EWS #91 Imagination vs Direct Method – Q&A (32) - on Spiritual Life - 12
Nov 06, 2021
Topics:
Alina (0:00:40):
Namaste and good evening everyone. Today we will continue part 12 on Spiritual life. And I invite Joel, my friend from Auroville. Namaste Joel.
[Joel] Namaste Alina.
And I invite Sraddhalu. Namaste Sraddhalu.
[Sraddhalu] Namaste. Happy to be here.
We are happy to be back also and continue answering questions received from our viewers on the same topics of growth of consciousness, practices, experiences and levels of consciousness. Last time we dived deep into the difference between the ascetic paths and the affirmative nature of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga. We also covered questions on forms of daily practices and inner tapasya. Today we will continue asking Sraddhalu some questions that we received from our viewers. Aditya is writing a beautiful email: “My question is regarding imagination. In many methods of meditation we are told to imagine the picture of the deity, the Mother, in the heart or above the head and especially in the traditional mantras, we have elaborate descriptions, the deity in the Dhyana Sloka, that tell us how to visualise. Often I find it really difficult to hold this image for a long time. Is this a practice, a tool to develop concentration, or does it have a deeper spiritual significance? Also, in other practices of meditation, we are told not to imagine anything at all, no need to visualise anything or make fancy attempts. When one is ready for it, the Divine will grant darshan. Even if the darshan happens, the habit of imagination would exaggerate or distort it. There is also another extreme which is shown in this quote that I read in many places saying, ‘if you see the Buddha during meditation, kill him’. I also heard the story of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Kali regarding this. So what happens when one visualises and what happens when one doesn't and what would be a better approach for someone who has just started? Also I wanted to ask about the methods where we are told to imagine white light, blue light, etc. I believe the imagined light is not equivalent to the Spiritual light. Then what is the significance of this kind of imagination?”. It's a very elaborated question on this topic and we are happy to continue answering further on this subject of imagination.
Sraddhalu (0:04:23):
Yes, it's a very interesting question and with a lot of details. I'm glad you've raised all these details in the question also. It allows the discussion to be much broader also. The first point to recognize in any imagination or as Dolores has asked also just now in the chat box, visualisations, in any form of imagination or visualisations, remember it is your mind which is operating in the mental plane. In itself does not have a spiritual value. The moment you begin to imagine, conceptualise, visualise you are creating a formation in the mental plane by itself that formation would have only a mental value. So when many traditions ask you to visualise, it is with the intention of creating a mental formation. What the goal is, is a different question, but that's the intention. If you think about what people mean when they say have darshan or the Divine will reveal in a darshan. What's your spontaneous expectation? We had this discussion a few weeks ago about how we conceive of the Divine Mother. Automatically you would have a human form. Let's say you want to have darshan of one of the deities that you worship. It will be in a human form, isn't it? If the skin colour is wrong, you will have an issue. You would say, is that the one or is it someone else? The act of visualising, of course, projects your own expectation. But also your expectation tends to translate an experience into the box or into the frame or the mould of mind in which you are receiving the experience. So for example, if the Divine revealed itself in an experience which is relatively more complete but your receptive mould is shaped to receive a human form then you would translate that experience into the human form. Now this happens very often especially in the subtler gradations of consciousness, even in our dream state that the same experience is perceived differently by different people. Why? Because our receptive mould was different. So the whole question really is what are you looking for? Do you just want to have an experience of a form that appeared before you? A lot of this actually translates to or relates to occult practices. Most of the occult literature is replete with practices like this as well as limited experiences like this.
I remember a friend of mine described how he started his life as an atheist in Tamil Nadu and one day he decided that it was part of his mission to expose all these fake spiritual or ascetic teachers and so he was on the border of Kerala. He joined a group of Tantrics and began to participate in their life in order to be able to expose them and he narrated fascinating experiences he had which actually changed him finally and opened his own journey. But one of the experiences he said was they were all sitting in the forest middle of the night doing some ritual invocations and he was warned by the others that at some point during the invocation the deity will appear but when she appears you must be very careful not to look at her, because if you look at her then you will forget to ask the boon. So you look down, the moment she appears you look down and then she will ask you what boon do you want and then you have to say what you want. So he's sitting there and at some point he said there was a beautiful perfume which began to grow in intensity and then he saw because he was looking down, he saw the feet of this deity which appears and while everyone else began to look down and repeat their mantra, he looked up. He said, but I'm not interested in the boon, I'm interested in having this experience. So he looks at her and he says it was such a beautiful thing, I was very happy and I forgot what I had to ask him but I was happy with that. Now if you look at the nature of the experience itself, it's a human-shaped deity, perhaps ethereally beautiful, perhaps with a vibration which is beyond the human experience But end of the day, if the Divine appeared in her cosmic aspect, it would not be reduced to a form like that, isn't it? And you would always be limited to this little box or window through which you would experience the Divine. But this is our starting point of expectation. In this particular case, the deity was one of the vital beings, perhaps of the higher ranges of the vital worlds, extremely beautiful, bewitching perhaps but not necessarily a spiritual experience. Even a spiritual being perhaps could appear in a form like that, normally they will not, precisely because they can be imitated by any vital being, normally they will not but still could appear in principle and you would still have that limited box experience. So in his case, since the whole exercise was a vital being, it was fine to see in human form. Vital beings being by definition in the domain of divided consciousness, even if they are large, even if they are overwhelmingly powerful or wonderful, well you would have an overwhelming vital experience, but nevertheless a limited experience, not an essentially Spiritual experience. So all this literature which we have of these kinds of experiences, they all relate to experiences like this. In such a case, yes the visualisation is greatly useful because you are creating in the mental world, the body in which that deity can reveal itself to you. That's why the visualization is so important. You are creating a body and giving the body to that being. Think about what that means. In a way, the whole of the ritual exercise is to give a body in which the being can manifest. Now depending on the kinds of beings you are trying to reach to or manifest or the kind of manifestation you want to create, you have to provide other gradations of material, including in certain practices where they try to create a semi-physical materialisation of a being then you have to provide the material of those gradations. Just take a very simple example of a seance where you want a being to materialise and move objects, speak words or touch people or whatever it is, even lift a table. You have to provide the material with the grade of material close to the physical matter and often it is from the, I have mentioned before, the ectoplasmic substance of the medium itself.
