Beyond Arbitrary Personal Choice: The Elimination of Egoistic Will in the Integral Movement
I. The Nature and Necessity of the Egoistic Will
The ego is defined as the central subjective principle governing human action in the Ignorance, fundamentally rooted in division and limitation.
A. Definition and Origin of the Ego
The ego, or ahaṅkāra1, is the subjective principle inducing the puruṣa (conscious being) to identify itself with prakṛti (Nature) and its activities1. It is the limited ‘I’ in us1, representing a form of willed ignorance and exclusive absorption in one form2.
The ego served an indispensable evolutionary purpose:
1. Individualisation: The ego was created for the work of individualisation3, enabling the development of individuality out of the indiscriminate force and substance of Nature4. The ego is an absolutely necessary factor until one is an individualised being5.
2. Motivation for Action: In primitive, tamasic animal man, the ego motivated action. Without ego-driven incentives like ambition or vanity, humans might have remained passive6. The will to be, know, and have power are legitimate, but their satisfaction must not be egoistic7.
B. Manifestation of Egoistic Will and Arbitrary Choice
Egoism is pervasive, permeating all past ideas within human consciousness8. It is described as an inescapable shadow stamping all human thoughts, feelings, and actions9.
1. Egoistic Will as Ignorant Movement: Egoistic will persists as long as ignorance remains10. When the individual accepts division and isolates himself in egoistic limits, his will follows a knowledge that is personal, governed by desire, habits, and obscure impulses, leading to action that is “crooked, many-branching, hesitating and fluctuating”11. The ego-will is bound by its partial nature, shaped by its ignorance, and influenced by environing forces12.
2. Arbitrary Personal Choice: The abolition of egoistic will eliminates the arbitrariness of personal choice13. The mind, or intelligence, is merely selective, choosing one possibility to the exclusion of others14. This selection is often driven by personal preference or the thought that provides an agreeable, comfortable feeling, rather than impartial truth15.
3. Desire vs. True Choice: Preference is characterized as a desire, which is blind, impulsive, attached, and terribly obstinate. In contrast, true choice is a decision and action made according to one’s inner truth and highest consciousness, independent of the result, whereas preference is attached to the result16.
4. Forms of Ego: The ego expresses itself in different parts of the being17:
- Mental Ego: The mental sense of the ego is often abolished first upon realization of the Spirit18.
- Vital Ego: Often persists even after the mental ego is gone18. The dynamic mind is the will, while the vital mind is the desire-mind19.
- Magnified Ego: A perilous obstacle arising when expanded consciousness or overmind forces are claimed by the personal self, swelling to fill cosmic spaces20.
- Ego of the Instrument: A danger to spiritual progress, where one serves a magnified image of the ego, believing oneself to be an instrument of a great power21.
II. The Necessity of Eliminating Egoistic Will
Once the individual self has been formed, the ego becomes not only useless but harmful22.
A. Ego as Obstacle to Divine Fulfillment
The ego is the greatest of limitations; to be immortal, one must renounce all limitations23. Egoism leads to confusion, suffering, and ignorance24. So long as the ego remains, transformation is impossible25. The aim of Integral Yoga is not egoistic fulfilment but the flowering of the Divine in man26.
The egoistic will is to be abandoned entirely:
- In the Way of Works (Karma Yoga), the first condition is the elimination of personal vital desire27. If desire intervenes, harmony with the supreme Divine Will becomes impossible28.
- When one acts from egoistic consciousness, one is mortal, obscure, and ignorant29.
- The ego must be dissolved entirely, not substituted by any form of enlarged or alternative ego30.
B. The True Standard: Divine Will and Freedom
The ultimate goal is liberation from the ego and subsequent identification with the Divine Will31.
1. Unity and Omnipotence: Union with the supreme Will by aspiration, concentration, interiorisation, and identification constitutes the only omnipotence and perfect freedom32. True liberty and all-puissance are found by identifying one’s will with the Divine Will33.
2. Instrumental Action: The individual must be transformed from a limited ego into a centre of the Divine and universal consciousness34, becoming a conscious, open, and free field and instrument of the Super-Nature35. The personal will must be entirely surrendered or identified with the greater Truth-Will36.
3. Spontaneous Truth-Action: The final state of the integral yoga of works is one in which a divine action arises spontaneously, freely, infallibly from the light and force of the spiritual self in union with the Divine37. This is a “luminous authentic spontaneity, the infallible motion of the self-existent truth of the Spirit”38.
4. God-Centricity: The central shift required is from an ego-centric focus (on personal sadhana or siddhi) to a God-centric attitude founded on devotion (bhakti) and oneness with the Divine39. The governing principle should be: “Not for myself, but for the Divine”40.
III. The Process of Elimination and Transformation
The elimination of egoistic will is achieved through a multi-faceted approach, leading to a radical transformation of consciousness and nature.
A. Essential Methods and Attitudes
The simplest and most effective way to overcome the ego is to offer it to the Divine; sincerity and radicalness accelerate the result41.
1. Realisation and Identification: Complete removal of ego occurs when one identifies oneself with the Spirit (Atman) and realises the same Spirit in all42. The ego is removed by attaining the spiritual consciousness Above, which is self-existent and independent of Nature43.
2. Psychic Attitude and Humility: Realisation of humility in the heart (the psychic attitude) does not remove the ego but makes it harmless and aids spiritual progress, especially helping to eliminate the vital ego44. The psychic clears the way for the removal of the ego45.
3. Constant Rejection and Consciousness: Ego-movements must be gradually worked out of the nature by constant consciousness and rejection46. Rejection must be persistent and steady47. The sadhak must detach himself quietly from wrong movements, regarding them as defective machinery to be changed48.
4. Surrender of Will: One must begin by surrendering the will of the ego to the Divine Will at every opportunity and eventually in a constant way49. This means renouncing egoistic aims and all insistence upon fruit and reward50. We must call the Divine Will sincerely and let it work within us51.
5. Cultivating a Wider Consciousness: Liberation from the ego necessitates a wider consciousness more than a higher one52.
B. Stages and Mechanisms of Will Transformation
The transformation of will involves replacing the ego-driven action with the effortless working of the Divine Force53.
1. From Personal Effort to Divine Force: Personal effort and will are initially used to remove lower movements (desires, thoughts) and put a stop to actions of the ignorant Nature54. However, the sadhak must overcome the idea of working by himself and allow things to be done for him55. Personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force56.
2. The Role of Knowledge: The true will expresses the true knowledge and manifests through a deep, direct power requiring no effort57. The true power for action cannot come until one has passed beyond the stage of superficial “willings” (mental activity)58.
3. Internal Control: The old mental control that ceases when the mind becomes silent must be replaced by a spiritual control, the silent Purusha will59. The individual must assume the stance of the conscious being (Purusha) standing back detached from all movements of Nature, observing them as witness, knower, and eventually the Ishwara (pure will, master of the whole Nature)60.
4. The Shift in Action: The ego ceases to strive, the mind falls silent, and the desire-will learns not to initiate61. All thought and initiation must come from above, and the individual becomes the recipient, channel, and reflector of the Divine Power, acting without being touched by the lower Prakriti reactions62.
IV. The Difficulty of Transition and Integral Transformation
The sources highlight the persistence of the ego and the collective challenges inherent in the Integral approach.
A. The Difficult Transition of Anguish
The elimination of the ordinary functioning of conscious will and its replacement by the Divine functioning results in a difficult transition or transition of anguish63. During this period, the body is caught between the old habit and the new functioning, and the function or part seized by panic64. Order is restored through a material stillness65.
The new functioning of will is not characterized by personal effort or will, but unfolds indefinitely, described as “beautiful music, unfolding indefinitely (an immense rhythm)”66. This new consciousness changes things, while leaving them as they are67.
B. Persistence of Habits and Subconscient Residues
Even after the central ego-sense disappears, habits remain, the habitual movements of the old Prakriti68. The subconscious carries the stamp of old things, even when they are rejected from all parts69.
The main difficulty of the integral transformation is that things are constantly rising up from the subconscient70. Repressed or thrown-out movements go to the subconscient and rise up again, such as anger71. This happens because the material part of life is supported by a subconscient life72. Bringing the light into the subconscient and making it conscious eliminates this recurrence72.
