December 17, 2022
Alina (0:00:29):
Namaste.
We are happy to continue Evenings with Sraddhalu.
Namaste Sraddhalu.
Sraddhalu (0:00:36):
Namaste.
Happy to be with all of you.
Alina (0:00:40):
We are happy to continue today on the same theme of developing our inner capacity for learning and expressing ourselves.
During our conversation, you may freely ask questions in the chat box.
Last time, we took up a very interesting question, and I will repeat the question from Suraj. He was writing:
During my college days, it was difficult to understand or absorb the lectures in my class most of the time. Professor teaching used to go beyond my head and suddenly at the end of the lecture, the professor used to make any random students to stand and asked to repeat the topic. And I was unable to repeat and while some students were able to repeat the topic very well. From that time I used to have fear to sit in [their] (0:01:40) classroom. So how do I retain or absorb the entire lecture or how do I develop the better listening, retaining, articulating and delivering abilities?
Sraddhalu (0:01:55):
I found the question itself to be quite broad so that we can use it as an occasion to take up the whole theme of how to learn as well as how to express. And as those of you who have already heard last time's session, we went not only in-depth but also took many levels from the classroom state through the typical life-experience stages into the yogic dimension as well as the spiritual dimensions. And for those who have not heard it, do listen to it because we have gone in-depth there in a way that we won't repeat and will rather build on that.
But just as a summary for those who have already, who were present then and have heard it: We saw that first the memory itself is only one aspect of learning. Within the memory, we saw that there is the visual memory, auditory memory, kinesthetic and other kinds of sensory memories also, all of which are often quite distinct in their working and can be separately trained and should eventually be integrated so that you can swing from one to the other.
For example, one of the examples that Sri Aurobindo gives is in the training of the eye and the hand. You look at an image, let’s say, a flower in nature or a plant or a vase, as an artist you look at somebody, something, and then from the visual sight to the fingers where you draw accurately what you see. It’s a link between two different sensory passages. Linking them, connecting them, so that they actually function as one continuum is one of the critical elements not only of the sensory development but of the memory aspect also of the sensory development which we touched upon last time.
We also saw that there is an emotional memory and ideative and conceptual memory, even intuitive memory and the physical body itself has its own memory which is often the root for many physical habits, including patterns of good health as well as ill health, as well as stress-related and post-traumatic stress disorders and other issues, which are memories in the body, quite distinct from the sense memory.
And we saw that essentially every part, every layer, wherever, all that is conscious, or all that is consciousness in a sense, has its own memory. In fact, memory is a natural faculty of consciousness itself. And so everything has memory. So, we from this larger and more deep picture, we also understood how the Akashic records function because everything that happens everywhere in the universe at all times in the universe is if naturally imprinted in the consciousness of the whole of the all and therefore can be reached out and tapped when you enter the consciousness of the [S]elf (0:05:04) everything is there and includes past, present, as well as the future tendencies and trends.
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In a more material level, we also saw how the position of the biology or the state of emotions or thoughts also shifts the poise of consciousness and therefore the part of consciousness in which the memory is being tapped. So if you are studying in a state of relaxation, that memory is inaccessible in a state of stress or vice versa. Or if you're studying in a position which is supine, lying down, you find the things learned are not so easily accessible when you're sitting straight. And so we discussed some of the connections with body posture as well as its practical application in dealing with not only exam situations but also stage fright and expression in stage.
We also looked at the environmental influence which is also finally shifting a state of consciousness which affects the memory and so on. The importance of integrating the inner and the outer layers, both of memory as well as consciousness and, critical too, the ability to absorb knowledge, to listen, to receive, or generally just to retain whatever you read or experience or even think of, requires a certain state of relaxation in which you're entirely aware or rather utter awareness in a state of calm.
Today we will elaborate a little on this and look at some of the implications of this. But recognising that because that state is, allows you to receive and absorb more easily, it is also the basis from which you can express or draw out what you have received or learnt. So whenever you find yourself in a state where you do not have access to memory, rather than getting more tense, oh, I don't remember, I am agitated and I get more tense because I don't remember, you do the reverse.
You consciously relax. If you had the memory in a particular state, you put yourself in that state or you go back into a state of alert, calm, stillness, in which you allow the memory to emerge. And that's how you're going to get it, not by further stressing, which is again part of the problem of the exam tension, where the stress cuts out the memory, and that's where you will consciously bring yourself into this poise of stillness. This, in fact, should be part of the training for all children, of course, for all adults, because we're covering the whole span of human experience in our discussion.
