Success in Yoga Despite Negative Suggestions of Unfitness or Impossibility

As the three Gunas continue to rotate their action in the exte
al personality, there are times when Rajas presides and there is potentially a sense of ambition and with it, a sustained effort. When Tamas presides, however, there is a tendency to fall into despondency or depression, seeing things from a viewpoint of general incapacity and without the energy to break out of the slump. The good thing is that neither of these two states are permanent as the Gunas are always in motion. At times when Sattwa predominates the individual can understand the issues, the fluctuations and the rising of various obstacles in the path and take them with a calm assurance that things will eventually get worked out.

These moods come about when the seeker is still mostly attached to the exte
al being and has not yet moved his standpoint to the central being, the psychic being, which maintains the fire of aspiration and consecration and has a direct connection to the Divine. The vital nature is prone to periods of light and dark, progress and retrogression. If the seeker treats these as the reality, they act as distractions from the needed focus. Desire, followed by either a sense of shame or guilt if it is satisfied; or, a sense of frustration if it is not satisfied, creates an endless loop of drama that leads the seeker astray quite easily.

Over time, with patience, perseverance and a faith that understands the complexity and difficulties of the transformations needed, the results will begin to show. As Sri Aurobindo points out “he who chooses the Infinite, has been chosen by the Infinite”. If the seeker holds onto this truth, he knows that the difficulties he is facing are in fact part of the path, part of the process, part of the sadhana. The main thing is to keep going and not give up hope or wallow in despair.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “There is no reason why you should abandon hope of success in the Yoga. The state of depression which you now feel is temporary and it comes even upon the strongest sadhaks at one time or another or even often recurs. The only thing needed is to hold firm with the awakened part of the being, to reject all contrary suggestions and to wait, opening yourself as much as you can to the true Power, till the crisis or change of which this depression is a stage is completed. The suggestions which come to your mind telling you that you are not fit and that you must go back to the ordinary life are promptings from a hostile source. Ideas of this kind must always be rejected as inventions of the lower nature; even if they are founded on appearances which seem convincing to the ignorant mind, they are false, because they exaggerate a passing movement and represent it as the decisive and definite truth. There is only one truth in you on which you have to lay constant hold, the truth of your divine possibilities and the call of the higher Light to your nature. If you told to that always, or, even if you are momentarily shaken from your hold, return constantly to it, it will justify itself in the end in spite of all difficulties and obstacles and stumblings. All that resits will disappear in time with the progressive unfolding of your spiritual nature.”

“What is needed is the conversion and surrender of the vital part. It must learn to demand only the highest truth and to forego all insistence on the satisfaction of its inferior impulses and desires. It is this adhesion of the vital being that brings the full satisfaction and joy of the whole nature in the spiritual life. When that is there, it will be impossible even to think of returning to the ordinary existence. Meanwhile the mental will and the psychic aspiration must be your support; if you insist, the vital will finally yield and be converted and surrender.”

“Fix upon your mind and heart the resolution to live for the Divine Truth and for that alone; reject all that is contrary and incompatible with it and turn away from the lower desires; aspire to open yourself to the Divine Power and to no other. Do this in all sincerity and the present and living help you need will not fail you.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, In Difficulty, pp. 51-52