Page 16 - All India Magazine May-2023

tween the instrument in front and the Divinity behind or above is
broken. No rule can be laid down which applies without distinction
to everybody — the variations in human nature are too great to be
covered by a single trenchant rule. CWSA 29: 82-84

Surrender and Tapasya
The process of surrender is itself a Tapasya. Not only so, but in
fact a double process of Tapasya and increasing surrender persists
for a long time even when the surrender has fairly well begun. But a
time comes when one feels the Presence and the Force constantly
and more and more feels that that is doing everything — so that the
worst difficulties cannot disturb this sense and personal effort is no
longer necessary, hardly even possible. That is the sign of the full
surrender of the nature into the hands of the Divine. There are some
who take this position in faith even before there is this experience
and if the Bhakti and the faith are strong it carries them through till
the experience is there. But all cannot take this position from the
beginning — and for some it would be dangerous since they might
put themselves into the hand of a wrong Force thinking it to be the
Divine. For most it is necessary to grow through Tapasya into sur-
render.
CWSA 29: 82
Not an excuse for indolence
Faith, reliance upon God, surrender and self-giving to the Divine
Power are necessary and indispensable. But reliance upon God
must not be made an excuse for indolence, weakness and surren-
der to the impulses of the lower nature; it must go along with
untiring aspiration and a persistent rejection of all that comes in
the way of the Divine Truth. The surrender to the Divine must not
be turned into an excuse, a cloak or an occasion for surrender to
one’s own desires and lower movements or to one’s ego or to
some Force of the ignorance and darkness that puts on a false
appearance of the Divine.
CWSA 29: 87 Sri Aurobindo

16 All India Magazine, May 2023