Anilbaran: I can feel the silence in mountainous scenes, but I can’t feel the same in the restlessness of the sea.
Sri Aurobindo: In the middle of an ocean on board a ship, one can get a sense of vastness.
*
Anilbaran: If one should stop all mental activities during the meditation should one stop all thinking also? Say, about the relation between the Purusha and the Prakriti, attributes of the Purusha, etc.?
Sri Aurobindo: One may have an experience, a perception of these things, but one should not indulge an intellectual thinking or mental debate on such issues. In the normal play of our mind there are all sorts of perversions; hence the need to stop all these things and inculcate right thinking, right willing — in other words, Truth must be established. And, in order to possess the Truth, the plays of the lower nature must be stopped. The Purusha should assume at all times the attitude of a giver of sanction while rejecting the lower movements and accepting only truth-movements.
Anilbaran: The Gita says: ātmasamstham manah krtvā…chintayet [Chapter VI, Verse 25] what does this mean?
Sri Aurobindo: The mind is running on all sides to think about many things, —what we call thoughts coming from outside. We must withdraw the mind from these distractions and make it abide in the self. Thus guarding the peace within we shall have to do the work without. Now, what the Gita has not mentioned but what we say is this: the Truth-power must be brought down from above into that state of peace, and this higher power — Parashakti — will directly guide the vehicle—ādhāra—and transform it.
After having stopped the lower activities of the mind, it must be made receptive; and, instead of weaving all kinds of empty and idle thoughts, the mind should receive intuitions from above. The reason why we recommend the suspension of external activities is that otherwise the mind cannot abandon its habitual activities and old movements and accept truth-movements so long as it is engaged in such activities. This is why isolation is necessary.
Anilbaran: Does the higher Truth work in us only when we are established in the silent consciousness? and not at other times?
Sri Aurobindo: The higher Truth is all the time working in us but through the lower power — Aparashakti. It is when we become conscious of the play of this higher Power then only yoga begins. Not in the state of unconsciousness, but in full awareness when the higher Power will descend into and direct us, then only the yogic life will begin.
Anilbaran: The lower distractions are less and I feel peace quite well. Will this be lasting?
Sri Aurobindo: It will be lasting if you want it to be so. It is not that the distractions will never recur; but you must go on rejecting them and thus the state of peace will be established.
Sri Aurobindo: In the middle of an ocean on board a ship, one can get a sense of vastness.
*
Anilbaran: If one should stop all mental activities during the meditation should one stop all thinking also? Say, about the relation between the Purusha and the Prakriti, attributes of the Purusha, etc.?
Sri Aurobindo: One may have an experience, a perception of these things, but one should not indulge an intellectual thinking or mental debate on such issues. In the normal play of our mind there are all sorts of perversions; hence the need to stop all these things and inculcate right thinking, right willing — in other words, Truth must be established. And, in order to possess the Truth, the plays of the lower nature must be stopped. The Purusha should assume at all times the attitude of a giver of sanction while rejecting the lower movements and accepting only truth-movements.
Anilbaran: The Gita says: ātmasamstham manah krtvā…chintayet [Chapter VI, Verse 25] what does this mean?
Sri Aurobindo: The mind is running on all sides to think about many things, —what we call thoughts coming from outside. We must withdraw the mind from these distractions and make it abide in the self. Thus guarding the peace within we shall have to do the work without. Now, what the Gita has not mentioned but what we say is this: the Truth-power must be brought down from above into that state of peace, and this higher power — Parashakti — will directly guide the vehicle—ādhāra—and transform it.
After having stopped the lower activities of the mind, it must be made receptive; and, instead of weaving all kinds of empty and idle thoughts, the mind should receive intuitions from above. The reason why we recommend the suspension of external activities is that otherwise the mind cannot abandon its habitual activities and old movements and accept truth-movements so long as it is engaged in such activities. This is why isolation is necessary.
Anilbaran: Does the higher Truth work in us only when we are established in the silent consciousness? and not at other times?
Sri Aurobindo: The higher Truth is all the time working in us but through the lower power — Aparashakti. It is when we become conscious of the play of this higher Power then only yoga begins. Not in the state of unconsciousness, but in full awareness when the higher Power will descend into and direct us, then only the yogic life will begin.
Anilbaran: The lower distractions are less and I feel peace quite well. Will this be lasting?
Sri Aurobindo: It will be lasting if you want it to be so. It is not that the distractions will never recur; but you must go on rejecting them and thus the state of peace will be established.
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