Sri Aurobindo Ashram-Delhi

Like a flower in the air, stemless

And sufficient unto itself…..

                                    Tagore

We have left that stage far enough behind us now. We have in fact reached the opposite end perhaps. We have taken a plunge outwards, identified ourselves with the outer being-a tendency against which the Upanishad has used a word of warning-paranci khani vyatrnat, our sense have a natural pull towards the outer things. But this too was necessary and still is. We form part of the world, we are united with it and inseperable.

We are an image of the entire world, its symbol and representative. We have to share in its work and suffer its deeds.

                                                                        Nolini Kanta Gupta,

                                                Collected works-Volume 8,page 207

On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mirra Alfassa, the foremost spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, reflecting on some writings by Nolini da, the senior most disciple of Sri Aurobindo, who was with him from 1909, Alipur trial days and was secretary of the Ashram at Pondicherry from 1950 to 1983.

Mirra Alfassa was born in Paris to Turkish and Egyptian parents and came to Sri Aurobindo’s retreat on March 29,1914 to collaborate on editing the Arya.

Finding one’s centre has been a quest over the years. When my children started going to play school at Gnostic Centre-Delhi, I got a bit more orientation into the works of Sri Aurobindo, thanks to the dedicated teachers and spiritual practitioners there.

Though I do not agree with many of the things which they say and believe in, their centre is an ethical base with good resources to do research on different themes of education, work related  and day-to-day practical issues.

They conduct interesting workshops on themes of parenting, teaching, work, stress.

These all fall into the realm of Neurolinguistic Programming.(NLP) which  is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “a model of interpersonal communication chiefly concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behaviour and the subjective experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them” and “a system of alternative therapy based on this which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and emotional behaviour”^[

Notes and Suggested further reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirra_Alfassa

www.gnosticcentre.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming