, a lift and an energising
higher than is normal to it at that stage. The Descent,
avatarana, is precisely of such a Higher Power embodied
in a form and consciousness answering to the demand of
the hour. Thus in the Indian tradition, there is a divine
manifestation at each stage of transition from one form
of life to another- from the sea animal to the amphibi-
ous animal, to the land animal, to the half-man and so
on. Even after the appearance of man, crossings have
been effected from grade to grade of humanity, from
level to level of consciousness in man. At each junction
the Godhead at work manifests the consciousness and
force required to precipitate the jump, saltus. There
is a purposive self-limitation and only so much of the
Super-nature is brought into play as is called for. Thus
Sri Rama appeared on the scene of earth history at a
time when man had to be helped to rise out of the
dominion of the vital ego and its impulses (Rdksasa),
the restless sway of the animal mind (Vanara), and take
his place on the station of the sattvic mind, the consci-
ousness that is pliant and open to the light and reign
of reason, civilised order and warmth of emotion and

72 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

idealism. Sri Rama embodied this consciousness, new
to earth till then, strove and succeeded in breaking the
hold of the exaggerated vital ego and the animal or
physical sense-mentality and establishing the sattvic
order of life. That was the purpose of his Avatarhood
and he fulfilled it victoriously just as earlier Avatars
with still lesser formulations of Consciousness succeeded
before and subsequent Manifestations with higher
embodiments have done their work thereafter.

Section Three
HIGHWAYS OF GOD

MESSAGE OF THE VEDA

IT is gratifying to note the steadily growing influence
exerted by Sri Aurobindo's Interpretation of the Hymns
of the Veda on the enlightened scholarship of the day.
There have been a number of publications on the Veda
during these years, in various languages, and whether
acknowledged or unacknowledged the approach of
most of them reveals the moulding spirit of his re-
searches into the Secret of the Veda. A recent work l
of Sri Anantarangacharya in Kannada, containing a
choice collection of a hundred Riks with explanatory
comments, is the latest in the line and makes a most
delightful presentation of ancient thought in terms of
the new.

In a remarkably brief but adequate Introduction,
the author points out that the Risis of the Vedic Age
were Mystics like the Priests of Egypt and Chaldea, the
Magi of Persia and the Occultists of Greece. They
were individuals who strove to know and probed into
the mystery of life through measures of intensive self-
discipline. The Knowledge so obtained by them was
the Light which led the rest. These mystics delved
into the secrets of external Nature but they also

1 Rigvedada Amoghasuktaratnagalu. Publishers : Jivankaryalaya,
Bangalore.

76 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

plumbed into the secrecies of their own soul and
related their world-knowledge to the self-knowledge.
But they took care to conceal this mass of knowledge
from the laity for reasons of public safety apart from
danger to the immature mind. They recorded their
perceptions in inspired utterances the Mantras which
were so skilfully worded that they meant different
things to different persons. The author quotes Yaska
to say that the Veda Mantras have a threefold signi-
ficance the adhidaivata, adhiyajna and the adhydtma
and that the last is the highest. Behind the apparent
ritualistic meaning there is a secret sense without which
the Mantra is lifeless ; yas tanna veda kirn red karisyati, he
who knows not that, what shall he do with the Rik? so
asks Dirghatamas. (I. 164. 39).

To the Risis of these Hymns, the Universe is not
just something that has somehow come to be. It is an
eternal object of wonder. It is a creation, an emana-
tion from a mysterious Being, a Primal Person. It has
been a deliberate creation shaped part by part from
out of the limb and limb of the Manifesting Purusa,
Who is all that yet hath been and all that is to be
(Rv. X. 90). The Universe is not merely generated
but it is held together by the Might of the Lord :

By Him the heavens are strong and earth steadfast, by Him

light's realm and sky- vault are supported ;
By Him the regions in mid-air were measured.

(Rv. X. 121. 5)

The entire life of the worlds is conducted and
governed by Gods with various Names, Indra, Varuna,
Surya etc. who are in truth so many functional aspects
of the One Supreme. There is a Law from Above that

MESSAGE OF THE VEDA 77

governs all Creation. It is the Law of self-ordering
Truth called the Rta by the Seers of the Veda and
hymned :

Varied are the sustaining powers of Rta ;
Thought of Rta kills all sin ;

The fame-chant of Rta awaking to knowledge, illuminat-
ing, opens the deaf ears of the living.

(Rv. IV. 23. 8)

Naturally, life with such a profound background
has a great significance. It is an opportunity to live
here fully with the body, mind and life sthiraih angaih.
. . . tanubhih (I. 89. 8) for a full life-span of hundred
autumns and at the same time to equip oneself to a
blissful hereafter. Life here is a prelude to a super-
life hereafter; the one is as real as the other. Both
the Here and the Otherwhere are likened to two
horses that are yoked to a chariot and must march in
harmony for a successful journey. " May not our
household gear lack the double harness " prays the seer.
(Rv. VI. 15. 19). We may also cite here the utterance
of another Risi (though not quoted by the author):

Indra, bhrdtar ubhayalra te artliah, both there and here thy
goal is, Indra, Brother.

(Rv. III. 53. 5)

Man is called upon to mould his life into the shape
of the Truth, Satya, that is at the base of All, the
Truth that is active in the movement of the Cosmos,
the Right, the Rtam. He is asked to cultivate and
promote the growth of the powers and expressions of
this Right happy wingings of thought, dexterity in
work and determinations of the will (Rv. X. 25. 1).

While exhorting man to ride upon the flood of
life on its crests of Plenty, vdja, Hero-Strength, vira,

78 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Felicity, bhadram, Delight, madhu, soma, the hymns
warn him too against all that detracts from the high
Ideals of Truth, Beauty and Harmony and dilutes the
purer breath of the Spirit:

O Adityas, dispel all ill-will, all meanness, all hostility
from us ... (Rv. VIII. 56. 21)

Drive ye_ disease and strife away, drive ye away malig-
nity; Adityas, keep us ever far from sore distress.
(Rv. VIII. 18. 10)

He shall not tarry in lassitude, indolence and mis-
use of time :

Never may sleep or idle talk control us, md no nidrd
isatam utajalpih. (Rv. VIII. 48. 14)

On the other hand, he must be vigilant and pre-
pare himself incessantly for a greater future. He should
wake up in time :

Old age, like gathering cloud, impairs our being; before
that evil be, O Agni, give us understanding. (Rv.
I. 71. 10)

Otherwise, standing in the midst of Waters (of
life) he will be left thirsty:

apdm madhye tasthivdnsam trmd avidat. (Rv. VII. 89. 4)

The Great Way of Immortality is of course in the
keeping of the Gods. They alone can give the direc-
tion and lead on the Path :

The will and thoughts within my breast exert their

power: they yearn with love, and fly to all the regions

round.
None other Comforter is found save only these: my

longings and my hopes are fixed upon the Gods. (Rv.

X. 64. 2)

Great reliance is placed on the Grace of God to
reach whom there is no way but that of love. Neither

MESSAGE OF THE VEDA 79

works nor sacrifices (rituals) can secure Him, tarn kar-
mana yajnaih nakih nasat (Rv. VIII. 70. 3). The author
quotes a number of remarkable utterances of these
seekers showing the depth of their devotion, the inti-
macy of their communion with the Gods and draws
attention to the fact that here are the seeds of the
Movements of Bhakti and Madhura-Bhava which swept
across the land centuries later.

To the God-lover in the Veda, the Lord is dearer
than his own life; he would not part with Him for
anything :

O Indra, I would not sell thee for a mighty price,
Not for a thousand, Thunderer ! nor ten thousand, nor a
hundred, Lord of countless wealth! (Rv. VIII. 1. 5.)

As we have seen, the Risis of the ancient times
place a great emphasis on the progress and development
of the individual on both the material and the spirit-
ual fronts of existence. But they do not forget that
he does not live all alone; he is a member of the society.
They remind him, time and again, that together all
are born, together they live and together they advance.
And this is their final Word to him, as indeed to men of
all times:

One and common be your aspiration, united your hearts,
common to you be your mind, so that close com-
panionship may be yours. (Rv. X. 191. 4)

Such is the splendid legacy of the Seers of the
Veda which the author of the present selections port-
rays in cameos for the benefit of a generation which is
too much in a hurry to appraise for itself the intrinsic
worth of this hymnal lore. He points out that the Rg
Veda is not merely a collection of prayers. It is the

80 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

original ore from which is drawn the Gold of the
Upanisads; in it are adumbrated the high Ideals of
life and thought that later developed into the funda-
mentals of the Universal Religion of Hinduism. And,,
adds the author, at a time like the present when the
path of salvation is all but lost to sight, when life in
the world is in dire need of purification, when harmony
between the individual and the community is broken,
when noble ideals are forgotten and their practice long
ceased to be, it is the Rg Veda which superbly meets
the want and shows the Way for the total upliftment
of man.

RTAM JYOTIH

Q : What is meant by rtam jyotih in the ancient Vedas?
And what is its relevance to us in the present age?

A: The seers of the Veda speak of three great
vydhrtis, Words or Terms which denote the three worlds
of man's existence, viz., bhuh, the earth, bhuvah, mid-
region, suvah, the heaven. To the Rsis every form is
a symbol of some truth; each world a manifestation
of the truth of a psychological principle. Thus the
earth, prthwl, is the formation of the awakened physical
consciousness ; the mid-region, antariksa, of the vital or
nervous consciousness; and the heaven, svar, an organi-
sation of the mental consciousness in Creation. The
three worlds have these respective formulations of the
manifesting Consciousness as their basis.

They also speak of yet another world, a Greater
Heaven, above the world of Svar, Brhat dyauh. It is
referred to variously as Brhat , the Large or the Immense,
as Maho arnas, the Great Water waters in the Veda
symbolising the streams of consciousness. This fourth
world of the Veda corresponds to the fourth vydhrti
which, the Upanisad * records, was discovered by
Seer Mahachamasya, the Mahas, the Great World or
the World of Light. The Principle governing this

1 Taittinya I. 5.
6

82 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

world is called in the Veda Rtam, Divine Truth; in
the Upanisads it is known as Vijnana, complete
Knowledge. Rtam signifies truth of a divine order
above the lower hemisphere of the three worlds of
mortal existence where the principles that rule are
inferior in nature and human in their operation.

It is important to note the distinction between
Rtam and Satyam both of which are generally taken
to have the same meaning. Truth. Satyam is the essen-
tial truth of being; it is that which bases every existence
at its core. Rtam is that truth in action, on the move,
determining the movement in just accord with the truth
that is to be fulfilled. It is the Right. It is an active
Knowledge of the Truth to be manifested along with
the Power to effectuate it. And the plane or the world
where this Consciousness reigns in its full splendour is the
World of Mahas, described by the Vedic seers as satyam-
rtam-brhat * : satyam, because the Truth of being is there
unveiled; rtam, because there the Truth of action is
living and self-fulfilling ; brhat, because the range of its
Truth is vast and infinite.

The Rsis perceived the effulgent Truth-Consci-
ousness active in this realm as a Supreme Spiritual Sun
radiating the rays of this Consciousness in the form of
Light, jyotih. For it is a fact of mystic experience that
the spiritual Truth reveals itself to the inner eye in the
form of light: Light is the form of Truth.

Rtam and Satyam, declares a Seer, 2 were the first
to be born out of the heat of creative incubation of the

* Atharva Veda, XII. 1.1.
2 Rig Veda, X. 190.

RTAM JYOTIH 83

Eternal and it was on their basis that all the subsequent
movement of manifestation proceeded. It is on the
firm foundations of Rtam above l that the creation is
based ; in fact it is for this Supreme Truth that the vast
and profound Heaven and Earth exist, rtaya prthivi bahule
gabhire? Here are the opulent Waters that sustain and
strengthen. 3 The very Gods who direct and preside
over the cosmic functionings are born of this Truth,
rtajdh, increase by the Truth, rtavrdhah, and stand in
the Heavens by the right of this Truth. 4 And it is to
this Realm of Truth, Rtam, and its undying Light,
Jyotih, that the Rsis of the Vedic Age strove to rise
in their consciousness and there live for ever:

" Settle me in that Immortal World that never
'decays nor dies, wherein the Light of Heaven, the Sun-
World is set and the Lustre shines for ever.

" Make me immortal in that realm where the bril-
liant Vivasvan's Son reigns, where is the secret shrine
of Heaven, where flow the waters, the mighty streams
(of Conscious Energy).

" Make me immortal in that realm where the
luminous worlds are full of lustres. . . .

" Make me immortal in that realm where are all
joys and raptures, where are all delights and con-
tentments. . . . " 5

The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo, based as it is on
these eternal truths perceived by the ancient seers,

1 Rv. IV. 23. 9.

2 Ibid., IV. 23. 10.

3 Ibid., IV. 23. 8.

/., X. 85. 1.
IX. 113.

84 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

attaches a crucial importance to this Truth-Power of
Rtam in its resolution of the cosmic riddle. In fact it
goes on to appreciate and realise its potentialities in an
even fuller measure. For Sri Aurobindo sees in this
Truth-Principle and Plane of Knowledge-Will high
above the highest ranges of the mind, Super- Mind as
he terms it much more than a perfect Heaven of
Liberation. He finds here the supreme Light and Power
which alone can displace and eradicate the ills of
Ignorance, Falsehood and Imperfection with which the
life of humanity is beset. Not only does his Yoga lead
to an ascent of the consciousness of man to the heights
of this Supramental Truth but it also aims and works
to channel the Force of this Dynamics downward so
that all the elements of the "creations below can stand
uplifted in its transforming grasp.

Not on the summits alone but too on the plains,
shall shine the Light of Perfection, Rtam Jyotih.

DIVINE BODY

Aspects of Indian Religious Thought 1 is an interesting
collection of addresses and papers on a number of
subjects in illustration of the particularly spiritual bent
of the Indian mind in its outlook on life. The writing is
learned and informative and touches upon a number of
key-concepts and institutions that have played a notable
part in the evolution of Indian thought and culture
viz. Yajna (sacrifice), Mantra, Mother-worship, Puru-
sottama Ideal, Divine Body, Yoga, Unity with Nature
and the Way of Love.

The sacred character of the institution of Sacrifice
as a preordained feature of the Creation, its double
movement of Descent and Ascent, the Becoming or
the outsurge of the Consciousness-Force of the Divine
Being and the return of the Movement on the crest of
the evolutionary Aspiration in Nature; the profound
significance of Mantra as a dynamism deriving from
the original Nada Brahman, the Logos, its effective role
in the unveiling of the Soul, as developed in the Tantra
Sastra; the truth of the Transcendent Purusottama
in which are reconciled the apparent contradictions of
ksara and aksara, the mutable and the immutable; all

1 By S. B. Das Gupta. Published by A. Mukherji & Co.,
College Square, Calcutta.

86 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

these are expounded with admirable clarity of thought
and expression.

