Evolution of the Spirit

Sri Aurobindo has expressed many original ideas in this book. Tradition says that the Spirit is immutable, unchanging. He says the Spirit, the Divine itself, is evolving and is becoming something more than it was before. The evolution of the Spirit is His original conception. That evolution is not happening up there or out there, but rather it is happening within each of us. We are the Divine in the process of evolution.

Then you may be wondering, which part of me is the evolving Spirit? At what point or in what aspect is it evolving? Sri Aurobindo says it is evolving at the tether ends of our personality and temperament. That is the one part of us which we would least like to discuss with anyone else. The spirit is evolving precisely at the points where we feel challenged and not totally in control of ourselves, points at which somebody says something unpleasant or does not acknowledge us as we would wish. Those are the points where life touches our temperament. We like to think that we are very calm and generous, but somehow there is always one person who knows how to irritate us, how to disturb our calm thoughts. If only you do not meet that person, you think you are master of yourself. You have to understand that it is the Divine coming to you through that person. It is the Divine evolving in us at that point, seeking and acquiring an experience and mastery which we do not possess. All great acts originate in the surface mind. That is the concentrated point at which evolution occurs. That is the place where this power will generate the maximum results. That is the place where we have to apply the knowledge in The Life Divine in order to acquire the power of unfailing success. It is not how sweetly we feel in our meditation or how pleasantly we behave when we are in a good mood that matters. It is at these tether ends that the real work on earth is happening. That is Mother’s work.

Sri Aurobindo says that our incapacity to receive and express this infinite force is not based on any limitation in the force. It is due to our unwillingness. It is not Mother’s limitation. It is the limitation in our attitudes and behavior at the tether ends of personality that imposes the limits. Mother said at one time, “When people come before me, they push all their unwanted things behind them, and they think I do not see them. But I see all those things just behind them, peeping over their shoulders!” That is where the work has to be done.