THE LIFE-FORCE

THE DYNAMIC LINK BETWEEN MIND AND MATTER

What we need to do

To reject doubts means control of one's thoughts - very certainly so. But to control of one's thoughts is as necessary as the control of one's body - for the yoga, and not for the yoga only. One cannot be a fully developed mental being even, if one has not a control of the thoughts, is not their observer, judge, master, the mental Purusha, Monomaya Purusha, Saksi, Anumanta, Iswara. It is more proper for the mental being to be the tennis ball of a rudderless ship in the storm of the desires and passions or the slave of either the mertia or the impulses of the body. I know it is more difficult because man being primarily a creator of mental Prakriti identifies himself with the movements of his mind and cannot at once disassociate himself and stand free from the swirl and eddies of the mind whirlpool. It is comparatively easy for him to put a control on his body, at least on a certain part of his movements; it is less easy but still very possible after a struggle to put a mental control on his vital impulses and desires, but to sit like a tantric yogi on the river, above the whirlpool of his thoughts is less facile. Nevertheless, it can be done; all deyeloped mental men, those who get beyond the average, have in one way or other or at least at certain times and for certain purposes to separate the two parts of the mind, the active part which is a factory of thoughts and the quiet masterful part which is at once a witness and a will, observing them, judging, rejecting, eliminating, accepting, ordering

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corrections and changes, the master in the House of Mind, capable of self-empire, samrajya.³¹

All difficulties can be conquered, but on condition of fidelity to the Way.

There is no obligation on anyone to take it; but once taken, it must be followed or there can be no progress or success.³²

Prana (Pra - force and Ana - food)

The greatest exertions are made with the breath held in; the faster the breathing, the more the dissipation of energy. He who in action can cease from breathing,—naturally, spontaneously,— is the master of Prana, the energy that acts and creates throughout the universe. It is a common experience of the Yogin that when thought ceases, breathing ceases,—the entire kumbhak effected by the Hathayogin with infinite trouble and gigantic effort, establishes itself easily and happily,—but when thought 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 of Nature. When we strive to act, the forces of Nature do their will with us; when we grow still, we become their master. But there are two kinds of stillness—the helpless stillness of inertia, which heralds dissolution, and the stillness of assured sovereignty which commands the harmony of life. It is the sovereign stillness which is the calm of the Yogin. The more complete the calm, the mightier the yogic power, the greater the force in action. In this calm, right knowledge comes. The thoughts of men are a tangle of truth and falsehood, satyam and anritam.

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True perception is marred and clouded by false perception, true judgment lamed by false judgment, true imagination distorted by false imagination, true memory deceived by false memory. The activity of the mind must cease, the chitta be purified, a silence fall upon the restlessness of Prakriti, then in that calm, in that voiceless stillness illumination comes upon the mind, error begins to fall away and, so long as desire does not stir again, clarity establishes itself in the higher stratum of the consciousness compelling peace and joy in the lower. Right knowledge becomes the infallible source of right action. Yogah. karmasu kausalam.³³

How does Pranayama help to develop our mental capacities?

What role does it play in bringing about the higher consciousness?

It is the pranic vital currents which sustain mental activity. When these currents are changed by pranayama they bring about a change in the brain. The cause of dullness in the brain is some obstruction in it which does not allow the higher thought to be communicated to it. When this obstruction is removed the higher mental being is able to communicate its action easily to the brain. When the higher consciousness is attained the brain does not become dull. My experience is that it becomes illumined. All exercises, like breathing practices, are only devices which something that is behind them is using for manifesting itself. — a system of notation — that we employ. But we give too much importance to the form of the device, because we think the physical to be the most real. If we knew that the entire physical world is made up of forces and that it is nothing else but the working of a certain consciousness and power using certain devices, then we would not be deceived.³⁴

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For the mind operates upon Matter not directly, but through the Life-force; that is its instrument of communication and the Life-force, being in us a nervous energy and not anything material, can seize on Matter only through nervous impressions of form, through contractual images, as it were, which create corresponding values in the energy-consciousness called in the Upanishads the Prana.³⁵

Sri Aurobindo says that Prana, the life-force, is" the dynamic link between mind and Matter".

How to become aware of its existence?

"By the purification of our means of sensation and knowledge which becomes possible through yoga", says Sri Aurobindo.

Pranayama — calm inbreathing and outbreathing

Sit or lie in a comfortable position. Take the right thumb and press lightly the right nostril. Keep the left nostril open. Take a calm deep breath through the left nostril. As you breathe in, concentrate around the solar plexus. Imagine that the breath is arising from the upper abdomen. Do not force, do not hold your breath. The subtler you can make it, the mightier is its power. Imagine that the breath is going to the senses, the ears, eyes, palate, nose and skin. By the subtlety of the inbreathing and outbreathing and the power of our imagination, the senses begin to receive the right amount of oxygen or life-force and their functions increase by the dynamic link created by the act of positive thinking.

