Aspiration
The Mother: For us here there is only one thing that counts. We aspire for the Divine, live for the Divine, act for the Divine.
Nobody is for anybody — only the Divine is for you if you are for the Divine.
Aspiration
Q. What’s Aspiration?
The Mother: For us here there is only one thing that counts. We aspire for the Divine, live for the Divine, act for the Divine. Nobody is for anybody — only the Divine is for you if you are for the Divine.
Aspiration is a yearning for the Divine for the things of the spirit. The aspiration can come from the mind — — a mental aspiration — — or it can come from the heart — — an emotional yearning. Aspiration can lead hereafter to conversion, but aspiration is not conversion.
In the silence of the heart burns the steady fire of aspiration. Keep the fire burning steadily and wait quietly for the sure result.
Flame of aspiration: a flame which illumines but never burns. All is mute in the being, but in the bosom of the silence burns the lamp that can never be extinguished, the fire of an ardent aspiration to know and to live integrally the Divine.
Aspiration is almost always an expression of the psychic being — the part of us that’s organized around the divine center, the small divine flame deep within human beings.
The highest aspirations of man are nothing but the expression of the Divine Will or Spirit in Nature through human consciousness.
One must have a fixed and unfailing aspiration, vigilant and constant — an aspiration of the entire being — an aspiration that takes hold of you completely, an aspiration to unite with the Divine…to give oneself totally to the Divine, not to live outside the Divine Consciousness, so that the Divine may be all in all.
Aspiration is a turning upward of the inner being with a call, yearning, prayer for the Divine, for the Truth, for the Consciousness, Peace, Ananda, Knowledge, descent of Divine Force or whatever else is the aim of one’s endeavour.
Aspiration is to call the forces. When the forces have answered, there is a natural state of quiet receptivity concentrated but spontaneous.
When the forces have answered, there is a natural state of quiet receptivity concentrated but spontaneous.
Aspiration is a call to the Divine, — will is the pressure of a conscious force on Nature.
Aspiration is a call to the Divine, — will is the pressure of a conscious force on Nature.
Aspiration is a call in the being, it is not opening.
The aspiration should be for the full descent of the Truth and the victory over falsehood in the world.
Mental aspiration: its expression is clear and precise and very reasonable.
True aspiration is not a movement of the mind but of the psychic.
Psychic aspiration: constant, regular, organised, gentle and patient at the same time, resists all opposition, overcomes all difficulties.
Sincere Aspiration: An aspiration which is not mixed with any interested and egoistic calculation.
It is to the sincerity of your aspiration that the Love answers spontaneously.
2. Why it plays a significant role in our Sadhana?
If in man the seed of aspiration is watered with the true spirituality then he will grow into Divinity.
1. To be under The Mother’s direct care:
All souls who aspire are under my direct care. — The Mother.
Mother is with all those who are sincere in their aspiration towards a divine life above party and politics.
2. To remove all kinds of negation and incapacity
The ideas of incapacity are absurd, they are the negation of the truth of progress — what cannot be done today, will be done another day, if the aspiration is there.
3. To never see failure in life
Keep burning the flame of your aspiration and all will be all right.
No sincere aspiration to the Divine can fail in the end.
Aspiration is always good, and if some demand is mixed up with it, you can be sure that it will not be granted.
Go on aspiring and the necessary progress is bound to come.
A constant aspiration conquers all defects.
What is needed of me that I may not fail to progress as I should?
A constant and integral aspiration.
4. To intensify our faith in the Divine
Day after day our aspiration will grow and our faith will intensify.
How can I have more and more faith and calm, Mother?
Aspiration and will.
5. To take us nearer to our Goal
When the aspiration is awake, each day brings us nearer to the goal.
6. Our Entire Sadhana Based on True Aspiration
Q. Any suggestion?
The Mother: About what?
Q. About sadhana.
The Mother: Patient aspiration.
Spiritual aspiration rises like an arrow caring for neither obstacles nor laggards.
