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Yogic
Initiation and Aptitude IN the practice of Yoga a condition precedent is
usually laid down: it is called adhikara,
aptitude, fitness or capacity. Everybody does not possess this aptitude, it is
urged, and; cannot take to a life of Yoga at one's sweet will. There must be a
preparation, certain rules and regulations must be observed, some discipline
must be followed and one must acquire certain qualities or qualifications, must
reach a particular stage and degree, rise to a particular level of life and
consciousness before one can successfully face the spiritual problem. It is not
everyone that has a laisser-passer, a free pass to enter the city or
citadel of the spirit. The Upanishad gives the warning in
most emphatic terms: This Atman is not to be gained by the weakling"¹ and again
it declared: "Nor
to the fickle and the unsteady should this knowledge be given"² and yet again: "Nor
can one attain the Spirit by discussion and disputation, nor by a varied
learning nor even by the power of intelligence."³ Shankara, at the very outset of his
commentary on the Sutras, in explaining the very first words, speaks of a
fourfold sadhana to acquire fitness – fitness, we may
take it, for understanding the Sutras and the commentary and naturally for
attaining the Brahman. It seems therefore to be an absolute condition that one
must first acquire fitness, develop the right and adequate capacity before one
should think of spiritual initiation. The question, however, can be raised
– the moderns do ¹ Mundaka, ²Swetaswatara, VI. 22 ³Katka,
Page-68 raise it and naturally in the present age of science
and universal education-why should not all men equally have the right to
spiritual sadhana? If spirituality is the highest truth for man, his greatest
good, his supreme ideal, then to deny it to anyone on the ground, for example,
of his not being of the right caste, class, creed, or sex, to keep anyone at a
distance on such or similar grounds is unreasonable, unjust, reprehensible.
These notions, however, are born of a sentimental or idealistic or charitable
disposition, but unfortunately they do not stand the impact of the realities of
life. If you simply claim a thing or even if you possess a lawful right to a
worthy object, you do not acquire thereby the capacity to enjoy it. Were it so,
there would be no such thing as mal-assimilation. In the domain of spiritual
sadhana there are any number of cases of defective
metabolism. Those that have fallen, strayed from the Path, become deranged or
even have had to leave the body, make up a casualty list that is not small.
They were misfits, they came by their fate, because they encroached upon a
thing they were not actually entitled to, they were dragged into a secret, a
mystery to which their being was insensible. In a general way we may perhaps say,
without gross error, that every man has the right to become a poet, a scientist
or a politician. But when the question rises in respect of a particular person,
then it has to be seen whether that person has a natural ability, an inherent
tendency or aptitude for the special training so necessary for the end in view.
One cannot, at will, develop into a poet by sheer effort or culture. He alone
can be a poet who is to the manner born. The same is true also of the spiritual
life. But in this case, there is something more to take into account. If you
enter the spiritual path, often, whether you will or not, you come in touch
with hidden powers, supra-sensible forces, beings of other worlds and you do
not know how to deal with them. You raise ghosts and spirits, demons and gods –
Frankenstein monsters that are easily called up but not so easily laid. You
break down under their impact, unless your adhara has already been prepared, purified and
strengthened. Now, in secular matters, when, for example, you have the ambition
to be a poet, you can try and fail, fail with impunity. But if you undertake
the Page-69 spiritual life and fail, then you lose both
here and hereafter. That is why the Vedic Rishis used to say that the earthen
vessel meant to hold the Soma must be properly baked and made perfectly sound.
It was for this reason again that among the ancients, in all climes and in all disciplines,
definite rules and regulations were laid down to test the aptitude or fitness
of an aspirant. These tests were of different kinds, varying according to the
age, the country and the Path followed – from the capacity for gross physical
labour to that for subtle perception. A familiar instance of such a test is
found in the story of the aspirant who was asked again and again, for years
together, by his Teacher to go and graze cows. A modern mind stares at the
irrelevancy of the procedure; for what on earth, he would question, has
spiritual sadhana to do with cow-grazing? In defence we need not go into any
esoteric significance, but simply suggest that this was perhaps a test for
obedience and endurance. These two are fundamental and indispensable conditions
in sadhana; without them there is no spiritual practice, one cannot advance a
step. It is absolutely necessary that one should carry out the directions of
the Guru without question or complaint, with full happiness and alacrity: even
if there comes no immediate gain one must continue with the same zeal, not
giving way to impatience or depression. In ancient Needless to say that these tests and
ordeals are mere externals; at any rate, they have no place in our sadhana.
