Mother in Psychic Education asks us not to seek comforts, it is not the material comforts as we think but comfort to our senses which makes us lazy and be satisfied with what we are today or what we get today. We don’t move ahead for next level of transformation in all planes of human construction such as matter, vital and mind when it demands some degree of missing the comforts. Any move in self-improvement can be considered only when it does not disturb our present conveniences, enjoyments, and understandings.

Sri Aurobindo says it is like enjoying the warmth of the cocoon. He says that mind wants even the supramental state to be a confirmation of its own cherished ideas and pre-conceptions; the vital wants it to be a glorification of its own desires; the physical wants it to be a rich prolongation of its own comforts and pleasures and habits. If it were to be that, it would be only an exaggerated and highly magnified consummation of the animal and the human nature, not a transition from the human into the Divine.

Taking the cue from the word cocoon, if we think of a caterpillar it has very limited area to move and if it feels comfort within that it stretchable limit is within two are three leaves and it will be happy with that. Even so if goes into cocoon. But when it takes the pain of transforming itself into a butterfly its limit is the whole world.

Our life can be transformed like the butterflies. Most of us live in a cocoon of safety to protect ourselves from the elements that disturbs our comforts. We are accustomed to the routine of our lives. We know what to expect each day as we crawl out from under our warm bed sheets in the morning. The alarm will tell the range of comfort we expect when it is time to wake up early.

Our comfort area limits us in the same way the caterpillar is limited. The vision of the caterpillar is limited to a few feet around it. It cannot even imagine a life beyond its vision. But the caterpillar is lucky. Nature has provided a path that will transform it into a butterfly with a hugely expanded vision. It does not have a choice. But we have a path of possibilities.