Daily Questions

By practicing inner quietude, by stepping back from the immediate impulse to act, by asking the ego and desires not to make too much noise, and then turning towards the Divine with a will to receive the right indication one begins to feel a sort of gentle indication in the heart about the thing to be done.

Since this takes time, one should meanwhile act according to the highest light one can summon, generally the buddhi, and offer the action to the Divine with a prayer that may the action and will be attuned to the Divine Will and the results be such as the Divine Wisdom may determine and decide rather than what our ignorant mind wants and likes.

The presence of transience and change are the very law of life in its long and winding evolutionary journey. This perpetual wheel of destiny that carries our lives in a cosmic pool of chance and uncertainty can be very frightening. This is especially so for man who believes that he can control and micro manage all the events and circumstances of his life. There is of course a truth behind this since some events we do seem to control at least apparently which only perpetuates the illusion of control. Or perhaps we can change destiny but for that we need a power far greater than reason. Reason hardly even knows the real causes of whatever happens. It knows some intermediate processes and mastering them believes that it has the key to the ultimate cause. But can we truly change anything except in a limited way until we know the ultimate cause and the secret truth of everything? It is this question that confronts us during our moments of helplessness and stares at us as if seeking an answer. However, this inability to control events does frighten many people who feel helpless before the decree of fate. Still others declare the imperfect nature of earthly life and either pactise with the ways of fate accepting whatever happens with dignity and calm submission to the ways of life or destiny. Some try to find an exit route out of the whole imbroglio. Others simply spend a lifetime fretting and fuming and complaining and grumbling against God and His Will believing that they may be able to do better if they had the power.

But the Divine Will working in the cosmos acts on the basis of a Wisdom that we do not have at present. It is this we must acquire for our hearts to have peace. This Wisdom comes as we learn to become quitter and go deeper within ourselves. It comes also as we learn to surrender before the Divine Will knowing or having faith that the Divine knows better than we do. After it is He and not us who are the original cause and hence it is He whom we must find and become one with to be even able to understand the way creation operates. Who can be better than the Creator Himself to reveal the truth behind things? And if He so wills and finds us ready, He can also impart us the power over circumstances which are a clumsy way of expressing the inner states. If we can shift the inner state then very often the outer circumstances also begin to change and shift.

In other words what we need to learn is the state or inner condition that we must inculcate in the face of difficult and adverse circumstances. These conditions are a set of attitudes that have always been known and emphasized in all spiritual practices with some variations. It is a state of trust in the Divine, a state of spontaneous surrender to His Will, a state of aspiration and prayer, of utter abandon and submission to Him. If we can do this with sincerity then slowly a calm begins to descend upon us and the interventions become more and more frequent in our life. However, it must be noted that these divine interventions are not meant to satisfy our desires and longings but to modify the passage sufficiently so that without changing the ultimate result that is decreed it may take us through a safer and smoother passage towards then eventual fulfillment of our destiny and of others. It tweaks the evolutionary Law so to say. But if we have the rarest of rare privilege to trust and open to Her Grace and Love then not only can the Law be tweaked but completely changed. The inexorable wheel of karma can take a completely different turn taking us through a different door, through a sunlit path towards the Goal.

Here are few lines from Savitri that remind us of these truths. Indeed, one of the best things when one is passing through these moments is to simply open any page of Savitri randomly and read it. The Mother recommended it not only by way of receiving the needed hint and guidance but also the strength to go through what we must and the eventual power to change destiny. But of course, it helps if we have formed a rapport with the book which is much more than a book. It is a living representation, the word-body, of the twin consciousness of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and there is absolutely nothing in the world comparable to Savitri. So here are a few lines to remind us of the ever-present Help that is always accessible to us under all conditions and circumstances.

Affectionately
Alok da

A magic leverage suddenly is caught
That moves the veiled Ineffable’s timeless will:
A prayer, a master act, a king idea
Can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force.
Then miracle is made the common rule,
One mighty deed can change the course of things;
A lonely thought becomes omnipotent.
All now seems Nature’s massed machinery;
An endless servitude to material rule
And long determination’s rigid chain,
Her firm and changeless habits aping Law,
Her empire of unconscious deft device
Annul the claim of man’s free human will.
He too is a machine amid machines;
A piston brain pumps out the shapes of thought,
A beating heart cuts out emotion’s modes;
An insentient energy fabricates a soul.
Or the figure of the world reveals the signs
Of a tied Chance repeating her old steps
In circles around Matter’s binding-posts.
A random series of inept events
To which reason lends illusive sense, is here,
Or the empiric Life’s instinctive search,
Or a vast ignorant mind’s colossal work.
But wisdom comes, and vision grows within:
Then Nature’s instrument crowns himself her king;
He feels his witnessing self and conscious power;
His soul steps back and sees the Light supreme…..
But many-visaged is the cosmic Soul;
A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate.
A sudden turn can come, a road appear.
A greater Mind may see a greater Truth,
Or we may find when all the rest has failed
Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.
Ascending from the soil where creep our days,
Earth’s consciousness may marry with the Sun,
Our mortal life ride on the spirit’s wings,
Our finite thoughts commune with the Infinite.

