{"id":999,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=999"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","slug":"05-religion-morality-idealism-and-yoga-vol-22-letters-on-yoga-volume-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/22-letters-on-yoga-volume-22\/05-religion-morality-idealism-and-yoga-vol-22-letters-on-yoga-volume-22","title":{"rendered":"-05_Religion Morality Idealism and Yoga.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

 <\/font>S<\/font>ECTION<\/font> T<\/font>HREE<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/font>Religion,
\nMorality, Idealism and Yoga<\/b><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

                   
\n<\/font>
\n    T<\/font><\/b>HE<\/font> spiritual
\nlife (adhyātma-jīvana<\/i><\/span>),
\nthe religious life (dharma-jīvana<\/span><\/i>) and the ordinary human life of which
\nmorality is a part are three quite different things and one must know which one
\ndesires and not confuse the three together. The ordinary life is that of the
\naverage human consciousness separated from its own true self and from the
\nDivine and led by the common habits of the mind, life and body which are the
\nlaws of the Ignorance. The religious life is a movement of the same ignorant
\nhuman consciousness, turning or trying to turn away from the earth towards the
\nDivine, but as yet without knowledge and led by the dogmatic tenets and rules
\nof some sect or creed which claims to have found the way out of the bonds of
\nthe earth-consciousness into some beatific Beyond. The religious life may be
\nthe first approach to the spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about
\nin a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without
\nany issue. The spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change
\nof consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousness, ignorant and
\nseparated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which
\none finds one’s true being and comes first into direct and living contact and
\nthen into union with the Divine. For the spiritual seeker this change of
\nconsciousness is the one thing he seeks and nothing else matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morality is a part
\nof the ordinary life; it is an attempt to govern the outward conduct by certain
\nmental rules or to form the character by these rules in the image of a certain
\nmental ideal. The spiritual life goes beyond the mind; it enters into the
\ndeeper consciousness of the Spirit and acts out of the truth of the Spirit. As
\nfor the question about the ethical life and the need to realise God, it depends
\non what is meant by fulfilment of the objects of life. If an entry into the
\nspiritual consciousness is part of it, then mere morality will not give it to
\nyou. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Politics as such
\nhas nothing to do with the spiritual life. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 137<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

If the spiritual man does
\nanything for his country, it is in order to do the will of the Divine and as
\npart of a divinely appointed work and not from any other common human motive.
\nIn none of his acts does he proceed from the common mental and vital motives
\nwhich move ordinary men but acts out of the truth of the Spirit and from an
\ninner command of which he knows the source. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The kind of worship
\n(pūjā<\/i><\/span>)
\nspoken of in the letter belongs to the religious life. It can, if rightly done
\nin the deepest religious spirit, prepare the mind and heart to some extent but
\nno more. But if worship is done as a part of meditation or with a true
\naspiration to the spiritual reality and the spiritual consciousness and with
\nthe yearning for contact and union with the Divine, then it can be spiritually
\neffective.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you have a
\nsincere aspiration to the spiritual change in your heart and soul, then you
\nwill find the way and the Guide. A mere mental seeking and questioning are not
\nenough to open the doors of the Spirit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obviously to seek the Divine only<\/i> for what one can get out of Him is
\nnot the proper attitude; but if it were absolutely forbidden to seek Him for
\nthese things, most people in the world would not turn towards Him at all. I
\nsuppose therefore it is allowed so that they may make a beginning \u2013 if they
\nhave faith, they may get what they ask for and think it a good thing to go on
\nand then one day they may suddenly stumble upon the idea that this is after all
\nnot quite the one thing to do and that there are better ways and a better
\nspirit in which one can approach the Divine. If they do not get what they want
\nand still come to the Divine and trust in Him, well, that shows they are
\ngetting ready. Let us look at it as a sort of infants’ school for the unready.
\nBut of course that is not the spiritual life, it is only a sort of elementary
\nreligious approach. For the spiritual life to give and not to demand is the
\nrule. The sadhak, however, can ask for the Divine Force to aid him in keeping
\nhis health or recovering it if he does that as part of his sadhana so that his
\nbody may be
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 138<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

able and fit for the spiritual life
\nand a capable instrument for the Divine Work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is correct, religions at best
\nmodify only the surface of the nature. Moreover, they degenerate very soon into
\na routine of ceremonial habitual worship and fixed dogmas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do not take the same view of
\nthe Hindu religion as J. Religion is always imperfect because it is a mixture
\nof man’s spirituality with his endeavours<\/span> that come
\nin in<\/span> trying to sublimate ignorantly his lower
\nnature. Hindu religion appears to me as a cathedral-temple, half in ruins,
\nnoble in the mass, often fantastic in detail but always fantastic with a
\nsignificance \u2013 crumbling or badly outworn in places, but a cathedral-temple in
\nwhich service is still done to the Unseen and its real presence can be felt by
\nthose who enter with the right spirit. The outer social structure which it
\nbuilt for its approach is another matter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I regard the spiritual history of
\nmankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose,
\nnot a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.
\nEven the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there
\nin seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very
\nimportant stage and the names I mentioned had a special prominence in my
\nthought at the time \u2013 they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the
\nfuture spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but
\npassing on. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion,
\nnew or old, for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still
\nblocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.
\n <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 139<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

If it is meant by the statement 1
\n<\/sup>that the form of religion is something permanent and unchangeable, then
\nthat cannot be accepted. But if religion here means one’s way of communion with
\nthe Divine, then it is true that that is something belonging to the inner being
\nand cannot be changed like a house or a cloak for the sake of some personal,
\nsocial or worldly convenience. If a change is to be made, it can only be for an
\ninner spiritual reason, because of some development from within. No one can be
\nbound to any form of religion or any particular creed or system, but if he
\nchanges the one he has accepted for another, for external reasons, that means
\nhe has inwardly no religion at all and both his old and his new religion are
\nonly an empty formula. At bottom that is, I suppose, what the statement drives
\nat. Preference for a different approach to the Truth or the desire of inner
\nspiritual self-expression are not the motives of the recommendation of change to
\nwhich objection is made here; \u2013 the object proposed is an enhancement of social
\nstatus and consideration which is no more a spiritual motive than conversion
\nfor the sake of money or marriage. If a man has no religion in himself, he can
\nchange his credal<\/span> profession for any motive; if he
\nhas, he cannot; he can only change it in response to an inner spiritual need.
\nIf a man has a bhakti for the Divine in the form of Krishna, he can’t very well
\nsay, \u201cI will scrap Krishna for Christ, so that I may become socially
\nrespectable.\u201d <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vairagya<\/span>
\nis certainly one way of progressing towards the goal \u2013 the traditional way and
\na drastic if painful one. To lose the desire for human vital enjoyments, to
\nlose the passion for literary or other success, praise, fame, to lose even the
\ninsistence on spiritual success, the inner bhoga<\/span> of
\nyoga, have always been recognised<\/span> as steps towards
\nthe goal \u2013 provided one keeps the one insistence on the Divine. I prefer myself
\nthe calmer way of equality, the way pointed out by Krishna, rather than the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> These comments are on the
\nfollowing statement of Mahatma Gandhi on Dr. Ambedkar’s<\/span>
\nview about change of religion:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut religion is not like a
\nhouse or a cloak which can be changed at will. It is more an integral part of
\none’s self than of one’s body. Religion is the tie that binds one to one’s creator,
\nand while the body perishes as it has to, religion persists even after that.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 140<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

more painful one of Vairagya<\/span>. But if the compulsion in one’s nature or the
\ncompulsion of one’s inner being forcing its way by that means through the difficulties
\nof the nature is on that line, it must be recognised<\/span>
\nas a valid line. What has to be got rid of in that case is the note of despair
\nin the vital which responds to the cry you speak of \u2013 that it will never gain
\nthe Divine because it has not yet got the Divine or that there has been no
\nprogress. There has certainly been a progress, this greater push of the
\npsychic, this very detachment itself always growing somewhere in you. The thing
\nis to hold on, not to cut the cord which is pulling you up because it hurts the
