The Practice of the Integral Yoga

IV

On Rejection

Sri Aurobindo, in the second chapter of his book The Mother, has drawn our attention to the interesting fact that although in Yoga the Divine is considered to be the Goal of attainment, he himself at the same time acts as the sadhaka, also the sadhana.

Still, so long as a sadhaka remains under the control of his lower human nature, it becomes altogether imperative that he make some personal effort for his progress. This personal effort comprises the three operations of aspiration, rejection and surrender. The preceding chapter of this book dealt with the sadhana of aspiration; we propose to speak now of the sadhana of rejection.

Sri Aurobindo has insisted that a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has to renounce all the habitual movements of the lower nature. These include 'the Mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions'; 'the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth'; and 'the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, Tamas.'

The goal the Integral Yoga has set before itself is, we know, the total divine transformation of man's whole being and consciousness and nature. But to achieve this task is supremely difficult. And the very first condition a sadhaka of this Path has to satisfy is that he should turn to the Divine with the entirety of his being. This 'entirety' is not just a glib term used as a cliché. 'Entirety' means 'entirety'. It englobes literally the entire field of the sadhaka' s nature down to its obscurest recesses. Thus it is expected that a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga will not allow even for once, anywhere in his being and nature, in the inner as well as in the outer field, any movement, however slight it may be, which is not genuinely God-oriented but rather ego-centred.

Now every impulse and movement arising at any time in the sadhaka' s consciousness, which does not satisfy fully this criterion of unreserved orientation towards the Truth and the Divine, is

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to be considered as an obstacle on the Path.

Given this sweeping definition of an 'obstacle' in the spiritual way of life, we can easily understand that the obstacles harassing a sadhaka can act like chameleons and their variegated manifestations may fall into all sorts of categories. As a matter of fact, for a sincere and serious sadhaka all that in his psychology pulls him backward and downward, throws a spanner into the unimpeded progress of his sadhana, and resists in some way his efforts at a total and unreserved surrender to the Divine, represents for him a serious obstacle. In particular, these obstacles include in their sweeping ambit all sorts of evil tendencies, all the weaknesses of the lower nature, and all actions and reactions which, however trivial or good-looking in their appearance, contradict the spiritual ideal.

Such being the situation it is no exaggeration to say that an ordinary sadhaka' s life is constantly troubled with a ceaseless stream of obstacles. Now all these psychological impediments the sadhaka has to take cognizance of and remove; and that is the sadhana of rejection.

But the question is: How should the sadhaka confront these diverse obstacles and gain victory over them?

Before we come to a serious discussion of these important issues, we have first to recognise that these obstacles differ from sadhaka to sadhaka in their forms and characters. For although all these obstacles with no exception arise from the same basic source of ignorant egoistic consciousness, they greatly differ in their quality, quantity, intensity and frequency, depending on the actual stage of the evolving consciousness of the particular sadhaka. And because of the variability of this underlying factor my obstacles may not be the same as yours, and that is well and good. Yet it is a fact that every sadhaka can group the totality of his own obstacles under three distinct categories. And what is interesting is that there is for each of these three categories a particular course of sadhana of rejection, sadhana for waging successful battles against and scoring a definitive victory over them. We propose to discuss in this fourth chapter these common procedures for the three categories, applicable in the case of all aspirants, although the individual constituent obstacles may widely vary in different sadhakas' cases.

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We have been speaking about three different categories or classes of obstacles, but what, after all, are these categories? How are they distinguished from each other? Let us probe the phenomenon of obstacles a little deeper and try to find out the rationale behind this categorisation. It would be advantageous for our comprehension if we adopt a simple analogy here.

Let us consider the case of a pedestrian traveller who is walking along a rather long route dotted with many road-marks distinguishing different segments of the way. Along the path there may be a banyan tree here, a culvert there, a steep hill-side here, a thorny bush there, a stagnant pool here, a canal crossing there, a lotus pond here, a thick small woodland there, etc., etc. Now if the traveller maintains his journey onward he is bound to successively encounter all these road-marks. Also, for any given location of the pedestrian on the long meandering road, all these road-signs can be considered to belong to three categories. Some of these road-marks were at one time met by the traveller but now left behind and almost forgotten; some are facing him just now at the present point of his journey; and some others are in front of him remaining unknown on the as yet untrodden part of the road. These last road-marks will surely appear in time and confront the traveller if he does not interrupt his journey.

