The Total Change of the Nature Cannot Be Done in a Day

Modern life moves at high speed. We expect things to take place virtually instantaneously. As a result, we judge things in the light of the time it takes to accomplish them. If we have to expend an effort, we hope and expect that we will immediately begin to see palpable results. We want an “easy button” or an “enlightenment pill”, something that will accomplish the goal quickly and without a lot stress.

This expectation colors the way we take up yoga in the modern era. Stories of past yogic aspirants tell of long apprenticeships, difficult and time consuming tasks that had to be performed, and dedication that survived periods of doubt, hesitation and even despair.

A new recognition has developed that even in the practice of yoga, the play of the three Gunas of Nature, sattwa, rajas and tamas, continues. As long as we identify with the exte
al ego-personality and see ourselves as separate and drivers of our own progress, we are subject to the impulsions of the Gunas, including, when tamas is predominant, feelings if weakness, weariness, darkness, inadequacy, failure and incapacity.

The systematic development of the witness consciousness, which by definition separates the awareness from identification with the ego-personality, is a key mechanism to help the seeker to recognise the patterns of the three Gunas and their impacts on the thoughts, feelings and actions of the exte
al being.

The recognition that the development of human nature, including the evolution and manifestation of the capacities of the mind, took place over tens or even hundreds of thousands of years, preceding even the emergence of true human beings from their genetic ancestry, represents a way to put the current efforts into a realistic time-frame. Patience and persistence become then the watchwords for the changes, which cannot be expected to completely overtu
many millennia of habits and patterns of action in the short space of a single human lifetime.

None of this can be done through individual human effort, which is to a great degree, a figment built up by the exte
al ego. The change that is taking place is the manifestation of the Divine action in the creation and the individual is a potential nexus and operative point of receptivity and expression of that action. Navigating between the starting point of the human ego and the shift to the divine standpoint can be aided tremendously by the psychic transformation which focuses on aspiration and consecration, and by reliance on the guide or Guru who has experience along the path.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Not to be disturbed, to remain quiet and confident is the right attitude, but is is necessary also to receive the help of the Mother and not to stand back for any reason from her solicitude. One ought not to indulge ideas of incapacity, inability to respond, dwelling too much on defects and failures and allowing the mind to be in pain and shame on their account; for these ideas and feelings become in the end weakening things. If there are difficulties, stumblings or failures, one has to look at them quietly and call in tranquilly and persistently the Divine help for their removal, but not to allow oneself to be upset or pained or discouraged. Yoga is not an easy path and the total change of the nature cannot be done in a day.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, Calm — Peace — Equality, pp. 18-19