{"id":2200,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","slug":"06-chapter-i-the-four-aids-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\/06-chapter-i-the-four-aids-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","title":{"rendered":"-06_Chapter I The Four Aids.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tPart I <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Yoga of Divine Works<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Four Aids <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tY<\/font>OGA-SIDDHI<\/b>, the perfection that comes from the practice of Yoga, can be best attained by the combined working of four great instruments. There is, first, the
\nknowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that
\n\t\t\tgovern the realisation \u2014 śā<\/font>stra<\/i>. Next comes a patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by this knowledge, the
\n\t\t\tforce of our personal effort \u2014 utsā<\/font>ha<\/i>. There intervenes, third,
\nuplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the
\n\t\t\tTeacher \u2014 guru<\/i>. Last comes the instrumentality of Time \u2014 kā<\/font>la<\/i>;
\nfor in all things there is a cycle of their action and a period of the divine movement. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nThe supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being. The lotus
\nof the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us. It opens swiftly or gradually,
\npetal by petal, through successive realisations, once the mind of man begins to turn towards the Eternal, once his heart, no longer
\ncompressed and confined by attachment to finite appearances, becomes enamoured, in whatever degree, of the Infinite. All life,
\nall thought, all energising of the faculties, all experiences passive or active, become thenceforward so many shocks which disintegrate the teguments of the soul and remove the obstacles to the inevitable efflorescence. He who chooses the Infinite has been
\nchosen by the Infinite. He has received the divine touch without which there is no awakening, no opening of the spirit; but once
\nit is received, attainment is sure, whether conquered swiftly in the course of one human life or pursued patiently through many<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>53<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tstadia of the cycle of existence in the manifested universe. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNothing can be taught to the mind which is not already concealed as potential knowledge in the unfolding soul of the
\ncreature. So also all perfection of which the outer man is capable, is only a realising of the eternal perfection of the Spirit within
\nhim. We know the Divine and become the Divine, because we are That already in our secret nature. All teaching is a revealing,
\nall becoming is an unfolding. Self-attainment is the secret; self-knowledge and an increasing consciousness are the means and
\nthe process. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe usual agency of this revealing is the Word, the thing
\n\u00b4<\/i> heard (ś<\/font>ruta<\/i>). The Word may come to us from within; it may
\ncome to us from without. But in either case, it is only an agency for setting the hidden knowledge to work. The word within may
\nbe the utterance of the inmost soul in us which is always open to the Divine; or it may be the word of the secret and universal
\nTeacher who is seated in the hearts of all. There are rare cases in which none other is needed, for all the rest of the Yoga is
\nan unfolding under that constant touch and guidance; the lotus of the knowledge discloses itself from within by the power of
\nirradiating effulgence which proceeds from the Dweller in the lotus of the heart. Great indeed, but few are those to whom self-knowledge from within is thus sufficient and who do not need to pass under the dominant influence of a written book or a living
\nteacher. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOrdinarily, the Word from without, representative of the
\nDivine, is needed as an aid in the work of self-unfolding; and it may be either a word from the past or the more powerful
\nword of the living Guru. In some cases this representative word is only taken as a sort of excuse for the inner power to awaken
\nand manifest; it is, as it were, a concession of the omnipotent and omniscient Divine to the generality of a law that governs Nature.
\nThus it is said in the Upanishads of Krishna, son of Devaki, that he received a word of the Rishi Ghora and had the knowledge.