The most interesting chapter in the book is on the
Indian conception of the Divine Body. As the author
recalls, there is in this country a long standing tradition
that it is possible for man to develop and acquire a
body that would not be subject to the limitations, decay
and death to which the ordinary physical body is heir.
By transubstantiation, by a total change of the ele-
ments which go to make the substance of the body, it is
possible to gain freedom from these trammels, achieve
immortality. Different means have been tried to this end.
There is the school of Rasayana, alchemists who believed
in making " the body immutable by changing the very
quality of the ingredients of the body by the application
of Rasa, a chemical combination of mercury and sulphur
or mica". There are the Natha Gurus or Siddhas who
sought to effect this change by means of certain yogic
practices mainly physical and physiological : first,
to dry up and deaden the normal elements of the body
and then to revive it through a regulated outflow
of the currents of Bliss, nectar, sudhd, from the Moon in
the Sahasrara at the crown of the head. To them, the
siddha deha, perfected body, so developed is but a prelude
to the attainment of Diyya Deha, Divine Body, which
" can have free movement in all the three worlds and,,
perfectly dematerialised as it is, it does not have to adhere
to the spatio-temporal laws of the universe". There
is also mention in sufficient detail of the Buddhist
(specially Mahayanist) theory of trikaya, the three
bodies possible for man : the nirmdna kaya^ the normal
physical body, sambhoga kdya, the subtle refulgent body

DIVINE BODY 87

of bliss, in which the liberated man lives while still on
earth working for the welfare of his fellow-beings, and
finally the dharma kaya, body of Law, of Truth, with
which he enters the Nirvana.

The author then refers to the importance acquired
by this subject in the Teaching of Sri Aurobindo
who enunciates the Gospel of Life Divine for man-
kind, and writes: " He (Sri Aurobindo) has realised
the truth of a continual flow of amrta (nectar, the flow
that makes one immortal) not only behind the life-
process of the individual man, but behind the evolution
of the whole cosmic process; and that flow is the flow
of the infinite divine bliss which is to be attained and
utilised, not for the extinction of the being of the
man, but to immortalise the being by divinising the
whole of it, for, c From the divine bliss, the original
Delight of existence, the Lord of Immortality comes
pouring the wine of that Bliss, the mystic Soma, into
these jars of mentalised living matter: eternal and
beautiful, he enters into these sheaths of substance for
the integral transformation of the being and nature.' "
The process by which the transformation of the body
is envisaged to be worked out has been dealt with in
the writings of the Seer during his later years and
forms the subject-matter of the book The Supramental
Manifestation. Those interested in the subject might
refer to the issues of the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo Inter-
national Centre of Education, in which the Mother has
been throwing fresh light on the immediate possibility
of this development taking place.

The studies are enlightening. Perhaps the one
on Mother Worship could have been less discursive.

HIGHWAYS OF GOD

It is difficult to accept the author's conclusion that the
One akti, the Supreme Mother, represents the fusion
of a number of goddesses worshipped all over the
country at different times and in different places, as a
result of the synthesising process of historical evolution.
It is, on the other hand, a fundamental scriptural truth
corroborated by spiritual experience that the One
bases the many, the One Divine manifests, or emanates
severally, each Form or Personality with a distinct
purpose and power for its effectuation.

AITAREYA UPANISAD

'The Aitareya Upanisad belongs to the Rig Veda and
comprises the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the Second
Aitareya Aranyakd ascribed to the sage Mahidasa Aita-
reya. Simple in narration, it is yet profound in import.
In the first section is described the creation of the
worlds, the Cosmic Person, the Gods and the senses.
The primeval Spirit, the Atman, says the Upanisad,
manifested the several worlds out of its own Being.
The Virat Purusa was then shaped out of its oceanic
extension ; further tapas by the Creator brought into
form the several parts of the body, their respective
sense-organs, indriyas, and their governing deities. The
Gods thus emanated, continues the narrative, were
afflicted by Hunger and Thirst and they pleaded for a
secure habitation. The Creator shaped a Cow; but
the Gods would not accept it as adequate. A Horse
was then presented; that too was not acceptable. It
was only when He fashioned Man that the Gods
rejoiced and found in him a fit dwelling. And they
entered into him. Food for the embodied was then
created and the way determined for its absorption.
Once this was done, the text declares, the Spirit itself
entered into the Form of its making and took up its
triple poise therein and discovered Itself as none else
than the all-pervading Brahman.

90 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

The second section speaks of the succession of
births undergone by the embodied soul : the first at the
time of the conception, the second at physical birth
and the third when the body dies and the soul is born
in another incarnation. To break through this chain
of births, hints the Upanisad, it is essential to gain
Knowledge Knowledge of the Spirit and its mani-
festation, and it cites in commendation the victory cry
of Vamadeva from within the womb of Ignorance
which he burst by the force of his Knowledge.

In the third and final section the question is raised,
who is this Spirit, the Self which is to be known ? It is
the One Consciousness that has projected itself as all
that breathes, whatso moves and whatso moves not.
All are but names of the Eternal Consciousness that is.
Brahman, prajndnam Brahma. This is the Self that is to
be realised if one would be immortal.

KARMA AND JftANA

THE Sambandha-Vdrtika 1 of Suresvara, the justly re-
nowned disciple of Acharya Sankara, is the introduc-
tory part of his gloss on the Acharya's commentary on
the Brhaddranyaka Upanisad. Though only an intro-
duction, it runs into 1,148 verses. Helpful editions
of this work have not been too easily available and we
are thankful to Dr. Mahadevan for his labours as the
editor-translator in bringing out this sumptuous volume.
Apart from his usual fluent and yet faithful translation,
he has added invaluable notes based upon the Sastra-
prakasika of Anandagiri and three other commentaries
still in manuscript-form, e.g. Nyaya-tattva-vivarana of
Narasimha Prajnayati, Nyaya-kalpalatika of Ananda-
purna and the Aranya-vrtti-sambandhokti. Helpful extracts
from these commentaries have been also given.

The subject-matter of the work is to determine the
relation, sambandha, between the two sections of the
Veda, the Karma Kanda and the Jfiana Kanda. For
this purpose the author examines the views of the
Mimamsakas and the various Vedantins and seeks to
establish Sankara's view as the right one.

The Mimamsaka position is that Ritual, Karma, is
the sole purport of the Veda. Karma is of three kinds:

1 Edited by Dr. T. M. P. Mahadevan. Published by Univer-
sity of Madras.

92 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

optional, kamya, to gain objects of desire; prohibited,
pratisiddha^ the performance of which brings on
demerit; obligatory, nitya, which avoids demerit. One
who seeks release should avoid the first two categories
of Karma thereby saving himself from gathering merit
and demerit; he should perform the nitya karma to
keep out demerit, with the result that after the fall of
the body, with the completion of the accumulated
Karma, he gets release.

But that is only release from Karma, says the
Advaitin. Karma is the result of nescience, Avidya,
and unless the cause is removed there is no real libera-
tion. And to eliminate the Avidya there is no other
means except Knowledge, Jnana, which is the real
meaning of the Veda.

The author then examines certain other proposi-
tions sponsored by the Vedantins, viz. Samuchaya
Vdda which combines both Karma and Jnana in its
means of release: Karma, sacrifice, etc. is performed
for the c resolution ' of the world, i.e. dissolution of the
bonds that tie one to the world (according to
the Prapancha-vilaya Vdda) or for resolving desires
through enjoyment (according to the Kdma-vilaya
Vdda). In either case it is auxiliary and leads to Jnana
which ultimately gives the release. The Advaitin
rightly questions the validity of the assumptions under-
lying these propositions and refuses to admit that the
conjunction of two means, each with a contradictory
fruit, can effect Moksa.

Next is the position of the Niyoga-vadin whose
claim is that the Veda aims to lay down what is to be
done and it is only this injunctive part that is of value.

KARMA AND JNANA 93

The Advaitin has little difficulty in proving that the
Veda is a Pramana to make known what is not known
and that it is not the propeller of all activity.

Then there is the Prasankhydna Vdda of the
Vedanta which insists that systematic meditation
(Prasankhyana) , not mere sravana of texts, is the only
means to realise the Self. It is the Upanisads that
expound the nature of the Self and enjoin meditation
as the means to Self-realisation. Suresvara rejects
this view. He points out that dhydna, manana etc. are
only secondary means to clear the obstacles standing in
the way of direct experience of the Self which, however,
is evoked intuitively by Vedantic texts like Tat Tvam
Asi, etc. in those who are in the requisite receptive con-
sciousness. It is these texts of the Upanisads that are
the Pramana for the Reality of Brahman- Atmaii.

What, then, is the relation between the Karma
and Jnaiia Kandas according to Suresvara? As
summed up by Dr. Mahadevan, in his admirably lucid
Introduction, " If what is enjoined in the Karma-kanda
is pursued without reference to what is taught in the
Jnana-Kanda, one attains prosperity here in this world,
and in heaven after death. But if the Karmas are
performed without a desire for prosperity, they purify
the aspirant and open the way for knowledge. In the
Jnana-kanda it is the knowledge of the non-dual self
that is taught. And, it is through self-knowledge that
one attains release from Samsara."

THE SIDDHARS

SOUTH INDIA has been always famous for its ortho-
doxy. Its conservatism in matters of religion as in
other walks of life, e.g. social customs, arts and sciences,
has been traditional and has served a purpose in the
Jiistorical evolution of the country. For it is this ele-
ment that has helped to preserve many of the basic
traditions and institutions in the life of its people
against frequent incursions of forces and influences
alien to the genius of the soil. Be that as it may, it
is not known equally well that the South has been also
a centre for reaction and revolt against custom and
tradition at any rate in some of its extreme forms
even centuries ago. The standard of revolt was then
raised not by politicians or self-declared atheists but by
shining exemplars of cultural and spiritual achieve-
ment Siddhars as they have been called in the annals
of the peninsula. This neat little book l gives a brief
but interesting account of the times, the life and the
message of the more prominent of these Siddhars.

It was about the fourth and fifth century of the
present era that the socio-religious movement of the
people of these regions the kingdoms of the Tamils

1 The Poetry and the Philosophy of the Tamil Siddhars, by
A. V. Subramania Aiyar. Publisher: S. Mahadevan, Tirunelveli.

THE SIDDHARS 95

liad run into the hardening moulds of ceremonial
religion, rituals of temple worship and social conven-
tions ; the springs of spirituality that have always kept
the life currents in this country fresh and dynamic
were slowly drying up. " The domination of the
Agamic religion and rituals over some sections of the
people became strong at the period when Saivism and
Vaisnavism took deep root after overthrowing Buddh-
ism and Jainism in a grim encounter that lasted three
centuries. The Bhakti movement, which formed the
main feature of this religion in its early stages and
which called forth the best creative impulses of the
community and gave birth to great Art and Literature
gradually began to lose its original fire, purity, and
chastening influence . . . the will of the community to
live a fruitful Dharmic life weakened. The responsibi-
lity of the individual to develop himself by discipline
and ethical conduct, which had been stressed in earlier
centuries by Tiruvalluvar and the Jain moralists was
lost sight of. Divisions sprang up on sectarian lines.
In due course, the true spirit of religion, which was
so powerful and creative earlier, was slowly fading
away. It was in such a situation that the Tamil
Siddhars rose in revolt and began to preach their
doctrines."

Who are the Siddhars? The Siddhars are not
merely those who have achieved siddhi, perfection in
their line, be it religion, yoga, medicine or any other
avocation. They are a genre in themselves. The
Siddhars of Tamil Nad are men who strove for self-
transcendence in spirit individually in total disregard
of the standards and laws of a ritual-ridden society;

96 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

they achieved a fulfilment in the realm of the soul by
union with God and attainment of Knowledge of the
truths and powers of God; they sounded the trumpet
call to their less fortunate brethren to awake to the true
significance of life, to the universality of the Truth of
God and to place the one paramount need of the soul to
realise its innate divinity above all other obligations to
man and society. This is not to mean that they were
anarchists who preached disorder. On the other hand,
they commended the efficacy of ethics, ideals of moral-
ity and self-culture as factors promoting the growth of
godly life and leavening the existence of men and
women in the work-a-day world. Man, they declared,
is divine in essence; he has Powers in himself of which
he is not normally aware. To become conscious of
them, to leave behind the little life of the senses, tread
the path of strenuous discipline to be liberated in the
plenitude of the Light and Power of the soul in a
realised oneness with the Highest Divine is the main
import of their message. To allow no circumstance or
consideration to interfere with or impede the progress
of the soul till this yogic union is achieved and to care
for nothing except for the radiation of the Light and
Power so attained is its corollary. The author com-
pares them to the Sufis of Islam and the early Gnostics
of Europe, not, be it noted, to the Antinomians of
medieval times.

Attention is drawn to the distinction in the teach-
ing of the Siddhars and other saints, the Alwars of the
Vaisnavas and Nayanmars of the Saivas: " . . . the
differences are not in the fundamentals of their theology
or in intensity of devotion to God, but only in their

THE SIDDHARS 97

emphasis, methods of approach to God and the forms
in which devotion to God should manifest itself. . . The
Siddhars stress in rough-hewn but powerful Tamil
verses the need for each individual to develop his own
psychic powers by Yoga and concentration of the mind
and see and experience God within himself. If God
could be found and experienced within Man himself,
there is no need to go in search of Him to temples or
other man-made trysts. . . The later religious teachers
have declared that the observance of certain rituals and
practices . . . [is] of paramount importance while the
Siddhars do not consider these as essential to inner
religious life."

The foremost of these Siddhars is Tirumular, the
" Arch-Siddhar or the supreme mystic and pontiff of
Yoga in all Tamil literature ". Leaving aside the
usual legendry accounts, nothing definite is known of
his life except that he must have come from the north
and lived in the fifth or sixth century A.D. His work,
Tirumantiram of over 3,000 verses 1 , is considered to be

1 All the verses have been written in the same metre, " a kind
of simple and short Viruttam metre. In the command over this
peculiar metre and in making it a fit instrument for his poetry and
thought, Tirumular has shown a genius of exceptional vitality. It
is one of the wonders of Tamil literature that this entire work of
over three thousand stanzas is in the same metre which is handled
with such skill that want of variety does not result in a sense of
oppressive monotony. Though the subject of the poem is dryly
intellectual and mystic, packed with heavy thought in a maze of
symbolism, the poetic style of the Tirumantiram has on the whole,
a rugged simplicity, a vigour and a new tone and use of words,
which have added to the richness of Tamil poetry. Tirumular is
a master of the apt, short and winged word. No other Tamil
poet, who has written on such a scale, has a larger proportion of
the best."

