Daily Questions

Christ and Krishna are both divine descents and like all other divine Advents are a blessing to earth and men. Each Divine Advent comes putting forward one aspect of the other of the Divine. Christ brought forth the Divine Compassion born of the Divine Love. He showed the way of sacrifice and redemption through faith. Krishna brought forth the Divine Delight and showed the way to be inwardly free even while leading an outwardly normal life through the path of Divine Works.

Continuing in the same line, now Sri Aurobindo has come bringing forth the Divine Perfection that exists in the home of Truth, for earth and mankind through the path of progressive and integral surrender to the Divine Mother’s Grace.

Q:
Why nature does not help soul in order to bring heaven to this earth, or to end all the difficulties? And why the creator from the very beginning made this universe like this, with all the species of this earth suffering? If we got a chance to contact the creator…

ALOKDA:
Suffering is an undeniable fact of our earthly life. So too evil very much exists. The question is about its cause and cure, if any. Here we have a number of theories, each valid in its own realm but none touches the root of the problem.

According to the Scientists suffering and evil are all due to the nature of things. It means that this is how Nature works, – material and psychological nature, and there is no deeper reason to it. We have to discover the grooves of nature, unravel her processes and find ways to correct them with medication or other methods and processes. The results are rather quick but often temporary and there is no permanent remedy to abolish the possibility of suffering. The human body and mind continue to be vulnerable to the possibility of suffering and propensity to evil. At best one can somewhat contain it by imposing and promoting a rational way of life and social order. Here we have these two factors operating, first is the vulnerability due to our heredity, constitution and the body’s mechanism. Secondly, we have our own role by not living according to the rules of nature and not following a rational, moral way of life. Not that this will eliminate the possibility but perhaps reduce it.

According to Religious thought the law of suffering and the propensity to evil are because man deviates from the Laws given by God or according to the tenets of a given Religion. There is also the law of karma where our own deeds bear results in the future. Allied to Religion is the occult understanding of life wherein man is moved and influenced by cosmic forces that open doors to suffering or compel his heart to err by luring him to evil. By propitiating these forces we can find temporary or permanent relief. But the vulnerability remains and one remains subject to these cosmic forces and the harsh law of karma. Here again the problem goes back to man who alone is responsible for his suffering.

Spiritual philosophy goes one step deeper as it tries to discover the roots of suffering and evil in the human consciousness. According to the traditional spiritual understanding suffering and evil are due to Ignorance and ego that make us chase desires that invariably results in suffering one way or the other. If the desire is not fulfilled it results in frustration. If fulfilled it gives temporary happiness but because of the attachment that follows and the transient nature of everything suffering invariably follows sooner or later. Desire deviates our conduct and in trying to forcibly snatch something there is the emergence of evil. The remedy is to get rid of ignorance and desire, to free ourselves from the ego and dwell in the peace of Nirvana. The solution is permanent though not as easy as it seems to be. Besides while it can eliminate individual psychological suffering and propensity to evil, it cannot eliminate physical suffering (though one can rise above it) and since it cannot change others, life upon earth will always remain vulnerable to suffering and evil though the individual can at least eventually find the permanent exit door to the state in which suffering does not touch anymore. The reason for ignorance is presumably the mysterious Maya whose origin and purpose remains itself unknown.

As you can none of these are satisfactory and do not address the problem comprehensively. Most importantly the origin of the law of suffering and evil propensities remains unexplained. So what does Sri Aurobindo and the Mother say? We can summarise it as follows.

As long as the human body remains what it is, the vulnerability to suffering will remain. Whether child or adult the body driven by seeds of heredity, the heart vulnerable to dark forces, the mind veiled by ego and ignorance and the life driven by desires and open to fear the spell of suffering and evil will always remain. Individual can liberate himself but earthly life will always be subject to this dark law. All these things are accepted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as operating processes that bring suffering and open the doors to evil. However, he takes up the unanswered questions of the origin of Ignorance and ego and desire itself. Instead of blaming man he takes the burden and the final responsibility back to God.

