Part 2 of the series "Sri Aravinda Mahatmyam" or The Greatness of Sri Aurobindo, describing the significance of WWII from an inner spiritual standpoint and revealing the role that Mother Sri Aurobindo played in the conflict

1. Painting of Joan of Arc, a Vibhuti of the Mother, in battle. Inset: Self-portrait of the Mother in 1934
Sri Aravinda Mahatmyam
The Greatness of Sri Aurobindo
Part 2 – The Mother’s War
Sri Aravinda Mahatmyam
The Greatness of Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aravinda Mahatmyam
The Greatness of Sri Aurobindo

2. Kurukshetra

3. Sri Krishna is singing the Gita to
Arjuna
Sri Krishna has revealed to Arjuna his
Divine Identity. However, he has not
actually “shown” him his Divine Form and
Arjuna says:

5. What happens?
Arjuna sees the Infinite behind the Finite
This bodily appearance is not all;
The form deceives, the person is a mask.
Hid deep in man celestial powers can dwell.

6. This bodily appearance is not all;
The form deceives, the person is a mask.
Hid deep in man celestial powers can dwell.

7. Who is Sri Aurobindo?
• Yogi – Creator of the Integral Yoga
• Philosopher – Gave the philosophy of Life Divine
• Revolutionary – A leader of the Indian freedom movement
• Nationalist – The “prophet of Indian Nationalism” and its father
• Author – Wrote many books – 37 volumes now
• Poet – Wrote Savitri – 25,000 line epic – largest in English literature

8. Others say..
• Rishi – Seer
• Guru – Preceptor
• Bhagavan – God
• Avatar - Incarnation

9. But can we glimpse his roopam
aishwaram?
• The one thing we can say about Sri Aurobindo’s life is
that it is incredibly COMPLEX, very rich.
• Secondly Sri Aurobindo has not made it his business to
announce to the world everything about himself.
• To understand the true significance of his life then we
can use certain frames of reference
• A different frame of reference gives us different clues
about of his true greatness

10. 3 Frames of reference
• Let us consider Sri Aurobindo’s life a great
play, a great drama, story – his Jeevan
Katha
• The ancient Greek playwrights came up
with three different types of roles for the
principal characters in their dramas

11. 3 Roles for characters in a drama
1. Protagonist – Main actor, principal
figure, hero
2. Antagonist – Opponent of
protagonist, adversary, villain
3. Deuteragonist – the second role, the
double, friend, helper of the main
actor

12. In Sri Aurobindo’s Jeevan Katha
Who is the:
↑ Protagonist – Main actor / lead player
↑ Antagonist – Opponent / Enemy
↑ Deuteragonist – Double / Friend & Helper
We will take this up in reverse order:
↓ Deuteragonist – “Sri Aurobindo & Sri Krishna”
↓ Antagonist – “The Mother’s War”
↓ Protagonist – “Savitr: The Creator Sun”

13. Sri Krishna: Sri Aurobindo’s Double

14. “No Difference”
From Champaklal Speaks, page 39.
Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo
Kamala's brother Mahesh had come to me in 1923.
Obviously we both came for the same purpose, but I found
a difference in Sri Aurobindo's way of dealing with us. To
me he was speaking and guiding me in his Yoga but to
Mahesh he talked of bhakti and upasana [worship] of Sri
Krishna. Later I found out that Mahesh was intensely
drawn to Sri Krishna and his path was different from mine.
One day, however, he expressed his difficulty in
reconciling his adoration of Sri Krishna with his surrender
to Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo told him: "There is no difference between
Krishna and me."

15. Later on, as the interior and
exterior development proceeded,
the spiritual and psychic relation
with one of these beings became
more and more clear and
frequent;
and although I knew little of
the Indian philosophies and
religions at that time I was led
to call him Krishna, and
henceforth I was aware that it
was with him (whom I knew I
should meet on earth one day)
that the divine work was to be
done.
Meeting “Krishna”

16. I have borne every attack which human beings
have borne, otherwise I would be unable to assure
anybody "This too can be conquered."

17. And yet … 2 things stand out
Why is it that despite these terrible hardships and
trials do we not feel them?
The secret is two inter-related aspects of life that
are unique to Sri Aurobindo & Sri Krishna
Both are “Anandamaya”. This means that
whatever happens in life it cannot touch something
within Them which is full of bliss.
While ordinary humans might describe their lives
as “Dukkhamaya”

18. This Ananda is based on the Impersonal,
The Divine
• The other feature of their lives, which is the basis of the Ananda…
IMPERSONALITY.
• In other words something is missing from both or at least not as
commonly prominent in them as it is in ordinary humans: the ego
• We see this in Sri Krishna’s and Sri Aurobindo life from the very
beginning
• One feels that there is nothing that can touch them and that all can
depend upon them
• “The greatness of a person is the greatness of the Impersonal in
him. Sri Aurobindo from his very birth was such an impersonal
personality and, in the very highest sense. He had never the
consciousness of a particular individual person: all reference to a
personal frame of his was deleted from the texture of his nature and
character.” – Nolini Kanta Gupta, The greatness of the great

19. Sri Krishna’s Work – Part 1
• Establishment of Dharma Raj
• Integration of India into a
single political union as an
empire of Dharma, to re-
establish the Sanatana
Dharma. He is referred to in
the Gita as “shaashvata
dharma goptaa”
• His aim was to establish a
Dharmocracy

20. What was Sri Aurobindo’s Nationalism?
I say no longer that
nationalism is a creed, a
religion, a faith; I say that it is
the Sanatan Dharma which
for us is nationalism. This
Hindu nation was born with
the Sanatan Dharma, with it,
it moves and with it, it grows.
When the Sanatan Dharma
declines, then the nation
declines, and if the Sanatan
Dharma were capable of
perishing, with the Sanatan
Dharma it would perish.
Uttarpara Speech, 1909

21. Sri Aurobindo’s Fourth dream
(1947)
Another dream, the spiritual
gift of India to the world has
already begun. India's
spirituality is entering Europe
and America in an ever
increasing measure. That
movement will grow; amid the
disasters of the time more and
more eyes are turning towards
her with hope and there is even
an increasing resort not only to
her teachings, but to her psychic
and spiritual practice.

