{"id":1227,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","slug":"09-the-ananda-brahman-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\/09-the-ananda-brahman-vol-21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21","title":{"rendered":"-09_The Ananda Brahman.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

 <\/font>The
\nAnanda Brahman<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            T<\/font><\/b>HE<\/font>
\nway of devotion in the integral synthetic Yoga will take the form of a seeking
\nafter the Divine through love and delight and a seizing with joy on all the
\nways of his being. It will find its acme in a perfect union of love and a
\nperfect enjoyment of all the ways of the soul’s intimacy with God. It may start
\nfrom knowledge or it may start from works, but it will then turn knowledge into
\na joy of luminous union with the being of the Beloved and turn works into a joy
\nof the active union of our being with the will and the power of being of the
\nBeloved. Or it may start directly from love and delight; it will then take both
\nthese other things into itself and will develop them as part of the complete
\njoy of oneness. <\/p>\n

The beginning
\nof the heart’s attraction to the Divine may be impersonal, the touch of an
\nimpersonal joy in something universal or transcendent that has revealed itself
\ndirectly or indirectly to our emotional or our aesthetic being or to our capacity
\nof spiritual felicity. That which we thus grow aware of is the Ananda Brahman,
\nthe bliss existence. There is an adoration of an impersonal Delight and Beauty,
\nof a pure and an infinite perfection to which we can give no name or form, a moved
\nattraction of the soul to some ideal and infinite Presence, Power, existence in
\nthe world or beyond it, which in some way becomes psychologically or
\nspiritually sensible to us and then more and more intimate and real. That is
\nthe call, the touch of the bliss existence upon us. Then to have always the joy
\nand nearness of its presence, to know what it is, so as to satisfy the
\nintellect and the intuitional mind of its constant reality, to put our passive
\nand, so far as we can manage it, our active, our inner immortal and even our
\nouter mortal being into perfect harmony with it, grow into a necessity of our
\nliving. And to open ourselves to it is what we feel to be <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 567<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 the one true happiness, to live
\ninto it the sole real perfection. <\/p>\n

A transcendent
\nBliss, unimaginable and inexpressible by the mind and speech, is the nature of
\nthe Ineffable. That broods immanent and secret in the whole universe and in
\neverything in the universe. Its presence is described as a secret ether of the
\nbliss of being, of which the Scripture says that, if this were not, none could
\nfor a moment breathe or live. And this spiritual bliss is here also in our
\nhearts. It is hidden in from the toil of the surface mind which catches only at
\nweak and flawed translations of it into various mental, vital and physical
\nforms of the joy of existence. But if the mind has once grown sufficiently
\nsubtle and pure in its receptions and not limited by the grosser nature of our
\noutward responses to existence, we can take a reflection of it which will wear
\nperhaps wholly or predominantly the hue of whatever is strongest in our nature.
\nIt may present itself first as a yearning for some universal Beauty which we
\nfeel in Nature and man and in all that is around us; or we may have the
\nintuition of some transcendent Beauty of which all apparent beauty here is only
\na symbol. That is how it may come to those in whom the aesthetic being is
\ndeveloped and insistent and the instincts which, when they find form of
\nexpression, make the poet and artist, are predominant. Or it may be the sense of
\na divine spirit of love or else a helpful and compassionate infinite Presence
\nin the universe or behind or beyond it which responds to us when we turn the need
\nof our spirit towards it. So it may first show itself when the emotional being
\nis intensely developed. It may come near to us in other ways, but always as a
\nPower or Presence of delight, beauty, love or peace which touches the mind, but
\nis beyond the forms these things take ordinarily in the mind. <\/p>\n

