{"id":1125,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:44","slug":"09-sadhana-through-love-and-devotion-vol-23-letters-on-yoga-volume-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/23-letters-on-yoga-volume-23\/09-sadhana-through-love-and-devotion-vol-23-letters-on-yoga-volume-23","title":{"rendered":"-09_Sadhana through Love and Devotion.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nS<\/font>ECTION<\/font>
\nS<\/font>EVEN<\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

Sadhana
\nthrough Love and Devotion<\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

T<\/font><\/b>O<\/font> bring the Divine Love and Beauty and
\nAnanda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our yoga. But
\nit has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and
\nfoundation and guard the Divine Truth \u2013 what I call the supramental \u2013 and its
\nDivine Power. Otherwise Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present
\nconsciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise, may
\nfind itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the
\nfrailty of man’s inferior nature. But when it comes in the divine truth and
\npower, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and
\nout of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons
\naccording to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer
\npersonal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine. It is when one
\nhas felt this descent that one can be really an instrument for the birth and
\naction of the Divine Love in the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do
\nnot exactly know what you mean by the Divine Love being established down to the
\nsubconscious. What love? the soul’s love for the Divine? or the principle of
\nthe Divine Love and Ananda which is the highest thing that can be reached? To establish
\nthe latter down to the subconscient is a thing which would mean the entire
\ntransformation of the whole being and it cannot be done except as the result of
\nthe supramental change which is as yet far away. The other may be established
\neven now in principle, but to make it living and complete in the whole being
\nwould mean the psychic transformation completed and the spiritual also well
\nunder way already. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 753<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

The
\nMother did not tell you that love is not an emotion, but that Divine Love is
\nnot an emotion, \u2013 a very different thing to say. Human love is made up of
\nemotion, passion and desire, \u2013 all of them vital movements, therefore bound to
\nthe disabilities of the human vital nature. Emotion is an excellent and indispensable
\nthing in human nature, in spite of all its shortcomings and dangers, \u2013 just as
\nmental ideas are excellent and indispensable things in their own field in the
\nhuman stage. But our aim is to go beyond mental ideas into the light of the
\nsupramental Truth, which exists not by ideative thought but by direct vision and
\nidentity. In the same way our aim is to go beyond emotion to the height and
\ndepth and intensity of the Divine Love and there feel through the inner psychic
\nheart an inexhaustible oneness with the Divine which the spasmodic leapings of
\nthe vital emotions cannot reach or experience. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As supramental Truth is not merely a sublimation of our
\nmental ideas, so Divine Love is not merely a sublimation of human emotions; it
\nis a different consciousness, with a different quality, movement and substance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\n[the Divine Love] exists in itself and does not depend on outer contact or
\nouter expression. Whether it shall express itself outwardly or how it will
\nexpress itself outwardly depends on the spiritual truth that has to be
\nmanifested.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nDivine Love may not be able yet to manifest on the physical plane, humanity
\nbeing what it is, as fully and freely as it would otherwise do, but that does
\nnot make it less close or intense than the human. It is there waiting to be
\nunderstood and accepted and meanwhile giving all the help you can receive to
\nraise and widen you into the consciousness in which it will be no longer
\npossible for these difficulties and these misunderstandings to recur \u2013 the
\nstate in which there is possible the full and perfect union. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 754<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

And
\nlet me say also that, as regards human love and divine Love, I admitted the
\nfirst as that from which we have to proceed and to arrive at the other,
\nintensifying and transforming into itself, not eliminating, human love. Divine
\nLove, in my view of it, is again not something ethereal, cold and far, but a
\nlove absolutely intense, intimate and full of unity, closeness and rapture using
\nall the nature for its expression. Certainly, it is without the confusions and
\ndisorders of the present lower vital nature which it will change into something
\nentirely warm, deep and intense; but that is no reason for supposing that it
\nwill lose anything that is true and happy in the elements of love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love
\ncannot be cold \u2013 for there is no such thing as cold love, but the love of which
\nthe Mother speaks in that passage is something very pure, fixed and constant;
\nit does not leap into fire and sink for want of fuel, but is steady and
\nall-embracing and self-existent like the light of the sun. There is also a
\ndivine love that is personal, but it is not like the ordinary personal human
\nlove dependent on any return from the person \u2013 it is personal but not egoistic:
\nit goes from the real being in the one to the real being in the other. But to
\nfind that, liberation from the ordinary human way of approach is necessary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And
\nfirst about human love in the sadhana. The soul’s turning through love to the
\nDivine must be through a love that is essentially divine, but as the instrument
\nof expression at first is a human nature, it takes the forms of human love and
\nbhakti. It is only as the consciousness deepens, heightens and changes that
\nthat greater eternal love can grow in it and openly transform the human into
\nthe divine. But in human love itself there are several kinds of motive-forces.
\nThere is a psychic human love which rises from deep within and is the result of
\nthe meeting of the inner being with that which calls it towards a divine joy
\nand union; it is, once it becomes aware of itself, something lasting, self-existent,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n755<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

not dependent upon external satisfactions, not capable of diminution by
\nexternal causes, not self-regarding, not prone to demand or bargain but giving itself
\nsimply and spontaneously, not moved to or broken by misunderstandings, disappointments,
\nstrife and anger, but pressing always straight towards the inner union. It is
\nthis psychic love that is closest to the divine and it is therefore the right
\nand best way of love and bhakti. But that does not mean that the other parts of
\nthe being, the vital and physical included, are not to be used as means of
\nexpression or that they are not to share in the full play and the whole meaning
\nof love, even of divine love. On the contrary, they are a means and can be a
\ngreat part of the complete expression of divine love, \u2013 provided they have the
\nright and not the wrong movement. There are in the vital itself two kinds of
\nlove, \u2013 one full of joy and confidence and abandon, generous, unbargaining,
\nungrudging and very absolute in its dedication and this is akin to the psychic
\nand well-fitted to be its complement and a means of expression of the divine
\nlove. And neither does the psychic love or the divine love despise a physical
\nmeans of expression wherever that is pure and right and possible; it does not
\ndepend upon that, it does not diminish, revolt or go out like a snuffed candle
\nwhen it is deprived of any such means; but when it can use it, it does so with
\njoy and gratitude. Physical means can be and are used in the approach to divine
\nlove and worship; they have not been allowed merely as a concession to human
\nweakness, nor is it the fact that in the psychic way there is no place for such
\nthings. On the contrary, they are one means of approaching the Divine and
\nreceiving the Light and materialising the psychic contact, and so long as it is
\ndone in the right spirit and they are used for the true purpose they have their
\nplace. It is only if they are misused or the approach is not right, because
\ntainted by indifference and inertia, or revolt or hostility, or some gross
\ndesire, that they are out of place and can have a contrary effect. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But there is another way of vital love which is more usually
\nthe way of human nature and that is a way of ego and desire. It is full of
\nvital craving, desire and demand; its continuance depends upon the satisfaction
\nof its demands; if it does not get what it craves or even imagines that it is
\nnot being treated as it <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n756<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

deserves
\n\u2013 for it is full of imaginations, misunderstandings, jealousies,
\nmisinterpretations \u2013 it at once turns to sorrow, wounded feeling, anger, all
\nkinds of disorder, finally cessation and departure. A love of this kind is in
\nits very nature ephemeral and unreliable and it cannot be made a foundation for
\ndivine love…. It is for this reason that we discourage this lower vital way
\nof human love and would like people to reject and eliminate these elements as
\nsoon as may be from their nature. Love should be a flowering of joy and union
\nand confidence and self-giving and Ananda, \u2013 but this lower vital way is only a
\nsource of suffering, trouble, disappointment, disillusion and disunion. Even a
\nslight element of it shakes the foundations of peace and replaces the movement
\ntowards Ananda by a fall towards sorrow, discontent and Nirananda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nlove which is turned towards the Divine ought not to be the usual vital feeling
\nwhich men call by that name; for that is not love, but only a vital desire, an
\ninstinct of appropriation, the impulse to possess and monopolise. Not only is
\nthis not the divine Love, but it ought not to be allowed to mix in the least
\ndegree in the yoga. The true love for the Divine is a self-giving, free of
\ndemand, full of submission and surrender; it makes no claim, imposes no
\ncondition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or
\nanger \u2013 for these things are not in its composition. In return the Divine
\nMother also gives herself, but freely \u2013 and this represents itself in an inner
\ngiving \u2013 her presence in your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness,
\nher power re-creating you in the divine nature, taking up all the movements of
\nyour being and directing them towards perfection and fulfilment, her love
\nenveloping you and carrying you in its arms Godwards. It is this that you must aspire
\nto feel and possess in all your parts down to the very material, and here there
\nis no limitation either of time or of completeness. If one truly aspires and
\ngets it there ought to be no room for any other claim or for any disappointed
\ndesire. And if one truly aspires, one does unfailingly get it, more and more as
\nthe purification<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n757<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

proceeds
\nand the nature undergoes its needed change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep your love pure of all selfish claim and desire; you will
\nfind that you are getting all the love that you can bear and absorb in answer. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Realise also that the Realisation must come first, the work
\nto be done, not the satisfaction of claim and desire. It is only when the
\nDivine Consciousness in its supramental Light and Power has descended and
\ntransformed the physical that other things can be given a prominent place \u2013 and
\nthen too it will not be the satisfaction of desire, but the fulfilment of the
\nDivine Truth in each and all and in the new life that is to express it. In the
\ndivine life all is for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of the ego. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I should perhaps add one or two things to avoid
\nmisapprehensions. First, the love for the Divine of which I speak is not a
\npsychic love only; it is the love of all the being, \u2013 the vital and
\nvital-physical included, \u2013 all are capable of the same self-giving. It is a
\nmistake to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and
\nimposes the satisfaction of its desire; it is a mistake to think that it must
\nbe either that or else the vital, in order to escape from its \u201cattachment\u201d,
\nmust draw away altogether from the object of its love. The vital can be as
\nabsolute in its unquestioning self-giving as any other part of the nature;
\nnothing can be more generous than its movement when it forgets self for the
\nBeloved. The vital and physical should both give themselves in the true way \u2013 the
\nway of true love, not of ego-desire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Generally
\nwhen people speak of vital intimacy they mean something very external which
\ndoes not need to be brought down since it is common in human life. If it is the
\ninner vital intimacy with the Divine, then of course that makes the union more complete,
\nprovided it is based on the psychic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When
\nthe vital joins in the love for the Divine, it brings into it <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n758<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

