This book for sadhaks or seekers of Integral Yoga is based on the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It is a practical guide for sadhana of Integral Yoga.
On Yoga
THEME/S
IX
The grace and the help are always there for all who aspire for them and their power is limitless when received with faith and confidence.
(Words of the Mother, Cent. Vol. 14, p. 91)
Man's life upon earth is full of uncertainties. Accidents and illnesses, frustrations and difficulties, and finally an untimely death are always stalking his way and may at any time turn from a mere possibility into an ominous reality stamping out the happiness of his existence. And yet, being painfully aware of his limited potency and resources, he knows perfectly well that it is altogether impossible for him to prevent these untoward misfortunes from occuring in his life. The result is that he suffers from the sense of a besieged being placed in the hostile ambience of an enemy land; and a constant tension of worries and anxieties and a mood of utter helplessness undermines the ease and peace of his consciousness.
At times, especially if he is of a religious bent of mind, he tries to console himself with a vague idea that there is Someone possessing an infinite power who may perhaps intervene on his behalf and save the situation, if only rightly appealed to. But this assuring idea receives repeated jolts and finally vanishes at the hour of need if and when the doubting rational mind with all its misgivings and reservations rises up and asserts itself, creating total confusion in the individual's heart. The disturbing thoughts that race through his mind at such hours of perplexity are somewhat as follows:
"Is there any such thing called a divine Grace? Is this not after all an illusory thing like the imaginary egg of a mare? For, if it is true, as our scientist-friends affirm, that the world and its events are governed by an inexorable chain of mechanical determinism devoid of any conscious purpose in it, how can there be left in this ceaseless unrolling of events any possible chink or gap through which the so-called divine Grace can possibly enter and try to
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alter the course of happenings. Surely this is an absurd expectation as futile as the hope of a drowning man trying to save himself by catching at a straw!"
But let it be unequivocally stated at the very outset that this sort of misgiving is not based on actual facts of the world; it arises out of a fallacious reasoning which draws its substance from ungrounded premises and false pre-suppositions. But even before we come to the pointing out of these wrongly assumed premises and pre-suppositions, we feel like advising a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga, who wants to build up his spiritual life, that against all negative whisperings of the adversary forces and the doubting Thomases, he should believe with all his heart and mind that there is indeed such a thing called divine Grace and that he must learn at every step to invoke this Grace and depend on its unfailing assistance.
Here are two passages from Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's writings which make clear to us the reality and the role of the divine Grace and the nature of its way of working.
"The Supreme has sent his Grace into the world to save it." (MCW.Vol. 14, p. 86)
"The Divine Grace is there ready to act at every moment, but it manifests as one grows out of the Law of Ignorance into the Law of Light, and it is meant, not as an arbitrary caprice, however miraculous often its intervention, but as a help in that growth and a Light that leads and eventually delivers.... This Divine may lead us often through darkness, because the darkness is there in us and around us, but it is to the Light he is leading and not to anything else." (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 174)
The most wonderful thing about this divine Grace is that it does not appear for a moment and then vanish in the manner of the flash of a lightning. No, its action is constant and ceaseless and operative everywhere and in everyone's life irrespective of any limiting or disabling conditions. What is more, it has been acting much before the advent of man upon earth, indeed since the be-
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ginning of this world manifestation. The greatness of this action of the Supreme's Grace is too deep and sublime to be expressed in any human speech or even to be conceived by human thought.
But here a possible confusion or wrong notion has to be fully cleared. When we talk of the Supreme's or the Divine's Grace what do we mean by this Divine? Sri Aurobindo has warned the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga that they should not think of the Divine as a very powerful extra-cosmic Person who has 'created' outside of Him this world and its creatures and has since then been governing them and determining their moment-to-moment fate by arbitrary, albeit divine, whims and fiats.
No, the world is not the 'creation' of a extra-cosmic Deity.; it is the self-manifestation of Sachchidananda, of the supreme and absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, and this Sachchidananda or the Divine is making His Will operative and effective in the bosom of this self-manifestation whose other name is world-existence, ceaselessly from moment to moment, with a great divine purpose behind.
Talking in a limited way we may state that here in particular upon this field of earthly manifestation the same divine Will has come down into the life of man and is guiding him from behind towards his divine destiny by applying a constant pressure on his present Ignorance-dominated consciousness and nature so that they can march with assured steps towards the attainment of divine light, peace, love, delight, liberty and harmony. The only aim of this constantly operative divine Will is to effectuate the best possible good at every moment in everyone's life; best, of course, that will be compatible with and permitted by the present state of the individual that is entirely governed by the equally ceaseless action of cosmic Ignorance whose very badge in man is the separative consciousness whose other name is 'ego'. And who can defy the universally valid proposition, 'Where Ignorance is, there suffering too must come'? Of course, the ultimate victory will be the divine Will's, and in spite of all the vicissitudes of his existence man will surely be privileged to have a divine life here in the earthly field in a physical embodiment.
But that is a far way off at the end of a long arduous journey
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covering many lives. And these lives, including the present one that we have been actually living, cannot but be occasionally visited by many types of misfortunes some of which may apparently be quite disastrous. At these moments of trials and stresses the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga is apt to get disconcerted and ask with a sense of great consternation: "If the divine Grace is in fact always operative, how is it that it could not prevent this mishap from happening in my life?"
The sadhaka has to banish from his heart this sort of doubting and distressing thought and believe with all the conviction of his inner consciousness that whatever may be the appearance, the divine Grace is indeed always acting, even in the midst of utter sorrows and failures, and turning them into occasions of spiritual fulfilment whose real beneficial nature will be revealed in time. That the sadhaka is not being able to comprehend the inner significance of his apparent misfortune is due only to the vain and erroneous expectations of his ignorant ego-consciousness which obscure his inner vision thus preventing him from seeing the truth.
These are times of tests for the sadhaka and he must try with all his strength not to listen to the misleading voices of the Adversary but, instead, keep his faith firm that however dark is the present night, however grievous his present trouble, the divine Grace is there in action and is surely leading him to light and deliverance through all the unexpected twists and turns of his life. The sadhaka of the Integral Yoga, whenever he is confronted with a puzzling situation like what is depicted above, should immediately recall the two following passages from the Mother's writings and meditate on their deep import:
"... no matter how great your faith and trust in the divine Grace, no matter how great your capacity to see it at work in all circumstances, at every moment, at every point in life, you will never succeed in understanding the marvellous immensity of Its Action, and the precision, the exactitude with which this Action is accomplished; you will never be able to grasp to what extent the Grace does everything, is behind everything, organises everything, conducts everything, so that the march forward to the divine realisa-
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tion may be as swift, as complete, as total and harmonious as possible, considering the circumstances of the world." {Questions and Answers 1956, Cent. Ed., p. 251)
"... if you can keep within yourself a confidence, a candid trust which does not argue, and the sense of... yes, it is truly a kind of trust that what is done for you, in spite of all appearances, is always the best thing to lead you in the quickest way possible out of all your difficulties and towards the goal... if you can keep that strong in you, well, your path will become tremendously easier." (Questions and Answers 1954, Cent. Ed., p. 445)
We recall in this connection the luminous words the Mother once addressed to the students of the Ashram School in course of one of her evening class talks of 1954. The gist of what she said is as follows:
If you can enter into the depths of things, eliminate all your ego-sense, and surrender yourself to the care of the divine Grace, unreservedly, without any doubts and misgivings pulling you backwards, you will come to understand the inner meaning of all that the divine Providence does for you in the course of your life's journey. You will find that all the apparent misfortunes befalling you are not just a cruel jest played at your cost. You will then clearly see that everything, even the darkest event, has an auspicious divine intent behind it. You will no more feel any sorrow on account of all the struggles you may have had to wage in the past or for the acute pangs of pain you may have had to bear in your life. An ardent fire of enthusiasm will then be lit in your consciousness which will impel you towards the attainment of union with the Divine and under its indomitable urge you will not hesitate to plunge yourself into even the most arduous Tapasya needed for the achievement of the Goal. You will always be animated with this certitude in your heart that the ultimate victory is sure to come at the end of all the struggles of the Path. (Based on the Mother's Talk)
Here a disturbing question may arise and unsettle the mind
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and heart of some calculating sadhakas. The nature of the question is like this: "If the Grace of the Divine is indeed so powerful, capable of achieving anything and everything, and if it is operative, as it is claimed, always and everywhere and under all situations, how is it that we do not find the overt manifestation of this Grace in the same measure in everyone's life? We meet with some people around us whose life is a wonderful tale of uninterrupted action of the helping and protecting Grace of the Divine. But there are others whose lives seem to be almost constantly buffeted by all sorts of dangers and difficulties as if in their case such a thing as Grace is well-nigh non-existent. What is the reason behind this obvious inequality of treatment? Can we dare say that the Divine suffers from some fault of partiality? But the Divine being divine, how can that be?"
