Sri Aurobindo's Commentaries on Krishna, Buddha, Christ and Ramakrishna

I

Krishna

Krishna is the Eternal’s Personality of Ananda; because of him all creation is possible, because of his play, because of his delight, because of his sweetness.

Essays Divine and Human, 208

… He manifests the union of wisdom (Jnana) and works and leads the earth-evolution through this towards union with the Divine by Ananda, Love and Bhakti.

Letters on Yoga I, 460

1

Krishna in the Lives of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

There are three events in Sri Aurobindo’s life wherein Krishna very obviously plays an important role: his imprisonment as a freedom fighter in the Alipore Jail (1908), with Krishna revealing himself to him in a living vision as omnipresent deity and addressing him in an inner message; his departure from Calcutta in 1910, after having received an Adesh from Krishna; and finally, in 1926 the descent of Krishna, the Godhead of Overmind, into the physical being. All of these events have been recorded by Sri Aurobindo in written statements, so we will only give a brief summary in what follows.

In his Uttarpara Speech after release from prison Sri Aurobindo reported about his “Vasudeva[6] experience”: He frankly admits that after the imprisonment he was somewhat shaken in his faith, but then he adjusted to the new situation, turning within and waiting for the voice of God to speak to him and guide him. He realized that there must be a purpose behind all these events, namely to get him detached from his former activities because there was another, more important thing for him to do. Then he had the living perception that “He” spoke to him once more, placing the Gita in his hands. Thereafter, “I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Srikrishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work…”[7]

Sri Aurobindo then describes his experience of the Divine in all humans and things; he does not feel any more imprisoned by high walls, for it was “Vasudeva who surrounded me.”[8] When walking under the branches of a tree in front of his cell, it was Krishna whom he saw standing there and offering him shade. In his deeper vision he even recognizes Vasudeva now in the thieves and swindlers in the prison, and likewise he feels His presence in the Magistrate and Prosecuting Counsel. It is Krishna who now advises him to leave everything to Him and to stop giving instructions to his Counsel. Then, finally, there is the acquittal at the end of this living encounter with Krishna.

Once more he enters the scene of public life, though acting more cautiously now behind the curtain; he publishes many articles in two journals. The threat of renewed imprisonment remains and in mid-February 1910 an informer gives a hint to his group that his arrest is imminent. Later on Sri Aurobindo reported about the further developments as follows: “While I was listening to animated comments from those around on the approaching event, I suddenly received a command from above, in a Voice well known to me, in three words: ‘Go to Chandernagore’.”[9] Obviously, that Voice could only have been Krishna’s.

After a while, he proceeds to travel from Chandernagore to Pondicherry via Calcutta – a decisive turning-point in his life, involving withdrawal from political and public cultural life and full concentration on the spiritual endeavour. When a disciple once asked him why he had gone to Pondicherry (a rather desolate place at that time), he answered: “I could not question. It was Sri Krishna’s Adesh. I had to obey. Later I found it was for the Ashram and for the Work.”[10] Thus, Krishna’s intervention had brought about a final and irreversible caesura in his life: he now enters the path of integral yoga, trying to prepare a new stage in the evolution of humanity through a “supramental” realization in the field of consciousness.

More than fifteen years pass before the name of Krishna appears once more in Sri Aurobindo’s biography, on occasion of the “descent of Overmind” on 24 November 1926. Referring to this event, Sri Aurobindo stated in letters in 1935 that it was “the descent of Krishna into the physical”. And, furthermore, “The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards Ananda.”[11]

There are also a few significant references to Krishna in his spiritual diary Record of Yoga. Thus he notes in an entry dated 18 April 1914: Srikrishnadarshana has now definitely established itself in the normal vision when the sight is full…” And on August 16 of the same year he notes: “The perception of Krishna everywhere and all as forms and names of his play is definitely and irrevocably established…” Two years later, on 5 March 1916 he writes: “The Krishna-consciousness is now perfectly normal and universal, though not as yet seated on the plane of the Vijnana[12] or Ananda, but only on the mental.”[13]

Some disciples of Sri Aurobindo were Krishna devotees, suffering an inner conflict regarding the question to whom they really owed their loyalty and surrender. However, Sri Aurobindo removed these doubts through numerous letters. Thus, on 18 June 1943 he informs a disciple:

I thought I had already told you that your turn towards Krishna was not an obstacle. In any case I affirm that positively in answer to your question. If we consider the large and indeed predominant part he played in my own Sadhana, it would be strange if the part he has in your Sadhana could be considered objectionable. Sectarianism is a matter of dogma, ritual etc., not of spiritual experience, the concentration on Krishna is a self-offering to the iṣṭ-deva. If you reach Krishna you reach the Divine; if you can give yourself to him, you give yourself to me.[14]

A disciple seems to have asked Sri Aurobindo whether he was greater than Krishna, whereupon he answered in February 1945 that he could not consider this kind of question as it would only be relevant if there would be “two sectarian religions in opposition, Aurobindoism and Vaishnavism”, which could evidently not be the case. Furthermore, Sri Aurobindo asks, what Krishna he would have to challenge – that of the Gita, the supreme transcendent as well as immanent Godhead, Purushottama or Vasudeva respectively, “or the Godhead who was incarnate at Brindavan and Dwarka and Kurukshetra and who was the guide of my Yoga and with whom I realised identity? All that is not to me something philosophical or mental but a matter of daily and hourly realisation and intimate to the stuff of my consciousness.”[15]

Very significant are also Sri Aurobindo’s statements on his own characteristic colour that can be perceived by humans gifted with that particular inner vision on the subtle-physical plane. In a letter he describes it as pale blue, which is the basic colour of his personality. Furthermore, in two letters he states that “whitish blue is Sri Aurobindo’s light or Krishna’s light.”[16]