The Synthesis of Yoga (2000-2001, Super school, Auroville) - Session 11 (12 January 2001)
As I told you I had once proposed for the Ashram’s school a programme. I made a syllabus: Spiritual history of India —that was the title. And I had started with the Veda, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Indian philosophies, movement of Bhakti, the eclipse and the restarting, the new renaissance and coming up to Sri Aurobindo. And the impression that I had created was that Sri Aurobindo is the culmination of all that has gone before, a point of fulfilment of all that has been aspired for. Mother answered with a big bang towards me when I presented this to her. And she advised me as to what I should concentrate upon. I told you that it was my first lecture the day before yesterday in fulfilment of what Mother had said. So, I would like to read with you what she had written for me. I have it both in French and in English. But if you don’t mind I will read first in French because Mother told me: “If you want to read me you should read me in French.” I had requested the Press to give me English copies of Mother’s talks and the Ashram Press people went to the Mother and showed my letter, so Mother gave me a bang saying: “If you want to read me you must read me in French.”
(Mother’s answer in English to the School’s teachers when she was told that the new special afternoon classes at the library had been chosen as a first research theme for India's spiritual History.)
No! It won’t do. It is not to be done that way. You should begin with a big “BANG”!
You were trying to show the continuity of History, with Sri Aurobindo as the outcome, the culmination—it is false, entirely.
Sri Aurobindo does not belong to History; he is outside and beyond History.
Till the birth of Sri Aurobindo, religions and spiritualities were always centered on past figures, and they were showing as “the goal” the negation of life upon earth. So, you had a choice between two alternatives: either a life in this world with its round of petty pleasures and pains, joys and sufferings, threatened by hell if you were not behaving properly; or an escape into another world, heaven, nirvana, moksha [liberation]….
Between the two there is nothing much to choose from, they are equally bad.
Sri Aurobindo has told us that this was a fundamental mistake which accounts for the weakness and degradation of India. Buddhism, Jainism, Illusionism were sufficient to sap all energy out of the country.
True, India is the only place in the world which is still aware that something else than matter exists. The other countries have quite forgotten it: Europe, America and elsewhere…. That is why she still has a message to preserve and deliver to the world. But at present she is splashing and floundering in the muddle.
Sri Aurobindo has shown that the truth does not lie in running away from earthly life but in remaining in it, to transform it, divinize it, so that the Divine can manifest HERE, in this PHYSICAL WORLD.
You should tell all this at the first sitting. You should be square and frank.
Then, when this is told, strongly, squarely, and there is no doubt about it—and then only—you can go on and amuse them with the history of religions and religious or spiritual leaders.
Then—and then only—you will be able to show the seed of weakness and falsehood that they have harbored and proclaimed.
Then—and then only—you will be able to discern, from time to time, from place to place, an “intuition” that something else is possible: in the Vedas, for instance (the injunction to descend deep into the cave of the Panis); in the Tantras also … a little light burning.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda —1967: April 5, 1967
I may add that you could adopt as motto for your first project this quotation of Sri Aurobindo:
“We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future.”
(Essays on the Gita)
Message from Mother to the School:
Sri Aurobindo does not belong to the past nor to history.
Sri Aurobindo is the Future advancing towards its realisation.
Thus we must shelter the eternal youth required for a speedy advance, in order not to become laggards on the way.
2 April 1967
The Mother, Words of the Mother - I: Sri Aurobindo
Actually Mother had put here one big square — carrément. She herself had drawn a square. It is not here but the paper that she sent me had this big square written on it to indicate that I should be square and should tell all my students very squarely with a big bang.
As I told you the day before yesterday I have really given the first lecture only on that day. All the rest was a preparation to be able to tell you what Mother has said here and I will take another time, long long time to dilate upon it. In fact, when I read The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga it is basically for this purpose.
So we come back to The Synthesis of Yoga. The utsaha is the zeal for the Lord that eats us up. It is the necessity of personal effort particularly during the first period until we are able to have contact with the Divine and not to listen to the advice that God will do everything for you, don’t worry. This is the period when we must ask every part of the being to strain and to work hard, harder and still harder.
