On Yoga
THEME/S
in your seeking or your aspiration towards the Mother.
But why allow anything to come in the way between you and the Divine, any idea, any incident ? When you are in full aspiration and joy, let nothing count, nothing be of any importance except the Divine and your aspiration. If one wants the Divine quickly, absolutely, entirely, that must be the spirit of approach, absolute, all-engrossing, making that the one point with which nothing else must interfere.
The Mother :
Grace is equally for all. But it is received according to the sincerity of each one. It does not depend on outward circumstances but on a sincere aspiration and openness.
EQUANIMITY
Equality is the chief support of the true spiritual consciousness and it is this from which a Sadhaka deviates when he allows a vital movement to carry him away in feeling or speech or action. Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to
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you, but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements,—anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest,—not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.
The first condition of inner progress is to recognise whatever is or has been a wrong movement in any part of the nature,—wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action,—and by wrong is meant what departs from the truth, from the higher consciousness and higher self, from the way of the Divine.
Complete samata (equality) takes long to establish and it is dependent on three things—the soul's self-giving to the Divine by an inner surrender, the descent of the spiritual calm and peace from above and the steady long and persistent rejection of all egoistic, rajasic and other feelings that contradict samata.
There can be no firm foundation in sadhana without equality. Whatever the unpleasantness of circumstances, however disagreeable the conduct of others, you must
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learn to receive them with a perfect calm and without any disturbing reaction. These things are the test of equality. It is easy to be calm and equal when things go well and people and circumstances are pleasant; it is when they are the opposite that the completeness of the calm, peace, equality can be tested, reinforced, made perfect.
No doubt, hatred and cursing are not the proper attitude. It is true also that to look upon all things and all people with a calm and clear vision, to be uninvolved and impartial in one's judgments is a quite proper Yogic attitude. A condition of perfect samata can be established in which one sees all as equal, friends and enemies included, and is not disturbed by what men do or by what happens.
Equanimity and peace in all conditions, in all parts of the being' is the first foundation of the Yogic status. Peace is the first condition without which nothing else can be stable.
Equality means another thing—to have an equal view of men and their nature and acts and the forces that move them; it helps one to see the Truth about them by pushing away from the mind all personal feeling in one's seeing and judgment and even all mental bias.
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For a sadhak, to live rather in the calm strength of the spirit is an essential part of his progress.
You must have a strong body and strong nerves. You must, have a strong basis of equanimity in your external being. Equanimity is the essential condition of union and communion with the Divine. If you have this basis, you can contain a world of emotion and yet not have to scream it out. This does not mean that you cannot express your emotion, but you can express it in a beautiful, harmonious way. To weep or scream or dance about with the descent of some kind of higher joy or experience is always a proof of weakness, either of the vital or the mental or the physical nature. If you have to bear the pressure of the Divine descent, you must be very strong and powerful, otherwise you would be shaken to pieces. If a little drop makes you sing and dance and scream, what would happen if the whole thing came down ?
All feelings of shrinking and disgust and fear that disturb and weaken the human mind can be overcome. A Yogi has to overcome these reactions; for almost the very first step in Yoga demands that you must keep a perfect equanimity in the presence of all beings and
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things and happenings. Always you must remain calm, untouched and unmoved; the strength of the Yogi lies there. An entire calmness and quietness will disarm even dangerous and ferocious animals when they confront you.
Keep a cheerful mind and a peaceful heart. Let nothing disturb your equanimity and make every day the necessary progress to advance with me steadily towards the goal.
FAITH
The phrase "Blind faith" has no real meaning. I suppose they mean they will not believe without proof —but the conclusion formed after proof is not faith, it is knowledge or it is a mental opinion. Faith is something which one has before proof or knowledge and it helps you to arrive at knowledge or experience. There is no proof that God exists but if I have faith in God, then I can arrive at the experience of the Divine.
There are four kinds of faith : Mental faith combats doubts and helps to open to the true knowledge; vital faith prevents the attacks of the hostile forces or defeats them and helps to open to the true spiritual will and action; physical faith keeps one firm through all physical obscurity, inertia or suffering and helps to open to the foundation of the true consciousness; psychic faith opens to
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the direct touch of the Divine and helps to bring union and surrender. *
Faith can be tamasic and ineffective, i.e., "I believe the Mother will do everything, so I will do nothing. When she wants, she will transform me." That is not a dynamic but a static and inert faith.