Sraddhalu (0:11:47):
There again, the visualising power is the mechanism by which you create the body, mental, vital and then eventually a subtle physical body. So these practices have a profound rationale. The nature of the practice though is fundamentally limiting. You will be your mentalized body form meeting another mentalized limited form. What is the value of it? Yes, certainly it can be a beautiful experience, it can also be a terrifying experience, but what is the value of it in terms of your change of consciousness? My friend, for example, comes back with a beautiful image scene, perhaps something touched him deeply but that's about it. There's no fundamental change in your consciousness, you still remain in your finite limited mental encasement with just one more interesting experience added. If you want to think of it from a Spiritual point of view or from an evolutionary point of view, what you need is an experience in which your consciousness fundamentally opens out to something greater than yourself. And the imprint of that greater consciousness remains in you that you are fundamentally changed. The boundaries of your sense of ‘I’ change, the quality of consciousness, substance of your mind, vital, physical or some part of your consciousness becomes more refined, more elevated or filled with a higher light and so on. Something has to change in a permanent way that your sense of I and your capacity of perception or expression has to have expanded. Otherwise it has no spiritual or lasting value. It's just one more interesting experience to pass with. So for that purpose the visualisation, imagination is not of much use, because the moment you try to access something greater than you, your formed image is precisely what will come in the way of an experience which is greater than you. We start with the assumption that a higher level of consciousness is by definition beyond your current conception. If you could conceive of it then well you could experience it as you are. You cannot because precisely it is beyond your capacity to conceive or put it another way, if you can imagine it then it belongs already to the domain of imaging in the mind. Then it's not a higher grade of consciousness. So, long story short, I will say these practices of imaging the deity have their value, they have their place for a limited kind of experience. They are not very useful for the change that is required or intended in the Integral yoga of ascending to a higher level of consciousness or going within to deeper ranges or let's say entering in relation to the psychic presence. In both cases, in the vertical ascension and in the inward movement, you are opening to something which is beyond your capacity to imagine.
So, yes, the elaborate description of dhyana shloka - dhyana shloka, for those who may not be familiar, is the - dhyana is the meditation, shloka is the verse. There is a meditation verse before the main text begins. In which you are asked to visualise, conceive of and create the vehicle into which now as you read the rest of the text, you are infusing powers. Let's say, take a very well-known one of Lalita Sahasranama, that is the thousand names of the Divine Mother as Lalita in her aspect of the playfulness of the Divine in her creative mood. It starts with the conception of her in a very detailed description and then the thousand names are each powers and as the names are spoken and invoked you are as if infusing those powers into this form and thus building the full, let's say, vehicle in which she manifests for you, before you or into you. Eventually the idea is that that fuses into you and thus awakens in you those powers or those qualities of consciousness, widening and liberating you in the process. That is the rationale at least of that form of practice. It's useful, it works when done properly, but it's not the easiest or the most rapid or the most advisable from the perspective of the Integral Yoga. Not only for the reasons given already, but also I will give a few more reasons why.
Sraddhalu (0:16:43):
This particular form of practice where you invoke an aspect of the deity, fuse it into you as a means of awakening a power in you. Again, effective but the power awakened is then owned by whom? By you, the same person. If I am this, let's say, ambitious, self-opinionated, etc., person, and you infuse a greater power in my mind or my vital, allowing me now to wield this greater power, the person wielding is still the same, that did not change. And very quickly the ego can seize upon this exaggerated power and come out with complete misuse. These are of course the typical problems you find in some of the tantric practices or even other methods. Power is awakened, consciousness unchanged. So there are many other issues around this kind of practice. Useful, effective but within very great limitations. This is as regards to dhyana shloka visualisation. It is not just a tool to develop concentration. As you can see, it is something far more elaborate. Then the next part of the question, he says, other practices of meditation, you are told not to imagine anything at all, not to visualise and the Divine will grant darshan when you are ready. Yes, perhaps that is a superior way. Instead of visualising, you wait for, open yourself to a higher experience or consciousness and that reveals itself. But again I will avoid that word darshan for the simple reason that implied is the idea you will see a particular human-like form. I will say have an experience or open to a higher experience of the Divine. And so obviously if you have the preconception of a darshan in a form, then mind will fill in. I remember the example given to me by somebody about a person who was in very deep practice, he was living in isolation for a long time, and it was known to that person, and he said that in his initial stage of practice, he was in intense seeking and such intensity, you know, the kind which is greatly valued in some of the bhakti traditions of distress of emotions. And one day he said, if Lord, you do not reveal yourself to me, I'm going to commit suicide. It was not a threat, but it was literally a driven passion of the heart. The result was, well, he did have a darshan and then what? The form of the darshan was of course the traditional image in which he knew the Deity and then what? He of course withdrew from life and lived in his same continued pattern.
But I would still ask what is the value of that darshan? Not the shape but the presence felt behind the shape would be of value. And if you want to experience that presence in its totality at some point you have to break through the shape that you have attached yourself to and so that comes to the next part of the question which is the extreme form in which in some of the Buddhist traditions they will say if you see the Buddha in meditation, well break the form dissolve it. Or Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa was also asked to get beyond the form in which he saw Kali and to know that which is behind the form. Certainly as an experience cutting through limitations of form is a higher superior experience. The problem though is in this particular exhortation where they say get rid of all form, go into the formless, you are fixating on the formless form. It sounds strange when you say it, but you catch the experience. You are fixating on the form of the formlessness. That is, it has to be formless, then only it is it. No, that's not true either. The Divine transcends form, but transcendence does not mean, freedom does not mean that it is incapable of form. So transcendence and freedom from form means the Divine can manifest in form equally, while still being beyond form and you need to know both. So the problem with most of these kinds of exhortations of practice is they tend to bind you. And this is the beauty of Sri Aurobindo's formulation where he describes each of these but gives this greater clarity that one should be able to experience that which transcends space and time in the experience of the Divine as well as that which is the aspect of the Divine immanent and therefore seen as at first as backdrop to all forms, filling on forms and then each form is a becoming of the same one transcendent Divine individualised now. And so transcendence, universality as well as the individual form all three need to be experienced but eventually the three merge in a continuum of experience where looking at even a physical form a bird, a tree, one not only appreciates this as form of the Divine, you can literally feel the presence of the Divine which forms this, but also you experience the Divine which transcends this form and which is the same one Divine in all things and which is the same one Divine which is beyond all space and time also. And you see all these in a continuum, it is the same one one Divine and experience and increasingly it even immerses in the contact of the senses. So such would be a more complete experience if one were to aim at something like this.