The origin of ignorance lies in the origin of Creation itself but unlike the traditional explanation of the mysterious Maya suddenly superimposing herself on the Divine or Brahman, Maya is the power of the Divine Himself and her work is to create many divine individuals out of the One Infinite Divine. The creation of Many requires the veiling of the sense of totality and the All. The infinite Consciousness becomes limited leading to ignorance and desire and ego and suffering and evil. This however is done with the purpose of each of these seemingly separate individualities to recover the Whole divinity without losing its individuality. It is like the tree limits itself in a seed thereby losing its features of the tree. But it is only so that the seed growing into the tree multiplies the One original tree into many trees. Ignorance therefore is a temporary necessity, suffering and evil incidents that act only as a spur to hasten the seed’s growth into a tree. But even in this limited state of utter ignorance there is an unseen spur that compels us (as the seed is compelled) to unfold our divine possibility. This divine compulsion uses everything including the worst defeat and failure and fall to jump across Time. It uses suffering and evil and death and all else to hasten the goal of divinising matter and furthering our spiritual evolution. It is this Divine Intent working in creation in and through everything that alone can justify the the long or short interlude of pain.

Now to come back to the analogy of the tiger and the deer, the tiger prowls upon the deer so that the deer grows in swiftness and vigilance. Nature assists by multiplying the deer while the tiger becomes a dwindling species. One may say that what about those deer who are already sacrificed in the belly of the tiger? It is here that the real purpose of the immortal soul comes into play. Forms are destroyed, our outer being and personality suffers but the inner being and the soul grows in power and wisdom and strength through all this. One may say that well we do not know about the soul since we have not seen it. We see only what is happening on the surfaces of life. But can we ever understand life by looking at the surfaces alone? Don’t these events that make us suffer also raise questions about life and push us out of our comfort zones? These are golden moments when detaching ourselves from the flow we step back and try to find the soul, the meaning and purpose of our existence, the true value of our life. If we can do this then we may well feel grateful for the ordeals since they change us for good. Then we also understand the deep utility of suffering that only helps to hasten our progress. But unfortunately, most of us lose the moment and waste the opportunity.

We may ask could there have been a better painless process. Well then there would be no process, no evolution but beings fixed in certain happy moulds from beginning to end like the gods. It would be like artificial ready-made tree replicas that may look even better than the original but there will be no challenge, no difficulty to conquer, no new possibility to realise. Such a world with its limited joy and perfection within boundaries may be liked by the ego and desire self in us but the soul of man will find it insipid and prefer to be driven out of such heaven and build something beautiful out of base material. Our souls have chosen this and not some arbitrary God has pushed us forcibly into it. And the Divine too enters into the play with us, takes our wounds upon Himself, bleeds upon the cross, steers us through the Mahabharata, faces the danger and leads us through it all to the predestined Victory. When we see this way things become clearer.

Q: How to get forgiveness from a person whom I hurt out of some bad will, deliberately, but now really feel sorry and want forgiveness? If  forgiveness is granted by the Divine, then can it also be taken as forgiveness from the person?

ALOKDA:

Forgiveness from the person is really not necessary as long as one seeks it from the Divine. Forgiveness from the person serves the purpose of satisfying oneself and also cutting off the bad will that may have been generated in the person due to our thoughts and deeds.

But the real harm we do through our bad will is towards the Divine Work that is going on in everyone. We contradict the Divine Will when we think ill of someone because the Divine is labouring ceaselessly to bring peace, harmony, love and beauty in this world.

Besides by harbouring hate and jealousies we repel the Divine Presence in us and put an extra thick veil which sometimes needs a great blow to be removed.

What would help us and help the person as well as the Divine Work is not forgiveness (which is often just a word with little truth in it) but to do these four things:

1) Recognise our error in harbouring, nurturing and throwing ill will on others.

2) Never to justify it under any pretext. No one else but we are responsible for what we do and how we react .

3) See things as they are and not as the trickster mind and emotions make them seem. Look for the inner causes within us which is generally rooted in the ego, selfishness and pettiness of nature combined with a lack of generosity and kindness.

4) Offer this part of one’s nature and aspire persistently for it to change.

As a preventive for future one should practice the Buddhist and the Raj Yogic way of substituting wrong responses with the right ones. For example replace consciously feelings of hate with love, jealousy with generosity, anger with kindness etc.

This becomes easier if we understand that everyone has their difficulties which are part of human nature in its present stage of imperfection. And yet everyone has the Divine Presence within them and some divine quality that should be our main point of contact while ignoring the others.

Q: I have done so many mistakes, will Maa forgive me? I have impure desires, may be I am not fit at all for yoga?

A: If the Divine were to judge then there would be no hope for anyone. Even the highest human goodness is almost always motivated by selfishness or for some personal gain, here or hereafter. Could there be any greater sin, if you want to use this word, than selfishness?

Besides all our deeds are done in ignorance of the Divine Will thereby causing much misery in the world. Can there be any greater error, if error we may call it, then doing things not aligned to the Divine Will? Besides whom will She judge? Is not the entire universe Herself moving towards the intended Divine Perfection?