Let us now apply this journey-analogy to the case of a sadhaka on the spiritual path; and let us interpret the various obstacles he progressively meets on the way as these different road-marks lining the long route of the traveller.

Now consider the case of any individual sadhaka at random. His consciousness has been advancing forward, however slowly, following the course of the universal evolutionary movement. This movement forward can be split up into two distinct phases. The first phase concerns the progress of the individual, registered in the course of a single life-time limited between the two pillar-posts of physical birth and physical death. But the second phase extends over many successive lives of the individual, separated by a series of births, deaths, rebirths, and re-deaths.

This forward journey of the consciousness of the individual has begun long ago from the deep dark pit of the original Incon-

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science and has been slowly progressing through the vicissitudes of life, encountering various experiences, happy or unhappy or indifferent. This tortuous journey of the individual can only end when his impure and limited ego-consciousness transforms itself and attains to the status of the supernature of the divine Consciousness.

Now along this long long track of this meandering adventure of the individual's evolving consciousness, he is bound to encounter many obstacles at different stages of his spiritual journey. For these obstacles are part of the process of growth. Obstacles are not accidentally brought about in an individual's life. Their appearances are governed by a supreme wisdom which has been surely leading the individual on to his divine destination.

Now every individual's nature is shot through and through with a legion of weaknesses, of which only a few are barely known to the individual's surface consciousness but most of them remain submerged below and act in a stealthy subterranean fashion to damage the growth of the being.

Now with the inexorable evolutionary progression of the sadhaka' s consciousness, these hidden weaknesses and tendencies, called by us 'obstacles', emerge from their lairs and by and by come up to the surface, for the sadhaka to tackle and eliminate them. And all this is done under the guidance of a divine Providence. Thus, every obstacle has a time, necessity and significance of its own: none is altogether fortuitous. Now, viewed from the present status of a sadhaka' s evolving consciousness, all his obstacles can be ranged into three classes which we can simply call:(i)obstacles of the past; (ii) obstacles of the present; and (iii) obstacles of the future. Psychologically rendered, these categories represent (i) weaknesses already conquered by the sadhaka; (ii)weaknesses that are being tackied at this moment; and (iii)weaknesses potent but hidden which are to be confronted in the future with the further growth of the sadhaka' s consciousness.

By the way, by obstacles we do not mean so much the undesired and unapprehended events and situations of life but the psychological reactions of the sadhaka vis-à-vis those events and circumstances. Thus somebody abusing and insulting me is not an

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obstacle for me, but my reaction of anger and irritation and ill will is an obstacle on my path. Illnesses striking me down do not count as obstacles, but my worries and anxieties and impatience under their harassing onslaughts do represent obstacles that require to be rejected. So on and so forth.

Be it noted that the present chapter concerns itself solely with these undesirable manifestations of the nature's weaknesses, and offers effective methods of successfully resisting and, when not altogether impossible, eliminating them. For, for the ultimate attainment in the Integral Yoga, the sadhaka' s consciousness has to be completely rid of all these inner weaknesses and impediments, if he would like to have a new birth in the Divine.

Now we can deal with the above-mentioned three categories of obstacles which trouble the sadhaka' s consciousness at different stages of his spiritual journey.

For the facility of discussion let us adopt for all these obstacles a system of nomenclature not so felicitous but rather convenient. The obstacles of the first category may be called "anachronistic"; those of the second class may be simply called "present-day" and, finally, the obstacles of the third grouping may be designated as "prospective". Let us explain why we have selected these queer-sounding epithets.

For a particular sadhaka and for a particular stage of his development, the anachronistic obstacles are those obstacles which belong to the past and should be normally left behind and forgotten. They are no more needed for the growth and development of the particular sadhaka and hence their appearance in the sadhaka's life is no longer imperative and unavoidable. That they are still coming and harassing the sadhaka is only because of the fact that the spiritual aspirant is still clinging to them due to some lax inertia and calling them back again and again although they have the tendency to disappear in the past. The defect the sadhaka is suffering from is that he has made an about-turn with his attention fixed behind. The inevitable consequence is that his spiritual progress gets slowed down or even completely halted.

