{"id":951,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=951"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:32","slug":"27-the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20\/27-the-release-from-subjection-to-the-body-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-27_The Release from Subjection to the Body.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nChapter VII<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span>The Release from Subjection to the
\nBody<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/font> <\/span>O<\/font><\/span><\/b>UR<\/span><\/font> first step in
\nthis path of knowledge, having once determined in our intellect that what seems
\nis not the Truth, that the self is not the body or life or mind, since these are
\nonly its forms, must be to set right our mind in its practical relation with the
\nlife and the body so that it may arrive at its own right relation with the Self.
\nThis it is easiest to do by a device with which we are already familiar, since
\nit played a great part in our view of the Yoga of Works; it is to create a
\nseparation between the Prakriti and the Purusha. The
\nPurusha, the soul that knows and commands has got himself involved in the workings
\nof his executive conscious force, so that he mistakes this physical working of
\nit which we call the body for himself; he forgets his own nature as the soul
\nthat knows and commands; he believes his mind and soul to be subject to the law
\nand working of the body; he forgets that he is so much else besides that is
\ngreater than the physical form; he forgets that the mind is really greater than
\nMatter and ought not to submit to its obscurations, reactions, habit of
\ninertia, habit of incapacity; he forgets that he is more even than the mind, a
\nPower which can raise the mental being above itself; that he is the Master, the
\nTranscendent and it is not fit the Master should be enslaved to his own
\nworkings, the Transcendent imprisoned in a form which exists only as a trifle
\nin its own being. All this forgetfulness has to be cured by the Purusha
\nremembering his own true nature and first by his remembering that the body is
\nonly a working and only one working of Prakriti. <\/span><\/p>\n

We say then
\nto the mind \u201cThis is a working of Prakriti, this is neither thyself nor myself;
\nstand back from it.\u201d We shall find, if we try, that the mind has this power of
\ndetachment and can stand back from the body not only in idea, but in act and <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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 as it were physically or
\nrather vitally. This detachment of the mind must be strengthened by a certain
\nattitude of indifference to the things of the body; we must not care
\nessentially about its sleep or its waking, its movement or its rest, its pain
\nor its pleasure, its health or ill-health, its vigour or its fatigue, its comfort
\nor its discomfort, or what it eats or drinks. This does not mean that we shall
\nnot keep the body in right order so far as we can; we have not to fall into
\nviolent asceticisms<\/span> or a positive neglect of the
\nphysical frame. But we have not either to be affected in mind by hunger or thirst
\nor discomfort or ill-health or attach the importance which the physical and
\nvital man attaches to the things of the body, or indeed any but a quite
\nsubordinate and purely instrumental importance. Nor must this instrumental
\nimportance be allowed to assume the proportions of a necessity; we must not for
\ninstance imagine that the purity of the mind depends on the things we eat or
\ndrink, although during a certain stage restrictions in eating and drinking are
\nuseful to our inner progress; nor on the other hand must we continue to think
\nthat the dependence of the mind or even of the life on food and drink is
\nanything more than a habit, a customary relation which Nature has set up
\nbetween these principles. As a matter of fact the food we take can be reduced
\nby contrary habit and new relation to a minimum without the mental or vital
\nvigour being in any way reduced; even on the contrary with a judicious
\ndevelopment they can be trained to a greater potentiality of vigour by learning
\nto rely on the secret fountains of mental and vital energy with which they are connected
\nmore than upon the minor aid of physical aliments. This aspect of
\nself-discipline is however more important in the Yoga of self-perfection than
\nhere; for our present purpose the important point is the renunciation by the
\nmind of attachment to or dependence on the things of the body.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus
\ndisciplined the mind will gradually learn to take up towards the body the true
\nattitude of the Purusha. First of all, it will know the mental Purusha as the
\nupholder of the body and not in any way the body itself; for it is quite other
\nthan the physical existence which it upholds by the mind through the agency of
\nthe vital force. This will come to be so much the normal attitude of the whole
\nbeing to the physical frame that the latter
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\u2013 329<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

