Work - an offering

Introduction

Nature has been at work for millions and millions of years, creating numberless forms, constantly trying out, constantly exceeding her previous results.

In man she has created a being endowed with a conscious will and having within him the potentiality to leap forward to the next step in evolution. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:^*

 "... all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature attempting to realise her perfection in an ever - increasing expression of her potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises self-conscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained."

And in this endeavour, there is the help from above, but there is also the need for man to strive to exceed himself.

      "This transfiguration is earth's due to heaven:

        A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme:

        His nature we must put on as he put ours;

        We are sons of God and must be even as he:

        His human portion, we must grow divine."

The time to act is now, for we are living in an exceptionally privileged moment in the Earth's history, "The Hour of God ", when 'the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of being', and 'even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny'.

If such a great and grand ideal is our aim, what is the process which will lead us to that end?

"Yoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality."

"And according to the point of contact that we choose will be the type of the Yoga that we practise."

"The triple Path of Works, of Love, and of Knowledge uses some part of the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its conversion to arrive at the liberating Truth, Beatitude and Infinity which are the nature of the spiritual life."

One starts on this adventure as a sadhak, a worker for the Divine, for the Mother:

"...you have to regard yourself as a soul and body created for her service, one who does all for her sake. Even if the idea of the separate worker is strong in you and you feel that it is you who do the act, yet it must be done for her."

The next stage will come when one feels oneself to be an instrument:

"But a time will come when you will feel more and more that you are the instrument and not the worker."

The final stage will be the Supreme consummation:

"The last stage of this perfection will come when you are completely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, instrument, servant or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her consciousness and force."

Keeping this goal before us, let us tread the path of work armoured with patience, perseverance and an unfailing receptivity to the Grace.