The Supramental Evolution - Sri Aurobindo and the 18 Siddhas

One of the few persons in modern times who could fully appreciate the greatness of a Divine transformation of humanity was Sri Aurobindo. While most of the pundits and orthodox religious leaders of India have regarded the writings of the Siddhas, with their claims of physical immortality as the product of imagination, Sri Aurobindo attempted for forty years to realize such a state. While he never claimed to be a part of the 18 Siddha Tradition, as will be seen below, it is evident that the transformative experiences of Thirumoolar, Ramalinga, Aurobindo and the Mother (Aurobindo's chief disciple) were all of the same nature. His contemporary accounts may therefore help one to appreciate the claims of the Siddhas.

Sri Aurobindo's inspired vision was expressed in The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga, and his experiences in self¬ transformation were expressed in his Letters on Yoga and the epic poem, Savitri (Aurobindo, 1935 [a], 1935 [b], 1969, 1950 [a]). The latter two works, in particular, describe in detail the many stages and difficulties involved in such a transformation. Far from being an end in itself, physical immortality, represented to Aurobindo the next stage in humanity's evolution. It was to be the result of spiritual transformation: the culmination of a process in which a Divine "Supramental" consciousness would descend into the lower planes of consciousness, even into the inconscient levels of Matter.

Aurobindo's descriptions of this transformative process and its results are strikingly similar to those of both the Eighteen Siddhas and Ramalinga described in earlier chapters, particularly in the references to the "golden dust" and "golden body". His deep love for humanity and his orientation towards the physical world and action are also similar to those of the Siddhas. This commonality of experience and orientation may provide us with some guidelines for our own discipline and lifestyles, to be explored in the next chapter.

Aurobindo Chose was born in Calcutta on August 15, 1872. He studied in England from the age of five to the age of 20. Returning to India in 1892, Aurobindo worked as a teacher of French and English and later as the private secretary of the Prince of Baroda. He married in 1901. However, in the intervening years most of his energies wore taken up by the fledging Indian independence move¬ment, for which he had become one its principal leaders. He was charged by the British with subversion and jailed. but acquitted after a trial for lack of evidence. (Satprem, 1975, p. 27, 149 150)

source: Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition