The Practice of the Integral Yoga

XXVI

IS ALL THAT HAPPENS IN LIFE

ALWAYS FOR THE BEST?

Some time or other, whenever a sadhaka has to face a totally unapprehended turn of calamitous events which he cannot prevent with his all too limited power and resources, he asks himself this puzzling question: "Is my life rigorously governed by some sort of determinism, by an ineluctable fate and an unalterable chain of causes and effects? Can't I change the course of my life in any way? Am I bound hand and foot by my Karma, or pushed about by some arbitrary fiat of a despot, divine or undivine?"

Another related question intrigues the sadhaka at the same time: "All that happens in my life, has it any purpose or significance? Or is everything totally meaningless?"

The problem becomes still more puzzling, almost of the nature of a riddle, when we come across the following statement of the Mother: "What has happened had to happen but something better could have happened." The ideas conveyed by the two separate clauses of this compound sentence, do they not contradict each other? If the assertion "All that has happened had to happen" is indeed true, how could there have been any possibility that "something better could have happened?" Does it then mean that both determinism and freedom of action are, in some mysterious way, operative at the same time in the life of a man? And if such is the case, how are the two factors reconciled?

As the questions are in appearance quite perplexing, let us try to seek the right answers by a step-by-step approach.

The very first proposition we have to start with — and this is a proposition that is based on the indubitable testimony of the highest and deepest spiritual experiences of the Yogis — is that "We whirl not here upon a casual globe / Abandoned to a task beyond our force..." (Sri Aurobindo' s Savitri, Book One Canto IV) There is a Divine Guidance shaping without exception every event of an individual's life. Nothing is otiose and vain and "all that happens in the progress of the soul has its meaning, its necessity, [and] its

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place". (Sri Aurobindo)

Whatever be the appearances to the contrary, even in the darkest moment of one's life, the sadhaka should not entertain any doubt about the active Presence of the Divine near him and His ceaseless Guidance carrying him ever forward on the Path:

"Even through the tangled anarchy called Fate

And through the bitterness of death and fall

An outstretched Hand is felt upon our lives....

Whatever the appearance we must bear,

Whatever our strong ills and present fate,...

A mighty Guidance leads us still through all."

(Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book One, Canto IV)

The second proposition we have to take into consideration is as regards the purpose of this constant divine Guidance. We must bear in mind that this Guidance. We least concerned with the fulfilment of the interests of the ego or with the satisfaction of the desires of the physical-vital-mental self of man. "Its main concern is with the growth of our being and consciousness, the growth towards a higher self, towards the Divine,... the rest is secondary, sometimes a means, sometimes a result, not a primary purpose." (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Part Four, pp. 1627-28)

This last point is very important and the sadhaka should always keep this in focus. Otherwise, in the normal course of the circumstances of his life, whenever his egoistic expectations will stand frustrated, he will lose faith in the reality of the Guidance and come to believe that his life's vicissitudes are after all made up of a series of random accidents.

The sadhaka must believe with all his heart that the divine Guidance is always there and has been leading him to the Divine through the progressive growth of his consciousness. All the circumstances of his life tend, without his knowing it, towards the development of his being and consciousness, not only what seem good, fortunate or successful but also the struggles, failures, difficulties and upheavals. (Ibid., p. 1628. Adapted.)

The third proposition is as regards the pre-determined Goal of

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this divine Guidance. For, surely a Goal there is and every individual soul, whoever he may be and at whatever stage of development he may actually be, is being certainly led to the one common final destination: Union with the Divine and its accompanying attainments, such as, divine Light, Love, Life, Peace, Knowledge, Truth, Good, Power, Bliss, Harmony, etc. As Sri Aurobindo has affirmed in his Epic poem, Savitri:

"In its unshaken grasp it keeps for us safe

The one inevitable supreme result

No will can take away and no doom change,

The crown of conscious Immortality...

After we have served this great divided world

God's bliss and oneness are our inborn right."

Book One Canto IV)

Now comes the fourth proposition which deals with the nature of the way to the final fulfilment Will everybody follow the same track and undergo the same series of experiences, both positive and negative, on the path of spiritual adventure? The answer is: No, not at all. The Goal remaining the same for all, there may be a thousand and one ways to reach the destination. And therein lies a great truth of spiritual life which reconciles the two apparently opposite principles of determinism and freedom. Sri Aurobindo has explained the situation in this way:

"... with each person the guidance works differently, according to his nature, the conditions of his life, his cast of consciousness, his stage of development, his need of further experience. We are not automata but conscious beings and our mentality, our will and its decisions, our attitude to life and demand on it, our motives and movements help to determine our course: they may lead to much suffering and evil, but through it all, the guidance makes use of them for our growth in experience and consequently the development of our being and consciousness." (Letters on Yoga, Part Four, p. 1628)

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We now come to the fifth proposition. Given the totality' of the factors, both objective and subjective, which are operative in a sadhaka' s life and consciousness at a given moment of his spiritual journey, the divine Guidance, through the exercise of a prescient supreme Wisdom, chooses the shortest path to the Ultimate Goal and arranges events in the sadhaka' s life, in a way conducive to the following of this optimum pathway.

And, therefore, this one cannot but be the best possible disposition, given the prevailing circumstances. Yes,' the best possible disposition even if it takes at times the Opposite appearance of ignorance, darkness, pain and suffering, obloquy and illness, and finally unexpected death.

Thus is vindicated the truth of the statement that whatever has happened in one's life had to happen as the best possible course in terms of all the various factors prevailing at that moment. And as this has been decided upon by the all-seeing supreme Wisdom, it cannot but be that this has had to happen.

This is so far as the present event is concerned but what about the future? Therein lies another significant facet of spiritual truth. And this leads us to our sixth and last proposition which allows the sadhaka a certain margin of freedom of choice.

For, the outer objective factors remaining the same, if the sadhaka can somehow change his subjective disposition, a new resultant of the assembly of factors will be created and the divine Wisdom, taking cognisance of this altered situation, will decide upon a new shortest path to the final Goal.

Now a few of the possible subjective factors by whose judicious handling the 'resultant' can be altered to one's advantage are: (i) sincerity; (ii) right attitude; (iii) aspiration; (iv) ardent willpower; (v) heartfelt prayer; (vi) self-surrender to the Divine; (vii) an unshakable faith and confidence in the Divine Shakti.

Any of these factors rightly introduced will modify the rigour of the law of determinism, alter the course of fate, and help the sadhaka to move towards his final Goal along a more sunlit path.

Thus is validated the truth of the second half of the Mother's pithy statement: "Something better could have happpened."

So the ideal attitude for the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should

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always be a double one:

Once something has happened in his life, even though at times unpleasant in nature, he should accept it with equanimity and consider it to be the best possible arrangement for his advancement to the spiritual Goal — given, of course, the totality of the prevailing facors.

Thus what has happened had not only to happen but is surely for the best. But the sadhaka should not for that matter miss the point that this is only a relative best, relative to his psychological make-up at the moment. This relative best can always be turned into a better relative best by properly acting on the seven factors mentioned above.

And thus is solved the riddle of the co-existence of a rigorous fate and the moderating power of a luminously acting freedom of choice.

Let us close this chapter with a significant passage from Sri Aurobindo' s Savitri:

"The will of the-Timeless working out in Time

In the free absolute steps of cosmic Truth

Appears a hard machine or meaningless Fate ....

But the Spirit's consent is needed for each act

And freedom walks in the same pace with Law."

(Book Six Canto II)

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