The Synthesis of Yoga (2000-2001, Super school, Auroville) - Session 15 (16 January 2001)

If you read this whole chapter you will find that Sri Aurobindo explains to us the nature of the Divine. The whole chapter actually describes the nature of the Divine. How the Divine himself is the shastra. The Divine himself as a shastra, the Divine himself as the divine knowledge, the Divine knowledge of the process by which one can enter into relationship with the Divine. The Divine himself as the effort, the Divine himself as a labourer, the Divine himself as a pupil, as a student and how the Divine relates himself with the student as a student and as a teacher. And now we have the Divine himself as the Divine Teacher. And if you look upon the Divine you will find that the Divine can be looked upon in many different ways. He can be looked upon as the Lord of the universe; he can be looked upon as the one who upholds the universe; the Divine as the enjoyer of the universe, one who plays with the universe. The Divine can be seen as one who is indifferent to the universe. He is so above the universe that the universe is simply a small play in one of his fingertips. The Divine can be seen as one who is turning the wheel of the universe in which all human beings are like the cogs of the machine. But the Divine can also be seen as our teacher and here we have the description of him as our teacher. As our teacher he is first a veiled master, a master who is not seen by us and yet who is working with us and above us as instructor. How does he instruct? Why is he veiled? Why is that veil seen? Why is he not seen as a teacher? And Sri Aurobindo answers in the very first paragraph that we are going to read.

This inner Guide is often veiled at first by the very intensity of our personal effort and by the ego’s preoccupation with itself and its aims.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

Because we are labouring too much and because we are preoccupied with our own petty aims of life, the great master who is behind remains veiled for us. We do not have as yet questionings in our mind, we behave as if we know the answers to the questions, we labour as if we know what we have to do, what we must do, what we want to do. And unless we ask questions the teacher does not unveil himself. The first task that we have with our teacher is to go with a bag of questions. Unless you have questions the teacher does not reveal himself. So long as we know what we have to do — most of us know what we have to do, although in our quiet moments we admit that we do not know who we are, we don’t know what is our life and what we have to do in it. In our quiet moments we do that. But in our active life we behave as if we know what we have to do. Somebody says something and we know how to react to it immediately. We know how to become angry, we know how to be displeased, we know how to please, how to welcome. We know everything as it were, all that is needed in our life, and because of this knowledge, which is ignorance, the Divine Teacher is veiled. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that if you want to go to the teacher you should go with pari prashnena, you should have repeated questioning — sevaya — and you should serve the teacher. These are the two methods of approaching the teacher: by repeated questioning when you begin to suspect that you are ignorant, which you don’t normally do, but when you begin to suspect that you do not know then the questions arise and then the attitude develops in us of serving the teacher—Pari prashnena sevaya. Sevaya means by means of seva, of service. Pari prashnena means repeated questions, not only prashna, pari prashnena. Repeated questioning, again and again you question. That is why in the Indian system there is always a beginning of studies which says of Atha Brahma Jijnasa. Now there is the query, the desire to know the Brahman, the Divine. The master is to be known, in order to receive instruction we have to know him. The more we question him the more unveiled he becomes. The more we receive the answers from him the greater becomes our preoccupation, not with ourselves, but with him.

As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of egoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise the source of the growing light within us.Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

Day before yesterday I began to speak on what knowledge is. It was just the introduction to the idea of knowledge. But a greater understanding of knowledge comes when we consider the contrast between knowledge and information. As I said last time, all knowledge is an uncovering. And the uncovering is done in many ways. Word, I told you, is a way of uncovering. You hear a word and the word uncovers. Idea is presented and it can be seen as a ray of light which also uncovers. Another way of uncovering is to gain information. In fact, information in our present day is so important that to us all information is knowledge and all knowledge is information as if there is nothing else than information. It is only when we come to deeper levels of understanding that you find that true knowledge is far transcendental of information. To get information about the soul is not soul knowledge. You read ten books on the description of the soul and you find you are exactly where you are almost. You may read ten books about the knowledge of God, it is information about God but that is not God knowledge. Even with the world we have much information but truly to know the world unless you become one with the world, there is knowledge by identity, you do not know the world. You may have information: I know who is my uncle, who is my father, who is my mother but you do not know. Knowledge is a different dimension.

