25th May 2011
at Dining Room Hall, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.
Language : Hindi
Talks on Integral Yoga
Talks on Integral Yoga
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26 May 2011
25 May 2011
Yoga of the Body (Part-14) (Hope)
24th May 2011
at Hall of Harmony, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.
at Hall of Harmony, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.
Duration : 36 Minutes
File Size : 34 MB
Format : MP3 (128kbps)
A short synopsis:
Yoga of the Body (Part-14)
(Hope)
Every
action upon earth, in its execution and its consequences is necessarily mixed
because such is the nature of terrestrial life. There is a darkness of
Ignorance that hangs over and around everything but there is also a point of
Light that shines at the core of everyone and everything. It is this Light of
the Divine Presence that is the source of hope in all beings.
The
flower called “Hope” by the Mother is a small star shaped flower that grows
upon a creeper. Violet-blue with five petals it has a white core. It is so
symbolic for like the star there is hope even in the thick of night of a light
that is there and working and reaching out to us to guide ad illumine our path.
Also as in the flower there shines a little point of Light in every human
being, in fact in every element of creation and it is this that brings Hope.
Even
in the thick of night there is hope and we must become willing optimists to see
that side. On the contrary pessimists see only the dark side of things. This optimism
does not come from outer circumstances that often look dismal but from the
sense of the Divine Presence in all things and beings. This is the work of
Grace to keep uplifting us out of the morass of darkness and ignorance in which
we are caught. But we have to from our side open to the Grace and that is what
needs so much effort and is the main thrust of yogic endeavours.
The
present talk touches upon some of the aspects of this hope that we must always
carry under all circumstances however dismal they may appear to be.
Words of the Mother:
Prayers
and Meditations: January 29, 1914
IT
is Thy Presence in every being, O divine Master of love, that makes it possible
for every man, even the most cruel, to be open to pity and even the most vile
to respect, almost despite himself, honour and justice. It is Thou who, beyond
all conventions and prejudices, illuminest with a special light, divine and
pure, all that we are and all that we do, and makest us see clearly the
difference between what we actually are and what we could be. Thou art the
impassable barrier set up against the excess of evil, darkness and ill-will;
Thou art the living hope in every heart of all possible and future perfections.
To Thee all the fervour of my adoration. Thou art the gateway within reach of
our conception leading to unsuspected and inconceivable splendours, splendours
which will be revealed to us progressively.
Prayers and Meditations: March 12,
1914
O LORD,
my one aspiration is to know Thee and serve Thee better every day. What do
outer circumstances matter? They seem to me each day more vain and illusory, and
I take less and less interest in what is going to happen to us in the outer
life; but more and more am I intensely interested in the one thing which seems
important to me: to know Thee better in order to serve Thee better. All outer
events must converge upon this goal and this goal alone; and for that all
depends upon the attitude we have towards them. To seek Thee constantly in all
things, to want
to manifest Thee ever better in every circumstance, in this attitude lies
supreme Peace, perfect serenity, true contentment. In it life blossoms, widens,
expands so magnificently in such majestic waves that no storm can any longer
disturb it. O Lord, Thou art our safeguard, our only happiness, Thou art our
resplendent light, our pure love, our hope and our strength. Thou art our life,
the reality of our being!
In a reverent and
joyful adoration I bow to Thee.
* * *
Questions and Answers 17 February 1951 117 - 118
Never
say, “So-and-so does not do this”, “So-and-so does something else”, “That one
does what he should not do”— all this is not your concern. You have been put
upon earth, in a physical body, with a definite aim, which is to make this body
as conscious as possible, make it the most perfect and most conscious
instrument of the Divine. He has given you a certain amount of substance and of
matter in all the domains— mental, vital and physical—in proportion to what He
expects from you, and all the circumstances around you are also in proportion
to what He expects of you, and those who tell you, “My life is terrible, I lead
the most miserable life in the world”, are donkeys! Everyone has a life
appropriate to his total development, everyone has experiences which help him
in his total development, and everyone has difficulties which help him in his total
realisation. If you look at yourself carefully, you will see that one always carries
in oneself the opposite of the virtue one has to realise (I use “virtue” in its
widest and highest sense). You have a special aim, a special mission, a special
realisation which is your very own, each one individually, and you carry in
yourself all the obstacles necessary to make your realisation perfect. Always you
will see that within you the shadow and the light are equal: you have an
ability, you have also the negation of this ability. But if you discover a very
black hole, a thick shadow, be sure there is somewhere in you a great light. It
is up to you to know how to use the one to realise the other.
