Sri Aurobindo's Mahasamadhi

(Surendranath Jauhar:) “A few months after the passing away of Sri Aurobindo when I first went for seeing the Mother she said:
         “Now I can meet your problems and answer your questions more easily than before.”
         I asked, “How?”
         The Mother said, “Previously whenever there was a problem I had to go to Sri Aurobindo to consult Him. But now Sri Aurobindo is sitting in me. Whenever you ask any question and there is a problem, I just refer to Sri Aurobindo and instantly get the answer which I convey to you.”

(Satprem, 1960:) “I would like very much to ask you something ... Why did he have to go?

(Mother:) Ah! That can't be told.

(long silence)

I can tell you why, but in a purely superficial way ... Because for him to do IMMEDIATELY – without leaving his body, that is – what he had to do, well …

(silence)

We can put it this way: the world was not ready. But to tell you the truth, it was the totality of things around him that was not ready. So when he SAW this (I only understood this afterwards), he saw that it would go much faster if he were not there.
         And he was ABSOLUTELY right, it was true.
         Once I saw that, I accepted. When I saw it, when he made me understand, I accepted; otherwise ...
         There was a difficult period.

(silence)

It wasn't long, but it was difficult.
         When he left, I said twelve days, twelve days. And truly, I gave it twelve days, twelve days to see if the entire Work ... Outwardly, I said, “After twelve days I will tell you if the Ashram (the Ashram was nothing but a symbol, of course), if the Ashram will continue or if it is finished.”
         And later (I don't know – it didn't take twelve days; I said that on December 9, and on the 12th it was all decided – seen, clear and understood), on the 12th, I saw people, I saw a few people. However, we began all the activities again only after 12 days from December 5. But it was decided on the 12th.
         Everything was left hanging until the moment he made me understand the COMPLETE thing, in its entirety ... But that's for later on.
         He himself will tell you, it's true – later on.”

(Mother to Satprem, 1960:) “You see, I'm doing the sadhana really along a ... a path that has never been trod by anyone. Sri Aurobindo did it ... in principle. But he gave the charge of doing it in the body to me.
         That was the wonderful thing when we were together and all these hostile forces were fighting ... (they tried to kill me any number of times. He always saved me in an absolutely miraculous and marvelous way). But you see, this seemed to create very great BODILY difficulties for him. We discussed this a great deal, and I told him, “If one of us must go, I want that it should be me.”
         “It can't be you,” he replied, “because you alone can do the material thing.”
         And that was all.
         He said nothing more. He forbade me to leave my body. That's all. “It is absolutely forbidden,” he said. “You can't, you must remain.”
         After that (this took place early in 1950), he gradually ... You see, he let himself fall ill. For he knew quite well that should he say “I must go,” I would not have obeyed him, and I would have gone. For according to the way I felt, he was much more indispensable than I. But he saw the matter from the other side. And he knew that I had the power to leave my body at will. So he didn't say a thing, he didn't say a thing right to the very last minute …

(silence)

Once or twice I ‘heard’ certain things about him and I told him (for I told him all I saw or heard), and I said that I was ... that these suggestions were coming from the Enemy and that I was violently fighting against them. Then he looked at me – twice – he looked at me, nodded his head and smiled. And that's all. Nothing more was said. “How strange!” I thought. And that's all. Then I myself must have forgotten. You see, he wanted me to forget.
         I only remembered afterwards.”

(Mother to Satprem, 1969:) “When Sri Aurobindo left, I was standing near his bed (later on, when he was alone, when there was no one left), and all the supramental force he had concentrated in his body (what was left in his body), he passed on to me. I stood near his bed; he had been declared ‘dead’, but all that supramental consciousness which was there came out of his body, slowly, and directly entered mine. It was so material that I felt the friction of the force everywhere, all over. But it was slightly luminous. That was something different than with Pavitra. As for Sri Aurobindo, he … (how can I put it?), he stayed mainly … I found him everywhere: I found him all the way up, absolutely one with the Supreme Consciousness; I found him spread about in many places to see many people and do a lot of work; and I found him (but then, in a precise form, though NOT FIXED – A precise, rather supple form that looked like him, like what we knew of him, with more suppleness, without the fixity of the physical, but quite precise, a form in his likeness, quite in his likeness), I found him in the subtle physical.
         There he has a dwelling, he is settled and stays permanently (which doesn’t prevent him from being at many other places and …), but there is a Sri Aurobindo there whom I see almost every night, who looks after the whole work, sees people, and who is almost constantly with me. In the subtle physical, it’s a specific place, and very large – huge, you know, he is there, seeing people, doing all kinds of things ...”

