Equality through
Surrender…….
my journey to a
higher self
A main project
submission
for the Foundat=
ion
Course for facilitators (2005-06)
by Amit Gujral<= o:p>
Contents
(A) Introduction: page 4
(B) What is
‘Equality’: page 5
(i) Equality of the Vital (Prana): pages 11-14
desire:
pages 15-16
(ii) Equalit=
y of
the Heart:
pages 16-29
(iii) Dynamic Equality
(iv) Equalit=
y of
the Thinking Mind:
pages 36-45
(v) The high=
est
Spiritual Equality:
pages 45-46
(C) Surrender: why, what a=
nd to
whom? : pages 47-67
·
Checklist:
Why, what and to whom have you surrendered? :pages 48-50
·
Checklist:
How genuine is your surrender? : pages 53-54
·
Self-reflective
exercise for inculcating the ability to surrender with sincerity: pages 59-=
60
·
Self-reflective
worksheet to make one’s surrender more dynamic: pages 63-65
(D)
Conclusion: The twin aspirations, Equality and Surrender: pages
67-69<= o:p>
Appendix
‘A’:
Selected Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo: pages 70-75
Equality thr=
ough
Surrender…my journey to a higher self
(A) Introduction
Every journey, in order to succeed, must have three
essential components:- namely, a destination, a route-map that will take
oneself towards the destination and lastly, a vehicle suitable to accomplish
the travel. At the very beginning of the Foundation Course for Facilitators=
, I
knew deep within that if I wanted to escape the pitfalls of yet another men=
tal
engagement, I needed to treat this course as a journey that would help me
travel from my current state of being to a newer and higher domain, instead=
of
meandering endlessly on the same level. The key to the first component, tha=
t is,
the destination that I should seek to reach in the course of this enterpris=
e in
which I would be engaged for the better part of the coming year, emerged in=
the
very first individual session. I was asked to identify the specific area or
topic that I wanted to work on for the duration of this course. Even as I s=
at
in silent contemplation, the word ‘Equality’ rose up gently from
the inmost depths of my being. I could not at that time define precisely wh=
at
that word connoted but from past experience I had learnt to respect that qu=
iet
voice which speaks to us only when we are silent. So ‘Equality’=
was
going to be the destination that was aimed for in the course of this journe=
y of
self improvement, that much was decided on the very first day itself!
Having
identified the aim or destination of this voyage, I now needed to identify =
the
route or road map I needed to use as well as the right vehicle for the
enterprise. There were many routes that beckoned to me…academically a=
nd
yet if I was going to be serious in my resolve to achieve the ideal of
‘equality’ in the very substance of my being, I needed to make =
sure
that not only was the route selected the right one but that the guide avail=
able
on the chosen path was the very best. Whilst I could debate endlessly about=
the
comparative virtues of the various alternatives available for the former, I=
was
very clear about the identity of the latter: the Divine himself! Proceeding
from this certainty regarding the choice of guide, the option of which rout=
e to
select also narrowed down to only one…. that of surrender. A complete=
and
sincere surrender of every part of my being to the guidance of the Divine
immanent in me in the form of my highest truth!
The
last thing required now was to identify the vehicle that I needed to undert=
ake
this journey. As the course proceeded, I realised that if I intended to take
along every part of my being as a cohesive whole, I would need to transform=
my
very character. This was going to be a very difficult task but achievable. =
What
I needed was an unshakeable faith in the Divine Grace backed by an unflaggi=
ng
will and ability to maintain the strict self-discipline required to ensure =
the
concurrence of every part of my being. A ‘self’, organised arou=
nd
this aim of attaining a perfect equality, even as I travelled along the rou=
te
of a progressively greater surrender, would then serve as the ideal vehicle=
for
my journey to a higher self. I realised that the further ahead I moved on t=
his
journey, the greater would be the transformation of my own self. However,
before starting on this journey, I needed to deepen my understanding of both
the aim I had set for myself as well as the route I had chosen for it. A
sharing of my understanding of both of them is what will comprise the two
sub-parts of my dissertation viz.:-
(i) Equ=
ality
(ii)
Surrender
(B) What is ‘Equality’?
When th=
is
word first suggested itself as the main need in my current state of
consciousness and I asked for it to be the topic for my main project, I was
asked by the course facilitator to expound on what it meant for me. The fir=
st
inference that I drew was towards its social connotations, i.e. equality in=
my
dealings with others, e.g. my dealings within my family and circle of frien=
ds
and the degree of fairness that characterised it or my interaction with
employees and the inherent conflict between the need to control and the des=
ire
to ameliorate their lot, etc. The next association, as she kept probing, was
with my reaction to events and happenings in my life. Was I as even-handed =
in
my responses when things went my way as compared to whenever they didn̵=
7;t?
However during the course of my study of this particular topic, as my thoug=
hts
on it deepened and as my understanding of it widened, I realised that true
‘equality’ extends way beyond issues of social justice and
stoicism. It is much higher than even ‘universalisation’ and
‘equanimity’ as a state of being. Though both of these are its
essential components, true equality actually refers to a state of complete,
conscious identification with the Divine himself!
“=
In
Peace and Silence the Eternal manifests; allow nothing to disturb you and t=
he
Eternal will manifest; have perfect equality in face of all and the Eternal
will be there … it is in the most complete Peace, Serenity and Equali=
ty
that all is Thou even as Thou art all, and the least vibration in this
perfectly pure and calm atmosphere is an obstacle to Thy manifestation. No
haste, no inquietude, no tension, Thou, nothing but Thou, without any analy=
sis
or any objectivising, and Thou art there without a possible doubt, for all
becomes a Holy Peace and a Sacred Silence.”[1]
&=
nbsp; Just
reading these words of The Mother brings me in touch with a much deeper and
higher sense of being. For a moment the realisation seems not only possible=
but
imminent and yet even as I exult, the moment has passed and I am left wonde=
ring
on how I could possibly have snatched this moment for all eternity? It is in
this very question that I find the truth of all existence…it is only =
when
we achieve true and lasting equality with all that exists and in all that
occurs, that the momentary and the eternal will become one! This then is the
‘Gnostic Quest’ that shall lead us to immortality, the very nec=
tar
sought by the gods of the epics themselves!
The Gnostic =
Quest
In the depths of the darke=
st
abyss,
Held captive by its conten=
ded
existence,
Lies the well-spring of an
immense Light.
Like the tree, unborn with=
in the
seed
Lying in the fallow earth,
seeking to be,
What urge impels it to see=
k its
source?
No mere yearning will fuel=
the
climb;
A greater force shall brea=
k the
sleep
Of contentment, that chain=
s it
to its destiny!
Neither muck nor slime can=
stain
the flame
Obscured perchance from
frightened eyes
That seeing a sordid reali=
ty,
turn away.
All touch, all taste, all =
sound
denied
They seek escape through t=
he
mind’s eye
Into the wonder of the for=
mless
void.
But we who worship at anot=
her
altar,
Must all forms of the All-=
form
embrace,
And cleanse with its light=
all
obscurity.
No shrinking recoil, nor
yearning fancy we seek
The truth alone. That which
courses through me
Though hidden yet, is also=
the
substance of Thee!
We march steadfast. Neithe=
r gain
nor solitary victory
We seek, but to press down=
and
cleave the dam
That limits us to our human
mortality.
=
; What
is it then that limits us to our human mortality…. Is it our clinging=
to
a limited form that comprises our mental and vital preferences and defines =
our
current personality? Since these preferences even in us are transient,
necessarily the form defined by them is also transient and therefore
‘mortal’!
=
; How
then do we seek to break through this limitation? The path suggested by most
oriental religions is one of negation of the ego and ultimately annihilatio=
n of
the individual personality over the course of a succession of rebirths, in =
the
form of ‘moksha’ or ‘nirvana’. But how does the esc=
ape
of the single individual form from existence make any cognisable difference=
to
the quality of the remaining universe? Or does one continue in the hope tha=
t in
some unforeseeable future, all forms will manage to escape, which still begs
the question as to what would then happen to the poor material universe that
bears silently the consequence of all our endeavours at flight! Lest I forg=
et,
the illumined seers of yore had solved this issue amply by decreeing that o=
nly
the spirit was the true reality and all material existence an illusion or
‘Maya’….not worthy of our concern. The occidental religio=
ns
too have their own alternate stations to which individuals are dispatched p=
ost
their single sojourn on earth…heaven, hell and purgatory whilst they
await the destruction of all creation and a rendering of individual account=
s,
at the day of reckoning. The degradation that our planet has suffered in the
course of his evolution and progress is proof enough of Man’s ingrati=
tude
and selfish transgressions. Unfortunately, we are born into a particular
religion and most of us remain prisoners of a mindset that is as governed by
habit as say our dietary preferences……the few who are adventuro=
us
and seek to rebel, either out of vital boredom or mental disquiet, simply
replace one rigid formula with another that is as incomplete. Without
belittling any other faith or religion it seems so obvious that in his ques=
t to
seek the true purpose of life, Man seems to have missed the woods for the
trees! Life, in its integrality, without any distinction between the materi=
al
and spiritual world has to be raised to its perfection and union with the o=
ne
divine source and origin that it represents in manifestation.
The Earth=
217;s
Lament
Tarry a while, all you
ungrateful prodigals
That seek to escape
Earth’s harsh domain;
Shedding your dust on that
weathered bosom
Abandoned and lamenting, a=
lone
she’ll remain.
Men, crowning glory of all=
her
creation,
The favoured outcome of the
Spirit’s seed:
Fancying themselves in His=
image
craven
Her dark, gross matter, no
longer they need.
The journey thus far is al=
l but
forgotten
The trials that she shared,
alone she’ll rue.
Heaven’s reward is to
Man’s lot alone –
Is his corrupted dust all =
that
she’s due?
In this tale of betrayal a
secret promise is hid,
Of the Spirit’s desc=
ent to
reward Earth’s labour.
By what means will this co=
venant
be fulfilled?
The perfect One, surely a
perfect vehicle will favour!
Hearken then to the true p=
urpose
of life:
It’s not enough for =
us to
simply toil and die.
Neither morals nor rituals=
shall
pave the way,
Of the shining path, where
redemption will lie!
To raise dull matter to
perfection we must strive –
And with our loving labour=
honour
this unpaid debt.
The Heaven in the ether th=
at
we’ve sought to attain,
On Earth’s willing b=
reast
will be fashioned instead!
=
; This
earthly perfection and divinisation of the material world, through the desc=
ent
of the supramental consciousness, then is the goal of Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother’s Integral Yoga. To effect this, the primary requirement is the
perfection of the individual being by identifying first with the Divine
immanent in him, then with the Divine in the Universe and finally with the
Transcendental Divine which is the substance of and supports all its
manifestation. The process that leads to this perfection is marked by the
inculcation and manifestation of an ever-increasing sense of oneness and
equality in our individual being.
=
“=
…an
absolute equality in the mind and soul... must become all-enveloping if we =
are
to be perfect in the spirit. For the worship of the Master of works demands=
a
clear recognition and glad acknowledgment of him in ourselves, in all things
and in all happenings. Equality is the sign of this adoration; it is the so=
ul's
ground on which true sacrifice and worship can be done. The Lord is there
equally in all beings, we have to make no essential distinctions between
ourselves and others, the wise and the ignorant, friend and enemy, man and
animal, the saint and the sinner. We must hate none, despise none, be repel=
led
by none; for in all we have to see the One disguised or manifested at his
pleasure. He is a little revealed in one or more revealed in another or
concealed and wholly distorted in others according to his will and his
knowledge of what is best for that which he intends to become in form in th=
em
and to do in works in their nature. All is ourself, one self that has taken
many shapes. ...
=
&=
nbsp; And
since all things are the one Self in its manifestation, we shall have equal=
ity
of soul towards the ugly and the beautiful, the maimed and the perfect, the
noble and the vulgar, the pleasant and the unpleasant, the good and the evi=
l.
Here also there will be no hatred, scorn and repulsion, but instead the equ=
al
eye that sees all things in their real character and their appointed place.=
...
=
&=
nbsp; ...
Difference is there, variation of expression is there and this variation we
shall appreciate,—far more justly than we could when the eye was clou=
ded by
a partial and erring love and hate, admiration and scorn, sympathy and
antipathy, attraction and repulsion. But behind the variation we shall alwa=
ys
see the Complete and Immutable who dwells within it and we shall feel, know=
or
at least, if it is hidden from us, trust in the wise purpose and divine
necessity of the particular manifestation, whether it appear to our human
standards harmonious and perfect or crude and unfinished or even false and
evil.
=
&=
nbsp; And
so too we shall have the same equality of mind and soul towards all happeni=
ngs,
painful or pleasurable, defeat and success, honour and disgrace, good repute
and ill-repute, good fortune and evil fortune. For in all happenings we sha=
ll
see the will of the Master of all works and results and a step in the evolv=
ing
expression of the Divine. ... The ripened soul does not condemn but seeks to
understand and master, does not cry out but accepts or toils to improve and
perfect, does not revolt inwardly but labours to obey and fulfil and
transfigure. Therefore we shall receive all things with an equal soul from =
the
hands of the Master. Failure we shall admit as a passage as calmly as succe=
ss
until the hour of the divine victory arrives. Our souls and minds and bodies
will remain unshaken by acutest sorrow and suffering and pain if in the div=
ine
dispensation they come to us, unoverpowered by intensest joy and pleasure. =
Thus
supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things
with an equal calm until we are ready for a more exalted status and can ent=
er
into the supreme and universal Ananda.”[2]
Checklist: How ‘Equal’ are you?
1) How do =
you
react when you meet a stranger for the first time? Are you generally
open-minded or wary in your dealings with others?
2) Are you
partial in your dealings with others; is your interaction defined by your o=
wn
personal sense of attraction or repulsion to the individuals concerned?
3) How
judgmental are you about the actions, values and belief systems of another?=
Is
your ‘tolerance’ born from a genuine desire to widen and enrich
your own being or is it a mere lip-service as you cling on fiercely to your=
own
sense of what is right?
4) How do =
you
react when you see an object of beauty? Are you able to sense the inherent
divinity even in the ugly, the deformed and the vulgar? 5) How do =
you
react when things do not go your way? Do you seek only fame and success and
does the thought of failure or disgrace daunt you? Would you in your current
state of being accept the hand of the Divine in all adversity as something
necessary for your growth and progress? 6) How can=
you
bring a greater ‘equality’ into your own being and would such
measures bring you closer to your own highest truth? &=
nbsp; The
basis for a greater individual self-perfection through an ever increasing s=
ense
of ‘oneness’ and ‘equality’ lies in the transformat=
ion
of our emotional and mental being through the inculcation of the following:=
i) =
Equality
of the Vital (Prana) “=
The
first obvious step to it will be the conquest of our emotional and vital be=
ing,
for here are the sources of greatest trouble, the most rampant forces of
inequality and subjection, the most insistent claim of our imperfection. The
equality of these parts of our nature comes by purification and freedom. We
might say that equality is the very sign of liberation. ... Desire is the
impurity of the Prana, the life-principle, and its chain of bondage. A free
Prana means a content and satisfied life-soul which fronts the contact of
outward things without desire and receives them with an equal response;
delivered, uplifted above the servile duality of liking and disliking,
indifferent to the urgings of pleasure and pain, not excited by the pleasan=
t,
not troubled and overpowered by the unpleasant, not clinging with attachmen=
t to
the touches it prefers or violently repelling those for which it has an
aversion, it will be opened to a greater system of values of experience. ...
There is no question here of an ascetic killing of the life-impulse and its
native utilities and functions; not its killing is demanded, but its transf=
ormation.
