Sri Aurobindo "Yogic Sadhan"
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Feb 15, 2018
Alfredo 5 years ago
In 1911, after finding refuge in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo wrote this "Yogic Sadhan". It gives a glimpse into the mind of a unique yogi. Here is the introduction:
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"The proper course of the sadhana is just the opposite of the thing most people do and you have also done. People begin with the body and the prana, go on to the chitta and the manas, and finish up with the buddhi and the Will. The real course is to start with the Will and finish with the body. There is no need of asana, pranayama, kumbhaka, chittasuddhi, or anything else preparatory or preliminary if one starts with the Will. That was what Sri Ramakrishna came to show so far as Yoga is concerned. “Do the Shakti upasana first”, he said, “get Shakti and She will give you sat”. Will and Shakti are the first means necessary to the Yogin. That was why he said always, “Remember you are Brahman”, and he gave that as a central message to Swami Vivekananda. You are Ishwara. If you choose, you can be suddha, siddha and everything else, or, if you choose, you can be just the opposite. The first necessity is to believe in yourself, the second in God and the third to believe in Kali; for these things make up the world. Educate the Will first, through the Will educate the jnanam, through the jnanam purify the chitta, control the prana and calm the manas. Through all these instruments immortalize the body. That is the real Yoga, the Mahapantha, that is the true and only Tantra. The Vedanta starts with buddhi, the Tantra with Shakti.
What the Will is you have heard. It is Shakti, it is not vasana, it is not cheshta. Vasana and cheshta are the negation of Will. If you have desire, that means you doubt the power of your Will. Brahman has no desire. He wills and all things happen according to his Will. If you have cheshta, that means you doubt your Will. Only those who feel or think they are not strong, struggle and labour to produce an effect. Brahman has no cheshta. He wills and His Will spontaneously produces its effect. But it produces it in time, space and causality. To demand a result now here and under given conditions is ajnanam. The time, space and causality of every event and its development have been fixed ages ago by yourself and Parameswara, when the kalpa began. It is ignorance to struggle and try to alter what you have yourself decreed. Care not about time, space or conditions, but Will, and leave the result to God who is your omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient self. You are the individual God and He is the universal God. Nothing but God exists – ekam evadwitiam. Therefore Will implies samata, absence of vasana and cheshta. Absence of vasana and cheshta implies knowledge. Until you have knowledge, you can never be safe against the return of vasana and cheshta.
The question is how to start. The Shakti is in you. Let her work and assist her by taking the right attitude. You are the sakshi, anumanta, bhokta, and bharta. As anumanta, give the command, as sakshi watch her work out the result, as bhokta enjoy the result and as bharta help her by maintaining the adhara. Do not ruin it by tamasic udasinata or rajasic revolt. Be sure your Will can never fail to act. You are the jnata: receive all knowledge that presents itself to you. Adopt the attitude I have described here and apply it to every individual act of the sadhana or of life. You have nothing else to do. Kali will do the rest. Be not troubled, be not anxious, be not in haste, you have all eternity before you, why be in haste? Only do not be tamasic or idly waste your time."
