Compilation · Psychic
Aspiration: Compilation
Passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on aspiration, each with its source.
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- What is Aspiration?
- What is Aspiration in Relation to Other Qualities?
- How is Aspiration Different from Desire?
- What is Aspiration in the Different Parts of Being?
- What is Aspiration in Integral Yoga?
- Why is Aspiration Important?
- For Overcoming Difficulties
- For Progress and Self-perfection
- For the Descent of Higher Consciousness
- How to Aspire?
- Prerequisite for Aspiration
- Process of Aspiration
- Practices for Aspiration
- Difficulties in Aspiration
- Sources
Even in all that life and man have marred,
A whisper of divinity still is heard,
A breath is felt from the eternal spheres.
Allowed by Heaven and wonderful to man
A sweet fire-rhythm of passion chants to love.1
What is Aspiration?
Aspiration is a turning upward of the inner being with a call, yearning, prayer for the Divine, for the Truth, for the Consciousness, Peace, Ananda, Knowledge, descent of Divine Force or whatever else is the aim of one’s endeavour.2
Aspiration is the dynamic push of your whole nature behind the resolution to reach the Divine.
A beam of the Eternal smites his heart,
His thought stretches into infinitude;
All in him turns to spirit vastnesses.
… an aspiration (not formulated in words, naturally), what is called in English “a yearning”, “a longing” for this contact with the divine Force, the Force of Harmony, the Force of Truth, the Force of Love.
A sacred yearning lingered in its trace,
The worship of a Presence and a Power
Too perfect to be held by death-bound hearts,
The prescience of a marvellous birth to come.
Now other claims had hushed in him their cry:
Only he longed to draw her presence and power
Into his heart and mind and breathing frame;
Only he yearned to call for ever down
Her healing touch of love and truth and joy
Into the darkness of the suffering world.
There is no need of words in aspiration. It can be expressed or unexpressed in words. The aspiration need not be in the form of thought — it can be a feeling within that remains even when the mind is attending to the work.
Q: Should not one be born with a great aspiration?
A: No, aspiration is a thing to be developed, educated, like all activities of the being. One may be born with a very slight aspiration and develop it so much that it becomes very great. One may be born with a very small will and develop it and make it strong. It is a ridiculous idea to believe that things come to you like that, through a sort of grace, that if you are not given aspiration, you don’t have it—this is not true.
….It is you who must want to do it. When it is done, all goes well, when you have the Knowledge also, all goes well, and when you are identified with the Divine, all goes even better, but till then you must will, choose and decide. Don’t go to sleep lazily, saying, “Oh! The work will be done for me, I have nothing to do but let myself glide along with the stream.” Besides, it is not true, the work is not done by itself, because if the least little thing thwarts your little will, it says, “No, not that!…”
Earth’s Aspiration
Alarmed by the sorrow dragging at her feet
And conscious of the high things not yet won,
Ever she nurses in her sleepless breast
An inward urge that takes from her rest and peace.
Ignorant and weary and invincible,
She seeks through the soul’s war and quivering pain
The pure perfection her marred nature needs,
A breath of Godhead on her stone and mire.
A faith she craves that can survive defeat,
The sweetness of a love that knows not death,
The radiance of a truth for ever sure.3
What is Aspiration in Relation to Other Qualities?
Intense aspiration is always good, but let there also be calm and peace and joy in the mind and heart, and a confidence that all will be done in its due time.4
There can be an intense but quiet aspiration which does not disturb the harmony of the inner being.5
Aspiration and Perfection
In works, aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality.6
Aspiration and Sincerity
Sincerity means more than mere honesty. It means that you mean what you say, feel what you profess, are earnest in your will. As the sadhak aspires to be an instrument of the Divine and one with the Divine, sincerity in him means that he is really in earnest in his aspiration and refuses all other will or impulse except the Divine’s.7
Sincere is simply an adjective meaning that the will must be a true will. If you simply think “I aspire” and do things inconsistent with the aspiration, or follow your desires or open yourself to contrary influences, then it is not a sincere will.
[Sincerity:] To allow no part of the being to contradict the highest aspiration towards the Divine.8
Aspiration and Silence
In silence lies the greatest aspiration. We pray that the greatest receptivity may also be there.9
Aspiration and Perseverance
Persevere in your aspiration and effort, do not allow yourself to be discouraged by setbacks. This always happens in the beginning. But if you continue to fight without paying any attention to them, a day will come when the resistances give way and the difficulties vanish.10
How is Aspiration Different from Desire?
An aspiration which is not mixed with any interested and egoistic calculation.11
That [fiery aspiration] is all right, that is the psychic aspiration, the psychic fire. Where the vital comes in is in the impatience for result and dissatisfaction if the result is not immediate. That must cease.
In aspiration there is what I might call an unselfish flame which is not present in desire. Your aspiration is not a turning back upon self — desire is always a turning back upon oneself. From the purely psychological point of view, aspiration is a self-giving, always, while desire is always something which one draws to oneself; aspiration is something which gives itself, not necessarily in the form of thought but in the movement, in the vibration, in the vital impulse. True aspiration does not come from the head; even when it is formulated by a thought, it springs up like a flame from the heart….
…The essential difference between love in aspiration and love in desire is that love in aspiration gives itself entirely and asks nothing in return—it does not claim anything; whereas love in desire gives itself as little as possible, asks as much as possible, it pulls things to itself and always makes demands.
The first thing needed is to become conscious of the Divine Will, and in order to do that one must no longer have any desires or personal will. The best way to achieve this (become conscious of the Divine Will) is to direct one’s whole aspiration towards the Divine Perfection, to give oneself to it without reserve and to rely on That alone for all satisfaction. All the rest will follow as a result.12
What is Aspiration in the Different Parts of Being?
Mental Aspiration
A mental aspiration means that the thought-power aspires to have knowledge, for instance, or else to have the power to express itself well or have clear ideas, a logical reasoning. One may aspire for many things; that all the faculties and capacities of the mind may be developed and placed at the service of the Divine. This is a mental aspiration.13
Vital Aspiration
… you may have an aspiration in the vital; if you have desires or troubles, storms, inner difficulties, you may aspire for peace, to be quite impartial, without desire or preference, to be a good docile instrument without any personal whims, always at the Divine’s disposal. This is a vital aspiration.13
Physical Aspiration
You may have a physical aspiration also; that the body may feel the need to acquire a kind of equipoise in which all the parts of the being will be well balanced, and that you may have the power to hold off illness at a distance or overcome it fast when it enters trickily, and that the body may always function normally, harmoniously, in perfect health. That is a physical aspiration.14
Unless one practises yoga in the physical being (outer being), it remains ignorant—even its aspiration is ignorant and so is its goodwill; all its movements are ignorant and so they distort and disfigure the Divine Presence. That is why the yoga of the body-cells is indispensable.15
Psychic Aspiration
… aspiration, as well as widening and intensity, comes from the heart, the emotional centre, the door of the psychic or rather the door leading to the psychic. The mind by its nature is curious and interested; it sees, it observes, it tries to understand and explain; and with all this activity, it disturbs the experience and diminishes its intensity and force. On the other hand, the more quiet and silent th