Daily Offerings from Alokda

Q: You don’t tell everything about the Asura’s world-game? Why don’t you go into details so that we are able  to distinguish the difference between the truth of the Divine and the lies of the Aura?

ALOKDA: My own take on all this business of the Asura is very simple. The Asura is there no doubt but for us it is much more important to remember that the Divine is there and He is the Lord who will have the final say. If the Asura and his ilk seem to temporarily win or succeed it is only a prelude to a greater divine Victory that is waiting round the corner. Besides isn’t he and his type also part of the grand plan needed for hastening earth’s evolution?

As long as we live in duality we are always surrounded with uncertainties with fear and anxiety and suspicion drawing upon our energies. Is not this undue and excessive fear and suspicion and anxiety itself a weapon of the Asura through which he terrorises man stealing hope and faith from his soul? But as we begin to live in the true spiritual consciousness we see the One playing with all things and everywhere and in various masks, even the most seemingly contrary ones. After all it is His creation and if He has placed the Asura somewhere in the play there must be a deeper Wisdom in this too.

Vigilance against the Asura’s intrusion in our lives is one thing and growing suspicious and paranoid and depressed is quite another. If anything, these are the signs that the fellow is near us. Pessimism especially is the tail of the Devil refusing to leave. What we have to instead remember and focus upon is that the Divine is there and here and everywhere and near and within and around us. With Him being at the helm of affairs everything is eventually safe. He and not our puny human thoughts are the bedrock of safety. Has He not intervened always when the mindless Asura was at his cruelest best and changed the course of history.

Ravana and Kansa and Judas and now Hitler and his tribe have come and gone but it is Rama and Krishna and Christ and Sri Aurobindo who continue to inspire man. So let us leave the Asura aside and being full of faith do what we can to grow closer in identity with the Divine. That is our main job and if we can even attempt it with sincerity then there will be no more need of any Asura to spur our evolution.

Love
alok

Q: When The Divine Mother takes charge of our whole being, which things are being done by the parts of being without choice? Or saying it differently, please give examples how mind thinks and heart reacts when The Mother has taken charge of the parts of the being.

ALOKDA: In terms of the Yoga philosophy and psychology, man has a double nature.

The first is what he naturally inherits due to his evolutionary animal past. It is what we are today. It is referred to as the ignorant lower nature.  It includes not only food, sleep, sex but also all our present normal thoughts, feelings, will, actions driven by ego and desire and its attendant fear, ambition, lust, anger etc.

The second is what he is being prepared for by the Divine. We can call it the Higher Divine Supernature.  It is moved by the Divine Force instead of desire.

As ego self is replaced by the psychic being, the human nature is transformed into the Divine Nature, where it is always a self-existent peace and joy not dependent upon any outer condition, the heart is full of sweetness and universal love that does not expect anything in return since it receives everything from the Divine, the life energy is strong, healthy, luminous, pure, the mind receives knowledge directly from the Divine Source of all knowledge through faculties of inspiration, intuition, revelation. Even the body begins to change in terms of renewal of energy, overcoming fatigue, the power to reject illness and get cured quickly, slow and delay the ageing process.

Q: Bhaya, I have one question – why are you doing this yoga and how have you chosen this path?

ALOKDA: It is not we who chose the Path as much as the Path, or the Goal and the Master who chooses us. But I understand your question since so does it appear from our side as if we are choosing it. The truth of the matter however is that I was not really seeking anything at the time that Sri Aurobindo entered my life or rather took me into His vast infinite life. I was an agnostic since whatever I had read about God and all other philosophies, I could not find my answers in them. I had few experiences also but not sure of what it meant I simply let them slip into some corner of my memory.

My search was for the ultimate meaning of life like many others I suppose. Living life as others do seeking success, fulfilling ambitions, accumulating money and all those things that one normally enjoys and lives for did not attract me. Besides it seemed such a selfish thing to live for, so small and little. Then there was the alternative of spiritual life. But that too seemed selfish since everyone spoke about personal mukti and nirvana or having some kind of bliss or experience by certain practices. All this did not answer my questions about the reason for suffering in this world. It moved me deeply but the standard answer of the karmic theory seemed incomplete. Therefore, having searched whatever I could, I became an Agnostic and thought that best to be a good human being and a good doctor so that I could help those who are suffering. But without any stable Permanent Reality it also seemed a vain thing.

Well it was during this phase that Sri Aurobindo drew me to His heart and I found Him, or rather literally walked into Him in a busy Delhi street, one winter afternoon when I entered a bookstore. There He was in His word body speaking His first phrase to me like a mantra of initiation written in the first page of the book that I opened. He wrote ‘All Life is Yoga.’ Something clicked instantly, like a revelation and I knew I was home. His name kept vibrating lie some heavenly rhythm in my heart and the whole evening, in fact the next two days I was as if in an ecstasy forgetting everything else except to pore through the pages of the heavenly script. It was love at first or shall I say first word. All else that happened was contained in that single phrase whose full meaning and impact is still unfolding before me, – ‘All Life is Yoga’. There was then no calculation, no weighing of options, no looking at advantages and disadvantages, no consideration of difficulties and dangers. In fact there was no option, but to accept all that He said as true, to aspire for what He wanted us to be, to surrender to the New Vision that opened before my soul.

Later the Mother revealed Herself to me and that completely sealed it if there was any other thought ever at all. Once She came or rather drew me to Her then all considerations and questions about the path, the goal everything was gone. Only She remained, at the center and circumference of life, to serve Her and love Her the only joy and purpose of existence.

Affectionately
Alok bhaiyya