Living Consciously with Sincerity over intensity; progress over perfection

                   

Sincerity, our first step on the path to anything. When we want to learn a new craft or a new skill, when we want to master a sport or study a topic in depth, our very first ammunition for the challenge is likely to be our sincerity; when we lack the knowledge, the experience or even the favourable eye of a teacher or guide, our companion and trust worthy friend, will be sincerity, if we can bring her along and convince her to walk the path with us. When we approach a task with sincerity then we assure our stakeholder that he can be rest assured of our best attempt at getting the work done as perfectly as our human capability would allow us; that we are willing to learn along the way if need be and the outcome need not be at the mercy of our current knowledge alone. That our claim to getting the work done well is our honest effort that will persist in the face of early failure and challenge and any knowledge and experience we have, we will also bring to the table; that, what we have we will commit to present and what we can we will promise to offer.

The Mother says, “True Sincerity consists in following the way because you cannot do otherwise; in consecrating yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise; in endeavoring to transform yourself to emerge into the Light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the very reason for which you live.”  The Mother’s words indicate that sincerity is not a strategy, it is a way of life, the very method of manifesting life, because without sincere effort any meaningful life is unsettled and unhappy and simply cannot go on. It is an approach where our outer-self aligns with our inner voice, is in constant contact with it and communes with this inner voice in a way that does not leave our life’s goals to chance or societal pressures. Once one embraces sincerity as a value, one is seldom able to cut corners or fall to a way of working that is disinterested, insincere or superficial with a show of labor, rather than genuine effort. Hence, it is no longer a strategy to initiate or impress but a habit that the being has taken to willingly. Can we commit to this kind of sincerity today?

Is sincerity an important value in spiritual life or in daily life? As per Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, there is no difference between the two. Every incident and action in life can be an opportunity to question if we are approaching life from a place of honesty; will we be at peace with our thoughts and actions that define us this moment? Is the objective that we are driving today going to make sense a few days later; if we are in dialogue with ourselves as we take life’s important decisions, who is talking from the inside, who is our inner voice – our ego, an unshakeable influence in our family or society; a religious prophet/ diktat, our self?

But why is sincerity pegged against intensity, how are the two related? This is in the context of conscious living where one is called upon to take on a way of life that is more aware – of every thought and action, more responsible- for every word spoken and step taken, more accepting – of slip ups and mistakes, especially those that are unintentional and more empathetic – of failings and imperfections esp. from those around us, in families and communities, only to help them gather themselves and soar again. It is in this context that sincerity is invoked above intensity. In moments of war and crisis when the expectation is for quick thinking and immediate results, we need the intensity of valour, action, attack to meet the adversity and pose a fitting response; we learn this from Nature. Suddenly after a long bout of slow and constant progress, Nature will make an intense, aggressive move to establish her supremacy or bring about a big change or critical transformation, but often what is intense is by the nature of it, short-lived and at best intermittent, repetitive but with hiatus. 

 Inside petal - Sincerity

Sincerity is like Meera’s song of love to Krishna, intensity is Chanakya’s speech on politics. Both have their place in the world of magnanimity and greatness but one is a slow burning of the wick and the other is the flame that surges bright as the wick supports one last time.

When living consciously is our goal, where our purpose is to bring in awareness into each second of our life, to be vigilant of our actions and the words we speak, to be attentive to the thoughts that take up our mind space, to be careful of our reactions to others, irrespective of their behaviour, we typically have a social, moral or at best an ethical standard and peg our thoughts, actions and progress on those parameters. However, if we are to go by the Mother’s teachings on a lasting and enduring change in the way we live, not sudden and short-lived, then we may wish to adopt the Divine way and not the limited human method; what do we mean?