will feel to us as if
\nsomething external and detachable like the dress we wear or an instrument we
\nhappen to be carrying in our hand. We may even come to feel that the body is in
\na certain sense non-existent except as a sort of partial expression of our
\nvital force and of our mentality. These experiences are signs that the mind is
\ncoming to a right poise regarding the body, that it is exchanging the false
\nview-point of the mentality obsessed and captured by physical sensation for the
\nview-point of the true truth of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly,
\nwith regard to the movements and experiences of the body the mind will come to
\nknow the Purusha seated within it as, first, the witness or observer of the
\nmovements and, secondly, the knower or perceiver of the experiences. It will
\ncease to consider in thought or feel in sensation these movements and
\nexperiences as its own but rather consider and feel them as not its own, as
\noperations of Nature governed by the qualities of Nature and their interaction
\nupon each other. This detachment can be made so normal and carried so far that
\nthere will be a kind of division between the mind and the body and the former
\nwill observe and experience the hunger, thirst, pain, fatigue, depression, etc.
\nof the physical being as if they were experiences of some other person with
\nwhom it has so close a rapport<\/i> as to
\nbe aware of all that is going on within him. This division is a great means, a
\ngreat step towards mastery; for the mind comes to observe these things first without
\nbeing overpowered and finally without being at all affected by them,
\ndispassionately, with clear understanding but with perfect detachment. This is
\nthe initial liberation of the mental being from servitude to the body; for by
\nright knowledge put steadily into practice liberation comes inevitably.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the
\nmind will come to know the Purusha in the mind as the master of Nature whose
\nsanction is necessary to her movements. It will find that as the giver of the
\nsanction he can withdraw the original fiat from the previous habits of Nature
\nand that eventually the habit will cease or change in the direction indicated
\nby the will of the Purusha; not at once, for the old sanction persists as an
\nobstinate consequence of the past Karma of Nature until that is exhausted, and
\na good deal also depends on the force of the habit and the idea of fundamental
\nnecessity which the mind <\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 had previously attached
\nto it; but if it is not one of the fundamental habits Nature has established
\nfor the relation of the mind, life and body and if the old sanction is not
\nrenewed by the mind or the habit willingly indulged, then eventually the change
\nwill come. Even the habit of hunger and thirst can be minimised, inhibited, put
\naway; the habit of disease can be similarly minimised and gradually eliminated
\nand in the meantime the power of the mind to set right the disorders of the
\nbody whether by conscious manipulation of vital force or by simple mental fiat
\nwill immensely increase. By a similar process the habit by which the bodily
\nnature associates certain forms and degrees of activity with strain, fatigue,
\nincapacity can be rectified and the power, freedom, swiftness, effectiveness of
\nthe work whether physical or mental which can be done with this bodily
\ninstrument marvellously increased, doubled, tripled, decupled.<\/span><\/p>\n

This side of
\nthe method belongs properly to the Yoga of self-perfection; but it is as well
\nto speak briefly of these things here both because we thereby lay a basis for what
\nwe shall have to say of self-perfection, which is a part of the integral Yoga,
\nand because we have to correct the false notions popularised by materialistic
\nScience. According to this Science the normal mental and physical states and
\nthe relations between mind and body actually established by our past evolution
\nare the right, natural and healthy conditions and anything other, anything
\nopposite to them is either morbid and wrong or a hallucination, self-deception
\nand insanity. Needless to say, this conservative principle is entirely ignored
\nby Science itself when it so diligently and successfully improves on the normal
\noperations of physical Nature for the greater mastery of Nature by man. Suffice
\nit to say here once for all that a change of mental and physical state and of
\nrelations between the mind and body which increases the purity and freedom of
\nthe being, brings a clear joy and peace and multiplies the power of the mind
\nover itself and over the physical functions, brings about in a word man’s
\ngreater mastery of his own nature, is obviously not morbid and cannot be considered
\na hallucination or self-deception since its effects are patent and positive. In
\nfact, it is simply a willed advance of Nature in her evolution of the individual,
\nan evolution which she will carry out in any case <\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
\n

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 but in which she chooses
\nto utilise the human will as her chief agent, because her essential aim is to
\nlead the Purusha to conscious mastery over herself. <\/span><\/p>\n

