Daily Questions

One of the purposes of rebirth is to experience the infinite on a finite basis. This is generally done by changing the outer circumstances of life. It means being born in different climes and circumstances of life.

Whether the same people will be born together or not depends upon whether they have the same aspiration and the travelers on the same path to the same goal. This is not very common and hence it has been rightly said that ‘children of the same family are rarely born under the same roof.’ In other words we have a physical family which is the family of our birth and it ceases with death of the body. Then there is a family formed by common interests and common thoughts. These may extend beyond one life.

But there is a spiritual family where the bonding and togetherness is due to the common spiritual aspiration. This is the true family and those who come together in this common aspiration generally come or meet together again and again in different lives.

What the Mother describes in the Agenda is not psychic realisation, not even the spiritualisation or the Supramental realisation. All these came much earlier and can be found in the Prayers and Meditations as well as Conversations. What She is describing in the Agenda is the supramental transformation of the cells.
But how did you draw the conclusion that the disciples did not write about the psychic and spiritual realisation? Please read the memoirs of Amrita, Kapali Sastry, Amal Kiran and others.

Yes, there are people even now who have had both psychic as well as spiritual realisations and the cosmic consciousness. Why should they disclose it to you or just about to anybody randomly? If you are sincere seek them out with humility, meet them as a humble seeker and they may share some of the special gems including the psychic realisation if they wish. But you can’t shove a mike on their faces like an inquisitive reporter and force them to disclose their experiences to you simply to satisfy an idle curiosity. These things are not shared like that. The Mother too did not share it publicly. It is after decades that some of Her realisations are freely and publicly available.

By the way how does it matter whether anyone realised anything or not. It is enough that one has the aspiration and has faith in Sri Aurobindo’s words and is thereby willing to undertake the journey even if none before him believed or walked. After all the merit of a spiritual possibility is not decided by a vote as to how many or who all experienced it as if a headmaster is asking students to raise hands and confirm. Your questions shows an approach that will get you nowhere as it smacks of vanity and arrogance rather than humility and seeking.

Yes, faith is a universal truth, it applies to all paths.

There are paths that move along very different lines and mixing them can create confusion. At the same time, certain lines converge, for example Vaishnava bhakti converges in certain ways with Sri Krishna. In general, there are three kinds of paths, very broadly so to say. Those that take us away from the creation as for example the Buddhist approach, those that assure us a dwelling in the Beyond after death such as certain dualist schools, and those that strive to make earth better such as the idea of Rama Rajya, Sri Krishna of the Gita and Sri Aurobindo.

There are common elements in them, and a seeker who knows the goal can pick up helpful elements from different systems such as mind control from the Buddhist system and Raja Yoga. So, a very strict water tight compartment does not exist. Often it can colour bhakti with the ego by thinking my guru is best or the only one and thereby stop progressing. Because it is not so much the human form of the guru but the Divine Presence in him.

One’s seeking may take one beyond the ‘physical guru’ which is not a mixing of faith but a change of the path or a heightening and widening of faith. What is however true is that the surrender has to be to one Guru whom one trusts or has faith in that he will take you to the goal. Assuming of course that the goal is clear because one is conscious of the core aspiration for true spiritual journey begins with that.

Marriage is not necessarily anti-spiritual but generally absorbs a lot of time and energy leaving a little for higher pursuits especially if the two people are not in sync with each other’s aspiration. As to sex, it is a normal and natural instinct which is supposed to serve the purpose of propagation of the species. However, the mind adds to it much perversity to enhance pleasure. In itself it is not a problem if one is seeking pleasure but as far as the spiritual life is concerned it keeps us tied to the gross and crude animal instincts and the excitement and unconsciousness that follows often opens doors to many negative forces that are inimical to a higher life. It keeps the energy tied to lower levels leaving little that could be available for higher ascension.

A progressive shift from the gross and crude to the subtle and the refined ways of life can be done through marriage or without it if one has the sincerity of aspiration. If this critical sincerity and aspiration is missing, merely living single and alone is not enough.

For most people it is perhaps better to go through the experience of human love and togetherness as taken rightly this itself can be a preparation for the spiritual life than staying away out of taboo or fear and guilt and incomprehension. No general rule can be therefore made for these things and each one must feel for oneself.

In each case the circumstances are different, however in a general way we can say that the choices we ought to make should not so much be based on their repercussions on others, not even on ourselves but on what we believe at that point to be true and our highest.

Such is the teaching of the Gita as well where Arjuna is caught in a similar situation inwardly though the context is different. Sri Krishna, the Divine Master bids him to consider neither what the results of this war shall be upon him personally nor upon other but to act from the state of a higher poise, the dharma, the calling at that moment.

Besides it is one thing to have an impact upon our nervous emotional and sensational being and quite another to have an impact upon our soul or our higher self. There are things that seem to have apparently a negative impact upon someone outwardly and yet it may be eventually the best thing that happened to his soul and his growth.

The ideal therefore is to do what you feel and think to be the true thing to do, the right thing from your highest present perspective, the beautiful movement that springs from some deeper inner self. But whatever you decide do it as an offering to God to whom alone the results belong.

The will, like any other part, can be developed like any other part by exercising it. Several exercises can be undertaken for developing the will. For example, a very simple exercise is just being regular and punctual. This simple practice develops the will and trains our nature to act in an organized manner.

