{"id":442,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=442"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:03","slug":"35-the-training-of-the-senses-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/35-the-training-of-the-senses-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-35_The Training of the Senses.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nFIVE
\n
\nThe Training
\nof the Senses<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\n<\/span><\/b>
\nT<\/b>HERE
\nare six senses which minister to knowledge, sight, hearing, smell, touch and
\ntaste, mind, and all of these except the last look outward and gather the
\nmaterial of thought from outside through the physical nerves and their end-
\norgans, eye, ear, nose, skin, palate. The perfection of the senses as ministers
\nto thought must be one of the first cares of the teacher. The two things that
\nare needed of the senses are accuracy and sensitiveness. We must first
\nunderstand what are the obstacles to the accuracy and sensitiveness of the
\nsenses, in order that we may take the best steps to remove them. The cause of
\nimperfection must be understood by those who desire to bring about perfection.
\n    The senses depend for their accuracy and sensitiveness on the
\nunobstructed activity of the nerves which are the channels of their information
\nand the passive acceptance of the mind which is the recipient. In themselves the
\norgans do their work perfectly. The eye gives the right form, the ear the
\ncorrect sound, the palate the right taste, the skin the right touch, the nose
\nthe right smell. This can easily be understood if we study the action of the eye
\nas a crucial example. A correct image is reproduced automatically on the retina, if
\nthere is any error in appreciating it, it is not the fault of the organ, but
\nof something else. The fault may be with the nerve currents. The nerves are
\nnothing but channels, they have no power in themselves to alter the information
\ngiven by the organs. But a channel may be obstructed and the obstruction may
\ninterfere either with the full- ness or the accuracy of the information, not as
\nit reaches the organ where it is necessarily and automatically perfect, but as
\nit reaches the mind. The only exception is in case of a physical defect in the
\norgan as an instrument. That is not a matter for the edl1cationist, but for the
\nphysician.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-216<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n   
\nIf the obstruction is such as to stop the information reaching the mind at all,
\nthe result is an insufficient sensitiveness of the senses. The defects of sight,
\nhearing, smell, touch, taste, anaesthesia in its various degrees, are curable
\nwhen not the effect of physical injury or defect in the organ itself. The
\nobstructions can be removed and the sensitiveness remedied by the purification
\nof the nerve system. The remedy is a simple one which is now becoming more and
\nmore popular in Europe for different reasons and objects, the regulation of the
\nbreathing. This process inevitably restores the perfect and unobstructed
\nactivity of the channels and, if well and thoroughly done, leads to a high
\nactivity of the senses. The process is called in Yogic discipline nādī-śuddhi
\n<\/i>or nerve-purification.
\n    The obstruction in the channel may be such as not absolutely
\nto stop in however small a degree, but to distort the information. A familiar
\ninstance of this is the effect of fear or alarm on the sense action. The
\nstartled horse takes the sack on the road for a dangerous living thing, the
\nstartled man takes a rope for a snake, a waving curtain for a ghostly form. All
\ndistortions due to actions
\nin the nervous system can be traced to some kind of emotional disturbance
\nacting in the nerve channels. The only remedy for them is the habit of calm, the
\nhabitual steadiness of the nerves. This also can be brought about by nādī-śuddhi
\n<\/i>or nerve-purification, which quiets the system, gives a deliberate
\ncalmness to all the internal processes and prepares the purification of the
\nmind. If the nerve channels are quiet and clear, the only possible disturbance
\nof the information is from or through the mind. Now the manas <\/i>or sixth
\nsense is in itself a channel like the nerves, a channel for communication with
\nthe buddhi <\/i>or brain-force. Disturbance may happen either from above or
\nfrom below. The information outside is first photographed on the end organ,
\nthen reproduced at the other end of the nerve system in the citta <\/i>or
\npassive memory. All the images of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste are
\ndeposited there and the manas <\/i>reports them to the buddhi. <\/i>The manas
\n<\/i>is both a sense organ and a channel. As a sense organ it is as automatically
\nperfect as the others, as a channel it is subject to disturbance resulting
\neither in obstruction or distortion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-217<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n   
\nAs a sense
