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The Law of the Way
by Sri Aurobindo
(around 1927)
First be sure of the call and of thy soul's answer. For if the call is not
true, not the touch of God's powers or the voice of his messengers, but
the lure of thy ego, the end of thy endeavour will be a poor spiritual fiasco
or else a deep disaster.
And if not the soul's fervour, but only the mind's assent or interest replies
to the divine summons or only the lower life's desire clutches at some side
attraction of the fruits of Yoga-power or Yoga-pleasure or only a transient
emotion leaps like an unsteady flame moved by the intensity of the Voice
or its sweetness or grandeur, then too there can be little surety for thee
in the difficult path of Yoga.
The outer instruments of mortal man have no force to carry him through the
severe ardours of this spiritual journey and Titanic inner battle or to
meet its terrible or obstinate ordeals or nerve him to face and overcome
its subtle and formidable dangers. Only his spirit's august and steadfast
will and the quenchless fire of his soul's invincible ardour are sufficient
for this difficult transformation and this high improbable endeavour.
Imagine not the way is easy; the way is long, arduous, dangerous, difficult.
At every step is an ambush, at every turn a pitfall. A thousand seen or
unseen enemies will start up against thee, terrible in subtlety against
thy ignorance, formidable in power against thy weakness. And when with pain
thou hast destroyed them, other thousands will surge up to take their place.
Hell will vomit its hordes to oppose thee and enring and wound and menace;
Heaven will meet thee with its pitiless tests and its cold luminous denials.
Thou shalt find thyself alone in the anguish, the demons furious in thy
path, the Gods unwilling above thee. Ancient and powerful, cruel, unvanquished
and close and innumerable are the dark and dreadful Powers that profit by
the reign of the Night and Ignorance and would have no change and are hostile.
Aloof, slow to arrive, far-off and few and brief in their visits are the
Bright Ones who are willing or permitted to succour.
Each step forward is a battle.
There are precipitous descents, there are unending ascensions and ever higher
peaks upon peaks to conquer. Each plateau climbed is but a stage on the
way and reveals endless heights beyond it. Each victory thou thinkest the
last triumphant struggle proves to be but the prelude to a hundred fierce
and perilous battles... But thou sayest God's hand will be with me and the
Divine Mother near with her gracious smile of succour ? And thou knowest
not then that God's grace is more difficult to have or to keep than the
nectar of the Immortals or Kuvera's priceless treasures ? Ask of his chosen
and they will tell thee how often the Eternal has covered his face from
them, how often he has withdrawn from them behind his mysterious veil and
they have found themselves alone in the grip of Hell, solitary in the horror
of the darkness, naked and defenceless in the anguish of the battle.
And if his presence is felt behind the veil, yet is it like the winter sun
behind clouds and saves not from the rain and snow and the calamitous storm
and the harsh wind and the bitter cold and the grey of a sorrowful atmosphere
and the dun weary dullness. Doubtless the help is there even when it seems
to be withdrawn, but still is there the appearance of total night with no
sun to come and no star of hope to pierce the blackness.
Beautiful is the face of the Divine Mother, but she too can be hard and
terrible. Nay, then, is immortality a plaything to be given lightly to a
child or the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling
? Strive rightly and thou shalt have; trust and thy trust shall in the end
be justified; but the dread Law of the Way is there and none can abrogate
it.
Sri Aurobindo
(in "The Hour of God", Section One)
in "The Hour of God and Other Writings"
SABCL, Volume 17
(also pages 5-7 of the booklet edition)
published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
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