The function of the Prana is enjoyment, but the real enjoyment of existence=
is
an inward spiritual Ananda, not partial and troubled like that of our vital,
emotional or mental pleasure, degraded as they are now by the predominance =
of
the physical mind, but universal, profound, a massed concentration of spiri=
tual
bliss possessed in a calm ecstasy of self and all existence. Possession is =
its
function, by possession comes the soul's enjoyment of things, but this is t=
he
real possession, a thing large and inward, not dependent on the outward sei=
zing
which makes us subject to what we seize.”[3] &=
nbsp; What
Sri Aurobindo was pointing to in the above passage when he refers to the
‘degradation by the predominance of the physical mind’ is the
captivation of our limited personality by the habitual responses each of us
develops to all sensory inputs. These are almost always dictated by our men=
tal
or vital preferences, which again are determined to a large degree by the
environment in which our early personality develops. The response is almost
automatic and we become prisoners of this conditioning, constantly desiring=
to
enjoy and possess all that is ‘pleasurable’ and shun whatever is
‘repulsive’ to our individual persona. To give a fairly commonp=
lace
example, one starts to salivate automatically as soon as one smells the aro=
ma
of foods, that one enjoys, being cooked but does not react similarly if the
food being cooked is repugnant to oneself! The olfactory sense has carried =
out
the same function in both cases but the automatic response of our physical
consciousness in each is dictated completely by our individual vital-mental
preferences. There are numerous other examples like the drying up of one=
217;s
throat when confronted with an unpleasant situation or the straightening of=
one’s
posture when approached by an attractive member of the opposite sex, etc.,
where the body consciousness, through the agency of the physical mind, reac=
ts
automatically to mental-vital impulses based on individual preferences. It =
is
these preferences which over a period of time crystallise into habits that
verily define and limit our outer personality. The sense organs, instead of
performing their true function of accurately reporting material phenomenon =
to
our intellect, become accomplices in the Vital’s pursuit of whatever =
it
has identified as pleasurable and therefore desirable by it. As long as we
operate from this level of consciousness, we can never hope to achieve any
modicum of equality in our being. Our life journey then becomes a pursuit of
only the little that is deemed desirable by the mental-vital to the exclusi=
on
of a lot that is either despised or ignored by it. Impassioned by our
preferences we forget that all that we have sought to exclude is also a par=
t of
the vast ‘Self’ that we must necessarily seek to attain in our
quest for perfection and the One Divine. It is this that forms the biggest
hurdle to the cultivation of equality and any degree of oneness in our being
and unlearning this conditioning is by no means an easy task! Checklist: How bound are you by your habits and
preferences? 1) When you
visit a new place, how open are you to eating the local cuisine? Do you aft=
er a
while pine for the food that you are accustomed to? 2) If you =
are
travelling in a group and are forced to listen to the music of another̵=
7;s
choice can you appreciate it or does doing so make you crabby and irritable=
? 3) If you =
are in
the company of a group of people who inadvertently converse in a tongue ali=
en
to yourself, will you feel insulted and left out or would you actually ask =
them
to help you understand their language? Conversely, would you refrain from
slipping into your own language in case there is a person in the group who
doesn’t understand it? 4) Most of=
our
ideals of beauty and aesthetics are dictated by the culture in which we grow
up. Can you appreciate the ideal of say physical beauty, of a people whose
culture is far removed from yours, or would you end up mocking them? 5) If you =
arrive
on the dining table to find that your place has been taken by, say, your
son’s friend, would you ask him to continue sitting there and would y=
ou
genuinely feel just as comfortable sitting in another place? &=
nbsp; These
are just a few examples of the numerous ‘kinks’ that bind each =
one
of us to our stated position and have the potential to cause constant stres=
s in
our day to day lives. I have listed a few that are relevant to me and I am =
sure
that each one of us will have his own exhaustive list. If one is ever asked=
why
these things are important to oneself, I am sure each one will be at a loss=
for
an answer. None of the reasons that one can conjure up will stand the scrut=
iny
of one’s own intellect and logic and I am even willing to lay a wager
that in almost every case each one of us will end up saying, “But tha=
t is
just the way I am!” &=
nbsp; How
then, does one undo this conditioning? If one were to try and identify every
such habitual preference and undo the ‘knot’ using logic and
reasoning, one might succeed but it would take ages to do so. To my mind a
simpler approach would be to adopt an increasingly equitable attitude towar=
ds
life……each time one encounters any narrowness in one’s be=
ing,
one should learn to laugh it off as not being worth the stress that it
generates. Along with the benefit of attaining a greater equality in one=
217;s
being, one would also gain the psychological advantage that accrues from a
stress-free and affable temperament! &=
nbsp; This
brings me to the next impediment in the way of attaining equality in the Vi=
tal,
namely desire. The urge to enjoy and possess is the very nature of the
life-force, rather it is the very principle which has impelled the progress=
ion
of Life from inanimate matter to mentalised Man and ‘that’ which
motivates the life-force in each and every one of us. Desire per se is not wrong in itself; it =
is our
enslavement to such enjoyment and acquisitiveness that binds us to the lower
consciousness and halts our spiritual ascent. The traditional methods of
dealing with this enslavement are based on mental control through suppressi=
on
and denial of one’s urges. This often results in depression and a lac=
k of
enthusiasm as the life-force, denied its essential food, withdraws its
collaboration from the individual concerned. Sri Aurobindo cautions against
such ascetic denial and advocates instead the transformation of our desires=
. Before
one can find the key to do so, it is necessary to understand the root cause=
of
this constant urge to acquire and enjoy, something that I have hoped to bri=
ng
forward in the accompanying poem: Transforming Desire From desire is born the urge to
achieve, Wherefrom then, the urge to kill =
all
desire? If in mere existence does content=
ment
lie, Will species abound, each
seeking yet higher? By grabbing and pulling mo=
ves
the force of Life, Creating new forms that
appropriate and acquire. Each form created, mirrors=
a
need that was felt; One need fulfilled, to yet
another it’ll aspire! A prisoner of its nature i=
s the
unconscious being, Ever denied its way, into =
the
cipher it’ll retire. Not to yield and indulge, =
nor
suppress and deny Taming the beast, a greater
courage does require. Ere you fathom how this un=
ending
battle is won, You must understand wheref=
rom
stems all desire. When the Being did stir and
throw out his seed, The multitudinous One, only
aspects did sire. The incomplete many, their
completeness do seek; And a return to that onene=
ss
thus fuels every fire! So if instead of possessio=
n,
it’s a union you seek, With light and joy youR=
17;ll
mount plentitude’s spire. &=
nbsp; I
hope that this poem will help others to understand the phenomenon behind our
desires and urges and help them in surmounting this constant battle that le=
aves
one feeling alternately guilty at indulging in one’s fantasies and
depressed at denying them. During the course of my self-reflections as I was
grappling with a particularly vicious cycle of denial and indulgence, I had
come up with a worksheet that helped me break that cycle. I am reproducing =
it
here for the benefit of any one else who might want to try the method. Inculcating a
greater equality in the vital by the transformation of desire All of us have experienced at various times in one&#=
8217;s
life a strong craving for the possession or enjoyment of certain objects,
beings, actions or sensations. Often these desires develop a recurrent and
obsessive pattern, tending to literally well-up from the sub-conscient, oft=
en
taking one by surprise. Each time one has just about managed to convince
oneself that the thing has been finally dealt with and left well and truly
behind, it jumps out and the battle between stifling it and indulging it st=
arts
all over again. Focusing on any such obsessive desire let us take a few mom=
ents
to introspect and analyse it through this self-reflective exercise: =
1) What happens each time you
manage to suppress or deny the desire through either a strong will or mental
control? Does it lead to a loss of vitality, depression, dryness, etc? =
2) What happens when you eith=
er
indulge in or fantasise about ways to satisfy the craving? Does it leave you
with a sense of being overpowered and guilty at having betrayed some higher
ideal? =
3) Why do you think that ther=
e is
an obsessive and recurrent pattern to such behaviour? Do you feel that ment=
al
control, though successful at quelling desire on occasion, is often inadequ=
ate
to deal with it substantially? Also, if you apply the paradigm that what
happens on the outside is only reflective of that which lies within oneself,
are you able to locate what it is within you that is causing this phenomeno=
n? =
4) If you now inwardise your
consciousness, reaching within for a higher and deeper state of being, look=
ing
again at the object of your desire from that state. Look behind its outward
appearance for the highest truth that stands behind it…its true source
and origin. Search for that truth of being or bliss within your own inner b=
eing
finding the common threads that bind both to the One
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Now look again at the object as it appears
outwardly. Does it still bother you in the same manner? If not, what do you
feel has caused this change? Is there now a change in your relationship with
the object of your desire? ii) Equality of the Heart =
“=
…a
heart delivered from the gusts and storms of the affections and the passion=
s;
the assailing touch of grief, wrath, hatred, fear, inequality of love, trou=
ble
of joy, pain of sorrow fall away from the equal heart, and leave it a thing
large, calm, equal, luminous, divine. These things are not incumbent on the
essential nature of our being, but the creations of the present make of our
outward active mental and vital nature and its transactions with its
surroundings. The ego-sense which induces us to act as separate beings who =
make
their isolated claim and experience the test of the values of the universe,=
is
responsible for these aberrations. When we live in unity with the Divine in
ourselves and the spirit of the universe, these imperfections fall away fro=
m us
and disappear in the calm and equal strength and delight of the inner spiri=
tual
existence. Always that is within us and transforms the outward touches befo=
re
they reach it by a passage through a subliminal psychic soul in us which is=
the
hidden instrument of its delight of being. By equality of the heart we get =
away
from the troubled desire-soul on the surface, open the gates of this profou=
nder
being, bring out its responses and impose their true divine values on all t=
hat
solicits our emotional being. A free, happy, equal and all-embracing heart =
of
spiritual feeling is the outcome of this perfection. =
&=
nbsp; In
this perfection too there is no question of a severe ascetic insensibility,=
an
aloof spiritual indifference or a strained rugged austerity of
self-suppression. This is not a killing of the emotional nature but a
transformation. All that presents itself here in our outward nature in perv=
erse
or imperfect forms has a significance and utility which come out when we get
back to the greater truth of divine being. Love will be not destroyed, but
perfected, enlarged to its widest capacity, deepened to its spiritual raptu=
re,
the love of God, the love of man, the love of all things as ourselves and as
beings and powers of the Divine; a large, universal love, not at all incapa=
ble
of various relation, will replace the clamant, egoistic, self-regarding lov=
e of
little joys and griefs and insistent demands afflicted with all the chequer=
ed
pattern of angers and jealousies and satisfactions, rushings to unity and
movements of fatigue, divorce and separation on which we now place so high a
value. Grief will cease to exist, but a universal, an equal love and sympat=
hy
will take its place, not a suffering sympathy, but a power which, itself
delivered, is strong to sustain, to help, to liberate. To the free spirit w=
rath
and hatred are impossible, but not the strong Rudra energy of the Divine wh=
ich
can battle without hatred and destroy without wrath because all the time aw=
are
of the things it destroys as parts of itself, its own manifestations and
unaltered therefore in its sympathy and understanding of those in whom are
embodied these manifestations. All our emotional nature will undergo this h=
igh
liberating transformation; but in order that it may do so, a perfect equali=
ty
is the effective condition.”[4] &=
nbsp; The
‘Heart’ referred to in the above passage is what is generally
regarded in most religious traditions as the ‘soul’ in us and w=
hat
Sri Aurobindo has defined as the ‘desire soul’ or the centre of=
our
emotional being. This too suffers from great inequalities in each individual
due to the division of his being into what is socially and morally acceptab=
le
or repugnant. All organised religions and social systems have been built ar=
ound
a set of morally acceptable codes of conduct with a system of rewards for t=
hose
who comply, e.g. the promise of heaven, rebirth into a higher life-form and
even escape from life itself. There is also the converse for those who do n=
ot
adhere, in the form of social ostracism, banishment to hell or the damnatio=
n of
several million cycles of rebirth into lower-life forms, etc. The progenito=
rs
of these doctrines have probably intended them as organs of social control =
by
laying down standards that would govern the behaviour of the individual vis=
-à-vis
society at large. Due to the religious and social sanction accorded to these
tenets by the ruling hierarchy or as in more modern times, by the majority,=
the
individual can not dare to disobey openly. However, owing to the vast diver=
sity
of individual character in the form of mental-vital preferences and
inclination, each individual in at least some parts of his being, will be in
danger of transgressing, in thought even if not in action, some part of the
code of conduct he is born into and is expected to uphold even if it confli=
cts
with his natural bent. Considering the immense powers that the implementers=
of
these tenets, in the form of the rulers or priestly classes exert over the
individual, one can imagine the kind of fear and guilt such
‘transgressions’ manage to induce in the individual. The
individual, fearing for his self, will hide and suppress all those desires =
and
urges which are not in conformity with the currently acceptable moral or so=
cial
practice. All these desires that we suppress by denial but do not manage to
transform are pushed into the deep recesses of what we now recognise as our
sub-conscient…..or that part of our consciousness whose existence we =
do
not acknowledge in our normal waking self. This is the genesis of the
individual duality; the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that each of us carries in =
his
being and is the source of the inequalities in our desire-soul. &=
nbsp; How
then do we propose to rid the heart of its inequality? Is it by giving a wi=
der
license and slackening of moral norms as has been done in most societies ar=
ound
the world? The answer is an obvious no as this license has not only failed =
to
give the individual a greater happiness, but has laid the foundation for an
even greater social and individual discontent and disconnect. The result is=
an
ever-increasing flux of individuals, migrating from their own moorings and
seeking solace from alternate thought systems, which too do not satisfy as =
the
individual, unless he manages to transform his nature, will continue to car=
ry
his conditioning or roots with him. Also, this ‘migration’ of
individuals into other groupings, raises the hackles of the remaining major=
ity
who fearing erosion of their own mandate by this desertion or dilution turn
even more obscurantist and oppressive. One has witnessed this in the form o=
f an
ever-increasing right-wing fanaticism to combat this neo-liberalism in all
parts of the globe. &=
nbsp; The
answer to this problem lies in neither sectarianism nor licentiousness but =
in
transformation; that of our emotional nature. The first step is to recognise
this schism within oneself and to start healing the break. How is this to be
done? By a clear understanding that nothing exists outside The Divine and t=
hus
there is nothing within us that we ought to be ashamed of, or needs to be
rejected or suppressed. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: “=
Our
Evil is to God not evil, but ignorance and imperfection, our good a lesser
imperfection.”[5] &=
nbsp; I
have attempted to reconcile this schism that divides my being into whatever=
is
‘good’ and whatever is ‘evil’ in me, through the ag=
ency
of the poem “Twin Worlds” which I have reproduced below: Twin Worlds<=
o:p> In the furthest outreaches=
of my
being, Lie regions which I do not=
dare, To visit with my eyes wide=
open. Beyond the ken of the reas=
oning
mind, Beneath the threshold of d=
umb
sensation, Exists a world, alien to my
waking self. All that the sentinels of
morality’ve barred, Drifts down unwanted, into=
this
morbid hell: The brooding repository of
Mankind’s sins. When sleep has dulled the
mind’s resolve And lowered the barricades=
of my
sanity, I slip forth unchecked int=
o this
fantasy zone! Every desire denied and ur=
ge
suppressed, Each fear imagined, anxiety
felt, finds forms Rising to frolic with me in
unlikely dreams. On both sides of a trapdoo=
r lie
two worlds, That each to the other an
illusion appears; Yet within my being, they =
both
exist! Too long have men its infl=
uence
denied, The sub-conscient thatR=
17;s
borne the burden Of our primordial fears and
endemic guilt! However high I’ve re=
ached
in nebulous flight, To this grim question each=
time
I’ll return, Can my psyche heal without
refining its altar? All light and beauty in the
glorious ether teem, Whilst horror and despair =
crowd
the nether – Like two inverted poles of=
an
endless pillar. Where then do these warring
worlds reconcile – And who can blame me in my
tormented plight, For seeking just one whilst
shunning the other? The answer lies beyond the
limits of my mind, Which in order to know, mu=
st
compare and classify; Passing its judgments that
Nature’s realm divide. All that’s crafted b=
y Her
is poised in its rightful place; A balance, the Mind with i=
ts
fancies seeking to change, Into Heaven and Hell a sea=
mless
universe will break. The worlds of my being the=
se
twin worlds do mirror! If it be my quest to join =
anew
my sundered self, I must silence my mind; wi=
den it
to Nature’s order. &=
nbsp; When
I showed this poem to the course coordinator, she had mentioned that Sri Au=
robindo,
in the course of his talks with Dr. Nirodbaran, had often recommended that =
the
best way to transform one’s sub-conscient, was to expose it to the li=
ght
of ‘The Mother’s Force’. I have often encountered the usa=
ge
of this particular term by several of the students of the Foundation Course
being conducted by the Gnostic Centre and wondered what they intended to co=
nvey
by it. The meaning of this term became amply clear to me in the course of a=
meditation
exercise that I practised to heal my own being. I am presenting here an out=
line
of the exercise along with a short worksheet in the hope that it will help =
the
reader to also heal the divisions in his being. A Meditation to heal the divisions in one’s be=
ing (an exe=
rcise) Closing your eyes, try to concent=
rate
in the centre of your chest at the seat of the desire-soul. Imagine yoursel=
f to
be like a tight little ball which is held at that point. Once your being is
centered and concentrated in that ball, imagine that the ball is expanding =
into
an evenly increasing sphere, and as that ball expands, so does your own bei=
ng.