\norgan the mind receives direct thought impressions from outside and from within. These impressions are in themselves
\nperfectly correct, but in their report to the intellect they may either not
\nreach the intellect at all or may reach it so distorted as to make a false or
\npartially false impression. The disturbance may affect the impression which
\nattends the information of eye, ear, nose, skin or palate, but it is very
\nslightly powerful here. In its effect on the direct impressions of the mind, it
\nis extremely powerful and the chief source of error. The mind takes direct
\nimpressions primarily of thought, but also of form, sound, indeed of all the
\nthings for which it usually prefers to depend on the sense organs. The full
\ndevelopment of this sensitiveness of the mind is called in our Yogic
\ndiscipline sūkmadrsti <\/i>or subtle reception of images. Telepathy,
\nclairvoyance, clairaudience, presentiment, thought-reading, character-reading
\nand many other modern discoveries are very ancient powers of the mind which have
\nbeen left undeveloped, and they all belong to the manas. <\/i>The development
\nof the sixth sense has never formed part of human training. In a future age it
\nwill undoubtedly take a place in the necessary preliminary training of the human
\ninstrument. Meanwhile there is no reason why the mind should not be trained to
\ngive a correct report to the intellect so that our thought may start with
\nabsolutely correct if not with full impressions.
\n   
\nThe first obstacle, the nervous emotional, we may suppose to be removed by the
\npurification of the nervous system. The second obstacle is that of the emotions
\nthemselves warping the impression as it comes. Love may do this, hatred may do
\nthis, any emotion or desire according to its power and intensity may distort the
\nimpression as it travels. This difficulty can only be removed by the discipline
\nof the emotions, the purifying of the moral habits. This is a part of moral
\ntraining and its consideration may be postponed for the moment. The next
\ndifficulty is the interference of previous associations formed or ingrained in
\nthe citta <\/i>or passive memory. We have a habitual way of looking at things
\nand the conservative inertia in our nature disposes us to give every new
\nexperience the shape and semblance of those to which we are accustomed. It is
\nonly more developed minds which can receive first impressions without an
\nunconscious bias against<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-218<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe novelty of novel experience. For instance, if we get a true impression of
\nwhat is happening – and we habitually act on such impressions true or false –<\/span>
\n<\/font>
\nif it differs from
\nwhat we are accustomed to expect, the old association meets it in the citta
\n<\/i>and sends a changed report to the intellect in which either the new impression is overlaid and concealed by the old or mingled with it. To go farther into
\nthis subject would be to involve ourselves too deeply into the details of
\npsychology. This typical instance will suffice. To get rid of this obstacle is
\nimpossible without citta-śuddhi <\/i>or purification of the mental and moral
\nhabits formed in the citta. <\/i>This is a preliminary process of Yoga and was
\neffected in our ancient system by various means, but would be considered out of
\nplace in a modern system of education.
\n   
\nIt is clear, therefore, that unless we revert to our old Indian system in some
\nof its principles, we must be content to allow this source of disturbance to
\nremain. A really national system of education would not allow itself to be
\ncontrolled by European ideas in this all-important matter. And there is a
\nprocess so simple and momentous that it can easily be made a part of our system.
\n   
\nIt consists in bringing about passivity of the restless flood of thought
\nsensations rising of its own momentum from the passive memory independent of our
\nwill and control. This passivity liberates the intellect from the siege of old
\nassociations and false impressions. It gives it power to select only what is
\nwanted from the storehouse of the passive memory, automatically brings about the
\nhabit of getting right impressions and enables the intellect to dictate to the citta
\n<\/i>what sarhskāras <\/i>or associations shall be formed or rejected. This is
\nthe real office of the intellect, – to discriminate, choose, select, arrange.
\nBut so long as there is not citta-śuddhi, <\/i>instead of doing this office
\nperfectly, it itself remains imperfect and corrupt and adds to the confusion in
\nthe mind channel by false judgment, false imagination, false memory, false
\nobservation, false comparison, contrast and analogy, false deduction,
\ninduction and inference. The purification of the citta <\/i>is essential for
\nthe liberation, purification and perfect action of the intellect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-219<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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