The faith in spiritual things that is asked of the sadhak is not an ignorant but a luminous faith, a faith in light and not in darkness. It is called blind by the sceptical intellect because it refuses to be guided by outer appearances or seeming facts.
Faith does not depend upon experience; it is something that is there before experience. When one starts the Yoga, it is not usually on the strength of experience, but on the strength of faith. It is so not only in Yoga and the spiritual life, but in ordinary life also. All men of action, discoverers, inventors, creators of knowledge proceed by faith and, until the proof is made or the thing done, they go on in spite of disappointment, failure, disproof, denial because of something in them that tells them that this is the truth, the thing that must be followed and done____
Faith is a certitude in the soul which does not depend on reasoning, on this or that mental idea, on circumstances,
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on this or that passing condition of the mind or the vital or the body. *
No attachments, no desires, no impulses, no preferences ; perfect equanimity, unchanging peace and. absolute faith in the Divine protection, with that you are safe, without it you are in peril. And as long as you are not safe, it is better to do like little chickens that take shelter under the Mother's wings.
It is in proportion to our trust in the Divine that the Divine Grace can act for us and help.
If you keep your faith unshaken and your heart always open to me then all difficulties, however great, will contribute to the greater perfection of your being.
For nobody sadhana would be possible without the Divine's help. The Grace is always there ready to act but you must let it work and not resist its action. The one condition required is faith. When you feel attacked call for help to Sri Aurobindo and myself. If your call is sincere it will be answered and the Grace will cure you.
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Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens. Have faith and He will do everything for you.
GURU:
Up to now no liberated man has objected to the Guru-vada; it is usually only people who live in the mind or vital and have the pride of the mind and the arrogance of the vital that find it below their dignity to recognise a Guru.
A human soul and nature cannot be dealt with by a set of mental rules applicable to everybody in the same way; if it were so, there would be no need of a Guru, each could set his chart of Yogic rules before him like the rules of Sandown's exercise and follow them till he becomes the perfect Siddha !
Because all Gurus are the same Divine, it does not follow that the disciple does well if he leaves the one meant for him to follow another. Fidelity to the Guru is demanded of every disciple.
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From a humbug you can get nothing but his hum-buggery. He must have something in him which makes the contact with the Divine possible, something which works even if he is not in his outer mind quite conscious of its action. If there is nothing at all spiritual in him, he is not a Guru, only a pseudo.
Many people have a habit of doing Yoga according to their own ideas without caring for the guidance of a Guru—from whom, however, they expect an entire protection and success in sadhana even if they prance or gambol into the wrongness paths possible.
Be faithful to your Guru whoever he is, he will lead you as far as you can go.
But if you are lucky enough to have the Divine as your Guru then there will be no limit to your realisation.
MEDITATION AND CONCENTRATION
There is no harm in concentrating sometimes in the heart and sometimes above the head. But concentration in either place does not mean keeping the attention fixed on a particular spot; you have to take your station of consciousness in either place and concentrate there
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not on the place, but on the Divine. This can be done with eyes shut or with eyes open, according as best suits you.
In this Yoga the whole principle is to open oneself to the Divine Influence. It is there above you and, if you can once become conscious of it, you have then to call it down into you. It descends into the mind and into the body as Peace, as a Light, as a Force that works, as the Presence of the Divine with or without form, as Ananda. Before one has this consciousness, one has to have faith and aspire for the opening. Aspiration, call, prayer are forms of one and the same thing and are all effective ; you can take the form that comes to you or is easiest to you. The other way is concentration; you concentrate your consciousness in the heart and meditate on the Mother in the heart and call her in there. One can do either and both at different times—whatever comes naturally to you or you are. moved to do at the moment. Especially in the beginning the one great necessity is to get the mind quiet, reject at the time of meditation all thoughts and movements that are foreign to the sadhana. In the quiet mind there will be a progressive preparation for the experience. But you must not become impatient, if all is not done at once; it takes time to bring entire quiet into the mind; you have to go on till the consciousness is ready.
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As a rule the only mantra used in this sadhana is that of the Mother or of my name and the Mother's. The concentration in the heart and the concentration in the head can both be used—each has its own result.
There is no method in this Yoga except to concentrate, preferably in the heart, and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be.
When one tries to meditate, there is pressure to go inside, lose the waking consciousness and wake inside, in a deep inner consciousness. But at first the mind takes it for a pressure to go to sleep, since sleep is the only kind of inner consciousness to which it has been accustomed. In yoga by meditation sleep is therefore often the first difficulty—but if one perseveres, then gradually the sleep changes to an inner conscious state.
