How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 3

Today’s world provides people with both an obstacle and an opportunity when they try to follow their chosen or cherished path in life. The obstacle is based on societal requirement that individuals take up a productive form of work in the world to earn enough money to support their needs for basic necessities of life. In many cases, the skill set and education or training simply is not available to them for the jobs that are accessible to them, or else, to obtain the necessary skills and certifications, the time and cost of acquisition are beyond their means. Thus, many people bemoan the fact that they are stuck in a dead end job, which they do not want, but have no choice in the matter if they have to survive, or in some cases, pay off their bills or loans, or maintain their health insurance, etc. In other cases, they get limited support from their family or their society, but only if they agree to follow a predestined path that may not actually suit them. This occurs frequently in what may be called a “family business”. The individual has no talent or interest in taking up the reins of the business, but is expected to do so as the next generation carries on what the previous generation started. Or the family puts pressure on the individual to follow a career path that is at odds with the natural interests, passions and skills of the individual, and only provides any support if the person suppresses his natural inclinations and takes up the assigned role.

In some cases, the individual is able to pursue their vision or dream concurrently with making their way in society. They may find an educational path or career path that supports what they are inwardly driven to undertake, and thus, they can combine their deepest aspirations with a systematic approach within the societal framework.

At the same time, there are opportunities for individuals who are willing or able to focus on their driving motivation to find a way to create that future despite the obstacles. They may temporarily take jobs while they prepare themselves and position their future activities. They may find alternative arrangements for living that gives them the freedom to pursue their dreams. They may join like minded people if the goals and developmental freedom align with their seeking. Monasteries, Ashrams, and spiritual communities tend to accept people who have a religious or spiritual aspect to their seeking, although the seeker must ordinarily align with the lifestyle that goes along with that. In some cultures, if an individual is willing to sacrifice everything for a spiritual objective, they can take up the life of a wandering mendicant and live a subsistence life.

An interesting case occurred in the life of Paramahansa Yogananda as related in his book Autobiography of a Yogi. He was driven from an early age to take up the spiritual life, and tried to escape several times from his family and school commitments to find his Guru and live in the Himalayas devoted to spiritual realization. He eventually came in contact with his Guru who insisted he complete his university studies. He neglected the courses, but the Guru insisted he sit for the exams. His guide suggested he work with a friend of his who was a solid student, and that individual tutored him so perfectly on the likely exam questions that he was able to pass the exams and satisfy the demands of his family and his Guru that he get the benefit of both the education and the degree, which stood him in good stead in his later life activities.

There are others who have a dream or vision and who are willing to sacrifice outer comforts and security for bringing that dream to life. In many cases they get little or no support until they have created something the society finds valuable. This may take many years, or even decades. In some cases this catapults them into the upper echelons of financial well-being! In other cases, they become leaders, founders, researchers, inventors, explorers, innovators, artists or musicians. They may gain recognition, or not, but they are able to develop the line of life that they were clearly destined to follow. In many cases we see that their work is valued long after their death.

Many people feel unfulfilled because either fear or ambition causes them to hold back, or overreach, and thus, they wind up neither accomplishing their cherished goal, nor being satisfied with what they wind up accepting in lieu of taking the chance and living their passion. In some cases they simply do not prepare the ground if their vital nature is impatient and does not want to work out the steps needed along the way.

And then there is the divine Grace. In some instances, an indviidual with a deep aspiration can find doors opening, pathways laid out before him, opportunities arise and circumstances favor a direction that speaks to his deepest aspirations and allows him to live a life that is both fulfilling and fulfilled in the service of a greater purpose than his own personal needs or desires.

The Mother notes: “People are often blamed for choosing an action for themselves which does not correspond to their abilities. There is a slight confusion here.”

“Those who freely set out to accomplish their own favourite work cannot, in my opinion, be on the wrong track; this work must surely be the expression of their own particular tendency. But their mistake lies in wanting to accomplish this work all at once in its entirety, in its integrality, in depth and above all on the surface, forgetting that the very conception of the work is imperfect as they are imperfect and that to be wise, they should add to the knowledge of what they wish to do the more immediate and practical knowledge of what they are capable of doing at the present time.”

“By taking both these factors into account, they can employ themselves with a minimum waste of time and energy.”

“But few people act with so much insight and wisdom. And it very often happens that one who is seeking his way falls into one of these two possible errors:”

“Either he takes his desires for realities, that is, he over-estimates his present strength and capacity and imagines that he is capable of immediate assuming a place and a role which he can honourably fulfil only after many years of methodical and persevering effort.”

“Or he underestimates his latent powers and deliberately confines himself, in spite of his deeper aspirations, to a task which is far beneath his abilities and which will gradually extinguish within him the light that could have shone for others.”

“It seems difficult at first to steer clear of these pitfalls and find the balanced way, the middle way.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 3, Action and Work, pp. 58-61