Purani A. B.
Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
The First Series
23-12-1923
Interview with a Sadhak — R., a professor:
Sri Aurobindo: What is your idea of yoga?
Sadhaka: I have come to learn that from you.
Sri Aurobindo: That is not possible. How can you undertake to go in for it if you have no idea about it.
Sadhaka: I need the peace of mind which would be the first result of this yoga. Secondly, I want to know what I should do in my life. I have read Yoga and its Objects and I would like to attain the ideal set forth in it.
Sri Aurobindo: The peace, of course, is the first condition of any yoga and it must not be only mental peace. It must be deeper still, it must pervade all the parts of the being and it must descend from Above.
What is your idea of Kartavyam Karma?
Sadhaka: It is ‘my duty’ in life.
Sri Aurobindo: Kartavyam Karma does not mean duty. Duty is a western notion. It is a wrong interpretation of the text of the Gita. It means: that which should be done, that which is ordained.
It is possible to know the Kartavya Karma in that sense, if one can rise to something beyond Mind. You spoke of Yoga and its Objects. It was written at a time when my Sadhana had not reached its perfection. It marks a certain stage of my development. But it is not complete. I am not following the idea that is in it.
At present what I am doing is the Supramental yoga. Man, as constituted at present, is a very imperfect manifestation of the Divine — he is very crude. It is so because man is living in an envelope of ignorance — in Mind, Life and Body — so that he is not conscious of the Reality that is beyond Mind. The Supramental Power is above the Mind. What. I am trying to do at present is to call down the higher Power to govern Mind, Life and Body. The object of this yoga is not the service of humanity, or the ordinary perfection of man but the evolution of the Supramental Power in the cyclic evolution of the Spirit in the material universe. What one has to do is to rend the veil — the thick veil — that divides the Mind from the Supermind. That work a man cannot do by himself.
Sadhaka: Then where is the place for the use of will?
Sri Aurobindo: Well, your will has a place. It is used first of all to remove the lower movements, e.g. desires and thoughts etc. Secondly, it can will for the working of the higher Power by putting a stop to the actions that belong to Mind, Life and Body — i.e. of the ignorant Nature. The first result would be a calm much deeper than the mental calm.
Sadhaka: What about the work for humanity?
Sri Aurobindo: We are not concerned with that at all primarily. What one puts forth generally outside in the form of action is what one internally is. Our first aim is not to work for humanity in the current sense of the term, but to found life on a Higher Consciousness than the present ignorant and limited consciousness of mind, Life and Body. At present, man — I mean the average man — is physical and vital in his nature, using Mind for satisfying his vital being. We want to leave Mind — and intellect — behind and find a Higher Consciousness. One may call it Nirvana, Passive Brahman. Sachchidananda or Higher Power or by any name. ,
So, our first task is to find God and base life on that Consciousness. In that process what is necessary for humanity will naturally be done. But that is not our direct aim. Ours is a tremendous task. It is an adventure in which one must be prepared to leave behind his desires and passions, intellectual preferences and mental constructions in order to enable the Higher Power to do its work. You have to see whether you can give your consent to the radical transformation that is inevitable.
Sadhaka: Yes, I am prepared for the gamble.
Sri Aurobindo: It is only one minute back that I told you about the Supramental yoga and how is it that you have come to a decision? You do not know the hazard. The acceptance of this yoga means a great and decisive step in one’s life and you have to give consent to the working of the Higher Power in order to be able to go through. There should be nothing in the mental or the vital being which would come in the way of the higher working.
Sadhaka: I have been trying to prepare myself for the last three years. I wanted to come here three years ago. But I did not consider myself fit for this yoga at that time. So far as I can see, I have no mental idea left except the freedom of my country. There was a time when I would have postponed the spiritual life for India’s freedom.
Sri Aurobindo: You need not do it now; it is a thing guaranteed. But you cannot make even that a condition for entering this yoga. It is a high adventure, as I told you. It is not like the other yogic systems where you get some touch of the Higher Reality and leave the rest untransformed. My yoga makes demands that have to be met, — it is a radical transition from the present state of human consciousness. We accept life but that does not mean that in this yoga there is no renunciation. It only means we do not annul any of the faculties of the human being. What we put forth is not something mental, vital or physical but that which comes from the Supramental.
Sadhaka: I would do as you suggest; but at present I do not know any working higher than the Mind. What is to be done till then?
Sri Aurobindo: You have to make a choice: the individual is absolutely free in this yoga. I cannot crush your individuality. I mean, I can, but it is not allowed in this yoga. So, the working of the Higher Power depends upon the choice you make.
Sadhaka: But you are there to protect us.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, I can protect you if you have the absolute faith and make the right choice. If you make the wrong choice I cannot protect you. You must know that this is not a simple affair at all. It is not a revolt against the British Government which any one can easily do. It is, in fact, a revolt against the whole universal Nature and so one must think deeply before enrolling oneself with me.
There will be tremendous forces that will attack you and you have constantly to go on making the right choice and giving consent to the working of the Higher Truth and thereby prove your strength.
If you begin this yoga the first result is likely to be a feverish internal commotion, asanti, rather than santi, peace, that you are in search of. And when you come to the material plane, — there especially, the odds are almost insurmountable.
I have made my watchword: Victory or Death.
Sadhaka: What is the meaning of coming to the physical and material plane? Does it mean that when the Supermind comes down to the material plane then the difficulties are very great?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes. There even I do not know the result. An indication I have received from within saying that it is going to be. Yet I myself do not know the end of my adventure. Very few in the past have followed this yoga and none has conquered the material plane. That is why it is an adventure into the Unknown. One must have faith and make the right choice.
In the evening Sri Aurobindo referred to this new Sadhaka, saying: “His vital being has some strength and also there is a certain psychic capacity in him. But his intellect is not fine and subtle and elastic. He has perhaps intellectual vanity and sense of self-sufficiency which may be a great obstacle in his yoga.
He was asked to practise the preliminary step of separating Purusha and Prakriti — the witness self and the active nature.