Sincerity Is the Only Protection in the Development of the Spiritual Life

If we consider what the most important quality is for progress in spiritual growth, we generally come up with a number of different ideas, including devotion, strong mind or will, faith, dedication, aspiration. We rarely name ‘sincerity’ as the quality most required. Yet, the Mother stresses the importance of this generally under-rated quality. Without sincerity, all the other qualities tend to fail at some point.

A disciple asks: “What is the fundamental virtue to be cultivated in order to prepare for the spiritual life?”

The Mother writes: “I have said this many times, but this is an opportunity to repeat it: it is sincerity. … A sincerity which must become total and absolute, for sincerity alone is your protection on the spiritual path. If you are not sincere, at the very next step you are sure to fall and break your head. All kinds of forces, wills, influences, entities are there, on the look-out for the least little rift in this sincerity and they immediately rush in through that rift and begin to throw you into confusion. … Therefore, before doing anything, beginning anything, trying anything, be sure first of all that you are not only as sincere as you can be, but have the intention of becoming still more so. … For that is your only protection.”

Sri Aurobindo clarifies what sincerity is: “Sincere is simply an adjective meaning that the will must be a true will. If you simply think ‘I aspire’ and do things inconsistent with the aspiration, or follow your desires or open yourself to contrary influences, then it is not a sincere will.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Growing Within: The Psychology of Inner Development, Chapter III Growth of Consciousness Basic Requisites, pg. 38