The Practice of the Integral Yoga

XIII

Sadhana through Love and Devotion

(Prema-yoga)

Most of us who claim to be sadhakas are under the impression that it is almost an obvious fact that we love the Divine. But the fact is otherwise. Our so-called love for the Divine is not love at all in the spiritual sense of the term: it is only a simulacrum of love and devotion. But why do we venture to say so?

Well, there are some characteristic signs by which a true lover of the Divine can be recognised. Wherever these signs are missing or are feeble in nature it is presumptuous to assert or believe that one really loves the Divine. It is good to know these distinctive characters. For we may then cast a searching look at our own consciousness and judge for ourselves whether we have grown in true love for the Divine and, if yes, how far. For if true love develops in us, these signs of genuine love for the Divine are bound to appear in us. If any of these traits are found to be deficient on examination, that will attest to the fact that there is still some serious lacuna affecting our love. This checking up on our love and devotion in the light of the characteristic sure signs will make us aware of how far we have still to travel in order to attain to the goal of Prema-yoga or the Yoga of Love. There should be no scope for self-deception in this matter. Of course the Divine knows how much or how truly we love him, for he is bhāvagrāhī, that is to say, our heart is an open book before him; but what is more relevant is that we as sadhakas can become cognisant of the actual state of our consciousness. Let us then start mentioning one by one the principal specific characteristics of a genuine God-lover.

First Characteristic: The first sign by which a genuine God-lover can be known is that his thoughts and feelings always turn towards the Divine almost as a constant preoccupation. Not a single moment passes for such a sadhaka when he does not remember the Divine. The Bhāgavata speaks to us about the following prayer of Kunti addressed to the Divine: "O Lord, just as the river

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Ganga flows always towards the ocean carrying all its waters to pour into it, let all the movements of my heart and mind be directed to you in a ceaseless stream."-"Tvayi me ananyavisayā matir madhupate asakrt / ratim udvahatād addhā gangevaugham udanvati." (1.8.42)

Did not Sri Ramakrishna give the analogy of a man suffering from an acute toothache? He may engage himself in all sorts of activities during his daily round but yet at every moment he has the background awareness of the aching at the root of his tooth.

For a God-lover even meditation acquires another signification. It is not so much closing one's eyes and concentrating within as the constant communion with the Supreme through one's senses and mind and heart: "Aikyam yad buddhimanasor indriyānān ca\ sarvadā/viśveśvare parādeve dhyānam etat prakirtitam." (Garuda-purana, Purva, 243.10) Here is what Sri Aurobindo says about its

"Manana and darśana, a constant) thinking of him [the Divine] in all things and seeing of him always and everywhere is essential... an unceasing habit of all-embracing love and delight..."] (The Synthesis of Yoga, pi 575)

We have to obviate here one possible confusion that may trouble some readers. To be all the time turned to the Divine, will it not interfere with our active life? Or is it intended that a true God-lover should curtail his activities as much as practicable and pass most of his time in an indrawn state?

No, surely that cannot be the avowed purpose of the Integral Yoga. One has to live a normal and effective life devoted to the service of the Divine, bat being all the time inwardly in touch with him. As Sri Aurobindo has so clearly stated:

"This [constant] communion is not to be confined to an exceptional nearness and adoration when we retire quite into ourselves away from our normal preoccupations, nor is it to be sought by a putting away of our human activities." [The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 576)

"... the one thing essential is the intense devotion of the thought

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in the mind to the object of adoration... the comprehensive consecration in which all the thoughts are full of the Divine and even in the occupations of life every thought remembers him." (Ibid., p. (549)

This may be difficult to achieve in the early part of one's sadhana-career but this can surely be attained, with sufficient advancement on the Path, and has to be attained if one expects to be gifted with integral love for the Divine.

Second Characteristic: The full flowering of the first characteristic as discussed above helps the sadhaka, naturally and predictably, manifest a second characteristic which is the sign of established God-love. This is to feel the Presence of the Divine always and everywhere ,.in oneself and in others, hi Sri Aurobindo' s words:

"... one comes to see the Divine everywhere and in all and to pour out the realisation of the Divine in all one's inner activities and outward actions." (Ibid., p. 549)

How far our love for the Divine has become true and sincere can thus be tested on the touch-stone of the following formula given by Sri Aurobindo: "A growing sense of the Divine in all things."