Q: Most people around me find happiness in mechanical repetition of a routine, which appears to me very dull. What are the ways to open an inner door to the joyful, true happiness?

ALOKDA: To start with there are several types of happiness depending upon the level at which we stand in our evolution. There is a kind of happiness that people find in status quo. This is the minimum on the scale and it is akin to staying in our comfort zones. To upgrade their happiness they need to take the challenge of life which means effort. Most human beings prefer to remain fixed in whatever situation life places them in using terms like contentment, duty etc. But behind all this is an inertia to change and find better and more meaningful things. This kind of humanity does not like to think much as thinking will make them uncomfortable and unhappy by challenging their fixed premises which they have inherited rather than thought out for themselves. A lot of people of the previous generations in India were like this, refusing to think and continue doing mechanically whatever little circle of activity that life provides for them.

Then there is another of happiness that is more like an offshoot of this state of tamas and inertia of thought that shuns the real challenges of life. It is found in violent actions upon oneself or others to shake themselves up. Thrill and intense pleasure, however brief is sought after and it ranges from a variety of actions such as fashion, food, sex, drugs, violence, horror etc. The man caught in the lower vital ranges of life has this for his share of ephemeral pleasure which he mistakes for happiness until life one day closes his small, insignificant chapter of life.

But when through evolution taking place across lives the vital force in man expands, he begins to seek happiness in ambitious expansion of his personal empire starting from seeking after name and fame in his small or big circle to conquering and ruling an empire. Here one begins to take challenges and gets a joy in facing and conquering them. Its soberer form is the mountaineer who tries to climb a difficult peak, the sportsman who wants to excel, the business magnet who wants to earn more and more, the explorer and the adventurer.
Then there is also a happiness that comes through emotional satisfaction, through mutual care and affection, through what we call as love, being loved and loving someone.

Beyond this is a happiness to which still a few are privy to. It is the happiness that comes through thought. Here the domain of the thinker begins, people who find a joy in thinking, reflecting, reading, writing, expressing themselves through various forms of art, music, poetry, sciences and crafts. They enjoy reading a good book that provides them a deeper or subtler understanding of life or opens the doors to knowledge and wisdom.

It is only when man has gone through these limited forms of ‘happinesses’, known their relative place and limited utility and yet knows its insufficiency and inability to give us the joy that endures that he turns towards the happiness that is unfading and causeless and independent of all outer circumstances or activity. It is a process of evolution that takes place through quite a few lives. Its penultimate is when we begin to seek within what we were trying to find outside and through outer things but now know for sure that it cannot be found and secured. It is then that we are truly ready for opening the inner door. A mere mechanical process hardly works if it is not supported by a feeling or a conviction or an aspiration and a faith in deeper and higher things that one cannot find within the limited range of experiences offered to us by the bodily life, the restless outgoing vital energy and even the thinking mind. What can we do to hasten this moment? Well go through life consciously. See things and this world with open eyes, the true worth of it all and not what we are conditioned to believe.

Most of us still laboring under this misconception that happiness comes by a good job, money and a partner can do little better than advise us the same. It is not their fault since they hardly know anything else or more. It is we who have to decide whether we believe in these explanations just because the majority believes in them or want to reflect and search the real cause and source of joy in life. Therefore, it is very helpful to snatch some quiet moments daily and reflect upon the questions of life such as why and wherefore of death, on the aim of life, on truth and love and the ways to lead a beautiful and happy life. In addition, one should spend time in the company of books and people who uplift our thoughts and inspire us to go beyond, who awaken us to the need of a greater life, who instill faith and hope in higher things.

Then one day we are ready to take the plunge and the inner door will open without much effort and we discover that unconditional peace and joy that truly surpasses all understanding. Then life truly begins, a new life before which the old one seems as if we were living as half dead people without knowing it. Once the need for this greater life awakens then the means and everything else is given to us. We find the right books, we meet the right people, we start entering a world of experiences before which all the joys of life seem too trifle, artificial and temporary.

