|
Chapter 2
The Divine
The Divine is that from which all comes, in which all lives, and to return to the truth of the Divine
now clouded over by Ignorance is the soul’s aim in life. In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute
and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.
SRI AUROBINDO
The Divine has three aspects for us:
1. It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and
in which all is manifested in the universe – although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.
2. It is the Spirit and Master of our own being within us whom we have to serve and learn to express
his will in all our movements so that we may grow out of the Ignorance into the Light.
3. The Divine is transcendent Being and Spirit, all bliss and light and divine knowledge and power,
and towards that highest divine existence and its Light we have to rise and bring down the reality of
it more and more into our consciousness and life.
SRI AUROBINDO
Page-7
SACHCHIDANANDA
God is Sachchidananda. He manifests Himself as infinite existence of which the
essentiality is consciousness, of which again the essentiality is bliss, is self-delight.
SRI AUROBINDO
The Supreme is Pure Being, Absolute Existence, sat….
The Supreme is also Pure Awareness, Absolute Consciousness, cit… .
The Supreme is, finally. Pure Ecstasy, Absolute Bliss, ananda.
SRI AUROBINDO
That which has thrown itself out into forms is a triune Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sachchidananda, whose consciousness is in its nature a creative or rather a
self-expressive Force capable of infinite variation in phenomenon and form of its
self-conscious being and endlessly enjoying the delight of that variation. It follows
that all things that exist are what they are as terms of that existence, terms of that
conscious force, terms of that delight of being.
SRI AUROBINDO
Page-8
|
3
Sachchidananda
Strong and pure, it stands
erect in its creative power.
Hedychium. White |
3 Sachchidananda |
Page-9
DIVINE PRESENCE
|
4 Devine Presence |
4 Divine Presence
It hides from the ignorant eye its ever-present magnificence.
Tradescantia spathacea. White
His laughter of beauty breaks out in green trees,
His moments of beauty triumph in a flower;
The blue sea’s chant, the rivulet’s wandering voice
Are murmurs falling from the Eternal’s harp.
This world is God fulfilled in outwardness.
SRI AUROBINDO |
|
It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and
perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one’s existence
and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any
further qualification or description. Thus, of the "ineffable Presence"
it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be
said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there,
personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and
everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable
Presence.
That is always the fundamental significance, — the
essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything
else.
SRI AUROBINDO
5 Presence
Consciousness in quest of the Presence.
Plumbago auriculata ‘Alba’. "White
It is the Divine Presence that gives value to life. This Presence is the
source of all peace, all joy, all security.
THE MOTHER |
5 Presence |
Page-10
DIVINE ANANDA
|
6 Divine Ananda
Abundant, succulent, nourishing, full of vigour.
Vitis vinifera. Several colours
Ananda is Beatitude, the bliss of pure conscious existence and energy. …
SRI AUROBINDO
The world lives in and by Ananda. From Ananda, says the Veda,
we were born, by Ananda we live, to Ananda we return, and it adds
that no man could even have the strength to draw in his breath and
throw it out again if there were not this heaven of Bliss embracing
our existence as ether embraces our bodies, nourishing us with its
eternal substance and strength and supporting the life and the
activity.
SRI AUROBINDO
According to our own philosophy the whole world came out of
ananda and returns into ananda, and the triple term in which ananda may be stated is Joy, Love, Beauty. To see divine beauty in
the whole world, man, life, nature, to love that which we have seen
and to have pure unalloyed bliss in that love and that beauty is the
appointed road by which mankind as a race must climb to God.
SRI AUROBINDO |
6 Divine Ananda |
Page-11
DIVINE LOVE
|
7 Divine Love
7 Divine Love
A flower that is said to blossom even in the desert.
Punica granatum. Orange red, double
|
A supreme divine Love is a creative Power and, even though it can
exist in itself silent and unchangeable, yet rejoices in external form
an4 expression and is not condemned to be a speechless and bodiless
godhead. It has even been said that creation itself was an act of love
or at least the building up of a field in which Divine Love could
devise its symbols and fulfil itself in act of mutuality and self-giving
and, if not the initial nature of creation, this may well be its ultimate object and motive.
SRI AUROBINDO
To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world
is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our yoga.
SRI AUROBINDO
Divine Love … is again not something ethereal, cold and far, but
a love absolutely intense, intimate and full of unity, closeness and
rapture using all the nature for its expression.
SRI AUROBINDO
The Divine Love may not be able yet to manifest on the physical
plane, humanity being what it is, as fully and freely as it would
otherwise do, but that does not make it less close or intense than
the human.
SRI AUROBINDO
Love is with all, working for the progress of each one equally -
but it triumphs in those who care for it.