22. The Divine Fighter and Victor
• Was Sri Krishna just a charioteer in the war? The course
of the Kurukshetra war was determined largely by the
action, occult and overt, of Sri Krishna
• Was Sri Aurobindo merely a freedom-fighter? The lines of
the freedom struggle followed broadly the paths blazed by
Sri Aurobindo
• Both Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo are master-strategists.
Both prefer to work from behind the scenes and control the
play of forces to achieve their ultimate aim
• Both Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo can be called ‘Rana-
chhod’ (One who leaves the battle)
• But another name of Sri Krishna is also ‘Rana-priya’ (One
who delights in battle). Both Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo
are not just fighters themselves but also instigate others to
war, to stand and fight for the highest good. Sri Krishna is
constantly urging others to fight, not just Arjuna but also
Bhima
• “I have done politics and the most violent kind of
revolutionary politics, ghoram karma, and I have
supported war and sent men to it, even though politics
is not always or often a very clean occupation nor can
war be called a spiritual line of action.”

23. Sri Krishna’s Work – Part 2
• Ultimate aim of “LokaSangraha” or World-unity as the aim of
Dharma and Yoga (Gita 3:20 & 3:25)
• Uniting India with a view to uniting human-kind

24. 3rd dream of Sri Aurobindo
The third dream was a world-
union forming the outer
basis of a fairer, brighter and
nobler life for all mankind.
That unification of the human
world is under way; there is an
imperfect initiation organised
by struggling against
tremendous difficulties. But the
momentum is there and it must
inevitably increase and
conquer. Here too, India has
begun to play a prominent part
…

25. Not just world leaders with world-egos
• There have been countless leaders in the
world. Out of them few could be said to have
worked to try and unite people consciously.
• Out of these most have worked to satisfy their
own personal, national or religious egos.
• Only Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo stand out
as the ones who engaged in the politics of war
and unity with a complete and absolute
selflessness.
He is strength that is loud in the blare of the
trumpets,
And He rides in the car and He strikes in the spears;
He slays without stint and is full of compassion;
He wars for the world and its ultimate years.

26. …but World Soul
The universal Vishwa-atma behind the Visha-
roopa
The silent Soul of all the world was there:
A Being lived, a Presence and a Power,
A single Person who was himself and all
And cherished Nature’s sweet and dangerous
throbs
Transfigured into beats divine and pure.
One who could love without return for love,
Meeting and turning to the best the worst,
It healed the bitter cruelties of earth,
Transforming all experience to delight;
Intervening in the sorrowful paths of birth
It rocked the cradle of the cosmic Child
And stilled all weeping with its hand of joy;
It led things evil towards their secret good,
It turned racked falsehood into happy truth;
Its power was to reveal divinity.

27. Sri Krishna’s Work – Part 3
The Divine Teaching and Method of Practice (YOGA)
(Gita 4:1 – 4:3)

28. The significance of the Gita
What does the Gita really represent?
• The revival and rejuvenation of all of Indian’s spiritual
wisdom that preceded it. Gita as “Sarv-opanishad-artha-
sara-sangraha.”
• Making the wisdom of the veda practical through
Karma Yoga and Samata
• Democratizing Yoga through Bhakti to the lord in
oneself and in all beings
• A vast synthesis and a giant step in the spiritual
evolution of humanity.

29. The teaching of the Gita
When I first read the interpretation of the
Gita by Sri Aurobindo, it read like the author
Himself was explaining it.
Tilak on the Gita:
When a person is engulfed in commentaries he
cannot find a different solution, though he may
feel that the solution given in the commentary is
not satisfactory.
I, therefore, put aside all criticisms and
commentaries, and independently and
thoughtfully read the Gita over several times.
I then got out of the clutches of the
commentators and was convinced that the
original Gita did not preach the Philosophy of
Renunciation (nivrtti), but of Energism (Karma
Yoga); and that possibly, the single word yoga
used in the Gita had been used to mean Karma
Yoga.

30. Yogeshwar Sri Aurobindo
• A greater synthesis
of Yoga is what Sri
Aurobindo has
accomplished for our
age
• Like Sri Krishna he
has given the world
a new yoga, which
builds upon, purifies,
corrects and
ultimately fulfills all
the other yogas
before it

31. Sri Krishna’s Work – Part 4
• The forgotten truth of Divinization replaced by escapism
• Sri Krishna did not take the final step. Message limited to
overmind, which persisted the final division, the
“overmental” schism
– between matter and spirit
– between world existence and the life divine

32. Sri Aurobindo’s Fifth Dream –
Fulfillment of Sri Krishna’s
evolutionary mission
The final dream was a step in evolution
which would raise man to a higher and
larger consciousness and begin the
solution of the problems which have
perplexed and vexed him since he first
began to think and to dream of individual
perfection and a perfect society.

