Each Individual Has His Own Unique Relationship With the Divine

0:00 People who are born into different cultures and religions may have a similar experience, but they interpret the experience through the lens of their specific background. Thus, people who have a specific spiritual opening may see Jesus or the Virgin Mary if they come from a Christian background, while they may see Ram or Krishna or Lakshmi if they come from the background of the Sonatana Dharma. This is a general case, yet with a more detailed view we can see that the experience of each individual varies based not just on cultural or religious background, but based on their own unique evolutionary stage and the circumstances they experience, which brings about variation around a general theme of the larger picture within which they participate.

0:56 Swami Vivekananda espouse the view that eventually each individual would constitute his own religion, essentially setting forth the underlying reality of the unique experience and significance of each individual's life and development. People approach the divine according to their own Interstate of receptivity and development, even if they generally follow a particular belief system or religious approach. Their own opening and aspiration creates their own unique relationship to the divine. In the synthesis of yoga, Sri Robindo states quote. The mind's door of entry to the conception of Him. The divine must necessarily vary according to the past evolution and the present nature.

1:50 End Quote. The Mother clarifies Quote. That is the evolution in former lives and the present nature, that is the nature of the present body, determine one's approach to the divine. We can take a very and over simple example. If one is born in any particular religion, quite naturally the first effort to approach the divine will be within that religion. Or else, if in former lives one has passed through a certain number of experiences which determine the necessity of another kind of experiences, quite naturally one will follow the path which leads to those experiences.

2:38 You see, the life of the psychic being is made-up of successive experiences in successive physical existences. So it may be put a little childishly or romantically. You have a psychic which for some reason or other has incarnated so as to be able to have all the experiences which royalty gives, for instance, supreme power. After it has had its experience, has had what it wanted, it can, before leaving the body, decide that in the next life it will take birth in obscure conditions, because it needs to have experiences which can be had in a modest condition.

3:22 And with the freedom 1 feels when he has no responsibilities, you see responsibilities like those the heads of states have, for instance. So quite naturally in its next life it will be born in certain conditions which fulfill its need, and it is in accordance with this experience that it will approach the divine. Then, in addition, it is the product of the union of two physical natures, you know, and sometimes of two vital natures. The result of this is more or less a kind of mixture of these natures, but it brings about a tendency, what is called a character.

4:04 Well, this character will make it fit for a certain field, a certain category of experiences. So with what has been determined, decided in former lives were in a former life, and then the environment in which it is born, that is, the conditions in which its present body has been formed. Its approach to and search for the Divine will be in accordance with a definite line which is its own and which naturally is not at all the same as that of its neighbor or any other being. I said a while ago, each individual is special manifestation in the universe. Therefore his true path must be an absolutely unique path. There are similarities, there resemblances. There are categories, families, churches, ideals also. That is a certain collective way of approaching the Divine, which creates a kind of church not materialized, but in a more subtle world.

5:12 There are all these things. But for the details of the path, the details of yoga, it will be different according to each individual. Necessarily and conditioned physically by his present bodily structure, and vitally, mentally and psychically, of course, by former lives. End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, Mission and evolution. Section 3. Growth and Development of the Psychic, pages 94 to 96.