"Day by Day with Bhagavan"

[Guest guest]

7-4-46 Night

 

A visitor said, “In the Pondicherry Aurobindo Ashram it is said that the final

stage of spiritual progress is to become the purushottama and it would seem that

activity is predicated of that purushottama i.e., some vritti would seem to be

associated with that state, whereas it is believed by other schools that

cessation of all vrittis is liberation.â€

 

Bhagavan said, “You say, all schools advise you to give up all vrittis so that

you can reach your final goal, whether it is becoming purushottama or something

else. You must cease to be the three kinds of ordinary purusha i.e., the adhama,

madhyama, uttama and become that purushottama. This is accepted. Whether, when

you transcend these three kinds and cease to be the ordinary purusha, there is

any vritti still left is a matter with which you need not concern yourself now.

Attain that state and see for yourself what that state is and whether there is

any vritti in it. To speak even of brahmakara vritti, as we sometimes do, is not

accurate. If we can talk of the river that has merged in the ocean as still a

river and call it samudrakara river, we can talk of the final stage in spiritual

growth as having Brahmakara vritti. When people from Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram

come here and ask about the differences between our school and theirs, I always

tell them, ‘There, complete surrender is advised and insisted upon before

anything further could be hoped for or attained. So, do it first. I also advise

it. After making such surrender, i.e., complete surrender and not any partial or

conditional surrender, you will be able to see for yourself whether there are

two purushas, whether power comes from anywhere and gets into anywhere, etc.’

For we know nothing about God or any source from which power comes and gets into

us. All that is not known. But ‘I exist’ is known beyond all dispute by all

men. So let us know who that ‘I’ is. If, after knowing it, there still

remain any doubts such as are now raised, it will be time enough then to try and

clear such doubts.â€

 

('Day by Day with Bhagavan', A. Devaraha Mudaliar)