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Success in Yoga Despite Negative Suggestions of Unfitness or Impossibility · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  As the three Gunas continue to rotate their action in the
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  external personality, there are times when Rajas presides and
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  there is potentially a sense of ambition and with it a sustained
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  effort. When Thomas presides, however,
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  there is a tendency to fall into despondency or depression,
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  seeing things from a viewpoint of general incapacity and
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  without the energy to break out of the slump.
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  The good thing is that neither of these two states are
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  permanent, as the gunas are always in motion.
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  At times when Sutwa predominates, the individual can
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  understand the issues, the fluctuations, and the rising of
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  various obstacles in the path, and take them with a calm
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  assurance that things will eventually get worked out.
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  These moods come about when the seeker is still mostly attached
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  to the external being and has not yet moved his standpoint to
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  the central being, the psychic being, which maintains the fire
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  of aspiration and consecration and has a direct connection to
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  the Divine. The vital nature is prone to
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  periods of light and dark, progress and retrogression.
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  If the Secret treats these as the reality, they act as
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  distractions from the needed focus.
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  Desire followed by either a sense of shame or guilt if it is
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  satisfied, or a sense of frustration if it is not
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  satisfied, creates an endless loop of drama that leads the
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  seeker astray quite easily. Over time, with patience,
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  perseverance and a faith that understands the complexity and
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  difficulties of the transformations needed, the
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  results will begin to show. As Shrioro Bindo points out, he
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  who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite.
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  If the seeker holds on to this truth, he knows that the
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  difficulty he is facing are in fact part of the path, part of
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  the process, part of the sadhna. The main thing is to keep going
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  and not give up hope or wallow in despair, Triorobindo observes
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  quote. There is no reason why you
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  should abandoned hope of success in the yoga.
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  The state of depression which you now feel is temporary, and
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  it comes even upon the strongest sadaks at one time or another,
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  or even often recurs. The only thing needed is to hold
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  firm with the awakened part of the being, to reject all
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  contrary suggestions, and to wait, opening yourself as much
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  as you can to the true power, till the crisis or change of
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  which this depression is a stage is completed.
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  The suggestions which come to your mind, telling you that you
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  are not fit and that you must go back to the ordinary life, are
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  promptings from a hostile source.
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  Ideas of this kind must always be rejected as inventions of the
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  lower nature, even if they are founded on appearances which
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  seem convincing to the ignorant mind.
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  They are false because they exaggerate a passing movement
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  and represent it as the decisive and definite truth.
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  There is only one truth in you on which you have to lay
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  constant. Hold the truth of your divine
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  possibilities and the call of the higher light to your nature.
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  If you hold to that always, or even if you are momentarily
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  shaken from your hold, return constantly to it.
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  It will justify itself in the end, in spite of all
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  difficulties and obstacles and stumblings.
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  All that resists will disappear in time with the progressive
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  unfolding of your spiritual nature.
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  What is needed is the conversion and surrender of the vital part.
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  It must learn to demand only the highest truth, and to forego all
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  insistence on the satisfaction of its inferior impulses and
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  desires. It is this adhesion of the vital
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  being that brings the full satisfaction and joy of the
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  whole nature in the spiritual life.
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  When that is there, it will be impossible even to think of
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  returning to the ordinary existence.
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  Meanwhile, the mental will and the psychic aspiration must be
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  your support. If you insist, the vital will
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  finally yield and be converted and surrendered.
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  Fix upon your mind and heart the resolution to live for the
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  divine truth and for that alone. Reject all that is contrary and
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  incompatible with it, and turn away from the lower desires.
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  Aspire to open yourself to the divine power and to no other.
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  Do this in all sincerity and the present and living help you need
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  will not value. End Quote Reference Srioro
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  Bindo, Basis of Yoga, Chapter 3 in difficulty, pages 51 to 52.