It is then that one discovers the God who is beyond religion and thought, the all-pervading Reality, the all-Compassionate Being who is yet all beings, the very Soul of this world and ours, the summit of Perfection to which we secretly aspire, the Love that binds and moves the stars. Religion binds us to one form of thought of God, or at most to one kind of experience of divinity. Spirituality liberates us even from all conceptions of God. It is like understanding mount Everest by watching a film or reading a book and having the actual feel and taste of it by striving to climb it. Religion is a preparation at best and a prison at worst. Spirituality is freedom, eternity, infinity, Love.

Affectionately,
AP

Q: Could you please let me know if it’s possible to spiritually contact a deceased soul? How do I know if the soul is happy or not after death?

ALOKDA: Following death of the body, the soul withdraws into the psychic world shedding one sheath after the other. The first sheath to be shed is the vital sheath which in normal circumstances takes about two weeks to two months. It is during this passage that the departed may still experience joy and grief. But once it passes beyond the vital worlds it is in a glad state. Finally, it passes into the psychic world where it is in a state of peace and joy. By this time all its strings of attachment and memories of those left behind is dissolved. There is no further contact with the world.

If we try to call such a soul it is quite likely that some beings of the vital world may get in touch with us and start fooling us. It is naturally dangerous and hence inadmissible to try contacting the departed soul.

Affectionately
Alok da

Q: Please tell me the essence of Mahakali’s Love

ALOKDA: It is the Love that brooks no obstacle between the soul and the Divine.

It is the Love that leans into the abyss and battles with the forces of darkness to save the seeds of truth and Light buried within the Inconscience.

It is the Love that goes as far as to identify itself with all that is dark and becomes Kali to change the dragon base of time.

Who can bear this intense and mighty Love but he whom Krishna already possesses.

Q: My question is… if we, as humans, go through the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, then how does the journey begin? If we are the seeds of the creator, does he create new seeds as well? Or is it the same old soul that has been progressing since time immemorial? Your discourses ignite the mind with numerous questions.

ALOKDA: The appearance of human beings marks the transition from the largely instinct-driven animality tied to an upward looking partly self-conscious creature. The human form evolves after a long preparatory play of Nature with several forms where the main work is to find the balance between life and matter. With man begins the emergence of mind with its capacity to make us self-conscious and conscious of the world around. It is at this stage that the seeds or sparks of the Divine enter the play. The entry of the soul creates in man a seeking and an urge to know, to progress, to discover the Creator and even to become one with Him. But the soul must pass through a long cycle of birth and death to arrive at the point of conscious aspiration. This is an ongoing process since the Divine is Infinite like a Fire that burns forever releasing new sparks to enter the cycle. This there are old souls and new entrants into the earthly play, souls that are more developed creating a more evolved humanity and souls that have just begun the journey and are completely under the influence of the animal consciousness and lesser evolved human states.

Affectionately,
Alok da

Q: I don’t see a logic behind the evolution and God’s final manifestation in matter. While Sri Aurobindo says the final goal of physical creation is Eternal Supramental Perfect Manifestation, the question arises how is it that none of the previous Universes before ours actually arrived at it! Why nobody asked Sri Aurobindo that question while he was alive is another puzzling conundrum!
God absolutely has zero obligation to manifest his fullness here in the physical world if (as expressed in traditional Hindu knowledge) this physical world was always meant to give souls initial experience of lower stages of consciousness before they proceed to higher worlds where the Divine is already manifested. So it may never get transformed into a Paradise as we hope. Please comment.

ALOKDA: Well, God may not intend a Divine Manifestation here and the whole purpose of evolution may be to reach a point from where one is hooked up to some higher world. This question has been discussed by Sri Aurobindo in different ways. This idea of ascension of beings who are ready through the evolutionary process into some higher plane is no doubt very lucrative and appealing to a kind of mysticism.

But there has always been another side of mystic endeavour since the time of the Vedas. It is to make life here upon earth perfect. This aspiration would be a meaningless absurdity if God intended Earth to be only a preparation for a post mortem salvation as certain religions say. How would one know in the absence of hearing God’s direct Command? We come back to the same point. Either we can trust Sri Aurobindo that if he says that this is the Divine Intent in creation then it is so. Or else one feels the aspiration in one’s heart and takes this aspiration as the sign of the Divine Intent in the individual at least.