As you expand, you will feel an increasing sense of lightness and peace flo=
wing
through. Wherever you encounter a part of your being that feels rejected and
thus refuses to widen and expand along with the rest, the ball too stops
growing and you feel again a sense of compression and unease. At this point
turn your attention to the part of your being that is refusing to widen and
expand and is preventing the sphere from growing. Ask for The Divine’s
Love to flow through the sphere at that point and to dissolve the knot that=
is
blocking the widening of your being. As The Divine’s Love courses thr=
ough
your being like a gentle healing breath, embracing all, loving all, the knot
dissolves and your being, in the form of that sphere starts expanding again.
The feeling of lightness and calm returns, and your being continues to expa=
nd
till it becomes larger than your physical body, larger than the room you are
in, larger than the boundaries of your house, even larger than your town,
embracing all, loving all till it becomes as large as the universe itself! =
&=
nbsp; This
Divine Love, that does not judge or discriminate but only embraces and heal=
s, is
to my mind the truth behind the term ‘The Mother’s Force’=
. It
is only ‘The Divine Creatrix’ who, with boundless love and inna=
te
sympathy for all her creation, can heal the schisms that the Mind has cause=
d in
her universe. When we seek to heal these divisions in our own being, we too
should invoke the same sympathy and non-judgmental love towards our own
imperfections. In this way all that we seek to suppress or hide will instea=
d be
transformed and raised to its luminous perfection. How harsh are you in dealing with your own self? (a work=
sheet) 1) What ar=
e the
factors that have shaped your sense of morality? How important is it for yo=
u to
conform to the religious and social conventions that you have grown up with=
and
to secure the approval of all whose opinion matters to you? 2) Are you
comfortable with all parts of your being or are there aspects that you wish=
did
not exist, and which you need to hide and camouflage from others? Are there
times though, when you want to rebel and assert your right to be just the w=
ay
you are? Do you feel torn in your being between these contrary pulls? 3) Does the
existence of these aspects shame and disturb you and what methods do you em=
ploy
to keep them in control? Do you always succeed in doing so and if not, how =
do
you react whenever you fail? 4) Can you
accept that all that exists in the Universe is part of The Divine’s
creation and that even the most debased and lowly of human attributes has i=
ts
luminous double in the higher consciousness? How can you change your own
conditioning so that you no longer blame yourself or feel guilty for your
flaws? 5) Can you
identify the ‘luminous doubles’ of your own imperfections and
having done so, can you detail the steps you could take to transform your
‘flaws’ without having to resort to coercion or denial? Do you
believe that doing so would result in a greater degree of peace and comfort
within your own self and lead to a progressive equality in your heart? &=
nbsp; I
am producing below a few of the aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo from the book
‘Thoughts and Aphorisms’ which I found relevant to the theme of
‘Equality of the Heart’ and would urge the reader to reflect on
each in order to discover the truth hidden in it, prior to attempting the
question I have framed alongside. Thoughts and Aphorisms “=
When I
had the dividing reason, I shrank from many things; after I had lost it in
sight, I hunted through the world for the ugly and the repellent, but I cou=
ld
no longer find them.” (no.20, p.6) &=
nbsp; Do
you feel the need to modify the aesthetic sensibilities that you have acqui=
red
as a result of your conditioning and upbringing in order to cultivate a gre=
ater
equality in yourself and if so, how? “=
God
had opened my eyes; for I saw the nobility of the vulgar, the attractivenes=
s of
the repellent, the perfection of the maimed and the beauty of the hideous.&=
#8221;
(no.21, p.6) &=
nbsp; How
often do you try to put yourself in another’s shoes, and does doing so
bring a greater degree of understanding and compassion in your being? <=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:AGaramond;font-weight:normal'>“=
I have
forgotten what vice is and what virtue; I can only see God, His play in the=
world
and His will in humanity.” (no.30, p.7)
&=
nbsp; Do
you think it is necessary to avoid being critical and judgmental of others,=
and
if so, how can you prevent yourself from doing so?
&=
nbsp; There
are several other such aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo related to
‘equality’. I have included them in Appendix A at the end of the
project. I would urge the readers to use them as an exercise in self-reflec=
tion
so as to asses for themselves the level of equality with which they are
operating.
&=
nbsp; There
is another aspect to the cultivation of equality in one’s heart, that=
of
equality and oneness in our relationship with others. Each one of us imagin=
es
himself to be the centre of his universe and deals with all, primarily from
this position. This is the natural consequence and function of our ego sens=
e,
which must seek to assert and perpetuate the individual form that each one
represents and is, in a sense, essential for the very survival of the
individual personality. Each individual is convinced of the
‘rightness’ of all that he represents and thus perceives a thre=
at
from all that contradicts or opposes it. This urge to prevail and have thin=
gs
our own way is at the root of our anxieties and fears, and the source of
inequalities in the relationships between individuals, and between any grou=
p or
entity which claims a separate identity based on ideology or social practic=
e.
“=
The
obstinate pertinacity with which we cling to our meagre, fragmentary,
night-besieged & grief-besieged individual existence even while the
unbroken bliss of our universal life calls to us, is one of the most amazin=
g of
God's mysteries. It is only equalled by the infinite blindness with which we
cast a shadow of our ego over the whole world & call that the universal
being. These two darknesses are the very essence & potency of Maya.R=
21;[6]
&=
nbsp; Is
there a deeper significance to this constant hostility that we as individua=
ls
manifest towards others, or is it a mere remnant of our animalistic past? T=
his
is a question that has exercised my being considerably. Is the ego essentia=
lly
evil? Virtually every religion in the east makes the abolition of the ego or
‘ahamkara’ a precondition for the spiritualisation of the being=
. If
the ego needs to be abolished, how will we continue to exist as individuals=
; or
does non-existence have to be the only goal for humanity? Why are we repell=
ed
by certain people and attracted to others? Is there a deeper psychological
significance or lesson that we can hope to learn from our dealings with oth=
ers,
and if so, in what way? The answer came to me once again in the form of a p=
oem
– ‘At Anxiety’s Altar’. It left me stupefied with t=
he
wealth of knowledge we can gain about our own selves, from our reactions to
other people.
At Anxiety&#=
8217;s
Altar
I am the lonely purveyor o=
f my
own world –
Seeking to control from my
cloister all that I see.
My daily wage is to protec=
t my
own turf
From the multitude of form=
s that
press on me.
All others too are fiefs of
their very own worlds,
Hiding behind facades that
intentions conceal.
Fencing and jousting each =
seeks
to attain
Supremacy over all that
challenges his veal!
Oft do I marvel at the pla=
yful
jostling of cubs,
Struggling for space at the
loving mother’s teats.
To the jungle’s dict=
um she
must resignedly yield:
The strongest of her litte=
r,
before the others feeds.
How far have I ventured fr=
om my
animal past
Where ‘might is
right’ and the ‘weak are meek’?
The laws of the jungle moc=
k at
the civilised Man,
No social mores can curb t=
his
primordial streak!
Each encounter brings a new
battle to be waged:
Maneuvering and scheming I
constantly repeat
Chants that serve as the l=
itany
at Anxiety’s altar,
Begging for my victory and=
my
enemies’ defeat.
Short-lived the gains and =
heavy
the price I pay,
For this gnawing need to e=
ver
wrest the ground.
Ambition and jealousy cons=
tantly
singe my heart,
Soon insecurity and
dismay’ll extract their pound.
Tiring of this battle,
I’ll someday search for peace;
Turning back on the turmoi=
l,
instead inwards retreat.
The greatest of surprises =
will
be unveiled in my chest:
In the guise of my enemies=
, my
weaknesses I’ll meet!
From that day with my own =
self
I’ll wage my last war,
To fight my own weaknesses=
will
be my constant chore.
Wherever I saw an enemy, a
kindred spirit I shall see;
Radiating love and goodwil=
l,
I’ll surely dread no more!
&=
nbsp; There
is a beautiful short story that I read in the ‘Soul Pills’ colu=
mn
in ‘The Hindustan Times’,
=
The Two
Wolves
=
An elderly Cherokee Native Americ=
an
was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight =
is
going on inside me…….it is a terrible fight, and it is between =
two
wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and
superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity,
truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you and eve=
ry
other person too.”
&=
nbsp; They
thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather,
“Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “=
The
one I feed.”
“Which wolf are you feeding?”
1) A pet p=
roject
or assignment that you had coveted is given to a colleague instead. Would y=
ou
sulk and create a wall of indifference with the colleague or would you
congratulate him or her, offering all support in the endeavour?
2) Your fa=
vourite
food is brought on the table on a day when there are several unexpected
guests…….Will you wait for everyone to serve themselves or rush=
to
fill up your own plate?
3) A subor=
dinate
has stopped wishing you; will you take the initiative to find out what has =
gone
wrong in the relationship or would you feel that the onus is on the other
person to do so?
4) A senio=
r is
always singling out your colleague for his or her performance; will you car=
ry
on with your own work, unmindfully, or devise means to replace your colleag=
ue
in the senior’s esteem?
5) You hav=
e just
sacked an employee a few days back and cannot locate something important; w=
ill
you immediately assume the worst about your employee or would such negative
thoughts never occur to you?
6) The car=
behind
you is constantly trying to overtake you even though the traffic is heavy; =
will
you pull over to the side and allow it to pass or will you lose your temper=
and
keep trying to block it?
Analysis of our reactions to others and the lessons
hidden in them (a self-reflective worksheet)
Each one of us feels an affinity =
or
attraction towards certain people and experiences hostility, wariness and e=
ven
revulsion towards others. Even in the case of the former, there are very few
relationships that we accept unconditionally and even with them there is se=
ldom
any degree of permanence (except perhaps in fairy tales and folk-lore, where
people live ‘happily ever after’!); there is always a demarcati=
on
which whenever it is breached, results in wariness if not outright hostility
towards the other individual. The same person, who arouses hostility in
oneself, might be attractive and amiable towards one’s best friend,
leaving one perplexed as to what the friend could see in him! How often hav=
e we
lost good friends to such rivalry? Should the friend also dislike the same
person, we can have a field day ripping the other person apart! Fighting for
our own space seems to be ingrained in our genetic make-up and yet as a see=
ker
of equality and oneness, one has to move beyond this animalistic attitude. I
have framed a few questions that should hopefully help the reader and the
seeker of a greater equality in relationships, analyse their troubled
relationships and use that analysis to improve their own being.
1) Select =
any
relationship that is particularly troublesome for you and list all the
qualities of the other individual that you find disturbing or even abhorren=
t.
2) Are the=
re any
qualities in that individual that you admire? If so list those qualities he=
re.
3) Look wi=
thin
your own self; do you also carry within you any of the qualities mentioned =
in
the first list? Should the answer be in the affirmative, how have you dealt
with these qualities in your own self? Is your dislike due to the individua=
l’s
inability to effectively deal with these ‘problems’ like you ha=
ve
done, and is therefore based on your perceived superiority to that individu=
al?
4) Coming =
now to
the qualities that you feel you do not carry within your own self; would you
still have problems in the relationship if the individual did not possess t=
hese
‘qualities’ and if not would you agree that your problem is with
the ‘qualities’ and not the individual concerned? What in your =
past
conditioning has hardened you against these ‘qualities’? Does t=
his
point to a narrowness and non-acceptance in your own being and would lettin=
g go
of your own prejudices also heal this particular relationship?
5) Look wi=
thin
yourself for those qualities that you admire in that individual; are there =
any
that you carry within your own being? Is your disquiet or disgust with the
individual based on his or her not being sufficiently like you and if so, c=
an
you perceive your own intolerance that is not allowing the other their spac=
e?
6) Lastly,=
look
for those qualities that you admire in the other but are missing from your =
own
being; is jealousy eating away at your innards? Can you unlearn your
competitive streak and exult in the other’s superiority in some field=
s,
even as you enjoy your own in others?
7) Can you
re-orient this relationship by pooling in your resources and abilities to
complement each other’s weaknesses and strengths? Would you agree now
that the only meaning to human relationships is ‘teamwork in the jour=
ney
of life’ and it is this effort at teaming that makes relationships
meaningful?
8) Do you =
realise
that each one of us represents a unique admixture of strengths and weakness=
es?
How can you use your relationships to hold a mirror to your own being and w=
ill
doing so, improve you as an individual and lead to greater equality in your
relationships?
iii) Dynamic Equality
“=
Our
whole dynamic being is acting under the influence of unequal impulses, the
manifestations of the lower ignorant nature. These urgings we obey or parti=
ally
control or place on them the changing and modifying influence of our reason,
our refining aesthetic sense and mind and regulating ethical notions. A tan=
gled
strain of right and wrong, of useful and harmful, harmonious or disordered
activity is the mixed result of our endeavour, a shifting standard of human
reason and unreason, virtue and vice, honour and dishonour, the noble and t=
he
ignoble, things approved and things disapproved of men, much trouble of
self-approbation and disapprobation or of self-righteousness and disgust,
remorse, shame and moral depression. These things are no doubt very necessa=
ry
at present for our spiritual evolution. But the seeker of a greater perfect=
ion
will draw back from all these dualities, regard them with an equal eye and
arrive through equality at an impartial and universal action of the dynamic=
Tapas,
spiritual force, in which his own force and will are turned into pure and j=
ust
instruments of a greater calm secret of divine working. The ordinary mental
standards will be exceeded on the basis of this dynamic equality. ... That =
must
remain impossible in entirety as long as the dynamic ego with its subservie=
nce
to the emotional and vital impulses and the preferences of the personal
judgment interferes in his action. ... There will be plenty of stumblings a=
nd
errors and imperfections of adjustment of the instruments to their new work=
ing,
but the increasingly equal soul will not be troubled overmuch or grieve at
these things, since, delivered to the guidance of the Light and Power within
self and above mind, it will proceed on its way with a firm assurance and a=
wait
with growing calm the vicissitudes and completion of the process of
transformation. The promise of the Divine Being in the Gita will be the anc=
hor
of its resolution, “Abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone; I
will deliver thee from all sin and evil; do not grieve.””[7]
&=
nbsp; In
the course of our everyday existence, we are constantly being torn apart
between the indecisiveness of our mind and the impetuousness of our vital.
Between the two of them, it is a wonder that we can get anything done at al=
l.
The Mind will not allow us to act with all its procrastinations, and the Vi=
tal
will not allow us to think with its insistence. Between the two, we continu=
e to
vacillate and our life’s journey tells a tale of options and regrets!=
How
then do we know, with any degree of surety, what in any circumstance is the
correct thing to do? The secret lies in developing a ‘dynamic
equality’ in our being, which is by completely surrendering our own w=
ill
or impulsion to action, to the Divine Will. This in no way means an advocac=
y to
inaction, but rather to an impartial action that stems from neither our men=
tal
convictions nor our vital preferences but from ‘that’ which is
higher than the mind and deeper than our heart. However, it is not easy to
discern this voice in the clamorous toil of the battle between the Vital and
the Mind. As Sri Aurobindo has pointed out in the previous passage with a
reference to the Gita, the cultivation of dynamic equality requires a compl=
ete
surrender and deep faith in the Divine and his ability and willingness to s=
hape
and guide the events of our life.
