The Synthesis of Yoga - Super school Auroville - The Synthesis of Yoga 1203

First was that everywhere the Supreme Teacher is present, all over. The second point is that his system and his method are of such a nature that everything receives his highest attention, fullest attention, complete attention. And he organises in detail everything as also from the large so that all psychological combinations which are necessary for each individual are affected and ultimately they all rise towards perfection. That is his aim and method.

Third thing is the recognition of him as the guide on the part of each one. We may have many other teachers, we may have many books, we may have many experiences but it is very important for everyone to discover, to recognise him, to recognise the Supreme Guide. Above all so-called teachers there is the Supreme Guide. Sri Aurobindo says: “The full recognition of this inner Guide, Master of the Yoga, lord, light, enjoyer and goal of all sacrifice and effort, is of the utmost importance in the path of integral perfection.” Even if you have teachers, human teachers, you may have temporary guides, permanent guides, whatever… the real thing comes when you begin to recognise the inner Guide. He is indeed present always and to recognise him so that you can say: “The Supreme Lord is my teacher.” All other teachers are only helpers and human teachers are really good teachers only when they realise their relative importance and encourage all the pupils to discover the inner Guide instead of substituting themselves as the inner Guide, which many teachers have the tendency to do so, they want to be permanent guides and teachers and they impose upon pupils such a discipline that they may not be able to discover the Supreme Guide. Whereas a good teacher is one who allows every individual to discover, to recognise the Supreme Guide so that every pupil feels that his teacher is the Supreme Lord. This is the third point.

The fourth point is the manner by which you will recognise this inner Guide, in what form you will recognise him. There are many ways by which you recognise him because the Lord himself is not one-sided. He is multiple, multi-sided, all sided in fact. There are comprehensive ways of knowing the Divine; there are partial ways of knowing the Divine. Depending upon each one’s approach you will start with recognising him in one form or the other. Sri Aurobindo gives here four or five different ways by which you can recognise him at the beginning. You may recognise him as impersonal wisdom, love and power. You may perceive in this world: Wisdom at work, and trust in that wisdom. Once one sadhak wrote to the Mother, with something that was happening in the Ashram, and he was very much troubled and said: why do you allow this? Mother’s answer was that what is happening is a mixture of truth and falsehood. And then she advised and said, you remain quiet and witness how the Wisdom works it out so that falsehood is eliminated and the truth remains. In our ordinary rush of things seeing wrong happening we try to mutilate, make it worst sometimes, because our perception may be wrong, our own revolt may be wrong and therefore while trying to throw out the falsehood we may throw out the truth at the same time. It is the wisdom, wisdom knows exactly where the truth is and where exactly is the falsehood, and knows also how to eliminate falsehood without sacrificing the truth. That is the special mark of Wisdom. Wisdom has the true perception of the truth and falsehood, how they are inter-mixed, and knows also how to separate.

In India there is an image of the swan. If there is milk and water both combined together how do you separate milk from water? It is said that the swan has got a consciousness by which when he drinks he will drink only the milk and throw away the water. It is an image; such is the image of wisdom. You give any kind of mixture in the world it will discriminate between what is right and what is wrong and also eliminate the wrong in such a way that Truth or the Right is not thrown away at the same time. One might visualize the Divine in that Wisdom and indeed it is so, but the Divine is not only the Wisdom. Some people might see him only as Wisdom, some people might see him as Love, some people might see him as Power. These are different forms in which we approach because our own consciousness is very limited. We may be highly intellectual therefore the attraction of Wisdom is very great to us. We may be highly capable, competent therefore power affects us much more, and therefore we may see the divine as the Power. Or, by nature you may be full of love, therefore the love of the Divine attracts us most. And there are many others aspects of the Divine. According to what is so much prominent in us we recognise him as that.