{"id":2566,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2566"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:28","slug":"07-na-kinchidapi-chintayet-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/12-essays-divine-and-human\/07-na-kinchidapi-chintayet-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","title":{"rendered":"-07_Na Kinchidapi Chintayet.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Section<\/p>\n

Two <\/b>
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1910 \u00ad 1913<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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Na Kinchidapi Chintayet <\/b><\/span><\/font>
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\tThe cessation of thought is the one thing which the believer in
\nintellect as the highest term of our evolution cannot contemplate with equanimity. To master the fleeting randomness of thought
\nby regulating the intellectual powers and thinking consecutively and clearly is an ideal he can understand. But to still this higher
\ndevelopment of thought seems to him the negation of human activity, a reversion to the condition of the stone. Yet it is certain
\nthat it is only by the stilling of the lower that the higher gets full play. So long as the body and the vital desires are active the
\nmind is necessarily distracted and it is only when the body is forgotten and the vital part consents to quietude that a man
\ncan concentrate himself in thought and follow undisturbed the consecutive development whether of a train of reasoning or a
\ntrain of inspiration. Not only is this so, but the higher faculties of the mind can only work at their best when the lower are
\nquieted. If the accumulations in the chitta, the recording part of the mind, are continually active, full as it is of preconceived
\nideas, prejudices, predilections, the great mass of previous sanskaras<\/i>, the reflective mind which is ordinarily called the reason
\nis obstructed in its work and comes to false conclusions. It is essential for the faculties of the reason to be freed as far as may
\nbe from this ever increasing accumulation of thought-sensations good and bad, false and true which we call mind\u2014manas. It is
\nthis freedom which is called the scientific spirit. To form no conclusions which are not justified by observation and reasoning, to
\ndoubt everything until it is proved but to deny nothing until it is disproved, to be always ready to reconsider old conclusions in
\nthe light of new facts, to give a candid consideration to every new idea or old idea revived if it deserves a hearing, no matter how
\ncontradictory it may be of previously ascertained experience or previously formed conclusion, is the sceptical temper, the temper
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of the inquirer, the true scientist, the untrammelled thinker. The
\ninterference of prejudgment and predilection means bondage and until the higher mind has shaken off these fetters, it is not
\nfree; it works in chains, it sees in blinkers. This is as true of the materialist refusing to consider spiritualism and occultism
\nas it is of the religionist refusing to consider Science. Freedom is the first requisite of full working power, the freedom of the
\nhigher from the lower. The mind must be free from the body if it is to be purified from the grossness which clogs its motions,
\nthe heart must be free from the obsessions of the body if love and high aspiration are to increase, the reason must be free
\nfrom the heart and the lower mind if it is to reflect perfectly,\u2014for the heart can inspire, it cannot think, it is a vehicle of
\ndirect knowledge coloured by emotion, not of ratiocination. By [a] similar process if there is anything higher than the reason
\nit can only be set free to work by the stillness of the whole mind not excluding the reflective faculties. This is a conclusion
\nfrom analogy, indeed, and not entirely binding until confirmed by experience and observation. But we have given reason in past
\narticles for supposing that there is a higher force than the logical reason\u2014and the experience and observation of Yoga confirm
\nthe inference from analogy that the stillness of the mind is the first requisite for discovering, distinguishing and perfecting the
\naction of this higher element in the psychology of man.
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The stillness of the mind is prepared by the process of concentration. In the science of Rajayoga after the heart has been stilled and the mind prepared, the next step is to subjugate the
\nbody by means of asan <\/i>or the fixed and motionless seat. The aim of this fixity is twofold, first the stillness of the body and
\nsecondly the forgetfulness of the body. When one can sit still and utterly forget the body for a long period of time, then the asan
\nis said to have been mastered. In ordinary concentration when the body is only comparatively still it is not noticed, but there is
\nan undercurrent of physical consciousness which may surge up at any moment into the upper current of thought and disturb it.
