OUR WAY OF SADHANA

WE have said something about our sadhana through work and meditation. But that is not all. Without an all-engrossing sadhana the inmost potentialities cannot be released, the greatness latent in the being cannot be drawn out. The demand upon us is to surrender the whole human to the Divine so that the Grace can lavish the whole Divine on the human frame.

In the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo the one essential is self-surrender. But its expression differs from person to person. Sri Aurobindo did not wish to cast everyone in the same mould. He used to direct each sadhak according to his individual inner capacities and tendencies.

That is why we find here no indoctrination, no vows, no initiation, no element of compulsion, no item of a programme, be it Pranam, meditation or anything else where attendance is demanded. For in the words of the Master: "We are not a party or a church or religion seeking adherents or proselytes."¹

There is freedom even to make mistakes. Even if the Mother or the Master came to know of our taking a false step, they have very rarely interfered, unless it affected the discipline of the Ashram or the matter is referred to them. In this respect their patience is inexhaustible. We are expected to learn by experience and be conscious of our shortcomings.

Narrating his reminiscences, Purani says, "Sri Aurobindo had never imposed himself on anyone. Do's and don'ts were not his ways. He would at best say that a particular thing was not good for the person concerned. He would in most cases give perfect freedom to individuals to decide things for themselves. That does

1. Letters of Sri Aurobindo, Second Series, p. 479.

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not mean that he refused help if needed. His method of helping people was unique and unexampled. Instead of deciding things himself he would arouse the Divine in those who sought his aid and thus help them arrive at correct decisions."²

To a question on one's spiritual quest as well as on other things like marriage Sri Aurobindo said:

"...everything depends on your ideal. If it is to lead the ordinary life of vital and physical enjoyments, you can choose your mate anywhere you like. If it is a nobler ideal like that of art or music or service to your country, the seeking for a life-compa nion must be determined not by desire, but by something higher and the woman must have something in her attuned to the psychic part of your being. If your ideal is spiritual life, you

must think fifty times before you marry.....With these data before

you, you must decide for yourself."³

In the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo—opening, surrender, consciousness are key words. Let us begin with the first two. Consciousness is such a vast subject and Sri Aurobindo's conception of the term is so different from that of other yogas and philosophies that the reader is advised to go to the original exposition in Sri Aurobindo's works.

The First Need : Opening

To enter into the Integral Yoga the first need is opening— "opening to the Divine Influence", to the inner working of the Mother. Without this one may spend years in sadhana, work twenty hours a day, yet not catch a glimpse of the glory of spirituality.

We do not say this in a vainglorious spirit. Those into whom the Mother has infused something of her consciousness will

2.The Sunday Times, Special Number, 1950.

3.Among the Great, (1950), Dilip Kumar Roy, p. 200.

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testify to how her daily acts of Grace reveal themselves in their lives. But to open a door one must turn the key in the right way. Wrong turning will be sheer waste of time and energy.

There are two grades of the Mother's disciples. First there are those who have dedicated their all to the service of the Divine and are trying to live the ideals set forth by the Master. These are the people who have made the Ashram the home of their souls.

The others are those who, though living outside, keep in touch with the Mother and try to do sadhana according to their capacity. Many of these are ardent followers. They are in no way less devoted to the cause for which the Ashram stands and no less important in the eyes of the Mother. All depends upon the opening and the readiness of the adhar. Far and near do not count in the least. The following may help to form an idea :

N, a businessman, felt at the very first Darshan something emanating from Sri Aurobindo and passing into him. Slowly his connection with the Mother grew so intimate that his devotion to the cause of the Ashram became an example for others to follow. His life became a joyous service to the Divine. He had probably developed a vision of working which helped him to look ahead and act at the right moment.

When a death occurs in the Ashram, the vehicle carrying the body generally stops for a while on the road nearing Sri Aurobindo's room. After N's death, when his body reached the place, a sadhak saw Sri Aurobindo in a vision extending his gracious hand and blessing the body.

X's connection with the Ashram began in 1947. Slowly his relation with the Mother grew so close that one could see in his life a free play of the Mother's Grace almost with open eyes. When an offer of the headship of an Association was made to him, he hesitated very much to accept it. Then he was told, "Don't fear, I shall be with you."

He had the frankness to admit that he neither deserved the

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honour, nor had the ability or resources to compete with far more noted persons in the field and yet the position was given to him.

His whole being radiated with gratitude to the one who gave him everything—name, fame, money, honour and happiness.

He said : "In business also my labour has been made joyful and easy. Time and again I have seen things having arranged themselves as if some secret hand were doing everything long before I became conscious of it. I become aware of it when it takes a physical form. That's why I run to the Mother like a child whenever there's a push from within. I make no programme, seek no permission, simply rush to the One who has brought so much Light to the Earth!

"What joy in sitting at her feet! What sweetness her smiles infuse into the being! Can it be described, tell me can it be conveyed, through words ?"

Here is an instance of one whose heart speaks, not his mind. He only can feel the Grace whom the Grace chooses. How and why the Grace chooses nobody can say. It has a law of its own.

