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MOTHER INDIA MONTHLY REVIEW OF CULTURE Vol. LXIV Nos. 11-12 “Great is Truth and it shall prevail” CONTENTS Sri Aurobindo ‘A FIRE SHALL COME OUT OF THE INFINITUDES . .’ (Poem) ... 897 PART OF THE WORK ... 899 The Mother ‘THOU ART EVERYWHERE . .’ ... 900 A VISION (7) ... 901 Amal Kiran (K. D. Sethna) A VISION AND A CERTITUDE ... 903 Manoj Das SRI AUROBINDO: LIFE AND TIMES OF THE MAHAYOGI CHAPTER VIII: A STEP TOWARDS LIBERATION ... 904 “A ray returning to its parent sun” Remembering Amal A RECIPIENT OF THEIR GRACE ... 915 Selection from Amal’s correspondence with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Aster Patel FOR AMAL . GRATEFULLY . ... 934 P. Raja TO K. D. SETHNA WITH LOVE ... 935 R. Y. Deshpande MY FIRST CONTACT WITH AMAL ... 939 Anie Nunnally AN I NTERVIEW WITH AMAL KIRAN ... 941 Georges Van Vrekhem AMAL KIRAN: PSYCHIC GREATNESS, MENTAL VERSATILITY ... 946 Satadal UPON AMAL’S PASSING (Poem) ... 951 Sachidananda Mohanty AMAL KIRAN: SWEETNESS AND LIGHT ... 952 Maggi A DEEP SILENCE OF HEART-FELT GRATITUDE ... 954 Shraddhavan A TRUE FRIEND ... 957 Narad AMAL KIRAN — A TRIBUTE ... 961 Kireet Joshi MY SALUTATIONS TO AMAL ... 967 Shyam Kumari HOW I MET AMAL: A HOMAGE OF GRATITUDE ... 969 Suresh Dey “FACE TO FACE” (Poem) ... 973 V. Ananda Reddy CLEAR MEMORIES ... 974 Sunjoy WHO WROTE THAT APPRECIATION — AMAL OR I? ... 979 Alok Pandey THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT ... 981 — DOCUMENT OF TIMELESS THINKING ... 984 Aditi Vasishtha REMEMBERING AMAL WITH JOY ... 985 Chandrakant Parmar WITH AMAL KIRAN WHILE RECORDING THE SAVITRI RECITATION ... 990 Arun Vaidya AMAL KIRAN: A POET-PILGRIM OF INTEGRAL TRUTH ... 992 Manoj Das MY EDITOR — MY TEACHER ... 999 Nilima Das K. D. SETHNA — THE CLEAR RAY ... 1003 — TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH AMAL ... 1011 Anurag Banerjee WELCOME, NOT FAREWELL ... 1015 — AMAL KIRAN AS I KNEW HIM ... 1016 Richard Pearson A VALUABLE MEMORABLE TRAINING ... 1018 Esther TRIBUTE TO AMAL ... 1019 Ashalata Dash AMAL KIRAN: “EARTH’S DEAR AND HEAVEN’S NEAR” ... 1020 Krishna Chakravarty “A STEP AND ALL IS SKY AND GOD” ... 1031 Anandi (Elba Fernandez) DEAR AMAL KIRAN, TO LEAVE THE SHELL (Poems) ... 1032 Aniruddha Sircar A TALE OF TWO FRIENDS ... 1033 C. V. Devan Nair ‘THE MASTER’ BY AMAL KIRAN ... 1038 A. S. Dalal THREE REMINISCENCES ... 1039 Gitanjali J. B. AMAL, MY BEST FRIEND ... 1041 A LIFE-SKETCH ... 1049 LIST OF BOOKS ... 1055 897 ‘A FIRE SHALL COME OUT OF THE INFINITUDES . .’ The world she has made is an interim report Of a traveller towards the half-found truth in things Moving twixt nescience and nescience. For nothing is known while aught remains concealed; The Truth is known only when all is seen. Attracted by the All that is the One, She yearns towards a higher light than hers; Hid by her cults and creeds she has glimpsed God’s face: She knows she has but found a form, a robe, But ever she hopes to see him in her heart And feel the body of his reality. As yet a mask is there and not a brow, Although sometimes two hidden eyes appear: Reason cannot tear off that glimmering mask, Her efforts only make it glimmer more; In packets she ties up the Indivisible; Finding her hands too small to hold vast Truth She breaks up knowledge into alien parts Or peers through cloud-rack for a vanished sun: She sees, not understanding what she has seen, Through the locked visages of finite things The myriad aspects of infinity. One day the Face must burn out through the mask. Our ignorance is Wisdom’s chrysalis, Our error weds new knowledge on its way, Its darkness is a blackened knot of light; Thought dances hand in hand with Nescience On the grey road that winds towards the Sun. Even while her fingers fumble at the knots Which bind them to their strange companionship, Into the moments of their married strife Sometimes break flashes of the enlightening Fire. Even now great thoughts are here that walk alone: Armed they have come with the infallible word In an investiture of intuitive light That is a sanction from the eyes of God; Announcers of a distant Truth they flame 897 898 MOTHER INDIA, NOVEMBER 2011 Arriving from the rim of eternity. A fire shall come out of the infinitudes, A greater Gnosis shall regard the world Crossing out of some far omniscience On lustrous seas from the still rapt Alone To illumine the deep heart of self and things. A timeless knowledge it shall bring to Mind, Its aim to life, to Ignorance its close. SRI AUROBINDO (Savitri, CWSA, Vol. 33, pp. 257-58) 899 PART OF THE WORK I LOOK at