(Mother to Mona Sarkar:) “When I asked him to resuscitate he clearly answered, ‘I have left the body purposely. I will not take it back, I shall manifest again in the first supramental body built in the supramental way.’ ”

(Mother to Satprem, 1962:) “The body always used to let itself be carried along. It was one in consciousness with Sri Aurobindo's presence, and depended on it without the least worry; it felt that its life depended on it, its progress depended on it, its consciousness, its action, its power all depended on it. And no questions – it didn't question. For the body, it was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE that things could be otherwise. The very idea that Sri Aurobindo might leave his body, that that particular way of being might no longer exist for the body, was absolutely unthinkable. They had to put him in a box and put the box in the Samadhi for the body to be convinced that it had really happened.
         And that's when it had that experience. [“The real truth is that it projected me DIRECTLY towards the Supreme, with no intermediary.”]
         This body is very conscious, it was BORN conscious, and throughout those years its consciousness went on growing, perfecting itself, proliferating, as it were; this was its concern, its joy. And with Sri Aurobindo, there was such peaceful certitude, there were no more problems, no more difficulties: the future was opening up, luminous and peaceful and certain. Nothing, nothing, no words can describe what a collapse it was for the body when Sri Aurobindo left.
         It's only because Sri Aurobindo's conscious will entered into it – left one body and entered the other.... I was standing facing his body, you know, and I materially felt the friction as his will entered into me (his knowledge and his will): “You will accomplish my Work.” He said to this body: “You will accomplish my Work.” It's the one thing that kept me alive.
         Apart from that.... There's nothing, no physical destruction I can think of, comparable to that collapse.
         It took me twelve days to get out of it – twelve days during which I didn't speak a single word.
         So the experience I mentioned is the PHYSICAL experience.

(silence)

What he is now striving to give this body is the consciousness of Permanence, of Immortality, of the Certitude of absolute security – in Matter, in Life, in every moment's action. And that is becoming nearer and nearer, more and more constant. Gradually, the mixture of old impressions is disappearing – that's the BEDROCK, the basis of the transformation.
         In the true movement, you feel the Absolute and Eternity physically. How?... It's impossible to describe, but that's how it is. And the minute you get out of That, when you fall back even slightly into the ordinary movement, the old movement, there's a feeling of ABSOLUTE uncertainty! Uncertainty at every second. It would be impossible for an ordinary human being to live in that consciousness, with that sense of total and absolute uncertainty, of total and absolute impermanence – it's no longer a destruction, but it's not yet an ascending transformation. Absolute instability. It doesn't last more than a fraction of a second – just enough time to become aware of oneself, that's all.
         If the other movement weren't getting more and more established, it would be unbearable, as they say in English.
         The quality of those two vibrations (which are still superimposed, so one can be aware of them both) is indescribable. One is a kind of fragmentation, an infinite fragmentation and absolute instability: like a powdery cloud of atoms in ceaseless movement; and the other is eternal immobility, just as I described it the other day: an infinite Immensity of absolute Light.
         The consciousness is still going from one to the other.

(silence)

Everything else ... what to say? It might almost be called a diversion. Outside of that, all the other experiences are pastimes, just something to fill the void.
         A perpetual picture show.

(silence)

And with this new perception I feel, inexpressibly, a concentration of ... the truth of what we call Sri Aurobindo gathering around and on and within this body (there is really neither ‘within’ nor ‘without’). And the body, which has reopened the doors it had closed to be able to go on, feels an increasingly total and unmixed identity, to the point where, if I give my hand free rein, my handwriting begins to resemble Sri Aurobindo's – tiny, like his.
         And it's not what one might imagine, it's not one form entering another – it doesn't keep him from being wherever he wants to be and doing whatever he wants to do, appearing as he wants to appear and being involved with everything happening on earth: it doesn't change any of that. And it's not just a part of him ... [that is in Mother, but his totality]. And that's how I know he was manifesting the Absolute, he was a manifestation of the Absolute. Of course, afterwards he revealed himself as what I had called ‘the Master of Yoga’; that was the reason he came on earth (what people here in India call an Avatar). But that's still a way of seeing things SEPARATELY: it's not the thing – THE thing.
         We'll see tomorrow ...
         All right, mon petit.

(silence)

Actually, what we call ‘dying’....
         Death can be overcome only when it no longer has any meaning. And I clearly see a curve, a curve of experience leading to the point where death no longer means anything. Then we'll be able to say, “Now it no longer makes sense.”
         Only at that point can we be sure.
         That's why I have never been given any assurance, because it's only when one enters that consciousness that Death no longer makes sense.”

