Simplicity, Sincerity and Spontaneity

“One must be spontaneous in order to be divine.

One must be perfectly simple in order to be spontaneous.

One must be absolutely sincere in order to be perfectly simple.

To be absolutely sincere is not to have any division, any contradiction in one’s being.”

 (The Mother)

Spontaneous Aspiration of Nature towards the Divine: Wide open, spontaneous, irrevocable in its spontaneous power.
(Botanical name: Chrysanthemum leucanthemum; Common name: Ox-eye daisy, Moon daisy) Photo credit

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How simple this all sounds, and yet how difficult the path is.

To be constantly on the watch for any little contradiction emerging in my being, to be constantly conscious of every little movement in any part of my being, to constantly keep purifying myself of my little and big imperfections and defects of nature…this is the path I must tread on, with every tiny step, without regard to any number of failures I may encounter, never losing faith, never losing the remembrance that The Divine is beside me, with me, holding me, in me, and all around me, that The Divine in me is the one aspiring to be one with The Divine.

What is needed to be simple and spontaneous in order to be divine is to aspire upwards, to aspire for god-hood, and not look beneath the man-hood to animal world where a different kind of simplicity or spontaneity may exist. But that simplicity is an empty simplicity. What is needed is a full simplicity in which I have developed the inner ability to transcend the complexity and disharmony resulting from that complexity.

Simple Sincerity: The beginning of all progress.
(Botanical name: Aster amellus; common name: Italian aster) Photo credit

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When I am not sincere in my motivations and intentions, I am not spontaneous, I am trying to use the situation to my “advantage” or for my “pleasure.” In other words, I am being self-ish in my approach and attitude towards others, towards work, towards life and world in general. I am trying to play the “win-lose” game where I am trying to win the game regardless of who else is losing.

This most certainly results in a feeling of unease somewhere deep down. I can choose to not acknowledge this feeling, or even worse, I can not even be conscious of such an un-ease. But sooner or later, this feeling which is a natural consequence of what I have sown does do its work and may manifest in the form of inner confusion, conflicting interests, irritation at the system or others, ill-health etc. All of this is a sure recipe for unhappiness. So lack of sincerity leads to lack of simplicity, lack of simplicity leads to unhappiness. And when I am so unhappy, it becomes even difficult to quiet all the noises in the head. And the result is chaos, marketplace of meaningless, repetitive thoughts.

This lack of inner quietude prevents me from accurately observing myself and my reactions and movements, and also from accurately grasping the reality surrounding my field of experience. This cacophony of noises leads to misjudgment, misunderstanding and mistaken actions, eventually resulting in disappointment, hopelessness and unhappiness. And that sometimes acts as an incentive to go back to the “simpler” times, to the empty simplicity when I don’t have to deal with the complexity of real-world situations, when I don’t have to creatively engage with the ego-clashes in which I spend most of my days. But as the Mother guides, this is not the simplicity I should be aspiring for. It is the simplicity of the divine that should be my goal and ideal.

Integral Simplicity: The simplicity that comes from perfect sincerity.
(Botanical name: Vittadinia triloba; Common name: Creeping daisy) Photo credit

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Sri Aurobindo’s answer is always the same: Be simple, be simple, very simple. And I know what he means: to deny entry to regulating, organising, prescriptive, judgmental thought — he wants none of all that. What he calls being simple is a joyful spontaneity; in action, in expression, in movement, in life, be simple, be simple, be simple. A joyful spontaneity. (The Mother)