{"id":3602,"date":"2013-07-13T01:49:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:49:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:54","slug":"02-the-four-aids-vol-the-synthesis-of-yoga-1950-edn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/the-synthesis-of-yoga-1950-edn\/02-the-four-aids-vol-the-synthesis-of-yoga-1950-edn","title":{"rendered":"-02_THE FOUR AIDS.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

CHAPTER I <\/p>\n

\nTHE FOUR AIDS\n<\/p>\n

\nYOGA_SIDDHA<\/font>, the perfection that comes from the practice
\nof Yoga, can be best attained by the combined working of four great instruments.
\nThere is, first, the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes
\nthat govern the realisation\u2014 sastra. <\/i>Next comes a patient and persistent
\naction on the lines laid down by the knowledge, the force of our personal effort
\n\u2014utsaha. <\/i>There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into
\nthe domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence
\nof the Teacher\u2014guru. <\/i>Last comes the instrumentality of Time\u2014kala; <\/i>
\nfor in all things there is a cycle of their action and a period of the divine
\nmovement.\n<\/p>\n

\n* * *<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n     The supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal
\nVeda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being. The lotus of the
\neternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up
\nwithin us. It opens swiftly or gradually, petal by petal, through successive
\nrealisations, once the mind of. man begins to turn towards the Eternal, once his
\nheart, no longer compressed and confined by attachment to finite appearances,
\nbecomes enamoured, in whatever degree, of the Infinite. All life, all thought,
\nall energising of the faculties, all experiences passive or active, become
\nthenceforward so many shocks which disintegrate the teguments of the soul and
\nremove the obstacles to the inevitable efflorescence. He who chooses the
\nInfinite has been chosen by the Infinite. He has received the divine touch
\nwithout which there is no awakening, no opening of the spirit; but once it is
\nreceived, at-\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\ntainment is sure, whether conquered swiftly in the course of one human life or
\npursued patiently through many stadia of the cycle of existence in the
\nmanifested universe.\n<\/p>\n

\n     Nothing can be taught to the mind which is not already
\nconcealed as potential knowledge in the unfolding soul of the creature. So also
\nall perfection of which the outer man is capable, is only a realising of the
\neternal perfection of the Spirit within him. We know the Divine and become the
\nDivine, because we are That already in our secret nature. All teaching is a
\nrevealing, all becoming is an unfolding. Self-attainment is the secret;
\nself-knowledge and an increasing consciousness are the means and the process.\n<\/p>\n

\n    The usual agency of this revealing is the Word, the thing
\nheard Qsruta). <\/i>The Word may come to us from within; it may come to us
\nfrom without. But in either case, it is only an agency for setting the hidden
\nknowledge to work. The word within may be the utterance of the inmost soul in us
\nwhich is always open to the Divine or it may be the word of the secret and
\nuniversal Teacher who is seated in the hearts of all. There are rare cases in
\nwhich none other is needed, for all the rest of the Yoga is an unfolding under
\nthat constant touch and guidance; the lotus of the knowledge discloses itself
\nfrom within by the power of irradiating effulgence which proceeds from the
\nDweller in the lotus of the heart. Great .indeed, but few are those to whom
\nself-knowledge from within is thus, sufficient and who do not need to pass under
\nthe dominant influence of a written book or a living teacher.\n<\/p>\n

\n     Ordinarily, the Word from without, representative of
\nthe Divine, is needed as an aid in the work of self-unfolding; and it may be
\neither a word from the past or the more powerful word of the living Guru. In
\nsome cases this representative word is only taken as a sort of excuse for the
\ninner power to awaken and manifest; it is, as it were, a concession of the\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nomnipotent.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
\nword of the Rishi Ghora and had the knowledge. So Ramakrishna, having attained
\nby his own internal effort the central illumination, accepted several teachers
\nin the different paths of Yoga, but always showed in the manner and swiftness of
\nhis realisation that this acceptance was a concession to the general rule by
\nwhich effective knowledge must be received as by a disciple from a Guru.\n<\/p>\n

