Perseverance

in Sadhana

A Compilation from the Works of

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Perseverance

in Sadhana

© All writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

are copyright of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

and have been reproduced here with their kind permission.

©2019 AuroPublications, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry

www.aurosociety.org

Year of Publication 2019

Compilation done by Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

Proof reading done by Archana Udaykumar and Radhika Raheja

Cover done by Kavita Dutta

Help in making e-book by Vivechana Saraf and Uttam Mondal

The photograph of the flower on the cover has been given the spiritual significance ‘Perseverance’ by the Mother.

The botanical name of the flower is Calendula officinalis.

(The Spiritual Significance of Flowers Part I page 97)

Foreword

All over the world, there is a growing interest in Spirituality and Yoga.  There is a search for the true meaning and purpose of life, for deeper solutions to the problems which confront us all, and how we can contribute to the evolutionary change and progress.

In this search, more and more persons are turning to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for guidance and enlightenment.  But in their voluminous literature, they do not know where to find the answers they are looking for.

In this regard the Mother has said,

“It is not by books that Sri Aurobindo ought to be studied but by subjects—what he has said on the Divine, on Unity, on religion, on evolution, on education, on self-perfection, on supermind, etc., etc.” (CWM 12: 206)

On another occasion she said:

“If you want to know what Sri Aurobindo has said on a given subject, you must at least read all he has written on that subject. You will then see that he seems to have said the most contradictory things. But when one has read everything and understood a little, one sees that all the contradictions complement one another and are organised and unified in an integral synthesis.” (CWM 16: 309-310)

While there are several compilations which are now available, many sincere spiritual seekers have felt the need of Comprehensive Compilations from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on specific subjects, where the contents are further organised into sub-topics, so that one can get all that one is looking for at one place.

These books are an effort to fulfill this need and thus help spiritual seekers in their journey and sadhana.  We hope these compilations will help us to get a greater mental clarity about a subject so that we can channel our efforts in the right direction. For Sri Aurobindo has written:

“It is always better to make an effort in the right direction; even if one fails the effort bears some result and is never lost.” (CWSA 29: 87)

We will be glad to get suggestions and feedback from the readers.

Vijay

Preface

In the series of comprehensive compilations on virtues and qualities, as prescribed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother necessary for doing Yoga, we present the next book ‘PERSEVERANCE IN SADHANA’.

The quotations in this compilation are taken from the volumes of the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA), and the Collected Works of The Mother (CWM) Second Edition. Each quotation is followed by the book title, volume number and the page number it has been taken from.

While the passages from Sri Aurobindo are in the original English, most of the passages from the Mother (selections from her talks and writings) are translations from the original French. We must also bear in mind that the excerpts have been taken out of their original context and that a compilation, in its very nature, is likely to have a personal and subjective approach. A sincere attempt, however, has been made to be faithful to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Those who would like to go through the fuller text are advised to go through the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA) and the Collected Works of the Mother (CWM), Second Edition.

The section headings, and sub headings are given by the

compiler to bring mental clarity on the selected subject. To bring emphasis in the quotations, at few places, the compiler has made a few words in bold letters.

Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

Contents

I—What Is Perseverance

II—The First Quality Needed in Yoga Is Perseverance

III—Why Perseverance Is Needed in Yoga

IV—The Source of Perseverance Is in the Psychic Being

V—How to Cultivate Perseverance

VI—Perseverance Is the Surest Way to Success

VII—If You Are Sincere in Your Perseverance Then

VIII—Even If Adverse Result Is Foreseen, One Must Persevere

IX—Vital Difficulty and Perseverance

X—If Great Number of Men Persistently Practise Yoga Then

XI—Conquer Impatience And Over Eagerness

XII—Do Not Make the Path Longer

XIII—Areas Where Perseverance Is Required

XIV—Perseverance in Transformation

XV—Reasons for Having No Perseverance

XVI—Persistence of Desire Is the Sign of an Imperfect Yoga

XVII—Tales Which Brings Out the Quality of Patience And Perseverance

XVIII—Teaching Perseverance to a Child

XIX—Other Quotations on Perseverance

XX—Short Summary

I—What Is Perseverance

“Perseverance: the decision to go to the very end.” (CWM 14: 162)

“Perseverance is patience in action.” (CWM 14: 162)

“Perseverance is an active patience, a patience that marches on.” (CWM 2: 198)

“He [Columbus] needed the sustained energy and the unremitting will that we call perseverance.” (CWM 2: 199)

“And what was the only thing he [The celebrated potter, Bernard Palissy] himself never lacked, the only thing that never failed him and which enabled him in the end to triumph over all difficulty and scorn? It was precisely perseverance, that is to say, the mightiest force of all.

For nothing in the world can prevail against perseverance.” (CWM 2: 199–200)

“For that what is needed is perseverance—to go on without discouragement, recognising that the process of the nature and the action of the Mother’s force is working through the difficulty even and will do all that is needed. Our incapacity does not matter—there is no human being who is not in his parts of nature incapable—but the Divine Force also is there. If one puts one’s trust in that, incapacity will be changed into capacity. Difficulty and struggle themselves then become a means towards the achievement.” (CWSA 31: 727)

“That is of course the difficulty, even when one sees what is to be done and wishes to do it. One forgets at the moment when the control is needed. The habit of remembering and applying one’s knowledge at the right moment comes only by a great patience and perseverance which refuses to be discouraged by frequent failure. Only if the psychic being is in front, then it reminds the mind and the thing can be more quickly done.” (CWSA 30: 364)

“... if ... try, try and try again they too will gain their end because nothing is impossible to perseverance.” (CWSA 6: 209)

“But for this surrender to be total, all these qualities are necessary. And I add one more—for so far we have only four —I add endurance. For, if you are not able to face difficulties without getting discouraged and without giving up, because it is too difficult; and if you are incapable... well, of receiving blows and yet continuing, of ‘pocketing’ them, as they say—when you receive blows as a result of your defects, of putting them in your pocket and continuing to go forward without flagging—you don’t go very far; at the first turning where you lose sight of your little habitual life, you fall into despair and give up the game.

The most... how shall I put it? the most material form of this is perseverance. Unless you are resolved to begin the same thing over again a thousand times if need be... You know, people come to me in despair, ‘But I thought it was done and now I must begin again!’ And if they are told, ‘But that’s nothing, you will probably have to begin again a hundred times, two hundred times, a thousand times; you take one step forward and think you are secure, but there will always be something to bring back the same difficulty a little farther on.” (CWM 8: 41)

“... one must have an unfaltering perseverance, be ready to begin again a hundred times the same thing with the same intensity with which one did it the first time and as though one had never done it before.” (CWM 7: 104)

“But with the adverse forces, if you are in the least sincere and observe yourself attentively, you become aware that it is something in the being which is responding to an influence, an impulse, a suggestion, even something at times very concrete, which enters and produces similar vibrations in the being.

There, now. That is the problem.

The remedy?... It is always the same: goodwill, sincerity, insight, patience—oh! an untiring patience and a perseverance which assures you that what you have not succeeded in doing today, you will succeed in doing another time, and makes you go on trying until you do succeed.

And this brings us back to Sri Aurobindo’s sentence: if this control seems to you quite impossible today, well, that means that not only will it be possible, but that it will be realised later.(CWM 8: 394)

II—The First Quality Needed in Yoga Is Perseverance

“The first qualities needed are boldness, courage and perseverance.” (CWM 16: 430)

“To live for the Divine means to offer all that one does to the Divine without desiring a personal result from what one does. Certainly at the beginning, when the Divine is only a word or at most an idea and not an experience, the whole thing remains purely mental. But if one makes a sincere and repeated effort, one day the experience comes and one feels that the offering made is made to something real, tangible, concrete and beneficent. The more sincere and assiduous one is, the sooner the experience comes and the longer it remains.

For each person the way differs in its details, but sincerity and perseverance are equally indispensable for all.” (CWM 16: 294)

“One who fears monotony and wants something new would not be able to do Yoga or at least this Yoga which needs an inexhaustible perseverance and patience. The fear of death shows a vital weakness which is also contrary to a capacity for Yoga. Equally, one who is under the domination of his passions, would find the Yoga difficult and, unless supported by a true inner call and a sincere and strong aspiration for the spiritual consciousness and union with the Divine, might very easily fall fatally and his effort come to nothing.” (CWSA 29: 116)

“Reply to him that this Yoga is a long and difficult one and needs a perseverance and a steadiness which according to his own letter he does not seem to possess. If he found the path being shown to him by his ‘guidance’ too hard for his zeal, this will be still more difficult for him either to understand or to follow to the end. This is not a Yoga one can start today and leave tomorrow. It is only if there is a sign of a real call to it that Sri Aurobindo would be willing to take anyone into this path.” (CWSA 35: 558)

“It is so with all things in the path of sadhana—one must persist however long it takes, so only one can achieve.” (CWSA 29: 114)

“What are the rules of conduct You consider indispensable in our community?

Patience, perseverance, generosity, broad-mindedness, insight, calm and understanding firmness, and control over the ego until it is completely mastered or even abolished.” (CWM 12: 374)

“If he cannot receive help from a distance how does he expect to carry on the Yoga here? This is a Yoga which does not depend upon verbal instructions or anything outward but on the power to open themselves and receive the force and influence even in a complete silence. Those who do not receive it at a distance cannot receive it here also. Also without establishing in oneself calm, sincerity, peace, patience and perseverance this Yoga cannot be done, for many difficulties have to be faced and it takes years and years to overcome them definitely and altogether.” (CWSA 35: 597)

“Sweet Mother,

The soul individualises itself and progressively transforms itself into a psychic being. What are the best

conditions for its rapid growth?

It would be more correct to say that the soul puts on a progressive individual form which becomes the psychic being. For since the soul is itself a portion of the Supreme, it is immutable and eternal. The psychic being is progressive and immortal.

All the methods of self-knowledge, self-control and self mastery are good. You have to choose the one that comes to you spontaneously and best corresponds to your nature. And once having chosen the method, you must use your intelligent will to apply it with an unfailing perseverance that does not shrink from any obstacle, any difficulty. It is a long and minute work which must be undertaken with sincerity and continued with an increasing sincerity ever more scrupulous and integral.

The easy paths generally lead nowhere.”(CWM 16: 246–247)

“Tamas binds by weakness and the craving in the nature for ease and inaction; it is always sinking into idleness, depression, confusion of mind, fear, disappointment, despondency and despair; it is in order that we may get rid of the tamasic ahaṅkāra that we are given the command, ‘Let there be no attachment to inaction,’ and the instruction to pursue the yoga always, whether we seem to advance or seem to be standing still or seem even to be going back, always with a calm faith and patient and cheerful perseverance, anirviṇṇacetasā.” (CWSA 13: 83–84)

“When you have started, you must go to the very end. Sometimes, you see, to people who come to me with enthusiasm I say, ‘Think a little, it is not an easy path, you will need time, you will need patience. You will need much endurance, much perseverance and courage and an untiring goodwill. Look and see if you are capable of having all this, and then start. But once you have started, it is finished, there is no going back any more; you must go to the very end.”(CWM 6: 441)

“Keep quietude, persevere. These are the clouds that cover the growing Light; but the true consciousness is there increasing behind the clouds.” (CWSA 29: 117)

“There can be no doubt that you can go through [difficulties]—everyone has these struggles; what is needed to pass through is sincerity and perseverance.” (CWSA 31: 744)

“Divine Mother,

I wish to get light on the following points.

1. Have I the capacity and are there potentialities in me to follow this path?

This is not the question, the question is whether you have the necessary aspiration, determination and perseverance and whether you can by the intensity and persistence of your aspiration make all the parts of your being answer to the call and become one in the consecration.” (CWM 14: 38)

III—Why Perseverance Is Needed in Yoga

“There are always difficulties and a hampered progress in the early stages and a delay in the opening of the inner doors until the being is ready. If you feel whenever you meditate the quiescence and the flashes of the inner Light and if the inward urge is growing so strong that the external hold is decreasing and the vital disturbances are losing their force, that is already a great progress. The road of Yoga is long, every inch of ground has to be won against much resistance and no quality is more needed by the sadhak than patience and single-minded perseverance with a faith that remains firm through all difficulties, delays and apparent failures.” (CWSA 29: 110)

“As for the long period of seven years without the spiritual success there is nothing unusual in that—the old Yogins used to say that one must be ready for 12 years of preparation before the old nature will be sufficiently modified to allow of the spiritual opening. That is of course not inevitable; it can be done more briefly; but still it takes usually a long time—it has done so with most in the Asram.” (CWSA 30: 364)

“It is an impatience and restlessness in the vital which makes it feel as if it were no use staying here because things are not moving forward. Sadhana is a thing which takes time and needs patience. There are often periods of quiescence in which a working is going on behind of which the mind is not aware—all seems then to be inert and dull; but if one has patience and confidence, the consciousness passes through these periods to new openings and things which seemed to be impossible to effect at that time, get done. The impulse to rush away is always a mistake—perseverance in the path is the one rule to cling to and with that finally all obstacles are overcome.” (CWSA 29: 111)

“There are two possibilities, one of purification by personal effort, which takes a long time, another by a direct intervention of the Divine Grace which is usually rapid in its action. For the latter there must be a complete surrender and self-giving and for that again usually it is necessary to have a mind that can remain quite quiet and allow the Divine Force to act supporting it with its complete adhesion at every step, but otherwise remaining still and quiet. This last condition which resembles the baby cat attitude spoken of by Ramakrishna, is difficult to have. Those who are accustomed to a very active movement of their thought and will in all they do, find it difficult to still the activity and adopt the quietude of mental self-giving. This does not mean that they cannot do the Yoga or cannot arrive at self-giving—only the purification and the self-giving take a long time to accomplish and one must have the patience and steady perseverance and resolution to go through.” (CWSA 29: 83)

“One gives it this lesson cheerfully. And really, after a while it doesn’t get angry again, it is quiet—and one relaxes one’s attention. One thinks the difficulty has been overcome, one thinks a result has at last been reached: ‘My vital does not trouble me any longer, it does not get angry now, everything is going fine.’ And the next day, one loses one’s temper. It is then one must be careful, it is then one must not say, ‘Here we are, it’s no use, I shall never achieve anything, all my efforts are futile; all this is an illusion, it is impossible.’ On the contrary, one must say, ‘I wasn’t vigilant enough.’ One must wait long, very long, before one can say, ‘Ah! It is done and finished.’ Sometimes one must wait for years, many years....