Clamour and =
toil
Have you wondered ever why
you’re feeling so tired,
Though you’ve contin=
ued
being just where you retired?
While the body does rest, =
the
mind is eager to flee
Seeking a frenzied jaunt or
maybe a meandering spree.
“Where have you
been?” If you’re asked perchance,
Jolted from your reverie,
you’ll simply look askance!
Many are the pulls and tug=
s that
we relentlessly feel,
Blessed are the moments of
stillness that we steal.
Most persistent is the cla=
mour
of imaginings keen,
That takes us on a journey=
to
worlds unseen.
Myriad possibilities the
restless mind will explore:
When a decision is taken,
it’ll suggest one more!
Thus onwards and onwards t=
he
mind will weave
An endless tapestry of wha=
tever
it can conceive.
And if from the mind
you’ll seize your chance,
How will you escape your
ego’s critical glance?
Whatever you’ve done=
would
have been better still
If instead of reason and l=
ogic
you’d followed its drill.
Tired and exhausted from t=
he
mind’s endless joust,
The Ego’s litany of
complaints you’ll now hear out.
Sulking and vexatious when=
ever
it’s denied its way,
By striking and goading yo=
ur
being shall it sway.
When the going is good all=
the
credit it will claim,
The smallest of problems, =
all
and sundry it’ll blame!
If ever for a moment this =
clamour
and toil should seize,
You might hear a whisper
that’s as gentle as a breeze.
The voice of the conscienc=
e will
never clamour to be heard,
If you chose not to heed i=
t, it
won’t utter another word.
In these moments of choice
entire lifetimes may be lost –
So wait for it in silence,
whatever seems to be the cost.
If the voice of Truth alon=
e your
chosen companion be,
Far from your being, this
tiresome confusion will flee!
What is guiding you in your actions? (a work=
sheet)
1) When fo=
od is
brought before you, how do you react? Are you more concerned about its
nutritional content or about its taste and appeal; do you remember to offer=
the
food to the Divine before you eat it?
2) The doc=
tor has
advised you to undergo certain investigations that point towards a serious
ailment: can you wait in patience till the investigations are concluded, wi=
th a
calm faith that whatever the outcome, you would face the situation only as =
it
evolves; or are you likely to either assume the worst about yourself or
alternatively doubt the doctor’s ability to diagnose correctly and st=
art
seeking others’ opinions?
3) Your an=
nual
assessment report is not quite as good as you expected it to be: are you li=
kely
to introspect and examine your own shortcomings or are you likely to blame =
your
superior for his ineptitude or partiality? Would you willingly continue to =
work
under the same person and would there be a material difference in the way y=
ou
work?
4) A clien=
t who
owes you a lot of money suddenly starts complaining about the quality of go=
ods
or services rendered to him; would you be willing to accept the fact that h=
is
complaint might have some basis or would you assume that he was simply tryi=
ng
to short-change you? How would you deal with him thereafter?
5) An impo=
rtant
document or a valuable is not where you remember having left it; will you s=
tart
assuming that it has been stolen and immediately search for possible culpri=
ts
or would you patiently jog your own memory before blaming others? Do you th=
ink
it is important to safeguard wealth, and if so, why?
6) A worke=
r in
your establishment has been absenting himself frequently and whenever
chastised, cites domestic problems as the cause; are you likely to empathise
with him even at the cost of your work or would you seek to replace him? Is
there another alternative action available, and if so, what?
7) A family
member has not come back home on time and you cannot access his telephone d=
ue
to congestion in the network; Will you panic and assume the worst or will y=
ou
control yourself by logically working out excuses to explain the delay?
8) A situa=
tion
did not work out the way you would have preferred it to; will you accept it=
and
move on with your life or would you keep nurturing the feeling of regret,
trying to fantasise how life would be if things had turned out
otherwise….Alternatively, will you keep trying to turn the situation
around to the way you would have it?
&=
nbsp; The
reason I have pulled out all these ordinary every day situations is because=
, it
is precisely in handling these, that one tends to lose all contact and
connection with the Divine. After all our daily prayers and meditations are
done, the moment we are pulled back into our routine external activity, we =
tend
to lapse right back into our lower and outer selves, acting only from our
mental and vital regions. How then can we maintain this connection with the
Divine even in the midst of the flurry that characterises modern urban livi=
ng?
It is by inculcating the true attitude, that of remembrance and offering. In
the words of Sri Aurobindo,
“=
It
comes in two ways,—first, if one practises remembering the Mother and
offering the work to her each time one does something (not all the time one=
is
doing, but at the beginning or whenever one can remember,) then that slowly
becomes easy and habitual to the nature. Secondly, by the meditation an inn=
er
consciousness begins to develop which, after a time, not at once or suddenl=
y,
becomes more and more automatically permanent. One feels this as a separate
consciousness from that outer which works. At first this separate conscious=
ness
is not felt when one is working, but as soon as the work stops one feels it=
was
there all the time watching from behind; afterwards it begins to be felt du=
ring
the work itself, as if there were two parts of oneself—one watching a=
nd
supporting from behind and remembering the Mother and offering to her and t=
he
other doing the work. When this happens, then to work with the true
consciousness becomes more and more easy.”[8]
&=
nbsp; What
I have found particularly helpful in cultivating this attitude is to try and
write a self-reflective journal on a daily basis. As long as I stick to this
regimen, I find myself inwardised and in contact with my higher self. The
moment I stop writing the journal, I slip back into the old unconscious mod=
e of
functioning till a rap on the knuckles, in the form of an unpleasant
occurrence, reminds me of my lapse and I revert to writing it again. The
benefits of this activity are manifold; other than the obvious benefit stem=
ming
from inwardisation and operating from a higher consciousness, one becomes a=
ware
not only of the various pulls and tugs within oneself and their origin but =
one
can actually observe the progress one has made over the years! There are se=
veral
methods one can employ to record one’s daily activities, the general =
idea
being to identify those actions where one has not measured up to one’s
highest ideal, which in this case is to consecrate one’s will and dyn=
amic
action to the Divine Will; see what it is in oneself that prevented it from
happening and to set that correction as the aim or ideal for the next day. =
To
quote Sri Aurobindo yet again:
“=
If you
want the consciousness for true actions very much and aspire for it, it may
come in one of several ways:
1. You ma=
y get
the habit or faculty of watching your movements in such a way that you see =
the
impulse to action coming and can see too its nature.
2. A
consciousness may come which feels uneasy whenever a wrong thought or impul=
se
to action or feeling is there.
3. Someth=
ing
within you may warn and stop you when you are going to do the wrong action.=
”[9]
&=
nbsp; It
is this discernment of the origins of one’s impulses to action and of=
the
feeling of unease that hold the key then to the inculcation of dynamic equa=
lity
in one’s being. One must strive over the years to act lesser and less=
er
from impulses arising from one’s vital and mental preferences and more
from one’s inner and truer being. This is the ‘sadhana’ f=
or
attaining dynamic equality which will enable the individual to ultimately a=
ct
only in full consciousness of the Divine’s presence.
“=
The
condition to be aimed at, the real achievement of Yoga, the final perfection
and attainment, for which all else is only a preparation, is a consciousnes=
s in
which it is impossible to do anything without the Divine; for then, if you =
are
without the Divine, the very source of your action disappears; knowledge, p=
ower,
all are gone. But as long as you feel that the powers you use are your own,=
you
will not miss the Divine support.
=
&=
nbsp; In
the beginning of the Yoga you are apt to forget the Divine very often. But =
by
constant aspiration you increase your remembrance and you diminish the
forgetfulness. But this should not be done as a severe discipline or a duty=
; it
must be a movement of love and joy. Then very soon a stage will come when, =
if
you do not feel the presence of the Divine at every moment and whatever you=
are
doing, you feel at once lonely and sad and miserable.”[10]
Cultivation of discernment in one’s consciousn=
ess (a work=
sheet)
What steps can you introduce in y=
our
daily routine to increase your ‘remembrance’ and lessen your
‘forgetfulness’ of the Divine? Please list the attitudes and
activities which you feel will help you in inculcating a greater dynamic eq=
uality
in your life.
<=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:AGaramond;mso-fareast-font-family:AGa=
ramond;
mso-bidi-font-family:AGaramond'>iv) Equality of the Thinking M=
ind
“=
The
equality of the thinking mind will be a part and a very important part of t=
he
perfection of the instruments in the nature. Our present attractive
self-justifying attachment to our intellectual preferences, our judgments,
opinions, imaginations, limiting associations of the memory which makes the
basis of our mentality, to the current repetitions of our habitual mind, to=
the
insistences of our pragmatic mind, to the limitations even of our intellect=
ual
truth-mind, must go the way of other attachments and yield to the impartial=
ity
of an equal vision. The equal thought-mind will look on knowledge and ignor=
ance
and on truth and error, those dualities created by our limited nature of
consciousness and the partiality of our intellect and its little stock of
reasonings and intuitions, accept them both without being bound to either t=
wine
of the skein and await a luminous transcendence. ... This perfect equality =
of
the thinking mind is indispensable because the objective of this progress is
the greater light which belongs to a higher plane of spiritual cognizance. =
This
equality is the most delicate and difficult of all, the least practised by =
the
human mind; its perfection is impossible so long as the supramental light d=
oes
not fall fully on the upward looking mentality. But an increasing will to
equality in the intelligence is needed, before that light can work freely u=
pon
the mental substance. This too is not an abnegation of the seekings and cos=
mic
purposes of the intelligence, not an indifference or impartial scepticism, =
nor
yet a stilling of all thought in the silence of the Ineffable. A stilling of
the mental thought may be part of the discipline, when the object is to free
the mind from its own partial workings, in order that it may become an equal
channel of a higher light and knowledge; but there must also be a
transformation of the mental substance; otherwise the higher light cannot
assume full possession and a compelling shape for the ordered works of the
divine consciousness in the human being. The silence of the Ineffable is a
truth of divine being, but the Word which proceeds from that silence is als=
o a
truth, and it is this Word which has to be given a body in the conscious fo=
rm
of the nature.”[11]
&=
nbsp; I
must warn the reader that we are now entering a realm which is complex and
difficult to comprehend even for those who are familiar with the terminology
used by Sri Aurobindo and yet if we are to get a complete understanding and
mastery over the subject of ‘equality’, we cannot bypass any fa=
cet
of it. I shall endeavour to simplify, as far as it is possible for me, the
understanding of the human mind; a subject which in my opinion is open to
tremendous misunderstanding. As Sri Aurobindo has himself pointed out in the
preceding passage, this equality is the most difficult and delicate to achi=
eve.
The chief difficulty arises from the fact that the very object of our analy=
sis,
i.e., our mind, is also in our ordinary consciousness our only tool for
understanding it! One knows only too well when the accused also becomes his=
own
judge; an endless saga of denial of guilt, self-aggrandisement and self-jus=
tification
is all that shall ensue! The ‘Thinking Mind’ is the highest
‘apparent’ development in the evolutionary order of the earth a=
nd
thus, not only feels superior to the rest of the Divine’s creations, =
but
literally knowing no better, is convinced that it alone is the final author=
ity
on what constitutes the ‘Truth’. In our ordinary functioning, t=
he
thinking mind rarely functions alone, conjoined as it is with our physical =
and
vital consciousness. We are at any given time acting and perceiving from a
plane of consciousness that is dictated by the unique admixture of its vari=
ous
components and even in each individual, this is in a constant state of flux=
. We
are in actuality a bundle of different personalities in a common garb, which
manifest and predominate as we move up and down this step-ladder of
consciousness depending on the circumstances at that point of time and our
chosen response to them. Cultivating equality in the lower states, i.e., the
Physical Mind and the Vital Mind, has been dealt with in the preceding sect=
ions
and here I will restrict myself to the problem of cultivating equality in t=
he
highest external consciousness, i.e., the Thinking Mind. Even in the rare e=
vent
that the individual is perceiving and acting purely from this level of his
consciousness, he is incapable of knowing the complete Truth. All of us are
well-versed with the story of the seven blind men and the elephant that
illustrates the mind’s grasping of the truth of things. It can grasp =
an
aspect of the Truth but is incapable of grasping the entire Truth and owing=
to
its bondage to its lower counterparts, can insist that what it has seized, =
to
the exclusion of all else, is the entire Truth. In order to understand why =
it
should be so, it is important to understand the faculties as well as
limitations of the Mind, the barriers to a complete knowledge and seizing of
the Truth and the aim or approach which will lead to a progressively greater
equality of the Thinking Mind. I aim to do this by reproducing select passa=
ges
from the works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, each followed by a question
which I would ask the reader to reflect on and thereby deepen his own
understanding of the complex subject we are dealing with.
What are the faculties of =
the
Mind and what are its limitations?
“=
...Mind
is not a faculty of knowledge nor an instrument of omniscience; it is a fac=
ulty
for the seeking of knowledge, for expressing as much as it can gain of it in
certain forms of a relative thought and for using it towards certain capaci=
ties
of action. ... For Mind is that which does not know, which tries to know and
which never knows except as in a glass darkly. It is the power which interp=
rets
truth of universal existence for the practical uses of a certain order of
things; it is not the power which knows and guides that existence and there=
fore
it cannot be the power which created or manifested it.”[12]
&=
nbsp; How
do you gain knowledge about any object or event; is it possible for you to =
be
completely objective about anything at all and if not, why? What prevents y=
our
mind from knowing the universe in its entirety?
“=
Mind,
as we know it, is a reflective mirror which receives presentations or image=
s of
a pre-existent Truth or Fact, either external to or at least vaster than
itself. It represents to itself from moment to moment the phenomenon that i=
s or
has been. It possesses also the faculty of constructing in itself possible
images other than those of the actual fact presented to it; that is to say,=
it
represents to itself not only phenomenon that has been but also phenomenon =
that
may be: it cannot, be it noted, represent to itself phenomenon that assured=
ly
will be, except when it is an assured repetition of what is or has been.=
221;[13]
&=
nbsp; How
often have you wished that you could know with certainty what would happen
next? To what would you explain Man’s predilection for seeking out
palmists, astrologers, soothsayers and others who claim to ‘know̵=
7;
and thus control or change the future of such seekers? Do you think it poss=
ible
for anyone, using his mental faculties alone, to predict the future with
certainty?
“=
...Mind
is only a preparatory form of our consciousness. Mind is an instrument of
analysis and synthesis, but not of essential knowledge. ... It knows only i=
ts
own analysis of the object and the idea it has formed of it by a synthesis =
of
the separate parts and properties that it has seen. ...and if we would have=
a
greater, a profounder and a real knowledge, ...Mind has to make room for
another consciousness which will fulfil Mind by transcending it or reverse =
and
so rectify its operations after leaping beyond it: the summit of mental
knowledge is only a vaulting-board from which that leap can be taken.”=
;[14]
&=
nbsp; Have
you ever felt that something is ‘greater than the sum of all its
parts’? At such times, have you tried to go behind the appearance of =
the
thing to find ‘that’ which eluded you and if so, how would you
define that process?
“=
Mind
in its essence is a consciousness which measures, limits, cuts out forms of
things from the indivisible whole and contains them as if each were a separ=
ate
integer. Even with what exists only as obvious parts and fractions, Mind
establishes this fiction of its ordinary commerce that they are things with
which it can deal separately and not merely as aspects of a whole. For, even
when it knows that they are not things in themselves, it is obliged to deal
with them as if they were things in themselves; otherwise it could not subj=
ect
them to its own characteristic activity. ... Mind may divide, multiply, add,
subtract, but it cannot get beyond the limits of this mathematics. If it go=
es
beyond and tries to conceive a real whole, it loses itself in a foreign
element; it falls from its own firm ground into the ocean of the intangible,
into the abysms of the infinite where it can neither perceive, conceive, se=
nse
nor deal with its subject for creation and enjoyment. ... What it does thus
vaguely possess is simply a formless Vast and not the real spaceless infini=
te.
The moment it tries to deal with that, to possess it, at once the inalienab=
le
tendency to delimitation comes in and the Mind finds itself again handling
images, forms and words.”[15]
&=
nbsp; What
would happen if you tried to imagine a progressively larger collective of
anything; at what stage would you lose touch with ‘reality’? Now
try the converse and imagine an immense infinity; how long can you sustain =
your
imagination without giving it some defining form?
