Painting by Priti Ghosh There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers.
The statement is clear enough. From our end there has to be an aspiration. Aspiration is a seeking to grow, to get, to grow into a condition which we do not have, to get something we do not possess. Aspiration is a movement of our will.
There are two adjectives used with the word “aspiration”;
Fixed- it is not enough to have an aspiration today which may be replaced by another tomorrow. Often our aspiration goes on changing with our moods, with our circumstances, with the strength or weakness of our spirit. If we find an obstruction tomorrow in working out an aspiration, or if we find ourselves too weak to work it out, we are ready to dilute it and choose a lesser aspiration. But that way we show that we have no constancy in our will. Before we decide upon an aspiration we must have a clear view of our capacities, of our circumstances, of the help that is available, of what is practical under the circumstances and then fix an aspiration around which our life-movement is to be organized. And till it is achieved the aspiration must not be deflected from. That is the first condition.
Unfailing- The aspiration should never slacken, never flag. It should always be active and moving. It should not fall back at the first obstruction. It should persist and push on.
It is not enough to have a passive, silent aspiration; it must be an aspiration that is alive and alert, that calls from below, that constantly exerts a pull and draws from above.
- M.P. Pandit
(M.P. Pandit - ‘Sat-Sang (Volume 2)’, Dipti Publications, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry 605002)
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