But to remember:
Always indeed it is the higher Power that acts. Our sense of personal effort and aspiration comes from the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine Force. It persists in applying to experience on a supernormal plane the ordinary terms of mentality which it applies to its normal experiences in the world. In the world we act with the sense of egoism; we claim the universal forces that work in us as our own; we claim as the effect of our personal will, wisdom, force, virtue the selective, formative, progressive action of the Transcendent in this frame of mind, life and body. Enlightenment brings to us the knowledge that the ego is only an instrument; we begin to perceive and feel that these things are our own in the sense that they belong to our supreme and integral Self, one with the Transcendent, not to the instrumental ego. Our limitations and distortions are our contribution to the working; the true power in it is the Divine’s. When the human ego realises that its will is a tool, its wisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a pretentious impurity, and learns to trust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation. The apparent freedom and self-assertion of our personal being to which we are so profoundly attached, conceal a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which we have made extraneous to our little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of countless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment; its surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
This is one of the most important statements about the ego and the Divine and their relationship. I will just make a little diagram for you. Each one of us is seated in the vast compass of the whole universe which issues from the Divine who is at once immobile and mobile. This mobility is a tremendous creative movement and in this movement at a certain point there is a blockage. As a result of this blockage a small little pebble is created; in this vast movement a small little pebble is created because of this blockage. But this blockage does not mean that this force is not transmitted. It is transmitted but feebly. Therefore we don’t feel here in our egoism the tremendous force which is behind. It is a manageable force, a small little force which seems to be moving round and round and it is here that this force enters as it were and we catch the force. It is woven into us as it were. And we think that this force is our force — my force. Whatever force you catch you identify yourself with it. And this force is already moving forward but the ego feels that this force is moving because of its catching it. It has caught it but already the force is moving in its own way. But because you identified yourself with it you feel that this is my force, which is moving forward. Actually it is all moving from here. Because you catch it the force becomes weakened. You lose the whole thing. The force which is coming here, by the ego’s catching it, its force is becoming weakened, diluted. Therefore when this force tries to move with its own movement you feel as if there is a big resistance — actually the resistance is your own. You are trying to catch it and it is moving forward by itself but because you catch it you feel a resistance. Already the force is trying to move forward so you feel as if you are making a big effort to move forward. Actually the movement is moving already but because you are resisting and identifying yourself with it, it becomes weaker and the force behind is pushing you. You feel therefore a kind of burden behind you. It is a burden which makes you feel that you are making an effort.
This is what gives you the sense of personal effort. But Sri Aurobindo says: always it is a power of the Divine that acts. You become enlightened when this blockage is removed. Normally when this enlightenment is presented in intellectual terms, as I am doing now, our natural tendency would be “Alright, I will not catch it. I will allow the force to pass by me.” You do nothing as it were. This is the kind of conclusion that many people derive out of this statement which I am making. If it is the Divine force which is working it will work whether I do anything or not. So I stopped doing anything. But it does not stop in that way. It is the wrong way of dealing with it. Unless you break this ego, here, whether you allow it to pass or not to pass, ego remains. It will always create this sense that I am doing. And the way by which you can break this ego is to work from behind. The dam is there, blockage is here and unless you break this blockage you won’t be liberated from this sense. It is not merely by hearing that ego is not the doer, that Divine is the doer. Merely by hearing you won’t enter into this consciousness unless you break this dam.
Now this dam consists of what: exclusive concentration of consciousness. Our concentration is exclusively concentrated upon this way. If you look at your whole life you find that your whole concentration is moving outward towards all that is around you. You look at your senses. All the senses open outwards: your eyes open outwards, your ears are opened to the sounds coming from outside, the touches are all coming from outside, you feel the sense of touch only when it comes from outside and since we are bound by these senses we are all opened outward. Because we are opened outward this blockade is created. There is no consciousness at all in this way. So when consciousness is absent again and again and again a blockade is created. Therefore instead of moving outward, move inward. This is all the meaning of meditation. Instead of moving outward you withdraw and go inward. And if you do it repeatedly then this dam will be broken. And once you enter here you will see a beautiful palace of the Divine. You don’t need to create the palace of the Divine; it is already here. You don’t need to fabricate anything, it is all here. Only you have to turn your gaze from without to within. All yoga is turning inward. It is to stop our exclusive concentration outward by an opposite movement in which you turn inward. All yoga implies inwardisation — turn inward, move inward. When you close your eyes and sit for meditation you strive to break this which keeps you always outward. When you sit down for meditation, the slightest sound comes from outside and immediately you are drawn outside. Very little time is available in our life when we can sit down very quietly and move inward. This is the entire science of yoga. All the time we are living outward. Yoga means shifting our attention from outward to attention inward and then again coming back outward.
