{"id":2204,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:06","slug":"25-chapter-vii-the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga\/25-chapter-vii-the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","title":{"rendered":"-25_Chapter VII The Release from Subjection to the Body.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter VII <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Release from Subjection <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tto the Body <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO<\/font>UR FIRST<\/b> step in this path of
\n\t\t\tknowledge, having once determined in our intellect that what seems
\n\t\t\tis not the Truth, that the self is not the body or life or mind,
\n\t\t\tsince these are only its forms, must be to set right our mind in its
\n\t\t\tpractical relation with the life and the body so that it may arrive
\n\t\t\tat its own right relation with the Self. This it is easiest to do by
\n\t\t\ta device with which we are already familiar, since it played a great
\n\t\t\tpart in our view of the Yoga of Works; it is to create a separation
\n\t\t\tbetween the Prakriti and the Purusha. The Purusha, the soul that
\n\t\t\tknows and commands has got himself involved in the workings of his
\n\t\t\texecutive conscious force, so that he mistakes this physical working
\n\t\t\tof it which we call the body for himself; he forgets his own nature
\n\t\t\tas the soul that knows and commands; he believes his mind and soul
\n\t\t\tto be subject to the law and working of the body; he forgets that he
\n\t\t\tis so much else besides that is greater than the physical form; he
\n\t\t\tforgets that the mind is really greater than Matter and ought not to
\n\t\t\tsubmit to its obscurations, reactions, habit of inertia, habit of
\n\t\t\tincapacity; he forgets that he is more even than the mind, a Power
\n\t\t\twhich can raise the mental being above itself; that he is the
\n\t\t\tMaster, the Transcendent and it is not fit the Master should be
\n\t\t\tenslaved to his own workings, the Transcendent imprisoned in a form
\n\t\t\twhich exists only as a trifle in its own being. All this
\n\t\t\tforgetfulness has to be cured by the Purusha remembering his own
\n\t\t\ttrue nature and first by his remembering that the body is only a
\n\t\t\tworking and only one working of Prakriti. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe say then to the mind "This is a working of Prakriti, this is
\n\t\t\tneither thyself nor myself; stand back from it." We shall find, if
\n\t\t\twe try, that the mind has this power of detachment and <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>343<\/font>   \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tcan stand back from the body not only in idea, but in act and as it
\n\t\t\twere physically or rather vitally. This detachment of the mind must
\n\t\t\tbe strengthened by a certain attitude of indifference to the things
\n\t\t\tof the body; we must not care essentially about its sleep or its
\n\t\t\twaking, its movement or its rest, its pain or its pleasure, its
\n\t\t\thealth or ill-health, its vigour or its fatigue, its comfort or its
\n\t\t\tdiscomfort, or what it eats or drinks. This does not mean that we
\n\t\t\tshall not keep the body in right order so far as we can; we have not
\n\t\t\tto fall into violent asceticisms or a positive neglect of the
\n\t\t\tphysical frame. But we have not either to be affected in mind by
\n\t\t\thunger or thirst or discomfort or ill-health or attach the
\n\t\t\timportance which the physical and vital man attaches to the things
\n\t\t\tof the body, or indeed any but a quite subordinate and purely
\n\t\t\tinstrumental importance. Nor must this instrumental importance be
\n\t\t\tallowed to assume the proportions of a necessity; we must not for
\n\t\t\tinstance imagine that the purity of the mind depends on the things
\n\t\t\twe eat or drink, although during a certain stage restrictions in
\n\t\t\teating and drinking are useful to our inner progress; nor on the
\n\t\t\tother hand must we continue to think that the dependence of the mind
\n\t\t\tor even of the life on food and drink is anything more than a habit,
\n\t\t\ta customary relation which Nature has set up between these
\n\t\t\tprinciples. As a matter of fact the food we take can be reduced by
\n\t\t\tcontrary habit and new relation to a minimum without the mental or
\n\t\t\tvital vigour being in any way reduced; even on the contrary with a
\n\t\t\tjudicious development they can be trained to a greater potentiality
\n\t\t\tof vigour by learning to rely on the secret fountains of mental and
\n\t\t\tvital energy with which they are connected more than upon the minor
\n\t\t\taid of physical aliments. This aspect of self-discipline is however
\n\t\t\tmore important in the Yoga of self-perfection than here; for our
\n\t\t\tpresent purpose the important point is the renunciation by the mind
\n\t\t\tof attachment to or dependence on the things of the body. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThus disciplined the mind will gradually learn to take up towards
\n\t\t\tthe body the true attitude of the Purusha. First of all, it will
