Inherent urge
God is the All and more than the All. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? He cannot conceive the Divine cannot approach or cannot recognise something that is too much out of the circle.
God is the All and more than the All. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? He cannot conceive 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.
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.
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 marvelous intermediary — prophet or teacher.
This also is not enough; 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.
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 oppose it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit.
On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of deity in his own conception, seen his own ishta devata (chosen divine form) in all others, unified all avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the avatar, welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of eternal wisdom.
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.
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.
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 marvelous intermediary — prophet or teacher.
This also is not enough; 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.
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 oppose it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit.
On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of deity in his own conception, seen his own ishta devata (chosen divine form) in all others, unified all avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the avatar, welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of eternal wisdom.