The Practice of the Integral Yoga

XXV

The conquest over the Hostile Forces

Sri Ramakrishna, the Saint of Dakshineswara, speaks at one place in course of his autobiographical narration: "Do you know, how many things I used to see when I would go into meditation? One day while I was meditating under a Bilva tree, the Evil Being came to me and tried to tempt me in various ways. He offered me money, name and fame, sex pleasure, powers of various sorts, etc. I invoked the Mother's aid. A very secret thing, indeed. The Mother appeared. I asked her to decapitate him."

While reading this type of account our 'modern' minds brought up in the milieu of a scientifico-materialistic bias get puzzled and wonder: 'The Evil Being coming to tempt us? What is that? We can very well understand that every sadhaka has his weaknesses of nature and has to confront and tackle them in course of his sadhana. But what is this strange story of some disembodied supraphysical beings coming to confuse the sadhaka? Is it at all true to fact?"

But this is not peculiar to Ramakrishna alone. When we go through the lives of past Yogis and mystics of various ages and countries and read the accounts of their periods of sadhana, we come across similar statements and narrations. Have we not heard that Mara the Evil Being came to tempt Buddha, and Satan the Force of Darkness tendered in the desert diabolical advice to Jesus the Son of God?

It is not well known that the saintly writer John Bunyan, the famous author of The Pilgrim's Progress, composed another spiritual allegory whose significant title is The Holy War of King Shaddai upon Diabolus. Shaddai is here, of course, the Divine; and Bunyan's book minutely deals with the variegated account of the wily attempts of Diabolus or the Devil to possess Mansoul and the final victory of King Shaddai.

Does it mean then that we, in our spiritual sadhana, have to confront not only the common weaknesses and obstacles of our lower Nature but also the more devious and subtle oppositions of

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invisible hostile forces and evil-intentioned beings who try to frustrate our spiritual advancement? Yes, such is the experiential testimony given by the great Yogis of the past both in the East and in the West. Here are two statements, one each from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:

"The forces that stand in the way of sadhana are the forces of the lower mind, vital and physical nature. Behind them are adverse powers of the mental, vital and subtle physical worlds." (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 635)

"... there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world." (The Mother, Questions and Answers 1950-51, M C W, Vol. 4, pp. 251-52)

It is thus clear that the life of sadhana is not always sunlit and the sadhaka has to pass through many difficulties and ordeals; and all this is due to the fact of these adverse forces and beings mounting almost a ceaseless attack on the sadhaka' s consciousness. So it is very much essential for the smooth progress of sadhana that every sadhaka should know the ways of attack of these hostile forces, their ruses and stratagems, and how not to respond to them but rather drive them away each time they try to turn up before the aspirant.

Yes, at any cost not to respond to their suggestions — this is the most effective weapon of defence available to the sadhaka against these dark forces. For, if he does not take their bait and show any affinity to their prompting, these adversary beings will not be able to disturb his sadhana, however virulent may be their assault or ambush.

And for being able to reject always the lure or the threat of these hostiles, the sadhaka must develop and keep steady in his consciousness the firmness of will, sincerity of purpose, fidelity to the Goal, and a total faith in and dependence upon the Presence and Grace of the Divine. The sadhaka should never forget what is conveyed by the following words of Sri Aurobindo:

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"It is a fact always known to all yogis and occultists since the beginning of time,. in Europe and Africa as in India, that wherever yoga or Yajna is done, there the hostile Farces gather together to stop it by any means. It is known that there is a lower nature and a higher spiritual nature — it is known that they pull different ways and the lower is strongest at first and the higher afterwards. It is known that the hostile Forces take advantage of the movements of the lower nature and try to spoil through them, smash or retard the siddhi.... But it has also always been known that those who are sincere and faithful in heart and remain so and those who rely on the Divine will arrive in spite of all difficulties, stumbles or falls." (Letters on Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 1731)

By the way, it should not be thought that all the subtle forces belonging to the supraphysical realms are invariably forces of darkness and try to perpetuate the reign of evil in the world. There are beings and forces of Light too which are very much helpful to the sadhaka' s sadhana and co-operate with the action of the Divine. But we are speaking here principally of the adverse forces because our present chapter has for its subject matter: (i) What is meant by a hostile Force? (ii) Do hostile forces really exist? (iii) How do they act in the sadhaka' s consciousness? (iv) And how to frustrate their inimical action?

