Some teps on the Way of the Integral Yoga
Written by Niranjan Guha Roy at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1980
When I first came to the Ashram, to settle down in 1946, I had one single clear aspiration: to realise the Divine. I was aware of some absolute Being all around me, infinite and eternal, but I had no contact with It. Then, by the grace of the Mother Divine, I followed a dangerous and extremely challenging path of yoga. There were periods of light, followed by periods of the darkest night, revolt and despair, all that was hidden in my nature was thrown out like an erupting volcano. Often it seemed that I had strayed away from the path of yoga caught up in the whirlpools of passion, violence and ambition. Often I had the feeling that one more step in that direction and I would go up in an explosion and smoke. Then gradually I could see my way through all this terrible upheaval for the darkest night was followed by the most glorious dawn each time. The comforting Presence, the smile and the tender guiding hand were always there to take me over the most unfriendly countries peopled with dangerous visible and invisible beings with their death dealing fascination and fierce opposition to everything divine. Slowly the veil broke down revealing the Supreme Godhead in all forms, in all beings, everything became just a mask for the great Player. These high moments would last for a short while and then I would fall back again into the dark prison of human consciousness. There is no sin or act in the world, no perversity, no diabolic act, nothing that happens here that I did not find in myself. On the other hand, the Power was constantly at work in my consciousness, in my awareness, in my body with an ever increasing intensity though there had been periods, long ones where its action was not perceptible. Even this action of the Power was a foreign sensation in the body. It could be sometimes very painful and agonisingly unbearable. At other times or most of the times, it was like a quiet flow of a liquid force from above which penetrates the entire body, the nerves and the cells. The lower part of the body still seemed like a stone, impervious to the action of the Force. In short the satyr had yet to be fundamentally transformed. On the positive side, there was a simple and constant experience. There is only the Divine. One infinite eternal Being forever manifesting Itself in the time and space movement.
The praying animal
When we go behind the relativity of forms we find the eternal Mother Divine. Hers is this world-play of delight. The vision recedes in the background but comes back with a greater intensity with new dimensions of insight. One might say I am on the threshold of an entirely new Country, a new World. This is just the elementary beginning, the birth into a new consciousness like a newborn baby, which has yet to grow and manifest its latent divine powers and capacities.
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a touch of the supramental Force
The energy flowed, I couldn’t contain it. The whole body was like a powerful dynamo. I thought I would blow up, but gradually things subsided, energy was always there, light, light, everywhere. The Power sometimes receded, then came back, almost with an explosive violence. I felt as if all the cells were burnt out, but relieved. I felt I have crossed the bar and been admitted in the supreme spiritual Reality - everything, everyone, anything in my mind became ravishingly Divine. The whole world, all the beings were only the Divine in His splendour. In that light, intolerable ecstasy going through the body like a gigantic generator, the inner being has been crushed out of existence as if it has passed through a massive sugarcane crushing machine. Nothing is left of the personality, everything has been scattered into the infinity of God, into the vast boundless, vibrating ocean of love, the Mother. There is nothing but the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. They are one supreme Being, everywhere in everything - staggeringly powerful, devastating Presence.
Our human body, even our inner being, all taken together is extremely weak, and at the mere touch of the divine Force, or with a drop of that golden liquid, all the being can end up in an explosion – it will take centuries to prepare bodies which can safely hold the sacred fire. The evolution will proceed by slow steps, very slow steps, otherwise it will collapse.
From then onwards there was a fundamental change in my vision. There is no longer any human living being - each one is utterly eternally Divine. That vision has not left me, only sometimes it is a little faint. Sometimes I felt as if a train was in my body, a huge powerful flow of divine felicity, too strong for my body. Then I sat at the organ. As I was playing I heard a sound as if a thousand organs were playing, filling up the whole world or universe. I had never heard anything like that in my life, so powerful, penetratingly ravishing, intolerable ecstasy. I had to stop playing. Now the presence of the Supreme is constantly present – there is nothing to worry about – the world is utterly Divine. Whatever shadows I see will disappear. Each one is the Divine Himself, not less. Absolute, no one else but the Divine, nothing to be done, just the Divine manifesting Himself in his utter glory.
