The force, peace, light and bliss perceived or received during meditation can only remain alive all through our ordinary engrossing activities, if all the parts of our being are organized harmoniously around our central aspiration and will and accept their guidance. To this end a strict discipline is indispensable; it alone can allow this "unification" of our being and prepare it.

You will soon realize that unification is an arduous task. It goes against all normal habits which consider sense life as the only reality. A long and insistent discipline can however break down all resistance and bring about a transformation of our being, the crowning experience of which is a decisive reversal of our waking consciousness.

Here is an outline of Sri Aurobindo's "Integral Yoga", which perfectly answers this need:

"The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender,-

-an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing the mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature;

-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, 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;

-surrender of oneself and all one is and has and every plane of the consciousness and every movement to the Divine and the Shakti.

"In proportion as the surrender and self- consecration progress, the Sadhaka becomes conscious of the Divine Shakti doing the Sadhana, pouring into him more and more of herself, founding in him the freedom and perfection of the Divine Nature. The more this conscious process replaces his own effort, the more rapid and true becomes his progress. But it cannot completely replace the necessity of personal effort until the surrender and consecration are pure and complete from top to bottom."

SRI AUROBINDO, The Mother II.

The practical means of applying this comprehensive advice is within your reach, which does not mean that it is easy. Here it is:

Offer to the Divine, to the Supreme all events and circumstances big or humble of your daily life, accept them as they come, without any distinction between good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant. If you are sincere in your offering, in your surrender, your life will change utterly. You will discover that an unseen Hand (the Shakti) guides you, and has always guided you throughout the years. A new joy will rise for you every morning.

a) During your meditation you have experienced that your mental self can stand aloof from the mental nature in you and is therefore separate-on one side: you, your- self; on the other: your thoughts, ideas, opinions (are they really yours?).

b) You can now extend this dissociation to the realm of emotions and feelings. This is better done in the daily life itself. When you feel an emotion-disgust, anger, greed or passion rising in you, stand aloof and ob serve. You will at once notice that the emotion or feeling loses its grip on you or even vanishes. This realization brings you the means of controlling your (are they really yours ?) feelings, emotions, cravings -the vital nature in you.

c) Then comes the third realization, the distinction between you and your physical body-the most difficult of the three. Stand aside from your sensations and observe that your self is the same whether they come or go. Dissociate your self alike from the pleasant and the unpleasant or painful. Realize that none of them is able to move you unless you accept it and identify your self with it.

This disjunction between you and your physical reactions is difficult because you have been trained all your life to consider the physical world as the only reality. But once it is achieved, it brings to you an immense gain: the control over the physical nature in you, its obscurity and dullness, its instability and fragility. So long as this disjunction is not there, you are the slave of your body- once achieved you are its master.

The triple dissociation thus established will allow you to accomplish every action, even the most trivial, to the best of your ability, with great concentration, control and efficiency. You will perceive that, as Sri Aurobindo says, the Divine Shakti is pouring into you "more and more of herself", founding in you "the freedom and perfection of the Divine Nature". You will uncover a treasure of concealed Ananda, of which indifference, pain and joy are a triple disguise. She brings thus to you the key to perfection in Yoga and to the transformation of your nature.

It is an excellent habit to include a little reading in your discipline. Take up the books of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that are available to you . It is not necessary to read much-half an hour a day suffices. Read slowly, read again if need be, then ponder over what you have read and think of it at times during the day. Try to put it into practice, to live it. You will thus gradually come in touch with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's great Consciousness (they are one for us) and you will begin to understand the hidden meaning of their writings.

Are you troubled by sexual questions ?
Try to build up a temporary harmony, without arbitrary repressions and suppressions. All this will little by little evolve and become clear and you will reach mastery in this domain as in others. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's booklet on Love mentioned here below ( See section on site ) will show you the place of Love in the Creation and will help you to find out where you yourself stand. There is no uniform rule for all; each man or woman has to discover his or her own rule.

Go forward, have confidence! In this way you shall build up the unity of your being, and when this unification is achieved, transformation of your whole nature becomes possible. Years, lives no longer count for you, you have set yourself on the road to divinity .

Remember that the aim of the world's long evolution through minerals, plants and animals, and thereafter through successive human lives and civilizations is to make of men beings fully awake, individually and universally, that is to say conscious and master of all that happens in themselves and in the world around, and free from the age-long bondage to opinions, passions and sensations.

 

About Us

A new light shall break upon earth, a light of Truth and Harmony.
- The Mother