{"id":2170,"date":"2013-07-13T01:39:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:39:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:53","slug":"13-chapter-viii-the-supreme-will-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga\/13-chapter-viii-the-supreme-will-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","title":{"rendered":"-13_Chapter VIII The Supreme Will.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter VIII <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Supreme Will <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI<\/font>N THE<\/b> light of this progressive
\n\t\t\tmanifestation of the Spirit, first apparently bound in the
\n\t\t\tIgnorance, then free in the power and wisdom of the Infinite, we can
\n\t\t\tbetter understand the great and crowning injunction of the Gita to
\n\t\t\tthe Karmayogin, "Abandoning all dharmas, all principles and laws and
\n\t\t\trules of conduct, take refuge in me alone." All standards and rules
\n\t\t\tare temporary constructions founded upon the needs of the ego in its
\n\t\t\ttransition from Matter to Spirit. These makeshifts have a relative
\n\t\t\timperativeness so long as we rest satisfied in the stages of
\n\t\t\ttransition, content with the physical and vital life, attached to
\n\t\t\tthe mental movement, or even fixed in the ranges of the mental plane
\n\t\t\tthat are touched by the spiritual lustres. But beyond is the
\n\t\t\tunwalled wideness of a supramental infinite consciousness and there
\n\t\t\tall temporary structures cease. It is not possible to enter utterly
\n\t\t\tinto the spiritual truth of the Eternal and Infinite if we have not
\n\t\t\tthe faith and courage to trust ourselves into the hands of the Lord
\n\t\t\tof all things and the Friend of all creatures and leave utterly
\n\t\t\tbehind us our mental limits and measures. At one moment we must
\n\t\t\tplunge without hesitation, reserve, fear or scruple into the ocean
\n\t\t\tof the free, the infinite, the Absolute. After the Law, Liberty;
\n\t\t\tafter the personal, after the general, after the universal standards
\n\t\t\tthere is something greater, the impersonal plasticity, the divine
\n\t\t\tfreedom, the transcendent force and the supernal impulse. After the
\n\t\t\tstrait path of the ascent the wide plateaus on the summit. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere are three stages of the ascent, \u2014 at the
\n\t\t\tbottom the bodily life enslaved to the pressure of necessity and
\n\t\t\tdesire, in the middle the mental, higher emotional and psychic rule
\n\t\t\tthat feels after greater interests, aspirations, experiences, at the
\n\t\t\tsummits first a deeper psychic and spiritual state and then a
\n\t\t\tsupramental eternal consciousness in which all our aspirations and
\n\t\t\tseekings <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>208<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tdiscover their own intimate significance. In the bodily life
\n\t\t\tfirst desire and need and then the practical good of the individual
\n\t\t\tand the society are the governing consideration, the dominant force.
\n\t\t\tIn the mental life ideas and ideals rule, ideas that are half-lights
\n\t\t\twearing the garb of Truth, ideals formed by the mind as a result of
\n\t\t\ta growing but still imperfect intuition and experience. Whenever the
\n\t\t\tmental life prevails and the bodily diminishes its brute insistence,
\n\t\t\tman the mental being feels pushed by the urge of mental Nature to
\n\t\t\tmould in the sense of the idea or the ideal the life of the
\n\t\t\tindividual, and in the end even the vaguer more complex life of the
\n\t\t\tsociety is forced to undergo this subtle process. In the spiritual
\n\t\t\tlife, or when a higher power than Mind has manifested and taken
\n\t\t\tpossession of the nature, these limited motive-forces recede,
\n\t\t\tdwindle, tend to disappear. The spiritual or supramental Self, the
\n\t\t\tDivine Being, the supreme and immanent Reality, must be alone the
\n\t\t\tLord within us and shape freely our final development according to
\n\t\t\tthe highest, widest, most integral expression possible of the law of
\n\t\t\tour nature. In the end that nature acts in the perfect Truth and its
\n\t\t\tspontaneous freedom; for it obeys only the luminous power of the
\n\t\t\tEternal. The individual has nothing further to gain, no desire to
\n\t\t\tfulfil; he has become a portion of the impersonality or the
\n\t\t\tuniversal personality of the Eternal. No other object than the
\n\t\t\tmanifestation and play of the Divine Spirit in life and the
\n\t\t\tmaintenance and conduct of the world in its march towards the divine
\n\t\t\tgoal can move him to action. Mental ideas, opinions, constructions
\n\t\t\tare his no more; for his mind has fallen into silence, it is only a
\n\t\t\tchannel for the Light and Truth of the divine knowledge. Ideals are
\n\t\t\ttoo narrow for the vastness of his spirit; it is the ocean of the
\n\t\t\tInfinite that flows through him and moves him for ever. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t* *<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhoever sincerely enters the path of works, must leave behind him
\n\t\t\tthe stage in which need and desire are the first law of our acts.