There is no necessity of losing consciousness when you meditate. It is the widening and change of the consciousness that is essential.
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In order to have Dhyana, the restlessness of the mind must be utterly settled, the intellect must become like a calm and wave less sea, not a ripple on its surface. The distinguishing feature of Dhyana is that it puts out a steady force of knowledge on the object of knowledge.
Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e.g., the Divine ; there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it—
Concentration means fixing the consciousness in one place or on one object and in a single condition. Meditation can be diffusive, e.g., thinking about the Divine, receiving impressions and discriminating, watching what goes on in the nature and acting upon it etc.
The best help for concentration is to receive the Mother's calm and peace into your mind. It is there above you—only the mind and its centres have to open to it...
It is to remain quiet at the time of meditation, not fighting with the mind or making mental efforts to pull down the Power or the Silence but keeping only a silent will and aspiration for them. If the mind is active, one has to learn to look at it, draw back and not giving any
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sanction from within, until its habitual or mechanical activities begin to fall quiet for want of support from within. If it is too persistent, a steady rejection without strain or struggle is the one thing to be done.
The two main places where one can centre the consciousness for Yoga are in the head and in the heart. The sitting motionless posture is the natural posture for concentrated meditation—walking and standing are active conditions. One can accustom oneself to meditate walking, standing, lying but sitting is the first natural position.
It is better to make the deeper concentration when you are alone or quiet. Outward sounds ought not to disturb you. The concentration is in its nature quiet and steady. If there is restlessness or over-eagerness, then that is not concentration.
There are always two things that can rise up and assail the silence,—vital suggestions, the physical mind's mechanical recurrences. Calm rejection for both is the cure. One can remain separate and see the thoughts and imaginations pass without being affected, but that is not being plunged or engrossed in meditation.
You have asked what is the discipline to be followed in order to convert the mental seeking into a living spiritual experience. The first necessity is the practice of concentration of your consciousness within yourself.
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The ordinary human mind has an activity on the surface which veils the real self. But there is another, a hidden consciousness within behind the surface one in which we can become aware of the real self and of a larger deeper truth of nature, can realise the self and liberate and transform the nature. To quiet the surface mind and begin to live within is the object of this concentration. Of this true consciousness other than the superficial there are two main centres, one in the heart (not the physical heart but the cardiac centre in the middle of the chest,) one in the head. The concentration in the heart opens within and by following this inward opening and going deep one becomes aware of the soul or psychic being, the divine element in the individual. This being unveiled begins to come forward, to govern the nature, to turn it and all its movements towards the Truth, towards the Divine, and to call down into it all that is above. It brings the consciousness of the Presence, the dedication of the being to the Highest and invites the descent into our nature of a greater Force and Consciousness which is waiting above us. To concentrate in the heart centre with the offering of oneself to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way—
Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered the help of the Teacher can intervene and
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bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary.
Concentration is necessary, first, to turn the whole will and mind from the discursive divagation natural to them, following a dispersed movement of the thoughts, running after many-branching desires, led away in the track of the senses and the outward mental response to phenomena : we have to fix the will and the thought on the eternal and real behind all, and this demands an immense effort, a one-pointed concentration. Secondly, it is necessary in order to break down the veil which is erected by our ordinary mentality between ourselves and the truth; for our knowledge can be picked up by the way, by ordinary attention and reception, but the inner, hidden and higher truth can only be seized by an absolute concentration of the mind on its object, an absolute concentration of the will to attain it and, once attained, to hold it habitually and securely unite oneself with it.
The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress. It is a proof of your progress when you no longer have to make an effort to meditate. Then you have rather to make an effort to stop meditation : it
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becomes difficult to stop meditation, difficult to stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to the ordinary consciousness. Then you are sure of your progress, then you have made real progress when concentration in the Divine is the necessity of your life, when you cannot do without it, when it continues naturally from morning to night, whatever you may be engaged in doing. What is required of you is consciousness; to be constantly conscious of the Divine. If you need to make an effort to go into meditation, you are still very far from being able to live the spiritual fife. The final aim is to be in constant union with the Divine, not only in meditation but in all circumstances and in all the active life.
Collective meditation is not desirable. I do not approve of it. It brings more troubles. It is not safe, so it is better that it is dropped.......
Yes, if one has to say something or tell or talk or to read something from the Mother or Sri Aurobindo or somebody explains the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, it is all right that you meet together and remain together, but not to meditate.
