The Need for Patience and Perseverance

Scientists tell us that human beings diverged from chimpanzees somewhere between 4 and 8 million years ago. Somewhere around 2 million years ago, the line of development that led to human beings appeared and our current formation, Homo sapiens came on the scenes around 300,000 years ago. Each stage led to expression of new physical, vital and mental traits that coalesced around the current status of what we understand to be human capabilities today. While there may be some debate about the exactness of these calculations, there remains the underlying fact that development of any stage of consciousness from a preceding stage does not happen ‘ove
ight’.

We are now engaged with the development and expression of the next term of the evolutoin of consciousness, beyond the mental level developed in the human being. How long will this take? If we look back at each prior stage of development, the vital consciousness developing out of the material consciousness, the mental consciousness developing out of the vital consciousness, the higher mental consciousness developing out of the rudimentary mental consciousness, we see a time frame of millions of years in the normal processes of Nature.

This background and perspective is of utmost importance for the spiritual seeker who takes up the work needed to bring about the changes in human nature that can prepare and develop the next stage of evolution of consciousness.

Human beings tend to be impatient. We want to see instant results, have instant success. Anything that does not happen quickly, within the framework of our very short human lifetimes (in relation to the time scales noted above) is a cause for questioning, doubt and expression of impatience. How do we reconcile the time needed by Nature with the human time frame? We need to adjust our expectations and develop imperturbable patience so that we can persevere without the kind of instant gratification that we generally desire.

Patience does not imply indolence. There should be the focus and energy concentrated to continue the progress, while at the same time, the understanding and view that these changes may take many human lifetimes. First Nations’ people speak of looking at consequences down to 7 generations in the future, to provide a better perspective of the impact of our actions. The development of a new stage of conscious evolution is a far longer process than just 7 generations. We thus look at this as a disinterested work, without personal desire, without personal expectation, without personal gratification of instant success, as part of the larger intentions of the divine manifestation. The individual may, and likely will, experience changes that are real and palpable along the way. These changes help create the incremental readiness for human development beyond the mental level, with all of the requirements for such a change, and all of the receptivity and capacities in place to accept such a change and integrate it into the expression of Nature over time.

It is important to note that the expression of each further stage of consciousness has proceeded an ‘order of magnitude’ faster than the preceding stage. What took billions of years to occur in the expression of the vital consciousness out of the material consciousness, was truncated down to just hundreds of thousands of years for the development of the human mental capacities out of the level seen in primates generally at that time. Several additional elements look to speed up the process for the next stage, as Sri Aurobindo has explained. There is the introduction of the supramental force into the physical consciousness that begins to prepare the way and introduce its own aspects of preparation for the transformation. The conscious participation of awake individuals also represents a qualitative change in the way Nature has done this in the past, and this can speed up the entire development enormously. With an ‘order of magnitude’ change and this conscious focus and participation, what Nature might take tens of thousands of years to do, could conceivably be done in a much shorter time frame. That does not, however, imply ‘ove
ight’. What can start to become visible are incremental changes in our physical, vital and mental existence as the higher force that is working to manifest this next phase embeds itself in the earth-nature and begins to ‘prepare the ground’ for its full expression over time.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “It is certain that an ardent aspiration helps to progress, but patience is also needed. For it is a very big change that has to be made and, although there can be moments of great rapidity, it is never all the time like that. Old things try to stick as much as possible; the new that come have to develop and the consciousness takes time to assimilate them and make them normal to the nature.”

The Mother adds: “You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, ‘I want to do yoga’, I reply, ‘Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed.’ I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 136