Three Necessary Conditions for the Divine Power To Work Through the Seeker in the Outward Life

Under normal conditions, we are pushed from one reaction to another by external impulsions and our trained responses to circumstances. There is very little chance, therefore, to inject a higher divine power directly into the life-action. Sri Aurobindo outlines the conditions that help the individual shift away from this chaotic reaction that constitutes our normal lives, to an approach that opens the seeker up to these higher powers.

When such a power begins to enter the being, there is a tendency to try to control and redirect it with the usual efforts of the mind, life and physical body. If we do this, we are ‘watering down’ the force, something like a ‘step-down transformer’ does with electircal power. Resisting the tendency to appropriate this force and run it through the normal channels is therefore of high importance.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “To be able to receive the Divine Power and let it act through you in the things of the outward life, there are three necessary conditions: (i) Quietude, equality — not to be disturbed by anything that happens, to keep the mind still and firm, seeing the play of forces, but itself tranquil.”

“(ii) Absolute faith — faith that what is for the best will happen, but also that if one can make oneself a true instrument, the fruit will be that which one’s will guided by the Divine Light sees as the thing to be done — kartavyam karma.“

“(iii) Receptivity — the power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and the presence of the Mother in it and allow it to work, guiding one’s sight and will and action. If this power and presence can be felt and this plasticity made the habit of the consciousness in action, — but plasticity to the Divine Force alone without bringing in any foreign element, — the eventual result is sure.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, Calm — Peace — Equality, pp. 14-15