The meditation can be collective and it is very good and it energies a great force, but it is only when the members who collect together for the meditation are single-minded, in full harmony and co-operation, they are together for one single ideal, one and not divided—all
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as one block or one single unit. That too not many but a selected few. It is most important to have an inner vision and discrimination in choosing people for meditation.
It is a meditation which has the power to transform your being, a meditation which is progressive. Usually people do not have a dynamic meditation. When they enter into what they call meditation, it is a kind of immobility in which nothing changes; they come out of it just as they entered into it, without any progress either in their being or in their consciousness. They could meditate in this way for eternities and it would bring no change either in themselves or in the universe. That is why Sri Aurobindo speaks of dynamic meditation, for it is just the contrary : it is transforming meditation.
PEACE
The first thing to do in the sadhana is to get a settled peace and silence in the mind. Otherwise you may have experiences, but nothing will be permanent. It is in the silent mind that the true consciousness can be built.......
The forces that stand in the way of sadhana are the forces of the lower mental, vital and physical nature. Behind them are adverse powers of the mental, vital and subtle physical worlds. These can be dealt with only
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after the mind and heart have become one-pointed and concentrated in the single aspiration to the Divine.....
Aspire to the Mother for this settled quietness and calm of the mind and this constant sense of the inner being in you standing back from the external nature and turned to the Light and Truth.....
The important thing is to get rid of the habit of the invasion of troubling thoughts, wrong feelings, confusion of ideas, unhappy movements. These disturb the nature and cloud it and make it difficult for the Force to work; when the mind is quiet and at peace, the Force can work more easily.
Aspire for the rest of the divine consciousness, but with a calm and deep aspiration. It can be ardent as well as calm, but not impatient, restless or full of rajasic eagerness. Remain quiet, open yourself and call the divine Shakti to confirm the calm and peace, to widen the consciousness and to bring into it as much light and power as it can receive and assimilate. Take care not to be over-eager, as this may disturb such quiet and balance as has been already established in the vital nature.
To remain quiet within, firm in the will to go through, refusing to be disturbed or discouraged by difficulties or fluctuations, that is one of the first things to be learned in the path.
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Here as elsewhere, quiet is the first thing needed, to keep the consciousness quiet, not allow it to get agitated and in turmoil. Then in the quiet to call for the Force to clear up all this obscurity and change it.
To develop in the physical itself a constant will for the drawing down of the higher consciousness—especially the Peace and Force from above, is the best way out of it.
The one thing that is most needed for this sadhana is peace, calm, especially in the vital—a peace which depends not on circumstances or surroundings but on the inner contact with a higher consciousness which is the consciousness of the Divine, of the Mother. Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Ashram for ten or twenty years and yet be as restless and full of struggle as ever,—those who open their minds and vital to the Mother's strength and peace get it even in the hardest and most unpleasant work and the worst circumstances.
A quiet mind and a quiet vital are the first conditions for success in sadhana.
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The Divine Consciousness is at work to transform you and you must open to it in order to let it work freely in you. Be quiet always, calm, peaceful and let the Force work in your consciousness through the transparency of a perfect sincerity.
It is only in quietness and peace that one can know what is the best thing to do.
Establish a greater peace and quietness in your body, that will give you the strength to resist attacks of illness.
Increase the inner rest, it must become a rest always present even in the midst of the greatest activity and so steady that nothing has the power to shake it—and then you will become a perfect instrument for the Manifestation.
Be very careful to remain always calm and peaceful and let an integral equanimity establish itself more and more completely in your being. Do not allow your mind to be too active and to live in a turmoil, do not jump to conclusions from a superficial view of things; always take your time, concentrate and decide only in quietness.
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Be quiet and gather strength and force not only to do work but also chiefly to achieve the Transformation.
PERSONAL EFFORT
Personal effort is needed for opening yourself more and more by assent to the true things, Peace, Light, Truth, Ananda—by refusing the wrong things, such as anger, falsehood, lust etc.
It is the wrong movements,—self-will, egoism, the vital passions, vanity, personal desires etc. that stand in the way of giving full assent to the Mother's working in the Sadhak's nature.
If there is no personal effort, if the sadhak is too indolent and tamasic to try, why should the Grace act ?
Note that a tamasic surrender refusing to fulfil the conditions and calling on God to do everything and save one all the trouble and struggle is a deception and does not lead to freedom and perfection.