This
is a fact very little spoken about, but one of capital importance. And if you
observe carefully you will see that it is always thus with everyone. This leads
us to statements which are paradoxical but absolutely true; for instance, that
the greatest thief can be the most honest man (this is not to encourage you to
steal, of course!) and the greatest liar can be the most truthful person. So,
do not despair if you find in yourself the greatest weakness, for perhaps it is
the sign of the greatest divine strength. Do not say, “I am like that, I can’t
be otherwise.” It is not true. You are “like that” because, precisely, you
ought to be the opposite. And all your difficulties are there just so that you may
learn to transform them into the truth they are hiding. Once you have
understood this, many worries come to an end and you are very happy, very
happy. If one finds one has very black holes, one says, “This shows I can rise
very high”, if the abyss is very deep, “I can climb very high.” It is the same from
the universal point of view; to use the Hindu terminology so familiar to you,
it is the greatest Asuras who are the greatest beings of Light. And the day
these Asuras are converted, they will be the supreme beings of the creation.
This is not to encourage you to be asuric, you know, but it is like that—this
will widen your minds a little and help you to free yourself from those ideas of
opposing good and evil, for if you abide in that category, there is no hope.
* * *
22 May 2011
Articles on SAVITRI
by Mangesh Nadkarni
Originally Published in the "Next Future"
(Journal of Sri Aurobindo Society)
From February 2003 until October 2007
Originally Published in the "Next Future"
(Journal of Sri Aurobindo Society)
From February 2003 until October 2007
19 May 2011
SAVITRI (Hindi)
18th May 2011
at Dining Room Hall, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.
Language : Hindi
18 May 2011
Yoga of the Body (Part-13) (Grace and Karma)
17th May 2011
at Hall of Harmony, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.
at Hall of Harmony, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India.
Duration : 35 Minutes
File Size : 33 MB
Format : MP3 (128kbps)
A short synopsis:
Yoga of the Body (Part-13)
(Grace and Karma)
Words of Sri Aurobindo
I spoke of a strong central
and, if possible, complete faith because your attitude seemed to be that you
only cared for the full response – that is, realisation, the presence,
regarding all else as quite unsatisfactory, – and your prayer was not bringing
you that. But prayer in itself does not usually bring that at once – only if
there is a burning faith at the centre or a complete faith in all the parts of
the being. That does not mean that those whose faith is not so strong or
surrender complete cannot arrive, but usually they have at first to go by small
steps and to face the difficulties of their nature until by perseverance or
tapasya they make a sufficient opening. Even a faltering faith and a slow and
partial surrender have their force and their result, otherwise only the rare
few could do sadhana at all. What I mean by the central faith is a faith in the
soul or the central being behind, a faith which is there even when the mind
doubts and the vital despairs and the physical wants to collapse, and after the
attack is over reappears and pushes on the path again. It may be strong and
bright, it may be pale and in appearance weak, but if it persists each time in
going on, it is the real thing. Fits of depression and darkness and despair are
a tradition in the path of sadhana – in all yogas oriental or occidental they
seem to have been the rule. I know all about them myself – but my experience
has led me to the perception that they are an unnecessary tradition and could
be dispensed with if one chose. That is why whenever they come in you or others
I try to lift up before them the gospel of faith. If still they come, one has
to get through them as soon as possible and get back into the sun. Your dream
of the sea was a perfectly true one – in the end the storm and swell do not
prevent the arrival of the state of Grace in the sadhak and with it the arrival
of the Grace itself. That, I suppose is what something in you is always asking
for – the supramental miracle of Grace, something that is impatient of the
demand for tapasya and self-perfection and long labour. Well, it can come, it
has come to several here after years upon years of flat failure and difficulty
or terrible struggles. But it comes usually in that way – as opposed to a
slowly developing Grace – after much difficulty and not at once. If you go on
asking for it in spite of the apparent failure of response, it is sure to come.
Sri Aurobindo: Letters on
Yoga Vol 2; Page – 575
* * *
I should like to say
something about the Divine Grace – for you seem to think it should be something
like a Divine Reason acting upon lines not very different from those of human
intelligence. But it is not that. Also it is not a universal Divine Compassion
either, acting impartially on all who approach it and acceding to all prayers.
It does not select the righteous and reject the sinner. The Divine Grace came
to aid the persecutor (Saul of Tarsus), it came to St. Augustine the profligate,
to Jagai and Madhai of infamous fame, to Bilwamangal and many others whose
conversion might well scandalise the puritanism of the human moral
intelligence; but it can come to the righteous also – curing them of their
self-righteousness and leading to a purer consciousness beyond these things. It
is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law – for all
spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace. Yet it is not
indiscriminate – only it has a discrimination of its own which sees things and
persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than that of the
Mind or any other normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in the individual
often behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when the state
of Grace comes, then the Grace itself acts. There are these three powers: (1)
The Cosmic Law, of Karma or what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as
many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and giving them their chance;
(3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also more irresistibly
than the others. The only question is whether there is something behind all the
anomalies of life which can respond to the call and open itself with whatever
difficulty till it is ready for the illumination of the Divine Grace – and that
something must be not a mental and vital movement but an inner somewhat which
can well be seen by the inner eye. If it is there and when it becomes active in
front, then the Compassion can act, though the full action of the Grace may
still wait attending the decisive decision or change; for this may be postponed
to a future hour, because some portion or element of the being may still come
between, something that is not yet ready to receive.
