To be an Instrument of the Divine

One must understand that it is not easy to be an instrument of the Divine. It needs a great purification and preparation of nature especially the growth of consciousness, plasticity, surrender and development of qualities such as sincerity, nishkama bhava, equanimity, faith and fidelity to the Divine Mother. One should harbour the notion that just by joining the Ashram or a centre or branch one automatically becomes the Mother’s instrument. Even when one is doing a work given directly by the Mother, still one needs to prepare oneself to be the instrument. Otherwise, one would simply be working under the stress of one’s ambition justifying it under the Mother’s name. That is what Sri Aurobindo reveals in this letter below.

If you want to be a true doer of divine works, your first aim must be to be totally free from all desire and self-regarding ego. All your life must be an offering and a sacrifice to the Supreme; your only object in action shall be to serve, to receive, to fulfil, to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her work s. You must grow in the divine consciousness till there is no difference between your will and hers, no motive except her impulsion in you, no action that is not her conscious action in you and through you.

Until you are capable of this complete dynamic identification, you have to regard yourself as a soul and body created for her service, one who does all for her sake. Even if the idea of the separate worker is strong in you and you feel that it is you who do the act, yet it must be done for her. All stress of egoistic choice, all hankering after personal pr of it, all stipulation of self-regarding desire must be extirpated from the nature. There must be no demand for fruit and no seeking for reward; the only fruit for you is the pleasure of the Divine Mother and the fulfilment of her work, your only reward a constant progression in divine consciousness and calm and strength and bliss. The joy of service and the joy of inner growth through works is the sufficient recompense for the selfless worker.

Towards this end of purification and preparation which may be long or short depending upon the sincerity. Any work, from the most menial to the most intellectual, from sweeping the streets to administering a nation, even the simple acts of brushing the teeth, bathing, dressing, can be of help in this regard if we do it in the true spirit of Karma Yoga. When through this practice, we are confirmed in equanimity towards heat and cold, riches or rags, praise or insult, then we may be getting ready for truly being a divine instrument. Once we have arrived at this stage it is then that She may use our being thus prepared for being Her conscious instrument. But then it is She who will decide what we shall do and what place we must occupy. We shall know it as a certitude within our soul and the joy of the service on its execution. Another sign that the attitude and the work is right by the fact that we shall receive the knowledge and the power needed to execute it.

It is always good to remain open and plastic to Her touch rather than fixing the work by our mental ideas about it. Indeed, the whole universe is Her instrument, the only difference being whether one is conscious or not.