THE DIVINE PLAY OF THE WORLD MOTHER
When the sadhaka attains self-realisation exploring his own Self, discovers light from the darkness of ignorance, when the closed door of his heart opens up, when his mind yearns for Truth-knowledge as he breaks away from his samskaras (stock notions) and transcends the limits of discrimination and intelligence, when his whole being desires the touch of the Eternal and gets ready for transformation by that Touch, then he finds himself transported to a marvellous world where the Supreme Consciousness is fully active, where the Divine play of the World-Mother goes on uninterrupted, where everything without exception is the self of her Self, the waves of her Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo’s infallible advice to those willing to tread the path of yoga is to take refuge in the supreme knowledge, supreme force and supreme play of the World-Mother.
Towards the end of his book The Mother,105 Sri Aurobindo has written: “The Mother’s power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life Divine and the immortal’s ananda.”
When a constant and earnest call for the Divine rises from the world, from the human heart and when the Divine in turn responds to that call, then the force that acts in the human adhara (instrument), in this semi-obscure world is called the Divine Shakti (Force), the Supreme Prakriti or the World-Mother.
Then, why is human tapasya incapable of bringing about a total transformation of the human being? Generally, the force with which man acts, in spite of him being a part of the universal force, is limited, due to the limited nature of his adhara. Whenever he wants to transcend the limits, he has to take refuge in a higher boundless force of which we get only a veiled inkling in this world of senses. If the tapasya (meditative seeking) of man is not integral, then as he descends from the transcendental plane, he reverts to material consciousness. It may seem at this stage that the higher consciousness is separated from the lower consciousness. This happens because of the imperfect and incomplete knowledge and mentality of human beings.
It is for this reason that Sri Aurobindo has insisted on our taking shelter in the Supramental. Once man finds Supramental refuge, several divine faculties start manifesting in him— the faculties that illumine his heart and offer him unerring knowledge-perception; he need not have to rely on the sensual intelligence or dry ratiocination for acquiring knowledge. Gradually, he realises that he is not a mere creature of the lower world, rather he lives in the lap of a Supreme Being endowed with immeasurable knowledge, spontaneous and unbounded force and infinite bliss. This Being is omnipresent but active in man’s heart. When man grows in consciousness, he feels that he is not only surrounded by this Being, knowledge, power and bliss but he is made up of these qualities. When this realisation becomes profound, his life becomes harmonious—a manifestation of a marvellous rhythm. His actions become unhindered; he does not consider his work as his own but as the outer waves of the Supreme Power, as the divine play of the World-Mother. He feels that he himself is one of the instruments of the manifestation of this Divine Power.
Sri Aurobindo says that in order to attain this great realisation, the sadhaka has to surrender integrally and in all parts of the being to this supreme Shakti. The very word surrender conjures up the relationship between the victor and the vanquished; but in divine surrender there is not an iota of this idea present. What is more is that, this is not even a worldly sacrifice. It is the surrender of the part to the whole, the courting of the Infinite by the finite and the call of the ego to the soul. What is our ego? It is nothing but the consciousness that harbours a set of habitual movements (samskaras) that believes in its own partial power, that is avid for a little and passing joy and that tries to wander in the mental world created by it. When this consciousness thirsts for the contact of the world at large, not remaining satisfied with the little it possesses; when the wide firmament outside gives up the frog-in-the-well attitude; then it has to take refuge in, be united with and surrender to the integral consciousness, to the integral knowledge—it has to aspire to the realm of bliss. And then man, possessing fragmentary consciousness, has to turn inwards i.e. he will have to refrain from remaining dependent on his externalised practical intelligence. He will have to seek the fountainhead of consciousness and observe the different modes of the play of consciousness not only in this visible world but in the higher worlds where the play of consciousness goes on eternally, where the consciousness is the master of itself and of all. It is a world from where all the other worlds have been created—a world defined by the philosophers as the causal world.
In his book Lights on Yoga Sri Aurobindo has given us directions on how a man can experience the integral light and ananda of this Supreme Consciousness, of this highest Force. In the path of yoga, the sadhaka not only experiences infinite peace, silence and vastness; he can also realise a stupendous Force which holds all other forces, which is the source of all forces, an ineffable Light which manifests Supreme Knowledge and an immeasurable ananda which is the fountainhead of all the sweetness in this world.
When the sadhaka, free of outward disturbances, establishes profound peace, then this divine Force becomes active in his adhara. At first it descends on his head and awakens the inner centres of his mind; then it descends in his heart and liberates his psychic and emotional being. When it descends at the navel and other life-centres, the hidden life force moves freely and finally when it descends at what is called in yoga the Muladhara, the physical being gets the touch of Supreme Light. Sri Aurobindo has said that this Force seizes the whole of the sadhaka’s nature—not completely at once but by taking one part after another. Thereafter, it rejects what needs to be rejected, transforms what needs to be transformed and creates what needs to be created anew. It harmonises the whole being of man and adds a new rhythm to his nature. If the sadhaka aspires for still higher states, then this Force itself can develop in his adhara a still higher force and higher nature—and even the Supramental force and being.