\n\t\t\tFor whatever desires still trouble his being, he must, if he accepts
\n\t\t\tthe high aim of Yoga, put them away from him into the <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>209<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\thands of the Lord within us. The supreme Power will deal with
\n\t\t\tthem for the good of the sadhaka and for the good of all. In effect,
\n\t\t\twe find that once this surrender is done, \u2014 always provided the
\n\t\t\trejection is sincere, \u2014 egoistic indulgence of desire may for some
\n\t\t\ttime recur under the continued impulse of past nature but only in
\n\t\t\torder to exhaust its acquired momentum and to teach the embodied
\n\t\t\tbeing in his most unteachable part, his nervous, vital, emotional
\n\t\t\tnature, by the reactions of desire, by its grief and unrest bitterly
\n\t\t\tcontrasted with calm periods of the higher peace or marvellous
\n\t\t\tmovements of divine Ananda, that egoistic desire is not a law for
\n\t\t\tthe soul that seeks liberation or aspires to its own original
\n\t\t\tgod-nature. Afterwards the element of desire in those impulsions
\n\t\t\twill be thrown away or persistently eliminated by a constant denying
\n\t\t\tand transforming pressure. Only the pure force of action in them (pravr<\/font>tti<\/i>)
\n\t\t\tjustified by an equal delight
\n.<\/i> in all work and result that is inspired or imposed from above will be
\n\t\t\tpreserved in the happy harmony of a final perfection. To act, to
\n\t\t\tenjoy is the normal law and right of the nervous being; but to
\n\t\t\tchoose by personal desire its action and enjoyment is only its
\n\t\t\tignorant will, not its right. Alone the supreme and universal Will
\n\t\t\tmust choose; action must change into a dynamic movement of that
\n\t\t\tWill; enjoyment must be replaced by the play of a pure spiritual
\n\t\t\tAnanda. All personal will is either a temporary delegation from on
\n\t\t\thigh or a usurpation by the ignorant Asura. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe social law, that second term of our progress, is a means to
\n\t\t\twhich the ego is subjected in order that it may learn discipline by
\n\t\t\tsubordination to a wider collective ego. This law may be quite empty
\n\t\t\tof any moral content and may express only the needs or the practical
\n\t\t\tgood of the society as each society conceives it. Or it may express
\n\t\t\tthose needs and that good, but modified and coloured and
\n\t\t\tsupplemented by a higher moral or ideal law. It is binding on the
\n\t\t\tdeveloping but not yet perfectly developed individual in the shape
\n\t\t\tof social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand, so
\n\t\t\tlong as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of the higher
\n\t\t\tRight. But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this also to
\n\t\t\tthe Lord of works. After he has made this surrender, his social
\n\t\t\timpulses and judgments will, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>210<\/font>  <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tlike his desires, only be used for their exhaustion or, it may
\n\t\t\tbe, so far as they are still necessary for a time to enable him to
\n\t\t\tidentify his lower mental nature with mankind in general or with any
\n\t\t\tgrouping of mankind in its works and hopes and aspirations. But
\n\t\t\tafter that brief time is over, they will be withdrawn and a divine
\n\t\t\tgovernment will alone abide. He will be identified with the Divine
\n\t\t\tand with others only through the divine consciousness and not
