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At the feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo [4]
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Champaklal Speaks [1]
Child, Teacher and Teacher Education [1]
Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 1 [1]
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Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 4 [3]
Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7 [1]
Conversations with Sri Aurobindo [2]
Eckhart Tolle and Sri Aurobindo [6]
Education and the Aim of human life [1]
Education at Crossroads [1]
Essays on the Gita [1]
Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo [2]
Finding the Psychic Being [1]
Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 2 [1]
Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 3 [3]
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Life of Sri Aurobindo [1]
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Our Light and Delight [1]
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Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays [2]
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Sweet Mother [1]
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196 result/s found for Personal effort

... Sri Aurobindo says, two powers which in their conjunction bring about the great consummation we aim at. It is personal effort from below and Divine Grace from above. The one prepares the field, the other fructifies and fulfils. It has, however, always been declared that personal effort is not absolute in its effectivity, it is limited, relative and conditional: it does not by itself lead you to... come down, but fitfully, one is never certain of it. For it is as it were, "a scout in a reconnaissance from the sun." Here then is this special utility of personal effort, the service it can render,—to do the dredging, salvaging work. Personal effort with the ego-sense has been put there to find out and note the barriers and pitfalls, the faults and Page 162 fissures in the human system... permanent dwelling. It must be noted however, in the last account the personal effort for self-purification and self-preparation is not altogether personal and mere effort; it is, as I have said, always supported and inspired by the secret presence and pressure of the higher Influence. Still, personal effort on our part has a unique value in this sense that it means collaboration and ...

... Sri Aurobindo says, two powers which in their conjunction bring about the great consummation we aim at. It is personal effort from below and Divine Grace from above. The one prepares the field, the other fructifies and fulfils. It has, however, always been declared that personal effort is not absolute in its effectivity, it is limited, relative and conditional: it does not by itself lead you to... come down, but fitfully, one is never certain of it. For it is as it were, "a scout in a reconnaissance from the sun." Here then is this special utility of personal effort, the service it can render,– to do the dredging, salvaging work. Personal effort with the egosense has been put there to find out and note the barriers and pitfalls, the faults and fissures in the human system, to overcome, remedy and... for a permanent dwelling. It must be noted however, in the last account the personal effort for self-purification and self-preparation is not altogether personal and mere effort; it is, as I have said, always supported and inspired by the secret presence and pressure of the higher Influence. Still, personal effort on our part has a unique value in this sense that it means collaboration and goodwill ...

... It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once—and not always desirable; for personal effort is better than tamasic 61 inertia . The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force. 62 There are two possibilities, one of purification by personal effort, which takes a long time, another by a direct intervention... a alluded to earlier (pp. 42, 43)—the baby-monkey attitude of reliance on personal effort, and the baby-cat attitude of surrender and reliance on the Divine Power—the latter is a more fitting description of the practice as taught by Eckhart. Not personal effort but Presence does it all, says Eckhart. The only personal effort is to choose Page 103 and allow Presence. But even choosing... the work of transformation, and relying on personal effort to transform one's being, are often described as two opposite methods of spiritual practice. However, from Sri Aurobindo's viewpoint, "The process of surrender is itself a Tapasya." 74 In other words, surrender involves and is part of personal effort. Page 110 Personal effort, however, says Sri Aurobindo, is only one ...

... But so long as it is active, personal effort is necessary. In fact, so long as one is conscious of one's own self as a separate person, personal effort has to be made. It is only when the sense of separation is lost, when one is not only completely surrendered, but completely fused in the Divine that there is no Page 220 longer any need of personal effort. But so long as one feels that... Yes. Page 225 (Another child) Then, Mother, why the personal effort? If it is the Divine who does the sadhana, let the Divine do it; and where is the personal effort? Yes, this is precisely what people say in their laziness! But if you were not lazy, you wouldn't say it! ( Laughter ) What does personal effort mean? Effort which thinks it is personal. You have the sense of... "works through the ego of the Jiva..." Yes, it's the same thing. Yes, "through"—that means the ego is there. Sweet Mother, here it is written: "But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the sadhaka remains necessary." I didn't understand here "so long as the lower nature is active". How? Generally, the lower nature is always active. It is only when one has surrendered ...

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... refuge in Me alone. I will deliver thee from all sin and evil, do not grieve." 98 Page 121 Elaborating the Gita's "secret of secrets," Sri Aurobindo writes: All this personal effort and self-discipline will not in the end be needed, all following and limitation of rule and Dharma can at last be thrown away as hampering encumbrances if thou canst make a complete surrender to... unconsciousness of the mind into the consciousness of Presence? One cannot transform one's unconsciousness by any kind of doing, says Eckhart. Presence is not something that one can make happen by personal effort. Presence is either there or not there. It is perhaps Grace. Presence wants to arise. All one has to do is to cooperate with it and open the doorway for the Grace to enter. Instead of trying... contrary to it, inferior or incompatible. 103 Therefore, the practice of Sri Aurobindo's yoga entails a long and arduous preparation for arriving at complete surrender when the need for personal effort ceases and all work of transformation is taken up Page 124 by the Divine Power. Thus, Sri Aurobindo speaks of two somewhat overlapping periods, movements, or stages in yoga. In ...

... variations in human nature are too great to be covered by a single trenchant rule. It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once—and not always desirable; for personal effort is better than tamasic inertia. The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into Page 84 a movement of the Divine Force. If you feel conscious of the Divine Force, then... of surrender. Surrender and Personal Effort There are always two ways of doing the Yoga—one by the action of a vigilant mind and vital seeing, observing, thinking and deciding what is or is not to be done. Of course it acts with the Divine Force behind it, drawing or calling in that Force—for otherwise nothing much can be done. But still it is the personal effort that is prominent and assumes... Divine Force, what is the element of personal effort, and what is brought in as a mixture from the lower cosmic forces. And until the transfer is complete, which always takes time, there must always be as a personal contribution, a constant consent to the true Force, a constant rejection of any lower mixture—that is very important. At present to give up personal effort is not what is wanted, but to call ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
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... To Personal Effort ###March 5, 1932 Q. What is the difference between the personal effort and the action of the Divine Force? How can the personal effort be eliminated? A. It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once—and always desirable; for personal effort is better than tamasic inertia. The personal effort has to be transformed p... Divine Force, what is the element of personal effort and what is brought in as a mixture from the lower cosmic forces. And until the transfer is complete which always takes time, there must always be as a personal contribution, a constant consent to the true Force, a constant rejection of any lower mixture—that is very important. At present to give up personal effort is not what is wanted, but to call ...

... paths he is proceeding. Page 57 The rest depends on personal effort and experience and upon the power of the Guide. The development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude, the intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of the path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka. The process of Yoga is a turning of the human... knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the realisation— śāstra . Next comes a patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by this knowledge, the force of our personal effort— utsāha . There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the Teacher— guru . Last comes the... larger place in the life of the sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra,—some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins,—it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal ...

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... turning and personal effort of the seeker, and this intensity can be measured by the power of aspiration of the heart, the force of the will, the concentration of the mind, and the perseverance and determination of the applied energy. The ideal seeker should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, "My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up." 62 Sri Aurobindo has formulated the personal effort as a triple... consciousness and every movement to the Divine and the Shakti. " 63 Personal Effort in the Integral Yoga There are three stages of the process of the integral yoga, Page 80 not indeed sharply distinguished or separate but in a certain measure successive. In the first stage, the element of personal effort must normally predominate; in that stage the effort is directed towards... and it cannot be safe or effective to take the attitudes which are valid for the higher stages of progression. When the personal effort has been truly done, then only can the surrender of the lower to the higher be effected. Indeed, as one progresses, the energy of the personal effort remains no longer personal and separate, but it becomes a part of higher Power and Influence which are at work in the ...

... with personal effort either? Why bloat the ego still further when you know that suggestions and that sort of thing are no use? In Yoga, you say surrender, and in poetry—this personal effort business? No, Sir, no! Wait a minute—Where have I said that there is to be no personal effort in Yoga? Kindly read the passages in The Mother about tamasic surrender and the place of personal effort in the... surrealistic, so you helled them. What expressions? Well, what I meant by "suggestions" was that I shall be led to think it was I, my great personal effort, that brought in the boldness of images, audacity, etc. Won't that be egoism and personal effort business? Do you mean that you don't want your poetry to improve because that would make you egoistic? Very queer, sir. What about the book ...

... universal truth of progressive change to the Page 136 specific case of whether personal effort is necessary in the life of a sadhaka it may be bluntly stated that so long as the sense of a separative ego with a separate will of its own is present in the sadhaka, he has to apply his personal effort quite seriously and not leave everything to the action of the divine Shakti. Hence is the... The Practice of the Integral Yoga X Personal Effort and the divine Grace While walking on the thorny path of spiritual Sadhana the sadhaka should never forget even for a moment that he is not alone in his arduous journey. But if not alone, who gives him companions hip on the Path? Is it any human comrade who is referred to here? No, certainly... actual stage of his consciousness: he Should not seek to copy the mode of action of a siddha-yogī, a realised soul. In practical terms this means that he should not mistakenly abdicate his personal effort too soon but rather put it consistently at the service of the Divine. And as his consciousness grows and develops in spiritual awareness, his way of action also will correspondingly change and ...

... 28 April 1951 "But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the Sadhaka remains necessary." Sri Aurobindo, The Mother , p. 6 Outwardly, one believes in one's own personality and one's own effort. So long as you believe in personal effort, you must make a personal effort. There is one part of the being which is not at all conscious of being a part... part of the Divine. The whole of the outer being is convinced that it is something separate, independent and related only to itself. This part of the being must necessarily make a personal effort. It can't be told, "The Divine does the sadhana for you", for it would never do anything, it would never be changed. When one speaks with somebody, one should use his language, 1 shouldn't one? What ...

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... perfection."¹ THE SECOND STAGE In proportion as the self-offering through personal effort becomes more or less integral, the sâdhaka (spiritual aspirant) begins to feel that the hold of the ego on him is slackening, and that the Mother's Power is entering into him, replacing his personal effort. The sense of his being a servant tends then to disappear gradually into the growing experience... to Thee. Deliver me from myself, and let me be Thy servant." Not "I" and "mine", but "Thou" and "Thine" becomes then the burden of its heart's song. This stage of surrender is Characterised by personal effort. Instead of seeking to arrogate every desirable object to itself, it yearns with a greater and greater sincerity to offer all it is and all it has to the All and Beyond-All. In the Integral Yoga... the Gitâ calls it. At this stage of surrender, the seeker and lover of God becomes His servant; therefore, we call it the stage of the servant,—the long and arduous stage of self-consecration by personal effort. It is a stage of the progressive transference of the centre of gravity from the ego to the Divine. It is a stage of relentless self-observation, constant self-purification, unsleeping vigilance ...