Once you have done this very often the tendency is to go inward and remain there. Life is rejected. All the movement here is thrown out. It is another kind of ignorance. That is why the Isha Upanishad says that this is a movement of ignorance and this is a movement of knowledge. But if that movement of knowledge is only here that is also a darkness because then you lose the whole outward. You break the dam, break the boundaries, enter here, contact the Divine and then come back again but with the cancellation of the ego.
That is the only way of cancelling the ego. You can’t cancel the ego merely by thinking that you are not the doer. Simply by saying you are not the ego does not destroy it. It goes on like a cork bobbing on the sea constantly going on and on. It can’t be destroyed. If you want to destroy it you have to move here and realise it. The moment you realise it the ego goes away. And then you can come back here without it and then you become a centre but a Divine centre. The Divine Himself moves without any resistance and His power is not at all diminished, there is no dilution, it moves omnipotently. The same force of the Divine powerfully is transmitted through the centre that we are truly. We are not the ego and there is a centre which is called jivatman. That is the real individual. That centre is the Divine Himself; it is a partial manifestation of the Divine Himself. When this happens there is no personal effort at all because all the force comes from here and you know it. You are only the instrument, an instrument which is completely into the hands of the Divine.
We have once spoken of the analogy of the bow. Take a bow… How does a bow work? A bow cannot work by itself. You need an archer. Archer takes the bow in his hands, takes an arrow, fixes the arrow himself — bow itself can’t fix it itself — the arrow is fixed by the archer and whenever the arrow is to be shot is decided by the archer. He uses the bow only to fix the arrow and to shoot at the target. And that is all. Such is the real condition of our true being. The jivatman is of this nature. It is a bow in the hands of the Divine — always. But because of this blockage, the ego is created, and it diminishes the force which is coming from here and then when that force is pushing forward you feel I am making an effort. That is all the meaning of personal effort. The ego stops the force but the force pushes it. This pushing is recognised by the ego as its effort because it passes through it. It is exactly like the cart and the dog. The dog moving under the moving cart. The dog feels that the cart is moving because of it moving under it. But the cart moves on its own.
Sri Aurobindo speaks of three stages in the previous paragraph that we read yesterday. First is the process of contact. It is a long, long process in which you turn inward. Then you become sayujya, you become united with the Divine. This is where the ego is destroyed. You unite here and ego is destroyed there. It is like an electric current, once you realise your unity here ego falls down. The third step starts when you become the Divine centre and the force moves without any boundaries, without any blockage. Until this happens the idea of personal effort persists and you should not therefore be idle: you make the sense of effort a part of your development. But this effort is to be turned inward and inward-outward so that the balance is maintained in your being until the ego is abolished and there is a powerful instrument of the Divine in the world which works in the world, without boundaries.
Now let us read the paragraph that we had read yesterday.
But this is only one side of the force that works for perfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last, the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
I spoke yesterday of a fountain. When you go near the Divine there is a big fountain of Divine consciousness. It bathes you as you return to it.
But this is only one side of the force that works for perfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last, the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
You realise the jivatman in you and through that jivatman you allow the Divine force to manifest.
So long as the contact with the Divine is not in some considerable degree established, so long as there is not some measure of sustained identity, sāyujya, the element of personal effort must normally predominate. But in proportion as this contact establishes itself, the sadhaka must become conscious that a force other than his own, a force transcending his egoistic endeavour and capacity, is at work in him and to this Power he learns progressively to submit himself and delivers up to it the charge of his Yoga.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
Once you reach this point everything then becomes the responsibility of the archer. The bow remains the bow. The bow does not make an effort now to bring out the arrow, to fix it, to make the target and to shoot because it can’t do it even if it tries. It never does. We only try to imitate the Divine in our ignorant way. We become the archer as it were, we become the fixer of the target, we shoot, but only as a monkey imitates man when it sees man doing something. If a man wears a cap the monkey also wears a cap but in its own clumsy manner. Similarly we are only imitators and when we stop imitating, open ourselves to the Divine, the Divine goes on doing its work without any boundary.