The obstacles of the second category, the "present-day" obstacles, are those which the divine Providence has brought about

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to test and strengthen the sadhaka at the present stage of his development. These the sadhaka cannot avoid, cannot run away from, for that can be done only by interrupting the journey forward or even going backward. The sadhaka has to muster courage, confront these obstacles intrepidly and gain victory over them. Then these 'present-day' obstacles will change their character and turn into enfeebled 'anachronistic' ones which can be easily shaken off if the sadhaka is sincere.

Now we come to the case of the third category of obstacles. These obstacles are the most difficult to tackle; for in their nature they are neither past nor actual but rather 'prospective', waiting in front of the sadhaka' s consciousness, still hidden in his future. Psychologically interpreted, this means that these weaknesses and attachments have struck deep roots into the recesses of the sadhaka' s consciousness, corrupting it from there with their noxious miasma. It is well-nigh impossible for the sadhaka to make a prematurely planned frontal assault on these weaknesses and subdue them. Such an ill-advised attempt is fraught with very serious risks which have proved disastrous in the case of many a sadhaka.

Now, in the course of his advancement on the path of sadhana, being faced with any event or situation, whenever the sadhaka becomes aware of any weakness or failing in his psychological reaction, or whenever he feels himself to be propelled by an evil impulse, the first thing the sadhaka has to do is to find out, in the light of his calm and detached and dispassionate discrimination, to which of the three categories this presently arrived impulse or weakness belongs. For the method of its eradication will vary depending on the discovery of its class. We now proceed to indicate, albeit in brief, the right attitudes a sadhaka should adopt when faced with any obstacle belonging to any of the three categories.

Let us begin our discussion with the 'anachronistic' weaknesses. In reality, they pertain to the outer domain of the consciousness. That these weaknesses and impulses are basically evil and are therefore to be rejected, is already well known to the central part of the consciousness of the sadhaka. And it is not limited to

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theoretical knowledge alone: a great part of the sadhaka' s working consciousness has been freed from the fascination and attachment that it previously felt towards the impulse or weakness in question. That it is still there to harass the sadhaka at times is because of some momentum of past habits and a lax indulgence on the part of the sadhaka due to an unhealthy attitude of laisser-aller. But it goes without saying that such laxity and such a mood of laisser-aller are totally incompatible with a sincere pursuit of sadhana. Hence the right attitude for a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga, each time he is faced with an 'anachronistic' weakness and impulse, should be:

"I shall not give the slightest indulgence to any of these weaknesses even for a moment, even for once; I must nip them in the bud as soon as they appear. I must be a loyal child of the Divine Mother; I must develop in me the proper psychological disposition which will automatically incline me to become a joyous and faithful collaborator of the Mother's work in me. Do I not claim that I love the Divine? Then, does not this love demand that I eradicate from my consciousness every trace of these avoidable 'anachronistic' weaknesses and attachments of the past?"

We have to note here a very important point in connection with these 'anachronistic' weaknesses of the past. With the evolutionary growth of the consciousness of the sadhaka, the Divine arms him progressively with the necessary strength of rejection so that he can successfully fight against and throw away these no-more-needed impediments. Hence the sadhaka cannot rightfully offer any alibi of helplessness vis-à-vis these obstacles of the past. For the real fact is that he feels helpless because he wants to remain helpless. Otherwise he is quite capable of rejecting these 'anachronistic' obstacles.

Also, he should not unduly fear any possible risk of suppression attendant on this effort at rejection. For here there is no question of any forceful pushing down of the wrong impulse below the threshold of awareness; the process of rejection here is almost as simple as that of flipping a particle of dust off one's coat.

So the procedure of tackling any of these 'anachronistic' weak-

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nesses or impulses or attachments is:

(i)to nip it at its very moment of sprouting;

(ii)never to brood on it;

(iii)to take as little notice of it as possible; and

(iv)even if you happen to think of it, to remain indifferent and unconcerned.

If the sadhaka follows these four principles in the right manner, he will find that these weaknesses of the past are becoming for all practical purpose non-existent for him.

We now come to the second category of obstacles, the category of obstacles and difficulties 'at hand'. The signs and symptoms of these weaknesses and impulses are as follows:

They are often appearing before the sadhaka' s consciousness, affecting some parts of it, and even overwhelming it for some time. But yet, if the sadhaka tries with some sincerity, he finds that he can keep a major portion of his consciousness free from their baneful influences.