Causes of impurity in the Understanding
“=
The
first cause of impurity in the understanding is the intermiscence of desire=
in
the thinking functions, and desire itself is an impurity of the Will involv=
ed
in the vital and emotional parts of our being. When the vital and emotional
desires interfere with the pure will-to-know, the thought-function becomes
subservient to them, pursues ends other than those proper to itself and its
perceptions are clogged and deranged. The understanding must lift itself be=
yond
the siege of desire and emotion and, in order that it may have perfect
immunity, it must get the vital parts and the emotions themselves purified.=
”[16]
&=
nbsp; What
attitudes will assist you in ‘lifting your understanding beyond the s=
iege
of desire and emotion’; how will the cultivation of equality in your
heart also help in freeing your thoughts from the strangle-hold of desires =
and
preferences?
“=
The
second cause of impurity in the understanding is the illusion of the senses=
and
the intermiscence of the sense-mind in the thinking functions. No knowledge=
can
be true knowledge which subjects itself to the senses or uses them otherwise
than as first indices whose data have constantly to be corrected and
over-passed. The beginning of Science is the examination of the truths of t=
he
world-force that underlie its apparent workings such as our senses represent
them to be; the beginning of philosophy is the examination of the principle=
s of
things which the senses mistranslate to us; the beginning of spiritual
knowledge is the refusal to accept the limitations of the sense-life or to =
take
the visible and sensible as anything more than phenomenon of the Reality.
=
&=
nbsp; Equally
must the sense-mind be stilled and taught to leave the function of thought =
to
the mind that judges and understands.”[17]
&=
nbsp; What
in your opinion is the true function of the senses and the sense mind? How =
can
a true education of the senses be inculcated and how can this education hel=
p us
to liberate our thought mechanism from its bondage to the lower physical-vi=
tal
mind?
“A
third cause of impurity has its source in the understanding itself and cons=
ists
in an improper action of the will to know. That will is proper to the
understanding, but here again choice and unequal reaching after knowledge c=
log
and distort. They lead to a partiality and attachment which makes the intel=
lect
cling to certain ideas and opinions with a more or less obstinate will to
ignore the truth in other ideas and opinions, cling to certain fragments of=
a
truth and shy against the admission of other parts which are yet necessary =
to
its fullness, cling to certain predilections of knowledge and repel all
knowledge that does not agree with the personal temperament of thought which
has been acquired by the past of the thinker. The remedy lies in a perfect
equality of the mind, in the cultivation of an entire intellectual rectitude
and in the perfection of mental disinterestedness.”[18]
&=
nbsp; What
in your opinion is the difference between ‘mental
disinterestedness’ and a lack of interest in mental activity? What are
the factors that contribute towards the biases we develop in our mental
seekings and how can we circumvent those without falling prey to the latter=
?
How to Transform the Inferior Mentality
(Steps towards achieving equality of the Thinking Mi=
nd)
“=
The
ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nat=
ure
in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks “I am
doing this, feeling that, thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc.” The fir=
st
beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the
nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts =
of
your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own
way. The two different beings you feel are—one, the psychic being whi=
ch
draws you towards the Mother, the other the external being mostly vital whi=
ch
draws you outward and downwards towards the play of the lower nature. There=
is
also in you behind the mind the being who observes, the witness Purusha, wh=
o can
stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choose=
. It
has to put itself always on the side of the psychic being and assent to and
support its movement and to reject the downward and outward movement of the
lower nature, which has to be subjected to the psychic and changed by its
influence.”[19]
· =
Have you ever felt that there is more than one person
within your being? What process facilitates this realisation? Do you realise
that there must be at least some dominant centralising consciousness that c=
an
observe this multiplicity within yourself; what in your opinion is this
consciousness?
· =
Can you identify the many personalities that inhabit yo=
ur
being and having done so, what steps can you lay down for yourself that wou=
ld
facilitate this shift in the various parts of your being, i.e., from being
under the control of the lower nature to that of control by the higher natu=
re
and ultimately the Psychic? How will this facilitate a complete equality in
your thinking mind?
Inculcation of Equality of the Thinking Mind =
(a work=
sheet)
I am reproducing below a passage =
from
‘Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on Education’; please reflect on =
the
passage before proceeding to complete the exercise that follows.
“=
Indeed,
sectarianism becomes impossible when one knows that all formulated thought =
is
only one way of saying something which escapes all expression. Every idea
contains a little of the truth or an aspect of the truth. But there is no i=
dea
which is in itself absolutely true.
=
&=
nbsp; This
sense of the relativity of things is a powerful help to maintain one’s
poise and preserve a serene balance in one’s talk. I heard an old
occultist who had some knowledge saying, “There is nothing which is
essentially bad: there are only things that are not in their place. Put eac=
h thing
in its proper place, and you will get a harmonious world”.”[20]
· =
Make a list of some of the ‘truths’ which a=
re
in your opinion elementary and irrefutable. Now, next to each, postulate the
opposite opinion or ‘untruth’ corresponding to it. What in your
conditioning or mental preferences is preventing you from accepting the
opposite opinion? Can your understanding and knowledge be increased to
accommodate the opposite, by letting go or transforming these preferences a=
nd if
so how can you use this shift to widen your understanding of
‘truth’ and thus bring a greater equality in your mind?
· =
Make a list of some of the things that you consider
essentially ‘bad’. Meditate on them in the light of the above w=
ords
of the Mother. How can each of these be put in their right place so that th=
ey
no longer classify as such in your mind? Do you realise that what is requir=
ed
is an effort or aspiration for progress rather than the judgment and critic=
ism
that we indulge in; how can you use this to bring a progressive equality in
your thought process?
· =
Make a list of spiritual or religious postulations that=
are
at variance with your own, and cause unease or distaste within you. What is
this shrinking and blocking-off indicative of and is it possible for you to=
increase
your own tolerance and understanding by recognising that these too are some=
of
the myriad ways in which the Divine has sought to reveal Himself? Is it
possible for one to rejoice at all the myriad ways of approaching and
celebrating the Divine even though it is ‘foreign’ to one’=
;s
conditioning and understanding and if so, how can we use this process for o=
ur
goal of attaining perfect equality?
<=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:AGaramond;mso-fareast-font-family:AGa=
ramond;
mso-bidi-font-family:AGaramond'>v) The Highest Spiritual Equa=
lity
“=
But,
finally, all this equalisation of the nature is a preparation for the highe=
st
spiritual equality to take possession of the whole being and make a pervadi=
ng
atmosphere in which the light, power and joy of the Divine can manifest its=
elf
in man amid an increasing fullness. That equality is the eternal equality of
Sachchidananda. It is an equality of the infinite being which is self-exist=
ent,
an equality of the eternal spirit, but it will mould into its own mould the
mind, heart, will, life, physical being. It is an equality of the infinite
spiritual consciousness which will contain and base the blissful flowing and
satisfied waves of a divine knowledge. It is an equality of the divine Tapas
which will initiate a luminous action of the divine will in all the nature.=
It
is an equality of the divine Ananda which will found the play of a divine
universal delight, universal love and an illimitable aesthesis of universal
beauty. The ideal equal peace and calm of the Infinite will be the wide eth=
er
of our perfected being, but the ideal, equal and perfect action of the Infi=
nite
through the nature working on the relations of the universe will be the
untroubled outpouring of its power in our being. This is the meaning of
equality in the terms of the integral Yoga.”[21]
&=
nbsp; This
then is the culmination, the aim of this journey that I have embarked upon.=
How
far have I travelled is a question I pose to myself every time I sit down to
write my self-reflective journal and life poses to me in the form of a
challenge whenever I stop writing my journal! I am going to end this sectio=
n by
enumerating the four things that, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, the being
aspiring to perfect equality must achieve:
“=
The
first business of the sadhaka is to see whether he has the perfect equality,
how far he has gone in this direction or else where is the flaw, and to exe=
rcise
steadily his will on his nature or invite the will of the Purusha to get ri=
d of
the defect and its causes. There are four things that he must have; first,
equality in the most concrete practical sense of the word, samata, freedom from mental, vital, physical preferences, an ev=
en
acceptance of all God's workings within and around him; secondly, a firm pe=
ace
and absence of all disturbance and trouble, santi;
thirdly, a positive inner spiritual happiness and spiritual ease of the nat=
ural
being which nothing can lessen, suk=
ham;
fourthly, a clear joy and laughter of the soul embracing life and existence=
.”[22]
&=
nbsp; This
then is the ultimate check-list for any traveller who chooses to embark on =
this
journey; make your own score-sheet to see how far you have reached and what=
if
anything is still holding you back. For me, the journey has just started. I=
t is
rather like the game of snakes and ladders; I have just managed to throw the
six that allows me to proceed onto the game board. Many years back, I did my
first course with the Gnostic Centre. It was called ‘The Power of
Attitude’ and my monograph was titled ‘Reposing in the CalmR=
17;.
Years later, the objective is the same but with a qualitative
difference…. the calm that I seek now is not the earlier calm of flig=
ht
into nothingness; it is rather a calm that arises out of the loving embrace=
of
the entire universe. My experiences over the intervening years and the cons=
tant
loving guidance of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, which I feel as a living
presence, have imbued me with the faith and certitude that despite all the
pitfalls and my own weaknesses, I shall surely be guided into the light and
Ananda of perfect equality!
&=
nbsp; With
this I shall now move on to the second part of my project, i.e.
‘Surrender’; what is meant by it in terms of the Integral Yoga =
and
why it is my preferred route for the development of a perfect equality.
C) Surrender: Why, what and to whom?
The word
‘surrender’ in its normal usage carries with it a tag of defeat,
helplessness and resignation. In terms of spirituality however, it connotes=
the
acceptance of the control of one’s life by a higher authority.
Considering the complexities of life in general, most humans including my o=
wn
self, finding their own material faculties inadequate to deal with life-sit=
uations,
succumb to this need for a higher guidance and this then marks the starting
point for their spiritual search. Most formal religions in their original f=
orm
and several schools of Yoga, especially those based primarily on ‘Bhakti’ or worship of=
either
The Divine or his representative in the form of a messiah, an ‘Avatar’, or a ‘Guru’, invoke the need for surrendering one’s
destiny into the hands of the presiding deity or Guru, who then guides one
through the journey of life. Each such formulation has its own set of rules=
and
stipulations by following which, the true adherent is promised not only
protection from life’s evils and misfortunes but also escape from mis=
ery
and salvation in the form of either ‘moksha’, ‘nirvana=
217;,
or attainment to an everlasting paradise.
&=
nbsp; Over
the centuries, though, there has been an ever-widening chasm between the
original tenets and their practice. Sects and sub-sects, cults led by
self-proclaimed god-men, saviours and messiahs have relegated the original
Yogas and spirituality into an egalitarian realm meant for the academic and=
the
puritan. There is little that Man will leave without debasing in his pursuit
for power, why then would he have spared the scriptures? There are many who
have used their professed knowledge of various scriptures to entice gullible
hordes into willing submission, thereby creating their own flock of followe=
rs!
Without seeking to belittle any other faith or value system, my own dallian=
ce
with several such sects and cults has shown that these are often just guises
for a vital interchange. We trade our faith and reverence for the sheer sen=
se
of security that we get when we feel that someone who knows ‘all̵=
7;
is now in charge of our lives and is henceforth going to protect us from all
misfortune. As long as the going is good, we ascribe our good fortune to the
munificence of our ‘Protector’ and when faced with bad times, t=
he
more faithful convince themselves that it could have been a whole lot worse
without the blessings of the ‘Master’. The less faithful, after=
the
abatement of the initial disbelief and disappointment, will find themselves=
a
new and more powerful savant and guide who will protect them far better than
the previous one! Man’s insecurity stems from the fact that he is nev=
er
content to deal with what he knows, dissipates himself in speculating about
what he cannot know (remember the section about the limitations of the mind=
!)
and is ready to throw himself at the feet of anyone who claims to know. In =
all
this, there is no quest for self-improvement or learning from life experien=
ces
but rather an attempt to escape life by narrowing one’s vision down to
the small window permitted by these faith systems…… Do not ques=
tion
or seek to remove your blinkers, you will be delivered safely to the other =
end!
The rate at which new cults led by these self-proclaimed ‘Godmen̵=
7;
and ‘Gurus’ are proliferating all over the globe is a definite
testimony to the failure of the earlier ones to deliver and to Man’s
continuing search for deliverance from his age-old fears and insecurity.
Why, what and to whom have you surrendered? <=
span
style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:AGaramond;font-weight:normal'>(a work=
sheet)
1) Do you find yourself equipped to de=
al
with all life-situations and to independently take all the decisions that t=
hey
might require? If not, who or what do you inadvertently turn to? Do you feel
the need for guidance by a higher principle or being, and if so, how would =
you
define this relationship?
2) Whenever
things do not work out the way you would have preferred them to or you are
faced with some loss or mis-fortune, are you willing to accept it as your f=
ate
or ‘kismet’ or do you seek to remedy the situation, and if so, =
by
what means? Have you ever sought the help of those claiming Para-normal
abilities or used palliatives like gem-stones, performing of remedial ritua=
ls,
chanting of ‘mantras’, etc? Is such help useful in warding of a=
ll
misfortune, and if not, why?
3) Wheneve=
r you
are required to take a major decision that might change your life-course ho=
w do
you proceed? What would guide you more: your rationale or your emotions or =
would
you rather seek the opinion of a palmist, astrologer or a ‘guru’=
;?
In the latter case are you willing to accept the decision even if it is not=
to
your liking or does not appeal to your own intellect? If so, what do you th=
ink
is the basis for this deep faith?
4) Very of=
ten,
life punishes us for no evident fault of ours……why do you think=
bad
things happen even to good people? What means if any do you employ to insul=
ate
yourself from such happenings and are these means always effective? Have you
ever had an experience that has caused you to question your faith, or would=
you
be able to sustain your faith in the face of any eventuality?
5) What in=
your
opinion are the benefits that have accrued to you from maintaining your fai=
th?
How do you compare yourself with others who might not be similarly
protected…..do you feel that your faith or belief system is superior =
to
theirs and do you try to convert them over to yours? Have you ever faced a
sense of competition with other adherents of the same faith as yourself? To=
what
would you ascribe these feelings?
6) Is it
possible for such a faith to be genuinely disinterested or do you feel that
there is always some degree of trade-off? In the latter case, what would ha=
ppen
to your faith if you did not get whatever you were seeking? Can you now ans=
wer
the initial question in all sincerity…..Why, what and to whom have you
surrendered?
&=
nbsp; However,
for the student of the Integral Yoga of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, the w=
ord
‘Surrender’ carries an altogether different meaning…..for=
him
it represents an attitude that is not only an imperative but also one that
requires extreme courage, sincerity and self-discipline. So how are the
Integral Yoga and the ‘surrender’ demanded of its practitioners
different from that demanded by these creeds, cults, and sects as well as t=
he
older yogic formulations? This is because the Integral Yoga, in its very ai=
m,
starts literally where the older Yogas and formal religions end. It rests
neither with the emancipation, redemption or salvation of the individual so=
ul,
nor with its escape from rebirth through ‘Nirvana’,
nor yet in merger of the individual soul into the ‘Brahman’, but seeks to attain to ‘That’ which=
is
beyond all that I have mentioned above, and not for the individual self alo=
ne
but for all humanity. To quote Sri Aurobindo:
“We
are to exceed our human nature and become divine; but if we are to do this,=
we
must first get God; for the human ego is the lower imperfect term of our be=
ing,
God is the higher perfect term. He is the possessor of our super-nature and
without His permission there can be no effectual rising. The finite cannot
become infinite unless it perceives its own infinity and is drawn by it or
towards it; nor can the symbol-being, unless it glimpses, loves and pursues=
the
Real-being in itself, overcome by its own strength the limits of its appare=
nt
nature. It is a particular becoming and is fixed in the nature of the symbol
that it has become; only the touch of that which is all becomings and excee=
ds
all becomings, can liberate it from the bondage to its own limited Nature. =
God
is That which is the All and exceeds the All. It is therefore only t=
he
knowledge, love and possession of God that can make us free. He who is
transcendent can alone enable us to transcend ourselves; He who is universal
can alone enlarge us from our limited particular existence.”[23]
&=
nbsp; From
this passage it becomes clear that the aim set by Integral Yoga, namely the
‘divinisation’ of human-nature, cannot be achieved by Man’=
;s
efforts alone as it exceeds his limited faculties. Its attainment requires a
growth and ascent in consciousness which is impossible without the consent =
and
collaboration of The Divine Himself. The ‘why, what and to whom?̵=
7;
of surrendering in terms of the Integral Yoga, so as to achieve this object=
ive,
is comprehensively explained in the following words of Sri Aurobindo:
=
“There
are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and
difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing
aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answer=
s.