Third Characteristic: This can be epitomised by the pregnant Sanskrit expression, 'tadekasaranatd'¹ — 'taking refuge in the Divine alone.' When one starts loving the Divine in the really right and true way, it is found that the Divine becomes for the sadhaka his only and unique bhartā, suhrd and śarana — friend and support and refuge. The sadhaka then hands over to the Divine the entire charge of his life very willingly and gladly and becomes free from all cares and anxieties; for the responsibility is no longer his but the Divine's. And the Divine is quite capable of shouldering it if only the sadhaka resolutely surrenders himself to the Divine.

Of course, the sadhaka' s attitude should not be like that of

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Cromwell who gave this diplomatic advice to his fighting soldiers: "Have faith in God but keep the gun-powder dry." This is not faith at all. For a genuine God-loving sadhaka the Divine should not be the last resort after he has first exhausted all other sources of support;he spontaneously turn s to the Divine as his primary source ofhelp and support. And there is a great joy in this attitude of tadekaśaranaāa, in this 'taking refuge in God in all the vicissitudesof life. ' As the Mother has so beautifully expressed:

"There is a certain state of consciousness... in which joy is unmixed and light shadowless, where all possibility of fear disappears. It is the state in which one does not live for oneself but where whatever one does, whatever one feels, all movements aid an offering made to the Supreme, in an absolute trust, freeing oneself of all responsibility for oneself, handing over to Him all this burden which is no longer a burden.

"It is an inexpressible joy not to have any responsibility for oneself, no longer to think of oneself.... when one lives like this, j quite open, like a flower blossoming in the sun before the Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme Wisdom, the Supreme Light, the Supreme Love, which knows all, which can do all, which takes charge of you and you have no more worries — that is the ideal condition." (M C W, Vol. 3, pp. 256-57)

So this is the third characteristic of a sadhaka who truly loves the Divine in a profound way.

Fourth Characteristic: A truly God-loving person cannot indulge even in the slightest degree in any thought or feeling or action Which is not in consonance with the Divine's Will. Any unspiritual movement visiting his mind and heart hurts him in an intense measure. He is always eager to keep the 'hearth' clean in every way. Hence the following definition offered by Sri Aurobindo for a sincere devotee of the Divine:

"... an all-embracing devotion to the Divine, becomes the whole and the sole law of the being. All other law of conduct merges into

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that surrender, sarvadharmān parityajya. The soul then becomes firm in this Bhakti and in the vow of self-consecration of all its being, knowledge, works..." (Essays on the Gita, Cent. Ed., pp. 269-70)

Fifth Characteristic: A sadhaka possessing genuine and entire love for the Divine renounces his self-will in every way. "O Divine, O my supreme Beloved, whatever you will, whatever you will", this should be his aspiration and yearning of every moment. "Not my personal will but your divine Will", should be the actuating motive behind all his actions. A great God-lover of the past rightly remarked:

"Whatever else we may give to God, should we refuse him our will, we give him nothing.... Whoever retains his separate will does not love God perfectly." (Bellecius, Solid Virtue)

Sixth Characteristic: Whatever may befall the sadhaka in his life, whatever dangers or misfortunes may overwhelm him with their black wings of despair, nothing can, if he truly loves the Divine, create even the smallest chink in the impenetrable armour of his love and faith in the Divine. Did not St. Paul throw the confident challenge "What shall separate me from the love of God?" And can we forget the unshakable resolve of Job in the midst of the greatest calamities of his life: "Though He [the Divine] slay me, yet will I trust in Him." (Job, XIII.5)

"Even if He slay me": Yes, a sincere love for the Divine keeps the sadhaka prepared for all eventualities, bene praeparatum pectus. And that not in a mood of grudging consent or even of devoted resignation but in full joy and eager acceptance. For in his case "adversity becomes the oil and wood which only inflame and preserve in him the fire of love." "Radha's Prayer" as formulated by the Mother embodies the attitude of a genuine God-lover:

"O Thou whom at first sight I knew for the Lord of my being and my God, receive my offering.... What Thou wilt of me, that I shall be. Whether Thou choosest for me life or death, happiness or

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sorrow, pleasure or suffering, all that comes to me from Thee will be welcome. Each one of Thy gifts will be always for me a gift divine bringing with it the supreme Felicity." (Words of the Mother, M C W, Vol. 15, p. 224)

Seventh Characteristic: This trait manifests at a much more advanced level of spiritual development. When a sadhaka reaches this stage, he can not only keep firm his loving faith in the Divine; even under the harrowing blows of life, but can actually see the auspicious hand of the Divine Mother behind all the misfortunes that may visit him. He will realise not in mere intellectual belief but in concrete experience that in God's Providence there is no real evil; there is only good or preparation for good.