\nhands, to keep the one insistence if all the others fall away from you.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is evident
\nthat something in you, continuing the unfinished curve of a past life, is
\npushing you on this path of Vairagya<\/span> and the more
\nstormy way of Bhakti, \u2013 in spite of our preference for a less painful one and
\nyours also, \u2013 something that is determined to be drastic with the outer nature
\nso as to make itself free to fulfil its secret aspiration. But do not listen to
\nthese suggestions of the voice that says, \u201cYou shall not succeed and it is no
\nuse trying.\u201d That is a thing that need never be said in the Way of the Spirit,
\nhowever difficult it may seem at the moment to be. Keep through all the
\naspiration which you express so beautifully in your poems; for it is certainly
\nthere and comes out from the depths, and if it is the cause of suffering,\u2014as
\ngreat aspirations are, in a world and nature where there is so much to oppose
\nthem, \u2013 it is also the promise and surety of emergence and victory in the
\nfuture.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have objected in the past to Vairagya<\/span> of the ascetic kind and the tamasic kind. By the
\ntamasic kind I mean that spirit which comes defeated from life, not because it
\nis really disgusted with life, but because it could not cope with it or conquer
\nits prizes; for it comes to yoga as a kind of asylum for the maimed or weak and
\nto the Divine as a consolation prize for the failed boys in the world-class.
\nThe Vairagya<\/span> of one who has tasted the world’s gifts
\nor prizes but found them insufficient or finally tasteless and turns away
\ntowards a higher and more beautiful ideal or the
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 141<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Vairagya<\/span>
\nof one who has done his part in life’s battles but seen that something greater
\nis demanded of the soul, is perfectly helpful and a good gate to the yoga. Also
\nthe sattwic Vairagya<\/span> which has learnt what life is
\nand turns to what is above and behind life. By the ascetic Vairagya<\/span>
\nI mean that which denies life and world altogether and wants to disappear into
\nthe Indefinable \u2013 I object to it for those who come to this yoga because it is
\nincompatible with my aim which is to bring the Divine into life. But if one is
\nsatisfied with life as it is, then there is no reason to seek to bring the
\nDivine into life, \u2013 so Vairagya<\/span> in the sense of
\ndissatisfaction with life as it is is<\/span> perfectly
\nadmissible and even in a certain sense indispensable for my yoga.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I quite acknowledge the utility
\nof a temporary state of Vairagya<\/span> as an antidote to
\nthe too strong pull of the vital. But Vairagya<\/span> always
\ntends to a turning away from life and the tamasic element in Vairagya<\/span> \u2013 despair, depression, etc. \u2013 dilapidates the fire
\nof the being and may lead in some cases to falling between two stools so that
\none loses earth and misses heaven. I therefore prefer to replace Vairagya<\/span> by a firm and quiet rejection of what has to be
\nrejected \u2013 sex, vanity, ego-centrism, attachment, etc. \u2013 but that does not
\ninclude rejection of the activities and powers that can be made instruments of
\nthe sadhana and the divine work, such as art, music, poetry, etc., though these
\nhave to find a new spiritual or psychic base, a deeper inspiration, a turn
\ntowards the Divine or things divine. Yoga can be done without the rejection of
\nlife, without killing or impairing the life-joy or the vital force.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No, I didn’t say that you chose
\nthe rajasic or tamasic Vairagya<\/span>. I only explained how
\nit came, of itself, as a result of the movement of the vital in place of the
\nsattwic Vairagya<\/span> which is supposed to precede and
\ncause or accompany or result from a turning away from the world to seek the
\nDivine. The tamasic Vairagya<\/span> comes from the recoil of
\nthe vital when it feels that it <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 142<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

has to give up the joy of life
\nand becomes listless and joyless; the rajasic Vairagya<\/span>
\ncomes when the vital begins to lose the joy of life but complains that it is
\ngetting nothing in its place. Nobody chooses such movements; they come
\nindependently of the mind as habitual reactions of the human nature. To refuse
\nthese things by detachment, an increasing quiet aspiration, a pure bhakti, an
\nardent surrender to the Divine, was what I suggested as the true forwarding
\nmovement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is the sattwic Vairagya<\/span> \u2013 but many people have the rajasic or tamasic
\nkind. The rajasic is carried by a revolt against the conditions of one’s own
\nlife, the tamasic arises from dissatisfaction, disappointment, a feeling of
\ninability to succeed or face life, a crushing under the grips and pains of
\nlife. These bring a sense of the vanity of existence, a desire to seek
\nsomething less miserable, more sure and happy or else to seek a liberation from
\nexistence here, but they do not bring immediately a luminous aspiration or pure
\naspiration with peace and joy for the spiritual attainment. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The passage through sattwa is the
\nordinary idea of yoga, it is the preparation and purification by the yama-niyama<\/i><\/span> of
\nPatanjali or by other means in other yogas<\/span>, e.g.,
\nsaintliness in the bhakti schools, the eightfold path in Buddhism, etc., etc.