=
&=
nbsp; But
the supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the Light and the Trut=
h;
it will not act in conditions laid upon it by the Falsehood and the Ignoran=
ce.
For if it were to yield to the demands of the Falsehood, it would defeat its
own purpose.
=
&=
nbsp; These
are the conditions of the Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which =
the
highest force will descend; and it is only the very highest supramental For=
ce
descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle t=
he
physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties…There must be a total=
and
sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Po=
wer;
there must be a constant and integral choice of the truth that is descendin=
g, a
constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and
physical Powers and Appearance that still rule the earth-Nature.
=
&=
nbsp; The
surrender must be total and seize all parts of the being. It is not enough =
that
the psychic should respond and the higher mental accept or even the inner v=
ital
submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must =
be
in no part of the being, even the most external, anything that makes a rese=
rve,
anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that
revolts or refuses.
=
&=
nbsp; If
part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows its=
own
way or makes its own conditions, then each time that happens, you are yours=
elf
pushing the divine Grace away from you.
=
&=
nbsp; If
behind your devotion and surrender you make a cover for your desires, egois=
tic
demands and vital insistences, if you put these things in place of the true
aspiration or mix them with it and try to impose them on the Divine Shakti,
then it is idle to invoke the grace to transform you.
=
&=
nbsp; If
you open yourself on one side or in part to the Truth and on another side a=
re
constantly opening the gates to hostile forces, it is vain to expect that t=
he
Divine Grace will abide with you. You must keep the temple clean if you wis=
h to
install there the living Presence.
=
&=
nbsp; If
each time the Power intervenes and brings in the Truth, you turn your back =
on
it and call in again the falsehood that has been expelled, it is not the di=
vine
Grace that you must blame for failing you, but the falsity of your own will=
and
the imperfection of your own surrender……..
=
&=
nbsp; Reject
the false notion that the divine Power will do and is bound to do everything
for you at your demand and even though you do not satisfy the conditions la=
id
down by the Supreme. Make your surrender true and complete, then only will =
all
else be done for you.
=
&=
nbsp; Reject
too the false and indolent expectation that the divine Power will do even t=
he
surrender for you. The Supreme demands your surrender to her, but does not =
impose
it; you are free at every moment, till the irrevocable transformation comes=
, to
deny and to reject the Divine or to recall your self-giving, if you are wil=
ling
to suffer the spiritual consequence. Your surrender must be self –made
and free; it must be the surrender of a living being, not an inert automato=
n or
mechanical tool.
=
&=
nbsp; An
inert passivity is constantly confused with the real surrender, but out of =
an
inert passivity nothing true and powerful can come. It is the inert passivi=
ty
of physical Nature that leaves it at the mercy of every obscure or undivine
influence. A glad and strong and helpful submission is demanded to the work=
ing
of the Divine Force, the obedience of the illumined disciple of the Truth, =
of
the inner Warrior who fights against obscurity and falsehood, of the faithf=
ul
servant of the Divine.”[24]
&=
nbsp; It
is thus evident from the above passage that since the very goal of the Inte=
gral
Yoga differs substantially from that of these furiously proliferating cults=
as
also from that of the earlier Yogas, the surrender required of its adherent=
s is
also of a different nature altogether. The Integral Yoga seeks to transform=
and
divinise physical Nature itself. It does not stop at mere salvation for the
individual being in the form of either ‘Moksha’
or merger with the Divine or ‘=
;Brahman’,
the highest attainment sought by the earlier Yogas! It is by no means an ea=
sy
task and those who claim to follow his Yoga and seek the consent and the
collaboration of the highest Supramental Force for this purpose, in the wor=
ds
of Sri Aurobindo as quoted above, ‘must keep the temple clean if they
wish to install there the living Presence’. They seek not escape from
misfortune, nor gratification of desire but a transformation of their very
character and it is this that they are required to surrender to the Supreme=
, so
that she can use it at her Will and for her purpose…..so that each on=
e of
them can provide her with ‘the obedience of the illumined disciple of=
the
Truth, of the inner Warrior who fights against obscurity and falsehood, of =
the
faithful servant of the Divine’.
&=
nbsp; In
the light of the above passage, let us now run another check-list to see how
genuinely has one surrendered in terms of the Integral Yoga.
Checklist: How genuine is your ‘surrender̵=
7;?
1) You are=
faced
with a major problem at work and have inwardly made a decision to leave the
outcome in the hands of God………would you still continue to
worry about it, and if so, why? What would happen if things turned out in an
adverse manner? Would you rejoice if things worked themselves out to your
advantage?
2) Do you =
like
to work out every detail before you embark on a journey? What happens when
everything does not turn out as you planned…. can you take things as =
they
come or does such an occurrence leave you irritable and angry?
3) Your fa=
mily
and friends resent your engagement with a sport or other individual pursuit
that takes up a lot of your free time as they feel it is not in consonance =
with
your social obligations towards them. They might seek to mock your passion =
and
devise means to thwart your pursuits………..How will you rea=
ct?
4) You hav=
e been
working very hard and with all honesty but have never received the
acknowledgement you feel you deserve……who or what would you hold
responsible for this and what means if any would you employ to remedy it?
5) You have
unwittingly caused grievous harm to another…..would you silently bear=
the
burden of your guilt or would you own up to your complicity in another̵=
7;s
misfortune and seek to make up his loss? Have you ever felt like a pawn in a
greater game and if so, how have you reacted?
6) The doc=
tor
whilst examining you has come across something he is uncomfortable with and=
in
order to rule out, say, malignancy, he asks you to undergo further tests the
results of which might take a few more days……..can you wait in
patience or would you ‘have died a thousand deaths’ while waiti=
ng?
7) You are
returning home late after an outing at a desolate spot and suddenly feel th=
at
another vehicle seems to be tagging you on a lonely stretch……Wo=
uld
you drive normally or speed up to reach a busier stretch?
&=
nbsp; At
the end of this check-list, I wonder whether the reader has noticed the sud=
den
change in tenor of the questions asked in it as compared to those asked in =
the
previous one. The difference is deliberate….. the first required answ=
ers
pertaining to intangibles and concepts like ‘faith’ and
‘values’ whilst this one requires direct answers to real-life
situations. I have done this to reinforce yet again, the point, that unlike
other belief systems, for the practitioners of the Integral Yoga, to paraph=
rase
Sri Aurobindo, “All life is Yoga.”[25]
One is not allowed the luxury of being ‘surrendered’ in some pa=
rts
of one’s being, the spiritual or mental, whilst one continues being
one’s own person in others. I have stared with incredulity at individ=
uals
who can spend hours in their ‘=
;Japa’
or meditation and then commit the meanest of acts as soon as they find
themselves back on terra firma! I have myself, competed with other individu=
als
(during my short-lived dalliances with several ‘Gurus’) for the
special glance or word of appreciation from the ‘Master’ that w=
ould
mark me a cut above the others in the flock. I have prayed with fervent
expectation to my ‘master’ to either save me from unpleasant
occurrences or grant me my wishes and desires. I had turned vegetarian and
teetotaller because I was told by an eminent tarot card reader, that it was=
the
cause of an illness my son was suffering from. When the illness persisted f=
or
years despite my abstinence, I lost faith in both the tarot card readerR=
17;s
abilities and the virtues of abstinence as well! For years I have visited
shrines to make a bargain with the deity; sought astrological advice and wo=
rn
palliatives like gemstones or chanted mantras to either help ward-off evil =
or obtain
a particular result…..sometimes with success, mostly otherwise! I too
have blindly surrendered to ‘Gurus’, seeing in them for the per=
iod
of my infatuation, the very Divine himself manifested! I have spent hours
meditating on their visage and chanting the secret ‘mantras’ gi=
ven
by them to their chosen disciples. When years of such practice would leave =
me
as vulnerable and as unregenerate as before, the ‘master’ and h=
is
flock would appear as human and as fallible as the rest of us and I would
retreat in disgust and disbelief, only to seek out a new sanctuary. Though,
ever since I have encountered the teachings of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo=
I
have had to unlearn and recondition a lot of all that I had picked up from =
these
other schools, the chief amongst them being my understanding of the words
‘to surrender’!
&=
nbsp; The
Mother and Sri Aurobindo never accepted the tag of being ‘Gurus’
themselves and yet always extolled the need for a ‘Guru’ or gui=
de
in one’s life journey. In the words of the Mother,
“=
As for
the disciple, I would tell him: “In any case, be faithful to your Guru
whatever he may be; he will lead you as far as you are able to go. But if y=
ou
have the good fortune to get the Divine as your Guru, then there will be no
limit to your realisation.””[26]
&=
nbsp; I
too realise that all the ‘Masters’ I’ve met in my
life’s journey thus far have been my teachers, their role in it was
mainly defined by my own need at that juncture and each has contributed in =
his
or her own way to the evolution of my soul. I am indebted to them for all I
have learnt from them, including the need to move on and seek beyond them. I
gratefully acknowledge their presence as markers and milestones in my
soul’s evolutionary path. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are not for th=
ose
seeking escape from misfortune or hardship. In the words of the latter,
“=
Pain
is the hand of Nature sculpturing men
To grea=
tness…”[27]
&=
nbsp; They
themselves were trail-blazers on a new path, seeking a newer realisation
– that of the divinisation of the earth-consciousness itself – =
and
have left a road map for those who have chosen the same goal. They offer no
palliatives or protection on this arduous journey except through a stubborn
clinging and integral surrender to the Truth:
=
“To
walk through life armoured against all fear, peril and disaster, only two
things are needed, two that always go together-the Grace of the Divine Moth=
er
and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender. =
Let
your faith be pure, candid and perfect. An egoistic faith in the mental and vital
being tainted by ambition, pride vanity, mental arrogance, vital self-will,
personal demand, desire for the petty satisfactions of the lower nature is a
low and smoke- obscured flame that cannot burn upwards to heaven.
=
&=
nbsp; Let
your sincerity and surrender be genuine and entire. When you give
yourself, give completely, without demand, without condition, without
reservation so that all in you shall belong to the Divine Mother and nothin=
g be
left to the ego or given to any other power.
=
&=
nbsp; The
more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and
protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mot=
her
are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear?”=
;[28]
&=
nbsp; Theirs
is not the path for the faint-hearted or the curious as it requires rare
honesty, determination, an unflagging will to progress and a stubborn coura=
ge
as is evident from the portions highlighted by me in the previous passage. =
At
each juncture you are required to be mercilessly honest with yourself, choo=
sing
the truth and the Divine above all else, no matter how fearsome the
consequences of that choice! It has not been an easy task, especially for o=
ne
who had grown so accustomed to bartering his faith for the so-called
‘divine’ protection. Even now, at times, the temptation to turn
back and take the easier option is so strong and this alone tells me that my
surrender is far from perfect. However I know now the spiritual consequence=
s of
capitulating in these moments of weakness and stubbornly resist those impul=
ses to
flee the situation. I have learnt the hard way that as often as I choose to
flee, the situation will come back to me in a new guise, till I can overcom=
e in
myself whatever weaknesses I needed to overcome, transform in my character
whatever needed to be transformed through that experience! This is the aim =
of
the aspirant of the Integral Yoga; the perfection and supramentalisation of=
the
individual seeker, and through him, of all of God’s creation.
“=
One
man's perfection still can save the world.”[29]
&=
nbsp; The
discovery of the process that would lead to the transformation of my own be=
ing
was neither automatic, nor easy. For several years, I was used to invoking =
the
protection of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo as a modified version of the old
litany. It was over a period of time that I learnt that each circumstance
carried a message; each encounter had a purpose behind it.
“=
Let
all circumstances, all happenings in life be occasions, constantly renewed,=
for
learning more and ever more.”[30]
&=
nbsp; So
how and when did I discover the key to making a more perfect surrender? Very
recently and inadvertently; as a matter of fact it came to me even as I sou=
ght
to start work on the second part of my monograph, i.e., on the topic of
‘surrender’. I had gone to meet the course coordinator, Ameeta
Mehra, to discuss the modalities for the submission of the final draft. Eve=
n as
I was about to leave, I remembered a comment she had made whilst assessing =
the
first section about my interpretation of The Mother’s force in the
section about transforming the sub-conscient. In her opinion,
‘Love’ was only one aspect of the force and though it was very
powerful, there were several others which apparently enough had not as yet
revealed themselves to me….and then she said something which gave me =
the
key that I had been seeking. She said that she had read somewhere though, t=
hat
there were two attributes of The Mother’s force, which if they appear=
ed
in conjunction, eclipsed all the other attributes; namely, Love and Courage!
Whilst I had recognised amply the power of the first, it was this chance
conversation which opened my eyes to the other. I called her back in the
morning to thank her for giving me the key to a perfect surrender and she
surprised me further by telling me that she was not conscious of having han=
ded
me this invaluable gem! I remembered the words of The Mother regarding
sincerity, in one of the compilations by Dr. A.S. Dalal, ‘If you are
still unhappy you are insincere’ and told Ameeta that one could add t=
o it
a corollary, ‘If you are still fearful, you have not surrendered!R=
17;
&=
nbsp; I
remembered an incident from my own childhood, the memory of which is etched
sharply in my mind. I must have been ten years old and was learning how to =
swim
with the rest of my class at St. Columba’s School. We had barely lear=
ned
to paddle a few feet when the coaches in their wisdom decided to take all o=
f us
to the deep end of the pool and on to the three meter diving board. Each on=
e of
us had to jump-off the diving board into the ominous green depths below. Wi=
th a
lump in my throat and my heart beating wildly in my chest, I saw several bo=
ys
take that horrifying jump into the deep water and thrash and flail their way
across the water to the safety of the side-wall. If a boy hesitated, one of=
the
four coaches watching from below would threaten to walk up the diving board
steps and throw him down. There was no escape and soon enough it was my tur=
n to
stare down at the deep water from that terrifying height. I was certain that
death was inevitable, but even as I sought to turn back, I heard the ominou=
s,
threatening curses of the coaches assembled below. I shut my eyes and stepp=
ed-off
the edge of the diving board. I still remember the abject terror I experien=
ced
as my body was sucked into the dark chasm and the equally sudden relief tha=
t I
felt when, by a miracle, it was as quickly ejected upwards out of the water=
. I
was glad to be alive, swallowing mouthfuls of water as I desperately tried =
to
breathe in lungfuls of air, thrashing and flailing my way to the sanctuary =
of
the side-wall…..but more than the relief, I still remember feeling the
pride of one who had overcome his fear. Along with all the other
‘survivors’ I too was screaming and egging on the remaining few,
“Come on, it’s no big deal, you can easily do it!” and so=
on enough
all of us were begging our coaches for permission to take a second jump from
the diving board! For years after that, I would show-off my prowess by clim=
bing
onto even higher diving boards and jumping down into increasingly greater
depths….the
&=
nbsp; Not
very long back, each time I was faced with a troublesome situation, I would=
go
scurrying for cover, seeking protection and refuge with The Mother and Sri
Aurobindo. I would be like a small child, burying my head in the drapes of =
her
sari or holding on to the Lord’s feet in ardent supplication to bail =
me
out just this one last time. However, now the situation is different. I see
them, more like the coaches at the swimming pool, egging me on to take that
decisive leap, like millions have before me and survived!
‘Come to the edge,’ he said.
They said, ‘We are afraid.’