\nSo Ramakrishna, having attained by his own internal effort the central illumination, accepted several teachers in the different
\npaths of Yoga, but always showed in the manner and swiftness<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>54<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t of his realisation that this acceptance was a concession to the
\ngeneral rule by which effective knowledge must be received as by a disciple from a Guru. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by
\na received written Shastra, \u2014 some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins,
\n\t\t\t\u2014 it may be practised
\neither by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the
\ntruths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds
\nby the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of
\nthe Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long
\nfamiliar goal. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of
\nthe eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide,
\ncatholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in
\nhis experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences. His Yoga may be governed
\nfor a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, \u2014 if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for
\nexample, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied
\nexperience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must
\ntake his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations
\nof the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his
\n\t\t\tprogress must pass beyond the written Truth,\u2014 
\n\t\t\tś<\/font>abdabrahmā<\/font>tivartate <\/i>\u2014 beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear,\u2014
\n\t\t\tś<\/font>rotavyasya
\n\t\t\tś<\/font>rutasya ca<\/i>. For he is not<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>55<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the
\nInfinite. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnother kind of Shastra is not Scripture, but a statement
\nof the science and methods, the effective principles and way of working of the path of Yoga which the sadhaka elects to follow.
\nEach path has its Shastra, either written or traditional, passing from mouth to mouth through a long line of Teachers. In India
\na great authority, a high reverence even is ordinarily attached to the written or traditional teaching. All the lines of the Yoga
\nare supposed to be fixed and the Teacher who has received the Shastra by tradition and realised it in practice guides the
\ndisciple along the immemorial tracks. One often even hears the objection urged against a new practice, a new Yogic teaching, the
\nadoption of a new formula, “It is not according to the Shastra.” But neither in fact nor in the actual practice of the Yogins is
\nthere really any such entire rigidity of an iron door shut against new truth, fresh revelation, widened experience. The written or
\ntraditional teaching expresses the knowledge and experiences of many centuries systematised, organised, made attainable to
\nthe beginner. Its importance and utility are therefore immense. But a great freedom of variation and development is always
\npracticable. Even so highly scientific a system as Rajayoga can be practised on other lines than the organised method of Patanjali. Each of the three paths of the trim<\/i>ā<\/i><\/font>rga<\/i>\u00b9<\/font> breaks into many 
\nbypaths which meet again at the goal. The general knowledge on which the Yoga depends is fixed, but the order, the succession,
\nthe devices, the forms must be allowed to vary; for the needs and particular impulsions of the individual nature have to be
\nsatisfied even while the general truths remain firm and constant. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn integral and synthetic Yoga needs especially not to be
\nbound by any written or traditional Shastra; for while it embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise
\nit anew for the present and the future. An absolute liberty of experience and of the restatement of knowledge in new terms
\nand new combinations is the condition of its self-formation. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\u00b9<\/font> The triple path of Knowledge, Devotion and Works.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>56<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t Seeking to embrace all life in itself, it is in the position not
\nof a pilgrim following the highroad to his destination, but, to that extent at least, of a path-finder hewing his way through
\na virgin forest. For Yoga has long diverged from life and the ancient systems which sought to embrace it, such as those of
\nour Vedic forefathers, are far away from us, expressed in terms which are no longer accessible, thrown into forms which are
\nno longer applicable. Since then mankind has moved forward on the current of eternal Time and the same problem has to be
\napproached from a new starting-point. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy this Yoga we not only seek the Infinite, but we call upon
\nthe Infinite to unfold himself in human life. Therefore the Shastra of our Yoga must provide for an infinite liberty in the receptive
\nhuman soul. A free adaptability in the manner and the type of the individual’s acceptance of the Universal and Transcendent into
\nhimself is the right condition for the full spiritual life in man. Vivekananda, pointing out that the unity of all religions must
\nnecessarily express itself by an increasing richness of variety in its forms, said once that the perfect state of that essential
\nunity would come when each man had his own religion, when not bound by sect or traditional form he followed the free selfadaptation of his nature in its relations with the Supreme. So also one may say that the perfection of the integral Yoga will
\ncome when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga, pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging
\ntowards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeanwhile certain general lines have to be formed which may help to guide the thought and practice of the sadhaka.
