Patience: the capacity to wait steadily for the Realisation to come.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p165
There are always difficulties and a hampered progress in the early stages and a delay in the opening of the inner doors until the being is ready. If you feel whenever you meditate the quiescence and the flashes of the inner Light and if the inward urge is growing so strong that the external hold is decreasing and the vital disturbances are losing their force, that is already a great progress. 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.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol.29, p110
He who is without resentment, who bears reproaches, blows and chains, whose patience is his true strength, him I consider to be a Brahmin.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM, Vol.3, p294
To arrive at this condition the important thing is a persistent aspiration, call and self-offering, and a will to reject all in oneself or around that stands in the way. Difficulties there will always be at the beginning and for as long a time as is necessary for the change; but they are bound to disappear if they are met by a settled faith, will and patience.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol.29, p234
It should be noted that the result of the Yogic processes is not, except in rare cases, immediate and one must apply them with patience till they give a result which is sometimes long in coming if there is much resistance in the outer nature.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p304
It is an impatience and restlessness in the vital which makes it feel as if it were no use staying here because things are not moving forward. Sadhana is a thing which takes time and needs patience. There are often periods of quiescence in which a working is going on behind of which the mind is not aware—all seems then to be inert and dull; but if one has patience and confidence, the consciousness passes through these periods to new openings and things which seemed to be impossible to effect at that time, get done. The impulse to rush away is always a mistake—perseverance in the path is the one rule to cling to and with that finally all obstacles are overcome.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p111
It is not in a day that one can overcome one’s own nature. But with patience and enduring will the Victory is sure to come.
With patience any difficulty can be overcome.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p166
If the mind remains quiet in all circumstances and happenings, patience will be more easily increased.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p167
Determination is needed and a firm patience, not to be discouraged by this or that failure. It is a change in the habit of the physical nature and that needs a long patient work of detail.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p110
To realise anything one must be patient. And the vaster and more important the realisation, the greater the patience must be.
The Mother – Words of the Mother: CWM, Vol. 14, p167
It is certain that an ardent aspiration for the Divine helps to progress, but patience is also needed. For it is a very big change that has to be made and, although there can be moments of great rapidity, it is never all the time like that. Old things try to stick as much as possible; the new that come have to develop and the consciousness takes time to assimilate them and make them normal to the nature.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, p110
You say after several years you have not changed your nature. I only wish the external nature were so easy to transform that it could be done in a few years. You forget also that the real problem—to get rid of the pervading ego in this nature—is a task you have seriously tackled only a short time ago. And it is not in a few months that that can be done. Even the best sadhaks find after many experiences and large changes on the higher planes that here much remains to be done. How do you expect to get rid of it at once unlike everybody else? A Yoga like this needs patience, because it means a change both of the radical motives and of each part and detail of the nature…. The thing to be done is to stand back, observe and reject, not to allow these things to get hold of you, to keep your central will separate from them and call in the Mother’s Force to meet them. If one does get involved as often happens, then to get disinvolved as soon as possible and go forward again. That is what everybody, every Yogin does—to be depressed because one cannot do everything in a rush is quite contrary to the truth of the matter. A stumble does not mean that one is unfit, nor does prolonged difficulty mean that for oneself the thing is impossible.
…. keeping the contact with the Mother—for it is her Force that is behind it and behind all the progress you can make. Learn to rely on that Force more, to open to it more completely and to seek spiritual progress even not for your own sake but for the sake of the Divine—then you will go on more smoothly. Get the full psychic opening in the most external physical consciousness. That and not despondency is the lesson you ought to draw from your present adverse experience.
They [patience and peace] go together. By having patience under all kinds of pressure you lay the foundations of peace.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 29, pp 113-14
…. 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. In spite of what many people think, the athlete’s life is not a life of amusement or distraction; on the contrary, it is a life of methodical efforts and austere habits, which leave no room for useless fancies that go against the result one wants to achieve.
The Mother – On Education: CWM, Vol. 12, pp 52-53
Sweet Mother,
How can one remember at every moment that whatever one does is for You? Particularly when one wants to make a complete offering, how should one proceed, never forgetting that it is for the Divine?
To achieve that, one must have an obstinate will and a great patience. But once one has taken the resolution to do it, the divine help will be there to support and to help. This help is felt inwardly in the heart.
Blessings.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p398
The narrowness etc. of which you complain are normal to the physical nature. It is the same thing acting in a different way which makes _X_ rebellious to advice and full of irritation and bad temper when her mistakes are shown to her. The physical nature of almost everybody is like that, intolerant, easily irritated, lacking in patience when dealing with others. But this physical nature can be replaced and changed by the psychic nature and you have had the experience of what this psychic nature is and how it acts….
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga: CWSA, Vol. 31, p385
Patience
Indispensable for all realisation.
Mimusops elengi
Spanish cherry, Medlar, Tanjong tree
Small cream white strongly scented flower with four pointed sepals overlaid with a ring of narrow fringelike petals and an inner ring of petals that form a central cone; borne in small compact axillary clusters. A medium to large spreading evergreen tree.
