This Ashram has been created with another object that that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but as a centre and field of practice
for the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final
end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and
embody a greater life of the spirit.
- Sri Aurobindo
The Foundation
Sri Aurobindo lived at first in retirement at Pondicherry with four or five disciples. Afterwards more and yet more began to come to him to follow his spiritual path and the number became so large that a community of sadhaks had to be formed for the maintenance and collective guidance of those who had left everything behind for the sake of a higher life. This was the foundation of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram which has less been created than grown around him as its centre.
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 30:4)
*
There was no Ashram at first, only a few people came to live near and practise Yoga. It was only some time after the Mother came from Japan that it took the form of the Ashram, more from the wish of the Sadhaks who desired to entrust their whole inner and outer life to the Mother that form any intention or plan of hers or of Sri Aurobindo.
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 26 : 479)
The facts are: In the meantime, the Mother, after a long stay in France and Japan, returned to Pondicherry on the 24th April, 1920. The number of disciples then showed a tendency to increase rather rapidly. When the Ashram began to develop, it fell to the Mother to organise it; Sri Aurobindo soon retired into seclusion and the whole material and spiritual charge of it devolved on her.
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 26:479)
*
Mother was doing Yoga before she knew or met Sri Aurobindo; but their lines of Sadhana independently followed the same course. When they met, they helped each other in perfecting the Sadhana. What is known as Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the joint creation of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo's they are now completely identified - the Sadhana in the Ashram and all arrangement is done directly by the Mother, Sri Aurobindo supports her from behind. All who come here for practising Yoga have to surrender themselves to the Mother who helps them always and builds up their spiritual life.
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 26:459)
*
The Mother is not a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. She has had the same realisation and experience as myself.
The Mother's sadhana started when she was very young. When she was twelve or thirteen, every evening many teachers came to her and taught her various spiritual disciplines. Among them was dark Asiatic figure. When we first met, she immediately recognised me as the dark Asiatic figure whom she used to see a ling time ago. That she should come here and work with me for a common goal was, as it were, a divine dispensation.
The Mother was an adept in the Buddist yoga and the yoga of the Gita even before she came to India. Her yoga was moving towards a grand synthesis. After this, it was natural that she should come here. She has helped and is helping to give a concrete form to my yoga. This would not have been possible without her co-operation.
One of the two great steps in this yoga is to take refuge in the Mother. (17 August 1941)
- Sri Aurobindo
(Bulletin Aug 1995:20)
*
At the beginning of my present earthly existence I came into contact with many people who said that they had a great inner aspiration, an urge towards something deeper and truer, but that they were tied down, subjected, slaves to that brutal necessity of earning their living, and that this weighed them down so much, took up so much of their time and energy that they could not engage in any other activity, inner or outer. I heard this very often, I saw many poor people - I don't mean poor from the monetary point of view, but poor because they felt imprisoned in a narrow and deadening material necessity.
I was very young at that time, and I always used to tell myself that if ever I could do it, I would try to create a little world- oh! quite a small one, but still, a small world where people would be able to live without having to be preoccupied with food and lodging and clothing and the imperative necessities of life, to see whether all the energies freed by this certainty of a secure material living would turn spontaneously towards the divine life and the inner realisation.
Well, towards the middle of my life - at least, what is usually the middle of a human life- the means were given to me and I could realise this, that is, I could create these conditions of life. (30 May 1956)
- The Mother
(CWM 8:161-62)
The Aim
My aim is to crate a centre of spiritual life which shall serve as a means of bringing down the higher consciousness and making it a power not merely for 'salvtion' but for a divine life upon earth. It is with this object that I have withdrawn from public life and founded this Ashram in Pondicherry (so called for want of a better word, for it is not an Ashram of Sannyasins, but of those who want to leave all else and prepare for this rule). (February 1930)
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 27:416)
*
This is not an Ashram like others - the members are not Sannyasis; it is not moksa tht is the sole aim of the yoga here. What is being done here is a preparation for a work- a work which will be founded on yogic consciousness and Yoga-Shakti, and can have no other foundation. Meanwhile, every member here is expected to do some work in the Ashram as part of this spiritual preparation. (15 August 1932)
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 23:847)
This Ashram has been created with another object than that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but as a centre and a field of practice for the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit. There is no general rule as to the stage at which one may leave the ordinary life and enter here; in each case it depends on the personal need and impulsion and the possibility or the advisability for one to take the step. (24 July 1947)
- Sri Aurobindo
(SABCL 23:847)
*
The usual sadhanas have for aim the union with the Supreme Consciousness (Sat-chit-ananda). And those who reach there are satisfied with their own liberation and leave the world to its unhappy plight. On the contrary Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts where the others end. Once the union with the Supreme is realised one must bring down that realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished. In accordance with this aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one-third of his time to a useful work. All activities are represented in the Ashram and each one chooses the work most congenial to his nature, but must do it in a spirit of service and unselfishness, keeping always in view the aim of integral transformation.