\n     But usually the representative influence occupies a
\nmuch larger place in the life of the sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by a
\nreceived written Shastra,\u2014some Word from the past which embodies the experience
\nof former Yogins,\u2014it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with
\nthe aid of a Guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on
\nthe truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their
\nrealisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of
\nprescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and
\nillumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but
\nsafe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to
\na long familiar goal.\n<\/p>\n

\n     For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to
\nremember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large
\nits spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He
\nwill use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the
\nScripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for
\nthe highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his
\nexperience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the
\nhighest experiences. His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\nor by several successively,\u2014if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition,
\nby the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of
\nhis development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the
\ntruths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in
\nthe past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can,
\nalways and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the written
\nTruth,\u2014sabda-brahmativartate\u2014<\/i>beyond all that he has heard and all that he
\nhas yet to hear,\u2014srotavyasya srutasya ca. <\/i>For he is not the sadhaka of a
\nbook or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite.\n<\/p>\n

\n    Another kind of Shastra is not Scripture, but a statement of
\nthe science and methods, the effective principles and way of working of the path
\nof Yoga which the sadhaka elects to follow. Each path has its Shastra, either
\nwritten or traditional, passing from mouth to mouth through a long line of
\nTeachers. In India a great authority, a high reverence even is ordinarily
\nattached to the written or traditional teaching. All the lines of the Yoga are
\nsupposed to be fixed and the Teacher who has received the Shastra by tradition
\nand realised it in practice guides the disciple along the immemorial tracks. One
\noften even hears the objection urged against a new practice, a new Yogic
\nteaching, the adoption of a new formula, "It is not according to the Shastra."
\nBut neither in fact nor in the. actual practice of the Yogins is there really
\nany such entire rigidity of an iron door shut against new truth, fresh
\nrevelation, widened experience. The written or traditional teaching expresses
\nthe knowledge and experiences-of many centuries systematised, organised, made
\nattainable to the beginner. Its importance and utility are therefore immense.
\nBut a great freedom of variation and development is always practicable. Even so
\nhighly scientific a system as Rajayoga can be prac-
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\ntised on other lines than the organised method of Patanjali. Each of the three
\npaths, trimarga* <\/i>breaks into many bypaths which meet again at the goal.
\nThe general knowledge on which the Yoga depends is fixed, but the order, the
\nsuccession, the devices, the forms must be allowed to vary; for the needs and
\nparticular impulsions of the individual nature have to be satisfied even while
\nthe general truths remain firm and constant.\n<\/p>\n

\n      An integral and synthetic Yoga needs especially
\nnot to be bound by any written or traditional Shastra; for while it embraces the
\nknowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present
\nand the future. An absolute liberty of experience and of the restatement of
\nknowledge in new terms and’ new combinations is the condition of its
\nself-formation. 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
\nleast, of a path-finder hewing his way through a virgin forest. For Yoga has
\nlong diverged from life and the ancient systems which sought to embrace it, such
\nas those of our Vedic forefathers, are far away from us, expressed in terms
\nwhich are no longer accessible, thrown into forms which are no longer
\napplicable. Since then mankind has moved forward on the current of eternal Time
\nand the same problem has to be approached from a new starting-point.\n<\/p>\n

\n    By 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
\nmust provide for an infinite liberty in the receptive human soul. A free
\nadaptability in the manner and type of the individual’s acceptance of the
\nUniversal and Transcendent into himself is the right condition for the full
\nspiritual life in man. Vivekananda, pointing out\n<\/p>\n

* The triple path of Knowledge, Devotion and
\n\tWorks. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\nthat the unity of all religions must necessarily express itself by an increasing
\nrichness of variety in its forrris, said once that the perfect state of that
\nessential unity would come when each man had his own religion, when not bound by
\nsect or traditional form he followed the free self-adaptation of his nature in
\nits relations with the Supreme. So also one may say that the perfection of the
\nintegral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga,
\npursuing the development of his own nature in its up surging towards that which
\ntranscends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation.\n<\/p>\n

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

\n    The rest depends on personal effort and experience and upon
\nthe power of the Guide.\n<\/p>\n