True knowledge has three characteristics. There is first a growth of light. There is something like what we can call illumination. The least level of experience of illumination is awakening — one is awakened. In the Veda it was termed as the arrival of Usha, the arrival of dawn. We may have a lot of information but there is no arrival of Usha in it, there is no awakening. That is the first mark, there is awakening. Once you are awake the whole world then seems to be different; it is like dreaming and coming to the state of awakening. What is the difference between the two? The first mark is the arrival of the glow of light. There is a shock and we find the world is not what we thought it to be; it is not the hum-drum of existence. There are depths and depths and heights and heights. Even this knowledge, this awakening to heights and depths and wideness — in fact all true education begins with the perception of wideness, of depths and of heights. These three words are very important in all processes of education. As you are educating yourself you must always ask these three questions. How wide have I become, how deep have I become, how high have I become? These are the three measures by which you can judge yourself, evaluate yourself in the true process of knowledge. With the awakening, the deepening, widening, heightening —these three processes begin to occur. When you begin to experience these three things you are entering into the threshold of knowledge. Even information can give you these three things. When you are informed about many things you experience to some extent this heightening, widening and deepening. But when you are truly awakened you begin to perceive the widenesses. You don’t merely see the shadows of widenesses or of deepening depths or of the heights. It is like hearing that Himalayas are the highest mountains; it is information about Himalayas and then you go and stand before the Himalayas and really see the glory in the daylight, of the snow peaks, the heights and heights, the rocks, piles upon piles. You begin to perceive the height of the Himalayas and become overwhelmed by it. But that is only the beginning.

Then there is the growth of the being. Information gives you growth of becoming. True knowledge gives you the growth of Being. And there is a difference between the two. The more you know through information the more you can deal with the world externally. Which is good by itself but it is not true knowledge. What is the difference between becoming and being? Being is the source of becoming. This is the first difference. In the process of becoming you fluctuate, it is like the flow of the river, there is a wavy movement. In the process of being, you stabilise yourself, there is an experience of stability. You become sthanu. That is a Sanskrit word. You become stable, you become an unshakable mountain, an experience of possessing yourself, self-possession. When you possess something in your palm and when you see something outside you, this is the difference between information and knowledge. With information you only stand before an object but in the knowledge you possess the object of knowledge. There is self-possession and then there is self-mastery. That is the third stage of true knowledge, self-mastery in which you find all that has to be known contained in it. It is not only that you have in your hands only a little thing, but you possess, you contain within yourself. And the Divine Teacher is interested in this task, in developing your Being.

So, as Sri Aurobindo says:

As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of egoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise the source of the growing light within us. We recognise it retrospectively as we realise how all our obscure and conflicting movements have been determined towards an end that we only now begin to perceive, how even before our entrance into the path of the Yoga the evolution of our life has been designedly led towards its turning-point. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

This is the experience of all who stand at the threshold of the true knowledge. As you stand at the threshold of yoga and you become awake to the necessity of yoga in your life you realise how the Divine himself was leading you towards that path even without your knowledge, even without your consent. All circumstances of life were determined as it were, so as to make you aware of the need of yoga. You recognise it retrospectively. You have already trodden the path to some extent and you look back retrospectively and then you come to know that this was the meaning of it. As Sri Aurobindo was taken to the Alipore jail, he asked the question: “Why am I taken to this jail?” He was removed from the field of his work in which he was fully engaged and he was cut suddenly from all that surrounding of that field of action and put into a prison where he could not even meet a single person apart from himself, apart from the sentries. Then retrospectively when he began to lead the life in Alipore jail as he began to contemplate and meditate on the Gita, on the Upanishads and when he heard the Supreme Lord himself Sri Krishna telling him: “There is a big work to be done. You have to tread a path of yoga, and a new path of yoga has to be created for mankind.” When he came to learn this, then retrospectively he understood why he was taken to the jail. It is retrospective; it is the Lord himself as a master, as a teacher.