33. Identity even in their outer life
We see almost exact parallels between Sri
Krishna and Sri Aurobindo:
• The Anandamaya consciousness that
impersonally engages in the most terrible
world-work
• Re-establishers of Dharma Raj in India,
Dharmocratic politicians and leaders
• Divine fighters and victors who continually
war against adharma

34. World redeemers
• Yogeshwar: the Lord of Yoga who
synthesizes and evolves spirituality for a
new age
• Divine Poets (Kavi) who gave expression
to the highest Spiritual Truth
• World-uniters who impersonally work to
bring about human unity and harmony

35. Sri Aurobindo - The Supramental
Avatar
• Sri Aurobindo’s life is not just a
repetition of the life of Sri Krishna.
• There is much more to it that is
revealed only in relation to the True
Work done with the collaboration of
The Mother
• Sri Krishna wanted to show that it
was possible to ascend to and unite
with the Divine while engaged in any
walk of ordinary life
• Mother Sri Aurobindo are at work to
bring down the Divine Life on the
earth itself, something that represents
an almost total reversal as well as the
highest culmination of world
spirituality

36. The Antagonist – The enemy /
adversary
• Who was the antagonist in the drama of
Sri Aurobindo’s jeevan katha?
• What can we learn from his identity?
• Who was the antagonist in Sri Krishna’s
case?

37. Sri Krishna’s Antagonist
• Who was he fighting against throughout
his life?
• Was it just one person? No.
• A whole class of people were the target of
his continuous war. The Asuric power had
embodied itself in not just one person but
a whole class, the class in power.

38. The Asuric Prakriti
• Extensive description in the Gita. A whole
chapter #16
• Most of the kings who Sri Krishna fights with fit
the description. These kings we would today call
dictators – Asuric oppressors and tyrants.
• Kings on both sides of the Mahabharata war
appear the same. How was it that the bad guys
had an overwhelming majority in the war?

39. What is the difference between the
two?
• How do you identify who is Asuric and who
is Daivic in everyday life?
– The one with divine nature has Daya Bhuteshu
– The one with the demonic nature: Dvishataha
Krooran, Prabhavanti UgraKarmaano
Kshayaaya Jagato Ahitaaha
• The difference is Asuric Cruelty and
Brutality vs. Daivic Compassion and
Nobility

40. What kind of life does Sri Krishna
lead?
• Always on the move, always fighting.
• Because there had been a great eruption
of the Asuric Prakriti in the world
• Even after the Kurukshetra war he is
happy that Yudhisthira performs the
Ashwamedha Yagna with Arjuna
conquering all the kings

41. Sri Aurobindo’s Antagonist
• The one being considered by Mother Sri Aurobindo to be
the greatest enemy of Their work
• One against whom Mother Sri Aurobindo actually fought
using their occult and spiritual Yoga-Shakti
• He is the greatest threat ever to face humanity in a
single human form
• Was there a war in which Mother Sri Aurobindo
fought similar to the Kurukshetra war in which Sri
Krishna fought?

42. The instrument of Sri Aurobindo’s
Antagonist

43. The Mother’s War - WWII
You have said that you have begun to doubt whether
it was the Mother’s war and ask me to make you feel
again that it is. I affirm again to you most strongly
that this is the Mother’s war. You should not think
of it is as a fight for certain nations against others or
even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to
establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, of a
Truth that has yet to realize itself fully and against a
darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm
the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is
the forces behind the battle that have to be seen
and not this or that superficial circumstance.

44. What were these forces?

45. Hitler the enigma
• The one historical figure who is universally hated
• The one historical figure nobody can explain
• Historians still cannot understand
• Psychologists still keep on theorizing

46. An unremarkable past
• An ordinary, undistinguished child
• Dreams of becoming an architect, but rejected as
mediocre
• A painter and an artist
• There is nothing to indicate that he has any great
ambitions or talents to match
• How can such a man turn the world upside down!!

47. Two Hitlers – The human and
• The little man with a little moustache
• The ordinary Hitler of everyday life “a weakish, mollusc-
like being, pasty, cheesy, feminine, not the warrior but the
hairdresser type”
• “A timid man with contracted shoulders”
• “He could sprawl for hours like a crocodile dozing in the
Nile mud or a spider immobile in the centre of its web. He
would chew on his nails, look boredly into space and
sometimes whistle.”
• “How could anyone find a particular charm in this man?
How do you explain it? This is the ultimate mystery, I think,
as far as we are concerned.”

48. Sri Aurobindo’s “The Dwarf
Napoleon”
This puny creature… of a nether clay,
Void of all grandeur, like a gnome at play,
Iron and mud his nature’s mingled stuff,
A little limited visionary brain
Cunning and skilful in its narrow vain,
A sentimental egoist poor and rough,
Whose heart was never sweet and fresh and young,
A headlong spirit driven by hopes and fears,
Intense neurotic with his shouts and tears,
Violent and cruel, devil, child and brute…

49. The other Hitler - the Titan
• How could this person command some of the greatest
armies and most powerful generals?
• He could mesmerize you just by looking at you. Even
when 100s were marching past him, each felt like he
was looking into their eyes directly.
• His voice and words felt like a white-hot blast of energy
• His decisions led Germany to conquest after easy
conquest

50. Video: The Fatal Attraction of Hitler

51. Hitler’s protected life
• Dispatch runner in WWII
• Survives several near-death experiences
• Beer Hall Putsch: Hitler walking in front of
marchers survives while others around him die
• Afterwards there are 42 recorded assassination
attempts and other unrecorded ones
• Most famous one was Operation Valkyrie where
everyone in the room dies in bomb explosion
except Hitler
• What force is protecting Hitler?