"...there are conditions to fulfil: a great purity must be there and a great intensity in the self-giving, and that absolute trust in the supreme wisdom of the Divine Grace which knows better than us what is truly good for ourselves. If the aspiration is offered to That and the offering is made truly and with enough intensity, the result will be marvellous."⁴

"Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh." He went on : "Y, through whom I came, says, 'You have free access to the Mother, because you are rich; you have money.' Only a fool can say so. Who gave the money to me ? What was I ? And how far can my money go to help her whose work is so immense and which daily grows and grows? Who but she has the might to bear the Himalayan burden of the Ashram ? Our money—our offering—what small things they must always be!

4. The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, Part Nine, Nolini Kanta Gupta, p. 33.

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"It is a pity that staying here for a number of years, Y could not understand the Mother in the least and had to leave the Ashram after being hit by a trifle. For years he has been trying in vain for permission to return.

"Experience has now taught him what Power is there in the Mother and he has been worshipping that Power, installing it in a temple at a centre in Benaras."

There runs a feeling among the members of his Association that X is a man of noble character, honest in his dealings, sincere at heart and of a sweet temperament. No wonder he was chosen President for the second term too.

Is this not an example of an ordinary life blooming by the very touch of spirituality into something unimagined? High or low, all are equal to the Divine. Success or failure depends largely on our degree of receptivity. The sky showers its blessings on all alike; but if the mouth of the pitcher is kept closed, can even a drop enter it?

Another contrast: S, connected with the Ashram for more than two decades, has been instrumental in bringing several people into touch with the Mother's Light. Only God knows why he could never succeed in life. Yet nothing could shake his devotion.

T, a man of scanty means, is a member of a Centre started by S. T says, "A call from the heart—and the response is there. This has been my repeated experience."

Asked what had earned for him this faith, he gave the pointed answer, "Success." He added, 'The greater the success, the greater grew my faith." Now what brought him success? The answer can only be "Opening."

The Mother hardly knows him by name. When something about him was referred to her, she inquired, "Who is he?" Only once in a year or two he pays a casual visit to the Ashram.

The following may help one to gather some hint about the

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Mother and the Master's workings :

"The Mother or myself send a force. If there is no openness, the force may be thrown back or returned (unless we put a great force which it is not always advisable to do) as from an obstruction or resistance : if there is some openness, the result may be partial or slow; if there is the full openness or receptivity, then the result may be immediate. Of course there are things that cannot be removed all at once, being an old part of the nature, but with receptivity these also can be more effectively and rapidly dealt with. Some people are so open that even by writing they get free before the letter reaches us."

Somewhere the Master has said : Whatever one wants from the Divine, He gives him; but who asks nothing, He gives Himself to him.

Right from the very beginning S's relation with the Mother was so sweet that there was nothing the Mother would not give her but for the asking yet she never asked for anything. The Divine gave her so much that there never arose a need, a want, a desire except once when her husband was laid up with pleurisy. Here one can mark a difference between the life of one in the world though rolling in riches yet never in peace and the other living under the glow of spirituality.

The most reputed doctor of Bombay had advised her husband that for two years he should not climb down the stairs. It was a little surprise to the doctor to learn that the patient had been cured by the Mother's Grace within two months.

How serious was the case can be inferred from the fact that thirty-four ounces of water was extracted from his body, yet two-thirds was left over. Another two months after he came to Pondicherry. On hearing of his having come to Pondicherry two months after, the doctor remarked that only a Divine Shakti could cure him so soon.

There is something interesting about their first contact with

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the Mother.

Before coming here S wondered what made men of means, even royal dignitaries renounce their all after a single look, a single touch of God-men. What do they get in comparison to which worldly joys pale into insignificance? Is the earth still blessed with such mighty souls ?

And that experience dawned on her on August 13,1934. The very first touch of the Mother made her feel, "Here was one for whom my adoring heart was yearning. I felt a current passing through my veins which made me enter a realm so far unknown. Oh, for that sacred touch! It was no wonder that one would like to sacrifice one's all."

On August 15, 1934 when she stood before Sri Aurobindo, the mystery got further resolved why so many had joined the Ashram never to return. "At his very sight it looked the gates of my heart opened and a revolution in my life was brought about. Life appeared no longer a burden.

"Since the time I came into their touch I have never known any misery and never had any occasion to pray for any redress or ask for anything except once as stated earlier.

"We have peace at home and harmony in the family. Though it is a big family yet there has never been a friction among us. My husband has never been in want and he achieves success after success in business. For the last 15 years he has been a Director of a big concern of which he has made me too a Director."

Her heart pulsating with gratitude, she added :

"There was a time when we used to travel third class. During my second visit (November 1934) I told the Mother, "I have nothing to offer you but my inner self."

What the Mother said to her in reply is a lesson to us all : "Outer things people give but nobody gives me his inner self."

One thing more before closing her story.

Once a relative of S asked her : "When was she going to

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Pondicherry ?"

"What makes you ask that ?"

" My Guru, a tantric Yogi of Pawagarh Kali temple says, "If you want to get more power, go to the Mother of Pondicherry, I can't reach the height where the Mother's working is going on. Her Power is working with great speed in the whole cosmos."⁵

A roving hermit had been practising yoga for years in the mountainous regions of Tibet, living on what came of itself to him, strictly sticking to his resolve not to ask anyone for anything. One day a Tibetan brought him something wrapped in a piece torn out of a periodical —The Illustrated Weekly of India. His eyes fell on an article on Sri Aurobindo. On reading it his inner being got stirred to such an extent that he secured some of Sri Aurobindo's books by post with the help of someone.