... desire or demand of any kind.   In this case a complete surrender is not possible in the initial stages. It is for that reason that personal effort is necessary.   You said that, when the surrender is not complete, personal effort is necessary. Is the baby-cat attitude not possible in the beginning? If there is not a complete surrender, then it is not possible to adopt... adopt the baby-cat attitude; it becomes mere tamasic passivity calling itself surrender. If a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, it follows that personal effort is necessary.   If complete surrender means a total extinction of the ego, then not a single human creature can claim it till he reaches the final stage of Yoga. It is correct on the whole, but one can overcome...   In the morning there comes a spontaneous state during which I feel like surrendering my sadhana to the Mother. But in the evening that condition withdraws, and I have to take up personal effort to save my nature from getting into inertia. Is this the only way to arrive at a complete surrender? It is not a way or method of arriving at complete surrender; it is a mixed action that ...

... our being and a spiritual perfection in all our nature, is the effective sign of this change, the precursory power of a great integral conversion of our being and living. Page 618 By personal effort a precursory change, a preliminary conversion can be effected; it amounts to a greater or less spiritualising of our mental motives, our character and temperament, and a mastery, stilling or changed... stage of this Yoga will therefore be a persistent giving up of all the action of the nature into the hands of this greater Power, a substitution of its influence, possession and working for the personal effort, until the Divine to whom we aspire becomes the direct master of the Yoga and effects the entire spiritual and ideal conversion of the being. This double character of our Yoga raises it beyond... the turning of them to another object than the aims of human life and eventually brings a rejection of all earthly objects of aesthesis, will and knowledge. The method, whether it lays stress on personal effort or upon divine influence, on works and knowledge or upon grace, is not like the mundane a development, but rather a conversion; but in the end the aim is not a conversion of our mental and physical ...

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... Sweet Mother, can faith be increased by personal effort? Page 350 Faith is certainly a gift given to us by the Divine Grace. It is like a door suddenly opening upon an eternal truth, through which we can see it, almost touch it. As in everything else in the ascent of humanity, there is the necessity—especially at the beginning—of personal effort. It is possible that in some exceptional... possible contact with your soul. Certainly a personal effort is needed to preserve one's faith, to let it grow within. Later—much later—one day, looking Page 351 back, we may see that everything that happened, even what seemed to us the worst, was a Divine Grace to make us advance on the way; and then we become aware that the personal effort too was a grace. But before reaching that point ...

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... consciousness they cannot remain—if they come, it is as outside touches unable to lodge themselves in the being. The Force can bring forward and use the will. Personal Effort and the Divine Force or Power If there is no personal effort, if the sadhak is too indolent and tamasic to try, why should the Grace act? All that [ thinking one's efforts are useless ] is the physical mind refusing... phenomenon of a little result after some days of effort. It is only when one has cleared the field and ploughed and sown and watched over it that big harvests can be hoped for. Of course—personal effort without the supporting Force can do only a little, slowly, with much labour. One can either use effort [ to remove difficulties ], and then one must be patient and persevering, or one can ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - IV
[exact]

... upon the adhara and, when it is opened to her, pouring into it with these divine forces that makes the Sadhana possible. But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the Sadhaka remains necessary. The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender,— an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing—the mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent... freedom and perfection of the Divine Nature. The more this conscious process replaces his own effort, the more rapid and true becomes his progress. But it cannot completely replace the necessity of personal effort until the surrender and consecration are pure and complete from top to bottom. Note that a tamasic surrender refusing to fulfil the conditions and calling on God to do everything and save one ...

... pain-body, 18, 19 Path of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga), 113, 115 Path of Knowledge (Jnana Yoga), 113 Path of Works or Action (Karma Yoga), 113, 115 peace state, defined, 24 personal effort, 111, 112 The Power of Now (Eckhart), 1 Prakriti (Nature), 68-76, 114 Presence, observations and aspects of, 36-38, 54, 55, 58, 103, 104, 122, 123 Prières et Meditations... tapasya, 28 teachings ego, self and being, 77-80 evolution of consciousness, 81-84 instruments of the teacher, 161, 162 method of spiritual practice, 112-121 personal effort and surrender, 103-112 process of inner change, 121—144 related to mind, 84-103 spiritual practice, 144-147 of Sri Aurobindo and method of practice, 157-160 ... attention in, 104, 105 and bhakti, 116 concentration, role in, 120, 121 general methods of practices, 91, 113 intellectual preparation for, 87 mental will in, 154 personal effort in, 107 rejection, teptession and suppression, 129-134 and silence, 24, 25 stages in, 124-128 surrender, meaning of, 109, 110, 120, 121 yoga-siddhi, 20 ...

... forces that makes the Sadhana possible. But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the Sadhaka remains necessary." (The Mother, Cent. Ed., P-6) And in the very next sentence Sri Aurobindo has included the 'labour of aspiration' as the primary element of this necessary personal effort. The Mother on her part speaks more bluntly and seeks to disabuse our mind of any... actions arise out of a sense of personal motivation and urged by a separate-seeming personal will. Now, so long as we dwell in such a state of ego-dominated consciousness, we have to make some personal effort for our spiritual progress. We cannot pass on everything to the action of the divine Grace. This will be an act of sheer self-deception, of mithyācāra as the Gita would say. Sri Aurobindo has ...

... preliminary stage of self-preparation he cannot too hastily claim to leave everything overtly and exclusively to the charge of the Divine Shakti, there must perforce be a stress on personal effort. Now the personal effort demanded of the sadhaka has three limbs: an ever-mounting flame of aspiration, a ceaseless process of rejection of all that is inimical to sadhana, and of course an Page... spirit can ever expect to transform himself. The sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should not therefore forget even for a moment that the Divine Mother's Shakti can always do more than one's personal effort; so the only thing for him to do is to get a settled quiet in his ādhāra and call the Shakti down or out to the front — for it is always there behind and above him whether he knows it or not ...

... suddenly opening upon an eternal truth, through which we can see it, almost touch it. As in everything else in the ascent of humanity, there is the necessity—especially at the beginning—of personal effort. It is possible that in some exceptional circumstances, for reasons which completely elude our intelligence, faith may come almost accidentally, quite unexpectedly, almost without ever having been... the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the realisation— śāstra. Next comes a patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by the knowledge, the force of our personal effort— utsāha. There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the Teacher— guru. Last comes the... × Grace. × Personal effort to control and change the ordinary consciousness. × Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL ...

... fast. Note that it is very easy to say, "Choose the attitude of the baby cat", but it is not so easy to do. You must not believe that adopting the attitude of the baby cat lets you off from all personal effort. Because you are not a baby cat, human beings are not baby cats! There are in you innumerable elements which are accustomed to trusting only themselves, which want to do their own work, and it... and so on. So that goes on and on, and where is the baby cat?... For the baby cat does not think! It is free from all this and hence it is much easier for it! Whatever be the way you follow, personal effort is always necessary till the moment of identification. At that moment all effort drops from you like a worn-out robe, you are another person: what was impossible for you becomes not only possible... passive trust of the baby cat which lets itself be carried by its mother (this is the way of surrender, the surest) and the active attitude of the baby monkey which clings to its mother (the way of personal effort). ...

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... Answers 1929-1931 ( 21 April 1929 ) But if one wants to do something, it means personal Page 45 effort, doesn't it? What then is the will? There is a difference between the will and this feeling of tension, effort, of counting only on oneself, having recourse to oneself alone which personal effort means; this kind of tension, of something very acute and at times very painful; you... you count only on yourself and you have the feeling that if you do not make an effort every minute, all will be lost. That is personal effort. But the will is something altogether different. It is the capacity to concentrate on everything one does, do it as best one can and not stop doing it unless one receives a very precise intimation that it is finished. It is difficult to explain it to you. But ...

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... the Adhara and, when it is opened to her, pouring into it with these divine forces that makes the Sadhana possible. But so long as the lower nature is active the personal effort of the Sadhaka remains necessary. The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender, — an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing — the mind's will, Page 31 ... and perfection of the Divine Nature. The more this conscious process replaces his own effort, the more rapid and true becomes his progress. But it cannot completely replace the necessity of personal effort until the surrender and consecration are pure and complete from top to bottom. Note that a tamasic surrender refusing to fulfil the conditions and calling on God to do everything and save ...

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... as the sadhaka, also the sadhana. Still, so long as a sadhaka remains under the control of his lower human nature, it becomes altogether imperative that he make some personal effort for his progress. This personal effort comprises the three operations of aspiration, rejection and surrender. The preceding chapter of this book dealt with the sadhana of aspiration; we propose to speak now of the... challenge these strong impulses and weaknesses to come forward to an open battle. For it is most arduous, almost impossible, to gain victory over them by the application of one's unaided personal effort alone. No durable and effective result can be expected in that way. Not only that; a very serious danger looms before the sadhaka each time he is confronted by one of these vicious weaknesses ...

... transcendent, surpasses even the largest and highest individual self and nature. 40 The "personal effort" required is described more concretely and with much greater particularity in The Mother which Sri Aurobindo wrote almost immediately after going into retirement in 1926: The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender, - an aspiration... to read the veiled eternal Shastra and to be able to awaken and to hearken to the Jagad-Guru or World-Teacher secret within us, what is needed is utsāha or unswerving aspiration and sustained personal effort; and, of course, kāla, for the auspicious instrumentality of Time must favour us too. Utsāha or śraddhā or flaming aspiration gives the "decisive turn" that the sadhaka needs to ...