The question thus put seems to be quite baffling as if defying any solution. But the fact is otherwise. There is a great mystery of world-existence involved here. Let us try to see wherein lies the harmonising solution to this disconcerting riddle.
What we have to understand at the very outset is the fact that there are three different cosmic Forces simultaneously operative in the world and in the life of man. These may be conveniently termed 'Law', 'Compassion' and 'Grace'.
The first one is what people, depending on their psychological bent and angle of vision, designate as the 'Law of Karma' or the 'inexorable causal determinism' or the 'inscrutable indeterministic Providence' or simply 'Fate', 'Niyati or 'Kismet'. The common underlying idea behind all these concepts is the conviction that whatever happens in a man's life happens because it had to happen, and no remedial measures can be contemplated which can possibly alter the course of events.
Let us devote here a little more attention to the concept of the Law of Karma. The basic tenet of this theory is that every man has to inevitably suffer the consequences of all that he has done before. A mistake committed, even in ignorance, an error indulged in, even if inadvertently, is bound to confront the man, today or tomorrow, in this life or in a life hereafter, with its corresponding result of sorrow and suffering: he is caught in a rat-trap from which
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there is no escape.
This is the first cosmic Force operative in man's life. But if this would have been the one and only Force in action, man and his world would have been destroyed long ago; for, so many mistakes are being committed daily and if everybody had to pay the price for his misdeeds in mathematical equipollence, man's life would be a long tale of unmitigated series of sorrows and sufferings and disasters. But in reality it is not so. The question is why.
Here comes the second cosmic Force operative in man's life. This may be called 'divine Compassion'. It is an impersonal divine Force of love and goodwill which is acting always in every man's life and in the world at large, irrespective of any variation of conditions and circumstances. Its sole purpose is to mitigate the effect of Karma as far as possible, acting in the field of Karma itself, without annulling it altogether. It is because of the beneficial and moderating action of this Compassion that most of us are most of the time allowed to escape the full rigour of the 'punishments' that are due to us because of our constant defaulting. We may recall in this connection two statements of the Mother concerning the protective contribution of this second Force of statically operative divine Compassion:
"Who can stand before Thee, Lord, and say in all sincerity 'I have never made a mistake'? How many times in a day we commit faults against Thy work, and always Thy Grace comes to efface them!"(MCW, Vol. 14, p. 87)
"Without the intervention of Thy Grace, who would not often times have come under the merciless blade of the Law of Universal Justice?" (Ibid., p.87)
Such is then the universal action of Divine Compassion which is all the time trying to lessen the impact of the universal laws of Justice and Karma. And this is operative everywhere in every man's life irrespective of the quality or the state of consciousness of individual men or their subjective attitude and preparation.
But this is not all. There is a third cosmic Force operative in
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the world. It is the person ward-oriented mobile divine Grace and this is the most wonderful Force of all which can really work miracles at any time overriding altogether the laws of universal Karma and rigorous Justice.
But what is this third Force? Well, it is divine Compassion but in another form and in another mode of action. In a simplistic language of imagery we may say that divine Compassion is like a frozen sheet of shining whiteness covering the whole field of world manifestation but almost in a static way by its very omnipresence, always seeking to diminish the painful negative effects of cosmic Justice and Karma but without getting specially concerned with any particular individual: its action is impersonal and general.
But for whatever reason, mostly because of a sincere and ardent call from an individual for divine help and intervention, this frozen sheet of Compassion gets melted so to say, acquires mobility, and starts moving towards the appealing individual to act directly and potently in his life in the prevailing circumstances, and alters altogether the adverse course of happenings. We give the name of Grace to this specialised action of divine Compassion.