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.
What value have mental ideas
about the Divine, ideas about what he should be, how he should act, how he
should not act – they can only come in the way. Only the Divine himself
matters. When your consciousness embraces the Divine, then you can know what
the Divine is, not before. Krishna is Krishna, one does not care what he did or
did not do: only to see him, meet him, feel the Light, the Presence, the Love
and Ananda is what matters. So it is always for the spiritual aspiration – it
is the law of the spiritual life.
* * *
“The ordinary action of the
Divine is a constant intervention within the actual law of things” – that may
or may not be but is not usually called the Divine Grace. The Divine Grace is
something not calculable, not bound by anything the intellect can fix as a
condition, v though ordinarily some call, aspiration, intensity of the psychic
being can awaken it, yet it acts sometimes without any apparent cause even of
that kind.
Sri Aurobindo: Letters on
Yoga Vol 2; Page – 609
* * *
Words
of the Mother
You have said here that we
are “tied to the chain of Karma”, but then sometimes when the Divine Grace
acts, that contradicts...
Completely, the Divine
Grace completely contradicts Karma; you know, It makes it melt away like butter
that’s put in the sun. That is what I was saying just now. What you have just
told me is another way of speaking. I was putting myself in your place and
asking: There you are, if you have an aspiration that’s sincere enough or a
prayer that’s intense enough, you can bring down in you Something that will
change everything, everything —truly it changes everything. An example may be
given that is extremely limited, very small, but which makes you understand
things very well: a stone falls quite mechanically; say, a tile falls; if it
gets loose, it will fall, won’t it? But if there comes, for example, a vital or
mental determinism from someone who passes by and does not want it to fall and
puts his hand out, it will fall on his hand, but it will not fall on the
ground. So he has changed the destiny of this stone or tile. It is another
determinism that has come in, and instead of the stone falling on the head of
someone, it falls upon the hand and it will not kill anybody. This is an
intervention from another plane, from a conscious will that enters into the
more or less unconscious mechanism.
So the consequences of Karma are not rigorous?
No, not at all. In all
religions there are people who have said that, who have given such absolute
rules, but I believe it was in order to substitute themselves for Nature and
pull the strings. There is always this kind of instinct that wants to take the
place of Nature and pull the strings of people. So they are told: “There is an
absolute consequence of all that you do....” It is a concept necessary at a
given moment of evolution to prevent people from being in a completely
unconscious egoism, in a total unconsciousness of the consequences of what they
do. There is no lack of people who are still like that, I believe it is the
majority; they follow their impulses and do not even ask themselves whether
what they have done is going to have any consequences for them and for others.
So it is good that someone tells you straight, with a severe look: “Take care,
that has consequences which will last for a very long time!” And then there are
others who come and tell you: “You will pay for it in another life.” That,
however, is one of those fantastic stories.... But it does not matter: this
also can be for the good of people. There are other religions which tell you:
“Oh! If you commit that sin, you will go to hell for eternity.” You can
imagine!... So people have such a fright that it stops them a little, it gives
them just a moment for reflection before obeying an impulse—and not always;
sometimes the reflection comes afterwards, a little late.
It is not absolute. These
are still mental constructions, more or less sincere, which cut things into
small bits like that, quite neatly cut, and tell you: “Do this or do that. If
it is not this, it will be that.” Oh! what a nuisance is this kind of life. And
so people go mad, they are frightened! “Is it like that or rather this?” And
they want it to be neither this nor that, what should they do?— They have only
to climb to a higher storey. They must be given the key to open the door. There
is a door to the staircase, a key is needed. The key, as I told you just now,
is the sufficiently sincere aspiration or the sufficiently intense prayer. I
said “or”, but I do not think it is “or”. There are people who like one better
and others, the other. But in both there is a magical power, you must know how
to make use of it.
There is something very
beautiful in both, I shall speak to you about it one day, I shall tell you what
there is in aspiration and what in prayer and why both of them are
beautiful.... Some dislike prayer; if they entered deep into their heart, they
would find it was pride—worse than that, vanity. And then there are those who
have no aspiration, they try and they cannot aspire; it is because they do not
have the flame of the will, it is because they do not have the flame of
humility.
Both are needed. There must
be a very great humility and a very great will to change one’s Karma.
The Mother: CWM 5; page 88 - 90
* * *
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