52. Force behind Hitler – The Voice
• What was Hitler’s secret?
• Hitler used to retired high up in the mountains
• This is where he received all his “inspirations” and
guidance
• “… Behind every human will there are forces in action
whose origin is not human and which move consciously
towards certain goals…. Divided into two main opposing
tendencies: those that work for the fulfillment of the
Divine Work upon earth and those that are opposed to
this fulfillment… Hitler is a choice instrument of these
anti-divine forces which want violence and upheaval
and war, for they know that all this delays and hinders
the action of the divine forces.”
- The Mother in a letter to her son Andre in 1938

53. Contrast: The Voice that guided Sri
Aurobindo
• The Adesh to come to Pondicherry
• Guided throughout His life
• Identified at one point as Sri Krishna’s
voice. Really Sri Aurobindo’s voice, the
voice of the Divine.

54. What does this dual personality
indicate?
• A medium – one who has a special capacity to become
possessed by a spirit
• Many times in his early life Hitler has had mediumistic
experiences documented and verified by friends and
those around him.
• Till 1919 he is an ordinary man and then a drastic
change.
• He becomes part of a society that practices séances of
spiritism. It is here that he finds his occultist mentor
Dietrich Eckart.

55. Mediums in India
“I have been in India recently and I went in a hindu temple to pray.
I saw their a man who works in the temple the whole day.
People were sitting down and waiting in line.
Then, he fell down while praying. And he started to speak strangely.
My cousin who was used to seeing this kind of phenomenon in lots of
temple in India, told me that God has come in this man and people were
there to ask him questions about their future. He answered them all, one by
one, concerning many topics as marriage, recovering money, school
studies... He was in a kind of trance.
After one hour, he finished answering all questions, became then
normal and couldn’t remember what he said earlier.
It was quite strange.
Have you ever heard that ? what is this exactly?”
This and other experiences at:
“http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/hinduism/453889-have-you-ever-seen-
people-trance-hindu-temple.html”

56. Mediums throughout cultures and
history
• The most important temple of the Greeks –
Oracle of Delphi – and other Oracles
• The Sibylline prophecies of the Romans
• In all religions – Qur’an, Vedas, Jewish Prophets
etc. all are based on revelations from those who
became mediums for powers greater than
themselves
• In all countries and cultures

57. What was Hitler?
• The instrument - Medium
• The problem is not with mediums but who they represent
• If The Divine can express through a medium so can The
Asura
• Hitler became the channel for the most powerful hostile
being
• The Mother: “Hitler was a very good medium, he had
great mediumistic capacities, but he lacked intelligence
and discrimination”.

58. Sri Aurobindo on the Voice guiding
Hitler
Hitler is a sort of a mystic. He says he is guided
by an inner voice. He goes into silence in his
villa and waits for the voice. Whatever the voice
says he will carry out. He is possessed by some
supernormal Power and it is from this Power that
the voice, as he calls it, comes. Have you
noticed how people who at one time were inimical
to him come into contact with him and leave as
his admirers? It is the sign of that Power. It is
from this Power the he has constantly received
suggestions, and the constant repetition of the
suggestions has taken a hold of the German
people.

59. From Sri Aurobindo’s Poem “The
Dwarf Napoleon”
A Titan Power supports this pigmy man,
The crude dwarf instrument of a mighty
Force.
Sri Aurobindo has used “Titan” for “Asura”.
The Titans in Greek mythology were the Old
Gods who were replaced by relatively better
Gods later

60. Who are the Asuras?
• Mother’s Story – even before the Gods, the First
Four beings to be born
• Separated from their Divine Source they became
the four great Asuras
– Truth (sat) – Falsehood (asat)
– Consciousness – Darkness / Ignorance
– Life – Death
– Bliss and Love - Suffering
• The Mother encounters all of these and except
for the first all the other three have either been
converted or destroyed

61. Who is the lord of falsehood?
• The Asura of Falsehood – the last
remaining Asura of the Great Four
• A hierarchy of evil
3. Pishacha: Ghouls and Goblins
2. Rakshasa: Giants and Demons
1. Asura: Titans, OLD GODS
• Of these Asura’s the greatest four
• Of these four the most diabolical

62. The Asuric Hater – Dvishataha
Krooraan
• According to Albert Speer Hitler was a ‘a
pathological hater’
• Heinrich Mann saw him as ‘the high priest of
hatred’. Every conversation, however simple,
seemed to prove that this man was possessed
by boundless hate…”
• Rauschning: “He always seemed to need
something to hate.”
• Sri Aurobindo: “Hitler is terribly cruel, he has
cruelty in his blood.”
– Dvishataha Krooraan Prabhavanti Ugrakarmaano
Kshayaaya Jagato-hitaaha

63. The power of hatred
A Titan Power supports this pigmy man,
The crude dwarf instrument of a mighty Force.
Hater of the free spirit’s joy and light,
Made only of strength and skill and giant might,
A will to trample humanity into clay
And unify earth beneath one iron sway,
Insists upon its fierce enormous plan.
(We will come back to this fierce, enormous plan)

64. Sri Aurobindo’s description of the
Asuras in Savitri
The Anarchs of the formless depths arose,
Great Titan beings and demoniac powers,
World-egos racked with lust and thought and will,
Vast minds and lives without a spirit within:
Impatient architects of error’s house,
Leaders of the cosmic ignorance and unrest
And sponsors of sorrow and mortality
Embodied the dark ideas of the Abyss.
Book II Canto VIII

65. There is much more in Savitri

66. The Mother on Hitler’s “God”
Hitler... was in contact with a being whom he
considered to be the Supreme: this being came
and gave him advice, told him all that he had to do.
Hitler used to retire into solitude and remain there
as long as it was necessary to come into contact
with his “guide” and receive from him inspirations
which he carried out later very faithfully. This being
which Hitler took for the Supreme was quite plainly
an Asura, one who is called the “Lord of
Falsehood” in occultism, but who proclaimed
himself the “Lord of the Nations”.