And this acts in many different ways depending on the nature of the difficulty troubling the individual sadhaka. For dangers and difficulties threaten the happiness of man not in only one way but in diverse manners. Thus, depending on the particular situation, the divine Grace may assume at least six different forms; they may be designated as (1) 'Helping Grace'; (2) 'Protective and Saving Grace'; (3) 'Curative Grace'; (4) 'Dispensing Grace'; (5) 'Warning and Guiding Grace'; and finally (6) 'Liberating and Transforming Grace'. The epithets themselves are self-explanatory and do not call for detailed elucidation. So we shall content ourselves in each case with a few introductory sentences followed by some apt quotations from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
While walking through life's uncertain Path, whenever a sadhaka feels himself threatened by any difficulty of any sort, great or small, both inner and outer, he should not waste any time but turn immediately to the help of the Divine with as much ardour and sincerity as he can command. If his faith is strong and genu-
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ine, he will surely receive the help of the Grace to extricate him from the threatening trouble. Here is what the Mother says:
"Why, when you get into trouble, do you no longer ask for the help of the Divine Grace? Yet you know from experience that the result is unfailing and marvellous!" (Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 16, pp. 27-28)
Man's life is, at times quite unexpectedly, confronted with many types of risks and dangers. In this case also the sadhaka should turn to the Divine without any undue delay, pray for His protective and saving Grace with the candour and faith of an innocent child, and continue praying persistently without allowing any diminution in his faith and ardour till the requisite intervention comes. Here are some words of Sri Aurobindo:
"To walk through life armoured against all fear, peril and disaster, only two things are needed, two that always go together — the Grace of the Divine Mother and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender." (The Mother, SABCL, Vol. 25, p. 9)
Occasional illnesses or even serious diseases are almost a universal besetting feature in the life of men. When thus confronted we turn here, there, everywhere except towards the Divine and take to this remedy or that remedy leaving out the only sure panacea, 'action of the divine Grace'. But this is what the Mother would like us to do:
"Have faith. There is no disease which cannot be cured by the Divine Grace." (Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15, p. 164)
Now comes the question of the 'Dispensing Grace'. In the course of our long life's journey, we feel the need of so many things, for the successful conduct of the life and, especially, for the building up of our spiritual life. But we don't know where to find these necessary things or how to procure them even when we know the
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way to do so. In this case too the sadhaka's main reliance should be on the dispensing Grace of the Divine. Here are some assuring words of the Mother:
"And if you add to this the ardour of a faith and trust in tin Divine Grace and that kind of self-giving to the Grace which makes you expect everything from It, then it can become tremendous; you can see things being realised more and more, and the most surprising ones can be realised one after another.... at each step one comes to see that things are exactly what they had to be and the best that could be." (Questions and Answers 1955, p. 243)
Now about the 'Warning and Guiding Grace'. While walking through life it may often happen that, faced with a particular situation, the sadhaka is not being able to know what to do or what to avoid, or it may also sometimes come to pass that the sadhaka, out! of sheer ignorance or due to a momentary lapse of vigilance, is going to adopt a course of action which is sure to prove deleterious to the good health of his sadhana or land him into some pit of disaster. What is one to do then? Who will guide and warn him at that critical juncture? Who else except the warning and guiding Grace of the Divine? Here are some assuring words of the Mother:
"My experience is like this: whenever you sincerely want to know the truth, you do know it. There is always something to point out the error to you, to make you recognise the truth. And if you observe yourself attentively you find out that it is because you prefer error that you do not find the truth.
"Even in small details, the very smallest — not to speak of the big things of life, the big decisions that one has to take — even in the smallest things, whenever the aspiration for the truth and the will to be true are wholly sincere, the indication always comes....
"Whenever there is sincerity, you find that the help, the guidance, the grace are always there to give you the answer and you are not mistaken for long." (Questions and Answers, MCW, Vol. 3, p. 192)
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Finally comes what we have termed as the 'Liberating and Transforming Grace' of the Divine. We all know by our experience that the life of a sadhaka is not by any means, at least in most cases, a way always sunlit and made soft with flower-petals. How many defects are there hidden in the recesses of the consciousness of a sadhaka! How many hundreds of weaknesses have struck their poisonous roots in nooks and comers of his functioning nature! It is an almost impossible task for any sadhaka to eradicate all his defects and uproot all his vicious weaknesses from his nature and consciousness, solely by the application of his own unaided paltry effort. It is only the Shakti or Power of the Divine Mother which can release us from their iron grips. And surely she will do SQ if only we can take refuge at her feet and surrender ourselves completely to her action with the utter simplicity and the trustful abandon of an innocent child . In that case we shall discover at every moment with a sense of happy surprise how and with what dexterity the divine Grace is at work to free the sadhaka's nature and consciousness from the manifold bondage of his weaknesses and ignorance, whose inevitable happy culmination will be the spiritual transformation of the entire instrumental being of the sadhaka,consisting of his mind and heart and body in all their parts and functionings. It will be a constantly repeated delightful experience for the sadhaka to discover with surprise that it is the Divine Mother herself and not he himself, who, dwelling within him as aconstantly active Presence has been doing all the sadhana in his ādhāra: he, on his side , is nothing more than an interested witness who is all the time watching with joyous wonder this amazing Lila of the Divine Mother whose sole aim in all her guidance is to lead the sadhaka to a state of total transformation. Here is a very succinct but profoundly significant message of the Mother:
"Have faith in the Divine Grace and the hour of liberation and transformation will be hastened."
