Here the give-up, the
negation of the lower passions, synchronizes with a take-up, the
assertion of a beatitude. Without such a course, hundreds of moral
maxims which run in mere negatives are useless to us.
"Our eagerness for worldly activity kills in us the sense of
spiritual awe. We cannot comprehend the Great Life behind all names
and forms, just because science brings home to us how we can use
the powers of nature; this familiarity has bred a contempt for her
ultimate secrets. Our relation with nature is one of practical
business. We tease her, so to speak, to know how she can be used
to serve our purposes; we make use of her energies, whose Source
yet remains unknown. In science our relation with nature is one
that exists between a man and his servant, or in a philosophical
sense she is like a captive in the witness box. We cross-examine
her, challenge her, and minutely weigh her evidence in human scales
which cannot measure her hidden values. On the other hand, when
the self is in communion with a higher power, nature automatically
obeys, without stress or strain, the will of man. This effortless
command over nature is called 'miraculous' by the uncomprehending
materialist.
"The life of Lahiri Mahasaya set an example which changed the
erroneous notion that yoga is a mysterious practice. Every man may
find a way through KRIYA to understand his proper relation with
nature, and to feel spiritual reverence for all phenomena, whether
mystical or of everyday occurrence, in spite of the matter-of-factness
of physical science.
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