\n\t\t\tthrough the mental nature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor, even after he is free, the sadhaka will be in the world and to
\n\t\t\tbe in the world is to remain in works. But to remain in works
\n\t\t\twithout desire is to act for the good of the world in general or for
\n\t\t\tthe kind or the race or for some new creation to be evolved on the
\n\t\t\tearth or some work imposed by the Divine Will within him. And this
\n\t\t\tmust be done either in the framework provided by the environment or
\n\t\t\tthe grouping in which he is born or placed or else in one which is
\n\t\t\tchosen or created for him by a divine direction. Therefore in our
\n\t\t\tperfection there must be nothing left in the mental being which
\n\t\t\tconflicts with or prevents our sympathy and free self-identification
\n\t\t\twith the kind, the group or whatever collective expression of the
\n\t\t\tDivine he is meant to lead, help or serve. But in the end it must
\n\t\t\tbecome a free self-identification through identity with the Divine
\n\t\t\tand not a mental bond or moral tie of union or a vital association
\n\t\t\tdominated by any kind of personal, social, national, communal or
\n\t\t\tcredal egoism. If any social law is obeyed, it will not be from
\n\t\t\tphysical necessity or from the sense of personal or general interest
\n\t\t\tor for expediency or because of the pressure of the environment or
\n\t\t\tfrom any sense of duty, but solely for the sake of the Lord of works
\n\t\t\tand because it is felt or known to be the Divine Will that the
\n\t\t\tsocial law or rule or relation as it stands can still be kept as a
\n\t\t\tfigure of the inner life and the minds of men must not be disturbed
\n\t\t\tby its infringement. If, on the other hand, the social law, rule or
\n\t\t\trelation is disregarded, that too will not be for the indulgence of
\n\t\t\tdesire, personal will or personal opinion, but because a greater
\n\t\t\trule is felt that expresses the law of the Spirit or because it is
\n\t\t\tknown that there must be in the march of the divine All-Will a
\n\t\t\tmovement towards the changing, exceeding or <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>211<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tabolition of existing laws and forms for the sake of a freer
\n\t\t\tlarger life necessary to the world’s progress. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere is still left the moral law or the ideal and these, even to
\n\t\t\tmany who think themselves free, appear for ever sacred and
\n\t\t\tintangible. But the sadhaka, his gaze turned always to the heights,
\n\t\t\twill abandon them to Him whom all ideals seek imperfectly and
\n\t\t\tfragmentarily to express; all moral qualities are only a poor and
\n\t\t\trigid travesty of his spontaneous and illimitable perfection. The
\n\t\t\tbondage to sin and evil passes away with the passing of nervous
\n\t\t\tdesire; for it belongs to the quality of vital passion, impulsion or
\n\t\t\tdrive of propensity in us (rajogun<\/font>a<\/i>)
\n\t\t\tand is extinguished with
\n.<\/i> the transformation of that mode of Nature. But neither must the
\n\t\t\taspirant remain subject to the gilded or golden chain of a
\n\t\t\tconventional or a habitual or a mentally ordered or even a high or
\n\t\t\tclear sattwic virtue. That will be replaced by something profounder
\n\t\t\tand more essential than the minor inadequate thing that men call
\n\t\t\tvirtue. The original sense of the word was manhood and this is a
\n\t\t\tmuch larger and deeper thing than the moral mind and its structures.