If such is the sixfold wondrous action and effectivity of the divine Grace, every sadhaka would surely want to know the process of sadhana he should adopt which would make the Grace of
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the Divine intervene in his behalf and help him in every possible way in the perilous journey of his life. But a doubting question may be raised at this point: Is there indeed or can there at all be any sadhana-procedure which will guarantee this intervention of the Grace? For we are often told that the Grace is ahetukī, unconditional and causeless, and 'the Spirit bloweth where it listeth.' Did not the Rishi of the Katha Upanishad too declare that 'Only he whom the Being chooses can win Him', 'yamevaisa vrnute tena labhyah1 ?
If such be the case, how can a sadhaka expect with a sense of surety that in case of his need he would receive the help of the divine Grace? Surely he has no role to play in the matter of the intervention of the Grace!
No, the situation is not so hopeless for the sadhaka as it apparently seems. For the Grace is both conditional and unconditional at the same time. It is unconditional in Idle sense that its action does not depend on any outer Merit or fitness on the part of the sadhaka. Did not the same Rishi of the Katha Upanishad specify that "the Self is not to be won by eloquent teaching, nor by brain power, nor by much learning"? (Katha Upanishad, 1.2.23) .
And fitness? — Which sadhaka can claim with presumption that he has made himself so fit that the divine Grace is bound to act in his case Whenever he summons it? Did not Sri Aurobindo throw cold "water on such a claim by writing to a presumptuous disciple:
"Who ever was fit, for that matter — fitness and unfitness are only a way of speaking: man is unfit and misfit (so far as things Spiritual are concerned) — in his outward nature." (Nirodbaran'S Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, Complete Set, p. 461)
But does it then mean that the action of the divine Grace is altogether unconditional and the particular sadhaka has no say in this matter? This too does not represent the actual situation. For Sri Aurobindo has reminded us:
"... it [Grace] is hot indiscriminate — only it has a discrimina-
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tion of its own which sees things and persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than that of the Mind or any other normal Power." (Letters on Yoga, p. 609)
Here is an admonition of Sri Aurobindo meant to disabuse the mind of the sadhakas concerning the mode of action of divine Grace:
"... you seem to think it {the Divine Grace] should be something like a Divine Reason acting upon lines not vary different from those of human intelligence. But it is not that." (/bid., p. 609)
Another important point to note. Even when the Grace inter-venes in a case and starts acting in the life of a sadhaka, its mode of action may assume altogether different forms. Here is what Ski Aurobindo has to say on this particular point:
"It is not indispensable that the Grace should work in a way that the human mind can understand, it generally doesn't. It works in its own 'mysterious' way. At first it usually works behind the veil, preparing things, not manifesting. Afterwards it may manifest, but the sadhaka does not understand very well what is happening; finally, when he is capable of it, he both feels aid understands or at least begins to do so. Same feel and understand from the first or very early; but that is not the ordinary case." (Litters on Yoga, pp.610-11)
Be that as it may, we are now interested in knowing what as sadhakas we should do in a critical situation of our life so that the third cosmic Force that we have called the 'divine Grace' nay successfully intervene and save the situation for us. But before that let us brush up our memory about the essential points concerning the three cosmic Forces simultaneously acting in the world and also in every man's life. The two following extracts from Sri Aurobindo's letters will give us the essence of the matter:
'There are these three powers: (1) The Cosmic Law, of Kama or what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it
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can reach through the nets of the Law and giving them their chance; (3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also mom irresistibly than the others." {Letters on Yoga, p. 609)
"It [the Divine Grace] is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law — for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace." (Ibid., p. 609)
Now, as we have pointed out before, this third incalculable Force, whose other name is divine Grace, is absolutely unconditional so far as the outer defects and qualifications of the sadhaka are concerned. But it is at the same time conditional in another, way. For the all-seeing Divine looks into the heart of the sadhaka and examines. his state of inner preparedness and the flaming intensity of his inner aspiration. AS Sri Aurobindo has said: "A state! of Grace is prepared in the individual often behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when the state of Grace^ comes, then the Grace itself act&" (Ibid., p. 609)