When the consciousness of the sadhaka undergoes a transformation by the grace of this Force, he succeeds in knowing the highest Force. Who is this Supreme Shakti (Force), what are her ways of manifestation? In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo has presented a heart-captivating description in this regard, a perusal of which fills us with wonderful feelings and fires up as though the whole of our being becomes resplendent. Every sadhaka of the Mother attains supreme perfection taking refuge in the lap of the World-Mother.
The Divine is behind all the happenings that take place in this world; all unfolds through his Shakti. The Divine veils himself by his Yoga Maya and works in the lower nature through the ego of the Jiva. In yoga too, it is the Divine who is the sadhaka and the sadhana. It is His Shakti with light, power, knowledge, consciousness and ananda that manifests upon the adhara when the latter becomes eager to accept them. (This aspiration signifies evolution of the nature from the lower to the higher Consciousness). The sadhana becomes successful because of the play of these divine forces. The being of the sadhaka is transformed; he no longer remains a “play thing” of the lower nature, he becomes the adhara, the manifest form of the higher nature.
Sri Aurobindo has also indicated how the Jiva can attain the unity, proximity and the capability to live in the light of the supreme Force. When our outward sensuous intelligence decides to manifest in the higher force, it surrenders to the Supreme Shakti (Force). At first the individual starts working with this idea that he has been created for rendering service to the Supreme Force, his soul and body have been created for this purpose alone. He does not do anything driven by his egoistic intelligence, he considers himself as an instrument of the Divine. Even if he thinks that he is the doer, he does not desire any fruit from his work. His only reward is the progressive growth towards the divine consciousness, peace, strength, and bliss. For the selfless worker, is it not enough recompense to have joy in service and joy of inner growth through his work?
Finally, the sadhaka realises that he has no separate self, he is created and held by the Divine Shakti; he is not a worker but a manifesting instrument of the Divine Mother. Afterwards he realises that he is not doing the work of the Divine Mother but it is the Divine Mother who carries out her work making him as her instrument. All his powers are hers—his mind, life and body are the instruments for the divine play of the Divine Mother. The Mother manifests herself in the world with the help of these instruments. If by the grace of the Divine Mother the sadhaka attains this consciousness, then no sorrow, no fear can touch him, his heart overflows with Her infinite grace and his being becomes peaceful and joyous. He then realises that he is not only an instrument of her divine play but truly a child and eternal portion of her consciousness and force. He feels that the Mother is in him and he is in her. It becomes his constant experience that his vision, thought, action, and even his very breathing or physical movements come from Her and are Hers. Further, he feels that he is a person and power formed by Her out of herself and put out from her for Her divine play. Even in this obscure world, he is not separated from Her, he is the being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of Her force and ananda of Her ananda.
When the sadhaka lives constantly in this consciousness, when his consciousness does not lose its integrality by any means, when he is not separated from this consciousness by oblivion, when his egoistic intelligence, fragmentary intelligence and fragmentary consciousness in no way create deformation, then the Mother manifests her Supramental Force which is transcendent and which imparts Truth-Knowledge. This Force holds the rhythm of the whole creation; it is the fountainhead of all ananda. The Mother then carries the being of the sadhaka to such a realm where her divine play goes on perpetually—this is the Mother’s own realm where the Supreme Being is present as Sachchidananda. This realm is the meeting place of the earth and the heaven. The earth takes on the garb of heaven when the sadhaka attains this realm.
The description that Sri Aurobindo has presented about the universal play of the World-Mother is marvellous, supremely mysterious and beyond the comprehension of common intelligence. The sadhaka, pursuing the path of yoga, can realise it by the grace of the Mother, of the guru. The World-Mother is an undivided Consciousness force but so many-sided are the modes of Her manifestation that it is impossible to follow Her movements even by the most vast intelligence. The Supreme Self with the help of the Force of the Divine Mother, manifests herself as Ishwara-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti in innumerable worlds and as gods and divine powers in innumerable levels of creation. All the worlds known or unknown to us are a divine play of the Supreme Purusha with the Divine Mother. It is the Divine Mother who is bringing out the mystery of the eternal Being. The Mother acts with the consent of the Supreme Being—all the movements of this creation are determined by the blissful force of the Mother.
We know this world of ours as a three-fold development of mind, life, and matter but there are worlds above it and to know them we have to take recourse to the supreme Shakti. However, it is the Mother herself who holds this world separated from the transcendent consciousness and it is she who is guiding it towards some inscrutable goal. But if we aspire for the heights, we will have to surrender to the Mother. It is the Mother who has given us the opportunity to surrender because she herself has manifested in this world in four forms i.e. Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. Maheswari represents the Mother’s personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom; Mahakali represents power of splendid strength and world-shaking force; Mahalakshmi represents beauty, harmony and captivating grace; and Mahasaraswati represents power of flawless work and her spirit of perfection and order. When the sadhaka takes refuge in the Mother, his adhara manifests wisdom, strength, harmony, and perfection.
