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Without perseverance one never attains anything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-vii#p3</ref> One must know that if a strong urge, a very strong urge to do something comes to them, that means this work has something to do with them and they are capable of doing it. But one can have powers which are so well hidden that one has to dig long before finding them, it’s important not to get discouraged at the first setback. How can one know whether one is capable of doing it or not! By trying. That's the best thing ...for usually when you begin searching for these things the mind comes to give a hundred and one favourable explanations for your not needing to search. It tells you, "Why no, it is not at all your fault; it is this, it is that, it is the circumstances, it is the people, these are things received from outside—all kinds of excellent excuses, which, unless you are very firm in your resolution, make you let go, and then it’s finished—you have to start again from the beginning till the day you decides to perform the operation. When the operation is done it is over, one is free. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/14-october-1953#p40</ref> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/14-october-1953#p40</ref> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/16-march-1955#p9</ref> For a happy and effective life, the essentials are sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress. Above all, one must be convinced of a limitless possibility of progress. Progress is youth; at a hundred years of age one can be young. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/students#p18</ref> If one wants to take the trouble, one can enlarge his field considerably. But it asks for work, for perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/18-may-1955#p88</ref> You may not know at every moment what is the best thing to do or how to do it, but you can place your will at the disposal of the Divine to do the best possible, the best thing possible. You will see it will have marvelous results. Do this with consciousness, sincerity, and perseverance and you will find yourself getting along with gigantic strides. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/17-february-1951#p21</ref> When you want to progress, the difficulty you want to conquer immediately increases tenfold in importance and intensity in your consciousness. There is but to Persevere, that's all. It will pass. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/21-august-1957#p12</ref>
 
Without perseverance one never attains anything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-vii#p3</ref> One must know that if a strong urge, a very strong urge to do something comes to them, that means this work has something to do with them and they are capable of doing it. But one can have powers which are so well hidden that one has to dig long before finding them, it’s important not to get discouraged at the first setback. How can one know whether one is capable of doing it or not! By trying. That's the best thing ...for usually when you begin searching for these things the mind comes to give a hundred and one favourable explanations for your not needing to search. It tells you, "Why no, it is not at all your fault; it is this, it is that, it is the circumstances, it is the people, these are things received from outside—all kinds of excellent excuses, which, unless you are very firm in your resolution, make you let go, and then it’s finished—you have to start again from the beginning till the day you decides to perform the operation. When the operation is done it is over, one is free. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/14-october-1953#p40</ref> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/14-october-1953#p40</ref> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/16-march-1955#p9</ref> For a happy and effective life, the essentials are sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress. Above all, one must be convinced of a limitless possibility of progress. Progress is youth; at a hundred years of age one can be young. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/students#p18</ref> If one wants to take the trouble, one can enlarge his field considerably. But it asks for work, for perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/18-may-1955#p88</ref> You may not know at every moment what is the best thing to do or how to do it, but you can place your will at the disposal of the Divine to do the best possible, the best thing possible. You will see it will have marvelous results. Do this with consciousness, sincerity, and perseverance and you will find yourself getting along with gigantic strides. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/17-february-1951#p21</ref> When you want to progress, the difficulty you want to conquer immediately increases tenfold in importance and intensity in your consciousness. There is but to Persevere, that's all. It will pass. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/21-august-1957#p12</ref>
  
