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Faith and Personal Effort · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There is a tendency in the human mind to create an artificial
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  division between faith-based in the divine grace and effort
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  based in the mental, vital, and physical being of the
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  individual. Thus, if we have faith, we tend
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  not to worry about specific actions we can or should take.
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  It is a type of fatalism that says that the grace is watching
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  over me, so whatever happens is for the best and I need not take
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  steps to support or develop it. At the same time, the mind's
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  natural approach is to fragment, to divide, to question, to doubt
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  and to hold conflicting ideas at one time or another.
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  Thus the individualist paralysed into inaction through the
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  confusion and doubt that has been engendered.
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  In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo makes it clear that
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  the attitude that holds that effort is not required is a
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  temasek attitude and that personal effort is needed for a
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  long way on the path of realization, he states quote.
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  The personal effort required is a triple labor of aspiration,
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  rejection and surrender. An aspiration, vigilant,
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  constant, unceasing the mind's will.
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  The heart's seeking the ascent of the vital being, the will to
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  open and make plastic the physical consciousness and
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  nature. Rejection of the movements of
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  the lower nature. Rejection of the mind's ideas,
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  opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true
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  knowledge may find free room in a silent mind.
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  Rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings,
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  sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance,
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  lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the truth, so that
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  the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large,
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  strong and consecrated vital being.
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  Rejection of the physical nature, stupidity, doubt,
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  disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness,
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  unwillingness to change Thomas, so that the true stability of
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  light, power Ananda may establish itself in a body
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  growing always more divine. Surrender of oneself and all one
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  is and has, and every plane of the consciousness and every
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  movement to the Divine and the Shakti.
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  End Quote. A disciple asks, sweet Mother,
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  can faith be increased by personal effort?
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  The Mother observes, quote. Faith is certainly a gift given
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  to us by the Divine grace. It is like a door suddenly
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  opening upon an eternal truth through which we can see it,
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  almost touch it. As in everything else and the
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  ascent of humanity, there is the necessity, especially at the
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  beginning, of personal effort. It is possible that in some
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  exceptional circumstances, for reasons which completely elude
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  our intelligence, faith may come almost accidentally, quite
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  unexpectedly, almost without ever having been solicited.
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  But most frequently it is an answer to a yearning, a need, an
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  aspiration, something in the being that is seeking and
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  longing, even though not in a very conscious and systematic
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  way. But in any case, when faith has
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  been granted, when one has had this sudden inner illumination,
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  in order to preserve it constantly in the active
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  consciousness, individual effort is altogether indispensable.
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  One must hold on to 1's faith, will 1's faith.
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  One must seek it, cultivate it, protect it.
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  In the human mind there is a morbid and deplorable habit of
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  doubt, argument, skepticism. This is where human effort must
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  be put in, the refusal to admit them, the refusal to listen to
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  them, and still more, the refusal to follow them.
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  No game is more dangerous than playing mentally with doubt and
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  skepticism. They are not only enemies, they
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  are terrible pitfalls, and once one falls into them, it becomes
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  tremendously difficult to pull oneself out.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother Powers within, Chapter 6. Faith, page 63.