\n\t\t\tThe culmination of Karmayoga is a yet higher and deeper state that
\n\t\t\tmay perhaps be called "soulhood", \u2014 for the soul is greater than the
\n\t\t\tman; a free soulhood spontaneously welling out in works of a supreme
\n\t\t\tTruth and Love will replace human virtue. But this supreme Truth
\n\t\t\tcannot be forced to inhabit the petty edifices of the practical
\n\t\t\treason or even confined in the more dignified constructions of the
\n\t\t\tlarger ideative reason that imposes its representations as if they
\n\t\t\twere pure truth on the limited human intelligence. This supreme Love
\n\t\t\twill not necessarily be consistent, much less will it be synonymous,
\n\t\t\twith the partial and feeble, ignorant and emotion-ridden movements
\n\t\t\tof human attraction, sympathy and pity. The petty law cannot bind
\n\t\t\tthe vaster movement; the mind’s partial attainment cannot dictate
\n\t\t\tits terms to the soul’s supreme fulfilment. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAt first, the higher Love and Truth will fulfil
\n\t\t\tits movement in the sadhaka according to the essential law or way of
\n\t\t\this own nature. For that is the special aspect of the divine Nature,
\n\t\t\tthe particular power of the supreme Shakti, out of which his soul
\n\t\t\thas emerged into the Play, not limited indeed by the forms of this
\n\t\t\tlaw<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>212<\/font>   <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tor way, for the soul is infinite. But still its stuff of
\n\t\t\tnature bears that stamp, evolves fluently along those lines or turns
\n\t\t\taround the spiral curves of that dominating influence. He will
\n\t\t\tmanifest the divine Truth-movement according to the temperament of
\n\t\t\tthe sage or the lion-like fighter or the lover and enjoyer or the
\n\t\t\tworker and servant or in any combination of essential attributes (gunas)
\n\t\t\tthat may constitute the form given to his being by its own inner
\n\t\t\turge. It is this self-nature playing freely in his acts which men
\n\t\t\twill see in him and not a conduct cut, chalked out, artificially
\n\t\t\tregulated, by any lesser rule or by any law from outside. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut there is a yet higher attainment, there is an infinity  (ā<\/font>nantya<\/i>)
\n\t\t\tin which even this last limitation is exceeded, because the nature
\n\t\t\tis utterly fulfilled and its boundaries vanish. There the soul lives
\n\t\t\twithout any boundaries; for it uses all forms and moulds according
\n\t\t\tto the divine Will in it, but it is not restrained, it is not tied
\n\t\t\tdown, it is not imprisoned in any power or form that it uses. This
\n\t\t\tis the summit of the path of works and this the utter liberty of the
\n\t\t\tsoul in its actions. In reality, it has there no actions; for all
\n\t\t\tits activities are a rhythm of the Supreme and sovereignly proceed
\n\t\t\tfrom That alone like a spontaneous music out of the Infinite. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t* *<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe total surrender, then, of all our actions to a supreme and
\n\t\t\tuniversal Will, an unconditioned and standardless surrender of all
\n\t\t\tworks to the government of something eternal within us which will
\n\t\t\treplace the ordinary working of the ego-nature, is the way and end
\n\t\t\tof Karmayoga. But what is this divine supreme Will and how can it be
\n\t\t\trecognised by our deluded instruments and our blind prisoned
\n\t\t\tintelligence? <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOrdinarily, we conceive of ourselves as a separate "I" in the
\n\t\t\tuniverse that governs a separate body and mental and moral nature,
\n\t\t\tchooses in full liberty its own self-determined actions and is
\n\t\t\tindependent and therefore sole master of its works and responsible.