THE MOTHER |
Page – 12
DIVINE SACRIFICE
|
The Divine’s sacrifice is the descent of the Divine into the
obscurity of the unconsciousness.
THE MOTHER
The manifestation of the love of the Divine in the world
was the great holocaust, the supreme self-giving. The Perfect
Consciousness accepted to be merged and absorbed into the
unconsciousness of matter, so that consciousness might be
awakened in the depths of its obscurity and little by little a
Divine Power might rise in it and make the whole of this
manifested universe a highest expression of the Divine
Consciousness and the Divine love.
THE MOTHER
The law of sacrifice is the common divine action that was
thrown out into the world in its beginning as a symbol of
the solidarity of the universe. It is by the attraction of this
law that a divinising, a saving power descends to limit and
correct and gradually to eliminate the errors of an egoistic
and self-divided creation. This descent, this sacrifice of the
Purusha, the Divine Soul submitting itself to Force and
Matter so that it may inform and illuminate them, is the
seed of redemption of this world of Inconscience and
Ignorance.
SRI AUROBINDO
|
8 Divine Sacrifice
8 Divine Sacrifice
Is it not a supreme sacrifice for the Divine to renounce
the beatitude of His Unity in order to create the painful
multiplicity of the world?
Punica granatum. Brilliant orange
|
Page – 13
|
9
Divine Love spreading over the world
|
9 Divine Love spreading over the world
Innumerable, succulent, it gives strength and life
tirelessly.
Punica granatum. Yellow tinged red
10 Unmanifest Divine Love
The splendour of the marvellous love that the
Divine keeps for the pure heart.
Punica granatum. White
10 Unmanifest Divine Love
|
Page-14
AN OLD CHALDEAN LEGEND
|
11 Divine Love governing the world
|
Long, long ago, in the arid land which is now Arabia, a
divine being incarnated upon earth in order to awaken there
the supreme love. As one might expect, he was persecuted by
men, misunderstood, suspected, hunted after. Mortally
wounded by his assailants, he wished to die quietly in solitude so that his work might be accomplished, and being
pursued, he fled. Suddenly, on the broad barren plain a little
pomegranate bush appeared. The saviour crept in under the
low branches in order to leave his body in peace; and immediately the bush expanded miraculously, grew wider, became
thick and luxuriant, so that when the pursuers passed by they
did not even suspect that the One whom they were chasing
was hidden there, and they went their way.
While drop by drop the sacred blood fell, fertilising the soil,
the bush was covered with marvellous flowers, scarlet, large,
crowded with petals, innumerable drops of blood.
These are the flowers that for us express and contain the
Divine Love.
THE MOTHER
11 Divine Love governing the world
A beautiful and happy world for which we all aspire.
Browned coccinea. Brilliant orange red
|
Page-15
DIVINE GRACE
|
12 Call of the
Divine Grace
|
12 Call of the Divine Grace
Not loud but persistent and very perceptible to those who know how to listen.
Opercilina turpethum. Light brown
Grace is something spontaneous which wells out from the
Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being.
SRI AUROBINDO
No matter how great your faith and trust in the Divine Grace,
no matter how great your capacity to see it at work in all
circumstances, at every moment, at every point in life, you will
never succeed in understanding the marvellous immensity of its action and the
precision, the exactness with which this action is accomplished; you will never
be able to grasp the extent to which the Grace does everything, is behind
everything, organises everything, manages everything so that the march forward
to the divine realisation may be as swift, as complete, as total
and harmonious as possible, considering the circumstances of
the world.
As soon as you are in contact with it, there is not a second in
time, not a point in space which does not show you dazzlingly
this perpetual work of the Grace, this constant intervention of
the Grace.
And once you have seen this, you feel that you are never equal
to it, for you should never forget it, never have any fear, any
anxiety, any regret, any shrinking … or even any suffering.
If you were in union with this Grace, if you saw it everywhere,
you would begin living a life of exultation, of omnipotence, of
infinite happiness.
THE MOTHER |
Page-16
DIVINE SMILE
|
13 Divine smile
We can behold the divine smile when we have conquered our ego.
Michelia alba. Ivory white
You know, when I say, "The Lord smiles", that means
something; it is not that I see a smiling face, but it is …
it is a solar vibration. You know, the sun is flat and dull and
cold and almost black in comparison.
THE MOTHER
But this Presence in all things… it is a vibration, but it is a vibration that contains everything, a vibration that contains a kind of infinite power, infinite delight, infinite peace, and vastness, vastness, vastness: there are no limits.