Sraddhalu (0:23:00):
So my suggestion coming to the next part of the question: what happens when one visualises, what happens when one doesn't, what would be a better approach for someone who has just started? So that's the tricky part. If you have just started, well, I will say do what is easiest for you. I would still discourage from using imaginations at first, if you can. Some people need it as a way of holding attention. I remember one person I had met long ago. He was in a practice which was very much traditional like this. And it was with Lalita Sahasranama, the thousand names of the Divine Mother and my natural thing was when you conceive of the Divine presence within you, it's an inward turn and that's when I realised, for him it was always external, he would conceive of Her outside. And I said but can't you do it inward? He said, no I cannot, I'm unable to. Well, if you are unable to concentrate on something, on the Divine Mother, on an aspect, on a power, on a presence, on an idea, well, if you're unable to, do what you can, let that be the entry point. This is the reason why many of these practices were also given initially. You will recall Sri Aurobindo very simply states this and it's done in barely half a quarter of a sentence. He says, you can use name, form and idea, concentrate on any of these three. But for what? Those are entry points to the thing itself, You can take a name that would be one way. For someone who has absolutely no capacity even to hold the mind's attention, you take a name, dwell on the name, in speech dwell on the feeling that you feel when you speak the name, dwell on the sense of what the name means for you and in this way you can say Divine Mother, you can say Mother. But see your goal is still to go beyond the name. Now there are people who will just repeat Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma and their mind is looking all around, not very useful. But if you did that, at some point you begin to perceive or feel, at some point the name has to drop and the experience of dwelling has to be the priority. So, name.
Form, you may use an image also to start with. Some people would like to take a photograph of the Mother or a deity that they have, an image of the deity in the form that they feel most naturally attracted to. It has to be always something that draws your heart. And then dwell on the feeling, dwell on the perception of the presence behind and go deeper and deeper until at some point the form fades or is at best a starting point to enter an experience which then can be felt everywhere. Third is an idea. This is more easy for somebody who has a reasonably trained mind and then you can conceive of, hold an idea. The advantage here of course is you can access now much more. If for example, your goal was to experience the Divine in a special aspect, let's say a power, peace or love, you could use name, you could use form, but it is more difficult to move into that. You may or may not. Love of the Divine Mother. Well, you could dwell on the Divine Mother's form in the way that you relate to, but then you have to still get to the love. So, the idea is behind or you could simply drop the form, conceive of the idea, the Divine Mother and her love for the whole world and her love for me and her love within me. And with that idea dwelling on the sense of the love, you move deeper to immersion. Always the goal is, through concentration, to enter in identification. That you will recall the discussion which we had a few weeks ago. So start with whatever is easiest for you. If you can, try to go as directly as possible to a direct relationship or as close to the direct relationship as possible. If you feel the need for visualisation, keep in mind that as your concentration grows or as the contact with the presence grows, at some point let the form, the visual begin to dissolve so that you may go beyond the limits of that form. Something else happens which is the reverse of this. You have an experience and the experience evokes a form or the experience comes in the manner of a form and when that happens you just accept it as it comes. You don't say, oh I need to remove form. That would be the idea. You see the moment you're given an exhortation, if you see the Buddha then you dissolve the form. No, if he does appear before you in form, well appreciate it. Value it for what it reveals. But then dwell on his presence, not on the form in itself. The presence which fills the form is much more the reality of the Buddha than the limitation that the form brings. Or the form may be an aspect, the presence will lead you to the completeness of his experience or whatever the aspect that you are dwelling upon. So when it does happen spontaneously, do not worry, do not fight it. Rather appreciate, enjoy but then allow the deepening of the experience.
Sraddhalu (0:28:57):
The last part of the question is about lights, colours which you are asked to imagine. So again depending on the method you are asked to imagine various colours and ask yourself what is the use of that, what does it actually do? These are all practices which properly would belong to the domain of the occult practices. Relevant if your goal is still an interaction of the mental, vital or subtle physical planes. You can do a lot of interesting things with those kinds of colours. For example, if you're healing somebody physically or emotionally or some intervention taking place, each colour represents a different grade of vibration or quality of consciousness. Spontaneously for example if you visualise the colour blue, seep yourself in the sense of blue, you'll find the sense of blue has a cooling quality, soothing quality, perhaps harmonising quality. If you instead fill yourself or surround yourself or visualise red, bright it has a power of heating or exciting or intensifying, just the colour. So your physical experience of colours is a representation in the physical domain of qualities which properly belong to higher gradations. So it's not so much the physical colour which is important, but it is the quality of consciousness which the physical represents. There's another kind of experience here which can happen that you feel the quality first, something intense, something building up and then you perceive it as a colour and that's a much more true experience. Colour, especially in the physical visualised form of the colour is a secondary or reduced registration of the experience itself. So as far as possible, I would encourage you to cultivate the ability to perceive the thing in itself directly and not reduce it to the physical sense of colours. Feel the vibe, feel the quality of the energy, sometimes you don't have words for it, doesn't matter. Get familiar with the experience in itself. So a lot of, in fact I will say the bulk of the experience of the higher and inner planes is non-formal that is not bound to forms and does not have any direct physical equivalent. But if you are used to reducing things to physical forms and associations you will tend to reduce all these experiences. This is unfortunately one of the biggest biggest problems people have when they grow into certain very specialised traditions. The forms within those traditions are so defined that even when there is a higher experience, it tends to be reduced because you're part of that tradition, it tends to be reduced to the boxes associated with those traditions. So coming to the white light, blue light, yes of course they have a quality, they have a value. But it would be a major error to consider that all of them are the same on every plane of consciousness. You can have all the colours, so if you for example were to conceive of blue light, the physical blue, whatever physical effect may be secondarily on psychological levels by association within you, but you could also invoke a blue in a concentration in the vital plane. This is often used in some of the martial arts or in some of the healing methods such as pranic healing and the like where you channel life force and use the colours to modulate vibrational qualities. And a similar experience could be had in the mental plane where also a mental blue quality is fundamentally different from the vital blue and from the physical blue but still there is a correspondence, some alignment and one would tend to influence the other levels also. So none of these of course would be the Spiritual light.