But this inner preparedness1 will not come by itself. The sadhaka should not lapse into a mood of inert indolence and idly bide his time hoping that, since he has come to the spiritual path, the divine Grade is bound to act in his case today or tomorrow but surely act it will. This is a vain expectation. The sadhaka has to do his part well and with full sincerity. In the Mother's words: "One mud know how to pay this supreme Grace the price it deserves." (Some Answers from the Mother, MCW, Vol. 16, p. 172) Sri Aurobindo too has warned us in a somewhat different way against any laisser-faire attitude of tamasic complacency. Let us listen carefully to what he says:
"It [Yoga] is not a fantasia devoid of all reason and coherence1 or a mere miracle. It has its laws and conditions and I do not see how you can demand of the Divine to do everything by a violent miracle." (Letters on Yoga, p. 612)
So the essential point we have always to keep in mind is that the divine Grace will surely do everything necessary for us and do
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it with perfect effectivity if only from our side we adopt the right attitude and allow the Grace to act in an unimpeded way. In that case it is absolutely certain that no other strength or tapasya is needed for the successful building up and consummation of our spiritual life. Has not Sri Aurobindo assured us? -
"Strength has a value for spiritual realisation, but to say that it can be done by strength only and by no other means is a violent exaggeration. Grace is not an invention, it is a fact of spiritual experience.... Strength, if it is spiritual, is a power for spiritul realisation; a greater power is sincerity; the greatest power of all is Grace." (Letters on Yoga, p. 611)
We have at last arrived at the main theme of the present essay. That is: What type of sadhana should the sadhaka of the IntegralYoga precisely follow in order that the divine Grace in its most potent form can always and in every way intervene in his life andhelp him in every situation to lead him finally to his goal of spiritual fulfilment?
The first thing we have to know is that in this particular sadhana, principally based on the action of Grace, the sadhaka need not take recourse to any outer austerities or any violent effort of his personal will. What he has to do is to build up a 'state of Grace' in his consciousness and maintain it in an uninterrupted way. If he can do so he will find that the divine Grace has automatically started acting in his life and developing all that is necessary for his real growth both in his inner as well as in his outer existence.
But one thing the sadhaka should assiduously guard against. He should in no way oppose or impede the action of the divine Grace. He has to offer it his full collaboration and an unreserved and entire assent to its working. This is absolutely essential on hispart. For as Sri Aurobindo has warned us:
"The Divine Grace and Power can do everything, but with the full assent of the sadhak. To learn to give that full assent is thewhole meaning of the sadhana." (Letters on Yoga, p. 583)
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we may even venture to say that this offering of the full as-j sent and collaboration and the building up of the state of Grace are not two different things; they represent the same sadhana-phenom-enon viewed from two different angles. Now, the important ques-, tion is: How to develop this state of Grace? how to offer an unstinted co-operation to the working of this Grace in the sadhaka's life and! being? Well, it is all a question of developing the right attitude in sadhana and moulding the consciousness into a state of unfailing! opening and receptivity. For that the sadhaka has to pay constant attention to the observance of the following points:
(1)The very first thing one has to attend to is to consider the Divine as one's dearest one far above and completely transcending all other claims emanating from different persons and objects. At the same time the sadhaka has to feel with all his heart and] mind that a genuine spiritual fulfilment is the only central object of his life dominating all other pulls and urges.
(2)Next comes a constant remembrance of the Divine in the sadhaka's consciousness throughout the entire period of his waking existence: this will lead to the establishment of an uninterrupted conscious communion with the divine Reality.
(3)The third essential element of this sadhana is to develop an active faith in oneself that the Divine is acting everywhere and at all times, in every object and in every person, and His action in each case is always for the good whatever may be the appearance.
(4)Now comes the sadhana of self-consecration in works. One must learn to do all one's actions, big or small, important or apparently trivial, not for the sake of the ego and its desires but as a loving and dedicated service to the Divine Mother. The sadhaka's constant mantra should be: ' Yat karomi jaganmātas tadeva tava pūjanam' — 'Whatever I do, Mother, is done in the spirit of Thy worship.'
(5)Next comes the sadhana of the domination of the desire-, being. One must try to eliminate from one's active consciousness the thousands of diverse desires that assail oneself; instead, one should develop in oneself the one and unique 'desire' of progressively establishing in oneself the all-engrossing love and devotions for the Divine.