And how often, how often the impression . . . there is no form — there is a form and there is no form, it cannot be put into words. And the impression of a look and there are no * eyes – there is no look, but there is a look, a look and a smile, and there is no mouth, there is no face! And yet there is a smile and there is a look. But He laughs, you laugh, you are happy.
THE MOTHER
An incense floated in the quivering air, A mystic happiness trembled in the breast As if the invisible Beloved had come Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet And the world change with the beauty of a smile.
SRI AUROBINDO |
13 Divine smile
|
Page-17
SRI AUROBINDO’S COMPASSION
|
14 Sri
Aurobindo’s compassion
14 Sri Aurobindo’s compassion
Innumerable, ever present, and effective in every
instance.
Portulaca grandiflora. Many colours
The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and
light and mercy. He is good, great, compassionate and divine. And it is he who
will have the final victory.
THE MOTHER
I always saw him with a perfectly peaceful and
smiling face, and above all, the dominant expression was one of compassion. That
was what stood out in his appearance. An expression of compassion so … so
peaceful, so tranquil, oh, magnificent.
THE MOTHER |
DIVINE HELP
15 Divine help
15 Divine help
Modest in appearance, powerful in action.
Malvaviscus arboreus. Bright red
Give yourself to the Divine absolutely, and the
Divine Help will always be with you. THE MOTHER
The help is always there. It is you who must keep
your receptivity living. The Divine Help is much vaster than what any human
being is able to receive.
THE MOTHER |
Page-18
|
DIVINE SOLICITUDE
16 Divine solicitude
16 Divine solicitude
Always active, even when we do not perceive it.
Malvaviscus arboreus. Red
|
17 Divine solicitude rightly understood
To understand and receive with gratitude this divine solicitude
so often misunderstood.
Malvaviscus arboreus. Pale pink
Divine solicitude (in the sense of solicitude for others, a tender
and affectionate and watchful care for their need and their
good), the care of the Divine for the sadhaka.
SRI AUROBINDO
17
Divine
solicitude rightly understood |
Page-19
|
19 Solace in the
vital
18 Solace
The blessings that the Divine bestows on us.
Mirabilis jalapa. Several colours
19 Solace in the mind
A silent peace.
Mirabilis jalapa. Yellow
20 Solace in the vital
Modest but effective.
Mirabilis jalapa: Magenta
21 Integral solace
That which one can receive only from the Divine.
Mirabilis jalapa. White
|
BLESSINGS
[My blessings are] for the Will of the Lord
to be done, with full force and power. So it
is not necessary that there should always be
a success. There might be a failure also, if
such is the Will of the Lord. And the Will is
for the progress, I mean the inner progress.
So whatever will happen will be for the best.
THE MOTHER
22 Blessings
22 Blessings
Pure and innumerable, manifesting themselves infinitely.
Scabiosa atropurpurea. Pinkish lavender
23 Blessings on the material world
Powerful and innumerable, they answer all needs.
Scabiosa atropurpurea. Deep purple
|
Page-20
PROTECTION
When we are in close contact with the Divine,
a protection can come which helps or directly
guides or moves us; it does not throw aside all
difficulties, sufferings or dangers, but it carries
us through them and out of them – except
where for a special purpose there is need of
the opposite.
SRI AUROBINDO
When you think of the Lord’s Peace it acts
as a call, and the more you think of it the "
more you surround yourself with it, which is
the most powerful protection.
THE MOTHER
24 Protection
Let us give ourselves entirely and sincerely to
the Divine and we shall enjoy His protection.
Bougainvillea. Many colours
25 Attempt at protection
Irregular and not always effective efforts.
Bougainvillea ‘Mahara’. Bright magenta
26 Discreet protection
Does its work discreetly, without attracting attention.
Bougainvillea ‘Trinidad’. Very pale lavender
27 Psychic protection
The protection resulting from surrender to the Divine.
Bougainvillea. Pink
28 Emotional protection
Surrender to the Divine is the best
emotional protection.
Bougainvillea. Light lavender pink
29 Vital protection
Surrender to the Divine is the best
vital protection.
Bougainvillea ‘Formosa’. Violet
30 Physical protection
Is possible only with a total surrender to
the Divine and the absence of all desire.
Bougainvillea. Red
31 Triple protection
Protection in the mind, vital and physical.
Bougainvillea ‘Blondie’. Pale lavender pink to soft orange
32 Integral protection
That which can be given only by the
Divine.
Bougainvillea. White
33 Manifold protection
A protection that acts not only on life
as a whole but on each of its details.
Bougainvillea ‘Mary Palmer’.
Bright purple pink and white
34 Protection of the gods
Luminous and clear-visioned.
Bougainvillea. Yellow and golden |
Triple protection
32
Integral protection
|
Page-21
Page-22 |