The Divine, the Asura and the role of instruments

[From the section “Reminiscences of Udar” in the book “More vignettes of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother”, page 154]

The Divine and the Asuric Forces

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have often said that they need instruments through whom to work. Once I asked Mother why this was so and if she could not do the work directly. The Mother replied, “Certainly I can do it. I can transform the whole world with a wave of my hand. But that is not what we have come to do. That is not the Divine way. In the Divine plan everything has to be worked out by the creatures themselves. Otherwise there is no sense in the creation. Creation is the Divine itself in its play, its lila. It was first thrown out by a process of involution to the very opposite of the Divine. The Existence, Consciousness and Bliss of the Divine became the very opposites, the Void non-existence, the Nescience, and this now has to evolve back to the Divine. The Divine helps in the process But also there has been created the anti-Divine force or the Asura, which has to hinder the evolution. This is the Duality at work. There can be no progress without opposition. One cannot even run without having a hard ground under the foot, which opposition has to be pushed to be able to run. These two forces are always in operation, the Divine which moves forward and the Asura or the Titan which opposes. The Asura is also the Divine but has been given this work of opposition and it does its work very, very well. In fact it works so well that today the whole world is under its influence and the Divine has to push through it at every step. So instruments are needed who are open and so can be used.” She explained all this very beautifully. So Mother has to be constantly on guard against this Asura and its tricks. She said that I too must be on the look-out. Normally the Asura does not bother a person or anything being done but if the person or the work is turned towards the Divine and becomes spiritual, then the Asura comes in with all its tricks to thwart the work and to try to possess the person. This it does by catching hold of the ego. It flatters the ego and makes the person feel important and feel that it is doing a Divine work, whereas it is serving the Asura.