(Mother to Satprem, 1966:) “There is the certitude – the certitude based on experience – that when That is here, it will be ... Or rather, while That is here (since It was here for a while), all the splendors you experience by rising, going out, leaving the body, are nothing. It’s nothing, it doesn’t have that concrete reality. When you have the experiences up above, you live up above and everything appears lackluster and useless in comparison, but even that appears vague in comparison with HERE. This is truly why the world was created: it’s to add to that essential Consciousness something so concrete and so solid, so real, and with such tremendous power!
         Only, to the body consciousness it seems long. Up above, of course, there is a smile, but for the body ... And strangely enough, there isn’t in the body that joy of the memory of the experience. You have the joy of the memory of the experiences up above, but here, it’s not like that! It’s not that. The body might say, “It’s no use for me to remember: I want to have the thing.” Because wherever the mind comes in, the memory is charming, but here, it’s not like that. It’s not like that: on the contrary, it intensifies the need to be, the aspiration, the need. And life looks like something so stupid, false, artificial, meaningless, without ... “What’s all this nonsense we constantly live in!” And yet, when That was there, nothing was destroyed, everything remained, but it was something else altogether.
         Later ... (Mother seems about to say something, then stops herself) ... later.
         No, it has made me understand something, but it’s something very (how can I put it?), very intimate.... When Sri Aurobindo left, I knew I had to cut the link with the psychic being, otherwise I would have gone with him; and as I had promised him I would stay on and do the work, I had to do that: I literally closed the door on the psychic and said, “For the moment this doesn’t exist anymore.” It remained like that for ten years. After ten years, it slowly, slowly began to open again – it was frightening. But I was ready. It began to open again. But then, that experience surprised me when I had it; I wondered why it had been like that, why I had received that command and had to do it. And when there was in the body that identification with divine Love [a few days ago], after that had left, the cells were ordered to undergo a similar phenomenon [to what happened after Sri Aurobindo’s departure]. And I understood why the whole material world is closed: it’s to allow it to exist WITHOUT the experience [of divine Love]. Naturally, I had understood why I was made to close off my psychic, because ... because it was truly impossible, I couldn’t go on existing outwardly without Sri Aurobindo’s presence. Well then, the cells have understood that they must go on existing and living their life without the presence of divine Love. And that’s how it took place in the world: it was a necessary phenomenon for the formation and development of the material world.
         But we’re perhaps nearing ... We are nearing the time when it will be allowed to open again.

(silence)

You remember, I don’t know if it was in a letter or an article, Sri Aurobindo spoke of the manifestation of divine Love; he said, “Truth will have to be established first, otherwise there will be catastrophes....” I understand that very well.
         But it’s a long time in coming! (Mother laughs)
         Up above, nothing is long. But anyway, it’s here that we are ordered to exist and to achieve.
         It’s on this occasion, too, that I had an answer regarding death. I was told, “But they all want to die! Because they don’t have the courage to be before That is manifested.” And I saw – I clearly saw it was like that.
         The power of Death is that they all want to die! Not like that in their active thought, but in the body’s deep feeling, because it doesn’t have the courage to be without That – it takes great courage.
         And at that moment (it was a rather difficult moment), there was even in the consciousness ... it was like a sword of white light that nothing can shake and which gave the cells the sensation, “What! But you should be in an ecstasy of joy, now that you know what will be” – what there IS, in principle. ”

(Mother to Mona Sarkar:) “You know, when He left … when He wanted to leave His body, He remained from the 5th December till the 9th … At that time, He was charged with an unimaginable consciousness. It was a dynamic activity of the consciousness which radiated from His body. It was so concrete, so physical, that everything vibrated in Him with an astonishing power. It was so physically concrete … I was beside Sri Aurobindo at that time. And I was seeing Sri Aurobindo's consciousness was coming out from Him and entering directly into me, like this, physically. It was an extraordinary phenomenon. I could feel His consciousness entering into my pores with a friction. It was as concrete as that. It was so intense that it was penetrating into me with a friction, something absolutely physical which I could feel outwardly. Like this, all His consciousness entered in me, because it is the same consciousness.
         And He gave me everything before leaving. Everything, everything, without restraint and with a total self-giving, as if all His consciousness merged into me. And it continued for hours and hours. Ah, it was so material an event that one cannot imagine. I cannot describe it … He has left everything for me.
         Well, it is this physical body which is limited, which is bound and which does not allow a free play. Once the consciousness enters into this (the body), it is completely restricted in this material form. But He, He is everywhere. He is here in me, as well as everywhere in the world. He speaks to me. I ask Him things and He replies. We have conversations and at the same time He speaks to others in different places when it is necessary. We decide the fate of the world and the destiny of humanity and all that will happen, what is necessary for the next stage. All this we decide.”

(Amal Kiran:) “When she was shown the Note giving a short account of the puzzling unexpected event, she paused over the expression: ‘the mortal remains of Sri Aurobindo’. She said: “There was nothing ‘mortal’ about Sri Aurobindo. You must write only ‘remains’.” A moment later she added: “Sri Aurobindo did not die of physical causes. He had complete control over his body.”
         The writer asked: “Will you not throw some light on the mystery of his passing?”
         The Mother replied: “It is all quite clear to me. But I am not going to tell you anything. You must find out the truth yourself.”
         “Mother, give me then the power to find it out.”
         At this, she blessed her disciple.
         Appealing to the Master for inspiration, the disciple spent nearly a fortnight preparing himself for his editorial in Mother India. The light dawned at last and he wrote his piece: “The Passing of Sri Aurobindo – Its Inner Significance and Consequence”. The Mother gave her full approval to it and later ordered 15,000 copies to be printed in pamphlet form.”

Amal Kiran, 1951
“The Passing of Sri Aurobindo: Its Inner Significance and Consequence”

PDF (12 pages)

(Shyam Sundar, 1967:) “From the beginning of this week sometimes I see around You a light which is white, bluish and golden... rather there is a rain of this light!

(Mother:) It proves that you are open to Sri Aurobindo's presence.”

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See also

• Mother's Mahasamadhi
• Pavitra's departure
• Death
• Subtle physical
• Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother