On Yoga
THEME/S
(I)
Love, in its essence, is the joy of identity. It finds its final expression in the felicity of union. Between the two there are all the phases that make up the universal manifestation.
Love comes from the very origin of the universe. Love in its essence, I say, that is, before the manifestation, is the delight of identity. Something there was which became conscious of the identity. And that is precisely Love. Afterwards comes the manifestation of Love. In its highest form, when it comes back to its origin across all its history of manifestation, it becomes the felicity of union. The sense of union comes as a consequence of the sense of separation. The passage through the whole manifested universe gives the sense of separation from the origin and the return to the origin is the felicity of reunion—union of two things which were separated and are united again. That is Love in its great circuit of manifestation.
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When it climbs back to its origin, it returns to the starting-point with something more than what it had before it started. It is the experience of the universe and universality. Fundamentally, that is the reason for the existence of creation. Consciousness would not be what it is had it not been expressed in a creation. There is an enrichment of consciousness through the experience gathered in an objective universe, a richness of content and a plenitude it would not have if there were not a manifested universe.
The return movement of creation is not a thing that happens in time. It is difficult to conceive, because for us things are successive. But if one could conceive a movement as a whole embracing everything, which would be at the same time the beginning and the end, and contain all, it would then be not a return in time, but a return in consciousness.
If there were not the circuit, there would never be the Ananda of union, there would be only the Ananda of identity. And it is precisely in order that this Ananda of identity may find its culmination and crowning in the Ananda of union that the whole circuit has been done.
⁂
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The very moment when the individual consciousness moved away from its divine origin and remained no longer identified with the movement of the divine consciousness, the sense of separation was created. The individual consciousness did not separate wilfully, but it remained no longer identified. Not being identified, the Divine Consciousness followed a certain movement and the individual consciousness followed another, and naturally they moved away from each other more and more. Let us say, as an image, that the Divine Consciousness advances at a certain speed and the individual consciousness, not having remained united with it, could not follow it and therefore fell back more and more, far behind. The Divine moves forward, the individual stops; when the individual moves, the Divine flies. When the individual takes one step, the Divine leaps. That increases the gap of separation more and more. It is this original separation that has produced others in its train and these separations all together have created the universal misery, at least the earthly misery as we know it.
It all began by a separation in the consciousness and it ended by a separation in respect of the worlds and their elements, by a division
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that we witness down to the material nature. The separation in consciousness has produced the separation of forms and the separation of forms has induced pain and suffering. Now therefore there are these countless objects that lie about divided and separated from one another. Since, however, the universe had to be a progressive thing, the bliss of identity, the full consciousness of this identity had necessarily to be veiled, otherwise nothing would have moved.
Evidently, if the sense of unity were reestablished, the miseries would disappear. But if you realised the perfect identity and the whole universe in its totality, realised this absolute unity in which there is no possibility of any distinction, then there would be no universe at all, it would be the return to Pralaya. The solution then is to find Ananda in the play of mutual exchange and union.
What has been projected into space and time must be brought back to itself, without thereby annulling the world so created. That is why Love burst forth as the irresistible power of Union. It soared over darkness and unconsciousness, it scattered itself, pulverised itself into the bosom of unfathomable night. It
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is from then that began the awakening and the ascension, the slow formation in and out of Matter and a progress without end.
(2)
There is a state of consciousness in which one experiences the Divine Love everywhere. One does not feel then a .great difference between one creature and another except in their physical appearance. Even in unconsciousness and immobility, the apparently complete inertia—of the stone, for example—can be found a dazzling light, the light of the divine Presence. There is much more aspiration than one thinks in objects that are usually called inanimate. In the stone precisely there is a spontaneous sense of what is there high above and although it cannot express it, it feels the thing and that affects it although in different ways. In the stone, in things and objects, there is a strange receptivity that comes from this Presence.
You can take what you call a precious stone and concentrate a force or forces in it. It retains them. These forces radiate afterwards very slowly, but increasingly, progressively. And if you know how to do it, you can accumulate a
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quantity of force to last almost indefinitely so to say. There are stones that serve as intermediaries of union, stones that serve as accumulators of energy and stones that may serve as foretellers of circumstances, they may carry messages. Therefore, as they can serve as accumulators, it means that they carry in themselves the source of the Force itself, otherwise they would not be receptive.
It is a force of this kind that is the origin of the phenomenon of crystallisation. Crystals gather together in matter, it is already a movement of love. Stones that crystallise, rock crystals, for example, form wonderful designs, so magnificent in their absolute harmony; that comes because of only one thing—the Force of Love.
You do not see the thing, because you have not the inner sensibility. But once you have the direct perception of the forces of love behind things you see that it is everywhere the same. And you can even come to understand what man-made manufactured things tell you.
The movement is quite perceptible in the vegetable kingdom, in the tree and the plant. These trees that rise up and up always, the small ones trying to catch up with the big ones, the big
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ones endeavouring to mount still further ! The plants always seek to find out a direction from where they can receive as much light as possible. It is the need to grow in order to get more light, more air, more space.
When you see a rose opening out to the sun, it is as it were for the need of giving away its beauty. For us it is unintelligible, for flowers do not think out what they do. A human being always associates with what he does the capacity to see what he does, to think what he does. But flowers are not, so to say, conscious at all, theirs is a spontaneous movement. It is a mighty Force that is at work through all this, the great universal Consciousness, the great force of universal Love that makes all things flower in beauty.
It is said the tiger's need to devour is one of the first expressions of love in the world. What is likely to prove that this is not quite false is that when a tiger or a serpent catches its victim, the victim usually gives himself up in a kind of delight of being eaten. A testimony comes in the experience of a man in the following true story. He happened to be in the midst of bushes with his comrades. He was a little behind, away from others and a tiger caught him. The others
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returned when they noticed that he had disappeared. They found and followed the traces and arrived just in time to save him from the jaws of the tiger. When he had recovered a little, he was told what a terrible experience he must have had ! He replied that it was nothing of the kind : "Just imagine, I don't know what happened to me, but as soon as the tiger seized me and began to drag me along the ground, I felt an intense love for him and a great desire that he should eat me". This is I say, a true story.
As a matter of fact, long before the tiger came on the scene, there must have been early creatures dwelling at the bottom of the sea that had only one function, the stomach. They existed only as stomachs and their only activity was to swallow. One may say that these are the first expressions of love seeping through matter. For, before that there was nothing, except perfect inconscience, complete immobility, nothing was moving. It is with love that movement began, consciousness awakened, transformation started. Love is the power of the world.
The need to swallow is a primitive way of uniting with things, but it is a very direct way, you swallow and you absorb the thing. The
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tiger takes a great joy in the thing; there is a joy and that is already a higher form of love.
If you want to know what love is, you must love the Divine. It is a very well-known fact that in the end you become similar to the thing you love. If you love the Divine, by the force of this love, little by little, you will become more and more like the Divine. And then one can identify oneself with the divine Love and know what it is, you cannot know it in any other way.
Necessarily, the love between two human beings is always made of ignorance, misunderstanding, weakness and a terrible sense of isolation. It would be as if you wanted to gain entrance into the presence of a unique Splendour and the first thing you do is to put a screen between yourself and this Splendour and you are very astonished at not having but a vague impression of it ! The first thing then to do is to do away with the screen, pass through and stand in the presence of the Splendour. Then you know what it is. But if you go on piling veil after veil between you and That, you will never see it. You may have just a vague impression, "there is something" and that is all.
One of the highest expressions of love in human beings is the giving of oneself entirely
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to the person loved. That is to say, to sacrifice oneself for the motherland, give one's life in defending another person etc. This may not be the very highest form, but it is already something. From there you have to climb very high up to arrive at the true expression which is on the summit of the ascent. The ultimate expression of love is in the felicity of union.
That brings us to the symbol of Krishna and Radha. Krishna is he of whom Sri Aurobindo speaks as the divine Flute-player, that is to say, the immanent and universal Divine who is the supreme power of attraction. Radha is the name given to the soul, the psychic personality responding to the call of the Flute-player.
Radha consciousness is essentially the way in which the individual answers to the divine call. Sri Aurobindo describes it as the capacity to find Ananda in all things through identification with the one divine Presence and through total self-giving to this Presence. That has the power of changing everything into perpetual ecstasy. Instead of seeing things in their apparent discord, you see the Presence alone, the Will and the Grace in all things. And every event, every element, every circumstance, every form changes into a way, a detail through which you can approach
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more intimately and more profoundly the Divine. The discordances disappear, the uglinesses vanish, there remains only the splendour of the divine presence in the Love that radiates in all things.
(3)
Love for the Divine means an exclusive attachment to the divine Reality. This concentration finds its culmination in an integral identification and is instrumental to the supramental realisation upon earth.
Love alone is capable of putting an end to the suffering of the world. Only the ineffable delight of Love in its essence can wipe out of the universe the burning pain of separation. For it is only in the ecstasy of the supreme union that creation will discover the reason of its existence and its fulfilment.
It is this marvellous state that we wish to realise upon earth. It is this that will be able to transform the world, make of it a dwelling place worthy of the divine Presence. And then only Love, true and pure, will incarnate in a body that will no longer be a disguise or a veil. That is why no effort is too arduous, no austerity too
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rigorous to illumine, perfect, transform the physical substance so that it no more hides the Divine, when the Divine takes an external form through Love. For, then there will be freely manifested in the world that marvellous divine Kindness that can change life into a paradise of the sweetest delight.
The Divine Love is there with all its intensity, with all its tremendous power. But most people do not feel anything. What they feel is exclusively proportionate to what they are and what they are capable of receiving.
Just imagine that you are bathed in an atmosphere wholly vibrant with divine love. But you perceive nothing of it. Sometimes, rarely, all on a sudden you get the impression of something. Then you say : "Oh ! Divine Love came to me !" It may seem to be an illusion, but the simple thing is that for some reason or other you were open just a little and you perceived the Thing. But it is always there.
The Divine Consciousness also means the same thing. This too is there in its full intensity. Yet people do not perceive it or perceive only spasmodically. But at one moment you happen to be in a good condition, you feel something and say : "Oh ! the Divine Consciousness appeared
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to me". But, as I said, it is not quite that. When you have a small opening, sometimes even like that of a pinhead, it rushes into you, for it is an active atmosphere. Whenever there is a possibility of its being received, it is received.
It is the same thing with regard to all divine things. They are all there.
Only you do not receive them, because you are closed up, blocked up. And you are very actively occupied with other things all the while. All the while you are full of yourself. As you are full of yourself, there is no place for the Divine. But He is there.
All wonderful things are there around you. You do not see them, or see them sometimes only, at a moment when you are a little more receptive, or perhaps in sleep, when you are less exclusively occupied with your little affairs. Then a light comes to you of something; you see, you feel something. But generally, as soon as you wake up, all that is obliterated by the formidable ego that is full of itself.
If you look at yourself closely you will see that it is always like that. Your vision of the universe is this that you are at the centre and the universe is around you. It is not the universe that you see.
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but you see yourself in the universe. So there is no room for any other thing.
The surest means of re-establishing the right perspective is to give yourself to the Divine. Then you are obliged to come out of yourself a little at least to begin with.
Generally, when people think of the Divine, the first thing they do is to pull as much as they can and they receive nothing. They tell you : "Oh, I have called, I have prayed and I have had no answer". If they are asked : "Have you offered yourself ?", they reply : "No, I have pulled". "But that is why you have not received." It is not that the answer did not come. But when you pull, you are so much shut up within your ego that you raise a wall between what is to be received and yourself. You confine yourself within a prison and you are astonished that in your prison you feel nothing.
