Apropos of Kepler’s ‘Gratitude’ let us read again the Mother’s prayer inscribed on the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo:

To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before Thee who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before Thee we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to Thee. [9 December 1950]

Mark the phrase “infinite gratitude”. Mark also the wonderful “we bow down and implore” Thee. As against that what are we talking? If we have taken seriously the Integral Yoga as a spiritual discipline to make spiritual progress as proposed by Sri Aurobindo, the stipulation is to follow it in all its seriousness. There is of course no compulsion, no invitation, to take it, and the choice is entirely the individual’s. If that seriousness, that commitment, that strong urge is lacking then it need not interest us. Wise people are of course free to debate the metaphysics of the Integral Yoga, and intellectually please themselves with it; but that doesn’t really concern us in any significant way. The concern is spiritual progress. Whatever is harmful for it, must be set aside; whatever promotes it becomes acceptable. It’s entirely a question of one’s well-founded perceptions, preferably the perceptions based on the psychic or the authentic soul. When Sri Aurobindo writes about the “supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every man, so its supreme Guide and Teacher is the inner Guide, the World-Teacher, jagad-guru, secret within us,” he means it for the very advanced stage in the spiritual progress; otherwise he need not have established an Ashram to lead the spiritual aspirants on the path. The supreme Shastra and the inner Guide who are always there would have taken care of everything. A stage comes, much later, when the supreme Shastra and the inner Guide are revealed and charge is taken of in the freedom of the Spirit’s possibilities, when the true freewill is acquired, as did Aswapati and Savitri in the epic. We have to go by our own perceptions and follow the path, and that is all I can say. Let us take our stand on spiritual aspects and not metaphysical, howsoever valid or absorbing the latter might be. Is our concern not the genuine spiritual progress? If not, then what is the Integral Yoga there for? ~ RYD