Faith—Aspiration—Surrender
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This
yoga demands a total dedication of the life to the aspiration
for the discovery and embodiment of the Divine Truth and
to nothing else whatever. To divide your life between the
Divine and some outward aim and activity that has nothing
to do with the search for the Truth is inadmissible. The
least thing of that kind would make success in the Yoga
impossible.
You
must go inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication
to the spiritual life. All clinging to mental preferences
must fall away from you, all insistence on vital aims and
interests and attachments must be put away, all egoistic
clinging to family, friends, country must disappear if you
want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing
energy or action, must proceed from the Truth once discovered
and not from the lower mental or vital motives, from the
Divine Will and not from personal choice or preferences
of the ego.
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Sri Aurobindo
Mental
theories are of no fundamental importance, for the mind
forms or accepts the theories that support the turn of the
being. What is important is that turn and the call within
you.
The
knowledge that there is a Supreme Existence, Consciousness
and Bliss which is not merely a negative Nirvana or a static
and featureless Absolute, but dynamic, the perception that
this Divine Consciousness can be realised not only beyond
bur here, and the consequent acceptance of a divine life
as the aim of Yoga, do not belong to the mind. It is not
a question of mental theory—even though mentally this
outlook can be as well supported as any other, if not better,—but
of experience and, before the experience comes, of the soul’s
faith bringing with it the mind’s and the life’s
adhesion. One who is in contact with the higher Light and
has the experience can follow this way, however difficult
it may be for the lower members to follow; one who is touched
by it, without having the experience, but having the call,
the conviction, the compulsion of the soul’s adherence,
can also follow it.
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Sri Aurobindo
The
ways of the Divine are not like those of the human mind
or according to our patterns and it is impossible to judge
them or to lay down for Him what He shall or shall not do,
for the Divine knows better than we can know. If we admit
the Divine at all, both true reason and bhakti seem to me
to be at one in demanding implicit faith and surrender.
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Sri Aurobindo
Not
to impose one’s mind and vital will on the Divine but
to receive the Divine’s will and follow it, is the
true attitude of sadhana. Not to say, “This is my right,
want, claim, need, requirement, why do I not get it?”
but to give oneself, to surrender and to receive with joy
whatever the Divine gives, not grieving or revolting, is
the better way. Then what you receive will be the right
thing for you.
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Sri Aurobindo
Faith,
reliance upon God, surrender and self-giving to the Divine
Power are necessary and indispensable. But reliance upon
God must not be made an excuse for indolence, weakness and
surrender to the impulses of the lower Nature: it must go
along with untiring aspiration and a persistent rejection
of all that comes in the way of the Divine Truth. The surrender
to the Divine must not be turned into an excuse, a cloak
or an occasion for surrender to one’s own desires and
lower movements or to one’s ego or to some Force of
the ignorance and darkness that puts on a false appearance
of the Divine.
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Sri Aurobindo
You
have only to aspire, to keep yourself open to the Mother,
to reject all that is contrary to her will and to let her
work in you—doing also all your work for her and in
the faith that it is through her force that you can do it.
If you remain open in this way the knowledge and realisation
will come to you in due course.
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Sri Aurobindo
In
this Yoga all depends on whether one can open to the Influence
or not. If there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a
patient will to arrive at the higher consciousness in spite
of all obstacles, then the opening in one form or another
is sure to come. But it may take a long or short time according
to the prepared or unprepared condition of the mind, heart
and body; so if one has not the necessary patience, the
effort may be abandoned owing to the difficulty of the beginning.
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; one can concentrate also in the head
or between the eyebrows, but for many this is a too difficult
opening. 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. For the rest one must
not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in
establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity
to the Mother’s Power and Presence.
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Sri Aurobindo
