Q: Dr Alok, I think you are praising earth/ lower existence too much. Until the last person is relieved of pain, completely, utterly – until then it should not be done. Isn’t feeling disgust towards this world of misery and darkness the first condition for the yoga of transformation?
Alok da: There is a difference between earth and humanity. That is the first thing to understand if we are candidates for the yoga of transformation. To be disgusted with the very material is surely not the best of ways. Those who felt disgusted, – and there were quite a few, chose to escape. Disgust with earth and even humanity is to, in a way, condemn the Creator. Isn’t it much better, simpler and less judgmental to look at the way things are as a limitation due to the underlying principle of Inconscience rather than feel disgusted? It brings compassion, wisdom, and shows us the path to change.
If one is indulgently enjoying the world as most do, then it is idle to even think of transformation. The return to Earth is after having found the Truth. Savitri did not feel disgusted but felt the challenge of death and fate. She did not blame the darkness but found the way to flood it with Light
Of course if our nature is very crude then perhaps there is the utility of disgust and even temporary withdrawal from earthly life so that we can be reborn into the Spirit. But that is not the path recommended in general by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, even while there is no harm in someone following the way of disgust if that suits someone or is a need of the moment.
Instead, both in their writings and in their own life, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother showed the sunlit way of the soul that progresses with faith and trust and joy and light and love knowing that His Beauty and Light and Love dwells in everything including that which we sometimes, in our pride or vanity, abhor and condescend.