\nBut these must take as much as possible the form of general truths, general statements of principle, the most powerful broad
\ndirections of effort and development rather than a fixed system which has to be followed as a routine. All Shastra is the outcome
\nof past experience and a help to future experience. It is an aid and a partial guide. It puts up signposts, gives the names of
\nthe main roads and the already explored directions, so that the traveller may know whither and by what paths he is proceeding.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>57<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThe rest depends on personal effort and experience and
\nupon the power of the Guide. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tThe development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude,
\nthe intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of the path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka. The process of Yoga is a turning of the human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed
\nin the outward appearances and attractions of things to a higher state in which the Transcendent and Universal can pour itself
\ninto the individual mould and transform it. The first determining element of the siddhi is, therefore, the intensity of the turning,
\nthe force which directs the soul inward. The power of aspiration of the heart, the force of the will, the concentration of the mind,
\nthe perseverance and determination of the applied energy are the measure of that intensity. The ideal sadhaka should be able
\nto say in the Biblical phrase, “My zeal for the Lord has eaten me 
\n\t\t\tup." It is this zeal for the Lord, \u2014 utsā<\/font>ha<\/i>, the zeal of the whole  nature for its divine results, vyā<\/font>kulatā<\/font><\/i>, the heart’s eagerness for
\nthe attainment of the Divine, \u2014 that devours the ego and breaks up the limitations of its petty and narrow mould for the full
\nand wide reception of that which it seeks, that which, being universal, exceeds and, being transcendent, surpasses even the
\nlargest and highest individual self and nature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut this is only one side of the force that works for perfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine;
\nnext, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last, the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world. So long
\nas the contact with the Divine is not in some considerable degree established, so long as there is not some measure of sustained<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>58<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t identity, sā<\/font>yujya<\/i>, the element of personal effort must normally predominate. But in proportion as this contact establishes itself,
\nthe sadhaka must become conscious that a force other than his own, a force transcending his egoistic endeavour and capacity,
\nis at work in him and to this Power he learns progressively to submit himself and delivers up to it the charge of his Yoga. In the
\nend his own will and force become one with the higher Power; he merges them in the divine Will and its transcendent and universal
\nForce. He finds it thenceforward presiding over the necessary transformation of his mental, vital and physical being with an
\nimpartial wisdom and provident effectivity of which the eager and interested ego is not capable. It is when this identification
\nand this self-merging are complete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated, plastic, illumined, it can begin
\nto serve as a means for the direct action of a supreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth’s
\nspiritual progression or its transformation. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways indeed it is the higher Power that acts. Our sense
\nof personal effort and aspiration comes from the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect
\nway with the workings of the divine Force. It persists in applying to experience on a supernormal plane the ordinary terms
\nof mentality which it applies to its normal experiences in the world. In the world we act with the sense of egoism; we claim
\nthe universal forces that work in us as our own; we claim as the effect of our personal will, wisdom, force, virtue the selective, formative, progressive action of the Transcendent in this frame of mind, life and body. Enlightenment brings to us the
\nknowledge that the ego is only an instrument; we begin to perceive and feel that these things are our own in the sense
\nthat they belong to our supreme and integral Self, one with the Transcendent, not to the instrumental ego. Our limitations and
\ndistortions are our contribution to the working; the true power in it is the Divine’s. When the human ego realises that its will
\nis a tool, its wisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a pretentious impurity, and learns to
\ntrust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation. The<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>59<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t apparent freedom and self-assertion of our personal being to
\nwhich we are so profoundly attached, conceal a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which
\nwe have made extraneous to our little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of
\ncountless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment;
\nits surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut still, in the practical development, each of the three stages has its necessity and utility and must be given its time or
\nits place. It will not do, it cannot be safe or effective to begin with the last and highest alone. It would not be the right course,
\neither, to leap prematurely from one to another. For even if from the beginning we recognise in mind and heart the Supreme, there
\nare elements of the nature which long prevent the recognition from becoming realisation. But without realisation our mental
\nbelief cannot become a dynamic reality; it is still only a figure of knowledge, not a living truth, an idea, not yet a power. And