Be sincere in your aspiration for progress.
Love and blessings.
7. To remove confusions and disturbances
Q. Nowadays I feel utterly disturbed and upset. Wherever there is disturbance or confusion I take my consciousness away from it. I have a kind of faith, but there is nothing regular or systematic in it. My mind has wandered very much trying to find the true way of doing sadhana.
It is only by constantly aspiring to the Mother’s light and force that you can make true and steady progress. It is only by the constant repetition and persistence of the Mother’s light and force that the habit of disturbance and lack of organisation can diminish and finally disappear. Only so can the lower being be prepared and the decisive descent of the Truth and Light be finally made possible.
8. To Aspire means to have opening for the Divine Influence
In this Yoga the whole principle is to open oneself to the Divine Influence. It is there above you and, if you can once become conscious of it, you have then to call it down into you. It descends into the mind and into the body as Peace, as a Light, as a Force that works, as the Presence of the Divine with or without form, as Ananda. Before one has this consciousness, one has to have faith and aspire for the opening.
9. To dissolve the clouds of Egoism
Let the sun of aspiration dissolve the clouds of egoism.
Q. 3: How should we ensure that our Aspiration for our sweet Mother remains constant and everlasting in this birth?
Aspire for your will to be one with the Divine will, concentrate in the heart and be plastic to whatever experience comes, neither forcing nor resisting any spiritual experience.
1. The Moment One takes a Resolution to do the Yoga
The Mother: I think Yoga Shakti awakens quite naturally the moment one takes the resolution to do the yoga. If the resolution is sincere and one has an aspiration, it wakes up by itself. In fact, it is perhaps its awakening which gives the aspiration to do yoga.
It is possible that it is a result of the Grace… or after some conversation or reading, something that has suddenly given you the idea and aspiration to know what yoga is and to practise it. Sometimes just a simple conversation with someone is enough or a passage one reads from a book; well, it awakens this Yoga-Shakti and it is this which makes you do your yoga.
One is not aware of it at first — except that something has changed in our life, a new decision is taken, a turning.
Let your aspiration leap forward, pure and straight, towards the supreme consciousness which is all joy and all beatitude.
2. We Must Organise Our Entire Life for our Aspiration
Let your highest aspiration organise your life. — The Mother
It gave itself to that, entirely, totally, without asking anything in exchange. A single aspiration: “To serve that, whatever it wants. To BE that.”
3. Never aspire with impatience
Aspire intensely but without impatience.
4. Aspire without any egoistic interest
Sincere aspiration is an aspiration that is not mixed with any egoistic or self-interested calculation.
5. Aspire for the Supramental Manifestation to come soon
We must aspire with all our being for the manifestation to come soon and complete.
6. Aspire for the victory over oneself, one’s mistakes and ignorances
Daily we must aspire to conquer all mistakes, all obscurities, all ignorances.
We must always aspire to be free from all ignorance and to have a true faith.
7. Prayer of Aspiration
Let us go to sleep with a prayer and wake with an aspiration for the New and Perfect Creation.
8. Aspire from the cell level
The urge of aspiration: nothing is too high, nothing too far for its insatiable ardour. It never does any harm to express an aspiration―that gives force to it.
And this aspiration is absolutely independent of all circumstances. I have felt this aspiration in the cells of my body at the very moment when things were at their most critical, when from a medical standpoint the illness was serious. The cells themselves aspire. This aspiration has to extend everywhere in the being. When one is in this state, there is no need to worry. Nothing else matters.
9. Aspiration rises only due to a Concentrated will
Each one is responsible only for the sincerity of his aspiration.
Our aspiration rises always identical, supported by a concentrated will.
10. Keep the flame of aspiration always straight and ardent
The flame of the aspiration must be so straight and so ardent that no obstacle can dissolve it.
Beyond words, above thoughts the flame of an intense aspiration must always burn, steady and bright.
My love and blessings are with you.
