I have always had a fascination for Lord Krishna. Everything about Him is so awe-inspiring – the delightful vibrations of the word ‘Krishna’, His ethereal beauty, the peacock crown, His beautiful flute and its melodies, the amazing feats, His omnipotence and omnipresence, the splendid pastimes, His composure, the unshakable wisdom, His deep eyes…well, I could go on writingendlessly and yet very little of His infinite nature would stand expressed. The very thought or mention of Lord Krishna brings pleasure to my heart, mind and body. And it has been that way always. Even as a child Icould faintly feel the unfathomable pleasure that goes with Lord Krishna. This pleasure remained with me as I grew up. But the pleasure of Krishna consciousness was and continued to be inconstant and elusive until one day one of my cousins took me to the temple of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New Delhi. That was indeed a momentous day in my life. I realized that no matter how big I grow in terms of material accomplishments, my life would still have little significance if I didn’t realize its spiritual objectives. Krishna consciousness appeared to be the means to achieve these objectives.

My conscious attempts to grow in Krishna consciousness helped me become a more composed man but I was still far from spiritual bliss. The questions and doubts that had constantly plagued my understanding of the material universe often rushed with enormous ferocity as if mocking my scanty awareness of the world within and around me. How did the universe come into being? What lies beyond the dimensions of space and time? Who am I and what ismy purpose of being here? Is there anything such as God (yes, I even had this doubt despite my love and devotion for Lord Krishna) and if yes, where is He? Why do pain and trouble exist in the world? What is consciousness and how does it come into being? These and many other questions remained unanswered. The texts on Krishna Bhakti, although very interesting and soulful, would do little to address these questions and doubts. These books prescribed constant and unfaltering devotion to Krishna and strictly forbade the harbouring of any doubts about the teachings contained in them. But the harder I tried to allay my rational inquiries, the greater they invaded my mind. Therefore, my growth in Krishna consciousness wasn’t joined by a proportionate growth in mental peace. In came
Sri Aurobindo at this juncture of my life and the equation of my life changed altogether.

SRI AUROBINDO – MY ADORABLE GURU

Two of the many spiritual experiences of Sri Aurobindo that I studied as a part of MA in Sri Aurobindo Studies from SACAR-IGNOU connected me eternally to him. One is the sighting of Vasudeva i.e. Lord Krishna in every being and every thing by Sri Aurobindo in the prison cell of Alipore Jail; and the second is Sri Aurobindo’s progress as an integral yogi which he explained to his disciples as happening because of constant support of Krishna. These experiences are indicative of Sri Aurobindo’s deep love for Lord Krishna. This indication was enough for me to turn towards Sri Aurobindo for help and guidance. But I still waited for my inner voice to consent to this idea. As I studied these experiences of the great master repeatedly and imagined how beautiful they might have been, one fine moment I heard my inner voice say excitedly, “Here is he, Biswajit, here is he, he is your Guru – Sri Aurobindo, he is the one who will lead you to perfect Krishna consciousness, he is the one who will address your questions and doubts, he is the one who will eliminate the impediments lying on your path to Krishna realization.” And indeed, Sri Aurobindo is doing for me just what my inner voice had said he would do for me. Studying the realizations of Sri Aurobindo (I shall hereafter fondly call him ‘my guru’) my pursuit of Krishna has become smoother and more meaningful. Sri Aurobindo has furnished answers to all the questions and doubts I had about existence, energy, space, matter, time, universe, self, God, creation of the universe, consciousness, and how consciousness came into being. Although I don’t claim to have understood all that Sri Aurobindo has to say on these issues but surely I have found a direction for further inquiry and research. I shall illustrate with a few examples.

HOW SRI AUROBINDO UNBURDENED ME

First, I realized that my questions and doubts were rooted in the fallacious idea of the physical sciences, of which I have been an ardent student, that consciousness is the result of material forces. The truth is just the opposite – consciousness is not the result but the cause of material forces.