67. What did the lord of falsehood look like (to Hitler)?
The Mother: He had a shining appearance, he could
mislead anybody except one who really had occult
knowledge and could see what was there behind the
appearance. He would have deceived anybody, he
was truly splendid. Generally he used to appear to
Hitler wearing a silver cuirass and helmet; a kind of
flame came out of his head and there was an
atmosphere of dazzling light around him, so dazzling
that Hitler could hardly look at him. He used to tell
Hitler everything that had to be done – he played with
him as with a monkey or a mouse. He had decided
clearly to make Hitler commit all possible
extravagances till the day he would break his neck,
which did happen. But cases like this are frequent,
though on a smaller scale, of course.

68. Hitler –the Medium
Hitler was a very good medium, he had
great mediumistic capacities, but he lacked
intelligence and discrimination. This being
could tell him anything whatever and he
swallowed it all. It was he who pushed Hitler
little by little. And he was doing this as a
distraction, he did not take life seriously. For
these beings men are very tiny things with
whom they play, as a cat plays with a
mouse, till finally they eat them up.

69. The power: Germany an
extraordinary nation
• Even today “German engineering” is universally admired –
the German are perhaps the most industrious in the world
• The greatest Western musicians Mozart, Beethoven etc.
• The greatest Western philosophers Goethe, Schopenhauer,
Nietzsche etc.
• Greatest Western mystics such as Meister Eckhart
• The birthplace of protestant Christianity followed by majority
of Christians today
• Foremost scientists Einstein and Copernicus
• Seeded European nations such as England, France and
Nordics through migration during ancient times. The whole of
North-Western Europe can is largely of Germanic extraction
• German militarily power has been feared for 2,500 years
since the ancient Romans

70. What had happened in Germany
around the turn of the 20th
century?
Germany comes late to the colonial game of dividing the world up among
great European powers. Germany’s wounded pride and self-superiority
manifests as rabid nationalism and race egoism. Sri Aurobindo saw this
during the first World War!
“The conquest of the world by German culture is the straight path of human
progress. But culture is not, in this view, merely a state of knowledge or a system or
cast of ideas and moral and aesthetic tendencies; culture is life governed by ideas,
but ideas based on the truths of life and so organized as to bring it to its highest
efficiency. Therefore all life not capable of this culture and this efficiency must be
eliminated or trodden down, all life capable of it but not actually reaching to it must
be taken up and assimilated. But capacity is always a matter of genus and species
and in humanity a matter of race. Logically, then, the Teutonic race is alone
entirely capable, and therefore all Teutonic races must be taken into Germany and
become part of the German collectivity; races less capable but wholly unfit must be
Germanized, others, hopelessly decadent like the Latins of Europe and America or
naturally inferior like the vast majority of the Africans and Asiatics, must be
replaced where possible, dominated, exploited and treated according to their
inferiority. So evolution would advance, so the human race grow towards its
perfection” (The Human Cycle, pp 50-51)

71. The conditions – the age of the
dictators
• What is happening at that time in the rest of the world?
• The most diabolical Asuric kings are ruling just as in Sri
Krishna’s time
• Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in Europe – all expressions
of the Asuric prakriti
• Stalin in Russia
• Chiang-Kai Shek in China (soon to be followed by Mao)
• Japan under the militarists
• The rest of the world under one imperialist nation or
another
• WHO IS FREE??!! Just a handful!
• Never before in the history of humanity

72. What is happening at that time in
the rest of the world?
• Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in Europe
• Stalin in Russia
• Chiang-Kai Shek in China (soon to be
followed by Mao)
• Japan under the militarists
• The rest of the world under one imperialist
nation or another – Asuras in power
everywhere
• WHO IS FREE??!! Just a handful!

73. In The Battle
…All around me now the Titan forces press;
This world is theirs, they hold its days in fee;
I am full of wounds and the fight merciless.
Is it not yet Thy hour of victory?
Even as Thou wilt! What still to Fate Thou owest,
O Ancient of the worlds, Thou Knowest, Thou
Knowest.
written by Sri Aurobindo on September 25th
, 1939
(A few days after the outbreak of WWII)

74. The most dangerous moment in
human history
• The most diabolical Force – the lord of the
Nations
• Found the most perfect instrument – the
completely obedient medium Hitler
• Who controlled the most potent power –
the supremely capable Germans
• In the worst conditions possible – a world
completely under dictators (Asuric beings
in their own rights)

75. Sri Aurobindo on the danger
• Hitlerism is the greatest menace the world
has ever met
• …the destiny of the world depends on one
man
• His aim is clearly world-empire
• …the Asura who aims at world-
domination. It is the descent of the Asuric
world upon the human to maintain it’s own
power on the earth.