I am not saying this to discourage you, but to give you patience and perseverance—for there is a moment when you do arrive. And note that the vital is a small part of your being—a very important part, we have said that it is the dynamism, the realising energy, it is very important; but it is only a small part. And the mind!... which goes wandering, which must be pulled back by all the strings to be kept quiet!” (CWM 4: 250)

“But prayer by itself does not usually bring that [realisation, the Presence] at once—only if there is a burning faith at the centre or a complete faith in all the parts of the being. That does not mean that those whose faith is not so strong or surrender complete cannot arrive, but usually they have to go at first by small steps and to face the difficulties of their nature until by perseverance or tapasya they make a sufficient opening. Even a faltering faith and a slow and partial surrender have their force and their result, otherwise only the rare few could do sadhana at all.” (CWSA 29: 96)

“For if these reasonings were not there, you would at once see the situation and disengage yourself from it or at any rate would perceive that such a course of feeling and conduct is not worthy of you and draw back from it at its very inception. But as it is you have to spend days getting out of the phase and getting back into your normal self. Then when you are back to your right walk and stature they [Hostile Forces] wait a little and strike again and the whole thing repeats itself with a mechanical regularity. It takes time, steadfast endeavour, long continued aspiration and a calm perseverance to get anywhere in Yoga; that time you do not give yourself because of these recurrent swingings away from the right attitude. It is not vanity or intellectual questioning that is the real obstacle—they are only impedimenta,—but they could well be overcome or one could pass beyond in spite of them if this part of the vital were not there or were not so strong to intervene. If I have many times urged upon you equanimity, steadfast patience, cheerfulness or whatever is contrary to this spirit, it is because I wanted you to recover your true inner vital self and get rid of this intruder. If you give it rein, it is extremely difficult to get on to anywhere. It must go,—its going is much more urgently required than the going of the intellectual doubt.” (CWSA 31: 774–775)

“There is always a difficulty in the beginning to concentrate for more than a short time because it is contrary to the habits of the physical mind. Perseverance is necessary. At the same time there should be a call for the help of the Divine Power above the mind; for if one can open to that, the process can be more rapid.” (CWSA 31: 34)

“You may be moved, pushed into action and used as unconscious instruments by the divine Force, if you have a minimum of goodwill and sincerity. But to become a conscious instrument, capable of identification and conscious, willed movements, you must have this inner organisation; otherwise you will always be running into a chaos somewhere, a confusion somewhere or an obscurity, an unconsciousness somewhere. And naturally your action, even though guided exclusively by the Divine, will not have the perfection of expression it has when one has acquired a conscious organisation around this divine Centre.

It is an assiduous task, which may be done at any time and under any circumstances, for you carry within yourself all the elements of the problem. You don’t need anything from outside, no outer aid to do this work. But it requires great perseverance, a sort of tenacity, for very often it happens that there are bad ‘creases’ in the being, habits—which come from all sorts of causes, which may come from atavistic malformation or also from education or from the environment you have lived in or from many other causes. And these bad creases you try to smooth out, but they wrinkle up again. And then you must begin the work over again, often, many, many, many a time, without getting discouraged, before the final result is obtained. But nothing and nobody can prevent you from doing it, nor any circumstance. For you carry within yourself the problem and the solution.” (CWM 8: 174)

“Yes, my dear little child, I am always with you to help you, to support you, to guide you. By doing your work with conscientiousness, honesty and perseverance, you will feel my presence closer and closer to you.

With my blessings.” (CWM 16: 141)

“A few great souls prepared by past lives or otherwise lifted beyond the ordinary spiritual capacity may attain realisation more swiftly; some may have uplifting experiences at an early stage, but for most the siddhi of the path, whatever it is, must be the end of a long, difficult and persevering endeavour. One cannot have the crown of spiritual victory without the struggle or reach the heights without the ascent and its labour. Of all it can be said, ‘Difficult is that road, hard to tread like the edge of a razor’.” (CWSA 31: 627)

IV—The Source of Perseverance Is in the Psychic Being

“To transform the vital one must have will, perseverance, sincerity, etc. But in what part of the being are all these things found?

The source of sincerity, of will, of perseverance is in the psychic being, but this translates itself differently in different people. Generally it is in the higher part of the mind that this begins to take shape, but for it to be effective at least one part of the vital must respond, because the intensity of your will comes from there, the realising power of the will comes from its contact with the vital. If there were only refractory elements in the vital, you would not be able to do anything at all. But there is always something, somewhere, which is willing—it is perhaps something insignificant, but there is always something which is willing. It is enough to have had once one minute of aspiration and a will even if it be very fugitive, to become conscious of the Divine, to realise the Divine, for it to flash like lightning through the whole being—there are even cells of the body which respond. This is not visible all at once, but there is a response everywhere. And it is by slowly, carefully, putting together all these parts which have responded, though it be but once, that one can build up something which will be coherent and organised, and which will permit one’s action to continue with will, sincerity and perseverance.

Even a fleeting idea in a child, at a certain moment in its childhood when the psychic being is most in front, if it succeeds in penetrating through the outer consciousness and giving the child just an impression of something beautiful which must be realised, it creates a little nucleus and upon this you build your action.” (CWM 4: 254–255)

“It is not the psychic being that suffers for personal reasons, it is the mind, the vital and the ordinary consciousness of ignorant man. This is because the contact between the outer consciousness and the psychic consciousness is not well established. He in whom the contact has been well established is always happy.

The psychic being works with perseverance and ardour for the union to be made an accomplished fact, but it never complains and knows how to wait for the hour of realisation to come.” (CWM 14: 335)

V—How to Cultivate Perseverance

“Sweet Mother,

I am very lazy and I lack the fervour and perseverance to continue on the chosen path. I am like a flame that is roused by the wind and rises upwards, but falls back dead or dying as soon as the wind drops. Vigilant, that is what I should be. But how?

All the psychological qualities can be cultivated as the muscles are—by regular, daily exercise. Above all, turn towards the Divine Force in a sincere aspiration and implore It to deliver you from your limitations. If you are sincere in your will to progress, you are sure to advance.” (CWM 16: 268–269)

“It [Yoga] is difficult and the way long and the encouragement given meagre? What then? Why should you expect so great a thing to be easy or that there must be either a swift success or none? The difficulties have to be faced and the more cheerfully they are faced, the sooner they will be overcome. The one thing to do is to keep the mantra of success, the determination of victory, the fixed resolve, ‘Have it I must and have it I will.’ Impossible? There is no such thing as an impossibility—there are difficulties and things of longue haleine [of a long and exacting nature], but no impossibles. What one is determined fixedly to do, will get done now or later—it becomes possible.

There—that is my counterblast to your variations on Schopenhauer. I conclude—drive out dark despair and go bravely on with your poetry, your novels—and your Yoga. As the darkness disappears, the inner doors too will open.

Whatever method is used, persistence and perseverance are essential. For whatever method is used, the complexity of the natural resistance will be there to combat it.” (CWSA 29: 115–116)

“There can be no doubt about the Divine Grace. It is perfectly true also that if a man is sincere, he will reach the Divine. But it does not follow that he will reach immediately, easily and without delay. Your error is there, to fix for God a term, five years, six years, and doubt because the effect is not yet there. A man may be centrally sincere and yet there may be many things that have to be changed in him before realisation can begin. His sincerity must enable him to persevere always—for it is a longing for the Divine that nothing can quench, neither delay nor disappointment nor difficulty nor anything else.” (CWSA 29: 116–117)

“Persevere in your aspiration and effort, do not allow yourself to be discouraged by setbacks. This always happens in the beginning. But if you continue to fight without paying any attention to them, a day will come when the resistances give way and the difficulties vanish. My help is always with you, but you must learn to use it and to rely on it rather than on your own resources.” (CWM 14: 162)

“There is no such impossibility of your victory over the harder parts of your nature as you imagine. There is only needed the perseverance to go on till this resistance breaks down and the psychic which is not absent nor unmanifest is able to dominate the others. That has to be done whether you stay here or not and to go is likely only to increase the difficulty and imperil the final result—it cannot help you. It is here that the struggle however acute has, because of the immediate presence of the Mother, the best chance and certitude of a solution and successful ending.” (CWSA 29: 117)

“If the mind remains quiet in all circumstances and happenings, patience will be more easily increased.” (CWM 14: 167)

“To know how to wait is to put Time on your side.” (CWM 14: 166)

“With sincerity, make an effort for progress, and with patience, know how to await the result of your effort.” (CWM 14: 166)

“Generally, all progress made on one side is set off by an attack of the adverse forces on the other. So, the more you advance, the more vigilant must you become. And the most essential quality is perseverance, endurance, and a... what shall I call it?—a kind of inner good humour which helps you not to get discouraged, not to become sad, and to face all difficulties with a smile. There is an English word which expresses this very well—cheerfulness. If you can keep this within you, you fight much better, resist much better, in the light, these bad influences which try to hinder you from progressing.” (CWM 8: 23)

“In fact, perhaps one should begin by shifting the movement to things which it is better to have from the true point of view, and which it is more difficult to obtain. If one could turn this impulsion of desire towards a... For example, when a child is full of desires, if one could give him a desire of a higher kind —instead of its being a desire for purely material objects, you understand, an altogether transitory satisfaction—if one could awaken in him the desire to know, the desire to learn, the desire to become a remarkable person... in this way, begin with that. As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things. Or even, from the material point of view, the desire to do something difficult, as for example, construct a toy which is difficult to make—or give him [child] a game of patience which requires a great deal of perseverance.” (CWM 6: 413)

“Whatever you do, never forget the goal which you have set before you. There is nothing great or small once you have set out on this great discovery; all things are equally important and can either hasten or delay its success. Thus before you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the food you are about to eat may bring your body the substance it needs to serve as a solid basis for your effort towards the great discovery, and give it the energy for persistence and perseverance in the effort.

Before you go to sleep, concentrate a few seconds in

the aspiration that the sleep may restore your fatigued nerves, bring calm and quietness to your brain so that on waking you may, with renewed vigour, begin again your journey on the path of the great discovery.” (CWM 12: 34)

“What is obstinacy? How can one use it best?

It is the wrong use of a great quality—perseverance.

Make a good use of it and it will be all right.

Be obstinate in your effort towards progress, and your obstinacy will become useful.” (CWM 14: 163)

“Mother could not withhold from you the money you asked for because you claimed it as your own and her withholding it would have looked like an undue interference with your personal liberty and your formed decision. I must now say however that if you go, it will be your own decision and not in anyway ours. If you change your decision and resolve to face out your difficulty here until it is solved, we shall be very glad of it.

There is no such impossibility of your victory over the harder parts of your nature as you imagine. There is only needed the perseverance to go on till this resistance breaks down and the psychic which is not absent nor unmanifest is able to dominate the others. That has to be done whether you stay here or not and to go is likely only to increase the difficulty and imperil the final result—it cannot help you. It is here that the struggle however acute has, because of the immediate presence of the Mother, the best chance and certitude of a solution and successful ending.” (CWSA 35: 623)

VI—Perseverance Is the Surest Way to Success

“Persevere—it is the surest way to success. What you have not been able to achieve in you last year, you will do this year.

With my love and blessings.” (CWM 14: 162)

“If you persevere you are sure to succeed; as for my help you may rest assured it is always with you, and one never calls in vain.” (CWM 16: 181)

“What you are not able to do today, you will achieve tomorrow.

Persevere and you shall conquer.” (CWM 14: 163)

“It is by persevering that one conquers difficulties, not by running away from them. One who perseveres is sure to triumph. Victory goes to the most enduring. Always do your best and the Lord will take care of the results.” (CWM 14: 163)

“Persevere and all obstacles will be conquered.” (CWM 14: 162)

“Perseverance breaks down all obstacles.” (CWM 14: 162)

“I already told you that my help is with you and will continue to be so—you are sure to reach the goal but you must be very perseverant. To be constantly in contact with the Truth is not easy and needs time and a great sincerity. But you can be sure of my guidance and my force.

With love and blessings.” (CWM 14: 164)

“My sweet mother,

For three days I have been feeling sad in the evening. This morning I felt sad too. I don’t know exactly why it comes. For two days I felt a great joy, but now the joy has gone. When will all these things go away?

My dear child,

You must not worry about these alternations. When the psychic being comes to the surface, it brings its own joy with it; but when the mind or the vital comes, then the joy seems to withdraw, though it is always there, behind, ready to manifest again. But above all you must not believe the suggestions of incapacity and failure; they come from an adverse source and ought not to be given any credence. Certainly there are difficulties on the path, but with perseverance the victory is sure.

Love from your mother.(CWM 16: 133)

“You may not know at every moment what is the best thing to do or how to do it, but you can place your will at the disposal of the Divine to do the best possible, the best thing possible. You will see it will have marvellous results. Do this with consciousness, sincerity and perseverance, and you will find yourself getting along with gigantic strides. It is like that, isn’t it? One must do things with all the ardour of one’s soul, with all the strength of one’s will; do at every moment the best possible, the best thing possible. What others do is not your concern—this is something I shall never be able to repeat to you often enough.” (CWM 4: 117)

“But you must take great care to apply at each stage, as perfectly as possible, what you have gained or learnt. If you remain in an indrawn state of consciousness and do not apply materially the inner progress, a time will certainly come when you will not be able to move at all, for your outer being, unchanged, will be like a fetter pulling you back and hindering you from advancing. So, the most important point (what everybody says but only a few do) is to put into practice what you know. With that you have a good chance of succeeding, and with perseverance you will certainly get there.

You must never get discouraged when you find yourself before a wall, never say, ‘Oh! What shall I do? It is still there.’ In this way the difficulty will still be there and still there and still there, till the very end. It is only when you reach the goal that everything will suddenly crumble down.” (CWM 4: 181)

“Without perseverance one never attains anything.

Because a thing is difficult it does not mean that one should give it up; on the contrary, the more difficult a thing is, the greater must be the will to carry it out successfully.

Of all things the most difficult is to bring the divine consciousness into the material world. Must the endeavour then be given up because of this?” (CWM 16: 181)

VII—If You Are Sincere in Your Perseverance Then

“One could take as a programme:

‘Always better. Forward!’

And to have only one goal: to know the Divine in order to be able to manifest Him.

Persevere, and what you cannot do today you will be able to do tomorrow.” (CWM 16: 430)

“You must be sincere in your perseverance; then the things you cannot do today, you will one day be able to do, after regular and persistent efforts.

Give yourself to the Divine absolutely, and the Divine Help will always be with you.” (CWM 17: 371)

“There is no reason why he should not succeed in the yoga if he keeps the right attitude and faith and perseverance. He will necessarily have difficulties with his vital nature and his physical mind which have a strong earth element, but that is the case also with several others. His development, if he perseveres, is likely to be rather through knowledge and will than any great richness of psychic experience; but he must not take the absence or paucity of the latter for an inability to develop the yoga.” (CWSA 36: 353)

“So here’s my proposal: we put surrender first, at the top of the list, that is, we accept what Sri Aurobindo has said—that to do the integral yoga one must first resolve to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, this is the way. But after that one must have the five psychological virtues, five psychological perfections, and we say that these perfections are:

Sincerity or Transparency

Faith or Trust (Trust in the Divine, naturally)

Devotion or Gratitude

Courage or Aspiration

Endurance or Perseverance.