‘Come to the edge,’ he said.
They came.
He pushed them……
And they flew.[31]
&=
nbsp; I
see them in the guise of my tormentors, my opponents, forcing me to act whe=
re
earlier, I would have readily yielded without a battle or eagerly sought a
compromise. Seeing them in that role gives me the assurance that like with =
the
leap from the diving board, by holding on and not yielding to fear and
falsehood, I will conquer yet another weakness, transform yet another stubb=
orn
trait. It is a momentary choice, but one has to hold on at that instant with
determination and refuse to yield and before one knows it, the battle is wo=
n!
‘=
Courage
is just fear holding on a minute longer.’[32]
&=
nbsp; With
each such victory there arises, deep within my being, the certitude, that t=
he
days of anxiety and fretful planning will soon be done. Already a sense of
lightness surrounds my being. I know that there is a purpose to my stumbling
and a lesson behind my pain. Like the infant who reaches out to the
outstretched arms of his mother with his tentative, faltering steps, I reach
out to them in silent prayer with the certitude that I shall soon enough le=
arn
to walk upright on this arduous path. Strengthened by their guidance, which
envelops me like a living presence, I too shall one day, stand behind them =
in
their golden world, resplendent in my shining armour, evolving into ‘=
the
illumined disciple of the Truth, the inner Warrior who fights against obscu=
rity
and falsehood, the faithful servant of the Divine’. The process of
transformation from a crawling supplicant to an upright warrior is bound to=
be
long drawn and laborious. Nature will try me time and again through the age=
ncy
of adverse circumstances, both to test me and to help me in further
strengthening my resolve. However, if I choose to persist in the face of ev=
ery
adversity, treating each as a challenge and a means for my evolution and
progress, then the realisation of this high aim will surely be mine!
Inculcating the ability to surrender with sincerity =
(a
self-reflective exercise)
1. =
Each on=
e of
us has, at some time in his past, been forced to take a decisive leap like I
was made to off the diving board. The circumstance and the players may be
different for each person, but can you identify any episode in your past wh=
ere,
despite your reluctance, you were required to act with extreme courage? Can=
you
identify the weakness or flaw that you were required to overcome, and were =
you
successful in doing so?
2. =
Can you
relive the joy of having overcome that fear or weakness in your being at th=
at
instant? If so, can you apply the same paradigm each time you are faced wit=
h a
troublesome situation and will doing so help you muster the courage require=
d to
deal with this one as well?
3. =
What do=
you
think is the true role and worth of our adversaries in our lives? Do you now
feel that we owe them a debt of gratitude as by their ‘hostile’
acts they actually help bring out our hidden faults and weaknesses?
4. =
What
henceforth should be the highest ideal of your life and how would you seek =
to
attain it?
Before
I seek to conclude this section, I must in all fairness address two very
pertinent questions. Firstly, don’t many people manifest a certain de=
gree
of acceptance, stoicism and equanimity in their reactions to life-circumsta=
nces
in any case, with or without the practice of any form of Yoga? Secondly, wh=
ere
is the need for me to link up the two attitudes, that of ‘Equality=
217;
and of ‘Surrender’? Both the questions are no doubt valid and n=
eed
to be adequately dealt with before I move on to the next section. With resp=
ect
to the first, I need to reiterate, that my monograph is not about meeting
adversity with a smile, nor about willingly accepting the fruits of past ka=
rma,
nor about gladly suffering the status-quo, but about consciously progressing
and journeying to a higher self!
“Perfectio=
n has
to be worked out, harmony has to be accomplished. Imperfection, limitation,
death, grief, ignorance, matter, are only the first terms of the formula
– unintelligible till we have worked out the wider terms and
reinterpreted the formulary; they are the initial discords of the musician&=
#8217;s
tuning. Out of imperfection we have to construct perfection, out of limitat=
ion
to discover infinity, out of death to find immortality, out of grief to rec=
over
divine bliss, out of ignorance to rescue divine self-knowledge, out of matt=
er
to reveal Spirit. To work out for ourselves and for humanity is the object =
of
our Yogic practice.”[33]
I
will come now to the second question, that is, for the need I’ve felt=
in
my own spiritual journey to link up the acquisition of these two attitudes,
namely ‘Equality’ and ‘Surrender’. The attainment of
‘Equality’ is a type of Yoga in itself, namely ‘Samata Yoga’ and has a presc=
ribed
discipline or ‘tapasya=
217;
for its aspirant. Its goal is the purification of the individual nature thr=
ough
a process of widening and universalisation. One can try to do it on oneR=
17;s
own, which in my opinion is the more difficult route, or one can surrender
one’s nature to the Divine and then in the proportion that one’s
surrender grows, one attains a greater measure of ‘Equality’ in
one’s being and vice versa…. The two movements, in my own
experience, have been virtually simultaneous and this inter-relationship is
further borne out by the following two passages that I have selected from t=
he
works of Sri Aurobindo:
“All can be done by =
the
Divine,—the heart and nature purified, the inner consciousness awaken=
ed,
the veils removed,—if one gives oneself to the Divine with trust and
confidence and even if one cannot do so fully at once, yet the more one does
so, the more the inner help and guidance come and the experience of the Div=
ine
grows within. If the questioning mind becomes less active and humility and =
the
will to surrender grow, this ought to be perfectly possible. No other stren=
gth and
tapasya are then needed, but this alone.”[34]
“To be free from all
preference and receive joyfully whatever comes from the Divine Will is not
possible at first for any human being. What one should have at first is the
constant idea that what the Divine wills is always for the best even when t=
he
mind does not see how it is so, to accept with resignation what one cannot =
yet
accept with gladness and so to arrive at a calm equality which is not shaken
even when on the surface there may be passing movements of a momentary reac=
tion
to outward happenings. If that is once firmly founded, the rest can come.&#=
8221;[35]
However,
just by discovering the process and the key to it, one does not automatical=
ly
progress and graduate onto the next level. Knowing what is the right thing =
to
be done, or the right attitude to be taken, is not the same as putting them=
to
practice. At this point it becomes necessary to understand that there are in
effect two types of surrender, namely an active surrender and a passive
surrender. It is also necessary to understand the basic difference between =
the
two:
“Active surrender is=
when
you associate your will with the Divine Will, reject what is not the Divine,
assent to what is the Divine. Passive surrender is when everything is left
entirely to the Divine—that few can really do, because in practice it
turns out that you surrender to the lower nature under pretext of surrender=
ing
to the Divine.”[36]
What
most of us tend to veer to in our search for sanctuary, as did I until fair=
ly
recently, is the latter….. Without making the least effort to move ou=
t of
our lower nature. The few who could actually face up to the test, that is, =
to
leave everything to the Divine, like Christ or Joan of Arc, are revered as
messiahs and saints and God alone knows, whether in the privacy of their own
hearts they too wrestled with their doubts and fears! However, for an ordin=
ary
mortal like my own self, who even today has to wrestle with his own demons,=
the
only path available is through the former…..by actively surrendering =
my
will to the Divine Will and acting only as an instrument of the latter. This
might lead to the argument that if one has truly surrendered, where is the =
need
for any personal effort?
“In the early part o=
f the
sadhana—and by early I do not mean a short part—effort is
indispensable. Surrender of course, but surrender is not a thing that is do=
ne
in a day. The mind has its ideas and it clings to them; the human vital res=
ists
surrender, for what it calls surrender in the early stages is a doubtful ki=
nd
of self-giving with a demand in it; the physical consciousness is like a st=
one
and what it calls surrender is often no more than inertia. It is only the
psychic that knows how to surrender and the psychic is usually very much ve=
iled
in the beginning. When the psychic
awakes, it can bring a sudden and true surrender of the whole being, for the
difficulty of the rest is rapidly dealt with and disappears. But till then
effort is indispensable. Or else it is necessary till the Force comes
flooding down into the being from above and takes up the sadhana, does it f=
or
one more and more and leaves less and less to individual effort—but e=
ven
then, if not effort, at least aspiration and vigilance are needed till the
possession of mind, will, life and body by the Divine Power is complete.=
221;[37]
Thus,
till one’s psychic being has come to the fore and all in one’s
being is controlled by it, personal effort controlled by a strong disciplin=
e is
necessary so as to prevent the possibility of being deluded by the notion t=
hat
one has ‘surrendered to the Divine Power’ and now all that is
needed for one’s progress and perfection will be done automatically by
that Power.
=
“What is required of=
you
is not a passive surrender, in which you become like a block, but to put yo=
ur
will at the disposal of the Divine Will.
=
…
Your will must continue to act steadily, not in the way of choosing a
particular action or demanding a particular object, but as an ardent aspira=
tion
concentrated upon the end to be achieved. This is the first step. If you are
vigilant, if your attention is alert, you will certainly receive something =
in
the form of an inspiration of what is to be done and that you must forthwith
proceed to do. Only, you must remember that to surrender is to accept whate=
ver
is the result of your action, though the result may be quite different from
what you expect. On the other hand, if your surrender is passive, you will =
do
nothing and try nothing; you will simply go to sleep and wait for a miracle=
.
=
Now
to know whether your will or desire is in agreement with the Divine Will or
not, you must look and see whether you have an answer or have no answer,
whether you feel supported or contradicted, not by the mind or the vital or=
the
body, but by that something which is always there deep in the inner being, =
in
your heart.”[38]
To make
one’s surrender more dynamic (a self-reflective worksheet)
Every circumstance, every occurrence in one’s =
life
can be dealt with in any number of ways. Most of the time, we are caught
unawares and react from past habit. On the few occasions that we have the
luxury of reflecting before acting, we are faced with any number of choices;
some leave us with a feeling of happiness, some with regret or even guilt. I
know fully well, how often I have replayed scores of events that have shape=
d my
life, wondering, what if…..? The following hypothetical life-situatio=
ns
give one an opportunity to measure one’s response. Do take time to
reflect as you attempt these questions.
1) Your child excels in a spo=
rt and
has been called for zonal selections. You see other parents currying favour
with the selectors to advance their child’s prospects; how will you a=
ct?
2) You are travelling in a pu=
blic
transport and see a large group of rowdy youths harassing a woman traveller.
All around you, others are averting their gaze; refusing to be drawn into t=
he
situation…..Will you be the foolhardy one?
3) You are embroiled in a sit=
uation
with a government department and the officer offers to bail you out for a
consideration but insists on receiving his ‘reward’ before doing
his bit…….will you take the gamble, and if not, what would you =
do?
4) You are travelling out of =
the
city with colleagues who are known for their philandering ways and have made
clear their intention to have a wild time. You are torn between your filial
loyalties and the desire to be a part of the gang….…..
5) A poor relation has called=
you
for his shop’s inauguration on the same day that your favourite
Uncle’s chosen for a fabulous get-together. The distance involved wou=
ld
require you to choose one or the other……….
6) The neighbourhood
‘toughie’ has been making snide remarks every time you pass,
insinuating a none too veiled threat………..
7) Two of your key employees =
are at
loggerheads and their constant bickering is affecting the working of your
organisation and you need to make a choice between the two. Whilst the first
inspires your faith with his honesty and dedication, the other impresses you
with his ability to get things done……..
8) Your child has been enroll=
ed at
a prestigious university but wants to take a break-year and work with an N.=
G.O.
instead……..
After
attempting this worksheet, try an analysis to see from where, even with the
luxury of reflection, most of your responses originate. In my case, I have
found myself to be operating from my Vital-mind most of the time….the
responses are coloured by my own vital preferences with the mind readily
justifying the action. Even my highest responses usually originate from a
moral-ethical source rather than the psychic. The fast pace of modern urban
living has exteriorised me to an extent where I need to make a determined
effort to find a quiet place which would enable me to go within and seek the
voice of the conscience or Psychic. On one such occasion, when I prayed to =
The
Mother to give me the key to right action, and sought the answer from her
‘Prayers and Meditations’, the book opened on page 293 at the
prayer dated November 15, 1914. I am reproducing below that prayer so as to
share the guidance I was blessed with:
=
“The one important t=
hing
is the goal to be reached; the road matters little, and often it is prefera=
ble
not to know it beforehand. But what we need to know is whether the time for=
the
divine action upon earth has really come, and whether the work conceived in=
the
depths can be realised.
=
Of
this, O Lord, Thou hast given us the assurance, an assurance which has been
accompanied by the most powerful promise that Nature, the universal Conscio=
usness
can possibly make…. Thus we have the certitude that what must be done
will be done and that our present individual beings are in reality called u=
pon
to collaborate in this glorious victory, this new manifestation. What more =
do
we need to know? Nothing. So it is with the greatest confidence that we can
witness the formidable fight, the onslaught of the adverse forces, which,
unknowingly, finally serve in the realisation of Thy plan. We would be wron=
g to
feel anxious because it is not given to us to know how it serves Thy plan a=
nd
by what means Thou wilt triumph over all resistances; for Thy triumph is so
perfect that every obstacle, every ill-will, every hatred raised up against
Thee is a promise of a still vaster and more complete victory.
=
From
the sum of resistances, one can gauge the scope Thou wouldst give to the ac=
tion
of that among Thy pure forces which is coming to manifest upon earth. What
opposes is just that upon which it is the mission of these forces to act; i=
t is
the darkest hatred which must be touched and transformed into luminous peac=
e.
=
If
the human individual Thou hast chosen as Thy centre of action and Thy
intermediary meets with few obstacles, few misunderstandings and little hat=
red,
it means that Thou hast entrusted to him a little mission without any
intensity. It is in the narrow circle of already prepared men of goodwill t=
hat
he will act and not upon the chaotic and confused mass of terrestrial
substance.
=
O
divine Master, this knowledge which Thou hast given me, let all of us share=
, so
that the peace of conviction may reign in our hearts and we may, in the cal=
m of
Thy sovereign certitude, confront with head held high all that, unconscious=
ly
attracted to the transfiguration, plunges headlong into blind ignorance,
believing it will be able to destroy the Transfiguring Love.”[39]
I
would urge the reader to meditate on this prayer, and if he so chooses,
re-evaluate his responses to the aforementioned questions, and to use it in=
any
further situation where he is in a quandary and is seeking inner guidance f=
or
the right response.
Conclusion: =
The
twin aspirations; Equality and Surrender
With this, I am now ready to conclude my monograph. =
As
long as I have lived unconsciously, operating from my limited ego-self, I h=
ave
only ever sought comfort, both material and emotional, and a trouble-free
existence for my own self and for those I’ve held dear to that limited
ego-sense. Now, as my understanding of Nature’s purpose in me has gro=
wn
and my sense of identity widened to embrace an ever-expanding swathe of her
existence, I am no longer content to be prodded forward unconsciously by
circumstance; instead I seek to march in the ranks of those who would activ=
ely
collaborate to advance the Divine victory on earth! Now, when the blow come=
s,
though I still experience a momentary cringing fear, something within me ho=
lds
steadfast, refusing to yield, assured that behind this circumstance and
encounter too, is the Divine Mother’s transfiguring love which seeks =
to
make of me a more perfect being, worthy of fighting for her cause. As I see=
k to
overcome my own littleness and possess the supreme courage that would allow=
me
to do her bidding without any flinching or recoil, I am minded of The
Mother’s advice on making a perfect surrender:
“Three
typical modes of total self-giving to the Divine:
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; (1) To prostrate oneself at His feet, g=
iving
up all pride in perfect humility.
(2)
To unfold one’s being before =
Him,
open one’s whole body from head to foot, as one opens a book, exposing
one’s centres so as to make all their movements visible in a complete
sincerity that allows nothing to remain hidden.
(3) To nestle in his arms, to merge in =
Him in
a loving and absolute trust.
These
movements may be accompanied by three formulas or any one of them according=
to
the case:
(1) Let Thy Will be done and n=
ot
mine.
(2) As Thou willest, as Thou
willest.
(3) I am Thine for eternity.
