Yoga is essentially an inner process. Its key is opening and surrender to the Mother with faith, devotion, sincerity and surrender. There are plenty of disciples who live outside and practice the Yoga. Even when The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were physically present there were disciples both in the Ashram as well as outside. Besides living in the Ashram has its own advantages and disadvantages. The Ashram is a very intense place where the pressure of the transforming force is felt strongly and thereby brings out the best possibilities but also lays bare the stark resistances hidden carefully in deepest recesses.
What Sri Aurobindo and the Mother however always adviced their disciples, and which will always hold true is to “return to the place of central influence”, recharge themselves and go back to their place of stay. Sri Aurobindo reveals.
‘It is certainly quite true that the psychic contact can exist at a distance and that the Divine is not limited by place, but is every where. It is not necessary for everybody to be at Pondicherry or physically near the Mother in order to lead the spiritual life or to practise this Yoga, especially in its earlier stages. But that is only one side of the truth; there is another. Otherwise the logical conclusion might be that there was no necessity for the Mother to be here at all or for the existence of the Asram or for anyone to come here.
The psychic being is there in all, but in very few is it well developed, well built up in the consciousness or prominent in the front; in most it is veiled, often ineffective or only an influence, not conscious enough or strong enough to support the spiritual life. It is for this reason that it is necessary for those drawn towards this Truth to come here in order that they may receive the touch which will bring about or prepare the wakening of the psychic being—that is for them the beginning of the effective psychic contact. It is also for this reason that a stay here is needed for many—if they are ready—in order that under the direct influence and nearness they may have this development or building up of the psychic being in the consciousness or its coming to the front. When the touch has been given or the development effected, so far as the sadhak is at the moment capable of it, he returns to the outside world and under the protection and guidance even at a distance is able to keep the contact and go on with his spiritual life. But the influences of the outside world are not favourable to the psychic contact and the psychic development and, if the sadhak is not sufficiently careful or concentrated, the psychic contact may easily be lost after a time or get covered over and the development may become retarded, stationary or even diminished by adverse influences or movements. It is therefore that the necessity exists and is often felt of a return to the place of the central influence in order to fortify or recover the contact or to restore or give a fresh forward impulse to the development.’
All that one can say is that living in Pondicherry or the Ashram is an occult arrangement of destiny. Some are meant to do the yoga here, others are destined to live outside and continue the sadhana wherever they are. Especially now with the world wide working of the Supramental Force and the physical withdrawal of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the Ashram’s main role is as the ground of central inspiration and influence where one receives the initiating spark, the main yagna vedi for kindling and rekindling the flame of aspiration. The Yoga then unfolds uniquely for each one according to and through the outer and inner conditions of their life.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
