Psyche & Co. presents · Divine Human Mystery School · Part 7 of 7
Where Sri Aurobindo dreamed of a divine life on earth, the journey gathers.
The Divine Human Mystery School comes to its culmination in Pondicherry, the town where Sri Aurobindo and the Mother lived and worked for decades, and where they envisioned a humanity transformed by the descent of the divine into ordinary life. Andrew Harvey, who has long drawn on Aurobindo's vision, gathers the threads of the whole seven-part series here, from Lalla's Kashmir to the Himalayan silence and the monsoon rest of Kerala.
The retreat closes on 15 August, Sri Aurobindo's birthday. It is a fitting day to end a journey whose central claim echoes his: that the purpose of spiritual life is not to escape the world but to embody the divine within it.
The place
Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. A revolutionary in the Indian independence movement, he came to French-ruled Pondicherry in April 1910 to escape British prosecution, and there turned wholly to spiritual work. In 1926, with Mirra Alfassa, the French-born collaborator known as the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His Integral Yoga aims not only at liberation from the world but at the descent of the divine into it, a transformation he linked to the "supermind" and explored in The Life Divine and his epic poem Savitri. His 75th birthday, 15 August 1947, was the day India became independent. He died in Pondicherry in 1950.
On 28 February 1968 the Mother inaugurated Auroville, a few kilometres north of the town, declaring its purpose to be the realisation of human unity. At its centre stands the Matrimandir, the "soul of the city": a great golden sphere whose foundation stone was laid in 1971 and which was completed in 2008, housing a silent meditation chamber with a large glass globe.
The teachings
- Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo's path, which seeks not escape from the world but the transformation of life by the divine.
- The Divine Life: Aurobindo's vision of spiritual evolution and the supermind, and what it might mean for us now.
- The Mother and the Divine Feminine: Mirra Alfassa's role in the work, and the Mother as a living force of transformation.
- Auroville and the Matrimandir: a bold experiment in human unity, and what its ideals ask of each of us.
- The Divine Human: gathering the whole Mystery School into a single vision of embodied, active divinity.
A sketch of the days
- ArrivalGathering in Pondicherry and an opening circle that recalls the journey of the six earlier parts.
- Day 2Teachings on Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Integral Yoga, with time to walk the old French quarter and the seafront.
- Day 3Auroville and the Matrimandir: reflection on the ideal of human unity, with a visit as arrangements allow.
- Day 4The Divine Human: Andrew draws together the whole series, followed by sharing and preparation for the close.
- 15 AugustA closing ceremony on Sri Aurobindo's birthday, honouring the end of the Mystery School and the beginning of what each person carries home. A sketch of the days; the final programme will be confirmed.
This is an outline to give you a feel for the days. The final programme, teachers and timings will be confirmed with the dates.
What you'll take home
- An understanding of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and his vision of a divine life on earth.
- A sense of the whole seven-part journey as one coherent path.
- A personal vision of the Divine Human that you can live and work from.
- Inspiration from Auroville's ideal of human unity for your own communities.
- A closing rite shared with companions from across the series.
Who it's for
This final gathering is for everyone who has travelled with the Mystery School, and also welcomes newcomers: psychotherapists, psychologists and thoughtful laypeople drawn to Sri Aurobindo, the Mother, or the idea that spiritual life should change the world rather than flee it. No prior reading is needed, though those who have time may enjoy dipping into Aurobindo's writings beforehand.
Be the first to hear
Dates, prices and bookings for Divine Human Mystery School, Part 7: Pondicherry are being confirmed. Leave your email and we'll tell you the moment places open.
Thank you ✦ we'll be in touch as soon as dates are confirmed.
Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Kpsudeep (CC BY-SA 4.0); Sanyam Bahga (CC BY-SA 3.0); iMahesh (CC BY-SA 4.0).