Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Each Individual Has His Own Unique Relationship With the Divine
Transcript
- 0:00People who are born into different cultures and religions
- 0:03may have a similar experience, but they interpret the
- 0:07experience through the lens of their specific background.
- 0:11Thus, people who have a specific spiritual opening may see Jesus
- 0:17or the Virgin Mary if they come from a Christian background,
- 0:21while they may see Ram or Krishna or Lakshmi if they come
- 0:25from the background of the Sonatana Dharma.
- 0:29This is a general case, yet with a more detailed view we can see
- 0:33that the experience of each individual varies based not just
- 0:38on cultural or religious background, but based on their
- 0:42own unique evolutionary stage and the circumstances they
- 0:46experience, which brings about variation around a general theme
- 0:51of the larger picture within which they participate.
- 0:56Swami Vivekananda espouse the view that eventually each
- 1:00individual would constitute his own religion, essentially
- 1:04setting forth the underlying reality of the unique experience
- 1:09and significance of each individual's life and
- 1:13development. People approach the divine
- 1:16according to their own Interstate of receptivity and
- 1:19development, even if they generally follow a particular
- 1:24belief system or religious approach.
- 1:27Their own opening and aspiration creates their own unique
- 1:31relationship to the divine. In the synthesis of yoga, Sri
- 1:37Robindo states quote. The mind's door of entry to the
- 1:41conception of Him. The divine must necessarily vary
- 1:46according to the past evolution and the present nature.
- 1:50End Quote. The Mother clarifies Quote.
- 1:55That is the evolution in former lives and the present nature,
- 2:00that is the nature of the present body, determine one's
- 2:03approach to the divine. We can take a very and over
- 2:08simple example. If one is born in any particular
- 2:13religion, quite naturally the first effort to approach the
- 2:17divine will be within that religion.
- 2:20Or else, if in former lives one has passed through a certain
- 2:25number of experiences which determine the necessity of
- 2:29another kind of experiences, quite naturally one will follow
- 2:33the path which leads to those experiences.
- 2:38You see, the life of the psychic being is made-up of successive
- 2:43experiences in successive physical existences.
- 2:47So it may be put a little childishly or romantically.
- 2:53You have a psychic which for some reason or other has
- 2:56incarnated so as to be able to have all the experiences which
- 3:00royalty gives, for instance, supreme power.
- 3:04After it has had its experience, has had what it wanted, it can,
- 3:09before leaving the body, decide that in the next life it will
- 3:13take birth in obscure conditions, because it needs to
- 3:17have experiences which can be had in a modest condition.
- 3:22And with the freedom 1 feels when he has no responsibilities,
- 3:27you see responsibilities like those the heads of states have,
- 3:31for instance. So quite naturally in its next
- 3:35life it will be born in certain conditions which fulfill its
- 3:38need, and it is in accordance with this experience that it
- 3:43will approach the divine. Then, in addition, it is the
- 3:48product of the union of two physical natures, you know, and
- 3:52sometimes of two vital natures. The result of this is more or
- 3:56less a kind of mixture of these natures, but it brings about a
- 4:00tendency, what is called a character.
- 4:04Well, this character will make it fit for a certain field, a
- 4:08certain category of experiences. So with what has been
- 4:13determined, decided in former lives were in a former life, and
- 4:19then the environment in which it is born, that is, the conditions
- 4:24in which its present body has been formed.
- 4:27Its approach to and search for the Divine will be in accordance
- 4:31with a definite line which is its own and which naturally is
- 4:36not at all the same as that of its neighbor or any other being.
- 4:42I said a while ago, each individual is special
- 4:46manifestation in the universe. Therefore his true path must be
- 4:51an absolutely unique path. There are similarities, there
- 4:55resemblances. There are categories, families,
- 4:59churches, ideals also. That is a certain collective way
- 5:03of approaching the Divine, which creates a kind of church not
- 5:09materialized, but in a more subtle world.
- 5:12There are all these things. But for the details of the path,
- 5:17the details of yoga, it will be different according to each
- 5:22individual. Necessarily and conditioned
- 5:26physically by his present bodily structure, and vitally, mentally
- 5:31and psychically, of course, by former lives.
- 5:35End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
- 5:39Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, Mission and
- 5:43evolution. Section 3.
- 5:46Growth and Development of the Psychic, pages 94 to 96.