Although not tangible to the normal consciousness of man, these adverse forces and beings do really exist and are very much active in the world. "The reality of the Hostiles and the nature of their role and trend of their endeavour cannot be doubted by anyone who has had his inner vision unsealed and made their unpleasant acquaintance." (Letters on Yoga, Part One, p. 24)

We have mentioned at the outset of this essay that the existence and nature of these adverse forces has been known to the inquiring spirit of man since the earliest recorded history of the race. The occult traditions of ancient Egypt and Cabbala are full of their accounts. Zoroaster of ancient Persia specifically warned the aspirants of the spiritual path about the clever ploys of these hostile beings. The Vedas of India called them the Panis who like nocturnal robbers plunder the sadhakas of their truth-light, rtam

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jyotih, hiranyam jyotih. Devi Saptashati, commonly known as the Chandi, held in equal reverence with the Gita, has described in great detail the symbolic names and functions of these undivine hostile beings and their ways of waging war against the Divine. Below are the names and the functional roles of some of these adverse beings:

(1) Chikshura or the power of distraction; (2) Chamara or the covering power; (3) Udagra or morbid egoism; (4) Mahahanu or Ego-will; (5) Asiloma or Envy; (6) Baskala or the spirit of possession; (7) Bidalaksha or the spirit of malice; etc.

These evil forces and hostile beings act on different planes of consciousness. Their functions vary and they are more or less powerful depending on their respective fields of activity. Some are Asuras of a very high order. The Mahabharata calls them 'pūrve devāh', the 'former gods'. They were godly in nature at one time but subsequently revolted against the Divine and became Asuras. The Asuras are generally found on the mental plane. Rakshasas and Pishachas function in the lower vital. A few hostiles are active in the physical consciousness: the Theosophists call them 'obscure elementals''. But what is noteworthy is that the hostile beings and forces have absolutely no access to the spiritual plane.

But why are these adverse forces and beings permitted by the Supreme to exist in the world and tempt and disturb the sadhakas in their spiritual Tapasya? There is a significant verse in Sri Aurobindo' s Savitri: "Nothing is utterly vain that the One has made." So, such must be the case with these hostile forces also. In fact, they fulfil a very necessary role in the life of the sadhakas, although in a negative and roundabout way. Let us explain.

When any sadhaka of the Integral Yoga starts on the path of his sadhana, he has to carry with him a heavy load of weaknesses and difficulties pertaining to his lower nature. But many of these frailties and foibles remain quite hidden from the view of the sadhaka, generally lodged in the 'subterranean' reaches of consciousness far below the level of the waking awareness.

Yet, it cannot be gainsaid that in our Yoga of integral transformation, unless and until all these hidden weaknesses are brought out into the open, successfully tackled, and transformed back into

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their divine counterparts, the sadhana cannot come to its culminating fulfilment.

But it is a deplorable fact that most of us have a deep-seated tendency to keep our weaknesses out of our sight as far as possible and as long as practicable. We continue to indulge in these same weaknesses but under their camouflaged forms. And in that way our sadhana remains barren and unfruitful, apparently without any visible and detectable causative factors. But the real culprits are within, sending up from there their noxious fumes vitiating our specious outer life and consciousness. About these grim attacks coming from below and behind, Sri Aurobindo writes in Savitri:

"The dread visages of the adversary Kings.

The dreadful powers held down within his [man's] depths

Become his masters or his ministers;

Enormous they invade his bodily house,

Can act in his acts, infest his thought and life....

Grey forces like a thin miasma creep

Stealing through chinks in his closed mansion's doors,

Discolouring the walls of upper mind

In which he lives his fair and specious life,

And leave behind a stench of sin and death..."

(Book Seven, Canto 2, Cent. Ed., p. 480)

If it is a fact that most of our vicious weaknesses are hidden behind the veil and if this too is a fact that without their proper eradication our sadhana cannot reach its fulfilment, whoever and whatever helps to ferret out these shrouded weaknesses from their secret lairs so that they may be brought out into the open and vanquished in an overt combat, does a good service to us. And the so-called hostile forces and beings fulfil this role admirably. For they mercilessly target these weaknesses of the sadhaka, excite them either through lure or through menace, and project them out into the waking consciousness with such fury that the sadhaka cannot ignore them any longer. There are then left only two alternatives before the sadhaka: either to succumb to the suggestions prompted by the hostiles and thus go downhill and get lost, or to marshall

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courage and confidence and give a successful fight to the weaknesses as a loyal and loving child of the Divine Mother and clear them out from one's nature. Thus a necessary victory will be gained and a further advancement made on the path. To quote Sri Aurobindo:

"... once our minds are reasonably fixed in the central vision and our wills are on the whole converted to the single pursuit, Life becomes our helper. Intent, vigilant, integrally conscious, we can take every detail of its forms and every incident of its movements as food for the sacrificial Fire within us. Victorious in the struggle, we can compel Earth herself to be an aid towards our perfection and can enrich our realisation with the booty torn from the powers that oppose us." (The Synthesis of Yoga, Cent Ed., p. 68)

Yes, "with the booty torn from the powers that oppose us." And this is the great contribution of the adverse forces and beings that they put to test the sincerity of the sadhaka almost at every step of the Path. And it is only for this purpose that they have been permitted by the Divine to exist and be active in the world. Here are some pertinent excerpts from Sri Aurobindo' s and the Mother's writings throwing great light on this delicate question:

(1)"They [the hostile forces in the world] are there, do you know why? They have been tolerated, do you know why? — simply to see how long one can last out and how great is the sincerity in one's action" (The Mother, M C W, Vol. 4, p. 252)

(2)"... the adverse forces — which of course are responsible for all difficulties — are tolerated in the world in so far as they serve to make the world completely conscious. This indeed is true." (The Mother M C W, Vol. 6, p. 462)

(3)"The hostile forces have a certain self-chosen function: it is to test the condition of the individual, of the work, of the earth itself and their readiness fob the spiritual descent and fulfilment. At every step of the journey, they are there attacking furiously, criticising, suggesting, imposing despondency or inciting to revolt, raising unbelief, amassing difficulties.... But this opposition has

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been permitted from of old not merely as a test or ordeal, but as a compulsion on us to seek a greater strength, a more perfect self-knowledge, an intenser purity and force of aspiration, a faith, mat nothing can crush, a more powerful descent of the Divine Grace." (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 1734)

(4)"When their [the hostile forces'] presence in the world is no more of any use, they will disappear. Their action is used as a testing process, so that nothing may be forgotten, nothing left out in the work of transformation. They will allow no mistake. If you have overlooked in your own being even a single detail, they will come and put their touch upon that neglected spot and make it so painfully evident mat you will be forced to change. When they will no longer be required for this process, their existence will become useless and they will vanish." (The Mother, M C W, Vo l . 3,p.66)

(5)"Attacks from adverse forces are inevitable: you have to take them as tests on your way and go courageously through the ordeal. The struggle may be hard, but when you come out of it you have gained something, you have advanced a step. There is even a necessity for the existence of the hostile forces. They make your determination stronger, your aspiration clearer." (The Mother, Ibid., p. 34)

(6)"When the world is ready to receive the new creation, the adverse forces will disappear. But so long as the world needs to be tempted, kneaded, churned in order to be prepared, the adverse forces will be there to be the temptation and that which strikes you, pushes you, prevents you from sleeping, compels you to be absolutely sincere." (The Mother, M C W, Vol.7,p.366)

Such is then the beneficial contribution made by the hostile forces in the life of sadhana of a sincere sadhaka. Of course, it is not that they voluntarily seek to do good to the sadhakas. If they did, they would not have been called adverse or hostile forces. But notwithstanding their evil intention, the fact remains that, through divine dispensation, their action, apparently negative and deleterious, becomes conducive to the progress of the sadhaka if he knows how to take advantage of these attacks.