heroism,
\nenthusiasm, intensity, absoluteness, exclusiveness, the spirit of
\nself-sacrifice, the total and passionate self-giving of all the nature. It is
\nthe vital passion for the Divine that creates the spiritual heroes, conquerors
\nor martyrs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I
\nsuppose \u201clove\u201d expresses something more intense than goodwill which can include
\nmere liking or affection. But whether love or goodwill the human feeling is
\nalways either based on or strongly mixed with ego, \u2013 that is why it cannot be
\npure. It is said in the Upanishad, \u201cOne does not love the wife for the sake of
\nthe wife\u201d, or the child or friend etc. as the case may be, \u201cbut for one’s
\nself’s sake one loves the wife\u201d. There is usually a hope of return, of benefit
\nor advantage of some kind, or of certain pleasures and gratifications, mental,
\nvital or physical that the person loved can give. Remove these things and the love
\nvery soon sinks, diminishes or disappears or turns into anger, reproach,
\nindifference or even hatred. But there is also an element of habit, something
\nthat makes the presence of the person loved a sort of necessity because it has
\nalways been there \u2013 and this is sometimes so strong that even in spite of
\nentire incompatibility of temper, fierce antagonism, something like hatred, it
\nlasts and even these gulfs of discord are not enough to make the persons part;
\nin other cases, this feeling is more tepid and after a time one gets accustomed
\nto separation or accepts a substitute. There is again often the element of some
\nkind of spontaneous attraction or affinity \u2013 mental vital or physical, which
\ngives a stronger cohesion to the love. Lastly, there is in the highest or
\ndeepest kind of love the psychic element which comes from the inmost heart and
\nsoul, a kind of inner union or self-giving or at least a seeking for that, a
\ntie or an urge independent of other conditions or elements, existing for its
\nown sake and not for any mental, vital or physical pleasure, satisfaction,
\ninterest or habit. But usually the psychic element in human love, even where it
\nis present, is so much mixed, overloaded and hidden under the others that it
\nhas little chance of fulfilling itself or achieving its own natural purity and
\nfullness. What is called love is therefore sometimes one thing, sometimes <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n759<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

another,
\nmost often a confused mixture, and it is impossible to give a general answer to
\nthe questions you put as to what is meant by love in such and such a case. It
\ndepends on the persons and the circumstances. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the love goes towards the Divine, there is still this
\nordinary human element in it. There is the call for a return and if the return
\ndoes not seem to come, the love may sink; there is the self-interest, the
\ndemand for the Divine as a giver of all that the human being wants and, if the
\ndemands are not acceded to, abhimāna<\/i>
\nagainst the Divine, loss of faith, loss of fervour, etc., etc. But the true
\nlove for the Divine is in its fundamental nature not of this kind, but psychic
\nand spiritual. The psychic element is the need of the inmost being for
\nself-giving, love, adoration, union which can only be fully satisfied by the Divine.
\nThe spiritual element is the need of the being for contact, merging, union with
\nits own highest and whole self and source of being and consciousness and bliss,
\nthe Divine. These two are two sides of the same thing. The mind, vital, physical
\ncan be the supports and recipients of this love, but they can be fully that
\nonly when they become remoulded in harmony with the psychic and spiritual
\nelements of the being and no longer bring in the lower insistences of the ego.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why
\ndo you need something remarkable? The love of the soul is the true thing,
\nsimple and absolute \u2013 the rest is good only if it is a means of manifestation
\nof the soul’s love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nouter being has to learn to love in the psychic way without ego. If it loves in
\nthe egoistic vital way, then it only creates difficulties for itself and for
\nthe sadhana and for the Mother.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nrelation of the child to the Mother is that of an entire, sincere <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 760<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

and
\nsimple trust, love and dependence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When
\nyou come to the Divine, lean inwardly on the Divine and do not let other things
\naffect you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What
\nhe describes is a vital demand of the ego for emotional self-satisfaction; it
\nis Maya. It is not true love, for true love seeks for union and self-giving and
\nthat is the love one must bring to the Divine. This vital (so-called) love
\nbrings only suffering and disappointment; it does not bring happiness; it never
\ngets satisfied and, even if it is granted something that it asks for, it is
\nnever satisfied with it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is perfectly possible to get rid of this Maya of the vital
\ndemand, if one wishes to do it, but the will to do it must be sincere. If he is
\nsincere in his will, he will certainly get help and protection. He must get his
\nbasis changed from the vital to the psychic centre.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis the ordinary nature of vital love not to last or, if it tries to last, not
\nto satisfy, because it is a passion which Nature has thrown in in<\/span> order to serve a temporary purpose; it is good enough
\ntherefore for a temporary purpose and its normal tendency is to wane when it
\nhas sufficiently served Nature’s purpose. In mankind, as man is a more complex
\nbeing, she calls in the aid of imagination and idealism to help her push, gives
\na sense of ardour, of beauty and fire and glory, but all that wanes after a
\ntime. It cannot last, because it is all a borrowed light and power, borrowed in
\nthe sense of being a reflection caught from something beyond and not native to
\nthe reflecting vital medium which imagination uses for the purpose. Moreover,
\nnothing lasts in the mind and vital, all is a flux there. The one thing that
\nendures is the soul, the spirit. Therefore love can last or satisfy only if it
\nbases itself on the soul and spirit, if it has its roots there. But that <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n761<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

means
\nliving no longer in the vital but in the soul and spirit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The difficulty of the vital giving up is because the vital is
\nnot governed by reason or knowledge, but by instinct and impulse and the desire
\nof pleasure. It draws back because it is disappointed, because it realises that
\nthe disappointment will always repeat itself, but it does not realise that the
\nwhole thing is itself a glamour or, if it does, it repines that it should be
\nso. Where the vairagya is sattwic, born not of disappointment but of the sense
\nof greater and truer things to be attained, this difficulty does not arise.
\nHowever, the vital can learn by experience, can learn so much as to turn away
\nfrom its regret of the beauty of the will-o’-the-wisp. Its vairagya can become
\nsattwic and decisive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whatever
\nmay be the glamour of a vital love, once it falls away and one gets to a higher
\nlevel, it should be seen to have been not the great thing one imagined. To keep
\nthis exaggerated estimate of it is to hold the consciousness back from the pull
\ntowards the greater thing with which that cannot for a moment compare. If one
\nkeeps an exaggerated feeling like that for an inferior past it must make it
\nmore difficult to develop the entire person for a higher future. It is indeed
\nnot the Mother’s wish that anybody should look back in a spirit of enthusiastic
\nappreciation to the old vital love. It was indeed \u201cso little\u201d in any true
\nestimate of things. It is not at all a question of comparison or of extolling
\nthe vital passion of one at the expense of that of the other. It is the whole
\nthing that must dwindle in its proportions and recede into the shadowy constructions
\nof the past that have no longer any importance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your
\ndifficulty is that the vital has not yet arrived at the secret of the
\nself-existent Ananda of love, the Ananda of love’s own pure truth, the inner
\nbeauty of it for its own sake, the secret of the inner abiding ecstasy; it
\ncannot yet believe that the thing exists. But it is travelling towards it and
\nthis feeling was probably <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n762<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

a
\nstage \u2013 a groping after a purer vital emotion on the way to the purest of all
\nwhich is one with the Divine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nDivine Love, unlike the human, is deep and vast and silent; one must become
\nquiet and wide to be aware of it and reply to it. He must make it his whole
\nobject to be surrendered so that he may become a vessel and instrument \u2013 leaving
\nit to the Divine Wisdom and Love to fill him with what is needed. Let him also
\nfix this in the mind not to insist that in a given time he must progress,
\ndevelop, get realisation; whatever time it takes, he must be prepared to wait
\nand persevere and make his whole life an aspiration and an opening for the one
\nthing only, the Divine. To give oneself is the secret of sadhana, not to demand
\nand acquire. The more one gives oneself, the more the power to receive will
\ngrow. But for that all impatience and revolt must go; all suggestions of not
\ngetting, not being helped, not being loved, going away, of abandoning life or
\nthe spiritual endeavour must be rejected.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If
\nthe love is absolute and complete and there has never been any vital demand
\nconnected with it, then suggestions of revolt cannot come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One
\ncan love divinely only by becoming divine in nature; there is no other way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love
\nis sufficient for itself \u2013 it does not need the support of the blind. In that
\nit is like faith and every other divine force.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Human
\nlove is mostly vital and physical with a mental support <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

\u2013 it can take an unselfish, noble and pure form and
\nexpression only if it is touched by the psychic. It is true, as you say, that it
\nis more usually a mixture of ignorance, attachment, passion and desire. But
\nwhatever it may be, one who wishes to reach the Divine must not burden himself
\nwith human loves and attachments, for they form so many fetters and hamper his
\nsteps, turning him away besides from the concentration of his emotions on the
\none supreme object of love. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is such a thing as psychic love, pure, without
\ndemand, sincere in self-giving, but it is not usually left pure in the attraction
\nof human beings to one another. One must also be on one’s guard against the
\nprofession of psychic love when one is doing sadhana, \u2013 for that is most often
\na cloak and justification for yielding to a vital attraction or attachment. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Universal love is the spiritual founded on the sense of the
\nOne and the Divine everywhere and the change of the personal into a wide
\nuniversal consciousness, free from attachment and ignorance. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Divine Love is of two kinds \u2013 the divine Love for the
\ncreation and the souls that are part of itself, and the love of the seeker and
\nlove for the Divine Beloved; it has both a personal and impersonal element, but
\nthe p personal is free here from all lower elements or bondage to the vital and
\nphysical instincts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\npsychic love is pure and full of self-giving without egoistic demands, but it
\nis human and can err and suffer. The Divine Love is something much vaster and
\ndeeper and full of light and Ananda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nDivine’s love is that which comes from above poured down from the Divine
\nOneness and its Ananda on the being \u2013 psychic love is a form taken by divine
\nlove in the human being according to the need and possibilities of the human consciousness. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