For now we begin to understand the sense of our struggles and efforts, successes and failures. At last we are able to seize the meaning of our ordeals and sufferings and can appreciate the help that was given us by all that hurt and resisted and the utility of our very falls and stumblings.Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

When we fall we complain why should I fall? But the divine takes you through various kinds of paths of successes, of victories, of failures, of disasters, calamities, all kinds of methods. At that time we repel or we rejoice according to our immediate concern but behind all that is the preparation of the path. “We recognise this divine leading afterwards, not retrospectively but immediately…” Once we have gained this retrospective understanding of God leading you then you apply it even now. Earlier you were trying to understand the Divine retrospectively but now once you have learnt it you can apply the method now and say that in what is happening to you surely the Divine is present. You should see in the present situation also how the Divine is present — not retrospectively but now itself. How the divine leading

..in the moulding of our thoughts by a transcendent Seer, of our will and actions by an all-embracing Power, of our emotional life by an all-attracting and all-assimilating Bliss and Love. We recognise it too in a more personal relation that from the first touched or at the last seizes us; we feel the eternal presence of a supreme Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

These are the four terms which we recognise in the true teacher. He is a Master, he is a Friend, he is the Lover, he is the Teacher. The Teacher basically instructs, the Lover attracts you with his love, the Friend is a companion and gives you solace, gives you happiness, pleasure, gives you all kinds of play; but he is also the Master and that is the real recognition of the Teacher as the Master. It is he who commands everything and who has the authority of giving command to you. That is the mark of the Teacher. A good teacher can tell you: “Do this!” He commands with complete responsibility. Whatever is to happen will happen, do not grieve because I am in every circumstance. That is the Master. He is sure, confident, infallible. That is the mark of the Master. A friend can make a mistake, a lover can make a mistake, even a teacher can make a mistake but the master makes no mistake. When the teacher tells you authoritatively he is the master, when the teacher explores with you he is the teacher but when he is authoritative, he is certain, that is the mastery. The Lord, the Divine comes to us in our process of learning as the Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher.

We recognise it in the essence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater and wider existence; for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts: an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

This is another mark of your entering into being. When you begin to become like your teacher in your behaviour, in your thinking, in your movements, in your seekings. A good teacher always has the power of creating imitation among the pupils; a good teacher becomes an example and the pupils begin to imitate, begins to become like the teacher. This is not the accumulation of more and more information. To become like your teacher, if your teacher is kind you become kind; if your teacher is authoritative you become authoritative; your teacher is very friendly you become very friendly; the teacher is very forgiving you become very forgiving; the teacher is a seer you become a seer, the teacher is your leader you become a leader. Whenever you have a real growth of being, real knowledge, as distinguished from information this is the special mark you will find. You not only become more informed, something happens to the very essence of your being, you are moulded in the image of your teacher.

We recognise it in the essence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater and wider existence; for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts: an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image.Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

When you begin to become like your teacher it is not your effort it is he because of the supreme attractiveness of his being who mingles his being with your being, who wrestles and embraces your being and then you become like him. And then Sri Aurobindo gives a great statement: “…an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image.” That is the mark of a great education. The true education is an eternal perfection moulding us into its own image. We become perfect not by gaining a lot of information; it is by becoming ourselves the lightness, the image of the master himself.

Now Sri Aurobindo gives various ways by which you come to know this master, by different names we call him.

One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in the conscious being (caitya guru or antaryāmin), the Absolute of the thinker, the Unknowable of the Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti, the One who is differently named and imaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

If you are a materialist God comes to you as the force of matter; if you are the agnostic then he comes to you in the form of the unknowable; if you are a yogi he comes to you as Ishwara; if you are a thinker he comes to you as the absolute. In whatever form you are he takes an appropriate form but it is he who takes you in his hands; it is he who walks with you and trains you in his own mastery and makes you like him.

To see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves and in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal and becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

If you are now in the real presence of the Master you recognise what is the goal of your life. Your goal of life is actually nothing but to become like the master of your being. To grow into his likeness. That is the reason why without the guru you cannot have the real knowledge because what is knowledge is to be like the master, growing into the image of the master. Therefore unless you meet your master how can you be educated? The very aim of education, the very aim of life is to become like your teacher. Therefore, a teacher becomes indispensable.