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But how do these hostile forces attack? What are their modes of action? And how to distinguish between the mechanical action of an ordinary weakness of nature and the intentional action of an adverse force?

For the fact remains that normal human defects are one thing; they are only the working of the lower nature of the Ignorance. But the action of the hostile forces is a special intervention coming from the supraphysical realms and creating in the sadhaka violent inner conflicts, abnormal depressions, very negative thoughts and impulses, and various dark suggestions, e.g. abandoning the sadhana, revolt against the Divine, anxiety about possible calamities and catastrophes apparently irresistible, and so on.

There are natural movements of the ordinary human nature which take time to get rid of. These we normally call forces of the 'lower nature' but these should not be confused with the adverse forces; they are only ordinary movements and not hostile. They have of course to be changed but that can be done quietly over a period of time. But the hostiles are a different proposition. They are different in nature, different in their mode of action and different in their consequences if not properly handled in time. The following long excerpt from Sri Aurobindo is most revealing in this connection. Every sadhaka has to read it carefully and bear in mind all the points made:

'The normal resistance of the lower Nature in human beings and the action of the Hostiles are two quite different things. The former is natural and occurs in everybody; the latter is an intervention from the non-human world.

"But this intervention can come in two forms. (1) They use and press on the lower Nature forces making them resist where they would otherwise be quiescent, making the resistance strong or violent where it would be otherwise slight or moderate, exaggerating its violence when it is violent. There is besides a malignant cleverness, a conscious plan and combination when the Hostiles act on these forces which is not evident in the normal resistance of the forces.

"(2) They sometimes invade with their own forces. When this

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happens there is often a temporary possession or at least an irresistible influence which makes the thoughts, feelings, actions of the person abnormal — a black clouding of the brain, a whirl in the vital, all acts as if the person could not help himself and were drawn by an overmastering force.

"On the other hand instead of a possession there may be only' a strong Influence; then the symptoms are less marked, but it is easy for anyone acquainted with the ways of these forces to see what has happened.

"Finally it may be only an attack, not possession or influence; the person then is separate, is not overcome, resists."( Letter s on Yoga, Cent. Ed., pp. 1731-32. Paragraphing ours.)

Sri Aurobindo assures us that there are some sadhakas who are never attacked or even touched by the hostile forces. They can follow the sunlit path with the aid of the higher Light and Power. All of us should seek to emulate their example. But for that to happen we have to develop a number of spiritul qualities in our character and adopt a certain healthy attitude towards these adverse forces.

The qualities needed are, of course, (i) patience, (ii) persist ence, (iii) purity, (iv) faith, (v) love and devotion for the Divine, (vi) calm and equality, (vii) self-confidence and resolution of will, (viii) vigilance and power of discrimination, (ix) steadiness of aspiration, (x) sincerity, (xi) constant invocation of the grace and protection of the Divine Mother, etc.

It is difficult for the ordinary sadhaka to acquire all these quali-ties in full in the early part of his spiritual career. So he cannot reasonably expect that he will never be troubled by any adverse forces or be the object of malice of the Hostile Beings. But if he is reasonably sincere and have faith and confidence in the Divine, he can surely reduce to a minimum the virulence of the suggestions of the dark forces and then attend to the eradication of his natural weaknesses as those of a machinery which have to be set right in a much more smooth fashion.