... horsemen to spring from the ground. But personal effort brings about still greater marvels: it covers the soil with rich harvests, tames wild beasts, tunnels through mountains, erects dykes and bridges, builds cities, launches ships on the ocean and flying machines in the air; in short it gives more well-being and security to all. By personal effort man becomes more noble, more just, more kind: ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   Words of Long Ago
[exact]

... Source Watching Over One's Faith Certainly a personal effort is needed to preserve one's faith, to let it grow within. Later—much later—one day, looking back, we may see that everything that happened, even what seemed to us the worst, was a Divine Grace to make us advance on the way; and then we become aware that the personal effort too was a grace. But before reaching that point, one has ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   Compilations   >   The Sunlit Path
[exact]

... 2) We can begin then with this concentration and a constant consecrating of ourselves... For the first movement. Page 827 The concentration indicated is a movement no longer of personal effort, but of a sort of will from below evoking an action from above. The result is a slow redevelopment of the beginnings of organised Vijnana. [ Half a page left blank. ] 25 February 1915... ta where forms & vak are now perfect and sometimes stable, but this is when they come spontaneously, not when they are commanded. Nevertheless there is progress, as now appears. First, the personal effort, view etc are more & more merged in the All. Action & thought & perception come more & more out of the All. Self is more and more identified with the All & proceeds out of it in its becomings rather ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Record of Yoga
[exact]

... going to cure them. I am not asking you to be frivolously happy, but to be quiet and quietly confident, rejecting these old movements, but for the rest trusting not in a restless self-torturing personal effort but to the Divine Force to change the external nature. Page 737 As to your going away for a time in order to get rid of your difficulty with X , a difficulty can never be overcome... your quietude and go on in that. To have the basis of quietude and allow the Divine Force to work in you firmly and quietly is always the best method—it is not necessary to proceed through a big personal effort, disturbance and struggle. Come back to this—open yourself once more, as you did before—then you could get back sleep or health in a day or two and were growing inwardly without excessive trouble—and ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - IV
[exact]

... sure to be granted. Love. 3 October 1966 No effort is lost. There is always an answer, even if it is not perceived. 7 December 1969 Personal effort is indispensable; without it nothing can be done. When the personal effort is sincere the help is always there. 15 October 1972 All sincere effort to progress and get rid of dangerous habits is answered and supported by ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   Words of the Mother - II
[exact]

... interventions from teachers when necessary. A good teacher is always a help in the pupil's pursuit of accomplishment and perfection. For the pupil, the important things are his own enthusiasm and personal effort that can sustain patient and persistent work towards growth and progress. The teacher comes in to uplift the pupil's effort, his growing knowledge, his skills, his orientation. When a good teacher... and guidance from the teacher. The distinguishing mark of a good pupil is the attitude with which he seeks help and the degree and quality of the help he seeks. Since he puts in a good deal of personal effort, he does not demand much of the teacher's time. Yet, since his eagerness to learn is great, he learns faster, and this demands greater attention and time from the teacher. There are seasons of ...

... expressed in a particular literary style as if the Supreme Divine is directly addressing the aspiring sadhaka and expounding to him the sadhana of surrender and self-resignation. "All this personal effort and self-discipline will not in the end be needed,... if thou canst make a complete surrender to Me, depend alone on the Spirit and Godhead within thee and all things and trust to his sole guidance... shines steadily as an unquenchable flame: it is self-existent and altogether independent of the vicissitudes of time and space and situations and circumstances. This faith cannot be acquired by personal effort and hard labour. It is a precious gift of Grace granted by the Divine himself to any sincere and self-surrendered sadhaka whose love for the Divine is constant and unvarying and entirely motiveless ...

... decisively freed itself first. The difficulty with most is that the mind in parts lends itself to the vital under one colour or another. He actually says that a personal effort is only a small or ineffective help! Of course—personal effort without the supporting Force can do only a little, slowly, with much labour. When I suffer, I don't see any Force coming and fighting my battle. I am paralysed ...

... the same way as all the other parts. Knowledge is the road leading to the Vedantic realisation. It is the path of discrimination, conscience and 'I'-ness. A sadhaka devoid of the sense of personal effort cannot tread this path. On the contrary, surrender is the path leading to Sakti-sadhana. Here the attainment of spiritual perfection comes in effacing absolutely the ego-sense. In fact, the ... The followers of Vedanta are averse to the play of Prakrti. Their purpose is to destroy Prakrti along with her root and rise above Prakrti. The followers of Sakti have sacrificed all personal effort to the Primal Power for Her revelation and play in the person according to Her Will. The Primal Power is the Power whose very nature is consciousness. The Primal Power, no doubt, has also a ...

... silent and attentive. These last few days, I forced the meditation a little too much and the tension was too great. I have come back to 3 hours a day. Dental neuralgia. Why is this feeling of personal effort so painful? It is not inertia and rest I want, but peace in action, the cessation of individual effort. The deeper peace cannot come till the "lotuses" are open and the force descends to... nothing. Everything must take its time. And you are of those who have built everything on the mind—thence the difficulty. Others open easily. But do not be impatient, this prolongs the sense of personal effort. Monday, February 15, 1926 The effect of sadhana makes itself felt especially outside meditation. It is becoming more and more easy for me to assume the role of witness of the actions ...

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... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 3 Personal Effort and Will IN personal effort there is a feeling of effort, of tension: the effort is felt as personal i.e. you rely upon yourself and you have the impression that if you do not do at each step what is to be done all will be lost. Will is different. It is the capacity to concentrate upon what ...

... preference to the baby-monkey's (the way of personal effort)! But for a human being who wasn't quite a cat, was that attitude of complete surrender all that easy? The elements that went to make a man were so many, and it was not Page 521 possible for all of them suddenly to achieve utter passivity in the baby-cat fashion, and hence sustained personal effort would be always necessary "till the ...

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... the Lord and Mother that chooses ? A : No, there are two parts of sadhana,—spiritual effort. The yogic life in Sri Aurobindo's path is divided into two parts : the personal effort and the Divine Grace. Personal effort is to be done by the individual and not by the Divine; aspiration, rejection and surrender are within the field of the individual effort. But to bring perception, to develop ...

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... intensive purification of the lower nature in the light of our experiences in sleep as well as in the waking hours of the day will culminate in a thorough catharsis of the subconscient—sustained personal effort led and progressively replaced by the Force of the Divine alone can accomplish this difficult work—and the subconscient dreams will then give place to subliminal dreams, which are restful, helpful... any abiding perfection in life, is a complete, confident and dynamic surrender to the Grace of the Divine. Here, as everywhere, it is always the Grace that finally conquers and triumphs, our personal effort, sincerely and persistently made, only prepares our being for its right reception and unimpeded action in us. ¹ Words of Long Ago by the Mother. ² ibid. Page 194 ...

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... Method of Spiritual Practice As stated a little earlier, Eckhart does not consider the term "practice" to be quite appropriate in spiritual life because practice implies personal effort of some sort, whereas enlightenment is not something Page 112 that can be brought about by any egoic effort; it comes about as a result of the surrender of the ego and a cessation... what obscures the Presence. 95 The methods of purification in Sri Aurobindo's yoga have been briefly touched upon in the previous section of this chapter in connection with the role of personal effort and will be presented more fully in the next section, which discusses the process of inner change. One method of spiritual practice—surrender—stands out foremost in both Eckhart's teaching ...

... Divine, etc. must be helping the sadhak. Is not this kind of tapasya and self-dependence a form of the Divine Power's help? Page 109 It has been clearly stated in The Mother that personal effort is necessary so long as the transference to the Divine Power cannot be complete [ p. 8 ]. It is the fact that all power is the Divine's and therefore self-effort is also a use of the Divine Power... Power conceded by the Divine, but there is a great practical difference between the delegated use and the direct Divine Action. In the book The Mother Sri Aurobindo says, "The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender." And "rejection of the movements of the lower nature—rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that ...

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... receptive, when it could live in beatitude if it would open to the Divine Love. But there is a remedy: Sincere and constant aspiration. 6 July 1967 I have begun to see that both the personal effort of the sadhak and its result depend on the Divine Grace. About this, one could say humorously that we are all divine, but we are hardly even aware of it, and what we call "ourselves" is that... required purity! When one is living among men with all their miseries, it is only the Grace that can bestow this state—even in those who by Tapasya have abolished their ego. It is beyond all personal effort. 27 May 1968 What is the most effective way to overcome the ego? The simplest and most effective way is to offer it to the Divine ; the more sincere and radical this offering is ...

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... interventions from teachers when necessary. A good teacher is always a help in the pupil's pursuit of accomplishment and perfection. For the pupil, the important things are his own enthusiasm and personal effort that can sustain patient and persistent work towards growth and progress. The teacher comes in to uplift the pupil's effort, his growing knowledge, his skills, his orientation. When a good teacher... and guidance from the teacher. The distinguishing mark of a good pupil is the attitude with which he seeks help and the degree and quality of the help he seeks. Since he puts in a good deal of personal effort, he does not demand much of the teacher's time. Yet, since his eagerness to learn is great, he learns faster, and this demands greater attention and time from the teacher. There are seasons of ...

... s from teachers when necessary. A good teacher is always a help in the pupil's pursuit of accomplishment and perfection. For the pupil, the important things are his own enthusiasm and personal effort that can sustain patient ant persistent work towards growth and progress. The teacher comes into uplift the pupil's effort, his growing knowledge, his skills, his orientation. When a good teacher... and guidance from the teacher. The distinguishing mark of a good pupil is the attitude with which he seeks help and the degree and quality of the help he seeks. Since he puts in a good deal of personal effort, he does not demand much of the teacher's time. Yet, since his eagerness to learn is great, he learns faster, and this demands greater attention and time from the teacher. There are seasons of ...

... The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 7 Personal Effort and Will In personal effort there is a feeling of effort, of tension: the effort is felt as personal i.e. you rely upon yourself and you have the impression that if you do not do at each step what is to be done all will be lost. Will is different. It is the capacity to concentrate upon what one does so that ...

... The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 8 Personal Effort and Surrender There is no difference in the end between the two if the goal to attain is the Impersonal Divine, that is to say, if you want to unite and identify yourself with the Impersonal Divine, merge into it. But if your aspiration is to reach what is beyond, what Sri Aurobindo calls the supramental Reality... ocean not merely in its essence but in its totality. It is however very difficult to express the reality of the truth. What can be said to put it as clearly as possible is this: in the line of personal effort, when one depends solely upon one's personal strength, all that has been individualised maintains the virtues of individuality and hence also, in a certain sense, all the limitations necessary ...

... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 4 Personal Effort and Surrender THERE is no difference in the end between the two if the goal to be attained is the Impersonal Divine, that is to say, if you want to unite and identify yourself with the Impersonal Divine, merge into it. But if your aspiration is to reach what is beyond, what Sri Aurobindo... ocean not merely in its essence but in its totality. It is however very difficult to express the reality of the truth. What can be said to put it as clearly as possible is this: in the line of personal effort, when one depends solely upon one's personal strength, all that has been individualised maintains the virtues of individuality and hence also, in a certain sense, all the limi­tations necessary ...

... are Satis! Letter from Dilip – with Krishnaprem's. Whether every time a Sadhaka makes personal effort can it be said that it is to satisfy the Ego. Sri Aurobindo : No, it can be to subordinate the Ego to the Divine. If it is to seek power or to satisfy some other impulse then personal effort may have egoistic origin. Disciple : Could one make the surrender to a Guru whose outer ...

... said: 'Who is shouting at the Mother? Who is shouting here?' The moment he heard it X became quiet."² 2 March. Talk on personal effort and the divine working. 6 March. Talk on the marriage of a sadhaka at Chandernagore. 12 March. Talk on the place of personal effort in sadhana. Speaking about subtle sight Sri Aurobindo said: "I was at Baroda . . . and my psychic sight was not yet developed ...

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... prayer itself; the "above" means Divine Consciousness. 16.7.1970 Isn't prayer more effective than personal effort? Each has its utility, but certainly aspiration and prayer have a greater efficacy because of the confidence they imply. 18.7.1970 Is the personal effort of him who is chosen by the Divine an easy action for the Divine Force? For the Divine all is bliss; ...

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... automatic catharsis, a spontaneous working out of the wrong movements and erring energies, and a gradual cleansing of nature. What is of capital importance at this stage is a sincere and sustained personal effort to surrender the whole nature to the Mother's Force, so that the Force can enter into the nature and effect the purification in its own infallible way. The sooner the lead in the work of purification... strands of the initial basis of purification in the Integral Yoga. Page 220 THE FINAL BASIS OF PURIFICATION As surrender progresses and tends to become integral, the personal effort of the sâdhaka gives place to a direct action of the Mother's higher Force. Undisturbed by the mental preferences and vital self-will of the sâdhaka, the Force deals freely with the impurities ...

... in human life. Page 83 SURRENDER The third element of the foundation of the Integral Yoga is surrender. Usually all Yogas are practised by one of the three means: (1) personal effort and tapasya, 1 (2) personal tapasya aided and fortified by the divine Grace, and (3) the direct working of the divine Grace and Force. The last means is that which Sri Aurobindo advises the followers... followers of the Integral Yoga to avail themselves of,, because it is the only means by which the great objective of the supramental transformation can be achieved. In. this Yoga personal effort is used only at the initial stages, and that, too, not for any pre-planned purification or progress, but solely with a view to making the surrender complete and constant, which, of course, involves a considerable ...

... lasting fruit without our individual endeavour, don't you think at least half the sadhaks here will remain in the mud for long if not for ever? Half of them don't seem to want to make any steady personal effort. They depend on the action of your Force alone. That is why the Asram is what it is. Only those who are taking the Yoga seriously are making any progress. 17 November 1936 Page 661 ...

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... Force, put his full sincerity, aspiration, will power into the sadhana. It is only when all is open and there is the full surrender that the Divine Power takes up the sadhana so entirely that personal effort is no longer necessary. But that cannot happen at an early stage—one must go on opening oneself, consecrating oneself, making the surrender till that later stage comes. This has been explained ...

... The Mother's Help in Difficulties The Mother with Letters on the Mother Personal Effort and the Mother's Help The Mother's help is always there for those who are willing to receive it. But you must be conscious of your vital nature, and the vital nature must consent to change. It is no use merely observing that it is unwilling and that, when thwarted, ...

... you are sincere. But until this is established, it is a mixed sincerity, more or less mixed, right up to the point where one is not at all sincere. Sweet Mother, here it is written: "The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force. If you feel conscious of the Divine Force, then call it in more and more to govern your effort, to take it up, to transform ...

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... is not enough either, 'one' would necessarily have to choose a group. Those who have this consciousness may belong to any socialclass: it is not a privilege of birth, but the outcome of personal effort Page 27 and development. In fact, that is an outward sign, the obvious sign of a change from the political point of view—it is no longer a matter of classes and categories nor of ...

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... the force of truth which gives power—an invincible power. And so, when one expresses "willings", to be able to apply them in life and make them effective, some effort must come in—it is through personal effort that one progresses, and it is through effort that one imposes one's willings upon life to make it yield to their demands—but when they are no longer willings, when it is the true will expressing ...

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... any other and perhaps it is easier to understand for people who are not metaphysicians.... At least, I like it! Mother, you said that everything was absolutely determined; then where does personal effort come from? Page 266 I told you just a moment ago that the Great Traveller chooses at each instant the course of his journey, therefore it is an absolute freedom of choice, and this ...

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... 9 November 1955 Mother reads from The Synthesis of Yoga , " The Four Aids ". Mother, I don't understand "Our sense of personal effort and aspiration comes from the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine Force." What is it that you do not understand? The ...

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... theory of Grace may no doubt contribute to it, though I should imagine that the said head never felt the Grace but only the magnanimity of its own ego. The swelling may come equally in the way of personal effort as by the craving for Grace. It is fundamentally not due to either, but to a natural predisposition to this kind of oedema. If Krishna was always and by nature cold and distant (Lord, what ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
[exact]

... these two methods emerge and work together and finally fuse into one. But one can begin with either, the one that one feels most natural and easy to follow. Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered, the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary. Motives for Seeking the Divine Obviously ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
[exact]

... listening to the wrong thoughts but rejecting them. If you cannot do that at once, still remain as quiet as possible and aspire and offer yourself. The Divine Force can always do more than the personal effort; so the one thing is to get quiet and call it down or back to the front—for it is always there behind or above you. Drawing upon the Force for Energy During the course of the sadhana one ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
[exact]

... only a will in the being for that completeness,—in fact it takes time; yet it is only when the surrender is complete that the full flood of the sadhana is possible. Till then there must be the personal effort with an increasing reality of surrender. One calls in the power of the Divine Shakti and once that begins to come into the being, it at Page 207 first supports the personal endeavour ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
[exact]

... harmony with the Mother's will, you can call in the Mother's Force to make the change. Those who live in the mind and the vital are not so well able to do this; they are obliged to use mostly their personal effort and as the awareness and will and force of the mind and vital are divided and imperfect, the work done is imperfect and not definitive. It is only Page 24 in the supermind that Awareness ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - I
[exact]

... his will with her action or at least of his witness vision is necessary also. Your tendency was to go up and to leave the higher consciousness to deal with the lower nature without any personal effort for that. That could have worked all right on two conditions: (1) that the peace and force would come down and occupy all down to the physical, (2) that you succeeded in keeping the inner being ...

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... is to shut you up against the contact and spiritual influence and help you were once feeling or beginning to feel from us. It also shuts you up against your own deeper self and sterilises your personal effort. An accident of this kind is common enough in the path of spiritual effort, and the first thing to be done to get rid of its effects is to throw away resolutely the persistent ideas and feelings ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - IV
[exact]

... past. They have given the activities of their being to the divine & infinite Force of God as its fuel, they have submitted themselves devoutly to that Force not interfering by the lower egoistic personal effort, then has it worked in them & done its miracles; then they have taught to mankind those realisations of the ideal planes which have been revealed in or from the pure heaven of mind to the Vedic ...

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... powers belonging to the supramental planes which are the very powers of the Divine in his spiritual and supramentally ideative being. These cannot be acquired at all securely or integrally by personal effort, but can only come from above, or else can become natural to the man if and when he ascends beyond mind and lives in the spiritual being, power, consciousness and ideation. They then become, not ...

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... sometimes write 3 or 4 cards in a row with my eyes completely closed, then my handwriting is much straighter and much more where the writing should be. But there's no personal will involved, no personal effort, it's... it's spontaneous. So.... And then, there is a kind of "something" that has been formed in the body to replace the mind, which is gone. This "something" has its mental ways of saying ...

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... to declare it publicly. ( Then Satprem asks Mother if he should "officially" inform his Tantric instructor that he has given up that discipline and now prefers to the Tantric attitude of personal effort that of abandon to the Force above. ) It's better not to say anything, because he can't understand. You know, he is still in that state in which leaving one's path is still regarded as leaving ...

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... from the point of view of Truth. Besides, they vary considerably according to country, climate and period. Discussions are generally sterile and without productive value. If each one makes a personal effort of perfect sincerity, uprightness and good-will, the best conditions for the work will be realised. August 1966 Never judge on appearances, still less on gossip. What is moral in ...

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... the last particle of one's being are essential so that consecration to the Divine becomes the breath of life. Practice of Yoga demands that one must hold hard to one's spade and make an untiring personal effort, with a calm and steady aspiration, tremendous will and fearlessness. This requires a strong, courageous and at the same time peaceful and God-oriented vital being to develop during the sadhana ...

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... to it in the being for that completeness, but—in fact it takes time; yet it is only when the surrender is complete that the full flood of the sadhana is possible. Till then there must be the personal effort with an increasing reality of surrender. One calls in the power of the Divine Shakti and once that begins to come into the being, it at first supports the personal endeavour, then progressively ...

... do. The natures of a special value have always to face many ordeals. And thirdly, when I say to take refuge in the Divine's love, I do not mean that it is all sufficient in itself. Not so; personal effort and favourable circumstances are also necessary for the promptness of the advance. But those who can take refuge in the Divine's love find there a support, a protection and a joy that give them ...

Huta   >   Books   >   Other-Works   >   White Roses
[exact]

... The natures of a special value have always to face many ordeals. And thirdly, when I say to take refuge in the Divine's love, I do not mean that it is all sufficient in itself. Not so, personal effort and favourable circumstances are also necessary for the promptness of the advance. But those who can take refuge in the Divine's love, find there a support, a protection and a joy that gives them ...

