Article

SALC report

Sri Aurobindo Learning Center

During the week of August 11-16 a series of lectures on the Kena Upanishad, and readings from Savitri corresponding to the Upanishad, were presented to a wonderful group of listeners and devotees in the Savitri Solar Dome. The group shared many delightful experiences together throughout the week, including visits to several of the beautiful and powerful spiritual centers here.  Their intimate and luminous time together included discussions on the philosophy of evolution, a presentation on the theory and practice of Thai Massage, with many personal demonstrations, an evening of Kirtan, an art workshop, hikes in the mountains, and visits to the hot springs. The celebration of Sri Aurobindo’s birthday on the 15th included a Lakshmi Puja performed by Santosh, who is a priest at the Mt. Madonna temple in Santa Cruz, and he also instructed the group in Pranayama practices.

The focus on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo in this workshop emphasized the inspirational sources of both his philosophy of evolution and his use of the technique of mantric transmission based on the Upanishads. The Kenopanishad in particular was the subject of many commentaries written by him, and in those texts we learn that he found answers to the problem of evolution in the idea that the universal principles of consciousness such as sight, hearing, and speech, truth, beauty, and power, matter, life and mind, actually precede the evolution of form. The forms that we perceive reveal the essences of structure such as quality, proportionality, mutuality, order and meaning, because those principles exist eternally in the One. Through yoga we learn to draw back from preoccupations with the forms of things to their essences, and through their universal essences we can learn to perceive their divine origin.

The Savitri Solar Dome in Crestone is open to meditators almost any time, and the library of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings, as well as study groups and discussions, are available to students and devotees by appointment.  

Rod, 8/20/2013