Date: August 1, 2025
Venue: Matriniketan
As part of the residential programme organized by Uditam: Institute for Integral Healing, Sri Aurobindo Society, Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, was invited to facilitate a group discussion on Friday, August 1, 2025. All the participants were women, and many of them being teachers working at Auro Schools; so for her session, Dr. Mehra decided to focus on the topic of Shakti in several dimensions.
Dr. Mehra began the session by discussing that Sri Aurobindo reminds us that each nation is also essentially a shakti, the power of evolving spirit in humanity. One of the most significant works of Sri Aurobindo, – among many other equally significant works, she said, has to do with the Mother element, which he invoked in three specific and highly momentous ways.
First, was the awakening of the Mother element, the Shakti element in the sleeping India, when he reminded Indians of the force of the mantra of Bande Mataram which had been lying dormant in some ideative field of the nation. Sri Aurobindo charged it with a spiritual sense and the whole country woke up in response. The awakening of Shakti took the form of an aspiration for freedom.
Second was when Sri Aurobindo placed the Shakti, the Divine Mother in the forefront at the Ashram. Dr. Mehra spoke about this in a bit detail recounting the November 24, 1926 Siddhi Darshan and how after that day, the Mother took charge of the entire organisation of the Ashram as well as the inner and outer needs of the sadhaks. Dr. Mehra said that in doing this in a concrete manner, Sri Aurobindo gave a new orientation to his Yoga. Instead of relying on the Purusha, Yoga was now going to be based on a dynamic Shakti. This is what makes Integral Yoga truly Integral, because it is now fully integrated with Life. We see this element of integration in all developments of yoga that came afterwards 1926.
Third was when Sri Aurobindo embodied the consciousness of the Mother in the sound-word of Savitri. Dr. Mehra gave a few examples from Savitri to illustrate how Sri Aurobindo emphasises the necessity of the sadhana led by dynamic Shakti for transformation of life and Nature.
Some of the participants had some engaging comments and questions. Through an interactive approach, Dr. Mehra highlighted that Shakti, the primordial cosmic energy which represents the dynamic poise of the One Supreme Reality moves through the entire universe, and is understood as the divine feminine creative power. This is why in Indian culture, the woman is traditionally seen as the shakti, the force and energy.
But she reminded that this is not to say that shakti is something to be found only in women. It is the creative power, the energy present in all of us, but the nature of this energy is feminine because it is only the female who has the potential to create new beings within herself. All creation – material, intellectual, aesthetic, spiritual – all is possible only because of the shakti, the cosmic energy. She added that the Mother insisted that this distinction of masculine and feminine is only at the relative plane of existence, because in their deepest essence the Two are indeed One.
The session concluded with some more questions on the work of the Mother in organising all Ashram activities and departments. And also regarding the need to look at social realities on the ground in the light of our deeper cultural vision of life and human development.
For more sessions conducted by BhāratShakti for Uditam programme, see HERE.