When I sit for prayers, the lower mind wanders astray, but the other mind recites the stotras without the slightest flaw, because of habit. But when I consciously try to recite the prayers, I sometimes miss the link, and have at times to repeat a stotra from the beginning. Thus, are there two minds? How to overcome this difficulty?

No. There are no two minds. But the mind gets concentration little by little, and the portion of the mind which is spiritually inclined - call it the higher mind - engages itself in sadhana, whereas that part of the mind which is more aware of its worldly samskaras runs along its set grooves. Force of habit makes the repetition of prayers mechanical. But the higher mind should be made to concentrate on the meaning. Then the attention of the mind will be held and the lower part of the mind will have less opportunity to detract from the object in view. The whole trouble with careless sadhana is that it tends to become mechanical without making an impression on the life of the aspirant.

Are there fulfilled prophecies in the Hindu scriptures? If so, please explain them.

The Lord has given His ever-standing promise that He would appear on earth whenever there is a danger to dharma, whenever adharma tries to vanquish dharma. To fulfil that promise He has appeared many times in the form of saints and sages who have protected dharma from decay and from the onslaughts of foreign oppression. They have instilled new elements of vigour and perspective in Hinduism. Therefore, Hinduism continues to flourish. Whenever there is a necessity, saints and sages will emerge, not from the heavens, but from among the people themselves.

Hinduism does not believe exclusively in one prophet. The prophecies given in the puranas about the state of affairs to come have also proved true.

If I love Jesus, must I love him alone, and not the lesser divinities like Mary and the Ikons?

No. There should be no exclusiveness to the love of Jesus, even though other Christian saints may not be equal to him. They also could be worshipped, if you have devotion for them, as expressions of the same divinity which manifested itself in a most intense and complete way through Jesus. All messengers of God deserve our respect and adoration. Someone may be temperamentally and emotionally closer to an individual, but it does not mean that the latter should shut the others out. No single prophet or saint holds exclusively the mandate of God or the key to the heavens.

I am convinced that praying to saints and worshipping them is absolutely wrong. They prayed to God and found salvation for themselves, and in like manner, we also can take care of our salvation without depending on any saint.

No. It is not so. Saints and sages are worthy of our adoration and prayers, because they have shown us the ways to God-realization. The apprentice, who has just entered service in any field, is expected to have an attitude of submission and receptivity to his senior who trains him on the job, although the latter may be a man like himself. The same is applicable in the field of spirituality. By respecting saints and following their teachings, you grow in spirituality, you learn to love, and know God more adequately.

Someone tries to tell me that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is, to quote, ‘only a strange nerve-condition accompanied by paralysis of the critical faculties’. What should I reply, if anything?

It is useless to convince a person about the validity of Nirvikalpa Samadhi when he cannot understand it. Logical arguments may be advanced, but a rank skeptic has to evolve further to be alive to this truth. The philosophical implications and mystic signification of experience must be studied well before one can attempt to answer such skeptics.

After one of the most complicated series of dialectics in ‘The Life Divine’, Aurobindo finally concludes with a straight face, “And all these explanations explain nothing”. Is there any point, then, any real benefit, in following through the thin thread of this tapestry?

In the ultimate sense, words do not explain Truth. But they give a hint by which one can know Truth directly in experience. Words have a relative value and they must be made use of, though they do not constitute our real aim. Relative obstructions to the knowledge of Truth can be removed through relative means and thus the absolute Truth can be realized.

I am under the impression that no advanced yogi has ever achieved anything in the realm of matter or contributed to progress outside of writing about high, abstract and introspectionist themes and inspiring a small handful to do likewise.

How then do you regard the production of a seemingly supremely great book like Aurobindo’s ‘The Life Divine’, which almost nobody reads, almost nobody understands, or books like ‘Treatise on Cosmic Fire’, or your books, all of which seem so totally unrelated to helping anybody individually or collectively, in a material sense?

It is not correct to think that yogis merely write, but never do anything for human progress. The help that they give, the common man cannot understand, and man has no right to expect a specific form of help from the yogis, for the yogis do what is really good and not what is materially convenient to man.

Books which deal with metaphysical subjects and which faithfully explain the goal of life and the method of attaining it are a great help to struggling humanity. Yogis write such books for the good of others, in the spiritual sense and even in a pragmatic sense. But they do something more, too; they give direct, invisible help.

How is Kevala Kumbhak done? The practice is not quite clear. It is said to be a Kumbhak without Purak and Rechak. This is not intelligible, for necessarily before the Kumbhak there has to be either inhalation or exhalation.

Your query on the practice of Kevala Kumbhak is not surprising, for it seems to be impossible to do Kumbhak without doing either Purak or Rechak. However, what is meant is that for Kevala Kumbhak, the retention is suddenly performed at any given moment when the mind is just about to get concentrated.

This sudden cessation of prana at that particular, crucial, psychological moment becomes of immense help to the yogi in arresting the mind, which is already assuming the mood to dharana. Hence, Kevala Kumbhak is an invaluable aid to dhyana. You will, therefore, see that this act of Kumbhak is not preceded by any deliberate process of either inhalation (Purak) or exhalation (Rechak). It may, therefore, be best described as the abrupt stoppage of the breath. The yogi does not deliberately perform either Purak or Rechak before he does Kevala Kumbhak. He gets into Kevala Kumbhak in whatever state the breathing may be at that moment. It may be in the middle of an inhalation or in the middle of an exhalation. The breath may be partially in or partially out. Or again, the breath may be totally fully inhaled or totally exhaled. Whatever be the condition, the moment concentration supervenes, the meditator immediately arrests his breathing in Kevala Kumbhak. I am sure the matter is perfectly clear now.

In my work of spreading the knowledge of Yoga, do you have any special advice to give me?

Side by side with instructions on the practical yogic processes, always place stress upon the great importance of Sadachara, Yama and Niyama. Inspire the students with noble idealism. Spur them on to strive for a life of lofty virtue, active goodness and selflessness. You must stress the need for self-purification and self-mastery. True inner Yoga is the transformation of the essential nature of man. The lower human nature should gradually give place to an illumined divine nature through a process of spiritualization of the entire being of man. This should be brought home in an effective manner, yet withal with great sympathy, understanding and insight. The aim is to attain divine consciousness.