Difficulties Provide the Possibility of Progress

If we examine the times and phases of our lives, we find that when things seem to be going smoothly forward and we feel great, we want to enjoy and appreciate the good times. We thus tend to slacken our efforts so that we can get the most out of the positive energies we are experiencing. This is a quite natural tendency, which tends to lull us into a state of quiescence. Real progress, on the other hand, involves focus and attention. In order to get a violin to make music, we need to put the strings under the right amount of tension. Too much and the strings will snap. Too little and there is no music! The same thing happens in our lives. Too little pressure and we tend to become soft and complacent. Too much pressure and we tend to break down in some way or another. Finding the right balance involves determining how to both appreciate the positive and good things that are coming to us, while at the same time remaining focused and persevering in the yogic sadhana.

We can see this everywhere, not just in spiritual pursuits. Athletes practice endlessly, building up their muscles, their reflexes, their coordination and timing and focusing their minds and emotions on the task they have set before themselves. There is a common saying among many athletes, ‘No pain, no gain’, implying that sitting back ane enjoying oneself in ease and comfort is not going to achieve the desired result.

The spiritual aspirant, who has purposely decided to pursue spiritual growth and development in some form or another, naturally tunes his focus to deal with the issues that help to achieve that progress. This effort immediately leads to any opposing or contrary forces or aspects of the being appearing and insisting on their right to maintain the status quo. Thus, the process of aspiration, rejection and surrender as Sri Aurobindo succinctly describes in his book The Mother. Aspiration is the action of “tuning” the receptivity to the higher forces. Rejection is the action of “removing” the “noise” from the “signal” that results from that tuning. Surrender is the action of actively adhering to the impulsions of those higher forces when they are called into the being and separated from the contrary forces and energies. Sri Aurobindo cautions against what he calls a ‘tamasic surrender’ which essentially gives up any individual effort. As long as the ego-personality is active, some focused effort is both needed and beneficial.

We sometimes wonder why it is that certain individuals who take up the spiritual path are loaded up with all kinds of difficulties, inner and outer. The divine manifestation is precise in giving to each individual the issues he is able to face and handle effectively, if he makes the effort. Those who have a developed spiritual being naturally can take on what may be considered to be a heavier load than those who are still at an earlier stage of formation and development. Thus, the ‘world redeemer’ whom Sri Aurobindo describes in Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol carries all the suffering of the world as he tackles the pain, grief, suffering, weakness, and depression that oppress all of humanity.

Facing issues that are larger than we have dealt with in the past is actually the process of our growth. Just as we build up our bodies through systematic expansion of our exercise regimen, just as we build up our mental faculties by tackling ever-tougher assignments, so too, in the spiritual realm, we grow as we take on harder and more difficult inner tasks.

The Mother writes: “The difficulties are for the strong, and help to make them stronger.”

“Difficulties come because there are possibilities in you. If in life everything was easy, then it would be a life of nothing. Because difficulties come on your way it shows you have possibilities.”

“For the aspirant and the ‘sadhak’, all that comes in his life comes to help him to know the Truth and to live it.”

“The difficulties come always to make us progress. The greater the difficulty, the greater can be the progress.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pp. 76-77