\nIn our yoga the evolution through sattwa is replaced by the cultivation of
\nequanimity, samatā<\/i><\/span>,
\nand by the psychic transformation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obviously, the rajasic movements
\nare likely to create more trouble in sadhana than the sattwic ones. The
\ngreatest difficulty of the sattwic man is the snare of virtue and
\nself-righteousness, the ties of philanthropy, mental idealisations<\/span>,
\nfamily affections, etc., but except the first, these are, though difficult,
\nstill not so <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 143<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

difficult to surpass or else
\ntransform. Sometimes, however, these things are as sticky as the rajasic
\ndifficulties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sannyasa<\/span> does not take away attachment \u2013 it amounts only to
\nrunning away from the object of attachment which may help but cannot by itself
\nalone be the radical cure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is a feeling (the unimportance
\nof things in Time) that the ascetic discipline sometimes uses in order to get
\nrid of attachment to the world \u2013 but it is not good for any positive or dynamic
\nspiritual purpose.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The principle of life which I
\nseek to establish is spiritual. Morality is a question of man’s mind and vital,
\nit belongs to a lower plane of consciousness. A spiritual life therefore cannot
\nbe founded on a moral basis, it must be founded on a spiritual basis. This does
\nnot mean that the spiritual man must be immoral \u2013 as if there were no other law
\nof conduct than the moral. The law of action of the spiritual consciousness is
\nhigher, not lower than the moral \u2013 it is founded on union with the Divine and
\nliving in the Divine Consciousness and its action is founded on obedience to
\nthe Divine Will. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The beliefs you speak of with
\nregard to right and wrong, beauty and ugliness etc. are necessary for the human
\nbeing and for the guidance of his life. He cannot do without the distinctions
\nthey involve. But in a higher consciousness when he enters into the Light or is
\ntouched by it, these distinctions disappear, for he is then approaching the
\neternal and infinite good and right which he reaches perfectly when he is able
\nto enter into the Truth-Consciousness or supermind. The belief in the guidance
\nof God is <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 144<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 also justified by spiritual
\nexperience and is very necessary for the sadhana; this also rises to its
\nhighest and completest truth when one enters into the Light. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What you say
\nabout prayer is correct. That is the highest kind of prayer, but the other kind
\nalso (i.e., the more personal) is permissible and even desirable. All prayer
\nrightly offered brings us closer to the Divine and establishes a right relation
\nwith Him.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The obstacles
\nyou speak of are the ordinary obstacles in the sadhana, brought up by parts of
\nthe being, especially through vital disturbance and physical inertia, movements
\nwhich have to be gradually worked out of the consciousness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I suppose each man makes or tries
\nto make his own organisation of life out of the mass of possibilities the
\nforces present to him. Self (physical self) and family are the building most