Throw yourself out of yourself. Give yourself without holding back anything, simply for the joy of the self-giving. Then there is a chance of your feeling something.
When you do not ask whether you are loved or you are not loved, when you are absolutely indifferent to that, then only there is the beginning of true love.
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You love because you love, not because you receive an answer to your love, or because the other person loves you. You love because you cannot do otherwise than love. You do not pay any attention to what may happen. You are perfectly satisfied with your feeling of love. You love because you love. Everything else is bargaining, it is not love.
Besides, it is sure and certain that as soon as you are truly in love, you do not put the question any more. It is so childish, ridiculous and insignificant to put the question. As soon as you are truly in love, you have the entire plenitude of delight and realisation. You do not need any kind of answer. You are the Love. That is all. You have the full satisfaction of love. And there is no need of reciprocity.
(4)
"To become conscious of the Divine Love, you must abandon all other love". What is the best way of rejecting "the other love" which is so obstinate in its denial and which does not leave you easily ?
To pass through—yes, pass through and see what is behind, not to stop at the appearance, not to rest satisfied with the external form, but
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to look for the principle that is behind the love, not to be satisfied until you have found the source of the feeling in you. Then the external form will fall away of itself and you will be in contact with the Divine Love that is behind everything. That is the best way. To try to reject one to find the other is very difficult, almost impossible. Because human nature is so limited, so full of contradictions and so exclusive in its movements that if you want to reject love in its lower form, that is to say, human love as human beings feel it, if you force yourself towards rejecting that, then generally you reject even the capacity to feel love and you become as it were a stone. Then sometimes you have to wait years or even centuries for the capacity of receiving and manifesting love to reawaken in you.
Therefore the best means is, when love comes in any form whatsoever, to try to pierce through its external appearance, to find out the divine principle that is behind and that is the cause of its existence. Naturally it is full of snares and difficulties, but it is the most effective. In other words, instead of ceasing to love, because you love in the wrong way, you must cease to love in the wrong way and try to love in the right way. For example, the love between human
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creatures, in all its forms, the love of the parents for their children, of the children for their parents, the love between brothers, between lovers, all are tainted with ignorance and egoism and every other fault that is the common human fault. So, instead of ceasing altogether to love, which is besides very difficult, as it will simply dry up the heart and therefore serve no purpose, you must learn to love with devotion and self-giving and self-abnegation, you are to fight not against love itself but against its deformities. All forms of appropriation, the sense of possession, jealousy, all other feelings that accompany and support these root feelings are to be rejected. Instead you must not seek to possess, dominate,impose your will or caprice or desire, must not be eager to take and receive, but to give. Do not demand a return from the other, but be satisfied with your own love; do not seek your interest, your personal pleasure, the fulfilment of your own desire but rest content with your love and affection, do not ask for an answer, but remain happy with loving only, nothing more.
If you have done that, you have taken a big step, and then through that attitude, little by little you may progress more into the feeling itself, and you will find one day that love is not
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a personal thing, love is a divine universal feeling that manifests through you as well as it can, but it is in its essence a divine thing.
The first step then is to cease to be egoistic. It is the same rule for all, not only for those who want to do Yoga, but even in ordinary life, if you want to love truly, first of all you must not love yourself and particularly do not love in an egoistic way; you must give yourself to the object of your love without asking for anything in return. This is the very elementary discipline, if you are to transcend yourself, and live a life that is not wholly commonplace.
In Yoga, you add something more. It is, as I have said, the will to pierce through this limited and human form of love and discover the principle of Divine Love that is there behind; it is there then that you are sure to arrive at a result. That is better than drying up one's heart. It is more difficult perhaps, but it is the better in any way, because, by doing so, you do not make others suffer egoistically, you leave others to their own movements, you concern yourself with your own transformation, without imposing your will upon others and that, even in ordinary life, is a step towards something that is a little higher and more harmonious.
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