The
\nsoul’s love and joy come from within from the psychic being. What comes from
\nabove is the Ananda of the higher consciousness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If
\nlove is psychic in its motive, it always brings the sense of oneness or at
\nleast of an inner intimate closeness of being. The Divine Love is based upon
\noneness and the psychic derives from the Divine Love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If
\nthe psychic unites itself with the Divine, it cannot be separated. Separation
\nis non-union. The psychic realisation is one of diversity in unity (the portion
\nand the whole); it is not one of dissolving like a drop of water in the sea \u2013 for
\nthen no love or devotion is possible unless it is love of oneself, devotion to
\noneself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Men
\nare necessarily separated by the individualisation of their nature and can only
\nestablish contacts there. In the psychic being one gets the sense of oneness by
\npsychic sympathy, but not any unification, for the psychic is the individual
\nsoul and must unify itself with the Divine before it can through the Divine
\nunify with others. In spiritual realisation there are two quite opposite forms
\n\u2013 one in which one withdraws from all outer things including all material
\nbeings in the world to merge in the Divine and one in which one feels the Self
\nor the Divine in all and through that realisation attains to a universal
\noneness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nlove that belongs to the spiritual planes is of a different kind \u2013 the psychic
\nhas its own more personal love, bhakti, surrender. Love in the higher or
\nspiritual mind is more universal and impersonal. The two must go together to
\nmake the highest divine love. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Universal
\nlove is always universal \u2013 psychic love can individualise itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cosmic
\nlove depends on the realisation of oneness of self with all. Psychic love or
\nfeeling for all can exist without this realisation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nIntuitive or overmind are more open to the truth of Divine love and more
\ncapable of universalising love than the mind ordinarily is \u2013 love there is also
\nmore calm in its intensity, less ego-bound than in the mental parts. But the
\nmind can also approach their quality of love, if the love in it grows psychic
\nand spiritual.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do
\nnot quite understand X’s question. Does he mean to ask whether one can become
\nconscious of the Divine’s Love for all creatures before one is oneself filled
\nwith the universal love for others? If that is the meaning, then one can
\ncertainly become conscious of the Divine’s Love before one has oneself the
\nuniversal love \u2013 one can become conscious of it by contact with the Divine in
\noneself. Naturally the consciousness of it should lead to the development of a
\nuniversal love for all. But if he means a love that is divine, not tainted by
\nthe lower movements, then it is true that until there comes the peace, purity,
\nfreedom from ego, wideness, light of the universal consciousness which is the
\nbasis of the universal love, it is difficult to have a love that is free from
\nall the defects, limitations, taints of ordinary human love. The more one has
\nof the universality the more one tends to be freed from these things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\noneness with all in its basis is something self-existent and self-content which
\ndoes not need expression. When it does express <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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itself
\nas love, it is something wide and universal, untroubled and firm even when it
\nis intense. This is in the basic cosmic oneness. There is also the surface
\ncosmic consciousness which is an awareness of the play of cosmic forces \u2013 here anything
\nmay rise, sex also. It is this part that needs the perfect psychisation,
\notherwise one cannot hold, contain and deal with it in the proper way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nrealisation in the mind of the One brings or ought to bring a certain freedom
\nin the mind, but it is possible for the vital and the body under its impulse to
\ngo on having the ordinary movements \u2013 for they depend only partially on the
\nmind for their action. They can even carry it away, haranti<\/i> prasabham<\/i> manah<\/i>, or they can act in spite
\nof the mind’s reasoning and disapprobation. \u201cI see the better and approve it, I
\nfollow the worse\u201d as the Roman poet puts it \u2013 in the language of the Gita, anicchannapi<\/i> balādiva<\/i> niyojitah<\/i><\/span><\/i>.
\nIt is necessary therefore that the realisation with its peace and force of
\npurity should come down concretely into the vital and physical itself so that
\nwhen the vital movements try to rise they are met by it and unable to remain
\nbecause of its automatic pressure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So
\nlong as the whole consciousness is not clear of doubtful stuff and the
\nrealisation of oneness confirmed in the supreme purity, the expression of the
\nall-love is not advisable. It is by holding it in oneself that it becomes a
\nreal part of the nature, established and purified by joining with it the other
\nrealisations still to come. At present it is only a first touch and to
\ndissipate it by expression would be very imprudent. The sex and vital might
\neasily become active \u2013 I have known cases of very good yogis… in whom the viśvaprema<\/i> became the viśvakāma<\/i>, all-love becoming
\nall-lust. This has happened with many both in Europe and
\nthe East. Even apart from that it is always best to solidify or confirm rather
\nthan to throw out and disperse. When the sadhana has <\/p>\n

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progressed
\nand the knowledge from above comes to enlighten and guide the love, then it
\nwill be another matter. My insistence on rejection of all untransformed vital
\nmovements is based on experience, mine and others’ and that of past yogas like
\nthe Vaishnava movement of Chaitanya (not to speak of the old Buddhist Sahaja
\ndharma) which ended in much corruption. A wide movement such as that of
\nall-love can only take place when the ground of Nature has been solidly prepared
\nfor it. I have no objection to your mixing with others, but only under a
\ncontinual guard and control by a vigilant mind and will.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perception
\nis not enough to transform the nature. Paśyatah<\/i>
\nin the spiritual language does not mean only perception. Perception is of the
\nmind and a mental perception is not enough \u2013 a substantial and dynamic
\nrealisation in all the being is necessary. Otherwise one of three things may
\nhappen. (1) The mind perceives oneness but the vital is not affected, it goes on
\nwith its impulses, for the vital is governed not by thought or reason but by
\ntendency, impulse, desire-force \u2013 it uses reason only as a justification for
\nits tendencies. Or even the vital may say, \u201cAll is one so it does not matter
\nwhat I do. Why should not I seek oneness with others in my own way?\u201d (2) If the
\nmind has a realisation, but the vital does not share in it or distorts it, then
\nalso the vital can insist on its own way or even carry the mind along with it.
\nAs the Gita says, the senses (vital) carry away the mind even of the sage who
\nsees, as the wind carries away a ship on a stormy sea. (3) The inner being may
\nhave the realisation strongly and live in the oneness, calm, peace, but the
\ninterior parts of the outer may feel the reactions of desire etc. In this case
\nthe reactions are more superficial; but even so rejection is needed till they
\ncease. When all the being lives in the solid realisation of calm, peace,
\nliberation, oneness, then the desires fall away and the necessity of rejection ceases,
\nbecause there is nothing to reject any longer. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

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The
\nmental realisation [of the one self] does not bring this result [immunity from moha<\/i> and śoka<\/i>], the spiritual does. In the Vedantic experience \u201cseeing\u201d
\nmeans also becoming, one is that one self, identified, \u2013 all action of Nature
\nseems to one a movement on that one self which is itself not touched by it.
\nTherefore there is no moha<\/i> or śoka<\/i>. That is when one can keep the
\nexperience and when it is complete. Even if one has the experience only as
\nsomething within while the movements of the vital continue on the surface, yet
\nthese movements are felt as external and superficial, not really belonging to oneself
\n\u2013 the self within remains untouched, calm, griefless, at peace. If the vital
\nalso is transformed into this consciousness, then even on the surface grief
\nbecomes impossible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The dynamic<\/i> Love cannot go out equally to
\nall \u2013 that would create a chaotic disturbance because of the unpreparedness of the
\nmajority. It is only the static immutable universal Love that can apply equally
\nto all \u2013 that which comes in a still wideness of the heart which corresponds
\nwith the still wideness of the mind in which there is the equanimity and
\ninfinite peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One
\ncan talk to all, unless one has a reason for not doing so. The oneness with all
\nis an internal realisation, but it does not necessarily impose the same dealing
\nwith all…. It is the old story of hāthi<\/i>
\nbrahman<\/i> and māhout<\/i> brahman<\/i>.
\nThere is the fundamental realisation and there are the disparities of the Lila
\n\u2013 both have to be taken into account.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis the vital seeking to pour itself out with the implicit idea of getting a
\nreturn in interchange. The consciousness of oneness is something behind all
\nlife and all forms of affection come no doubt from it, but not consciously, and
\nthey get changed, mixed, <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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perverted
\nwhen the vital takes up the action of the force of Love of whose true or divine
\nnature it is unconscious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That
\nwas exactly what X tried to do \u2013 to express the love in connection with this or
\nthat person. But universal love is not personal \u2013 it has to be held within as a
\ncondition of the consciousness which will have its effects according to the
\nDivine Will or be used by that Will if necessary; but to run about expressing
\nit for one’s personal satisfaction or the satisfaction of others is only to
\nspoil and lose it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Formerly
\nwhenever the opening of the heart came you began to associate it with vital
\nenjoyment and turned it upon others instead of turning the love towards the
\nDivine and keeping its essential purity \u2013 so also the higher consciousness when
\nit came down was being dispersed in mental movements. This time they were both
\ncoming in a purer form, but the danger of the mental and vital forces catching
\nhold of them is still there and then both are likely to stop or break down. So
\nyou must be careful to allow no mental deviation this time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I
\nhave heard of Mctaggart as a philosopher but am totally unacquainted with his
\nthought and his writings, so it is a little difficult for me to answer you with
\nany certitude. Isolated thoughts or sentences may easily be misunderstood if
\nthey are not read against the background of the thinker’s way of looking at
\nthings taken as a whole. There is always, too, the difference of standpoint and
\napproach between the spiritual seeker or mystic who (sometimes) philosophises
\nand the intellectual thinker who (sometimes or partly) mysticises. The one
\nstarts from a spiritual or mystic experience or at the least an intuitive realisation
\nand tries to express it and its connection with other spiritual or intuitive
\ntruth in the inadequate and too abstract language of <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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the
\nmind; he looks behind thought and expression for some spiritual or intuitive
\nexperience to which it may point and, if he finds none, he is apt to feel the
\nthought, however intellectually fine, or the expression, however intellectually
\nsignificant, as something unsubstantial, because without spiritual substance.
\nThe intellectual thinker starts from ideas and mentalised feelings and other
\nmental or external phenomena and tries to reach the essential truth in or
\nbehind them; generally, he stops short at a mental abstraction or only a
\nderivative mental realisation of something that is in its own nature other than
\nmental. But if he has the true mystic somewhere in him, he will sometimes get
\nbeyond to at least flashes and glimpses. Is it not the compulsion of this
\napproach (I mean the inadequacy of the method of intellectual philosophy, its
\nfixation to the word and idea, while to the complete mystic, word and idea are
\nuseful symbols only or significative flash-lights) that kept Mctaggart, as it
\nkeeps many, from the unfolding of the mystic within him? If the reviewer is
\nright, that would be why he is abstract and dry, while what is beautiful and
\nmoving in his thought might be some light that shines through in spite of the
\ninadequate means of expression to which philosophical thinking condemns us.
\nHowever, subject to this rather lengthy caveat, I will try to deal with the
\nextracted sentences or summarised thoughts you have placed before me in your
\nletter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLove the main
\noccupation of the selves in absolute reality\u201d<\/i>: This seems to me a little
\nexcessive. If instead of \u201cthe main occupation\u201d it were said \u201can essential
\npower\u201d, that might pass. I would myself say that bliss and oneness are the essential
\ncondition of the absolute reality, and love as the most characteristic dynamic
\npower of bliss and oneness must support fundamentally and colour their
\nactivities; but the activities themselves may not be of one main kind but
\nmanifold in character.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Benevolence and
\nsympathy<\/i>: In mental experience benevolence and sympathy have to be
\ndistinguished from love; but it seems to me that beyond the dividing mind,
\nwhere the true sense of oneness begins, these become at a higher intensity of their
\nmovement characteristic values of love. Benevolence becomes an intense compulsion
\nimposed by love to seek always the good <\/p>\n