these things from a more impersonal or, if you like, a personal-impersonal point of view. There is on one side my effort at perfection, for myself and others and for the possibility of a greater perfection in a changed humanity: on the other side there is a play of forces some favouring it but more trying to prevent it. The challenge I speak of comes from these forces. On one side it is a pressure from the pro-forces saying “Your work is not good enough; learn to do better”; on the other it is a pressure from the contrary forces saying “Your work? It is a delusion and error, — a poor mediocre thing, and we will trample and break it to pieces.” Part of the work was an attempt to inspire a poetry which would express first the aspiration and labour towards the spiritual or divine and afterwards its realisation and manifestation. There are many who write poetry in the Ashram under this impulse but in the languages which I know best (English perfectly — at least I hope so — Bengali a little), there were four here whose work seemed to me to contain already in a fairly ample way the ripe possibility of the thing I wanted — yourself [Dilip Kumar Roy], Arjava, Amal, Harin. (I do not speak of Nishikanta and others because they are new or emergent only). There are some Gujarati poets but I do not know the poetic language and technique in that tongue well enough to form an indubitable judgment. These four then I have encouraged and tried to push on towards a greater and richer expression. December 1934 SRI AUROBINDO (Letters on Poetry and Art, CWSA, Vol. 27, p. 454) 899 900 MOTHER INDIA, NOVEMBER 2011 ‘THOU ART EVERYWHERE . .’ March 14, 1914 IN the immutable solitude of the desert there is something of Thy majestic presence, and I understand why one of the best means of finding Thee has always been to withdraw into these immense stretches of sand. But for one who knows Thee, Thou art everywhere, in all things, and none of them seems more suitable than another for manifesting Thee; for all things that exist — and many others that yet do not — are necessary to express Thee. Each thing, by virtue of Thy divine intervention of love, is an effort of life towards Thee; and as soon as our eyes are unsealed, we perceive this effort constantly. O Lord, my heart is athirst for Thee and my thought seeks for Thee constantly. In a mute adoration I bow to Thee. THE MOTHER (Prayers and Meditations, CWM 2nd Ed., Vol. 1, p. 99) 900 901 A VISION (Continued from the issue of October 2011) (7) (In this issue we are publishing the seventh and final vision in this series) I SLEPT and now I am awake. I am awake and I see a rider mounted on a splendid white horse. The rider wears a breast-plate of glittering gold and flourishes a sword, whose naked blade shines with a sapphire gleam. With one tremendous bound, the horse leaps across a chasm of darkness. As I marvel at this vision, I hear a word, a single word pregnant with hope and promise: “Restitution.” Then suddenly a breach appears in the gloomy chasm and a great path is formed, like a dazzling rainbow. A white dove with crimson feet is ascending this path, and as I watch it on its way I behold a wonderful scene beyond the darkness. In faultless hierarchical order, clad in sparkling light and armed with double- edged swords, an immense host is deployed, ready for battle. They await a signal from the leader at their centre, who is all radiant with iridescent light. But at once my gaze is drawn to a young man whose height and majesty tower above all the others. An ample amethyst cloak, lined with dazzling white, falls from his shoulders. All stand still in rapt silence, for he is about to speak. He speaks, and his voice rises solemn and sweet. He speaks, and I understand what he is saying: “The time draws near. Let all prepare themselves, the host of earth and the host of heaven. Let those who work and endure lose neither courage nor patience. Though invisible to all but a few, the work is proceeding swiftly. On one side a growing order and harmony is driving towards the denser spheres whatever confusion and disorder still prevail. On the other hand, upon earth, the seed which has been sown is ready to rise amid a field of men of ardent and enlightened goodwill. The valiant host of evolving supermen1 is making ready so that when the time comes its efforts may be joined to ours. Soon a hymn of joy shall ring forth, the paean of triumph and glory.” Rejoicing in these words, I make my way back towards earth, bearing the glad tidings, and in my descent I am followed by the white dove with crimson feet.