\n\t\t\tIt is not easy for the ordinary mind, the mind that has not thought
\n\t\t\tnor looked deeply into its own constitution and  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>213<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tconstituents, it is difficult even for minds that have thought
\n\t\t\tbut have no spiritual vision and experience, to imagine how there
\n\t\t\tcan be anything else in us truer, deeper and more powerful than this
\n\t\t\tapparent "I" and its empire. But the very first step towards
\n\t\t\tself-knowledge as towards the true knowledge of phenomena is to get
\n\t\t\tbehind the apparent truth of things and find the real but masked,
\n\t\t\tessential and dynamic truth which their appearances cover. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis ego or "I" is not a lasting truth, much less our essential
\n\t\t\tpart; it is only a formation of Nature, a mental form of
\n\t\t\tthought-centralisation in the perceiving and discriminating mind, a
\n\t\t\tvital form of the centralisation of feeling and sensation in our
\n\t\t\tparts of life, a form of physical conscious reception centralising
\n\t\t\tsubstance and function of substance in our bodies. All that we
\n\t\t\tinternally are is not ego, but consciousness, soul or spirit. All
\n\t\t\tthat we externally and superficially are and do is not ego but
\n\t\t\tNature. An executive cosmic force shapes us and dictates through our
\n\t\t\ttemperament and environment and mentality so shaped, through our
\n\t\t\tindividualised formulation of the cosmic energies, our actions and
\n\t\t\ttheir results. Truly, we do not think, will or act but thought
\n\t\t\toccurs in us, will occurs in us, impulse and act occur in us; our
\n\t\t\tego-sense gathers around itself, refers to itself all this flow of
\n\t\t\tnatural activities. It is cosmic Force, it is Nature that forms the
\n\t\t\tthought, imposes the will, imparts the impulse. Our body, mind and
\n\t\t\tego are a wave of that sea of force in action and do not govern it,
\n\t\t\tbut by it are governed and directed. The sadhaka in his progress
\n\t\t\ttowards truth and self-knowledge must come to a point where the soul
\n\t\t\topens its eyes of vision and recognises this truth of ego and this
\n\t\t\ttruth of works. He gives up the idea of a mental, vital, physical
\n\t\t\t"I" that acts or governs action; he recognises that Prakriti, Force
\n\t\t\tof cosmic nature following her fixed modes, is the one and only
\n\t\t\tworker in him and in all things and creatures. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut what has fixed the modes of Nature? Or who
\n\t\t\thas originated and governs the movements of Force? There is a
\n\t\t\tConsciousness \u2014 or a Conscient \u2014 behind that is the lord, witness,
\n\t\t\tknower, enjoyer, upholder and source of sanction for her works;  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>214<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tthis consciousness is Soul or Purusha. Prakriti shapes the
\n\t\t\taction in us; Purusha in her or behind her witnesses, assents, bears
\n\t\t\tand upholds it. Prakriti forms the thought in our minds; Purusha in
\n\t\t\ther or behind her knows the thought and the truth in it. Prakriti
\n\t\t\tdetermines the result of the action; Purusha in her or behind her
\n\t\t\tenjoys or suffers the consequence. Prakriti forms mind and body,
\n\t\t\tlabours over them, develops them; Purusha upholds the formation and
\n\t\t\tevolution and sanctions each step of her works. Prakriti applies the
\n\t\t\tWill-force which works in things and men; Purusha sets that
\n\t\t\tWill-force to work by his vision of that which should be done. This
\n\t\t\tPurusha is not the surface ego, but a silent Self, a source of
\n\t\t\tPower, an originator and receiver of Knowledge behind the ego. Our
\n\t\t\tmental "I" is only a false reflection of this Self, this Power, this
\n\t\t\tKnowledge. This Purusha or supporting Consciousness is therefore the
\n\t\t\tcause, recipient and support of all Nature’s works, but he is not
\n\t\t\thimself the doer. Prakriti, Nature-Force, in front and Shakti,
\n\t\t\tConscious-Force, Soul-Force behind her, \u2014 for these two are the
\n\t\t\tinner and outer faces of the universal Mother, \u2014 account for all
\n\t\t\tthat is done in the universe. The universal Mother, Prakriti-Shakti,
\n\t\t\tis the one and only worker. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPurusha-Prakriti, Consciousness-Force, Soul supporting Nature, \u2014 for
\n\t\t\tthe two even in their separation are one and inseparable, \u2014 are at
\n\t\t\tonce a universal and a transcendent Power. But there is something in
\n\t\t\tthe individual too which is not the mental ego, something that is
\n\t\t\tone in essence with this greater reality: it is a pure reflection or
\n\t\t\tportion of the one Purusha; it is the Soul Person or the embodied
\n\t\t\tbeing, the individual self, Jivatman; it is the Self that seems to
\n\t\t\tlimit its power and knowledge so as to support an individual play of
\n\t\t\ttranscendent and universal Nature. In deepest reality the infinitely
\n\t\t\tOne is also infinitely multiple; we are not only a reflection or
\n\t\t\tportion of That but we are That; our spiritual individuality \u2014
\n\t\t\tunlike our ego \u2014 does not preclude our universality and
\n\t\t\ttranscendence. But at present the soul or self in us intent on
\n\t\t\tindividualisation in Nature allows itself to be confused with the
\n\t\t\tidea of the ego; it has to get rid of this ignorance, it has to know
\n\t\t\titself as a reflection or portion or being of the supreme and
\n\t\t\tuniversal Self    <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>215<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t and solely a centre of its consciousness in the world-action.