Going through them, he felt: "Such a great Yogi was here on earth and I was born at this time yet I could not happen to see him even once. How unfortunate was I! I kept roaming the ranges of the Himalayas in search of a Guru—while such a great Guru— Truth personified—was there in this world of hate and horror."

Then something dawned on him from above and he felt: "He has not gone, he has not left us, the Mother tells us he has not left the earth."

This kindled in him an intense desire to visit Pondicherry and he came down to the plains. But how could he get there ?

"If it is the will of God that I should touch the sacred soil of Pondicherry, He will do everything for me", he said to himself.

And his heart's call did not fail to reach the ears of the One whom he yearned to see.

At Hazaribag a Behari gentleman asked him: "Where do you intend to go,Swamiji?"

"To Pondicherry."

And he bought him a ticket.

5. Brahniand me unki shakti bare jore se kam kar rahi hai.

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This was in 1961.

The Divine again provided for his visit to Pondicherry in 1966.

In order to know whether he was a Telugu, a Tamil or a Behari, I asked him what his native place was. "India", pat came his answer.

To elicit from him something more I inquired what his mother tongue was.

"Why mother-tongue ? Ask my national language and I say, 'Hindi.'"

How happy it would be for India if all her children had such a broad outlook!

After a month's stay in the Ashram he felt that in order to get into the inner sadhana of the Ashram he must take up some work. Accordingly some work was given to him which he took up with all his heart.

An ordinary man remembers God, say, for five minutes and feels that his day's debt to God is paid. He does not feel the need to spare even a day in a year for the Divine.

Almost similar is the case with men of religious tendencies. A priest in our family took a daily bath in the Ganga all his life but there was no change in his ways.

Many of those who are real seekers of truth fail to progress for lack of proper guidance. An acquaintance of mine spent thirty years in sadhana, living on very restricted meals and daily reciting the whole of the Gita for years.

Destiny drew him here, but during his first visit for eighteen days he did not feel even a touch of the Spirit. Back home, he wondered why he returned empty.

"You had the egoistic feeling that you had been doing sadhana for thirty years. That is why you have come empty." answered a soft voice from within.

One day in his native place he had the vision that the Mother

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was walking in his heart. On his fourth visit he was allowed to stay on. On his next birthday, the Mother sent him word that she was pleased with his progress.

Thus all depends here upon opening and receptivity. If one has an opening and learns to scrutinise his own movements, one can perceive that what had not been possible a year earlier has come within the domain of possibility.

"—the Divine gives the fruit not by the measure of the sadhana but by the measure of the soul's sincerity and its aspiration."⁶

The Path of Surrender

One is prone to think the road to the Divine through surrender is strewn with roses: one has not to undergo any severe austerities, only to surrender. But, unless one reaches the depth of his being and casts anchor there, one cannot hope to fathom the Divine's mysteries. It is true that one's taking recourse to surrender all one has to do can be done by the Divine. But we must first deserve, then desire. We have to pay the price, we have first to win His favour.

Till the Divine takes up the charge of the sadhana surrender cannot grow into a joyous experience.

This means inner surrender, and the core of inner surrender is trust and confidence⁷ in the Divine. The Master lays down, 'if one has this, no other tapasya is needed but this alone.'⁸

So simple an affair! What then makes people spend twenty or thirty years and yet find that the path "stretches, stretches endlessly?"

'The full significance of surrender comes when one is ready." For that, one has to do a "systematic and intensive sadhana." Mere

6. On Yoga II, Tome One, p. 558.

7."The less help from men, the more from God"— Vivekananda.

^8.For details, see On Yoga II, Tome One, pp. 562-65.

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devotional approach to God will not take us far.

"At first surrender can be made through knowledge by the mind." But the problem that confronts a beginner is: how to turn the streams of turbulent thoughts and conflicting tendencies Godward, how to make them surrender.

A novice crying in the night for light asked whoever appeared to him spiritually advanced : "How to surrender? It is not said that if once one says, 'I am Thine', him God accepts ? Every morning I invoke Him and say, 'I am Thine, I am Thine,' yet why don't I find any change in me? How to know that I have been accepted ? Why don't I feel that I belong to Him ?"

In search of a Guru he went to Rishikesh. There he met and questioned some of those who lived on green leaves alone, or kept standing on one leg all day. But nobody's answer could satisfy his soul. He prayed day and night to find or be shown the way. He wanted such a Guru as would sway his being by the majesty of his soul.

Disappointed, he came back. Once by a stroke of fortune he met P, a person connected with Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He asked him the same question. For days together he was kept in suspense, being asked every time to 'come tomorrow'. Yet far from being disgusted he got more and more attracted towards P. He wondered how that man, living in such luxury, could speak words that touched him to the core. "If he is such," the novice thought, "how great must be his Guru!"

At last one day P placed in his hands a typescript of Words of the Mother, Chapter IV. As he read the first paragraph, tears of gratitude welled up from his eyes. His heart's voice rang out, "Here is my Guru!" Even then the rich man would not let him into his 'Meditation Room.' But the day he was asked in, he had an experience which opened a new vista before his eyes.