Other than these two ways, it is doubtful that the matter of God’s final Intent can be decided by any kind of logic. At best we can find hints, and if we look at evolution itself, the hint is towards a growing perfection and manifestation here itself upon earth. It is difficult to conceive that all this many-sided evolutionary labour and the hard material passage and toil through evil and suffering is to end abruptly with a queer and clumsy unsettled product that man presently is. That is much more likely and conceivable that these are intermediary stages of a process whose far end is yet to be revealed.

Q: Is it possible for us the commoners to make relations with others on the basis of soul? If then how it can be achieved? Please explain.

ALOKDA: It is not about being common or uncommon since the soul is within all of us. Only in some people it is dormant whereas in others it is either awakened or close to its awakening.

Until the soul is awakened, it is good to regard all human relations as stamped with transience and imperfection so that we do not keep high expectations from people thereby creating needless stress upon them. Human relationships, like every other aspect of our human life should primarily be seen as a training ground for cultivating and harnessing the energy of Love within us. It should be seen as a field of experience through which we learn to love unselfishly, to give generously, to look upon all with benevolence, compassion and forgiveness. It is also a great opportunity to develop qualities of self-forgetfulness, tolerance, wideness in understanding and many other qualities that are helpful to walk on the path. One can discover different aspects of oneself through our relation with others since each provides us a mirror.

Going through life and relationships this way we become better equipped for discovering our soul. By learning to love selflessly, without expectations, unconditionally we eventually pass behind the human appearance and discover the principle of love that is found in the soul. In other words our relationships themselves become a path to the great discovery.

Of course once we discover the soul then things change. It is then and only then that some beautiful elements, some truth, some harmony and sweetness can be added to the story of human love. Otherwise even at best it remains woven on shaky grounds with storms and turbulences often round the corner, often ending in disappointments and frustrations. as long as love is rooted in the ego and desire self it remains uncertain and full of turbid mixtures. It is only what is rooted in the soul that can last and find true wings to uplift it from the earthly grounds to heavenly fields and ethereal skies.

Affectionately
Alok da

Q: In Sri Aurobindo’s words, “in every being there is a Soul, but Psychic Being is not present in everybody … after a long process it can be developed”. Please explain?
ALOKDA: The soul is the divine element in man. It is like a seed that carries within itself all the divine possibilities that must one day blossom. But this blossoming is through a long passage of time running through several lives. In this process all experiences, whether we in our ignorance consider ‘good’ and ‘pleasant’ or ‘bad’ and ‘painful’ are feeders for its growth. Night and day, darkness and light are simply two sides of a single movement whose aim is to fulfil the divine possibility that is embedded within itself. That is what the real game of life is about and it goes on behind the surface experiences and reactions of our outer personality.

Then a time comes when this divine seed has grown sufficiently under the cover of darkness and is ready to open to the Light. It is when this happens that we open to Divinity within or around us. It is at this stage that there is the birth of conscious aspiration and a seeking for Light and Truth and Beauty and Harmony and Good. This seeking meets an answer within and the Divine immanent in our inmost heart manifests Himself in the form of our Master and Guru and Guide. We meet the One who is destined to carry us further following the ways and trail of the Light. We become aware of a sacred Presence within that is the Source of all that we have thus far sought outside. This second phase of growth ends in the blossoming of the soul, the divine seed into the fully grown psychic being. This completes our basic schooling in the fields of Ignorance.

It is then that we are given another choice. The fully developed psychic being can either withdraw from terrestrial existence by extinguishing itself into the One Supreme, – the aim of traditional yoga; or it can consciously enter into the curve of further evolution awaiting earth and thereby participate consciously in the destiny of humanity by expressing its divine potential into the play. If it chooses the latter possibility then it must take upon itself a much greater challenge and it is of preparing human nature and its instruments that have evolved so far into becoming free and unobstructed channels of the Divine outpouring upon creation. This is an enormous work and can be fulfilled only through the yoga of transformation.

In between these two there are other intermediary possibilities for the fully developed psychic being. It can linger on some higher plane of consciousness after departure casting its influence and help for those still laboring in the ignorance. Or it can come back incarnating some being of the higher worlds and thereby express some breath of divinity upon earth though short of the perfect perfection of the supermind.

To put it in another way we can say that the soul within us is a divine spark. It grows into a flame as it passes repeatedly through the doors of Death and Rebirth. This divine flame can withdraw into the Sun out of which it had emerged as a spark. Or it can grow further into a living Fire setting the earth ablaze with its divine Energy.

Loving regards,
alok