Sraddhalu (0:33:38):
In the spiritual experience proper, also one can experience colours and in the quality of light for example, the white light which is often spoken of as the light of the Divine Mother, this Spiritual white is of a quality so fundamentally different as to be beyond your imagination in its whiteness. You could visualise a white light, its quality would be different, the whiteness of the visualised light is different from that. In fact, there's a very interesting observation one can make. As you shift levels of consciousness, as you go up, the quality of light itself becomes more clear, pure, vivid, intense, magically Divine as something which you could not conceive of and often by familiarity in the quality of light one can recognize what is the level at which we are, especially when you are in a in the subtle body for example, where again you are associating experiences with forms, it's the quality which will distinguish the grade. So this is just to say that just because you have visualised a white light does not make it Spiritual. I remember when in one of the centres in another city, they had a lot of excitation around somebody who was teaching pranic healing and he had no idea of what he was talking about other than what he had been trained by his system and he was just repeating what he had been trained and somebody in the meeting said, ‘oh, I saw a white light in my concentration’ and he said, yes, yes, and they asked, is it Mother's light? He said, yes, the white light is Mother's light. Visualise white light, it is Mother's light, it's the same thing, he said. No, it's not the same thing. Even on a very physical level, you switch on white light, is it Mother's light? If you switch on a white light on the vital plane, is it Mother's light? Obviously not. It's the same logic. What comes from her, yes, has a pure white and that's why you'll find the description Sri Aurobindo gives is a diamond white. Now you'd ask what makes it diamond white? What is colour of diamond? Think about it. It's not a colour, it's transparency. A pure transparency and yet it is a brilliant white, purely transparent. Consider instead what would be a white in the physical plane. White would cover, it'll be like a foggy white. Everything is white, you have a white out, it's as if you can imagine a fog all around. If it became transparent you wouldn't see white light. You would see light only when it reflects off something. So to surround yourself with a physical white light would require you to conceive of or cloud yourself with some substance. And as you go higher up it becomes completely transparent and yet brilliant white. This is just to give you an idea of the differences but the point is these are different and they represent qualities of consciousness as colours but as you go up the gradations move to the pure power of consciousness itself and the colour becomes secondary, it's the way we register it or which corresponds to the experience in a physical plane.
Significance of this kind of imagination? Not so important but utility for producing effects in the vital or mental planes, yes these have any utility. In terms of Spiritual experience when an experience is had and there is a corresponding sense of colour it would only indicate certain gradations. When you read Savitri, Sri Aurobindo describes in great detail the qualities of consciousness and then with it a certain hint of the tone or colour and it's interesting to notice that. I think that covers broadly the question
Alina (0:38:21):
Shall we move forward?
[Sraddhalu] Yes, yes, we can do that.
So we have two questions from Trinetta and Vachasvati about techniques and methods. Trinetta is writing: “In the videos, Evenings with Sraddhalu, part 25, What is Yoga and What is Not Yoga? There was mention of methods taught by Sri Aurobindo. Can you please explain about the direct method taught by Sri Aurobindo and how to incorporate that method in common Spiritual practices like puja, mantra, japa, etc.”. Vachasvati is writing, “can you please share with us some techniques, methods that you yourself have discovered or learned from Sri Aurobindo, Mother and MP Pandit. Sri Aurobindo calls it self-development. Can you please elaborate on it?”.
Sraddhalu (0:39:30):
So we have spoken earlier of a method which is more direct, not bound to techniques, not bound to processes and that is what Sri Aurobindo recommends generally in the Integral Yoga as well as in his letters. And this phrase, ‘direct method’, I somehow had a recollection of having read it in Sri Aurobindo but I could never find it later. So perhaps he has used the word direct but not with method but with something else. But the idea is this, the moment you, for example repeat a name, your goal through the name repetition is to concentrate on that which is behind the name. If you directly focus on that which is behind the name, then the name is superfluous. Same with the form. You can focus directly on an experience and enter it, recall it and enter it, that's all you need to do. You don't need any intermediate process. So a few observations around this before we proceed with how it is actually to be used. When Sri Aurobindo began the series of his articles that appeared in the Arya, it was a very interesting goal that he set. It is something which is, for those of you who have the time, I would highly recommend for you to read the issues or the articles in the Arya as he wrote them initially, and there's a certain I would say power, intensity and a very practical rhythmic unfoldment of his energy as he leads you through things. He is at the same time writing four books and you'll feel a connection across all four. The aspiration on one side and then he is writing in the Secret of the Veda about Agni, here the Synthesis of Yoga as well as the Isho Upanishad and you'll see how they link with each other. And they awaken in you as if the whole aspiration and the turn and change step by step in each of the issues, one more step.
But when he first wrote in the Arya, there is the objectives, he writes. First object, a systematic study of the highest problems of existence and you see this of course in the Life Divine which also began at that point but of course in the other three books. Later two more were added by the way. So he was writing six books at a time. The second goal, second objective, the formation of a vast synthesis of knowledge, harmonising the diverse religious traditions of humanity Occidental as well as Oriental. Its method will be that of a realism at once rational and transcendental. A realism consisting in the unification of intellectual and scientific disciplines with those of intuitive experience. Very interesting. Realism which is rational and transcendental. So, it's not going to be a reductionist, it will exceed reasoning but also present rationally that which transcends. But also he says unification of intellectual, scientific and intuitive. The thought and the scientific is much more material, direct experience of the material kind and then there is intuitive. There is somewhere else in the Life Divine he writes how there are three kinds of evidence. There's the direct evidence of I have experienced it. There's the logical evidence. If this is the case, there's a chain. This is inevitable. This is true. And the third which is the intuitive. And in the intuitive experience, you are often more accurate than the other two. For example, what is meant by intuitive experience? Do you know that you exist? Simple question. Answer, yes of course. How do you know that you exist? I experience it. And this experience is not a physical experience, it is not a logical experience, it is an intuitive experience because you are one with what you experience and if somebody says, yeah but that's just a formation of your brain waves giving you the illusion that you exist, so that's the logic which comes from the science, the physical science and the logic of the physical science and you say, ‘wow yeah, that makes a lot of sense. wonderful your biology is wonderful, your neuroscience is wonderful’, but the intuition says ‘but I exist, I'm not just a product of brain waves. I know’ and so this direct experience which comes in the intuitive knowing is often more reliable than the other two but these are the three and it is very interesting that he actually says the goal will cover all three and you will see he lives up to his promise in all of his writings which appear then.
