“Our Yoga” – Nolini Kanta Gupta

There is much expectation all around of a big change. But what is this change? What is its nature?

This great change is the appearance on earth of a new race, a race which will be for man what man is for the animal. Perhaps the difference between the new race and the present man will be even greater. In fact, this race is ready to appear on earth: it is preparing the ground for itself; it is there on the subtle physical plane and is acting upon the earth to prepare for its own materialisation. It is acting at the same time on man, and all those who are fit and open to its influence are being illumined by it.

Anyway, the advent of this new race is inevitable. It is decreed by the Supreme.

***

The first requisite on the spiritual path is aspiration. One knocks at the gate of spiritual life because one aspires for it. It is the aspiration, the will in the seeker, the yearning of his soul for the Divine that pushes him forward and carries him on the difficult path of yoga.

To aspire means to yearn for something, to yearn for something higher or for the highest something, the Divine. But the nature of this aspiration depends on its source, on the level of consciousness from which it comes. It may be a mental aspiration, a seeking of the mind. Or it may be a vital aspiration, a yearning of the emotional part of the being for something truer and more permanent. It may even be a physical aspiration — an aspiration for beauty and perfection, for permanence and immortality. And it may be a psychic aspiration, the will of the inmost soul trying to express itself.

In fact the other aspirations are only reflections of this inmost psychic yearning. It is this which can carry one through, up to the end, and it is this which can harmonise the other aspirations and unite them in a synthesis. In the synthesis also there may be different degrees. But on the whole it is the psychic that is the leader of the path, the true force and guide on the Way.

***

In our Yoga, work is an indispensable means of sadhana. In truth life means action; one cannot do without it. But when you consciously offer your work to the Divine, when you do it as a service to the Divine, the work changes its character: it becomes an offering. Then the work in itself, the nature of the work matters no more: it is your attitude, the spirit behind your work, the state of your consciousness, the way you do it, the effort you put in to perfect it, that becomes important.

And there may be two types of work. In the beginning, whatever work comes to you, you do it for the Divine; you do not make any distinction between this work or that work: you do it in the way of the Gita, without ego, with a disinterested attitude, with a spirit of dedication.

But then there is another type of work, a work that is the expression of your being, a work for which you are destined, which is the mission of your life. The work that comes out of the demand of your soul is the real expression of your inmost life, and it may not be like anything you are doing at present. A mathematician may blossom into a poet; a dreaming poet may suddenly become a severe man of action. These are not rare phenomena. One starts from the first type and arrives at the second.

Published April 1983