So long as there is not the full Presence and conscious working of the higher Force, some amount of the personal effort is indispensable. To do the sadhana for the
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sake of the Divine and not for one's own sake is of course the true attitude.
PSYCHIC BEING
The soul, the psychic being is in direct touch with the Divine Truth, but it is bidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature. If there is a refusal of the psychic new birth, a refusal to become the child new born from the Mother, owing to attachment to intellectual knowledge or mental ideas or to some vital desire, then there will be a failure in the sadhana.
If you want a more swift and visible progress, it can only be by bringing your psychic to the front through a constant self-offering. Aspire intensely, but without impatience.
The psychic being will not need the support of intellectual ideas or outer signs and helps. It is that alone that can give you the direct feeling of the Divine, the constant nearness, the inner support and aid. You will not then feel the Mother remote or have any further doubt about the realisation; for the mind thinks and the vital craves but the soul feels and knows the Divine. If you want to succeed in this Yoga, you must take your
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stand on the psychic relation and reject the egoistic vital movement. The psychic being coming to the front and staying there is the decisive movement in the Yoga.
Happiness comes from the soul's satisfaction, not from the vital's or the body's. The vital is never satisfied ; the body soon ceases to be moved at all by what it easily or always has. Only the psychic being brings the real joy and felicity.
Aspiration, constant and sincere, and the will to turn to the Divine alone are the best means to bring forward the psychic.
Purification and consecration are two great necessities of sadhana. Those who have experiences before purification run a great risk : it is much better to have the heart pure first, for then the way becomes safe. That is why I advocate the psychic change of the nature first: —for that means the purification of the heart.
Awakening means the conscious action of the psychic from behind. When the psychic comes to the front, it invades the mind and vital and body and psychosis's their movements. It comes best by aspiration and an.
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unquestioning and entire turning and surrender to the Mother.
The inner being is composed of the inner mental, the inner vital, the inner physical. The psychic is the inmost supporting all the others.
It is the soul, the psychic being in you, behind the heart, that is awake and wants to concentrate the mind on the Divine. It is the nature of the mind to go out to other things, but now when it does that there is the unease in the heart, the psychic sorrow, because the heart feels at once that this is wrong and the head also aches because of the resistance to the Divine Force at work. This is a thing that often happens at an early stage, after the opening of the consciousness to the sadhana.
The psychic being is one's own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.
There is not one person in a million who has a conscious relation with his psychic being, even for a
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moment. The psychic being can work from within, but, for the external being, in such an invisible and unconscious way as if it did not exist. In most cases, in almost all cases, in fact, the psychic being is asleep, as it were, not active at all, but in a kind of torpor. It is only by Sadhana and persistent effort that one can arrive at a conscious connection with one's psychic being.
I am always present in your psychic being. It is there that you can and ought to find me, and when you will find me there, in the depths of your heart, you will recognise me also in my physical form.
SILENCE
The silent mind is a result of Yoga; the ordinary mind is never silent.
Mother does not approve at all of the idea of a complete retirement. It does not bring the control—it is a control established while in contact with the outward things that is alone genuine. You must establish that from within by a fixed resolution and practice. Too much mixing and too much talk should be avoided, but a complete retirement is not the thing. It has not had the required result with anyone so far.
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It is only in silence that a true progress can be made ; it is only in silence that one can rectify a wrong movement ; it is only in silence that one can be of help to somebody else.
SINCERITY
To be entirely sincere means to desire the divine Truth only, to surrender yourself more and more to the Divine Mother, to reject all personal demand and desire other than this one aspiration, to offer every action in life to the Divine and do it as the work given without bringing in the ego. This is the basis of the divine life.
You have only to be perfectly sincere and aspire for purification and reject whatever is wrong in you. The Divine Force will then act and do the rest. That is the simple and true way.
The house of the Divine is not closed to any who knock sincerely at its gates, whatever their past stumbles and errors.
A greater power is sincerity; a greatest power of all is Grace.
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The Divine gives the fruit not by the measure of the sadhana but by the measure of the soul's sincerity and its aspiration. One should say : "I am ready to be not what I want but what the Divine wants me to be".
Open with sincerity. That means to open integrally and without reservation ; not to give one part of you to the divine working and keep back the rest; not to make a partial offering and keep for yourself the other movements of your nature. All must be opened wide ; it is insincerity to hold back any part of you or keep it shut to the Divine.
Open with faithfulness. That means to be open constantly and always ; not to open one day and withdraw the next.
In order to be always near me really and effectively you must become more and more sincere, open and frank towards me.
