On this auspicious day of Vijayadashami, we release a special issue celebrating Divine Shakti. During this Navaratri, our worship of the Divine Shakti took many forms including working on this issue, facilitating a 4-day intense workshop for children, and more. Invoking the Divine Mother who is the Source of all our work and the ever-present Force and Guidance behind it all, we invite our readers to browse through this specially curated issue.
Sri Aurobindo describes the different levels of consciousness through which we understand and experience the working of Shakti or Energy within and around us.
Sri Aurobindo emphasizes that the perfection sought in the integral Yoga is not only to be one with the Shakti in her highest spiritual power and in her universal action, but to realise and possess her fullness in our individual being and nature.
The author presents a delightful reading of the portrayal of selected key women figures from several poems of Sri Aurobindo, from Ahana to Savitri.
The poet offers this poem to her muse, Maa Durga, who arrives on the earth riding upon a lion and destroys all the hostile forces.
M.P. Pandit writes that when done with right attitude and as a sincere offering to the Mother, work has more dynamic effect than meditation.
In addition to exploring the attribute of ‘Goodness’ this issue is our offering for the special month of April. On April 4 in 1910, Sri Aurobindo arrived in Pondicherry, his “cave of tapasya”. In 1920 on April 24th, the Mother arrived in Pondicherry to be with Sri Aurobindo and collaborate in the Supramental Yoga to bring down a new consciousness on the earth.
As an offering on the Mother’s 144th birthday and given our theme of Progress, we focus on the Mahakali aspect of the Divine Mother.
A conversation with Saiswaroopa Iyer who has won great acclaim for her novels inspired by leading women characters from the Mahābhārata and the Purānas.
The Mahakali aspect is also our inspiration of this ‘Book of the Month’ feature — a reading of ‘Abhaya’ by Saiswaroopa Iyer in the light of Sri Aurobindo.
The author reminds us that it is the errors of an egoistic and self-divided creation that are the central practical concern of every human being striving to fulfil the purpose of his life on earth. The errors are inevitable; indeed, they are the means of fulfilment, the fertiliser by which the seed of the spirit is made to grow and fructify on the plane of human life.
This issue is an invocation to the Supreme Force that is the Love of the Divine for the Humanity and the Earth, the Love that carries within it the Force and Power to awaken in both – man and nature – to the deep, hidden yearning for their highest and truest Nature, their Divinity.
The Mother, in these passages, speaks of the intense yearning, the deep love and longing of Nature, its ardent prayer to Light. The same Love can awaken in us, the humans, an aspiration to seek the Oneness within, the truest Light within.
This special issue is dedicated to invoking several of the names and forms of Shakti – from Aditi, the Divine Mother to Mother India, the Bharat Shakti; from Mahashakti and Her Four Great Powers to Woman as Shakti, Nāri Shakti. It is an expression of our adoration of the Divine Mother because Hers indeed is the force that moves all and acts in all, the universal Energy, the Conscious-Power.
Two selections from Sri Aurobindo’s writings. About the Mahashakti and Her powers; and about the Shakti that governs and guides the destiny of India.
The author highlights a few verses to suggest how Savitri, Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem seems like a proclamation of the inexhaustible female powers and gives magical formulae of true women empowerment.
We feature a reflective look at selected insights from Nolini Kanta Gupta’s book with a focus on the issues of equality, freedom and education for girls and women. The timeless truths that a yogi reveals in a deep examination of a social phenomenon must be kept in consideration when addressing contemporary issues.
India needs Shakti alone, said Sri Aurobindo once. What can help Indians, and especially the youth of India grow in Shakti? What factors hold us back? What is necessary to infuse our knowledge with courage? What needs to be done to strengthen our society from within? These and other related questions were explored in this conversation with Sandeep Balakrishna, presented here in three parts.
