{"id":4037,"date":"2013-07-13T01:53:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4037"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:53:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:01","slug":"22-endurance-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/03-questions-and-answers-volume-03\/22-endurance-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-22_Endurance.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nEndurance
\n\u2013 the Vital’s Hunger for Praise \u2013 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n
\nSigns of
\nthe Converted Vital <\/font><\/span><\/i>
\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nL<\/font><\/span>et endurance
\nbe your watchword: teach the life-force in you your vital being \u2013 not to
\ncomplain but to put up with all the conditions necessary for great achievement.
\nThe body is a very enduring servant, it bears the stress of circumstance tamely
\nlike a beast of burden. It is the vital being that is always grumbling and
\nuneasy. The slavery and torture to which it subjects the physical is almost
\nincalculable. How it twists and deforms the poor body to its own fads and
\nfancies, irrationally demanding that everything should be shaped according to
\nits whimsicality! But the very essence of endurance is that the vital should
\nlearn to give up its capricious likes and dislikes and preserve an equanimity
\nin the midst of the most trying conditions. When you are treated roughly by
\nsomebody or you lack something which would relieve your discomfort, you must
\nkeep up cheerfully instead of letting yourself be disturbed. Let nothing ruffle
\nyou the least bit, and whenever the vital tends to air its petty grievances
\nwith pompous exaggeration just stop to consider how very happy you are,
\ncompared to so many in this world. Reflect for a moment on what the soldiers
\nwho fought in the last war had to go through. If you had to bear such hardships
\nyou would realise the utter silliness of your dissatisfactions. And yet I do
\nnot wish you to court difficulties \u2013 what I want is simply that you should
\nlearn to endure the little insignificant troubles of your life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing great is ever accomplished without endurance. If you study
\nthe lives of great men you will see how they set themselves like flint against
\nthe weaknesses of the vital. Even today, the true meaning of our civilisation
\nis the mastery of the physical through endurance in the vital. The spirit of
\nsport and of adventure and the dauntless facing of odds which is evident in all
\nfields of life are part of this ideal of endurance. In science <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 136<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

itself,
\nprogress depends on the countless difficult tests and trials which precede
\nachievement. Surely, with such momentous work as we have in hand in our Ashram,
\nwe have not any less need of endurance. What you must do is to give your vital
\na good beating as soon as it protests; for, when the physical is concerned,
\nthere is reason to be considerate and to take precautions, but with the vital
\nthe only method is a sound \u201ckicking\u201d. Kick your vital the moment it complains,
\nbecause there is no other way of getting out of the petty consciousness which
\nattaches so much importance to creature comforts and social amenities instead
\nof asking for the Light and the Truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the commonest demands of the vital is for praise. It hates
\nto be criticised and treated as if it were of little importance. But it must be
\nalways prepared for rebuffs and stand them with absolute calm; nor must it pay
\nattention to compliments, forgetting that each movement of self-satisfaction is
\nan offering at the altar of the lords of falsehood. The beings of the subtle
\nworld of the life-force, with which our vital is connected, live and flourish
\non the worship of their devotees, and that is why they are always inspiring new
\ncults and religions so that their feasts of worship and adulation may never
\ncome to an end. So also your own vital being and the vital forces behind it
\nthrive \u2013 that is to say, fatten their ignorance \u2013 by absorbing the flatteries
\ngiven by others. But you must remember that the compliments paid by creatures on
\nthe same level of ignorance as oneself are really worth nothing, they are just
\nas worthless as the criticisms levelled at one. No matter from what pretentious
\nsource they derive, they are futile and empty. Unfortunately, however, the
\nvital craves even for the most rotten food and is so greedy that it will accept
\npraise from even the very embodiments of incompetence. I am reminded of the
\nannual opening of the Arts Exhibition in Paris, when the President of the
\nRepublic inspects the pictures, eloquently discovering that one is a landscape
\nand another a portrait, and making platitudinous comments with the air of a
\nmost intimate soul-searching <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 137<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

knowledge of
\nPainting. The painters know very well how inept the remarks are and yet miss no
\nchance of quoting the testimony of the President to their genius. For such
\nindeed is the vital in mankind, ravenously fame-hungry. <\/span><\/p>\n

