Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? -- Part 4

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How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? -- Part 4 · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  It is only in still waters that we can see our reflection.
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  Swami Vivekananda in his lectures on Raja Yoga describes
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  the mind stuff, Chitta and how impressions, desires,
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  observations and thoughts all disturb the stillness of the
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  mind stuff. He also describes methods of
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  bringing it to a status of stillness in which the
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  individual can step away from the call of the vital desire
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  nature or the mental processes and thus be receptive to higher
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  forces and levels of interfacing with the universal reality.
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  Our inability to see and understand our destined role in
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  the manifestation and in our lives is very much due to the
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  turbulence caused by desire, ambition and other vital and
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  mental perturbations. As we learn how to shift
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  ourselves to a different standpoint, separate from the
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  ego personality, it becomes much easier to understand our role
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  and focus as our lives develop before us.
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  This involves giving up excessive self importance, the
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  basis of vanity, as well as excessive artificial humility,
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  which can actually be another form of vanity or else a type of
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  face saving device in our dealings with the world around
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  us. A simple and receptive positive
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  expression of our being with the sincerity and based on the
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  deeper aspiration can provide us with the best guidance.
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  The mother writes quote, but we have a sure pointer to guide us.
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  Above all, whatever we undertake should not be done for the
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  purpose of self assertion. If we are attached to fame and
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  glory to the esteem of our peers, we are soon led to make
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  concessions to them. And if we seek any opportunity
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  to admire ourselves, it becomes easy to make ourselves out to be
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  what we are not. And nothing more obscures the
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  ideal within us. We should never tell ourselves
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  openly or indirectly. I want to be great.
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  What vocation can I find for myself in order to become great?
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  On the contrary, we should tell ourselves.
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  There must certainly be something I can do better than
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  anyone else, since each one of us is a special mode of
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  manifestation of the Divine Power, which in its essence is 1
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  in all, however humble and modest it may be.
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  This is precisely the thing to which I should devote myself,
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  and in order to find it, I shall observe and analyze my tastes,
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  tendencies and preferences, and I shall do it without pride or
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  excessive humility, Whatever others may think.
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  I shall do it just as I breathe, just as the flower smells sweet,
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  quite simply, quite naturally, because I cannot do otherwise.
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  As soon as we have abolished within us, even for a moment,
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  all egoistic desires, all personal and selfish aims, we
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  can surrender to this inner spontaneity, this deep
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  inspiration which will enable us to commune with the living and
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  progressive forces of the universe.
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  The conception of our work will inevitably grow more perfect as
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  we grow more perfect ourselves, and to realize this growing
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  perfection, no effort to exceed ourselves should be neglected,
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  but the work we perform must become always more and more
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  joyful and spontaneous, like water welling from a pure
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  spring. End Quote.
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  Reference. Srioro Bindu and the Mother.
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  Looking from within. Chapter 3, Action and Work,
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  pages 58 to 61.