\nmake \u2013 to earn, to create a family and maintain it, work for or get some
\nposition in the means of life one chooses, in business, the profession, etc.,
\netc. Country or humanity are usually added to that by a minority. A few take up
\nsome ideal and follow it as the mainstay of their life. It is only the very
\nreligious who try to make God the centre of their life \u2013 that too rather
\nimperfectly, except for a few. None of these things are secure or certain, even
\nthe last being certain only if it is followed with an absoluteness which only a
\nfew are willing to give. The life of the Ignorance is a play of forces through
\nwhich man seeks his way and all depends on his growth through experience to the
\npoint at which he can grow out of it into something else. That something else
\nis in fact a new consciousness \u2013 whether a new consciousness beyond the earthly
\nlife or a new consciousness within it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Family, society, country are a
\nlarger ego \u2013 they are not the Divine. One can work for them and say that one is
\nworking for the Divine only if one is conscious of the Divine Adesh<\/span> to act for that purpose or of the Divine Force
\nworking within one. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 145<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Otherwise it is only an idea of
\nthe mind identifying country etc. with the Divine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Everything depends upon the aim
\nyou put before you. If, for the realisation of one’s spiritual aim, it is necessary
\nto give up the ordinary life of the Ignorance (samsāra<\/i><\/span>), it must be done;
\nthe claim of the ordinary life cannot stand against that of the spirit. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If a yoga of
\nworks alone is chosen as the path, then one may remain in the samsāra<\/i><\/span>, but
\nit will be freely, as a field of action and not from any sense of obligation;
\nfor the yogin<\/span> must be free inwardly from all ties and
\nattachments. On the other hand, there is no necessity to live the family life \u2013
\none can leave it and take any kind of works as a field of action.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the yoga
\npractised here the aim is to rise to a higher consciousness and to live out of
\nthe higher consciousness alone, not with the ordinary motives. This means a
\nchange of life as well as a change of consciousness. But all are not so circumstanced
\nthat they can cut loose from the ordinary life; they accept it therefore as a
\nfield of experience and self-training in the earlier stages of the sadhana. But
\nthey must take care to look at it as a field of experience only and to get free
\nfrom the ordinary desires, attachments and ideas which usually go with it;
\notherwise, it becomes a drag and hindrance on their sadhana. When one is not
\ncompelled by circumstances there is no necessity to continue the ordinary life.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One becomes
\ntamasic by leaving the ordinary actions and life, only if the vital is so
\naccustomed to draw its motives of energy from the ordinary consciousness and
\nits desires and activities that if it loses them, it loses all joy and charm
\nand\u00a0 <\/span>energy of existence. But if one has
\na spiritual aim and an inner life and the vital part accepts them, then it
\ndraws its energies from within and there is no danger of one’s being tamasic. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not absolutely necessary to
\nabandon the ordinary life in order to seek after the Light or to practise yoga.
