4. THE METHOD OF ANUBHAVA OR PURPOSIVE
INDULGENCE

    The system of getting rid of things by anubhava can .also be a dangerous one; for on this way one can easily become more entangled instead of arriving at freedom. This method .has behind it two well-known psychological motives. One, the motive of purposeful exhaustion, is valid only in some cases, especially when some natural tendency has too strong a hold. or too strong a drive in it to be got rid of by vicara or by the. process of rejection and the substitution of the true movement; in its place; when that happens in excess, the sadhak has sometimes even to go back to the ordinary action of the ordinary life, get the true experience of it with a new mind and will: behind and then return to the spiritual life with the obstacle: eliminated or else ready for elimination. But this method of,: purposive indulgence is always dangerous, though sometimes:: inevitable. It succeeds only when there is a very strong will: .in the being towards realisation; for then indulgence brings a strong dissatisfaction and reaction, eairagya, and the will

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towards perfection can be carried down into the recalcitrant part of the nature.

    The other motive for anubhma is of a more general applicability; for in order to reject anything from the being one. has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner-experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is an entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it: is only the degradation of a higher and true movement. lt is. this or something like it that is attempted crudely and improperly with a rudimentary and insufficient knowledge in the system of psycho-analysis. The process of raising up the lower movements into the full light of consciousness in order to know and deal with them is inevitable; for there can be no complete change without it. But it can truly succeed only when a higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held. up for change. Many, under the pretext of anubhava, not. only raise up the adverse movement, but support it with their consent instead of rejecting it, find justifications for. continuing or repeating it and so go on playing with it indulging its return, eternising it; afterwards when they want to: get rid of it, it has got such a hold that they find themselves helpless in its clutch and only a terrible struggle or an intervention of Divine Grace can liberate them. Some do this. out of a vital twist or perversity, others out of sheer ignorance; but in Yoga, as in life, ignorance is not accepted by Nature as a justifying excuse. This danger is there in all improper dealings with the ignorant parts of the nature; but none is more ignorant, more perilous, more unreasoning and obstinate in recurrence than the lower vital subconscious and, its movements. To raise it up prematurely or improperly for

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anubhava is to risk suffusing the conscious-parts also with its dark and dirty stuff and thus poisoning the whole vital and even the mental nature. Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the ,concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the Divine Calm, Light, Force and Knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.