76. Why now? OPPOSITES
“Hitler is a new type, an infra-rational mystic,
representing the DARK COUNTERPART of
what we are striving to arrive at: a supra-
rational mysticism. He is a mystic, only a
mystic of the wrong kind! He goes into solitude
for his messages and waits till they come.”

77. The symbol – The perverted Black
Swastika

78. The means of the Asura –
Perverted Nationalism
• The Nazi symbol, nomenclature, terminology,
ideology, methods are the exact opposite, the
very distortions of those used by the Divine
• Sri Aurobindo gives a sacred and divine
interpretation of nationalism.
• Hitler gives the world the most parochial, narrow
and hate-filled form of nationalism imaginable.

79. The opposites are striking – “Arya”
• Sri Aurobindo gives a sacred and divine
interpretation of the term Arya in 1914. It is
the name of the periodical that will carry all
his major works in serial form.
• Hitler gives a dark and perverted meaning
of the term, using the European racial
distortion to mean a race of demonic
supermen

80. Sri Aurobindo’s definition
Whoever seeks to climb from level to level up the hill of
the divine, fearing nothing, deterred by no retardation or
defeat, shrinking from no vastness because it is too vast
for his intelligence, no height because it is too high for
his spirit, no greatness because it is too great for his
force and courage, he is the Aryan, the divine fighter
and victor, the noble man, aristos, best, the shrestha
of the Gita.
Intrinsically, in its most fundamental sense, Arya means
an effort or an uprising and overcoming. The Aryan is he
who strives and overcomes all outside him and within
him that stands opposed to the human advance. Self-
conquest is the first law of his nature. Self-perfection is
the aim of his self-conquest. Therefore, what he
conquers he does not destroy, but ennobles and
fulfils.

81. Aryan according to Nazis – a
perverse vision of the “Superman”
• Exclusively racial definition
• The Aryans were originally blonde, blue-eyed, fair
skinned Nordics
• Over a period of time the had co-mingled with
impure, lower, non-Aryan races and their blood
had become impure
• The Nazi aim was to cleanse the world of non-
Aryan impurity by means of the most scientific
system of genocide

82. The opposite – The final aim
• What was the aim of Hitler?
• Was it to rule the world? The man
believed he was going to die in a few
years
• Was it to be a dictator of Germany or
Europe? This was only a first step

83. What was his motivation? Was he only
a nationalist or power-seeker?
• A loner – never confided to anyone what
was going on in his mind
• He would not stop
• Germany had already recovered itself in the
mid 1930’s
• Lebensraum – German imperialism - appeal
to German nationalism
• But he would not stop there either

84. The contrast – The final aim
• The Mother and Sri Aurobindo too aim to create a new
race. A divine race which will usher in a new divine world
and a new divine age of love, peace and harmony
• Hitler’s new race is characterized by cruelty, brutality,
ruthlessness, lack of any pity, hatred for their fellow-men
and a lust for violence.
• It is the fulfillment of the Asuric Prakriti winning over the
Daivic Prakriti:
– Dvishataha Krooraan Prabhavanti Ugrakarmaano Kshayaaya
Jagato-hitaaha

85. The fierce, enormous plan
• Hitler was not only a scourge to the Jews. His plan was
to destroy one whole section of humanity, those he
considered to be the lowermost races
• Another section he wanted to dehumanize by making
them slave races and this included the Indian race as
well.
• The remaining humans, the so-called Aryan or Northern
and Western peoples, he wanted to demonize by
making them participate in monstrous acts of genocide,
butchery, rapine and devastation

86. His plan for the world in 3 words
The plan dictated to him by his god:
1. Demonize
2. Dehumanize &
3. Destroy
A perfect plan for the absolute degradation of
the human race!!

87. The Mother’s Vision for humanity
• Divinize: That part of humanity, of human consciousness,
which is capable of uniting with the supermind and liberating
itself, will be completely transformed--it is advancing towards
a future reality which is not yet expressed in its outer form.
• Dehumanize (harmonize with nature): The part which is
closest to Nature, to animal simplicity, will be reabsorbed into
Nature and thoroughly assimilated. We must rise above,
spring up into the Light and Harmony or fall back, down into
the simplicity of a healthy unperverted animal life.
• Destroy (the demonic element): But the corrupted part of
human consciousness which allows perversion through its
misuse of the mind will be abolished. This type of humanity is
part of an unfruitful attempt--which must be eliminated--just as
there have been other abortive species which have
disappeared in the course of universal history.

88. Conclusion: what did Hitler and
Nazism represent?
• The shadow, the very opposite, the
absolute perversion of the Divine Truth
Mother Sri Aurobindo were working to
manifest.
• While They aimed to Divinze humanity, his
aim was to demonize it. While their aim
was to uplift manav into ati-manav, Hitler’s
aim was to degrade manav into danav.

89. One last parallel
• The Ashram is Sri Aurobindo’s laboratory in
which the Divine Life will be evolved.
• Each center of Sri Aurobindo’s, either individual
human center or a collective center is a
laboratory.
• Is there a similar concept of a laboratory for
Hitler?... Centers in which the demonic life will
be experimented and perfected?

