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<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><span style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size="4">Effort and Grace</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span style='font-family:
"Arial Narrow";mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Narrow"'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>THERE are, we know, as Sri
Aurobindo says, two powers which in their conjunction bring about the great
consummation we aim at. It is personal effort from below and Divine Grace from
above. The one prepares the field, the other fructifies and fulfils.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>It
has, however, always been declared that personal effort is not absolute in its
effectivity, it is limited, relative and conditional: it does not by itself
lead you to the final and supreme realisation; it takes you at the most to the
threshold of Grace which follows up the work and brings it to its goal. Indeed
it has also been said that personal effort itself is operative when inspired
and impelled by the Grace from behind or from above. The Gita says in effect:
By your effort and <i>tapasya </i>you are capable of withdrawing yourself from
the mayic world of the senses, get detached from the sense-objects; but the
secret attachment, the taste, the subtle interest for them goes only when the
Supreme is visioned:</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoHeading8 style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">Raso’pyasya param drstva nivartate¹</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The Upanishad also says: the
highest is visible only when of its own accord It unveils itself:</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoHeading8 style='tab-stops:283.5pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Yamevaisa_ vrnute tena<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp; </span>labhyah ²</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:70.9pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
actual function or role of personal effort is that of a guide, like Virgil
taking Dante through Hell and Purgatory and then arriving at the frontier of
Paradise and there entrusting him into the hands of Beatrice. It is to give
the preliminary</p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>¹ <i>The Gita: II, </i>59<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:8.15pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>² <i>Katha UPanishad: II, </i>23</span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
8.6pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;
border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page
– 284</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>experiences, initiate into the basic mysteries in order
to prepare the vessel that is to house the Supreme. The Supreme is not.
amenable to your control whatever your effort may be, it is free, even
eccentric – the wind bloweth where it listeth – the Grace goes wherever it
chooses to go; it does not weigh or examine the amount of your preparation, it
has its own manner of choosing. But the preparation that your personal effort
effectuates is helpful for the working of the Grace not so much for its initial
descent – It is, as I said, to prepare the a<i>dhar </i>for holding,
maintaining and establishing it.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>We know too well:</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:56.7pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Only
a little the God-light can stay: . . .³</p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:56.7pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:
11.0pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0'>The whole problem is there: how to make the God-light stay
here, stay here for ever. The higher light does come down, but fitfully, one is
never certain of it. For it is as it were, &quot;a scout in a reconnaissance
from the sun.&quot; Here then is this special utility of personal effort, the
service it can render,– to do the dredging, salvaging work. Personal effort
with the egosense has been put there to find out and note the barriers and
pitfalls, the faults and fissures in the human system, to overcome, remedy and
correct them as far as possible. The human receptacle is normally impure and
obscure, resistant and recalcitrant: the personal will and endeavour has to be
called in to labour, to level and smoothen the field, breathe into it air and
light. That is the work of the individual will, to make of the adhar<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp; </span>a strong base, strong and capacious, to
receive and hold the descent. The temple is to be made clean and pure and
inviting so that when the deity arrives he will find a happy home for a
permanent dwelling.<o:p></o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>It
must be noted however, in the last account the personal effort for
self-purification and self-preparation is not altogether personal and mere effort;
it is, as I have said, always supported and inspired by the secret presence and
pressure of the higher Influence.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Still,
personal effort on our part has a unique value in this sense that it means
collaboration and goodwill and readiness of the being to fall in line with the
cosmic work and the Divine </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>³ Sri Aurobindo: Savitri, Book 1, Canto I<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
	<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:11.0pt;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page
– 285<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>plan: it signifies the
assent of the lower consciousness to the working of the higher. What is required
is conscious cooperation: unconscious cooperation is always there but it is,
as it were, forced labour: does not the Lord declare to Nature</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:70.9pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I will pursue thee across
the century;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:70.9pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Thou shalt be hunted
through the world by love,</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:70.9pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Naked of ignorance'
protecting veil. . . </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:70.9pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Nowhere shalt thou escape
my living eyes.<span style='font-size:8.0pt'>4<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoHeader style='line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:
.5in center 3.0in right 6.0in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Instead
of the ill-will or unwillingness of the normal original ignorant being there
comes about a change, a conversion to the light and truth. First the Inferno,
then the Purgatory, finally there will be the Paradise. At the outset in the
ignorance' the being withdraws, contracts, wriggles under the light touching
it, its first impulse is to repel the newcomer. A conscious effort is a
movement of correction against the instinctive reaction, it is a movement
towards the right reaction of the being to the impact of the light. The whole
being, the whole nature in all its parts and functions has to be corrected,
re-oriented, gradually tempered and streamlined – polarised so that it is made
one-pointed, supple and obedient and responsive. That is the process of fixing
upon earth the fleeting Godhead.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Personal
effort is thus a training in collaboration. From inertia and indifference, unwillingness
and even positive hostility to rise into cooperation and comradeship, that is
the discipline that personal effort gives to the mortal being, and then from
cooperation and collaboration to union and identity with the Supreme Goal,
effort merging into the spontaneous execution of the Divine Will, the personal
melting into the impersonal Person – that is the consummation brought about by
Grace.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>


<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:205.45pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;
border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 16.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;</span>4 Sri Aurobindo: Savitri, Book 11, Canto I<span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:205.45pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 16.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page
– 286</span></p>

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