\nThis is usually done <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 146<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

by those who want to make a clean
\ncut, to live a purely religious or exclusively inner and spiritual life, to
\nrenounce the world entirely and to depart from the cosmic existence by
\ncessation of the human birth and passing away into some higher state or into
\nthe transcendental Reality. Otherwise, it is only necessary when the pressure
\nof the inner urge becomes so great that the pursuit of the ordinary life is no
\nlonger compatible with the pursuit of the dominant spiritual objective. Till
\nthen what is necessary is a power to practise an inner isolation, to be able to
\nretire within oneself and concentrate at any time on the\u00a0 <\/span>necessary spiritual purpose. There must also
\nbe a power to deal with the ordinary outer life from a new inner attitude and
\none can then make the happenings of that life itself a means for the inner
\nchange of nature and the growth in spiritual experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for your friend, it is not possible
\nto say that she can come here; for that depends on many things which are not
\nclearly present here. First, one must enter this Path or it must be seen that
\none is called to it; afterwards there is the question whether one is meant for
\nthe Ashram life here. The question about the family duties can be answered in
\nthis way \u2013 the family duties exist so long as one is in the ordinary
\nconsciousness of the grhastha<\/span>; if the call to a
\nspiritual life comes, whether one keeps to them or not depends partly upon the
\nway of yoga one follows, partly on one’s own spiritual necessity. There are
\nmany who pursue inwardly the spiritual life and keep the family duties, not as
\nsocial duties but as a field for the practice of Karmayoga, others abandon
\neverything to follow the spiritual call or line and they are justified if that
\nis necessary for the yoga they practise or if that is the imperative demand of
\nthe soul within them. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I don’t remember the context; but
\nI suppose he means that when one has to escape from the lower Dharma, one has
\noften to renounce it so as to arrive at a larger one, e.g., social duties,
\npaying <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 147<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

debts, looking after family, help
\nto serve your country, etc., etc. The man who turns to the spiritual life, has
\nto leave all that behind him often and he is reproached by lots of people for
\nhis Adharma<\/span>. But if he does not do this Adharma<\/span>, he is bound for ever to the lower life \u2013 for there
\nis always some duty there to be done \u2013 and cannot take up the spiritual Dharma
\nor can do it only when he is old and his faculties impaired. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You may get his photograph \u2013 it
\nmay help to see what kind of nature he has. But there is no need to go out of
\nthe way to persuade him; from his letter he does not seem altogether ready for
\nthe spiritual life. His idea of life seems to be rather moral and philanthropic
\nthan spiritual at present; and behind it is the attachment to the family life.
\nIf the impulse to seek the Divine of which he speaks is more than a mental turn
\nsuggested by a vague emotion, if it has really anything psychic in it, it will
\ncome out at its own time; there is no need to stimulate, and a premature
\nstimulation may push him towards something for which he is not yet fit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The true object of the yoga is
\nnot philanthropy, but to find the Divine, to enter into the divine
\nconsciousness and find one’s true being (which is not the ego) in the Divine.
\nThe \u201cRipus<\/span>\u201d cannot be conquered by damana<\/span>: even if it succeeds to some extent, it only keeps
\nthem down, but does not destroy them; often compression only increases their
\nforce. It is only by purification through the divine consciousness entering
\ninto the egoistic nature and changing it that this thing can be done.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the sadhak
\ngives himself from deep within and is absolutely persevering in the Way, then
\nonly can he succeed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The idea of usefulness to
\nhumanity is the old confusion due to second-hand ideas imported from the West.
\nObviously, to be <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 148<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cuseful\u201d to humanity there is no need
\nof yoga; everyone who leads the human life is useful to humanity in one way or
\nanother. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yoga is directed
\ntowards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power
\ncan be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would
\nmean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its life. But the
\neffect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the
\nobject of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the
\ndivine consciousness and to manifest it in life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As to the extract about
\nVivekananda,1 <\/sup>the point I make there does not seem to me
\nhumanitarian. You will see that I emphasise<\/span> there the
\nlast sentences of the page quoted from Vivekananda, not the words about God the
\npoor and sinner and criminal. The point is about the Divine in the world, the
\nAll, sarva-bhūtāni<\/i><\/span>