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== For Growth in Yoga ==
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For all those who are destined to find their inner being, the truth of their being, there is always at least one moment in life when they were no longer the same, perhaps just like a lightning-flash—but that is enough. It indicates the road one should take, it is the door that opens on this path. And so one must go through the door, and with perseverance and an unfailing steadfastness seek to renew the state which will lead one to something more real and more total. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/26-december-1956#p21</ref> It takes time, steadfast endeavour, long continued aspiration and a calm perseverance to get anywhere in Yoga; that time you do not give yourself because of these recurrent swingings away from the right attitude. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/attacks-by-the-hostile-forces#p16</ref> Persevere in your concentration till you come to the point when you no longer lose the inner contact. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-december-1950#p18</ref> To attain that concentration much effort is necessary; an immediate or even a quick result is rarely possible. But if the inner door has once been opened, you may be sure that it will open again if you know how to Persevere. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-december-1950#p21</ref> And if you Persevere, you will see that all of a sudden you are relieved of a mass of meanness and ugliness and obscurity which was preventing you from flowering in the light. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/8-february-1951#p18</ref> The path of surrender is indeed difficult, but if one perseveres in it with sincerity, there is bound to be some success. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-central-processes-of-the-sadhana#p19</ref> It is not an impossible discipline but it is extremely long and requires an unshakable patience, for it is as if you wanted to build up in you a being, a body; and for that you require first of all the necessary knowledge, but also such a prolonged persistence and perseverance as would discourage many. But it is altogether indispensable if you want to take part in the knowledge of your higher being. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/27-january-1951#p21</ref>
  
  

Revision as of 07:04, 3 November 2018

Read more about Perseverance from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.


Perseverance Summary

What is Perseverance?

Perseverance is the decision to go to the very end, it is patience in action breaking down all the obstacles. [1] [2] [3] With perseverance, what one cannot do today one will be able to do tomorrow. [4] Its source is in the psychic being, which works with perseverance and ardour, but never complains and knows how to wait for the hour of realisation to come. It is always the vital being which protests and complains. [5] [6] To transform the vital one must have will, perseverance, and sincerity. [7]

Why is Perseverance Important?

Without perseverance one never attains anything. [8] One must know that if a strong urge, a very strong urge to do something comes to them, that means this work has something to do with them and they are capable of doing it. But one can have powers which are so well hidden that one has to dig long before finding them, it’s important not to get discouraged at the first setback. How can one know whether one is capable of doing it or not! By trying. That's the best thing ...for usually when you begin searching for these things the mind comes to give a hundred and one favourable explanations for your not needing to search. It tells you, "Why no, it is not at all your fault; it is this, it is that, it is the circumstances, it is the people, these are things received from outside—all kinds of excellent excuses, which, unless you are very firm in your resolution, make you let go, and then it’s finished—you have to start again from the beginning till the day you decides to perform the operation. When the operation is done it is over, one is free. [9] [10] [11] For a happy and effective life, the essentials are sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress. Above all, one must be convinced of a limitless possibility of progress. Progress is youth; at a hundred years of age one can be young. [12] If one wants to take the trouble, one can enlarge his field considerably. But it asks for work, for perseverance, a kind of assiduous effort. [13] You may not know at every moment what is the best thing to do or how to do it, but you can place your will at the disposal of the Divine to do the best possible, the best thing possible. You will see it will have marvelous results. Do this with consciousness, sincerity, and perseverance and you will find yourself getting along with gigantic strides. [14] When you want to progress, the difficulty you want to conquer immediately increases tenfold in importance and intensity in your consciousness. There is but to Persevere, that's all. It will pass. [15]

For Growth in Yoga

For all those who are destined to find their inner being, the truth of their being, there is always at least one moment in life when they were no longer the same, perhaps just like a lightning-flash—but that is enough. It indicates the road one should take, it is the door that opens on this path. And so one must go through the door, and with perseverance and an unfailing steadfastness seek to renew the state which will lead one to something more real and more total. [16] It takes time, steadfast endeavour, long continued aspiration and a calm perseverance to get anywhere in Yoga; that time you do not give yourself because of these recurrent swingings away from the right attitude. [17] Persevere in your concentration till you come to the point when you no longer lose the inner contact. [18] To attain that concentration much effort is necessary; an immediate or even a quick result is rarely possible. But if the inner door has once been opened, you may be sure that it will open again if you know how to Persevere. [19] And if you Persevere, you will see that all of a sudden you are relieved of a mass of meanness and ugliness and obscurity which was preventing you from flowering in the light. [20] The path of surrender is indeed difficult, but if one perseveres in it with sincerity, there is bound to be some success. [21] It is not an impossible discipline but it is extremely long and requires an unshakable patience, for it is as if you wanted to build up in you a being, a body; and for that you require first of all the necessary knowledge, but also such a prolonged persistence and perseverance as would discourage many. But it is altogether indispensable if you want to take part in the knowledge of your higher being. [22]


For a happy and effective life, the essentials are sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress. Above all, one must be convinced of a limitless possibility of progress.No victory can be won without a fixed fidelity to the aim and a long effort. There is no other way than to persevere.