Generally,
when these movements are done in the true way, they are followed by a perfe=
ct
identification, a dissolution of the ego, giving rise to a sublime
felicity.”[40]
The
result obtained from this perfect surrender is the same that is sought by t=
he
seeker of the highest spiritual equality, namely dissolution of the limited
ego-sense and its replacement with a perfect and conscious identification w=
ith
the One Divine! However, it is in the means of obtaining this end that the
Integral Yoga digresses from the older Yogas and oriental religions. Whilst=
the
latter have advocated the cessation of existence as their aim, Sri Aurobind=
o on
the other hand proclaimed that “The object =
of our
Yoga is self-perfection, not self-annulment”[41]. Whilst the others before him like
Buddha and Shankara proclaimed the world to be false, Maya, and a cesspool of misery, Sri Aurobindo did not accept th=
is interpretation
which has defined oriental thought for more than two millennia. He has said
instead:
“But this =
world
is Brahman, the world is God, the world is Satyam, the world is Ananda; it =
is
our misreading of the world through mental egoism that is a falsehood and o=
ur
wrong relation with God in the world that is a misery. There is no other
falsity and no other cause of sorrow.”[42]
Unlike
these belief systems, the self, in the Integral Yoga, is not to be annihila=
ted;
it is not to be suffocated or repressed but transformed and perfected to its
highest possibility!
=
“If the world were
Brahman’s self-imposed nightmare, to awaken from it would be the natu=
ral
and only goal of our supreme endeavour; or if life in the world were
irrevocably bound to misery, a means to escape from this bondage would be t=
he
sole secret worth discovering. But perfect truth in world-existence is
possible, for God here sees all things with the eyes of the truth; and perf=
ect
bliss in the world is possible for God enjoys all things with a sense of
unalloyed freedom. We can also enjoy this truth and bliss, called by our Ve=
da amratam, Immortality, if by castin=
g away
our egoistic existence into perfect unity with His being we consent to rece=
ive
the divine perception and the divine freedom.
=
The
world is a movement of God in His own being; we are the centre and knots of
divine consciousness which sum up and support the processes of His movement.
The world is His play with His own self-conscious delight, He who alone exi=
sts,
infinite, free and perfect; we are the self-multiplications of that conscio=
us
delight, thrown out into being to be His
playmates…………Let us lead forward God’s moveme=
nt,
play out His play, work out His formula, execute His Harmony, express Him t=
hrough
ourselves in His system. This is our joy and our self-fulfillment; to this =
end
we who transcend and exceed the universe, have entered into
universe-existence.”[43]
Thus,
for the adherents of the paths of the Integral Yoga, the being is not to be
snuffed out, but its limited ego-identification cast-off and replaced with a
perfect identification with the Divine Himself, one’s unequal vision
replaced with divine perception and one’s bondage to misery replaced =
with
divine freedom! The process by which this ego-bound self has to be transfor=
med
into its highest possibility is the journey on which I have embarked. The
following words of The Mother, remind me that the goal of achieving a perfe=
ct
equality in my being is but a transient aim:
“Equality of soul is=
a
way. It is a means, it is a way – it can be a goal also. But it is not
the consummation.”[44]
‘Equality’,
is the state of being that shall form the base camp from which I shall star=
t my
climb towards the summits of ever higher perfections. I shall conclude my
monograph with these words from The Mother:
=
“I have observed sin=
ce
1956, for years, that no supramental vibration can be transmitted except in
this perfect equality. If there is the least opposition to this equality
– in fact the least movement of ego, any preference of the ego, it do=
es
not come through, it is not transmitted. …
=
One
could say that the constant state that is needed for the Supermind to be ab=
le
to express itself through a terrestrial consciousness is the perfect equali=
ty
that comes from spiritual identification with the Supreme. Everything becom=
es
the Supreme in a perfect equality. And it is automatic – not the equa=
lity
achieved by the conscious will, by intellectual effort or an understanding
prior to the state; it is not that. It must be spontaneous and automatic; o=
ne
should no longer respond to everything that comes from outside as if one we=
re
responding to something coming from outside.”[45]
Her
words reinforce for me the distance that I need to travel even to this base
camp, where the state of equality will come no longer by conscious effort, =
but
be the natural state of my being. However if I truly persist with these twin
aspirations to widen and universalise my being and to make my will complete=
ly
subservient to the Divine Will, her words also convey the promise of help f=
rom
the highest Supramental Force and thereby the certainty of not only reaching
this state, but surpassing it towards ever higher perfection!
- Amit Gujral
Appendix
‘A’
I have selected certain aphorisms from the book
‘Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms’ that I feel provide one
with deep insights on the means to attain an integral equality. The reader =
is
advised to reflect on them and thus unravel the wealth of knowledge contain=
ed
in each one, using it to advance steadily towards a progressive equality in=
his
own being.
· =
“Either
do not give the name of knowledge to your beliefs only and of error, ignora=
nce
or charlatanism to the beliefs of others, or do not rail at the dogmas of t=
he
sects and their intolerance.” (no.9, p.4)
· = “When I pine at misfortune and call it evil, or am jealous and disappointed, then= I know that there is awake in me again the eternal fool.” (no.25, p.6)<= o:p>
· =
“When
I see others suffer, I feel that I am unfortunate, but the wisdom that is n=
ot
mine, sees the good that is coming and approves.” (no.26, p.7)
· =
“Men
are still in love with grief; when they see one who is too high for grief or
joy, they curse him & cry, “O thou insensible!” Therefore
Christ still hangs on the cross in
· =
“Men
are in love with sin; when they see one who is too high for vice or virtue,
they curse him & cry, “O thou breaker of bonds, thou wicked and
immoral one!” Therefore Srikrishna does not live as yet in Brindavun.=
”
(no.37, p.8)
· =
“Only
those thoughts are true the opposite of which is also true in its own time =
and
application; indisputable dogmas are the most dangerous kind of
falsehood.” (no.45, p.9)
· =
“I
knew my mind to be conquered when it admired the beauty of the hideous, yet
felt perfectly why other men shrank back or hated.” (no.49, p.10)
· =
“To
feel & love the God of beauty and good in the ugly and the evil, and st=
ill
yearn in utter love to heal it of its ugliness and its evil, this is real
virtue and morality.” (no.50, p.10)
· =
“To
hate the sinner is the worst sin, for it is hating God; yet he who commits =
it,
glories in his superior virtue.” (no.51, p.10)
· =
“Because
the tiger acts according to his nature and knows not anything else, therefo=
re
he is divine and there is no evil in him. If he questioned himself, then he=
would
be a criminal.” (no.58, p.11)
· = “The animal before he is corrupted, has not yet eaten of the tree of the knowled= ge of good and evil; the god has abandoned it for the tree of eternal life; man stands between the upper heaven and the lower nature.” (no.59, p.11)<= o:p>
· =
“Sin
is that which was once in its place, persisting now it is out of place; the=
re
is no other sinfulness.” (no.66, p.12)
· =
“There
is no sin in man, but a great deal of disease, ignorance and
misapplication.” (no.67, p.12)
· =
“The
sense of sin is necessary in order that man might become disgusted with his=
own
imperfections. It was God’s corrective for egoism. But man’s eg=
oism
meets God’s device by being very dully alive to its own sins and very
keenly alive to the sins of others.” (no.68, p.12)
· =
“Sin
& virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to dr=
aw
us towards perfection. The sense of virtue helps us cherish our sins in
secret.” (no.69, p.13)
· =
“Examine
thyself without pity, then thou wilt be more charitable and pitiful to othe=
rs.”
(no.70, p.13)
· =
“God
is infinite Possibility. Therefore Truth is never at rest; therefore, also,
Error is justified of her children.” (no.79, p.14)
· =
“Shame
has admirable results and both in aesthetics and in morality we could ill s=
pare
it; but for all that it is a badge of weakness and the proof of
ignorance.” (no.83, p.14)
· =
“Hatred
is the sign of a secret attraction that is eager to flee from itself and
furious to deny its own existence. That too is God’s play in His
creature.” (no.113, p.19)
· =
“If
thou wouldst not be the fool of Opinion, first see wherein thy thought is t=
rue,
then study wherein its opposite and contradiction is true; last, discover t=
he
cause of these differences and the key of God’s harmony.” (no.1=
22,
p.20)
· =
“An
opinion is neither true nor false, but only serviceable for life or
unserviceable; for it is a creation of Time and with time it loses its effe=
ct
and value. Rise thou above opinion and seek wisdom everlasting.” (no.=
123,
p.20)
· =
“When
I knew nothing, then I abhorred the criminal, sinful and impure, being myse=
lf
full of crime, sin and impurity; but when I was cleansed and my eyes unseal=
ed,
then I bowed down in my spirit before the thief and the murderer and adored=
the
feet of the harlot; for I saw that these souls had accepted the terrible bu=
rden
of evil and drained for all of us the greater portion of the churned poison=
of
the world-ocean.” (no.132, pp.22-23)
· =
“The
Titans are stronger than the gods because they have agreed with God to front
and bear the burden of His wrath and enmity; the gods were able to accept o=
nly
the pleasant burden of His love and kindlier rapture.” (no.133, p.22)=
· =
“When
thou art able to see how necessary is suffering to final delight, failure to
utter effectiveness and retardation to the last rapidity, then thou mayst b=
egin
to understand something, however faintly and dimly, of God’s
workings.” (no.134, p.22)
· =
“There
is only one soul & one existence; therefore we all see one objectivity
only; but there are many knots of mind & ego in the one soul-existence,
therefore we all see the one Object in different lights & shadows.̶=
1; (no.155,
p.26)
· =
“The
idealist errs; it is not Mind which created the worlds, but that which crea=
ted
mind has created them. Mind only mis-sees, because it sees partially & =
by
details, what is created.” (no.156, pp.26-27)
· =
“When
I look back on my past life, I see that if I had not failed & suffered,=
I
would have lost my life’s supreme blessings; yet at the time of suffe=
ring
& failure, I was vexed with the sense of calamity. Because we cannot se=
e anything
but the one fact under our noses, therefore we indulge in all these sniffli=
ngs
and clamours. Be silent, ye foolish hearts! Slay the ego, learn to see &
feel vastly & universally.” (no.176, p.30)
· =
“Virtue
& vice were made for thy soul’s struggle & progress; but for
results they belong to God, who fulfils himself beyond vice &
virtue.” (no.188, p.32)
· =
“God
guides best when He tempts worst, loves entirely when He punishes cruelly,
helps perfectly when violently He opposes.” (no.242, p.43)
· =
“Suffer
yourself to be tempted within so that you may exhaust in the struggle your
downward propensities.” (no.244, p.43)
· =
“Be
not repelled by the world’s crookedness; the world is a wounded and
venomous snake wriggling towards a destined off-sloughing and perfection. W=
ait;
for it is a divine wager, and out of this baseness, God will emerge brillia=
nt
and triumphant.” (no.295, p.51)
· =
“There
are two ways of avoiding the snare of woman; one is to shun all women and t=
he
other to love all beings.” (no.304, p.52)
· =
“Men
labour only after success and if they are fortunate enough to fail, it is
because the wisdom and force of Nature overbear their intellectual cleverne=
ss.
God alone knows when & how to blunder wisely and fail effectively.̶=
1; (no.307,
p.52)
· =
“Fix
thy soul without desire upon the end and insist on it by the divine force
within thee; then shall the end itself create its means, nay it shall become
its own means. For the end is Brahman and already accomplished; see it alwa=
ys
as Brahman, see it always in thy soul as already accomplished.” (no.3=
15,
p.53)
· =
“Only
the soul that is naked and unashamed, can be pure and innocent, even as Adam
was in the primal garden of humanity.” (no.350, p.59)
· =
“Mankind
has used two powerful weapons to destroy its own powers and enjoyment, wrong
indulgence and wrong abstinence.” (no.378, p.64)
· =
“Because
thou lovest God only, thou art apt to claim that He should love thee rather
than others; but this is a false claim and contrary to right & the natu=
re
of things. For He is the One but thou art of the many. Rather become one in
heart & soul with all beings, then there will be none in the world but =
thou
alone for Him to love.” (no.452, p.77)
· =
“I
hated the devil and was sick with his temptations and tortures; and I could=
not
tell why the voice in his departing words was so sweet that when he returned
and offered himself to me, it was with sorrow I refused him. Then I discove=
red
it was
· =
“They
explained the evil in the world by saying that Satan had prevailed against =
God;
but I think more proudly of my Beloved. I believe that nothing is done but =
by
His will in heaven or hell, on earth or on the waters.” (no.460, p.78=
)
· =
“At
first whenever I fell back into sin, I used to weep and rage against myself=
and
against God for having suffered it. Afterwards it was as much as I could da=
re
to ask, “Why hast thou rolled me again in the mud, O my
playfellow?” Then even that came to my mind to seem too bold and
presumptuous; I could only get up in silence, look at him out of the corner=
of
my eyes – and clean myself.” (no.462, pp.78-79)
· =
“Because
thou wert given at first imperfect conceptions about God, now thou ragest a=
nd
deniest Him. Man, dost thou doubt thy teacher because he gave not thee the =
whole
of knowledge at the beginning? Study rather that imperfect truth & put =
it
in its place, so that thou mayst pass on safely to the wider knowledge that=
is
now opening before thee.” (no.468, p.80)
· =
“My
lover took away my robe of sin and I let it fall, rejoicing; then he plucke=
d at
my robe of virtue, but I was ashamed and alarmed and prevented him. It was =
not
till he had wrested it from me by force that I saw how my soul had been hid=
den
from me.” (no.482, pp.82-83)
· =
“Sin
is a trick & a disguise of
[1] The Mother, Collected work=
s of
the Mother (CWM): vol.1, p.10, Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
[2] Sri Aurobindo, The Synthes=
is of
Yoga, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL): vol. 20, pp.211-13, Sri
Aurobindo Ashram,
[3] Ibid., SABCL: vol. 21, pp.=
675-76
[4] Ibid., pp.676-78
[5] Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and
Aphorisms, no.544, p.94, Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
[6] Ibid., no.537p.92
[7] Sri Aurobindo, The Synthes=
is of
Yoga, SABCL: vol.21, pp.678-79
[8] Sri Aurobindo, Letters on =
Yoga,
SABCL: vol.23, pp.689-90, Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
[9] Ibid., p.693
[10] The Mother, CWM: vol.3, pp=
.25-27
[11] Sri Aurobindo, The Synthes=
is of
Yoga, SABCL: vol.21, pp.679-80
[12]
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL: vol.18, pp.118-19, Sri Aurobindo Ash=
ram,
Pondicherry
[13] Ibid.
[14]
Ibid., pp.127-28
[15]
Ibid., pp.162-63
[16] Sri Aurobindo, The Synthes=
is of
Yoga, SABCL: vol.20, p.294
[17]
Ibid., p.295
[18]
Ibid.
[19]
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL: vol.24, pp.1355-56
[20] The Mother, Sri Aurobindo =
And
The Mother on Education, p.147, Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
[21] SABCL: Vol. 21 pages 679-6=
80
[22] Ibid., p.680
[23] Sri Aurobindo, The Hour of=
God,
p.41
[24] Sri Aurobindo, The Mother,
SABCL: vol.25, pp.1-5
[25] Sri Aurobindo, The Synthes=
is of
Yoga, p.1
[26] The Mother, Sri Aurobindo =
and
The Mother on Education, p.150
[27] Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, p.=
444
[28] Sri Aurobindo, The Mother,
pp.9-10. Emphasis added.
[29] Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, p.=
531
[30] The Mother, Sri Aurobindo =
and
The Mother on Education, p.116
[31] Peter McWilliams (Soul Pil=
ls,
The Hindustan Times,
[32] Kathryn A. Piersall (Soul =
Pills,
The Hindustan Times,
[33] Sri Aurobindo, The Hour of=
God,
p.21
[34] Sri
Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL: vol. 23, p.588
[35] Ibid., p.597
[36]
Ibid., p.591
[37] Ibid., pp.588-89. Emphasis
added.
[38] The Mother, CWM: vol.3, pp=
.18-19
[39] Ibid., CWM: vol.1, pp.293-=
94
[40] Ibid., CWM: vol.14, pp.108=
-09
[41] Sri Aurobindo, The Hour of=
God,
p.20
[42] Ibid.
[43] Ibid., p.21
[44] The Mother, CWM: vol.8, p.=
68
[45] Ibid., CWM: vol.10, pp.114=
-17