My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

Introduction

My Pilgrimage to the Spirit by Dr. Govindbhai Patel is the book of his experiences in sadhana in Sri Aurobindo Ashram as well as in his life outside, while following an ideal of Sri Aurobindo—"All life is Yoga." The book therefore is significantly divided mainly in two parts. The first part covers his Yogic experiences and visions guided by the Divine Grace in the form of letters by the Divine Master of Yoga in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The second part covers his experiences in the thick of life outside, guided by the Divine Grace, which gives a touch of originality and uniqueness to the book, for it is the first book of its type which contains author's experiences outside the Ashram, moulding his life with care, by the touch of the Grace and fulfilling it into a stream of dedicated pilgrimage. Here we have the pleasure to see, how skilfully the door of the human life which is a paradox, is opened by the key of the Divine Grace, turning it into a fulfilment of life as a dedicated pilgrimage. "Life is a paradox, with God for key."

Govindbhai heard the 'call of the Spirit' while still young. He was accepted by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo when he was only twenty-one years of age. He started getting valuable experiences as he was gifted with a great capacity for concentration and could open to the occult world with marvellous ease and naturalness. Also that was the golden period in the sadhana of the Ashram. In the author's own words "It was the period, when Gods were called down to inhabit those who were fit to assimilate their consciousness. The Grace of the Divine Mother had favoured and had begun to work upon me and I was dragged many a time in trance and came back with different types of experiences. Once I saw myself acting as a military officer on a mountain in one of my past lives." Dr. Govindbhai reported this matter to the Mother. She not only confirmed it, but added "you were with me in Italy and was one of the best sculptors".

Givindbhai had thus joined the stream of Yoga with varied experiences in the past births. He acquired a certain discipline in no time and started reaping a rich harvest of visions and experiences. This continued for years. But the pressure increased and he had to seek a change into a relaxed pace. He returned to Gujarat to normal life. But in fact it was a return upon life with a measure of Yogic preparedness. The touch of the Grace he continues to receive is nothing but the Yoga applied to life in normal circumstances.

The author's experiences in the Ashram are valuably recorded both for their clarity of description and for the elucidations they draw from the Masters. They are so living and vivid that the reader feels naturally borne towards the land of the occult and the indescribable.

The amazing variety of the feelings and revelations the author speaks of, the dreams and visions he has can only be explained in the light of the central objective of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga which aims at an integral union with the Divine and affect a total transformation of the earthly life. In the past the aim of Yoga was salvation. To kindle the fire of knowledge or devotion and seek the door of escape is the imperial theme of which the different systems of spiritual disciplines are different variations and styles. But Sri Aurobindo's attitude is totally different, in a sense, revolutionary. It is an invitation to the Infinite to flood and transform life with its Light and Power. It has been said that the path of Yoga is difficult; it is a walk on the razor's edge. The path of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is much more difficult. In the course of sadhana the Force touches many planes, works on many levels, arouses many possibilities of fulfilment as well as fall.

Sri Aurobindo corresponded with his disciples on topics of Yogic interest. No question has been considered too trivial and no path of approach to the Master barred. Thus he has left us a literature of immense value. The present volume is only a leaf out of that. Not that this literature is of a passing value. For it deals on individual fronts with universal problems and is therefore universally relevant to the seekers. The hints and guidance Sri Aurobindo has left are like lamp-posts in the expanding horizons of the unknown.

Pilgrims to the land of the Spirit have variously related their experiences and made various claims in all the ages. This has led man to a variety of beliefs, cults and religions. The descriptions come mixed with fantasy. They draw criticism and disbelief more easily than credibility. The present volume is a compilation of Dr. Govindbhai's experiences. But to have experiences is one thing, to describe, analyse and interpret those exeriences giving them their true value and significance is quite another. It is here that the value of the book is evident. For the experiences are of the author, but the explanations of those experiences are given by Sri Aurobindo, the Divine Master of Yoga.

The author had started getting experiences in abundance as he had an easy and natural opening to the occult and the unseen. To such a seeker guidance has to be all the more alert, all the more detailed and plenary. For the many-levelled working of the Yoga-Force opens the doors in many directions towards many possibilities. Occasions arise when the ego is pushed up, ambition increases. One feels absolutely certain of one's action. Through the author the ringing warning of Sri Aurobindo comes to all the seekers. He says:

"Overpowered by this sense of certitude, vividness, appearance of profusion and richness, the mind of the sadhaka enters into a great confusion which it takes for some larger organization and order; or else it whirls about in incessant shiftings and changes which it takes for a rapid progress, but which lead no where. Or there is the opposite danger that he may become the instrument of some apparently brilliant but ignorant formation, for the intermediate planes are full of little Gods or strong Daityas or smaller beings who want to create, to materialize something or to enforce a mental or vital formation in the earth life and are eager to use or influence or even possess the thought and will of the sadhaka and make him their instrument for the purpose." This remark is enough to show that only an awakened vision can sort out the true from the false. Guidance of the Master is needed at each step for when ‘one founders there, recovery is difficult.’ The author draws out Sri Aurobindo in topics of great significance like the Overmind, the Purushottam of the Gita, the Supramental Truth, the problem of bringing down the Supermind, preparing the earth atmosphere for the descent and the cosmic view on things etc. He describes his experience of union with the Guru. He tells him how he feels while taking food or his experience of vastness and the expanding consciousness. Nothing of note has been left unreported and no mystery remains unexplained by the Master. One feels like moving with the author through the land of the Yoga of transformation. The Yoga-Force is applied to life, its various principles and formations. The attitude to be adopted towards sex, money or power, the attitude that should govern us while reading books or while formulating, modifying or maintaining our relation with the society and the world around us, our measure of sleep or of personal effort in sadhana—all should proceed from the Yogic consciousness from the central preoccupations to realize and express the Divine. Whether it be a consideration of the Divine will or of ego or surrender or approach to the Mother; whether it be an understanding of the Chakras or of Trance, a knowledge to be acquired of illness and its cure or fatigue and recovery from it or the attitude to be adopted to work or gossip—all should be guided by this imperial consideration. And Sri Aurobindo is there to help and guide accurately and infallibly.

If the first part of the book is for the initiates and seekers, the second part is a treasure-house for the seekers as well as for the common readers. Govindbhai had left Pondicherry, but he had not drifted away. The strange turn he had taken was indeed a significant turn. For he had drifted into the vastness of the Presence. The events and experiences he describes bear it out in ample measure. The life meandering back towards worldliness after years in sadhana will be, to say the least, full of uncertainties. But to him it comes with its itinerary accurately planned and its course minutely charted. He carries the Breath of Grace wherever he goes. Or shall we say that the Breath of Grace carries him safe through all exigencies of life as events seem to come beautifully planned from a high ether. It is the ether of the enveloping Presence. His worldly life is a happy confluence. The sense of dediction with which he leads his worldly life, the spiritual culture which informs his return to life is like the purifying stream of the Ganges absorbing its many propensities and purifying its outcomes. The author's journey in life is a real pilgrimage. Its guiding light is the Grace of the Divine Mother. His difficulties are transformed into challenges, nay, opportunities. He is transported to the place that is destined; he is thrown into the work that is ordained by the Grace. In the beginning he is advised to start a bank which becomes successful. But the Grace that guides his steps has been preparing him for something more directly related to human suffering. He becomes a Doctor; but he is of no specific brand, nor does he prescribe medicines like physicians of high conventional training. He practises the art of healing. And he heals the body with tenderness and faith. For he is healing that which is the instrument and vehicle of the Spirit. In healing others he is always healing himself. He is always growing, his relation always deepening with the vast Presence. The amazing stories of success in restoring sight to the blind, the technique of cure he practises and is constantly developing are all gifts of the Divine to the pilgrim advancing towards the Spirit.

After Govindbhai has left the Ashram, the course of events that follow are very much the same as in any one else's life. He has to settle himself in a profession, he marries, has children, educates them and helps them to settle themselves in life. This is the course that people ordinarily follow. Here we have the story of a veritable pilgrimage. It starts with a well-founded attitude. His marriage is a union of two fighters, as he himself puts it. It was the fighter for the freedom of the Spirit joining the fighter for the freedom of the country. It is a reformist marriage. The fighters join their fighting instincts to fight the evils in life. They start with faith, in themselves as well as in the Power that guides their steps.

Govindbhai speaks of the miracles that follow. But they are not unrelated miracles. His developed intuition helps him to study the mysteries of life and develop a course of treatment that proves itself effective in chronic and sometimes also in lost cases.

Vistas of fame and wealth open up before him. But he cannot be lured. The goal he has set before himself beckons him to the expanding horizons of the Spirit and he presses forward with the zeal of an explorer. He charts a new life of sacrifice and service, as he goes on telling people about the art of living effectively and fruitfully. His pilgrimage into the social life is a transforming crescendo. He inspires as he moves. For he inspires people to a spiritual attitude.

As we approach the end of the book and have listened stories of the Touch of Grace we feel like having passed through illustrative exercises worked out by the Divine Grace. These are episodes that concern problems of practical life. The light that Grace sheds is shared by the readers in abundant measure and that too for the simple reason that they are not unrelated miracles but they assure us that we too can approach the Divine to open the doors to our higher destiny.

C. N. Sharma