So while it is good to note our insincerities and weaknesses and try to correct them by a steady application of our will, we must not mistake this need for developing sincerity into the sense of sin and forgiveness etc.

Here are a few words from the Mother Herself that give us hope as always:

“What value have our impulses and our desires, our anguish and our violence, our sufferings and our struggles, all these inner vicissitudes unduly dramatised by our unruly imagination—what value do they have before this great, this sublime and divine love bending over us from the innermost depths of our being, bearing with our weaknesses, rectifying our errors, healing our wounds, bathing our whole being with its regenerating streams?

For the inner Godhead never imposes herself, she neither demands nor threatens; she offers and gives herself, conceals and forgets herself in the heart of all beings and things; she never accuses, she neither judges nor curses nor condemns, but works unceasingly to perfect without constraint, to mend without reproach, to encourage without impatience, to enrich each one with all the wealth he can receive; she is the mother whose love bears fruit and nourishes, guards and protects, counsels and consoles; because she understands everything, she can endure everything, excuse and pardon everything, hope and prepare for everything; bearing everything within herself, she owns nothing that does not belong to all, and because she reigns over all, she is the servant of all; that is why all, great and small, who want to be kings with her and gods in her, become, like her, not despots but servitors among their brethren.” The Mother, CWM 2:42-43

Q: If material things are not the reason for happiness, and forcing a smile each day no matter what goes on in my life is not an answer, then how do I remain happy? How can one stay happy without practically doing something?

A: It is true that ordinarily we need either to do something or meet someone to feel happiness. In other words our happiness is most often object-dependent.

But if we look carefully these events or activities are actually triggers that opens some inner door to happiness within us. If it was the object itself then everyone would be happy with the same things and in the same way or through the same event. But that is not the case. The triggers often differ. Also much depends upon the value we give to the object. This value itself depends a lot upon the objective we have in life. Now if we take just one step further we shall see that this valuation and objectives are often merely a conditioning received from society and others. In other words a lot of happiness and its association with some outer activity or event is merely a habit or a conditioning. It is like some are happy reading a book, others doing exercises whereas still others eating food. There are again many variations in the type of book or food or exercises that will open the door to happiness. This is one type of happiness which though seems like object dependent yet has its real reasons within, in our unique conditioning and habit and values.

However we all experience another kind of happiness as well, though perhaps not too often (or more likely we just fail to notice it). These are simply moments when a breath of freshness passes over our life and we feel a peace and a joy for no apparent reason. Here we may say that the inner door to happiness opens spontaneously as an act of Grace and for no known reasons. Experience suggests that when this happens we can experience happiness even when the circumstances are most contrary to it.

Mystics have found the ways and means to open this inner door or even to keep it open all the time. If one can do it then one perfects the art of being happy all the time even if one is apparently doing nothing. However this doing nothing simply means doing nothing tangible and visible. Yet there is an inner action going on. It is in the shifting the needle of consciousness and applying the key to open this inner door. This too is an action. Later of course when the door is permanently open then the action may shift to other fields and one has to do nothing for feeling happy. This does not mean that one does not play or eat or do exercises or enjoys the food one takes. One does all this but no more to get happiness. They may be done to diversify or multiply the inner joy or for other reasons but not for finding joy. The possibility of opening this inner door is within everybody’s reach. The key is also given to all of us. we just have to learn to apply it and persist until the door opens. Then all depression is chased away and there is peace and joy evermore and many other things besides.

Affectionately, Alokda

Everything can be made use of for the spiritual life including ritualistic worship (पूजा पाठ). It all depends on the inner attitude with which we approach things. One may engage in the most ordinary seeming act and do it with love and care and devotion as a means of worship and service to the Lord. On the other hand, one may do pooja everyday, visit places of worship, even sit for meditation as a mechanical duty or else for some personal selfish gains. It is the spirit that is most important and not the act alone. Religious life stops with belief and action in tune with the belief. Spiritual life goes on to discover and become one with God through various means and processes that are generally termed as yoga.

It is true that certain actions make a person more easily connect with God. Worship of God in a concrete physical way can be a beautiful preparation of the heart for awakening devotion and faith. But for this to happen it should be felt as a spontaneous need within and the relation formed with the Deity we worship should be living and real. This cannot be if the pooja is enforced too much as a ritual for all to follow, especially when fear and desire is associated with it to a large extent. If done as part of conformity to a religious group to which one belongs by birth then it can often stifle the spiritual impulse by giving one the false satisfaction that one is doing what one is supposed to do as prescribed in the religious text and enforced through a narrow, rigid dogmatic belief system. True Spiritual growth, on the other hand, invariably requires a certain degree of freedom and plasticity to evolve towards a genuine change. After God is free and infinite. He is everywhere and in everything. One cannot limit His workings and intelligence to a simple set of dos and don’ts, however useful these things may be at a certain stage of our evolution.

