The Process of Effectuating Real Change in Human Nature

Honest observation without mental bias is the first step the Mother outlines. This is accomplished by setting up the ideal as a screen or filter against which to compare each action. Those that do not compare entirely favorably represent things that can be identified as subjects for the change process. The standpoint of the uninvolved witness of the nature does not have any obligation to intervene, and many paths of yogic development that utilize this method counsel non-intervention as a basis of achieving liberation.

If the goal, however, is not ‘liberation’ but ‘transformation’, different criteria emerge and as a result, at some point, intervention is required and becomes phase 2 of the process. Eventually the observational mode is able to identify specific areas of ‘conflict’ between different parts of the being, their various needs, drives, motives, habits and directions, and begin to organise each of these elements around the highest aspiration representing the purpose the psychic being has as the life-objective.

The Mother writes: “And I am so convinced that anybody who does it in that way, with the same freshness and sincerity, will obtain exhilarating results…. To put all that on a screen in front of yourself and look at what is happening. And the first step is to know all that is happening and then you must not try to shut your eyes when something does not appear pleasant to you! You must keep them wide open and put each thing in that way before the screen. Then you make quite an interesting discovery. And then the next step is to begin saying: ‘Since all that is happening within me, why should I not put this thing in this way and then that thing in that way and then this other in this way and thus wouldn’t I be doing something logical that has a meaning? Why should I not remove that thing which stands obstructing the way, these conflicting wills? why? And what does that represent in the being? Why is it there? If it were put there, would it not help instead of harming me?’ And so on.”

“And little by little, little by little, you see clearer and then you see why you are made like that, what is the thing you have got to do — that for which you are born. And then, quite naturally, since all is organised for this thing to come, the path becomes straight and you can say beforehand: ‘It is in this way that it will happen.’ And when things come from outside to try and upset all that, you are able to say: ‘No, I accept this, for it helps; I reject that, for that harms.’ And then, after a few years, you curb yourself as you curb a horse: you do whatever you like, in the way you like and you go wherever you like.”

“It seems to me this is worth the trouble. I believe it is the most interesting thing.”

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Living Within: The Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth, Exercises for Growth and Mastery, Self-Observation and Self-Organisation, pp. 126-131