Then, do not stop, continue to feel and imagine that the breath is going to the brain. Throughout imagine the calm and peace. Then press lightly with the index or middle finger the left nostril and gradually breathe out by the right nostril. By the subtle

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outbreathing imagine and feel that the breath, the life-force, is directed to all the parts of the body. Do this exercise alternately, 12 times each nostril. It may take eight to ten minutes. Do it twice a day.

"This calm inbreathing and outbreathing if properly done drives out every lurking disease in the system", says Sri Aurobindo.

It increases the vitality and virility, maintains the blood pressure, quietens the nervous system. Restlessness and inertia (rajasik and tamasic nature) begin to disappear. Sattwik development begins to manifest and harmony descends in the entire system. By this simple process, Pranayama, matter evolves, creates, maintains, disintegrates and recreates fresh matter.

"This is the eternal cycle of life, the reality behind the manifested existence."

Pranic energy supports not only the operations of our physical life, but also those of the mind in the living body. Therefore by the control of the pranic energy it is not only possible to control our physical and vital functionings and to transcend their ordinary operations, but to control also the workings of the mind and to transcend its ordinary operations.

As the yogin gets back to the control of the Prana, and by the direction of its batteries opens up those nervous centers (chakras) in which it is now sluggish or only partially operative, he is able to manifest powers of mind, sense and consciousness which transcend our ordinary experience. The so-called occult powers of yoga are such faculties which thus open up of themselves as the yogin advances in the control of the Pranic force and, purifying the channels of its movement, establishes an increasing communication between the consciousness of his subtle subliminal being and the consciousness of his gross physical and superficial existence.³⁶

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In its higher stages this increase of power intensifies into clairvoyance, clairaudience, the power of reading other minds, and knowing actions distant in space and time, conscious telepathy and other psychical powers. The reason for this development is to be found in the habit of gathering Prana or vitality in the mind-organ. Ordinarily, the psychical life is overlaid and hampered by the physical life, the activity of Prana in the physical body. As soon as this activity becomes even partially quiescent, the gross physical obstruction of Anna and Prana is rarefied and mind becomes more self-luminous, shining out through the clouds that concealed it.³⁷

For mind operates freely and naturally in the subtle matter and the subtler the matter, the freer the workings of the mind.³⁸

If we follow Prana through this process of yogic liberation, we shall find that Prana ends where activity ceases. For Prana is a material entity arising out of the aerial state of subtle Matter and as soon as that state is overpassed, prana is impossible. Throughout there is this close identification of Prana with activity. It may well be said, therefore, that Matarishwan is that which arranges actions.

Matarishwan is the philosophical expression for Vayu, the aerial principle. It means that which moves in the mother or matrix and the word implies the three main characteristics of the aerial element. It is evolved directly out of ether, the common matrix, which is therefore its own mother and ultimately the mother of all elements, forces, substances, objects; its predominant characteristic is motion, and this characteristic of motion

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operates in the matrix, ether. Moving in ether, developing, combining, it creates the substances out of which sun and nebula and planet are made; it evolves fire and water and atmosphere, earth, stone and metal, plant, fish, bird and beast. Moving in ether, acting and functioning through its energy Prana, it determines the nature, motions, powers, activities of all those infinite forms which it has created. By the combinations and operations of this aerial element the sun is built up, fire is struck forth, clouds are formed, a molten globe cools and solidifies into earth. By the energy of the aerial element the sun gives light and heat, fire burns, clouds give rain, earth revolves. Not only all animate, but all inanimate existence owes its life and various activity to Matarishwan and its energy, Prana.³⁹

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Hymn to Agni

This great coming and going is effected in a silent spiritual rapidity; there is no rumour or clamour at all of the trampling hooves of the Vital Forces in their swiftness; but the chariot of the movement gallops swiftly. Finally, the Divine Will-Force lodges in all our being for the benefit of the soul itself and of the gods who work in him, a complete and utter heroic energy, vast with the vastness of the Truth and luminous with its Light.⁴⁰

Brahman

The Supreme is not something aloof and shut up in itself. It is not a mere indefinable, prisoner of its own featureless absoluteness, impotent to define, create, know itself variously, eternally buried in a sleep or a swoon of self-absorption. The Highest is the Infinite and the Infinite contains the All. Whoever attains the highest consciousness, becomes infinite in being and embraces the All.

To make this clear the Upanishad has defined the Brahman as the Truth, Knowledge, Infinity and has defined the result of the knowledge of Him in the secrecy, in the cave of being, in the supreme ether as the enjoyment of all its desires by the soul of the individual in the attainment of its highest self-existence.⁴¹

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