Shri Aurobindo on Time the Destroyer

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praNams Advaitins,

 

In our recent Gita Satsangh, Shri Ram Chandranji was going through

11.32 and its explanations.

 

Here (http://intyoga.online.fr/gita2-10.htm) is an essay

by Shri Aurobindo on the same topic. I think it is relevant.

 

Though the long essay has too many jewels for someone to

selectively quote, let me dare it foolishly.

 

==

 

 

It is the vision of the One in the many, the Many in the One, -

and all are the One. It is this vision that to the eye of the divine

Yoga liberates, justifies, explains all that is and was and shall be.

Once seen and held, it lays the shining axe of God at the root of

all doubts and perplexities and annihilates all denials and oppositions.

It is the vision that reconciles and unifies. If the soul can arrive at

unity with the Godhead in this vision, - Arjuna has not yet done that,

therefore we find that he has fear when he sees, - all even that is

terrible in the world loses its terror.

 

[...]

 

The weakness of the human heart wants only fair and comforting

truths or in their absence pleasant fables; it will not have the truth

in its entirety because there there is much that is not clear and

pleasant and comfortable, but hard to understand and harder to bear.

 

[...]

 

I as Time have to destroy the old structures and to

build up a new, mighty and splendid kingdom. Thou as a

human instrument of the divine Power and Wisdom hast

in this struggle which thou canst not prevent to battle for the right

and slay and conquer its opponents. Thou too, the human soul in

Nature, hast to enjoy in Nature the fruit given by me, the empire

of right and justice. Let this be sufficient for thee, - to be one

with God in thy soul, to receive his command, to do his will, to

see calmly a supreme purpose fulfilled in the world.

 

[...]

 

For certainly the Godhead when he says, " I am

Time the Destroyer of beings, " does not mean either that

he is the Time-Spirit alone or that the whole essence of the

Time-Spirit is destruction. But it is this which is the present will

of his workings, pravrtti. Destruction is always a simultaneous or

alternate element which keeps pace with creation and it is by

destroying and renewing that the Master of Life does his long

work of preservation. More, destruction is the first condition

of progress. Inwardly, the man who does not destroy his lower

self-formations, cannot rise to a greater existence. Outwardly

also, the nation or community or race which shrinks too long

from destroying and replacing its past forms of life, is itself

destroyed, rots and perishes and out of its debris other nations,

communities and races are formed. By destruction of the old giant

occupants man made himself a place upon earth. By destruction of

the Titans the gods maintain the continuity of the divine Law in the

cosmos. Whoever prematurely attempts to get rid of this law of

battle and destruction, strives vainly against the greater will of

the World-Spirit. Whoever turns from it in the weakness of his

lower members, as did Arjuna in the beginning, - therefore

was his shrinking condemned as a small and false pity, an

inglorious, an un-Aryan and unheavenly feebleness of heart

and impotence of spirit, klaibyam, kshudram hrdaya-daurbalyam,

- is showing not true virtue, but a want of spiritual courage to face

the sterner truths of Nature and of action and existence. Man can only

exceed the law of battle by discovering the greater law of his immortality.

 

==

 

Read the entire essay from here

http://intyoga.online.fr/gita2-10.htm

 

Hari Om!

Ramakrishna