To break away from the age-old way of Ignorance, to gain the required momentum in order to break free, to attain that escape velocity and make the orbital change, from the surface existence to make the first move to the real existence is the tough part. But nothing can stop it if the time has come and the consent given. After that all we do is surrender more and more. Relive the strength of that experience in meditation and in wakefulness. Rekindle that truth in every contact and in every experience. Nothing is more important anymore than the growth and fulfillment of that experience. All in us and all outside now conspire to bring about the final and integral transformation. The process can be long or short, easy or arduous, it doesn’t really matter anymore, but the result is sure. All life becomes a passionate discovery and fulfillment of the Divine Will or Shakti.
“All here shall be one day Her sweetness’ home
All contraries prepare Her harmony.
Towards Her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes.
Her clasp will turn to ecstasy our pain,
Our self shall be one self with all through Her.”
“To be free from all preference and receive joyfully whatever comes from the Divine Will is not possible at first for any human being. What one should have at first is the constant idea that what the Divine wills is always for the best even when the mind does not see how it is so, to accept with resignation what one cannot yet accept with gladness and so to arrive at a calm equality which is not shaken even when on the surface there may be passing movements of a momentary reaction to outward happenings. If that is once firmly founded, the rest can come.”
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL, vol 22-23-24, p. 597
DISCUSSION QUESTION 4
What are some of the prerequisites and stages in the annihilation of the ego?
Response by Learner NJ
Even if the desire for fruits is given up, the sense of doer remains, it is still the ` I ' that chooses and determines. Entire removal of this separate ego sense is the purpose of our Yoga. One must understand that not only the fruit but the action also is his and one doing it is also just an instrument or a vessel, made and discarded, at His Will and Knowledge. This is not just to be done through thinking mind but must become entire consciousness and will. A sadhak must concretely feel this: to be aware of a force, a Presence, a Will that act through his nature.
There is a danger that one may mistake his ego or lower power for the Divine and so great sincerity and vigilance is demanded. A sadhak must make sufficient progress in developing attitudes such as desirelessness and equality, before giving the burden of his works to the Divine. Sadhak must take position of the Witness. Aloof from Prakriti, impersonal, dispassionate and watch it at work. As Bhagvad Gita says, nature works in triple quality: Light and good (Sattwa) passion and desire (Rajas) and obscurity and inertia (Tamas). The Witness (Sakshi) must be able to distinguish the action of the three, to see intricacy of maze, unseen processes and disguises. Thus he slowly becomes giver of sanctions from just an ignorant tool.
