Read Summary of '''[[Inner Attitude Summary|Inner Attitude]]'''
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=Why Is It Important to Have the Right Attitude?=
There is a state in which one realises that the effect of things, circumstances, all the movements and actions of life on the consciousness depends almost exclusively upon one's attitude to these things. There is a moment when one becomes sufficiently conscious to realise that things in themselves are truly neither good nor bad: they are this only in relation to us; their effect on us depends absolutely upon the attitude we have towards them. The same thing, identically the same, if we take it as a gift of God, as a divine grace, as the result of the full Harmony, helps us to become more conscious, stronger, more true, while if we take it—exactly the very same circumstance—as a blow from fate, as a bad force wanting to affect us, this constricts us, weighs us down and takes away from us all consciousness and strength and harmony. And the circumstance in itself is exactly the same—of this, I should like you all to have the experience, for when you have it, you become master of yourself. Not only master of yourself but, in what concerns you, master of the circumstances of your life. And this depends exclusively upon the attitude you take… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/5-may-1954#p22</ref>
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It is obvious that the same event or the same contact causes pleasure in one and pain in another, depending on the inner attitude taken by each one.
[Based on Aphorism 137 - There is no iron or ineffugable law that a given contact shall create pain or pleasure; it is the way the soul meets the rush or pressure of Brahman upon the members from outside them that determines either reaction.] <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-137#p2</ref>
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When the surroundings, circumstances, atmosphere, the way of living and above all the inner attitude are altogether of a low kind, vulgar, gross, egoistic, sordid, love is reluctant to come, that is, it always hesitates to manifest itself and generally does not stay long. A home of beauty must be given for Beauty to stay... I am speaking of an inner attitude, of something within which is beautiful, noble, harmonious, unselfish. There Love has a chance to come and stay… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/12-may-1951#p3</ref>
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[the marks, the signs of the man whose soul is turned towards the inner wisdom, as per the Gita]... there is a nobler and freer attitude towards the outward world, an attitude of perfect detachment and equality, a firm removal of the natural being's attraction to the objects of the senses and a radical freedom from the claims of that constant clamorous ego-sense, ego-idea, ego-motive which tyrannises over the normal man… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/19/the-field-and-its-knower#p7</ref>
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''This is a translation from the Dhammapada''
When you acquire the habit of listening to this inner law, when you obey it, follow it, try more and more to let it guide your life, you create around you an atmosphere of truth and peace and harmony which naturally reacts upon circumstances and forms, so to say, the atmosphere in which you live. When you are a being of justice, truth, harmony, compassion, understanding, of perfect goodwill, this inner attitude, the more sincere and total it is, the more it reacts upon the external circumstances; not that it necessarily diminishes the difficulties of life, but it gives these difficulties a new meaning and that allows you to face them with a new strength and a new wisdom; whereas the man, the human being who follows his impulses, who obeys his desires, who has no time for scruples, who comes to live in complete cynicism, not caring for the effect that his life has upon others or for the more or less harmful consequences of his acts, creates for himself an atmosphere of ugliness, selfishness, conflict and bad will which necessarily acts more and more upon his consciousness and gives a bitterness to his life that in the end becomes a perpetual torment. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/niraya-hell#p16</ref>
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...I have had innumerable examples of the power of right attitude. I have seen crowds saved from catastrophes by one single person keeping the right attitude… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/power-of-right-attitude#p3</ref>
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If one keeps the true will and true attitude, then the intuitions or intimations from within will begin to grow, become clear, precise, unmistakable and the strength to follow them will grow also. And then before even you are satisfied with yourself, the Divine will be satisfied with you and begin to withdraw the veil by which he protects himself and his seeker against a premature and perilous grasping of the greatest thing to which humanity can aspire.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-of-purification#p42</ref>
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If one wants to follow a discipline of yoga,... The only thing that matters is the attitude with which they are done...from the point of view of yoga, everything depends much more on the attitude one takes than on the thing itself… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/30-january-1957#p19</ref>
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In our smallest action we can serve the Divine if we have the right attitude.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/aims-and-principles#p299</ref>
==Effects of Right Attitude==
===Attitude and Progress===
The inner spiritual progress does not depend on outer conditions so much as on the way we react to them from within—that has always been the ultimate verdict of spiritual experience. It is why we insist on taking the right attitude and persisting in it, on an inner state not dependent on outer circumstances, a state of equality and calm, if it cannot be at once of inner happiness, on going more and more within and looking from within outwards instead of living in the surface mind which is always at the mercy of the shocks and blows of life. It is only from that inner state that one can be stronger than life and its disturbing forces and hope to conquer. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/quiet-and-calm#p27</ref>
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The first thing is to have the right inner attitude—you have that; the rest is the will to transform oneself and the vigilance to perceive and reject all that belongs to the ego and the tamasic persistence of the lower nature. Finally, to keep oneself always open to the Mother in every part of the being so that the process of transformation may find no hindrance. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/ego-and-its-forms#p26</ref>
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...you must aspire with a great ardour to do the best possible, at every moment the best thing possible, ...If you take this attitude with sincerity, you will know at each moment what you have to do, and it is this which is so wonderful! According to your sincerity, the inspiration is more and more precise, more and more exact. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/17-february-1951#p29</ref>
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The progress in sadhana comes from the rectification of the inner and outer attitude, not from the nature of the work one does—any work, even the most humble, can lead to the Divine if it is done with the right attitude. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/work-as-on-offering-to-the-divine#p30</ref>