\neven if realisation has begun, it may be dangerous to imagine or to assume too soon that we are altogether in the hands of
\nthe Supreme or are acting as his instrument. That assumption may introduce a calamitous falsity; it may produce a helpless
\ninertia or, magnifying the movements of the ego with the Divine Name, it may disastrously distort and ruin the whole course of
\nthe Yoga. There is a period, more or less prolonged, of internal effort and struggle in which the individual will has to reject the
\ndarkness and distortions of the lower nature and to put itself resolutely or vehemently on the side of the divine Light. The
\nmental energies, the heart’s emotions, the vital desires, the very physical being have to be compelled into the right attitude or
\ntrained to admit and answer to the right influences. It is only then, only when this has been truly done, that the surrender of
\nthe lower to the higher can be effected, because the sacrifice has become acceptable. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe personal will of the sadhaka has first to seize on the egoistic energies and turn them towards the light and the right;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>60<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t once turned, he has still to train them to recognise that always,
\nalways to accept, always to follow that. Progressing, he learns, still using the personal will, personal effort, personal energies, to
\nemploy them as representatives of the higher Power and in conscious obedience to the higher Influence. Progressing yet farther,
\nhis will, effort, energy become no longer personal and separate, but activities of that higher Power and Influence at work in the
\nindividual. But there is still a sort of gulf or distance which necessitates an obscure process of transit, not always accurate,
\nsometimes even very distorting, between the divine Origin and the emerging human current. At the end of the process, with
\nthe progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance, this last separation is removed; all in the individual
\nbecomes the divine working. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tAs the supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda
\nsecret in the heart of every man, so its supreme Guide and Teacher is the inner Guide, the World-Teacher,
\njagad-guru<\/i>, secret
\nwithin us. It is he who destroys our darkness by the resplendent light of his knowledge; that light becomes within us the increasing glory of his own self-revelation. He discloses progressively in us his own nature of freedom, bliss, love, power, immortal
\nbeing. He sets above us his divine example as our ideal and transforms the lower existence into a reflection of that which it
\ncontemplates. By the inpouring of his own influence and presence into us he enables the individual being to attain to identity
\nwith the universal and transcendent. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat is his method and his system? He has no method and
\nevery method. His system is a natural organisation of the highest processes and movements of which the nature is capable. Applying themselves even to the pettiest details and to the actions the most insignificant in their appearance with as much care and
\nthoroughness as to the greatest, they in the end lift all into the Light and transform all. For in his Yoga there is nothing too
\nsmall to be used and nothing too great to be attempted. As the<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>61<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t servant and disciple of the Master has no business with pride
\nor egoism because all is done for him from above, so also he has no right to despond because of his personal deficiencies or
\nthe stumblings of his nature. For the Force that works in him is impersonal \u2014 or superpersonal
\n\t\t\t\u2014 and infinite. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe full recognition of this inner Guide, Master of the Yoga, lord, light, enjoyer and goal of all sacrifice and effort, is of
\nthe utmost importance in the path of integral perfection. It is immaterial whether he is first seen as an impersonal Wisdom,
\nLove and Power behind all things, as an Absolute manifesting in the relative and attracting it, as one’s highest Self and the
\nhighest Self of all, as a Divine Person within us and in the world, in one of his
\n\t\t\t\u2014 or her \u2014 numerous forms and names or as the
\nideal which the mind conceives. In the end we perceive that he is all and more than all these things together. The mind’s door of
\nentry to the conception of him must necessarily vary according to the past evolution and the present nature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis inner Guide is often veiled at first by the very intensity of our personal effort and by the ego’s preoccupation with itself
\nand its aims. As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of egoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise
\nthe source of the growing light within us. We recognise it retrospectively as we realise how all our obscure and conflicting
\nmovements have been determined towards an end that we only now begin to perceive, how even before our entrance into the
\npath of the Yoga the evolution of our life has been designedly led towards its turning-point. For now we begin to understand the
\nsense of our struggles and efforts, successes and failures. At last we are able to seize the meaning of our ordeals and sufferings
\nand can appreciate the help that was given us by all that hurt and resisted and the utility of our very falls and stumblings. We
\nrecognise this divine leading afterwards, not retrospectively but immediately, in the moulding of our thoughts by a transcendent Seer, of our will and actions by an all-embracing Power, of our emotional life by an all-attracting and all-assimilating
\nBliss and Love. We recognise it too in a more personal relation that from the first touched or at the last seizes us; we feel the<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>62<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t eternal presence of a supreme Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher.
