The author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo has nothing to do with the central guiding principle of the Integral Yoga although he claims himself to be its follower. And there are any number of his so-called rationalist friends on the websites who vaunt and crow in disregarding it. An act of faith—but if it’s going to lead oneself safely on the sunlit path, what’s wrong in that? An act of faith is a kind of inner perception and certitude; if it comes from the deeper psychic then there cannot be more wonderful than that. It is this absence of psychic and spiritual awareness that makes the Lives obnoxious, an absence which is perhaps deliberately cultivated. If there is a call for higher life, then follow the higher precepts. Otherwise there’s no compulsion whatsoever. It is to get this help one goes to a spiritual Master and for getting that help expresses gratitude to him. Did the author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo get that help from his Master?
In his little but seminal book The Mother Sri Aurobindo makes a key statement about his Integral Yoga in terms of the triple formula of aspiration-rejection-surrender:
…an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing—the mind's will, the hearts seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of 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, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to 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, 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 Shakti.
And there are “the conditions of Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which the highest will descend; and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties… There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature. The surrender must be total and seize all parts of the being. It is not enough that psychic should respond and higher mental aspect or even the inner vital submit and the physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be no part in the being, even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.”
If this is not followed then it is immaterial whether we do this or we do that. We may call it Integral Yoga, we may call it Religion, we may call it Spirituality, Stupidity, and what not; but it will not satisfy the soul’s deepest urge seeking the Divine within us, and everywhere. If our concern is this single objective then all talk about rationality, faith in science, faith in logic, blind faith, seeing faith—seeing faith is an extremely rare commodity—pale into insignificance. We go to a spiritually accomplished person to seek his help in this regard and endeavour to follow it if we are centrally alert to its assuring methodology, sincere to our own deepest yearning. If I am in the Ashram, for instance, I must always remember the purpose for which I am here in the Ashram—the rest becomes inconsequential. And the beauty is, this is true in every walk of life. If I can follow my path,—and that path can be by whatever faculty in me is most open, most developed,—what else is required? That path can be the opening of the mind or the emotional being or the perfection in the physical work or the acts of nobility,—to put in the technical parlance as Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga. All are equally superior and going by any one of them will the Guide or the Divine give whatever is necessary for the fulfilment of the soul’s deepest longing. In that situation all comparisons become meaningless.
The author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo has nothing to do with this central guiding principle of the Integral Yoga although he claims himself to be its follower. And there are any number of his so-called rationalist friends on the websites who vaunt and crow in disregarding it. An act of faith—but if it’s going to lead oneself safely on the sunlit path, what’s wrong in that? An act of faith is a kind of inner perception and certitude; if it comes from the deeper psychic then there cannot be more wonderful than that. It is this absence of psychic and spiritual awareness that makes the Lives obnoxious, an absence which is perhaps deliberately cultivated. If there is a call for higher life, then follow the higher precepts. Otherwise there’s no compulsion whatsoever. It is to get this help one goes to a spiritual Master and for getting that help expresses gratitude to him. Did the author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo get that help from his Master?
RY Deshpande
In his little but seminal book The Mother Sri Aurobindo makes a key statement about his Integral Yoga in terms of the triple formula of aspiration-rejection-surrender:
…an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing—the mind's will, the hearts seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of 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, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to 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, 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 Shakti.
And there are “the conditions of Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which the highest will descend; and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties… There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature. The surrender must be total and seize all parts of the being. It is not enough that psychic should respond and higher mental aspect or even the inner vital submit and the physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be no part in the being, even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.”
If this is not followed then it is immaterial whether we do this or we do that. We may call it Integral Yoga, we may call it Religion, we may call it Spirituality, Stupidity, and what not; but it will not satisfy the soul’s deepest urge seeking the Divine within us, and everywhere. If our concern is this single objective then all talk about rationality, faith in science, faith in logic, blind faith, seeing faith—seeing faith is an extremely rare commodity—pale into insignificance. We go to a spiritually accomplished person to seek his help in this regard and endeavour to follow it if we are centrally alert to its assuring methodology, sincere to our own deepest yearning. If I am in the Ashram, for instance, I must always remember the purpose for which I am here in the Ashram—the rest becomes inconsequential. And the beauty is, this is true in every walk of life. If I can follow my path,—and that path can be by whatever faculty in me is most open, most developed,—what else is required? That path can be the opening of the mind or the emotional being or the perfection in the physical work or the acts of nobility,—to put in the technical parlance as Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga. All are equally superior and going by any one of them will the Guide or the Divine give whatever is necessary for the fulfilment of the soul’s deepest longing. In that situation all comparisons become meaningless.
The author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo has nothing to do with this central guiding principle of the Integral Yoga although he claims himself to be its follower. And there are any number of his so-called rationalist friends on the websites who vaunt and crow in disregarding it. An act of faith—but if it’s going to lead oneself safely on the sunlit path, what’s wrong in that? An act of faith is a kind of inner perception and certitude; if it comes from the deeper psychic then there cannot be more wonderful than that. It is this absence of psychic and spiritual awareness that makes the Lives obnoxious, an absence which is perhaps deliberately cultivated. If there is a call for higher life, then follow the higher precepts. Otherwise there’s no compulsion whatsoever. It is to get this help one goes to a spiritual Master and for getting that help expresses gratitude to him. Did the author of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo get that help from his Master?
RY Deshpande
Can you please elucidate on "that help" in your "If there is a call for higher life, then follow the higher precepts. Otherwise there’s no compulsion whatsoever. It is to get this help one goes to a spiritual Master and for getting that help expresses gratitude to him.".
ReplyDeleteWhat is this help you are referring to?
Of course, it’s always the spiritual help one seeks from a spiritual Master. We’re very familiar with the help the Upnishadic disciples received from the elder Rishis. Sri Aurobindo got help from Lele, that within three days he had the great realization of the Passive Brahman which otherwise takes lives to have. The Mother in her very first meeting with Sri Aurobindo received the gift of Silent Mind from him and since it always stayed with her. Spiritual realizations in the Ashram would not have come without their direct help. The Mother when she looked into somebody’s eyes she always helped in bringing out his psychic being. Even in the case of the mental and vital difficulties they were always there to help, even to remove mental doubts or vital depression and turmoil. All those thousands of letters of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother bespeak of the help. But much more than that, on a practical level we have many other wonderful instances. Whether it was a question of running the Dining Room, or organising the Physical Education, or Music or Painting or Poetry that assistance and that support were there. A new genre of poetry and music and painting came into existence with it. All these were a means for spiritual progress and expression. Well, one can write volumes about this spiritual help but what is important is our gratitude to the spiritual help-givers. My sadness is that it’s absent in The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. I feel hurt about it.
ReplyDeleteFrom one American reader 1.
ReplyDeleteWhat Mr RYD writes is undoubtedly true and also touching. I can also quite understand that he is hurt. It must naturally be so for those who are disciples/devotees of Sri Aurobindo. This orientation is the distinguishing feature of the Indian temperament and perhaps one that has sustained it through the millenniums. In the West here, our approach is for the most part through the mind with the reason playing the intermediary. These values which accrue spontaneously to you, are inculcated by us through effort and and inner discipline. This too is often attempted through the mind rendering the fruits sometimes precarious.
There are two issues here that need to be separated even though they bear upon each other. First, the book when read from the perspective of the author being a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and a resident of the Ashram. Second, the book itself read and reviewed only on the merit of the substance. Read from the first perspective I have to admit(even as a Westerner) that the expression, the content and the tone suggest an absence of gratitude so much as to evoke sadness and hurt that Mr RYD feels, which by the way has unfortunately also been given a crass expression by the masses in India. My reaction to the book has been one of utter perplexity.
However in all fairness I do not think the absence of gratitude and "psychic and spiritual awareness" need necessarily be considered a demerit of the book. I would accept that to be true - for this book - if read from the first perspective(Even then every acceptable biography does not have to express gratitude which can be there without being overtly expressed. It is more of an inner feeling). The absence(or presence) of all these - gratitude, psychic, spiritual - is a reflection of the author's personal relation with his Guru and need not necessarily figure in the assessment of the book itself. No doubt it is very unfortunate that this has the seal of the Ashram which aspires to live by Sri Aurobindo's ideals.
So the question is can and should it be read from another(the second) perspective? I believe it can and should be read from the second perspective despite the fact that it's difficult to ignore that the author is a disciple. If read from the second perspective then we would be truly "critiquing" the book(as I am told is the purpose of your website).
It would therefore be more fruitful to me to read about the contents.
But I did like what Mr RYD wrote and I can understand the poignancy of his response. While the book clearly suffers from a lack of gratitude, his response does not.
Thanks for your response, particularly for the several valid points you have made. But let me first dismiss the notion of cultural differences regarding spiritual matters, though they are quite weighty. Each one of us is burdened with our own baggage of things, what we call samskaras and karmas, and for everybody there are difficulties to get rid of them. If the western soul has the difficulty of its rational mind, the Indian tends to live more and more in its old tradition. How many in India, for instance, accept the new way that has been shown by Sri Aurobindo? How many of them accept the Mother as their spiritual guide? Very few. But the spiritual precepts transcend all national or cultural or temporal constraints. Not only that; when one goes to a spiritual Master and when he accepts him, the first thing he does is to disburden him of his past baggage. That is one of the most wonderful things that can happen to him. That is the help one gets from a spiritual Master and for getting that help one expresses gratitude to him. But that also puts a responsibility on him—not to create new baggage, a thing more difficult to remove.
ReplyDeleteYou speak of two issues about The Lives of Sri Aurobindo and its author.
• The book read from the perspective of the author being a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and a resident of the Ashram.
• The book itself read and reviewed only on the merit of the substance.
I’m glad vis-à-vis the first perspective you feel disappointed with the book. The author claims himself to be the practitioner of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and yet fails to acknowledge by way of expression all that he got from the Teacher. Not a word to that effect is present in the book, as you also say. That hurts us more not for ourselves but for the author. It is sad that he has not been able to get rid of his past baggage. That blocks spiritual progress. The unfortunate aspect is he, despite being a follower of the Integral Yoga, is unable to throw away these clinging samskaras. He has not been able to resolve the issue in the depth of his soul. Therefore as far as the book s concerned, that should not cause us any perplexity.
Regarding the second point—my first question is: why doesn’t he write, say, about Harry Potter? “Harry, Nasty common name, if you ask me”? (I’m quoting JK Rowling) But our author has chosen to present a spiritual giant, a Yogi par excellence and he has to do justice to him at least in some degree. Its total absence is, if we are to assume the total transparency of the author, most puzzling. You want to write about a spiritual figure and it’s precisely that you want to downplay, because you are writing a biography for a rational mind,—frankly that beats me utterly. If all that is psychic, spiritual, including the aspect of gratitude, is absent then write a biography of Harry Potter. So if you want to read the Lives as a caricature of Harry Potter, you are free to do that. Then it won’t be anymore the spiritual Sri Aurobindo we are looking for. You could as well enjoy a fiction and applaud its author. But will the deeper sense be happy? You have to ask that question to yourself and find the answer for yourself.
I suppose we are looking for a spiritual Sri Aurobindo to make spiritual progress, individual as well as on a collective level. If that Sri Aurobindo is absent then we are not interested in it.
RY Deshpande
It is important to recognize as you have stated above, that the essential Sri Aurobindo is the spiritual Sri Aurobindo and without that the deeper sense will not be happy. Viewed from that perspective, - a truer perspective I believe than the two stated above the one - this biography leaves much to be desired. I would say that this is a key point and the only perspective with which this book should be read and reviewed. A good point indeed that is often overlooked.
ReplyDelete