Thus, in life's weal or woe, in sunshine or in cloudy darkness, to be able to see the loving Grace of the Divine is the seventh characteristic of a genuine God-lover. The following verses front Sri Aurobindo' s "Meditations of Mandavya" portray this trait in delectable poetry:

"O joy of gaining all the soul's desire!

O stranger joy of the defeat and loss!

... I will love thee, O Love,

Naked or veiled or dreadfully disguised;

Not only when thou flatterest my heart

But when thou tearst it! ... ...

...Easy is the love that lasts

Only with favours in the shopman heart!

Who, tortured, takes and gives the kiss, he loves."

(Collected Poems, Cent. Ed., p. 86)

Eighth Characteristic: The true lover of the Divine continues to rejoice in the Divine when he has absolutely nothing else to delight in. For he does not seek anything whatsoever from the Divine except his love overtly expressed or covertly disguised. In Sri Aurobindo' s depiction:

"... [the] imperative... delight in the Divine for his own sake and

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for nothing else, for no cause or gain whatever beyond itself. It does not seek God for anything that he can give us or for any particular quali- ty in him, but simply and purely because he is our self and our whole being and our all." (The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 564)

We have indicated above eight different specific traits which characterise the state of consciousness of a sadhaka who has arrived at a true and sincere and one-pointed love for the Divine. This sort of all-forgetting love and devotion is for the sadhaka his greatest treasure, his best means for attaining to his goal and is also at the same time his supreme attainment, siddhi. Let us recapitulate in a somewhat different manner the essential nature of this crowning love for the Divine.

Well in that consummate state everything in the sadhaka, everything done by the sadhaka, is for the sake of the Divine and never for a moment for the sake of the ego. One completely forgets one's lower self in one's total preoccupation with the Divine. The Mother has described this state of perfect love in these words:

"... all the elements of the being, all the movements (whether outer or inner), all the parts of the being, all of them, have one single wall to belong to the Divine, to live only for the Divine, to will only what the Divine wills, to express only the divine Will, to have no other source of energy than that of the Divine." (Questions and Answers 1953, Cent. Ed., p. 5)

Now, to arrive at this state of perfect love the Mother has prescribed for the sadhaka a certain programme of action which is as

follows:'

"Think only of the Divine. Live only for the Divine. Aspire only to the Divine. Work only for the Divine. Serve only the Divine. Be attached only to the Divine. Want only the Divine. Seek only the Divine. Only adore the Divine." (White Roses: Letters to Huta)

By somewhat adapting the words of a great mystic of old we

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may state that a sadhaka of the Prema-yoga or the Yoga of Love should remember at all times that he must love the Divine with a sincere, singular and superlative love. He that-is his all must have] his all, and none but He. The sadhaka must love God above all things or persons whatever or whoever, and must not be attached \ to anything or anyone besides Him; he should treasure only what] he loves for Him and in complete subordination to His Will. Also, the sadhaka must love the Divine not with a divided heart but with an entire love uniting his mind and heart and will.

Also, as we have pointed out' before, the sadhaka must love 1 the Divine for the sake of the Divine himself and not for anything I whatsoever He can possibly grant him in return. Even the slightest intrusion of the attitude of give-and-take will make his love lose its purity and wholeness, and turn him into a 'shopman lover'.

Of course it is an indubitable spiritual fact that such an entire motiveless love far the Divine on the sadhaka' s part will not go unrecognised by the Divine. As Sri Aurobindo has assured us:

"In return the Divine Mother also gives herself, but freely — and this represents itself in an inner giving — her presence in your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness, her power recreating you in the divine nature, taking up all the movements of your being and directing them towards perfection and fulfilment, hen love enveloping you and carrying you in its arms God wards." {Letters on Yoga, p. 757)

A true and integral love is indeed the greatest transforming power. The sadhaka' s perfect love for the Divine brings downs a response the Divine's unbounded love for the sadhaka and this love starts working in the sadhaka' s adhara to give him all possible spiritual fulfilment in Yoga. There is no other way except this unreserved loving self-giving to the Divine which can bring about such a miracle. To quote Sri Aurobindo:

"... to the soul that wholly gives itself to him, God also gives himself altogether. Only the one who offers his whole nature, finds the Self. Only the one who can give everything, enjoys the Divine

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All everywhere. Only a supreme self-abandonment attains to the Supreme." (The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 102)

Such is the state of all-consuming and all-transforming perfect love for the Divine into which the sadhaka has to grow if he would like to attain to the siddhi of Prema-yoga, the Yoga of Love and Devotion. But surely this cannot be realised in a short span of time. All his present unregenerate nature will vehemently oppose any such radical new birth on the sadhaka' s part. So we have to start in our sadhana from what we actually are in our present state with all its impurities and imperfections and move step by step along the steep ladder of our ascent to the ideal love.