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of
\nthe loved, sympathy becomes the feeling out of love to contain, participate in
\nand take as part of one’s own existence all the movements of the loved and all
\nthat concerns him. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLove is authentic and
\njustifies itself completely whether its cause be great or trivial<\/i>\u201d: That is
\nnot often true in human practice; for there the destiny of love and its
\njustification depend very much as a rule (though not always) on the nature of
\nthe cause or object. For if the object of love is trivial in the sense of its
\nbeing an inadequate instrument for the dynamic realisation of the sense of
\noneness which Mctaggart says is the essence of love, then love is likely to be
\nbaulked of its fulfilment. Unless, of course, it is satisfied with existing,
\nwith spending itself in its own fundamental way on the loved without expecting
\nany return for its self-expenditure, any mutual unification. Still, of love in
\nits essence the statement may be true: but then it would point to the fact that
\nLove at its origin is a self-existent force, an absolute, a transcendent (as I
\nhave put it), which does not depend upon the objects \u2013 it depends only on
\nitself or only on the Divine; for it is a self-existent power of the Divine. If
\nit were not self-existent, it would hardly be independent of the nature or
\nreaction of its objects. It is partly what I mean when I speak of transcendent
\nLove \u2013 though this is only one aspect of its transcendence. That self-existent
\ntranscendent Love spreading itself over all, turning everywhere to contain,
\nembrace, unite, help, upraise towards love and bliss and oneness, becomes
\ncosmic divine Love; intensely fixing itself on one or other to find itself, to achieve
\na dynamic unification or to reach here towards the union of the soul with the
\nDivine, it becomes the individual divine Love. But there are unhappily its
\ndiminutions in the human mind, human vital, human physical; there the divine
\nessence of Love easily becomes mixed with counterfeits, dimmed, concealed or
\nlost in the twisted movements born of division and ignorance. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love and self-reverence<\/i>:
\nIt sounds very high, but also rather dry; this \u201cemotion\u201d in the lover does not
\nseem to be very emotional, it is a hill-top syllogising far above the flow of
\nany emotional urges. Self-reverence in this sense or in a deeper sense can come
\nfrom Love, but it can come equally from a participation in Knowledge, in Power
\nor anything else that one\u00a0 <\/span>feels to be
\nthe <\/p>\n

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highest
\ngood or else of the essence of the Highest. But the passion of love, the
\nadoration of love can bring in a quite different, even an opposite emotion.
\nEspecially in love for the Divine or for one whom one feels to be divine, the
\nBhakta feels an intense reverence for the Loved, a sense of something of
\nimmense greatness, beauty or value and for himself a strong impression of his
\nown comparative unworthiness and a passionate desire to grow into likeness with
\nthat which one adores. What does come very often with the onrush of Love is an
\nexaltation, a feeling of a greatening within, of new powers and high or
\nbeautiful possibilities in one’s nature or of an intensification of the nature;
\nbut that is not exactly self-reverence. There is a deeper self-reverence
\npossible, a true emotion, a sense of the value and even the sacredness of the
\nsoul, even the mind, life, body as an offering or itself the temple for the
\ninner presence of the Beloved. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These reactions are intimately connected with the fact that
\nLove, when it is worthy of the name, is always a seeking for union, for
\noneness, but also in its secret foundation it is a seeking, if sometimes only a
\ndim groping for the Divine. Love in its depths is a contact of the Divine
\nPossibility or Reality in oneself with the Divine Possibility or Reality in the
\nloved. It is the inability to affirm or keep this character that makes human
\nlove either transient or baulked of its full significance or condemned to sink
\ninto a less exalted movement diminished to the capacity of the human
\nreceptacle. But there Mctaggart brings in his saving clause, \u201cWhen I love, I
\nsee the other not as he is now (and therefore really is not), but as he really
\nis (that is, as he will be)\u201d. The rest of it that \u201cthe other with all his
\nfaults is somehow infinitely good \u2013 at least for his friend\u201d seems to me too
\nmental to convey anything very definite from the standpoint of the spiritual
\ninner values. But the formula quoted also is not over clear. It means, I
\nsuppose, something like Vivekananda’s distinction between the apparent Man and the
\nreal Man; or it coincides up to a point with the saying of one of the early
\nteachers of Vedanta, Yajnavalkya, \u201cNot for the sake of the wife is the wife
\ndear (or, friend \u2013 for the wife is only the first of a list), but for the sake
\nof the Self (the greater Self, the Spirit within) is she dear\u201d. But
\nYajnavalkya, a seeker of the One (not the plural) Absolute, would not have <\/p>\n

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accepted
\nthe implication in Mctaggart’s phrase; he would have said that one must go
\nbeyond and eventually seek the Self not in the wife or friend \u2013 even though
\nsought there for a time, but in its own self-existence. In any case, there
\nseems to be here an avowal that it is not the human being (what he now is), but
\nthe Divine or a portion of the Divine within (call it God if you will or call
\nit Absolute) that is the object of the love. But the mystic would not be
\nsatisfied like Mctaggart with that \u201cwill be\u201d, \u2013 would not consent to remain in
\nlove with the finite for the sake of an unrealised Infinite. He would insist on
\npushing on towards full realisation, towards finding the Divine in Itself or
\nthe Divine Manifest; he would not rest satisfied with the Divine unconscious of
\nitself, unmanifested or only distantly in posse<\/i>.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is where the parallel with the Ishta Devata which you
\nsuggest would not hold; for the Ishta Devata on whom the seeker concentrates is
\na conscious<\/i> Personality of the Divine
\nanswering to the needs of his own personality and showing to him as in a
\nrepresentative image what the Divine is or at least pointing him through itself
\nto the Absolute. On the other side, when I spoke of the self-absorption of the
\nDivine Force in its energising, I was trying to explain the possibility in a
\nDivine \u00a0<\/span>Cosmic manifestation of this
\napparently inconscient Matter. I said that in the frontal movement there was
\nsomething of the Divine that had thrown itself into material form with so much
\nconcentration that it became the motion and the form which the motion of Force
\ncreates and put all that was not that behind it, \u2013 even, but in a greater degree
\nand more permanently, as a man can concentrate and forget his own existence in
\nwhat he is doing, seeing or making. In man himself, who is not inconscient,
\nthis appears in a different way; his frontal being is unaware of what is behind
\nthe surface personality and action, like the part of the actor’s being which
\nbecomes the role and forgets entirely the other more enduring self behind the
\nactor. But in either case there is a larger self behind, \u201ca Conscient in things
\ninconscient\u201d, which is aware both of itself and of the self-forgetting frontal
\nform seen as the creature. Does Mctaggart recognise this conscious Divine
\nwithin? He makes too little of this Absolute or Real Self which, as he yet
\nsees, is within the unreal or less real appearance. His <\/p>\n

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denial
\nof the Divine comes from the insistence of his mind and vital temperament on
\nthe friend as he is, even though his higher mind may try to escape from that by
\nthe idea of what his friend will be; otherwise it is difficult to understand
\nthe stupendous exaggeration of his thesis that the love for friends is the only
\nreal thing in life and his unwillingness to give God a chance, lest that should
\ntake away the friend and leave the Divine in his place. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do not quite seize what is his conception of the Absolute.
\nHow can it be said that a society (?) of distinct selves are collectively the
\nAbsolute? If it is meant that where there is a union of conscious liberated
\nselves there is the presence of the Divine and a certain manifestation is
\npossible, \u2013 that is intelligible. Or if by society is meant only that the sum
\nor totality of all distinct selves is the Divine and these distinct individual
\nselves are portions of the Divine, that would be an intelligible (pantheistic)
\nsolution. Only, it would be a Divine All or some kind of Cosmic Self or Spirit
\nrather than the Absolute. For if there is an Absolute \u2013 which intellectually
\none is not bound to believe except that something in the higher mind seems imperatively
\nto ask for it or feel it is there \u2013 it must surely exist in its own absolute right,
\n\u2013 not constituted, not dependent for its being on a collectivity of distinct
\nselves, but self-existent. To the intellect such an Absolute may seem an
\nindefinable x which it cannot grasp, but mystic or spiritual experience pushed
\nfar enough ultimately leads to it, and whatever may be the gate of experience
\nthrough which one gets the first glimpse of it, it is there even though not
\nfully grasped in that opening experience. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your own experience of it was, you say, that of an irruption
\nof the Infinite into the finite \u2013 of a greater Power descending upon you or
\nuplifting you to itself. That indeed is what it is always to the spiritual
\nexperience \u2013 and that is why I speak of it as the Transcendent. It reveals
\nitself as such a descending and uplifting Power or a descending and uplifting Love
\n\u2013 or Light, Peace, Bliss, Consciousness, Presence; it is not limited by its
\nmanifestation in the finite, \u2013 one feels it, the Peace, the Power, Love, Light
\nor Bliss or the Presence in which all these are, to be a self-existent
\ninfinity, not something constituted by or limited to our first sight of it
\nhere. Mctaggart’s love of friends remained <\/p>\n

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the
\nonly real thing for him; I must suppose that he had not this glimpse. But once
\nthis irruption has taken place, this descent and uplifting, that is bound to
\nbecome in the end the one thing real, for by that alone can the rest find its
\nown lasting greater reality. It is the descent of the Divine Consciousness and
\nthe ascent or uplifting into it of which we speak in our yoga. All else can
\nonly hold, make good, fulfil itself if it can lift itself to be a part of this
\ndivine realisation or of its manifestation, and, to do that, it must accept a
\ngreat transformation and perfection. But the central realisation must be the
\none central aim and it is that realisation only which will make other things,
\nall that is intended to be made part of it, divinely possible.  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