\nof the Gita. That is not merely humanity, still less, only the poor or the
\nwicked; surely, even the rich or the good are the part of the All and those also
\nwho are neither good nor bad nor rich nor poor. Nor is there any question (I
\nmean in my own remarks) of philanthropic service; so neither daridrer<\/i><\/span> sevā<\/span><\/i> is
\nthe point. I had formerly not the humanitarian but the humanity view \u2013 and
\nsomething of it may have stuck to my expressions in the Arya<\/i><\/span>. But I had already altered
\nmy viewpoint from the \u201cOur yoga for the sake of humanity\u201d to \u201cOur yoga for the
\nsake of the Divine\u201d. The Divine includes not only the supracosmic<\/span>
\nbut the cosmic and the individual \u2013 not only Nirvana or the Beyond but Life and
\nthe All. It is that I stress everywhere.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> \u201cI have lost all wish for my salvation, may I be
\nborn again and again and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the
\nonly God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum-total of all souls, \u2013 and
\nabove all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all
\nraces, of all species is the special object of my worship. He who is the high
\nand low, the saint and the sinner, the god and the worm, Him worship, the
\nvisible, the knowable, the real, the omnipresent; break all other idols. In
\nwhom there is neither past life nor future birth, nor death nor going nor
\ncoming, in whom we always have been and always will be one, Him worship; break
\nall other idols.\u201d (From a letter of Swami Vivekananda; quoted by Sri Aurobindo
\nin The Synthesis of Yoga, Centenary Edition, 1972, pp. 257-58.)<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 149<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

I do not remember what I said
\nabout Vivekananda. If I said he was a great Vedantist<\/span>,
\nit is quite true. It does not follow that all he said or did must be accepted
\nas the highest truth or the best. His ideal of sevā<\/i><\/span> was a need of his
\nnature and must have helped him \u2013 it does not follow that it must be accepted
\nas a universal spiritual necessity or ideal. Whether in declaring it he was the
\nmouthpiece of Ramakrishna or not, I cannot pronounce. It seems certain that
\nRamakrishna expected him to be a great power for changing the world-mind in a
\nspiritual direction and it may be assumed that the mission came to the disciple
\nfrom the Master. The details of his action are another matter. As for
\nproceeding like a blind man, that is a feeling that easily comes when a Power
\ngreater than one’s mind is pushing one to a large action; for the mind does not
\nrealise intellectually all that it is being pushed to do and may have its
\nmoments of doubt or wonderment about it \u2013 and yet it is obliged to go on.
\nVedantic (Adwaita) realisation is the realisation of the silent static or
\nabsolute Brahman \u2013 one may have that and yet not have the same indubitable
\nclearness as to the significance of one’s action \u2013 for over one’s action for
\nthe Adwaitin lies the shadow of Maya.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today a Kanchanjungha<\/span>
\nof correspondence has fallen on my head, so I could not write about Humanity and
\nits progress. Were not the later views of Lowes<\/span>
\nDickinson grayed over by the sickly cast of a disappointed idealism? I have not
\nmyself an exaggerated respect for Humanity and what it is \u2013 but to say that
\nthere has been no progress at all is as much an exaggerated pessimism as the
\nrapturous hallelujahs of the nineteenth century to a progressive Humanity were
\nan exaggerated optimism. I shall manage to read through the chapter you sent
\nme, though how I manage to find time for these things is a standing miracle and
\na signal proof of a Divine Providence.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, the
\nprogress you are making is of the genuine kind, \u2013 the signs are recognisable<\/span>. And after all, the best way to make Humanity progress
\nis to move on oneself, \u2013 that may sound <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 150<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

either individualistic or
\negoistic, but it isn’t: it is only common sense. As the Gita says: <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the best do is taken as
\nthe model by the rest.\u201d1 <\/sup>There are always unregenerate parts tugging
\npeople backwards and who is not divided? But it is best to put one’s trust in
\nthe soul, the spark of the Divine within and foster that till it rises into a
\nsufficient flame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is no use entertaining these
\nfeelings. One has to see what the world is without becoming bitter; for the
\nbitterness comes from one’s own ego and its disappointed expectations. If one
\nwants the victory of the Divine, one must achieve it in oneself first.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To concentrate most on one’s own
\nspiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak \u2013 to be
\neager to help others draws away from the inner work. To grow in the spirit is
\nthe greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out
\nnaturally to those around that helps them. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All this insistence upon action
\nis absurd if one has not the light by which to act. \u201cYoga must include life and
\nnot exclude it\u201d does not mean that we are bound to accept life as it is with
\nall its stumbling ignorance and misery and the obscure confusion of human will