\n\t\t\tknow the mental Purusha as the upholder of the body and not in any
\n\t\t\tway the body itself; for it is quite other than  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>344<\/font>  \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tthe physical existence which it upholds by the mind through
\n\t\t\tthe agency of the vital force. This will come to be so much the
\n\t\t\tnormal attitude of the whole being to the physical frame that the
\n\t\t\tlatter will feel to us as if something external and detachable like
\n\t\t\tthe dress we wear or an instrument we happen to be carrying in our
\n\t\t\thand. We may even come to feel that the body is in a certain sense
\n\t\t\tnon-existent except as a sort of partial expression of our vital
\n\t\t\tforce and of our mentality. These experiences are signs that the
\n\t\t\tmind is coming to a right poise regarding the body, that it is
\n\t\t\texchanging the false view-point of the mentality obsessed and
\n\t\t\tcaptured by physical sensation for the view-point of the true truth
\n\t\t\tof things. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSecondly, with regard to the movements and experiences of the body
\n\t\t\tthe mind will come to know the Purusha seated within it as, first,
\n\t\t\tthe witness or observer of the movements and, secondly, the knower
\n\t\t\tor perceiver of the experiences. It will cease to consider in
\n\t\t\tthought or feel in sensation these movements and experiences as its
\n\t\t\town but rather consider and feel them as not its own, as operations
\n\t\t\tof Nature governed by the qualities of Nature and their interaction
\n\t\t\tupon each other. This detachment can be made so normal and carried
\n\t\t\tso far that there will be a kind of division between the mind and
\n\t\t\tthe body and the former will observe and experience the hunger,
\n\t\t\tthirst, pain, fatigue, depression, etc. of the physical being as if
\n\t\t\tthey were experiences of some other person with whom it has so close
\n\t\t\ta
\nrapport <\/i>as to be aware of all that is going on within him. This division
\n\t\t\tis a great means, a great step towards mastery; for the mind comes
\n\t\t\tto observe these things first without being overpowered and finally
\n\t\t\twithout being at all affected by them, dispassionately, with clear
\n\t\t\tunderstanding but with perfect detachment. This is the initial
\n\t\t\tliberation of the mental being from servitude to the body; for by
\n\t\t\tright knowledge put steadily into practice liberation comes
\n\t\t\tinevitably. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFinally, the mind will come to know the Purusha in the mind as the
\n\t\t\tmaster of Nature whose sanction is necessary to her movements. It
\n\t\t\twill find that as the giver of the sanction he can withdraw the
\n\t\t\toriginal fiat from the previous habits of   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>345<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tNature and that eventually the habit will cease or change in
\n\t\t\tthe direction indicated by the will of the Purusha; not at once, for
\n\t\t\tthe old sanction persists as an obstinate consequence of the past
\n\t\t\tKarma of Nature until that is exhausted, and a good deal also
\n\t\t\tdepends on the force of the habit and the idea of fundamental
\n\t\t\tnecessity which the mind had previously attached to it; but if it is
\n\t\t\tnot one of the fundamental habits Nature has established for the
\n\t\t\trelation of the mind, life and body and if the old sanction is not
\n\t\t\trenewed by the mind or the habit willingly indulged, then eventually
\n\t\t\tthe change will come. Even the habit of hunger and thirst can be
\n\t\t\tminimised, inhibited, put away; the habit of disease can be
\n\t\t\tsimilarly minimised and gradually eliminated and in the meantime the
\n\t\t\tpower of the mind to set right the disorders of the body whether by
\n\t\t\tconscious manipulation of vital force or by simple mental fiat will
\n\t\t\timmensely increase. By a similar process the habit by which the
\n\t\t\tbodily nature associates certain forms and degrees of activity with
\n\t\t\tstrain, fatigue, incapacity can be rectified and the power, freedom,
\n\t\t\tswiftness, effectiveness of the work whether physical or mental
\n\t\t\twhich can be done with this bodily instrument marvellously
\n\t\t\tincreased, doubled, tripled, decupled. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis side of the method belongs properly to the Yoga of
\n\t\t\tself-perfection; but it is as well to speak briefly of these things
\n\t\t\there both because we thereby lay a basis for what we shall have to
\n\t\t\tsay of self-perfection, which is a part of the integral Yoga, and
\n\t\t\tbecause we have to correct the false notions popularised by
\n\t\t\tmaterialistic Science. According to this Science the normal mental
\n\t\t\tand physical states and the relations between mind and body actually
\n\t\t\testablished by our past evolution are the right, natural and healthy
\n\t\t\tconditions and anything other, anything opposite to them is either
\n\t\t\tmorbid and wrong or a hallucination, self-deception and insanity.
