{"id":43,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=43"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:31","slug":"46-the-strength-of-stillness-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/46-the-strength-of-stillness-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-46_The Strength of Stillness.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nThe Strength of Stillness<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                    T<\/font>HERE <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>are two great forces in the universe,
\nsilence and speech. Silence prepares, speech creates. Silence acts,
\nspeech gives the impulse to action. Silence compels, speech persuades. The immense and inscrutable processes of the world
\nall perfect themselves within, in a deep and august silence, covered
\nby a noisy and misleading surface of sound \u2014 the stir of innumerable waves above, the fathomless resistless mass of the
\nocean’s waters below. Men see the waves, they hear the rumour and the thousand voices and by these they judge the course of the
\nfuture and the heart of God’s intention; but in nine cases out of ten they
\nmisjudge. Therefore it is said that in history it is always the unexpected that happens. But it would not be the unexpected if
\nmen could turn their eyes from superficies and look into substance, if they accustomed themselves to put aside appearances and
\npenetrate beyond them to the secret and disguised reality, if they ceased listening to the noise of life and listened rather to
\nits silence.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe greatest exertions are made with the breath held in;
\nthe faster the breathing, the more the dissipation of energy. He who in action can cease from breathing, \u2014 naturally, spontaneously,\u2014 is the master
\nof Prana, the energy that acts and creates throughout the universe. It is a common experience of the Yogin
\nthat when thought ceases, breathing ceases, \u2014 the entire kumbhaka<\/i>
\neffected by the Hathayogin with infinite trouble and gigantic effort, establishes itself easily and happily, \u2014 but when
\nthought begins again, the breath resumes its activity. But when the thought flows without the resumption of the inbreathing and outbreathing, then the Prana is truly conquered. This is a law
\nof Nature. When we strive to act, the forces of Nature do their will with us; when we grow still, we become their master.
\nBut there are two kinds of stillness \u2014 the helpless stillness of inertia, which heralds dissolution, and the stillness of assured
\nsovereignty which commands the harmony of life. It is the sovereign stillness<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 366<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwhich is the calm of the Yogin. The more complete the calm,
\nthe mightier the yogic power, the greater the force in action.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIn this calm, right knowledge comes. The thoughts of
\nmen are a tangle of truth and falsehood, satyam<\/i> and anrtam<\/i>. True
\nperception is marred and clouded by false perception, true judgment lamed by false judgment, true imagination distorted
\nby false imagination, true memory deceived by false memory. The activity of the mind must cease, the
\ncitta<\/i> be purified, a silence falls upon the restlessness of Prakriti, then in that calm, in
\nthat voiceless stillness illumination comes upon the mind, error begins to fall away and, so long as desire does not stir again,
\nclarity establishes itself in the higher stratum of the consciousness compelling peace and joy in the lower. Right knowledge becomes
\nthe infallible source of right action. Yogah karmasu kauśalam<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe knowledge of the Yogin is not the knowledge of
\nthe average desire-driven mind. Neither is it the knowledge of the scientific or of the worldly-wise reason which anchors itself
\non surface facts and leans upon experience and probability. The Yogin knows God’s way of working and is aware that the improbable often happens, that facts mislead. He rises
\nabove reason to that direct and illuminated knowledge which we call vij\u00f1ānam<\/i>. The desire-driven mind is enmeshed in the
\nintricate tangle of good and evil, of the pleasant and the unpleasant, of
\nhappiness and misfortune. It strives to have the good always, the pleasant always, the happiness always. It is elated by
\nfortunate happenings, disturbed and unnerved by their opposite. But the
\nilluminated eye of the seer perceives that all leads to good; for God is all and God is sarvamangalam<\/i>. He knows that the apparent evil is often the shortest way to the good, the unpleasant indispensable to prepare the pleasant, misfortune the condition
\nof obtaining a more perfect happiness. <\/b> His intellect is delivered from enslavement to the dualities.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTherefore the action of the Yogin will not be as the
\naction of the ordinary man. He will often seem to acquiesce in evil, to avoid the chance of relieving misfortune, to refuse his assent
\nto the efforts of the noble-hearted who withstand violence and wickedness; he will seem to be acting
\npiśācavat<\/i>. Or men will think him jada<\/i>, inert, a stone, a block, because he is passive,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 367<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwhere activity appears to be called for; silent, where men
\nexpect voicefulness; unmoved, where there is reason for deep and passionate feeling. When he acts, men will call him unmatta<\/i>, a madman, eccentric or idiot; for his actions will often seem to have
\nno definite result or purpose, to be wild, unregulated, regardless of sense and probability or inspired by a purpose, a vision which
\nis not for this world. And it is true that he follows a light which other men do not possess or would even call darkness; that
\nwhat is a dream to them, is to him a reality; that their night is his day. And this is the root of the difference that, while they
\nreason, he knows.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTo be capable of silence, stillness,
\nilluminated passivity is to be fit for immortality \u2014 amrtatvāya kalpate<\/i>. It is to be
\ndhīra<\/i>, the ideal of our ancient civilisation, which does not mean to be
\ntamasic, inert and a block. The inaction of the tamasic man is a stumbling-block to the energies around him, the inaction of
\nthe Yogin creates, preserves and destroys; his action is dynamic with the direct, stupendous driving-power of great natural forces. It is a stillness within often covered by a ripple of talk and
\nactivity without, \u2014 the ocean with its lively surface of waves. But even as men do not see the reality of God’s workings from the
\nsuperficial noise of the world and its passing events, for they are hidden
\nbeneath that cover, so also shall they fail to understand the action of the Yogin, for he is different within from what he
\nis outside. The strength of noise and activity is, doubtless, great,\u2014 did not the walls of Jericho fall by the force of noise ? But infinite is the strength of the stillness and the silence in which
\ngreat forces prepare for action.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 368<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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