II<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nnature of Bhakti is adoration, worship, self-offering to what is greater than
\noneself; the nature of love is a feeling or a seeking for closeness and union.
\nSelf-giving is the character of both; both are necessary in the yoga and each
\ngets its full force when supported by the other.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bhakti
\nis not an experience, it is a state of the heart and soul. It is a state which
\ncomes when the psychic being is awake and prominent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In
\nthe way of ahaitukī<\/i> bhakti,
\neverything can be made a means \u2013 poetry and music, for instance, become not
\nmerely poetry and music and not merely even an expression of Bhakti, but
\nthemselves a means of bringing the experience of love and Bhakti. Meditation
\nitself becomes not an effort of mental concentration, but a flow of love and
\nadoration and worship. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n776<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

There
\nis no restriction in this yoga to inward worship and meditation only. As it is
\na yoga for the whole being, not for the inner being only, no such restriction
\ncould be intended. Old forms of the different religions may fall away, but
\nabsence of all forms is not the rule of the sadhana.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These
\nare the exaggerations made by the mind taking one side of Truth and ignoring
\nthe other sides. The inner bhakti is the main thing and without it the external
\nbecomes a form and mere ritual, but the external has its place and use when it
\nis straightforward and sincere.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What
\nis meant by bāhyapūjā<\/i>
\n[external worship]? If it is purely external, then of course it is the lowest
\nform; but if done with the true consciousness, it can bring the greatest
\npossible completeness to the adoration by allowing the body and the most
\nexternal consciousness to share in the spirit and act of worship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nphotograph is a vehicle only \u2013 but if you have the right consciousness, then
\nyou can bring something of the living being into it or become aware of the
\nbeing for which it stands and can make it a means of contact. It is like the prāņapratişthā<\/i> in the
\nimage in the temple.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What
\nyou say is no doubt true, but it is better not to take away the support that
\nmay still be there for the faith of those who need such supports. These visions
\nand images and ceremonies are meant for that. It is a spiritual principle not
\nto take away any faith or support of faith, unless the persons who have it are
\nable to replace it by something larger and more complete. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the prāņapratişthā<\/i>
\nbrings down a powerful Presence, that may remain there long after the one who
\nhas brought it has left <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 777<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 his
\nbody. Usually it is maintained by the bhakti of the officiant and the sincerity
\nof belief and worship of those who come to the temple for adoration. If these
\nfail, there is likely to be a withdrawal of the Presence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seeing
\nis of many kinds. There is the superficial seeing which only erects or receives
\nmomentarily or for some time an image of the Being seen; that brings no change
\nunless the inner bhakti makes it a means for change. There is also the reception
\nof the living image in one of its forms into oneself \u2013 <\/span>let us say, in the
\nheart; that can have an immediate effect or initiate a period of spiritual
\ngrowth. There is also the seeing outside oneself in a more or less objective
\nand subtle-physical or physical way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the milana<\/i>,
\nthe abiding union is within and that can be there at all times; the outer milana<\/i> or contact is not usually
\nabiding. There are some who often or almost invariably have the contact
\nwhenever they worship, the Deity may become living to them in the picture or
\nother image they worship, may move and act through it; others may feel him
\nalways present, outwardly, subtle-physically, abiding with them where they live
\nor in the very room, but sometimes this is only for a period. Or they may feel
\nthe Presence with them, see it frequently in a body (but not materially except
\nsometimes), feel its touch or embrace, converse with it constantly \u2013 <\/span>that is
\nalso a kind of milana. The greatest milana<\/i>
\nis one in which one is constantly aware of the Deity abiding in oneself, in
\neverything in the world, holding all the world in him, identical with existence
\nand yet supremely beyond the world \u2013 <\/span>but in the world too one sees, hears, feels
\nnothing but him, so that the very senses bear witness to him alone \u2013 <\/span>and
\nthis does not exclude such special personal manifestations as those vouchsafed
\nto X and his guru. The more ways there are of the union, the better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One
\ncan receive the manifestation by any of the senses or by a <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 778<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

feeling
\nin the consciousness, \u2013 <\/span>in the complete objective manifestation there can be
\nsight, hearing, touch, everything.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I
\nmeant that one can feel the divine consciousness as an impersonal spiritual
\nstate, a state of peace, light, joy, wideness without feeling in it the Divine
\nPresence. The Divine Presence is felt as that of one who is the living source
\nand essence of that light etc., a Being therefore, not merely a spiritual
\nstate. The Mother’s Presence is still more concrete, definite, personal \u2013 <\/span>it is
\nnot that of Someone unknown, of a Power or Being, but of one who is known,
\nintimate, loved, to whom one can offer all the being in a living concrete way.
\nThe image is not indispensable, though it helps \u2013 <\/span>the presence can be inwardly
\nfelt without it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If
\nthe Presence of the Divine is established, it means that the being is ready for
\nthe transformation which proceeds naturally.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adesh
\nand Darshan are elements of a stage of sadhana in which there is still much
\ndistance from the closer state of union. The mind and vital seek the contact
\nthrough Darshan and the guidance through Adesh. What we aim at in our yoga is
\nthe constant union and presence and control of the Divine at every moment. But
\non the mental and vital level this usually remains imperfect and there is much
\nchance of error. It is by the supramentalisation that the perfect truth of this
\nDivine union in action can come. <\/p>\n

\nIII<\/b><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

It
\nis a misunderstanding to suppose that I am against Bhakti or against emotional
\nBhakti \u2013 which comes to the same thing, since without emotion there can be no
\nBhakti. It is rather the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 779<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

fact
\nthat in my writings on yoga I have given Bhakti the highest place. All that I
\nhave said at any time which could account for this misunderstanding was against
\nan unpurified<\/i> emotionalism which,
\naccording to my experience, leads to want of balance, agitated and
\ndisharmonious expression or even contrary reactions and, at its extreme,
\nnervous disorder. But the insistence on purification does not mean that I
\ncondemn true feeling and emotion any more than the insistence on a purified mind
\nor will means that I condemn thought and will. On the contrary, the deeper the
\nemotion, the more intense the Bhakti, the greater is the force for realisation
\nand transformation. It is oftenest through intensity of emotion that the
\npsychic being awakes and there is an opening of the inner doors to the Divine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis no part of this yoga to dry up the heart; but the emotions must be turned
\ntowards the Divine. There may be short periods in which the heart is quiescent,
\nturned away from the ordinary feelings and waiting for the inflow from above;
\nbut such states are not states of dryness but of silence and peace. The heart
\nin this yoga should in fact be the main centre of concentration until the
\nconsciousness rises above.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emotion
\nis necessary in the yoga and it is only the excessive emotional sensitiveness
\nwhich makes one enter into despondency over small things that has to be
\novercome. The very basis of this yoga is bhakti and if one kills one’s
\nemotional being, there can be no bhakti. So there can be no possibility of
\nemotion being excluded from the yoga.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emotion
\nis a good element in yoga; but emotional desire becomes easily a cause of
\nperturbation and an obstacle. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turn your emotions towards the Divine, aspire for their <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 780<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

purification;
\nthey will then become a help on the way and no longer a cause of suffering.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not to kill emotion, but to turn it towards the Divine is the
\nright way of the yoga. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it must become pure, founded upon spiritual peace and
\njoy, capable of being transmuted into Ananda. Equality and calm in the mind and
\nvital parts, an intense psychic emotion in the heart can perfectly go together.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awake by your aspiration the psychic fire in the heart that
\nburns steadily towards the Divine \u2013 <\/span>that is the one way to liberate and fulfil the
\nemotional nature.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis only the ordinary vital emotions which waste the energy and disturb the
\nconcentration and peace that have to be discouraged. Emotion itself is not a
\nbad thing; it is a necessary part of the nature, and psychic emotion is one of
\nthe most powerful helps to the sadhana. Psychic emotion, bringing tears of love
\nfor the Divine or tears of Ananda, ought not to be suppressed: it is only a
\nvital mixture that brings disturbance in the sadhana.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nemotional [devotion] is more outward than the psychic \u2013 <\/span>it tends towards outward
\nexpression. The psychic is inwards and gives the direction to the whole inner
\nand outer life. The emotional can be intense, but is neither so sure in its
\nbasis nor powerful enough to change the whole direction of the life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis quite true that by going above one can get out of all problems, for they no
\nlonger exist, but the problems are there below and it is difficult to be always
\nabove with so much unsolved and calling for solution. But just as one can go
\nhigh above, so one can go deep within and it is this going deep within that is
\nneeded. What happened was at the surface of the emotional being and if <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 781<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

one
\nsimply stays there the difficulties of the emotional can come, but what has to
\nbe done is not to stay on the surface but go deep within. For the psychic is
\nthere behind the emotional surface, deep behind the heart-centre. Once one
\nreaches it, these things can no longer touch; what will be there is the inner
\npeace and happiness, the untroubled aspiration, the presence or nearness of the
\nMother.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To
\nindulge in the emotions, love, grief, sorrow, despair, emotional joy, etc. for
\ntheir own sake with a sort of mental-vital over-emphasis on them is what is
\ncalled sentimentalism. There should be in deep feeling a calm, a control, a
\npurifying restraint and measure. One should not be at the mercy of one’s
\nfeelings and sentiments, but master of oneself always. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When
\nthe consciousness indulges in these things and wallows in the excitement of
\nemotional joy or suffering, that is called sentimentalism. There is another
\nkind in which the mind enjoys its perceptions of emotion, love, suffering etc.
\nand plays with them, but that is a less violent and more superficial
\nsentimentalism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To
\nknow about the sadhana with the mind is not indispensable. If one has bhakti
\nand aspires in the heart’s silence, if there is the true love for the Divine,
\nthen the nature will open of itself, there will be the true experience and the
\nMother’s power working within you, and the necessary knowledge will come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There
\nis always the personal and the impersonal side of the Divine and the Truth and
\nit is a mistake to think the impersonal alone to be true or important, for that
\nleads to a void <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 782<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