Sraddhalu (0:45:00):
Then he writes, “this review will also serve as an organ for the various groups and societies founded on its inspiration and the review will publish synthetic studies in speculative philosophy, translations and commentaries of ancient texts, studies in comparative religion and”, then last comes, “practical methods of inner culture and self-development”. Now this is the interesting thing - practical methods of inner culture and self-development. Equally in the Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo writes that we will later give you also, we will discuss many methods. This is used as an attack on Sri Aurobindo to say he promised that but he never gave any methods. I've heard this coming from many of the academics who of course repeat each other. None of them had actually read all of Sri Aurobindo's writings. They are just following some other texts they have read written by somebody who criticises Sri Aurobindo on it including even people who have published from the ashram and I had some academic coming to interview me and say how do you respond to this accusation of Sri Aurobindo? I said, have you bothered to read? She said no. I said, the only person who's saying it is X and he is saying it with a mischievous intent. She said, yeah that's true, it's only X who's saying it. In fact, in fact when you read Sri Aurobindo, you find it full of these. But, and this is an interesting thing, Sri Aurobindo himself explains why he does not reduce the whole discussion to merely forms of practice. And this I must read because this is in the second year, when he starts the second year of the Arya. He says, “First preoccupation in the Arya has therefore been the deepest thought that we could command on the philosophical foundation of the problem and he explains all that. Our second preoccupation has been with the psychological disciplines of yoga but here also we have been obliged to concern ourselves with a deep study of the principles underlying the methods rather than with the popular statement of methods and disciplines”. He is telling you this - We have been obliged not to just give popular, here are so many methods from various disciplines. No. We have gone to the disciplines, the principles behind those methods. And you tell me which is more valuable. If you gave me a list of 20 methods, oh this is from this system, that is from that system, here's a method I've invented, you use the method, maybe you get a result, someone says, yeah but I get the same result with another method, or I use the same method I get a different result. What does it mean, how does it work? I don't know. It's just a series of methods given, it has very little value.
Instead what he's giving you is deep study of the principles underlying the methods. Now if you have that, you can create your own method. Once you have understood the principles behind the methods, you can not only create your own method, you can modify your method as it suits each individual need or situation. So to continue with the text, “We have been obliged to concern ourselves with a deep study of the principles underlying the methods rather than with a popular statement of methods and disciplines”. But without this previous study of principles, the statement of methods would have been unsound and not really helpful. If you have not understood the principles behind, then your methods will be on shaky grounds and you can see why not helpful and he says, “There are no shortcuts to an integral perfection”. So this is his own explanation one year down as he continued with the Arya. And of course as you know he continued I think in all seven years but this is to say that those who criticise saying he has not given enough methods are deliberately obfuscating. In reality, once you understand how he presents it and I'll speak about this direct method shortly, you realise all of his writings are full of the methods. Not the form of technique but the method behind and the principle behind. And in a series, when placed like this with a clear understanding, you read and either you begin already to flow into the experience or you know exactly what you need to do to enter the experience because he's speaking on that level.
Sraddhalu (0:49:50):
So now we come to understanding this. How how does a technique lead to an outcome? Why does repeating a name or a mantra give you a certain result? Tell me. Think about it. Somebody tells you here's a Gayathri mantra, repeat it so many times. I was once in in the Indian Navy, we had gone for some training program and because we spoke of things which were Spiritual, it was a little new for the people. And then one of the commanders, he was a commander, well he was taking us around and he said, you know people here don't like to talk about it but i have experienced it myself. And then he gave an example. He wanted a certain promotion and it was not happening and so somebody had told him to do the Gayathri Mantra and he said, every day I chanted 108 times the Gayathri Mantra and in a very short time I got my promotion. Somebody else does the same Gayathri Mantra chanting 108 times to get money. Somebody else does it for somebody who is, some relative who is sick to get healed. The exact same method giving totally different results. If you're doing it to heal somebody and instead you get money or you get a promotion, you'll say, hey that didn't work. Isn't it? So what determined that the energy of 108 chants led to healing and not promotion or money or something else or maybe a Spiritual experience. So now when you think about it like this, you realise it's not the 108 and the Gayatri, but the direction my mind set. Isn't it?
Now while I'm doing my 108 chants, let's say I'm going da-da-dum, da-da-dum, and I'm counting. So people normally use, it's interesting, each finger has, well let's say, 4 points, so you go 16, so it's an easy way without having too many beads you count 16, one cycle is 16, and so you're busy going da-da-dum-da-da-dum-da-da-dum-da-da-dum-da-da-dum-da-dum and then where's your mind? I'm thinking of the next thing I have to do or my count oh another, I have to go or meanwhile somebody is making some noise and I look. So why do I get that result because my mind was all over the place. Think about it. Most of us cannot hold attention and yet we are getting that particular outcome. When did that outcome get decided? What held it while my mind was wandering doing the hundred and eight of this Gayathri mantra? Oh and by the way in case you say that it is because of the particular nuance of the power of the sound itself magically, well I will get you somebody who comes from a very different culture with a totally different accent which is often the case in Europe. I find in many other languages there's no difference between eh and ah. So you say mAya or you say ma(_)ya, it's all maya. So the meaning is totally different, ma(_)ya will be, by me, I offer this and mAya would be translated in the meaning as this is an illusion. A completely different meaning.
So if you say it is the power of the sound, then by the way, you have made a complete mess of the meaning and you should be getting chaotic results, right? Elephants appearing in midair or something. I'm joking but the point is it's not the pronunciation either, it's not the sound either. What is holding it and where did the intention come while my mind was wandering? So think about this, it's a profound idea. Well before I start my 108th chant, I have this intense compulsion. I want this relative friend of mine to be healed who is in great distress or in danger of life. I need this promotion. I need this money. I need this breakthrough in my Spiritual experience. Need is the one common feature in all this variation. If instead of having that intensity you said hey let me try this, let me have some fun, let me do 108 chants every day and okay, what would I like to have? Hmm maybe I want to have such and such an outcome. Think about what that means. I want to have an outcome that maybe it should rain on after 10 days. Casually, just like that for fun. And you do your 108. If your mind is wondering, I'm sure nothing much will happen. If you do it with persistent focus of intention, it has to rain on that 10th day or it has to not rain whatever it is the outcome and you hold that focus while you're doing your 108 you will probably get that outcome. Probably, because it's not you only, there are many, 20 other people who are doing their own chants for their own outcome, isn't it? Somebody has a wedding they don't want to rain whereas you want to rain and you'll have a collision of powers on an occult level. This also happens.
