The Test of Yogic Equality

The setting of Sri Krishna’s teaching to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, symbolizing the ‘battle of life’ is an essential message to all who seek to progress in their spiritual growth and development. We do not normally associate a battlefield as the place to learn about our spiritual existence and destiny; however, the need for a solid spiritual basis for life is underlined and accentuated when one is involved in all the activities and pressures of living in the world, whether facing the day to day struggles and issues that arise, or, as with Arjuna, facing a cataclysmic battle with injury, death, mayhem and conce
for beloved family, friends and elders in the balance.

Many seekers work to achieve spiritual realisations by withdrawing, for a time, from the life of the world, through retreats or vision quests or other opportunities to leave behind the activities that demand attention and pressure the individual on all levels. Still others seek a lifetime of renunciation whether in a monastery or cloister, or an ashram or as a renunciate in the forest or the caves.

When we look closely at these methods, however, we recognise that the peace achieved is oftentimes short-lived when the individual later returns to the outer world and its activities, or if suddenly confronted with pressures from that world. There are, for instance, numerous cases of individuals erupting with anger or lust when suddenly faced with the temptations of the vital existence that they had thought to be long mastered and under control.

While it may be a useful strategy, initially, to step back from the world in order to establish a basis of peace and separation in the consciousness, eventually there should be a way to bring that standpoint to bear upon the entire life in all its forms and circumstances.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Whatever the unpleasantness of circumstances, however disagreeable the conduct of others, you must learn to receive them with a perfect calm and without any disturbing reaction. These things are the test of equality. It is easy to be calm and equal when things go well and people and circumstances are pleasant; it is when they are the opposite that the completeness of the calm, peace, equality can be tested, reinforced, made perfect.”

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Living Within: The Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth, General Methods and Principles, Equality, pp. 27-29