For all joy,
\nbeauty, love, peace, delight are outflowings<\/span> from the
\nAnanda Brahman, \u2013 all delight of the spirit, the intellect, the imagination,
\naesthetic sense, ethical aspiration and satisfaction, action, life, the body.
\nAnd through all ways of our being the Divine can touch us and make use of them
\nto awaken and liberate the spirit. But to reach the Ananda Brahman in itself the
\nmental reception of it must be subtilised, spiritualised, universalised,
\ndischarged of everything that is turbid and limiting. For when we draw quite
\nnear or enter into it, it is by an awakened spiritual <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 568<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

 sense of a transcendent and a
\nuniversal Delight which exists within and yet behind and beyond the
\ncontradictions of the world and to which we can unite ourselves through a
\ngrowing universal and spiritual or a transcendental ecstasy. <\/p>\n

Ordinarily, the
\nmind is satisfied with reflecting this Infinity we perceive or with feeling the
\nsense of it within and without us, as an experience which, however frequent,
\nyet remains exceptional. It seems in itself so satisfying and wonderful when it
\ncomes and our ordinary mind and the active life which we have to lead may seem
\nto us so incompatible with it, that we may think it excessive to expect
\nanything more. But the very spirit of Yoga is this, to make the exceptional
\nnormal, and to turn that which is above us and greater than our normal selves
\ninto our own constant consciousness. Therefore we should not hesitate to open
\nourselves more steadily to whatever experience of the Infinite we have, to
\npurify and intensify it, to make it our object of constant thought and
\ncontemplation, till it becomes the originating power that acts in us, the
\nGodhead we adore and embrace, our whole being is put into tune with it and it
\nis made the very self of our being. <\/p>\n

Our experience
\nof it has to be purified of any mental alloy in it, otherwise it departs, we
\ncannot hold it. And part of this purification is that it shall cease to be
\ndependent on any cause or exciting condition of mind; it must become its own
\ncause and self-existent, source of all other delight, which will exist only by
\nit, and not attached to any cosmic or other image or symbol through which we
\nfirst came into contact with it. Our experience of it has to be constantly
\nintensified and made more concentrated; otherwise we shall only reflect it in
\nthe mirror of the imperfect mind and not reach that point of uplifting and
\ntransfiguration by which we are carried beyond the mind into the ineffable
\nbliss. Object of our constant thought and contemplation, it will turn all that
\nis into itself, reveal itself as the universal Ananda Brahman and make all
\nexistence its outpouring. If we wait upon it for the inspiration of all our
\ninner and our outer acts, it will become the joy of the Divine pouring itself
\nthrough us in light and love and power on life and all that lives. Sought by
\nthe adoration and love of the soul, it reveals itself as the Godhead, we see in
\nit the face of God <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 569<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

and know the bliss of our Lover.
\nTuning our whole being to it, we grow into a happy perfection of likeness to it,
\na human rendering of the divine nature. And when it becomes in every way the
\nself of our self, we are fulfilled in being and we bear the plenitude. <\/p>\n

Brahman always
\nreveals himself to us in three ways, within ourselves, above our plane, around
\nus in the universe. Within us, there are two centres of the Purusha, the inner
\nSoul through which he touches us to our awakening; there is the Purusha in the
\nlotus of the heart which opens upward all our powers and the Purusha in the
\nthousand-petalled lotus whence descend through the thought and will, opening
\nthe third eye in us, the lightnings<\/span> of vision and the
\nfire of the divine energy. The bliss existence may come to us through either
\none of these centres. When the lotus of the heart breaks open, we feel a divine
\njoy, love and peace expanding in us like a flower of light which irradiates the
\nwhole being. They can then unite themselves with their secret source, the
\nDivine in our hearts, and adore him as in a temple; they can flow upwards to
\ntake possession of the thought and the will and break out upward towards the
\nTranscendent; they stream out in thought and feeling and act towards all that
\nis around us. But so long as our normal being offers any obstacle or is not
\nwholly moulded<\/span> into a response to this divine influence
\nor an instrument of this divine possession, the experience will be intermittent
\nand we may fall back constantly into our old mortal heart; but by repetition, abhyāsa<\/span>, or by the force of our desire and adoration
\nof the Divine, it will be progressively remoulded until this abnormal
\nexperience becomes our natural consciousness. <\/p>\n