An integral and exclusive aspiration is sure to bring the Divine’s response.
(Message for the “Home of Progress”, an Ashram hostel)
11. Always practice true spirituality keeping The Mother as the Goal
If in man the seed of aspiration is watered with the true spirituality then he will grow into Divinity. As usual I will tell you to be quiet and peaceful.
Our only aspiration must be for spiritual progress. It is only for that that we must pray. With love and blessings.
12. Practise consecration for the Divine
Increase steadily your own aspiration. Try to perfect your consecration to the Divine and your life will be arranged for you.
13. Always aspire for Beauty
A young child should aspire for beauty, not for the sake of pleasing others or winning their admiration, but for the love of beauty itself; for beauty is the ideal which all physical life must realise.
14. Aspire only for the Truth
We aspire for the Truth and its triumph in our being and our activities.
15. Never aspire with your hidden demands and desires
Aspiration is always good, and if some demand is mixed up with it, you can be sure that it will not be granted.
By the will for progress, by the urge towards perfection..
Above all, it is the will for progress and self-purification which lights the fire. The will for progress. Those who have a strong will, when they turn it towards spiritual progress and purification, automatically light the fire within themselves.
And each defect one wants to cure or each progress one wants to make — if all that is thrown into the fire, it burns with a new intensity. And this is not an image, it is a fact in the subtle physical. One can feel the warmth of the flame, one can see in the subtle physical the light of the flame. And when there is something in the nature which prevents one from advancing and one throws it into this fire, it begins to burn and the flame becomes more intense
Mother was able to transform the cells or the cellular mind, into some sort of a Bhakta, a devotee of the Divine, praying and aspiring consciously for union with the Divine. As Mother puts it “When I lie down on my bed at night, there is an offering of all the cells, which regularly surrender as completely as they can, with an aspiration not only for union but for fusion, let there remain nothing but the Divine. It’s regular every day, every single day”. Mother describes an interesting prayer of the cells or the cellular mind which is illustrative.
“I am tired of our infirmity. But it is not to rest that this body aspires, it aspired to the plenitude of your consciousness, it aspires to the splendor of Your Light, it aspired to the magnificence of Your Power, above all, it aspires to the glory of Your all-powerful and eternal Love… The other states of being, the vital, mind, may enjoy the intermediate contacts… The Supreme Lord alone can satisfy me.”
Should we aspire to have a spiritual experience?
I think it is wiser to aspire to make progress or to be more conscious or to be better or do better than aspire for a spiritual experience; because that might open the door to more or less imaginary and falsified experiences, to movements of the vital which take on the appearance of higher things. One may deceive oneself by having an aspiration for experiences. In fact, the experience must come spontaneously, as the result of inner progress, but not for itself or in itself.
Watch over one’s Fatih
To sit down in inert passivity and say, “If I am to have faith I shall have it, the Divine will give it to me”, is an attitude of laziness, of unconsciousness and almost of bad-will.
For the inner flame to burn, one must feed it; one must watch over the fire, throw into it the fuel of all the errors one wants to get rid of, all that delays the progress, all that darkens the path. If one doesn’t feed the fire, it smoulders under the ashes of one’s unconsciousness and inertia, and then, not years but lives, centuries will pass before one reaches the goal.
One must watch over one’s faith as one watches over the birth of something infinitely precious, and protect it very carefully from everything that can impair it.
In the ignorance and darkness of the beginning, faith is the most direct expression of the Divine Power which comes to fight and conquer.
As in everything else in the ascent of humanity, there is the necessity — especially at the beginning — of personal effort. It is possible that in some exceptional circumstances, for reasons which completely elude our intelligence, faith may come almost accidentally, quite unexpectedly, almost without ever having been solicited, but most frequently it is an answer to a yearning, a need, an aspiration, something in the being that is seeking and longing, even though not in a very conscious and systematic way. But in any case, when faith has been granted, when one has had this sudden inner illumination, in order to preserve it constantly in the active consciousness individual effort is altogether indispensable. One must hold on to one’s faith, will one’s faith; one must seek it, cultivate it, protect it.