There is still in my consciousness the awareness of our human life and society. It is an old habit and utter ignorance. Still the old world comes back from time to time, but it has no reality. There is only the Supreme Mother, love, delight. My soul, my whole body enters into a state of gratitude, utter self-giving. Now when I look around I do not see any human being. Behind the thin veil stands the splendour of the supreme glory. When I play music, it becomes a hundred times more intense. The body can hardly sleep, but now it will be stabilized, peace is coming. It is not an ordinary peace – but the peace of the himalayan mountains, in order not to be blown out of existence. There is far more in that experience, far more, too long, too deep, too difficult to be expressed in words.
Om namo Bhagavate. Om Sri Aurobindo, Om Douce Mère. All mantras will not be able to express Their love and compassion for all, for each one. Thy Will Be Done.
N.Guha Roy 1999
The Supreme Artist. Everyday He works on an immense canvas hung on the sky
Every day, He works on an immense canvas hung on the sky.
Ages marches past, each leaves its track in the huge picture.Read more
The Angel of Fire -I am the shining white-winged angel of fire.
I am the shining white-winged angel of fire.
On the far-seeing flank of an inaccessible summit,
A long way from the busy and glamorous cities,
I have built my retreat and observation post among the trees.
From a great height, I watch over the pilgrim souls
Going their way on the eternal road in an unending flow.
The distance between hope and the goal,
Sundown and the morning star is often too long to bear
Even for the seasoned travelers, explorers of the hidden Light.
I rekindle their faltering hope and strengthen their faith.
This unhappy world in love with war and disaster,
Violence and power, if denied its daily portion
Of burning wine of hate and poison, murderous excitement,
Fatal drugs and pills and one-eyed suicidal freedom,
Will fall back into apathy, exhausted slide into extinction.
I drive gently men and women, slaves of desire, animals by nature,
Towards a high and noble passion, I light a spark in their soul.
This violent, unsatisfied brute is yet a crude image
Of a Supreme Divinity, habitation of the delightful Shakti.
As the lotus blooms in the pale rays of a silver moon,
So too, the soul in man still an animal grows every hour
Illumined, purified, sublimated by my Radiance.
In the secret heart of things, I have built my garden of roses
I am the pathfinder, guide on the road to Immortality.
Tears, I transform into glistening pearls of the rosary,
Utter disaster, ruin, shame and agony into Bliss and Harmony.
Friend of the aspiring soul, I lend him my wings to fly to the goal
If he stays too long in an oasis, I dry up the fountain and the green leaves.
I leave him no rest; prod him, often with strokes of lightning.
I ignite in his heart a divine frenzy, he cannot sleep anymore.
When I am invoked, centuries are compressed into a dazzling lifetime.
I am friend of the gambler, the reckless adventurer and the hunter
Who would throw away all prudence and gingerly step into Fire.
O hero worshipper of the Great Mother,
Do not relax until you win.
Jump in the furnace of love in fusion
Till all is reduced to gold.
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N.Guha Roy 1993
About Work
Outward work is very important for our growth. Whatever the work, we must do it as perfectly as possible with a sense of beauty, harmony and respponsibility. In this way we bring order, cleanliness and discipline in our life through work. The work well done increases our capacity for concentration and there is an awakening of consciousness. Whatever work we undertake becomes a work of art. We know how it has to be done. We discover new possibilities in the same work. As our consciousness develops and our surrender grows, gradually we find more and more that we are involved in the work best suited to our temperament and inner nature. We should not neglect in any way the work given by the Divine. We must do it for Him as an offering.
Our house should be like a little Temple where we feel the atmosphere of prayer and aspiration.
The most reliable and faithful friend, the most loving person is the Divine.
Let us turn to Him alone.