The Hindus are very much familiar with these forms but more often than not we do not try to understand their significance in our external worldly worship of them. For this reason, our modern mind generally pooh-poohs their worship and sadhana as idolatry. In ancient times, the sadhakas of this land had in their meditation varied visions of the Divine Being and gave them a form in images; all of these images are not merely a figment of their imagination. Do we despise art as imagination or accept it as a mental form?
In deep meditation one can see the causal forms of all things. In the external life of man, this causal aspect is not of much importance, but every artist, poet or litterateur knows very well how valuable it is for the human mind. Creation takes place first at the causal plane which is also the plane for the commencement of transformation. Later on, it manifests in action and in form. This is the general experience. It is for this reason that one has to look for the idea behind the form; one has to determine the cause and purpose of action.
While dealing with the tenth chapter of the Gita, Sri Aurobindo has shown that in the active state, that is to say, at a time when the creation manifested, there existed four aspects of the Divine Being: knowledge, power, harmony and work. In the human race too, we find people having these four aspects. There is a category of people who are possessors of knowledge, who lead their life in the pursuit of knowledge (in India they are called Brahmins); there is another section of people who believe in power (in India there are the Kshatriyas who protect the society); there is yet another category of people who fulfil and embellish their outward life (the Vaishyas in India); the fourth category is represented by the workers who render service to the society and on whom all other categories of people depend for their livelihood (the Shudras in India—the word has now acquired a pejorative sense in actual usage). The modern caste system is hereditary and artificial; but the one just described above was based on the differences in nature and, thus, was natural.106
Whatever be the social system, do these four aspects not exist in every man? Man wants knowledge and power (not for torturing others, but for self-establishment); in his life he longs to see beauty and harmony and to express them in his action— in other words, he wants to express them in his life doing his work perfectly and to manifest his great inner inspirations in outward creation. With the combination of knowledge, power, beauty and action, the life of man attains fulfilment; his work too becomes perfect. Without knowledge, power and the sense of beauty, the work becomes mechanical—it is as good as a deception.
The manhood of man and the civilisation of man are the results of the development of these four powers. As man cannot take refuge in each of these powers completely, his life is full of unfortunate setbacks, ignorance and sorrow; his life is bereft of any harmony. It is for this reason that Sri Aurobindo has exhorted us to surrender to these four aspects of the World-Mother and to develop in our being these four natures of the supreme Shakti. He has pointed out that as long as these four natures are not developed and given free play in our being, the higher nature of the World-Mother and other forms of the being of the Mother will not be manifest in the heart of the sadhaka.107 This surrender is not facile for man is characterised by an externalised mind, restless heart and material body. One has to do sadhana for aeons on each of the forms of the Mother; but the grace of the Mother can transform an aeon into a moment.
Sri Aurobindo has categorically said that it is futile to understand the being of the Mother with our fragmentary intelligence, narrow mind, emotion-driven heart and habitual corporal nature. If we long to transform our whole nature and life, if even the very cells of our body yearn to get the touch of peace, force and blissful consciousness of the Mother, then, and only then, will the Mother unfold her power and transform the consciousness, even the adhara, of the sadhaka. On the contrary, if we do not aspire for the Mother integrally, but instead we beg for some grains of Her grace, then we will have in our consciousness momentary glimpses of Her higher nature. She will appear for a moment only to disappear at the next. If we foolishly rely on our proud egoistic intelligence, then the Mother will not prevent us from our doing so, but we will tread on the path of destruction.108
The Mother is universal, but she has no attachment towards her creation. That is why, on one hand, she gives shelter and supreme security to the needy and on the other, if she feels the necessity, she does not flinch from destroying the creation in order to fulfil the divine purpose. When we become wicked, when our heart, mind and body become polluted, then the sight of the sabre of the Mother brings shivers to our inner soul; but she destroys evil mercilessly only for the creation of good.
The Mother not only governs the whole creation from above, she herself has been helping, in a veiled manner, the evolution of this creation, wearing the garb of ignorance. The devotee sometimes asks with impatience that if the Mother is behind everything then why is she not bringing good to this creation by destroying all evil in an instant. The human mind is always in a hurry in all matters; it expects to see magic from the divine. But the action of the divine consciousness is not a spiritual hocuspocus (what Sri Aurobindo has termed as spiritual fire-works in his Essays on the Gita). Its purpose is to develop knowledge and to transform ignorance into knowledge. That is why, the Mother’s force is partially veiled in ignorance (partly she veils and partly she unveils her knowledge and power). And more often than not, she responds to the human mind’s movement, life’s emotion and body’s demands, and craftily brings about their transformation.109 It is for this reason that she is called the “doer of miracles”.
What deep compassion has impelled the Mother to descend on this grey earth for the evolution of this creation and for carrying the people and their life to her realm of light and ananda, liberating them from ignorance! If the Mother had not descended, the Jiva or the individual could never attain peace, ananda, perfection and liberation; he would have remained helpless, mechanical, like the animal world under the yoke of the lower nature and he could not even dream of higher realms. In sublime language, Sri Aurobindo has written about this great sacrifice of the Divine Mother:
In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and Eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.110