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Facing Difficulties and Transforming Them at Their Source Is the Path of Integral Yoga · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There are implications for anyone excepting the mission to
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  work toward the evolutionary change of human nature, speeded
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  up by the yogic process. We think we should somehow have
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  amazing spiritual experiences and live in a world of peace,
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  sunshine, and joy. The reality is likely to be far
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  different. What does it mean to change or
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  transform human nature? It means we need to confront and
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  address the difficulties inherent in the current state of
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  human nature. In his epic poem Savitri, a
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  Legend and a Symbol, Srioro Bindo states the issue plainly.
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  Quote He too must carry the yoke he came to unloose.
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  He too must bear the pang that he would heal.
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  Exempt and unaffilted by Earth's fate, How shall he cure the ills
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  he never felt? End Quote and quote.
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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 in 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
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  house. A dreadful cord of sympathy can
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  tie all suffering into his single grief, and make all agony
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  in all the world's his own. End Quote.
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  The fact that someone has chosen the path of transformation means
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  that he accepts facing and addressing all the weaknesses,
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  limitations, resistances, obscurities and obstructions
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  that the long habits of Earth nature present.
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  This is the work to be done. It is new ground that needs to
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  be explored, the exploration of the depths of inner space,
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  deeper human psychology, and the very roots of that psychology in
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  the development of matter, life and mind itself.
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  The more advanced the seeker is along the path, the greater the
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  challenges he is asked to tackle, the mother notes quote.
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  Difficulties are sent to us exclusively to make the
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  realization more perfect. Each time we try to realize
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  something and meet with a resistance or an obstacle or
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  even a failure, what seems to be a failure, we should know, we
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  should never forget that it is exclusively, absolutely, so that
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  the realization may be more perfect.
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  So this habit of cringing, of getting discouraged or even
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  feeling uncomfortable, or of abusing yourself and telling
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  yourself, there again, I have made a mistake, all that is
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  absolute foolishness. Simply tell yourself we don't
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  know how to do things as they ought to be done.
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  Well, they are being done for us, come what may.
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  And if we could see to what extent all that seems to be,
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  yes, a difficulty, a mistake, a failure, an obstacle, all that
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  is just to help us so that the realization may be more perfect.
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  Once you know that, everything becomes easy.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and
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  Difficulties, pages 74 to 75.