\nWe recognise it in the essence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater and wider existence; for
\nwe perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts: an eternal Perfection is moulding us into
\nits own image. One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in the conscious being (caitya guru
\n<\/i>or
\nantaryā<\/font>min<\/i>), the Absolute of the thinker, the Unknowable of
\nthe Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti, the One who is differently named
\nand imaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves
\nand in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal and becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence.
\nTo be conscious of him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the
\nconsummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term
\nof all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of
\ndifference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire
\ndefinition of the aim of integral Yoga; it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has
\nhidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural
\nlife into divine living. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tThe surest way towards this integral fulfilment is to find the
\nMaster of the secret who dwells within us, open ourselves constantly to the divine Power which is also the divine Wisdom and
\nLove and trust to it to effect the conversion. But it is difficult for the egoistic consciousness to do this at all at the beginning.
\nAnd, if done at all, it is still difficult to do it perfectly and in every strand of our nature. It is difficult at first because our<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>63<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t egoistic habits of thought, of sensation, of feeling block up the
\navenues by which we can arrive at the perception that is needed. It is difficult afterwards because the faith, the surrender, the
\ncourage requisite in this path are not easy to the ego-clouded soul. The divine working is not the working which the egoistic
\nmind desires or approves; for it uses error in order to arrive at truth, suffering in order to arrive at bliss, imperfection in order
\nto arrive at perfection. The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage.
\nThese failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by our want of
\nfaith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher. But by withdrawing our assent from the guidance we lose the consciousness, though not all the actuality
\n\t\t\t\u2014 not, in any case, the eventuality
\n\t\t\t\u2014 of its benefit. And we withdraw our assent because we fail to distinguish our higher Self from the lower through which he is
\npreparing his self-revelation. As in the world, so in ourselves, we cannot see God because of his workings and, especially, because
\nhe works in us through our nature and not by a succession of arbitrary miracles. Man demands miracles that he may have
\nfaith; he wishes to be dazzled in order that he may see. And this impatience, this ignorance may turn into a great danger and
\ndisaster if, in our revolt against the divine leading, we call in another distorting Force more satisfying to our impulses and
\ndesires and ask it to guide us and give it the Divine Name. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut while it is difficult for man to believe in something
\nunseen within himself, it is easy for him to believe in something which he can image as extraneous to himself. The spiritual
\nprogress of most human beings demands an extraneous support, an object of faith outside us. It needs an external image of God;
\nor it needs a human representative, \u2014 Incarnation, Prophet or Guru; or it demands both and receives them. For according
\nto the need of the human soul the Divine manifests himself as deity, as human divine or in simple humanity
\n\t\t\t\u2014 using that
\nthick disguise, which so successfully conceals the Godhead, for a means of transmission of his guidance. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>64<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThe Hindu discipline of spirituality provides for this need of
\nthe soul by the conceptions of the Ishta Devata, the Avatar and the Guru. By the Ishta Devata, the chosen deity, is meant,
\n\t\t\t\u2014 not
\nsome inferior Power, but a name and form of the transcendent and universal Godhead. Almost all religions either have as their
\nbase or make use of some such name and form of the Divine. Its necessity for the human soul is evident. God is the All and
\nmore than the All. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? And even the All is at first too hard for
\nhim; for he himself in his active consciousness is a limited and selective formation and can open himself only to that which is
\nin harmony with his limited nature. There are things in the All which are too hard for his comprehension or seem too terrible
\nto his sensitive emotions and cowering sensations. Or, simply, he cannot conceive as the Divine, cannot approach or cannot
\nrecognise something that is too much out of the circle of his ignorant or partial conceptions. It is necessary for him to conceive God in his own image or in some form that is beyond himself but consonant with his highest tendencies and seizable
\nby his feelings or his intelligence. Otherwise it would be difficult for him to come into contact and communion with the
\nDivine. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven then his nature calls for a human intermediary so
\nthat he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example.
