Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Power Is to Be Transformed, Not Rejected, in Spiritual Development

Transcript

Power Is to Be Transformed, Not Rejected, in Spiritual Development · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:01
  Power is disconcerting. Humanity is attracted to it
• 0:06
  while at the same time it fears raw power.
• 0:10
  It is often said power corrupts absolute power corrupts
• 0:15
  absolutely. What is then to be done with our
• 0:19
  vital nature that expresses power and provides the motive
• 0:23
  force for our lives? Those inclined to asceticism
• 0:29
  respond that power needs to be avoided, rejected, disregarded.
• 0:35
  The only thing that matters from that viewpoint is knowledge
• 0:38
  based in oneness. If powers arise, they are
• 0:41
  considered to be temptations and should not be developed or
• 0:45
  followed. Those who focus on the external
• 0:49
  life and its development tend to worship at the altar of power.
• 0:54
  They want to accumulate it. They want to deploy it, and they
• 0:58
  want to control others with it. This is where the corruption
• 1:02
  enters into the picture. The more power one accumulates,
• 1:07
  the more one begins to believe the myth of infallibility and
• 1:11
  being right. Because the very fact of their
• 1:15
  success implies to them their rightness.
• 1:19
  They tend to want to equate power with knowledge.
• 1:23
  This occurs even in the service of a religious ideal.
• 1:27
  Witness the Holy Inquisition, the conversion at the point of a
• 1:32
  sword, the burning of witches, the Crusades, the development of
• 1:38
  laws to enshrine a particular doctrine in place and use these
• 1:43
  to penalize those who hold differing beliefs and other
• 1:48
  abuses of power. In the name of God, we try to
• 1:53
  put a control on power. Society sets up rules, moral
• 1:58
  codes, guidelines for the right use of power and the wrong use
• 2:02
  of power. Yet these rules are disregarded
• 2:06
  by those who actually accumulate power in the form of wealth,
• 2:10
  political or social influence, or simply use brute force to
• 2:15
  exert their will upon others and the society at large.
• 2:21
  Spiritual seekers are notably confused and have a difficult
• 2:25
  time navigating the demands of life, which implies the
• 2:29
  development and the use of power in some form or other, and the
• 2:34
  demands of the spiritual path, which generally tell them to
• 2:38
  abandon the active life and focus on their inner spiritual
• 2:42
  development. The result has been the begging
• 2:45
  bowl, the vows of poverty and the retreat into the caves, the
• 2:51
  mountains or the deserts. Yet something is missing.
• 2:58
  The avoidance of life, the avoidance of the use of power
• 3:02
  implies a division, a separation, a duality in
• 3:07
  existence which is not there in reality.
• 3:11
  The divine creation exudes power.
• 3:14
  The vast manifested universe unleashes incomprehensible
• 3:18
  amounts of power. And in our very world, all
• 3:23
  existence is based on the use of power.
• 3:27
  Somehow we must find the balance that includes the vital force,
• 3:32
  the power of life. In the spiritual focus, Sri
• 3:37
  Orobindo and the Mother accept the need for the power of the
• 3:40
  life energy. They point out that it has an
• 3:44
  essential role and must be transformed and put into the
• 3:48
  service of the Divine. The goal is to overcome the
• 3:52
  corruption that is based in the inflation of the ego that
• 3:56
  generally comes with control and the accumulation of power.
• 4:01
  The role of power should not be in conflict with the role of
• 4:05
  knowledge, harmony, beauty or love.
• 4:09
  All these aspects of the divine manifestation are intended to
• 4:13
  balance and harmonize in the eventual perfection of human
• 4:18
  life for which we are striving. In his book, The Mother, Sri
• 4:24
  Robindo takes up the role of power in its various forms and
• 4:29
  how to transform 1's use of power to put it at the service
• 4:32
  of the divine. He describes what it means to be
• 4:36
  a true doer of divine works. He takes up the role of money as
• 4:42
  a sign of a universal force that needs to be deployed to increase
• 4:47
  the beauty, harmony and balance in the world.
• 4:52
  He describes the great powers of the Divine Shakti that manifest
• 4:56
  everything that exists in the synthesis of Yoga.
• 5:00
  Sri or Ovindo writes, willpower, force are the native substance
• 5:08
  of the life energy. And herein lies the
• 5:11
  justification for the refusal of life to acknowledge the
• 5:16
  supremacy of knowledge and love alone, for its push towards the
• 5:21
  satisfaction of something far more unreflecting, headstrong
• 5:25
  and dangerous that can yet venture to in its own bold and
• 5:29
  ardent way towards the Divine and Absolute.
• 5:33
  Love and wisdom are not the only aspects of the Divine, there is
• 5:38
  also its aspect of power. End Quote.
• 5:43
  The mother observes. Quote.
• 5:45
  Shiro Bindo says that the vital part, the vital being, is the
• 5:50
  greatest obstacle because it is unregenerate, and that there
• 5:54
  would be a possibility of transforming it if it's
• 5:57
  surrendered entirely to love and knowledge.
• 6:01
  But as its predominant quality is force, energy, power, it does
• 6:07
  not like to submit to other parts of the being, and this
• 6:11
  justifies its refusal to submit itself.
• 6:15
  For those virtues in their essence are as high as the
• 6:18
  others. That is why it has neither the
• 6:22
  same power or the same capacities, for it is not
• 6:25
  developed, it has not surrendered.
• 6:29
  And this is what causes the dilemma.
• 6:31
  It does not submit because it has this power, and this power
• 6:37
  cannot be utilized. If the vital were a mediocre
• 6:41
  being without definite qualities, there would be no
• 6:44
  difficulty in its surrendering, but it would be altogether
• 6:48
  useless. But On the contrary, the vital
• 6:53
  is a sort of stronghold of energy and power of all powers.
• 6:57
  Yet generally this power is diverted.
• 7:00
  It is no longer at the service of the Divine, it is at the
• 7:04
  service of the vital itself for its own satisfaction.
• 7:08
  So as long as it is like that, it cannot be used.
• 7:14
  It should come to understand that this energy and power which
• 7:18
  it feels within itself cannot become useful unless it enters
• 7:23
  into perfect harmony with the Divine plan of realization on
• 7:27
  earth. If it understands that, it
• 7:30
  becomes quiet and allows itself to be enlisted, so to say, in
• 7:36
  the totality of the being, and then it takes on its full
• 7:40
  strength and full importance. But otherwise it cannot be used.
• 7:46
  And usually all its activities are activities which always
• 7:50
  complicate things and take away their simplicity, their purity,
• 7:55
  often their beauty and their effectiveness.
• 7:58
  For its action is blind, ignorant and very egoistic.
• 8:04
  End Quote reference. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
• 8:09
  Powers within. Chapter 17.
• 8:11
  The Vital Pages, 1:32 to 1:33.