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Understanding the Masks, False Fronts and Deceptive Appearances We Present to the World and to Ourselves · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  It is relatively easy to recognize that we are putting up
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  a false front in our dealings with society.
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  We greet people with a smile while in our minds we may be
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  having an opposite feeling about the person.
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  We flatter people to get ahead in society knowing that the
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  flattery is not based on reality but is meant to gain a certain
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  position or end result. Similarly, we mask our own
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  feelings, intentions and thoughts in order to appear more
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  successful, more important and more powerful than we really
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  are. Many people put on the
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  appearance of wealth with luxury cars and clothes or homes when
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  they are masking what may be dire financial straits with
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  heavy loads of debt. We may want to appear more
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  learned and wiser than we really are, or we may want to put on an
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  outward show of appearances while inwardly we are struggling
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  or suffering. This is the way of the world we
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  live in for the most part, and the vast majority of people
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  simply accept this as the way things are and the way things
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  need to be. They do not question, and indeed
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  in many cases they do not even recognize that this is taking
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  place. We come then to the position of
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  the spiritual seeker, aspiring for truth and yet faced with an
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  external nature that continually expresses various degrees of
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  falsehood in our social settings.
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  These things happen so automatically and are so
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  embedded in our socialization, upbringing and in the
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  expectations of the society that we do not even generally
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  recognize the situation. The issue is further complicated
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  by the emphasis we place on mental knowledge in today's
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  world. We think something, and we thus
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  believe that we have become that.
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  We accept certain spiritual principles in our minds, and we
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  thus count ourselves as having realized the truths of that
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  teaching. We do not generally recognize
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  that there are different parts of our being which each have
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  their own drive for fulfilment and expression, and which are
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  not all organized around a single principle.
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  Thus, in our psychic being, we may feel devotional, but the
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  mind may be guiding us to do things that actually contradict
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  that devotion. Similarly, the vital nature may
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  have its own desires, needs, wishes that it tries to fulfil
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  and it is very good at getting its way by convincing the mind
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  that it is doing the right thing and needful thing to actually
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  carry out the mandate of the aspiring soul, when in fact it
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  is carrying out its vital human desires.
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  For the spiritual seeker. Then there is a need for careful
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  scrutiny of the different parts of the being, the mind, the
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  emotions, the vital nature and the physical body to see not
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  what we deceive ourselves to believe about their adherence to
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  the soul's aspiration, but what is actually taking place, what
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  the actual thoughts, emotions, feelings, drives are carrying
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  out in these other aspects of the being.
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  To the extent there is lack of unity in the aspiration and its
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  expression through all elements of the external nature, there is
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  work to be done. How many actually can look
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  through the masks and false fronts we present not just to
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  the external world, but even to ourselves, when we believe we
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  are totally sincere, dedicated and consecrated to the spiritual
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  path? As long as we remain within the
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  framework of the mental vital physical complex, we cannot see
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  and identify its limitations and weaknesses clearly.
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  Only when we can step away from that external being and observe
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  it dispassionately can we begin to understand the depth and
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  complexity of the effort needed. This is not a matter for
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  despondency or depression, as it is simply a recognition of the
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  basics of human nature that have been deeply embedded throughout
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  human existence. Rather, we can recognize this as
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  an opportunity to address and change some elements of human
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  nature as we ascend the evolutionary scale of
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  consciousness. At that point, we can call on
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  the spiritual force and open ourselves up to its action so
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  that it can transform us down to the very cells of the body.
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  Shriora Bindo writes quote. Men are always mixed, and there
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  are qualities and defects mingled together almost
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  inextricably in their nature. What a man wants to be or wants
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  others to see in him, or what he is sometime on one side of his
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  nature or in some relations, can be very different from what he
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  is in the actual fact, or in other relations, or on another
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  side of his nature. To be absolutely sincere,
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  straightforward, open, is not an easy achievement for human
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  nature. It is only by spiritual endeavor
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  that one can realize it, and to do it needs a severity of
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  introspective self vision and unsparing scrutiny of self
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  observation, of which many Sodaks and yogis even are not
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  capable. And it is only by an illumining
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  grace that reveals the Sodak to Himself and transform what is
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  deficient in him that it can be done, and even then only if He
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  Himself consents and lends Himself wholly to the divine
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  working. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within,
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  Chapter 5. Attitudes on the Path, pages 117
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  to 118.