'Pressure' and 'resistance' were the terms often used in common parlance among sadhaks in the early forties. M had just joined

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the Ashram. He could not understand what 'pressure' signified. On being questioned, Purani said, "Wait, wait, you will see." And in time M himself experienced what 'pressure' was. His sadhana was not only a call to battle but proved to be a churning of the ocean from which surged up poison more often than nectar. Now he understood why for two years he had not been allowed to stay here.

If there is water below the boat, one push is enough to make it float on the river. If it is stuck in the mud, hundreds of pushes would not move it an inch. Such is the case with opening.

The experience A had during his third visit B had after years of stay. Once someone told B he never missed his Words of the Mother (Third Series) wherever he went. This book had been with B for eight years but he never opened it, nor did the idea ever occur to him of what he should do to make the surrender effective.

All things wait for their time. When the time is ripe, one can feel oneself in tune with the truth enshrined in the words of the Mother and the Master.

"Surrender is the decision taken to hand over the responsibility of your life to the Divine...' I do not belong to myself, you say, and give up the responsibility of your being to the Truth. Then comes self-offering: 'Here I am, a creature of various qualities, good and bad, dark and enlightened. I offer myself as I am to you, take me with all my ups and downs, conflicting impulses and tendencies—do whatever you like with me."⁹ And this is the first step.

We get a clue here to how we can make our self-offering a living one. But after a time the impulse loses its force. Sadhana again appears dull and dry. The question that is common to seeking hearts is : Why does this happen ?

Seekers of Truth love to read the life-stories of saints and sages

9. Words of the Mother, Third Series, p. 6.

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in the hope of knowing how the rays of Grace cleft the thunderclouds in their lives. Anandamayi Ma, while in sadhana, once resorted to the hills to remain absorbed, living on meagre meals. Inspired by this fact, X resolved to remain exclusively turned to the Divine in thought and deed at least for a month. But he could not remain in that state for more than five or six hours at a stretch; beyond that, his being refused even to think of the Divine. This served to open his eyes to how far he was yet from an exclusive turning.

Three weeks later he thought of concentrating in the heart. That too proved hard; the restless thoughts would not allow him to concentrate there. In his attempt to pray from the heart he found that all prayers came from the mind.

After more than a year he had the first taste of concentration in the heart by hearing a mantra repeated there and it was followed by a series of experiences. These were, however, passing phases of the sadhana. Again and again dull and dry periods intervened. By looking within he found that as yet not even the will had awakened to keep him exclusively turned to the Divine. To be in constant touch with the higher consciousness was a terrible job for the vital self.

"Sadhana appears bitter," says Sri Aurobindo, "like poison in the beginning because of the difficulty and struggle, but in the end sweet as nectar,...because of the joy of realisation, the peace of liberation."

Life in Yoga has been taken to be a desert without an end. 'To suppose that Yoga is dry and joyless is a misunderstanding." When the "hidden springs of sweetness" break open no earthly joy can compare with them.

From X's spiritual diary we learn that when he was once seized by depression a thought passed into his mind : "Nothing have I gained as yet of permanent value. Years have passed and I am as empty as when I came."

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One day he chanced upon "Radha's Prayer" by the Mother, framed and hung up in a friend's house. He asked himself if he had been able to fulfil even one condition laid down there, if he had at least been able to turn his thoughts to the Divine! The prayer acted on him like a mantra. One great advantage of its repetition was that whenever he did anything that was not for the Divine he felt a prick in his consciousness, "Was it for the Divine ? Was this a right movement?"

Then dawned on him something new. He began to study his own movements. To his surprise he found how tightly he had been tied to even petty things. Once having lost a handkerchief with a few pice tied at one end he went out in search of it. Then he said to himself, "I am a sadhak; so much attachment to a piece of cloth!"

The Mother says, "... If the Divine wants you to enjoy anything, enjoy it; but be ready too to give it up the very next moment with a smile."

Before proceeding further let us consider why, knowing a Truth, we fail to live it.

Mental sincerity helps us to see our weakness, the dark spots in our nature, our incapacities and failings. But this is not enough. One must learn to live the Truth; mere recognition of defects cannot take us far.

"It is only when the power of sincerity descends into the vital" that there is an urge not only to see and understand but to do and achieve.

"Without vital change one remains at best a witness, one has an inner perception or consciousness of the Divine but in actual living one lets the old nature go its own way. It is the sincerity in the vital, its will to possess the Divine and the Divine alone...that brings the most dynamic change. Sadhana instead of being a mental occupation, an intellectual pursuit, acquires the urgency of living and doing and achieving..."¹⁰

10. Adapted from the editorial of The Advent, 1945.

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The joy of sadhana cannot be realised without peace in the vital and purity in the heart. The Master goes so far as to say, "Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Ashram for ten or twelve years and yet be as restless and full of struggle as ever."

On the other hand, experiences of inner cleansing and psychic purity are so elevating, so overwhelming that one's whole being is flooded with gratitude. One begins to feel the Divine has given him much more than he could give Him. Y came to realise this long after. That happy trend induced him to take delight in feeling that his sadhana was on a voyage to new shores.

Darkness lit up by beams of experiences led him to infer that what the Master had written to someone might well apply to him: "The quietude and silence which you feel and the sense of happiness in it are indeed the very basis of successful sadhana."¹¹

It would be foolish to gloat over a bit of experience, for there is yet a long journey to cover.

