{"id":2600,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:40","slug":"33-the-law-of-the-way-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/12-essays-divine-and-human\/33-the-law-of-the-way-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","title":{"rendered":"-33_The Law of the Way.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Section<\/p>\n

Five<\/b><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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 <\/span><\/p>\n

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1927 and after<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/span><\/font>The Law of the Way <\/b><\/span><\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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First be sure of the call and of thy soul’s answer. For if the call
\nis not true, not the touch of God’s powers or the voice of his messengers, but the lure of thy ego, the end of thy endeavour
\nwill be a poor spiritual fiasco or else a deep disaster.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

And if not the soul’s fervour, but only the mind’s assent or
\ninterest replies to the divine summons or only the lower life’s desire clutches at some side attraction of the fruits of
\n\tYoga-power or Yoga-pleasure or only a transient emotion leaps like an unsteady flame moved by the intensity of the Voice or its
\nsweetness or grandeur, then too there can be little surety for thee in the difficult path of Yoga.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The outer instruments of mortal man have no force to carry him through the severe ardours of this spiritual journey and
\nTitanic inner battle or to meet its terrible or obstinate ordeals or nerve him to face and overcome its subtle and formidable dangers. Only his spirit’s august and steadfast will and the quenchless fire of his soul’s invincible ardour are sufficient for this
\ndifficult transformation and this high improbable endeavour.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Imagine not the way is easy; the way is long, arduous, dangerous, difficult. At every step is an ambush, at every turn a pitfall. A thousand seen or unseen enemies will start up against
\nthee, terrible in subtlety against thy ignorance, formidable in power against thy weakness. And when with pain thou hast
\ndestroyed them, other thousands will surge up to take their place. Hell will vomit its hordes to oppose thee and enring and
\nwound and menace; Heaven will meet thee with its pitiless tests and its cold luminous denials. Thou shalt find thyself alone in
\nthy anguish, the demons furious in thy path, the Gods unwilling above thee. Ancient and powerful, cruel, unvanquished and
\nclose and innumerable are the dark and dreadful Powers that profit by the reign of Night and Ignorance and would have no
\n   
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change and are hostile. Aloof, slow to arrive, far-off and few
\nand brief in their visits are the Bright Ones who are willing or permitted to succour. Each step forward is a battle. There
\nare precipitous descents, there are unending ascensions and ever higher peaks upon peaks to conquer. Each plateau climbed is but
\na stage on the way and reveals endless heights beyond it. Each victory thou thinkest the last triumphant struggle proves to be
\nbut the prelude to a hundred fierce and perilous battles… But thou sayest God’s hand will be with me and the Divine Mother
\nnear with her gracious smile of succour? And thou knowest not then that God’s grace is more difficult to have or to keep than
\nthe nectar of the Immortals or Kuvera’s priceless treasures? Ask of His chosen and they will tell thee how often the Eternal has
\ncovered his face from them, how often he has withdrawn from them behind his mysterious veil and they have found themselves
\nalone in the grip of Hell, solitary in the horror of the darkness, naked and defenceless in the anguish of the battle. And if his
\npresence is felt behind the veil, yet is it like the winter sun behind clouds and saves not from the rain and snow and the calamitous
\nstorm and the harsh wind and the bitter cold and the grey of a sorrowful atmosphere and the dun weary dullness. Doubtless
\nthe help is there even when it seems to be withdrawn, but still is there the appearance of total night with no sun to come and no
\nstar of hope to pierce the blackness. Beautiful is the face of the Divine Mother, but she too can be hard and terrible. Nay, then,
\nis immortality a plaything to be given lightly to a child or the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling?
\nStrive rightly and thou shalt have; trust and thy trust shall in the end be justified; but the dread Law of the Way is there and none
\ncan abrogate it.  
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 156<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Section Five   1927 and after    The Law of the Way   First be sure of the call and of thy soul’s answer. For…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-essays-divine-and-human","wpcat-52-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","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=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}