Yoga's a life-sentence

Reaching at the shores of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, though a matter of chance is a precious opportunity. Then comes a long and tortuous period of judging and comparing them (and their words) with other similar seeming entities. That over, the inevitable mischief of pitting them against each other occupies some time. Once that is settled, arrives the most crucial period of the transition from treating them as Guru to The Divine. The final victory, however, is when one leaves behind his old religion and all things associated with it.

This whole process of metamorphosis may take three years or prolong for thirty years. For many, the final thing never arrives and they live peacefully with their multiple allegiances. For some others, the fierce faithfulness and loyalty of the initial years peter out over a period of time to be replaced by a royal inclusive-liberalism of embracing all faiths and mystics. Similarly, certain workaholics gradually become so professional and polished that their shyness in displaying their faith in public stretches precariously to the point of appearing as unbelievers. And, there is no dearth of characters that are needlessly rude and authoritarian even though they are serving organizations dedicated to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo, thus lending a bad name to them.

As with life and education, Yoga is also dependent upon one’s heredity and environment and hence no uniform rules exists. Further, there is no means to prove or disprove as to how much the Divine intervention helps but the basic idea is that being a joint collaboration, it's a life-sentence. [TNM55]