Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s words provide a flow of inspiration for many works in all walks of life. Inspiration can as be numerous as there are numbers of ways to perceive and understand. As a graphic artist I find deep inspiration when I meditate on the thoughts, words and vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The present collection of images came in such inspired moments. I have included the selected passages that inspired these images.

 

The Four Aspects of Mahashakti

“The Mother gave the four pillars with the entrances to the Matrimandir the names of the four aspects of the Mahashakti. The North pillar is Mahakali, the aspect of strength; the West pillar is Mahasaraswati, the aspect of perfection in works; the South pillar is Maheshswari, the aspect of wisdom; and the East pillar is Mahalakshmi, the aspect of beauty and harmony… Mahakali’s is marked by a red square; Mahasaraswati by a light-blue triangle; Maheshwari by an orange hexagon; and Mahalakshmi by a pink circle. The colours used were red (Mahakali), turquoise (Mahasaraswat), orange (Maheshwar) and pink (Mahalakshmi).”
(Auroville Today, August 2009; graphic art by Margaret Astrid Phanes).

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Illumine “In Sri Aurobindo’s thought, the concept of levels of consciousness is intimately related to the concept of evolution of consciousness… This One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself, consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of the release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental.”
Sri Aurobindo (1970). Letters on Yoga, SABCL, Volume 22, (included in Dalal, A. S. A Greater Psychology, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry, 2001, pp. 240-241.).

 

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The Psychic

“The psychic is not above but behind — its seat is behind the heart, its power is not knowledge but an essential or spiritual feeling — it has the clearest sense of the Truth and sort of inherent perception of it which is of the nature of soul-perception and sour-freeing. It is our inmost being and supports all the others, mental, vital, physical, but it is also much veiled by them and has to act upon them as an influence rather than its sovereign right of direct action; its direct action becomes normal and preponderant only at a high stage of development or by yoga.”
(Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The Psychic Being. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1970, p. 17.)

 

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Evolution of Consciousness

“If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into Matter, if it is fundamentally an evolution of consciousness that has been taking place in Nature, then man as he is cannot be the last term of that evolution: he is too imperfect an expression of the spirit, mind itself a too limited form and instrumentation; mind is only a middle term of consciousness, the mental being can only be a transitional being. If, then, man is incapable of exceeding mentality, he must be surpassed and supermind and superman must manifest and take the lead of the creation. But if his mind is capable of opening to what exceeds it, then there is no reason why man himself should not arrive at supermind and suprermanhood or at least lend his mentality, life and body to and evolution of that great term of the Spirit manifesting in nature.”
(Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, CWSA, Volume 21-22, p. 879.  Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 2005.)