The core of spirituality is not the act but the motive force and the idea behind it. True spiritual life begins with an aspiration, a seeking for the Divine, to discover and become one with Him. Whatever helps in process is good whether it be a ritualistic worship or doing one’s work with dedication to God for the joy of serving Him. Besides it will also depend upon the stage of evolution. Most need a tangible outer support such as idol worship and scriptural reading for their growth. Others prefer the way of inner meditation and prayer. What counts in the end is the inner sincerity, the will and faith behind that supports the outer movement rather than the outer action itself, be it pooja or something else.

Perhaps you are referring to Sri Aurobindo’s letter to his Barin in 1920 where he speaks of the importance of Sangha saying that what one can achieve collectively is much more than what one can achieve individually. Later he himself clarified that the Ashram is not a Sangha but a field of growth individually. It is only in 8 after the Supramental Manifestation that the Mother spoke of the Ashram having become a collectivity. She added that this collectivity was not limited to the Ashram but contained all who had turned towards the teachings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

‘For a very long time the Ashram was only a gathering of individuals, each one representing something, but as an individual and without any collective organisation. They were like separate pawns on a chess-board—united only in appearance—or rather by the purely superficial fact of living together in the same place and having a few habits in common—not even very many, only a few. Each one progressed—or didn’t progress—according to his own capacity and with a minimum of relations with others. So, in accordance with the value of the individuals constituting this odd assemblage, one could say that there was a general value, but a very nebulous one, with no collective reality. This lasted a very long time—very long. And it is only quite recently that the need for a collective reality began to appear—which is not necessarily limited to the Ashram but embraces all who have declared themselves—I don’t mean materially but in their consciousness—to be disciples of Sri Aurobindo and have tried to live his teaching. Among all of them, and more strongly since the manifestation of the supramental Consciousness and Force, there has awakened the necessity for a true communal life, which would not be based only on purely material circumstances but would represent a deeper truth, and be the beginning of what Sri Aurobindo calls a supramental or gnostic community…. He has said, of course, that, for this, the individuals constituting this collectivity should themselves have this supramental consciousness; but even without attaining an individual perfection—even while very far from it—there was at the same time an inner effort to create this “collective individuality”, so to speak. The need for a real union, a deeper bond has been felt and the effort has been directed towards that realisation.’

In other words this collectivity is not limited to the physical Ashram which itself is a condensation of the subtle Ashram which is in the subtle Space that connects all who are turned towards and trying to live the truth of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching regardless of their physical location. In fact even before 1950, in fact right from the beginning there have been as many disciples of Sri Aurobindo living outside Pondicherry as in the Ashram.

What is true however is that it helps immensely to visit the Ashram and breath the atmosphere around the Samadhi, recharge oneself and then return back to the place where one is engaged in the sadhana of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Anxiety is primarily due to the sense of uncertainty about the future.  The uncertainty may arise either because of the sense of inadequacy within or the enormity of the world around us. This is the root.

How are we to get rid of this? By constantly reminding ourselves that in our origin and essence we are not small, limited, helpless creatures but a portion of the Divine.  If that is difficult, then anything that can help us give the sense of the Divine Power is good, for example prayers.

You can also divert the mind from anxious foreboding through work and games. Games especially help build confidence by increasing the secretion of endorphins. Calming methods such as deep breathing, mantra, music, calling peace are all helpful in anxiety management.

A simple practice is to step back and see the relative importance of the events and circumstances that we anticipate and get worried about.

Regular practice of asanas and especially deep relaxation with or without imagery can be one of the most effective means of eventually saying goodbye to anxiety. 

The Divine Mother always exists in Her Universal and Transcendent, JagatJanani and ParaShakti aspects, but She incarnates in a human body with a specific purpose and for a special work when it could not be done otherwise. It is the same as with the Avatars of the Ishwara wherein each Avatar takes up a special and specific work for which he alone has the mandate.

The Yoga of transformation can only be undertaken and fulfilled by the Mother. In this way and for this reason the Avatar, even though an aspect of the Ishwara, is in certain ways greater in terms of the specific work that he comes to fulfil.

The Divine Mother is always available to help, to bless, to heal, to succour or to give freedom, peace, wisdom, love and bliss as well as countless other boons and gifts which equally can be granted by the incarnate Mother in human form.