In the end his own will and force become one with the higher Power; he merges them in the divine Will and its transcendent and universal Force. He finds it thenceforward presiding over the necessary transformation of his mental, vital and physical being with an impartial wisdom and provident effectivity of which the eager and interested ego is not capable. It is when this identification and this self-merging are complete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated, plastic, illumined, it can begin to serve as a means for the direct action of a supreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth’s spiritual progression or its transformation.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
There is always a question for every individual: “How to be helpful to others? How to serve mankind?” This is the answer. If you really want to serve mankind this is the condition. Abolition of egoism, allowing the Supreme force to work through you as a Divine centre. Then all that you do will work for the unity of mankind, for the progression of mankind, you really help mankind.
Always indeed it is the higher Power that acts. Our sense of personal effort and aspiration comes from the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine Force. It persists in applying to experience on a supernormal plane the ordinary terms of mentality which it applies to its normal experiences in the world.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
It is actually a very refined way of saying that the ego is like a monkey which is imitating the higher force, which simply imitates what is happening behind and applies the higher to the lower in its own way which is done very clumsily.
In the world we act with the sense of egoism; we claim the universal forces that work in us as our own; we claim as the effect of our personal will, wisdom, force, virtue the selective, formative, progressive action of the Transcendent in this frame of mind, life and body. Enlightenment brings to us the knowledge that the ego is only an instrument; we begin to perceive and feel that these things are our own in the sense that they belong to our supreme and integral Self, one with the Transcendent, not to the instrumental ego. Our limitations and distortions are our contribution to the working; the true power in it is the Divine’s.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
What we are contributing is to weaken the force. Because of our egoism the force which is coming from outside and which is powerful is weakened. We contribute only by distorting, by limiting it, by weakening it.
.. the true power in it is the Divine’s. When the human ego realises that its will is a tool, its wisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a pretentious impurity, and learns to trust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation. The apparent freedom and self-assertion of our personal being to which we are so profoundly attached, conceal a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which we have made extraneous to our little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of countless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment; its surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
In egoism we always say: “I am now more mature, I am more experienced, I am really wise.” So Sri Aurobindo breaks this wisdom and says:
..its wisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a pretentious impurity, and learns to trust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation. The apparent freedom and self-assertion of our personal being to which we are so profoundly attached, conceal a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which we have made extraneous to our little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of countless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment; its surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
What I say is my virtue is only a purity which is pretentious, which does not exist. You pretend to be virtuous, actually nobody is virtuous unless this happens. All claim to virtue is a pretence.
..and learns to trust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation. The apparent freedom and self-assertion of our personal being to which we are so profoundly attached, conceal a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which we have made extraneous to our little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of countless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment; its surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
In our egoism we feel we are free — I decide myself what I am to do. It is my freedom. But this freedom is nothing but
..a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which we have made extraneous to our little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of countless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment; its surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
The word surrender is a very important word. There is a science and art of surrender. This is the symbol of the Divine and this is the symbol of jivatman. This is more complex and this is less complex, but it is the image of the Divine. It is like the Divine looking at Himself in a small mirror. This mirror also is fabricated by Him. It is He who fabricates the mirror, it is he who looks into the mirror, it is a partial manifestation of Himself. Usually in your ordinary circumstances when you look in your mirror, your face confronts you. You are on one side and on the other side there is your image. In other words, we have got two important words: subjective and objective. There is a difference between these two only to this extent — this is subjective, this is objective. This objective, however, is not (and this is a very important point), like a puppet of the subjective. Usually in the mirror your reflection is a puppet, whatever you do is reflected there automatically. So the analogy is not complete: in the mirror whatever the subject does the object does, it simply reflects. In a sense it is only puppeting the original subject. But in this process something more happens in the objectivisation. His objective consciousness is also brought into this. This reflection is not only an objective reflection of the content of the subjective but it is also a reflection of the subjective that is the element also present here. The objective is not only objective. The objective also contains in itself a subjectivity. And therefore the object behaves as if it is the subject. It is like a mother giving birth to a child — that is a better analogy than a mirror. The child when it is born is a reflection of the mother. It is a subject giving rise to an object. Very similar to the mother but the child is not the puppet of the mother it is not as if whenever the mother does something the child does something. The mother has a power of initiative action; the child also has a power of initiative action. This initiative action has a different angle, that is, to say while the angle of this subjective is turned this way the angle of this is turned that way. Just as this angle is free; similarly this is also free. The freedom of the subject is also transmitted to this object therefore it is also free. This is the real meaning of what is called the play. Mere puppetry is not play. Subject becoming an object and repeating in the object whatever it is, is no play. The object also repeats the subject completely, not only contains but the subjectivity is also present in the objectivity. So every object has subjectivity. Each one of us is also subjective. It regards the Divine as its object. It does not create the object but there is a sense of objectivity with regard to the object. This is the complexity of subjectivity and objectivity.
