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Strength and Courage Are Needed to Face the Difficulties of the Spiritual Path · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When an individual withdraws from most external activities to
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  focus on spiritual sadhna, people tend to interpret this as
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  a sign of weakness or failure in the outer life.
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  They believe the seeker could not make it in the competition
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  in the external world and therefore retreated from it so
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  he did not have to face it. This view, however, is
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  inaccurate. While it is true that some
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  individuals retreat from the difficulties they face in the
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  world, they soon find that spiritual practice requires far
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  more strength than they could have imagined.
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  The spiritual path is not for those weak in spirit or afraid
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  of tackling the powers of life. A strong, vital nature is
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  essential when one enters the inner realms of consciousness.
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  In his epic poem Savitri, a Legend and a Symbol, Sri
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  Aurobindo expresses the inner struggle in a number of
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  passages, but perhaps none so poignantly as in Book 6.
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  Canto 2 Quote Exempt and unafflicted by Earth's fate.
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  How shall he cure the ills he never felt?
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  He covers the world's agony with his calm, but though to the
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  outward eye no sign appears, and peace is given to our torn human
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  hearts, the struggle is there and paid the unseen price.
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  The fire, the strife, the wrestle are within.
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  He carries the suffering world in his own breast.
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  Its sins weigh on his thoughts. Its grief is his.
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  Earth's ancient load lies heavy on his soul.
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  Night and its powers beleaguer his tardy steps.
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  The Titan adversary's clutch he bears.
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  His March is a battle in a pilgrimage.
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  Life's evil smites. He is stricken with the world's
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  pain. 1,000,000 wounds gape in his secret heart.
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  He journeys sleepless through an unending night.
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  Antagonist forces crowd across his path.
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  A siege, a combat, is his inner life.
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  Even worse may be the cost direr the pain.
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  His large identity and all harbouring love shall bring the
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  cosmic anguish into his depths. The sorrow of all living things
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  shall come and knock at his doors and live within his house.
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  A dreadful cord of sympathy can tie all suffering into his
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  single grief, and make all agony in all the world's his own.
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  End Quote. Sri Aurobindo notes quote.
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  One who has not the courage to face patiently and firmly life
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  and its difficulties will never be able to go through the still
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  greater inner difficulties of the sadhna.
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  The very first lesson in this yoga is to face life and its
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  trials with a quiet mind of firm courage and an entire reliance
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  on the divine shakti. End Quote reference Srioro Bindo
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  Basis of Yoga, Chapter 3 in difficulty, page 57.