One form of endurance is faithfulness, faithfulness to one’s resolution—being faithful. One has taken a resolution, one is faithful to one’s resolution. This is endurance.

There you are.

If one persists, there comes a time when one is victorious.

Victory is to the most persistent.” (CWM 8: 42)

“Nevertheless, even if that [Ananda] does not come at first, one can arrive at it by a patient perseverance—the psychic change is indeed the indispensable preliminary of any approach to the supramental path and this change has for its very core the blossoming of the inner love, joy, bhakti. Some may find a mental opening first and the mental opening may bring peace, light, a beginning of knowledge first, but this opening from above is incomplete unless it is followed by an opening inward of the heart. To suppose that the Yoga is dry and joyless because the struggles of your mind and vital have made your first approach to it dry is a misunderstanding and an error. The hidden springs of sweetness will reveal themselves if you persevere, even if now they are guarded by the dragons of doubt and unsatisfied longing. Grumble, if your nature compels you to it, but persevere.” (CWSA 31: 628–629)

“They [patience and peace] go together. By having patience under all kinds of pressure you lay the foundations of peace.” (CWSA 29: 114)

“Your attitude towards the change needed and new life is the right one. A quiet, vigilant but undistressed persistence is the best way to get it done.

For the intimacy within to be reestablished the quietude must deepen so that the psychic may come out in the physical as it had done in the higher parts.” (CWSA 29: 114)

VIII—Even If Adverse Result Is Foreseen, One Must Persevere

“Even if I foresee an adverse result, I must work for the one that I consider should be; for it keeps alive the force, the principle of Truth which I serve and gives it a possibility to triumph hereafter, so that it becomes part of the working of a future favourable Fate, even if the fate of the hour is adverse. Men do not abandon a cause because they have seen it fail or foresee its failure; and they are spiritually right in their stubborn perseverance. Moreover, we do not live for material result alone,—far more the object of life is the growth of the soul, not outward success of the hour or even of the near future. The soul can grow against or even by a material destiny that is adverse.” (CWSA 28: 518)

IX—Vital Difficulty and Perseverance

“Depression, unless one has a strong will, suggests, ‘This is not worth while, one may have to wait a lifetime.’ As for enthusiasm, it expects to see the vital transformed overnight: ‘I am not going to have any difficulty henceforth, I am going to advance rapidly on the path of yoga, I am going to gain the divine consciousness without any difficulty.’ There are some other difficulties.... One needs a little time, much perseverance. So the vital, after a few hours—perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months—says to itself: ‘We haven’t gone very far with our enthusiasm, has anything been really done? Doesn’t this movement leave us just where we were, perhaps worse than we were, a little troubled, a little disturbed? Things are no longer what they were, they are not yet what they ought to be. It is very tiresome, what I am doing.’ And then, if one pushes a little more, here’s this gentleman saying, ‘Ah, no! I have had enough of it, leave me alone. I don’t want to move, I shall stay in my corner, I won’t trouble you, but don’t bother me!’ And so one has not gone very much farther than before.” (CWM 4: 249)

“The difficulty you have in your vital is not peculiar

to you, but is in some degree and in one form or another a fairly general malady. Its constant return, the mechanical irrational return even when all the rest of the nature has rejected it, is due to the obstinacy of the material consciousness always repeating the old movement in the old groove at the least touch from the old habitual forces. It is a question of faith, patience and persistence. One must be more obstinate than the obstinate material nature and persevere until the light and truth can take permanent hold of the parts which are still responsive to the old movements. There can be no doubt that with this perseverance the Truth will in the end conquer.

It would make it easier if you could get rid of certain fixed ideas and of the habitual reaction of depression or despair when these recurrences come.” (CWSA 31: 147)

“Do not allow yourself to admit any movement of vital depression, still less a depressed condition. As for the external being, it is always, not only in you but in everyone, a difficult animal to handle. It has to be dealt with by patience and a quiet and cheerful perseverance; never get depressed by its resistance, for that only makes it sensitive and aggrieved and difficult, or else discouraged. Give it rather the encouragement of sunlight and a quiet pressure, and one day you will find it opening

entirely to the Grace.” (CWSA 31: 187)

“These habits of the physical vital are almost automatic in their action and it takes either a very strong will or a persistent effort of self-discipline to get out this automatic, almost reflex action. You should not therefore be discouraged by the difficulty, but go on with the necessary perseverance of the will to press it out of existence.” (CWSA 31: 256)

“At present you cannot prevail because you have not fixed in yourself a faith, an aim, a settled confidence; the black mood has been able to cloud your whole consciousness. But if you have fixed this faith in you and can cling to it, then the cloud will not be able to fix itself for any long period, the inner being will be able to come to your help. And even the better self will be able to remain on the surface, keep you open to the light and maintain the inner ground for the soul even if the outer is partly clouded or troubled. When that happens, the victory will have been won and the entire elimination of the vital weakness will be only a matter of a little perseverance.” (CWSA 31: 652–653)

“How can one transform the vital?

The first step: will. Secondly, sincerity and aspiration. But will and aspiration are almost the same thing, one follows the other. Then, perseverance. Yes, perseverance is necessary in any process, and what is this process?... First, there must be the ability to observe and discern, the ability to find the vital in oneself, otherwise you will find it hard to say: ‘This comes from the vital, this comes from the mind, this from the body.’ Everything will seem to you mixed and indistinct.” (CWM 4: 247–248)

“With the collaboration of the vital no realisation seems impossible, no transformation impracticable. But the difficulty lies in securing this constant collaboration. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused, totally or even partially, the vital gets vexed, sulks and goes on strike. Its energy disappears more or less completely and in its place leaves disgust for people and things, discouragement or revolt, depression and dissatisfaction. At such moments it is good to remain quiet and refuse to act; for these are the times when one does stupid things and in a few moments one can destroy or spoil the progress that has been made during months of regular effort. These crises are shorter and less dangerous for those who have established a contact with their psychic being which is sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which has been veiled for a time. By means of such patient intervention each crisis can be turned into a new progress, into one more step towards the goal. Progress may be slow, relapses may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained, one is sure to triumph one day and see all difficulties melt and vanish before the radiance of the truth-consciousness.” (CWM 12: 6–7)

X—If Great Number of Men Persistently Practise Yoga Then

“Yoga similarly teaches passivity of the mind so that the will may act unhampered by the samskaras or old associations. It is these samskaras, the habits formed by experience in the body, heart or mind, that form the laws of our psychology. The associations of the mind are the stuff of which our life is made. They are more persistent in the body than in the mind and therefore harder to alter. They are more persistent in the race than in the individual; the conquest of the body and mind by the individual is comparatively easy and can be done in the space of a single life, but the same conquest by the race involves the development of ages. It is conceivable, however, that the practice of Yoga by a great number of men and persistence in the practice by their descendants might bring about profound changes in human psychology and, by stamping these changes into body and brain through heredity, evolve a superior race which would endure and by the law of the survival of the fittest eliminate the weaker kinds of humanity. Just as the rudimentary mind of the animal has been evolved into the fine instrument of the human being so the rudiments of higher force and faculty in the present race might evolve into the perfect buddhi of the Yogin.” (CWSA 13: 26)

XI—Conquer Impatience And Over Eagerness

“It is true that a great patience and steadfastness is needed. Be then firm and patient and fixed on the aims of the sadhana, but not over-eager to have them at once. A work has to be done in you and is being done; help it to be done by keeping an attitude of firm faith and confidence. Doubts rise in all, they are natural to the human physical mind—reject them. Impatience and over eagerness for the result at once are natural to the human vital; it is by firm confidence in the Mother that they will disappear. The love, the belief in her as the Divine to whom your life is given,—oppose with that every contrary feeling and then those contrary feelings will after a time no longer be able to come to you.” (CWSA 29: 111)

“Impatience is always a mistake, it does not help but hinders. A quiet happy faith and confidence is the best foundation for sadhana; for the rest a constant opening wide of oneself to receive with an aspiration which may be intense, but must always be calm and steady. Full Yogic realisation does not come all at once, it comes after a long preparation of the Adhara which may take a long time.” (CWSA 29: 111–112)

“In a more deep and spiritual sense a concrete realisation is that which makes the thing realised more real, dynamic, intimately present to the consciousness than any physical thing can be. Such a realisation of the personal Divine or of the impersonal Brahman or of the Self does not usually come at the beginning of a sadhana or in the first years or for many years. It comes so to a very few; mine came fifteen years after my first pre-Yogic experience in London and in the fifth year after I started Yoga. That I consider extraordinarily quick, an express train speed almost—though there may no doubt have been several quicker achievements. But to expect and demand it so soon and get fed up because it does not come and declare Yoga impossible except for two or three in the ages would betoken in the eyes of any experienced Yogi or sadhaka a rather rash and abnormal impatience. Most would say that a slow development is the best one can hope for in the first years and only when the nature is ready and fully concentrated towards the Divine can the definitive experience come. To some rapid preparatory experiences can come at a comparatively early stage, but even they cannot escape the labour of the consciousness which will make these experiences culminate in the realisation that is enduring and complete. It is not a question of my liking or disliking your demand or attitude. It is a matter of fact and truth and experience, not of liking or disliking, two things which do not usually sway me. It is the fact that people who are grateful and cheerful and ready to go step by step, even by slow steps, if need be, do actually march faster and more surely than those who are impatient and in haste and at each step despair or murmur. It is what I have always seen—there may be instances to the contrary and I have no objection to your being one,—none at all. I only say that if you could maintain ‘hope and fervour and faith’, there would be a much bigger chance—that is all.” (CWSA 29: 112)

“I worry myself over being exact and regular and punctual. If I ever miss being so, even a little, I get upset and feel that I must hurry all the more. In matters of the inner life also, I incline to do the same.

I think this tendency is to be discouraged.

Yes, it is not good to be impatient and agitated—you must do everything peacefully and quietly without excessive haste.” (CWM 14: 166)

“One goes much faster when he is not in a hurry.

To really move forward, one should feel, with complete confidence, that eternity lies before him.” (CWM 14: 167)

“This complete self-surrender must be the chief mainstay of the sadhaka because it is the only way, apart from complete quiescence and indifference to all action,—and that has to be avoided,—by which the absolute calm and peace can come. The persistence of trouble, asanti, the length of time taken for this purification and perfection, itself must not be allowed to become a reason for discouragement and impatience. It comes because there is still something in the nature which responds to it, and the recurrence of trouble serves to bring out the presence of the defect, put the sadhaka upon his guard and bring about a more enlightened and consistent action of the will to get rid of it.” (CWSA 24: 723)

“Sweet Mother,

Too often the feeling of incapacity and of being far from You comes to discourage the will. I am tired of my

way of living, of feeling—and it seems to have no end.

To realise anything one must be patient. And the vaster and more important the realisation, the greater the patience must be.” (CWM 14: 167)

XII—Do Not Make the Path Longer

“What I want of you besides aspiring for faith? Well, just a little thoroughness and persistence in the method! Don’t aspire for two days and then sink into the dumps, evolving a gospel of earthquake and Schopenhauer plus the jackal and all the rest of it. Give the Divine a full sporting chance. When he lights something in you or is preparing a light, don’t come in with a wet blanket of despondency and throw it on the poor flame. You will say it is a mere candle that is lit—nothing at all? But in these matters, when the darkness of human mind and life and body has to be dissipated, a candle is always a beginning—a lamp can follow and afterwards a sun—but the beginning must be allowed to have a sequel—not get cut off from its natural sequelae by chinks of sadness and doubt and despair.” (CWSA 29: 115)

“At the beginning and for a long time the experiences do usually come in little quanta with empty spaces between—but, if allowed their way, the spaces will diminish and the quantum theory give way to the Newtonian continuity of the spirit. But you have never yet given it a real chance. The empty spaces have become peopled with doubts and denials and so the quanta have become rare, the beginnings remain beginnings.”  (CWSA 29: 115)

“Other difficulties you have faced and rejected, but this difficulty you dandled too much for a long time and it has become strong—it must be dealt with by a persevering effort. I do not say that all doubts must disappear before anything comes—that would be to make sadhana impossible, for doubt is the mind’s persistent assailant. All I say is, don’t allow the assailant to become a companion, don’t give him the open door and the fireside seat. Above all don’t drive away the incoming Divine with that dispiriting wet blanket of sadness and despair!

To put it more soberly,—accept once for all that this thing has to be done, that it is the only thing left for yourself or the earth.” (CWSA 29: 115)

XIII—Areas Where Perseverance Is Required

1. The unification of the whole of one’s being around the psychic centre is a long and meticulous work that requires much perseverance

“Sweet Mother,

Each time I decide to work well, I see that my effort does not last more than two days. What do You think I should do so that I do well what I have decided to do? I think there is something in me that refuses to obey me.

It is the same for everybody as long as one has not consciously unified the whole of one’s being around the psychic centre.

This unification is indispensable if one wants to be the master of one’s being and of all its actions.

It is a long and meticulous work that requires much perseverance, but the result is worth the trouble, for it brings not only mastery but also the possibility of the transformation and illumination of the consciousness.

Do you want to do it?

If so, I will help you.

Blessings.” (CWM 16: 397–398)

“For till now, the discovery of the psychic being and

identification with it have not been among the recognised subjects of education, and although one can find in special treatises useful and practical hints on the subject, and although in exceptional cases one may have the good fortune of meeting someone who is capable of showing the way and giving the help that is needed to follow it, most often the attempt is left to one’s own personal initiative. The discovery [of the psychic being] is a personal matter and a great determination, a strong will and an untiring perseverance are indispensable to reach the goal.” (CWM 12: 32)

2. To convert the ego the only qualities indispensable for all are absolute perseverance and sincerity

“The ego was necessary to form the individual being. Its destruction is therefore difficult. There is a much better, though more difficult solution: to transform it and make it an instrument of the Divine.

Egos that are converted and wholly consecrated to the Divine become especially powerful and effective instruments.

The endeavour is difficult and demands an absolute and steadfast sincerity, but for those who have a strong will, an ardent aspiration and an unshakable sincerity, it is well worth undertaking.

The method for each individual is worked out as the activity proceeds, for each ego has its own character and needs a particular method. The only qualities indispensable for all are absolute perseverance and sincerity. The least tendency to deceive oneself makes success impossible.” (CWM 16: 425)

3. To dissolve in the Divine, and lose one’s ego one must aspire with great perseverance

“How can one merge oneself one’s separative ego in the divine Consciousness?

...

How can one dissolve, you mean dissolve in the Divine, and lose one’s ego?

