Dear Friends,
Dr. Indra Sen (13 May 1903—14 March 1994) was a noted scholar, author and educationist who obtained his Master’s degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Delhi and Ph.D from the University of Freiburg in Germany. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Hindu College in Delhi. In 1939 he visited Pondicherry and soon became a staunch follower of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In 1943 his wife Lilawati was asked by the Mother (who renamed her Violette) to settle down in Sri Aurobindo Ashram as inmates along with her two children. Dr. Sen also joined the Ashram in 1945. He had presented several famous papers on psychology in academic circles but for him the study of psychology was not sufficient without a corresponding spiritual realization because, according to his daughter Dr. Aster Patel, he wanted a realization in consciousness of the spiritual truths of existence. In the works of Sri Aurobindo he found the basis of a wholeness which ‘would make the experience a fact of personal corroboration.’ He coined the term ‘Integral Psychology’ which was accepted by Sri Aurobindo as the proper term for presenting his psychological work.
As the year 2016 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation upon earth, two interviews of the Mother (which took place on 13 May and 22 May respectively) with Dr. Indra Sen about the said manifestation are published in the online forum of Overman Foundation.
With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder,
Overman Foundation.
*
13 May 1956
The Mother: Were you here on the 29th February?
Indra Sen: Yes, Mother, I was here. I arrived the same day in the morning and I was present at the “Questions and Answers” and the Meditation.
The Mother: Did you feel anything then?
Indra Sen: No, Mother. All I was aware of is that it was a calm and quiet meditation. It is only on the Darshan Day, the 24th April, that a vague and faint sense of reality of the New Force came to me. And since then the feeling of it has been growing, but I don’t have a clear and concrete sense of its existence.
The Mother: Well, what happened was something tremendous. Suddenly a flood of light came pouring forth, as if the divine gate had been thrown wide open. It continued for twenty minutes. Or, rather, I watched it for twenty minutes and then stopped the meditation. I could not carry on the meditation indefinitely—you know how restless people become.
When the light was pouring, I thought that at the end of the meditation I would find everybody knocked out, lying flat. But when I opened my eyes I found them as after any meditation. I myself had to make a special effort to come into my external being and it was with great difficulty that I could utter a word.
Indra Sen: Was this advent unexpected?
The Mother: Absolutely. But all my greatest experiences have come like that. I am in my usual consciousness and they come suddenly, as if to show their reality in the fullest contrast and vividness. They have the best value when first received in this way. When one is informed beforehand, the mind begins to play a part. On the present occasion, when the mind came in I was on our side of the divine gate: there was then just a magnificent light, nothing more. Those who live in their emotions had a better chance to feel things than those who live in their minds.
Indra Sen: What should I do to acquire a sense of the Supermind?
The Mother: The Supermind will work itself out—by the decision of the Supreme. Sri Aurobindo was instrumental in bringing it. The working of the Supermind in my body has gone on since the 5th December, 1950. It has been a progressive individual working; so I thought things would go on like that. But in January this year Sri Aurobindo appeared to me two or three times and it was as if he indicated that the Supermind was coming on a universal scale.
What has come has got engulfed at present and it has to work itself out. Nature did not reject it—she could not. The Supreme decided that the time had come and He released the Force. But the Inconscient has covered it up. It can be felt in the subtle-physical, but in the physical there is hardly anything yet. The manifestation is only a little more than two months old and it will show itself gradually. I can definitely feel it in the subtle-physical, but my sensitiveness is perhaps a little unusual… Two disciples here in the Ashram and three outside simultaneously had rare experiences as a result of what had happened.
A marked difference has now come in our Yoga. Things that were easy are now achieved without effort. Things that appeared difficult appear easy. Things impossible seem now achievable and likely.
The pouring of the Supermind is constant, but at Balcony time every morning it is more concentrated.
People have been here twenty to thirty years—talking of the Supermind’s coming and prepared for it, as it were—yet they did not notice it when it came!
The manifestation was a cosmic phenomenon and I took time to return to this individual self and it was difficult to speak the first word.
In half an hour I formulated the whole experience and wrote it down.
22 May 1956
The Mother: Things are now all changed for me—radically changed.
Indra Sen: How, Mother?
The Mother: Previously everything worked under the pressure of the Mind of Light. Sri Aurobindo secured this working when he left his body. Now it is the Supermind that directly guides and governs. The manifestation is just over two and a half months old and yet a new situation—an absolutely new situation—has come into being.
What has happened now I call a manifestation and not a descent, because it is not an individual event: the Supermind has burst forth into universal play. It has become a principle at constant work upon all earth—a possibility of a general order, as when the mind was first diffused over the earth.
*
Very revelatory.the Mother very graciously
Revealed the facts of superamental Manifestation.
This is absolutely wondrous when ever the Divine Mother has chosen out of deep compassion for children to reveal the power and glory about this world shaking event ….And it is written somewhere in ” The Secret of the Veda ” that if we meditate intensely about the Supramental – rit – chit it seeks to descend in us..it seeks to manifest ..
Thanks Anurag !
Surendra s chouhan – saice ’69
a picture of Dr Indra sen would have helped, us know what he looked like. thanks again Anurag…
Dear Benida,
I have uploaded a photograph of Dr. Indra Sen.
With warm regards,
Anurag
Thank you Anurag for the great enterprise to publish this article as I know Mr.Indra Sen was a famous Psychologist and ardent follower of the Mother and our Master but I had no idea that he realized the decent. In your future publication if you publish something more regarding this issue I will be very happy.
Anurag,
This is a good one that you have unearthed. Thanks.
Arupda
What a timing… Great.
Sri Surendranath Jauhar along with Sri Sen visited Pondicherry in 1939 for the first time and had the Darshan of The Mother. Came across number of references of Sri Sen in the writing of Sri Jauhar. Anyway a rare interview. Thanks Anurag for your constant value addition.
very few would ever know Abhay Dev Acharya, principal of Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya was founder of the Delhi branch along with Surendranath
Thank you for posting this.