Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

02. Synthetic Method and Integral Yoga

Fragment ID: 885

I may stress one point, however, that there need not be only one way to the realisation of the Divine. If one does not succeed or has not yet succeeded in reaching him, feeling him or seeing him by the established process of meditation or by processes like japa, yet one may have made progress towards it by the frequent calling of bhakti in the heart or a constantly greater enlargement of it in the consciousness or by work for the Divine and by dedication in service. You have certainly progressed in these directions, increased in devotion and shown your capacity for service. You have also tried to get rid of obstacles in your vital nature and so effect a purification not without success in several difficult directions. The path of surrender is indeed difficult, but if one perseveres in it with sincerity, there is bound to be some success and a partial overcoming or diminution of the ego which may help greatly a further advance upon the way. One must learn to go forward on the path of yoga, as the Gita insists, with a consciousness free from despondency – anirviṇṇacetasā. Even if one slips, one must rectify the posture; even if one falls, one has to rise and go undiscouraged on the Divine Way. The attitude must be:

“The Divine has promised Himself to me if I cleave to Him always; that I will never cease to do whatever may come.”