\n\t\t\tNeedless to say, this conservative principle is entirely ignored by
\n\t\t\tScience itself when it so diligently and successfully improves on
\n\t\t\tthe normal operations of physical Nature for the greater mastery of
\n\t\t\tNature by man. Suffice it to say here once for all that a change of
\n\t\t\tmental and physical state and of relations between the mind and body
\n\t\t\twhich increases the <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>346<\/font>  \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tpurity and freedom of the being, brings a clear joy and peace
\n\t\t\tand multiplies the power of the mind over itself and over the
\n\t\t\tphysical functions, brings about in a word man’s greater mastery of
\n\t\t\this own nature, is obviously not morbid and cannot be considered a
\n\t\t\thallucination or self-deception since its effects are patent and
\n\t\t\tpositive. In fact, it is simply a willed advance of Nature in her
\n\t\t\tevolution of the individual, an evolution which she will carry out
\n\t\t\tin any case but in which she chooses to utilise the human will as
\n\t\t\ther chief agent, because her essential aim is to lead the Purusha to
\n\t\t\tconscious mastery over herself. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis being said, we must add that in the movement of the path of
\n\t\t\tknowledge perfection of the mind and body are no consideration at
\n\t\t\tall or only secondary considerations. The one thing necessary is to
\n\t\t\trise out of Nature to the Self by either the most swift or the most
\n\t\t\tthorough and effective method possible; and the method we are
\n\t\t\tdescribing, though not the swiftest, is the most thorough-going in
\n\t\t\tits effectivity. And here there arises the question of physical
\n\t\t\taction or inaction. It is ordinarily considered that the Yogin
\n\t\t\tshould draw away from action as much as possible and especially that
\n\t\t\ttoo much action is a hindrance because it draws off the energies
\n\t\t\toutward. To a certain extent this is true; and we must note farther
\n\t\t\tthat when the mental Purusha takes up the attitude of mere witness
\n\t\t\tand observer, a tendency to silence, solitude, physical calm and
\n\t\t\tbodily inaction grows upon the being. So long as this is not
\n\t\t\tassociated with inertia, incapacity or unwillingness to act, in a
\n\t\t\tword, with the growth of the tamasic quality, all this is to the
\n\t\t\tgood. The power to do nothing, which is quite different from
\n\t\t\tindolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to
\n\t\t\tinaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest
\n\t\t\tabsolutely from action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the
\n\t\t\tpower to cease absolutely from thought, as the power to remain
\n\t\t\tindefinitely in sheer solitude and silence and as the power of
\n\t\t\timmovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these states is
\n\t\t\tnot yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge;
\n\t\t\twhoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its
\n\t\t\tacquisition. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAt the same time it must be added that the power is enough; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>347<\/font>  \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tthe abstention from all physical action is not indispensable,
\n\t\t\tthe aversion to action mental or corporeal is not desirable. The
\n\t\t\tseeker of the integral state of knowledge must be free from
\n\t\t\tattachment to action and equally free from attachment to inaction.