incompleteness
\nin part of the being, while only one side is given satisfaction. Impersonality
\nbelongs to the intellectual mind and the static self, personality to the soul
\nand heart and dynamic being. Those who disregard the personal Divine ignore something
\nwhich is profound and essential. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In following the heart in its purer impulses one follows
\nsomething that is at least as precious as the mind’s loyalty to its own
\nconceptions of what the Truth may be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis because it is the analysing mind that is active \u2013 <\/span>that always brings a certain
\ndryness; the higher mind or the intuition bring a much more spontaneous and
\ncomplete knowledge \u2013 <\/span>the beginning of the real Jnana without this effort. The
\nbhakti which you feel is psychic, but with a strong vital tinge; and it is the
\nmind and the vital between them that bring in the opposition between the bhakti
\nand the Jnana. The vital concerned only with emotion finds the mental knowledge
\ndry and without rasa, the mind finds the bhakti to be a blind emotion, fully
\ninteresting only when its character has been analysed<\/span>
\nand understood. There is no such opposition when the psychic and the
\nhigher-plane knowledge act together predominantly \u2013 <\/span>the psychic welcomes knowledge
\nthat supports its emotion, the higher thought consciousness rejoices in the
\nbhakti.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There
\ncan be no such thing as a mechanical and artificial devotion \u2013 <\/span>there
\nis either devotion or there is not. Devotion may be intense or not intense,
\ncomplete or incomplete, sometimes manifest and sometimes veiled, but mechanical
\nor artificial devotion is a contradiction in terms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your
\nnew attitude towards food and outward things is the true attitude, the psychic
\nattitude and shows that the psychic is already <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 783<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

controlling
\nthe vital-physical as well as the other parts of the vital nature.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the heart, the movement of longing for the Divine,
\nweeping, sorrowing, yearning is not essential in this yoga. A strong aspiration
\nthere must be, an intense longing there may very well be, an ardent love and
\nwill for union; but there need be no sorrow or disturbance. The quiet and
\nsilence you feel in your heart is the result of the pressure of the higher consciousness
\nto come down. That always brings a quietude in mind and heart and as it
\ndescends a great peace and silence. In the silent heart and mind, there must be
\nthe true attitude, and thus you have the feeling that you are the Mother’s
\nchild, the faith and the will to be united with her. Along with that there may
\nbe an aspiration or silent expectation of what is to come. That also you seem
\nto have. All therefore is well. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I have written often, there are two transformations in
\nthis yoga. The first is when the psychic being comes forward and controls and
\nchanges the nature. This is what has happened in you with great rapidity; it
\nmust complete itself, but that it will do naturally. The second is the descent
\nof the Mother’s consciousness from above the head and its transformation of the
\nwhole being and nature. This also is now preparing in you. It is the reason of
\nthe pressure, the silence in the heart etc. What you experienced this time when
\nyou went above was the wideness of the higher being in that higher
\nconsciousness above with the Light coming down through it. That wideness and
\nthat light will afterwards come down into you and your consciousness will be
\nchanged into the light and wideness and all that is in them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Viraha<\/i> is a transitional experience on
\nthe plane of the vital seeking for the Spirit \u2013 <\/span>there is no reason why it
\nshould not be possible at a quite early stage. It is the realisations without
\nany uneasiness, realisations in pure Ananda, that belong to the more developed
\nsadhana. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>
\n\u2013 <\/span>
\n784<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

The
\npure feeling of viraha<\/i> is psychic \u2013 <\/span>but if
\nrajasic or tamasic movements come in (such as depression, complaint, revolt etc.)
\nthen it becomes tamasic or rajasic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pangs
\nof separation belong to the vital, not to the psychic; the psychic having no
\npangs need not express them. The psychic is always turned towards the Divine in
\nfaith, joy and confidence \u2013 <\/span>whatever aspiration it has is full of trust and hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nsooner you get rid of abhimāna<\/i><\/span>
\nthe better. Anyone who indulges abhimāna<\/i><\/span> puts himself under the influence of the hostile
\nforces. Abhimāna<\/i><\/span>
\nhas nothing to do with true love; it is, like jealousy, a part of the vital
\negoism. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\nvery object of yoga is a change of consciousness \u2013 <\/span>it is by getting a new
\nconsciousness or by unveiling the hidden consciousness of the true being within
\nand progressively manifesting and perfecting it that one gets first the contact
\nand then the union with the Divine. Ananda and Bhakti are part of that deeper
\nconsciousness, and it is only when one lives in it and grows in it that Ananda
\nand Bhakti can be permanent. Till then, one can only get experiences of Ananda
\nand Bhakti, but not the constant and permanent state. But the state of Bhakti
\nand constantly growing surrender does not come to all at an early stage of the
\nsadhana; many, most indeed, have a long journey of purification and Tapasya to
\ngo through before it opens, and \u00a0<\/span>experiences
\nof this kind, at first rare and interspersed, afterwards frequent, are the
\nlandmarks of their progress. It depends on certain conditions, which have
\nnothing to do with superior or inferior yoga-capacity, but rather with a
\npredisposition in the heart to open, as you say, to the Sun of the Divine
\nInfluence. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 785<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Yes,
\nthat was what happened, but also the flow of devotion and love is a thing which
\nthe more it repeats or awakens is bound to overflow to all the parts of being
\nand have its effect on them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What
\nyou felt about replacement is quite true. The transformation proceeds to a
\nlarge extent by a taking away or throwing out of the old superficial self and
\nits movements and replacing them by a new deeper self and its true action. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It does not matter if the higher feelings, devotion etc. seem
\nto you sometimes like an influence or colouring. It looks like that when you
\nfeel yourself in the external physical or outer vital or outer mind. These
\nfeelings really are those of your inmost self, your soul, the psychic in you
\nand when you are in the psychic consciousness they become normal and natural. But
\nwhen your consciousness shifts and becomes more external, then these workings
\nof the soul or of the divine consciousness are felt as themselves external, as
\nmerely an influence. All the same, you have to open yourself to them constantly
\nand they will then more and more either soak in steadily or come in successive
\nwaves or floods and go on till they have filled the mind, the vital, the body.
\nYou will then feel them always as not only normal but as part of your very self
\nand the true substance of your nature.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If
\none does not encourage the devotion of the emotional being merely because the
\nlower vital is not yet under control and acts differently, then how is the
\ndevotion to grow and how is the lower vital to change? Until the final
\nclarification and harmonising of the nature there are always contradictions in
\nthe being, but that is not a reason for in any way suppressing the play of the
\nbetter movements \u2013 on the contrary it is these that should be cultivated and
\nmade to increase. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n786<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

IV<\/b><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

Your
\nwhole-hearted acceptance of the Vaishnava idea and Bhakti becomes rather
\nbewildering when it is coupled with an insistence that love cannot be given to
\nthe Divine until one has experience of the Divine. For what is more common in
\nthe Vaishnava attitude than the joy of Bhakti for its own sake? \u201cGive me
\nBhakti,\u201d it cries, \u201cwhatever else you may keep from me. Even if it is long
\nbefore I can meet you, even if you delay to manifest yourself, let my Bhakti,
\nmy seeking for you, my cry, my love, my adoration be always there.\u201d How
\nconstantly the Bhakta has sung, \u201cAll my life I have been seeking you and still
\nyou are not there, but still I seek and cannot cease to seek and love and
\nadore.\u201d If it were really impossible to love God unless you first experience
\nhim, how could this be? In fact, your mind seems to be putting the cart before
\nthe horse. One seeks after God first with persistence or with passion, one
\nfinds him afterwards, some sooner than others, but most after a long seeking.
\nOne does not find him first, then seek after him. Even a glimpse often comes
\nonly after long or fervent seeking. One has the love of God or at any rate some
\nheart’s desire for him and afterwards one becomes aware of God’s love, its reply
\nto the heart’s desire, its response of the supreme joy and Ananda. One does not
\nsay to God, \u201cShow your love from the first, shower on me the experience of
\nyourself, satisfy my demand, then I will see whether I can love you so long as
\nyou deserve it.\u201d It is surely the seeker who must seek and love first, follow
\nthe quest, become impassioned for the Sought \u2013 then only does the veil move
\naside and the Light appear and the Face manifest that alone can satisfy the
\nsoul after its long sojourn in the desert. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then again you may say, \u201cYes, but whether I love or not, I
\nwant, I have always wanted and now I want more and more, but I get nothing.\u201d
\nYes, but wanting is not all. As you now begin to see, there are conditions that
\nhave to be met \u2013 like the purification of the heart. Your thesis was, \u201cOnce I
\nwant God, God must manifest to me, come to me, at least give glimpses of
\nhimself to me, the real, solid, concrete experience, not mere vague things
\nwhich I can’t understand or value. God’s Grace must <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
\n787<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

answer
\nmy call for it, whether I yet deserve it or not \u2013 or else there is no Grace.\u201d
\nGod’s Grace may indeed do that in certain cases, but where does the \u201cmust\u201d come
\nin? If God must do it, it is no longer God’s Grace, but God’s duty or an
\nobligation or a contract or a treaty. The Divine looks into the heart and
\nremoves the veil at the moment which he knows to be the right moment to do it.
\nYou have laid stress on the Bhakti theory that one has only to call his name
\nand he must reply, he must at once be there. Perhaps, but for whom is this
\ntrue? For a certain kind of Bhakta surely who feels the power of the Name, who
\nhas the passion of the Name and puts it into his cry. If one is like that, then
\nthere may be the immediate reply \u2013 if not, one has to become like that, then
\nthere will be the reply. But some go on using the Name for years, before there
\nis an answer. Ramakrishna himself got it after a few months, but what months!
\nand what a condition he had to pass through before he got it! Still he
\nsucceeded quickly because he had a pure heart already \u2013 and that divine passion
\nin it. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not surely the Bhakta but the man of knowledge who
\ndemands experience first. He can say, \u201cHow can I know without experience?\u201d but
\nhe too goes on seeking like Tota Puri<\/span> even though for
\nthirty years, striving for the decisive realisation. It is really the man of
\nintellect, the rationalist who says, \u201cLet God, if he exists, prove himself to
\nme first, then I will believe, then I will make some serious and prolonged
\neffort to explore him and see what he is like.\u201d <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All this does not mean that experience is
\nirrelevant to sadhana \u2013 I certainly cannot have said such a stupid thing. What
\nI have said is that the love and seeking of the Divine can be and ordinarily is
\nthere before the experience comes \u2013 it is an instinct, an inherent longing in
\nthe soul and it comes up as soon as certain coverings of the soul disappear or
\nbegin to disappear. The next thing I have said is that it is better to get the
\nnature ready first (the purified heart and all that) before the \u201cexperiences\u201d
\nbegin rather than the other way round and I base that on the many cases there
\nhave been of the danger of experiences before the heart and vital are ready for
\nthe true experience. Of course, in many cases there is a true experience first,
\na touch of the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

