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The Descent of the Blue is a play by Sri Chinmoy about the life of Sri Aurobindo. The play captures the different phases of Sri Aurobindo's life, including his time in England, involvement in the early Indian independence movement and spiritual transformation. The play was originally printed from 1958 to 1962 in the Mother India, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Monthly Review of Culture. It was reprinted in 1972 by Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, New York.
Read the full play: Sri Chinmoy Library
(Baroda College. Aurobindo is now Professor of English. He declares a prize…)
AUROBINDO: I declare a prize in an Essay-cum-Debate Competition on “Japan and the Japanese.”
(K.M. Munshi, a student, stands up.)
MUNSHI: Sir, how can nationalism be developed?
AUROBINDO (pointing to a wall-map of India): Look at that map. Learn to find in it the portrait of Bharatmata. The cities, mountains, rivers and forests are the materials which go to make up Her body. The people inhabiting the country are the cells which go to make up Her living tissues. Our literature is Her memory and speech. The spirit of Her culture is Her soul. The happiness and freedom of Her children is Her salvation. Behold Bharat as a living Mother, meditate upon Her and worship Her in the nine-fold way of bhakti. 2
MUNSHI: Sir, how can I meditate upon the Mother?
AUROBINDO: Just go through the works of Swami Vivekananda, and you will be able to meditate upon the Mother.
(Motilal Roy’s residence. First floor. A furniture godown. Aurobindo in meditation with eyes open. Enter Motilal with a dish in hand.)
MOTILAL: It seems you are in another world. You look absorbed in your depths. Will you tell me if I have a chance of taking to Yoga?
AUROBINDO: Certainly you have.
MOTILAL: My family tie…
AUROBINDO: That’s nothing.
MOTILAL: Then, pray tell me how I can take up the spiritual life.
AUROBINDO: Try to surrender everything to God.
MOTILAL: Will it be possible for me?
AUROBINDO: Why not? God is within and without us. He himself will do your Yoga.
MOTILAL: Then please show me the easiest path.
AUROBINDO: Surrender, that is the easiest. Try to surrender all you have and all you are.
MOTILAL (bowing down to Aurobindo’s feet): Please give me your Blessing.
AUROBINDO (Smiling and then placing his hand upon Motilal’s head): If you must have it, here it is.
(The steamer leaves Calcutta in the small hours of the morning of 1 April, 1910. Bijoy and Aurobindo.)
BIJOY: Now you are Jyotindranath Mitter, and I am Bankim Chandra Basak. Are we justified in passing ourselves off as other than we are?
AUROBINDO: No, not in the eyes of the moralists.
BIJOY: I am the last fellow to go in for morality. But why, of all places, Pondicherry?
AUROBINDO: It is His choice.
BIJOY: But how long will you be there?
AUROBINDO: As long as He wills.
BIJOY: What will be your plan of work there?
AUROBINDO: I will follow whatever plan He reveals to me.
BIJOY: I am afraid your work will be much more inward than now.
AUROBINDO: I feel so.
BIJOY: Then we have no place there.
AUROBINDO: How? My work will be for all, for all the world.
BIJOY: The purpose?
AUROBINDO: The Supreme Transformation of the world.
BIJOY: In what way can such a transformation come about?
AUROBINDO: By the ascent of man into the Spirit, the descent of the Spirit into man.
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, [[https://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/db-18][The Descent of the Blue], Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1972↩︎
These speeches are quotations from K.M. Munshi’s memoirs.↩︎
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, [[https://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/db-69][The Descent of the Blue], Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1972.↩︎
Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, [[https://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/db-71][The Descent of the Blue], Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1972.↩︎