As a result there is a very important psychological condition which is created. There is a very interesting story that Mother has given. This is in the context of Durga. Durga is one of the manifestations of the Divine, a power of the Divine, like many other powers of the Divine who are called Gods and Goddesses. All God and Goddesses are the powers of the Divine. They are all instruments of the Divine. And surprisingly Mother one day said: “I taught Durga how to surrender herself to the Divine.” What is the meaning of it — Durga is always an instrument of the Divine, where is the question of surrendering herself to the Divine? She already knows that she is the instrument of the Divine. The knowledge of being an instrument of the Divine is not sufficient. There is something much more to it. There is a play in which you are not merely a puppet of the Divine but you offer yourself to the Divine and this offering of yourself to the Divine is not an act of puppetry. It is creative. It is Himself but in that form. It is the Divine Himself surrendering, offering Himself to the Divine but from this side. This objectivisation also transcends this subjectivity. This objective is also subjective in character. This subjective character offers himself to the Divine and this conscious offering is surrender. Conscious offering of the objective figure of the Divine, in its subjective consciousness, offering itself to the Divine, is surrender. To know that there is a big force behind is one realisation. But to turn back again to the Divine and offering all that comes from the Divine to the Divine again is the method by which ego can be abolished. The abolition of the ego is not only a realisation that there is a Divine force which is working, you still have the egoism of being the instrument of the Divine. Egoism is not abolished. It is only a partial success. From your side knowing all this, subjectivity comes back again and offers itself to the Divine. It is the child smiling at the mother. The mother has produced the child; it is an objective figure of the mother but having come there the child behaves in interplay. Even when the mother is not smiling the child may smile. It is not only puppetry. And by the child’s smile the mother's heart gets much more fulfilled. Uninvited, the child smiles at the mother and the mother feels greatly fulfilled. Uninvited, because the child himself feels happy and that happiness pours out and manifests as a smile. The child must not really do what the mother tells him. On his own the child feels like offering. This is the condition in which surrender is obtained. It is that which Sri Aurobindo speaks in the last sentence.
The self-abnegation of the ego in the Divine is its self-fulfilment; its surrender to that which transcends it is its liberation from bonds and limits and its perfect freedom.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
We shall come to this subject again when we will come to other chapters but this is only a kind of an apercu, a glimpse of the real meaning of surrender: the subjective becoming objective and objective expressing itself as subjective and returning to the object with a tremendous sense of submission — happy submission. Not willy--nilly like a slave under compulsion but freely offering itself to the Divine. That is its perfect freedom.
But still, in the practical development, each of the three stages has its necessity and utility and must be given its time or its place. It will not do, it cannot be safe or effective to begin with the last and highest alone. It would not be the right course, either, to leap prematurely from one to another.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
If from the first stage you say all is Divine even when egoism is not abolished, it will be disastrous. As long as you are egoistic, admit you are egoistic and work out step by step until the third stage arises when ego itself falls down.
For even if from the beginning we recognise in mind and heart the Supreme, there are elements of the nature which long prevent the recognition from becoming realisation.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
Mere intellectual knowledge or even some spiritual knowledge is not enough. It is not realisation. Merely to say I am not the doer is not enough. It is a good step forward but you must realise that you are not the doer.