90. Nazi Concentration Camps
Hitler’s laboratories to perfect Hell on Earth

91. Video of Nazi Concentration Camp

92. Can you imagine?
• Eyewitness accounts of truckloads of murdered
babies
• Inhuman experiments being performed on
human subjects who will be treated as lower
than animal
• Factories of death into which millions are poured
and killed mercilessly like pests
• Slave labor that reduces humans to brute
machines

93. Can you imagine?
• IT IS BEYOND HUMAN IMAGINATION
• THE PROGRAM WAS NOT OF HUMAN
BUT DEMONIC ORIGIN
• UNIMAGINABLE EVIL

94. The Ultimate Nightmare
• All this in just a few years
• What would Hitler have done in a few
decades?
• The world-empire that he built would have
been continued by his mindless inheritors

95. The spear point of Hell
• Hitler was nothing but the spear-point of hell. He was
only the beginning. A prophet who wanted to establish
the kingdom of his god before he died – the 1000-year
Reich (Raj). Not just Adharma-Raj, but Adhama-Raj, the
lowest possible civilization
• In a short period of 4 years he turned the world upside
down and slaughtered millions. His killing of 6 Million
Jews was nothing to compare to what he would have
done had he won. Can you imagine?
• He had come expressly as an instrument of the Asura
called the Lord of the Nations by Mother Sri Aurobindo,
the Asura of Falsehood.

96. The Asura’s Technology Shakti
The most powerful weapons of mass destruction
were being developed by Hitler’s German geniuses
and would have been deployed in just a couple of
years:
– Nuclear weapons
– Missle technology
– Germ / Biological weapons which he intended to use on
Britain
– Chemical Weapons
– The most destructive bombs
– The most powerful tanks
All this technology was found and used by the allied
powers (USA, Britain and France) after the War. Can
you imagine what Hitler would have done with these?

97. Sri Aurobindo’s Descriptions of this
Asuric World
• It is the descent of the Asuric world upon
the human
• In Book 2 Canto’s VII & VIII
• Page 214 - 215
A race possessed inhabited those parts…

98. Way back in 1936…
• When nobody anywhere in the world recognized
the threat of Hitler
• When everyone admired him as a great leader
who had pulled Germany out of the abyss and
made it a great nation again
• It was then that Sri Aurobindo recognized him
and warned the world about him. His poem “The
Dwarf Napoleon” written around this time is the
most accurate portrayal of the man.

99. What Mother Sri Aurobindo did
• Sri Aurobindo called WWII “the Mother’s war”
• They set aside Their Sadhana to throw their
whole Yoga-Shakti behind the war and it was
then that the tide began to turn (see next 2
slides)
• “We made it plain… that we did not consider the
war as a fight between nations and governments
(still less between good people and bad people)
but between two forces, the Divine and the
Asuric.”

100. Sri Aurobindo’s intervention
At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but
when it appeared as it Hitler would crush all the forces opposed
to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene.
He declared himself publicly on the side of the Allies, made
some financial contributions in answer to the appeal for funds
and encouraged those who sought his advice to enter the army
or share in the war effort. Inwardly, he put his spiritual force
behind the Allies from the moment of Dunkirk when
everybody was expecting the immediate fall of England
and the definite triumph of Hitler, and he had the
satisfaction of seeing the rush of German victory almost
immediately arrested and the tide of war begin to turn in
the opposite direction. This he did, because he saw that
behind Hitler and Nazism were dark Asuric forces and that
their success would mean the enslavement of mankind to the
tyranny of evil, and a set-back to the course of evolution and
especially to the spiritual evolution of mankind: it would lead
also to the enslavement not only of Europe but of Asia, and in it
of India, an enslavement far more terrible than any this country
had ever endured, and the undoing of all the work that had
been done for her liberation.

101. Before Dunkirk – Hitler’s rapid victories

102. Before Dunkirk – Hitler’s rapid victories

103. The evacuation from Dunkirk

104. Miracle at Dunkirk
During the 2nd world war several thousand allied soldiers, mostly British, were
trapped by the Germans at a French coast called Dunkirk. All escape routes were
sealed off.
The sea escape route was impossible as the German submarines and war ships
were heavily guarding it.
The Germans were closing in from all other directions and a bloody massacre was
expected the next day.
No one was expected to live.
The British PM, Winston Churchill told the nation, “There is only one hope. Let’s all
pray for them.”
Throughout that day and night the whole of Britain prayed for them. Special masses
and prayers were conducted in every church.
That night, suddenly, there was a heavy and dense fog. It was totally the wrong
season for fog and it never happened before. Under the cover of the heavy fog,
the British ships crossed the French channel as the German subs and war
ships could not detect them in the fog and rescued each and every one of the
soldiers. As soon as the ships returned home, the fog vanished.
How and why the heavy fog formed and vanished is still one of the biggest
meteorological mysteries.

105. In 1941 the world was there for
Hitler’s taking
• Europe was in Hitler’s control
• Japan was winning in the East
• England alone stood but her empire was
crumbling and she was militarily weak
• America had a badly organized army
• Russia was an ally
• What could defeat Hitler?

106. Hitler and Russia
Hitler and Stalin were allies. With Russia
behind Hitler, there was no way to defeat him.

107. Hitler’s Fatal Mistake

108. Hitler’s Fatal Mistake – Invading Russia in 1941
• Stalin had no plans to invade Hitler. He trusted Hitler with
eyes closed
• Hitler’s generals were aghast and protested when
informed that they had to invade Russia
• Nobody had been able to conquer Russia, not even
Napoleon
• Hitler was already fighting Britain on one side with
America threatening to enter
• The decision to invade Russia made no logical sense.
Why then did Hitler invade Russia? A great mystery even
today.