Grace,
\nbut it is not something that lasts and is always there but rather something
\nthat touches and withdraws and waits for the nature to get ready. But this is
\nnot in every case, not even in the majority of cases, I believe. One has to
\nbegin with the soul’s inherent longing, then the struggle with the nature to
\nget the temple ready, then the unveiling of the Image, the permanent Presence
\nin the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peace
\nwas the very first thing that the yogis and seekers of old asked for and it was
\na quiet and silent mind \u2013 and that always brings peace \u2013 that they declared to
\nbe the best condition for realising the Divine. A cheerful and sunlit heart is
\nthe fit vessel for the Ananda and who shall say that Ananda, or what prepares
\nit, is an obstacle to the Divine union? As for despondency, it is surely a
\nterrible burden to carry on the way. One has to pass through it sometimes, like
\nChristian of The Pilgrim’s Progress<\/i>
\nthrough the Slough of Despond but its constant reiteration cannot be anything
\nbut an obstacle. The Gita specially says, \u201cPractise the yoga with an
\nundespondent heart \u2013 nirvinnacetasā<\/i><\/span>.\u201d
\nI know perfectly well that pain and suffering and struggle and accesses of
\ndespair are natural \u2013 though not inevitable on the way \u2013 not because they are
\nhelps but because they are imposed on us by the darkness of this human nature
\nout of which we have to struggle into the Light. I do not suppose Ramakrishna
\nor Vivekananda would have recommended the incidents you allude to as an example
\nfor others to follow \u2013 they would surely have said that faith, fortitude,
\nperseverance were the better way. That after all was w at they stuck to in the
\nend in spite of these bad moments…. At any rate Ramakrishna told the story of
\nNarada and the ascetic yogi and Vaishnava Bhakta with approval of its moral. I
\nput it in my own language but keep the substance: Narada on his way to Vaikuntha
\nmet a yogi practising hard tapasya on the hills. \u201cO Narada,\u201d cried the yogi,
\n\u201cyou are going to Vaikuntha and will see Vishnu. I have been practising
\nterrific austerities all my life and yet I have not even now attained to him.
\nAsk him at least for me when I shall reach him.\u201d Then Narada met a Vaishnava, a
\nbhakta who was singing songs <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

to
\nHari and dancing to his own singing, and he cried also: \u201cO Narada, you will see
\nmy Lord Hari. Ask him when I shall reach him and see his face.\u201d On his way back
\nNarada came first to the yogi. \u201cI have asked Vishnu,\u201d said the sage, \u201cyou will
\nrealise him after six more lives.\u201d The yogi raised a cry of loud lamentation:
\n\u201cWhat! So many austerities! Such gigantic endeavours! And how hard to me is the
\nLord Vishnu!\u201d Next Narada met again the bhakta and said to him: \u201cI have no good
\nnews for you. You will see the Lord but only after a lakh of lives.\u201d But the
\nbhakta leapt up with a great cry of rapture: \u201cOh, I shall see my Lord Hari!
\nAfter a lakh of lives I shall see my Lord Hari! How great is the grace of the
\nLord!\u201d And he began dancing and singing in a renewed ecstasy. Then Narada said,
\n\u201cThou hast attained. Today thou shalt see the Lord.\u201d Well, you may say: \u201cWhat
\nan extravagant story and how contrary to human nature!\u201d Not so contrary as all
\nthat and in any case hardly more extravagant than the stories of Harishchandra
\nand Shivi. Still, I do not hold up the bhakta as an example, for I myself
\ninsist on the realisation in this life and not after six or a lakh of births
\nmore. But the point of these stories is in the moral and surely when
\nRamakrishna told it, he was not ignorant that there was a sunlit path of yoga.
\nHe even seems to say that it is the quicker way as well as the better. So the
\npossibility of the sunlit path is not a discovery or original invention of
\nmine. The very first books on yoga I read more than thirty years ago spoke of
\nthe dark and sunlit way and emphasised the superiority of the latter over the
\nformer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\ntrue movement is a pure aspiration and surrender. After all, one has not a
\nright to call on the Divine to manifest himself; it can come only as a response
\nto a spiritual or psychic state of consciousness or to a long course of sadhana
\nrightly done; or, if it comes before that or without any apparent reason, it is
\na Grace; but one cannot demand or compel Grace. Grace is something spontaneous
\nwhich wells out from the Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being. The
\nbhakta looks for it, but he is ready to wait in perfect reliance \u2013 even if need
\nbe, all his life \u2013 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
\n790<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nknowing
\nthat it will come, never varying in his love and surrender because it does not
\ncome now or soon. That is the spirit of so many songs of devotees which you
\nhave sung yourself; I heard one such song from you in a record sometime ago and
\nvery beautiful it was and beautifully sung \u2013 \u201cEven if I have not won Thee, O
\nLord, still I adore.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

What prevents you from having that is the restless element of
\nvital impatience and ever-recurring and persisting disappointment at not having
\nwhat you want from the Divine. It is the idea, \u201cI wish so much for it, surely I
\nought to have it, why is it withheld from me?\u201d But wanting, however strongly,
\nis not a passport to getting; there is something more to it than that. Our
\nexperience is that too much vital eagerness, too much insistence often blocks
\nthe way, it makes a sort of obstructing mass or a whirl of restlessness and
\ndisturbance which leaves no quiet space for the Divine to get in or for the thing
\nasked for to come. Often it does come, but when the impatience has been
\ndefinitely renounced and one waits, quietly open, for whatever may be (or, for
\nthe time, not be) given. But so often when you are preparing the way for a
\ngreater progress in the true devotion, the habit of this vital element starts
\nup and takes hold and interrupts the progress made. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The joylessness also comes from the vital. It is partly due
\nto the disappointment but not solely; for it is a very common phenomenon that
\nwhen there is a pressure from the mind and soul on the vital, it often gets a
\nrajasic or tamasic vairagya instead of the sattwic kind, refuses to take joy in
\nanything, becomes dry, listless or unhappy, or it says, \u201cWell, why don’t I get the
\nrealisation you promised me? I can’t wait.\u201d To get rid of that, it is best,
\neven while observing it, not to identify oneself with it; if the mind or some
\npart of the mind sanctions or justifies, it will persist or recur. If sorrow
\nthere must be, the other kind you described in the previous letter is
\npreferable: the sadness that has a sweetness in it \u2013 no despair, only the
\npsychic longing for the true thing to come. That must come by the increase of
\nthe pure and true Bhakti. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
\n791<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

As
\nfor the way out of the impasse you speak of, I know only of the quieting of the
\nmind which makes meditation effective, purification of the heart which brings
\nthe divine touch and in time the divine Presence, humility before the Divine
\nwhich liberates from egoism and pride of the mind and of the vital, \u2013 the pride
\nthat imposes its own reasonings on the ways of the Spirit and the pride that
\nrefuses or is unable to surrender, \u2013 sustained persistence in the call within
\nand reliance on the Grace above. Meditation, japa, prayer or aspiration from
\nthe heart can all succeed, if they are attended by these or at least some of these
\nthings. I fully believe that one who has the call in him cannot fail to arrive
\nif he follows patiently the way towards the Divine. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have surely never said that you should not want the divine
\nresponse. One does yoga for that. What I have said is that you should not
\nexpect or insist on it at once or within an early time. It can come early or it
\ncan come late, but come it will if one is faithful in one’s call: for one has
\nnot only to be sincere but to be faithful through all. If I deprecate
\ninsistence, it is because I have always found that it creates difficulties and
\ndelays owing to a strain and restlessness which are created in the nature and
\nthe despondencies and revolts of the vital when the insistence is not
\nsatisfied. The Divine knows best and one has to have trust in his wisdom and
\nattune oneself with his will. Length of time is no proof of an ultimate
\nincapacity to arrive: it is only a sign that there is something in oneself which
\nhas to be overcome, and if there is the will to reach the Divine, it can be
\novercome.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If one wishes to escape from life altogether, it can only be
\nby the way of a complete inner renunciation or merging oneself in the Silence
\nof the Absolute or by a bhakti that becomes absolute or by a Karmayoga that
\ngives up one’s own will and desires to the will of the Divine. I have said also
\nthat Grace can at any moment act suddenly, but over that one has no control,
\nbecause it comes by an incalculable will which sees things that the mind cannot
\nsee. It is precisely the reason why one should never despair, that and also
\nbecause no sincere aspiration to the Divine can fail in the end. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

There
\nis only one logic in spiritual things: that when a demand is there for the
\nDivine, a sincere call, it is bound one day to have its fulfilment. It is only
\nif there is a strong insincerity somewhere, a hankering after something else \u2013 power,
\nambition, etc. \u2013 which counterbalances the inner call that the logic is no
\nlonger applicable. In your case it is likely to come through the heart, through
\nincrease of bhakti or psychic purification of the heart: that is why I was
\npressing the psychic way upon you. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do not allow these wrong ideas and feelings to govern you or
\nyour state of depression to dictate your decisions: try to keep a firm central
\nwill for the realisation; you can do so if you make up your mind to it, these
\nthings are not impossible. You will find that the spiritual difficulty
\ndisappears in the end like a mirage. It belongs to the physical self and, where
\nthe inner call is sincere, cannot hold even the outer consciousness always: its
\napparent solidity will dissolve. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are no doubt right about asking for the bhakti, for I
\nsuppose it is the master claim of your nature: for that matter, it is the
\nstrongest motive force that sadhana can have and the best means for all else
\nthat has to come. It is why I said that it is through the heart that spiritual
\nexperience must come to you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As
\nfor Krishna, why not approach simply and straight? The
\nsimple approach means trust. If you pray, trust that he hears. If the reply
\ntakes long in coming, trust that he knows and loves and that he is wisest in
\nthe choice of the time. Meanwhile quietly clear the ground, so that he may not
\nhave to trip over stone and jungle when he comes. That is my suggestion and I
\nknow what I am saying \u2013 for whatever you may say, I know very well all human
\ndifficulties and struggles and I know of the cure. That is why I press always
\non the things that would minimise and shorten the struggles and difficulties, \u2013
\nthe psychic turn, faith, perfect and simple confidence and reliance. These, let
\nme remind you, are tenets of the Vaishnava yoga. Of course, there is the other
\nVaishnava way which swings between yearning and despair \u2013 ardent seeking and
\nthe pangs of viraha. It is that you seem to <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