\nThe Yogin seeks to make the forgetfulness perfect. In the higher processes of concentration this forgetfulness reaches such a point
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that the bodily consciousness is annulled and in the acme of the
\nsamadhi <\/i>a man can be cut or burned without being aware of the physical suffering. Even before the concentration is begun the
\nforgetfulness acquired is sufficient to prevent any intrusion upon the mind except under a more than ordinarily powerful physical
\nstimulus. After this point has been reached the Yoga proceeds to the processes of pranayam by which the whole system is cleared
\nof impurities and the pranasakti<\/i>, the great cosmic energy which lies behind all processes of Nature, fills the body and the brain
\nand becomes sufficient for any work of which man is actually or potentially capable. This is followed by concentration. The
\nfirst process is to withdraw the senses into the mind. This is partly done in the ordinary process of absorption of which every
\nthinking man is capable. To concentrate upon the work in hand whether it be a manual process, a train of thought, a scientific
\nexperiment or a train of inspiration, is the first condition of complete capacity and it is the process by which mankind has
\nbeen preparing itself for Yoga. To concentrate means to be absorbed; but absorption may be more or less complete. When
\nit is so complete that for all practical purposes the knowledge of outward things ceases, then the first step has been taken towards Yogic absorption. We need not go into the stages of that absorption rising from pratyahar to samadhi and from the lower
\nsamadhi to the higher. The principle is to intensify absorption. It is intensified in quality by the entire cessation of outward
\nknowledge, the senses are withdrawn into the mind, the mind into the buddhi or supermind, the supermind into Knowledge,
\nVijnana, Mahat, out of which all things proceed and in which all things exist. It is intensified in quantity or content; instead of
\nabsorption in a set of thoughts or a train of intuitions, the Yogin concentrates his absorption on a single thought, a single image, a
\nsingle piece of knowledge, and it is his experience that whatever he thus concentrates on, he masters,\u2014he becomes its lord and
\ndoes with it what he wills. By knowledge he attains to mastery of the world. The final goal of Rajayoga is the annulment of separate consciousness and complete communion with that which alone is whether we call Him Parabrahman or Parameshwara,
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Existence in the Highest or Will in the Highest, the Ultimate or
\nGod.
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In the Gita we have a process which is not the process of
\nRaja-Yoga. It seeks a short cut to the common aim and goes straight to the stillness of the mind. After putting away desire
\nand fear the Yogin sits down and performs upon his thoughts a process of reining in by which they get accustomed to an
\ninward motion. Instead of allowing the mind to flow outward, he compels it to rise and fall within, and if he sees, hears, feels
\nor smells outward objects he pays no attention to them and draws the mind always inward. This process he pursues until
\nthe mind ceases to send up thoughts connected with outward things. The result is that fresh thoughts do not accumulate in
\nthe chitta at the time of meditation, but only the old ones rise. If the process be farther pursued by rejecting these thoughts as
\nthey rise in the mind, in other words by dissociating the thinker from the mind, the operator from the machine and refusing to
\nsanction the continuance of the machine’s activity, the result is perfect stillness. This can be done if the thinker whose interest
\nis necessary to the mind, refuses to be interested and becomes passive. The mind goes on for a while by its own impetus just
\nas a locomotive does when the steam is shut off, but a time must come when it will slow down and stop altogether. This
\nis the moment towards which the process moves. Na kinchid api chintayet:\u2014the Yogin should not think of anything at all.
\nBlank cessation of mental activity is aimed at leaving only the sakshi, the witness watching for results. If at this moment the
\nYogin entrusts himself to the guidance of the universal Teacher within himself, Yoga will fulfil itself without any farther effort
\non his part. The passivity will be confirmed, the higher faculties will awake and the cosmic Force passing down from the vijnana
\nthrough the supermind will take charge of the whole machine and direct its workings as the Infinite Lord of All may choose.
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Whichever of the two methods be chosen, the result is the same. The mind is stilled, the higher faculties awakened. This
\nstillness of the mind is not altogether a new idea or peculiar to India. The old Highland poets had the secret. When they wished
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to compose poetry, they first stilled the mind, became entirely
\npassive and waited for the inspiration to flow into them. This habit of yogic passivity, a relic doubtless of the discipline of the
\nDruids, was the source of those faculties of second sight and other psychic powers which are so much more common in this
\nCeltic race than in the other peoples of Europe. The phenomena of inspiration are directly connected with these higher faculties
\nof which we find rudiments or sporadic traces in the past history of human experience.
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Section Two   1910 \u00ad 1913   Na Kinchidapi Chintayet   The cessation of thought is the one thing which the believer in intellect as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-essays-divine-and-human","wpcat-52-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566","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=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}