Presence of Hostile forces is a test

The work of this Yoga and therefore the principle of the Asram life is to take the world as it is and deal with it by a transformation of which the supramental descent is not the first but the final process. The presence of the hostile forces is a part of the world as it is and not to deal with them at all or to act as if they were not there would have been to leave the problem unsolved and the work undone.

The sadhaks of the Asram are not spotless Saints or perfect born Yogis but men who carry in them their human nature and typify each in his own way what is in the world and what has to be changed. The influence of the hostile Forces was on them as on all human beings in a less or greater degree, and so long as they open themselves to that influence, it works on them as on the world,— it is only by a perfect sincerity and by a perfect opening to the Light that it can disappear.

In that sense the presence of these forces is a test and the world that has to be changed being what it is and their nature being what it is, it could not be otherwise.

Ref: Letters on Himself and The Ashram