The self-perfection or even simply the self-improvement of each individual body is a problem to be solved, and its solution demands much patience, perseverance and regularity. When one wants to change something, particularly of the material life - whether the character or the functioning of the organs or habits, one must have an unfaltering perseverance, be ready to begin again a hundred times the same thing with the same intensity with which one did it the first time and as though one had never done it before.

When one wants to progress, the difficulty one wants to conquer immediately increases tenfold in importance and intensity in one’s consciousness. It is only by perseverance in aspiration or will that these difficulties can disappear.

It is a long and meticulous work that requires much perseverance, but the result is worth the trouble, for it brings not only mastery but also the possibility of the transformation and illumination of the consciousness. It is thus that gradually, slowly, with perseverance, first of all with great care and much attention, one becomes conscious, learns to know oneself and then to become master of oneself.

How

To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity.

The transformation of character has in fact been realised by means of a clear-sighted discipline and a perseverance so obstinate that nothing, not even the most persistent failures, can discourage it.Whatever method of development is chosen, determination and perseverance are indispensable to obtain success.All the methods of self-knowledge, self-control and self-mastery are good. You have to choose the one that comes to you spontaneously and best corresponds to your nature. And once having chosen the method, you must use your intelligent will to apply it with an unfailing perseverance that does not shrink from any obstacle, any difficulty. It is a long and minute work which must be undertaken with sincerity and continued with an increasing sincerity ever more scrupulous and integral.

It is possible that you may not obtain an immediate result, but persevere quietly and let nothing discourage you. You must be sincere in your perseverance; then the things you cannot do today, you will one day be able to do, after regular and persistent efforts.

If you make a mistake, quietly observe it and correct the tendency next time. Even if the mistake recurs often, you have only to persevere quietly—remembering that nature cannot be changed in a day.The habit of remembering and applying one's knowledge at the right moment comes only by a great patience and perseverance which refuses to be discouraged by frequent failure.It is by persevering that one conquers difficulties, not by running away from them. One who perseveres is sure to triumph. Victory goes to the most enduring. Always do your best and the Lord will take care of the results.

You must arm yourself with great patience, and not think that you are good for nothing because it takes so much time. You must never be despondent, never tell yourself, "Oh! This is not for me!" Everyone can do it, if he puts into it the time, the courage, the endurance and the perseverance that are demanded.And you must know that if a strong urge, a very strong urge to do something comes to you, that means this work has something to do with you and you are capable of doing it. But one can have powers which are so well hidden that one has to dig long before finding them. So you must not get discouraged at the first setback, you must persist.

One must be more obstinate than the obstinate material nature and persevere until the light and truth can take permanent hold of the parts which are still responsive to the old movements. There can be no doubt that with this perseverance the Truth will in the end conquer.With an intensity of will, with perseverance and that indispensable good humour which smiles at difficulties and laughs at mistakes. Then everything will go well.

In Yoga

The road of Yoga is long, every inch of ground has to be won against much resistance and no quality is more needed by the sadhak than patience and single-minded perseverance with a faith that remains firm through all difficulties, delays and apparent failures.A great determination, a strong will and an untiring perseverance are indispensable to reach the goal.For each person the way differs in its details, but sincerity and perseverance are equally indispensable for all.

Where the call of the soul perseveres, the response of the Divine must come.


Content curated by Sejal Thakur

Read more about Perseverance from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.