Sraddhalu (0:55:38):
If you don't mind a bit of a digression, because it will be a fun interesting experience:
Some of our friends from the ashram school had once gone on a picnic in midsummer in the Nilgiri Hills and somehow that day when it was supposed to be sunny it was raining so their picnic was ruined and they sat down waiting. There was no sign of the Sun coming. Then somebody remembered, oh by the way, Mother has given us a mantra, which we were taught as children to stop rain. Let's chant. Okay, there's nothing else to do. So they sat and chanted. And after a while, the rain stopped. And after a while, the cloud cleared. And there was bright Sun. They enjoyed their picnic. On the way back, they asked in the local village, it is a summer time, how is it that there was rain? And the villagers said, this morning we did a rain dance to call rain for our crops. Interesting idea. So somebody does a prayer for rain, somebody does a prayer to end the rain. Of course, both worked, but they got sequenced. So it's not just that your effort with your mantra is getting a result, it's one of the many forces but it can be a pretty strong force. So where is it coming from? The sustained intense focus of your purpose is your starting point and I'm going to reduce this now to a few words - intensity of your need which makes for a call, intensity of your desire, intensity of your aspiration, now they are all aligned. I am using different words but you can see the common feature. There is a need, there is a want. It can happen on many levels. It can be a thought need, emotional need, physical need or even a deep Spiritual soul need and you are just changing words. But basically it is all something within you reaching out, calling with intensity for a certain outcome. Now if that intensity was there at the beginning and now I start doing my 108 and maybe I miss my count. I count wrongly, it becomes 107 or 109 will it make a difference? Not at all. If that 108 was reduced to 21 or 7 or 3, would it matter? Perhaps it would matter in the content of energy buildup, if you wanted a particular energetic push. So you repeat more, you have more gathered energy. But think about it. If I repeat more, but with mind distracted and no emotional content, I'm not putting much energy per repetition. But if I repeat less with full attention of energy and thought, I might get the same result as a repetition of 10 times more with less concentration. This finally is an energy outcome.
So, first is a direction of intent. And I will use the word most generic aspiration, into it a certain energetic content and the thought intention of where is guiding, what is the particular outcome required, the form in which you want that outcome. So there's a thought content, an emotional or energetic content, and then there's the overall sense of the aspiration and need. Think about that. The mantra itself may or may not matter. If the wording has a meaning aligned to your purpose, wonderful. If the wording has a meaning which you misunderstood, it wouldn't matter. Oh, I did this mantra instead of that, but I thought this was the correct mantra for this meaning. No, I mixed up my papers because I don't know Sanskrit. I mixed up two papers and I mixed up which mantra it was. But my intent was the same. I got that outcome. So even the form of the mantra is not so critical. Though it can have a useful purpose to have the correct mantra if already in the mantra form an energy has been infused. Now this is often done in certain Spiritual traditions. At the time of initiation, the Guru whispers in your ear a particular mantra. Now it's a mantra known to everybody. You've read it many times. Others have spoken it before you. But when he gives it to you, you are told not to repeat it. Because in repeating, you might lose the power. So what he is giving is not the mantra, but the power behind the mantra. Think about it. And when you repeat the mantra, it's like a switch activating that power. Now let's cut through that also. The Mother gives you a blessing packet or a rose or a blessing of an energy. Now the energy fills you. You don't have a word. You pick up a blessing packet, you remember her and it activates. So the physical form of the blessing packet is only a symbol of the energetic or Spiritual content of the force given. Or the blessing on your body directly is the content of the force given, which is being activated by your call and your intent to activate the energy. Or you feel her energy and activate. Think about it. Discard all the forms. The goal of all this going into this analysis is - deliberately remove the layers of phenomena to go to the core of the process, what makes it effective and then we'll come to the direct method and we will formulate it also.
Sraddhalu (1:01:36):
So now our friend who is doing 108 japas, you realise his pronunciation is not important, the number is not critical, the mantra itself is not important as long as he feels it is giving him the or it aligns to his purpose. The intensity of his call, the form of thought or outcome that the mind gives, the energetic content that is infused in it. If you remember there's a very interesting comment of the Mother where she describes how to pray and she says ideally the prayer has to rise from the psychic, from the soul, but it can come from the mind or emotions also but ideally from the deepest and then she says it has to arise on a crest of emotion and must have a clarity of thought, the form in which you want the outcome. That's when the prayer is most well, pointedly result oriented. You could of course make a very general prayer - what thou willest, and you make an offering and then say whatever comes I accept, but I want you to intervene in this situation, that's the nature of the call. One could do that, but ideally one would have these three components. Now you see what's happening here - in the use of the mantra all three components were there for its effectivity and as I said into this you could have used the mantra given by the guru which has already a certain energetic or Spiritual content which you are activating to assist. It would only add a booster. Would be especially useful if there was a Spiritual content required. Discarding everything else, reducing to these three, what could you do? You sit down, feel the intensity of the aspiration, put the whole of yourself, your energy, your sense of purpose, your life direction and with your mind conceive of the outcome that you wish and something is needed to fix it in matter and that's it, it is released. This is at the core of the whole exercise. Now the person can pronounce badly, can speak loudly, softly, all those will make fine variations on qualitative things, but not fundamental change.
So what made it effective were these three things. The mind form is specifically to an outcome. Life energy form is energising let's say the thought form and intensity of your call. Now if you, as long as you were in an occult action you need these. If you want to go beyond mind into a Spiritual experience, the mind form is not useful, in fact it might interfere, but the sense of the idea, experience of the divine freedom, an experience of the Self, an immersion in the knowledge, omniscience, or an experience of a consciousness liberated into the intuition, or in the Spiritual light, or love, or just being close in Mother's presence. The sense of the idea, the idea is as if a gateway giving a direction. The emotional content, not the excitation that's not going to be useful again that will cloud, instead a pure opening of the heart in a self-giving or love or devotion, yes that is useful. But centrally it will be the call of the psychic aspiration, yes this is what I want. Now comes the part which makes this most effective. I want this but I also want that and that and that, oh and I forgot, I also want the other. Now imagine if you did this with the mantra, yes I want my promotion and I want the money then I want my child to have his exam good results and this and this… what happens? the energy fritters, you lose the focus. So the focusing of the intensity of purpose is of course essential and all the more when it is a Spiritual goal. So you turn to this experience and at that moment, the power of concentration which is remember what Sri Aurobindo explains, the three things that concentration does, it can give you specific knowledge, it can give you specific capacities, and it can lead to identification and this is what we are aiming at - identification in the experience. So at that point concentration has to become total, all else has to be as if fade away, forget and you are nothing except this one-pointed focus and at the moment where you forget yourself, you have the identification and the experience is had. Think about it now.
