The unity of the world, the extension of life, the shrinking of space and time, the mastery of Matter - these meet us everywhere as the signs of the New Millenium, its badges of apocalyptic futurism. And they seem, on the surface, wonderfully confirmatory of the prophetic vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But as in Aldous Huxley's novel, a dark ambiguity haunts the signifers of the Brave New World. The collapse of the Berlin Wall as of Soviet communism are accompanied by the reverse totalitarianism of the capitalist world-market, more subtle, insidious and universal than any state autocracy. Levelling with its materialism the populations of the world, it produces the context-free, universalized consumer, bandaged with the invisible conditionings of the mythologies of capital. And behind these, the moral resources of the One (westernized) World accelerate and intensify to a climactic point the drive for the mystical-rational goal, now finally within reach, of the world-history which dawned 400 years ago in Europe - the civilizational expansion of Reason, the totalism of Rational Omniscience governing a perfected life on a perfected earth (and spilling over to colonize the spaces in perfected worlds beyond).

The dream of a rational organization of matter and of man forming the basis of a perfect life makes its appearance in western history in fact, right from the time of Plato - who would banish the poet from his ideal Republic for fear of his subversive irrational influence. The policing and repression of the non-rational (whether irr- or supra-) underlies the civilizational paean of the modern, the structured lucidities (dazzling dullnesses) of its Singapores and Dubais. At the same time, the hubris of Mind combined with its tragic and inexorable incapacity to possess the integral Knowledge, pushes it into the "dim camp of Night", a horrible netherland where the pseudo-sciences of Lysenko and Nazi Eugenics tinker with the building-blocks of Life to engineer their "rational" Will. Today this hubristic dream is active once again as the atom and the gene reveal their secrets - biotechnology and nanotechnology making the basic elements of matter and life, as never before, available to human handling.

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, unlike many others, are not averse to Science and Technology. They do not advocate the inhibition of technology or a return to premodern forms of society. But what they do draw attention to time and again is the impossibility and serious danger of external means of engineering perfection. The science of perfection is to be found in consciousness, its technology in surrender; from all the best manipulative intentions of Reason come only the dark distortions of a braggart human ignorance and its obscure pact with the Falsehood. When asked about the atom bomb the Mother lauded the human mastery over Matter that it represented, but in the same breath directed the focus on the consciousness of its user. The problem is not how "enlightened" or how "dangerous" our Science is; it is how puny and crippled and narrow or how vast and powerful and complex our consciousness is to confront the unstoppable momentum of the Age of Reason or to engage with the Idea-forces driving its wheels. For these forces become the sedimented assumptions of our everyday lives, perpetuating their agendas with or without our understanding or our consent.

And yet, within the creases of their victorious unfoldment, may lie the seeds of an alternate becoming. Even as Reason makes its desperate last attempts to stamp its seal on a world mastered materially from both microscopic and macroscopic ends of its being, we are invited from the depths of our consciousness to the Great Adventure, where the secrets of Matter glimmer with the messages of the One Being and are put to Its uses.

In her New Year Message of 1958, the Mother announced the birth of a New Intention within material Nature: "O Nature, Material Mother, thou hast said that thou wilt collaborate and there is no limit to the splendour of this collaboration." But this is not the announcement of the hour of complacency. The collaboration of Nature demands our consciousness. It is only through the choices of consciousness that Matter and Life will find release from Reason's despotism and the steps of the supramental advance establish themselves on earth. For this, to become aware of the intentions which utilize one's labour and one's time, not only one's subjective intentions but the larger embattled cosmic wills which position us on the chess-board of the spiralling world is an integral part of the journey we have embarked upon.

Accordingly, the Articles section of this present issue carries a critique by Richard Carlson of the "new species" that the bio-tech revolution may be helping to realize. In the author's words, "since the idea of a new species is so to speak central to Sri Aurobindo's thesis, I am surprised that no critique has yet come from the integral yoga community as to what the implications of the new technologies are in setting a course for the further evolution of humanity." Along a similar vein of thought is Stuart Schoen's amusing but serious reflections on the "Commercialization of Consciousness." Another focus of this issue is Sri Aurobindo's mantric epic, Savitri, which like the embodiment of the Solar Word that is its subject, unveils ever more of its Light, Power and Bliss with the passage of time; of which the Mother has said "He has crammed the whole universe in it" and "Reading Savitri is doing yoga." Under Articles, we carry an introduction by Mangesh Nadkarni on a passage in Savitri, descriptive of the Mother and linking to the theme of the Mother's Birthday. The focus on Savitri continues in the Reviews section with a consideration by Debashish Banerji of Volume I of the seminal selection of essays on Savitri, edited by R.Y Deshpande - Perspectives of Savitri. Savitri features also in the Creative section, where the script of a play on the Divine Mother excerpted from the epic by Loretta Shartsis is presented; as also in the Studies section and appropriately, under Themes in this issue.

Returning to the Articles, Anie Nunnally's much appreciated series of interviews of senior ashram sadhaks is continued in this issue with a feature on the octogenarian self-effacing remarkable poetess, Tehmi. Appropriately, Tehmi features in the People section and a sampling of her poems in carried in the Creative section. Finally, there is an article by the founder of the Sri Aurobindo Center and the one from whom our journal derives its name, Jyotipriya, on the issue of Birth and Death in the light of Sri Aurobindo. May is the birth month of Jyotipriya and of the Center; but one who was a close companion and helper of Jyotipriya and a devoted worker at the Center for a long period also left her present physical sheath in the recent past. Her name was Trudy King and in this issue, we carry a memorial to her in the People section.

Under Themes for this issue, we feature quotes selected around the Mother's Birthday, Her final arrival at Pondicherry and the birthdays of the Center and of Jyotipriya. We also carry quotes relating to other foci of this issue - Savitri, Science and Technology, Physical Culture and Death.

Apart from the above-mentioned selection of poems by Tehmi and the script of the Savitri-based play The Glory of the Divine Mother, the Creative section also features a short-story in the genre of magic realism by Michael Miovic, a travel account of a visit to the source of India's sacred Mother-river, Ganga by Sunanda Banerji and a selection of paintings by another ashram artist, Kiran Mehra.Under Reviews, apart from the one on the Perspectives of Savitri, we carry an appreciation by Amrita Banerji of a sitar concert offered by Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee for the Center in October, 2000. Under Studies, we continue presenting interpretive summaries of the study groups on The Practical Guide to the Integral Yoga and on Savitri, held at the center on Thursdays and Saturdays respectively. Additionally, every second and fourth Sundays of the month, Smt. Vasanti Jayaswal has been exploring selected hymns from the Rig Veda in the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Studies section features outlines of her interpretations of the Sri Suktam to Mahalakshmi and the Ratri Suktam to the Goddess Night. The continuing music programs, special events, guests and celebrations at the Center find expression in the News, Events and People sections. Circulations continues to be the spiritual market-place of community exchange and Projects outlines the continuing collective operations of the Sri Aurobindo Center of L.A. Apart from the ongoing projects, this issues features the Center's tape archival project.

It has always been the intention with Jyoti to initiate interactive communication among its readers and partly for this reason the internet-based mailing list, jyotilist has been set up. We encourage you strongly to share your comments, reflections and critical ideas deriving from the journal on this list. It has been our intention to include a "Responses" section, but so far this has not happened due to lack of response. As before, Volume 2, Issue 2 is being removed from the site, but will be available (as will other past issues) to anyone interested on a disk or as email attachment in .zip form for $5 (include an additional $2 if you prefer snail mail). Happy journey and "not fare well, but fare forward, voyagers!"