\nThis call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar
\n\t\t\t\u2014 Krishna, Christ, Buddha.
\nOr if this is too hard for him to conceive, the Divine represents himself through a less marvellous intermediary,
\n\t\t\t\u2014 Prophet or
\nTeacher. For many who cannot conceive or are unwilling to accept the Divine Man, are ready to open themselves to the
\nsupreme man, terming him not incarnation but world-teacher or divine representative. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis also is not enough; a living influence, a living example, a present instruction is needed. For it is only the few who can make
\nthe past Teacher and his teaching, the past Incarnation and his example and influence a living force in their lives. For this need<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>65<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\talso the Hindu discipline provides in the relation of the Guru
\nand the disciple. The Guru may sometimes be the Incarnation or World-Teacher; but it is sufficient that he should represent to
\nthe disciple the divine wisdom, convey to him something of the divine ideal or make him feel the realised relation of the human
\nsoul with the Eternal. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these
\naids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru,” and opposes it to all other realisation in
\na sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the
\ndivine realisation. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will not
\nbe satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all
\nothers, unified all Avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the Avatar, welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony
\nof the Eternal Wisdom. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor should he forget the aim of these external aids which is
\nto awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been finally accomplished if that has not been accomplished. It is not
\nsufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ
\nor Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between man’s unconverted state and
\nthe revelation of the Divine within him. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tThe Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may
\nthe method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence,
\n\t\t\t\u2014 these are the three instruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the
\npassive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>66<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under
\nthe divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and
\nthe experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an
\nimperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against
\nthe mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself
\nis only a means and an aid, a body or a channel. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe example is more powerful than the instruction; but it
\nis not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place
\nand their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him
\ngoverning his whole life and inner state and all his activities. This is the universal and essential element; the rest belongs to
\nindividual person and circumstance. It is this dynamic realisation that the sadhaka must feel and reproduce in himself according
\nto his own nature; he need not strive after an imitation from outside which may well be sterilising rather than productive of
\nright and natural fruits. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInfluence is more important than example. Influence is not
\nthe outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul
\nto the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses. This is the supreme sign
\nof the Master. For the greatest Master is much less a Teacher than a Presence pouring the divine consciousness and its constituting
\nlight and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive around him. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the integral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself Guruhood in a humanly
\nvain and self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he himself a channel, a vessel or a representative.
\nHe is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>67<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tat highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to him other
\npowers of the Divine. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\tThe sadhaka who has all these aids is sure of his goal. Even a fall
\nwill be for him only a means of rising and death a passage towards fulfilment. For once on this path, birth and death become
\nonly processes in the development of his being and the stages of his journey. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTime is the remaining aid needed for the effectivity of the process. Time presents itself to human effort as an enemy or a
\nfriend, as a resistance, a medium or an instrument. But always it is really the instrument of the soul. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTime is a field of circumstances and forces meeting and working out a resultant progression whose course it measures.
\nTo the ego it is a tyrant or a resistance, to the Divine an instrument. Therefore, while our effort is personal, Time appears
\nas a resistance, for it presents to us all the obstruction of the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and
\nthe personal are combined in our consciousness, it appears as a medium and a condition. When the two become one, it appears
\nas a servant and instrument. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe ideal attitude of the sadhaka towards Time is to have
\nan endless patience as if he had all eternity for his fulfilment and yet to develop the energy that shall realise now and with an
\never-increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transformation. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>68<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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