But without realisation our mental belief cannot become a dynamic reality; it is still only a figure of knowledge, not a living truth, an idea, not yet a power. And even if realisation has begun, it may be dangerous to imagine or to assume too soon that we are altogether in the hands of the Supreme or are acting as his instrument.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
Many people who turn to yoga have illusions. The moment they turn to the Divine they think that they have become instruments of the Divine. And there is a vast difference, a long road to go… Once one sadhak wrote to the Mother and says: “Mother I want to do Divine’s work.” Mother answered:
“First you do the work for the Divine then you will be able to do Divine’s work.”
There are steps. You cannot say immediately that you want to do Divine’s work. To be able to do the Divine’s work you must have realisation of the Divine and not only a partial realisation but a real realisation in which the Divine Himself gives you the work consciously. Not that you think that everything comes from the Divine therefore my work is also Divine’s work. That is not true, it is falsehood. But many people who start doing yoga become deluded simply because they are offering, they are now turning towards the Divine and they feel they have already become the instruments of the Divine. One should therefore be extremely cautious, extremely humble. The true humility is to see that one’s self for a long, long, long, long, long time has to be a very sincere servant offering his work to the Divine, not claiming that it is Divine’s work. His work should be an offer to the Divine, reminding that he is still an egoistic doer that he is still in the meshes of the ego but trying to get rid of it and therefore offering himself again and again until you reach a point when the Divine Himself gives you the work and says “Do it”. You can see when Sri Aurobindo was in Alipore jail then as a result of his long sadhana Sri Krishna himself said: “I have work to do and I am giving a part, a little bit of that work to you.” If you read Sri Aurobindo’s account of the Alipore jail experience, Sri Krishna says: “I have a work to do, a part of it I want to give you.” And he reveals to him what that work is. So, one should be therefore very careful not to have the egoism of the instrument. This is one of the great delusions that arises in the process of yoga and one should be extremely careful. To claim, “I am the instrument of God” my Lord! don’t have this delusion. When the realisation comes that you are the instrument of the Divine you are extremely humble you don’t exist even to claim that you are the instrument of God. Only at this stage can you come to the third step, the Divine center in the world.
But still, in the practical development, each of the three stages has its necessity and utility and must be given its time or its place. It will not do, it cannot be safe or effective to begin with the last and highest alone. It would not be the right course, either, to leap prematurely from one to another. For even if from the beginning we recognise in mind and heart the Supreme, there are elements of the nature which long prevent the recognition from becoming realisation. But without realisation our mental belief cannot become a dynamic reality; it is still only a figure of knowledge, not a living truth, an idea, not yet a power. And even if realisation has begun, it may be dangerous to imagine or to assume too soon that we are altogether in the hands of the Supreme or are acting as his instrument. That assumption may introduce a calamitous falsity; it may produce a helpless inertia or, magnifying the movements of the ego with the Divine Name, it may disastrously distort and ruin the whole course of the Yoga. There is a period, more or less prolonged, of internal effort and struggle in which the individual will has to reject the darkness and distortions of the lower nature and to put itself resolutely or vehemently on the side of the divine Light. The mental energies, the heart’s emotions, the vital desires, the very physical being have to be compelled into the right attitude or trained to admit and answer to the right influences. It is only then, only when this has been truly done, that the surrender of the lower to the higher can be effected, because the sacrifice has become acceptable.
The personal will of the sadhaka has first to seize on the egoistic energies and turn them towards the light and the right; once turned, he has still to train them to recognise that always, always to accept, always to follow that. Progressing, he learns, still using the personal will, personal effort, personal energies, to employ them as representatives of the higher Power and in conscious obedience to the higher Influence. Progressing yet farther, his will, effort, energy become no longer personal and separate, but activities of that higher Power and Influence at work in the individual. But there is still a sort of gulf or distance which necessitates an obscure process of transit, not always accurate, sometimes even very distorting, between the divine Origin and the emerging human current. At the end of the process, with the progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance, this last separation is removed; all in the individual becomes the divine working.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids
This is the long process therefore the right attitude is only to be a servant and slave of God forever and ever and ever until a times comes where you do not even know that you have become the instrument of God. You are the instrument of God, you have not time even to claim that you are the instrument of God. This is the process of utsaha, the entire process of effort which will culminate into this stage.