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Dealing with Dualities · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Our experience in the world is one of dualities.
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  Hot and cold, wet and dry, happy and sad, love and hate, darkness
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  and light, etcetera. We recognize that we cannot have
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  the one without the other. The Chinese symbol of Yin Yang
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  illustrates the intertwined nature of these dualities and
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  that even in the greatest light there is a spot of darkness and
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  vice versa. Once we recognize the nature of
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  life as consisting of these dualities, the question then
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  arises as to what to do about it.
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  We seek happiness, we seek light, we seek harmony, we seek
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  freedom, but we are all the time confronted with unhappiness,
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  darkness, disharmony and bondage, et cetera.
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  Many people have come to the conclusion that it is not
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  possible to have one without the other, that the price of
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  happiness is acceptance of unhappiness as a condition on
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  occasion. Some go so far as to say we
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  would not appreciate the positive side of the duality
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  without the experience of the negative side.
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  We can imagine and create fantasies about unmixed bliss
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  and an existence without any of the negative poles of the
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  dualities. Various religions have
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  postulated heavens where the elect or the saved go after
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  departure from this world to enjoy such a state of paradise
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  in heaven, whatever the status of existence is in some other
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  place or on some other plane, we are tasked with making sense of
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  and responding to the conditions here in this world, this world
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  of dualities. We thus need to determine how
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  best to respond to those aspects we find uncomfortable or
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  negative, as well as to understand the role they have to
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  play in life here in the world we live in.
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  If we try to fight the dualities, we quickly find out
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  that we become upset, frustrated, despondent or
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  depressed, as they cannot be eliminated from our lives.
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  Some people preach a philosophy of Stoicism whereby we condition
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  ourselves to accept the dualities without feeling
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  oppressed, gaining strength in our ability to withstand their
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  impulsion. Others suggest we rise above
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  them, see and experience them, but not be moved or shaken by
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  them, so that whether we judge something to be good or bad, we
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  can benefit from its impact on our lives.
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  We may find, if we look closely at our own responses to the
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  dualities, that when we are experiencing what we judge to be
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  positive responses, we tend to want to enjoy them and we do not
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  tend to make serious efforts compared to times when we are
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  under pressure of what we term negative responses.
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  It is an answer to these negative times that we make the
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  greatest efforts generally, and thus they become aids to our
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  growth and progress. Srioro Vindo notes quote This
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  world has a double aspect. It seems to be based on a
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  material inconscience and an ignorant mind and life full of
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  that inconscience. Error and sorrow, death and
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  suffering, are the necessary consequence.
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  But there is evidently too, a partially successful endeavour
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  and an imperfect growth towards light, knowledge, truth, good
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  happiness, harmony, beauty, at least a partial flowering of
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  these things. The meaning of this world must
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  evidently lie in this opposition.
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  It must be an evolution which is leading or struggling towards
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  higher things out of a first, darker appearance.
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  Whatever guidance there is must be given under these conditions
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  of opposition and struggle, and must be leading towards that
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  higher state of things. It is leading the individual
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  certainly, and the world presumably, towards the higher
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  state, But through the double terms of knowledge and
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  ignorance, light and darkness, death and life, pain and
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  pleasure, happiness and suffering, none of the terms can
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  be excluded until the higher status is reached and
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  established. It is not and cannot be
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  ordinarily a guidance which at once rejects the darker terms,
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  still less a guidance which brings us solely and always
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  nothing but happiness, success and good fortune.
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  Its main concern is with the growth of our being and
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  consciousness, the growth towards a higher Self, towards
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  the Divine, eventually towards a higher light, truth and bliss.
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  The rest is secondary. Sometimes a means, sometimes a
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  result, not a primary purpose. End Quote Reference Sri Robindo
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  and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1 Looking at
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  Life and Circumstances, pages 24 to 25.