Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 18298

1936-37

Did not the old Yogas always say that the approach to the Divine is more easy and direct through meditation than through work?

They wanted to get away from life, so necessarily work was unfavourable for them since work is part of life. Our Yoga is to find the Divine in life also.

It is sometimes easier to keep the right consciousness in the work than in the meditation.

In the meditation one has to keep out all sorts of things; in the work one has only to offer oneself and one’s work to the Mother and aspire.

The only difficulty of work is that one is apt to forget the Mother in the absorption of the work and so forget to offer. In the meditation one is apt to forget the Mother in all kinds of thoughts and lose the concentration.

If the body goes on working and the mind thinks of the Mother, that is a stage in the Karma Yoga. In meditation also the body may go on sitting while the mind thinks of things that have nothing to do with the meditation. In each case it is a difficulty that has to be overcome,– the mind being turned to the right direction.

Aspiration can be done while one is active for outer objects also – that is supposed to be part of this Yoga. Especially one must aspire for purification of the being and this can be best done and tested in action – purification from desire, ego, selfishness etc. One can work and aspire and offer to the Divine; one can purify oneself of one’s imperfections by the aid of the Mother’s Force and one’s own sincere vigilance and one can do it in action and not only in meditation. It does not follow that only those who are meditating all the time are doing sadhana.