Spiritual life seems to me like asking a student to get a seat in IIT when he is not clearly smart or cut out for that. He has the desire to get into the elite college but is incapable or not trained as a child to sit and concentrate and work diligently. He eventually fails and feels worthless. Even those who get the seat, I wonder how are they so different? They come from the same cultural and economic background, In the same household why one brother can sit and read and achieve and another cannot? Why a guy who was wasting his time until 10th suddenly is possessed by some strange desire which makes him to fully dedicate his time without wasting and crack the IIT? I do understand that one has to train one’s will as one’s muscles, but I wonder if everyone is really equal. Can every child train himself in his deficiencies, overcome them and crack an IIT exam?
One may say it it a multi life project as in the story of Sri Ramakrishna where the seeker is said by Narad that you will receive Moksha only after as many lives as there are leaves on a tree there? I don’t mind the many lives nor I am after Moksha, but I feel it is lazy thing on one’s part to simply say anyway it is a very long drawn process, so I leave the transformation to other lives and do whatever little I feel like doing whenever I feel motivated to. Also, will the person some defect, say with a weak will, achieve anything in the next life without overcoming it? Will he not carry the same troubles forward?
I start to wonder if Spirituality is now democratised like everything else. That anyone can now enter it without understanding the depth and the sacrifices needed and drift along. One might be content by saying to himself that something inwardly is happening which is masked from him. I, like many others around, are we fooling ourselves that some miracle would happen soon and all will be sky and God?
I am sorry to write this long drifting mail. My only question is this: is spiritual life, like other pursuits in life, something for which some individuals are uniquely positioned by nature to achieve a favorable outcome? (I do believe that that Divine is impartial) Or is everyone equally capable and he or she has to keep striving for it? Or if someone has a certain capacity now, has he already done his bidding in a previous life?
I understand the feeling of frustration that can and perhaps do come sometimes to everyone who walks the path. The spiritual consciousness is not yet the common endowment of our human race and hence the needed effort which might be long or short in a given life depending upon the past preparations. At the same time it is equally true that all of us have it latent within us and a growing spiritual consciousness is our inevitable future. Whether this life or through a series of life, the question is if one can turn to something else having once felt the spiritual urge? If not then one is very much on the path. The only valid question then would be if and how one can hasten or shorten the journey. Here is what Sri Aurobindo says about this.
‘All can be done by the Divine, the heart and nature purified, the inner consciousness awakened, the veils removed, if one gives oneself to the Divine with trust and confidenceโand even if one cannot do so fully at once, yet the more one does so, the more the inner help and guidance comes and the contact and the experience of the Divine grows within. If the questioning mind becomes less active and humility and the will to surrender grow in you, this ought to be perfectly possible. No other strength and tapasya are then needed, but this alone.’
The problem of delay therefore comes down to sincerity and the capacity to give oneself through work or love or in any other way. This too takes time. Sincerity is the rarest of gifts and cultivating it is itself a tapasya. There are other elements too, especially faith and the will to surrender to the Divine Mother that determine the time taken.
Nevertheless all these can be developed if one relies upon the Grace. That is the purport of the story of Sri Ramakrishna that you quote, a story that Sri Aurobindo also reminds us of. The story is not about encouraging laziness but about learning to have trust in the Divine and be happy and surrendered to His Will and what He gives and whenever He does. It is this absolute self giving and trust, love and devotion that shortens the time as indicated in the said story.
Again what is meant by experiences and realisations. There are a host of inner inner states that are actually like stairs leading us to the experience. Aspiration, faith, surrender, dependence upon the Divine, growing sincerity are all such inner states that foreshadow the coming experience. At the same time one does not do the sadhana for the sake of having experiences and realisations. That would show that the sadhana was being undertaken under the stress of the ego. Spirituality is not a badge or a medal one wears as a display. It is more like the growing moon or the sun within us which gets translated as states of inner sweetness and delight, as a growing inner light and strength. The letter in the Prayers and Meditations is simply to clear the doubt regarding the Mother and not as a self-monitoring mechanism. The bottomline however is why is one entering the spiritual path? To have experiences, to become a yogi, to have certain powers and siddhis or simply because the Divine is one’s need without whom, without which life carries little meaning. And even if it is not so at the moment is it something that one values enough so as to be able to go through whatever it takes regardless of the time taken. That is what The Mother reminds us in her very first conversation of 1929 which we can ponder upon. In its answer lies the secret of the Yoga.
‘Will you say something to us about Yoga?
What do you want the Yoga for? To get power? To attain to peace and calm? To serve humanity?
None of these motives is sufficient to show that you are meant for the Path.
The question you are to answer is this: Do you want the Yoga for the sake of the Divine? Is the Divine the supreme fact of your life, so much so that it is simply impossible for you to do without it? Do you feel that your very raison d’รชtre is the Divine and without it there is no meaning in your existence? If so, then only can it be said that you have a call for the Path.
This is the first thing necessaryโaspiration for the Divine.
The next thing you have to do is to tend it, to keep it always alert and awake and living. And for that what is required is concentrationโconcentration upon the Divine with a view to an integral and absolute consecration to its Will and Purpose.
Concentrate in the heart. Enter into it; go within and deep and far, as far as you can. Gather all the strings of your consciousness that are spread abroad, roll them up and take a plunge and sink down.
A fire is burning there, in the deep quietude of the heart. It is the divinity in youโyour true being. Hear its voice, follow its dictates.
There are other centres of concentration, for example, one above the crown and another between the eye-brows. Each has its own efficacy and will give you a particular result. But the central being lies in the heart and from the heart proceed all central movementsโall dynamism and urge for transformation and power of realisation.
What is one to do to prepare oneself for the Yoga?
To be conscious, first of all. We are conscious of only an insignificant portion of our being; for the most part we are unconscious. It is this unconsciousness that keeps us down to our unregenerate nature and prevents change and transformation in it. It is through unconsciousness that the undivine forces enter into us and make us their slaves. You are to be conscious of yourself, you must awake to your nature and movements, you must know why and how you do things or feel or think them; you must understand your motives and impulses, the forces, hidden and apparent, that move you; in fact, you must, as it were, take to pieces the entire machinery of your being. Once you are conscious, it means that you can distinguish and sift things, you can see which are the forces that pull you down and which help you on. And when you know the right from the wrong, the true from the false, the divine from the undivine, you are to act strictly up to your knowledge; that is to say, resolutely reject one and accept the other. The duality will present itself at every step and at every step you will have to make your choice. You will have to be patient and persistent and vigilantโ”sleepless”, as the adepts say; you must always refuse to give any chance whatever to the undivine against the divine.’
My own perception is that all who aspire will arrive and if there is a delay it is only because one has not yet given oneself sincerely to the path. If such be the case then instead of feeling bad about the delay one should detect what is holding one back and remove these insincerities one by one with all the faith and perseverance needed rather than spend time in lamenting over the delay. Above all one must trust that the Divine knows our aspiration and will surely reveal Himself once we are ready. In fact He himself is making us ready and preparing us through all the trials and tribulations of life as well as of the yoga. One should always keep the faith that it is He who has called us to the Path and is much more keen than us to see us through, the present difficulties of nature notwithstanding.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