The Master wrote to someone : "Most in doing yoga live in the mind, vital, physical, lit up occasionally or to some extent by the higher mind and by the illumined mind."¹²

Why ? Because "the push to drown oneself in the Divine is very rare".

"...it is only when the surrender is complete that the full flood of the sadhana is possible."¹³

How to make the surrender complete ?

To obtain an answer we must delve a little into the deeper levels of our sadhana.

Surrender of the Vital Being

The first difficulty is the stiff resistance of the vital being. It

11.On Yoga II, Tome One, p. 639.

12.On Yoga II, Tome One, p. 529.

13.Ibid., p.499.

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refuses to budge an inch from its old rut. To quote the Mother, "It seems to be, in the human being, the most difficult part to train." And then there is the rigidity of the physical mind. It goes on repeating and repeating the same thing a thousand times.

Here begins the battle, the battle between the spiritual mind that wants control and the rebellious vital.

Of course, tranquillity in the mind ¹⁴ is the first positive result of sadhana, and the Master says, "It is a great step". But swinging between disturbance and calm goes on for a long time till the light conquers and calm and truth are accepted by all the parts.

This is just a small beginning. But we hasten to quote :

If "the psychic being and the heart and the thinking mind have surrendered, the rest is a matter of time and process...

The central and effective surrender has been made."

In this context it is necessary to cite another letter:

"The opening is the same for all. It begins with an opening of mind and heart, then of the vital proper—when it reaches the lower vital and the physical the opening is complete.

"But with the opening there must be the full self-giving to what comes down, which is the condition of the complete change. It is the last stage that is the real difficulty and it is there that everybody stumbles about till it is overcome."¹⁵

Now, why even if there is a full opening does not one find oneself en route to the sunlit path ?

If one layer of the lower regions opens today, another raises such a stubborn resistance the very next day that there remains no go but to wait for the Mother's victory in us.

A man, left to himself, is nothing but a bundle of habits and weaknesses. It is only the man on the path who can say what a fight he has had to give to his own nature to free himself even

14."...the ordinary mind is never silent."— Letters of Sri Aurobindo, Second Series, p. 143.

15.On Yoga II, Tome One, p. 582.

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from one of them.

Take the simple example of 'fear'. It is innate in our nature. Yet until we can pull it out we can have no experience of true freedom.

One more example. Sri Aurobindo has said somewhere that a yogi looks to the Divine Grace for everything. When one learns not to look to others with an eye of hope, the freedom it brings is immense.

But the lower elements in us defy true reliance. How hard it is to make the lower vital surrender will be clear from the following: P, had in his possession a good many letters from the Master. Rare was his devotion to the Mother. He was a lover of beauty. He always preferred to offer the best he could procure. Once he wrote : "My aspiration is not to possess the Divine but to be possessed by Him; to be enjoyed by the Divine and not to enjoy Him." An ideal approach, indeed !

The reply he received was truly soul-stirring:

"All parts are essentially offered but the surrender has to be made complete by the growth of the psychic self-offering in all of them and in all their movements.

"To be enjoyed by the Divine is to be entirely surrendered so that one feels the Divine Presence, Power, Light,, Ananda possessing the whole being rather than oneself possessing these things for one's own satisfaction. It is a much greater ecstasy to be thus surrendered....."

Such a fine adhar, such a fine opening, yet all his life P had to suffer from an indomitable resistance from his lower vital. Terrible was his battle with his own nature. It never consented to submit to the higher force, and despite deep experiences he had defeat after defeat, and later the vehemence of the lower grew so strong that the higher could find no chance to peep in and it retired. Then his past rose up as if in arms. But never did his heart fail to raise its call to the Mother. One must move forward trampling his

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way across the battlefield of life in sadhana.

Time and again the Master has said that this Yoga cannot be done unless the lower gives a willing consent to change. It is this that required lifelong tapasya in one form or another. A life may pass yet one may find himself stuck where he was.

That is why we have to remember the Mother's warning: "It is not sufficient to have a positive movement, there must also be a negative movement of rejection..." If the obscurities lie "buried somewhere", "...you may be sure that even after thirty, forty, or fifty years you will always be at the same point, you will not have changed. There will always be something that will wake up suddenly and devour your experience."¹⁶

Another point worth noting : in spite of the Mother's working, why do we stumble ?

In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga personal effort has to be gradually replaced by the Divine taking up the sadhana. "There will be a sort of transfer, a taking up of the forces at work in the personal Adhar..."¹⁷ That is the whole secret of the sadhana pursued here.

When this transition takes place one is able to feel that it is the Mother in him who does the sadhana.

One can feel the descent of the Mother's Force possessing one's system, part by part, when there is no resistance. The Force generally descends from the crown of the head but can start from other parts as well. K used to feel its action from the lower parts and then it would rise higher and higher. Once in meditation he lost all sense of his body, though fully conscious within. Then he felt his consciousness getting out of the body and rising up into the sky. The body lay immobilised as if dead. Next day he heard a voice : "Today you will have a taste of real Samadhi." Thereupon rose a prayer from within, "What shall I do with Samadhi, Mother ? I was born to do Thy service."

16.Bulletin, November 1966, pp. 23,27.

17.On Yoga II, Tome One, p. 567.