\n\t\t\tBut this Jiva Purusha too is not the doer of works any more than the
\n\t\t\tego or the supporting consciousness of the Witness and Knower. Again
\n\t\t\tand always it is the transcendent and universal Shakti who is the
\n\t\t\tsole doer. But behind her is the one Supreme who manifests through
\n\t\t\ther as the dual power, Purusha-Prakriti, Ishwara-Shakti.\u00b9<\/font>
\n\t\t\tThe Supreme becomes dynamic as the Shakti and is by her the sole
\n\t\t\toriginator and Master of works in the universe. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t* *<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf this is the truth of works, the first thing the sadhaka has to do
\n\t\t\tis to recoil from the egoistic forms of activity and get rid of the
\n\t\t\tsense of an "I" that acts. He has to see and feel that everything
\n\t\t\thappens in him by the plastic conscious or subconscious or sometimes
\n\t\t\tsuperconscious automatism of his mental and bodily instruments moved
\n\t\t\tby the forces of spiritual, mental, vital and physical Nature. There
\n\t\t\tis a personality on his surface that chooses and wills, submits and
\n\t\t\tstruggles, tries to make good in Nature or prevail over Nature, but
\n\t\t\tthis personality is itself a construction of Nature and so
\n\t\t\tdominated, driven, determined by her that it cannot be free. It is a
\n\t\t\tformation or expression of the Self in her, \u2014 it is a self of Nature
\n\t\t\trather than a self of Self, his natural and processive, not his
\n\t\t\tspiritual and permanent being, a temporary constructed personality,
\n\t\t\tnot the <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\u00b9<\/font> Ishwara-Shakti is not quite
\n\t\t\tthe same as Purusha-Prakriti; for Purusha and Prakriti are separate
\n\t\t\tpowers, but Ishwara and Shakti contain each other. Ishwara is
\n\t\t\tPurusha who contains Prakriti and rules by the power of the Shakti
\n\t\t\twithin him. Shakti is Prakriti ensouled by Purusha and acts by the
\n\t\t\twill of the Ishwara which is her own will and whose presence in her
\n\t\t\tmovement she carries always with her. The Purusha-Prakriti
\n\t\t\trealisation is of the first utility to the seeker on the Way of
\n\t\t\tWorks; for it is the separation of the conscient being and the
\n\t\t\tEnergy and the subjection of the being to the mechanism of the
\n\t\t\tEnergy that are the efficient cause of our ignorance and
\n\t\t\timperfection; by this realisation the being can liberate himself
\n\t\t\tfrom the mechanical action of the nature and become free and arrive
\n\t\t\tat a first spiritual control over the nature. Ishwara-Shakti stands
\n\t\t\tbehind the relation of Purusha-Prakriti and its ignorant action and
\n\t\t\tturns it to an evolutionary purpose. The Ishwara-Shakti realisation
\n\t\t\tcan bring participation in a higher dynamism and a divine working
\n\t\t\tand a total unity and harmony of the being in a spiritual nature.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>216<\/font>    <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\ttrue immortal Person. It is that Person that he must become.
