Acting from the ‘Right Spirit’

The Mother provides another example of the need for insight and flexibility to address changing circumstances. Most people want to have a fixed routine provided for them. ‘Do this, and you will achieve that.’ This process, while comforting to the mental consciousness that normally functions within fixed and narrow limits, is unable to address the fluidity and complexity of the world within which we actually live.

Rather than focus on one particular method or technique, the Mother simply asks the seeker to align himself with the situation, take his standpoint from any inward link to the psychic being, and then respond naturally and spontaneously to whatever presents itself to be done.

In Bases of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo states: “Aspire, concentrate in the right spirit and, whatever the difficulties, you are sure to attain the aim you have put before you.”

A disciple asks: “What is the ‘right spirit”?”

The Mother notes: “It depends on the case…. The right spirit is the will to perfect oneself, or the will to be calm, or… it depends, you see,… on the circumstances… it means that in each circumstance there is a spirit which is the suitable spirit, the one you ought to have, the attitude you must inwardly take. It depends on the case.”

“For example, you see, as soon as one feels a wave of physical disequilibrium, of ill health coming, well, to concentrate in the right spirit is to concentrate in an inner calm, a trust in the divine Grace, and a will to remain in physical equilibrium and good health. This is the right spirit. In another case, one may feel a wave of anger or a fit of temper coming from outside; then one should withdraw into an inner calm, a detachment from superficial things, with a will to express only what comes from above and always be submissive to the divine Will. This is the right spirit. And in each case it is something like that. Naturally it always comes back to the same thing, that one must remember the Divine and put oneself at His service and will what He wills.”

“But in one case you may want the calm, in the other you may want the force, in another still you may want health, in yet another something which resists the pressure form outside.”

“When one is perplexed, when one has to make a choice, when one doesn’t know what the right thing to do is — you see, one has to choose among two or three or four possible decisions and doesn’t know which is the right one, then one must put himself as far as possible in contact with his psychic being and the divine Presence in him, present the problem to this psychic consciousness and ask for the true light, the true decision, the one most in accordance with the divine Will, and try to listen and receive the inspiration.”

“In each case, you see, it is the right attitude.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pp. 9-10