his
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. - Sri
Aurobindo
An integral
human perfection calls for perfection on two levels : the individual and
the collective. The Ashram was founded and built by the Mother as a first
step towards the creation of a new world, a new humanity, a new society,
expressing and embodying a new consciousness;
The Ashram main building was the abode of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother during most of their stay in Pondicherry. In the inner courtyard is the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The Ashram is open to all for Darshan during fixed hours every day.
The Ashram is a Registered Trust, founded by the Mother. Today Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a throbbing centre of more than 1,500 spiritual seekers from every part of the world. Although form a different nationality and cultural background, every seeker aspires and works for the same goal.
the term 'ashram'
For years after his arrival in Pondicherry in 1910, Sri Aurobindo was unwilling to speak of his household as an Ashram. Not that the term would have been inappropriate, for an Ashram is simply "the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice."* It is true that in the early days Sri Aurobindo took no disciples as such. He once wrote, "With the three or four young men who accompanied me or joined me in Pondicherry, I had at first the relation of friends and companions rather than of a Guru and disciples; it was on the ground of politics I had come to know them and not on the spiritual ground. Afterwards only there was a gradual development of spiritual relations." But even as more and more aspirants gathered around Sri Aurobindo specifically to practise yoga under his direction, the grouping remained informal, and was not referred to as an "ashram".
It was only after the Mother finally settled in in 1920 that an attempt was made at collective organisation. "The number of disciples then showed a tendency to increase rather rapidly." And as thus "the Ashram began to develop, it fell to the Mother to organise it." She had to see to the outward lives of the disciples, whose "numbers began so much to increase that it was thought necessary to make an arrangement for lodging those who came, and houses were bought and rented according to need forthe purpose.
Arrangements [also] had to be made for the maintenance, repair, rebuilding of houses, for the service of food and for decent living and hygiene" and so forth. At the same time the guidance of the disciples' inner lives began progressively to pass into the Mother's hands, so that, when Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion on 24 November 1926, "the whole material and spiritual charge" of what had now come to be called Sri Aurobindo's ashram "devolved on her". It was in this way that "the Ashram was founded or rather founded itself in 1926", the informal grouping of seekers taking "the form of an ashram more from the wish of the sadhaks who desired to entrust their whole inner and outer life to the Mother than from any intention or plan of hers or of Sri Aurobindo's". The Sri Aurobindo Ashram is thus more a spontaneous growth than a deliberate creation.
the intention
But the Ashram is also the realisation of an intention that had long been cherished by the Mother. She once remarked:
"At the beginning of my present earthly existence I was put into touch with many people who said they had a great inner aspiration, an urge towards something deeper and truer, but were tied down, subjected, slaves of that brutal necessity of earning their living, and that this weighed down upon them so much, took way so much of their time and energy that they could not engage in any other activity, inner or outer. I heard that very often."
"I was very young at that time, and always I 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 by problems of food and lodging and clothing and the imperious necessities of life, to see if all the energies freed by this certainty of an assured material living would spontaneously be turned towards the divine life and inner realisation."
the ashram, today...
The conditions of basic
material security that the Ashram, as it took shape, provided to an ever
increasing number of disciples, permitted their spiritual lives to unfold
in the light of Sri Aurobindo and under the Mother's constant daily
care.
In the half-century since its founding the Sri Aurobindo Ashram has grown from an informal grouping of two dozen sadhaks into a diversified spiritual community with 1500 members. There is, besides, a significant number of non-members living in Pondicherry who take part in the Ashram's life. All regions of India, and many countries of Asia, Europe and America are represented. Members are of both sexes and of all ages. No distinctions of creed, caste or national origin are observed.
Once confined to a few buildings in one corner of Pondicherry, the Ashram's growth has caused it to expand physically in all directions. Today Ashramites live and work in more than 400 buildings spread throughout the town. The central focus of the community is one group of houses including those in which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother dwelt for most of their lives in Pondicherry. This interconnected block of houses - called "the Ashram main-building", or more usually just "the Ashram" - surrounds a tree-shaded court-yard, at the centre of which lies the flower-covered "Samadhi". This white marble shrine holds, in two separate chambers, the mortal remains of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
Character & Method
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 a 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 imposes on 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 and open to the higher influence, and also 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 essential for the complete change of the instrumental nature - mind, life and body - is "a seeking for perfection, so that the 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.
In ashrams where liberation from worldly existence (moksha) is the sole object, there is a tendency for members to withdraw from outward life - to become sannyasis or ascetics. But in accordance with the comprehensive goal of Sri Aurobindo's teaching, members of his Ashram "are not sannyasis; [for] it is not moksha that is the sole aim of the yoga here". Liberation is of course necessary; but it is an inner freedom and equanimity and not an outward renunciation that is required.
From the inner poise, outward activities can and indeed must be carried out; for, as Sri Aurobindo once explained, "What is being done here is a work - a work which will be founded on yogic consciousness and Yoga-Shakti [the divine power], and can have no other foundation. Meanwhile every member here is expected to do some work in the Ashram as a part of this spiritual preparation."
Thanks to Sri Aurobindo society