In the human mind there is a morbid and deplorable habit of doubt, argument, scepticism. This is where human effort must be put in: the refusal to admit them, the refusal to listen to them and still more the refusal to follow them. No game is more dangerous than playing mentally with doubt and scepticism. They are not only enemies, they are terrible pitfalls, and once one falls into them, it becomes tremendously difficult to pull oneself out.
we have to pray to the indwelling Divine within us, feeling Her presence close and near within our heart, — — — — not to Something impersonal, universal and the absolute, but to someone who is intimate and personal and relate with as a Friend or the Mother, who can respond to our aspirations and prayers. Divine’s response to our prayers depends on many others factors like faith, sincerity. But feeling close to the Divine can be one of the factors.
with a sincere spiritual aspiration at the deeper, psychic, subliminal levels of his being or in his higher mind and vital, who has done some good work and earnest Sadhana but not able to unify his whole being, especially his physical being around his higher aspiration
Pulling comes usually from a desire to get things for oneself — in aspiration there is a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend and take possession — the more intense the call, the greater the self-giving.
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It is certainly a mistake to bring down the light by force — to pull it down. The supramental cannot be taken by storm. When the time is ready it will open of itself — but first there is a great deal to be done and that must be done patiently and without haste.
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There is no doubt the mixture of desire in what you do, even in your endeavour of sadhana, that is the difficulty. The desire brings a movement of impatient effort and a reaction of disappointment and revolt when difficulty is felt and the immediate result is not there and other confusing and disturbing feelings. Aspiration should be not a form of desire, but the feeling of an inner soul’s need, and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine. It is certainly not easy to get rid of this mixture of desire entirely — not easy for anyone; but when one has the will to do it, this also can be effected by the help of the sustaining Force.
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA, Vol-29, Pg. 60–61
So, as Sri Aurobindo points out, it is not easy to keep the aspiration free from pulling because the instinctive urge of our lower vital nature is acquisitive, wanting to draw everything to itself for the satisfaction of its ego. We may not be fully aware of this vital urge when we live more or less entirely in our higher mind or vital which are more generous. In general, if I am a beginner in the path of yoga, I may not be aware, that there are parts in me which contradicts my aspiration. As Mother points out [For there are many people who think that everything is going well; and if they are told, “No, your outer nature is in contradiction with your inner aspiration”, they protest. They are not aware] (CWM, Vol-7, Pg-1)
We can feel this lower vital acquisitive urge when we become more and more conscious of these lower parts of our nature. When the higher mind and vital awakens to the spiritual aim or the Divine and aspires for it, this lower vital instinct gets subtly mixed with it and drags down the higher aspiration. When the higher part awakens to the need for self-giving and tries to give itself to the Divine and puts a pressure on the lower parts to give itself, they revolt and refuse it. Even when they appear to consent and willing to give they ask loudly or silently “What I will get out of it” If you tell them “you will have the joy of self-giving and you may get whatever you are seeking manifold at a purer or higher level”, they murmur “Hmm, I am not sure”
As Mother points out, If I am a novice in the path, I may not be aware of the mixture of desire or ambition in my aspiration. I may think my aspiration is pure, but some kind of vanity, ambition or desire, or to put it in a general way, some form of self-seeking lying hidden within it, making it a smoky flame. This desire or ambition may be something gross like the desire for power, name and fame or greatness like, for example, the desire to be a guru with many disciples or as the Mother says “to be great instructors.” But it can also be subtle. In one of Her conversations, the Mother says “I want to be somebody…. This is what I call ambition”. Like for example, the desire to please others or to be appreciated by others or to be an important and influential person in the community, wanting to be someone who is respected, admired, loved, listened to. When I have this kind of ambition in me, very spontaneously and subconsciously, I adjust or adapt my behaviour, appearance and the mask to get what I want.
