Vaishnava bhakti, in fact any true bhakti as we see in certain forms of Christian Yoga, Sufism, Shakta bhakti can all lead to psychic realisation, if not always the transformation. In some it may also open the doors to highest realization of the Divine leading eventually either to personal liberation or to a constant dwelling with the Divine. All these are no doubt great achievements and Sri Aurobindo does acknowledge these, and several other, various ways mankind has taken to discover the Divine and find the true freedom.
The question is if this is all that is needed. Bhakti fulfils the demand of the heart for the Bliss and beatitude of the Divine that comes through love devotion. But what about the mind’s seeking for an integral Truth, including Self Knowledge, God Knowledge and World Knowledge. What about the parts of life that seek power and mastery over the world forces, to conquer them for the Divine and to serve Him in every way and every activity and through everything. What about the body’s need to be free from disease, degeneration and death. What about the aspiration for Perfection within as well as in the society and the world towards which great Souls and Avatars such as Rama and Krishna laboured and suffered. We can’t invalidate these legitimate aspirations of mankind because we have found our freedom in God. If bhakti is all then it was wrong of Sri Krishna to push Arjuna into the War of Kurukshetra or for Rama to lead an army of Vanaras to rescue Janaki. Aren’t we missing something when we sing and dance in the name of Sri Krishna and call it Vaishnava bhakti while refuse to see His form terrible and divine on the battlefield of Kurukshetra or fail to acknowledge gyana and karma as indispensable elements of His bhakti even though He himself reveals it in the Gita. If we consider these we will easily see that Vaishnava bhakti has caught only a small fragmentary glimpse of the Divine in His total Splendour.
Experiences and realisations do not automatically lead to transformation. They take place in a portion of our being. But our nature has many sides and aspects and dimensions. These may remain unchanged by the inner realisation. It is like we may be one person while meditating alone or doing sankirtan but quite another when dealing with a complex mathematical problem or a terrible neighbour. Generally confronted with such challenges the bhakta prays and surrenders to his ishta and is no doubt helped and protected. But he never masters the part that wants to escape from the problem. Hence himself and the world remain unchanged. But there are souls, heroic souls that do not seek individual Mukti but aspire for the transformation of the human race. All this is not possible through individual moksha through bhakti alone.
Supramental transformation means that the human consciousness has become one with the Creator, not only in the soul but in all the aspects of our nature. It means to see, understand and act in the world as God sees, knows and acts in the world. It means to realise God not only within, withdrawing from the world but also on the surface while awake and active in the world. It means that not only an individual or few or even many human beings realise God but the emergence of a new species beyond Man, the supramental race for which the experience of God will be normal and natural, an effortless constant identification, as spontaneous as our breathing and heartbeat.
It is surely not an easy change, an entire change of the human consciousness, nature and present instruments into a new divine being who thinks, feels, loves, wills, perceives, acts divinely. It means to be filled and possessed by God, not only in the heart and feelings but brain and thoughts, in the very cells of the body.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