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The very next moment there appeared before his inner sight a pit, deep and wide and densely dark. The gaping pit told upon his nerves and he faltered. Now arose another prayer: "If there is the least bit of sincerity in me, may the Mother guide me to do Her will." And his consciousness took the plunge. A threadlike ray of light led him deeper and deeper into the pit. The moment the movement of light stopped, the meditation broke off. A standstill condition persisted for years and then ensued a severe struggle, like a tug-of-war.

A question poses itself here : When one is blessed with such a fine opening and feels clearly the action of the Yogic Force, should not all be an easy walk instead of one's being forced into a tug-of-war ?

Working of the higher Force demands full opening of the parts concerned. Any resistance anywhere, and at once the Force recedes.

At every step a battle awaits us. For every inch of ground there is a bitter fight. Nothing would give up its hold on us, not to speak of its lack of submission to the Law of Light. How long the forces of Darkness can keep us wandering about in the wilderness is common knowledge.

Says Sri Aurobindo : "The world will trouble you so long as any part of you belongs to the world."¹⁸

At this level of development one has to press on inch by inch. The one thing that appears most trying and tiresome is long periods of unrelieved dryness and seemingly futile waiting. To add to this, there is no knowing when the hard-earned gains may be swept away in a split second, unperceived. The toil has to be persisted in till another spell of heavenly touch nerves up the effort. That is why experiences are for us like welcome showers upon a thirsty earth.

18. On Yoga, Tome One, p. 582.

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Detailed Surrender

Fairy Queen rose—not bigger than a pea-flower—has been named by the Mother "Detailed Surrender". Marry of us loved to offer this particular rose to the Mother in preference to bright and blooming roses.

"Mere talk of surrender", writes the Master, "will not do, there must be a push for radical change." This cannot be done unless and until "the knot of ego is cut in each part and offered free and whole".

When sadhana comes down to the physical¹⁹ it seems to be at a halt. In order to make a surrender complete, all preferences, habits, movements, even the sense of necessity must go. To sum up, one must surrender one's character, the very way of his living, as the Mother puts it. (Bulletin, November 1966, p. 45)

It is here that we stumble. How to change our lifelong habits, tendencies and movements that lie ingrained in the very cells of the body ?

The only remedy is to bring the sadhana to the subconscient.²⁰ On the surface the water in a pool may appear transparent,

crystal-clear; but just drop into it a piece of stone, and dirt will

swirl up and darken all the water. So is the case with our mind.

However one meditates, knee-deep mud remains hidden below

the surface.

19."... the physical consciousness is like a stone and what it calls surrender is often no more than inertia..." (ibid., p. 565). "To open it is a Herculean task."

20."...some of these parts are still subject to the inconscience and subconscience and to the ...law of the nature,— mechanical habit of mind, habit of life, habit of instinct, habit of personality, habit of character, the ingrained mental, vital, physical needs, impulses, desires of the natural man, the old functionings of all kinds that are rooted there...refuse to give up their response to the lower law founded in the Inconscient; and seek to reaffirm them there as the eternal rule of Nature." (The Life Divine, American Edition, p. 825).

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All this might throw some light on how complex is our way of sadhana. If one refuses to enter into all these complexities, one cannot hope to move towards the divine life. No surrender, no transformation.

All that opposes the rule of Light must be conquered. There is no other way. But our defects will pursue us even to the gate of heaven. Many stages have to be passed before one can hope to breathe in a new air.

When the physical mind is at rest and the vital falls quiet and the body is so purified as not to fall an easy victim to illness, the relief one comes to feel is almost like a release from a long-suffering torture. Then the peace that pervades the being or the sense of emptiness that emanates from it wipes out even the traces of the struggle from the memory. And no price appears too great for it. We need not tax the reader with more problems to which there is no end. As the Master gives us the promise that one who cleaves to the path sincerely may be sure of his spiritual destiny, we patiently await our "Hour of God."

The Rishis have spoken of the Yogic path as the razor's edge. With what smoothness and ease the Mother leads us along the Path will be remembered with loving gratitude for ages to come. It is perhaps unprecedented in the history of spirituality.

When we suffer we forget she is divine; when something in us resists and revolts she "forgets" she is divine and stoops down to our level to apply the soothing balm to our bleeding wounds. She knows the tortures to which a true sadhak is at times exposed.

In order to believe, our mind always runs after miracles. "Miracle is a moment's wonder." Yoga is a spiritual battle and one must be ready for adventures.

How difficult it is to lay the true foundation of a life in the Spirit, in comparison with a miraculous but transitory change brought about by a touch, can be better imagined than expressed.

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We have given only stray glimpses of the way of our sadhana. The time has not come nor is one yet born to write the history of Transformation.

The Ideal of Transformation

"Misery shall pass abolished from the earth; There shall be peace and joy forever more."²¹

The word transformation calls for some elaboration. It is often said: The concept of kaya-kalpa, divya-sarira, cinmaya-sarira, icchdmrityu is not new to India. Where then lies the newness of the ideal of transformation? Madhav Pandit has dealt with the subject very clearly in his book, Where the Wings of Glory Brood.

Kaya-Kalpa is based on herbal treatment and requires a very severe discipline. Pandit mentions a yogi named Tapasviji who lived 185 years in our modern times. He was born in 1770 and died in 1955. As a result of the arduous austerities that he had undergone in the course of the treatment, old teeth, nails, hair, etc. gave way to new ones and, at the end of the period, he came out a "robust, young and buoyant man with all his faculties in fresh condition."

