Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume I - Part 5

Fragment ID: 10589

It is true that all comes from the Divine and it is true also that a Divine Presence and a Divine Will is behind all that happens and leads the world towards a divine goal.

At the same time it is also taught in the Gita that this world is a world of obscurity and ignorance and to attain to the Divine one must overcome certain forces of Nature, such as Desire, which the Gita calls the enemy difficult to overcome. It is in this sense that we speak of hostile forces – those which stand in the way of coming out of the Ignorance and attaining to the consciousness of the Divine.

It is again true that those who have a complete and living faith in the Divine and a perfect sincerity in their vision of the Divine everywhere and a pure sattwic nature need not trouble themselves about the hostile forces – for from them the forces of the Ignorance fall back and cannot take possession of their nature.

The teaching about the hostile forces (Asuri Rakshasi forces) is necessary for those who have a divided consciousness or a more rajasic temperament – for if they are not on their guard they may fall into the control of undesirable forces of Desire and Ego –

rākṣasīm āsurīṃ caiva prakṛtiṃ mohinīṃ śritāḥ¹

¹ “Dwelling in the deluding Asuric and Rakshasic nature.” Gita 9.12. – Ed.

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