Faith and Personal Effort

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There is a tendency in the human
mind to create an artificial

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division between faith-based in
the divine grace and effort

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based in the mental, vital, and
physical being of the

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individual.
Thus, if we have faith, we tend

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not to worry about specific
actions we can or should take.

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It is a type of fatalism that
says that the grace is watching

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over me, so whatever happens is
for the best and I need not take

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steps to support or develop it.
At the same time, the mind's

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natural approach is to fragment,
to divide, to question, to doubt

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and to hold conflicting ideas at
one time or another.

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Thus the individualist paralysed
into inaction through the

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confusion and doubt that has
been engendered.

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In his book The Mother, Sri
Aurobindo makes it clear that

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the attitude that holds that
effort is not required is a

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temasek attitude and that
personal effort is needed for a

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long way on the path of
realization, he states quote.

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The personal effort required is
a triple labor of aspiration,

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rejection and surrender.
An aspiration, vigilant,

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constant, unceasing the mind's
will.

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The heart's seeking the ascent
of the vital being, the will to

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open and make plastic the
physical consciousness and

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nature.
Rejection of the movements of

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the lower nature.
Rejection of the mind's ideas,

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opinions, preferences, habits,
constructions, so that the true

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knowledge may find free room in
a silent mind.

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Rejection of the vital nature's
desires, demands, cravings,

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sensations, passions,
selfishness, pride, arrogance,

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lust, greed, jealousy, envy,
hostility to the truth, so that

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the true power and joy may pour
from above into a calm, large,

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strong and consecrated vital
being.

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Rejection of the physical
nature, stupidity, doubt,

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disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy,
pettiness, laziness,

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unwillingness to change Thomas,
so that the true stability of

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light, power Ananda may
establish itself in a body

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growing always more divine.
Surrender of oneself and all one

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is and has, and every plane of
the consciousness and every

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movement to the Divine and the
Shakti.

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End Quote.
A disciple asks, sweet Mother,

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can faith be increased by
personal effort?

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The Mother observes, quote.
Faith is certainly a gift given

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to us by the Divine grace.
It is like a door suddenly

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opening upon an eternal truth
through which we can see it,

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almost touch it.
As in everything else and the

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ascent of humanity, there is the
necessity, especially at the

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beginning, of personal effort.
It is possible that in some

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exceptional circumstances, for
reasons which completely elude

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our intelligence, faith may come
almost accidentally, quite

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unexpectedly, almost without
ever having been solicited.

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But most frequently it is an
answer to a yearning, a need, an

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aspiration, something in the
being that is seeking and

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longing, even though not in a
very conscious and systematic

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way.
But in any case, when faith has

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been granted, when one has had
this sudden inner illumination,

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in order to preserve it
constantly in the active

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consciousness, individual effort
is altogether indispensable.

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One must hold on to 1's faith,
will 1's faith.

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One must seek it, cultivate it,
protect it.

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In the human mind there is a
morbid and deplorable habit of

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doubt, argument, skepticism.
This is where human effort must

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be put in, the refusal to admit
them, the refusal to listen to

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them, and still more, the
refusal to follow them.

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No game is more dangerous than
playing mentally with doubt and

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skepticism.
They are not only enemies, they

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are terrible pitfalls, and once
one falls into them, it becomes

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tremendously difficult to pull
oneself out.

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End Quote.
Reference Sri Aurobindo and the

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Mother Powers within, Chapter 6.
Faith, page 63.