Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture. (SAIIC) Shillong workshop, 26,Oct -7 Nov, 2006 - 3. Transformation

Mind itself goes on growing. Even if you remain in some form, it's also quite likely, people stay with a smaller group of itself, because the moment it grows, it has no alternative but to go forward, to go on before exploding. If it does not want that explosion, it can remain, but only if it sinks and narrowed itself down as today humanity seems to be preparing itself for. Because mankind has reached such a point that poverty, which was the reason for revolution in the past, can be greatly eliminated.

For all inventions after all is for what? that all of the poverty that brought about the revolutions that would not be so strong, because I think if we can ultimately give doles to unemployed people, people who are not very ambitious, they will live on doles and no revolutions are possible. India is also now moving in that direction, some kind of guarantee, some kind of reservations, some value from here, some value from there, remain quiet. And this is where we are today, so India can look forward to a 100 years or 150 years time when probably everybody will be given a dole if there is no employment. so there is a great difficulty in India for a revival. Then what remains, everyone with hold to their small lives, many now.

I’ll tell you what life is. The enjoyment that Akbar could not have more than once in a year, you can have it every day, that much of facility you can have, your television can give you everything that you need here as far as entertainment is concerned. And food of course will be available; food, clothing and shelter. Even today many leaders are saying: roti, kapada and makaan. Give man all the basic things that he needs. The leaders of India are planning to only give these basic things to the people of India. If you rise up, you are going to explode because of a tremendous effort for transformation. If you don't go in that direction, you are going in this direction, sink below.

Why not? It is here that Sri Aurobindo's diagnosis is that even if the humanity sinks, everybody will not sink. Human consciousness itself is a consciousness of transition. That is why Sri Aurobindo said man is a transitional being. Even if people at large sink, there will be a few people in the world who will not accept that message: they will try, like Newton, like Leibnitz. They have the courage to question great historians: what they said was not the last word. Leibnitz by himself was a great mathematician, religionist and scientist. He has studied this problem very, very minutely. Now the whole structure of mathematics and logic which dominated the world for three thousand years was broken by Leibnitz. All the rest of the development of science is only because of Libinitz, one man. He brought about calculus, integral calculus and all that, the whole logic of possibilities. If the very logic of possibilities is something that makes man a transitional being, then his whole effort is the search of possibilities.

Even if you make him sink, some human beings will not sink and they are bound to reach that point where we are now and again make the same effort. Change of the skeleton which is dependent on the impregnation of the supermind in the cells of the body is inevitable, and that process is what Sri Aurobindo has called transformation. It is not change, not physical changes, it is not even a conversion, but great impregnation by the supermind into the cells of the body as the result of which the very skeleton of man can change and you can move from knowledge to knowledge inexhaustively and it is there the real joy of life, man wants ultimate eternal joy, a relationship that never breaks. I hold the hand of Dr. Datta and no circumstance can break it, because it is with the knowledge by which we both can grow together and we shall be able to lead a life which Sri Aurobindo calls the divine life. This divinity of which mankind speaks of sam gacchatvam, sam gacchatvam is there, but it's not possible with the present level of evolution.

Now the importance of Sri Aurobindo is that he has said that this is now imminent. We should have a program of 5000 years, we can say we will come to you the reason you have to type into our library, but no, it is now, imminent. Mankind is suffering from all kinds of problems because they are not listening to that message. It’s a problem of the whole evolution. If animals did not hear the message of evolution, what would have happened to you? In all evolutionary movements there are reasons. Out of that again something is going to come. Until the message is heard and something happens in one little individual of a species, something happens and a transition takes place. Today according to his diagnosis, mankind has reached that point. So to answer very briefly now: transformation is a process by which an ascension is made into the supramental consciousness and that consciousness’ power is brought down right upto the level of the cells of the body. When the cells of the body can be bombarded, the supermind can be impregnated in a new basis from the previous one to arrive at that world change which Sri Aurobindo calls transformation. All right.