Daily Questions

Q: I told my family that I want to go to Pondicherry after graduation to server Her and live there only forever. But I am advised to take some time to think about it, and I have also many questions. Please advise, I don’t want to waste my life without serving her, and how do I serve Her outside the Ashram?

ALOKDA: Maa is everywhere and the world is everywhere. This is a fundamental truth that we must always remember. It is true that the Ashram does facilitate the yoga in certain ways, especially because of the Samadhi and Her touch and the intense supramental vibration in the atmosphere. Yet each one receives and progresses according to one’s receptivity and openness. There are everywhere only a few people who respond to the core demands of the central aim that gave birth to an idea or an institution. This is especially so if the aim is high and something that has never been even conceived before. This difficulty is here as well. However since the activities of the Ashram and its basic lifestyle has been organised keeping this central goal in mind and also since the Mother has built it as a special formation for the practice of the yoga it does facilitate the sadhana of the Integral Yoga. That is something that cannot be denied.

Of course different people come for different purposes but that is their concern and the Divine’s. Yet by the very fact that they have landed here and have at least aspired however momentarily and imperfectly to strive for something higher and more beautiful, they deserve our salutations. Even if they fall and fail at least they tried something high and beautiful rather than the normal life of human beings that is centered largely around their physical-vital-emotional needs with some sprinkling of intellectual spice and rare moments of a spiritual upsurge. Having said that it is important to remember that not all are called upon or meant to practice the yoga in the Ashram setting. Different people follow different paths and according to their inner needs and the experiences they still must have the Divine and the world-forces arrange the events and circumstances until man is ready to leave behind everything and follow the path and the goal opened before him. Each one must feel his way through life and move towards the Goal as the path opens up step by step depending upon the choices we make and the approach and the attitude we take.

For a person who has just begun the great journey of life it is better to have some experience of life before thinking about joining the Ashram permanently. It is better to face and grapple with the forces that challenge us and our right to grow divine rather than come here prematurely and remain drawn to the world and its ways that meander far and long before man takes the decisive turn.

Best therefore for you would be to study and earn some livelihood. Meanwhile stay inwardly connected to Her and come here from time to time. Leave the rest for Time and Grace to unveil. We cannot plan the entire journey. It is the first step that is given to us and the goal towards which we must move. take that first step and it is to study and equip yourself for Her Work while remembering Her and offering all to Her inwardly.

Q: I do feel that parenting is a duty given to me by the Divine Mother and I want to do it right. I tend to give much freedom, while other parents advise me to apply strict discipline and firm instruction. What is the right way?

ALOKDA: There are no standard rule books of life, especially in terms of bringing up children in times of rapid transition as we witness today. The child’s mother is best equipped to understand the child. So I would suggest go by your deepest maternal instincts and pray for your child so that you bring her in indirect contact with the Divine Mother.

Q: Sir, is there a likelihood for supramental expression to be exclusively in Sanskrit rather than in any European language, which appear to be not sufficiently dynamic to express the Truth at every level?

ALOKDA: The means of supramental expression would be new. In all likelihood a new language that will develop. Just as Sanskrit branched out into several languages and Latin into English, so also perhaps we shall see new means of expression evolving over the next few decades or centuries. No language as of now is capable of expressing the experiences of the New Being.

But yes, Sanskrit is no doubt amazing in terms of its beauty and richness with French coming a close next. English has its own beauty but also number of limitations with rules of grammar. But all existing human languages, including Sanskrit are not sufficient tools to express the inner experiences that are many-layered as well as many-hued and many-toned. They all seem inadequate to the New Consciousness.

Q: I have suddenly taken a fall, deep into tamas, and now find myself far from the Mothers touch, everything is lost. I want everything back – please explain why this happened and what to do?

ALOK DA: The first thing that one has to focus upon in yoga is to cultivate the right attitude, practice equanimity and peace, nurture faith, grow in aspiration, become more and more sincere and surrender the fruit of efforts to the Divine Mother.

Asking the Mother for Energy is not quite the right approach as the human system will not be able to bear IT unless there is a reasonable initial purification through the psychic touch which brings devotion and the spirit of service.

Instead of forcibly stopping the sexual act while keeping it alive in the mind, one should learn to practice sanyama, stay busy and play games or do lot of exercises. It is not a simple thing to conquer sex.

One should first grow into the positive aspects of Yoga before tackling sex in real earnest. In any case one should strictly throw away guilt etc. associated with the sexual act. It opens doors to depression and saps away lot of energy.

So the only thing to do after a fall is to get up and walk again with faith in the Grace instead of lamenting and blaming oneself. Great patience and endurance are required for Yoga. It cannot be done in a jiffy.

Q: Sir, as ayurvedacharya myself I want to thank you sir for such a brief and nice explanation of this practice. I want to know more about what Mother said about Ayurveda.

ALOKDA: The Mother had high hopes in the Ayurvedic system of treatment. She saw in it a great possibility in the work of transformation that She has undertaken.

