Release of Renaissance, Volume V, Issue 8
Date: August 15, 2024
Excerpt from Editorial by Beloo Mehra
In August 2022, for the 150th birthday of Sri Aurobindo, we did a special issue of Renaissance on the theme – ‘Sri Aurobindo, the Eternal Presence‘. And ‘Sri Aurobindo, the Rishi‘ was the theme for the August 2023 issue. As the most natural progression, we now take up the theme ‘Sri Aurobindo, the Avatar’ for this special issue celebrating the 152nd birthday of Sri Aurobindo.
We have curated some highly insightful features in this issue. We begin by a 2-part feature titled Avatarhood in ‘Essays on the Gita‘. This brings together a few selections from Sri Aurobindo’s comprehensive volume where he gives in-depth and profound explanation of the concept of Avatarhood. What is especially noteworthy is the explanation that the Avatar comes to bring nearer the kingdom of heaven on earth in the collectivity as well as to build the kingdom of heaven within in the individual human soul.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are ONE consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother affirmed this repeatedly in various correspondences and talks. They worked together as One consciousness to bring down the Supramental Consciousness on the Earth. So, when it comes to speaking about the true significance of this Avataric Work, only the Mother can speak about it with perfect certitude and clarity. We highlight two passages from the Mother in the feature titled The Mother on Sri Aurobindo’s Avataric Work.
In February 2011, Georges van Vrekhem delivered a highly engaging and well-researched talk in Auroville, titled ‘The Kalki Avatar’. It is now included in the book Preparing for the Miraculous: Eleven Talks at Auroville (2011, pp. 235-266). We feature the talk in 5 parts under the title Sri Aurobindo and the Kalki Avatar. The reader can thus appreciate each section of the author’s explanation.
Sri Aurobindo, the Maharishi has also given us a marvellous body of literature.
His written works which include correspondences and talks with the disciples cover practically all aspects of human and divine life. Revealing the Dharma for our age and for the future, he brought back for the humanity the deeper spirit and truth of the Vedas. Sri Aurobindo expressed the deepest and the highest spiritual truths in a manner suitable for the modern mentality. But he did that without diluting, reducing or simplifying anything for the sake of a lazy reader. His words came from a plane beyond ‘thought’.
Many of his written works give us a glimpse into his and the Mother’s tremendous Yogic work for the earth-consciousness. They reveal for us the Sunlit path we must tread on if we aspire to be a squirrel-like collaborator in their Divine Work. His books are a Force-in-Action; each word is imbued with his supreme consciousness and force. These are also forms of the godly footprints of the Avatar Sri Aurobindo.
The feature titled Being in the Ashram and Reading Sri Aurobindo’s Books highlights an excerpt from Mona Sarkar’s book Blessings of the Grace: Conversations with the Mother. This entry is dated May 21, 1951. It highlights Mother’s explanation on how one can experience an immense multi-faceted development by reading Sri Aurobindo’s books.
Other offerings include Sri Aurobindo, the Avatar of Supramental Humour by Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo: The Avatar and Lover of Humanity by Charan Singh Kedarkhandi, and Towards an Everlasting “Yes” by Narendra Murty.