Yoga

To live according to the truth of our being is our sadhana. All our life is an attempt to express that truth, but ordinarily it is a blind and groping attempt which constantly leads to perversion and falsehood. Consciously to know the truth and realise that in our life — that is Yoga.

We have to change and mould our body, our life, our mind so as to make them plastic instruments, perfect vehicles of the truth; but the beliefs and habits ingrained in them are the greatest obstacles to such a change. The body does not believe that the laws known to it and followed by it can ever be changed or altered, and it is the same with the vital and the mental parts — nowhere is there the light of true consciousness, the belief in higher divine possibilities; our movements go on eternally in a blind, groping, mechanical series.

The first essential thing is to hold fast to the faith in our divine possibilities in every part of our being, the faith that our whole nature can be and has to be completely changed and transformed. Established firmly in this faith, freeing ourselves from all ignorant notions of impossibility, we should open every part of our being to the Divine Mother and ceaselessly and sincerely aspire to the higher divine life. Only under these conditions will the truth manifest in us and mould us into its own nature.

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Let me merge my personality completely in Thee, Mother, so that no trace of the old life may be left in me. Only thus I shall realise the truth of my being, for my identification with Thee is the real truth, and my separation from Thee is a falsehood, which is the root of all misery and trouble.

In seeking this reunion with Thee, Mother, it is not sufficient that we physically touch Thy feet or occasionally sit in meditation; we must give up all preoccupations and associate with Thee in all Thy work, in all Thy movements. Our life is still full of old ideas and thoughts, of old interests and associations, of old habits and tendencies, and these constitute a great obstacle to our union with Thee, Mother. We must turn away from these and identify ourselves with the great work Thou art accomplishing, the work of manifesting the supramental Truth on the earth; we should turn all our attention to the creation of conditions favourable to this manifestation and to the removal of all obstacles.

And in all our thoughts and feelings and works, we should seek direct inner touch and inspiration from Thee, Mother. Thus united with Thee within ourselves, as the source of all light and strength and joy, and united with Thee outside in the great work Thou hast undertaken, we shall complete our identification with Thee, Mother, and really become a part and parcel of Thy own divine self.

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Yoga is not merely thinking of Thee, Mother, with the mind, or bowing the head at Thy feet; these are certainly great aids and starting-points, but in themselves they cannot take us very far. We must fill our whole being with Thy living presence, we must constantly live in active and integral union with Thee — that will be Yoga in the real sense of the term.

There is no movement in us, conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary, that has not some support, even conscious support in some part of our being. We must constantly seek Thy light, vigilantly find out the false movements in us, resolutely withdraw all our support from them and sincerely call in Thy force to throw them away — that will be a real process of Yogic sadhana.

Then we must know Thy will in the world and sincerely devote ourselves to Thy service, always seeking inspiration and guidance from Thyself. We must keep ourselves full of the purest joy that rises from sincere love and devotion to Thee; the gods will come down from above to taste that divine joy in us and help us to grow in divine life — that is the process of Yoga which will surely give us the highest siddhi.