98 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

unique in many respects and occupies one-tenth of the
entire Tirumurais, the Canon of the Saiva religion
in the South. Apart from containing current ideas on
Dharma, Polity, Religion and the like, largely from
the Tirukkural, the work is notable for its sections 011 the
practice of Yoga, Siddhis or Powers, Mantras and
other branches of Agamic knowledge, in which he has
drawn upon existing Sastras and on his own personal
experience and knowledge of the truths of inner life.
All the portions of this valuable treatise, however,
could not be made intelligible as these concepts and
truths have been clothed in a symbolism which is
obscure to the later generations.

The use of symbols, especially numerals, to express
spiritual verities has been adopted by the Tamil mystic
poets, even as the Seers of the Veda resorted to another
imagery in their hymns, to guard the occult lore from
the eye of the profane and abuse by the ignorant. 1 The
author points out: " When the word five is used, it may
mean the five senses, or the five elements or the five
prdnams or the five sacred letters or the five Murtis and
so on which has to be inferred from the context.
Similarly for every numeral there are several meanings.
. . . Another factor that causes difficulty in under-
standing, if not obscurity, is the wide variety in the
symbolism used. For, God, the human body, and the
human soul have been represented in a multiple
symbolism." Due to this difficulty the most important
part of the work yet remains to be unravelled. But

1 And yet, it was Tirumular who pioneered the movement of
using the speech of the common man an innovation which was
continued by the later Siddhars.

THE SIDDHARS 99

from the portions that have been interpreted, it is clear
that the Poem is a masterpiece in which the Four Ways
of Liberation, Jnana, Karma, Bhakti and Yoga have
been integrated in a manner that fully justifies the title
of Tirumular as the greatest Siddhar in Tamil literature.

His teaching is notable for another feature ; we are
happy to read: " Tirumular does not favour that type
of Yoga which leads to mortification of the body. Unlike
later Siddhars he does not consider the human body
to be evil in itself. On the other hand he values the
human body as a fit and suitable instrument for the
soul in its career of self-discipline and search for God.
In one place he calls this body itself the temple of God."
(Tirumantiram 724. 1823). And indeed it is so. In truth,
the body is as much a creation of God as is the soul.
The difference between them is only one of degree of
the self-formation of the One Spirit. The Divine has
shaped the soul as its centre of manifestation and built
the body as its vibrant vehicle for the reception and
projection of its powers and glories. Hence the body
too has its claim in the perfection and liberation that is
aimed at. Like the mind and the soul, the human body
also is to be cultivated, processed and energised in
order that it may effectively participate in the spiritual
progression and become a plastic instrument for the
expression of the realised Divinity.

The author notes that Tirumular refers to Siva or
Nandi, the Highest Power realised by him, as a dazzling
Effulgence and observes: "The conception is meta-
phorically an apt one as Light always dispels darkness
and ignorance, which are said to stand in the way of
Man's attempt at self-realisation or union with God.

100 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Probably in the trances and visions of the mystics, God
is seen as a Mighty and moving blaze of light." It is
not a metaphor ; it is a fact of spiritual experience that
the Divine Truth reveals itself, to the inner vision of
the seeker, in the form of Light. For the characteristic
form of the Higher Truth or Power is spiritual Light of
which the physical light is a material expression. It
may be mentioned here that the Rsis of the Veda
speak of the Highest Manifestation of the Divine as the
Supreme Sunuttamam jyotih of whom the solar orb
of our universe is a physical symbol.

Citing a number of verses in the original to illustrate
the excellence of the work, its profundity, poetic beauty
and melody, variety of symbolism, Mr. Aiyer ranks
Poet Tirumular with Manikkavachakar and Nammalwar
and adds: " He lacks the former's melody and finish in
form, but has his easy command over language. He
also lacks the latter's depth of ideas and sweep of
imagination, but has his terseness and power of ex-
pression. In the wide range of his symbolism Tirumular
may be said to excel both."

The book then gives a short account of three
Siddhars, Sivavakkiyar l who posits the supreme Divine
Power above both Siva and Visnu, 2 Pattinatthar, the

1 The author takes up the controversy whether Siddhar
Sivavakkiyar and the famous Tirumalisai Alwar are one and the
same person. He argues with considerable force in support of the
old tradition that Sivavakkiyar is the very same Saivite Siddhar
who later became famous as Tirumalisai Piran, the Vaisnava
Alwar.

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THE SIDDHARS 101

most widely read of the Siddhars and Bhadragiri all
of whom lived in what is known as the Hymnal Period,
6 to 10 A.D.

This is followed by a chapter on the later Siddhars
in the 16th and 17th centuries when there was another
burst of revolt against the newly consolidated orthodoxy
and scholasticism. Much less is known about the personal
lives of these later celebrities, even their names deriving
from some significant expressions used in their works. 1
Brief accounts are given of the works of Pambatti
Siddhar, Idaikattu Siddhar, Ahappey Siddhar, Kudam-
bai Siddhar, Kaduveli Siddhar and Aluhunni Siddhar.
The author, however, is inclined to rate their contribu-
tion to Tamil literature much lower than that of the
earlier giants.

Amidst masses of obscurity and archaism the keen
eye of Mr. Aiyer detects gems of beauty and he is eager to
share his discoveries with the reader. This short account
succeeds in its objective, viz. to create interest in the
literature and work of the Siddhars, a subject which
has not received adequate attention so far in modern
studies. Perhaps the present essay could be more inten-
sive in some parts than it has been. His final estimate
of the Siddhars is both happy and just:

" The Siddhars have made a permanent and varied
contribution to Tamil literature and have enriched it.
They introduced into Tamil poetry not only the com-
mon speech but also an easy and flexible style woven

1 For instance the Siddhar known as Pambatti Siddhar (Snake-
charmer) after the symbolism of the snake he uses to denote the
human soul and the expression c ddu pdmbe ', (do thou dance,
Snake).

102 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

out of it. The Siddhars were votaries of true religion
and noble philosophy. Being men given to Yoga and
meditation they underwent long spells of contemplative
silence and moods of concentration. Their poetry was
subsidiary to their religious life. There is not the
impress of the consciously developed art in it. They
appear to have sung when they chose to ... Their
teachings about the existence of the one Supreme God
and the need for a feeling of identity with and faith in
Him, the absolute equality of all irrespective of caste
or creed and the need for each individual to develop
his inner life by spiritual effort, to know and realise
God, have a great value at the present time . . ."

One word before we conclude. The author notes
at the end :

" One cannot predict with equal certainty about
the practical value of their Yogic teachings and mystical
knowledge about the development of the latent powers
of Man by Yoga and discipline. The scientific spirit
of the times rules out worth-while future for them,
though, perhaps, stray individuals here and there may
treasure them and practise them like lone wanderers
in a strangely fascinating realm. As for the spiritual
yearning after God, that is an eternal quest. There
will always be persons engaged in it. . . ."

We are afraid the author makes an unnecessarily
rigid distinction between the development of the latent
faculties in man and the spiritual evolution of his being.
For truly speaking, there is no inconsistency between
the evocation and full maturing of all the powers with
which one is endowed and the outflowering of the soul
into Union with the Divine; one can be a part and

THE SIDDHARS 103

expression of the other. The powers are there in the
being as potential means for an all-sided manifestation
of the Soul which presides over them. Their fullness
is part of the total realisation or perfection of man.
It is not accurate, either, to say that the culture and
development of these faculties powers which are not
overtly active but nevertheless inherent in the being
has no future in this age of Science. On the other
hand, the birth and advance of the new Sciences of
para-psychology, telepathy, etc., initiates and promises
a new career for this line of human effort, although the
approach of these empirical sciences is different from
that of the old. The frontiers of Knowledge are ex-
panding at an incredible speed and it is not going to
be long before what is occult today becomes part of the
patent tomorrow.

DATTATREYA

LITTLE is known of the Daitatreya cult outside
Maharashtra where it is still an active movement and
claims considerable following. Literature on the sub-
ject in English is practically nil, the few books written
about it having gone out of print long ago. The
present work x is hence specially welcome for the light
it sheds on the significance and also the consequence
of the symbolism of Dattatreya in Indian Religion.
The exposition is not merely adequate; it is a faithful
and convincing presentation of the Doctrine of Dat-
tatreya both in its philosophical and the practical
aspects, in the traditional setting of the Vedanta. The
author is himself a whole-hearted adherent of this path
and his writing mirrors the faith and sincerity of his
approach.

v According to legend, Dattatreya is the gift, datta,
of Lord Mahesvara to Rsi Atri, borne by his wife
Anasuya. He is considered to be the fourth (some say
the sixth) Avatar of Visnu. He is traditionally re-
presented with three faces: the first one of Brahma,
the second or the middle one of Visnu and the third of
Siva, symbolising thereby the triune Movement of the
One Divine in manifestation, viz. creation, preservation

1 Dattatreya by Sri Jaya Chamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur.
Published by Allen and Unwin, London.

DATTATREYA 105

and destruction. At his feet are four dogs " which
represent the four Vedas which follow at the feet of the
Lord as hounds of heaven and watch-dogs of truth,
owned by Dattatreya, the great Hunter for the souls of
men."

In another significant figure, Dattatreya is des-
cribed as standing with ajar of wine in one hand and
a woman in the other, thus emphasising the utter
freedom of the manifesting Spirit from all determina-
tions of universal Nature. He is the One who is ever-
present, everywhere; the eiijoyer, the witness, the Trans-
cendent, He is the Absolute.

The many facets of the Dattatreya Incarnation are
dwelt upon in the Bhagavata and other Puranas; some
of the Yoga Upanisads too have passages on the
subject. The author has made an extensive study of
these writings for the purpose of his own Sadhana and
gives in these pages the cream of his reading. He has
selected two texts of importance, the Jivanmukta Gitd
and the AvadJiuta GUd, ascribed to Dattatreya, for
presenting this teaching. Both of them expound the
philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. They stress on the
irnpermancnce and the ultimate unreality of the lower
life of the senses in the shadow of Ignorance and call
upon man to grow in Knowledge and realise his ident-
ity with the one Reality that is Eternal the Brahman,
call it by what name you will.

The Jivanmukta Gitd., in twenty-four verses, deals
with the subject of liberation while still in the physical
body. One who realises the truth that Jiva is Siva
itself and lives in that consciousness is a Jivanmukta
(verse 3) ; so too he who actually sees the supreme

106 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Lord pervading the entire creation and shares effectively
in this divine Oneness, is a Mukta (verse 11). To>
realise this identity is the object of Sadhana, spiritual
discipline. One has to have, points out the author, a
c disposition ', a spontaneous turn to this seeking; and
that can come only by the Grace of God.

The Avadhuta Gitd, the Song of the Anchorite, is
a longer treatise of 289 verses in eight chapters. The
writing is uneven and obviously the inspiration is not
the same throughout. The thought is the same as that
of the other Gitd Advaita but the treatment is more
detailed. "There is neither scripture, nor worlds, nor
Gods. . . . Ultimate Reality which is Brahman is
alone manifest. It is the Highest Reality." And
" That Reality you are." The tortuous way of the
mind is not the means to reach this Truth. " O
Mind; why do you weep? Be Self itself by means of
Self." A progressive peeling off of the veils of ignorance
discloses at last the self-effulgent impartite Atman, the
Eternal Self which is at once the Self of the individual
and the Self of the universe. This is the Path of
Knowledge best pursued led by a Teacher who em-
bodies that Knowledge, the Way to the supreme Bliss of
Brahman which liberates man into the infinities of the
Spirit transcending the warring dualities of phenomenal
Nature in Ignorance.

PILGRIM TO THE SELF

"... AND the people entered the shrine of his
heart. An altar was there and on it two lights were
burning.

"He understood that these were the lights of his
own life. They were himself. The flame of the nearer
one was many-hucd, pulsating with a richness of colour
and emanating a slight smoke. He recognised it to be
his thoughts and emotions by the very familiar rhythm
of their vibrations.

"The second and farther light was colourless, but
its rays were pervading everything and penetrating
through the changing hues of the first one. Immov-
able in its pristine purity it was quietly burning, breath-
ing a peace as great as eternity itself.

" Then a Rabi dressed in white appeared, took
both the lights in his hands and changed their places.
c From this movement you will look through the light
of eternity on that of the fleeting life, instead of looking,
as you have done till now, through the ephemeral
light, which made the perception of the eternal diffi-
cult.' "

This passage from a work based on the Hebrew
Kabbalah had once fascinated the author of this book 1

1 In Days of Great Peace. By Mouni Sadhu. Publishers r
George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London.

108 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

though its full meaning was not clear to him then. It
has been his rare good fortune to see its truth unveiled
in his own person at a culminating juncture in his long
arduous journey in search of the Truth of God. His
life, as we gather from the pages of this remarkable
book, has been a sustained endeavour over a period
of thirty years to arrive at the basic Reality of
the All.

He was twenty-five when he felt drawn to Theo-
sophy. He got into touch with Mrs. Besant and
Mr. Leadbeater, the then leaders of the movement, and
began practices for developing the supra-physical facul-
ties. But the results, even after some years, did not en-
courage further effort in the direction. He found no
practical guidance forthcoming from those living arid
" their Masters were not accessible, and seemed to be
rather like a myth. It appeared that only Madame
Blavatsky and Col. Olcott had the privilege of meeting
them in physical form. On my enquiry late in 1926,
Mrs. Besant wrote to me: c It is true that after the
death of Col. Olcott in 1907, the Masters withdrew
their direct guidance of the T.S., but recently in 1925,
they resumed that guidance '."

He then took to Heremeticism based on Egyptian
tradition and the symbolism of the Tarot, and to
Kabbalah under the guidance of Eliphas Levi and
Dr. Papus. He pursued his efforts with enthusiasm till
one day he realised their futility. He followed up by
a study and practice of the methods of Dr. Practt, the
German occultist, for acquiring control over thoughts
and through them on one's personality. Here too the
results were inadequate.

PILGRIM TO THE SELF 109

Then he came into contact with the semi-secret
society, Amities Spirituelles, in Paris, founded by the
mystic and occultist, Paul Sedir. Sedir has written
much about his master, ' Master of Masters ' whose
name, however, he would not reveal but whose identity
came to our author in a flash much later when he
found his own Path. But we anticipate. The author
is not disposed to speak more of this sect and their
doctrines in view of their vow of secrecy. But it is
obvious his need was not met and he continued his
search till an elderly acquaintance placed in his hands
a copy of Paul Brun ton's Search into Secret India and in-
sisted on his reading it. And it was well he read it. For
its famous chapters on Sri Ramana Maharshi made a
profound impact on him and " were decisive. At last
I had found my true Master. This certainty came of
itself and permitted no doubts. And then I realised
why all my previous searching had been in vain. The
occult ways mentioned before w^ere only blind alleys.
They could give me some help, but there was no vision
of the true goal . . . Now it was clear to me why the
vicar a (self-enquiry) could replace the time-devouring
training of occult practices. All that I had previously
been striving after concentration, meditation, breath
and body control, a clear vision of reality, peace and
bliss all of them now came of their own accord, as
ripe fruit falls from a tree."