109. The Mother’s intervention
• The Asura guiding Hitler used to appear to him
in a brilliant form with shining amour and
weapons
• Mother took on the same form and deceived
Hitler by giving him the command to invade
Russia
• This was the beginning of end for Hitler as he
was attacked and finished from both the West
and the East

110. Mother’s Message in the hour of
crisis

111. Other actions and consequences
• Sri Aurobindo gave his public adhesion to the war and
gave his support to England.
• He contributed financially towards the war and
encouraged his disciples to join the effort despite the
Ashram itself being in financial need.
• All Indians were shocked. How could Sri Aurobindo
support the British? People in India actually attacked Sri
Aurobindo centers and called him a traitor to the cause.
• Indians then, like Indians today, could not see part the
tips of their noses. Compared to a Nazi dominated world
the British Raj would be something heavenly

112. Attack on Sri Aurobindo – Prelude
to the War
• In 1938, just before Nov 24th
Darshan Day the
unthinkable happens.
• Sri Aurobindo suffers an “accident” and is treated by
attendants subsequently.
• The hostile forces have tried many times to prevent the
Darshan but I have succeeded in warding off all those
attacks. This time I was more occupied with guarding the
Mother and I forgot about myself. I did not think that they
would attack me. That was my mistake.

113. Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga Shakti
Certainly, my force is not limited to the
Ashram and its conditions. As you know it
is being largely used for helping the right
development of the war and of change in
the human world. It is also used for
individual purposes outside the scope of
the Ashram and the practice of the Yoga;
but that, of course, is silently done and
mainly by a spiritual action.

114. The role of Churchill
• Hitler admired the British and their empire
and wanted a kind of partnership with
them.
• Hitler repeatedly offered peace to the
British and wanted to have a negotiated
settlement with them.
• Mainland Europe came completely under
Hitler’s control including France.
• The only thing that separated Britain from
Nazi Europe was a thin English Channel.

115. Sri Aurobindo’s Instrument
• When the British Prime Minister before him had
signed a peace treaty with Hitler, Churchill kept
on insisting on war.
• He recognized the threat that Hitler represented
• When Hitler violated peace treaty Churchill
became War PM of UK
• He was the one man who had decided to
destroy the Nazi menace for good, to resist at
any cost
• He too had a feeling of being guided by a divine
power
• Many of his words were inspired by Sri
Aurobindo through the use of His Yoga-Shakti

116. Churchill on his guidance
I sometimes have a feeling, in fact I have it
very strongly, a feeling of interference. I
want to stress that I have a feeling
sometimes that some guiding hand has
interfered. I have the feeling that we have a
guardian because we serve a great cause,
and that we shall have that guardian so long
as we serve that cause faithfully. And what a
cause it is!

117. The indomitable will of one man
became the Divine’s instrument

118. Sri Aurobindo’s incalculable Force– the story of John Kelly

119. The defeat of Hitler
• In Russia Hitler suffers his first major
defeat at the famous battle of Stalingrad
• Russia then successfully invades from the
East
• America enters the war soon after Japan
bombs Pearl Harbor
• A joint allied invasion from the West is
also scuccessful
• Hitler cannot sustain the war on two fronts

120. The Broken Hitler

121. The death of Hitler
• Genocide of the German people themselves
• In defeat Hitler turns his murderous rage on his
own people
• Finally dies in a bunker by committing suicide.
• …he played with him as with a monkey or a
mouse. He had decided clearly to make Hitler
commit all possible extravagances till the day he
would break his neck, which did happen.

122. Europe United

123. Quiz
• What is the official date for the end of
WWII?
• What is that day called?

124. The End of WWII
• Date: August 15th
!
• It is officially referred to as V-J Day
(Victory over Japan Day)
• August 15th
is the new VIJAY DIVAS – The
Victory of the Mother

125. The Battle is won, the war goes on
Hitler was destroyed because he had a whole
nation and a physical power behind him, and had
he succeeded, it would have been disastrous for
humanity; but we had no illusions. The death of
either one of them (Stalin or Hitler) serves no great
purpose — it goes off elsewhere. It is as if you
were doing something very bad while wearing a
particular shirt, then you throw away the shirt and
say, “Now I won't do anything bad any more”—
but you continue with another shirt!

126. The Occult interplay of Forces
“So, when will this supramental descent take
place?” “When will it be?” “Is it for now?” “Is it
possible?”
In an answer to a disciple, Sri Aurobindo wrote:
I find that the more the Light and Power are
coming down the greater is the resistance. You
yourself can see that there is something pressing
down. You can also see that there is the
tremendous resistance.

127. Mother Sri Aurobindo – The
Greatest Hope of Humanity
• If the Asuric Shakti behind Hitler was the
greatest danger humanity ever faced and
he was the very opposite of Mother Sri
Aurobindo… what does this tell us about
Them?
• That Sri Aurobindo & The Mother
represent the greatest Hope of
humanity.

128. Mother Sri Aurobindo – The
Supreme Divine Manifestation
• If the power behind Hitler was the most
demonic force ever to descend upon the
Earth…
• Then Sri Aurobindo & The Mother
constitute the greatest manifestation of
the Divine upon the Earth.

129. Mother Sri Aurobindo – The
Supreme Love
• If the force behind Hitler was the greatest
and most violent movement of hatred ever
witnessed…
• Then Sri Aurobindo & The Mother
together are the physical and concrete
embodiment of the highest and
supreme Divine Love

130. Mother Sri Aurobindo – Our Divine
Future
• If the fierce, enormous plan of the Asuric
Shakti behind Hitler represented the
lowest possible degradation and
disfigurement of humanity…
• Then Sri Aurobindo & The Mother are
here to fulfill the ultimate Divine
destiny of humanity and all life on
earth!