But for that the sadhaka has to develop an attitude behoving a sincere aspirant of the Path and follow certain .standards of con-

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duct vis-à-vis these forces of darkness. The following passages from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother will surely help the sadhaka to choose the right guidelines for his action and reaction:

(1)"You must not allow yourself to be disturbed. ... it is because they [the hostile forces] know that Peace is the basis and if that is there in full, all the rest will come. So they want anyhow to prevent it." (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 1765)

(2)"It is so that they [the hostile suggestions] must be regarded — without interest, with indifference. That removes the necessity for constant struggle which is itself a form of interest, and it is as discouraging and more to these suggestions." (Ibid., p. 1764)

(3)"You ought to realise that these things are attacks which come on you... When it comes, you have to realise that it is an attack and refuse instead of accepting it.... This state which tries to come upon you and seize is not part of your true self, but a foreign influence. To yield to it and to express it would therefore be not sincerity..." (Ibid., pp. 1752, 1749)

(4)"It is no use alleging that there are good reasons for their rising — even if all the alleged reasons were true, they would not justify your indulging them, for in a sadhaka nothing can justify that. There is no need to understand — for there is only one thing that is necessary to understand — that, reason or no reason,... [these] have no place in the spiritual life." (Ibid., p. 1752)

(5)"... to think too much of the hostile Powers is to bring in their atmosphere.... The worst thing for sadhana is to get into a morbid condition, always thinking of 'lower forces, attacks'." (Ibid., p.1764)

(6)"Fear is the one thing that one must never feel in face of them, for it makes them bold and aggressive.

"Moreover, fear... calls the thing feared — it must therefore be thrown out altogether." (Ibid., p. 1764)

(7)"By unnecessary 'testing' one dangerously invites this hostile pressure and raises up things which one has to banish. To be conscious is necessary, but quiet self-examination is sufficient for that—raising up difficulties under plan of testing is quite the wrong

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method."(Ibid.,p. 1747)

(8)"Whatever point the adverse forces choose for attack, however small it may seem to the external human mind, becomes a crucial point and to yield it up may be to yield to them one of the keys of the fortress. Even if it is a small postern door, it is enough for them if they can enter." (Ibid., p. 1735)

(9)"If you look closely, you will see that when these Forces work now it is in a perfectly irrational' instinctive way, repeating always the same movements without any intellectual or higher vital power behind them. Theirs is now an irrational mechanical method which obscures more in the lowest physical and subconscient than anything else. That means that their true justification for being there is gone." (Ibid., p. 1744)

The existence and the adverse action of the hostile forces is an acknowledged fact of the occult dispensation of the world. These inimical forces and beings try to disturb the spiritual pursuit of the sadhakas. If through the Grace of the Divine or through some other propitious factors, a sadhaka can manage to escape on the whole the vicious attacks of these forces, it is undoubtedly well and good for him. But even if he is not so fortunate, he can surely do so much as to keep himself separate in his consciousness, not to be overcome by the hostile suggestions, and to resist them with all his good will. A sincere prayer to the Divine Mother accompanying this personal effort at resistance will do the rest. And the sadhaka will surely come out of his ordeal with a fresh ground of victory gained. In the case of this relatively more advanced stage of sadhana, when the sadhaka can habitually and at will create this separation and keep the hostile forces at bay, these latter will be reduced in their action to a state as described by Sri Aurobindo below:

"They [the hostile attacks on the outer being] are felt as suggestions, or a touch on the surface mind, vital, physical or as movements in the atmosphere (the personal or the general environmental consciousness) — but for the inner being it is like gusts or storms outside. If they penetrate by chance into the house, they are imme-

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diately ejected and the doors and windows banged on them — there is nothing that accepts them or tolerates them inside." (Ibid., p. 1757)

We end this chapter with a passage from the Mother's writings which indicates the way a sadhaka should proceed in order to always score a victory over the hostile forces:

"The only way to fail in your battle with the hostile forces is not to have a true confidence in the divine help. Sincerity in the aspiration always brings down the required succour. A quiet call, a conviction that in this ascension towards the realisation you are never walking all alone and a faith that whenever help is needed it is there, will lead you through, easily and securely." (M C W, Vol.3, p. 34)

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