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...there are experiences, hundreds of them, that the very minute you take the right attitude, the thing is done. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/11/8-march-1972#p31</ref>
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... It is as though all the while you had the feeling that you were hovering between life and death, and the moment you take the right attitude—when the part concerned takes the right attitude—it goes all right . Quite naturally and easily it goes all right… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/11/8-march-1972#p24</ref>
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... whatever the circumstances, even those that appear the worst, if you keep the true attitude and have the true consciousness, they will have no importance at all for your inner progress, no importance—I say this and I include even death. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/11/10-december-1969#p6</ref>
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…no matter what, the least little circumstance in life, becomes a teacher who can teach you something, teach you how to think and act. Even—I think I said this precisely—even the reflections of an ignorant child can help you to understand something you didn't understand before. Your attitude is so different. It is always an attitude which is awaiting a discovery, an opportunity for progress, a rectification of a wrong movement, a step ahead, and so it is like a magnet that attracts from all around you opportunities to make this progress… <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/2-june-1954#p17</ref>
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As with everything in yoga, the effort for progress must be made for the love of the effort for progress. The joy of effort, the aspiration for progress must be enough in themselves, quite independent of the result. Everything one does in yoga must be done for the joy of doing it, and not in view of the result one wants to obtain.... Indeed, in life, always, in all things, the result does not belong to us. And if we want to keep the right attitude, we must act, feel, think, strive spontaneously, for that is what we must do, and not in view of the result to be obtained. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/23-april-1958#p4</ref>
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...it is only when one understands that all external things, all mental constructions, all material efforts are vain, futile, if they are not entirely consecrated to this Light and Force from above, to this Truth which is trying to express itself, that one is ready to make decisive progress. So the only truly effective attitude is a perfect, total, fervent giving of our being to That which is above us and which alone has the power to change everything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/29-october-1958#p13</ref>
==Attitude in Sadhana==
It is true that a great patience and steadfastness is needed. Be then firm and patient and fixed on the aims of the sadhana, but not over-eager to have them at once. A work has to be done in you and is being done; help it to be done by keeping an attitude of firm faith and confidence. Doubts rise in all, they are natural to the human physical mind—reject them. Impatience and overeagerness for the result at once are natural to the human vital; it is by firm confidence in the Mother that they will disappear. The love, the belief in her as the Divine to whom your life is given,—oppose with that every contrary feeling and then those contrary feelings will after a time no longer be able to come to you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/patience-and-perseverance#p6</ref>
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The reason why there are these alternations of which you complain is that the nature of the consciousness is like that; after a little spell of wakefulness it feels the need of a little sleep. Very often in the beginning the wakings are brief, the sleeps long; afterwards it becomes more equal and later on the sleep periods are shorter and shorter. Another cause of these alternations, when one is receiving, is the nature's need of closing up to assimilate. It can take perhaps a great deal, but while the experience is going on it cannot absorb properly what it brings, so it closes down for assimilation. A third cause comes in in the period of transformation,—one part of the nature changes and one feels for a time as if there had been a complete and permanent change. But one is disappointed to find it cease and a period of barrenness or lowered consciousness follows. This is because another part of the consciousness comes up for change and a period of preparation and veiled working follows which seems to be one of unenlightenment or worse. These things alarm, disappoint or perplex the eagerness and impatience of the sadhak; but if one takes them quietly and knows how to use them or adopt the right attitude, one can make these unenlightened periods also a part of the conscious sadhana. So the Vedic Rishis speak of the alternation of "Day and Night both suckling the divine Child". <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/variations-in-the-intensity-of-experience#p8</ref>
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There is nothing wrong in having intervals of passive peace without anything happening—they come naturally in the sadhana as a basis for fresh action when the nature is ready for it. It is only the vital attitude that turns it into a disharmony, because somewhere in its being there is not the assent to or participation in the peace and passivity. To be able often to rest, repose in all the being outspread in the silent Brahman is an indispensable thing for the Yogi. But the vital wants always fuss, action, to feel that it is somebody doing something, getting on, having progress, on the move. The counterpart to this rajasic fuss is inertia. If the whole being can widen itself out, rest satisfied in the silence, then progressively inertia fades out and gives place to ''śama''.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/variations-in-the-intensity-of-experience#p31</ref>
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The difficulty you feel or any sadhak feels about sadhana is not really a question of meditation versus ‘bhakti’ versus works. It is a difficulty of the attitude to be taken, the approach or whatever you may like to call it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-central-processes-of-the-sadhana#p23</ref>
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The path of surrender is indeed difficult, but if one perseveres in it with sincerity, there is bound to be some success and a partial overcoming or diminution of the ego which may help greatly a farther advance upon the way… One must learn to go forward on the path of Yoga, as the Gita insists, with a consciousness free from despondency—''anirviṇṇacetasā''. Even if one slips, one must rectify the posture; even if one falls, one has to rise and go undiscouraged on the divine way. The attitude must be, "The Divine has promised himself to me if I cleave to him always; that I will never cease to do whatever may come." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-central-processes-of-the-sadhana#p19</ref>
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The ideal attitude of the sadhaka towards Time is to have an endless patience as if he had all eternity for his fulfilment and yet to develop the energy that shall realise now and with an ever-increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transformation. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-four-aids#p37</ref>
=How Does One Cultivate the Right Attitude?=