First, let us learn to rum to the Divine for all our requirements even if they may be of a purely mundane nature. At the next step we will learn to shun the petty and impermanent things of this world and ask from the Divine only those gifts which are conducive to our spiritual growth. Next, we will learn not even to ask for these apparently noble and permanent possessions: our sole object of seeking will be the Divine and the Divine alone. This is how Sri Aurobindo has described the ascent of love and the progressive transformation of its motives:

"By seeking 101'his good from the Divine, he [the sadhaka] •hall come in the end to seek in the Divine all his good.... By knowing the Divine in his forms and qualities, he shall come to know him as the All and the Transcendent who is the source of all things." (Essays on the Gita, Cent. Ed., pp. 273-74)

The "seeking in the Divine all one's good" and the "fixing in the Divine all one's joy' is indeed the ultimate goal of our sadhana. But when we look at ourselves with an observant eye we very well realise that this 'highest and intensest motiveless love' for the Divine, this parāprema, is far far beyond the reach of our meager spiritual capacity. It is true that we as sadhakas fervently feel the need of such a love but this is equally true that the love for the Divine we actually possess suffers from a thousand and one limitations, and falls far short of our heartfelt expectation. What to do

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in this situation? How to grow in true and all-absorbing love for the divine Beloved? There are a number of ways to that attainment which may be briefly delineated as follows:

(1)A supreme love for the Divine Reality, a perfect adoration of the All-Beautiful, All-Blissful, All-Good, the True is the very nature of our soul or psychic being. That our external consciousness is not being able to share in this love and adoration is only because of many extraneous coverings shutting that love out from the superficial being. Love has not to be strenuously sought out from somewhere, it has only to be uncovered. And for that a conscious contact with the psychic is the best way possible.

If a sadhaka, because of his sufficient spiritual development in his previous lives, is born this time with a developed psychic being, he is apt to grow into true love for the Divine much more easily and spontaneously than others. But in any case there is a sadhana for the awakening of one's psychic being and of bringing t to the front. Anyone aspiring to be privileged with genuine low ^:or the Divine can very well follow that Sadhana and come to his fulfilment. (See Chapter XX of this book.)

(2)Our preoccupation with the vanities of ordinary worldly life and our self-absorption in the fugitive pleasures and satisfactions that our brief existence upon earth can offer us, prevent us from feeling their utter relativity and transitoriness and in the same measure pull us back from the Divine who is All-Love, All-Light, All-Joy and All-Mastery. The more we loosen our love and attachment for the things of the ordinary world, the more will the rue love which is in the depths of our being shine forth and flood even our outer being.

(3)Being caught by the overpowering tyranny of the present and being dazzled by the glittering shows of the moment we mostly ct as mesmerised creatures and remain quite oblivious of our actual situation in life. We feel a sense of false security even in the midst f the constantly altering vicissitudes of existence. So we do not feel any need for turning to the Divine. The more we can feel our complete helplessness in life and at the same time the omnipotence and all-love of the Divine, our urge to turn to him in order to take refuge in his strong loving arms will automatically grow and

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along with it a spontaneously grateful love for him who alone stands by our side and sustains and protects us through all the ups and downs of life.

(4) In one of our preceding chapters we have already spoken about the sadhana of Karma-yoga or the Yoga of Works. Now to do all the actions of our daily life in a spirit of consecration to the Divine and not to give any quarter to our ego and desires is one of the most potent means of growing in divine love. Here is what Sri Aurobindo tells us in this connection:

"This... is the demand made on us, that we should turn our whole life into a conscious sacrifice. Every moment and every movement of our being is to be resolved into a continuous and a devoted self-giving to the Eternal. All our actions... must be performed as consecrated acts.... It is evident... that, even if such a discipline is begun without devotion, it leads straight and inevitably towards the highest devotion possible; for it must deepen naturally into the completest adoration imaginable, the most profound God-love." (The Synthesis of Yoga, Cent. Ed., pp. 102-04)

One more point and we have come to the end of our chapter on Prema-yoga. One of the most remarkable traits of true love for the Divine in its purest form is that it is both all-exclusive and all-inclusive at the same time: exclusive because no other love, whether for a person or an object or a situation, can be allowed to be a rival to one's exclusive love for the Divine; and inclusive because one's love will be so universal in its scope that the sadhaka will be able to love all without exception with an equal love with no difference or variation. But the question is: How to reach this supremely desirable spiritual love characteristic of a most advanced soul? Well, the sadhana-procedure for this siddhi or attainment has six distinct steps or stages in it.