The author began to apply himself with his
customary earnestness to the discipline of this Path of
Self-enquiry and Self-realisation forthwith. For this
purpose he retired for a few months to the quiet
environments of a monastery in the heart of Paris and

110 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

devoted himself with exclusive attention to his object,
with satisfying gains. Three years later he could come
to India, where, he observes, with fine sensitivity:
" The psychic atmosphere of India is very different
from that of most other countries. One might say that
contemplative moods are in the very air. This is easy
to understand if we admit that no energy is lost in
nature. Millions of human beings, often endowed with
extraordinary spiritual powers, with a weighty radiating
influence, have from time immemorial been throwing
into the atmosphere of India streams of energy
generated by their meditations."

At last he arrived at the feet of his Master, the
Maharshi, and soon found himself in the throes of a
spiritual revolution which precipitated into a fulfilling
movement the several lines of inner life that he had
been building up all along so laboriously. Resistances
broke down; impassable barriers disappeared; his con-
sciousness found itself liberated in a manner that turned
all the * normal ' values upside down. And that is
exactly what happens in spiritual life. No amount of
human labour opens the doors of the Spirit. It is the
Divine Grace that alone can give the delivering touch;
it may operate directly in rare cases or, more usually,
through the person of the Guru. It is the Power and
the Presence of the Guru that works wonders and
creates what is well-nigh impossible for unaided human
effort to achieve.

Mouni Sadhu that is the name adopted by the
author lived in the physical proximity of the Sage for
only a few years. But the progress made and the
catalytic changes undergone by him in that short period

PILGRIM TO THE SELF 111

were incredibly swift and prodigious. It is fortunate
that he kept a note of these developments and was
impelled to weave them into a connected sequence for
the corroborative guidance of fellow-seekers. This
account is one of the most transparent, living and
powerful writings of the present-day spiritual literature.
It is simple, direct, yet vibrant with the Power of
Silence that has claimed and moved the author into
expression.

Whether he speaks of the indispensable personal
effort, the liberating role of the Grace, the advent of
Peace, or of the three steps of meditation in the way of
self-introspection special to this line of spiritual effort,
or of the c Land of Silence n above the flux of Name and
Form or of the inner space, infinite, c strangely silent and
empty, yet throbbing with intense life,' one stands here
face to face with a mighty Silence unrolling itself
through words that speak the language of the Eternal.

Thus far regarding the genuine character of the
inspiration that runs through the main part of the
work and the fidelity with which the author transmits it
to the reader. There are, however, a few statements
made by the author as axiomatic truths while they are
in fact only points of view valid to particular stand-
points. Truth is global in manifestation and it is
always wise not to be too trenchant in the formulation
of one's thought-vision. Also, the author could have
been more careful in verifying his collection of infor-
mation about men and things he has come across.

Speaking of the evening meditation at Sri Auro-
bindo Ashram, the author writes : " Everything
proceeded smoothly and harmoniously and was full

112 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

of deep symbolical meaning. Scores of white robed
disciples and visitors filled the vast room. Then the
Master appeared with the Mother for a short time.
Full of dignity and powerful concentration, his face
showed solemnity and inspiration."

This is rather interesting if not intriguing. For
Sri Aurobindo was never physically present at these
meetings. It is only the Mother who presided over
them. Gould it be that the sceptical author was vouch-
safed, in his subtle vision, a glimpse into an important
truth governing the Asram, the fact that Sri Auro-
bindo is inseparable from the Mother and he is always
present wherever the Mother is ?

UNTO THE INFINITE

Towards the Infinite x is a remarkable document of
spiritual significance. The Infinite reveals itself in-
finitely and the present book is an interesting and yet
authentic record of the spiritual realisation and knowl-
edge gained by the author in pursuit of Raja Yoga,
under the guidance of his Master, Samarthaguru
Sri Ramachandraji of Fatehgarh.

Real Knowledge, Jfiana, says the author, is not
something to be learnt from books or heard from
others. It is a thing to be experienced and made part
of oneself. And such a Knowledge of the Self, God and
the world can only be got by an intensive yogic effort
under a Guru who embodies that Knowledge. The
writer goes direct to his subject and expounds his
perceptions and realisations in three chapters: Jhdna
Prakarana,) Knowledge; Granthi Prakarana^ The Knots;
Antima Dasd Prakarana, The Final State (of Beatitude) .
In brief:

This world is a product of a dynamic Movement
that arose in the Static Idea or Poise of the Supreme.
It has been a graded creation with successive levels of
descent down which the individual emanations of God
have descended and up which they are to ascend back

1 Anant ki or by Ramachandra. Publishers ; Sri Ramachandra
Mission, Shahajhanpur (U.P.).
8

114 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

to the state Ultimate which is a state of Absolute
Peace and Bliss. Man is situate in the intermediate
zone between the Highest and the lowest. His heart
reflects this mid-status inasmuch as here is the nodus
of the conscious and unconscious states of Existence
and it is there that the one is to be separated from the
other. That is why, the author adds, one is enjoined
to concentrate and meditate in the Heart.

This Yoga is a sustained discipline to rise into each
successive state or level of Consciousness, identify one-
self with it, integrate it with one's own developing
consciousness before emerging into the next higher
state, till one attains to the plenary State above states.
These are the levels or Knots, Granthis (as the author
terms them) which are not to be cut asunder but re-
solved. He describes thirteen of them in all. Begin-
ning with ( 1 ) the state of awareness of a divine lordship
over all existence and a certain inrush of vital energy, the
Yogin proceeds step by step through further stages of,
(2) divine light exuding a sense of lightness and good-
ness all round, (3) a glimpse of Soul and experience of
natural clarity, (4) a higher light warm with True
Love, connected with the element of Fire giving mastery
over Agni Tattva, (5) Peace, givir g mastery over Vayu
Tattva; this Vayu, however, is different from the ordi-
nary Vayu and is immensely more refreshing, (6)
change in the nature of the luminosity and a pro-
nounced lessening of the hold of Matter, (7) Purity
and Power in a concentrated form capable of neutralis-
ing the impact of gun-shot and more powerful than the
celebrated Sri Krishna Chakra; complete experience
of Aham Brahmasmi, (8) Peace and Solidity in which

UNTO THE INFINITE 115

the world looks a dream and there is the rise of real
Vairagya, (9) commencement of contact with the In-
finite, Bhuma, new birth and a spontaneous adoration
of the Lord, (10) growth into the nature of the Lord,
(11) removal of all avarana, screen, and glimpse into
the Reality, (12) subtler than the subtlest of our states;
before this stage of vividity and brilliance our most
rarefied altitudes of the mind look gross, (13) the total
disappearance of Maya and the revelation of Life, Life,
nothing but a state of Life. This is the prelude to the
final emergence into the summits of Transcendence
which words can never describe.

One who attains this state of super-consciousness
has his will totally identified with the Divine Will. His
will is infallible; it is self-effective. But such persons,
says the author, are rare; there can be only one such
at a time and it is they who mould the destiny of the
universe.

The author gives interesting evaluations of the
spiritual stature of figures renowned in the Indian
spiritual history while describing the Siddhis vouchsafed
to the yogin in tapasyd and prophesies that better times
are ahead for the bleeding humanity of today.

Much in the book is corroborated by the spiritual
Wisdom recorded in scriptures like the Upanisads,
Yoga- treatises, etc.; as to what appears to be new,, the
author invites the readers to verify for themselves by
taking to the practice of this Yoga.

ZEN

IT is said that once at the end of a sermon, Gautama
Buddha held up a flower. Only one disciple under-
stood and smiled. Later the Enlightened One called
him aside and transmitted to him the wordless Message
of the One Mind by the Mind. The recepicnt was
Mahakasyapa, the first Patriarch who in turn trans-
mitted It to Ananda, the second of the 28 Indian
Patriarchs. The last of these, Bodhidharma, carried
this Message to China in the sixth century A.D. and
became the first of the six Chinese Patriarchs. No
further patriarchs w r ere created because of divisions in
the Sect. The last Chinese Patriarch was Hui Neng.
Third in direct line of descent from him was Huang
Po who gave a special shape and vitality to this Doctrine
of the One Mind and preached it through his sermons,
dialogues and anecdotes which have been recorded in
part by his disciple P'ei Hsiu, a scholar-official of the
State. A conscientious and elegant English translation
of this significant work is now available. 1

The theme of the book is the Teaching of the
Dhyaria School of the Buddhists, known as Ch'an in
China and the Zen in Japan. It is by the last name
(Japanese) that the Sect is now known all over the

1 The ^en Teaching of Huang Po. Publishers: Rider and Co.,
London.

ZEN 117

world. According to this Teaching, the Reality is not
something to be attained. It is there always as the
Substance and one can only realise it, become aware
of it. It is necessary for this purpose to eliminate all
conceptual activity of the mind, stand aloof in con-
sciousness from all dualities; when this is successfully
done the Revelation comes in a flash. All else is a
preparatory stage.

This Doctrine, points out the translator, Mr. Blofeld,
in his admirably clear and concise Introduction, found
a ready soil in China where " centuries of Confucianism
had predisposed scholars against the fine-spun meta-
physical speculation in which Indian Buddhists have
indulged with so much enthusiasm; . . . the teach-
ing of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, the Taoist sages,
had to a great extent anticipated Zen quietism and
prepared the Chinese mind for the reception of a
doctrine in many ways strikingly similar to their own."

The Zen Sect split for a time into two branches:
the Northern branch holding that the process of En-
lightenment is gradual and the Southern believing in
sudden Enlightenment. There is agreement, however,
that the central fact of Enlightenment is an intimate
realisation of one's immediate Unity with the Absolute,
besides which there is no other, and which for want
of a better word they called MIND. Several of the
utterances of this Master of Zen, attempting to give
as adequate an idea as possible of this inexpressible
Reality, recall identical passages from the Upanisads
(and even echo some of the Rks from the Veda), thus
emphasising the unity of the particular spiritual and
mystic experience of all time and clime.

118 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Though this work does not tell enough of the
practice, sddhana, of the Zen Discipline, it throws*
abundant light on a variety of topics, viz. the stages
of non-enlightenment preceding the Enlightenment,
the three bodies (kdyds) of the Buddhas, the necessity
of transcending the sensory perceptions and dualising
conceptions, the four steps of the process of awak-
ing to the Substance of the One Mind, the way in
which 'the illusion will cease of itself 5 all of which
have a practical significance even today to those who
seek to rise above the lowlands of the sense-submerged
mentality to the e Terrace of the Spirit r . It is a
delight to watch the Master as he draws parallels from
the commonest occurrences of daily life in speaking
to the lay intelligence, throwing in here and there a
phrase or a paradox to give " a sudden jolt to the
pupil's mind which may propel him towards or over
the brink of Enlightenment ", or slaps the Divine
Emperor himself to drive home a point and when
language palls before the Ineffable, announces, " as
there is no more to be said, the assembly is dismissed. 9y

SUBUD

HUSEIN ROFE, the writer of this remarkable book/ has
had an interesting career. Born in England of mixed
parentage, he had an unusual flair for learning langu-
ages and at quite an early age he picked up a number
of oriental languages. Even before he left school he
was reading literature on Theosophy, Ouspensky,
Buddhism, Upanisads, etc. and was drawn to the
spiritual side of life. By eighteen a sense of a spiritual
mission was growing upon him and he turned to the
Orient in search of a Teacher with direct experience
of God to help him. It required, however, ten further
years of varied life in war and travel before he could
actually visit the East. In the meanwhile, at 24, he
became a Muslim attracted by the fraternity of brother-
hood in Islam where all Muslims were considered equal,
regardless of their social and other status. After an
adventurous life in North Africa where he came into
contact with the mystics and Magi of the deserts, he
found himself drawn into a chain of happenings which
finally landed him in Djakarta in 1950.

It was here in Java (at Djogjakarta) that the
author met Muhammad Subuh whom he instinctively
recognised as the Master who was to shape his destiny

1 The Path of Subud. Publishers: Rider & Co., London.

120 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

and to whom he was to play the role of Brunton to
Ramana Maharshi. He gives a delightful account of
the life and peoples of Indonesia, their social modes
and their occult practices with a most sympathetic
approach.

From this account of the life of Muhammad Subuh
we learn that he was born in 1901 heralded by volcanic
disturbances. He was a sickly child till one day his
name was changed from Sukarno to Muhammad
Subuh, at the instance of a passing beggar. He had
clairvoyant visions even from the age of two and as
he grew up he was fascinated by the esoteric lore of
his country. Then, one night in 1925, while walking
alone on a road a bright ball of light like a sun floated
towards him and touched his head; he began to shiver.
He returned home and rested; but a strange force was
moving inside and raised him up to a standing position
and made him undergo a number of physical move-
ments quite involuntarily. This was the beginning of
a series of spiritual phenomena which continued for
nearly 1,000 nights. c 'His soul visited various planets,
and he records that when he reached the sun he saw
that its light was in reality reflected from beyond our
solar system. This ascent took place on the thousandth
night, the final culmination, during which his body
remained in a cataleptic trance. In the centre of the
sun yawned a great hole through which he was pre-
paring to pass when a voice warned him that if he went
further it would be impossible for his soul to return
to his body. He was required to perform a task decreed
by God for the benefit of humanity." (We are strongly
reminded here of a verse in the Upanisad which says

SUBUD 121

that those who cross the gates of the sun cannot retain
their body.)

The knowledge so granted to him and embodied
by him in a special discipline is known as the SUBUD,
which is ce an abbreviation of three Javanese words of
Sanskrit origin : Susila, Buddhi and Dharma." Subud
is not a religion, it has no special ritual. It is a disci-
pline to awaken the soul-consciousness -to activate the
Inner Power of the Divine which is embedded in every
body to disengage oneself from the coverings of ignor-
ance and the trappings of sense-life and place oneself
in the hands of God. There is, first, an initiation in
which there is the cc communication of the spark ".
The Power which was revealed and vouchsafed to the
Founder has been transmitted to his disciples, members
of his fraternity and they in turn are authorised to pass
it on to other aspirants who seek for it in all sincerity.
Once communicated, this Power starts w r orking of itself.
The seeker on his part has to undergo certain cc exer-
cises " on the nature of which the author is understand-
ably silent. That is to be learnt directly from the Guru.
There must be an attitude of utter surrender, mental
receptivity on the part of the practicant. It is only
then that the Force can work unobstructed. Here
the stress is on the Divine Force, not so much on
personal will. It is the Divine Grace that has to
intervene and uplift man. The working of the Force
goes on differently in different individuals: each one
reacts in the manner suited to his soul-development.
There is a C periodic isolation " of consciousness from
the movements of the lower self. Gradually a different
state of consciousness, the reign of the Higher Self,

122 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

replaces the normally extrovert condition of the being
and a spiritual growth towards God makes itself felt in
a hundred ways. Not only the practitioner but those
who come into his atmosphere feel the impact. Diseases
are cured; the mind gets illumined and intuitive facul-
ties come into play. "New organs" i.e., hitherto con-
cealed capacities, come into operation. The soul
gathers speed in its movement towards perfection in
the nature of God which is indeed endless.

