Sri Aurobindo and the Divine Mother

An extract from the book A Yoga philosophy guidebook.

Sri Aurobindo reminds us that Devī is both the transcendent One to whom we reach to escape the suffering round of life and death, and the Mother who nurtures evolution and draws all beings toward wholeness. His teachings proclaim that the world is not a mistake from which we must escape. The world is purposeful, and evolution moves ceaselessly toward fulfillment of the Divine Plan. To participate in fulfilling this plan, Sri Aurobindo encourages us to surrender our entire selves at the feet of the Divine Mother, and to ask Her to take us up as an instrument for Her great work. He sees the Mother as an evolutionary force that flows through the forces of nature to bring about greater enlightenment for all beings:

“If you want to be a true doer of divine works, your first aim must be to be totally free from all desire and self-regarding ego. All your life must be an offering and a sacrifice to the Supreme; your only object in action shall be to serve, to receive, to fulfill, to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her works. You must grow in the divine consciousness till there is no difference between your will and hers, no motive except her impulsion in you, no action that is not her conscious action in you and through you.” (from The Mother, by Sri Aurobindo)

We often think of surrender as a struggle, an effort that we make to give up something important. But in this case, what we are giving up is the ego’s false importance, and what we gain instead is the freedom of the soul to act in accordance with its true nature. When we stand separate in our individuality, enforcing our small will upon the world, then we live in a constant state of struggle and suffering. But when we surrender this small will and join with the Mother’s vast and perfect Will, we receive joy and peace beyond measure.

“A time will come when you will feel more and more that you are the instrument and not the worker. For first by the force of your devotion your contact with the Divine Mother will become so intimate that at all times you will have only to concentrate and to put everything into her hands to have her present guidance, her direct command or impulse, the sure indication of the thing to be done and the way to do it and the result. And afterwards you will realise that the divine Shakti not only inspires and guides, but initiates and carries out your works; all your movements are originated by her, all your powers are hers; mind, life and body are conscious and joyful instruments of her action, means for her play, moulds for her manifestation in the physical universe. There can be no more happy condition than this union and dependence; for this step carries you back beyond the borderline from the life of stress and suffering in the ignorance into the truth of your spiritual being, into its deep peace and its intense Ananda.” (from The Mother, by Sri Aurobindo)

In modern yoga, this unequivocal surrender has been supplanted by a doctrine of ego empowerment. We are encouraged to feel powerful, in control, to work hard and gain strength, flexibility, stamina. The ancient teachings of yoga do of course encourage strength and courage, but always and only in service to our deepening of the union of spirit and matter, identification with our soul, and devotion to the Supreme One. Modern western yoga is rife with false teachings that have cloaked themselves in yogic dress, and instead of encouraging the surrender of the ego’s desires at the feet of the Divine, actually encourage building the ego’s fortress and glittering city of glamor. We must be scrupulous in our viveka (discernment), as these teachings have a subtle way of weaving themselves into a scenery that we take for granted.

In his condensed articulation of the heart of Shaktism, a small booklet called The Mother, Sri Aurobindo describes four powers of the Divine Mother, “four of her outstanding Personalities, portions, and embodiments of her divinity.” These four are reflected in the Mother’s Symbol as the four central petals around an inner circle. The inner circle represents Aditi, “the one original transcendent Shakti” who also “enters into the worlds she has made; her presence fills and supports them with the divine spirit…without which they could not exist.” The four petals represent Maheshwari, Mahākali, Mahālakshmī, and Mahāsaraswatī.

Maheshwarī is “the mighty and wise One who opens us to…the cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the Supreme Light…Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm forever…[S]he is above all, bound by nothing, attached to nothing in the universe. Yet has she more than any other the heart of the universal Mother. For her compassion is endless and inexhaustible.”

“Mahākali is of another nature…not wisdom but force and strength are her peculiar power. There is in her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. Terrible is her face to the Asura, dangerous and ruthless her mood against the haters of the Divine…[S]he smites awake at once with sharp pain, if need be, the untimely slumberer and the loiterer.”

Mahālakshmī is “the miracle of eternal beauty, an unseizable secret of divine harmonies…and there is no aspect of the Divine Shakti more attractive to the heart of embodied things. For she throws the spell of intoxication sweetness of the Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness, and to feel her within the heart is to make existence a rapture and a marvel.”

Mahāsaraswatī is the Mother’s Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order. This Power is the strong, the tireless, the careful and efficient builder, organizer, administrator, technician, artisan and crafter of the worlds…[L]eaning over us she notes and touches every little detail, finds out every minute defect, gap, twist or incompleteness…Nothing is too small or apparently trivial for her attention…Therefore of all the Mother’s powers she is the most long suffering with [us] and [our] thousand imperfections. Kind, smiling, close and helpful, not easily turned away or discouraged, insistent even after repeated failure, her hand sustains our every step on condition that we are single in our will and straightforward and sincere, for…her revealing irony is merciless to drama and histrionics and self-deceit and pretense.”

These four powers are present throughout the universe, in the cosmos and in our lives. They await our prayers, our outreach. Through them we can connect to the primordial Devī and invite Her grace into our hearts and our days. And if we are willing to surrender the immediate and impulsive desires of our egoic nature, we can become Her instruments in the great and difficult work of cosmic evolution. And this is the ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction toward which all desire yearns.