The Value of Enthusiasm

When we think about what qualities within ourselves are aids to achieving conscious contact with the psychic being, the soul, we would likely not name ‘enthusiasm’ as one of them. The Mother, however, makes the case for this quality. Those things that motivate us to learn, to expand our capacities, to go beyond our current limits, to reach for something greater and higher than what we are now, are the key to the kind of evolutionary progress that we are attempting to achieve. The motivating force may work in the mind, in the emotions, in the vital level or even on the physical plane. Each individual has some essential drive that works to push him along, and this takes on an aspect unique to that person.

When something grabs our focus, when we feel motivated and moved to take action, we open up inner pathways to the guiding and directing force behind our life and personality. Enthusiasm is the sign of this drive as it takes hold of our minds, our emotions, our vital energies and our physical persistence.

A disciple inquires: “Here it is written ‘Our one objective must be for the Divine himself to whom, knowingly or unknowingly, something always aspires in our secret nature.’ What is this something which aspires?

The Mother responds: “It is a part of the being which is not always the same in everyone, and which is instinctively open to the influence of the psychic. … There is always one part — sometimes indeed quite veiled, of which we are not conscious — something in the being which is turned to the psychic and receiving its influence. This is the intermediary between the psychic consciousness and the exte
al consciousness.”

“It is not the same thing in everyone; in each one it is different. it is the point in his nature or character through which he can touch the psychic and where he can receive the psychic influence. It depends upon people; for each one it is different; everyone has a point like this.”
“You may also feel that there are certain things which suddenly push you, lift you above yourself, open a kind of door upon something greater. It can be many things; and it depends upon each one’s nature. It’s the part of the being which enthuses over something; it is this capacity for enthusiasm.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Growing Within: The Psychology of Inner Development, Chapter VIII The Psychic Being and Inner Growth, pp. 154-155