Receiving Spiritual Shocks and Trials With Humility Through a Shift of Standpoint Away from the Ego-Consciousness

The way we respond to setbacks or difficulties is conditioned by how deeply we are embedded in the ego-consciousness. The individual ego judges everything from its own very limited viewpoint. What it interprets as a negative result or as an obstacle may actually be part of the larger process of change that human nature is undergoing. The pressure of the outer circumstances provides the impetus for change.

When the psychic being comes forward to actively lead the being, it aligns itself with the divine consciousness and standpoint, and thus, can accept the situation as an opportunity and as a form of divine Grace.

Some of the lessons are painful. Some of the lessons are ‘life and death’ situations. The individual cannot see all the threads that come together to create a certain set of events, and thus, feels surprised and overwhelmed in many cases by what is happening to them and in their environment. Once the shift of standpoint takes place, it becomes easier to see the wheels of the universal creation turning and recognise the Time-Spirit, and the necessity of what is occurring for the longer-term process that is manifesting and that brings these circumstances to us as a means of our growth and development. Even if one cannot understand the larger framework, the psychic being can act from faith and devotion, and accept that the purpose is not the fulfillment of the ego’s desires, needs or wants, but rather, the intended development of the divine manifestation through time.

Many people relate how their lives and focus changed through a traumatic event, such as extreme illness, experiences of catastrophic accidents, death of loved ones, failure and disllusionment in the outer life, etc. Once the seeker takes up the spiritual practice, the events one experiences are all part of the process of change that needs to occur. Along the way there are experiences of peace, joy, love. There are also uprisings of all of the long-standing patterns of human existence, many of which have been embedded in Nature since time immemorial. Thus, the seeker also will eventually come face to face with doubt, despondency, insincerity, desire, vanity, anger, greed, lust, hatred, seeking for power or influence or wealth, opposition and other issues by which he can work on the solutions that are needed to advance the consciousness along its evolutionary path.

The great yogi, Milarepa, had to undergo tremendous shocks and suffering in his life. First, his patrimony was robbed by his uncle and aunt upon the death of his father, throwing himself, his mother and sister into destitution and essentially turning them into slaves. He then went to learn the practices of black magic to seek revenge. He later returned to the village and brought down a destructive hailstorm. Afterwards he experienced remourse and realized he had committed a grave sin and determined that he had to seek a Guru who could aid him in achieving liberation in one lifetime. His Guru put him to years of backbreaking construction of stone structures without imparting any teachings to him, while others came and received the teachings. Eventually Milarepa became depressed and suicidal. After years of struggle physically, vitally, emotionally and mentally, his Guru gave him the teachings and set him on the path of austere meditation, living in caves and surviving on nettles and limited other supplies. At the end, he attained the realisation he sought. The path was one of endless tragedy, suffering, pain and blows of various sort. The result was that which his spirit was guided to seek and achieve.

The Mother writes: “Shocks and trials always come as a divine grace to show us the points in our being where we fall short and the movements in which we turn our back on our soul by listening to the clamour of our mental being and vital being.”

“If we know how to accept these spiritual blows with due humility, we are sure to cover a great distance at a single bound.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pg. 75