Such simple practice can be to take a decision to read a passage from Sri Aurobindo every day at a fixed time and then stick to the decision regardless of whatever difficulty one meets on the way. Or if one has to wait for food or water because it is not ready or available, then instead of getting impatient and angry one practices inner calm until one has freed oneself from the acute pang of hunger and thirst. Or if one has decided to do something but one is feeling lazy doing it, may be taking a walk or reading something or sitting for meditation, one refuses to listen to the laziness and instead goes ahead and does what one must despite the tiredness. Similarly, if one feels an impulse rising within oneself which one is not meant to express then one holds on and holds out rather than giving in to the impulse. Or if one meets with various challenges or difficulties then instead of giving up, one keeps persevering with patience never giving up until one achieves the intended goal. By doing all this one slowly develops one’s will.

Yet there are limits to which human will can strive and strain itself. Therefore, what is advised is to supplement one’s individual human will by offering it to Her Will. This way one goes beyond the limits of one’s own will by joining to the limitless. These are some of the ways that one can augment the will and with practice and Grace strengthen it beyond one could imagine.

Q: I believe that there is no one path for all and that all faiths lead to the same One (Goal), isn’t it true? Then we should expand to enjoy and accept the unity in diversity.

Alokda: There is no one path that is true but not all paths lead to the same goal. What the Sanatan Dharma does say is that the Reality is One, the wise call it by different names, ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti and not, ekam lakshya nana pathanti.

The Sanatan Dharma does say that the Reality is one but it admits that in the unfolding Truth or Reality does appear differently. The admittance of this evolutionary principle, first of the immortal soul passing through death and rebirth and next, of the collective march of mankind, lokasangrahart, through the cycles and yugas and Avatars is the reason why the Sanatan Dharma has endured. That is how it allowed multiple approaches old and new or else it would have stopped with the Rishis of the Vedas.

Yes, one should not get stuck with mental gymnastics but equally one should not drop the mind. Else the entire beauty of the Gita revealing new truths through the questions of Arjuna would be an exercise in futility. In fact, to make general statements such as ‘all faiths lead to the One’, ‘law of Nature is all’, ‘expand the heart first’ is an example of dropping the mind rather than transcending it. The Sanatan Dharma bids us to ascend beyond the mind and then returning use the mind as an instrument of the Spirit. Sri Krishna even teaches the role of Buddhi, buddhi yoga, as the first step towards karma and bhakti.

Expanding the heart to include all is the straight road to self-destruction if one has not the wisdom or the vision of the One Divine in everything and knows His ways and different dealings with different people. It is in fact not heeding of this advice that has led to India’s fall. But people now-a-days seem to believe they are wiser than Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo, not to speak of the great teachings of the Vedas and Upanishads of which one has no idea because all is one and God is great and the hero defending the right and the cowardly robber and violent murderer are all same, law of nature, unity in diversity, call it whatever else.

Q:How the Divine was borne, who made him?

Alokda: The question can be best framed as ‘what is the origin of the Origin?’ Because ultimately that is where the answer will lead us finally. Also, when we use the word born, we are limiting the possibility and the process. Even when human beings are born there is a whole process that seems almost magical as one cell multiplies and differentiates and specialises driven by unseen forces till a body is formed. But the physical body is a gross form. What about thought and feelings. How are they formed and born, we may ask and it will be no less a mystery. All that we can say is that thought emerges out of some state as a vibration that takes the form of sound and then word. But how does the first vibration or first stir of creation emerge?

There must be ‘Something’ from which all emerges including Time and Space and Thoughts and Forms. In Itself THAT (whatever It is) would be beyond Time and Space, beyond Form, beyond Thought. So, we can say that IT is neither this nor this. But since IT must be in everything and everyone, we can equally say that IT is this as well as this other thing. Thus, we have at least two statuses of the Source, – one is that which is beyond everything and hence cannot be known by any instrument including our thoughts and mind. It would then be simply an Unknowable and hence whatever we may say about how It was born or came into existence would be speculation. On the other hand, since IT is in everything including us we can find it by a reverse concentration taking the support of a representative Idea or Name or Form and by going beyond these discover and become one with It. By thus identifying with the Divine or the Source we can know It or Him or Her depending on the angle of our approach. But how That came into existence would still be a mystery since we have gone beyond Time and Space. All that we can say is that IT is, IT always was and always will be. In other words, it is an Eternal Infinite that is ever unchanging even though it is the basis of every change.

Thus far thought can go and no further. Beyond this we have to go within and through yoga discover and identify and know. All that we can say is that while the whole universe is Its birth that itself is unborn or self-born, Ajanma, Swayambhu.

Q: My parents went through physical suffering before death, but after death their bodies looked beautiful, what could be the significance of that?

Alokda: Suffering during the final days of departure acts sometimes as a catharsis of much that was held back during the lifetime. It is a very good way to exhaust the burden of certain karmas, a kind of Grace that releases many karmic knots that prevent the soul’s advance. Some souls even choose it deliberately to take a leap in the inner progress. The awakened soul takes it as a purifying ordeal and it is this soul state, this inner beatitude that gets reflected in the body as long as the cellular life continues to linger after the physical departure.