The Perpetual Effort Required for Transformation of Life in the World

Ascent and integration. Relentless effort. What many do not appreciate is that any attempt to achieve individual perfection or transformation is limited by the readiness of the world and the rest of humanity in particular, to accept those changes that are needed for this to occur. Thus, progress will necessarily be partial, halting and in some cases, there may appear to be retrogressive steps as forces that oppose the changes raise up their defenses and fight to prevent the next step of progress from taking hold and becoming the standard, from which the further steps of progress could then begin.

There is a range of capacity available within humanity at any point in time and as long as the individual stays more or less within that range, progress can be made. Once an individual reaches the upper boundary, however, and attempts to go beyond, the real resistance can kick in. This is where persevering, relentless focus and effort is required, without accepting failure or discouragement as the final answer. One may attempt to overcome the force of desire, for instance. Various methods have been tried in human history. Yet the individual is not immune to the vibrations that cause desire to arise, and with the least failure of vigilance, these vibrations can take hold and manifest within him. It can be even more difficult if active opposition arises to protect the status quo.

In his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo provides an illuminating segment describing the world redeemer’s efforts: “Hard is the world-redeemer’s heavy task; The world itself becomes his adversary, Those he would save are his antagonists: This world is in love with its own ignorance, Its darkness turns away from the saviour light, It gives the cross in payment for the crown.” [Book VI, Canto 2, pg. 448]

The Mother writes: “It is only by a very persistent effort that one can succeed in overcoming his difficulties; and yet it seems impossible to cut oneself off completely from one’s solidarity with the rest of the world. Therefore a perfect purity, a perfect perfection seems impossible so long as the world has not reached at least a certain degree of perfection. Even the ascetic, the solitary, who goes and sits in a cave or under a tree or in the jungle, cannot completely free himself from solidarity with the rest of the world. The air he breathes is full of all the vibrations of the world, the food he eats, whatever it may be, even if it is reduced to the minimum, contains the vibrations of the world; and so, it is enough for him to exist to be in solidarity with the difficulties of the world.”

“That is why, in fact, the way is so long. Even without having any other consideration than that of what one is absorbing constantly into himself when breathing or eating, all these things one must constantly transform as one goes on absorbing them. It is a continuous alchemy in which one absorbs a particular kind of vibration containing all the possible disorders and must transmute this into something which is ready to receive the light from above. And this work is perpetual, and perpetually renewed. So it is impossible to live in this world, in the world as it is, and become perfect without the world itself making a great progress.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.8 Life — A Mass of Vibrations, pg. 187