Spiritual Progress: Personal Effort or Surrender to the Divine Grace

We see in the legends about great yogic practitioners and their struggles to achieve the spiritual results, a variety of approaches. Two major approaches have been categorised as the “baby monkey” and the “baby cat” approach. The differentiation involves the way the individual participates in the process of spiritual growth and transformation. The baby monkey approach involves substantial personal effort. It is so named as observation of baby monkeys shows that they have to hold on tightly to their mother in order to remain safe and get the support of the parent in any situation; whereas the baby cat approach is characterised by the mother picking up the kitten by the scruff of the neck and carrying it where it needs to go, without the kitten doing anything but surrendering to the mother’s action. In each instance, the action of the Divine Grace (symbolised by the mother monkey or mother cat) is required.

Particularly in modern society, people are very much accustomed to taking the initiative, using their mental will, their vital force, their physical prowess to accomplish whatever they set their attention to. We are very much oriented therefore to undertake the ‘baby monkey’ approach. This approach however has its own drawbacks, as it leads to a lot more struggle, effort, discouragement and time than if the individual could find a way to surrender to the divine Grace and let it do its work. Achieving the necessary quiet in the mind and vital parts of the being, developing the receptivity and ability to let the Grace do its work, are challenges for the active and energetic individual in today’s world.

The other approach, the ‘baby cat’ approach has its own drawbacks, particularly in today’s world. People tend not to have the ability to distinguish between a true surrender to the divine or following a teacher or guru blindly under the guise of surrender, and thereby potentially being misled. Surrender does not imply a tamasic giving up of one’s native intelligence or abilities. It also does not imply that one can simply discontinue all effort and get carried along, unless the surrender is deep, all-pervasive and true, such that the Divine Grace actually can do its work unobstructed.

In the modern world, we would frequently find that a balanced approach incorporating elements of each, at different times, and under varying circumstances, may turn out to be the most fruitful method.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “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.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 123