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... one―"one" is not enough either, "one" would necessarily have to choose a group. Those who have this consciousness may belong to any social class: it is not a privilege of birth, but the outcome of personal effort and development. In fact, that is an outward sign, the obvious sign of a change from the political point of view―it is no longer a matter of classes and categories nor of birth―all that is obsolete ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   Words of the Mother - I
[exact]

... around, everywhere. SECOND ASPIRANT And yet to realise it we must go further. And for that another secret must be found. Page 510 FIRST ASPIRANT Obviously, all possibility of personal effort ends here. Another power must intervene. SECOND ASPIRANT Grace, Grace alone can act. Grace alone can open the way for us, Grace alone can perform the miracle. FIRST ASPIRANT ( stretching ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   On Education
[exact]

... body really has a great goodwill, it says, "Very well, when the decision is made, we'll see!" But the body itself knows (just like what we have just heard 2 ) that there is no intervention of personal effort, personal will—it's not like that, it's... oh, like beautiful music, you know, unfolding indefinitely ( gesture like an immense rhythm ). it's extraordinary. And all that tension, all of it is ...

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... that one would necessarily need to choose a whole collectivity). Those possessing this consciousness may belong to any class of society: it's not a privilege arising from birth, but the result of personal effort and development. In fact, that would be an external sign, an evident sign of change on the political level: no question anymore of classes or categories or birth (all that is outdated), but those ...

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... being's "joy without a cause" relate itself to our immediate circle in the form of "love without a reason" we shall get out of the grip of the world of life-problems. To effect the change, one's personal effort is required, but it must mainly be directed towards putting one's various personalities- mental, vital, physical - more and more into the Divine Mother's ever-stretched-out hands of help. In other ...

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... of things that... prrt! vanish and never come back again—finished. After a time, you wonder, "How can that be?! It was there...." Just like that, prrt! in a second. But as long as there is personal effort, it's... oof! it's like the man who rolls his barrel uphill, and down it rolls again every minute. But it must be spontaneous, not as a calculation, it mustn't be done with the idea, "It's going ...

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... Purusha must become not only a conscious Witness but also a Sanctioner who sanctions the right movements and refuses the wrong movements of the ordinary consciousness. This requires much Tapasya, personal effort, says Sri Aurobindo. These points will be dealt with further in the next chapter. Page 76 × ...

... puts up signposts, gives the names of the main roads and the already explored directions, so that the traveller may know whither and by what paths he is proceeding. The rest depends on personal effort and experience and upon the power of the Guide. 19 The same vast catholicity of spirit is enjoined on one who proceeds by Bhakti—the Path of Love. There is no hard and fast rule to bind ...

... The Mother: When one is living among men with all their miseries, it is only the Grace that can bestow this state—even in those who have abolished their ego by tapasya. It is beyond all personal effort. Sri Aurobindo speaks of Savitri's firmness of purpose in the following line: Immutable like a fixed eternal star. 2 Can one say that such determination is demanded of the ...

... of Grace may no doubt contribute to it, though I should imagine that the said head never felt the Grace but only the magnanimity of its own ego. The swelling may come equally in the way of personal effort as by the craving for Grace. It is fundamentally not due to Page 21 either, but to a natural predisposition to this kind of oedema. January 16,1936 Your letter ...

... refuge completely in the Divine. Here is for him the crowning achievement of the Yoga of the Gita. In the words of Sri Aurobindo this is what the Teacher of the Gita tells Arjuna: All this personal effort and self-discipline will not in the end be needed, all following and limitation of rule and Dharma can at last be thrown away as hampering encumbrances if thou canst make a complete surrender to ...

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... around, everywhere. SECOND ASPIRANT . And yet to realise it we must go further. And for that another secret must be found. FIRST ASPIRANT Obviously, all possibility of personal effort ends here. Another power must intervene. SECOND ASPIRANT Grace, Grace alone can act. Grace alone can open the way for us, Grace alone can perform the miracle. FIRST ASPIRANT ...

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... master, Yengo. The total number of koans is traditionally estimated at 1700, but only one may be sufficient to open the student's mind to the ultimate truth of Zen. The necessary requirement is personal effort, without which Zen is a mere bubble. And more often than not, pupils continue their effort for many years before they experience satori. The relevance of Zen to our theme of the good student ...

... to keep himself separate in his consciousness, not to be overcome by the hostile suggestions, and to resist them with all his good will. A sincere prayer to the Divine Mother accompanying this personal effort at resistance will do the rest. And the sadhaka will surely come out of his ordeal with a fresh ground of victory gained. In the case of this relatively more advanced stage of sadhana, when the ...

... burning, learn s to concentrate on his heart -centre and go inward. if he maintains faith in the constant action of the Grace of the Mother. instead of relying too much on the efficacy of his own personal effort, if he develops in his heart a genuine love and devotion for the Divine Mother, if all the se concomitant conditions Page 266 are fulfilled by the sadhaka, his psychic being ...

... each other and are organised and unified into an integral synthesis." (On Education, p. 399) If we rightly apply the above maxim to the solution of the problem of mutual relation between personal effort and the action of the divine Grace, we can come to understand what we should do whenever we confront a situation like that. This has been clearly indicated in one of Sri Aurobindo's letters: ...

... though) reads novels the whole night practically. How can he? He must have got something. If I could do it, I would, but how would that bring me peace, progress in sadhana? As you have said, personal effort is absolutely imperative and a sustained effort too, until your Grace descends. God knows what will happen then! I don't see anywhere that effort nor the capacity nor even the will for it. So with ...

... Aurobindo's Yoga. The sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged ah ascent of the co ...

... The discovery of the soul, the real man within, is truly the first great goal of human life. Education can and should give a good start in the right direction. But the discovery is a matter of personal effort and aspiration: The great resolution, a strong will and an untiring perseverance are indispensable to reach the goal. Each one must, so to say, chalk out his own path through his own d ...

... thoughts. There are other means of arriving at this, like the one of sitting down and opening oneself to the influx from above, so that this working may be accomplished from above without any personal effort. To you I would recommend the first method. Till this first realisation everything is men­tal. And intuition is only fragmentary, uncertain and intermittent. One must go beyond. Little by little ...

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... you can say is, "Such and such things happen." God's Grace is without any reason. There are no mental laws governing it. Even in yoga what his Grace does is much more than what can be done by personal effort. Disciple : In Sadhana you go on trying and trying and the obstruction does not yield. Then suddenly you find the point of resistance is removed, Sri Aurobindo : That is what I say ...

... conscious effort on the part of each Individual for his own sake is needed: the higher reality must be reached first by a few individuals, it cannot be attained by 'mass action. Others declare that personal effort will not lead very far; if there is to be a great or fundamental change in human nature, it is the Divine Grace alone that can bring it about. The surpassing of man is a miracle and only the supreme ...

... Aurobindo's Yoga. The sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the co ...

... himself — it is that much effort and time gained by me and inversely when everyone neglects his own duty of purification then it is that much more work for this body. Therefore, if you make your own personal effort, it makes my work easier and I am free — that means that this body is free of these attacks. And nothing can touch me, if you are pure and sincere. Well, then, with this effort and the time gained ...

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... that I never had to undergo the burden of pain, error or ignorance. Not at all so. I was like any one of you, someone with defects as well as qualities, only I diminished my imperfections through personal effort and Sadhana. But about that I'll tell you another day. My eldest brother Benoy did indeed possess something of Yudhishthir's character, he was quiet and deep, diligent and affectionate and I was ...

... is not at all a supramental phenomenon, but a very simple experience accessible with the onset of mental silence. The true method, according to Sri Aurobindo, is to reach a state devoid of any personal effort, to step aside as completely as one can and simply let the current pass through. There are two ways of arriving at the Grand Trunk Road. One is to climb and struggle and effortise (like the pilgrim ...

... the sovereign remedy. One more question: To what extent is predestination an adamantine law? If we are to accept the doctrine of Karma - of fate, of destiny, of kismet - of what use is personal effort, and how is one eves going to get out of the endless chain of birth and death and birth again? As always, Sri Aurobindo's answer is pointed as well as reassuring: Destiny in the rigid ...

... spiritual knowledge and power, they could have achieved an almost miraculous result.' - Dec 1 Presentation of her drama The Ascent to the Truth. At the summit of that climb 'all possibility of personal effort ends' - 'Grace alone can open the way for us... [to] that peak resplendent with brilliant light, those perfect forms, that marvellous harmony, the promised land, the new earth.' 1957 'In ...

[exact]

... I pray that the future be a sunlit path. Panama and gratitude. Have confidence. The Light is with you and will never leave you. 9.7.1967 I have begun to see that both the personal effort of the sadhak and its result depend on the Divine Grace. About this one could say humorously: We are all divine but we are hardly aware of it, and that in us which is unaware that it is ...

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... side? The first key, and the total key, is to surrender. Only it is no longer a mystical surrender on the summits of the being: it is a material, corporeal surrender. But as long as there is personal effort, it's... oof! it's like the man who rolls his barrel uphill, and down it rolls again every minute.... Because as the balance changes between the parts of the being and as the luminous part increases ...

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... transformation". Failing such a representative, there could be a small number (between 4 and 8) "who have an intuitive intelligence". That would not be a privilege of birth "but an outcome of personal effort and development". That would be far better than so-called 'social democracy', the rule by many of the lowest calibre! 27 Page 769 ...

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... 1908, and a moving tribute to her was published in the November 1908 issue of the Revue Cosmique. VII By now - in her late twenties - Mirra was herself an adept in occultism. Her personal effort and experiments in her earlier years to explore the inner countries of the invisible and familiarise herself with their physiognomy and functioning had provided the base. Her association with ...

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... darkness of the night. Nothing can prevent it. 10.02.66 Page 45 I am sure, your intensive study of the Life Divine will do you a lot of good. Your stress on the personal effort in the beginning of the sadhana and for a longtime even afterwords, is a very sensible one. I can't say that many of those who are here are sincerely doing this sadhana. It is only a handful who ...

... flag or falter. But when the surrender has been integral and complete, Grace descends and takes up the charge of the being, and begins its victorious work of purification and transformation. Personal effort then ceases, and the divine Shakti expresses and fulfils her Will in the world through the liberated and universalised individual. According to Sri Aurobindo there are three stages of this long ...

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... being and nature, so that the Force in its action may meet with no obstruction anywhere. Most often we surrender own body and life and the emotions of the heart as far as it is possible for our personal effort to do it, but reserve to ourselves the ideas and principles of our mind. This reservation stands in the way of the Mother's working in us. It is preposterous to expect the divine Force to act ...

