The Exercise of Will-Power and the Role of Sincerity in Implementation
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YouTube reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter V Will-Power, pp. 48-49 This episode is also available as a blog post at https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/the-exercise-of-will-power-and-the-role-of-sincerity-in-implementation/
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More information about Sri Aurobindo can be found at www.aurobindo.net
The US editions and links to e-book editions of Sri Aurobindo’s writings can be found at Lotus Press www.lotuspress.com
0:01 Most people have had the experience. They decide to try a new diet or exercise regimen. They stick with it a few days or weeks and then it seems to get overlooked, forgotten or abandoned. Other things got in the way, or else the impulses cause them to weaken their resolve. How many times people decide to cut out between meal snacks only to find themselves following the old habit? Why does this happen? While we tend to believe that once we make up our mind about something that we can carry it out, we failed to account for the different parts of our being that have their own needs, desires, and pressures to effectuate those desires.
0:49 The mind may decide on a course of action, but the vital being and the physical being disagree. It is only when all the parts of the being are in alignment on a particular goal or action that it can be put into practice in a complete way. The mother calls this sincerity. Without this type of sincerity, we are pushed and pulled in various directions. We give way to divergent pressures and drives, and we find our good intentions overturned when the vital nature or the body assert their separate directions. A disciple asks sweet mother, how can we make our resolution very firm? The mother observes quote by wanting it to be very firm laughter.
1:41 Now this seems like a joke, but it is absolutely true. 1 does not want it. Truly, there is always if you. It is a lack of sincerity. If you look sincerely, you will see that you have decided that it will be like this. And then beneath there is something which is not decided at all and is waiting for the second of hesitation in order to rush forward. If you are sincere, if you are sincere and get hold of the part which is hiding, waiting, not showing itself, which knows that there will come a second of indecision when it can rush out and make you do the thing you have decided not to do, But if you really want it, nothing in the world can prevent you from doing what you want.
2:32 It is because one doesn't know how to will it, and it is because one is divided in one's will. If you are not divided in your will, I say that nothing, nobody in the world can make you change your will. End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother powers within. Chapter 5. Willpower, pages 48 to 49.