\n*   *  *<\/p>\n

\n   The development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude,
\nthe intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of
\nthe path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka.
\nThe process of Yoga is a turning of the human soul from the egoistic state of
\nconsciousness absorbed in the outward appearances and attractions of things to a
\nhigher state in which the Transcend-
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\nent and Universal can pour itself into the individual mould and transform it.
\nThe first determining element of the siddhi is, therefore, the intensity of the
\nturning, the force which directs the soul inward. The power of aspiration of the
\nheart, the force of the will, the concentration of the mind, the perseverance
\nand determination of the applied energy are the measure of that intensity. The
\nideal sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, "My zeal for the
\nLord has eaten me up." It is this zeal for the Lord,\u2014utsaha, <\/i>the zeal of
\nthe whole nature for its divine results, vyakulaia, <\/i>the heart’s eagerness
\nfor the attainment of the Divine,\u2014that devours the ego and breaks up the
\nlimitations of its petty and narrow mould for the full and wide reception of
\nthat which it seeks, that which, being universal, exceeds and, being
\ntranscendent, surpasses even the largest and highest individual self and nature.\n<\/p>\n

\n    But this is only one side of the force that works for
\nperfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed
\nsharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There
\nmust be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling
\nself-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next, the reception of that
\nwhich transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for
\nthe transformation of our whole conscious being; last, the utilisation of our
\ntransformed humanity as a divine centre in the world. So long as the contact
\nwith the Divine is not in some considerable degree established, so long as there
\nis not some measure of sustained identity, sayujya, <\/i>the element of
\npersonal effort must, normally predominate. But in proportion as this contact
\nestablishes itself, the sadhaka must become conscious that a force other than
\nhis own, a force transcending his egoistic endeavour and capacity, is at work in
\nhim and to this Power he learns progressively to submit himself
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\nand delivers up to it the charge of his Yoga. In the end his own -will and force
\nbecome one with the higher Power; he merges them in the divine Will and its
\ntranscendent and universal Force. He finds it thenceforwatd presiding over the
\nnecessary transformation of his mental, vital and physical being with an
\nimpartial wisdom and provident effec-tivity of which the eager and interested
\nego is not capable. It is when this identification and this self-merging are
\ncomplete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated,
\nplastic, illumined, it can begin to serve as a means for the direct action of a
\nsupreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth’s
\nspiritual progression or its transformation.\n<\/p>\n

\n    Always indeed it is the higher Power that acts. Our sense of
\npersonal effort and aspiration comes from the attempt of the egoistic mind to
\nidentify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine
\nForce. It persists in applying to experience on a super-normal plane the
\nordinary terms of mentality which it applies to its normal experiences in the
\nworld. In the world we act with the sense of egoism; we claim the universal
\nforces that work in us as our own; we claim as the effect of our personal will,
\nwisdom, force, virtue the selective, formative, progressive action of the
\nTranscendent in this frame of mind, life and body. Enlightenment brings to us
\nthe knowledge that the ego is only_ an instrument; we begin to perceive and feel
\nthat these things are our own in the sense that they belong to our supreme and
\nintegral Self, one with the Transcendent, not to the instrumental ego. Our
\nlimitations and distortions are our contribution to the working; the true power
\nin it is the Divine’s. When the human ego realises that its will is a tool, its
\nwisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a
\npretentious impurity, and learns to trust itself to that
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

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

\n    But still, in the practical development, each of the three
\nstages has its necessity and utility and must be given its time or its place. It
\nwill not do, it cannot be safe or effective to begin with the last and highest
\nalone. It would not be the right course, either, to leap prematurely from one to
\nanother. For even if from the beginning we recognise in mind and heart the
\nSupreme, there are elements of the nature which long prevent the recognition
\nfrom becoming realisation. But without realisation our mental belief cannot
\nbecome a dynamic reality; it is still only a figure of knowledge, not a living
\ntruth, an idea, not yet a power. And even if realisation has begun, it may be
\ndangerous to imagine or to assume too soon that we are altogether in the hands
\nof the Supreme or are acting as his instrument. That assumption may introduce a
\ncalamitous falsity; it may produce a helpless inertia or, magnifying the
\nmovements of the ego with the Divine Name, it may disastrously distort and ruin
\nthe whole course of the Yoga. There is a period, more or less prolonged, of
\ninternal 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
\nvehemently on the side of the divine Light. The mental energies, the heart’s
\nemotions, the vital desires, the very physical being have to be compelled into
\nthe right attitude or\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\ntrained to admit and answer to the right influences. It is only then, only when
\nthis has been truly done, that the surrender of the lower to the higher can be
\neffected, because the sacrifice has become acceptable.\n<\/p>\n