When the other
\nupper lotus opens, the whole mind becomes full of a divine light, joy and
\npower, behind which is the Divine, the Lord of our being on his throne with our
\nsoul beside him or drawn inward into his rays; all the thought and will become
\nthen a luminosity, power and ecstasy; in communication with the Transcendent,
\nthis can pour down towards our mortal members and flow by them outwards on the
\nworld. In this dawn too there are, as the Vedic mystics knew, our alternations
\nof its day and night, our exiles from the light; but as we grow in the power to
\nhold this new existence, we become able to look long on the sun from which this
\nirradiation proceeds and in our inner being we <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 570<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

can grow one body with it.
\nSometimes the rapidity of this change depends on the strength of our longing
\nfor the Divine thus revealed, and on the intensity of our force of seeking; but
\nat others it proceeds rather by a passive surrender to the rhythms of his
\nall-wise working which acts always by its own at first inscrutable method. But
\nthe latter becomes the foundation when our love and trust are complete and our
\nwhole being lies in the clasp of a Power that is perfect love and wisdom. <\/p>\n

The Divine
\nreveals himself in the world around us when we look upon that with a spiritual
\ndesire of delight that seeks him in all things. There is often a sudden opening
\nby which the veil of forms is itself turned into a revelation. A universal spiritual
\nPresence, a universal peace, a universal infinite Delight has manifested,
\nimmanent, embracing, all-penetrating. This Presence by our love of it, our
\ndelight in it, our constant thought of it returns and grows upon us; it becomes
\nthe thing that we see and all else is only its habitation, form and symbol.
\nEven all that is most outward, the body, the form, the sound, whatever our
\nsenses seize, are seen as this Presence; they cease to be physical and are
\nchanged into a substance of spirit. This transformation means a transformation
\nof our own inner consciousness; we are taken by the surrounding Presence into itself
\nand we become part of it. Our own mind, life, body become to us only its
\nhabitation and temple, a form of its working and an instrument of its
\nself-expression. All is only soul and body of this delight. <\/p>\n

This is the
\nDivine seen around us and on our own physical plane. But he may reveal himself
\nabove. We see or feel him as a high-uplifted Presence, a great infinite of
\nAnanda above us, \u2013 or in it, our Father in heaven, \u2013 and do not feel or see him
\nin ourselves or around us. So long as we keep this vision, the mortality in us
\nis quelled by that Immortality; it feels the light, power and joy and responds
\nto it according to its capacity; or it feels the descent of the spirit and it
\nis then for a time transformed or else uplifted into some lustre<\/span>
\nof reflection of the light and power; it becomes a vessel of the Ananda. But at
\nother times it lapses into the old mortality and exists or works dully or
\npettily in the ruck<\/span> of its earthly habits. The
\ncomplete redemption comes by the descent of the divine Power into the human
\nmind and body and <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 571<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

the remoulding<\/span>
\nof their inner life into the divine image, \u2013 what the Vedic seers called the
\nbirth of the Son by the sacrifice. It is in fact by a continual sacrifice or
\noffering, a sacrifice of adoration and aspiration, of works, of thought and
\nknowledge, of the mounting flame of the Godward will that we build ourselves
\ninto the being of this Infinite. <\/p>\n

When we possess
\nfirmly this consciousness of the Ananda Brahman in all of these three
\nmanifestations, above, within, around, we have the full oneness of it and
\nembrace all existences in its delight, peace, joy and love; then all the worlds
\nbecome the body of this self. But we have not the richest knowledge of this
\nAnanda if it is only an impersonal presence, largeness or immanence that we
\nfeel, if our adoration has not been intimate enough for this Being to reveal to
\nus out of its wide-extended joy the face and body and make us feel the hands of
\nthe Friend and Lover. Its impersonality is the blissful greatness of the
\nBrahman, but from that can look out upon us the sweetness and intimate control
\nof the divine Personality. For Ananda is the presence of the Self and Master of
\nour being and the stream of its outflowing can be the pure joy of his Lila.<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 572<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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