Sraddhalu (1:06:52):
What do you need to get to that? You don't need words. You don't need images. You don't need forms. You don't need rituals, no bells, no flowers, nothing. Where do you need to do it? Doesn't matter. How often? Not important. The state of focus, concentration of aspiration, heart’s self-giving perhaps with love and devotion, mind’s turn to sense of purpose or direction but not fixed in form, rather an entry point to open into experience, that's it. But a sustained concentration and a total concentration ideally. Now this whole thing, aspiration with an intention, you could describe with one word perhaps - either aspiration or will. But there's this other thing when the mind turns, when the heart turns or when the soul aspiration points to, what is it pointing to? How do you know what it is you're seeking? Think about it. Somebody tells you, I want to draw a Stegosaurus. What's a Stegosaurus? I don't know, it's one of those creatures from the dinosaur group. Do you think you could draw a Stegosaurus? Unless you already knew what it is you cannot know what it is, isn't it? So when you speak of Sivine love, I want to experience the immersion in the Mother's love, how can you conceive of something if you don't already know it? Unlike Stegosaurus or if I tell you in some other word in a totally different language that you don't know, let's say in a Zulu language, I'm going to use the word for a particular animal and say, would you like to have that, you would say, I don't even know what it is. But when you conceive of this, when you think of the Divine Mother and the Divine Love or just the Divine Mother, how do you know who she is, how do you know what it is you're seeking? I know. So here's the interesting thing and when it comes to Spiritual experience this is the key - something within you already knows that which you are seeking otherwise you would not be seeking it.
I am going to put it in another way. In a very human experience all of us as teenagers have dreamt of perfect love, perhaps somebody somewhere will, I can experience true love, true self-giving. What's that like? You read Romeo and Juliet or some of these very beautiful stories of some kind of an ideal love and it resonates. Something inside you recognizes. How did you know that you never experienced it? And probably nobody in history has really experienced it fully. How did you know that? Something in you already knew what it could be like, but not in form because you don't even know what, you cannot describe it, but yet you know what it's like and you know that you'll recognize it when you find it. Think about what that means. That means something in you already knows it but it is not bound to form, in other words something in you knows it because it is already that in essence. Because the psychic presence within you is essential, pure love. You feel, conceive, imagine, sense, idealise some kind of love out there. And you know you will recognize it because it will resonate with something which you already knew, but that which you knew was not in form. So you don't know in what form it will appear. Think about it. And it's the same thing when it comes to the deeper Spiritual experiences. When you feel the call, something in you knows, yes, it's possible. Something in you wants, because it already is and you know, you will recognize it, you know, you will only be satisfied when you have it. Why? because you're already it in essence in some part. Now I will quickly come down to a vocabulary term, which I would have normally avoided but your psychic being is already in essence knows that which you are seeking, because it is already that or rather it's an emanation from that. It is literally like a drop of the Satchitananda that has entered into this experience of form and space and time. And so it knows that, it has the familiarity of that experience and it has the vague memory of that which is lost and the sense that I have to find it and I know I will know when I reach it. But in that act of knowing there is already a sense of direction and of course it's not a physical direction, it's a direction in quality of consciousness - this is too crude, it is something more refined, something more beautiful, more true, more lasting. You know the direction. So now we come to two things. This turn of the call, aspiration, will and the other side which is a deep knowing of what it is that you want which because it is already that knows also to concentrate on that. There you have it, that's what is at the core of it which makes effective any experience, any method, any technique. Something within you that already knows and then something within which turns to reach in aspiration or will. These two together make for the result.
Sraddhalu (1:13:10):
Now, Sri Aurobindo uses, explains this with words which are more technical and I will read from that. This is from the Synthesis of Yoga where he explains this. So, this is from the Synthesis of Yoga, where, I will read from a portion here: “The eventual omnipotence of tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the idea are the very foundation of all yoga”. Before this he is explaining that “When the Divine creates, when the Divine manifests, it is the Divine dwelling upon a possibility in concentration and intensity that is the tapas to a particular outcome, to a form, to an experience which is the idea. These are the means by which the divine manifests the whole universe”. So the tapas dwelling on its own potentiality and having an outcome inevitably. So the eventual omnipotence of tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the idea are the very foundation of all yoga union. Now he explains, in man we render these terms by will and faith. The tapas is the will, the faith is the idea of it. A will that is eventually self effective because it is of the substance of that knowledge and a faith that is the reflex in the lower consciousness of a truth or real idea yet unrealized in the manifestation. When you say I have a faith or I know that this is possible, it's because something within you already is but it's not yet manifested. In the lower part it is a reflection of something which is higher above waiting to manifest. So it is this self-certainty of the idea which is meant by the Gita when it says yo yach-chhraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ[1]. He translates, whatever is a man's faith or the sure idea in him, that he becomes. So here we have at the very core of all, the principle by which all techniques and methods work. There is a faith that is a surety within you that you already know and then there is the will which turns to actualize it and make it manifest.
If you did not have a certain faith you could not do something. Put it another way, if you had to jump across a big gap, let's say you are going trekking and there's a crack on the path and everyone has to jump. If you look down it's quite a deep fall. Try to jump. As long as you're thinking I will fall, you cannot jump. As long as you feel I cannot, I'm incapable of jumping, you cannot jump. It's only when something in you knows, ah this is nothing I can easily jump then you are able to do. You already know before you can do. The knowing, the innate faith and the will combining make for the result. In a sense before you have jumped you have already attained to the outcome and if you had not you could not jump. Translating this in a spiritual context, before you have a spiritual experience, something you already knows that this is, this is what I want or this is the direction at least, and the will or the aspiration turning towards that with the faith of what it knows makes for the experience. So now let's take a very practical example. You want to experience the Divine presence or the Divine Mother's love and what do you do? You feel within you where you already know the Divine presence or the Divine love. Turn in that part which already knows what it is and then concentrate in the immersion in it. And when all else fades away and only that remains, you touch the experience. It's at the core of it. Translate this into a method… You can make 10 different methods. I will use words. I will use images. I will use technique, physical movements, through dance, through song, through gymnastics. Into each of those methods, I can do 10 different techniques. If you are part of a system then already this particular core experience has been associated with a technique, so the technique works for you. In a different system that technique is associated with a different faith, so it gives you that resulting outcome. But what will make effective will still be the combination of these two. If you start with the doubt, is it going to work? Am I going to be able to do? Hmm, okay, let me try. I will repeat 20 times. No, it doesn't work. But if now the faith is strong and especially now, add a dimension of the mystery. The teacher tells you, this mantra I am revealing only to you. Nobody else knows it. If you repeat this in a sustained way, you will have this experience. Now the conviction that he has, he transmits to you. When he speaks those words, you feel, ah yes, it's going to happen. You have experienced the transmission of faith. Now when you repeat those words, irrespective of whether you understand what they are, well you will get that result. That's the transmission that has taken place. Think about it.