C. Integral Yoga and Collective Transformation
The Integral Yoga aims for a total spiritual realization and transformation of Nature for life here73.
1. Collective Imperative: It is impossible to achieve a total individual transformation if the collectivity has not reached a certain degree of progress, due to the interdependence between the individual and the collectivity74. Individuality is merely a means of action for the transformation of the whole75.
2. The Goal of Synthesis: The essential step humanity must take is a definitive cure of exclusivism76. Instead of “this or that,” the principle should be “this AND that, and this too and that too, and everything at the same time”77.
3. Elimination of Ego for Collective Action: When working collectively, all egoistic motives and reactions must disappear78. The collective consciousness of humanity is “only a larger comprehensive edition or a sum of individual egos” and is “more vague, confused and unprogressive” than the individual; thus, transformation must descend from something higher than the collective ego79. The true work requires acting only by the divine Will and for the divine Will, feeling tenderness even for one’s physical enemy80.
4. The Body’s Awakening: The body itself is subject to this transformation, losing its egoistic centre81. The consciousness of the body-cells perceiving the Divine’s presence and action is necessary for the integral Yoga82. The body’s consciousness must be open to the higher Will, spontaneously calling for the Lord’s will to take possession of its cells83.
- Narendra Gehlaut (India)
1. ahaṅkāra: the ego; the subjective principle by which the puruṣa is induced to identify himself with prakṛti and her activities; “the limited ‘l' in us”.
2. The nature of the ego is a self-limitation of consciousness by a willed ignorance of the rest of its play and its exclusive absorption in one form, one combination of tendencies, one field of the movement of energies. Ego is the factor which determines the reactions of error, sorrow, pain, evil, death.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - I: The Ego and the Dualities
3. The ego was created for the work of individualisation; when the work is achieved, it is not unusual for the ego itself to accept its own dissolution.
The Mother, New Correspondences of the Mother - Vol II: 7 December 1968
4. Egoism is part of the machinery—a chief part—of universal Nature, first to develop individuality out of indiscriminate force and substance of Nature and, secondly, to make the individual (through the machinery of egoistic thought, feeling, will and desire) a tool of the universal forces.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Universal or Cosmic Forces
5. The ego is surely the instrument for individualisation, that is, until one is an individualised being, constituted in himself, the ego is an absolutely necessary factor. If one had the power of abolishing the ego ahead of time, one would lose one's individuality. But once the individuality has been formed, the ego becomes not only useless but harmful.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 12 January 1955
6. The ego served a dual historical purpose: enabling individualization in nature's flux and motivating action in primitive, "tamasic animal" man. Without ego-driven incentives like ambition or vanity, humans might have remained passive, focused only on basic needs, as the ego spurred activities beyond mere survival.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
7. The will to be, the will to power, the will to know are perfectly legitimate, their satisfaction the true law of our existence and to discourage and repress them improperly is to mutilate our being and dry up or diminish the sources of life and growth. But their satisfaction must not be egoistic... The attempt always leads to an eternal struggle with other egoisms, a mutual wounding and hampering, even a mutual destruction.
Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle: True and False Subjectivism
8. Egoism permeates all past ideas within human consciousness. Removing this egoism requires constant, quiet vigilance and increasing consciousness, as suppressed egoism does not vanish but instead conceals itself in subtle and disguised forms.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
9. The ego is a pervasive presence in human thoughts and actions, an inescapable shadow. This state persists until one learns to make the Divine, not the ego, the centre of existence and acts solely for the Divine, or until the divine consciousness, which contains no ego, enters into oneself.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
10. As long as there is egoism, the egoistic will is there. And as long as there is Ignorance, there will be a will of the instrument in the practical field. If the ignorant egoistic will is to be considered as a manifestation of the Divine Will, then there is no utility in Yoga.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: The Purpose of the Ashram
11. The individual, accepting division as his law, isolating himself in his own egoistic limits, is necessarily mortal, obscure and ignorant in his workings... His action, therefore, is crooked, many-branching, hesitating and fluctuating in its impulsion and direction; it beats about among falsehoods to find the Truth, tosses or scrapes fragments together to piece out the whole, stumbles among errors and sins to find the right.
Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: Action and the Divine Will
12. The will of the ego... cannot be free in any complete or separate sense of freedom. It cannot so be free because it is bound by its partial and limited nature and it is shaped by the mechanism of its ignorance, and again because it is an individualised form and working of the universal energy and at every moment impinged upon and modified and largely shaped by environing wills and powers and forces.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga: Karma, Will and Consequence
13. And all activities, all possibilities can be naturally made use of—it does away with the arbitrariness of personal choice, that's all. All possibilities are there, all, but all things are there, all perceptions are there, all knowledge is there—only, personal arbitrariness is done away with. And this personal arbitrariness seems so childish!
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: August 16, 1969
14. Mind means infinite possibility. Reason or intelligence chooses one to the exclusion of all the other possibilities. And it is reason which gives value and selects... The intellect is merely selective.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
15. The mind, faced with an indefinite number of possibilities, often makes its choice not based on impartial truth but on personal preference—selecting the thought that provides an agreeable, comfortable feeling.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 12 March 1951
16. Preference is not true choice; it is a blind, impulsive desire, an attachment that is terribly obstinate. True choice, however, is a decision and action based on one's inner truth, made without concern for the consequences. Preference is attached to the result and acts to bring about its wish, while true choice is independent of the result.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 26 December 1956
17. The ego has an inherent tendency to assert itself and maintain control over the being. It can manifest unrecognized in the physical mind and consciousness, often mistaken for clarity because the higher consciousness remains unaffected.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
18. Generally, when one realises the Spirit, it is the mental sense of the ego that goes, not the entire ego-sense. The dynamic nature retains the ego, especially the vital ego.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
19. The dynamic mind is the will, while the vital mind is the desire-mind. It desires the vital urge without any reasoning... The dynamic mind is the will that tries to carry out the decisions of the intellect.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
20. The magnified ego is one of the most perilous obstacles to perfection. It often arises as a first result of the downflow of overmind forces, which can exaggerate the ego, making it feel divinized, strong, and luminous. The personal self claims the expanded consciousness, swelling to fill cosmic spaces and misusing divine experiences for self-aggrandizement.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Danger of the Ego and the Need of Purification and The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Master of the Work
21. The egoism of the instrument can be more dangerous to spiritual progress than the egoism of the doer. It occurs when, after the egoism of the worker disappears, one begins to believe oneself a chosen instrument of God or Fate. This can lead to an intenser and more exaggerated egoism, where one serves a magnified image of their own ego, mistaking it for the Master.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Master of the Work
22. Once the individuality has been formed, the ego becomes not only useless but harmful. And only then comes the time when it must be abolished. But naturally, as it has taken so much trouble to build you, it does not give up its work so easily, and it asks for the reward of its efforts, that is, to enjoy the individuality.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 12 January 1955
23. To be immortal one must renounce all limitations and the ego is the greatest of limitations; hence if "I" am not immortal, what is the good of that?
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 3 February 1951
24. Ego-based perception causes confusion, suffering, and ignorance. By focusing on the Divine and cultivating stillness, the divine consciousness can replace the egoistic self, eliminating these problems.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
25. Egoism permeates all past ideas within human consciousness, and as long as this ego, rooted in the physical or vital-physical, persists, transformation is impossible.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
26. The fulfilment of the individual is not the utmost development of his egoistic intellect, vital force, physical well-being and the utmost satisfaction of his mental, emotional, physical cravings, but the flowering of the divine in him to its utmost capacity of wisdom, power, love and universality.
Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle: True and False Subjectivism
27. The progressive surrender of our ignorant personal will and its merger into a greater divine or on the highest summits greatest supreme Will is the whole secret of Karma Yoga... The first condition is the elimination of personal vital desire.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human: Partial Systems of Yoga
28. To give up all desire, all insistence upon fruit and reward and success must be renounced from our will and all vital attachment to the work itself excised from our nature; for attachment makes it our own and no longer the Godhead's.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human: Partial Systems of Yoga
29. The individual, accepting division as his law, isolating himself in his own egoistic limits, is necessarily mortal, obscure and ignorant in his workings.
Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: Action and the Divine Will
30. The form of ego has to be dissolved, it has not to be replaced by a bigger ego or another kind of ego. It has to be replaced by the true being which feels itself, even though individual, yet one with all and one with the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
31. In the end by this way one arrives at a consciousness in which one feels the Force or Presence acting within and moving or governing all the actions and the personal will is entirely surrendered or identified with that greater Truth-Will, Truth-Power or Truth-Presence.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Triple Transformation
32. There is only one solution: to unite ourselves by aspiration, concentration, interiorisation and identification with the supreme Will. And that is both omnipotence and perfect freedom at the same time. And that is the only omnipotence and the only freedom; everything else is an approximation.
The Mother, On Thoughts and Aphorisms: Aphorism - 50
33. It is by becoming conscious of Thy will and identifying ours with Thine that there is found the secret of true liberty and all-puissance the secret of the regeneration of forces and the transfiguration of the being.
The Mother, More Answers from the Mother: Comments on "Prayers and Meditations"
34. The limited ego is only an intermediate phenomenon of consciousness necessary for a certain line of development. Following this line the individual can arrive at that which is beyond himself... no longer as an obscured and limited ego, but as a centre of the Divine and of the universal consciousness embracing, utilising and transforming into harmony with the Divine all individual determinations.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - I: The Ego and the Dualities
35. In place of the Nature of Ignorance with the individual as its closed field and unconscious or half-conscious instrument, there would be a Super-Nature of the divine Gnosis and the individual soul would be its conscious, open and free field and instrument, a participant in its action, aware of its purpose and process.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Ascent towards Supermind
36. One arrives at a consciousness in which one feels the Force or Presence acting within and moving or governing all the actions and the personal will is entirely surrendered or identified with that greater Truth-Will, Truth-Power or Truth-Presence.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Triple Transformation
37. The final state of the integral yoga of works is one in which “a divine action" arises “spontaneously, freely, infallibly from the light and force of our spiritual self in union with the Divine."
Peter Heehs, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
38. The evolution begins with the automatism of Matter... it emerges into a greater spontaneous harmony and automatic self-fulfilling action founded on the spiritual Truth of things... a luminous authentic spontaneity, the infallible motion of the self-existent truth of the Spirit.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Ascent towards Supermind
39. The first stages of the sadhana are with almost everybody ego-centric. The main idea in it is always one's own sadhana, one's own endeavour, one's own development, perfection, siddhi... But none of these things... can really come in any degree of completeness or unmixed finality until this ego-centric attitude changes into the God-centric.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
40. Cultivating "Not for myself, but for the Divine" as the governing principle for all consciousness, thought, and action.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
41. What is the most effective way to overcome the ego? The simplest and most effective way is to offer it to the Divine; the more sincere and radical this offering is, the more quickly the result will come.
The Mother, Some Answers from the Mother: 28 May 1968
42. Complete removal of ego is possible when one identifies oneself with the Atman and realises the same Spirit in all. Also when the mental, vital and physical nature is known to be a derivation from the universal mental, vital and physical. The individual must realise also his identity with the transcendental or the cosmic Divine.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
43. Ego is removed by the realisation of the Spirit, that is, by attaining to the spiritual consciousness Above, which is independent of Nature, which is self-existent. That Spirit is One in all. Realisation of that removes the ego, because then one identifies oneself with the Spirit... The psychic clears the way for the removal of the ego.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
44. Humility in the heart does not remove the ego but makes it harmless and can help one spiritually. While complete removal of the ego requires identification with the Spirit, the psychic attitude of humility is particularly helpful in getting rid of the vital ego.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
45. In the case of psychic individuality the man may feel the ego of the Sadhu, the Saint, the Bhakta, or the virtuous man... But that is not the same as getting rid entirely of the ego. The psychic clears the way for the removal of the ego.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
46. It is not possible to get rid of the ego-movements all at once. They have to be worked out of the nature by a constant consciousness and rejection. Even when the central ego has gone, the habitual movements stick for a long time.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
47. Without persistent rejection it cannot be done. Going up into the Self liberates the higher parts, but the ego remains in the lower parts. The most effective force for this liberation is the psychic control along with steady rejection.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
48. Detach yourself quietly from these things, do not be disturbed when you see them, but regard them quietly as a defective machinery to be changed and go on rejecting in a patient tranquil spirit and calling the Force to change them.
Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother: Work for the Mother in the Integral Yoga
49. Before eliminating the will of the ego, which takes a very long time, one can begin by surrendering the will of the ego to the Divine Will at every opportunity and finally in a constant way. For this, the first step is to understand that the Divine knows better than we what is good for us and what we truly need.
The Mother, Some Answers from the Mother: 19 September 1959
50. The first condition is the elimination of personal vital desire, for if desire intervenes, all harmony with the supreme Divine Will becomes impossible... To give up all desire, all insistence upon fruit and reward and success must be renounced from our will.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human: Partial Systems of Yoga
51. You must ruthlessly clean up everything and your will is not strong enough for that; invoke my will, call it sincerely and it will be there to help you. You are right when you say that with my help you will surely be able to conquer. That is true, but you must sincerely want this help and let it work within you and in all circumstances.
The Mother, Words of the Mother - III: Will to Conquer Illness
52. It is rather a wider than a higher consciousness that is necessary for the liberation from the ego. Going high is necessary of course, but by itself it is not sufficient.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Ego and Its Forms
53. The word "will" is normally reserved to indicate what comes from the deeper being or the higher reality and what expresses in action the true knowledge... when this will which expresses the true knowledge manifests in action, it manifests through the intervention of a deep and direct power which no longer requires any effort.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 21 November 1956
54. Your will has a place. It is used first of all to remove the lower movements, e.g. desires and thoughts etc. Secondly, you can will for the working of the Higher Power by putting a stop to the actions that belong to Mind, Life and Body — i.e. of the ignorant Nature.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
55. You must keep in mind that the more you can overcome the idea of working by yourself, the quicker you will go. Allow things to be done for you... Till you become one with the force. All things will be directed from within.
Sri Aurobindo, Conversations with Sri Aurobindo
56. The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force. If you feel conscious of the Divine Force, then call it in more and more to govern your effort, to take it up, to transform it into something not yours, but the Mother's.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Surrender
57. The word "will" is normally reserved to indicate what comes from the deeper being or the higher reality and what expresses in action the true knowledge which Sri Aurobindo has contrasted with knowings. So, when this will which expresses the true knowledge manifests in action, it manifests through the intervention of a deep and direct power which no longer requires any effort.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 21 November 1956
58. Sri Aurobindo uses a word which is not "will", he speaks of "willings": "When we have passed beyond willings, then we shall have Power. Effort was the helper, Effort is the bar." ...the true power for action cannot come until one has gone beyond the stage of willings, that is, until the motive of action is the result not of a mere mental activity but of true knowledge.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1956): 21 November 1956
59. You were using a mental control. When the silence came the mind stopped its action, so the mental control ceased. It has to be replaced by a spiritual control, the silent Purusha will.
Sri Aurobindo, Guidance from Sri Aurobindo
60. The practice of the separation of the Prakriti and the Purusha, the conscious being standing back detached from all the movements of Nature and observing them as witness and knower and finally as the giver (or refuser) of the sanction and at the highest stage of development, the Ishwara, the pure will, master of the whole nature.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Work and Yoga
61. This supreme harmony cannot come except by the cessation of egoistic will and choice and act and the quiescence of our limited intelligence. The individual ego must cease to strive, the mind fall silent, the desire-will learn not to initiate.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Three Modes of Nature
62. Our personality must join its source and all thought and initiation come from above. The secret Master of our activities will be slowly unveiled to us and from the security of the supreme Will and Knowledge give the sanction to the Divine Shakti who will do all works in us with a purified and exalted nature for her instrument.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Three Modes of Nature
63. That’s what is taking the place of the conscious will... when the moment comes... for the old functioning—the ordinary functioning—to be eliminated or to disappear and be replaced by That, the result is... a difficult transition.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: February 26, 1969
64. The body is caught between... here or there, on one spot or another, for one thing or another, between the old habit and the new functioning. There’s just a transition of anguish. In most of its parts, the body is conscious of the stupidity of that anguish, but the function or the part is seized with panic.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: February 26, 1969
65. The function or the part is seized with panic. Then it takes a material stillness for order to be restored.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: February 26, 1969
66. The body itself knows that there is no intervention of personal effort, personal will—it’s not like that, it’s … oh, like beautiful music, unfolding indefinitely (an immense rhythm). it’s extraordinary. And all that tension, all of it is gone, entirely.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: March 19, 1969
67. The answer to all possible objections, based precisely on the presence of this new consciousness which CHANGES things—but changes things while leaving them as they are!
