Sri Aurobindo’s teaching is not new in this regard. The Vedas, the Gita, the teachings of the Mystics all testify that there is a hierarchy of relation we can have with the Divine. Two of them are considered by the Gita as the inferior mode, the 3rd as an intermediary, whereas the 4th is the highest type. It applies very much to the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother as well. The first type is where human beings turn to the Divine is in distress, arta, while the second is when we turn to the Divine for the fulfilment of desires, the artharthi. This is a very valid and natural relation one forms with the Divine. But to remain here is to remain in the Nursery of the soul’s growth that cannot be forever satisfied with the objects of desire. As the soul evolves, it recognises the transient nature of the satisfaction that desires bring. It seeks for something that can last the rub and change of Time. It longs for immortal love, undisturbed peace, unmixed bliss, perfect knowledge, ultimate power. It turns towards the Divine now in search of these things. This is the third type of seeker who now seeks the Divine as a Jigyasu, the seeker after truth of things.
It is here that yoga truly enters. The seeking takes the form of karmayoga, finding the Divine through Works. Or it takes the form of Gyanayoga, the path of Knowledge, or else Bhaktiyoga, the path of love and devotion. In all these paths, the seeker no more wants God for what he can get from Him but for God Himself. A new relationship begins wherein the seeker no more wants the temporary chocolates and lollipops from God but God Himself. The problem here is that nothing much is required to ask for lollipops, that is, objects of desire from God. All that is needed is trust in the Grace and goodness, that is to say, one has the faith that God will grant the desire is it is legitimate and not meant to harm us or others in any way, in the long run. But if one wants God and not what goodies He can give, then one has to give oneself to God alone and the seeking with earnestness and sincerity.
Finally, if one successfully navigates through this stage and begins to know God, the gyani, not through books or philosophy or as a creed through beliefs, then the desires automatically die. They die because one experiences the bliss of the Divine before which the temporary satisfaction that one gets through desires is like the painting of a mountain made by an immature artist and an actual journey through the mountains. Then the desires automatically drop off and their satisfaction is felt as too transient, too little, too poor in quality before the peace and delight of the Divine.
So you see, one is always free to form whatever relation one wants to form with God but one must know the different degrees and possibilities. To this hierarchy of the Gita, Sri Aurobindo adds a new, an even greater possibility: the possibility of transformation of the nature and instruments, the possibility, not only of an individual arriving at the highest fulfilment but also of the collective earthly life arriving at a divine harmony.
These are the options before us. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother do not negate the earlier forms of relation we can have with them. They accept it if such be our faith and the aspiration behind our devotion. Through this they slowly prepare us for the higher forms of relation with God until we are ready for the Highest.
Here are two passages from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother that reveal this truth.
‘The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the Divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wideness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/surrender)
‘Sweet Mother, what is meant by “the Divine gives Himself”?
It means exactly this: that the more you give yourself the more you have the experience—it is not just a feeling or impression or sensation, it is a total experience—that the more you give yourself to the Divine the more He is with you, totally, constantly, at every minute, in all your thoughts, all your needs, and that there’s no aspiration which does not receive an immediate answer; and you have the sense of a complete, constant intimacy, of a total nearness. It is as though you carried… as though the Divine were all the time with you; you walk and He walks with you, you sleep and He sleeps with you, you eat and He eats with you, you think and He thinks with you, you love and He is the love you have. But for this one must give himself entirely, totally, exclusively, reserve nothing, keep nothing for himself and not keep back anything, not disperse anything also: the least little thing in your being which is not given to the Divine is a waste; it is the wasting of your joy, something that lessens your happiness by that much, and all that you don’t give to the Divine is as though you were holding it in the way of the possibility of the Divine’s giving Himself to you. You don’t feel Him close to yourself, constantly with you, because you don’t belong to Him, because you belong to hundreds of other things and people; in your thought, your action, your feelings, impulses… there are millions of things which you do not give Him, and that is why you don’t feel Him always with you, because all these things are so many screens and walls between Him and you. But if you give Him everything, if you keep back nothing, He will be constantly and totally with you in all that you do, in all that you think, all that you feel, always, at each moment. But for this you must give yourself absolutely, keep back nothing; each little thing that you hold back is a stone you put down to build up a wall between the Divine and yourself. And then later you complain: “Oh, I don’t feel Him!” What would be surprising is that you could feel Him.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/20-july-1955#p11)
Love
Alok da