Such or similar virtues many people possess or may possess, but that is no
indication that they have an opening to the true spiritual life, to the life
divine that we seek. Just as accomplishments on the mental plane, – keen
intellect, wide studies, profound scholarship even in the scriptures do not
entitle a man to the possession of the spirit, even so capacities on the vital
plane, – mere self-control, patience and forbearance or endurance and
perseverance do not create a claim to spiritual Page-70 realisation, let alone physical austerities. In
conformity with the Upanishadic standard, one may not be an unworthy son or an
unworthy disciple, one may be strong, courageous, patient, calm,
self-possessed, one may even be a consummate master of the senses and be
endowed with other great virtues. Yet all this is no assurance of one's success
in spiritual sadhana. Even one may be, after Shankara, a mumuksu, that
is to say, have an ardent yearning for liberation. Still it is doubtful if that
alone can give him liberation into the divine life. What then is the indispensable and
unfailing requisite? What is it that gives you the right of entrance into the
divine life? What is the element, the factor in you that acts as the "open
sesame", as a magic solvent? Only one thing,
represented by one small homely word – “Call". Whatever may be the case with other
paths of sadhana, for Sri Aurobindo's Path this is the keynote. Has the call
come to you, have you received the call? That is everything. If you have this
call it does not matter in the least whether you have other qualities, be they
good, be they bad. That serves as proof and pointer
that you are meant for this Path. If you have this one thing needful you have
everything, and if you have it not, you have nothing, absolutely nothing. You
may be wise beyond measure, your virtues and austerities may be incalculable,
yet if you lack is, you lack the fitness for Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. On the other
hand, if you have no virtues worth the name, if you are uneducated or ill-educated,
if you are weak and miserable, if your nature is full of flaws and lapses, yet
if the call is there in you secreted somewhere, then all else will come to you,
will be called in as it were inevitably: riches and strengths will grow and
develop in you, you will transcend all obstacles and dangers, all your wants
will be made good, all your wear and tear will be whole. In the words of the
Upanishad: "Sin will not be able to traverse you, you will traverse all
sin, sin will not burn you, you will burn it
away."¹ Now what exactly is this wonderful thing? This power that brings into being the non-being, realises the impossible? Whose is this Call, from where does it come? It is none other than the call of your own inmost being, of your secret self. It
¹Brihadaranyaaka,
IV. 2. 23 Page-71 is the categorical imperative of the Divine
seated within your heart. Indeed, the first dawning of the spiritual life means
the coming forward, the unveiling of this inner being. The ignorant and animal
life of man persists so long as the inner being remains in the background, away
from the dynamic life, so long as man is subject to the needs and impulses of his
mind and life and body. True, through the demands and urges of this lower
complex, it is always the inner being that gains and has its dictates carried
out and is always the secret lord and enjoyer; but that is an indirect effect
and it is a phenomenon that takes place behind the veil. The evolution, in
other words, of the inner or psychic being proceeds through many and diverse
experiences – mental, vital and physical. Its consciousness, on the one hand,
grows, that is, enlarges itself, becomes wider and wider, from what was
infinitesimal it moves towards infinity, and on the other, strengthens,
intensifies itself, comes up from behind and takes its stand in front visibly
and dynamically. Man's true individual being starts on its career of evolution
as a tiny focus of consciousness totally submerged under the huge surface surge
of mind and life and body consciousness. It stores up in itself and assimilates
the essence of the various experiences that the mind and life and body bring to
it in its unending series of incarnations; as it enriches itself thus, it increases
in substance and potency, even like fire that feeds upon fuels. A time comes
when the pressure of the developed inner being upon the mind and life and body
becomes so great that they begin to lose their aboriginal and unregenerate
freedom – the freedom of doing as they like; they have now to pause in their
unreflecting career, turn round, as it were, and imbibe and acquire the habit
of listening to the deeper, the inner voice, and obey the direction, the
command of the Call. This is the "Word inviolate" (anahata-vani) of
which the sages speak; this is also referred to as the "still small
voice", for indeed it is scarcely audible at present amidst the din and
clamour of the wild surges of the body and life and mind consciousness. Now,
when this call comes clear and distinct, there is no other way for the man than
to cut off the old moorings and jump into the shore less unknown. It is the
categorical demand Page-72 of such an overwhelming experience that made the
Indian spirant declare: "The moment you feel you are
not of the world, loiter no longer in it." It is the same experience that
throbs in the Christ's utterance: "Follow me,
let the dead bury their dead." The inner soul – the psychic – very
often undergoes a secret preparation, develops and comes forward but just
waits, as it were, behind the thin though opaque screen; and because of that it
gives no objective indication of its growth and readiness. We see no patent
sign of what is usually known as fitness or aptitude or capacity. Otherwise how to explain the conversion of a profligate and
dilettante like Augustine, or of a rebel like Paul, or of scamps like
Jagai-Madhai. Often the purest gold hides in the basest ore, the diamond
is coal turned, as it were, inside out. This, one would say, is the Divine
Grace that blows where it lists – makes of the dumb a prattler, .of the lame a
mountain-climber. Yet, but what is this Divine Grace and how does it move and
act? It does not act on all and sundry, it does not act on all equally. What is
the reason? Appearances often belie the reality: a contrary mask is put .on, it
would appear, deliberately, with a set purpose. The: sense and significance of
this mystery? The hard, obscure, obstinate, rebel outer crust may continue long
but it is corroded from within and one day, all on a sudden, it crumbles and
dissolves and becomes in a new avatar the vehicle and receptacle of the very
thing it opposed and denied. Virtues are not indications of the
fire of the inner soul, nor are vices irremediable obstacles to its growth. The
inner soul, we have said, feeds upon all – it is indeed fire, the omnivorous .sarvabhuk,
– virtues and vices and everything else and gather strength from everywhere.