This being
\nsaid, we must add that in the movement of the path of knowledge perfection of
\nthe mind and body are no consideration at all or only secondary considerations.
\nThe one thing necessary is to rise out of Nature to the Self by either the most
\nswift or the most thorough and effective method possible; and the method we are
\ndescribing, though not the swiftest, is the most thorough-going in its
\neffectivity. And here there arises the question of physical action or inaction.
\nIt is ordinarily considered that the Yogin should draw away from action as much
\nas possible and especially that too much action is a hindrance because it draws
\noff the energies outward. To a certain extent this is true; and we must note
\nfarther that when the mental Purusha takes up the attitude of mere witness and
\nobserver, a tendency to silence, solitude, physical calm and bodily inaction
\ngrows upon the being. So long as this is not associated with inertia,
\nincapacity or unwillingness to act, in a word, with the growth of the tamasic
\nquality, all this is to the good. The power to do nothing, which is quite
\ndifferent from indolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to
\ninaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest absolutely
\nfrom action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the power to cease absolutely
\nfrom thought, as the power to remain indefinitely in sheer solitude and silence
\nand as the power of immovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these
\nstates is not yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge;
\nwhoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its acquisition.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same
\ntime it must be added that the power is enough; the abstention from all
\nphysical action is not indispensable, the aversion to action mental or
\ncorporeal is not desirable. The seeker of the integral state of knowledge must
\nbe free from attachment to action and equally free from attachment to inaction.
\nEspecially must any tendency to mere inertia of mind or vitality or body be
\nsurmounted, and if that habit is found growing on the nature, the will of the
\nPurusha must be used to dismiss it. Eventually, a state arrives when the life
\nand the body perform <\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\n
\n as mere instruments the
\nwill of the Purusha in the mind without any strain or attachment, without their
\nputting themselves into the action with that inferior, eager and often feverish
\nenergy which is the nature of their ordinary working; they come to work as
\nforces of Nature work without the fret and toil and reaction characteristic of
\nlife in the body when it is not yet master of the physical. When we attain to
\nthis perfection, then action and inaction become immaterial, since neither
\ninterferes with the freedom of the soul or draws it away from its urge towards
\nthe Self or its poise in the Self. But this state of perfection arrives later
\nin the Yoga and till then the law of moderation laid down by the Gita is the
\nbest for us; too much mental or physical action then is not good since excess
\ndraws away too much energy and reacts unfavourably upon the spiritual
\ncondition; too little also is not good since defect leads to a habit of
\ninaction and even to an incapacity which has afterwards to be surmounted with
\ndifficulty. Still, periods of absolute calm, solitude and cessation from works
\nare highly desirable and should be secured as often as possible for that
\nrecession of the soul into itself which is indispensable to knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

While dealing
\nthus with the body we have necessarily to deal also with the Prana or
\nlife-energy. For practical purposes we have to make a distinction between the
\nlife-energy as it acts in the body, the physical Prana, and the life-energy as
\nit acts in support of the mental activities, the psychical Prana. For we lead
\nalways a double life, mental and physical, and the same life-energy acts
\ndifferently and assumes a different aspect according as it lends itself to one
\nor the other. In the body it produces those reactions of hunger, thirst,
\nfatigue, health, disease, physical vigour, etc. which are the vital experiences
\nof the physical frame. For the gross body of man is not like the stone or the earth;
\nit is a combination of two sheaths, the vital and the \u201cfood\u201d sheath and its
\nlife is a constant interaction of these two. Still the life-energy and the
\nphysical frame are two different things and in the withdrawal of the mind from
\nthe absorbing sense of the body we become increasingly sensible of the Prana
\nand its action in the corporeal instrument and can observe and more and more
\ncontrol its operations. Practically, in drawing back from the body we <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\u2013 333<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 draw back from the
\nphysical life-energy also, even while we distinguish the two and feel the
\nlatter nearer to us than the mere physical instrument. The entire conquest of
\nthe body comes in fact by the conquest of the physical life-energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with
\nthe attachment to the body and its works the attachment to life in the body is
\novercome. For when we feel the physical being to be not ourselves, but only a
\ndress or an instrument, the repulsion to the death of the body which is so strong
\nand vehement an instinct of the vital man must necessarily weaken and can be
\nthrown away. Thrown away it must be and entirely. The fear of death and the
\naversion to bodily cessation are the stigma left by his animal origin on the
\nhuman being. That brand must be utterly effaced. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\u2013 334<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter VII   The Release from Subjection to the Body   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 OUR first step in this path of knowledge, having once determined in our intellect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","wpcat-20-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","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=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}