\n     The personal will of the sadhaka has first to seize on
\nthe egoistic energies and turn them towards the light and the right; once
\nturned, he has still to train them to recognise that always, always to accept,
\nalways to follow that. Progressing, he learns, still using the personal will,
\npersonal effort, personal energies, to employ them as respresentatives of the
\nhigher Power and in conscious obedience to the higher Influence. Progressing yet
\nfarther, his will, effort, energy become no longer personal and separate, but
\nactivities of that higher Power and Influence at work in the individual. But
\nthere is still a sort of gulf or distance which necessitates an obscure process
\nof transit, not always accurate, sometimes even very distorting, between the
\ndivine Origin and the emerging human current. At the end of the progress, with
\nthe progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance, this last
\nseparation is removed; all in the individual becomes the divine working.\n<\/p>\n

\n* * *<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n    As the supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is. the eternal
\nVeda secret in the heart of every man, so its supreme Guide, and Teacher is the
\ninner Guide, the World-Teacher, jagad-guru, <\/i>secret within us. It is he
\nwho destroys our darkness by the resplendent light of his knowledge; that light
\nbecomes within us the increasing glory of his owfl self-revelation. He discloses
\nprogressively 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
\nexistence into a reflection of that which it contemplates. By the inpouring
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\nof his own. influence and presence into us he enables the individual being to
\nattain to identity with the universal and transcendent.\n<\/p>\n

\n    What is his method and his system? He has no method and every
\nmethod. His system is a natural organisation of the highest processes and
\nmovements of which the nature is capable. Applying themselves even to the
\npettiest details and to the actions the most insignificant in their appearance
\nwith as much care and thoroughness as to the greatest, they in the end lift all
\ninto the Light and transform all. For in his Yoga there is nothing too small to
\nbe used and nothing too great to be attempted. As the servant and disciple of
\nthe Master has no business with pride or egoism because all is done for him from
\nabove, so also he has no right to despond because of his pesonal deficiencies or
\nthe stumblings of his nature. For the Force that works in him is impersonal\u2014or
\nsuperpersonal \u2014and infinite.\n<\/p>\n

\n    The full recognition of this inner Guide, Master of the Yoga,
\nlord, light, enjoyer and goal of all sacrifice and effort, is of the utmost
\nimportance in the path of integral perfection. It is immaterial whether he is
\nfirst seen as an impersonal Wisdom, Love and Power behind all things, as an
\nAbsolute manifesting in the relative and attracting it, as one’s highest Self
\nand the highest Self of all, as a Divine Person within us and in the world, in
\none of his\u2014or her\u2014numerous forms and names or as the ideal which the mind
\nconceives. In the end we perceive that he is all and more than all these things
\ntogether. The mind’s door of entry to the conception of him must necessarily
\nvary according to the past evolution and the present nature.\n<\/p>\n

