Sadhana | Page 2

TO THE UNIVERSE II. SOUL
CONSCIOUSNESS III. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL IV. THE PROBLEM OF SELF V.
REALISATION IN LOVE VI. REALISATION IN ACTION VII. THE REALISATION
OF BEAUTY VIII. THE REALISATION OF THE INFINITE

I
THE RELATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE UNIVERSE
The civilisation of ancient Greece was nurtured within city walls. In fact, all the modern
civilisations have their cradles of brick and mortar.
These walls leave their mark deep in the minds of men. They set up a principle of "divide
and rule" in our mental outlook, which begets in us a habit of securing all our conquests
by fortifying them and separating them from one another. We divide nation and nation,
knowledge and knowledge, man and nature. It breeds in us a strong suspicion of whatever
is beyond the barriers we have built, and everything has to fight hard for its entrance into
our recognition.
When the first Aryan invaders appeared in India it was a vast land of forests, and the
new-comers rapidly took advantage of them. These forests afforded them shelter from the
fierce heat of the sun and the ravages of tropical storms, pastures for cattle, fuel for
sacrificial fire, and materials for building cottages. And the different Aryan clans with
their patriarchal heads settled in the different forest tracts which had some special
advantage of natural protection, and food and water in plenty.
Thus in India it was in the forests that our civilisation had its birth, and it took a distinct
character from this origin and environment. It was surrounded by the vast life of nature,
was fed and clothed by her, and had the closest and most constant intercourse with her
varying aspects.
Such a life, it may be thought, tends to have the effect of dulling human intelligence and
dwarfing the incentives to progress by lowering the standards of existence. But in ancient
India we find that the circumstances of forest life did not overcome man's mind, and did
not enfeeble the current of his energies, but only gave to it a particular direction. Having
been in constant contact with the living growth of nature, his mind was free from the
desire to extend his dominion by erecting boundary walls around his acquisitions. His
aim was not to acquire but to realise, to enlarge his consciousness by growing with and
growing into his surroundings. He felt that truth is all-comprehensive, that there is no
such thing as absolute isolation in existence, and the only way of attaining truth is
through the interpenetration of our being into all objects. To realise this great harmony
between man's spirit and the spirit of the world was the endeavour of the forest-dwelling
sages of ancient India.
In later days there came a time when these primeval forests gave way to cultivated fields,
and wealthy cities sprang up on all sides. Mighty kingdoms were established, which had
communications with all the great powers of the world. But even in the heyday of its
material prosperity the heart of India ever looked back with adoration upon the early ideal

of strenuous self-realisation, and the dignity of the simple life of the forest hermitage, and
drew its best inspiration from the wisdom stored there.
The west seems to take a pride in thinking that it is subduing nature; as if we are living in
a hostile world where we have to wrest everything we want from an unwilling and alien
arrangement of things. This sentiment is the product of the city-wall habit and training of
mind. For in the city life man naturally directs the concentrated light of his mental vision
upon his own life and works, and this creates an artificial dissociation between himself
and the Universal Nature within whose bosom he lies.
But in India the point of view was different; it included the world with the man as one
great truth. India put all her emphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual
and the universal. She felt we could have no communication whatever with our
surroundings if they were absolutely foreign to us. Man's complaint against nature is that
he has to acquire most of his necessaries by his own efforts. Yes, but his efforts are not in
vain; he is reaping success every day, and that shows there is a rational connection
between him and nature, for we never can make anything our own except that which is
truly related to us.
We can look upon a road from two different points of view. One regards it as dividing us
from the object of our desire; in that case we count every step of our journey over it as
something attained by force in the face of obstruction. The other sees it as the road which
leads us to