\n\t\t\tHe must succeed in being inwardly quiescent, detach himself as the
\n\t\t\tobserver from the outer active personality and learn the play of the
\n\t\t\tcosmic forces in him by standing back from all blinding absorption
\n\t\t\tin its turns and movements. Thus calm, detached, a student of
\n\t\t\thimself and a witness of his nature, he realises that he is the
\n\t\t\tindividual soul who observes the works of Nature, accepts tranquilly
\n\t\t\ther results and sanctions or withholds his sanction from the impulse
\n\t\t\tto her acts. At present this soul or Purusha is little more than an
\n\t\t\tacquiescent spectator, influencing perhaps the action and
\n\t\t\tdevelopment of the being by the pressure of its veiled
\n\t\t\tconsciousness, but for the most part delegating its powers or a
\n\t\t\tfragment of them to the outer personality, \u2014 in fact to Nature, for
\n\t\t\tthis outer self is not lord but subject to her,
\nanīś<\/font>a<\/i>; but, once unveiled, it can
\n\t\t\tmake its sanction or refusal effective, become the master of the
\n\t\t\taction, dictate sovereignly a change of Nature. Even if for a long
\n\t\t\ttime, as the result of fixed association and past storage of energy,
\n\t\t\tthe habitual movement takes place independent of the Purusha’s
\n\t\t\tassent and even if the sanctioned movement is persistently refused
\n\t\t\tby Nature for want of past habit, still he will discover that in the
\n\t\t\tend his assent or refusal prevails, \u2014 slowly with much resistance or
\n\t\t\tquickly with a rapid accommodation of her means and tendencies she
\n\t\t\tmodifies herself and her workings in the direction indicated by his
\n\t\t\tinner sight or volition. Thus he learns in place of mental control
\n\t\t\tor egoistic will an inner spiritual control which makes him master
\n\t\t\tof the Nature-forces that work in him and not their unconscious
\n\t\t\tinstrument or mechanic slave. Above and around him is the Shakti,
\n\t\t\tthe universal Mother and from her he can get all his inmost soul
\n\t\t\tneeds and wills if only he has a true knowledge of her ways and a
\n\t\t\ttrue surrender to the divine Will in her. Finally, he becomes aware
\n\t\t\tof that highest dynamic Self within him and within Nature which is
\n\t\t\tthe source of all his seeing and knowing, the source of the
\n\t\t\tsanction, the source of the acceptance, the source of the rejection.
\n\t\t\tThis is the Lord, the Supreme, the One-in-all, Ishwara-Shakti, of
\n\t\t\twhom his soul is a portion, a being of that Being and a power of
\n\t\t\tthat Power. The<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>217<\/font>  <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\trest of our progress depends on our knowledge of the ways in
\n\t\t\twhich the Lord of works manifests his Will in the world and in us
\n\t\t\tand executes them through the transcendent and universal Shakti. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Lord sees in his omniscience the thing that has to be done. This
\n\t\t\tseeing is his Will, it is a form of creative Power, and that which
\n\t\t\the sees the all-conscious Mother, one with him, takes into her
\n\t\t\tdynamic self and embodies, and executive Nature-Force carries it out
\n\t\t\tas the mechanism of their omnipotent omniscience. But this vision of
\n\t\t\twhat is to be and therefore of what is to be done arises out of the
\n\t\t\tvery being, pours directly out of the consciousness and delight of
\n\t\t\texistence of the Lord, spontaneously, like light from the Sun. It is
\n\t\t\tnot our mortal attempt to see, our difficult arrival at truth of
\n\t\t\taction and motive or just demand of Nature. When the individual soul
\n\t\t\tis entirely at one in its being and knowledge with the Lord and
\n\t\t\tdirectly in touch with the original Shakti, the transcendent Mother,
\n\t\t\tthe supreme Will can then arise in us too in the high divine manner
\n\t\t\tas a thing that must be and is achieved by the spontaneous action of
\n\t\t\tNature. There is then no desire, no responsibility, no reaction; all
\n\t\t\ttakes place in the peace, calm, light, power of the supporting and
\n\t\t\tenveloping and inhabiting Divine. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut even before that highest approach to identity
\n\t\t\tis achieved, something of the supreme Will can manifest in us as an
\n\t\t\timperative impulsion, a God-driven action; we then act by a
\n\t\t\tspontaneous self-determining Force but a fuller knowledge of meaning
\n\t\t\tand aim arises only afterwards. Or the impulse to action may come as
\n\t\t\tan inspiration or intuition, but rather in the heart and body than
\n\t\t\tin the mind; here an effective sight enters in but the complete and