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(6)After this comes the sadhana of śaranāgati which has been the principal theme of our preceding essay in this book. One must consider the Divine as the sole refuge of one's life under all varying situations, and keep the eye of one's background consciousness always turned to the Divine with a calm, silent and patient expectation that one would be able to recognise the Divine's action at every moment and joyously assent to it.
(7)Along with this sadhana of śaranāgati, the sadhaka has to develop in his consciousness a dual attitude of (i) the sense of utter impotence so far as his personal egoistic capabilities are concerned but at the same time (ii) the sense of complete conviction hit the omnipotence of the Divine Shakti. The sadhaka should have abiding faith in this double formulation: "O Divine, without you I am nothing, I know nothing, and I can do nothing; but with you I can be everything, I can do everything, and I can know everything." This concurrently functioning twofold faith is very much helpful in the building up of the state of Grace.
(8)Now comes a very important element of sadhana: it concerns the establishment of a spirit of sincere and constant gratitude to the Divine for all that He has done so far for him and for all that He has been doing for him even at this very moment, irrespective of whether the sadhaka is aware of it or not; The Mother has characterised this great virtue of gratitude as:
"A loving recognition of the Grace received from the Divine. A humble recognition of all that the Divine has done and is doing for you. The spontaneous feeling of obligation to the Divine, which makes you do your best to become less unworthy of what the Divine is doing for you."
This sense of gratitude coupled with a sense of perfect spiritual humility in the sadhaka's heart are very conducive to the activation of divine Grace in his life.
(9)After gratitude we have to mention the indispensable virtues of faith and trust in the Divine. The sadhaka has to maintain at all costs an attitude of absolute faith and total trust in the active Presence of the Divine Mother and her constant loving Action in his life through all the thick and thin of its vicissitudes. The sadhaka should never forget that much of the effective potency of the Grace
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depends upon this faith and confidence. Here are a few messages of the Mother concerning the interdependence of faith and Grace;
"At every moment all the unforeseen, the unexpected, the unknown is before us — and what happens to us depends mostly on the intensity and purity of our faith."
"... faith in the Grace always brings about its intervention."
"For the Grace to have a perfect and total result of its action, the faith must be total and perfect."
"Have faith and unshaken confidence. The Divine Grace will do the rest."
(10) Now comes another essential aspect of sadhana to which the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has to pay constant attention. It is the necessity of sincere rejection on the sadhaka's part of all that contradicts his upward aspiration. For mere aspiration will not do unless the sadhaka remains perfectly vigilant and rejects in an uncompromising way all the negative traits and tendencies of his chart acter which seek in a persistent manner to thwart his advance on the path of spiritual fulfilment. This effort of rejection has to be sincere and cover alt the fields of his existence inner as well as outer. Much of the effectivity of the action of the Grace will depend on the sincerity of this rejection. Here are some admonitory words of the Mother:
'The Grace is equally for all. But each one receives it according to his sincerity."
"Wherever there is sincerity and goodwill, the Divine's help also is there."
"Everyone is given his chance and the help is there for all — but for each the benefit is proportionate to his sincerity."
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(11) Finally comes the most essential virtue of all, the capacity on the sadhaka' s part of making a total and unreserved surrender to the Divine. If, as Sri Aurobindo has reminded us, this surrender is truly effected, no other strength and tapasya are then needed but this alone. The sadhaka has to take this attitude at all times:
"So far as my life is concerned, there is no such thing as 'I' and 'mine' to interest me. I belong entirely to the Divine. I will not allow any of my personal desires to come in the way of the fulfilment of the Divine's Will. Always and in all situations I shall gladly submit myself to the Divine's action and dispensation, and that I shall do, not with the effort of my will, but in a most spontaneous and joyous way."
If the sadhaka can grow into and maintain this attitude at all times, all his problems will be over. For once the surrender is made true and complete, all else is done for him by the Divine.
The eleven points we have mentioned above constitute the sadhana for the building up of a state of Grace in the consciousness of the sadhaka; and once the sadhaka has fulfilled these conditions, he need not worry any more; for in his case the divine Compassion will turn itself into divine Grace and be operative in his life in a continuous way.
Let us close this essay with the following words of the Mother:
."We must learn to rely only on the Divine Grace and to call for its help in all circumstances; then it will work out constant miracles."
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