Champaklal's Treasures

Love

Consciousness is a state and a power.
Love is a force and an action.

When Consciousness separated from its Origin and became inconscience the Origin emanated Love to re-awaken Consciousness from the depth of the inconscience and bring it back into touch with its Origin.

It may be said that at its origin love is the supreme power of attraction which awakens, in response, the irresistible need of an absolute self-giving, they are the two poles of the urge towards complete fusion.

No other movement could, better and more surely than this, throw a bridge across the abyss dug by the sense, of separation that comes from the formation of the individual. It was necessary to bring back to itself what had been projected into space without destroying for this purpose the universe created thus.

That is why love sprang up, the irresistible power of union.

This world is a chaos where darkness and light, falsehood and truth, life and death, hatred and love are so closely enlaced that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from one another and still more impossible to decide between them and undo a grip which has all the horror of a merciless struggle, so much the more intense the more veiled it is, above all in the consciousness of man where the conflict changes into the anguish of knowing, of ability, of conquering—a dark and dolorous battle, the more atrocious because it seems without any issue, but which can be resolved above all sensations and feelings and ideas, beyond the worlds of the mind ... in the Divine Consciousness.

The integral yoga is constituted of an uninterrupted series of examinations which one must pass without being warned about them beforehand—which puts you under the obligation of being always vigilant and attentive.

Three groups of examiners set these tests. Apparently they have nothing to do with one another and their procedures are so different, at times even they seem so contradictory that they do not appear to be able to move towards the same end, and yet they complete one another, they collaborate for the same purpose and are indispensable to the integrality of the result.

These three categories of examinations are those set by the forces of Nature, those set by the spiritual and divine forces, and those set by the hostile forces. These latter are the most deceptive in their appearance and in order not to be taken by surprise, unprepared, demands a constant state of vigilance, sincerity and humility.

The most banal circumstances, the events of everyday life, people, things,—apparently the most insignificant, all belong to one or other of these three categories of examiners. In this great and complex organisation of tests it is the events usually considered the most important in life which constitute the examinations easiest to pass for they find you on your guard and prepared. One stumbles more easily on the little pebbles on the road because they do not draw attention.

Endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and intrepedity are the qualities more specially required for the examinations of physical Nature.

Aspiration, confidence, idealism, enthusiasm and generosity in self-giving for the spiritual examinations.

Vigilance, sincerity and humility for the examinations set by the adverse forces.

And do not think that on one side there are those who pass exams and on the other those who set them. At the same time, according to the circumstances and moments, one is both examiner and examinee and it may even happen that one is simultaneously,

all at once, examined and examiner. And the profit drawn from this depends upon the quality and degree of intensity in one's aspiration and the awakening of one's consciousness.

And, finally, a last recommendation, never pose as an examiner. For, whilst it is very well to remember constantly that one is perhaps fairly in the course of passing a very important exam, it is on the contrary extremely dangerous to think oneself appointed to set tests for others, for this is opening the door to the most ridiculous and disastrous vanities.

The overmind is the age of the gods and consequently of religions; the idea of the unity of religions is one of the principal ideas of the age of the overmind.

In the supramental creation there will no longer be any religions, the whole of life will be the expression, the flowering into forms of the divine Unity manifesting in the world, and there will no longer be any gods. The great divine beings who will choose not to manifest physically will be friends and collaborators on a footing of equality.

When the physical substance is supramentalised, to be incarnated upon earth will not be a cause of inferiority; on the contrary, one will gain from it a plenitude which could not be had otherwise.

The whole of humanity should be organised upon these bases. But the organisation will not be true and viable unless at its centre and at its head there is the supramental Truth-Consciousness manifested in an. individual or a small group of individuals who will be the representatives of the new race, the incarnation of the supramental consciousness upon earth.

During the last lesson we learnt how to detach ourselves from our thoughts so as to be able to observe them like an attentive spectator.

Today we must learn how to watch these thoughts, look at them like an enlightened judge so as to discern between the good ones and the bad, between thoughts which are useful and those which are harmful, between constructive thoughts which lead to victory and defeatist thoughts which take us away from it. It is this power of discernment which we have to acquire now.

Second stage—discernment—discerning between good and bad thoughts, useful and harmful thoughts, thoughts which help progress and defeatist thoughts.

This is the counterpart of what we read last time. But note that here it is a question only of the thoughts which produce resentment. It is because rancour as well as jealousy are among the most widespread causes of human misery.

“But how to get rid of rancour”? A vast and generous heart is surely the best means, but it is not within everybody's reach. The control of one's thought may be more commonly used. Thought-control is the third stage of our mental discipline. After the en-lightened judge of our consciousness has discerned between the useful thoughts and the harmful ones, there comes the inner policeman who will let only the accepted thoughts pass and refuse admission strictly to every undesirable element. With a magisterial gesture this policeman will close the entry to every bad thought and push it away as far as possible.

It is this movement of admission or refusal which we call the control of thought and this will be the object of our meditation this evening.

He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn from an exercise-book page, without any letterhead or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary.

I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the corner of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but I am a sport and I signed, thinking 'We shall see how far they dare to go...

In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!

In a severe tone:

“Madam, you are pledging your word.”

Very quietly:

“I know it, sir, and when I make a promise, I keep it. But for me these things don't have much importance. I have no attachment for any religion, and when one has no attachment, one has no aversion either. For me religions are forms, much too human, of spiritual life. Each one expresses one aspect of the single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusively of the other aspects it deforms and diminishes it. None has the right to call itself the only true one, any more than it has the right to deny the truth contained in the others. And all of them together would not suffice to express the Supreme Truth which is beyond all expression, even whilst being present in each one.”

In a dry tone:

“I am sorry, madam, but in this field I cannot follow you.”

Smiling and peaceful:

“I know that very well, sir, and I told you all this only to explain to you why I did not reply very seriously to the promise you were demanding from me.”