To make this purpose possible the Ashram is organised so that all its inmates find their reasonable needs satisfied and have not to worry about their subsistence.
The rules are very few so that each one can enjoy the freedom needed for his development but a few things are strictly forbidden: they are - (1) politics, (2) smoking (3) alcoholic drink and (4) sex enjoyment.
Great care is taken for the maintenance of good health and the welfare and normal growth of the body of all, small and big, young and old. (24 September 1953)
- The Mother
(CWM 13:111-12)
*
For us here there is only one thing that counts. We aspire for the Divine, live for the Divine, act for the Divine. (July 1956)
- The Mother
CWM 13:112)
*
Here we do not have religion. we replace religion by the spiritual life, which is truer, deeper and higher at the same time, that is to say, closer to the Divine. For the Divine is in everything, but we are not conscious of it. This is the immense progress that man must make. (19 March 1973)
- The Mother
(CWM 13:114)
*
Ours is neither a political nor a social but spiritual goal. What we want is a transformation of the individual consciousness, not a change of regime or government. For reaching that goal we put no confidence in any human means, however powerful; our trust is in the Divine Grace alone.
- The Mother
(CWM 13:112)
CHARACTER
In the popular imagination ashrams are connected with hermitages or religious orders, but in fact "an ashram is not an association or a religious body or monastery." The Sri Aurobindo Ashram in particular has nothing to do with asceticism or retreat from the world. The character of this unique institution stems from the special nature of Sri Aurobindo's teaching. This may be summed up in these words from one of his letters:
"The way of Yoga followed here has a purpose different from others, —for its aim is not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter."
As this aim of Sri Aurobindo's yoga differs from that of traditional yogic systems, so the ashram that grew up around him "is not an ashram like others". As in all spiritual communities, life in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is centred around the practice of a discipline for the attainment of the goal common to all yogas and religions — Spirit. Self, God, divinity, perfection. But in the Ashram the discipline does not follow any fixed method, but is "an inner practice conducted under the spiritual guidance and influence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother". The guidance, given by them in innumerable talks and letters, is now available in numerous books. The influence is something that can be felt inwardly by all who have an opening. This self-opening is one of the three main leverages of the yoga, the others being a progressive surrender to the spiritual force within and a rejection of all that opposes its workings. Itself chiefly an inward movement, the rejection assumes outward formulation in three rules—- no smoking, drinking or drug-taking, no sex, and no politics. These prohibitions, the only regulations the Ashram stipulates for its members, are meant to exclude activities contrary to the right practice of yoga by persons who have consecrated their lives to it.
The way of yoga practised at the Ashram is "a living thing, not a mental principle or a set method to be stuck to against all necessary variations". Sri Aurobindo has amplified on this in his letters: "The general principle of self-consecration and self-giving is the same for all in this yoga, but each has his own way of consecration and self-giving." For "the technique of a world-changing yoga has to be as multiform, sinuous, patient, all-including as the world itself." It is because of this that "the sadhana of this yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others."
Meditation is of course a powerful tool: through it one learns to quieten the mind, open oneself to the higher influence and to contact the divine presence in the heart. Some form of meditation or concentration is used by most Ashram members in their individual practice. Collective meditations also are held regularly; these are open to all — visitors as well as Ashramites — who wish to attend. But "meditation can deal only with the inner being"', and since Sri Aurobindo's yoga includes as part of its aim the transformation of the outer consciousness, "meditation alone is not enough". Devotion to a form or embodiment of the Divine is another important aid, but this too is not in itself sufficient. For Sri Aurobindo's is an "integral yoga, that is, a turning of all the being in all its parts to the Divine.... It is not only the heart that has to turn to the Divine and change, but the mind also, so knowledge is necessary, and the will and power of action and creation also, so works too are necessary." Likewise nature too may become one with the nature of the divine". The integral yoga practised in the Ashram includes all these approaches. It is thus a synthesis of the methods of the four principal paths of traditional yoga — the path of knowledge, the path of devotion, the path of works, and the path of perfection.
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