"The main principle on which this is based is that the body is made up of a number of cells. These cells are constantly being broken down and renewed. Man starts aging when these cells begin to lose their power of reproduction."

Kaya-Kalpa may help one to prolong one's life but after a time the body begins to decay. Relapses follow rather quickly "The eyes, bright for a short time, become dull once more. The brain works vigorously for a brief period only. Afterwards infirmity reasserts itself."

Another system holds that the body is composed of asuddhamaya, impure matter. It has to be turned into

21. Savitri, p. 576.

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suddha-maya, and further to be raised to pranava-tanu or jndna-tanu, a pure spiritual body. As a result of this change the body takes a glorious form, divya-tanu, and is "maintained more by the nourishment of universal forces than by the usual material food."

"By adopting yogic processes so much purity is obtained that the adhar is said to be resistant to death. A recent case is pointed out : the life of Swami Ramalingam who is believed to have disappeared from the earthly scene leaving no material remnant behind."

There is another system which needs no material aid. 'The secret of immortality lies within the human body itself." In the higher region of the body, at the crown of the head, at the famous sahasrara chakra there is a "Moon." From it drips soma or amrta which simply goes waste because we do not know how to utilise it nor are we conscious of it. If one is able to let it pass into its proper channel and not allow it to go waste, it may prepare him for the day when the ordinary law of Nature would fail to bind him.

Acharya Abhaydeva tells about two women, one from Hyderabad and the other from Rajasthan, who have not taken anything for more than ten years. S, an M.P., refused to believe it and started enquiries about the one of Hyderabad. When satisfied he looked upon her with reverence. She says that she lives on a liquid dripping inwardly from the crown of her head. It is that which frees her from hunger. According to the Acharya, here is a living example of what is mentioned in the Hathayoga Shastra.

The other lady of Rajasthan, who has taken no meal nor had any call of nature for over eighteen years, visited the Sri Aurobindo Centre at Charthawal in 1961. She says she does not feel the need of any food and is quite healthy. The why or how of it she does not know. Both of them are still (1967) living and people flock to see them. An inmate of the Ashram knows her very well.

In his review of India of Yogis Madhav Pandit speaks of

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"a most interesting Yogi of 'Nad' Brahmananda who has perfected the technique of directing sound vibrations to any part of the body at will and who has succeeded in achieving what is known as 'Kundalini tan' by which the sound flows from below the navel, i.e., the Muladhara."²²

These experiments are great in their own sphere. One cannot but feel amazed how deep, extensive and varied were the discoveries of our ancients in the realm of spirituality. But how can all end there ? Can there be any limit to the Infinite ?

What Tapasviji and Swami Ramalingam achieved speaks much about the efficacy of kaya-kalpa, cinmaya-sarira etc. But all these could be achieved once in a century or two. After the departure of such Yogis the light brought by them into the life endures for a time and then all is swallowed by the mouth of darkness. Yet what they achieved is so much gained for the earth, so much of heaven brought to the earth though it is all an individual achievement.

Sri Aurobindo's Yogic ideal of transformation is the result of his life-long tapasya and yogic research. His quest was for a complete life, a true life—a life endowed with beauty, light and power. He wants us to possess the Divine, possess His Light, Power and Sweetness and express them. His intention was "to create a new universe of activities,"²³ thereby ushering in a new era, a new world, a new race, a new order, a new life, a new mode of living, a new literature, a new poetry, a new vision of things and action, as new as man was new to the animal world.

By her Yogic vision the Mother made the discovery: "Once again nature feels one of her great impulses towards the creation of something utterly new, something unexpected, and it is to this impulse that we must answer and obey."

22.The Hindu, February 26, 1967.

23.The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 63.

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According to Sri Aurobindo, "All life is Yoga"²⁴ and "All Yoga is in its nature a new birth".²⁵ The salient feature of his Yoga is that every fibre of the vital being will undergo a change, our very cells will grow so conscious that "even the body shall remember God."²⁶

He is not content with longevity, freedom from disease, decay and death nor with the mere realisation of the Divine Consciousness. He dreams of "the Divine Consciousness penetrating into Matter and transforming it."²⁷ "What we have to do is to awake Matter to the spiritual consciousness concealed in it."²⁸

All his life he worked "...to bring down the supramental consciousness on earth, to fix it there, to create a new race with the principle of the supramental consciousness...governing the collective life."

What do we mean by a new race, a new world ?

To-day mind is the ruler of our life, we are guided and controlled by the decisions of the mind.

"The future man will be governed by intuition."

What is intuition ? The Mother explains in her simple and lucid manner:

"When the mind is perfectly silent, pure like a well-polished mirror, immobile as a pond on a breezeless day, then from above, the light of the supermind, of the truth within, shines in the quieted mind, and gives birth to intuition...

'The faculty which is exceptional, almost abnormal now, will certainly be quite common and natural for the new race, the man

24.Ibid., p. 4.

25.Ibid., p. 60.

26.Savitri, p. 794.

27."He (the gnostic being) would feel the presence of the Divine in every centre of his consciousness, in every vibration of his lifeforce, in every cell of his body." The Life Divine,(1940) pp.1035-36.

28.On Yoga II, Tome One, p. 243.

