Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles
Monthly Magazine
Theme : Patience and Perseverance
  December 2018 Issue - XI
There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind’s immobility and thought-free stillness.

-Sri Aurobindo
Dedicated to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo who gave their lives to changing the earth-nature and earth-conditions so that the earth becomes a tenement of a Divine Life, and brought down the force of a supreme consciousness ushering a new age of Truth, Harmony, Peace and Love progressively.  The path to the Divine need not be anymore a "walk on the edge of a razor".
 
Center  Activities:

Our celebration of Nov 24 Siddhi Day on Dec 1 ushered in the month of December. Devotees from near and far gathered in the program sharing inspirational readings, music and chanting. As always, the words of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo bathed us in their atmosphere uniting all in an aspiration to glow and grow towards them. This time, however, was particularly poignant. The readings which included Her words on the significance of the Siddhi Day, Sri Aurobindo's mighty Tapasya thereafter of 24 years in seclusion to bring down the Supramental, Her own experiences on this day, and finally Sri Aurobindo's giving up his body " in an act of supreme unselfishness"  filled us with awe and wonder revealing and reminding again of the stupendous work done by two beings whose vision and work has accelerated evolution and shaped and sealed the glorious destiny of mankind. One felt imbued with deep gratitude for the great privilege and Grace of having them in our life.
    The theme for December is Patience and Perseverance. Having the Mother and Sri Aurobindo as our Guides and refuge is a promise that we will prevail over our frailty if we only persevere. We remember what the Master wrote: "the hidden springs of sweetness will reveal themselves if you persevere.".
   We close with our best wishes for 2019. May it bring a new Light and Harmony to all our readers.
   Happy reading.

 

With patience and perseverance all prayers get fulfilled.
 

- The Mother.

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.

- Sri Aurobindo. 

     
                                       This month's theme:
                                              Perseverance


What is Persistence                                                                       - The Mother

Persistence: the mightiest force of all                                        - The Mother

Grumble if you have to, but persevere!                                     - Sri Aurobindo

Perseverance - the measure of your sincerity                           - The Mother

Patience - Indispensable to tame the mind and vital              - The Mother

 

What is Persistence                                                     - The Mother        Home


Perseverance: the decision to go to the very end.

Perseverance is patience in action.

Perseverance breaks down all obstacles.
 
Persevere and all obstacles will be conquered.
 
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.
           

Persistence: the mightiest force of all                         - The Mother        Home


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 assoon 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? 
 

Grumble if you have to, but persevere!            - Sri Aurobindo        Home


These periods of difficulty inevitably come − none is without them, for the lower nature is there in all. What you have to do is to keep the firmness of which you speak and persevere till the Divine Power and your will together have dealt with what rises from below. Why do you regard what rises and shows itself as if it were peculiar to yourself? They are part of the very substance of the lower vital of the human being and there is no one who is without them. So their presence does not at all mean that you cannot reach the Mother.

There can be no doubt that you can go through − everyone has these struggles; what is needed to pass through is sincerity and perseverance.

Persevere therefore and do not grieve for occasional waverings or stumbles which can easily happen in so arduous a combat. It should always be the rule for the sadhak not to linger over such things but to pick oneself up again and go resolutely forward.

Although the supreme Ananda comes with the supreme fulfilment, there is no real reason why there should not be the Love and Ananda and Beauty on the way also. Some have found that even at an early stage before there was any other experience. But the secret of it is in the heart, not in the mind − the heart that opens its inner door and through it the radiance of the soul looks out in a blaze of trust and self-giving. Before that inner fire the debates of the mind and its difficulties wither away and the path however long or arduous becomes a sunlit road not only towards but through love and Ananda. Nevertheless, even if that 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.

Perseverance: the secret to overcome resistance        - The Mother     Home

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.
 29 May 1956

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.
 1961

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.
29 May 1971
 

Perseverance - the measure of your sincerity           -  The Mother       Home


You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, “I want to do yoga”, I reply, “Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed.” I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that. Nothing must discourage you; for there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world...They are there, do you know why? They have been tolerated, do you know why? – simply to see how long one can last out and how great is the sincerity in one's action. For everything depends upon your sincerity. If you are truly sincere in your will, nothing will stop you, you will go right to the end, and if it is necessary for you to live a thousand years to do it, you will live a thousand years to do it.
 

 

Patience - Indispensable to tame the mind and vital.  - The Mother      Home


I am going to take a very obvious instance, of a very simple observation. Someone has found that his vital is uncontrollable and uncontrolled, that it gets furious for nothing and about nothing. He starts working to teach it not to get carried away, not to flare up, to remain calm and bear the shocks of life without reacting violently. If one does this cheerfully, it goes quite quickly. (Note this well, it is very important: when you have to deal with your vital take care to keep your good humour, otherwise you will get into trouble.) One keeps one's good humour, that is, when one sees the fury rise, one begins to laugh. Instead of being depressed and saying, “Ah ! In spite of all my effort it is beginning all over again”, one begins to laugh and says, “Well, well ! One hasn't yet seen the end of it. Look now, aren't you ridiculous, you know quite well that you are being ridiculous ! Is it worthwhile getting angry ?” One gives it this lesson good-humouredly. 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 ! You think this can be done overnight ? And your body ?... You have a weakness, a difficulty, sometimes a small chronic illness, nothing much, but still it is a nuisance, isn't it? You want to get rid of it. You make efforts, you concentrate; you work upon it, establish harmony, and you think it is finished, and then... Take, for instance, people who have the habit of coughing; they can't control themselves or almost can't. It is not serious but it is bothersome, and there seems to be no reason why it should ever stop. Well, one tells oneself, “I am going to control this.” One makes an effort – a yogic effort, not a material one – one brings down consciousness, force, and stops the cough. And one thinks, “The body has forgotten how to cough.” And it is a great thing when the body has forgotten, truly one can say, “I am cured.” But unfortunately it is not always true, for this goes down into the subconscient and, one day, when the balance of forces is not so well established, when the strength is not the same, it begins again. And one laments, “I believed that it was over! I had succeeded and told myself, ‘It is true that spiritual power has an action upon the body, it is true that something can be done’, and there ! it is not true. And yet it was a small thing, and I who want to conquer immortality! How will I succeed ?... For years I have been free from this small thing and here it is beginning anew !” It is then that you must be careful. You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance.

 
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