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The Deeper Meaning of Will-Power · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We speak generally about exercising willpower,
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  particularly when it relates to overcoming an impulsion or
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  attempting to achieve some particular result.
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  We may want to overcome an addiction or follow a particular
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  diet, and we struggle to carry out our resolve.
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  We make New Year's resolutions to create a form of will for the
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  upcoming year to somehow improve ourselves in some way from our
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  current status. All of these involve making a
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  substantial effort, and in most cases we wind up either failing
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  partially or wholly, or else we wind up suppressing an impulse
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  and eventually having to encounter it in a much more
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  powerful form when it can no longer be contained.
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  Srior Bindo describes this generally as willings, not an
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  act of will. In the deepest sense, the will
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  is an expression of a truth of existence, the manifestation of
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  that truth and knowledge into a form in a particular domain or
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  world. It comes from the Ultimate
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  reality, which is termed Satchidananda, existence,
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  consciousness, bliss. The will is associated with the
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  aspect of consciousness and thus Sri Aurobindo utilizes the term
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  Chit Shakti to show both the static and dynamic aspects of
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  that truth. The truth has the dynamic power
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  of realization associated with it automatically and completely
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  without straining or a failing effort, as we see in our human
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  attempts to enforce our will in the external world in some way.
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  Sri Robindo writes in his thoughts and glimpses.
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  Quote. When we have passed beyond
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  willings, then we shall have power.
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  Effort was the helper. Effort is the bar.
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  End Quote. The Mother elaborates.
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  Quote and he contrasts these willings.
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  That is all these superficial wills, often opposite and
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  contradictory and without any lasting basis, because they are
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  founded on what he calls unknowing and not on knowledge
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  with the true will. These willings are necessarily
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  fragmentary, passing and often in opposition to one another.
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  And this is what gives to the individual life and even to the
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  collective, its nature of incoherence, inconsistency and
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  confusion. The word will is normally
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  reserved to indicate what comes from the deeper being or the
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  higher reality, and what expresses in action the true
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  knowledge which rioro bindo has contrasted with knowings.
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  So when this will which expresses the true knowledge,
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  manifests in action, it manifests through the
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  intervention of a deep and direct power which no longer
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  requires any effort. And that is why Srioro Bindo
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  says here that the true power for action cannot come until one
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  has gone beyond the stage of willings, that is, until the
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  motive of action is the result not of a mere mental activity,
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  but of true knowledge. True knowledge acting in the
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  outer being gives true power. This seems to be an explanation,
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  the real explanation of that very familiar saying, which is
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  not understood in its essence, but expresses a truth.
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  Where there's a will, there's a way to will is to have the
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  power. It is quite obvious that this
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  does not refer to willings, that is, to the more or less
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  incoherent expression of desires, but to the true will
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  expressing a true knowledge. For this true will carries in
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  itself the force of truth, which gives power, an invincible
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  power. And so when one expresses
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  willings, to be able to apply them in life and make them
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  effective, some effort must come in.
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  It is through personal effort that one progresses, and it is
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  through effort that one imposes one's willings upon life to make
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  it yield to their demands. But when they are no longer
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  willings, when it is the true will expressing the true
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  knowledge, effort is no longer required, for the power is
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  omnipotent. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 5,
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  Willpower, pages 47 to 48.