The mystery of miracles, of a sudden change or reversal or revolution in
consciousness and way of life lies in the omnipotency
of the psychic being. The psychic being has the power of making the apparently
impossible, for this reason that it is a portion of the almighty Page-73 Divine, it is the supreme Conscious-Power
crystallised and canalised in a centre for the sake of manifestation. It is a.
particle from the Being, a spark of the Consciousness, a ripple from the
Delight cast into the fastnesses of Matter and the, material body. Now, it is
the irresistible urge of this particle,. this spark,
this ripple to grow and expand, to become in the end the Vast – the Ocean and
the Sun and the sphere of Infinity-to become that not merely in an essential
status but in a dynamic and apparent becoming also. The little soul, originally
no bigger than a thumb, goes forward through one life after another enlarging
and intensifying itself till it recovers and establishes its parent reality in
this material body here below, till it unveils what is latent within itself, what
is its own, what is itself, – its integral self-fulfilment, the Divine
integrality. Here in his inner being, as part and
parcel of the Divine, man is absolutely free, has infinite capacity and
unbounded aptitude; for here he is master, not slave of Nature, and it is
slavery to Nature, that limits and baulks and stultifies man. So does the
Upanishad declare in a magnificent and supreme utterance: "It is he in whom the soul,
sunk in the impenetrable cavern of the body, darkened by dualities, has
awakened and become vigilant, he it is who is the master of the universe and
the master of all, yea, his is this world, he is this world."¹ In the practice of Yoga the fitness or capacity that the inner being thus lends is the only real capacity that a sadhaka possesses; and the natural, spontaneous, self-sufficing initiation deriving from the inner being is the only initiation that is valid and fruitful. Initiation does not mean necessarily an external rite or ceremony, a mantra, an auspicious day or moment: all these things are useless and irrevelant once we take our stand on the authentic self-competence of the soul.. The moment the inner being has taken the decision that this time, in this life, in this very body, it will manifest itself, take possession of the body and life and mind and wait no more, at that moment itself all mantra has been uttered and all
¹ Brihadaranyaka, IV. 4. 13 Page-74 initiation taken. The disciple has made the
final and definitive offering of his heart to his Guru - the psychic Guru – and
sought refuge in him and the Guru too has definitely accepted him. Mantra or initiation, in its essence, is nothing else
than contacting the inner being. In our Path, at least, there is no other rite
or rule, injunction or ceremony. The only thing needed is to awake to the
consciousness of the psychic being, to hear its call – to live and move and act
every moment of our life under the eye of this indwelling Guide, in accordance
with its direction and impulsion. Our initiation is not therefore a one-time
affair only; but at every moment, at each step, it has to be taken again and
again, it must be renewed, revitalised, furthered and strengthened constantly
and unceasingly; for it means that at each step and at every moment we have to
maintain the contact of our external consciousness with the inner being; at
each step and every moment we have to undergo the test of our sincerity and loyalty
– the test whether we are tending to our inner being, moving in its stream or,
on the contrary, walking the way of our external animal nature, whether the
movements in the mind and life and body are controlled by their habitual
inferior nature or are open to and unified with their hidden divine source.
This recurrent and continuous initiation is at the secret basis of all
spiritual discipline-in the Integral Yoga this is the one and all-important
principle. Page-75
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