Given its divine origins, its positive approach of improving the bodily life to the extent of making it completely immune from diseases, its reliance on gentler natural herbs, its taking into consideration the whole mind – body – soul make it the perfect possible system for people practicing some kind of inner yoga.

I am not sure how deeply effective it would be on modern bodies that have lost their natural vigour and vitality and are further hampered with a bad lifestyle and excessive faith in strong and violent allopathic remedies.

Perhaps Ayurveda will need to reinvent itself in a new way with modern conditions. The movement already started in that direction. It is a question of time perhaps that human body, at least in a certain number, growing subtler under the Supramental forces at work will automatically prefer the simpler, gentler natural methods of assisting the bodily health than the present methods that stun and confuse the body closing it to higher interventions.

May you discover the true secrets of the Science of longevity and harmonious health that Ayurveda is meant to provide.

Affectionately
Alok da

Q: I had vision of Durga long time ago, got Durga mantra from my previous guru and I am still repeating 3 mala everyday. But the Gita insists on a one-pointed loyalty. Do I need to give up Durga mantra and worship only The Mother or no harm in continuing it?

ALOKDA: When we invoke Durga, we are invoking the Mother’s power of protection.

As long as we are aware that Durga is a child of the Mother and we are not seating her by the side of the Mother or dividing our loyalty and faithfulness between them, there should be no problem.

Best of course is to see Durga in Her and offer the mantra to the Divine Mother even though it be the Durga mantra.

Q: Are free will and surrender to the Divine two contrary aspects or inclusive of one another?

ALOKDA: The sense of free will that we have is a needed instrument designed by nature to facilitate our progress. In reality however the only free will (if we may so) is that we can choose between different forces that at any given point of time enter into us and we have to observe and choose or sanction. But even our choices are influenced by many factors beyond our reckoning let alone control. Given such a state of affairs what is the best thing to do is to let the Supreme Will (the Divine Mother’s Will) decide for us and from our side we align and choose what She in Her Supreme Wisdom chooses for us. In any case even when play at cross purposes with Her Will, still it is Her Will that will prevail through all the oppositions that we and the world forces may offer. Hence the wisest thing to do for us is to surrender our individual will to Her. One may ask then why not the Divine simply forces His Will upon us rather than go through the process of freedom and surrender. Well this is so because it is only when we consciously choose and surrender out of our own free will that we evolve in a living organic way. Otherwise, it will be a mechanical automaton kind of world. To put it in simple terms we have to choose to surrender out of our own free will then only it helps us evolve through the smooth and sunlit path. But we have also the freedom to play at cross purposes with Her Will. When we do that still Her Will prevails but it is through a long and tortuous path besieged with complexities, complications and difficulties.

Q: I am confused. Sri Aurobindo spoke about surrender even on the path of love. Surrender means I am machine and the Divine Mother is the operator (I am following the Divine Will), right? Then it’s She who is performing devotion too. And if individual will is not there , how can devotion happen? I think path of surrender and devotion can’t go together. Gopis of Vrindavan didn’t surrender to the Divine Will. They were devotees only. Please show me ‘how path of surrender to divine will & path of devotion towards divine mother’ acts together?

ALOKDA: Love or devotion without the urge to give oneself and surrender one’s will to the Beloved would be anything but love. In fact I am confused to hear that the Gopis had devotion but no surrender! Radha is considered as the epitome of surrender and so is Mirabai who gave up everything in her love for Sri Krishna. Unless we mean by devotion certain ritual actions with hymns done to please the Deity to get favours. That is calculation if we like but not devotion. Devotion implies fidelity, faithfulness, obedience etc..it means a readiness to obey the Divine Will.

Surrender does not mean one is a machine. A machine does not surrender as it has no choice. Surrender is a glad and conscious and willing process. The Divine does not force us to surrender. When complete it makes us not unconscious automatons or blind machines but conscious instrument and willing transmitters and channels of the Divine. The instrument thus given in the hands of the Divine becomes more and more conscious until by the very force of love and self giving one grows in oneness with the Divine.

In the course of time our ego-self gets dissolved like the outer crust of a seed while the inner seed releases from within it’s Divine possibility making the I grow one with the Divine.

Q: Sir, I read somewhere that Sri Aurobindo took a holy lump of clay from the Panchavati of Dakshineswar (where Ramakrishna Paramahansa did his Mahatapas) and had in his Pondicherry room – is that just rumored or true?

ALOKDA: It is true. He had a great reverence for Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa even though Sri Aurobindo’s own yoga went way further.

In many ways Sri Ramakrishna did prepare for the work that Sri Aurobindo undertook later by showing in his life and experience the essential unity of all religions. By doing so he arrived at the synthesis of different aspects of the Overmind experience. Sri Aurobindo went on to build the further synthesis between Matter and Spirit with the help of the Supermind.

Another important thread connecting them is the Kali aspect of the Divine Mother which played a very important role in the life of both.