Siddhi Day

Letters on Himself and the Ashram
“The Realisation of 24 November 1926”

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“Why are we observing the 24th as a special day?

(Sri Aurobindo:) It was the descent of Krishna into the physical.”

(Sri Aurobindo:) “What was said was that the Divine (Krishna or the Divine Presence or whatever you like) had come down into the material. It was also proclaimed that I was retiring — obviously to work things out.”

(Nirodbaran to students, 1970:) “From the trend of the talks around that time, months previous to that day, Purani notes: “It was becoming clear that something was going to happen and some of the sadhaks were feeling actually that some big thing was imminent.”
         As I say in my colloquial vulgar tongue – some big fish was going to be caught (Laughter) or some big deal was going to be made; a great descent was near at hand.
         The atmosphere was surcharged with something. There was intensity in concentration, in meditation. Sri Aurobindo was coming later and later to his evening sittings. The scheduled time was 4:30 p.m. and all those inmates, a few in number, used to sit there and wait for Sri Aurobindo's coming; but both his time for sittings and lunch, began to be pushed, pushed, pushed further and further. Nolini-da records that his lunchtime was pushed from four o'clock to twelve midnight! And naturally the sittings even further! So, Purani says:
         “Instead of coming to the evening sittings at half-past four, the usual time, Sri Aurobindo came at six or seven, or eight o'clock. One day the record was two o'clock in the morning! It was evident that all his great energies were entirely taken up by the mighty task of bringing about the descent of the Higher Consciousness.”
         And mind you, all of them waited, no one went away, they had an evening walk and came back. They waited till two o'clock for the Lord. So, he was so wholly occupied, entirely occupied with that work that he forgot everything. I remember, later on, during the period of my correspondence days, he used to be very, very brief and short – laconic as we see – one or two words in answer. I raised many questions, trying to drag him out as much as I could – illé! [no] (Laughter) I failed! He just put in something, two words, as if in a hurry, and not to disappoint me completely, no elaboration: “Yes,” “no,” “that could be done...”
         His answers were very, very short, very dry. I was wondering: “What is the matter? Have I done something wrong?” Then, I dared to ask him: What is the matter with you, Sir? (Laughter) Why don't you give me long answers?
         Then he confessed:
         “I'm busy trying to get down something. Now that I have got an opportunity, I am at it.” ”

(Amal Kiran:) “The Victory Day of 24 November 1926 brought the Overmind Gods into direct alliance with our Gurus' purpose of earth-transformation and rendered more effective their fight with the occult Evil that acts upon earth from its headquarters on the vital plane either directly or through human beings open to it.”

“What exactly is the significance of the 24th November? Overmental, supramental realisation or what? You say it was something like the descent of Krishna in the material. Some say the descent was in you but you are not matter, are you? Not very clear.

(Sri Aurobindo:) Why not? Why can’t I be matter? or represent it at least? At least you will admit that I have got some matter in me and you will hardly deny that the matter in me is connected or even continuous (in spite of the quantum theory) with matter in general? Well, if Krishna or the Overmind or something equivalent descended into my matter with an inevitable extension into connected general Matter, what is the lack of clarity in the statement of a descent into the material?”

(Mother:) “I remember the days when Sri Aurobindo was here and I used to go downstairs to give meditations to the people assembled in the hall. There’s a ledge above the pillars there, where all the gods used to sit – Shiva, Krishna, Lakshmi, the Trimurti, all of them – the little ones, the big ones, they all used to come regularly, every day, to attend these meditations. It was a lovely sight. But they didn’t have this kind of adoration for the Supreme. They had no use for that concept – each one, in his own mode of being, was fully aware of his own eternal divinity; and each one knew as well that he could represent all the others (such was the basis of popular worship, and they knew it). They felt they were a kind of community, but they had none of those qualities that the psychic life gives: no deep love, no deep sympathy, no sense of union. They had only the sense of their OWN divinity. They had certain very particular movements, but not this adoration for the Supreme nor the feeling of being instruments: they felt they were representing the Supreme, and so each one was perfectly satisfied with his particular representation.
         Except for Krishna.... In 1926, I had begun a sort of overmental creation, that is, I had brought the Overmind down into matter, here on earth (miracles and all kinds of things were beginning to happen). I asked all these gods to incarnate, to identify themselves with a body (some of them absolutely refused). Well, with my very own eyes I saw Krishna, who had always been in rapport with Sri Aurobindo, consent to come down into his body. It was on November 24th, and it was the beginning of ‘Mother’.

(Satprem:) Yes, in fact I wanted to ask you what this realization of 1926 was.

It was this: Krishna consented to descend into Sri Aurobindo’s body – to be FIXED there; there is a great difference, you understand, between incarnating, being fixed in a body, and simply acting as an influence that comes and goes and moves about. The gods are always moving about, and it’s plain that we ourselves, in our inner beings, come and go and act in a hundred or a thousand places at once. There is a difference between just coming occasionally and accepting to be permanently tied to a body – between a permanent influence and a permanent presence.
         These things have to be experienced.

But in what sense did this realization mark a turning point in Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana?

No, the phenomenon was important FOR THE CREATION; he himself was rather indifferent to it. But I did tell him about it.”

(Mother:) “It was only ... (how can I put it?) a participation from Krishna. It made no difference for Sri Aurobindo personally: it was a formation from the past that accepted to participate in the present creation, nothing more. It was a descent of the Supreme, from ... some time back, now consenting to participate in the new manifestation.”

(Mother:) “I had begun a sort of ‘overmental creation’, to make each god descend into a being – there was an extraordinary upward curve! Well, I was in contact with these beings and I told Krishna (because I was always seeing him around Sri Aurobindo), ‘This is all very fine, but what I want now is a creation on earth – you must incarnate.’ He said ‘Yes.’ Then I saw him – I saw him with my own eyes (inner eyes, of course), join himself to Sri Aurobindo.
         Then I went into Sri Aurobindo’s room and told him, ‘Here’s what I have seen.’ ‘Yes, I know!’ he replied (Mother laughs) ‘That’s fine; I have decided to retire to my room, and you will take charge of the people. You take charge.’”

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See also

• Powers as beings
• Overmind
• Krishna
• Immortality Day