\nand reason and impulse and instinct which it expresses. The advocates of action
\nthink that by human intellect and energy making an always new rush, everything
\ncan be put right; the present state of the world after a development of the
\nintellect and a stupendous output of energy for which there is no historical
\nparallel is a signal proof of the emptiness of the illusion under which they
\nlabour. Yoga takes the stand that it is only by a change of consciousness that
\nthe true basis of life can be discovered; from within outward is indeed the
\nrule. But <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> Yadyadācarati<\/span> śresthastattadevetaro<\/span>
\njanah<\/span><\/span><\/i>.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 151<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

within does not mean some quarter
\ninch behind the surface. One must go deep and find the soul, the self, the
\nDivine Reality within us and only then can life become a true expression of
\nwhat we can be instead of a blind and always repeated confused blur of the
\ninadequate and imperfect thing we were. The choice is between remaining in the
\nold jumble and groping about in the hope of stumbling on some discovery or
\nstanding back and seeking the Light within till we discover and can build the
\nGodhead within and without us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had never a very great
\nconfidence in X’s yoga-turn getting the better of his activism, he has two strong
\nties that prevent it, \u2013 ambition and need to act and lead in the vital, and in
\nthe mind a mental idealism; these two things are the great fosterers of
\nillusion. The spiritual path needs a certain amount of realism \u2013 one has to see
\nthe real value of the things that are, which is very little except as steps in
\nevolution. Then one can either follow the spiritual static path of rest and
\nrelease or the spiritual dynamic path of a greater truth to be brought down
\ninto life. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for your question \u2013 Tagore<\/span>, of course, belonged to an age which had faith in
\nits ideas and whose very denials were creative affirmations. That makes an
\nimmense difference. Your strictures on his later development may or may not be
\ncorrect, but this mixture even was the note of the day and it expressed a
\ntangible hope of a fusion into something new and true \u2013 therefore it could
\ncreate. Now all that idealism has been smashed to pieces by the immense adverse
\nevent and everybody is busy exposing its weaknesses \u2013 but nobody knows what to
\nput in its place. A mixture of scepticism<\/span> and
\nslogans, \u201cHeil<\/span>-Hitler\u201d and the Fascist salute and the
\nFive-Year-Plan and the beating of everybody into one amorphous shape, a
\ndisabused denial of all ideals on one side and on the other a blind
\n\u201cshut-my-eyes and shut-everybody’s-eyes\u201d plunge into the bog in the hope of
\nfinding some firm foundation there, will not carry us very far. And what else
\nis there?
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 152<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Until new spiritual values are
\ndiscovered, no great enduring creation is possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is queer these intellectuals
\ngo on talking of creation while all they stand for is collapsing into the N\u00e9ant<\/span> without their being able to raise a finger to save
\nit. What are they going to create, and from what material? Besides what use is
\nit all if a Hitler with his cudgel or a Mussolini with his castor oil can come
\nat any moment and wash it out or beat it into dust?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, but human reason is a very
\nconvenient and accommodating instrument and works only in the circle set for it
\nby interest, partiality and prejudice. The politicians reason wrongly or
\ninsincerely and have power to enforce the results of their reasoning so as to
\nmake a mess of the world’s affairs: the intellectuals reason and show what
\ntheir minds show them, which is far from being always the truth, for it is
\ngenerally decided by intellectual preference and the mind’s inborn
\neducation-inculcated angle of vision; but even when they see it, they have no
\npower to enforce it. So between blind power and seeing impotence the world
\nmoves, achieving destiny through a mental muddle. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n⁂<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You write as if what is going on
\nin Europe were a war between the powers of the Light and the powers of Darkness
\n\u2013 but that is no more so than during the Great War. It is a fight between two
\nkinds of Ignorance. Our aim is to bring down a higher Truth, but that Truth
\nmust be able to live by its own strength and not depend upon the victory of one
\nor other of the forces of the Ignorance. That is the reason why we are not to
\nmix in political or social controversies and struggles; it would simply keep
\ndown our endeavour to a lower level and prevent the Truth from descending which
\nis none of these things but has a quite <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 153<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

different law and basis. You speak
\nof Brahmatej<\/span> being overpowered by Kshatratej<\/span>,
\nbut where is that happening? None of the warring parties incarnate either. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 154<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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