Correspondence 1934, May (II)

May 6, 1934

(…) As for his writing his poetry from the vital, he does it because it is his nature. He has been all his life the vital and sensational man, even his experiences and manner of seeking have been of that plane. That does not mean that he cannot do Yoga — many who are accounted great yogis never rise beyond that plane — but here it is not sufficient — even if the vital were to remain the leader, it would not be safe. He must make an outlet for his psychic being to manifest or at least to enlighten and purify this vital from behind so that to rise to a higher Consciousness will be no longer too difficult. How he is to do it I cannot tell him. If he has the sincere sincerity (not merely the vital eagerness) he will find the way.

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May 8, 1934

Mother knew nothing about the occurrence regarding Nishikanta. Nolini acted on his own initiative, assuming I suppose that since he was allowed to come only once a week, he could not come two days running without express sanction.

But why allow anything to come in the way between you and the Divine, any idea, any incident; when you are in full aspiration and joy, let nothing count, nothing be of any importance except the Divine and your aspiration. If one wants the Divine quickly, absolutely, entirely, that must be the spirit of approach, absolute, all-engrossing, making that the one point with which nothing else must interfere.

What value have mental ideas about the Divine, ideas about what he should be, how he should act, how he should not act — they can only come in the way. Only the Divine Himself matters. When your consciousness embraces the Divine, then you can know what the Divine is, not before. Krishna is Krishna, one does not care what he did or did not do, only to see Him, meet Him, feel the Light, the Presence, the Love, the Ananda is what matters. So it is always for the spiritual aspirations — it is the law of the spiritual life.

Don’t waste time any longer in these ideas of the mind or in any starts of the vital — blow these clouds away. Keep fixed on the one thing indispensable.

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May 8, 1934

I should like to say something about the Divine Grace — for you seem to think it should be something like a Divine Reason acting upon lines not very different from those of human intelligence. But it is not that. Also it is not a universal Divine Compassion either acting impartially on all who approach it and acceding to all prayers. It does not select the righteous and reject the sinner. The Divine Grace came to aid Saul of Tarsus the persecutor, to St. Augustine the profligate, to Jagai and Madhai of infamous fame, to Bilwamangal and many others whose conversion might well scandalise the Puritanism of the human moral intelligence. But it can come to the righteous also — curing them of their self-righteousness and leading to a purer consciousness beyond these things. It is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law — for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate — only it has a discrimination of its own which sees things and persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than that of the Mind or any other normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in the individual often behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when the state of Grace comes then the Grace itself acts. There are these three powers: (1) The Cosmic Law of Karma or what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and giving them their chance; (3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also more irresistibly than the others. The only question is whether there is something behind all the anomalies of life which can respond to the call and open itself with whatever difficulty till it is ready for the illumination of the Divine Grace — and that something must be not a mental and vital movement but an inner somewhat which can well be seen by the inner eye. If it is there and when it becomes active in front, then the Compassion can act, though the full action of the Grace may still wait attending the decisive decision or change, for this may be postponed to a future hour, because some portion or element of the being may still come between, something that is not yet ready to receive.

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May 20, 1934

If I have to answer fully all the points in your long letter, I fear it will take me until Doomsday — though that, according to some calculation is not far off. I will try to do it in a comparatively brief and unsatisfactory way. I have indeed written a good deal already. But as it may take me time to finish, I send an interim note.

I do not know why you should be suddenly bewildered by what I wrote — it is nothing new and we have been saying it since a whole eternity. I wrote this short answer in reference to a question which supposed that certain “perfections” must be demanded of the Divine Manifestation which seemed to me quite irrelevant to the reality. I put forward two propositions which appear to me indisputable unless we are to reverse all spiritual knowledge in favour of modern European ideas about things.

First, the Divine Manifestation even when it manifests in mental and human ways has behind it a consciousness greater than the mind and not bound by the petty mental and moral conventions of this very ignorant human race — so that to impose these standards on the Divine is to try to do what is irrational and impossible. Secondly this Divine Consciousness behind the apparent personality is concerned with only two things in a fundamental way — the Truth above and here below the Lila and the purpose of the incarnation or manifestation and it does what is necessary for that in the way its greater than human consciousness sees like the necessary and intended way. I shall try if I can develop that when I write about it — perhaps I shall take your remarks about Rama and Krishna as the starting point — but that I shall see hereafter.

But I do not understand how all that can prevent me from answering mental questions. On my own showing, if it is necessary for the divine purpose, it has to be done. Ramakrishna himself whom you quote for a capability of asking questions answered thousands of questions, I believe. But the answers must be such as Ramakrishna gave and such as I try to give, answers from a higher spiritual experience, from a deeper source of knowledge and not lucubrations of the logical intellect trying to co-ordinate its ignorance; still less can there be a placing of the Divine or the Divine Truth before the judgment of the intellect to be condemned or acquitted by that authority — for the authority here has no sufficient jurisdiction or competence. This also I shall try to explain — it is what I have started to do in a longer letter.

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May 21, 1934

What astonished me in the review in Parichay[1] was that they should have given the book for criticism to someone who evidently has very little knowledge of poetry. Such reviewers have always a tendency to condemn and belittle so as to justify to themselves their claim to criticise.

These disappointments from friends can all the same be steps to a deeper source of happiness — when there is in the psychic being an aspiration for the Divine. Even if the steps are painful the end they lead to is, as one afterwards finds, well worth the cost.

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[1] Parichay: a Bengali magazine.