Rofe describes the process vividly, citing a number
of cases in which the Force brought about amazing
results. He is persuasive in his exposition. He writes
that no advance Faith in the System is demanded. Any
one wishing to try is welcome and may profit by this
" new Force . . . made available in the world ". Experi-
ence, not Theory, is first given to the seeker. In fact the
founder of the Subud envisages it as a panacea for all
the ills of humanity in time to come. It does not
call for austerities, renunciation and the like. One can
continue to be in the world, participate in it and yet
live in the sunshine of God, act and move under His
sole direction. A successful initiate will be "passive to
God but active towards mankind".

The author recalls a prophecy of Pak Subuh that
if by the end of 1953 there were no war, then there
would be no more War though " for a time, conditions
in most parts of the world will be as critical as if there
were an actual war. Beyond that, we are on the verge
of a Golden Age." He writes: " There is no doubt that
for more than twenty years sensitives have known that
a spiritual force of an unusually high order was operative
in the world, but they had not located its central focus

SUBUD

on the material plane." He adds: " Furze Morrish had
mentioned the existence of an unknown occult centre
in the Southern Hemisphere, by which he may have
meant central Java." (Italics ours). He refers to
Rudolf Steiner " who suggested in 1909 that the present
century was likely to offer, through some selected
vehicle, a possibility for Man to get more easily in touch
with his Divine nature." He is convinced that the time
is now and the appointed Radiator of the Liberating
Divine Power is Pak Subuh. Towards this end, Rofe
has yoked his energies forming Centres all over the
world for the concentration and propagation of the
New Dynamism; branches have been opened in Japan,,
Middle East, England "and Europe where the Move-
ment is steadily making headway.

He has many interesting and instructive things to
say on matters occult, the changeability of Fate, re-
incarnation, soul-memory, vegetarianism and so on.
The book makes absorbing reading and it is a healthy
publication drawing attention to what is still a little-
known Movement for the upliftment of man and better-
ment of humanity.

UPASANI BABA

BORN in 1870 in Satna (Nasik Dt.) Baba had a medi-
tative turn of mind from infancy and ran away from
his home a number of times in search of solitude and
'God till finally he left for good at twenty. He under-
went severe penance in hill-caves and forests, remained
in a state of samadhi for months together without food
or drink. In 1911 he met and accepted as his Guru
the famous Sai Baba of Shirdi who led him to realise
not only God in himself but equally God in All. He
.settled down in Sakori (1917) and became a centre of
attraction for all devotees who flocked to him in spite
of all the oddities that characterised his external life.
It was here that he talked to people (in Marathi) as
and when they came on whatever topics that arose
directly or indirectly and the present Talks l are com-
piled from these discourses, rendered into English.

It may be that there is no connected philosophical
thought or any central Teaching in them governing
the whole. Baba himself explains : "This head of mine
is empty, whatever enters into it spontaneously I speak
out . . . not even a trace of any thought remains . . .
anything can enter into it." He adds that when he is
alone he is not even conscious of his body and thoughts

1 The Talks of Sadguru Updsani Baba Maharaj. Publishers:
Dr. Sahasrabuddhe, Ramdas Peth, Nagpur.

UPASANI BAB A 125

and words come into him only when people come into his
atmosphere. That is how hundreds of topics are touch-
ed upon in a manner suited to the temperament and
readiness of the auditors. The most valuable of these
talks, however, are those on subjects of spiritual im-
port, of which he has a special knowledge and ex-
perience, e.g. Japa, its true meaning, the way to release
the sakti dormant in it and to gain identity with the
creator of the Mantra, the several conditions of
Unmada, Pisacha, etc., of some realised beings, the
self-organisation of the Bliss of God into a celestial
body, etc.

There are many interesting topics besides. For
instance, what he says about Kubadi, the short wooden
contrivance like an arm-crutch carried by the followers
of Swami Ramdas of Maharashtra, and its use for
promoting the Susumna in the Pranayama discipline:
" The arched cross piece fits in the arm-pit and the
remaining vertical stick-like part rests on the ground.
When one sits leaning on that side, the cross piece
presses the arm-pit a good bit, and soon the breath is
seen to change from one side to the other. ... By con-
stantly changing the sides and pressing the arm-pit you
try not to breathe through one nostril only."

SAI BABA

IT is certainly strange, as Mr. Osborne observes/ that
there should have been so far no biography published
in the West, in any European language, of a saint as
eminent as Sai Baba of Shirdi. Sai Baba has been the
most unconventional of the holy men of modern India.
All who came into contact with him were shocked out
of the accepted standards and notions of spirituality,
religion, Yoga. He lived in a mosque but had an
overwhelmingly preponderant Hindu following. He
not only did not refuse to touch money but actually
demanded it from those who sought his help. He per-
formed miracles with a " flamboyance " that truly
scandalised the susceptibilities of sophisticated minds.
He effected cures in the most bizarre fashion. He
belaboured visitors and followers with an ostentatious
disdain of all elements of hospitality. And yet his flock
grew and has continued to grow even years after his
death. To the Indian mind such a life does not at all
strike as something " incredible ", though it may to a
Western eye trained under different conditions. It is
not unusual in India to find cases of yogis behaving in
an unconventional rude sort of way. Tradition here
recognises certain states among men of God in which
they move and act, so to say, in intoxication, unmattvat.

1 The Incredible Sai Baba, by Arthur Osborne. Orient
Longmans Ltd.

SAI BABA 127

Normal standards no longer apply to one who has gone
~beyond them in his consciousness, particularly if he has
not related his inner state to the outer. Be that as it
may, the present book forms an engaging account of
the Saint of Shirdi by a most sympathetic observer from
the W/*st. It is objective, brief and readable.

/Nobody knows the antecedents of Sai Baba. In
fact even his original name is not known. " Sai "
(Persian) "Baba" (Hindi) simply means saintly father.
All that is definite is that he came of a middle-class
Brahmin family in Hyderabad A^Ai a young age he left
home to follow a Muslim Fakir after whose death, a few
years later, he got attached to a Hindu Guru whom he
called c Venkusa '. He said of the Guru: " I loved to
gaze on him. I had no eyes except for him. I did not
want to go back. I forgot everything but the Guru.
My whole life w r as concentrated in my sight and my
sight on him. He was the object of my meditation. In
silence I bowed down."

He stayed with him for twelve years at Selu and
when he left he took care to take with him a brick
which the Guru had given him. He kept it with him
throughout his life as a precious link. 1 He came to
Shirdi and settled there in a dilapidated mosque where
he lived for nearly fifty years. Nobody could say why
he chose this out-of-the-way place till one day, "he
told a devotee to dig at the foot of the neem-tree
where he used to sit on his first arrival there; a tomb
was unearthed and he declared that it was that of his
Guru, not in this life but in a previous incarnation."

./ l It is interesting to learn that this brick dropped and broke
in 1918, shortly before his death.

128 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

By and by devotees were drawn to him and the
place became a centre of pilgrimage. He gave no
formal initiation nor had he any set teaching. His
devotees felt that their natural way to God was through
the Guru and acted accordingly. The author describes
with enthusiasm the variety of miracles worked in the
environs of the saint and quotes one of his famous
sayings, in explanation: / give my devotees what they
want so that they will begin to want what I want to give
them. His narrations of Baba's teaching through
symbols, the occult character of his movements and
actions, are indeed interesting, though we wish the
author had paused a little to explain the rationale of
his application of occult science by the saint, especially
his cc travels with an invisible body ".

He passed away in 1918. Before the end came,
he "sent word to another Muslim saint: c The light
that Allah lit he is taking away ', and the saint received
the message with tears." The body was buried. Why not
cremated ? asks the author and answers : " Actually it is
a tradition that the body of a Realised Man should be
buried. He has passed through the fire already; there
is no need to do so symbolically after death." We
might add that in the Indian tradition, Yogis and
Siddhas are not burnt but buried because a body which
has received and assimilated the divine Light and
Consciousness shall not be destroyed. The vibrations
of the Spirit ever continue to emanate from that mate-
rial form and that is the reason why the spot where
such a body is entombed becomes a centre of spiritual
force. " My relics," said Sai Baba, ^/will speak from,
the tomb."

Section Four
TRADITION OF INDIAN CULTURE.

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA 1

IT was a happy idea of the Ramakrishna Mission to
sponsor, as part of the Birth Centenary celebrations of
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in 1936, the publication
of a comprehensive survey of Indian Civilisation and
Culture in three volumes under the title, The Cultural
Heritage of India. Comprising weighty contributions
from one hundred scholars on the various aspects of
Indian cultural and spiritual tradition, the work was
the first of its kind in its comprehensive scope, pro-
fundity of treatment and catholicity of outlook befitting
the great occasion it sought to commemorate. It was
liailed as a remarkable product of co-operative research
.and soon established itself as the nucleus of a future
Encyclopedia Indica. It is now many years since the
work got out of print and we are thankful to the
publishers not only for bringing out a fresh edition but
more for taking the occasion to enlarge the scope of
the work, add fresh material and revise the old by
bringing it up-to-date and rearrange the entire subject-
matter in separate volumes so as to make each volume
independent and complete in itself. The work as now
projected, runs into five volumes, three of which have

1 The Cultural Heritage of India (Vol. I) The Early Phases.
Publishers: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta.

132 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

been published so far, the first being now before us
for study. 1

Time was when books on Indian history began
their first chapter with the Vedic Period. It was taken
for granted that Indian civilisation dated from its early
beginnings in the primitive age of which the pastoral
poetry of the Rig Veda is a faithful record. This
smug position, however, has had to be given up in the
face of mounting evidence archaeological, historical,
philological and other that unmistakably points to a
long, long prior epoch of civilisation of which, as Sri
Aurobindo has pointed out, the Rig Veda marks only
the closing phase. Besides, the hymns of the Veda are
now coming to be admitted to be much more than the
crude incantations of Nature-worshippers that they
were once taken to be; they are, on the other hand, a
record of the spiritual and mystic past of a race who
were highly advanced in the life of the soul. Who
were the people that inhabited India during these
prehistoric times ? Where they autochthonous or immi-
grant? If immigrants, from where did they come?
What traditions did they bring with them and how did
they influence or meet the ways and beliefs of the
indigenous people ? What was the language that was
spoken by the classes of that age? Is Vedic Sanskrit
the oldest language of the Indo-Aryans or is it pre-
Homeric Greek that should claim the privilege ? These
are the main questions that are dealt with in the first
two sections of this volume, viz. Background of Indian
Culture and Prehistoric India.

1 The other volumes already released are Vol. Ill, Philo-
sophies and Vol. IV, Religions.

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA 133

The variety of climate and soil, the flora and
fauna that abound in this country of continental
dimensions almost a miniature globe the diversity of
the races that came to inhabit the land down the ages
and the interaction between their modes of living and
thinking, the gradual evolution of a common Indian
way of life out of this incessant ferment with whatever
elements that remained immiscible are all covered in
these learned dissertations. Also discussed is the com-
plex subject whether India was the melting pot for the
different races that poured down from Central Asia or
whether India was the base from where waves of
emigrations flowed northwards and peopled the countries
of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and parts of
Europe.

Next there is the question of the antiquity of
Indian-Aryan Culture. The beginnings of this cultural
movement are traced to sources outside India, e.g.,
Egypt, Mesopotamia, and other countries of the Near
East and the possible influences of their civilisations
on the Indian are examined. Were the civilisations of
Sumer, Egypt and Asia Minor older than the Vedic
or pre- Vedic ? It is difficult to give a definite answer
in view of the conflicting data that keep on coming up
continually. Whatever it be, the Indian Culture, as
the editors observe, " has an ideology which is of uni-
versal appeal and value ". Their further remarks on
the subject deserve attention:

In the history of Humanity as a whole, the first thousand
years before Christ has been described as the Axial Period* Dur-
ing these thousand years, the nations of antiquity which flourished
at that time, or rather their intellectual and spiritual leaders, gave
expression to certain ideas, certain intuitions with regard to the

134 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

nature of the Unseen Reality, and also with regard to our rela-
tions with it, which are still vital for Humanity, and round which
also the mind of modern man in his gropings to grasp at the
Unseen Reality is still revolving. It is the ideologies which devel-
oped in China, in India, in Iran, in Mesopotamia, in Palestine,,
and in Greece that furnish the axis for modern thought the
living religions of the world.

Man, after he had become a civilised being and made life
possible, and to some extent secure and comfortable, began to
think seriously about the problems connected with life parti-
cularly about the Great Guiding Force of Life and Being. It was
arrived at by the deeper and the finer consciousness of Man when
he had sufficiently advanced in civilisation ; it was not merely the
promptings of fear and wonder which lay at the root of primitive
religion. Man made this great discovery for himself that behind
life and existence there is a great Force, a great Presence, which
has been viewed differently by different groups of men, condition-
ed as they were by their economic and cultural background.
They discovered, as in India, the ekam sat 'the One Single
Existence That Is ' ; and the Indian sages: also said that the wise
men, evidently in the different societies, described it in a mani-
fold way.

It was to be the Axial Millennium with Humanity as soon
as they had arrived at a postulation of this great Unseen Reality
behind Life, and mankind as a whole became convinced of it.
This was conceived as a unique Force which had to be obeyed
without question and which would not tolerate man's homage to
be paid to any other lesser conception: that was the Hebrew
attitude the attitude of the Old-Testament prophets.

Behind this monistic idea of the Jewish prophets was the
conception of Aten as arrived at by the philosopher-king of Egypt,
Akhen-Aten (Amen-hotep), who saw in that Force the Lord of
Light and of Guidance as manifested in the material sphere by
the Sun.

In China the conception of Tao or the ' Way ' through
which everything in this world is carried under an inevitable
Law, was early arrived at, and it is the basis of all deeper religi-
ous thought in China, not only of Taoism, but also of Confuci-
anism; and connected with the Tao concept is the great principle
of Yang and Yin, i.e. of Light and Darkness, or the Positive and
the Negative, or Heat and Cold, or Sky and Earth, or the Male
and Female Purusa and Prakrti, in Indian parlance.