To be conscious of him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term of all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga; it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life into divine living. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

This paragraph is so beautiful and so masterly that you should read it again and again. It is the entire definition of yoga, the entire aim of life, the entire thing that you are obscurely seeking can be fulfilled only when this happens. As long as this does not happen do not think that you have reached. There are many-many stages in which we are told the destination has come and if you want to be sure whether the destination has come or not read this paragraph, see whether this has happened. This is only the introduction so far of the Divine Teacher. Now we go forward and look at this Divine Teacher in our world.

The surest way towards this integral fulfilment is to find the Master of the secret who dwells within us, open ourselves constantly to the divine Power which is also the divine Wisdom and Love and trust to it to effect the conversion. But it is difficult for the egoistic consciousness to do this at all at the beginning. And, if done at all, it is still difficult to do it perfectly and in every strand of our nature. It is difficult at first because our egoistic habits of thought, of sensation, of feeling block up the avenues by which we can arrive at the perception that is needed. It is difficult afterwards because the faith, the surrender, the courage requisite in this path are not easy to the ego-clouded soul. The divine working is not the working which the egoistic mind desires or approves; for it uses error in order to arrive at truth, suffering in order to arrive at bliss, imperfection in order to arrive at perfection. The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage. These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by our want of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher. But by withdrawing our assent from the guidance we lose the consciousness, though not all the actuality—not, in any case, the eventuality—of its benefit. And we withdraw our assent because we fail to distinguish our higher Self from the lower through which he is preparing his self-revelation. As in the world, so in ourselves, we cannot see God because of his workings and, especially, because he works in us through our nature and not by a succession of arbitrary miracles. Man demands miracles that he may have faith; he wishes to be dazzled in order that he may see. And this impatience, this ignorance may turn into a great danger and disaster if, in our revolt against the divine leading, we call in another distorting Force more satisfying to our impulses and desires and ask it to guide us and give it the Divine Name. 

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

The difficulty of discovering the Divine Master, this is what Sri Aurobindo describes to us. Why is it that we cannot discover the Divine Master who is within us? Sri Aurobindo gives us the analysis.

It is difficult at first because our egoistic habits of thought, of sensation, of feeling block up the avenues by which we can arrive at the perception that is needed. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

What are the egoistic habits of thoughts? Habit means a constant turn towards what has already been established. That is a habit. We habitually smile when we meet people who come to meet us. Similarly there are many kinds of habits. When somebody praises you, habitually we like it. It is our egoistic habit to dislike blame. If somebody blames you, habitually you withdraw. It is a habit of the ego: “I cannot have done wrong.” Because of our habitual way of thinking we cannot see when the Divine comes to us. He may come to us in a not very agreeable form, he may come to us blaming us and we may not like him so we may not recognise him — Oh! he is my master. The master who is within us may come to us in many ways which are opposed to our egoistic ways of thinking, to our egoistic habit of thought, of sensation, of feeling. We think habitually, we sense habitually, we feel habitually and all are egoistic in our normal turn of consciousness. That is why we do not recognise the Master when he comes.

It is difficult afterwards because the faith, the surrender, the courage requisite in this path are not easy to the ego-clouded soul.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

If you don’t have enough faith in the leading of the Master and then the Master says: “Now proceed” but the faith is not there, therefore we give up. We do not move forward. Surrender is not there, therefore we do not move forward. The courage is not there, therefore we do not move forward. These are the blockades as to why we cannot recognise the Master and cannot allow him to work in our life.

The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage.

 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

But the Divine Master therefore does not leave us because we do not follow his leading. He is not offended and he continues in his own way. Even through our revolt, even through our loss of courage or faith he continues because he is deeply interested in us — even more interested in us that we may be interested in him because he knows who we are and what we are.

