In India, in our spiritual tradition, the highest qualification we give to a man or a person is when we call him “simple,” meaning without any complication whatsoever. This is the aim of yoga.
To be simple, absolutely simple without any division, confusion or conflict in the being, when all our thoughts and emotions, our acts and sensations, all our existence inner and outer are unified around the Divine in us, moved, activated sustained and transformed by the Divine. This too is the whole evolutionary effort. Only the process of ordinary evolution may take very, very long to arrive at this simplicity, this unity. Through yoga, one goes through the process in a short time. It is the soul who chooses to do the yoga for its own reason and often the physical being is unhappy and disturbed by the choice of the soul. In most cases, men try to stiffle the urge of the soul. Our suffering comes mainly from the resistance we offer to the call and the demand and the aspiration of the soul. And in the measure the a various parts of our being learn to collaborate with the soul, are illumined by the inner light and begin to feel a deeper joy, a beauty and harmony, our suffering diminishes, conflicts and confusion cease and there is a greater unity in the being, a greater peace, a greater vision of the Divine. Gradually, we enter into a new consciousness which is far, far removed even from the most brilliant human consciousness. This spiritual consciousness is irreal to the ordinary human consciounsess, and so the spiritual growth gradually takes us away from the human life, from the human race as such. Human things have more and more a sense of illusion about them, of futility about them to us. In any case, we lose interest in the human life, for a vast luminous illimitable, unexplored life opens to us. There comes a time in our development when the inner growth is so strong that our soul strongly rejects its bonds with the human world. The path one chooses or even the various paths one explores, the various teachers, the various systems of yoga one needs are not so important. Once the fire has been lit, it cannot be extinguished any more. Once one has boarded the ship of the spiritual destiny, the voyage shall continue. It is this going forward, this act of continual discovery, this adventure of the infinite that will bring the deepest satisfaction in our life. Perhaps in ordinary life, a man sets a goal for himself and he feels fulfilled if he realises his goal. But in spiritual life, we discover that in our magnificent voyage and adventure there is perhaps the next port of call – the final destination seems to be always beyond. We move from a lesser light to a greater intensity, from one infinity to another unknown infinity. We have left behind us the limited poor miserable and pitiable ignorant life behind us, only when we feel that our human life has become so. For most of the people the human life as it is, is still a field of wonder, battle, struggle, joy and victory. In the same way sometimes I wonder if the joy of the earthworm moving in the slimy mud shaded from the sun is any less than our joy of exploring the infinity of divine consciousness which has just opened to us. We are always on the move, always seeking a new ecstasy, a new fulfillment, a new reality of our being. The ship is the symbol of that great voyage.There is a new growing perception of the spiritual world that is being born. The human world is brought into an order by an external agent, some form of government, some code of law, some guiding principles, by some sort of organisation or society, so we have parties, syndicates, corporations, guilds, associations, etc. This is true even about the religions. There is always a great accent on a formal and precise organisation. But as we grow into a new spiritual consciousness, such an organisation would seem unnecessary. The spiritual beings cannot be put into an organisation and made to follow a certain code of law. In other words the spiritual beings cannot be subjected to a collective being or organisation as the organisation may become more of a hindrance than a means of help and progress. The spiritual beings would be governed by the spiritual consciousness and not by any outward organisation or authority. If they came together by the Divine Will, it will be a free association presided over by the Divine Truth. All will be united by a common aspiration, by the growing certitude of the Truth. Here, there is only one authority: the Divine. The more one is united with the Divine, the more one would feel the Divine in other aspirants and in this way a true and durable, fundamental unity will be established, based on the divine consciousness, the Divine Will. There will be no need whatsoever for any overriding organisation or authority or even a code of law. We come together because we seek the Divine. We live together because we love the Divine. We are together for that is the Divine Will and condition for our development.
The spiritual journey is a long, dangerous and difficult one. But we should consider ourselves fortunate for having chosen this path. We should not fix condition for our growth. We should not demand even to know where we are going. More and more may we leave the direction of our life, all our thoughts and feelings and actions to the transforming power of his Grace. Only the love of Truth, beauty, harmony and the Divine should be the highest and the noblest guiding principle of our life. The Divine in His infinite wisdom will create circumstances favorable to the growth of the consciousness. He too will create the right association. Let us depend on Him alone with faith.
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