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The Secret of Success in Spiritual Sadhana Is to Maintain the Aspiration and Focus and Never Give Up · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Failure turns out to be the stepping stone to success.
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  We tend to become obsessed with being perfect in the spiritual
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  sadhna. We identify things we should be
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  thinking, things we should be doing, ways we should be acting
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  and responding to situations, and create for ourselves a set
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  of rules or guidelines that we believe act as the markers of
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  our success in the sadhna. The problem with this approach
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  is that it is entirely based in the ego.
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  It focuses on the wrong metric of progress.
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  No human being can expect to overcome the deeply embedded
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  habits and reactions of human nature or the socialization he
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  has undergone from time of birth forward.
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  It is therefore obvious that any standard that sets perfection as
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  the marker from the outset is doomed to either fail or wind up
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  with self deception. Some of the habits of human
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  nature, having developed over many millennia, are not so
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  easily transformed in their nature.
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  Habits of mind, habits of emotion, habits of vital
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  reaction, habits of physical response all need to be
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  patiently viewed, understood and systematically adjusted.
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  This is not a work for days, weeks or months.
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  It is a work for a lifetime or more.
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  As long as the predilection remains active in humanity, it
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  is also possible for it to rise again in the individual.
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  Transformation of human nature under the impulsion of the next
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  phase of evolution of consciousness is a more or less
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  thankless job. What is important is to be able
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  to maintain the aspiration and avoid discouragement as these
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  things recur and try to reassert themselves.
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  Once the seeker relieves himself of the burden of guilt and
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  depression that arises based on the false premises of the
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  perfection standpoint, he will find it much easier to go on
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  with the work relentlessly, patiently and with a strong will
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  and focused aspiration, Sriorobindo writes.
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  Quote Whether by tapasya or surrender does not matter.
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  The one thing is to be firm in settings one's face to the goal.
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  Once one has set one's feet on the way, how can one draw back
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  from it to something inferior? IF1 keeps firm, falls do not
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  matter. One rises up again and goes
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  forward. If one is firm towards the goal,
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  there can be on the way to the divine no eventual failure.
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  And if there is something within you that drives as surely there
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  is. Falterings or falls or failure
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  of faith make no eventual difference.
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  One has to go on till the struggle is over and there is
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  the straight and open and thornless way before us.
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  End Quote reference Srioro Bindo, Faces of Yoga Chapter 2
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  Faith, Aspiration, Surrender page 31.