Offering

Yoga is union, to achieve which many paths and methods are resorted to. Man is deep down divine in essence. In order to reach union with the Transcendent Divine or the Cosmic Divine in life, he has to get over the dead layers of the entire race memory as found in him. The more developed the individual is, the greater are the endowments of mind. The endowments and faculties do not function as such, but start collecting below the surface fixed channels of habit. Habit formation is a dead layer of the inner human being and there are more organised versions of it. Temperament is emotional habit. It is basic for Yoga that one cannot reach the Divine through habits, however exalted they are in other fields.

Man’s relationship with the Divine is so transient that a few glowing moments appear in his life when he has glimpses of the Divine either as joy or elevation or luck or success. Later he returns to his human shell. Almost everyone gets such periods in his life. It is as though Man is born and lives a long life so that the possibility of these few moments will arise in his life. The banana plant grows for a year to flower once and yield one bunch of fruits. The fruits are used up in a short time. For this short usage the tree was in preparation for a long period. This phenomenon can be seen in every walk of life. It is for a brief period of flowering into the peak of existence that life prepares over a long period. For those who are drawn to Yoga there is always the inherent possibility of keeping this period of blossoming forever. And the effort on their part is the only thing needed. The human effort is the abridgement of the long preparation into a short interval--or no interval--between two periods of efflorescence. The intensity of the effort can be inferred. Aspiration is the soul’s emotional recognition of this effort and an active reaching to the Divine. Offering is the act of parting with everything that withholds this aspiration. Things offered to anyone in the same plane of consciousness continue to live there though it left the individual. Only things offered to the higher consciousness can dissolve and give us the needed freedom. All habits, possessions, traits, temperament, mental endowments and human acquirements are to be so offered only to the Divine. The Divine alone can receive them to be fully dissolved.

Offering is there in all planes of the being, mental, vital and physical. In the mind it is to give up the opinions, and thoughts, whereas in the vital it is the possessive impulse. Body is full of inertia and it must offer it to the Divine, turning itself to work. One must realise that opinions are limiting factors in the mind’s growth and must be given up for good. It is true even in ordinary mental life. But it is very common that men are proud of their opinions and treat them as a valuable possession. Inertia has its cultural version and it can hide itself under the title ‘comfort’. Man comes to pride in his comfort.

Uninhibited by thought, mind is creative and can attract silence. Thought can be said to be a curse to a mind which can move towards Silence. Thought is in time and by giving it up, one moves into Silence which is of the plane of Timelessness. One can effectively give up thought only by surrendering it to the Divine or raising the mental plane to that of the inner Divine. Thought related to any other end is not likely to fall away. People who strive after mental silence know that thought comes back into the mind in the shape of "I should have no further thought". Thought loses its force over the mind when the person deep below begins to recognise that thought is no endowment and knowledge is possible only when it ceases. With such perception the thoughts occurring in the mind are offered to the Divine, and the offering becomes acceptable; the offered thoughts get dissolved and the mind begins to have glimpses of freedom from thought. Unless and until the thought offered is strongly felt to be an inhibition, a curse, the Divine does not accept the offering. Mind still dwells on various thoughts about offering thoughts.

This principle is true for all offerings. What we still value cannot be offered effectively, because it means one is enriching the Divine by his offering to it something valuable. Donation is a word contrary to the spirit of offering and really inimical. It is a self-defeating movement to turn an offering into a donation. As all real offering will have an unsublimated vibration of donation, donation may have an unconscious element of offering in it. This is the only spiritual value of it. The person who gives offerings in the shape of ‘donation’ can observe his life and find that on many occasions people who come to him for benefits treat him as one who is receiving it, since ‘donation’ contains this attitude.

‘Offering’ means to deposit with the Divine ‘nuclear waste’ which the Divine alone can receive and neutralise. It does not maen the devotee giving something valuable to the Divine for its use. For example, who can offer his jealousy or greed to another? It is only the Divine which can successfully receive it when the person who offers has really detached himself from it. What you are not detached from, of course cannot be offered.

Money can be best offered by those whose inner personal value is higher than money. It can never be offered by those who value it, because when they offer it they look for returns from the Divine. This is a transaction carried from the human plane to the Divine. The act of the devotee remains in his plane and he too remains there. The only use for this kind of offering is it will help him realise later the meaninglessness of it. Money is a representation of the triple forces of Time, energy and materials. By offering money, one offers to the Divine his bondage to time, energy and materials. Money is a force of the lower vital and by offering it one moves to the higher vital. Offering, as any other activity, has its movements, both horizontal and vertical. While in the first movement, offering brings a copious supply of money. (In the latter half of this phase, money offered makes possible greater offerings of money to the Divine which is an act of further growth and greater privilege). Money offered to the Divine brings a lot of money to the devotee. When this phase is over the vertical movement starts and he is released from the dependence on money for his existence. If money still comes, it comes for the work of the Divine.

Sometimes one earns tainted money. If this is offered to the Divine, initially one begins to earn more, but soon it shrinks, meaning money of this sort is prevented from coming to him. Later his vocation changes and clean resources open up to him.

All movements (concentration, purity, aspiration, meditation, etc.) towards the Divine are actively upward-looking movements. Each movement incidentally includes a little of the other. Continuous offering enhances the intensity of other movements too. Such strands can always be observed.

As the thing offered has different levels, so the thing offered to has similar levels.

Anything can be successfully offered to a similar thing in a higher plane. In the same plane it will be an exchange, transaction or bargain. The thing in the higher plane is best the Divine. If not, it can be Divine Service or an institution organised for the purpose or a person or an ideal. It is best to offer to the highest; but when it is not possible it is better to offer to what he can. Truly this is the best for him in the circumstances. When the Divine puts him in a condition where his offerings are directed to an institution, he should accept the condition and by fulfilling it, outgrow it.

An attempt to bypass it to a higher ideal not relevant to him at the moment is a mental movement and an assertion against the Divine. In such cases the only purpose served will be he will be disillusioned of his bypassing.

Offering is an act of will and has the character of surrender. It is surrender of that bit of personality or personal possession. It implies a knowledge that what is offered is a hindrance to a progress towards the Divine. It also implies an awareness of the Divine aspect of that which is above what is offered. Also it requires a human capacity at detachment proportionate to the offering. Done prematurely, it leads to regret (mind forces the vital). When the being finds it just possible, it shows in relief. It means the vital is prepared for the offering but the being is not fully ripe. When the being is ripe, one feels the privilege of the offering and gratitude shows itself naturally after the act.

Offering to various aspects of the Mother:

The Mother and her consciousness are found in various levels, intensities and forms. Offering made to any one form has results of similar nature.

Food and exercise nourish and maintain the body in fine fettle but different types of food foster different aspects of health. Generally exercise is good but there are special forms of exercise aimed at special results. Even so offering made to Mother herself has a different emphasis from the one made to Auroville. She has created a variety of forms of institutions and initiated scores of activities and there are hundreds of activities devoted to her service. Offering made to any one of them has spiritual results in similar directions, though the intensity of the offering and the results will remain the same whatever the direction. The vibrations are different but the spiritual content is the same.