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA 135

In India, possibly based on certain conceptions which
worked already in the minds of pre- Aryan peoples, the great con-
cept of Brahman or the Supreme Spirit, a kind of Mana (as the
Polynesians named it), which is both transcendent and immanent
(kad-a-ul, as it has been called by the ancient Tamil sages of South
India " That which is beyond, and also within ") in our mundane
existence, was arrived at; and along with that went also the great
concept of a Moral Order in the universe, which was analogous
to the Chinese Tao, and came to be known to the Vedic people
as Rta or the Supreme Truth, or as Dharma in later times, mean-
ing " that which holds things in itself, and represents their true
nature ".

The third section on Vedic Civilisation is devoted
to the legacy of the Veda and the Upanisad. The
ceremonial, social, cultural and spiritual aspects of the
Vedic Religion and its subsequent development in
continuation of the tradition, not in revolt against it
into the philosophy and Sadhana of the Upanisads
are dealt with by a number of scholars. Though the
familiar stamp of the Western Indologist is descernible
in certain lines of their approach, we do notice a
marked tendency in these papers to leave the beaten
track of the nineteenth century scholarship and evaluate
the concepts and practices of the Veda and the Upa-
nisads in the light of India's own tradition. The most
notable of these writings is the paper on Vedic Exegesis
by Srimad Anirvan. This masterly survey of the history
of the Vedic Interpretation from the age of the Brah-
manas to the present day is perhaps the best contri-
bution in this volume faithfully reflecting the genius of
the Indian spirit. He brings out, in his fascinating
account, the role played by each of the several schools
of interpretation in the preservation of the Vedic
heritage and at the same time points to their short-
comings. He places his unerring finger on the lacunae

136 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

in Vedic studies after the disrepute into which ritualist
interpretation has fallen and the collapse of the modern
" scientific and rationalist " method of the Western
scholars caused by the fatal misapplication of the Theory
of Evolution. He says :

; The problem of Vedic exegesis then is the problem of
reviving the spirit and recreating the inner experience of the
atmosphere in which the mantras took shape. Mere intellectual
ingenuity and superficial judgment will not help us, because here
we are dealing with things of the Spirit where an interpretation
can hope to be true only when understanding has come through
spiritual communion and insight. . . . Like the mystic Asvattha
tree with (i its root above and the branches below ", the Vedic
tradition, in a broad sense, stands at the very source of almost all
forms of Indian spiritual cults. And the interpretation of this
tradition can be attempted with best results if we do not place the
Vedas on the isolated heights of the past, but with a total vision
of the present retrace our steps to the roots discovering, with a
penetrating insight, the links at every step. But this movement
in breadth must be supplemented by a movement in depth. One
has to discover the master-idea that has been behind this histor-
ical development. And here, it is the Spirit that must question
the Spirit in that stillness of " the ocean where the womb of the
World lies sunk in the depths of the Waters ".

The writer welcomes, in this context, the approach of
Sri Aurobindo which, he writes, " has brought to bear on
the subject the principles of a spiritual depth-psycho-
logy," and a will always be regarded as opening a new
chapter in Indian Vedic interpretation."

It would have been extremely relevant and help-
ful to the reader if this were followed up by a paper on
the central features of the Psychological Method of
Interpretation adopted by Sri Aurobindo in unveiling
the Secret of the Veda and also the support he has
derived for his findings from the very utterances of the
Rsis of the Veda.

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA 137

The fourth and the last section treats the next
phase in the development of the Indian Religious
Tradition, the rise and growth of the so-called hetero-
dox systems of Jainism and Buddhism. Though they
disclaim the sanction of Vedic authority, it is pointed
out that their essential character derives from the spirit
of the Veda and Vedanta. In their condemnation of
excessive ritualism and animal sacrifice, they are in the
good company of some of the Upanisads.

Jainism, unlike Buddhism, is still a living religion in
India. Its literature, unlike the Buddhist, is not con-
fined to religion and philosophy alone. Jaina writers
have written largely and competently on logic,
grammar, poetry and poetics, lexicography, etc. "They
have a monastic system without a monastery." They
have elaborate rules for the conduct of their monks
and they are followed to the letter even today 2,500
years after they were laid down ! The cardinal doctrines
of the Jaina philosophy are: (1) Syadvdda (or saptabhangi-
vdda), may be or may not be doctrine which rules out
dogmatism in any sphere. Everything can be looked
at from seven standpoints and each account is different
from the other. In effect it means, all statements are
relative and none absolute. (2) Nava-tattva, nine eternal
substances : jiva, ajiva, punya, papa, asrava, samvara,
banda, nirjara and moksa. 1 The Jiva is eternal and
eternal its possibility of progress. This religion estab-
lishes a sympathetic link not only between man and
man but also with all living beings in creation.

1 Conscious soul, unconscious non-soul, merit and demerit,
flow into jiva, cessation of flow into jiva, bondage, destruction of
the effect of karma, and liberation.

138 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

Buddhism is here described as a religion which
struck " a course midway between the rigorism of the
Jains and the secularism of the sacrificial Brahmanas ".
It opened the gates of the Highest Truth to all men of
whatever class not only in India but carried the
Message to countries beyond its frontiers. " The cultural
heritage of India was shared by most of the Asians
through the grace of this religion/' and along with
Religion, the " Buddhist art and architecture, language
and literature, and above all, translations of the
Buddhist scriptures and the subsidiary literature in all
the languages of the countries where the religion made
its home."

The original Doctrine of the Four Noble Truths
and the Eightfold Path for their realisation with its
psychological and ethical implications for the individual
and the society, its continuation in more or less the
same form in the southern countries like Ceylon, Siam,
Burma, etc. (Hinayana) and its transformation else-
where in the North as the Mahayana and the introduc-
tion of a pronounced strain of esotericism after the 8th
century A. D. as the Tantrayana or Vajrayana with
sharp results in the end, are all well described in these
papers. The state-support enjoyed by Buddhism in
the heyday of its career and its decline as an institu-
tional religion following changes in the faith of the
Rulers are underlined. Attention is drawn to the gradual
deterioration in the morale of the monasteries which
were the mainstay of this propagating Movement and
also the paucity of men of real spiritual and intellectual
eminence in the later times a factor which told against
the continued growth of Buddhism.

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF INDIA 139*

All told, this sumptuous volume should be wel-
come to all, to the scholar, to the layman, to the
devout as well as to the free thinker. The vast amount
of documented material that is laid out in these pages
assures its utility as a book of reference for all serious
students of Indian Culture and the spirit of tolerance
that breathes throughout the book makes it a most
pleasant and fruitful reading to the general public.

MANU

'THE -publication of Manu Dharma Sastra^ an enlarged
edition of Dr. Motwani's solid work MANU, which
first appeared twenty-five years ago, is most timely. At
a time when there is so much talk and clumsy effort
at social reconstruction and so many novel plans are
being debated upon, it is very useful to have before
us a Document of this kind presenting in terms of
modern sociology the essentials of a system of life-
organisation and progress evolved by the cream of the
.ancient Aryan Mind millenniums ago. For Manu
Dharma Sastra, as the author points out, is not a code
of laws drafted by an individual called Manu. Manu
is the archetypal Man. The name is a legend for the
ideal mentality governing humanity and the thought
that goes under that name represents the conceptions
formed and lines laid down for the evolution of man-
kind in all its stages of growth by the Fathers of the
race. This treatise is a convenient compilation by
one or more hands of the Wisdom embodied in the
floating tradition of the land as old as the Vedas. Not
all of it, surely; there is a good deal of accretion in-
escapable with the passage of time ; but fundamentally
it is that.

Publishers: Ganesh & Co., Madras 17.

MANU 14L

After a preliminary examination of the con-
notation of the terms of the title, Manu Dharma-
dstra, the author gives a broad outline in the open-
ing chapter of the work describing the cosmic process
of creation, the appearance of life on the planet, the
arrival of man, his development into a full-fledged
mental being in association with his fellow-beings,,
his destined role as the leader of evolution moving to
its Goal of the Revelation of the supreme Godhead.
For this ordered development of man, individually and
collectively to be possible, it is necessary that a social
organism be brought into being governed by Principles
which best promote the flowering of this Ideal of a
complete fulfilment of Man and this is precisely the
subject-matter of the rest of the book.

With commendable clarity of insight and felicity
in expression, the author who follows the lead of Sri
Aurobindo on the subject discusses threadbare and
expounds the idea-truths and practical efficacy of the
institutions of Asrama and Varna which form the basic
fabric of Manu's typal society. He is most impressive
in his exposition of the relation and correspondence
between the four asramas, stages in the life of the indi-
vidual, and the four social orders, viz. the Brahma-
carya Agrama and the Varna of Sudra; the Grhastha
and the Vaisya; the Vanaprastha and the Ksattriya;
the Sannyasa and the Brahmana. He works out an
inter-relation between each Asrama and its corres-
ponding Varna based upon a common governing
motive.

The author draws special attention to one impor-
tant feature of this social Science of Manu; it envisages*

142 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

a dynamic, not a static society set to pattern. Each
-order of life must prepare and precipitate itself into the
next higher both in the life of the individual and of the
group. The Sudra, the Vaisya, the Ksattriya, are
each under constant pressure of the environment and
the higher example to develop and grow into the
mould of the class immediately above. Dr. Motwani is
fascinating in his presentation of Manu's comprehensive
scheme of Education for boys and girls round the
clock, his conception of three-tiered State, his exacting
standards for efficient Legislature and sound Judiciary.
He compares Manu to Plato and other Greek thinkers
and underlines the humanism and catholicity of the
former in dealing with living beings.

The second part of the book deals with the in-
fluence of Manu's Thought in countries outside India,
from Egypt to New Zealand including China and
Japan. Compared to the first, we are afraid, the second
part is rather weak. Things need a good deal of further
proving before the conclusions could be accepted. The
author avers that the prehistoric Aryans had already
evolved the Vedic civilisation and perforce the Thought
of Manu in their original home in Central Asia and
it was thence that the stamp of Manu was carried by
successive waves of Aryan migration to the different
parts of the globe. We do not know. Further, the
evidences and the inferences of Manu's influence in the
several countries listed in these pages are more con-
jectural than substantive. More positive data is called
for. The author himself admits the tentative nature of
his findings and invites further studies in the field
etched out by him.

MANU 143

The discussion is rounded up with an informative
chapter giving the estimate of Manu Dharma Sastra
by modern thinkers from Nietzsche to the present
Acarya of Kamakoti Pitham.

All told, we welcome this work which represents
the finest fruit of Dr. Motwani's studies in Sociology,
as a unique exposition of an ageless testament on the
significance of Manu.

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI

LITTLE is known of Subramania Bharati outside Tamil
Nad. He is remembered as one of the notable patriots
thrown up by the surge of Indian nationalism in the
early years of the century, a patriot who was also a
born poet in Tamil. Beyond that nothing is known or
considered worth while to be known. And yet, in the
land of his birth and labours, he is held in the highest
reverence, almost apotheosised as a divine poet who
was the chosen mouthpiece of Bharata akti. There
is not a Tamilian on whose lips his notes have not
danced, none in whose heart-strings his words have
failed to vibrate. Who was this remarkable man?
Why was he called Bharati? What is his uniqueness as
a poet? Was he anything more than a bard of national-
ism? What did he think? What did he write? And
finally, what is his place in the illustrious gallery of the
leaders who inspired and shaped the movement of
national regeneration and liberation ?

It is happy to find light on these questions in the
book, Subramania B karat hi (A Memoir} 1 by Prof. P. Maha-
devan. The book is the first adequate biography of
Bharati in English. The many-sided personality that
forms its subject-matter is unique; but the equipment

Atri Publishers, Madras 17.

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 145

of the author is equal to the task. He has brought
to bear all the gifts of literary insight and criti-
cism for which he is well known on his study of
Bharati and his works; he puts his metrical skill to
capital use in his English renderings of choice selections
from the poet's writings; his familiarity with the
genius of the language in which the poet expressed
himself and his own sense of humour, objectivity and
facility of expression in English, have all combined to
give a most enjoyable and informative biography of
Subramania Bharati a pleasure so far denied to the
non-Tamil-knowing public.

Subramaniam was born on 11-12-1882 at Ettaya-
puram where his father Chinnaswami Iyer, a protege of
the local Zamindar, had just succeeded in starting one of
the first textile mills in South India. He lost his mother
in his fifth year; his father married again but to the
good luck of the boy the step-mother was a very affable
soul. Subbiah abbreviated form of the longer Subra-
maniam was of a shy and dreamy temperament, paid
no attention to his lessons and developed an incorrigible
obstinacy; at times he would return home empty-
handed, his slate and books thrown away.

The enterprising father who had planned a large
future for his son was disappointed and sent him to his
uncles at Tirurielveli with the hope that the change
would prove beneficial. And indeed it did for a
time. He progressed well and soon became the most
popular boy in the school as he began to show pre-
cocious genius in composing impromptu verses in
Tamil. However, there seems to have been a setback
later and he found himself detained in a class without
10

146 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

promotion. Subbiah made up his mind that he had
enough of these studies and returned forthwith to his
parental home. Though he took no more interest in
class-room studies, he was fond of reading classics in
Tamil and in English and he assimilated them with
ease. He also showed an unusual capacity for inspired
utterance. The Zamindar (of Ettayapuram) came to
hear of the remarkable capacities of the boy and sent
for him; he was so much enraptured by his talents that
thereafter the youngster was treated on a par with
other pundits and scholars of the court. Subbiah took
it as a matter of course and participated in the func-
tions of assemblies with a poise and confidence that
would have done credit to more aged shoulders. As
usual with human nature, the other members of the
court found it hard to swallow that this callow youth
should not only move on equal terms with them but
threaten to become the favourite of the patron, and
before long one of them decided on a public humiliation
of the boy. He had known that the lad had failed to
get through his school tests and he chose this tender
spot to strike at. Subbiah loftily replied that he had
no use for that kind of education. He challenged any
one of the assembly to hold debate with him on any
subject and that too without prior preparation. The
boy was hardly fifteen. Let the author describe the
scene:

The older pundits were taken aback ; but one of them was
persuaded to pick up the gauntlet. The contest was held at a
special sitting of the durbar at which the Rajah himself was
present. Lots were cast and the Pundit was called upon to
initiate the debate. The subject chosen was " Education ". It
soon came to the turn of the lad of fourteen to reply. He made

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 147

at such a humorous, incisive and eloquent performance that the
'-entire audience agreed that it was much the better of the two.
An old and respected member of the court stood up and spoke
for the rest. " God bless you, Subbiah. I declare you winner and
it is also the overwhelming opinion of all assembled here.
Henceforth be you known as Bhdrati"

Bharati's stock rose high. He came to be attached
to the Rajah's court; he became the favourite of the
heir-apparent to the Gadi. One of his pleasant duties,
we are told, was to read Tamil classics to his patron.