Sincerity is the key of the divine doors.
As long as there is within the being the possibility of an inner conflict it means that there is still in him some insincerity.
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SURRENDER
A complete surrender is not possible in so short a time,—for a complete surrender means to cut the knot of the ego in each part of the being and offer it, free and whole, to the Divine.
It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once—and not always desirable; for personal effort is better than tamasic inertia. The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force.
It is not advisable in the early stages of the sadhana to leave everything to the Divine or expect everything from it without the need of one's own endeavour. That is only possible when the psychic being is in front. Under other conditions this attitude is likely to lead to stagnation and inertia.
It is ego and desire that prevent surrender. If there is no surrender, there can be no transformation of the whole being. Absolute sincerity can make the determination of surrender rapidly effective.
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—it turns out that you surrender
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to the lower nature under pretext of surrendering to the Divine.
True surrender is possible when the sadhak is able to get rid of these things—accept the knowledge from above in place of his own ideas, the will of the Divine in place of his own desires, the movements of the Truth in place of his physical habits—and as a result is able to live wholly for the Divine.
Self-giving or surrender is demanded of those who practise this Yoga, because without such a progressive surrender of the being it is quite impossible to get anywhere near the goal. To keep open means to call in Mother's Force to work in you, and if you do not surrender to it, it amounts to not allowing the Force to work in you at all or else only on condition that it will work in the way you want and not in its own way which is the way of the Divine Truth.
It is necessary if you want to progress in your sadhana that you should make the submission and surrender of which you speak sincere, real and possible. This cannot be as long as you mix up your desires with your spiritual aspiration. It cannot be as long as you cherish vital attachment to family, child or anything or anybody else. If you are to do this Yoga, you must have only one
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desire and aspiration, to receive the spiritual Truth and manifest it in all your thoughts, feelings, actions and nature. You must not hunger after any relations "with anyone.
To give oneself is the secret of sadhana, not to demand and acquire a thing. The more one gives oneself, the more the power to receive will grow. But for that all impatience and revolt must go; all suggestions of not getting, not being helped, not being loved, going away, of abandoning life or the spiritual endeavour must be rejected.
The whole principle of this Yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody and nothing else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother-Power all the transcendent light, force, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ananda of the supramental Divine. In this Yoga, therefore, there can be no place for vital relations or interchanges with others; any such relation or interchange immediately ties down the soul to the lower consciousness and its lower nature, prevents the true and full union with the Divine and hampers both the ascent to the supramental Truth-consciousness and the descent of the supramental Ishwari Shakti.
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There is no single rule for all, it depends on the personality and the nature. Surrender is the main power of the Yoga, but the surrender is bound to be progressive; a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, but only a will in the being for that completeness. It is only when the surrender is complete that the full flood of the sadhana is possible. Till then there must be the personal effort with an increasing reality of surrender.
It is altogether unprofitable to enquire who or what class will arrive first or last at the goal. The spiritual path is no^ a field of competition or a race that this should matter. What matters is one's own aspiration for the Divine, one's own faith, surrender, selfless self-giving. Others can be left to the Divine who will lead each according to his nature. Meditation, work, bhakti are each means of preparative help towards fulfilment; all are included in this path. If one can dedicate oneself through work, that is one of the most powerful means towards the self-giving which is itself the most powerful and indispensable element of the sadhana.
The true movement is a pure aspiration and surrender. After all, one has not a right to call on the Divine to manifest himself; it can come only as a response to a spiritual or psychic state of consciousness or to a long course of sadhana rightly done; or, if it comes before
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that or without any apparent reason, it is a Grace; but one cannot demand or compel Grace. Grace is something spontaneous which wells out from the Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being. The bhakta looks for it, but he is ready to wait in perfect reliance— even if need be, all his life—knowing that it will come, never varying in his love and surrender because it does not come now or soon.
It is the first principle of our sadhana that surrender is the means of fulfilment and so long as ego or vital demand and desire are cherished, complete surrender is impossible. You have to go on rejecting the vital mixture every time it rises. If you are steadfast in rejecting, it will lose more and more of its force and fade out.
Always keep within and do things without involving yourself in them, then nothing adverse will happen or, if it does, no serious reaction will come.
Self-surrender to the divine and infinite Mother, however difficult, remains our only effective means and our sole abiding refuge,—self-surrender to her means that our nature must be an instrument in her hands, the soul a child in the arms of the Mother.
This Yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality; its object is to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness
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in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ananda. But for that, surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to that Higher Consciousness is indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a Supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the call to such a change should enter into this Yoga.
The Mother:
In our Yoga there is no room for sacrifice. In its pure sense it means a consecrated giving, a making sacred to the Divine.......If you have the slightest feeling that you are making sacrifice, then it is no longer surrender.....True surrender enlarges you; it increases your capacity; it gives you a greater measure in quality and in quantity, which you could not have had by yourself.
Even the gods have to make their surrender to the Supreme, if the Divine creation is to be realised upon the earth.
The true, lasting quietness in the vital and the physical as well as in the mind, comes from a complete consecration
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to the Divine; for when you can no more call anything, not even yourself, yours, when everything, including your body, sensations, feelings and thoughts belong to the Divine, the Divine takes the entire responsibility of all and you have nothing more to worry about.
WORK
If you want to be a true doer of divine works, your first aim must be to be totally free from all desire and self-regarding ego. All stress of egoistic choice, all hankering after personal profit, all stipulation of self-regarding desire must be extirpated from the nature. There must be no demand for fruit and no seeking for reward; the only fruit for you is the pleasure of the Divine Mother and the fulfilment of her work, your only reward a constant progression in divine consciousness and calm and strength and bliss.
To keep up work helps to keep the balance between the internal experience and the external development; otherwise one-sidedness and want of measure and balance may develop. Moreover, it is necessary to keep the sadhana of work for the Divine, because in the end that enables the sadhak to bring out the inner progress into the external nature and life and helps the integrality of the sadhana.
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To go entirely inside in order to have experiences and to neglect the work, the external consciousness is to be unbalanced; so also to throw oneself outward and live in the external being alone is to be unbalanced. One must have the same consciousness in inner experience and outward action and make both full of the Mother.
There should be not only a general attitude, but each work should be offered to the Mother so as to keep the attitude a living one all the time.
The only work that spiritually purifies is that which is done without personal motives, without desire for fame or public recognition or worldly greatness, without insistence on one's own mental motives or vital lusts and demands or physical preferences, without vanity or crude self-assertion or claim for position or prestige, done for the sake of the Divine alone and at the command of the Divine.
Those who do work for the Mother in all sincerity, are prepared by the work itself for the right consciousness even if they do not sit down for meditation or follow any particular practice of Yoga. It is not necessary to tell you how to meditate; whatever is needful will come of itself if in your work and at all times you are sincere and keep yourself open to the Mother.
There is no stage of the sadhana in which works are impossible. A complete cessation of work and entire
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withdrawal into oneself is seldom advisable; it may encourage a too one-sided an visionary condition in which one lives in a sort of mid world of purely subjective experiences without a firm hold on either external reality or on the highest Reality and without the right use of the subjective experience to create a firm link and then a unification between the highest Reality and the external realisation in life.
Work for the Mother done with the right concentration on her is as much a sadhana as meditation and inner experiences.
To do both meditation and work and dedicate both to the Mother is the best thing.
The Mother does not think that it is good to give up all work and only read and meditate. Work is part of the Yoga and it gives the best opportunity for calling down the Presence, the Light and the Power into the vital and its activities; it increases also the field and the opportunity of surrender.
It is not enough to remember that the work is the Mother's—and the results also. You must learn to feel the Mother's force behind you and to open to the inspiration and the guidance. Always to remember by an effort of the mind is too difficult; but if you get into the
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consciousness in which you feel always the Mother's force in you or supporting you, that is the true thing.
Yoga through work is the easiest and most effective way to enter into the stream of this sadhana.
Work is not only for work's sake, but as field of sadhana for getting rid of the lower personality and its reactions and acquiring a full surrender to the Divine. As for the work itself, it must be done according to the organisation arranged or sanctioned by the Mother. You must always remember that it is her work and not personally yours.
To leave your work is not a solution—it is through work that one can detect and progressively get rid of the feelings and movements that are contrary to the Yogic ideal—those of the ego. The test is to do the work given by the Mother without abhiman or insistence or personal choice or prestige,—not getting hurt by anything that touches the pride, or personal preference.
It is a great and high ideal that is put before the sadhak through work and it is not possible to realise it suddenly, but to grow steadily into it is possible, if one keeps the
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aim always before one—to be a selfless and perfectly tempered instrument for the work of the Divine Mother.
In work it is to do what is best for the work, without regard to one's own prestige or convenience, not to regard the work as one's own but as the Mother's, to do it according to rule, discipline, impersonal arrangement, even if conditions are not favourable to do the best according to the conditions, etc., etc.
