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The Individual Action Needed to Implement the Spiritual Path in One's Life · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The vital nature wants to continue its old ways and
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  achieve fulfillment of its desires.
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  It is also very effective at finding ways to convince the
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  mind to carry out its impulses and desires.
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  When an individual takes up the spiritual path, the vital being
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  does not get discouraged. It simply tries to find ways to
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  carry on while paying lip service to the spiritual
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  seeking. One of the ways it does that is
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  to latch onto the idea, true in an ultimate sense, that it is
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  the divine force which is carrying out the sadhna.
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  It then can conclude that the individual need not do anything
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  because the Divine is responsible and doing it.
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  All this is ultimately an excuse for it to continue in its
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  habitual ways of action and enjoyment by forsaking
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  responsibility for making any changes.
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  In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo addresses this point
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  clearly. Quote.
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  Note that a temasek surrender, refusing to fulfill the
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  conditions and calling on God to do everything and save one all
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  the trouble and struggle is a deception and does not lead to
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  freedom and perfection. End Quote.
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  The divine force acts by providing insight, inspiration
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  and support to the individual who is charged with undertaking
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  the actions that lead to changes in human nature over time.
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  This implies that there is an effort, an action by the
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  individual, which Rioralbindo defines as aspiration,
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  rejection, and surrender. Without this, the idea of
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  spirituality is essentially just a mental conception, similar to
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  the idea that one can learn to swim by reading a book about
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  swimming without ever getting in the water.
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  Turning the mind toward the spiritual focus is a positive
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  step. Providing the emotional and
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  vital support for that focus helps to bring it into action.
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  Carrying it out in one's life, in one's inner reactions and in
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  one's external relations is the implementation that is
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  eventually needed to be successful in the yogic
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  endeavour. Rooting out those ideas, habits,
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  predilections, trained responses and desires that contradict this
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  spiritual action is the process called for the rejection of the
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  old Ways and Means of living, Sri Robindo writes quote Faith,
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  reliance upon God, surrender and self giving to the divine power
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  are necessary and indispensable. But reliance upon God must not
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  be made an excuse for indolence, weakness and surrender to the
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  impulses of the lower nature. It must go along with untiring
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  aspiration and a personal rejection of all that comes in
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  the way of the Divine truth. The surrender to the Divine must
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  not be turned into an excuse, a cloak, or an occasion for
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  surrender to 1's own desires and lower movements or to 1's ego.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother Looking from Within, Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, page 131.