\n\t\t\texact knowledge is still deferred and comes, if at all, later. But
\n\t\t\tthe divine Will may descend too as a luminous single command or a
\n\t\t\ttotal perception or a continuous current of perception of what is to
\n\t\t\tbe done into the will or into the thought or as a direction from
\n\t\t\tabove spontaneously fulfilled by the lower members. When the Yoga is
\n\t\t\timperfect, only some actions can be done in this way, or else a
\n\t\t\tgeneral action may so proceed but only during periods of exaltation
\n\t\t\tand illumination. When the<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>218<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tYoga is perfect, all action becomes of this character. We may
\n\t\t\tindeed distinguish three stages of a growing progress by which,
\n\t\t\tfirst, the personal will is occasionally or frequently enlightened
\n\t\t\tor moved by a supreme Will or conscious Force beyond it, then
\n\t\t\tconstantly replaced and, last, identified and merged in that divine
\n\t\t\tPower-action. The first is the stage when we are still governed by
\n\t\t\tthe intellect, heart and senses; these have to seek or wait for the
\n\t\t\tdivine inspiration and guidance and do not always find or receive
\n\t\t\tit. The second is the stage when human intelligence is more and more
\n\t\t\treplaced by a high illumined or intuitive spiritualised mind, the
\n\t\t\texternal human heart by the inner psychic heart, the senses by a
\n\t\t\tpurified and selfless vital force. The third is the stage when we
\n\t\t\trise even above spiritualised mind to the supramental levels. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn all three stages the fundamental character of the liberated
\n\t\t\taction is the same, a spontaneous working of Prakriti no longer
\n\t\t\tthrough or for the ego but at the will and for the enjoyment of the
\n\t\t\tsupreme Purusha. At a higher level this becomes the Truth of the
\n\t\t\tabsolute and universal Supreme expressed through the individual soul
\n\t\t\tand worked out consciously through the nature, \u2014 no longer through a
\n\t\t\thalf-perception and a diminished or distorted effectuation by the
\n\t\t\tstumbling, ignorant and all-deforming energy of lower nature in us
\n\t\t\tbut by the all-wise transcendent and universal Mother. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Lord has veiled himself and his absolute
\n\t\t\twisdom and eternal consciousness in ignorant Nature-Force and
\n\t\t\tsuffers her to drive the individual being, with its complicity, as
\n\t\t\tthe ego; this lower action of Nature continues to prevail, often
\n\t\t\teven in spite of man’s half-lit imperfect efforts at a nobler motive
\n\t\t\tand a purer self-knowledge. Our human effort at perfection fails, or
\n\t\t\tprogresses very incompletely, owing to the force of Nature’s past
\n\t\t\tactions in us, her past formations, her long-rooted associations; it
\n\t\t\tturns towards a true and high-climbing success only when a greater
\n\t\t\tKnowledge and Power than our own breaks through the lid of our
\n\t\t\tignorance and guides or takes up our personal will. For our human
\n\t\t\twill is a misled and wandering ray that has parted from the supreme
\n\t\t\tPuissance. The period of slow emergence out of this lower working
\n\t\t\tinto a higher light and   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>219<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tpurer force is the valley of the shadow of death for the striver
\n\t\t\tafter perfection; it is a dreadful passage full of trials,
\n\t\t\tsufferings, sorrows, obscurations, stumblings, errors, pitfalls. To
\n\t\t\tabridge and alleviate this ordeal or to penetrate it with the divine
\n\t\t\tdelight faith is necessary, an increasing surrender of the mind to
\n\t\t\tthe knowledge that imposes itself from within and, above all, a true
\n\t\t\taspiration and a right and unfaltering and sincere practice.
\n\t\t\t"Practise unfalteringly," says the Gita, "with a heart free from
\n\t\t\tdespondency," the Yoga; for even though in the earlier stage of the
\n\t\t\tpath we drink deep of the bitter poison of internal discord and
\n\t\t\tsuffering, the last taste of this cup is the sweetness of the nectar
\n\t\t\tof immortality and the honey-wine of an eternal Ananda.   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>220<\/font> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter VIII   The Supreme Will   IN THE light of this progressive manifestation of the Spirit, first apparently bound in the Ignorance, then free…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","wpcat-46-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","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=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}