Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo

SEPTEMBER, 1940

15th September, 1940

Disciple : Has the individual no reality except as a puppet?

Sri Aurobindo : That is Shanker's stand.

Disciple : Another question is "If the Divine is already there and does everything then why yoga?" Because Sri Krishna says to Arjuna in the Gita that you have only to become Nimitta – instrument. So the Christian's criticism is that the Individual is meaningless – without any justification or fulfillment. Gita is preaching pure mechanism or unconsciousness.

Sri Aurobindo : But Gita does not say that you are "compelled" to become the Nimitta. It says "Bhava" – “become!" but it does not say that you have no existence except as Nimitta.

Even if Arjuna does not become the Nimitta Sri Krishna says that he will do it in his own way.

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Even when you find that the Divine has decreed the result, it is the result that is decreed but not the Nimitta, that is, anything else could have been the Nimitta.

The Individual , Universal, the Transcendental are the One in different positions. "I am the Lord in each" says the Gita.

Disciple : If Divine does everything then we have to conclude that ignorance is unreal.

Sri Aurobindo : Ignorance is not unreal; it is real, that is to say, there is a Truth that corresponds to it.

Disciple : The aim of spiritual Sadhana is freedom from ego, from bondage of ego. What is to be done after that?

Sri Aurobindo : It is the first indispensable step. But there are many possibilities after that freedom. For example : –   

1. He may remain confined to his own nature or to the apparent ego in nature – though free.

2. or, he may open equally to Cosmic forces and acts as Bala, Jada, Pishacha or Unmatta.*

3. or, he may be one with the Divine and act and would be free not to act. In case he acts, he is the individual centre of the Cosmic for Divine action. He is one with the Divine yet remains a different self – yet free. Cosmic forces would be available to him for Divine action.

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* Infant-like, inert-like, devil-like, or eccentric-like.

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