be
\nfollowing and I do not deny that one can arrive by that as one can by almost
\nany way, if followed sincerely. But then those who follow it find a rasa<\/i> even in viraha<\/i>, in the absence and the caprice of the Divine Lover. Some of
\nthem have sung that they have followed after him all their lives but always he
\nhas slipped away from their vision and even in that they find a rasa<\/i> and never cease following. But you
\nfind no rasa in it. So you cannot expect me to approve of that for you. Follow
\nafter Krishna by all means, but follow with the
\ndetermination to arrive: don’t do it with the expectation of failure or admit
\nany possibility of breaking off half-way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I
\nhave no objection at all to the worship of Krishna or
\nthe Vaishnava form of devotion, nor is there any incompatibility between
\nVaishnava Bhakti and my supramental yoga. There is in fact no special and
\nexclusive form of supramental yoga: all ways can lead to the supermind, just as
\nall ways can lead to the Divine. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you persevere, you cannot fail to get the permanent bhakti
\nyou want and the realisation you want, but you should learn to put an entire
\nreliance on Krishna to give it when he finds all ready
\nand the time come. If he wants you to clear out imperfections and impurities
\nfirst, that is, after all, understandable. I don’t see why you should not
\nsucceed in doing it, now that your attention is being so constantly turned on
\nit. To see them clearly and acknowledge them is the first step, to have the
\nfirm will to reject them is the next, to separate yourself from them entirely
\nso that if they enter at all it will be as foreign elements, no longer parts of
\nyour normal nature but suggestions from outside, brings their last state; even,
\nonce seen and rejected, they may automatically fall away and disappear; but for
\nmost the process takes time. These things are not peculiar to you; they are
\nparts of universal human nature; but they can, do and will disappear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As
\nto the point that puzzles you, it only arises from a confusion between the
\nfeeling of a devotee and the observation of the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

observer.
\nOf course, the devotee loves Krishna because Krishna
\nis lovable and not for any other reason: that is his feeling and his true
\nfeeling. He has no time to bother his head about what in himself made him able
\nto love; the fact that he does love is sufficient for him and he does not need
\nto analyse his emotions. The Grace of Krishna consists for him in Krishna’s
\nlovableness, in his showing himself to the devotee, in his call, the cry of the
\nflute. That is enough for the heart, or if there is anything more, it is the
\nyearning that others or all may hear the flute, see the face, feel all the beauty
\nand rapture of this love. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not the heart of the devotee but the mind of the
\nobserver that questions how it is that the Gopis were called and responded at
\nonce and others \u2013 the Brahmin women, for instance \u2013 were not called and did not
\nrespond at once. Once the mind puts the question, there are two possible
\nanswers: the mere will of Krishna without any reason, what the mind would call
\nhis absolute divine choice or his arbitrary divine caprice or else the
\nreadiness of the heart that is called: and that amounts to adhikāri-bheda<\/i>. A third reply would be: circumstances, as for
\ninstance, \u201cthe parking off the spiritual ground into close preserves\u201d as X puts
\nit. But then how can circumstances prevent the Grace from acting? In spite of
\nparking off it works: Christians, Mahomedans do answer to the Grace of Krishna.
\nTigers, ghouls must love if they see him, hear his flute? Yes, but why do some
\nhear it and see him, others not? We are thrown back on two alternatives:
\nKrishna’s Grace calls whom it wills to call without any determining reason for
\nthe choice or the rejection, it is all his mercy or his withholding or at least
\ndelaying of his mercy, or else he calls the hearts that are ready to vibrate
\nand leap up at his call \u2013 and even there he waits till the moment has come. To
\nsay that it does not depend on outward merit or appearance of fitness is no
\ndoubt true: the something that was ready to wake in spite, it may be, of many
\nhard layers in which it was enclosed, may be something visible to Krishna
\nand not to us. It was there perhaps long before the flute began to play, but Krishna
\nwas busy melting the hard layers so that the heart in its leap might not be
\npressed back by them when the awakening notes came. The Gopis heard and rushed
\nout into the forest, the others <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage<\/span> \u2013
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\n
\n<\/div>\n

did
\nnot, \u2013 or did they think it was only some rustic music or some rude
\ncowherd-lover fluting to his sweetheart: not a call that learned and cultured
\nor virtuous ears could recognise as the call of the Divine? There is something
\nto be said after all for the adhikāri-bheda<\/i>.
\nBut, of course, it must be understood in the large sense: some may have the adhikāra<\/i> for recognising Krishna’s
\nflute, some for the call of Christ, some for the dance of Shiva \u2013 to each his
\nown way and his nature’s answer to the Divine Call. Adhikāra<\/i> cannot be stated in rigid mental terms: it is
\nsomething spiritual and subtle, something mystic and secret between the called
\nand the Caller. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the swelled head, the theory of Grace may no doubt
\ncontribute to it, though I should imagine that the said head never felt the
\nGrace but only the magnanimity of its own ego. The swelling may come equally in
\nthe road of personal effort as by the craving for Grace. It is fundamentally
\nnot due to either, but to a natural predisposition to this kind of oedema.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Radha
\nis the personification of the absolute love for the Divine, total and integral
\nin all parts of the being from the highest spiritual to the physical, bringing
\nthe absolute self-giving and total consecration of all the being and calling
\ndown into the body and the most material nature the supreme Ananda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The
\ncoming of sex on seeing the image of Krishna and Radha
\nis due to the past association of sex with the cult of Radha-Krishna. But in
\nfact the image has nothing to do with sex. The true symbol for it would not be
\nthe human sex-attraction, but the soul, the psychic, hearing the call of the
\nDivine and flowering into the complete love and surrender that brings the
\nsupreme Ananda. That is what Radha and Krishna by their
\ndivine union bring about in the human consciousness and it is so that you must
\nregard it, throwing aside the old sex-associations. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n
\n<\/div>\n

The
\nGopis are not ordinary people in the proper sense of the word: they are
\nembodiments of a spiritual passion, extraordinary by their extremeness of love,
\npersonal devotion, unreserved self-giving. Whoever has that, however humble his
\nor her position in other respects (learning, power of presentation,
\nscholarship, external sanctity, etc.) can easily follow after Krishna
\nand reach him: that seems to me the sense of the symbol of the Gopis. There are
\nmany other significances, of course \u2013 that is only one among the many.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Certainly,
\nKrishna is credited with much caprice, difficult dealings
\nand a playfulness (Lila!) which the played-with do not always immediately
\nappreciate. But there is a reasoning as well as a hidden method in his
\ncaprices, and when he does come out of it and takes a fancy to be nice to you,
\nhe has a supreme attractiveness, charm and allurement which compensates and more
\nthan compensates for all you have suffered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why
\nshould not Krishna ride a horse if he so wants? His
\nactions or habits cannot be fixed by the human mind or by an immutable
\ntradition. Especially Krishna is a law to himself.
\nPerhaps he was in a hurry to get to the place where he wanted to flute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If
\nKrishna was always and by nature cold and distant (Lord, what a discovery \u2013 Krishna
\nof all people!), how could human devotion and aspiration come near him \u2013 he and
\nit would soon be like the North and South Pole, growing icier and icier, always
\nfacing each other but never seeing because of the earth’s bulge. Also, if Krishna
\ndid not want the human Bhakta as well as the Bhakta wanting him, who could get
\nat him? \u2013 he would be always sitting on the snows of the Himalayas
\nlike Shiva. History <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u2013
\n797<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

describes
\nhim otherwise and he is usually charged with being too warm and sportive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do
\nnot know that I can answer your question about what X means by Krishna’s
\nlight. It is certainly not what is ordinarily meant by knowledge. He may mean
\nthe Light of the Divine Consciousness or the light that comes from it or he may
\nmean the luminous being of Krishna in which all things
\nare in their supreme truth, \u2013 the truth of knowledge, the truth of Bhakti, the truth
\nof ecstasy and Ananda, everything is there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is also a manifestation of Light \u2013 the Upanishads speak
\nof Jyotirbrahma<\/i>, the Light that is
\nBrahman. Very often the sadhak feels a flow of light upon him and around him or
\na flow of light invading his centres or even his whole being and body,
\npenetrating and illumining every cell and in that light there grows the
\nspiritual consciousness and one becomes open to all or many of its workings and
\nrealisations. Appositely, I have a review of the book of Ramdas entitled
\n\u201cVision\u201d before me in which is described such an experience, got by the
\nrepetition of the Rama mantra, but, if I understand rightly, after a long and
\nrigorous self-discipline. \u201cThe mantra having stopped automatically, he beheld a
\nsmall circular light before his mental vision. This yielded him thrills of
\ndelight. This experience having continued for some days, he felt a dazzling
\nlight like lightning flashing his eyes, which ultimately permeated and absorbed
\nhim. Now an inexpressible transport of bliss filled every pore of his physical
\nframe.\u201d It does not always come like that \u2013 very often it comes by stages or at
\nlong intervals, at first, working on the consciousness till it is ready. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We speak here also of Krishna’s light
\n\u2013 Krishna’s light in the mind, Krishna’s
\nlight in the vital, etc. But it is a special light \u2013 in the mind it brings
\nclarity, freedom from obscurity, mental error and perversion; in the vital it
\nclears out all perilous stuff and where it is, there is a pure and divine
\nhappiness and gladness. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But why limit oneself, insist on one thing alone and
\nshut out every other? Whether it be by Bhakti or by Light or by Ananda <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n
\n<\/div>\n

or
\nby Peace or by any other means whatsoever that one gets the initial realisation
\nof the Divine, to get it is the thing and all means are good that bring it. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If it is bhakti that one insists on, it is by the bhakti that
\nit comes and bhakti in its fullness is nothing but an entire self-giving. But
\nthen all meditation, all tapasya, all means of prayer or mantra must have that
\nas its end and it is when one has progressed sufficiently in that that the
\nDivine Grace descends and the realisation comes and develops till it is
\ncomplete. But the moment of its advent is chosen by the wisdom of the Divine
\nalone and one must have the strength to go on till it arrives, for when all is
\ntruly ready it cannot fail to come. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013
\n799<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SECTION SEVEN  Sadhana through Love and Devotion    TO bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23-letters-on-yoga-volume-23","wpcat-24-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}