\n\t\t\tEspecially must any tendency to mere inertia of mind or vitality or
\n\t\t\tbody be surmounted, and if that habit is found growing on the
\n\t\t\tnature, the will of the Purusha must be used to dismiss it.
\n\t\t\tEventually, a state arrives when the life and the body perform as
\n\t\t\tmere instruments the will of the Purusha in the mind without any
\n\t\t\tstrain or attachment, without their putting themselves into the
\n\t\t\taction with that inferior, eager and often feverish energy which is
\n\t\t\tthe nature of their ordinary working; they come to work as forces of
\n\t\t\tNature work without the fret and toil and reaction characteristic of
\n\t\t\tlife in the body when it is not yet master of the physical. When we
\n\t\t\tattain to this perfection, then action and inaction become
\n\t\t\timmaterial, since neither interferes with the freedom of the soul or
\n\t\t\tdraws it away from its urge towards the Self or its poise in the
\n\t\t\tSelf. But this state of perfection arrives later in the Yoga and
\n\t\t\ttill then the law of moderation laid down by the Gita is the best
\n\t\t\tfor us; too much mental or physical action then is not good since
\n\t\t\texcess draws away too much energy and reacts unfavourably upon the
\n\t\t\tspiritual condition; too little also is not good since defect leads
\n\t\t\tto a habit of inaction and even to an incapacity which has
\n\t\t\tafterwards to be surmounted with difficulty. Still, periods of
\n\t\t\tabsolute calm, solitude and cessation from works are highly
\n\t\t\tdesirable and should be secured as often as possible for that
\n\t\t\trecession of the soul into itself which is indispensable to
\n\t\t\tknowledge. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhile dealing thus with the body we have necessarily to deal also
\n\t\t\twith the Prana or life-energy. For practical purposes we have to
\n\t\t\tmake a distinction between the life-energy as it acts in the body,
\n\t\t\tthe physical Prana, and the life-energy as it acts in support of the
\n\t\t\tmental activities, the psychical Prana. For we lead always a double
\n\t\t\tlife, mental and physical, and the same life-energy acts differently
\n\t\t\tand assumes a different aspect according as it lends itself to one
\n\t\t\tor the other. In the body it produces those reactions of hunger,
\n\t\t\tthirst, fatigue, health, disease, physical  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>348<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tvigour, etc. which are the vital experiences of the physical
\n\t\t\tframe. For the gross body of man is not like the stone or the earth;
\n\t\t\tit is a combination of two sheaths, the vital and the "food" sheath
\n\t\t\tand its life is a constant interaction of these two. Still the
\n\t\t\tlife-energy and the physical frame are two different things and in
\n\t\t\tthe withdrawal of the mind from the absorbing sense of the body we
\n\t\t\tbecome increasingly sensible of the Prana and its action in the
\n\t\t\tcorporeal instrument and can observe and more and more control its
\n\t\t\toperations. Practically, in drawing back from the body we draw back
\n\t\t\tfrom the physical life-energy also, even while we distinguish the
\n\t\t\ttwo and feel the latter nearer to us than the mere physical
\n\t\t\tinstrument. The entire conquest of the body comes in fact by the
\n\t\t\tconquest of the physical life-energy. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlong with the attachment to the body and its works the attachment
\n\t\t\tto life in the body is overcome. For when we feel the physical being
\n\t\t\tto be not ourselves, but only a dress or an instrument, the
\n\t\t\trepulsion to the death of the body which is so strong and vehement
\n\t\t\tan instinct of the vital man must necessarily weaken and can be
\n\t\t\tthrown away. Thrown away it must be and entirely. The fear of death
\n\t\t\tand the aversion to bodily cessation are the stigma left by his
\n\t\t\tanimal origin on the human being. That brand must be utterly
\n\t\t\teffaced.   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>349<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter VII   The Release from Subjection   to the Body   OUR FIRST step in this path of knowledge, having once determined in our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","wpcat-46-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}