Part 2
FAITH
– ASPIRATION - SURRENDER
Page
5 , 6
, 7 , 8
In
the practice of yoga, what you aim at can only come by the opening
of the being to the Mother's force and the persistent rejection
of all egoism and demand and desire, all motives except the
aspiration for the Divine Truth. If this is rightly done, the
Divine Power and Light will begin to work and bring in the peace
and equanimity, the inner strength, the purified devotion and
the increasing consciousness and self-knowledge which are the
necessary foundation for the siddhi of the yoga.

The
Truth for you is to feel the Divine in you, open to the Mother and
work for the Divine till you are aware of her in all your activities.
There must be the consciousness of the divine presence in your heart
and the divine guidance in your acts. This the psychic being can
easily, swiftly, deeply feel if it is fully awake; once the psychic
has felt it, it can spread to the mental and vital also.

The
only truth in your other experience,—which, you say, seems at the
time so true to you,—is that it is hopeless for you or anyone to
get out of the inferior consciousness by your or his unaided effort.
That is why when you sink into this inferior consciousness, everything
seems hopeless to you, because you lose hold for a time of the true
consciousness. But the suggestion is untrue, because you have an
opening to the Divine and are not bound to remain in the inferior
consciousness.
When
you are in the true consciousness, then you see that everything
can be done, even if at present only a slight beginning has been
made; but a beginning is enough, once the Force, the Power are there.
For the truth is that it can do everything and only time and the
soul's aspiration are needed for the entire change and the soul's
fulfilment.

The
conditions for following the Mother's Will are to turn to her for
Light and Truth and Strength, to aspire that no other force shall
influence or lead you, to make no demands or conditions in the vital,
to keep a quiet mind ready to receive the Truth but not insisting
on its own ideas and formations, - finally
to keep the psychic awake and in front, so that you may be in a
constant contact and know truly what her will is; for the mind and
vital can mistake other impulsions and suggestions for the Divine
Will, but the psychic once awakened makes no mistake.
A
perfect perfection in working is only possible after supramentalisation;
but a relative good working is possible on the lower planes, if
one is in contact with the Divine and careful, vigilant and conscious
in mind and vital and body. That is a condition, besides, which
is preparatory and almost indispensable for the supreme liberation.

One
who fears monotony and wants something new would not be able to
do yoga or at least this yoga which needs an inexhaustible perseverance
and patience. The fear of death shows a vital weakness which is
also contrary to a capacity for yoga. Equally, one who is under
the domination of his passions, would find the yoga difficult and,
unless supported by a true inner call and a sincere and strong aspiration
for the spiritual consciousness and union with the Divine, might
very easily fall fatally and his effort come to nothing.

As
for working, it depends on what you mean by the word. Desire often
leads either to excess of effort, meaning often much labour and
a limited fruit with strain, exhaustion and in case of difficulty
or failure, despondence, disbelief or revolt; or else it leads to
pulling down the force. That can be done, but except for the yogically
strong and experienced, it is not always safe, though it may be
often very effective; not safe, first, because it may lead to violent
reactions or it brings down contrary or wrong or mixed forces which
the sadhak is not experienced enough to distinguish from the true
ones. Or else it may substitute the sadhak's own limited power of
experience or his mental and vital constructions for the free gift
and true leading of the Divine. Cases differ, each has his own way
of sadhana. But for you what I would recommend is constant openness,
a quiet steady aspiration, no over-eagerness, a cheerful trust and
patience.

It
is very unwise for anyone to claim prematurely to have possession
of the supermind or even to have a taste of it. The claim is usually
accompanied by an outburst of superegoism, some radical blunder
of perception or a gross fall, wrong condition and wrong movement.
A certain spiritual humility, a serious unarrogant look at oneself
and quiet perception of the imperfections of one's present nature
and, instead of self-esteem and self-assertion, a sense of the necessity
of exceeding one's present self, not from egoistic ambition, but
from an urge towards the Divine would be, it seems to me, for this
frail terrestrial and human composition far better conditions for
proceeding towards the supramental change.

It
is the psychic surrender in the physical that you have begun to
experience.
All
the parts are essentially offered, but the surrender has to be made
complete by the growth of the psychic self-offering in all of them
and in all their movements separately and together.
To
be enjoyed by the Divine is to be entirely surrendered so that one
feels the Divine Presence, Power, Light, Ananda possessing the whole
being rather than oneself possessing these things for one's own
satisfaction. It is a much greater ecstasy to be thus surrendered
and possessed by the Divine than oneself to be the possessor. At
the same time by this surrender there comes also a calm and happy
mastery of self and nature.

Get
the psychic being in front and keep it there, putting its power
on the mind, vital and physical, so that it shall communicate to
them its force of single-minded aspiration, trust, faith, surrender,
direct and immediate detection of whatever is wrong in the nature
and turned towards ego and error, away from Light and Truth.
Eliminate
egoism in all its forms; eliminate it from every movement of your
consciousness.
Develop
the cosmic consciousness—let the ego-centric outlook disappear in
wideness, impersonality, the sense of the Cosmic Divine, the perception
of universal forces, the realisation and understanding of the cosmic
manifestation, the play.
Find
in place of ego the true being—a portion of the Divine, issued from
the World-Mother and an instrument of the manifestation. This sense
of being a portion of the Divine and an instrument should be free
from all pride, sense or claim of ego or assertion of superiority,
demand or desire. For if these elements are there, then it is not
the true thing.
Most
in doing yoga live in the mind, vital, physical, lit up occasionally
or to some extent by the higher mind and by the illumined mind;
but to prepare for the supramental change it is necessary (as soon
as, personally, the time has come) to open up to the Intuition and
the overmind, so that these may make the whole being and the whole
nature ready for the supramental change. Allow the consciousness
quietly to develop and widen and the knowledge of these things will
progressively come.
Calm,
discrimination, detachment (but not indifference) are all very important,
for their opposites impede very much the transforming action. Intensity
of aspiration should be there, but it must go along with these.
No hurry, no inertia, neither rajasic over-eagerness nor tamasic
discouragement—a steady and persistent but quiet call and working.
No snatching or clutching at realisation, but allowing realisation
to come from within and above and observing accurately its field,
its nature, its limits.
Let
the power of the Mother work in you, but be careful to avoid any
mixture or substitution, in its place, of either a magnified ego-working
or a force of Ignorance presenting itself as Truth. Aspire especially
for the elimination of all obscurity and unconsciousness in the
nature.
These
are the main conditions of preparation for the supramental change;
but none of them is easy, and they must be complete before the nature
can be said to be ready. If the true attitude (psychic, unegoistic,
open only to the Divine Force) can be established, then the process
can go on much more quickly. To take and keep the true attitude,
to further the change in oneself, is the help that can be given,
the one thing asked to assist the general change.
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