First of all, one must will it. And then one must aspire with great perseverance, and each time the ego shows itself, one must give it a little rap on the nose (Mother taps her nose) until it has received so many raps that it is tired of them and gives up the game.” (CWM 6: 253–254)

4. Overcoming desires and attachments from within is a long labour which must be undertaken with a tireless perseverance

1. It is from within that you must become master of your lower nature

2. Because your consciousness within is free of all desire and attachment and under the influence of the divine Light and Force

“Q: Sweet Mother,

What is the most effective way of overcoming desires and attachments: to cut them off all at one stroke, even at the risk of breaking down, or to advance slowly and surely by eliminating them carefully one by one?

A: Both these ways are equally ineffective. The normal result of both these methods is that you deceive yourself, you delude yourself that you have overcome your desires, whereas at best you are merely sitting on them—they remain repressed in the subconscient until they explode there and cause an upheaval in the whole being.

It is from within that you must become master of your lower nature by establishing your consciousness firmly in a domain that is free of all desire and attachment because it is under the influence of the divine Light and Force. It is a long and exacting labour which must be undertaken with an unfailing sincerity and a tireless perseverance.

In any case, you should never pretend to be more perfect than you are, and still less should you be satisfied with false appearances.” (CWM 16: 301–302)

5. The development of spiritual consciousness is an exceedingly vast and complex affair and for each man it is different according to his nature

1. The one thing that is essential is the inner call and aspiration and the perseverance to follow always after it no matter how long it takes or what are the difficulties or impediments

“I have seen many get important, even fundamental realisations by meditation who could not be said to have a great inner development. Are all Yogis who have meditated with effect and had great realisations in their inner consciousness perfect in their nature? It does not look like it to me. I am unable to believe in absolute generalisations in this field, because the development of spiritual consciousness is an exceedingly vast and complex affair in which all sorts of things can happen and one might almost say that for each man it is different according to his nature and that the one thing that is essential is the inner call and aspiration and the perseverance to follow always after it no matter how long it takes or what are the difficulties or impediments—because nothing else will satisfy the soul within us.” (CWSA 30: 40) (CWSA 35: 230)

6. The transformation of character has been realised by perseverance so obstinate that nothing, not even the most persistent failures, can discourage it

“... a fundamental change of character demands an almost complete mastery over the subconscient and a very rigorous disciplining of whatever comes up from the inconscient, which, in ordinary natures, expresses itself as the effects of atavism and of the environment in which one was born. Only an almost abnormal growth of consciousness and the constant help of Grace can achieve this Herculean task. That is why this task has rarely been attempted and many famous teachers have declared it to be unrealisable and chimerical. Yet it is not unrealisable. The transformation of character has in fact been realised by means of a clear-sighted discipline and a perseverance so obstinate that nothing, not even the most persistent failures, can discourage it.” (CWM 12: 19)

“If you really want to transform your character, it is that you must do. It has always been said that it is impossible to change one’s nature; in all books of philosophy, even of yoga, you are told the same story: ‘You cannot change your character, you are born like that, you are like that.’ This is absolutely false, I guarantee it is false; but there is something very difficult to do to change your character, because it is not your character which must be changed, it is the character of your antecedents. In them you will not change it (because they have no such intention), but it is in you that it must be changed. It is what they have given you, all the little gifts made to you at your birth—nice gifts—it is this which must be changed. But if you succeed in getting hold of the thread of these things, the true thread, since you have worked upon this with perseverance and sincerity, one fine morning you will be free; all this will fall off from you and you will be able to get a start in life without any burden. Then you will be a new man, living a new life, almost with a new nature. And if you look back you will say, ‘It is not possible, I was never like that!’ (CWM 4: 262)

7. It takes a long time to spiritualise the whole nature and until that is done a constant trust and patience must be cultivated in Yoga

“No sadhak even if he had the capacity of the ancient Rishis and Tapaswis or the strength of a Vivekananda can hope to keep during the early years of his sadhana a continuous good condition or union with the Divine or an unbroken call or height of aspiration. It takes a long time to spiritualise the whole nature and until that is done, variations must come. A constant trust and patience must be cultivated—must be acquired—not least when things go against—for when they are favourable, trust and patience are easy.” (CWSA 29: 32)

8. Rejection of mental ad vital defects

1. If the mental and vital defects rise in you in the presence of the Mother is because a strong pressure is put on them so that they have either to go out or to put up a fight for existence

2. Remedy is to open to the Mother only and to reject entirely and at all times all other forces

3. Reject the mental and vital defects most when they become most active

4. Persevere in the rejection

“The play of the mental and vital defects in the human nature which belongs to the Ignorance is allowed—as also the attacks and suggestions of the Asuric forces—so long as there is anything in the nature which responds to these things. If they rise in you in the presence of the Mother, it is because then a strong pressure is put on them so that they have either to go out or to put up a fight for existence. The remedy is to open to the Mother only and to reject entirely and at all times all other forces, and to reject them most when they become most active. Faith, sincerity, perseverance will do the rest.” (CWSA 32: 304)

9. If the education of the vital is carried far enough, with perseverance, there comes a time when, convinced of the greatness and beauty of the goal, the vital gives up petty and illusory sensorial satisfactions in order to win the divine delight

“In truth, a cultivated and illumined vital can be as noble and heroic and disinterested as it is now spontaneously vulgar, egoistic and perverted when it is left to itself without education. It is enough for each one to know how to transform in himself the search for pleasure into an aspiration for the supramental plenitude. If the education of the vital is carried far enough, with perseverance and sincerity, there comes a time when, convinced of the greatness and beauty of the goal, the vital gives up petty and illusory sensorial satisfactions in order to win the divine delight.” (CWM 12: 56–57)

10. Perseverance required in control of the impulse to speech

“It is therefore this tendency that must cease in the vital itself. Not to be under the control of the impulse to speech, to be able to do without it as a necessity and to speak only when one sees that it is right to do so and only what one sees to be right to say, is a very necessary part of Yogic self-control.

It is only by perseverance and vigilance and a strong resolution that this can be done, but if the resolution is there, it can be done in a short time by the aid of the Force behind.” (CWSA 35: 804)

11. Everyone can do the sadhana of the body, if he puts into it the time, and the perseverance that are demanded

1. The sadhana when it goes down into the body one realises everything has to be done and worked out

2. The sadhana of the body needs great patience

“The sadhana of all the inner beings, inner domains, has been done by many people, has been explained at length, systematised by some, the stages and paths have been traced out and you go from one stage to another, knowing that it has to be like that; but as soon as you go down into the body, it is like a virgin forest.... And everything is to be done, everything is to be worked out, everything is to be built up. So you must arm yourself with great patience, great patience, and not think that you are good for nothing because it takes so much time. You must never be despondent, never tell yourself, ‘Oh! This is not for me!’ Everyone can do it, if he puts into it the time, the courage, the endurance and the perseverance that are demanded. But all this is needed. And above all, above all, never lose heart, be ready to begin the same thing again ten times, twenty times, a hundred times—until it is really done.

And one often feels that unless everything is done, unless the work is finished, well, it is as if one had done nothing.” (CWM 9: 349)

12. The self-perfection or the self-improvement of each individual body demands much patience, perseverance and regularity

“With regard to exercises, each one will choose the ones best suited to his body and, if possible, take guidance from an expert on the subject, who knows how to combine and grade the exercises to obtain a maximum effect. Neither the choice nor the execution of these exercises should be governed by fancy. One must not do this or that because it seems easier or more amusing; there should be no change of training until the instructor considers it necessary. The self-perfection or even simply the self-improvement of each individual body is a problem to be solved, and its solution demands much patience, perseverance and regularity. In spite of what many people think, the athlete’s life is not a life of amusement or distraction; on the contrary, it is a life of methodical efforts and austere habits, which leave no room for useless fancies that go against the result one wants to achieve.” (CWM 12: 53)

13. Obstinacy of the habitual movements in the physical consciousness requires perseverance in aspiration or will

“There is nobody who is free from difficulties, even those who seem the most advanced have them, and all have this obstinacy of the habitual movements in the physical consciousness which recur always in spite of the mind’s knowledge and do not want to cease or change. It is only by perseverance in aspiration or will that this difficulty can disappear.” (CWSA 31: 401)

14. To eliminate the inertia of the physical consciousness requires perseverance in the will of the sadhak

“The inertia of the physical consciousness is always a

difficult thing to eliminate—it is that, more even than any vital resistance, which keeps all the movements of the ignorance recurring even when the knowledge is there and the will to change. But this difficulty has to be faced and overcome by an equal perseverance in the will of the sadhak. It is a steady flame that must burn, as steady as the obstruction is obstinate. Do not therefore be discouraged by the persistence of the obstruction of the ignorance.

The persistence of your own will to conquer with the Mother’s force supporting it will come to the end of the resistance.” (CWSA 31: 397–398)

15. If physical education has not been given during childhood or even in youth, it can begin at any age and will require much patience and perseverance

“So far I have referred only to the education to be given to children; for a good many bodily defects can be rectified and many malformations avoided by an enlightened physical education given at the proper time. But if for any reason this physical education has not been given during childhood or even in youth, it can begin at any age and be pursued throughout life. But the later one begins, the more one must be prepared to meet bad habits that have to be corrected, rigidities to be made supple, malformations to be rectified. And this preparatory work will require much patience and perseverance before one can start on a constructive programme for the harmonisation of the form and its movements. But if you keep alive within you the ideal of beauty that is to be realised, sooner or later you are sure to reach the goal you have set yourself.” (CWM 12: 17)

16. To gain equanimity bear unpleasant impacts with perseverance

“The soul which seeks mastery may begin by turning upon these reactions the encountering and opposing force of a strong and equal endurance. Instead of seeking to protect itself from or to shun and escape the unpleasant impacts it may confront them and teach itself to suffer and to bear them with perseverance, with fortitude, an increasing equanimity or an austere or calm acceptance.” (CWSA 24: 711)

17. To become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities demands much perseverance

“To work for your perfection, the first step is to become

conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man’s nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs.” (CWM 12: 3)

18. To becomes conscious, and know oneself and to become master of oneself one has to persevere with great care and attention

“I have known people who were very scrupulous about not telling lies, but all of a sudden, when together in a group, instead of speaking the truth they would spontaneously tell a lie; they did not have the intention of doing so, they did not think of it a minute before doing it, but it came ‘like that’. Why?—because they were in the company of liars; there was an atmosphere of falsehood and they had quite simply caught the malady!

It is thus that gradually, slowly, with perseverance, first of all with great care and much attention, one becomes conscious, learns to know oneself and then to become master of oneself.” (CWM 4: 37)

19. Perseverance required to be entirely open [opening from above, below and horizontally]

“All these are different actions of the Force on the adhar with the one intention of opening it up from above and below and horizontally also. The action from above opens it to the descent of forces from above the Mind and the ascent of consciousness above the lid of the ordinary human mind. The horizontal action opens it to the cosmic consciousness on all its levels. The action from below helps to connect the superconscient with the subconscient. Finally the consciousness instead of being limited in the body becomes infinite, rises infinitely above, plunges infinitely below, widens infinitely on every side. There is besides the opening of all the centres to the Light and Power and Ananda that has to descend from above. At present only the mind centres seem to receive fully the descent of Force, while the upper vital centres are being prepared with a minor action on other parts of the body. It is a matter of time and perseverance for the way to be entirely open.” (CWSA 30: 425)

1. One has to persevere to be able to constantly open to the Mother

2. Finally the perseverance will be justified by the result

3. To give up is the one thing one must never do

“That is what must be done. Trust in the Mother and will only to be open to her always and as quietly confident as may be. The work to be done is too great for the outer mind to understand how it is to be done; it is only by growing light and experience that one day it begins to understand—it is also too great and difficult for it to do by itself,—it can only help the Power that is working by its readiness, aspiration, faith, quietude. But in no sadhak are these things constant—the aspiration gets suspended, the faith wavers, the quietude is disturbed or shaken—but still the Mother is there at work and one has only to persevere,—finally the perseverance will be justified by the result. To give up is the one thing one must never do.” (CWSA 32: 157)

20. The covering up of the first openings of experience by the restless mind and vital will diminish with perseverance

“There are always long periods of this kind at the beginning when the first openings of experience are covered up by the restless mind and vital; but with perseverance they diminish—the experience always returns and takes up more and more of the consciousness till it becomes its normal state.” (CWSA 30: 63)

21. To get into contact with the inner being and change the outer consciousness from the inner will surely come with patience

“When one once enters into the true (Yogic) consciousness, then you see that everything can be done, even if at present only a slight beginning has been made; but a beginning is enough, once the Force, the Power are there. It is not really on the capacity of the outer nature that success depends, (for the outer nature all self-exceeding seems impossibly difficult), but on the inner being and to the inner being all is possible. One has only to get into contact with the inner being and change the outer view and consciousness from the inner—that is the work of the sadhana and it is sure to come with sincerity, aspiration and patience.” (CWSA 29: 31–32)

22. Face all inner disturbances firmly with perseverance

“Face all these things [inner disturbances] quietly and firmly with perseverance in the endeavour of the sadhana. Trust firmly in the Divine Grace and the Divine Grace will not fail you.” (CWSA 29: 174)

23. Not to forget what one has experienced in Samadhi needs extremely long discipline and requires an unshakable patience

“During sleep one has often the impression of entering into a region of light, of higher knowledge, but on waking up one brings back only the impression, the memory.

Why?

That is because in the ladder of being which climbs from the most external to the highest consciousness, there are gaps, breaks of continuity, and when the consciousness rises, descends and goes up again, it passes through some kind of dark holes where there is nothing. Then it enters into a sleep, a sort of unconsciousness, and wakes up as best it can on the other side and hardly remembers what it has brought back from above. This is what happens very frequently and particularly in the state called samadhi. People who enter into samadhi find out that between their active external consciousness and their consciousness in meditation, there lies a blank. Up there, they are almost necessarily conscious—conscious of the state in which they find themselves—but when coming down again towards their body, on the way they enter into a kind of hole where they lose everything—they are unable to bring back the experience with them. Quite a discipline is needed to create in oneself the many steps which enable the consciousness not to forget what it has experienced up there. It is not an impossible discipline but it is extremely long and requires an unshakable patience, for it is as if you wanted to build up in you a being, a body; and for that you require first of all the necessary knowledge, but also such a prolonged persistence and perseverance as would discourage many. But it is altogether indispensable if you want to take part in the knowledge of your higher being.” (CWM 4: 61–62)

24. One can hear which occurs at a fairly great distance, one can see at a distance, one can see through a wall

1. One can enlarge his field considerably, but it asks for work, for perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort

“Even physically, with this, with the eyes, the nose, the

fingers, the mouth, the ears, oh, it is ridiculous! One can develop these if one wants. One can succeed, for example, in hearing something which occurs at a fairly great distance and hearing it physically, not by another means than the physical, but one must have a control over his senses and be able to prolong their vibrations sufficiently. One can see at a distance also, and not by an occult vision. One can manage to stretch his vision, and if he knows how to prolong the vibration of his nerves outside the organ, he can prolong the contact, I don’t say some kilometres away, no, but in a certain area, say, for example, through a wall, which is considered something impossible; one can see what is going on in a room which is separated from another by a wall. But a very methodical practice is necessary. Yet this is possible, seeing, feeling, hearing. If one wants to take the trouble, one can enlarge his field considerably. But it asks for work, for perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort. Why, it has even been found that one can develop other visual centres than the eye. It has been tried out with people who, for some reason or other, have no vision in the eye. One can develop other centres or another centre of vision, by a continuous, methodical effort. Jules Romains has written a book about it. He himself conducted experiments and obtained very conclusive results.