Sraddhalu (1:19:44):
When you are with somebody, let's say when you are sick, I am not going to get well, I am incapable. Somebody else comes and says,’ you can do it, you are so capable’, and perhaps they distract your mind or remind you of something, ‘yes of course I can do it, of course I will get well.’ The moment that conviction hits, the faith is awakened, you feel the shift taking place. Already you start feeling better or you are able to now do the thing. So you will find Sri Aurobindo gives great importance to this. We will develop this idea further in the next session. But for now, I'm going to pause just with this key principle that you will dwell upon. When you have a faith that something is possible and not a belief which is a mental construction but a deep innate knowing you are able to do it and it becomes true for you but when you don't have that faith or you have a negative faith, I know this is impossible then well you are actualizing the impossibility of it. Think about it. And this innate faith can be in many parts and it can be different in parts. In my mind, I know it's possible. But my body, unless I take this medicine, I will not get well. I know it. So and so doctor alone has to come or as little children, you go to your mom and say, please do your magic which you do and then I will get well and you actually feel the benefit of it because in the body is this conviction, if I drink that particular thing which I'm associated with having a cold in my childhood I know I will get well, that's the body's faith. So there are faith in many levels in different parts and sometimes they collide. My mind's faith, yes I know the Divine can heal me. My body's faith,’ oh, what is Divine? I don't know, I need that medicine’. They collide. So in the Sanskrit vocabulary, it will be shraddha and ashraddha, the negative faith. And they collide. In the spiritual journey, this happens all the time. Certain experiences begin to unfold and then the doubt comes, ‘what if? or is this really so?’, And the experience begins to fade but on the other hand if we dwell, ‘yes, yes, yes’, we build rapidly and in the will or the aspiration.
Now there is a key component in this which makes for the union. So you have a faith - this experience, this knowledge - ‘I know’, but the component which makes the breakthrough or the completion is when you have total immersion and all else is forgotten. As long as there is a counter faith or a negative faith or a doubt or layers, it prevents you. The concentration is what cuts through to make for the union. But this movement of joining with the goal can be done in two ways. It can be done by trying to reach out and seize which you can do for lower things but you can't for higher things because well you can't seize. You don't have hands which can reach into the higher levels of consciousness. Your thought cannot go into the higher ranges. What you can do is open yourself to that which you know and allow it to fill you and this becomes critical in the Spiritual movement not in the other actions. Mental, vital, physical - you don't need this. But for the Spiritual movement of opening to something higher or deeper, which is beyond your capacity, the opening to give and the allowing to fill is the only way by which you can experience the oneness with it. You concentrate, that only keeps the focus, makes possible the opening. But until you open and give, that cannot fill and join. So comes the principle of conscious self-giving surrender. I will see how in Sri Aurobindo's vocabulary this is reduced to, the form of the practice requires in three components. First, the intensity of the aspiration. And the more one-pointed, the more integrated, the easier the journey becomes. The second step is the rejection. All things which are contrary to that shraddha, the ashraddha and the negations and the distortions, you begin to remove. And then the third movement is the self-giving, which allows for that which is greater than you to fill you and make for the identification.
So you see, the key tools within you are your faith and will or aspiration. But the method itself is directing the aspiration with a rejection of the contrary faiths in a movement of self-giving and opening in surrender. This movement of opening is key to the Integral yoga. You can reach out and try to grab but you will always reduce to your capacity to hold. Even if you gain something greater, momentarily it will be cut and partial because of the very nature of the act of grabbing. You cannot grab with finite hands that which is infinite. Impossible. You'll only catch a finite piece of it, an aspect of it. But when you open and give yourself, that's when the infinite can fill you and dissolve your boundaries and give you the full experience of identity of the infinite. So this movement of opening and self-giving is critical and this movement of opening particularly is the easiest way to attain to that result. I remember once I went, I met somebody from a very different tradition where they would teach you to, you go to a sacred place and then you go, you suck energy as if you suck the consciousness and fill yourself and I saw them doing that and I felt very uncomfortable. So once I went to the Samadhi and I said, okay, what's it like to do that? And I tried to do that and it felt so weird. And all I did was to bind myself in my littleness. So this is not right. And then I just let go and opened up and oh, you just, you're filled with the presence far more than you could ever. I said, ah, yes, this is right. This feels good. The natural relationship of the psychic being is to open and give itself to the Divine Mother. That's the natural path and it is this way broadly what we have described, is the way that Sri Aurobindo has called the sunlit path.
Sraddhalu (1:26:37):
So the direct method is the principal means in the Integral yoga. You may of course utilise methods and techniques you may be sure derived from this. But if you are not conscious of these, well, that doesn't matter. If you are conscious of this, you don't need them. You can go directly from one experience to the next and build in this way. And now when you read Sri Aurobindo, you will see he describes this experience to this, to this, and these are the variations. And the whole path is actually given using the direct method. So I am going to pause here, think about this and allow this to assimilate, to sink in. If you like, review these discussions of the last few sessions, because these are extremely important. If you have not already made the correction which we discussed last time of the shift of an affirmative spirituality, life embracing, that seeks to find or manifest the Divine in the world, not withdraw from it that there is a fulfilment of the divine Satchitananda here to be manifested, to be realised and of course in the totality then all of these things perhaps become secondary and perhaps the methods are very simple to get out. But here when you take this approach, well everything else changes. Review these discussions, they are very important because after this as we move to specific experiences and the means to concentrate and develop those experiences, then it will be much more easy, if already there has been a readiness and preparation in this way.
So this is broadly what I had to say about in response to the question, the mention of the direct method and then of course the questioner had asked how to incorporate them in common spiritual practices like puja, mantra japa etc. I would say don't bother. If you can do it directly, do the direct experience. If you need to, if you still want to do those rituals, yes focus on the content, the core content which will fill the ritual with meaning and perhaps you won't need to do so many times and focus not on numbers but on the quality of experience that is done through the ritual. You may offer a single flower but with full concentration and it will have this juice of the experience and the deep meaning. You may repeat a mantra or a name but with full concentration in dwelling, in love, in devotion, in opening and self-giving and you have a very different kind of experience and it's very quickly the form of the mantra or the name will dissolve and the immersion in the experience will take place. So well yes, this is what we have learnt from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and the other things I will share as we go along, which also will develop this capacity and the nuances of the practices. I think this is broad enough as a first entry.
Alina (1:29:48):
It was a very complex session and we are looking forward to continue on this subject of practices. Thank you very much.
Sraddhalu (1:30:01):
Yes, and perhaps we can use this occasion to concentrate and especially to assimilate the things we have dwelt upon. Somewhere inside you, you will feel that you already know, you knew these things. It's not new. Something in you already knows the truth of it. Catch that movement, catch that deep knowledge and stay immersed in it and in an aspiration to the Divine Mother to fill us, to awaken in us the deeper aspiration and fill us with the knowledge and experience.
Sraddhalu (1:30:40):
Thank you.
[Alina] Thank you.
[Joel] Thank you.
[1] Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17 Verse 3