Niranjan Guha Roy 1978
surrender and the inner law. Only in the Divine is the true security
We are here to serve the Divine according to the inner truth of our being. When our aspiration is free from all taint of ego, then the inner law of our being exerts itself. Our outer physical nature is an ever‑changing, unstable flux. When through a growing surrender we perceive the inner law of our being, then we have a sense of stability and certitude regarding our life and work. As long as we keep changing constantly, as long as we feel frustrated, as long as we feel our talents are not being utilised, it only means that we have not yet found the inner law of our being. As long as the surrender does not become complete, even the inner law of the being seems or remains unacceptable. So the real work is to develop the will to surrender entirely to the Divine and his will. Thy Will be done. We must be able to say it a thousand times in all sincerity and feel at the same time that his will only leads us to a greater height and consciousness.
To turn every movement Godward tout ourself exclusively in the service of the Divine, this is what we are trying all the time. Then we will never feel frustrated.
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Only in the Divine is the true security
The Divine is doing for each one according to the soul's aspiration in each. It is my deepest conviction that we must only seek the Divine, and then only we have, finally, the chance of coming out of all difficulties and problems. The Divine takes charge of our life and work. As long as we run after things, however wonderful, we are not yet on the straight sunlit path. When we want to live in full presence of the Mother Divine, guided and inspired by Her at all moments, and live in the world to serve Her to serve Her as faithfully as we can, then we have nothing to fear. Then whatever happens is invariably for our highest good. We must always pray for a higher consciousness. In the divine consciousness, there is a natural, constant joy and knowledge, and a deep serenity unaffected by any outward conditions and happenings. Only in the Divine is the true security.
Our sole aim is to grow in the true consciousness,to be fully plastic and let the Divine decide for us all.
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1987
N Guha Roy
When my consciousness is full of Thy Presence divine, everything becomes simply pure delight.
Each moment is a preordained movement in an epic-drama.
God pursues His unobstructed manifestation in bliss.
As the growing plant contains the flowers and the fruits, each hour contains the inevitable sequence, what is to come next.
When we live in the eternity of the Spirit, no veil hides the reality which is forever the same, an infinite living Mystery full of inexhaustible splendour.
Our soul, a deathless portion of the immortal Spirit does not suffer anymore for nothing is denied to it.
Our mind and life also share to some extent that felicity.But our body is fragile, a brittle toy in the terrestrial play, bound to soil, a helpless prisoner of dull matter, incapable of responding much to the incoming Light.
Spiritual seekers are nowhere safe on earth as yet, for we ourselves carry the most dreadful enemies within us who rage a relentless merciless battle against the Divine.
O Sweet Mother, You are our most reliable friend, guide and shield.
In the calm divine vision, everything promised is already realised.
Tell us, Mother Divine, how can we best serve You now, in this strange world?
Pour down Thy bliss, amritam, into fired jars for distribution to thirsty souls.
Only Thy healing Sweetness will change this life into a heavenly carnival.
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N. Guha Roy 1997
One single consciousness : the Mother of Love, the Being of Love, Mother indivisible.
One day I found a phrase in Prayers and Meditations of the Mother that was more or less less this « May Your law of Love which is the supreme Will be done » My soul was very happy with this discovery that the supreme Will was a movement of the supreme Love. But the comprehension or rather the vision was escaping me and it is only a few days ago during the music that I could climb and emerge in a consciousness far beyond all that I had felt uptil now-
It was the substance of Love, there was nothing else but an indivisible Love.
One single consciousness : the Mother of Love, the Being of Love, Mother indivisible.
There was not even the Will, it was Love, Love infinite, perfect harmony.
By its presence, by its only presence, a supremely beatific order, inevitable, spontaneous was created.
There was no Will, no action of Will.
Everything was bathing, or rather is bathing in this ocean of Love, all is impregnated with Love, all is substance of Love and my soul was intensely aspiring to become that Love, to merge myself in this ocean of Love and it became this Love in the summit of my being. This infinite Love has become the reality of my being. The Will is absent.