Therefore Sri Aurobindo says:

These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by our want of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher. But by withdrawing our assent from the guidance we lose the consciousness, though not all the actuality—not, in any case, the eventuality—of its benefit. And we withdraw our assent because we fail to distinguish our higher Self from the lower through which he is preparing his self-revelation. As in the world, so in ourselves, we cannot see God because of his workings and, especially, because he works in us through our nature and not by a succession of arbitrary miracles. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

It is a very special method of God. We want to see miracles to believe in God but he precisely does not do it because he wants to prepare our nature. If only miracles happen our nature will not be trained, we will not be able to see even in the leaf of a tree the miracle of God — because it is so familiar. Only in a miracle we will see God but not in the leaves, in the ordinary ripple of a river, in the smile of a child. All these are very familiar, very small things in life and this is what God wants to tell us, he is present not only in extraordinary events but even in ordinary events. God is everywhere, omnipresent and it is that while he wants to teach us, so why should he do miracles? He does not teach us by a succession of arbitrary miracles.

Man demands miracles that he may have faith; he wishes to be dazzled in order that he may see. 

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

One day, a disciple went to the Mother and said: “Mother, so many teachers are doing so many miracles why don’t you give miracles to the people?” She said: “What miracles do you want to see? Shall I bring a big tree here before you? Even if that happens you will not believe it.” So many miracles are happening in the world, the people have to be trained to see God in every event. Why only in the miracle? Every event is a miracle if you want to see the miracle. What is happening to you now is a miracle. Reading this book itself is a miracle. If you consider the events and the situation of life, if you just want to see the cause and effect and relationship, the very fact that these words come to us now is a miracle. We are impatient and this impatience may turn into a great danger and disaster. Don’t therefore demand miracles.

Miracles in any case will happen. Not that there are no miracles. Miracles are what? The entrance of a higher principle into a lower principle is a miracle. In a lower working, when a higher working begins to operate is a miracle. If with our physical eyes we can see an invisible being, it is a miracle. The invisible being is a higher principle. Our eyes are trained to see only physical things and if your physical eyes begin to see the invisible it is a miracle. Actually, this is what happens every time, every moment because the invisible exists and our eyes are capable of seeing only they are not trained. But when necessary the Divine also gives us miracles, it is not as if he denies miracles but he does not follow our egoistic demands: “Now make a miracle and we believe in you.” because then he will not be a good teacher. He is not in a hurry at all that we should believe in him. He has a greater purpose he wants to show you miracles in everyday life, in every moment. What Arjuna saw in Sri Krishna at the battlefield is one of the greatest miracles in fact. You should sometimes read the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. How Sri Krishna manifests the divinity in a great splendour as if thousand suns were blazing at once in the sky. That is how Arjuna describes the vision of Sri Krishna. That also can happen. But before starting his teaching Sri Krishna did not say, “Now look, I am a miraculous God and you should have faith in what I tell you.” No! He took the disciple little by little through the difficult process of understanding. It is only when he had already the faith in him, — not to create faith in him — already he had the faith in him, that the great miracle happened and Arjuna saw the Supreme Divine in physical form. If the Divine creates miracles it is not because he wants to create faith in you. It is for a specific purpose he can always do it. But to show miracles is not the sign of the Master. The sign of the Master is that he shows you miracles even in those things which are familiar; when he trains you to see God in everything. I see you and I see God —that is the miracle.

But human beings sometimes are impatient. When God does not show you the miracle but ordinary men do it, you turn away from God and you go to the ordinary man. This is a disaster.

Therefore Sri Aurobindo says don’t be impatient, don’t be dazzled, don’t demand a miracle.

And this impatience, this ignorance may turn into a great danger and disaster if, in our revolt against the divine leading, we call in another distorting Force more satisfying to our impulses and desires and ask it to guide us and give it the Divine Name.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

Now Sri Aurobindo brings us to that argument as to why human beings need human teachers. Although the Divine Teacher is always there within us and therefore we can do without a human teacher. Why is it necessary that we need human teachers? This is because:

But while it is difficult for man to believe in something unseen within himself, it is easy for him to believe in something which he can image as extraneous to himself. The spiritual progress of most human beings demands an extraneous support, an object of faith outside us. It needs an external image of God; or it needs a human representative,—Incarnation, Prophet or Guru; or it demands both and receives them. For according to the need of the human soul the Divine manifests himself as deity, as human divine or in simple humanity—using that thick disguise, which so successfully conceals the Godhead, for a means of transmission of his guidance.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