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of to-morrow. "²⁹

After covering so much ground one has to pass into what the Mother calls the "yoga of the cells."³⁰

"In our body's cells there sits a hidden Power

That sees the unseen and plans eternity..."³¹

To make these "ignorant cells." "the home of eternity"³² is the crowning end of our sadhana.

There is much more to learn and I am tempted to go on writing on the point. To quote Nolini Kanta Gupta:

"The body is composed of cells, living, cells.³³ These cells from the standpoint of consciousness are desire-cells, that is to say, particles of desire, concrete and consolidated packets of hunger and thirst. A string of such innumerable packets of hunger and thirst is life—the Buddha said. The cells are to be emptied completely. Emptiness of cells is Nirvana.

"Not necessarily. For one may empty the cells of their desire contents but replenish them with something of a purer order. This is a possibility we envisage which we are working for. The Divine Life empties the cells of desire but fills it with the energy of solar Light."³⁴

What do we stand to gain thereby ? Let us hear the poet of the Golden Age:

Men shall be lit with the Eternal's ray...

A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal's world.

29."....in this way there might appear a race of mental bejngs thinking and acting not by the intellect.,.but by an intuitive mentality which would be the first step of an ascending change.....The Life Divine, (American Edition), p. 819.

30.Bulletin, August 1966, p. 83.

31.Savitri, p. 192.

32.Vide The Mother's Message distributed on November 24, 1953.

33.According to medical science the retina of the eye is covered with about 18 million cells. From this we can infer the colossal nature of the task. Cf.Science To-day, December 1966, p. 40.

34.The Advent, August 1965.

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This world shall be God's visible garden-house...

Even there shall come as a high crown of all

The end of Death, the death of Ignorance.

Thus shall the earth open to divinity...

The Spirit shall take up the human play,

This earthly life become the life divine.³⁵

All great discoveries of the world were once the luminous dreams of great personalities. Despite its aim of material prosperity, is not the earth today an abyss of misery ? Blessed was he who dreamt of making this abyss a home of bliss.

He did not rest content simply with evolving the theory of transformation. To concretise it—to transplant "heaven into a human shape"³⁶ —he resolved to do or die.

And to hasten the immortality of others he sacrificed his physical immortality. Till something makes itself visible, the world will not be able to assess the price the Master has paid to raise the level of earthly consciousness.

In matter shall be lit the spirit's glow... A few shall see what none yet understands; God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep; For man shall not know the coming till its hour And belief shall be not till the work is done.³⁷ The force that the Master has brought down to effect the transformation will not confine itself only to the elite of humanity but act on the whole creation, in order to turn the human world into the divine.

If a question is raised: "Will then all men become divine ?" the answer is: Now that aeroplanes are in use, have the railways, automobiles or other vehicles gone out of existence ? No, even

35.Savitri, Book XI, Canto I.

36.Ibid., p. 401.

37.Savitri., p. 63. We saw these lines depicted before our eyes in Picture 15 among Huta's paintings which were exhibited in the period around the February Darshan of 1967.

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rickshaws and bullock-carts are there. Only a superior conveyance is added to the others. Likewise, plants, animals, human beings all will be there. Only a new race of men, "masters of themselves, masters of circumstances, masters of environments...", will adorn the earth.

All this may serve to give some idea of what a great experiment has been going on for the last fifty years. Even if a hundred years of more labour go for nothing, is not the experiment worth a full trial?

Who can be a greater example of surrender than our Master ? He left everything to the Will of the Supreme, uttering not even a single word about his future work or the Ashram !

When our patience is on the brink of exhaustion and we falter, we look up for inspiration to the one whose life is a practical demonstration of all that the Master has said in The Synthesis of Yoga. Her day-to-day life is nothing short of a "Mahabharata of Mahabharatas". But she stands like a rock in the warring and roaring sea of troubles, refusing to budge an inch from the goal set before her eyes. No matter what may happen, she "keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay."³⁸

From our level of consciousness how can we speak of the one whose consciousness is limitless as the Infinite, whose action springs from the bottomless sea of Peace ?

The human sweetness that is showered on us from time to time helps to catch a glimpse of what is divine in a human body. Nay, her look, her touch, her delightful voice, her invisible actions inspire us to feel something of a "divine living in a divine body".

Some hints can be had from one or two of her latest utterances on what is going on in her body.

Speaking about the consciousness of the body she said, "...the body has the feeling of living only because the Supreme Lord

38. Savitri, p. 402.

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wants it to live, otherwise it would not be able to live.

"...if even for the space of a few seconds I lost contact with the Supreme, it would die instantly. It is the Supreme alone that holds it alive.

"...several times, the body has put the question : 'Why do I not feel Your Power and Your Force in me ?' And the answer has always been a smiling answer: 'Patience, patience, one must be ready for it to be so'."³⁹

Next we have another ray of Light!

'...all of a sudden the (body's) cells sing out their OM...spontaneously." ⁴⁰

Could the highest flight of the mind ever imagine what changes would take place in her body when it grows conscious and all the cells become luminous and are transformed?

Now I shall try to give some idea of how our life centres round the Mother and why we gather around her feet. Then we shall deal with what is being done to develop the consciousness in the collectivity.

39.Bulletin, April 1966, pp. 73, 75, 77.

40.Ibid.,August 1967, p. 55.

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