\n    This inner Guide is often veiled at first by the very
\nintensity of our personal effort and by the ego’s preoccupation with itself and
\nits aims. As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of
\n\n<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\negoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise the source
\nof the growing light within us. We recognise it retrospectively as we realise
\nhow all our obscure and conflicting movements have been determined* towards an
\nend 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
\nturning point. For now we begin to understand the sense of our struggles and
\nefforts, successes and failures. At last we are able to seize the meaning of our
\nordeals and sufferings and can appreciate the help that was given us by all that
\nhurt and resisted and the utility of our very falls and stumblings. We recognize
\nthis divine leading afterwards, not retrospectively but immediately, in the
\nmoulding of our thoughts by a transcendent Seer, of our will and actions by an
\nall-embracing Power, of our emotional life by an all-attracting and
\nall-assimilating Bliss and Love. We recognise it too in a more personal relation
\nthat from the first touched us or at the last seizes us; we feel the eternal
\npresence of a supreme Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher. We recognise it in the
\nessence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater
\nand wider existence; for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the
\nresult of our own efforts; an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own
\nimage. One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in
\nthe conscious being (caitya guru-or antaryamin), <\/i>the Absolute of the
\nthinker, the Unknowable of the Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist,
\nthe supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti, the One who-is differently named and
\nimaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga.\n<\/p>\n

\n    To see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves
\nand in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\nand becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence. To be conscious
\nof him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees
\nas outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be
\npossessed by him and possesss him in ourselves and in all things is the term of
\nall empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and
\nactivity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness
\nwhich the jlva, <\/i>\n<\/p>\n

\n* * *<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

\n    The surest way towards this integral fulfilment is to find
\nthe Master of the secret who dwells within us, open ourselves constantly to the
\ndivine Power which is also the divine Wisdom and Love and trust to it to
\neffect th<\/u>e conversion<\/u>. But it is difficult for the egoistic
\nconsciousness to do this at all at the beginning. And, if done at all, it is
\nstill difficult to do it perfectly and in every strand of our nature. It is
\ndifficult .at first because our egoistic habits of thought, of sensation, of
\nfeeling block up the avenues by which we can arrive at the perception that is
\nneeded. It is difficult afterwards because the faith<\/u>, the surrender,
\nthe courage requ<\/u>isite in this path are not easy to the ego-clouded soul. The
\ndivine working is not the working which the egoistic mind desires or approves;
\nfor it uses error in order to arrive at truth, suffering in order to arrive at
\nbliss, imperfection in order to arrive at\n<\/p>\n

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\nperfection. The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the
\nleading, loses confidence, loses courage. These failings would not matter; for
\nthe divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by "our
\nwant of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother
\nand the entire patience of the teacher. But by withdrawing our assent from the
\nguidance we lose the consciousness, though not all the actuality\u2014not, in any
\ncase, the eventuality\u2014of its benefit. And we withdraw our assent because we fail
\nto distinguish our higher Self from the lower through which he is preparing his
\nself-revelation. As in the world, so in ourselves, we cannot see God because of
\nhis workings and, especially, because he works in us through our nature and not
\nby 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,
\nthis ignorance may turn into a great danger and disaster if, in our revolt
\nagainst the divine leading, we call in another distorting Force more satisfying
\nto our impulses and desires and ask it to guide us and give it the Divine Name.\n<\/p>\n

\n   But while it is difficult for man to believe in something unseen
\nwithin himself, it is easy for him to believe in something which he can image as
\nextraneous to himself. The spiritual progress of most human beings demands an
\nextraneous support, an object of faith outside us. It needs an ex-, ternal image
\nof God; or it needs a human representative,\u2014 Incarnation, Prophet or Guru; or it
\ndemands both and receives them. For according to the need of the human soul the
\nDivine manifests himself as deity, as human divine or in simple humanity\u2014using
\nthat thick disguise, which so successfully conceals the Godhead, for a means of
\ntransmission of his guidance.
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n    The Hindu discipline of spirituality provides for this need
\nof the soul by the conceptions of the Ishta Devata, the Avatar and the Guru. By
\nthe Ishta Devata, the chosen deity, is meant,\u2014not some inferior Power, but a
\nname and form of the transcendent and universal Godhead. Almost all religions
\neither have as their base or make use of some such name and form of the Divine.
\nIts necessity for the human soul is evident. God is the All and more than the
\nAll. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? And even the
\nAll is at first too hard for him; for he himself in his active consciousness is
\na limited and selective formation and can open himself only to that which is in
\nharmony with his limited nature. There are things in the All which are too hard
\nfor his comprehension or seem too terrible to his sensitive emotions and
\ncowering sensations. Or, simply, he cannot conceive as the Divine, cannot
\napproach or cannot recognise something that is too much out of the circle of his
\nignorant or partial conceptions. It is necessary for him to conceive God in his
\nown image or in some form that is beyond himself but consonant with his highest
\ntendencies and seiz-able by his feelings or his intelligence. Otherwise it would
\nbe difficult for him to come into contact and communion with the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