The greater the difficulties that rise in the work the more one can profit by them in deepening the equality, if one takes it in the right spirit. You must also keep yourself open to receive the help towards that, for the help will always be coming from the Mother for the change of the nature.
If, however, the mind and the vital get the habit of opening to the Mother's Force, they are then supported by the Force and may even be fully filled with it— the Force does the work and the body feels no strain or fatigue before or after. But even then, unless the body itself is open and can absorb and keep the Force, sufficient rest in between the work is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, although the body may go on for a very long time, yet in the end there can be a danger of a collapse.
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A complete freedom from fatigue is possible, but that comes only when there is a complete transformation of the law of the body by the full descent of a supramental Force into the earth-nature.
To work in the calm ever-widening consciousness is at once a sadhana and a siddhi.
The including of the outer consciousness in the transformation is of supreme importance in this Yoga— meditation cannot do it. Meditation can deal only with the inner being. So work is of primary importance—only it must be done with the right attitude and in the right consciousness, then it is as fruitful as any meditation can be.
The ignorance underlying this attitude is in the assumption that one must necessarily do only work or only meditation. Work by itself is only a preparation, so is meditation by itself, but work done in the increasing Yogic consciousness is a means of realisation as much as-meditation is.
I have always said that work done as sadhana—done,, that is to say, as an outflow of energy from the Divine and offered to the Divine or work done for the sake of
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the Divine or work done in a spirit of devotion is a powerful means of sadhana and that such work is especially necessary in this Yoga. By work and bhakti one can develop a consciousness in which eventually a natural meditation and realisation becomes possible.
All work done for the Divine is equally divine, manual labour done for the Divine is- more divine than mental culture done for one's own development, fame or mental satisfaction. The idea of giving up physical work for mental self-development is a creation of the mental ego.
To be free from all egoistic motive, careful of truth in speech and action, void of self-will and self-assertion, watchful in all things, is the condition for being a flawless servant.
The work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having a position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother, but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga—part of the integral Yoga, for learning to work in the true Yogic way, dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself last, harmony, patience, forbearance, etc. When the workers learn these things and cease to
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be ego-centric, as most of you are, then will come the time for work in which capacity can really be shown, although even then the showing of capacity will be an incident and can never be the main consideration or the object of divine work.
If too much work is done the quality of the work deteriorates in spite of the zest of the worker.
Mother does not disapprove of your writing a book —what she does not like is your being so lost in it that you can do nothing else. You must be master of what you do and not possessed by it.
You must do the work as an offering to the Divine and take it as part of your sadhana. In that spirit the nature of the work is of little importance and you can do any work without losing the contact with the inner presence.
All work done for the Divine, from poetry and art and music to carpentry or baking or sweeping a room, should be made perfect even in its smallest external detail as well as in the spirit in which it is done; for only then is it an altogether fit offering.
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To work for the Divine is to pray with the body.
Work done in the true spirit is meditation.
A good material work not exceeding normal capacities is most useful for keeping a good physical and moral poise.
Here, for each work given, the full strength and Grace are always given at the same time to do the work as it has to be done. If you do not feel the strength and the Grace it proves that there is some mistake in your attitude. The faith is lacking or you have fallen back on old tracks and old creeds and thus you lose all receptivity.
You will become more and more perfect in your work as the consciousness grows, increases, widens and is enlarged.
When in your work you find something giving trouble outside, look within and you will find in yourself the corresponding difficulty. Change yourself and the circumstances will change.
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It is not so easy to do work. Don't think that somehow finishing the outward form of the work is doing the work in the true sense. It is much more difficult to work than to do "sadhana" as it is ordinarily understood. In meditation your consciousness goes higher and remains there in conditions of light and peace. In true work you have to do that also and much more. You have to do all that a Yogi does, you have to [reach the highest heights and bring down those conditions of consciousness, light and peace and manifest them in your everyday jobs. For you no work is insignificant or trivial.
There must be order and harmony in your work. Mahasaraswati is not at all satisfied with your work if even the slightest disharmony, disorder or confusion are found in it. Even what is apparently the most insignificant thing must be done with perfect perfection, with a sense of cleanliness, beauty, harmony and order. For example even when you sweep a room you must try to make it as clean as a first class operation theatre.
Unless you work hard you do not get energy; because in that case you do not need it and don't deserve it. You get energy only when you make use of it.
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