Of course, there is still some conflict, for the sadhaka is not yet integrated in his consciousness, he is still a divided being. As a result some parts of his functional personality go to the side of the enemy camp and invidiously attempt to justify the manifesttion of these weaknesses. As a result there is at times much doubt and confusion and vacillation in the sadhaka' s consciousness. Yet, let us repeat, a reasonably sincere effort at leading a spiritual life makes the sadhaka immediately convinced of the basic undesirability of the impulses in question, and this has this agreeable result that a necessary gap is created separating the impulse to act or react from its actual execution in action. The resolve not to manifest it in action, although the impulse is raging there in the heart of the sadhaka, becomes strong and effective and the situation is saved.

Such being the situation with the difficulties of the second category, what should be the right attitude of a sadhaka when he is face to face with a weakness of this class? This attitude can be resolved into a few essential elements which are as follows:

(i) to apply one's awakened will-power constantly to the task

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of resisting the impulsion leading to its ultimate rejection;

(ii)never to rationalise or legitimise the appearance of the weakness in question but rather to withdraw all inner consent from its manifestation;

(iii)never to yield any ground, however limited in extent, even under the strongest prompting of the impulsion; for this impulsion is often liable to tempt the sadhaka with the prospect of some immediately available pleasure or fulfilment;

(iv) always to act as a heroic warrior against the dark tendencies on behalf of the upward-oriented forces of light.

(v) Along with these rather negative personal efforts at rejection, the sadhaka has to turn immediately to the Divine and his Shakti and pray fervently and constantly that these weaknesses and impulses of his nature be vanquished and removed.

Now this combined operation of a sincere effort at rejection on the sadhaka' s part and the Divine Mother's intervention as a response to his earnest prayer will, sooner or later, weaken the intensity of the wrong impulse and reduce its injurious influence on the sadhaka 's consciousness. The weakness itself will lose by and by all its insistent urge and fall behind to be turned into an innocuous 'anachronistic' obstacle of the past.

While tackling the obstacles and difficulties of the second class, that is to say, those weaknesses and impulses which are confronting him now at the present station of his consciousness, the sadhaka should note a few occult facts concerning the operation of these weaknesses.

Number one: The sadhaka has not to wage a hard battle against all the possible weaknesses and impulsions of his nature. If he sincerely resists the manifestation of one particular weakness and scores victory over it, many other unknown weaknesses, not yet manifested in the sadhaka' s consciousness, get automatically scorched out; they will not sprout in the future as fried seeds do not.

Number two: A successful rejection of one weakness provides the sadhaka with added strength to gain mastery over many others.

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Number three: Instead of fighting the weakness, which is expected of him, if the sadhaka indulges in it in a mood of lax inertia, it is not only that this particular weakness will gain in its ferocity and become intractable in future, but the sadhaka will lose much of his fervour and strength in successfully tackling other impulses and weaknesses.

Number four: A sincere and prompt effort on the part of the sadhaka to confront and conquer all his present-day weaknesses as soon as they make their first appearance will make the life of sadhana full of a joy which is independent of the outer situation in which the sadhaka is placed. Sadhana will then lose its aspect of a hard onerous journey along a thorny stone-strewn road; it will be like a blissful gliding down a gurgling brook.

We come now to the consideration of the deeply hidden potential difficulties of the future. These constitute the third category of our classification. Psychologically speaking, these difficulties comprise all the deep-lying intractable impulses and attachments of the sadhaka, all his irrational fears and worries and complexes, and all the extra-insistent egoistic claims and passions and ambitions. But what are their signs? How to know that they belong to the third category in the case of a particular sadhaka?

Well, they are those weaknesses at whose very first appearance, almost the entire portion of the sadhaka's being gets abnormally disturbed, agitated and churned up. They have struck their roots so deep in the sadhaka' s being and these roots have spread themselves over such an extensive portion of his nature that these weaknesses seem to the sadhaka almost as an intrinsic and ineradicable part of his being and not just as an undesirable assault from outside. Hence the sadhaka has the strong feeling that any attempt at their eradication will leave an unbearable void within him.

As a matter of fact, these particular weaknesses and difficulties are like so many icebergs of which ten-elevenths remain submerged and hidden beyond any reach of the sadhaka' s perception. As a result he is not as yet at all persuaded of the basic undesir-ability of these weaknesses. These impulses and attachments have pitched their camps in the subterranean region of the sadhaka' s

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consciousness, and from there they surge up at times to the surface and violently agitate the sadhaka.

