Progress

 

Evolution

 

All is not finished in the Unseen’s decree!

A mind beyond our mind demands our ken;

A life of unimagined harmony

Awaits, concealed, the grasp of unborn men.

The crude beginnings of the lifeless earth

And mindless stirrings of the plant and tree

Prepared our thought; thought for a godlike birth

Broadens the mould of our mortality.

A might no human will or force could gain,

A knowledge seated in eternity,

A joy beyond our struggle and our pain

Is this earth-hampered creature’s destiny.

O Thou who climbest to mind from the dull stone,

Turn to the miracled summits yet unwon.

 

There  are  three  stages of progress:  the  first  is  to  become  an  individual;  the  second  is  to consecrate  the  individual,  that  he  may  surrender  entirely  to  the  Divine  and  be identified with Him; and the third is that the Divine takes possession of this individual and changes him  into a being in His own image, that is, he too becomes divine.

Sri Aurobindo

 

The Mother on Progress

 

Life upon earth is made to be a field for progress and if we progress to the maximum we draw the maximum benefit from our life upon earth.

 

There is not a minute in life, there is not a circumstance in one’s existence that cannot bring an opportunity for progress.

 

If you said to yourself  “We want to be as perfect Instruments as possible to express the divine Will in the world”, then for this instrument to be perfect,  it  must  be  cultivated,  educated,  trained.  It  must    not  be  left  like  a shapeless piece of stone. When you want to build with a stone you chisel it; when you want to make a formless block into a beautiful diamond, you chisel it. Well, it is the same thing. When with your brain and body you want to make a beautiful instrument for the Divine, you must cultivate it, sharpen it, refine it, complete what is missing, perfect what is there.

 

There must be an aspiration for progress: not to  be  satisfied  with  what one is, how one is, what one does, what one knows or thinks one knows; but to  have  a  constant  aspiration  for  something  more,  something  better,  for  a greater  light,  a  vaster  consciousness,  a  truer  truth  and  a  more  universal goodness. And over and above all this, a goodwill which never fails.

 

As  for  the  question  of  what  is  necessary  for  progress,  in  an evolving world everything is necessarily a help to progress; but individual progress extends over a considerable number  of  lives and through innumerable experiences.  It cannot be judged on the basis of a single life between birth and death.

 

We have to have the faith that in spite of our ignorance and errors and weaknesses and in spite of the attacks of hostile forces and in spite of any immediate appearance of failure the Divine Will is leading us, through every circumstance, towards the final Realisation. This faith will give us equanimity; it is a faith that accepts what happens, not definitively but as something that has to be gone through on the way.

 

Progress may be slow, falls may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained one  is sure to triumph some day and see all difficulties melt and vanish before the radiant consciousness of truth.

 

As with everything in yoga, the effort for progress must be made for the love of the effort for progress, the joy of effort. The aspiration for progress must be enough in themselves, quite independent of the result. Everything one does in yoga must be  done  for  the  joy  of  doing  it,  and  not  in  view  of  the  result  one  wants  to obtain…. Indeed, in life, always, in all things the result does not belong to us. And  if  we  want  to  keep  the  right  attitude,  we  must  act,  feel,  think,  strive spontaneously, for that is what we must do, and not in view of the result to be obtained.

 

Try to enjoy doing everything you do.

When you are interested in what you do, you enjoy doing it.

To be interested in what you do, you must try to do it better and better.

There is no end to progress and every day one can learn to do better what one does.

In progress lies true joy.

 

Open yourself more and more to the Divine’s force and your work will progress steadily towards perfection.

 

Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.

 

If we want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a land mark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life.

 

If one is inwardly open, if one is receptive, one receives right down into the subtle physical all that is necessary for one’s integral progress.

 

It is the will for progress and self-purification which lights the psychic fire. The will for progress. Those who have a strong will, when they turn it towards spiritual progress and purification, automatically light the fire within themselves.

 

And each defect one wants to cure or each progress one wants to make — if all that is thrown into the fire, it burns with a new intensity.

 

Let us keep flaming in our heart the fire of progress.