These are only ladders, crutches. When you need a human teacher the Divine comes also to you as a human teacher, he will provide you a human teacher because it is easier for a human being to approach the Divine outwardly instead of inwardly. That is why in India particularly, it is said that if you do not find the Divine Teacher within you find a human teacher and approach him and treat him as the Divine Teacher. Because even if the human teacher is inadequate and has imperfections the Divine Teacher will come to you through him because you want to meet him. The Divine takes the human instrument even if it is defective; he fills the defects and presents himself to you as the perfect Divine. The human teacher himself may be imperfect but because the Divine Teacher uses him as his representative, because you choose him, therefore his defects are blurred, obliterated, cancelled by the Divine when he deals with you. It is also like a doctor. The doctor himself may not be capable but if you go to him and pray to the Divine: “Please act through him” then the doctor will be immediately transfigured into that divinity and will treat you as the Divine will treat you. This is the miracle you might say: how the human person approached as a teacher, becomes for you the Divine himself. That is why in India this discipline has been cultivated for ages, thousands of years. In fact, it is said that for everybody, even if he has found God within him, he should still go to a human teacher. It is so much embedded in the Indian culture, and there is a seeking for a human teacher, one in whom you can see the Divine.

Or at least you find an ishta devata. This concept of ishta devata is very important. There is God himself, there are many gods and there are a number of human beings. God himself is the Divine, the gods are also divine, and human beings also are divine. In the eye of integrality there is nothing which is not divine, and yet there are limitations. The human beings are very limited, the Gods are not so limited and God is fully unlimited. You may not find a human teacher in whom you may see many-many human defects therefore you may not be able to approach him. Then you approach a deity, a god. India recognises the presence of gods. There are gods and each god has a special quality and each one of us vibrates with this quality or that quality. According to your vibration the god of that particular vibration becomes more favourable to you; he is nearer to you. He is more like you because ultimately you have to become like God himself. So any god who seems to be like you becomes your favourite god: ishta devata. If you are in a hurry for transformation, if you are extremely devoted to transformation you will automatically find Shiva as your favourite deity because he is the impetuous power of transformation. If you are very intolerant of your defects, if you don’t want your defects at all, then you will find Shiva is your very favourite because he does not tolerate any defect. In his presence no defect can be present. To get Shiva with you is the most difficult thing because you should be prepared to throw away all your defects at once. If you want charming smiles of the Divine then Mahalakshmi will always become your favourite. She does not see your defects, she does not want to remove your defects, she only wants to attract you, to uplift you, to fondle you. And if you need to be fondled, Mahalakshmi will become your favourite deity. If you are a patient labourer, a good student, a good worker, Saraswati will become your favourite deity. You will always turn to her. You will like her very much because in your being there is a vibration of Saraswati. So, this idea of a favourite deity is not a wrong idea. It is a very effective and powerful and true idea. The Divine has many forms and you can take any form which is appropriate to your nature and climb up the ladder. Only you should agree not to limit yourself to this or that or that… You take the help, you take the ladder and then go beyond, because ultimately it is the Supreme Divine that you have to meet. You may take the human teacher, you may take a god as ishta devata but ultimately you have to find the Lord within yourself. That is the real aim of the Integral Yoga. Even if you have a human guru, ultimately you have to discover the Lord himself within you.

The Hindu discipline of spirituality provides for this need of the soul by the conceptions of the Ishta Devata, the Avatar and the Guru. By the Ishta Devata, the chosen deity, is meant,—not some inferior Power, but a name and form of the transcendent and universal Godhead. Almost all religions either have as their base or make use of some such name and form of the Divine. Its necessity for the human soul is evident. God is the All and more than the All. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? And even the All is at first too hard for him; for he himself in his active consciousness is a limited and selective formation and can open himself only to that which is in harmony with his limited nature. There are things in the All which are too hard for his comprehension or seem too terrible to his sensitive emotions and cowering sensations. Or, simply, he cannot conceive as the Divine, cannot approach or cannot recognise something that is too much out of the circle of his ignorant or partial conceptions. It is necessary for him to conceive God in his own image or in some form that is beyond himself but consonant with his highest tendencies and seizable by his feelings or his intelligence. Otherwise it would be difficult for him to come into contact and communion with the Divine.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

This is now the other way round. In true learning you become like God; that is our ultimate course of action. But in the beginning you like God to be like you, not yourself becoming like God, but you like that form of God which is like you and you turn more easily to this aspect of the Divine which is more like you.