The sadhaka is then thrown into a great confusion; he loses for the time being the lucidity of his consciousness; his mind forfeits all impartiality of judgment; and his dissatisfied vital chases him around like a wild boar. In short, at these critical moments the sadhaka falls an easy prey to the destructive fury of a psychological storm.

But why does this adverse situation develop? It is because the sadhaka is not yet an integrated being. A preponderant portion of his consciousness is still deeply infatuated with these surging weaknesses and blindly hankers to fulfil some strong desires through the medium of their manifestation.

Now the question is: What attitude should the sadhaka adopt towards these deeply ingrained impulses and weaknesses which are sure to meet him on the Way, today or tomorrow, with the further development of his consciousness?

Well, the first thing the sadhaka should try to do is to quietly avoid these intractable difficulties as far as practicable and not to permit them any occasion for manifestation. "Let the sleeping dog sleep" should be the principle here. On no account should the sadhaka rush forward, in a state of unpreparedness, to challenge these strong impulses and weaknesses to come forward to an open battle.

For it is most arduous, almost impossible, to gain victory over them by the application of one's unaided personal effort alone. No durable and effective result can be expected in that way.

Not only that; a very serious danger looms before the sadhaka each time he is confronted by one of these vicious weaknesses of the third category. He may be foolishly tempted to suppress by force the outer manifestations of these deep-seated attachments, that too mostly through the agency of a momentary exuberance of the vital or by being spurred to action through the egoistic expectation of receiving some cheap accolades from others as if he is proving himself to be an ideal sadhaka of the Path! But the result of such an enterprise will be simply disastrous for the sadhaka.

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For any premature attempt at copying the examples of some great beings of the past, even when one is not psychologically ready for that, even when a major portion of the sadhaka' s nature obstinately clings to the attachment, cannot but lead to a sudden explosion, sooner or later, disrupting the balance of the being. The deplorable result of this Sancho Panza-type misadventure will be that further progress of the sadhaka will be halted for the time being or even reversed.

No, the method of successfully tackling these ruthless and hurtful difficulties of the third category has to be somewhat different. There should be no gesture of bravado nor any attempt at suppression and pushing them under the carpet. The sadhana-procedure in these cases should be rather as follows:

(1)To hold the difficulty or weakness or attachment, as the case may be, in front of one's consciousness, without for that matter either getting scared by it or being identified with it;

(2)to go assiduously in search of its root-cause or source;

(3)to try to discover what are the parts of the sadhaka' s being and nature which are nurturing a powerful secret fascination for this particular weakness and are so sensitive to it that the slightest beckoning from this weakness throws those parts into serious turmoil;

(4)always to maintain a spirit of sufficient detachment behoving a sadhaka, throughout this persistent effort at self-searching, and never to be depressed or disturbed even if some ugly corners of one's being are exposed or some specially dark elements of one's nature are revealed.

This calm and quiet and detached observation, this illumined spectral analysis of the hidden weakness and attachment will gradually make it float up to the surface as detachable scum and lose all its previous importunate sting. Real knowledge is after all a very effective agent for purification and liberation.

(5)Along with this persistent clairvoyant search for the roots, the sadhaka has to keep alive in his heart a very sincere and ardent aspiration for the eradication of the weakness in question. He has to address his earnest prayer to the Divine Mother that through the active intervention of her Grace these deep-rooted and recondite weaknesses and attachments may give up their malignancy and

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become quite innocuous in nature so that they can be easily faced and overcome.

Such a prayer and aspiration coupled at the same time with a thorough self-examination referred to above will progressively turn these intractable obstacles first into manageable obstacles of the second class and finally into easily detachable obstacles of the past.

Here ends our elaboration of the sadhana of rejection so very essential for the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. He has to reject at eveiy step of his Journey all that in his nature resists his spiritual New Birth and continuous progression. It is worth quoting here as a reference list all that the sadhaka has to mercilessly reject. The list is quite long and that is as it should be. For the sadhaka should not ignore any of his weaknesses and imperfections out of inattention and forgetfulness. We have already alluded to this enumeration in the very beginning of this chapter. It will be good if we do it once again. In Sri Aurobindo' s words:

"...rejection of the movements of the lower nature — rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, —

rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being, —

rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, Tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine..." (The Mother, Centenary Edition, p. 7. Paragraphing ours.)

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