Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny

The Ashram Life and the Upsurge of Difficulties

Sri Aurobindo has analysed on more than one occasion this phenomenon of the upsurge of difficulties of personal character in many sadhaks after they have settled down in the Ashram and dwelt there for some months or some years. The reason behind the sadhaks' troubles and the troubles they create for other individuals living in the same community is threefold: (1) close concentration of many people within the confines of a small space; (2) sadhana extending to the submerged obscure layers of consciousness and forcing the concealed dark elements there to come out into the open and be exposed to Light; and (3) the very nature of the Yoga of Transformation which will not allow any unregenerate movement in the sadhak to evade the transforming action of the Consciousness-Force constantly operative in our Ashram atmosphere. The following three excerpts from Sri Aurobindo's writings will explain the rationale behind the manifestation of many kinds of psychological difficulties encountered amongst the inmates here:

(1) "The Ashram is an epitome of the human nature that has to be changed ... outside people put as much as possible a mask of social manners and other pretences over

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the rottenness - what Christ called in the case of the Pharisees the 'whited sepulchre'. Moreover there one can pick and choose the people one will associate with while in the narrow limits of the Ashram it is not so possible -contacts are inevitable. Wherever humans are obliged to associate closely, what I saw described the other day as 'the astonishing meannesses and caddishnesses inherent in human nature' come quickly out. I have seen that in Ashrams, in political work, in social attempts at united living, everywhere in fact where it gets a chance." (Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, p. 1047)

(2)"The power that works in this yoga is of a thoroughgoing character and tolerates in the end nothing great or small that is an obstacle to the Truth and its realisation." (Letters on Yoga, p. 803)

(3)"The exacerbation of certain vital movements is a perfectly well-known phenomenon in Yoga and does not mean that one has degenerated, but only that one has come to close grips instead of a pleasant nodding acquaintance with the basic instincts of the earthly vital nature. I have had myself the experience of this rising to a height, during a certain stage of the spiritual development, of things that before hardly existed and seemed quite absent in the pure Yogic life. These things rise up like that because they are fighting for their existence - they are not really personal to you and the vehemence of their attack is not due to any 'badness' in the personal nature. I dare say seven Sadhaks out of ten have a similar experience. Afterwards when they cannot effect their object, which is to drive the Sadhak out of his Sadhana, the whole thing sinks and there is no longer any vehement trouble." (On Himself, p. 157)

We can now understand the occult reason behind the genesis and recrudescence of many sorts of weaknesses in the consciousness of many sadhaks in the Ashram. But the

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matter does not or, rather, should not end there. Sadhaks should on no account be complacent about their weaknesses or give a free indulgence to them taking them as a natural phenomenon. If they do so, how can they call themselves 'Sadhaks' or 'Sadhikas'? These weaknesses arise, not for being nurtured and pampered, but for being ruthlessly fought against and thrown out. And herein comes the absolute necessity, on the sadhaks' part, of the 'inner Call' we have referred to in the previous Section of our essay. If any inmate of the Ashram fails to have the basic commitment to what the Mother and Sri Aurobindo expect of us as their loving and loyal children, he will not only lose his own peace and happiness but, what is worse, he will disturb the collective life here into the bargain. A sadhak of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, if he would really like to deserve the appellation, must show his zeal to fight out his weaknesses again and again; for, as Sri Aurobindo has pointed out, "no victory can be won without a fixed fidelity to the aim and a long effort." (Letters on Yoga, p. 819)

It is a pity many of us, the sadhaks of the Ashram, take a very lenient attitude towards our weaknesses. We adopt any one of three facile attitudes which are all equally inimical to the building up of a healthy spiritual life. The attitudes may be formulated in this way:

1."I don't care to eradicate my weaknesses. If at all, I shall attend to this task much later in my life, surely not so soon."

2."Oh, what can I do? I am too weak to fight these weaknesses."

3."Why do I bother about these things? The Mother's Grace and Consciousness are there to work out everything. She will free me from my weaknesses in her own time. Meanwhile..."

This sort of escapist attitude has to be scrupulously

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avoided. Difficulties are bound to arise in course of the sadhak's sadhana but he has to make a sincere effort to overcome them - of course, aided and sustained by the Mother's Grace. If he does not do so, what spiritual progress can he expect to register? Let us listen to what Sri Aurobindo has to say in this connection. This will, let us hope, help us shake off our attitude of lethargy and laisseraller.

"When one tries to do Yoga, one cannot fail to see [weaknesses coming out] in oneself and not only, as most people do, see it in others, and once seen, then? Is it to be got rid of or to be kept? Most people here seem to want to keep it. Or they say it is too strong for them, they can't help it!" (Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, p. 1047)

"If things become prominent, it is that people may see and reject them. If instead they cling to them as their most cherished possessions, what is the use? How is the purging to be done with such an attitude?" (Ibid., p. 1048)

(2) "If I said things that human nature finds easy and natural, that would certainly be very comfortable for the disciples, but there would be no room for spiritual aim and endeavour. Spiritual aims and methods are not easy or natural (e.g. as quarreling, sex indulgence, greed, indolence, acquiescence in all imperfections are easy and natural) and if people become disciples, they are supposed to follow spiritual aims and endeavours however hard and above ordinary nature and not the things that are easy and natural. (Letters on Yoga, p. 864)

Yet, we should note at the same time that to overcome in a short span of time all possible difficulties of ordinary human nature is never an easy proposition for a sadhak in the Ashram; and this is so not because he is always negligent about his weaknesses but in spite of his repeated

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efforts to conquer them. The reason is not far to seek. Our normal human nature has been mostly moulded by the forces of the Inconscience and to go against their downward gravitational pull appears at times an impossible task.

So if at times we happen to witness in the Ashram some undesirable manifestation of human weaknesses not behoving those who profess to be spiritual seekers, we should not be too harsh and precipitate in our criticism: we should cultivate an attitude of patience, tolerance and benevolent sympathy and help the errant colleagues to win the battle and come out of their dark pit. For, knowing human nature as it is in its actuality we should not expect an easy definitive victory over it.