September 21, 2011 – Vanity Closes You Up

Life and action culminate and are eternally crowned for thee
when thou hast attained the power of symbolising
& manifesting in every thought & act,
in wealth getting, wealth having or wealth spending,
in home & government & society, in art, literature and life,
the One Immortal in this lower mortal being.

Sri Aurobindo

(Thoughts and Aphorisms 204)

Vanity Closes You Up

There is nothing that closes you up more than vanity. When you are self-satisfied, you have that kind of vanity of not wanting to admit that you lack something, that you make mistakes, that you are incomplete, that you are imperfect, that you are… There is something in the nature, you know, which grows stiff in this way, which does not want to admit- it is this which prevents you from receiving. You have, however, only to try it out and get the experience. If, by an effort of will you manage to make even a very tiny part of the being admit that “Ah, well, yes, I am mistaken, I should not be like that, and I should not do that and should not feel that, yes, it is a fault”, if you manage to make it admit this, at first, as I said just now, it begins by hurting you very much, but when you hold on firmly, until this is admitted, immediately it is open- it is open and strangely a flood of light enters, and then you feel so glad afterwards, so happy that you ask yourself, “Why, from what foolishness did I resist so long?”

The Mother

The Great Adventure: Page 57