There is a very difficult word in English: anthropomorphism. To make God in the image of man. To think of God as if he is a human being, regarding him as a human being is anthropomorphism. Because human beings are pleased when you praise them therefore they approach God to praise him so he may be pleased with them. We believe, just as human beings are pleased by flattery, God also is pleased by flattery. It is not true but it is to look upon God as if he is a human being. When you strike somebody you feel that he will take revenge against you similarly you revolt against God and you believe that God will take revenge against you. God will not like you; God will be offended. You do not know that God is never offended — he is the Divine. Sri Aurobindo says, God is not offended by your revolts. He is like a mother. He understands your revolts and even in your revolts he comes to you and embraces you. But that requires a higher knowledge of the Divine otherwise normally we think that he will be offended, but he is not offended. To image God in man’s image, that is anthropomorphism. But even that has its use because God uses everything. Every method of man is used by God for his purposes. So this idea of looking upon the Divine in the form in which we like him, God also takes that form. If you like a certain form of God and say that you like it very much then God takes that form also and treats you through that.

It is necessary for him to conceive God in his own image or in some form that is beyond himself but consonant with his highest tendencies and seizable by his feelings or his intelligence. Otherwise it would be difficult for him to come into contact and communion with the Divine.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

Anthropomorphism has its uses — you start with it and ultimately you will come to God himself and then throw away anthropomorphism.

Even then his nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example.  Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

Even ishta devata may not be enough. A god who is very near to you may not be enough for you to approach God. You may come to a human form that is why the human guru is needed.

This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar—Krishna, Christ, Buddha. Or if this is too hard for him to conceive, the Divine represents himself through a less marvellous intermediary,—Prophet or Teacher. For many who cannot conceive or are unwilling to accept the Divine Man, are ready to open themselves to the supreme man, terming him not incarnation but world-teacher or divine representative.

This also is not enough; a living influence, a living example, a present instruction is needed.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

You may have ishta devata or you may have incarnation as a great being who lived in the physical but as an incarnation. Even that may not be enough. You may have a teacher, a prophet, but a prophet of the past may not be enough. Sometimes you need a living teacher, one who can talk to you physically, one you can see living day after day: a living influence, a living example, a present instruction is needed.

For it is only the few who can make the past Teacher and his teaching, the past Incarnation and his example and influence a living force in their lives. For this need also the Hindu discipline provides in the relation of the Guru and the disciple. The Guru may sometimes be the Incarnation or World-Teacher; but it is sufficient that he should represent to the disciple the divine wisdom, convey to him something of the divine ideal or make him feel the realised relation of the human soul with the Eternal. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

He may not be a great prophet; he may not be a great incarnation. If the teacher can give him the knowledge of the Divine, can take him to the experience of the Divine, even that is enough and even that should be provided for.

The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru,” and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

There is nothing that is denied in the Integral Yoga. You can worship a human teacher who may not be a great incarnation, you can worship a teacher who is an incarnation or a prophet either of the present day or of the past or you can go to a god [ishta devata, favourite god or goddess] or you go directly to the Supreme Teacher within yourself. Any and all, everything is admitted in the Integral Yoga.

The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru,” and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

This is the evil which be avoided. You may love your teacher, but to say, “My teacher is the only teacher in the world and none other. My prophet is the only prophet in the world”, this exclusiveness. The Supreme God is the only God, the one without a second, all other forms are secondary forms and we should take them all in their supreme light.

All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation.

Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids

There is a beautiful prayer of Sri Aurobindo where he praises all the gods and then he says, “Now liberate me from all the gods.”