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: March 19, 1969
68. After the disappearance of the ego-sense ego-movements remain and they go on, the habitual movements of the old Prakriti, but one is not bound by it as in the Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
69. When the sense of ego is lost, still the habits remain, the habits of the old nature... Even when everything is rejected from all the parts, the subconscious remains and it carries the stamp of all the old things. But one is not affected or touched by these habits.
Sri Aurobindo, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo
70. The main difficulty of the integral transformation is that things are constantly rising up from the subconscient.
The Mother, Words of the Mother - III: 6 January 1951
71. You think you have got a certain movement under control—anger, for example. You try very hard to control your anger and succeed to some extent, then suddenly it rises up again for some reason unknown to you, as if you hadn't done anything at all, and you have to start all over again.
The Mother, Words of the Mother - III: 6 January 1951
72. It is the material part, the material life which is sustained, supported, so to say, by a subconscient life. And this subconscient is beginning to get individualised... and that is where the things you have repressed or thrown out of your nature go to—and one fine day they rise up again. But if you are able to bring the light into the subconscient and make it conscious, this will no longer happen.
The Mother, Words of the Mother - III: 6 January 1951
73. The Integral Yoga does not seek escape from life but a divine fulfilment of life on earth through the supramental consciousness. It aims for a cosmic transformation for the earth-consciousness itself, not merely individual liberation, requiring a distinct and integral method.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Transformation in the Integral Yoga
74. There is such an interdependence between the individual and the collectivity that, unless one does what the ascetics have preached, that is, escapes from the world... Is it possible to accomplish a total transformation of one's being so long as the collectivity has not reached at least a certain degree of transformation? I don't think so.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 3 May 1951
75. Individuality is merely a means of action for the transformation of the whole.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: March 26, 1966
76. The step forward humanity must take IMMEDIATELY is a definitive cure of exclusivism. That's what is, in action, not only the symbol but also the effect of division and separation.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: January 3, 1970
77. They all say, "This and not that"—no, this AND that, and this too and that too, and everything at the same time. To be supple enough and wide enough for everything to be together.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: January 3, 1970
78. For that to be possible, all egoistic motives and all egoistic reactions must disappear.
The Mother, On Education: Answers to a Monitor
79. The consciousness of collective humanity is only a larger comprehensive edition or a sum of individual egos. Made of the same substance, in the same mould of nature, it has not in it any greater light... It is rather even more tortured, troubled and obscured, certainly more vague, confused and unprogressive. The individual is in this respect greater than the mass... If light, peace, deliverance, a better state of existence are to come, they must descend into the soul... from something higher than the collective ego.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Release from the Ego
80. We do not act for ourselves. We do not act from our personal will and for a personal result. We act only by the divine Will and for the divine Will. So much so, that effortlessly, spontaneously, we can feel the greatest tenderness for our physical enemy.
The Mother, Words of the Mother - I: Aspiration Talks
81. It was part of the Mother’s yoga that her body, being universalized, would no longer function as an axis of material existence, that now the physical ego too would be dissolved. ‘It is no longer the same thing which makes you act … It is no longer the same centre.’ The old centre was the physical ego... the new centre was the Divine, directly.
Jugal Kishore Mukherjee, The Mother: The Story of Her Life
82. When the consciousness of the body-cells perceives the Divine's presence and action, one is on the right path for the integral Yoga.
The Mother, On the Path
83. This body-consciousness has a will; it is constantly, constantly calling upon the Lord's will: "Lord, take possession of this, take possession of that, take...." There's no question of taking possession of the will, that was done ages ago, but: "Take possession of these cells, those cells, this, that...." It is the BODY'S aspiration.
The Mother, Mother's Agenda: July 18, 1962
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