{"id":1222,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1222"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:22","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:22","slug":"08-the-delight-of-the-divine-vol-21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21\/08-the-delight-of-the-divine-vol-21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21","title":{"rendered":"-08_The Delight of the Divine.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nChapter VI<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>The
\nDelight of the Divine<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            T<\/font><\/b>HIS<\/font>
\nthen is the way of devotion and this its justification to the highest and the
\nwidest, the most integral knowledge, and we can now perceive what form and
\nplace it will take in an integral Yoga. Yoga is in essence the union of the
\nsoul with the immortal being and consciousness and delight of the Divine,
\neffected through the human nature with a result of development into the divine
\nnature of being, whatever that may be, so far as we can conceive it in mind and realise it in spiritual activity. Whatever we see of this Divine and fix our
\nconcentrated effort upon it, that we can become or grow into some kind of unity
\nwith it or at the lowest into tune and harmony with it. The old Upanishad put
\nit trenchantly in its highest terms, \u201cWhoever envisages it as the Existence
\nbecomes that existence and whoever envisages it as the Non-existence, becomes
\nthat non-existence;\u201d so too it is with all else that we see of the Divine, \u2013 that,
\nwe may say, is at once the essential and the pragmatic truth of the Godhead. It
\nis something beyond us which is indeed already within us, but which we as yet
\nare not or are only initially in our human existence; but whatever of it we
\nsee, we can create or reveal in our conscious nature and being and can grow
\ninto it, and so to create or reveal in ourselves individually the Godhead and
\ngrow into its universality and transcendence is our spiritual destiny. Or if
\nthis seem too high for the weakness of our nature, then at least to approach, reflect
\nand be in secure communion with it is a near and possible consummation. <\/p>\n

The aim of this
\nsynthetic or integral Yoga which we are considering, is union with the being,
\nconsciousness and delight of the Divine through every part of our human nature
\nseparately or simultaneously, but all in the long end harmonised and unified,
\nso that the whole may be transformed into a divine nature of being. Nothing
\nless than this can satisfy the integral seer, because <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 562<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

what he sees must be that which
\nhe strives to possess spiritually and, so far as may be, become. Not with the
\nknower in him alone, nor with the will alone, nor with the heart alone, but
\nwith all these equally and also with the whole mental and vital being in him he
\naspires to the Godhead and labours<\/span> to convert their
\nnature into its divine equivalents. And since God meets us in many ways of his
\nbeing and in all tempts us to him even while he seems to elude us, \u2013 and to see
\ndivine possibility and overcome its play of obstacles constitutes the whole
\nmystery and greatness of human existence, \u2013 therefore in each of these ways at
\nits highest or in the union of all, if we can find the key of their oneness, we
\nshall aspire to track out and find and possess him. Since he withdraws into
\nimpersonality, we follow after his impersonal being and delight, but since he
\nmeets us also in our personality and through personal relations of the Divine
\nwith the human, that too we shall not deny ourselves; we shall admit both the
\nplay of the love and the delight and its ineffable union. <\/p>\n

By knowledge we
\nseek unity with the Divine in his conscious being: by works we seek also unity
\nwith the Divine in his conscious being, not statically, but dynamically,
\nthrough conscious union with the divine Will; but by love we seek unity with him
\nin all the delight of his being. For that reason the way of love, however
\nnarrow it may seem in some of its first movements, is in the end more
\nimperatively all-embracing than any other motive of Yoga. The way of knowledge
\ntends easily towards the impersonal and the absolute, may very soon become
\nexclusive. It is true that it need not do so; since the conscious being of the
\nDivine is universal and individual as well as transcendent and absolute, here
\ntoo there may be and should be a tendency to integral realisation of unity and
\nwe can arrive by it at a spiritual oneness with God in man and God in the
\nuniverse not less complete than any transcendent union. But still this is not
\nquite imperative. For we may plead that there is a higher and a lower
\nknowledge, a higher self-awareness and a lower self-awareness, and that here
\nthe apex of knowledge is to be pursued to the exclusion of the mass of
\nknowledge, the
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 563<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

way of exclusion preferred to the
\nintegral way. Or we may discover a theory of illusion to justify our rejection
\nof all connection with our fellow-men and with the cosmic action. The way of
\nworks leads us to the Transcendent whose power of being manifests itself as a
\nwill in the world one in us and all, by identity with which we come, owing to
\nthe conditions of that identity, into union with him as the one self in all and
\nas the universal self and Lord in the cosmos. And this might seem to impose a
\ncertain comprehensiveness in our realisation of the unity. But still this too
\nis not quite imperative. For this motive also may lean towards an entire
\nimpersonality and, even if it leads to a continued participation in the
\nactivities of the universal Godhead, may be entirely detached and passive in
\nits principle. It is only when delight intervenes that the motive of integral
\nunion becomes quite imperative. <\/p>\n