God’s way is dynamic, slow, holistic and complete; the human method is limited, hasty, partial and superficial. When we take on something as important as transforming ourselves, a change that is too hasty or built on a fixed notion, impulsively chosen is often incapable of endurance, of establishment, of a lasting change. Hence, it is only prudent to take on transformation as the journey that we set out on and tread carefully, with patience rather than consider it a goalpost to reach and rest. Donning the attitude of slow and constant progress rather than intense change followed by periods of lull or descent as well as realistic but consistent improvement rather than aim for perfection may be fruitful for the goal we have set for ourselves.

Our body is the vehicle for putting values to action, or instilling the essence of a value into our day to day means of living. It is said, the body is an instrument of habit, if it falls into the habit of a repeated task, then it asks for it; whether a good or bad habit then becomes a necessity; so by inculcating habits that can have long term positive effects, we not just allow the body the freedom to ask for it for a longer period without any threat of ill effects, we ensure long term positive impact on health and longevity of the body itself. If we want to inculcate sincerity early as a value in children, we cannot accomplish it through moral science lessons in post lunch class periods, we will need to let them physically observe the innumerable acts of sincerity and understand and emulate for themselves what it is to be sincere. Sincerity can be nebulous to a child, but a sincere habit repeated like waking early, a daily prayer, regular exercise, or meditation or dinner time discipline can teach more than advice around sincerity or any other lofty ideal. A sincere act of kindness, at work, in parenting can stand out and teach valuable lessons to young observers. When we side with our honest aspiration in the face of risk and adversity, children observe and learn. And Mother reminds us that the best way to teach is to be an integral example that one can experience as a living presence.

To be sincere is not to be perfect, it is an ongoing effort of constant progress we make to meet with the Truth that is master of our self and resides deep inside, that is sometimes the silent observer of our actions and moods, sometimes the sanctioner of our decisions and actions. When we make honesty our guide above perfection, we are willing to accept that the context of an event matters. We accept that truth can be dynamic, that Dharma, which is guiding truth, as per the Gita is not a static set of rules; that based on the incidents in life, our values will manifest differently and, on our part, we will stay true to this dynamic and intelligent guide not to a rigid law of perfection that may now be outdated.

Progress, the assured advance on the path, following a long sincere effort, that acts as a positive reinforcement of courage and certitude is also a dynamic state with no comfort of having reached a goal or end-state but an identified milestone, prodding to go for more. Progress is the Divine’s clue, he leaves for us, to prove his presence in and mastery over our lives.

Perfection, in the stated context is perfection defined by the human intellect, the condition of exact match with a stated human objective, be it in the context of work, self-development or spiritual elevation. Perfection, that has a flavour of a fixity and inflexibility from stated goal and therefore a finiteness to it, which in essence is the reduced and limited form, even a distorted form of the Divine Perfection, based on the narrow human vision of imposing one’s ways on a larger group or collective and disallowing the plasticity of envisioning the outcome in different ways. So even though, it reflects something that is best, it does not inherently convey a best state in alignment with the ever-changing Truth of one’s being but a fixed truth and based on a limited human capacity. This places the dynamic nature of genuine progress above the fixed nature of limiting perfection.

Many a time in the history of humanity, man’s ambition has got the better of himself and has put him on the path of egoistic greatness, superficial magnanimity, power and perfection, which has led to stages of suffering and invaluable lessons for us; the Asuras of Indian lore or the many dictators of the modern world remind us of dire possibilities. When man’s growth of consciousness and knowledge has not kept pace with his wish to exude force and conquer, it has resulted in wrath and destruction for both humanity as well the world at large. 

On the path of Conscious Living, where the objective is to be aware of every act and feeling and thought; where no part of life is separate from the path of yoga, every role we play and situation we face, is an opportunity for us to observe ourselves and change the part in us that is seemingly narrow, small and out of time and place. With such a wide objective before us, neither achievement nor perfection must torment us. Our business as walkers on the path of Mother and Sri Aurobindo is to show up every single time; observe honestly, attempt the change that resonates with our inmost self we are in touch with and acknowledge our shortcomings with humility and aspire for a continuous progress, sincerely.