\n    Even then his nature calls for a human intermediary so that
\nhe may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and
\nsensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine
\nmanifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar\u2014Krishna, Christ,
\nBuddha. Or if this is too hard for him to conceive, the Divine represents
\nhimself through a less marvellous intermediary,\u2014Prophet or Teacher. For many who
\ncannot conceive or are unwilling to accept the Divine Man, are ready to
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\n

\nopen themselves to the supreme man, terming him .not incarnation but
\nworld-teacher or divine representative.\n<\/p>\n

\n     This also is not enough; a living influence, a living
\nexample, 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
\ninfluence a living force in their lives. For this need also the Hindu discipline
\nprovides in the relation of the Guru and the disciple. The Guru may sometimes be
\nthe Incarnation or World-Teacher; but it is sufficient that he should represent
\nto the disciple the divine wisdom, convey to him something of the divine ideal
\nor make him feel the realised relation of the human soul with the Eternal.\n<\/p>\n

\n     The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all
\nthese aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun
\ntheir limitations anc Tcast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic
\nmind which cries, "My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru," and opposes it
\nto all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism,
\nall fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the
\ndivine realisation.\n<\/p>\n

\n     On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will
\nnot be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his
\nown conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all others, unified all Avatars in
\nthe unity of Hirn who descends in the Avatar, welded the truth in all teachings
\ninto the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom.\n<\/p>\n

\n      Nor should he forget the aim of these external
\naids which is to awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been
\nfinally accomplished if that has* not been accomplished. It is not sufficient to
\nworship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the
\nformation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids
\nequally have no other purpose; each is a bridge
\n\n<\/p>\n

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\n

\n

\nbetween man’s unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him.\n<\/p>\n

\n*   *  *<\/p>\n

\n    The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may
\nthe_ method of the Teacher within us. <\/i>He will lead the disciple through
\nthe nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence,\u2014these are the three
\ninstruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or
\nhis opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in
\nonly what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine
\nfostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim
\nat the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free
\nexpansion. 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
\nturning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His
\nwhole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of
\nwhich he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel.\n<\/p>\n

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

Page-17<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n     Influence is more important than example. Influence is
\nnot the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his
\ncontact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another,
\ninfusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and
\npossesses. This is the supreme sign of the Master. For the greatest Master is
\nmuch less a Teacher than a Presence pouring the divine consciousness and its
\nconstituting light and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive
\naround him.\n<\/p>\n

\n     And it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the
\nintegral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself Guruhood in a humanly vain
\nand self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he
\nhimself a channel, a vessel or a representative. He is a man helping his
\nbrothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened
\nSoul awakening souls, at highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to
\nhim other powers of the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

\n*   *  *<\/p>\n

\n     The sadhaka who has all these aids is sure of his goal.
\nEven a fall will be for him only a means of rising and death a passage towards
\nfulfilment. For once on his path, birth and death become only processes in the
\ndevelopment of his being and the stages of his journey1<\/sub> .\n<\/p>\n

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

\n     Time is a field of circumstances and forces meeting and
\nworking out a resultant progression whose course it measures. To the ego it is a
\ntyrant or a resistance, to the Divine an instrument. Therefore, while our effort
\nis personal, Time appears as a resistance, for it presents to us all the
\nobstruction
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-18<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nof the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and the
\npersonal are combined in our consciousness, it appears as a medium and
\ncondition. When the two become one, it appears as a servant and instrument.\n<\/p>\n

\n    The ideal attitude of the sadhaka towards Time is to have an
\nendless patience as if he had all eternity for his fulfilment and yet to develop
\nthe energy that shall realise now and with an ever-increasing mastery and
\npressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous instantaneousness of the
\nsupreme divine Transformation.
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-19<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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