My guru has given to mankind an ocean of precious literature…every word of his is charged with spiritual energy. Even reading his works, therefore, gives the reader a feel of exaltedness. I have gathered from whatever little I have studied so far as part of my MA that consciousness is the supreme reality of the Divine and His emanations. Whom or what we call the Supreme Brahman, or God, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Ishwara, is nothing but consciousness in its purest state. This truth solves the problems of creation and the possible future course of the universe.

How? Well, Sri Aurobindo explains that Ishwara who is ‘ekam’ (single) turns into ‘bahu’ (many) for His sheer pleasure. The formation of many from one explains how the universe originated. Consciousness descends from the highest state (Sachchidananda), and steadily passes through the levels of Supermind, Overmind, Intuitive Mind, Illumined Mind, Higher Mind, Mind, Vital, Subtle Physical, Physical proper, and Subconscient, and finally moves down to its lowest level or state called the inconscient. From the overmind level onwards, consciousness fails to distinguish itself as a single whole and consequently the idea of duality develops. At the level of the inconscient, the illusion of duality assumes the maximum magnitude. This process of descent of consciousness is known as involution of consciousness in Sri Aurobindo’s terminology. It is noteworthy that life originated at one of the last stages of involution of consciousness. The reverse of involution whereby consciousness ascends from the lowest or inconscient level, steadily passing through all the intermediate levels, to finally reach the highest level of consciousness, i.e. the Sachchidananda level, is called the evolution of consciousness. The twin processes of involution and evolution describe respectively the Divine phenomena of one becoming many, and the many becoming one. Interestingly, there is a theory of the origin of the universe in modern Physics, namely, the Pulsation Theory, which is very similar to the involution-evolution theory. The Pulsation Theory suggests that all the matter and energy of the universe was at first contained in a single primeval atom. Due to unbearable gravity the atom burst throwing its fragments in all possible directions. As a result, the universe began to expand. Research experiments on red-shift prove that the universe is still expanding. However, the followers of the Pulsation Theory contend that this expansion will stop when the critical limit is reached and after the critical limit is reached, the fragments of the universe will rush back at one another thereby starting a process of contraction. This contraction will end with the reconstitution of the primeval atom. We could think of the expansion as involution (i.e. the one becoming many) and contraction as evolution (i.e. the many becoming one). Sri Aurobindo’s writings on involution-evolution have not only made it possible for me to get a hang of the truths behind the origins of universe and life but also opened up vistas for me to see the theories of science in a new light. The knowledge of interplays of consciousness (assuming consciousness to be the origin of matter and energy) solves all the riddles of all physical sciences.

KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS IS
SRI AUROBINDO CONSCIOUSNESS

The writings of Sri Aurobindo are just not writings; to me they are as good as live commentaries. As foreseen by my inner voice, my adorable guru came to me through his writings and dispelled the clouds of confusions and ignorance to catalyze my growth in Krishna consciousness. It would be false on my part to claim that I fully understand what my Guru says or that all my doubts have been cleared or that I completely agree with him. Well, surely that’s not the case. But my guru has shown me the direction. He has offered solutions to all my questions and doubts which I intuitively feel are the correct solutions. He has, however, not instructed me to follow them blindly. Rather, he wants me, and all his followers, to test the golden truths he has given to the world. Sri Aurobindo has surely lessened the load of doubts over my being and opened up possibilities for their complete elimination from my personality. He has indeed brought me close to Lord Krishna.

Last but not the least, Sri Aurobindo is no different from Krishna. When the Mother saw him for the first time she identified him as one of the spiritual masters who used to appear in her supernal dreams. She knew this master by the name of Krishna, although she wasn’t at that time aware of who Krishna is and His position in Indian culture and spirituality. Understandably, to the Mother Krishna and Sri Aurobindo were the same. Krishna consciousness is therefore, Sri Aurobindo consciousness!