This means that we have a number of possibilities which we let sleep within us, because we don’t take the trouble to develop them very much. We can do infinitely more than we actually do. But we take things like that, as they come.” (CWM 7: 164–165)

25. All those who are destined to find their inner being, the truth of their being, there is always at least one moment in life when they have the experience of what true consciousness is

1. It indicates the road one should take with perseverance and an unfailing steadfastness

2. One must seek to renew the state which will lead you to something more real and more total

“These experiences come to you suddenly in a flash, for a second, a moment in your life, you don’t know why or how.... There are other ways, other experiences—they are innumerable, they vary according to people; but with this, with one minute, one second of such an existence, one catches the tail of the thing. So one must remember that, try to relive it, go to the depths of the experience, recall it, aspire, concentrate. This is the starting point, the end of the guiding thread, the clue. For all those who are destined to find their inner being, the truth of their being, there is always at least one moment in life when they were no longer the same, perhaps just like a lightning-flash—but that is enough. It indicates the road one should take, it is the door that opens on this path. And so you must pass through the door, and with perseverance and an unfailing steadfastness seek to renew the state which will lead you to something more real and more total.

Many ways have always been given, but a way you have been taught, a way you have read about in books or heard from a teacher, does not have the effective value of a spontaneous experience which has come without any apparent reason, and which is simply the blossoming of the soul’s awakening, one second of contact with your psychic being which shows you the best way for you, the one most within your reach, which you will then have to follow with perseverance to reach the goal—one second which shows you how to start, the beginning.... Some have this in dreams at night; some have it at any odd time: something one sees which awakens in one this new consciousness, something one hears, a beautiful landscape, beautiful music, or else simply a few words one reads, or else the intensity of concentration in some effort—anything at all, there are a thousand reasons and thousands of ways of having it. But, I repeat, all those who are destined to realise have had this at least once in their life. It may be very fleeting, it may have come when they were very young, but always at least once in one’s life one has the experience of what true consciousness is. Well, that is the best indication of the path to be followed.” (CWM 8: 403-404)

26. To work on yourself you must do it with an intensity of will, with perseverance and that indispensable cheerfulness which smiles at difficulties and laughs at mistakes is also required

“We all agree that the world is detestable, that it is not what it ought to be, and the only thing we have to do is to work to make it otherwise. Consequently, our whole preoccupation should be to find the best means of making it [world] different; and we can understand one thing, it is that the best means (though we do not know it quite well yet), is we ourselves, isn’t it? And surely you know yourself better than you know your neighbour—you understand better the consciousness manifested in a human being than that manifested in the stars, for instance. So, after a little hesitation you could say, ‘After all, the best means is what I am. I don’t know very well what I am, but this kind of collection of things that I am, this perhaps is my work, this is perhaps my part of the work, and if I do it as well as I can, perhaps I shall be doing the best I can do.’ This is a very big beginning, very big. It is not overwhelming, not beyond the limits of your possibilities. You have your work at hand, it is always within your reach, so to say, it is always there for you to attend to it—a field of action proportionate to your strength, but varied enough, complex, vast, deep enough to be interesting. ... And hence the required condition is to do it with an absolute sincerity in your aspiration for the realisation of the divine work. So if you start like that I can assure you that you will have such an interesting journey that even if it takes very long, you will never get tired. But you must do it like that with an intensity of will, with perseverance and that indispensable cheerfulness which smiles at difficulties and laughs at mistakes. Then everything will go well.” (CWM 4: 253–254)

27. One can know everything only by practising and it demands perseverance more considerable than what the sincerest, scientists have ever shown

“One can know everything, but one must know the way. And the way is not learnt through books, it cannot be written in numbers. It is only by practising... And here then, it demands an abnegation, a consecration, a perseverance and an obstinacy—still more considerable than what the sincerest, most honest, most unselfish scientists have ever shown. But I must say that the scientific method of work is a marvellous discipline; and what is curious is that the method recommended by the Buddha for getting rid of desires and the illusion of the world is also one of the most marvellous disciplines ever known on the earth. They are at the two ends, they are both excellent; those who follow one or the other in all sincerity truly prepare themselves for yoga.” (CWM 7: 316)

28. With patience and perseverance all prayers get fulfilled

“With patience and perseverance all prayers get fulfilled.” (CWM 14: 166)

29. If you try the kind of concentration of immobility in the painful nerve fairly constantly, with sufficient perseverance, the sick nerve of painful toothache will die and you will not suffer at all anymore

“Well, you deliberately try this kind of concentration of immobility in the painful nerve; at the painful point you bring as total an immobility as you can. Well, you will see that it works, as I told you, like an anaesthetic: it puts the thing to sleep. And then, if you can add to that a kind of inner peace and a trust that the pain will go away, well, I tell you that it will go.

Of all things, that which is considered the most difficult from the yogic point of view is toothache, because it is very close to the brain. Well, I know that this can be done truly to the extent of not feeling the pain at all; and this does not cure the bad tooth, but there are cases in which one can succeed in killing the painful nerve. Usually in a tooth it is the nerve which has been attacked by the caries, the disease, and which begins to protest with all its strength. So, if you succeed in establishing this immobility, you prevent it from vibrating, you prevent it from protesting. And what is remarkable is that if you do it fairly constantly, with sufficient perseverance, the sick nerve will die and you will not suffer at all anymore. Because it was that which was suffering and when it is dead it does not suffer any longer. Try. I hope you never have a toothache.” (CWM 6: 407–408)

30. The power of concentration independent from all inner and outer circumstances is difficult but not impossible for him who is determined and persevering

31. Whatever method of development is chosen, determination and perseverance are indispensable to obtain success

“In the same way as an athlete develops methodically his muscles by a scientific and gradual training, the faculty of concentrated attention can be developed scientifically by a methodical training—developed in such a way that concentration is obtained at will and on whatever subject or activity is chosen. Thus the work of preparation instead of being done in the subconscient by a slow and steady repetition of the same movements, is done consciously by a concentration of will and a gathered attention centred on one point or another according to plan and decision. The chief difficulty seems to be to obtain this power of concentration independent from all inner and outer circumstances—difficult perhaps but not impossible for him who is determined and persevering. Moreover, whatever method of development is chosen, determination and perseverance are indispensable to obtain success.

The aim in the training is to develop this power of concentrating the attention at will on whatever subject or activity one chooses from the most spiritual to the most material, without losing anything of the fullness of the power,—for instance, in the physical field, transferring the use of the power from one game to another or one activity to another so as to succeed equally in all.” (CWM 12: 258–259)

32. To search within oneself what has served as a support for the movement one does not want requires a great deal of perseverance

“Sweet Mother, how should we reject something in the vital so that it doesn’t enter the subconscient?

Ah!

There is a great difference between pushing back a thing simply because one doesn’t want it and changing the state of one’s consciousness which makes the thing totally foreign to one’s nature. Usually, when one has a movement one doesn’t want, one drives it away or pushes it back, but one doesn’t take the precaution of finding within oneself what has served and still serves as a support for this movement, the particular tendency, the fold of the consciousness which enables this thing to enter the consciousness. ...

And then there are two methods: either to put so intense a light, the light of a truth-consciousness so strong, that this will be dissolved; or else to catch the thing as with pincers, pull it out from its place and hold it up before one’s consciousness. The first method is radical but one doesn’t always have at his disposal this light of truth, so one can’t always use it. The second method can be taken, but it hurts, it hurts as badly as the extraction of a tooth; I don’t know if you have ever had a tooth pulled out, but it hurts as much as that, and it hurts here, like that. (Mother shows the centre of the chest and makes a movement of twisting.) And usually one is not very courageous. When it hurts very much, well, one tries to efface it like this (gesture) and that is why things persist. But if one has the courage to take hold of it and pull it until it comes out and to put it before himself, even if it hurts very much... to hold it up like this (gesture) until one can see it clearly, and then dissolve it, then it is finished. The thing will never again hide in the subconscient and will never again return to bother you. But this is a radical operation. It must be done like an operation.

You must first have a great deal of perseverance in the search, for usually when one begins searching for these things the mind comes to give a hundred and one favourable explanations for your not needing to search.” (CWM 7: 83–84)

33. One must have an unfaltering perseverance when one wants to change something of the material life, whether the character or the functioning of the organs or habits

“When one wants to change something of the material life, whether the character or the functioning of the organs or habits, one must have an unfaltering perseverance, be ready to begin again a hundred times the same thing with the same intensity with which one did it the first time and as though one had never done it before.

People who are touchy cannot do this. But if one can’t do it, one can’t do yoga, in any case not the integral yoga, one can’t change one’s body.

To change one’s body one must be ready to do millions of times the same thing, because the body is a creature of habits and functions by routine, and because to destroy a routine one must persevere for years.” (CWM 7: 104)

34. You must not be in a hurry, you must not be impatient, you must be very persevering when you want to listen to your soul

35. To unite with your soul you must want it with persistence and perseverance

“When you want to know what your soul knows, you have to make an inner effort, to be very attentive; and indeed, if you are attentive, behind the outer noise of the mind and the vital, you can discern something very subtle, very quiet, very peaceful, which knows and says what it knows. But the insistence of the others is so imperious, while that is so quiet, that you are very easily misled into listening to the one that makes the most noise; most often you become aware only afterwards that the other one was right. It does not impose itself, it does not compel you to listen, for it is without violence.

... And as I was saying a little while ago, they [the mind and the vital] make so much noise that you do not even hear the tiny voice or the tiny, very quiet indication of the soul which says, ‘Don’t do it.’

This ‘Don’t do it’ comes often, but you discard it as some thing which has no power and follow your impulsive destiny. But if you are truly sincere in your will to find and live the truth, then you learn to listen better and better, you learn to discriminate more and more, and even if it costs you an effort, even if it causes you pain, you learn to obey. And even if you have obeyed only once, it is a powerful help, a considerable progress on the path towards the discrimination between what is and what is not the soul. With this discrimination and the necessary sincerity you are sure to reach the goal.

But you must not be in a hurry, you must not be impatient, you must be very persevering. You do the wrong thing ten times for every time that you do the right thing. But when you do the wrong thing you must not give up everything in despair, but tell yourself that the Grace will never abandon you and that next time it will be better.

So, in conclusion, we shall say that in order to know things as they are you must first unite with your soul and to unite with your soul you must want it with persistence and perseverance.” (CWM 10: 24–25)

36. The process of knowing yourself by projecting on the screen needs a great deal of perseverance

1. If you wish to organise yourself then you can project yourself upon a screen, as in the cinema, and then look at yourself moving on it

2. Observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens

3. Then you organise and arrange, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning

4. Then you become conscious of your direction

Yes, many [In oneself, there are contradictory wills]. That is one of the very first discoveries. There is one part which wants things this way; and then at another moment, another way, and a third time, one wants still another thing! Besides, there is even this: something that wants and another which says no. So? But it is exactly that which has to be found if you wish in the least to organise yourself. Why not project yourself upon a screen, as in the cinema, and then look at yourself moving on it? How interesting it is!

This is the first step.

You project yourself on the screen and then observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to seeing, you can go one step further and take a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise—arrange, take up all that, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious of your direction and are able to say: ‘Very well, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the logic of my being. Now, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, and so naturally a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what will happen to me for I myself am deciding it....’ I do not know, I am telling you this; to me it seemed terribly interesting, the most interesting thing in the world. There was nothing, no other thing that interested me more than that.” (CWM 5: 197)

5. You must not try to shut your eyes when something does not appear pleasant to you

6. Remove those things which stand obstructing the way, all conflicting wills

7. Then start arranging in a logical way

8. Then you see clearer and you see why you are made like that

9. Since all is organised the path becomes straight

10. After a few years, you curb yourself as you curb a horse

“To put all that on a screen in front of yourself and look at what is happening. And the first step is to know all that is  happening and then you must not try to shut your eyes when something does not appear pleasant to you! You must keep them wide open and put each thing in that way before the screen. Then you make quite an interesting discovery. And then the next step is to start telling yourself: ‘Since all that is happening within me, why should I not put this thing in this way and then that thing in that way and then this other in this way and thus wouldn’t I be doing something logical that has a meaning? Why should I not remove that thing which stands obstructing the way, these conflicting wills? Why? And what does that represent in the being? Why is it there? If it were put there, would it not help instead of harming me?’ And so on.

And little by little, little by little, you see clearer and then you see why you are made like that, what is the thing you have got to do—that for which you are born. And then, quite naturally, since all is organised for this thing to happen, the path becomes straight and you can say beforehand: ‘It is in this way that it will happen.’ And when things come from outside to try and upset all that, you are able to say: ‘No, I accept this, for it helps; I reject that, for that harms.’ And then, after a few years, you curb yourself as you curb a horse: you do whatever you like, in the way you like and you go wherever you like.” (CWM 5: 198)

11. You need a great deal of perseverance to organise yourself by this method

“You must have a great deal of sincerity, a little courage and perseverance and then a sort of mental curiosity, you understand, curious, seeking to know, interested, wanting to learn. To love to learn: that, one must have in one’s nature. To find it impossible to stand before something grey, all hazy, in which nothing is seen clearly and which gives you quite an unpleasant feeling, for you do not know where you begin and where you end, what is yours and  what is not yours and what is settled and what is not settled —what is this pulp-like thing you call yourself in which things get intermingled and act upon one another without even your being aware of it?” (CWM 5: 200)

37. When you have seen something absolutely and essentially true, but the state of the universe is such that this truth is not yet ripe for realisation then you must, with much patience and perseverance, keep your little truth intact for the moment when it will be possible to realise it

38. The final victory is for the most patient

“Consequently, you should not be impatient, should not

be disappointed, depressed, discouraged if the truth you have seen is not immediately realised. Naturally, it is not a question of being down-hearted or grieved or in despair if you have made a mistake, for every mistake can be corrected; from the moment you have found it is a mistake, there is an opportunity to work within you, to make progress and be very happy! But the situation is much more serious and more difficult to overcome when you have seen something true, absolutely, essentially true, and the state of the universe is such that this truth is not yet ripe for realisation. I do not say this happens to many people, but perhaps it may happen to you, and it is then you have to have a great patience, a great understanding, and say to yourself, It was true, but it was not completely true’, that is, it was not a truth in harmony with all the other truths and, above all, not in keeping with the present possibilities; so we tried to realise it too quickly, and because we tried to be too quick it was belied. But do not say it was false because it was belied; say it was premature, that is all you can say—what you saw was true, but it was premature, and you must, with much patience and perseverance, keep your little truth intact for the moment when it will be possible to realise it.