... svabhava w essential self-law in his life. In the first nine chapters of this book, I have dwelt with the bases and preliminaries of the Yoga—the initial way the aspirant has to tread, his personal effort and the intervention of Grace helping each other. An elaborate treatment of the triple aim of this Yoga and its triple foundation, the triple poise of the Mother to whom the aspirant has to surrender ...

... groups. The captain who had trained and commanded his group best would receive a prize. Those times were extraordinary. Everyone’s destiny is fixed beforehand. All that is needed from us is personal effort and aspiration. Now all the groups were organised. In 1948 all the groups were given their uniform, each a different colour. The Mother appointed five boys as captains: Mona, Narendra (Promesse’s ...

[exact]

... with the Mother’s will, you can call in the Mother’s Force to make the change. Those who live in the mind and in the vital are not so well able to do this; they are obliged to use mostly their personal effort and as awareness and will-force of mind and vital are divided and imperfect, the work done is imperfect and not definitive. It is only in the supermind that Awareness, Will, Force are always one ...

... thinking and deciding what is or is not to be done. Of course it acts with the Divine Force behind it, drawing or calling in that Force — for otherwise nothing much can be done. But still it is the personal effort that is prominent and assumes most of the burden. The other way is that of the psychic being, the consciousness opening to the Divine, not only opening the psychic and bringing it forward, but ...

... insufficient we are plunged in despair and stand impotent. We fail to look beyond the ego and to put ourselves in the hands of the Divine Grace whose possibilities are boundless. Surely, personal effort cannot be given up in the early stages, but such effort must have as its goal a state of effortlessness in which the Divine Grace takes up our labour and acts through our being. To reach that ...

[exact]

... with it. As Sri Aurobindo observes: "Those who live in the mind and the vital are not so well able to do this [call in the Force to make the change]; they are obliged to use mostly their personal effort and as the awareness and will and force of the mind and vital are divided and imperfect, the work Page 61 done is imperfect and not definitive. It is only in the supermind* that Awareness ...

... expressed (which do not suffice to express the total Truth), in which one knows the proper place of all things, why and in what the universe is formed. ‘But I hasten to tell you: it is not by a personal effort that one arrives at this state. It is not because one tries to obtain it that it is obtained. One becomes that, spontaneously [in the course of the Integral Yoga]. It is, as it were, the crown ...

... surrender for you". What the Mother asks is a total whole-hearted putting of ourselves at the Lord's feet and receiving His grace and guidance rather than following all the time the way of strenuous personal effort. But "the sunlit path" indicative of the inmost soul's emergence and self-consecration is not reached at a bound and some labour of a daily gesture of love is required. Page 209 ...

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... or power, the attitude that should govern us while reading books or while formulating, modifying or maintaining our relation with the society and the world around us, our measure of sleep or of personal effort in sadhana —all should proceed from the Yogic consciousness from the central preoccupations to realize and express the Divine. Whether it be a consideration of the Divine will or of ego or surrender ...

... different aspects law of Nature, Karma, Necessity and Fate. These things are to mind the workings of a power outside or above it in which it is involved and intervenes only with a contributory personal effort which partly arrives and succeeds, partly fails and stumbles and which even in succeeding is largely overruled for issues different from or at any rate greater and more far-reaching than its own ...

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... development and sustenance our free acceptance of it and our stubborn rejection of all that is contrary to it, inferior or incompatible. In the first movement of self-preparation, the period of personal effort, the method we have to use is this concentration of the whole being on the Divine that it seeks and, as its corollary, this constant rejection, throwing out, katharsis , of all that is not the ...

[exact]

... cover of making itself an instrument of the Divine is really bent on making instead God its instrument. The one remedy is to still the egoistic claim of whatever kind, to lessen persistently the personal effort and individual straining which even the sattwic ego cannot avoid and instead of laying hold on the Shakti and using it for its purpose rather to let the Shakti lay hold on us and use us for the ...

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... go wrong when the false ideas of others are received as truths of fact. The adhar has no ideas of its own in these matters. The impression that it has, is a remnant of the old illusion. No personal effort must be made to push forward the siddhi. That gives a handle to the Dwayavins. It will be found that without effort everything arranges itself. The fight is only over the rapidity & over the ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Record of Yoga
[exact]

... immortality and out of his limited mental into his infinite spiritual existence. And now speaking as the Spirit and Godhead in man and in all things he says to him, Page 556 "All this personal effort and self-discipline will not in the end be needed, all following and limitation of rule and dharma can at last be thrown away as hampering encumbrances if thou canst make a complete surrender to ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Essays on the Gita
[exact]

... light and power not his own, and his account of it is usually vitiated, out of focus, an attempt to explain the workings of this impersonal power by motives which were the contribution of his own personal effort, but which are often quite subordinate or even accidental side-lights of the lower brain-mind, not the central moving force. Mr. Cousins has pointed out clearly enough that art can never be ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   The Future Poetry
[exact]

... rejecting till the rejection is effective. Nothing can obstruct a quiet aspiration except one's own acquiescence in the inertia. The practice of rejection prevails in the end; but with personal effort only, it may take a long time. If you can feel the Divine Power working in you, then it should become easier. There should be nothing inert or tamasic in the self-giving to the guidance and ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
[exact]

... higher Light; but it can feel and believe in the Divine and that the way of the Divine is sure, and this faith itself will bring the first true understanding. What you say is quite true. No personal effort can get these things done; that is why we tell you always to keep yourself quiet and let the peace and the force work. As for understanding, it is your physical mind that wants to understand, but ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - IV
[exact]

... harmony with the Mother's will, you can call in the Mother's Force to make the change. Those who live in the mind and the vital are not so well able to do this; they are obliged to use mostly their personal effort and as the awareness and will and force of the mind and vital are divided and imperfect, the work done is imperfect and not definitive. It is only in the Supermind that Awareness, Will, Page ...

... condition—though ordinarily some call, aspiration, intensity of the psychic being can awaken it, yet it acts sometimes without any apparent cause even of that kind. Page 170 The Grace and Personal Effort Without the Grace of the Divine nothing can be done, but for the full Grace to manifest the sadhak must make himself ready. If everything depends on the Divine intervention, then man is only ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
[exact]

... (which are not sufficient to express the total Truth), in which one knows the respective places of all things, why and of what the universe is formed. Only—I hasten to tell you this—it is not by a personal effort that one reaches this condition; it is not because one tries to obtain it that one obtains it. You become that, spontaneously. It is, if you like, the crowning of an absolute mental sincerity ...

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... vitally in the vital world with all the currents of vital force entering, going out, joining and opposing each other, quarrelling and intermingling in your consciousness, and even if you have made a personal effort to purify your vital consciousness, to master in it the desire-being and the little human ego, you are constantly under a sort of obligation to absorb all the contrary vibrations which come from ...

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... story, so you cannot find any information about it. It isn't written anywhere. There are no written documents. Haven't you any questions to ask on what we read today? Sweet Mother, is personal effort always egoistic? There we are, you see. French is not as rich a language as we could hope for. In English there are two words: "selfish" and "egoistic". And they don't mean the same thing. ...

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... y be falsified by the presence of desires. ( Silence ) ( Mother unfolds a sheet of paper. ) Here I have a question Page 369 referring to what we said last time about effort, personal effort. The question is this: "In the inner life, why are there periods when one can no longer make a conscious effort, and if one enforces it, parts of the nature revolt or else everything in ...

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... en she came to India she went to meet some of those great sages or gurus—I shan't give you the names, but she went to one who looked at her and asked her... for they were speaking of yoga and personal effort and all that... he looked at her and asked her, "Are you indifferent to criticism?" Then she answered him with the classical expression, "Does one care about a dog's barking?" But she added to ...

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... aspiration, the mental tension, even the tension of the highest, most luminous mind and realisation: something which has been decided above from all time, and is absolutely independent of all personal effort, of all gradation. Don't you see, it is not bit by bit that one reaches it, it is not by a small, constant, regular effort, it is not that: it is something that comes suddenly; it is established ...

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... vitally in the vital world with all the currents of vital force entering, going out, joining and opposing each other, quarrelling and intermingling in your consciousness, and even if you have made a personal effort to purify your vital consciousness, to master in it the desire-being and the little human ego, you are constantly under a sort of obligation to absorb all the contrary vibrations which come from ...

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... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Is Personal Effort Always Egoistic? Distinction between “Selfish” and “Egoistic” There may be an effort which is not at all selfish and is yet egoistic, because the moment it becomes personal it is egoistic—that means, it is based on the ego. But this does not mean that it is not generous, compassionate, unselfish ...

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... thinking and deciding what is or is not to be done. Of course it acts with the Divine force behind it, drawing or calling in that Force—for otherwise nothing much can be done. But still it is the personal effort that is prominent and assumes most of the burden. The other way is that of the psychic being, the consciousness opening to the Divine, not only opening the psychic and bringing it forward, but ...

[exact]

... of Truth, besides they vary considerably according to the country, the climate and the period. Discussions are generally sterile and without productive value. If each individual makes a personal effort of perfect sincerity, uprightness and good will, the best conditions for the work will be realised. (Reply to a member of the Auroville study group) Aug, 1966 * Everything ...

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... possible to adopt the baby cat attitude; it becomes mere tamasic passivity Page 397 calling itself surrender. If a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, it follows that personal effort is necessary." 16 December 1964 How to increase concentration (single-mindedness) and will-force—they are so necessary for doing anything. Through regular, persevering, obstinate, ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   On Education
[exact]

... (The following passage was added by Mother later.) And those who possess this consciousness may belong to any class of society: it is not a privilege of birth but the result of personal effort and development. In fact, that is an outer sign, an obvious sign of a change from the political viewpoint; it is no longer a matter of classes or categories or of birth (all that is obsolete) ...

... of view of Truth, besides they vary considerably according to the country, the climate and the period. Discussions are generally sterile and without productive value. If each individual makes a personal effort of perfect sincerity, uprightness and goodwill, the best conditions for the work will be realized." Page 31 No. I'm afraid they might "invite" me! They are already ...

... these two methods emerge and work together and finally fuse into one. But one can begin with either, the one that one feels most natural and easy to follow. Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered, the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - II: Seeking ...

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... surrender, then it is not possible to adopt the baby cat attitude,—it becomes mere tamasic passivity calling itself surrender. If a complete surrender is not possible in the beginning, it follows that personal effort is necessary." 17 16 December 1964 Sweet Mother, Often after a long meditation (an effort to meditate), I feel very tired and want to rest. Why is this and how can I feel differently ...

