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I’ve been studying Sri Aurobindo recently. I read a great intro to his work by his French student Satprem called ‘The Adventure of Consciousness’
Here is an interesting quote that fits well, even perfectly, with the view of alchemy in general (he’s refering to the intent of how they approach things at his ashram, though it sums up his spiritual philosophy and practice insofar as I’ve encountered it):“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.”
I feel Aurobindo was involved in the Great Work of alchemy. He was a tantric whose focus was on transforming the here and now, not transcending it in the ordinary useage of getting away from or above the physical.
michaelIn the end he became particularly concerned with transforming the deep, physical habits of collective humanity. For him changing the body’s kind of cellular habits or karma was the real untried task, more challenging and difficult than developing ‘normal yogic powers’ (which he saw as a ‘top down’, only temporary fix of the normal flow), because of deep collective resistance to this (permanent transformation of the body and also of matter in general, toward making it readily malleable to will).
It is fascinating to encounter his ideas. It is like he was discovering alchemy on his own, after living the Indian yogic (and Western scholarly) path to the hilt. I plan to go on to read a long prose poem of his called “Savitri” which apparently contains the essence of his ideas and practice.
Simon
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