The final victory is for the most patient.” (CWM 4: 116–117)

XIV—Perseverance in Transformation

1. Unless one has an endless patience and an unshakable perseverance, it is better not to start on the way of transformation

“Unless one has an endless patience and an unshakable perseverance, it is better not to start on the way of transformation.” (CWM 15: 86)

2. When one tries with patience and perseverance, to remove the defect or wrong movement one may hit upon the origin of the difficulty in the subconscient

3. Then it is easy to transform whatever you wanted to transform in yourself

“One often has the experience of struggling more or less successfully with a defect or a wrong movement, but just when one gives up expecting a total victory, the thing is removed as if from outside. Why is that?

There are two main reasons for this. In such a case, you may suddenly become receptive, and in this state of receptivity you receive the help that is needed to remove the defect and the help becomes effective. The other reason is that, while trying with patience and perseverance, you have—perhaps unknowingly—hit upon the origin of the difficulty in the subconscient. And once that is done, it is easy to transform whatever you wanted to transform in yourself. But this transformation may seem to you to come ‘from outside’, because you were not aware of what was going on. It does not come from outside, it is outside your active consciousness, and you are aware only of the ‘result’ of your action. It may be one of these two things or both together.” (CWM 15: 296)

XV—Reasons for Having No Perseverance

“The failure [in studies and in sadhana] is due not to want of capacity but to want of steadiness—a restlessness in the vital and a sort of ardent hastiness that lacks in care of detail and in perseverance. What you need is the inner silence and the solid strength and force that can act through this inner silence, making the vital its instrument but not allowing it to condition the action by its defects.” (CWSA 31: 213–214)

“Many times I feel hatred towards my own self because I neither have the ability nor the skill in me to do anything. I start doing some work and then leave it undone. I have no perseverance. What is the reason for this?

These come from a certain restlessness in the vital. Most people put a control of the will on these things and try to get rid of them in that way. But they disappear fully only when the inner being is awakened and a new Force (the Mother’s) begins fully to work on the nature.” (CWSA 32: 299)

“All times and nations have felt or played with the idea

of Fate. The Greeks were pursued by the thought of a mysterious and ineffable Necessity presiding over the divine caprices of the gods. The Mahomedan sits calm and inert under the yoke of Kismet. The Hindu speaks of Karma and the writing on the forehead when he would console himself for calamity or failure or excuse himself from perseverance and masculine effort. And all these notions are akin in the general imprecision of the idea they shadow forth and the vague twilight in which they are content to leave its ulterior significance.” (CWSA 13: 159)

XVI—Persistence of Desire Is the Sign of an Imperfect Yoga

“Desire, even the best, turns always to limitation and obscuration, to some eager exclusive choice and pressure, to some insistent exclusion of what should not be excluded and impatient revolt against the divine denials and withholdings. It generates anger and grief and passion and obstinacy, and these bring about the soul’s loss of its divine memory or steadfast consciousness of itself and its self knowledge and its equal vision of the truth of things. Therefore desire and its brood are incompatible with skill in works and their persistence is the sign of an imperfect Yoga.” (CWSA 13: 124)

XVII—Tales Which Brings Out the Quality of Patience And Perseverance

1. We cannot expect to be always happy and that to know how to be patient is most useful

2. With continues failure you are not discouraged, but renew the attempt and this patience is called perseverance

3. Perseverance is an active patience, a patience that marches on

“The people of the Punjab have a song which goes like this:

The bulbul does not always sing in the garden,

And the garden is not always in bloom;

Happiness does not always reign,

And friends are not always together.

The conclusion to be drawn from this song is that we cannot expect to be always happy, and that to know how to be patient is most useful. For there are few days in our lives which do not give us the opportunity to learn greater patience.

You want to see a very busy man to ask him something. You go to his house. Already many visitors are there and he keeps you waiting a very long time before seeing you. You stay there quietly, perhaps for several hours. You are patient.

Another time, the person you wish to see is not at home when you arrive. You return again the next day, but his door is still closed. You go back a third time, but he is sick and cannot see you. You let a few days go by and then return once more. And if something new again prevents you from meeting him, nevertheless you are not discouraged, but renew the attempt until at last you see him. This kind of patience is called perseverance.

Perseverance is an active patience, a patience that marches on.” (CWM 2: 198)

4. Perseverance has sustained energy and the unremitting will

“The famous Genoese sailor Columbus set sail from Spain to cross the unknown seas of the West.

For days and weeks on end, in spite of the murmurs of his companions, he persisted in his will to reach a new land; in spite of delays and difficulties, he would not give up until he had reached the first American islands. Thus he discovered the New World.

What did he ask of his companions? He asked them only to have patience, for they had simply to rely on him and quietly allow him to lead them. But what did he himself need to reach his goal? He needed the sustained energy and the unremitting will that we call perseverance.” (CWM 2: 198199)

5. The celebrated potter, Bernard Palissy never lacked perseverance

6. This perseverance never failed him and enabled him in the end to triumph over all difficulty and scorn

7. Perseverance is the mightiest force of all

8. Nothing in the world can prevail against perseverance

9. The greatest things are always an accumulation of small and untiring efforts

10. Our small, repeated efforts could also achieve great things

“The celebrated potter, Bernard Palissy, wanted to recover the lost secret of beautiful old glazed china enamelled in rich colours.

For months and years on end, he untiringly pursued his experiments. His attempts to find the glaze remained fruitless for a long time. He devoted all he had to his search; and for days and nights together he watched over the kiln he had built, endlessly trying out new processes for preparing and firing his pottery. And not only did no one give him any help or encouragement, but his friends and his neighbours called him a madman, and even his wife reproached him for what he was doing.

Several times he had to suspend his experiments for lack of resources, but as soon as he could, he would take them up again with renewed courage. Finally one day he did not even have the wood he needed to stoke his kiln; so, disregarding the cries and threats of his household, he threw his own furniture, to the very last stick, into the fire. And when everything was burnt, he opened the kiln and found it full of the brightly glazed pottery which made him famous and which he had sacrificed so many years to discover.

What was it that his wife and friends lacked that they could not wait for his hour of success to come, without harassing him and making his task more difficult? Simply patience. And what was the only thing he himself never lacked, the only thing that never failed him and which enabled him in the end to triumph over all difficulty and scorn? It was precisely perseverance, that is to say, the mightiest force of all.

For nothing in the world can prevail against perseverance. And even the greatest things are always an accumulation of small and untiring efforts.

Enormous boulders have been completely destroyed, worn by raindrops falling one after another on the same spot.

A grain of sand is nothing very powerful, but when many come together, they form a dune and check the ocean.

And when you learn about natural history, you will hear how mountains have been formed under the sea by little animalcules piled one upon another, who by their persistent efforts have made magnificent islands and archipelagos rise above the waves.

Don’t you think that your small, repeated efforts could also achieve great things?” (CWM 2: 199–200)

“The famous sage Shankara whose name brought glory to the land of Malabar, and who lived about 1200 years ago, had resolved from childhood to become a Sannyasi.

For a long time his mother, although she appreciated the nobility of his wish, did not allow him to devote himself to that way of life.

One day mother and child went to bathe in a river. Shankara dived in and felt his foot suddenly seized by a crocodile. Death seemed close at hand. But even at that dreadful moment the brave child thought only of his great project and cried out to his mother, ‘I am lost! A crocodile is dragging me down. But let me at least die a Sannyasi!’

‘Yes, yes, my son,’ his mother sobbed in despair.

Shankara felt such joy that he found the strength to free his foot and throw himself ashore.

From that moment he grew in learning as in years. He became a guru, and remained true to his great work of teaching philosophy to the very end of his wonderful life.” (CWM 2: 200–201)

11. Brave children, will you not join the great army of men and women who never tire of doing good and never abandon their task until they have completed it?

12. In this world, there is no lack of noble work to be accomplished, nor is there any lack of good people to undertake it; but what is very often lacking is the perseverance which alone can carry it through to the end

“All who love India know the beautiful poem of the Mahabharata.

It was written in Sanskrit many hundreds of years ago. Until recent times, no European could read it unless he knew Sanskrit, and that was rare. A translation into one of the European languages was needed.

Babu Pratap Chandra Rai decided to devote himself to this work. In his own land he was able to find a learned friend, Kishori Mohan Ganguly, who could translate the Sanskrit book into English, and its hundred parts were published one by one.

For twelve years Pratap Chandra Rai went on with the task he had set himself. He devoted all his resources to the publication of the book. And when he had nothing left he travelled all over India to ask help from all who were willing to give. He received help from princes and peasants, from scholars and simple folk, from friends in Europe and America.

In the course of one of his journeys he caught the pernicious fever from which he died. During his sickness all his thoughts were turned towards the completion of his work. And even when it became painful for him to speak, he would still say to his wife:

‘The book must be finished. Don’t spend money on my funeral rites if it is needed for the printing. Live as simply as you can so as to save money for the Mahabharata.’

He died full of love for India and her great poem.

His widow, Sundari Bala Rai, faithfully carried out his great wish. One year later the translator completed his work, and the eleven volumes of the Mahabharata were presented to the European public who could now know and admire the eighteen Parvas of the splendid epic poem. And reading it, they would learn to respect the great skill and wisdom of the profound thinkers who were the poets of ancient India.

Such are the fruits borne by the efforts of all those who, like Pratap Chandra Rai and so many other useful men, know how to persevere.

And you, brave children, will you not join the great army of men and women who never tire of doing good and never abandon their task until they have completed it?

In this wide world, there is no lack of noble work to be accomplished, nor is there any lack of good people to undertake it; but what is very often lacking is the perseverance which alone can carry it through to the end.” (CWM 2: 201–202)

A Story of Initiation

(Translated from the Gujarati)

“When he reached the river Neela and the house of his Master’s friend, Yusuf handed the Mahatma’s present to him and waited silently in a corner because of the fault he had committed. This man was a great saint. He opened the box and immediately understood what had happened. ‘Well, Yusuf,’ he said, turning to the young aspirant, ‘so you have lost that mouse.... Mahatma Junun won’t give you initiation, I am afraid, for in order to be worthy of the supreme Knowledge one must have a perfect mastery over one’s mind. Your Master clearly had some doubts about your will-power, that is why he resorted to this little trick, to put you to the test. And if you are not able to accomplish so insignificant a thing as to keep a little mouse in a box, how do you expect to keep great thoughts in your head, the true Knowledge in your heart? Nothing is insignificant, Yusuf. Return to your Master. Learn steadiness of character, perseverance. Be worthy of trust so as to become one day the true disciple of that great Soul.’

Crestfallen, Yusuf returned to the Mahatma and confessed his fault. ‘Yusuf,’ he said, ‘you have lost a wonderful opportunity. I gave you a worthless mouse to take care of and you couldn’t do even that! How then do you expect to keep the most precious of all treasures, the divine Truth?’ (CWM 9: 70)

XVIII—Teaching Perseverance to a Child

1. Things to be taught to a child are Patience, endurance, perseverance

“The things to be taught to a child

1) The necessity of absolute sincerity.

2) The certitude of the final victory of Truth.

3) The possibility and the will to progress.

Good temper, fair-play, truthfulness.

Patience, endurance, perseverance.

Equanimity, courage, cheerfulness.” (CWM 12: 152)

2. Perseverance is taught infinitely better by example than by beautiful speeches

“... the first thing to do, in order to be able to educate a child, is to educate oneself, to become conscious and master of oneself so that one never sets a bad example to one’s child. For it is above all through example that education becomes effective. To speak good words and to give wise advice to a child has very little effect if one does not oneself give him an example of what one teaches. Sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselfishness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm, self-control are all things that are taught infinitely better by example than by beautiful speeches. Parents, have a high ideal and always act in accordance with it and you will see that little by little your child will reflect this ideal in himself and spontaneously manifest the qualities you would like to see expressed in his nature. Quite naturally a child has respect and admiration for his parents; unless they are quite unworthy, they will always appear to their child as demigods whom he will try to imitate as best he can.” (CWM 12: 10)

3. When a child is full of desires, if one could give the child desire of a higher kind like awakening the desire to know, the desire to learn, the desire to become a remarkable person

4. Shift the movement to things which it is better to have from the true point of view, and which is more difficult to obtain

5. As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things

6. Give the child a toy which is difficult to make or give the child a game of patience which requires a great deal of perseverance

“In fact, perhaps one should begin by shifting the

movement to things which it is better to have from the true point of view, and which it is more difficult to obtain. If one could turn this impulsion of desire towards a... For example, when a child is full of desires, if one could give him a desire of a higher kind —instead of its being a desire for purely material objects, you understand, an altogether transitory satisfaction—if one could awaken in him the desire to know, the desire to learn, the desire to become a remarkable person... in this way, begin with that. As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things. Or even, from the material point of view, the desire to do something difficult, as for example, construct a toy which is difficult to make—or give him [child] a game of patience which requires a great deal of perseverance.” (CWM 6: 413)

XIX—Other Quotations on Perseverance

“I know perfectly well that pain and suffering and struggle and excesses of despair are natural—though not inevitable—on the way,—not because they are helps, but because they are imposed on us by the darkness of this human nature out of which we have to struggle into the Light. I do not suppose Ramakrishna or Vivekananda would have recommended the incidents you allude to as an example for others to follow—they would surely have said that faith, fortitude, perseverance were the better way. That after all was what they stuck to in the end in spite of these bad moments and they would never have dreamed of giving up the Yoga or the aspiration for the Divine on the ground that they were unfit and not meant for the realisation.” (CWSA 29: 470)

“There are ... conditions for a disciple for profiting fully from his relation to a spiritual guide.

1st: He must accept him entirely and him alone without submitting himself to any contrary or second influence.