What, however, is of genuine worth is the opinion of the Truth.
\nWhen there is somebody who is in contact with the Divine Truth and can express
\nit, then the opinions given out are no mere compliments or criticisms but what
\nthe Divine thinks of you, the value it sets on your qualities, its unerring
\nstamp on your efforts. It must be your desire to hold nothing in esteem except
\nthe word of the Truth; and in order thus to raise your standard you must keep
\nAgni, the soul’s flame of transformation, burning in you. It is noteworthy how,
\nwhen Agni flares up, you immediately develop a loathing for the cheap praise
\nwhich formerly used to gratify you so much, and understand clearly that your
\nlove of praise was a low movement of the untransformed nature. Agni makes you
\nsee what a vast vista of possible improvement stretches in front of you, by
\nfilling you with a keen sense of your present insufficiency. The encomium
\nlavished on you by others so disgusts you that you feel almost bitter towards
\nthose whom you would have once considered your friends; whereas all criticism
\ncomes as a welcome fuel to your humble aspiration towards the Truth. No longer
\ndo you feel depressed or slighted by the hostility of others. For, at least,
\nyou are able to ignore it with the greatest ease; at the most, you appreciate
\nit as one more testimony to your present unregenerate state, inciting you to
\nsurpass yourself by surrendering to the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another remarkable sign of the conversion of your vital, owing to
\nAgni’s influence, is that you face your difficulties and obstacles with a
\nsmile. You do not sit any more in sackcloth and ashes, lamenting over your
\nmistakes and feeling utterly crestfallen because you are not at the moment
\nquite up to the mark. You simply chase away depression with a smile. A hundred
\nmistakes do not matter to you: with a smile you recognise <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 138<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

that you
\nhave erred and with a smile you resolve not to repeat the folly in the future.
\nAll depression and gloom is created by the hostile forces who are never so
\npleased as when throwing on you a melancholy mood. Humility is indeed one thing
\nand depression quite another, the former a divine movement and the latter a
\nvery crude expression of the dark forces. Therefore, face your troubles
\njoyously, oppose with invariable cheerfulness the obstacles that beset the road
\nto transformation. The best means of routing the enemy is to laugh in his face!
\nYou may grapple and tussle for days and he may still show an undiminished
\nvigour; but just once laugh at him and lo! he takes to his heels. A laugh of
\nself-confidence and of faith in the Divine is the most shattering strength
\npossible–disrupts the enemy’s front, spreads havoc in his ranks and carries
\nyou triumphantly onwards. <\/span><\/p>\n

The converted vital feels also a joy in the process of
\nrealisation. All the difficulties implied in that process it accepts with
\ngusto, it never feels happier than when the Truth is shown it and the play of
\nfalsehood in its lower nature laid bare. It does not do the Yoga as if carrying
\na burden on its back but as if it were a very pleasurable occupation. It is
\nwilling to endure the utmost with a smile if it is a condition of the
\ntransformation. Neither complaining nor grumbling, it endures happily because
\nit is for the sake of the Divine that it does so. It has the unshakable
\nconviction that the victory will be won. Never for an instant does it vacillate
\nin its belief that the mighty work of Change taken up by Sri Aurobindo is going
\nto culminate in success. For that indeed is a fact; there is not a shadow of
\ndoubt as to the issue of the work we have in hand. It is no mere experiment but
\nan inevitable manifestation of the Supramental. The converted vital has a
\nprescience of the victory, keeps up a will towards progress which never turns
\nits back, feels full of the energy which is born of its certitude about the
\ntriumph of the Divine whom it is aware of always in itself as doing whatsoever
\nis necessary and infusing in it the unfaltering power to <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 139<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

resist and
\nfinally conquer its enemies. Why should it despair or complain? The
\ntransformation is going to be: nothing will ever stop it, nothing will
\nfrustrate the decree of the Omnipotent. Cast away, therefore, all diffidence
\nand weakness, and resolve to endure bravely awhile before the great day arrives
\nwhen the long battle turns into an everlasting victory.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 140<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n


\n\t
\n
\n\tH<\/a><\/font><\/span>OME<\/font><\/a><\/b>
\n\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Endurance \u2013 the Vital’s Hunger for Praise \u2013 Signs of the Converted Vital \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let endurance be your watchword: teach the life-force in you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","wpcat-115-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}