First Stage: This is the lowest stage, a stage in which most men live. In this stage the Divine is almost a nonentity in one's life. At the most one remembers him only in Sunday church service or in one's visit to the temple and on other such occasions. At this stage there is no real love felt for the Divine: the feeling one

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has is just formal and ritualistic.

Second Stage: At this stage one starts loving the Divine but this love is still only one love amongst thousands of other loves the person feels for various object s and per son s. In the priority list the Divine occupies the lowest rung. In other words, if eve r it is found that one's love for the Divine is standing in the way of one's love for say, A or B or C, etc., one will rather give up the Di vine without much sorrow than the other objects of love.

Third Stage: Here the sadhaka' s love for the Divine has been made sovereign: it dominate s all other loves. The Divine has come to occupy the first rung in the priority list. In other words, the sadhaka is now prepared to give up any other love found incompatible with his love for the Divine. But with a significant reservation. That is to say, the sadhaka would very much like to retain both the loves as long as possible but if at all he has to leave A, for example, for the sake of the Divine , he will surely do so, but with a lingering ache in his heart .

Fourth Stage: In this stage the pain attendant on the rejection of a lesser love will be completely abrogated. The sadhaka will gladly and promptly part with any other incompatible love and faithfully stick to his love for the Di vine under all circumstances.

Fifth Stage : In the preceding stage the sadhaka had no objection to the co-existence of many independent loves till anyone is actually found to be incompatible with one' s love for the Divine.

But in this fifth stage all other loves except the love for the Divine are voluntarily given up. There reigns only one love in the sadhaka' s heart, that for the Divine Beloved. This love is thus made all-exclusive admitting of no sharing, for "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." In the word s of the Mother:

"To love truly the Di vine we must rise above all attachments. To become conscious of the Divine Love, all other love must be abandoned."

But why is such a strict condition imposed ? There are two reasons for this injunction. The first one is that " there is a thirst for Love which no human relation can quench. It is only the Divine' s love that can satisfy that thirst." (M C W Vol. 14, p. 127)

The second reason is much more profound and is of capital

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importance in one's sadhana. It is hard for us to believe but yet it is true that any human love however noble and beautiful it may appear to be, if it involves some attachment on the part of the lover, cannot but act as a "short-circuiting" and prevent the passage of true divine love. Hence the Mother's warning:

"... whatever the sincerity, simplicity and purity of the relation between two human beings, it shuts them off more or less from the direct divine farce and help..." (Ibid., p. 126)

The Mother has elaborated this point in he* Four Austerities and Four Liberations in this way:

"These rare souls must reject all forms of love between human beings, for however beautiful and pure they may be, they cause a kind of short-circuit and cut off the direct connection with the Divine.... Moreover, it is a well-known fact that one grows into the likeness of what one loves. Therefore if you want to be like the Divine, love Him alone." (M C W Vol. 12, pp. 68-69)

Sixth Stage: The stern and uncompromising words of the Mother as quoted above may sadden many human hearts. Is love then a taboo for the sadhakas?

There is a confusion of understanding here. No, the cancellation of all other loves does not mean that our life will become dry and dessicated and we will take delight in nothing in the world. For the cancellation intended is only of attachment to the objects of love and not of love itself. Sri Aurobindo has explained this subtle point in a passage of his book The Synthesis of Yoga. The passage b rather long but it is worth quoting here in extenso:

"Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached.... this does not mean that there is nothing at all that we shall love, nothing in which we shall take delight; for attachment is egoism in love and not love itself, desire is limitation and insecurity in a hunger for pleasure and satisfaction and not the seeking after the divine delight in things. A universal love we must have, calm and yet eternally intense beyond the brief vehemence of the most violent

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passion; a delight in things rooted in a delight in God that does not adhere to their forms but to that which they conceal in themselves and that embraces the universe without being caught in its meshes." (pp.314-15)

Thus in the sixth stage our love becomes all-inclusive although essentially remaining exclusive to the Divine. For at this stage of development, to the sadhaka' s intimate experience the Divine is in all and all are in the Divine and the Divine is all. Thus in this last stage the sadhaka can love anything and everything, anyone and everyone, but only for the Divine and through the Divine, without any separate attachment.

Here ends our long essay on the sadhana of Prerna-yoga, of the Yoga of Love and Devotion.

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