There is one aim – this Love and a prayer has become the symbol of this state but I cannot formulate it but only « Thou, Thou, Thou eternally, Love, Love, Love, Thou art the only reality »
I have had a little glimpse of the Mother Divine.
She is eternally the Whole, far beyond all.
She is the inexprimable Love. This all healing Love, the liberator eternally victorious, the permanent abode.
The Mother Divine is the supreme Magnet and all is organised around Her in beauty, harmony, spontaneously, automatically.
She is here and that is all the truth.
Love, love, love, come to us more and more and consume us.
Niranjan Guha Roy - 1972
The soul sees the Supreme Mother behind the acts of Nature.
The soul sees the Supreme Mother behind the acts of Nature.
The earth becomes the living throbbing body of the Eternal.
A mystic Presence fills the sky and the infinite Space,
An immaterial body made of some absolute consciousness,
Containing limitless oceans of sweet, violent, intolerable,
All-daring, all-conquering, inalterable delight substance
Blots out the concrete material existence to utter
Nothingness, yet the human heart longs for a mortal Divine,
The Supreme incarnate in a human form, close to the soil.
Love in the soul demands an ideal Image to adore.
O Mother Divine, Thou art enthroned in my inmost soul,
Even then my earthly nature yearns for Thy visible Presence
In all its glory embodied in a breathing frame of clay.
O Mother Divine manifest Thy radiance in a human instrument.
May I see Thy supreme body of heavenly light and rapture,
More concrete than matter in all beings and things at all times.
Thy Face, my priceless treasure, Thy hands, my source of energy,
Thy feet, my secure refuge, Thy Presence, the whole meaning
Of my existence. I do not know anyone else but Thyself.
Heaven has no charm for me. Any personal salvation
I do not seek. In Thee I have found all I need in life.
Take possession of my body, life, mind and soul,
Until Thou alone art alive in this clay mould.
At least fill me up with the victorious love divine,
So that I may love Thee, serve Thee in all I meet.
Ignite a huge fire in my soul, the thirst of a burning desert,
An unsatisfied yearning which will keep me running
Through eternity in pursuit of Thy unknowable Presence,
In all forms and beings from the tiniest specks of life
To the most magnificent divinities in the highest heavens.
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Niranjan Guha Roy
concentration on the external being and on the divine being in us
The difference between a genius and an ordinary man is the concentration that the genius brings to his work, whatever he may be doing. The genius does not waste time. With his power of concentration he learns a lesson, does a work which an ordinary man with a dispersed mind would take far longer to do. In this way, that is to say, by developing your power of concentration you can shorten the time of learning or working and thereby gain more time to increase your power of expression and your capacity for work. There are many methods of developing your concentration, but as far as I know the best method is to concentrate with all your mind and heart and body on the work you are doing at the instant, on the lesson you are learning at the moment with an insatiable thirst for perfecting what you have already learnt, what you already know, what you can already accomplish. Your creative abilities and your efficiency in work are your true invaluable assets.
Alongside this concentration on your external being there must be the concentration of the development of the divine being in us. We should concentrate in a prayer for a purification of our being, rejection of all that is undivine, most of all, rejection of violence from every part of our being. Our thoughts must be truly benevolent, the heart large and wide which has no enemy, the body full of peace and harmony where the least manifestation of anger, jealousy, envy, hatred, greed, ambition, lust and violence must be gradually eliminated till there is only a joyful peace in the body. This is the best condition for the growth of the Divine Being in us. Violence and hatred must be at all cost eliminated from every part of the being, however long that work might take. It is when the violence and hatred are practically eliminated from our consciousness by the inflow of the Divine Force in our entire being that the true Divine Life can begin. It may take a lifetime or the work may be spread out over a number of lives but as long as the violence is not totally eliminated from the being, the instrument cannot be satisfactorily used for the greater Divine purpose.
Niranjan Guha Roy