Bharati married in 1897; bride Chellammal was
only seven. Soon afterwards his father died leaving
him penniless. Apart from the pecuniary want which
stared him in the face, he was feeling the need of a
more adequate equipment in formal education. An
mint of his and her husband were settled in Banaras
and thither went the young man ; he was duly welcomed
and petted by the childless couple :

He took undue advantage of the old couple's fondness for
him, and soon developed into a spoilt youth. His manners and
habits underwent a change for the worse. He neglected the due
performance of his daily prayers, he cut his hair after the English
style, having got rid of the odious tuft enjoined by custom and
holy srutis, and loved to dress himself with inconsequent eclec-
ticism from head to foot. The tout ensemble gave him more the
appearance of a Muslim than a Hindu. But the moustache which
he grew proved to be the most offensive part of the translation.

However, Bharati applied himself diligently and passed
the matriculation examination in the first division.

While at Banaras, he took an increasing interest
in the political happenings in the country and this
news somehow trickled down to his wife in Kadayam
in the far south. The poor girl was frightened by her
^relatives with the spectre of the Andamans for her

148 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

husband and she wrote a touching letter imploring him
to give up all these dangerous activities.

Some time later Bharati returned to Ettayapuram
for a while. By now he was politically very much
awake and a fervent admirer of Shelley and Byron; he
even started a Shelleyan Guild. He was inspired by
the history of the French Revolution, by the doings of
Mazzini and Garibaldi. He found the semi-feudal
conditions in the Zamindari Estate irksome, and made
no secret of this aversion in his outpourings against the
old order of things, with the result that interested parties
succeeded in prejudicing the Rajah against him. We
next see Bharati in Madurai in 1904 as a Tamil Pundit
in a school for a few months a period noted for his
patriotic poetry and poems loaded with political satire
and then in Madras where he was taken by Sri G. Sub-
ramariya Iyer to work in the newly started Tamil Daily
Swadeshamitran of which he himself was the editor.

Bharati's duties in the Swadeshamitran office were
riot something he could enthuse about; he had to render
into Tamil all the news that came in English. The
cautious editor would not allow him to write political
articles though after some time he permitted him to
write on social and allied topics. Bharati did his work
with much gusto. He was paid Rs. 30 per month. In
the meanwhile political events were gathering tempo;
the nationalist agitation following the partition of
Bengal by Lord Curzon, the floating of the Swadeshi
Steam Navigation Company in Tamil Nad arid the
tribulations it was passing through in the rate war by
foreign shipping concerns, and the general awakening
of the people to their own rights all these had released

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 149

a concatenation offerees into whose orbit Bharati was
naturally drawn as fish to water. He attended the
Calcutta session of the Congress in 1906 as a delegate
and a journalist. Before he returned he met Sister
Nivedita for whom he had developed a profound regard
for her services to the country, specially to Indian
womanhood. The author gives an interesting account
of the interview:

SISTER NIVEDITA: My son, are you married?

BHARATI: Yes, mother, I'm married. I have also a daughter
who is two years old.

S.N. : Very good, but why have you not brought your wife
with you?

B. (in faltering voice) : It is not usual in our community to
bring our womenfolk out with us. Further she knows nothing
about politics.

S.N. (not quite pleased) : My son, I am sorry to find one
more Indian who considers women no better than slaves. What
is the value of your education if it does not help you to bring up
your womenfolk to your own level ? Don't you realise that the
country will never advance or prosper if one half of it is ignorant,
backward and superstitious ?

B. : I'm sorry mother, hereafter

S.N. : Quite right; hereafter at least don't look down upon
your wife. Treat her as your equal, and you will find how soon
she learns things for herself. And another thing...

B. : Yes, mother

S.N. : Forget all caste distinctions. In God's eyes all are
born equal and are equal. Love your fellowmen...

B. (eagerly) : Yes, mother. I know we are all children of
the mother-land...

S.N. : Will you promise?

B. (fervently) : I do, mother, I shall...

S.N. : That's right. Some day, I'm sure you will become
famous. God bless you.

Soon after his return from Calcutta, Bharati left
the Swadeshamitran and with the help of some friends

150 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

(particularly Sri S. N. Tirumalachari) started two week-
lies, India in Tamil and Bdla Bhdrata in English (1907).
India was printed on red paper in keeping with its
revolutionary character and its circulation soon went
up to 4,000 copies. He also began to introduce his
poems to the public by reciting them on special
occasions. Bharati had a powerful voice which held
the audience spell-bound. He wrote vigorously in his
weeklies and directed the withering fire of scorn on the
Moderates, especially on their leader in Madras,
Sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer the most renowned patron of
arts, letters and public causes in his day. The Moderate
leader, however, seems to have taken it all as part of
the game and it does great credit to his broad-minded-
ness that it was his affluence that made possible the first
publication of the poems of Bharati.

The author relates how Sri G. A. Natesan, the suave
founder-editor of the Indian Review who was a liaison
between the warring factions of the citizenry, arranged
a meeting between the two political foes. Bharati was
unwilling and said: "I don't like him and he will
certainly not like me. Nothing will come of such a
meeting. So drop it." But

Natesan's earnestness carried the day. " All right," replied
Bharati somewhat diffidently, " but on one condition. Don't tell
him who I am." To this Natesan agreed.

And so one evening, when the lawyer had returned from
court and was talking his case in his garden in the midst of his
friends, Natesan came in followed by a stranger who stood modestly
behind. After greetings and some desultory talk, Krishnaswami
Iyer noticed the stranger and asked who he was. " A Tamil poet,"
replied Natesan promptly, "he has composed many songs; and
as you are fond of Tamil poetry also, I have brought him to
sing some of them to you." " Indeed, ask him to go ahead then,"
he replied genuinely interested . . . when at a signal from

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 151

Natesan, Bharati started to sing his Vande Mataram song, all sounds
ceased. Half-way through as Bharati got into his stride and the
tempo quickened, Krishnaswami Iyer sat up in his chair and
followed the poet's voice in undisguised admiration. The first
song was followed by two others entitled now Ndttu Vanakkam
and Engal Nadu.

The patron was in a transport of delight. He said:
<e Wonderful! How fresh, original and inspiring! But, young man,
you are hiding your light under a bushel. These songs should
be printed and broadcast throughout the country so that our
children learn to sing them everywhere." Natesan butted in at
this point: "That's exactly what he has come for and where you
come in. The poverty of poets is proverbial. And so . . ."

" All right," replied the patron. " I shall see that 10,000
copies of them are immediately printed and distributed free."
He is also said to have instructed his clerk to give the poet
Rs. 100 /- as a token of his esteem. Then he turned to him, and
asked: "May I know your name?" Bharati stood silent and ner-
vous, but Natesan soon came to his rescue. " This is the very same
person who has been attacking you in the columns of India
Subramania Bharati. I have dragged him here by main force."
Krishnaswami Iyer rose to the occasion. In his pleasantest
manner, he is said to have replied: " I don't care for the politician,
let's forget him. But I am glad to know and admire the poet."

Bharati attended the famous Surat session of the
Congress in 1907 where the organisation split into two.
He had long wanted to meet Tilak, the Maharashtrian
stalwart, for whom he had the highest veneration.
Indeed, in his work Jnanaratam his poetic imagination
conceives Dharmaraja himself, the supreme Justiciar
of Right and Wrong, in the likeness of Tilak: " A benign,
majestic figure looking remarkably like Tilak, but
eternally young." Bharati

went in search of him from camp to camp, but could not
find him. Added to his troubles was rain which had rendered the
road to the newly laid Congress Pandal slushy and impassable.
Wading through knee-deep mud, Bharati came across a party
of volunteers engaged in repairing a breach in the pathway. A
man holding an umbrella over his head was directing operations^

152 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

moving" from place to place. A captain of the volunteers, he was
attending to a piece of essential work which he finished in time to
enable the delegates and visitors to use the road with safety and
comfort. Bharati saw him at a distance, and coming nearer felt
sure it was Tilak. Even in repose, his eyes seemed two pools of
smouldering fire. Bharati asked no questions, but fell prostrate
at his feet and touched them, forgetting the rain, the dirt and the
mud. It was enough for him that he had obtained the darsan
of his hero and leader.

Events took a precipitate turn after the Surat im-
broglio; the suppressed and pent-up fury of the extre-
mists erupted in a series of bomb outrages in the
country and the Government came down with a heavy
hand. New legislation was passed, eminent leaders like
Sri Aurobindo and Tilak were jailed. The air was
thick with rumours of the impending arrest of Bharati
and it required much pressure by friends before he
-could be persuaded to go to Pondicherry in the French
settlements instead of getting immobilised behind the
prison bars in British India. So it was in 1908 that
Bharati entered Pondicherry where he was to be joined
later 011 by Sri Aurobindo and Sri V. V. S. Iyer who
together " were to prove the trinity of a renascence in
the South which slowly but surely radiated its influence
all over India not merely in the political sphere, but in
literary, philosophic arid cultural fields as well ".

At Pondicherry Bharati secured lodgings from an
accommodating landlord. 1 His friends arranged to
shift the printing press where India used to be printed
at Madras, to Pondicherry so that the weekly could

1 The house where Bharati spent the larger part of his exile
in Pondicherry is now in a semi-dilapidated condition. Efforts by
the Bharati Memorial Committee to acquire the house have not
been, however, successful because of the proverbial cupidity which
is second nature with a section of our countrymen.

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 153

-continue. When resumed, the issues of the journal
were devoured by the public with avidity, their
appetite increasing with each successive measure taken
by the authorities in India to suppress their circulation.
The police confiscated all copies in transit by post;
those found reading it were threatened and remittances
for subscription were stopped with the result that the
journal (as also the daily Vijaya which was started a
little later after the resumption of India) had to cease
publication early in 1910.

That year arrived Sri Aurobindo from Chander-
nagar via Calcutta and Sri V. V. S. Iyer from England
after a series of escapades from the Police on his way.
The coming together of these three political personalities
sent jitters into the British Indian authorities. Spies
were sent to watch and report the activities of these
exiles ; agents provocateurs were employed to involve them
in compromising situations. They even got the French
Police to conduct house-searches. The author narrates
an amusing incident:

They began with the lodging of Sri Aurobindo. The
French Officer who was in charge of the police party was young,
courteous and cultured. As he came up to Sri Aurobindo working
at a table which was littered over with books, he took up one of
them and found it to be in Greek; picked up another and found it
in Latin. Both were ancient classics. He then turned to Sri
Aurobindo and asked him:

" Are these books yours? "

"Yes ", replied Sri Aurobindo.

" And do you know Greek and Latin? "

" Yes ", replied Sri Aurobindo smiling.

" I beg your pardon then ", replied the young officer, " sorry
for the intrusion," and he returned with his myrmidons in a
hurry.

154 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

The vexations continued. In the year 1911,
the disturbing political portents in Europe brought
England and France together and the British Indian
Government took the opportunity to induce the French
authorities in Pondicherry to legislate the Alien's Act
by which those who were not full-fledged citizens of
French India could not stay there for long; of course
there were a few exceptions, one of which was that
even a non-citizen could stay provided he got five
honorary magistrates to support the desirability of his
person. The position of the political refugees became
difficult. The situation, however, was managed by
Bharati who had come to know one of the leading
citizens, Calve Shankara Chettiar. 1 This worthy gentle-
man collected the required signatures within a day and
the authorities were once more checkmated.

All, however, was not politics. Sri Aurobindo
had left the problem of Indian Freedom for solution in
other hands in the wake of the larger problem of
humanity which had come to claim his increasing
attention. It is not correct to say, as the author does,,
that Sri Aurobindo's retirement was a reaction follow-
ing the immediate failure of the political movement he
had led with such distinction ; nor is it true that he
resigned himself to an indefinite recession of the possi-
bility of Indian Freedom. It had been revealed to
Sri Aurobindo, during the series of spiritual realisations.

1 It may be mentioned that it was in his house that Sri
Aurobindo stayed for the first six months after his arrival in
Pondicherry. The house is still intact and is being looked after by
the AsYam under a mutually helpful arrangement with the
landlord's family.

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 155'

that crowded on him from the moment of his incar-
ceration, that his overt role in the national struggle was
over, that the leadership to guide the Movement to its
destined fruition was another's and that thenceforward
his work lay in a different direction. Sri Aurobindo
made no secret of it and announced the tidings in
unmistakable terms on a number of occasions. In a
letter written in 1932 he states:

I may also say that I did not leave politics because I felt I
could do nothing more there; such an idea was very far from me.
I came away because I got a distinct Adesh in the matter and
because I did not want anything to interfere with my Yoga. I
have severed connection entirely with politics, but before I did so*
I knew from within that the work I had begun there was destined
to be carried forward, on lines I had foreseen, by others, and that
the ultimate triumph of the movement I had initiated was sure
without my personal action or presence. There was not the least
motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal.

Vide also his interview published in the weekly
India in January 1910:

Since 1907, we have been living in an era which is full of~
hope for India, Not only India, but the whole world will see
sudden upheavals and revolutionary changes. The high will
become low and the low high. The oppressed and the depressed
will be elevated. The nation and humanity will be animated by
a new consciousness, new thought, new efforts will be made to
reach new ends. Amidst these revolutionary changes India wilt
become free.

Sri Aurobindo launched on a voyage of discovery
of the key to the Riddle of the Universe to which all
other questions were subsidiary. He sounded to the^
depths all the wisdom gathered by the human spirit in
the East as well as in the West, peered into the future
with the eye of the Seer, perfected in his tapasya and
commenced to work out and give expression to the body:
of thought and illumination that was emerging from.

156 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

his endeavours, for the elevation and eventual trans-
formation of the very nature of man. It was to such a
milieu of spiritual and cultural synthesis that Bharati
was drawn. The author writes:

Apart from the community of their political sympathies,
they soon discovered others in a common love of Sanskrit, of
poetry and of philosophy. Sri Aurobindo alone kept up his
interest in all of them pari passu, and at the same pitch all through
his life. V. V. S. Iyer did his best work as translator and critic
of ancient classics, while Bharati not only kept pace with both in
the catholicity of his literary interests, but also transmuted all his
experience to the pure gold of poetry. Under the stimulus of
Sri Aurobindo's new humanism, Bharati undertook an intensive
study of Patanjali's Toga Sutras, making a Tamil version of some
of them with his own special commentary. Under the same
influence, he also entered the lists against the traditional upholders
of Sankara's Maya doctrine . . . Thus the three came together to
refresh themselves from a common pool of intellectual and
emotional experience, while each went his own way developing
his genius in individual directions. Of the three, Sri Aurobindo
was the master-mind and developed, even for an Indian, genius in
. a unique direction which is as indescribable in the sequel as it was
unpredictable in prospect.

