The Way to Help Others

It is a characteristic trait of the human ego-personality that we easily see faults and issues in others and in exte
al circumstances, that we fail to see within ourselves. But how do we recognise something outside if we have no way to relate to it, if we do not produce the vibrational pattern within ourselves and interpret it?

All of our activities, political, economic, humanitarian, technical, supportive, are essentially meant to comfort or help in various ways in the exte
al life and mitigate suffering to some degree. They are more or less like bandages applied over a wound. They do not generally go to the root of the issue nor provide solutions to eliminate the suffering or the cause of the suffering.

The key to getting at the actual underlying issue is the internal awareness of the force that creates these situations as they impact the individual being and set up a vibrational pattern internally. As the seeker becomes aware of these things inwardly, he can begin to act upon them, not in ‘others’ but in himself. As he succeeds in changing the impact of these vibrations, and gaining mastery over them so that they cannot transmit further through him, he also gains the power, at that moment, to communicate that capacity to others, not necessarily through outward means, but through his vibrational control. He may be the “first monkey” in the story of the hundredth monkey, or somewhere in between, or the “hundredth monkey”, so to speak, that creates the vibrational pattern then available to all humanity. This is the way to solve the issue and help others which goes far beyond all our exte
al ‘solutions’.

This is not to say that one should disregard the need for the “bandage” from time to time along the way. Those who are called to provide humanitarian assistance or develop some exte
al means to help along the way should certainly not be discouraged. Yet, the true solution will be found within through a change of consciousness.

The Mother observes: “… each one — this totality of substance constituting your inner and outer body, the totality of substance with which your being is built from the outermost to the innermost — is a field of work; it is as though one had gathered together carefully, accumulated a certain number of vibrations and put them at your disposal for you to work upon them fully. it is like a field of action constantly at your disposal: night and day, waking or asleep, all the time — nobody can take it away from you, it is wonderful! You may refuse to use it (as most men do), but it is a mass to be transformed that is there in your hands, fully at your disposal, given to you for you to learn to work upon it. So, the most important thing is to begin by doing that. You can do nothing with others unless you are able to do it with yourself. You can never give a good advice to anyone unless you are able to give it to yourself first, and to follow it. And if you see a difficulty somewhere, the best way of changing this difficulty is to change it in yourself first. If you see a defect in anyone, you may be sure it is in you, and you begin to change it in yourself. And when you will have changed it in yourself, you will be strong enough to change it in others. And this is a wonderful thing, people don’t realise what an infinite grace it is that this universe is arranged in such a way that there is a collection of substance, from the most material to the highest spiritual, all that gathered together into what is called a small individual, but at the disposal of a central Will. And that is yours, your field of work, nobody can take it away from you, it is your own property. And to the extent you can work upon it, you will be able to have an action upon the world. But only to that extent. One must do more for oneself, besides, than one does for others.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 2, Looking at Oneself and Others, pp. 53-54