The Joy of Action — Independent of Conce for the Fruits of the Action

The goal of the integral yoga is nothing less than the transformation of human nature, the uplifting of consciousness to the next evolutionary stage in the manifestation and the consequent changes that brings about to create a new harmony and a new balance in the life of the individual and in the world. Those who take up this yoga find that human nature is not so malleable, and thus, old modes and habits of action tend to stay embedded even when we recognise that things need to change.

Some of the past developments of consciousness have taken not just millennia to manifest and embed themselves in human nature; rather, some of these traits go back literally hundreds of millions or even billions of years.

If we take up the yogic practice with the expectation that we will get easy or fast results, we are thus bound to be disappointed. We thus have to take a different approach, one of offering and self-giving to the longer-term process of which we are a part. We may never ourselves see or experience the changes we are aspiring toward, but we are helping, by the very attempt, to prepare the ground, the ‘texture of consciousness’ for these changes to come about.

In a very simplified way, we can look at this process as something of a relay race. Four runners sequentially take the baton as they are running around the track. Only the last one actually crosses the finish line, but all of the others were essential to make it happen. Possibly some of the changes in human nature may take place very quickly, in just a few hundred years. We ourselves are tasked with carrying our ‘baton’ through our brief lifetimes and handing it off, figuratively, to the next generation who will continue the work and eventually, the new consciousness will be fully manifested, will set right the imbalances and disharmonies in the mental-vital-physical precarious balance that clearly has its limitations as a transitional stage, and will reorganise the life of the humanity and its relationship with the other beings and the environment of the planet itself.

If we take the approach of a self-offering to this larger divine manifestation, and if we at the same time do not carry within us the expectation of personal ‘benefit’ we can experience, as the Mother mentions, the joy of living our lives and the joy of offering.

The Mother observes: “As with everything in yoga, the effort for progress must be made for the love of the effort for progress. The joy of effort, the aspiration for progress must be enough in themselves, quite independent of the result. Everything one does in yoga must be done for the joy of doing it, and not in view of the result one wants to obtain…. Indeed, in life, always, in all things, the result does not belong to us. And if we want to keep the right attitude, we must act, feel, think, strive spontaneously, for that is what we must do, and not in view of the result to be obtained.”

“As soon as we think of the result we begin to bargain and that takes away all sincerity from the effort. You make an effort to progress because you feel within you the need, the imperative need to make an effort and progress; and this effort is the gift you offer to the Divine Consciousness in you, the Divine Consciousness in the Universe, it is your way of expressing your gratitude, offering your self; and whether this results in progress or not is of no importance. You wll progress when it is decided that the time has come to progress and not because you desire it.”

“If you wish to progress, if you make an effort to control yourself, for instance, to overcome certain defects, weaknesses, iperfections, and if you expect to get a more or less immediate result from your effort, your effort loses all sincerity, it becomes a bargaining. You say, ‘See! I am going to make an effort, but that’s because I want this in exchange for my effort’. You are no longer spontaneous, no longer natural.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pp. 169-170