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... truly remarkable state. But it doesn't last. The least thing disrupts it. ( long silence ) I know.... The body feels that if it could surrender TOTALLY—have no independent existence, no personal effort, no personal will... insofar as that's possible, everything is fine. But this is a tension and a fatigue that are becoming absolutely unbearable, so... Generally, that's what brings about death ...

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... sought (for help and protection) by enemies. Are his friends well disposed towards him and do his friends esteem him? (18) Does the prince (ever) seek the favour of gods? And does he fall back upon personal effort as well as on Providence (for the success of his undertakings)? (19) I hope Śrī Rāma (a scion of Raghu) has not become completely devoid of love towards me as a result of my living abroad. Will ...

Kireet Joshi   >   Books   >   Other-Works   >   Sri Rama
[exact]

... who is cowardly and powerless trusts in fate. The valiant, who are possessed of a strong mind, never seek shelter in fate.(16) A man who is capable of setting aside the decree of fate through personal effort never feels disheartened on his the^036 136"19 thwarted by destiny. (17) People will see today the relative strength of fate and a human being. The distinction between fate and a human being will ...

Kireet Joshi   >   Books   >   Other-Works   >   Sri Rama
[exact]

... forces? Why should he? It was the play of sanskaras 121 that interested him, the binding play of wrong ideas, and his whole aim was to get rid of that. He seemed to have gone in for personal effort and struggle, didn't he? Yes, because individual salvation was his aim and for him God and Shakti did not exist only the Permanent above and a mechanical chain of karma below. To undo the chain ...

... We will inform R of the situation of the mortar and ascertain his notions. February 27, 1936 If by "widening" you mean that I have made a mighty or even a fractional conscious personal effort, well, that's just not it. No, I did not mean that. And with all my widening, I can't get even a glimpse of the Presence? But you don't widen! If you did (I suppose you are too lazy ...

... methods emerge and work together and finally fuse into one. But one can begin with either the one that one feels most natural and easy to follow.       Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered, the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary.            LILA       In us is the ...

... You wrote about "an effort in which also there is the spirit of surrender". Kindly explain to me how to keep a spirit of surrender in my effort. By calling on the Force to aid the personal effort, by not getting into despondency and the rest of it if the results do not come, by a never failing tranquil confidence in the final outcome of the sadhana. Page 161 Headaches ...

... And, as far as I know, there was a great change in his life. PURANI: I have heard that he wasn't able to give himself completely to Ramkrishna. SRI AUROBINDO: You mean that he made some personal effort? PURANI: He found at the end that he hadn't left everything to Ramkrishna. SRI AUROBINDO: That means he put in some effort of his. NIRODBARAN: I haven't heard this. SATYENDRA: Then ...

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... that impossible way. This cannot but lead to various types of self-contradictions. And mind wonders confusedly how to reconcile the pairs of apparently 'irreconcilable' opposite truths; such as, personal effort and the action of Grace; free-will and determinism; law and miracles; causality and finalism; etc. (4)Mind is by nature exclusive in its tendency. It fails to hold all the facets of a truth ...

... shall we do? .. The Truth is here, Truth alone, all around, everywhere.... And yet to realise it we must go further. And for that another secret must be found .... Obviously, all possibility of personal effort ends here. Another power must intervene .... Grace, Grace alone can act. Grace alone can open the way for us, Grace alone can perform the miracle .... Yes, we must have faith, an absolute trust ...

... upon sound psychological knowledge. The second aid of which Sri Aurobindo speaks is that of patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by the knowledge, and the force of the personal effort of the pupil. For no education can Page 145 be effective if it is not rooted in the enthusiasm of student's quest and tapasya. The task of educational endeavour is to ensure that ...

[exact]

... both discussed in their writings all these three means in great detail. Because of dearth of space we cannot but succinctly give their gist here. (i) Let us first discuss the factor of personal effort and tapasya. It is true that it has been asserted with force that "niyati kena bādhyate", "Who can frustrate the action of Fate?" But the wise men of the past have also affirmed at the same time ...

... The Destiny of the Individual Infinity and Eternity Mind, Life and Matter Page 361 In Search of the Soul Death and Conquest of Death Personal Effort The Meaning of Prayer The Supreme Teacher Varieties of Mystical Experience The Law of Sacrifice The Concept of Lokasangraha. What ...

... done ?" He stared, he didn't understand. "Sunil, you haven't obeyed the shastra vachan, 63 what is this ? Pothe nari biborjita. 64 You have brought in a pretty lady 59Enthusiasm, personal effort. 60A place near Pondicherry. 61Nirod-da is trying to rhyme 'botanist' with 'mathematician'. That is his style. 62Prabhakar's nickname. 63The word of the Scriptures. 64"You ...

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... of bringing all that down to change my human nature? Page 262 Your tendency was to go up and to leave the higher consciousness to deal with the lower nature without any personal effort for that. That could have worked all right on two conditions: (1) that the peace and force would come down and occupy all down to the physical (2) that you succeeded in keeping the inner being ...

... the days when the Lord Himself opens wide the doors for us. It is as though He were inviting us to further revive the flame of aspiration. It is one of the days which He gives us. We too, by our personal effort, could attain to this, but it would be long, hard and not so easy. And this — this is a chance in life — the day of Grace.   18.1.60   Page 107 (Mother's ...

Mona Sarkar   >   Books   >   Other-Works   >   Sweet Mother
[exact]

... and judging what you do—leave the criticism and the judgment to the Divine—it is not your business. You are much closer than you think—it is just one personal door to break open without personal effort. With love and blessings 15 March 1963 ...

... Divine, sin and ignorance are his external sloughs, identity with the Divine is his natural right. We, therefore, Jay equal stress on this hidden aspect of man, on the freedom of his will, on his personal effort which is the determining factor of his destiny. For in the field of ignorance or half-knowledge, in the nether hemisphere of his consciousness, it is this power that directly builds up that ordered ...

... she wanted to see some of the great Indian sages, Gurus, that is to say, and she went to one of them —I do not give you his name—who looked at her and asked her, as the talk was about Yoga and personal effort and all that, whether she was indifferent to criticism. She answered him in the classical expression : "Does one mind the barking of a dog ?" She added, when she was narrating to me the story ...

... Divine, sin and ignorance are his external sloughs, identity with the Divine is his natural right. We, therefore, lay equal stress on this hidden aspect of man, on the freedom of his will, on his personal effort which is the determining factor of his destiny. For in the field of ignorance or half-knowledge, in the nether hemisphere of his consciousness, it is this power that directly builds up that ordered ...

... wanted to see some of the great Indian sages, Gurus, that is to say, and she went to one of them – I do not give you his name – who looked at her and asked her, as the talk was about Yoga and personal effort and all that, whether she was indifferent to criticism. She answered him in the classical expression: "Does one mind the barking of a dog?" She added, when she was narrating to me the story, with ...

... experience as a help to future realisation; and the accumulated experience of the past was laid before the seeker as an aid to accelerate the pace of progression. The rest depended on the personal effort of the pupil and the uplifting power of the teacher. A great stress was laid on the cultivation of the quality of the aspiration in the mind and heart of the pupils. The entire process of learning ...

... is no motive other than that of entire self- giving to the Divine. Both Mira and I wanted to know how to cultivate para bhakti, and mother's answer was that that bhakti could not be gained by personal effort but by the Grace of the Divine or the Grace of a Teacher in whose contact the soul of the seeker would open up as a sunflower opens up to the Sun. We looked in vain in our educational system ...

... two methods emerge and work together and finally fuse into one. But one can begin with either, the one that one feels most natural and easy to follow. Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered, the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary. (Letters on Yoga, pp. 516-19.) * * * ...

... habits of the physical nature and the subconscient scum is absolutely incompatible with it. So long as a man is on earth, the terrestrial life is his field of achievement, and all that he gains by personal effort or by divine Grace must have a full and perfect expression in his life, whether the gain is physical, vital, mental or spiritual; and if any acquisition, however highly spiritual it may be, fails ...

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... the Divine in humanity. 47   The individual should perfect himself first, then seek to perfect the race. The spiritual aspirant who desires self-perfection has to put forth a certain personal effort:   ...the triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender—an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing—the mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being...rejection ...

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... the environment, the community, the race. The feats of magic and miraculism are but trifles that distract our attention, but the real miracles are those encompassed by man's own endeavour: Personal effort brings about still greater marvels: it covers the soil with rich Page 482 harvests, tames wild beasts, tunnels through mountains, erects dykes and bridges, builds cities, launches ...

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... without the Divine, that even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the divine Consciousness. 21 A tamasic kind of humility will avoid all personal effort, imagining that the Divine will do everything. "But the Divine does not do things this way." One must put forth one's best efforts, but one must also be in communion with the Divine, "not in ...

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... and a silence beyond comprehension. What next? Where to go? What to do? They converse with a sense of urgency and a waiting on the unexpected: First Aspirant: Obviously, all possibility of personal effort ends here. Another power must intervene. Second Aspirant: Grace, Grace alone can act. Grace alone can open the way for us. Grace alone can perform the miracle. First Aspirant: (stretching ...

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... inevitable end of evolution itself. What appears impossible to the limited capacity of the human mind need not be impossible to the omnipotence of the divine Force, the supreme Mother. What our personal effort may fail to achieve, the Mother's force will surely accomplish, if we can realise an integral surrender to it; for, that Force is no other than the vijnāna śakti or the creative Force of the ...

... purity! When one is living among men with all their miseries, it is only the Grace that can bestow this state—even in those who have abolished their ego by tapasyā. It is beyond all personal effort. 27.5.1968 What is the most effective way to overcome the ego? 1 Savitri(1912), p. 448 Page 45 The simplest and most effective way is to offer it to the Divine; ...

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... How to improve it? During sleep too I want to keep the constant contact with you. Will my sleep begin to change in due time? What must I do to make it change? Is there any process or has any personal effort to be made or should I simply call your help before I retire to bed? SRI AUROBINDO: Aspire and want it always — that is the first thing. As for the methods perhaps the best is not to go to sleep ...

