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Endurance Is Required for Progress, Growth and Success · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Each part of the being has its own form of endurance.
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  Endurance is essential for any true and lasting development.
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  Change tends to take place mostly incrementally.
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  When it comes more rapidly, it is usually accompanied by major
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  disruptions to the status quo. In either case, one form of
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  endurance or another is required.
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  Physical endurance is the ability to withstand pressure on
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  the physical body and continue on.
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  This is seen in sports, exploration activities and
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  adventure challenges such as climbing mountains or
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  undertaking marathon races or triathlon.
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  Vital endurance includes the power to remain positive and
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  confident in the face of opposition and apparent
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  setbacks. Mental endurance implies that
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  the mind remains firm and without doubt about the results
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  even when everything looks bleak.
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  Despair, depression, and gloom are signs of a lack of
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  endurance. We tend not to understand the
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  way nature develops and evolves and the time frame needed to
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  accomplish these changes. Endurance implies staying the
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  course despite immediate appearances.
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  For example, Sri Aurobindo in his epic poem Savitri, a legend
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  and a symbol, has the following passage.
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  Quote. When darkness deepened,
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  strangling the earth's breast, And man's corporeal mind is the
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  only lamp. As the thief's in the night
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  shall be the covert tread of one who steps unseen into his house.
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  End Quote When all around us is darkness, defeat, suffering,
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  death and pain, the need for utmost endurance is required.
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  As the proverb says, it is always darkest before the dawn,
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  the mother notes. Quote Let endurance be your
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  watchword. Teach the life force in you,
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  your vital being, not to complain, but to put up with all
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  the conditions necessary for great achievement.
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  The body is a very enduring servant.
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  It bears the stress of circumstance tamely, like a
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  beast of burden. It is the vital being that is
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  always grumbling and uneasy. The slavery and torture to which
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  it subjects the physical is almost incalculable.
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  How it twists and deforms the poor body to its own fads and
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  fancies, irrationally demanding that everything should be shaped
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  according to its whimsicality. But the very essence of
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  endurance is that the vital should learn to give up its
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  capricious likes and dislikes and preserve an equanimity in
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  the midst of the most trying conditions.
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  When you are treated roughly by somebody, or you lack something
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  which would relieve your discomfort, you must keep up
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  cheerfully. Instead of letting yourself be
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  disturbed, let nothing ruffle you the least bit.
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  And whenever the vital tends to air its petty grievances with
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  pompous exaggeration, just stop to consider how very happy you
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  are compared to so many in this world.
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  Reflect for a moment on what the soldiers who fought in the last
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  war had to go through. If you had to bear such
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  hardships, you would realize the utter silliness of your
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  dissatisfactions. And yet, I do not wish you to
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  court difficulties. What I want is simply that you
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  should learn to endure the little insignificant troubles of
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  your life. Nothing great is ever
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  accomplished without endurance. If you study the lives of great
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  men, you will see how they set themselves like Flint against
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  the weaknesses of the vital. Even today, the true meaning of
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  our civilization is the mastery of the physical through
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  endurance in the vital. The spirit of sport and of
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  adventure and the dauntless facing of odds, which is evident
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  in all fields of life, are part of this ideal of endurance.
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  In science itself. Progress depends on the
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  countless difficult tests and trials which precede
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  achievement. What you must do is to give your
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  vital a good beating as soon as it protests, for when the when
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  the physical is concerned, there is reason to be considerate and
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  to take precautions. But with the vital, the only
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  method is a sound kicking. Kick your vital the moment it
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  complaints, because there's no other way of getting out of the
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  petty consciousness which attaches so much importance to
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  creature comforts and social amenities, instead of asking for
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  the light and the truth. End Quote.
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  Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 7
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  Attitude, pages 66 to 68.