This delight which is so entirely
\nimperative, is the delight in the Divine for his own sake and for nothing else,
\nfor no cause or gain whatever beyond itself. It does not seek God for anything
\nthat he can give us or for any particular quality in him, but simply and purely
\nbecause he is our self and our whole being and our all. It embraces the delight
\nof the transcendence, not for the sake of transcendence, but because he is the
\ntranscendent; the delight of the universal, not for the sake of universality,
\nbut because he is the universal; the delight of the individual not for the sake
\nof individual satisfaction, but because he is the individual. It goes behind
\nall distinctions and appearances and makes no calculations of more or less in
\nhis being, but embraces him wherever he is and therefore everywhere, embraces
\nhim utterly in the seeming less as in the seeming more, in the apparent
\nlimitation as in the revelation of the illimitable; it has the intuition and
\nthe experience of his oneness and completeness everywhere. To seek after him
\nfor the sake of his absolute being alone is really to drive at our own
\nindividual gain, the gain of absolute peace. To possess him absolutely indeed
\nis necessarily the aim of this delight in his being, but this comes when we
\npossess him utterly and are utterly possessed by him and need be limited to no
\nparticular status or condition. To seek after him in some heaven of bliss is to
\nseek him not for himself, but for the bliss of heaven; when we
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 564<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

have all the true delight of his
\nbeing, then heaven is within ourselves, and wherever he is and we are, there we
\nhave the joy of his kingdom. So too to seek him only in ourselves and for
\nourselves, is to limit both ourselves and our joy in him. The integral delight
\nembraces him not only within our own individual being, but equally in all men
\nand in all beings. And because in him we are one with all, it seeks him not
\nonly for ourselves, but for all our fellows. A perfect and complete delight in
\nthe Divine, perfect because pure and self-existent, complete because
\nall-embracing as well as all-absorbing, is the meaning of the way of Bhakti for
\nthe seeker of the integral Yoga. <\/p>\n

Once it is
\nactive in us, all other ways of Yoga convert themselves, as it were, to its law
\nand find by it their own richest significance. This integral devotion of our
\nbeing to God does not turn away from knowledge; the Bhakta of this path is the God-lover
\nwho is also the God-knower, because by knowledge of his being comes the whole
\ndelight of his being; but it is in delight that knowledge fulfils itself, the
\nknowledge of the transcendent in the delight of the Transcendent, the knowledge
\nof the universal in the delight of the universal Godhead, the knowledge of the
\nindividual manifestation in the delight of God in the individual, the knowledge
\nof the impersonal in the pure delight of his impersonal being, the knowledge of
\nthe personal in the full delight of his personality, the knowledge of his
\nqualities and their play in the delight of the manifestation, the knowledge of
\nthe quality-less in the delight of his colourless<\/span>
\nexistence and non-manifestation. <\/p>\n

So too this
\nGod-lover will be the divine worker, not for the sake of works or for a
\nself-regarding pleasure in action, but because in this way God expends the
\npower of his being and in his powers and their signs we find him, because the
\ndivine Will in works is the outflowing of the Godhead in the delight of its
\npower, of divine Being in the delight of divine Force. He will feel perfect joy
\nin the works and acts of the Beloved, because in them too he finds the Beloved;
\nhe will himself do all works because through those works too the Lord of his
\nbeing expresses his divine joy in him: when he works, he feels that he is
\nexpressing in act and power his oneness with that which he loves and adores; he
\nfeels the rapture of the will which
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 565<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

he obeys and with which all the
\nforce of his being is blissfully identified. So too, again, this God-lover will
\nseek after perfection, because perfection is the nature of the Divine and the
\nmore he grows into perfection, the more he feels the Beloved manifest in his
\nnatural being. Or he will simply grow in perfection like the blossoming of a
\nflower because the Divine is in him and the joy of the Divine, and as that joy
\nexpands in him, soul and mind and life too expand naturally into their godhead.
\nAt the same time, because he feels the Divine in all, perfect within every limiting
\nappearance, he will not have the sorrow of his imperfection. <\/p>\n

Nor will the
\nseeking of the Divine through life and the meeting of him in all the activities
\nof his being and of the universal being be absent from the scope of his
\nworship. All Nature and all life will be to him at once a revelation and a fine
\ntrysting-place. Intellectual and aesthetic and dynamic activities, science and
\nphilosophy and life, thought and art and action will assume for him a diviner
\nsanction and a greater meaning. He will seek them because of his clear sight of
\nthe Divine through them and because of the delight of the Divine in them. He
\nwill not be indeed attached to their appearances, for attachment is an obstacle
\nto the Ananda; but because he possesses that pure, powerful and perfect Ananda
\nwhich obtains everything but is dependent on nothing, and because he finds in
\nthem the ways and acts and signs, the becomings and the symbols and images of
\nthe Beloved, he draws from them a rapture which the normal mind that pursues
\nthem for themselves cannot attain or even dream. All this and more becomes part
\nof the integral way and its consummation. <\/p>\n

The general
\npower of Delight is love and the special mould which the joy of love takes is
\nthe vision of beauty. The God-lover is the universal lover and he embraces the
\nAll-blissful and All-beautiful. When universal love has seized on his heart, it
\nis the decisive sign that the Divine has taken possession of him; and when he
\nhas the vision of the All-beautiful everywhere and can feel at all times the
\nbliss of his embrace, that is the decisive sign that he has taken possession of
\nthe Divine. Union is the consummation of love, but it is this mutual possession
\nthat gives it at once the acme and the largest reach of its intensity. It is
\nthe foundation of oneness in ecstasy.<\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 566<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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