... quietude and go on in that. To have the basis of quietude and allow the Divine Force to work in you firmly and quietly is always the best method — it is not necessary to proceed through a big personal effort, disturbance and struggle. Come back to this — open yourself once more, as you did before, — then you could get back sleep or health in a day or two and were growing inwardly without excessive ...

... objects of this world, and strained to get. And little by little, everything is consumed. Even the desire for the other thing, even the hope of ever clasping that impossible pure truth, even personal effort melts away; everything slips between our fingers. A pure little flame is left. A flame that does not know, does not see, but is. And there is a sort of softness in simply being that flame ...

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... consciousness that navigates. A truly remarkable state. But it doesn’t last. The least thing disrupts it. I know. The body feels that if it could surrender TOTALLY—have no independent existence, no personal effort, no personal will... insofar as that’s possible, everything is fine. 42 Surrender, yes, and how could one become the other by hanging onto even the best of the physiologies of the old? ...

... them! That's what is repugnant. They make them into divinities. And then it's quite convenient, you see, a guru: "Well, my guru will do that for me." It COMPLETELY relieves you from making any personal effort or going through the process yourself. Ah! "My guru is there; he'll do it for me." The-guru-the-guru-the-guru. It's always the same old thing: the god relieves you from being... from becoming ...

Satprem   >   Books   >   Other-Works   >   My Burning Heart
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... separate beings and things, his life as his own personal concern, his thoughts and ideas as his own mental creation and possession, and his successes and failures as the exclusive outcome of his personal effort. This self- separation of the individual from the unity of the universe and the eternity of the transcendent constitutes his essential ignorance, Adam's fall from Eden; and so long as he persists ...

... and the subconscient scum is absolutely incompatible with it. So long as a man is on earth, the terrestrial life is his field of achievement, and all that Page 24 he gains by personal effort or by divine Grace must have a full and perfect expression in his life, whether the gain is physical, vital, mental or spiritual; and if any acquisition, however highly spiritual it may be, fails ...

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... ever ready to help and knowing how to do it. Collaboration does not mean that everybody should do the will of the man who asks for it. True collaboration is a non-egoistic union of all personal efforts to express and realise the Divine's Will. Page 185 We must replace competition and strife by collaboration and fraternity. 2 July 1954 Substitute the spirit of rivalry and ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   Words of the Mother - II
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... Mercy is not so important to me as Tapasya, the capacity to open to Him and hold Him. This is my belief. It was by your personal efforts without guidance that you got into difficulties and into a heated condition in which you could not meditate etc. I asked you to drop the effort and remain quiet and you did so. My intention was that by your remaining quiet, it would be possible for the Mother's Force ...

... attach undue importance to unimportant things. Collaboration does not mean that everybody should do the will of the man who asks for it. True collaboration is a non-egoistic union of all personal efforts to express and realise the Divine's Will . Things must be asked for only when truly needed. The Ashram is meant for those who want to consecrate their lives to the Divine. ... For the heart — love and joy For the life — power For the matter — beauty. She will fight until there are no more anti-divine forces upon earth. Teach us to be really sincere in our effort towards the Truth. Let your life be a sincere search for the Truth and it will be worth living. Be ever one-pointed in your surrender and sincere in your aspiration and you will constantly ...

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... what was on my mind! You may ask questions. ( Silence ) No questions? Mother, you have said in it "Prayers and Meditations": "What must happen will happen." Then why should we make personal efforts? "What must happen will happen"? You know what I meant?—that there have been prophecies from the beginning of the world that there will be a new earth and a new human race and that the Divine... more; it has become bad, this food!" This is an intermediary period, and later, after some time, more or less shyly according to their nature they say ( Mother begins whispering ), "Couldn't I have my personal food? For... I don't know, my stomach does not digest this!" ( Laughter ) Well, I say Page 162 that among the people in the Ashram, I am not sure... but there are very, very few who haven't... way. Then naturally, immediately they say, "Yes, yes, yes, I think that will do me good!" ( Laughter ) So, now! ( Mother looks at the child who had put the question. ) I meant, are all the efforts then in vain? My child, I hope not! The question of food is just one question—I can't say it's secondary, for it is very symptomatic—it is altogether... it is related to the most physical consciousness ...

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... about a total divine transformation of his life and consciousness. And this can be done only with the aid of a divine Power which is infinitely more potent and effective than the sadhaka's puny personal efforts. It is the height of folly and absurdity to think that one can attain to the realisation of the Integral Yoga through one's unassisted power of Tapasya: no human being can do that." Instead... ready." (Letters on Yoga, p. 604) After this faith and confidence comes the necessity of a unified will. "My life should be wholly governed by the Divine's Will and not in any way by my personal ego-shaped fancy. I shall not allow any alien influence to intrude into the field of my consciousness; there, the divine Influence alone will reign supreme." — Such a strong and unified resolution... only the opening and receptivity which can make us ready to gather the treasures of spiritual experiences and realisations. Without these two prerequisites sufficiently developed, all our external efforts at "doing sadhana" will produce a very meagre result. On the other hand, if we can become sufficiently open and receptive in our inner consciousness, our sadhana cannot but proceed in an unimpeded ...

... lifted from our consciousness, truth after truth is revealed to our vision, and frozen masses of darkness are dispelled in a trice, as if by a miracle ! What we could not achieve by intense personal efforts, by discipline and prayer, : comes suddenly sailing into us as a mere gift. We know not how a certain luminous hint is thrown in, a certain necessary poise is established, a new solution is... impossible by human efforts alone to realise through definite forms of conduct and of social order the main Christian commandment to ¹ Ghostly—Spiritual. Page 152 'be perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect' or, in other words, to become wholly like God. Christianity is the religion of grace and not of law. Man can and must by the moral effort of will and the spiritual... outward circumstances but on a sincere aspiration and openness.”² Those who walk through life with their eyes unblinded by any materialist bias, their inner perception not quite blurred by personal preferences, and their hearts meekly receptive to ¹ Words of the Mother, 3rd Series, ² ibid. Page 154 spiritual influences, may perceive something of the ...

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... human formula, he widened out into a universal nature "Awaiting the ascent beyond the world, Awaiting the Descent the world to save". During this interval of waiting all his personal efforts ceased and he passed into an omnipotent peace, and realised the immortality of life. He then felt that he was in the grasp of an unseen Transcendent power that dominated not only his being but... light of all lights, the origin of all power and delight. "All Nature dumbly calls to her alone" and "All here shall be one day her sweetness's home." The effort of man for knowledge, the strivings of his Page 232 passion—all human effort in fact,—are directed towards this divine Power. It is through her that man will realise his unity with all beings and the fulfilment of divine life on... widened heart could not contain it. His single freedom could not satisfy him. And so "Her light, her bliss he asked for earth and men." But this work cannot be done by human effort alone. It is too high an adventure for human effort. "A vast surrender was his only strength." Aswapathy resorted to this act of surrender in order to "Bring into life's closed room the Immortal's air And fill the ...

... implies an over-eagerness and violence of effort, while concentration is in its nature quiet and steady. If there is restlessness or over-eagerness, then that is not concentration. Page 315 Effort means straining endeavour. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain of effort. It was by your personal efforts without guidance that you got into difficulties... Sadhana In the beginning for a long time concentration is necessary even by effort because the nature, the consciousness are not ready. Even then the more quiet and natural the concentration, the better. But when the consciousness and nature are ready, then concentration must become spontaneous and easily possible without effort at all times. Even at last it becomes the natural and permanent condition... thinking. When we try to concentrate, this stream of self-moved mechanical thinking becomes prominent to our observation. It is the first normal obstacle (the other is sleep during meditation) to the effort towards Yoga. The first thing to do is to realise that this thought-flow is not yourself, it is not you who are thinking, but thought that is going on in the mind. It is Prakriti with its thought-energy ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II
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... life, a life divine. What distinguishes man from other subhuman species is a consciously felt ideal of perfection that one can hopefully yearn after and attain to with adequate and proper personal efforts. But what is the exact nature of this perfection? — There is no universal agreement amongst men; they differ widely in their view. Most seek after an adequate mundane change; some yearn... special objection to their being placed before the Divine. The only point the sadhaka should be careful about is that he should not, in his prayers, insist on their fulfilment, only to gratify his personal egoistic desires. His attitude should rather be: "O Divine, I am asking for this in my ignorance; I place my problem before Thee with the innocence and candour of a child. Now you are free to do whatever... Whatever outlet the moment's impulse is seeking from the sadhaka for its expression, has to be blocked altogether: one need not for the time being waste one's energy or Page 24 effort in tackling its inner turmoil in the sadhaka' s consciousness. Of course, the urge, the desire, the passion will still be there in the sadhaka' s heart producing churnings and whirls there, but ...

... continue it? Yes - it is better than being always passive.         Yesterday's experience of drawing down the Mother's Force was rather unusual. It did not come down when I used my personal efforts but only afterwards, when I had forgotten all about it! However, when it did descend, some concentration was needed to sustain it. I do not know how my body will stand this process; please tell...   PART VI BLANKNESS AND SILENCE         Is any personal aspiration necessary during the state of blankness or self-forgetfulness? I ask this because once you wrote that if the silence is deep there is no need of personal aspiration; let the silence itself work.       Blankness is only a condition in which realisation has to come... a few days ago I was moving in a dark inertia - suggestions, turmoil, depression etc. Now I am in full peace and silence. Is this due to any conquest in the general Nature?       No, it is personal.         During this peace and silence, should not my aspiration also be strengthened and constant?       Not necessarily. The peace and silence are only a basis. Into that there must ...

... God's infinite grace and attaining union with Him.... God, who is All-Good, turns even evil into supreme good. The third purpose154 (for which he took me to Alipore jail) was to teach me that my personal efforts would avail nothing in my Yoga, that faith and total self-surrender alone were the means of attaining spiritual perfection, and that the only object of my aspiration for union (Yoga) was to use... vanity of personal ambition.... Only the self-abnegation that effaces the idea of self altogether and follows the course of the revolution with a child-like belief that God is the leader and what He does is for the best, will be able to continue working for the country. 29 Such men are not led by personal ambition and cannot, therefore, be deterred from following the Will of God by personal loss... the effort to awake in themselves a higher Power to which they might call for help. The tapasyā of those last had its effect unknown to themselves, for they were pouring out a selfless aspiration into the world and the necessary conditions began to be created. When these conditions were far advanced, the second class who worked on began to think that it was the result of their efforts, but the ...