2nd: He must accept the indications given by the Guru and follow them firmly and with full faith and perseverance to the best of his own spiritual capacity.” (CWSA 29: 190)

The power of perseverance is one the power of the force which can direct the soul inward

“The development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude, the intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of the path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka. The process of Yoga is a turning of the human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in the outward appearances and attractions of things to a higher state in which the Transcendent and Universal can pour itself into the individual mould and transform it. The first determining element of the siddhi is, therefore, the intensity of the turning, the force which directs the soul inward. The power of aspiration of the heart, the force of the will, the concentration of the mind, the perseverance and determination of the applied energy are the measure of that intensity.” (CWSA 23: 58)

In Gita the Godhead tells Arjuna that He himself is resolution and perseverance and victory

“In living beings, the Godhead tells Arjuna, I am consciousness by which they are aware of themselves and their surroundings. I am mind among the senses, mind by which they receive the impressions of objects and react upon them. I am man’s qualities of mind and character and body and action; I am glory and speech and memory and intelligence and steadfastness and forgiveness, the energy of the energetic and the strength of the mighty. I am resolution and perseverance and victory, I am the sattwic quality of the good, I am the gambling of the cunning; I am the mastery and power of all who rule and tame and vanquish and the policy of all who succeed and conquer; I am the silence of things secret, the knowledge of the knower, the logic of those who debate. I am the letter A among letters, the dual among compounds, the sacred syllable OM among words, the Gayatri among metres, the Sama-veda among the Vedas and the great Sama among the mantras.” (CWSA 19: 364)

“The old patriotism of the nineteenth century in India was petty, unscrupulous, weak, full of insincerities, concealment, shufflings, concerned with small material interests, not with great ideals, though not averse to looking intellectually and from far-off at great objects. It had neither inspiration nor truth nor statesmanship. Nationalism has done part of the work of a Mazzini by awakening a great spiritual force in the country and giving the new generation great ideals, a wide horizon of hope and aspiration, an intense faith and energy. It has sought like Mazzini to raise up the moral condition of the nation to the height of love, strength, self-sacrifice, constancy under defeat, unwearied and undaunted perseverance, the habit of individual and organised action, self-reliance and indomitable enterprise; but it has rejected the old methods of insurrectionary violence and replaced them by self-help and passive resistance.” (CWSA 8: 187)

The Force is given consciously, constantly, with an endless perseverance and patience, only for one sole purpose, that of realising the divine work

“But everybody, more or less consciously, and in any case instinctively, absorbs as much Consciousness and Energy as he can and as soon as he feels this Energy in himself, he uses it for his personal ends, his own satisfaction.

Who thinks that all this Force that is here, that is infinitely greater, infinitely more precious than all money-forces, this Force which is here and is given consciously, constantly, with an endless perseverance and patience, only for one sole purpose, that of realising the divine work—who thinks of not wasting it? Who realises that it is a sacred duty to make progress, to prepare oneself to understand better and live better? For people live by the divine Energy, they live by the divine Consciousness, and use them for their personal, selfish ends.

You are shocked when a few thousand rupees are wasted but not shocked when there are... when streams of Consciousness and Energy are diverted from their true purpose!

If one wants to do a divine work upon earth, one must come with tons of patience and endurance. One must know how to live in eternity and wait for the consciousness to awaken in everyone—the consciousness of what true integrity is.” (CWM 6: 156)

(Significance of the twelve underground rooms which will radiate from the Matrimandir foundation)

“Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equality, Peace.” (CWM 13: 226)

“Therefore, it is the upward and inward orientation of the intelligent will that we must resolutely choose with a settled concentration and perseverance, vyavasāya; we must fix it firmly in the calm self-knowledge of the Purusha.” (CWSA 19: 99)

“The purpose of the Upanishad cannot therefore be served by a translation; a translation at best prepares him for & attracts him to the original. But even when he has steeped himself in the original, he may have understood what the Upanishad suggests, but he has not understood all that it implies, the great mass of religious truth that lies behind, of which the Upanishad is but a hint or an echo. For this he must go to the Teacher. ‘Awake ye, arise & learn of God seeking out the Best who have the knowledge.’ Hard is it in these days to find the Best; for the Best do not come to us, we have to show our sincerity, patience and perseverance by seeking them. And when we have heard the whole of the Brahmavidya from the Teacher, we still know of God by theory only; we must farther learn from a preceptor the practical knowledge of God, the vision of Him and attainment of Him which is Yoga and the goal of Yoga. And even in that we cannot succeed unless we have the Grace of God, for Yoga is beset with temptations not the least of which are the powers it gives us, powers which the ignorant call supernatural.” (CWSA 18: 170)

“If the change comes suddenly and decisively by an overpowering influence, there is no further essential or lasting difficulty. The choice follows upon the thought, or is simultaneous with it, and the self-consecration follows upon the choice. The feet are already set upon the path, even if they seem at first to wander uncertainly and even though the path itself may be only obscurely seen and the knowledge of the goal may be imperfect. The secret Teacher, the inner Guide is already at work, though he may not yet manifest himself or may not yet appear in the person of his human representative. Whatever difficulties and hesitations may ensue, they cannot eventually prevail against the power of the experience that has turned the current of the life. The call, once decisive, stands; the thing that has been born cannot eventually be stifled. Even if the force of circumstances prevents a regular pursuit or a full practical self-consecration from the first, still the mind has taken its bent and persists and returns with an ever-increasing effect upon its leading preoccupation. There is an ineluctable persistence of the inner being, and against it circumstances are in the end powerless, and no weakness in the nature can for long be an obstacle.” (CWSA 23: 70)

“After that revelation, whatever fadings of the light, whatever periods of darkness may afflict the soul, it can never irretrievably lose what it has once held. The experience is inevitably renewed and must become more frequent till it is constant; when and how soon depends on the devotion and persistence with which we insist on the path and besiege by our will or our love the hidden Deity.” (CWSA 23: 305)

“For a happy and effective life, the essentials are sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress. Above all, one must be convinced of a limitless possibility of progress. Progress is youth; at a hundred years of age one can be young.” (CWM 12: 123)

“My little mother,

I shall be so happy when all the clouds and shadows are dissolved. I want a new life.

My dear child,

You are quite right in wanting a new life, and you may be sure that I shall do my best to help you in that. I am quite sure that perseverance in study and the acceptance of a discipline of work and order in life will be a powerful help to you in renewing yourself.” (CWM 16: 145)

“Mother,

I find that I have lost everything. All that was good in me, all is lost. Previously I always felt that all I did was for You; in all the work I did, this feeling of ‘doing it for You’ was always with me. Now I find that I have lost this feeling.

My dear little child,

Are you aware of any cause for this change? Surely there is one. Besides, these days when the Ashram is full of visitors, there is a great confusion which often brings a clouding of the consciousness. You must not let this upset you too much, but simply aspire with calm and perseverance for the light to reappear. My love is always with you to help you go through this bad moment.

Affectionately.” (CWM 16: 100)

“It is as when one struggles physically by yogic means with a disease, it goes alternately. One can succeed in pulling himself out, so to say, from the disease, in withdrawing from it, in cutting off the relation one had with it; and then suddenly one emerges above this feeling of unease, disorder and confusion and realises that one is cured. But sometimes it is enough even to remember, a movement of wonder is enough, a memory of what it was is enough for everything to be reversed once more and for one to have to begin the same work over again. Sometimes one has to begin again thrice, four times, ten times, twenty times. And then some people can make the effort once, but the second time they no longer do it well, and the third time they don’t do it at all; and they tell you, ‘Oh! One can’t be cured by occult means, the divine Force doesn’t cure you, it is better to take medicines.’ So for these, it is better to go to the doctor because this means that they have no spiritual perseverance and only material means can convince them of their effectiveness.” (CWM 7: 103)

XX—Short Summary

I—What Is Perseverance

1.      Perseverance is the decision to go to the very end

2.      Perseverance is patience in action

3.      Perseverance is an active patience, that marches on

4.      Perseverance needs sustained energy and the unremitting will

5.      Perseverance is the mightiest force of all

6.      Nothing in the world can prevail against perseverance

7.      Perseverance is to go on without discouragement

8.      The action of the Mother’s force is working through the difficulty even and will do all that is needed

9.      If one puts one’s trust in the Divine Force then incapacity will be changed into capacity

10.      Perseverance refuses to be discouraged by frequent failure

11.      If you try, try and try again you will gain the end because nothing is impossible to perseverance

12.      The material form of perseverance is able to face difficulties without getting discouraged and without giving up

13.      The material form of perseverance is when you receive blows as a result of your defects, you put them in your pocket and continuing to go forward without

flagging

14.      Perseverance is when you are resolved to begin the same thing over again a thousand times if need be

15.      Unfaltering perseverance means ready to begin again a hundred times the same thing with the same intensity with which one did it the first time and as though one had never done it before

16.      Untiring patience and a perseverance assures you that what you have not succeeded in doing today, you will succeed in doing another time

17.      Perseverance makes you go on trying until you do succeed

II—The First Quality Needed in Yoga Is Perseverance

1.      For each person the way differs in its details, but perseverance is equally indispensable for all

2.      Integral Yoga needs an inexhaustible perseverance and patience

3.      Integral Yoga is a long and difficult one and needs a perseverance and a steadiness

4.      This is not a Yoga one can start today and leave tomorrow

5.      In Yoga one must persist however long it takes only then one can achieve

6.      Perseverance is one of the indispensable thing in

the Ashram community

7.      Integral Yoga does not depend upon verbal instructions or anything outward

8.      Integral Yoga depends on the power to open oneself and receive the force and influence

9.      Those who do not receive the power and influence at a distance cannot receive it in the Ashram also

10.      Without establishing in oneself patience and perseverance this Yoga cannot be done

11.      It takes years and years to overcome difficulties definitely and altogether

12.      Once having chosen the method, you must use your intelligent will to apply it with an unfailing perseverance that does not shrink from any obstacle, any difficulty

13.      To pursue the yoga always, whether we seem to advance or seem to be standing still or seem even to be going back

14.      Pursue the yoga always with a calm patient and cheerful perseverance

15.      This path is not an easy path, you will need time, you will need patience

16.      In this path you will need much endurance, much perseverance

17.      Once you have started, it is finished, there is no going back any more; you must go to the very end

18.      Persevere because the true consciousness is there increasing behind the clouds

19.      One can pass through difficulties and struggle with perseverance

20.      To follow the path what is necessary are aspiration, determination and perseverance

III—Why Perseverance Is Needed in Yoga

1.      In Yoga there are always difficulties and a hampered progress in the early stages

2.      The road of Yoga is long as every inch of ground has to be won against much resistance

3.      No quality is more needed by the sadhak than single-minded perseverance that remains firm through all difficulties, delays and apparent failures

4.      To modify the old nature to allow of the spiritual opening takes a long time

5.      Sadhana is a thing which takes time and needs patience

6.      There are periods of quiescence in which a working is going on behind of which the mind is not aware, that time all seems to be inert and dull

7.      The consciousness passes through these periods to new openings and things which seemed to be impossible to effect at that time, get done

8.      Perseverance in the path is the one rule to cling to and with that finally all obstacles are overcome

9.      Those who have a very active movement of their

thought must have a steady perseverance for them self-giving will take a long time to accomplish

a.      For the Divine Grace to act it is necessary to have quiet mind

b.      Those who are accustomed to a very active movement of their thought and will in all they do, find it difficult to do quiet mental self-giving

c.      For them self-giving will take a long time to accomplish

d.      They must have a steady perseverance and resolution to go through

10.      Once the difficulty has been overcome and if it comes back is because one was not vigilant

11.      One has to wait very long for many years before the difficulty is finished

12.      Those whose faith is not strong or surrender complete have to go at first by small steps and to face the difficulties of their nature until by perseverance they make a sufficient opening

13.      When you are back to your right stature Hostile Forces wait a little and strike again and the whole thing repeats itself with a mechanical regularity

14.      It takes time, and a calm perseverance to get anywhere in Yoga

15.      Perseverance is necessary when there is a difficulty to concentrate for more than a short time because it is contrary to the habits of the physical mind

16.      We have bad ‘creases’ in the being, habits which may come from atavistic malformation or also from education or from the environment you have lived in or from many other causes

17.      These bad creases you try to smooth out, but they wrinkle up again

18.      Then you must begin the work over again, often, many, many, many a time, without getting discouraged, before the final result is obtained

19.      This requires great perseverance, a sort of tenacity

20.      By doing your work with conscientiousness, honesty and perseverance, you will feel the Mother’s presence closer and closer to you

21.      The siddhi of the path, must be the end of a long, difficult and persevering endeavour

22.      One cannot have the crown of spiritual victory without the struggle or reach the heights without the ascent and its labour

23.      Difficult is that road, hard to tread like the edge of a razor

IV—The Source of Perseverance Is in the Psychic Being

1.      The source of perseverance is in the psychic being

2.      In the higher part of the mind perseverance begins to take shape

3.      But for perseverance to be effective at least one part of the vital must respond

4.      There is always something in the vital which is willing to respond to the psychic being

5.      The psychic being works with perseverance

6.      The psychic being knows how to wait for the hour of realisation to come

V—How to Cultivate Perseverance

1.      All the psychological qualities like perseverance can be cultivated as the muscles are cultivated by regular, daily exercise

2.      Turn towards the Divine Force in a sincere aspiration and implore It to deliver you from your limitations

3.      Keep the mantra of success, the determination of victory

4.      Have a fixed resolve, ‘Have it I must and have it I will’

5.      There is no such thing as an impossibility, there are difficulties and things of a long and exacting nature

6.      What one is determined fixedly to do, will get done now or later, it becomes possible

7.      A man may be centrally sincere and yet there may be many things that have to be changed in him before realisation can begin

8.      His sincerity must enable him to persevere always

9.      It is a longing for the Divine that nothing can quench, neither delay nor disappointment nor difficulty nor anything else

10.      Persevere in your aspiration and effort

11.      Do not allow yourself to be discouraged by setbacks

12.      Setbacks always happens in the beginning

13.      Continue to fight without paying any attention to setbacks

14.      A day will come when the resistances give way and the difficulties vanish

15.      The Mother’s help is with us, learn to use the Mother’s help and to rely on it rather than on our own resources

16.      The perseverance is needed till the resistance breaks down

17.      If the mind remains quiet, patience will increase

18.      Learn how to wait

19.      With patience, know how to await the result of your effort

20.      All progress made is set off by an attack of the adverse forces so, the more you advance, the more vigilant must you become

21.      Perseverance with inner good humour which helps you not to get discouraged, not to become sad, and to face all difficulties with a smile

22.      With cheerfulness you fight much better, resist

much better, the bad influences which try to hinder you from progressing

23.      Shift the movement to things which it is better to have from the true point of view, and which is more difficult to obtain

24.      As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things

25.      The desire to do something difficult, requires a great deal of perseverance

26.      Before you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the food you are about to eat may bring your body the substance it needs and give it the energy for persistence and perseverance in the effort