In this part of the story the author remarks that
neither Sri V. V. S. Iyer nor Bharati could be said to be
shaped by Sri Aurobindo " in any significant facet " of
their personalities. This may be and is indeed very
much so in the case of Sri V. V. S. Iyer who never be-
longed to what one may call the intimate circle of the
Sage. Iyer had no deeper contact with him and except
on one occasion (on which we need not dwell here) he
did not come within the personal aura of Sri Aurobindo.
But it is quite different with Bharati. The spiritual and
religious strains in his personality were almost entirely
developed by the influence of Sri Aurobindo. This is
not to say that Bharati had no knowledge of Indian
spiritual tradition or had not read the varied scriptures

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 157?

of the land. Indeed he had as large an acquaintance
with them as anyone of his intelligence could be expected,
to. What he gained from Sri Aurobindo was the real
insight, an eye for the core of Truth behind forms, an
opening in his being to a sense of the realities of a
vaster Existence looming over the material, and the
power to render his perceptions into a word-vehicle, at
once living and transparent. The author himself says
elsewhere in the book:

Bharati had certainly a meagre equipment compared to
that of Sri Aurobindo. He had already made his devoirs to
Sanskrit the fountain-source of Hindu culture. Specially during
his Kasi residence, he must have savoured its glories from many
scholars living there. But his systematic study of the yogic side
of our ancient literature seems to have been undertaken only
under the guidance of Sri Aurobindo. The impress of Sri Auro-
bindo on Bharati may be studied in his Preface to the Gild, in his
translations of one chapter of Patanjali's Toga Sutras with com-
ments of his own., and above all, in the pervasive influence of
Sakti or Mother or Parasakti which has become the theme of a
considerable body of his devotional poetry.

Eye witnesses narrate how day after day Bharati
would come and join the small gathering around Sri
Aurobindo where a variety of subjects used to be dis-
cussed. In the earlier days he would question and contest
Sri Aurobindo's reluctance to be bound by the letter of
the scriptures in his efforts to resuscitate and present
the true spirit of the ancient heritage of India; he was
particularly vehement, we are told by those present,
against Sri Aurobindo's refusal to accept the interpre-
tation of Sayana as the final word 011 the import of the
Vedas and also his rebuttal of the Mayavada of San-
kara. However, as time passed by, Bharati grew less
and less vocal in his protests and one day, to the sur-
prise of all, he himself turned round and went at it with

158 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

hammer and tongs. There is no doubt that a definite
individuality took shape in Bharati as a result of his
continuous contact with the personality of Sri Auro-
bindo. His forceful rejection of Maya as the real nature
of the world, the synthesis of the life of man and the
cosmos which he visioned in line with the Vedic seers,
his concept of Superman as essentially a spiritual being
liberated from and dominating over Nature, are signi-
ficant testaments to the inspiration he drew from the
Prophet of the Life Divine. In the words of the author:

Bharati's own powers matured under the genial warmth of
Sri Aurobindo's guidance and encouragement. Patriotism con-
tinued to be his primary religion; but it gradually became inter-
twined with and enriched by the experiences of an expanding
intellectual horizon and an awareness of spiritual realities com-
monly associated with the mystic state.

During his stay of full ten years' in Pondicherry
Bharati wrote largely. Though most of his writings
have found their way into print, it is a pity that one
manuscript got lost (suspected to have been mistakenly
removed by the agents of the G.I.D.). It was a novel
in sixty chapters, Chinna Shankaran. Bharati was urged
by friends to write it again; but after doing a few
chapters he gave up the attempt with the result that
Bharatiana has lost a considerable chunk which is said
to have been specially interesting for its autobiographi-
cal element. We shall come to his works a little later.

Bharati decided to end his exile at the end of the
first World War and left Pondicherry on 20-11-1918.
He was promptly arrested as he set his foot on the
Indian soil and was detained in Cuddalore Jail till
Dec. 14, 1918 when he was released on his giving an
mndertaking not to engage in political activities and

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 159

to notify the police of every change of his address. Why
did Bharati, the fiery patriot that he was, agree to this
course of action which we would never have dreamt
of ten years earlier? Indeed, if he had given such an
undertaking, then he need not have gone into exile
at all ! The author discusses the question with candour
and sympathy. A decade of confined life in Pondi-
cherry found Bharati in a state of collapse. His will
and mental faculties had been undermined by his
addiction to opium a legacy of his earlier years at the
court of Ettayapuram; added to that constant poverty,
the privation and insecurity facing his family had
ground his grit and powers of resistance to such an
extent that when influential friends pressed him to end
the exile and change his environment he gave in.

He went straight to Kadayam and returned to
Madras only two years later except for a brief visit to
the city during Gandhiji' s visit in 1919. His meeting
with Gandhiji was typically abrupt and temperamental.
The author writes :

One afternoon when the Mahatma was engaged in con-
ference with Sri C. R., Satyamurti, A. Rangaswamy lyengar and
other workers, Bharati went in, sat down beside the Mahatma
after greeting him with folded palms, and then disclosed the pur-
pose of his unauthorised intrusion. " Mr. Gandhi ", he began,
" may I request you to preside over a meeting at 5-30 p.m. today
at which I am to address the public? "

Gandhiji turned to Sri Mahadev Desai and asked him what
engagements he had for that evening. Mr. Desai replied that
he had to be present elsewhere at that hour. Gandhiji then
turned to Bharati and said: " I'm sorry, this evening is out of the
question. But if you could arrange the meeting for tomorrow
-evening. . . ? "

Bharati cut him short with a peremptory negative and
.added: " Let me take leave of you, Mr. Gandhi. But permit me

160 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

to wish you success in your new movement. You have my best
wishes in that regard." And he was off the next moment, leaving
every one somewhat dazed with his rush tactics. But Gandhiji who
had remained imperturable throughout, then asked to know who
the visitor was. Although all assembled there knew all about
Bharati, it was left to Sri C. R. to reply: " He is the poet of our
Tamil Nad." Gandhiji then said: " You must cherish and protect
him then. I hope there are enough people to take care of
him."

During these years Bharati visited a number of
places in the South meeting friends and admirers; this
period is notable for his erratic ebullitions and sorry
exhibitions of his frustration-complex, some of which
the author faithfully records in one whole chapter.
Witness, for instance, his self-eulogising epistles to his
former patron, Rajah of Ettayapuram, his unpre-
dictable behaviour at public meetings, his quixotic
proposal to challenge Poet Tagore and wrest the Nobel
Prize from him, his idea of taking the world by storm,
in the manner of Vivekananda, by speaking on Reli-
gion, his visit to the Trivandrum Zoo where he pro-
claimed himself to the lion in the cage: "King of
beasts, know that I am Bharati, king of poets", etc.,
etc. He had developed a maniacal obsession of un-
recognised merit.

On his return to Madras he joined the Swadesha-
mitran. In his spare time he busied himself with
public meetings and gatherings of friends. On one
occasion he issued a manifesto projecting the publica-
tion of a collected edition of his works in forty volumes.
He appealed to the public to subscribe Rs. 20,000 in
debentures for the purpose and assured them of a
profit of over a lakh of rupees. As the author observes,
it is a mystery whether Bharati had anything like the

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 161

manuscript material required for so many volumes.
For all the available works now published do not come
to more than three or four volumes. It is unlikely that
so much could be lost. Obviously he was in one of
his " moods ".

The end came soon. He used to visit frequently
the Sri Parthasarati temple in Triplicane near his
lodgings and sing his songs in its precincts. He also
spent a little time with the temple elephant feeding
it with bananas or cocoanuts. On one of such visits in
June 1921, the elephant suddenly went berserk, seized
him in its trunk and tossed him aloft. Bharati fell
down unconscious. He never really recovered from this
shock. He was continually ill, drugged himself with
opium more and more. He passed away on the llth
of September 1921, prematurely, frustrated and penni-
less. We are told that his companions had to go round
for collection to meet the minimum expenses for his
obsequies and only the last minute generosity of a friend
made it possible to give him the customary funeral.

There is a pleasantly informative chapter in which
the author gives deft sketches of the various interesting
personalities associated with the poet. Sri Tirumala-
chari; his brother Srinivasachari who followed Bharati
to Pondicherry from Madras and carried the printing
press with him, making it possible to publish the
India and Vijaya; Surendranath Vokkaliga Arya alias
Ethirajulu Naidu, an embittered nationalist who turned
Christian, went to America on the initiative of the
Danish Mission, and was responsible for the abortive
attempt to have the Bible translated by Bharati;
V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, " the first Tamilian in
11

162 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

modern times to sail his own ship over the high seas ";
Ponnu Murugesan Pillai, a most fervent admirer and
host of the poet; Kanaka Subburatnam " who rechrist-
ened himself as Bharati Dasan, and who was a poet
with a precious if thin trickle of the divine afflatus " ;
Manikam Chettiyar, the suave and helpful landlord
at Pondicherry; Va Ra (V. Ramaswami lyengar), the
author of the well-known biography of the poet in
Tamil; " Police " Krishnaswami Iyer and others.

Coming to the works of Bharati, it is a matter of
satisfaction that they are now the property of the
nation. The government of Madras took over the
entire copyright some years ago and in a laudable
gesture presented it to the public. Most of his writings
are in Tamil prose, poetry, prose-poetry and a few,
a slender portion, in English. We have no means of
ascertaining their chronology with any definiteness. The
author gives a synoptic and critical appraisal of these
under convenient heads. He first deals with Bharati' s
poetry patriotic, devotional and philosophical. A
section each is devoted to :

Kannan Pdttu> the series of poems (23) on the model
of the work of Sukhabraman in the Bhagavatam, bring-
ing to the fore the conception of Creation as the Lila
of the divine Purusa and Sakti, represented on the
human level in terms of the love of the sexes.

Pdncdli Sapatham, a long poem in five sections in
which he projects the national struggle into the setting
of the Gambling Episode of the Mahdbhdrata. " Drau-
padi becomes Mother India in her tribulations. Duryo-
dhana, Sakuni and Dussasanan become the forces of
evil and of unashamed exploitation. They represent

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 163

the gospel of power in its crudest form. Bhisma
(perhaps consciously caricatured) becomes the mouth-
piece of moderates, while a great deal of sympathetic
understanding is bestowed on the blind old king
Dhritarastra." We are told that Bharati considered
Pdncdli Sapatham as his magnum opus and was disappoint-
ed that the public failed to acclaim it with plaudits.
The biographer's evaluation of the poem is interesting:

... it would be unusual for an epic whose appeal is almost
entirely between the lines to become a best-seller. Nor can we
endorse the poet's partiality for the composition as representing
the high watermark of his genius. Quite obviously the patriotic
complex ran away with the poet, and caused him to assess the
work of his epic higher than it is entitled to, on merits. Essentially
it is the work of a translator, albeit a gifted, poetic and consum-
mate artist as well. It provokes comparisons with the original,
and sets up echoes which, however pleasant, remind us of the
derivative character of the poem.

Kuyil Pdttu an unusual love story breathing the
atmosphere of the kingdom of Aesop and Paficatantra,
the Jataka tales and an Arcadia. The author considers
Kuyil Pdttu to be the " purest and most gorgeous
efflorescence of Bharati's genius ". And he concludes
the section :

The three great poems together illustrate the genius of
Bharati as belonging to the first order. They are magnificent
representatives in modern Tamil of the lyric, the dramatic and
narrative forms of literature. Even more interesting is the fact that
each of them also suggests the other two forms in the course of its
evolution. Thus the Kannan Pdttu is full of tableaux vivants', and a
masque can be arranged with the help of passages culled from
them to represent Krishna Leela in a modern setting. The dramatic
appeal of Pdncdli Sapatham is enriched by the lyric intensities of
individual characters through whom the author conveys his own
jaeva indignatio. As for the Kuyil Pdttu it contains both a superb
narrative recalling the easy mastery of his medium by a Chaucer
or a Keats and a love-poetry of the most melting kind. The

164 HIGHWAYS OF GOD

dramatic element is pushed to the point of becoming melodrama.
But the poet stands all through above his material while bending
it to his purposes with lordly ease. His glances flit from earth to
heaven, while his creative powers proceed to give his fancies a
local habitation and a name. The entire poem is not more than
750 lines, but what exciting layers of suggestions and meaning
cluster over and under it! It is also the only poem which speaks in
the symbols of a universal language that of love and, by the same
token, it is the only poem which can suffer least from translation.

The author mentions a piece of satire by Bharati,
written while at Pondicherry, lampooning Mrs. Besant
and her followers. It was entitled Fox with the Golden
Tail and proved a great hit, especially among those
opposed to the politics of the Theosophical leader ; the
pamphlet ran into two editions in no time. But, the
author tells us, Bharati himself did not think much of
it or of the public taste for such stuff. He also speaks
of a version according to which Bharati was " indif-
ferent to the praise of the screed by Sri Aurobindo
himself". On a point of factual correction, we would
like to inform the author that this writing merely pro-
vided an occasion for good-humoured hilarity to the
company present when it was read out before Sri
Aurobindo, and the poet heartily joined. The work
came in for enjoyment and appreciation purely as a jeu
d* esprit without reference to the personalities involved.
It is not correct to say that Bharati was indifferent.
On the other hand he took pains to have the manus-
cript revised and polished into elegance by competent
hands to make it as perfect as possible. (It is another
story how Dr. Besant herself reacted to this broadside.
When Bharati wished to meet her some years later, she
refused point-blank and it required a good deal of
persuasion before she agreed to receive him.)

SUBRAMANIA BHARATI 165

The author then rapidly views the prose work of
Bharati: his famous Preface to his translation of the
Gitd into Tamil; imaginative writings like the Jnana-
ratam, Chandrikai, One Sixth] Essays on Social Reform^
Upliflment of Women, Refinement of Standard in the Fine
Arts, etc. Also noted are prose poems on the beauties
of Nature with an undercurrent of Vedantic monism,
and lastly, writings in English comprising his render-
ings of some of his own poems, of Vedic hymns, the
songs of Alwars and Nayanmars, his sententiae and
a few essays remarkable for their grasp of currents in
modern thoughts and their significance.

The fame of Bharati rests on his role as a poet
of patriotism; but that was only one aspect of his
many-faceted personality. For he was not merely an
evangelist of nationalism; he had the vision of the
brotherhood of man and unity of nations. He was a
humanist. He felt the heart-beats of the oppressed and
the depressed in society and was one of the first to toll
the knell of social inequalities in the country. He was
an inspired reformer. His soul was awakened to the
Dynamic Truth of God, Nature and Man and he strove
to seize and direct the gaze of his fellow-men to the
true meaning of life, to the verities of Love, Beauty,
Joy and Power. He was a philosopher with a vision,,
a Voice with a mission.