27.      Obstinacy is the wrong use of perseverance

28.      But be obstinate in your effort towards progress, and your obstinacy will become useful

29.      Till the resistance breaks down the perseverance is needed in Yoga

30.      Perseverance is needed in Yoga till the psychic is able to dominate the other parts of the being

VI—Perseverance Is the Surest Way to Success

1.      If you persevere you are sure to succeed

2.      We may rest assured  that the Mother’s help is always with us

3.      One never calls in vain

4.      Persevere and you shall conquer

5.      By persevering one conquers difficulties

6.      One who perseveres is sure to triumph

7.      Persevere and all obstacles will be conquered

8.      Perseverance breaks down all obstacles

9.      You are sure to reach the goal but you must be very perseverant

10.      Certainly there are difficulties on the path, but with perseverance the victory is sure

11.      Place your will at the disposal of the Divine to do the thing best possible

12.      Do this with consciousness and perseverance, and you will find yourself getting along with gigantic strides

13.      Put into practice what you know and you have a good chance of succeeding, and with perseverance you will certainly succeed

14.      Without perseverance one can never attain anything

15.      Because a thing is difficult it does not mean that one should give it up

16.      On the contrary, the more difficult a thing is, the greater must be the will to carry it out successfully

VII—If You Are Sincere in Your Perseverance Then

1.      Persevere, and what you cannot do today you will be able to do tomorrow

2.      The things you cannot do today, you will one day

be able to do

3.      There is no reason why he should not succeed in the yoga if he keeps the right attitude and perseverance

4.      To do the Integral Yoga one of the five psychological virtues or psychological perfections is Perseverance

5.      If one persists, there comes a time when one is victorious

6.      Victory is to the most persistent

7.      One can arrive at Ananda by a patient perseverance

8.      Sri Aurobindo goes to the extent of saying that grumble, if your nature compels you to it, but persevere

9.      Patience and peace go together

10.      By having patience under all kinds of pressure you lay the foundations of peace

11.      A quiet, vigilant but undistressed persistence is the best way to get needed change and towards new life

VIII—Even If Adverse Result Is Foreseen, One Must Persevere

1.      Even if adverse result is foreseen, one must persevere

2.      Because Perseverance keeps alive the force, the principle of Truth which gives it a possibility to triumph hereafter

3.      This perseverance can become a part of the working of a future favourable Fate

4.      Men are spiritually right in their stubborn perseverance even if they have seen the cause fail or foresee its failure

5.      We do not live for outward success for the object of life is the growth of the soul

IX—Vital Difficulty and Perseverance

1.      The vital, after a few days or few months says to itself: ‘We haven’t gone very far with our enthusiasm, has anything been really done?

2.      The vital is disturbed that this effort leave us just where we were perhaps worse than we were

3.      The vital feels it had enough and wants to be left alone

4.      One needs time and much perseverance

5.      Constant return of the difficulty needs patience and persistence

6.      One must be more obstinate than the obstinate material nature

7.      Persevere until the light and truth can take permanent hold of the parts which are still responsive to the old movements

8.      There can be no doubt that with this perseverance the Truth will in the end conquer

9.      Do not admit any movement of vital depression

10.      The external being in everyone is always a difficult

animal to handle

11.      The external being has to be dealt with by patience and a quiet and cheerful perseverance

12.      Getting depressed makes the external being sensitive and aggrieved and difficult

13.      Give the external being the encouragement of sunlight and a quiet pressure

14.      And one day it will open entirely to the Grace

15.      The habits of the physical vital are almost automatic in their action

16.      A very strong will or a persistent effort of self-discipline is required to get out this automatic physical vital

17.      Perseverance of the will is required to press habits of the physical vital out of existence

18.      Keep you open to the light and maintain the inner ground for the soul even if the outer is partly clouded or troubled

19.      Then the entire elimination of the vital weakness will be only a matter of a little perseverance

20.      There must be the ability to observe and discern what comes from the vital

21.      To transform the vital first step is will

22.      Secondly, sincerity and aspiration

23.      Then Perseverance

24.      Perseverance is necessary in any process

25.      With the collaboration of the vital no realisation

seems impossible, no transformation impracticable

26.      The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction

27.      If that satisfaction is refused, the vital gets vexed, sulks and goes on strike

28.      At such moments it is good to remain quiet and refuse to act

29.      For these are the times when one does stupid things and in a few moments destroy or spoil the progress

30.      These crises are shorter for those who have established a contact with their psychic being

31.      With the help of psychic consciousness, one can deal with the vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance

32.      The psychic consciousness shows the vital the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which has been veiled for a time

33.      By means of such patient intervention of the psychic consciousness each crisis can be turned into a new progress, into one more step towards the goal

X—If Great Number of Men Persistently Practise Yoga Then

1.      The practice of Yoga by a great number of men and persistence in the practice by their descendants might

bring about profound changes in human psychology

2.      The persistent practice of Yoga and stamping these changes into body and brain through heredity, will evolve a superior race

XI—Conquer Impatience And Over Eagerness

1.      Do not be over-eager to have realisations at once because a work has to be done in you and is being done

2.      Help this work which is done in you by keeping an attitude of firm faith and confidence

3.      Reject doubts

4.      By firm confidence in the Mother impatience and over eagerness for the result at once will disappear

5.      Impatience is always a mistake; it does not help but hinders

6.      Full Yogic realisation does not come all at once, it comes after a long preparation of the Adhara which may take a long time

7.      Realisation of the personal Divine or of the impersonal Brahman does not usually come for many years

8.      To expect and demand realisation so soon and get fed up is rather rash and abnormal impatience

9.      Most would say that a slow development is the best one can hope for in the first years

10.      Only when the nature is ready and fully

concentrated towards the Divine can the definitive experience come

11.      It is the fact that people who are grateful and cheerful and ready to go slow steps actually march faster and more surely than those who are impatient and in haste and at each step despair or murmur

12.      The tendency to worry and hurry up doing things must be discouraged

13.      It is not good to be impatient and agitated, you must do everything peacefully and quietly without excessive haste

14.      One goes much faster when he is not in a hurry

15.      The persistence of trouble must not be allowed to become a reason for impatience

a.      The recurrence of trouble serves to bring out the presence of the defect

b.      The recurrence of trouble puts the sadhaka upon his guard and bring about a more enlightened and consistent action of the will to get rid of it

XII—Do Not Make the Path Longer

1.      Do not make the path longer by despondency, sadness, doubts, despair, denials, difficulties that are dandled for a long time and has become strong

2.      When the Divine lights something in you don’t come in with a wet blanket of despondency and throw it on the

flame

3.      When the darkness of human mind and life and body has to be dissipated, a candle is always a beginning

4.      The beginning must be allowed to have a sequel, and not get cut off from its natural sequelae by chinks of sadness and doubt and despair

5.      Experiences usually come in little quanta with empty spaces between them

6.      If experiences are allowed their way, the spaces will diminish and continuity of the spirit takes place

7.      If empty spaces are filled with doubts and denials then experiences become rare and the beginnings remain beginnings

8.      The difficulty that is dandled too much for a long time will become strong and it must be dealt with by a persevering effort

9.      All doubts may not disappear for doubt is the mind’s persistent assailant

10.      Do not allow doubt as the assailant to become a companion

11.      Do not give doubt the open door and the fireside seat

12.      Do not drive away the incoming Divine with that dispiriting wet blanket of sadness and despair

XIII—Areas Where Perseverance Is Required

1.      The unification of the whole of one’s being around the psychic centre is a long and meticulous work that requires much perseverance

2.      To convert the ego the only qualities indispensable for all are absolute perseverance and sincerity

3.      To dissolve in the Divine, and lose one’s ego one must aspire with great perseverance

4.      Overcoming desires and attachments from within is a long labour which must be undertaken with a tireless perseverance

a.      It is from within that you must become master of your lower nature

b.      Because your consciousness within is free of all desire and attachment and under the influence of the divine Light and Force

5.      The development of spiritual consciousness is an exceedingly vast and complex affair and for each man it is different according to his nature

a.      The one thing that is essential is the inner call and aspiration and the perseverance to follow always after it no matter how long it takes or what are the difficulties or impediments

6.      The transformation of character has been realised by perseverance so obstinate that nothing, not even the most persistent failures, can discourage it

7.      It takes a long time to spiritualise the whole nature and until that is done a constant trust and patience must

be cultivated in Yoga

8.      Rejection of mental ad vital defects

a.      If the mental and vital defects rise in you in the presence of the Mother is because a strong pressure is put on them so that they have either to go out or to put up a fight for existence

b.      Remedy is to open to the Mother only and to reject entirely and at all times all other forces

c.      Reject the mental and vital defects most when they become most active

d.      Persevere in the rejection

9.      If the education of the vital is carried far enough, with perseverance, there comes a time when, convinced of the greatness and beauty of the goal, the vital gives up petty and illusory sensorial satisfactions in order to win the divine delight

10.      Perseverance required in control of the impulse to speech

11.      Everyone can do the sadhana of the body, if he puts into it the time, and the perseverance that are demanded

a.      The sadhana when it goes down into the body one realises everything has to be done and worked out

b.      The sadhana of the body needs great patience

12.      The self-perfection or the self-improvement of each individual body demands much patience, perseverance

and regularity

13.      Obstinacy of the habitual movements in the physical consciousness requires perseverance in aspiration or will

14.      To eliminate the inertia of the physical consciousness requires perseverance in the will of the sadhak

15.      If physical education has not been given during childhood or even in youth, it can begin at any age and will require much patience and perseverance

16.      To gain equanimity bear unpleasant impacts with perseverance

17.      To become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities demands much perseverance

18.      To becomes conscious, and know oneself and to become master of oneself one has to persevere with great care and attention

19.      Perseverance required to be entirely open [opening from above, below and horizontally]

a.      One has to persevere to be able to constantly open to the Mother

b.      Finally the perseverance will be justified by the result

c.      To give up is the one thing one must never do

20.      The covering up of the first openings of experience by the restless mind and vital will diminish with perseverance

21.      To get into contact with the inner being and change the outer consciousness from the inner will surely come with patience

22.      Face all inner disturbances firmly with perseverance

23.      Not to forget what one has experienced in Samadhi needs extremely long discipline and requires an unshakable patience

24.      One can hear which occurs at a fairly great distance, one can see at a distance, one can see through a wall

a.      One can enlarge his field considerably, but it asks for work, for perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort

25.      All those who are destined to find their inner being, the truth of their being, there is always at least one moment in life when they have the experience of what true consciousness is

a.      It indicates the road one should take with perseverance and an unfailing steadfastness

b.      One must seek to renew the state which will lead you to something more real and more total

26.      To work on yourself you must do it with an intensity of will, with perseverance and that indispensable cheerfulness which smiles at difficulties and laughs at mistakes is also required

27.      One can know everything only by practising and it demands perseverance more considerable than what the

sincerest, scientists have ever shown

28.      With patience and perseverance all prayers get fulfilled

29.      If you try the kind of concentration of immobility in the painful nerve fairly constantly, with sufficient perseverance, the sick nerve of painful toothache will die and you will not suffer at all anymore

30.      The power of concentration independent from all inner and outer circumstances is difficult but not impossible for him who is determined and persevering

31.      Whatever method of development is chosen, determination and perseverance are indispensable to obtain success

32.      To search within oneself what has served as a support for the movement one does not want requires a great deal of perseverance

33.      One must have an unfaltering perseverance when one wants to change something of the material life, whether the character or the functioning of the organs or habits

34.      You must not be in a hurry, you must not be impatient, you must be very persevering when you want to listen to your soul

35.      To unite with your soul you must want it with persistence and perseverance

36.      The process of knowing yourself by projecting on the screen needs a great deal of perseverance

a.      If you wish to organise yourself then you can project yourself upon a screen, as in the cinema, and then look at yourself moving on it

b.      Observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens

c.      Then you organise and arrange, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning

d.      Then you become conscious of your direction

e.      You must not try to shut your eyes when something does not appear pleasant to you

f.      Remove those things which stand obstructing the way, all conflicting wills

g.      Then start arranging in a logical way

h.      Then you see clearer and you see why you are made like that

i.      Since all is organised the path becomes straight

j.      After a few years, you curb yourself as you curb a horse

k.      You need a great deal of perseverance to organise yourself by this method

37.      When you have seen something absolutely and essentially true, but the state of the universe is such that this truth is not yet ripe for realisation then you must, with much patience and perseverance, keep your little truth intact for the moment when it will be possible to

realise it

38.      The final victory is for the most patient

XIV—Perseverance in Transformation

1.      Unless one has an endless patience and an unshakable perseverance, it is better not to start on the way of transformation

2.      When one tries with patience and perseverance, to remove the defect or wrong movement one may hit upon the origin of the difficulty in the subconscient

3.      Then it is easy to transform whatever you wanted to transform in yourself

XV—Reasons for Having No Perseverance

1.      Lack of perseverance can be due to a restlessness in the vital and ardent hastiness

2.      The idea of Fate excuses one from perseverance and masculine effort

XVI—Persistence of Desire Is the Sign of an Imperfect Yoga

1.      Desire, even the best, turns always to limitation and obscuration

2.      Desire generates anger and grief and passion and obstinacy, and these bring about the soul’s loss of its divine memory or steadfast consciousness of itself and its self-knowledge and its equal vision of the truth of things

3.      Persistence of desire is the sign of an imperfect Yoga

XVII—Tales Which Brings Out the Quality of Patience And Perseverance

The Morals of these stories are:

1. We cannot expect to be always happy and that to know how to be patient is most useful

2. With continues failure you are not discouraged, but renew the attempt and this patience is called perseverance

3. Perseverance is an active patience, a patience that marches on

4. Perseverance has sustained energy and the unremitting will

5. The celebrated potter, Bernard Palissy never lacked perseverance

6. This perseverance never failed him and enabled him in the end to triumph over all difficulty and scorn

7. Perseverance is the mightiest force of all

8. Nothing in the world can prevail against perseverance

9. The greatest things are always an accumulation of small and untiring efforts

10. Our small, repeated efforts could also achieve great things

11. Brave children, will you not join the great army of men and women who never tire of doing good and never abandon their task until they have completed it?

12. In this world, there is no lack of noble work to be accomplished, nor is there any lack of good people to undertake it; but what is very often lacking is the perseverance which alone can carry it through to the end

XVIII—Teaching Perseverance to a Child

1.      Things to be taught to a child are Patience, endurance, perseverance

2.      Perseverance is taught infinitely better by example than by beautiful speeches

3.      When a child is full of desires, if one could give the child desire of a higher kind like awakening the desire to know, the desire to learn, the desire to become a remarkable person

4.      Shift the movement to things which it is better to have from the true point of view, and which is more difficult to obtain

5.      As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things

6.      Give the child a toy which is difficult to make or give the child a game of patience which requires a great deal of perseverance

___________