We spoke also of the receiving in this receptive stillness, the pure transmission, especially when there is a kind of a knowledge that is more experientially based or transmitted in a way that is more intuitively expressed and articulated, which is what we see in Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's writings, which allows us also then to enter into an intuitive poise of absorption in which literally an experience can be received directly. And with it, all the associated specific knowledge can also be absorbed.
I have perhaps shared here an experience I once had. We had a professor in our, in the Ashram School, by the name of Professor M. Venkataraman. He was one of the great geniuses of mathematics and with an extraordinary link between the mathematics and the spiritual side. He was, I believe, head of department of mathematics in Madurai University and when he retired he settled in the Ashram. Nobody here knew his real worth and they treated him like any other. I had the good fortune because I approached him and I said, I want to learn about tensor mathematics, because I was interested in understanding general relativity and gravity and antigravity, that was my long-term goal. So I, I approached him, and he said, okay.
And he took single classes with me I think, from the age of 16, 17 onwards, which is quite special treat. And he had, the kind of things he taught us were so amazing. He would go to the essence of the mathematics concepts and then bridge concepts of different fields of mathematics. So broadly they say, mathematics can be divided into six structures and the whole field of mathematics then is an expression of these six.
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And then he showed how one leads to the next and the other leads to the next, and over two or three weeks he was going us round and round. And then when he felt we were ready, one day he showed the full circle, and suddenly he drew a circle around and said, and all this is one, and poof, it blew us into an experience: You saw reality in terms of essential structures;
everything can be reduced to these essential six structures; and all flow into each other; all is essentially held in One.
And at that point it's like, as if you break out of the mind's ability to hold structures, it's almost an intuitive identification, and he could build up to this experience and transmit it. He would often quote from The Life Divine. So when he was presenting to us the infinities, Cantor’s infinities, so he would show how infinity is there, and then and there is more, and there's a different grade of infinity, and there is more, a different grade, and then he would quote from The Life Divine, “and still there is a beyond”.
And once we have as if exhausted all the possibilities of infinity and infinity of infinities, and still there is a beyond. So, it was.. well I am sharing with you the amazing character of the knowledge he had and his power to transmit. And one day he passed away. He had cancer, he passed away. I was at that time in high fever for two or three days. And so because I was in fever, I was not informed that he had passed away. And then when I recovered, my mother said, oh, you know, he has passed away and it was two or three days ago. I was so unhappy, because I felt I had lost a whole opportunity for something.
That night I had a dream in which I saw him, outside the Ashram main building, and I rushed to him and I said to him: Can you transmit this kind of knowledge into me? Because I remembered that, going in again, this is all related to what we are discussing, so it's not too much of a diversion, when the Mother was interested in the use of mantra, especially when working with the body cells, uh Kapali Sastriar, who had already left his body at that point, and it was almost 10 years down, in the subtler planes, he approached her and said, I'm happy to see that you're interested in this knowledge, if you are interested, I will give you all my knowledge. And Mother narrated this to Pandit-ji and said, so I opened my mind and he poured all his knowledge into me.
So imagine what that means. Imagine this is possible for all of us.
So I have this in the background, at the backdrop of my mind, I'm meeting him in a dream state, Venkataraman, and I say, this extraordinary knowledge of mathematics, and I ask him, can you pour that into me? And then he smiles and shakes his head, but it's not spoken the, at, at that, in that state, in the subtle body, you're telepathic. And it was, what he was saying was, you have to develop the capacity to receive. He can transmit. Can I receive? That's the question. And I woke up from that dream and I said, wow, this is something which I have to work upon.
So I've digressed a little bit, but all this is to say that the capacity to receive a pure transmission is actually present in all of us, both to receive as well as to transmit, and increasingly it brings from the rational mind’s working to a deeper inner mind and then from there an intuitive mind in which we can absorb intuitively any kind of knowledge.
Sri Aurobindo actually explains how this faculty works in his writings on education. In fact, unfortunately, his writings on education are not sufficiently understood, not sufficiently put into practice, even in the Ashram School, because, well, the teachers are incompetent.
It needs us to build ourselves and develop that capacity before we can utilise it. So, one of the things he tells you there is: Increasingly our learning capacity and even the memory faculty should turn to an inner knowledge access and less and less reliance on the external means. And he tells you how to do it. And when that is made possible, then literally the external tools of reading and other are just an entry point and it picks up, draws out things from within.
And this should actually be part of our school system, used to be the old ancient way of teaching, learning, which essential inner component has been lost and what remained is a more superficial imitation, which became the basis for a lot of rote learning also in later phase.
(0:15:08):
So this ability to draw on the inner knowledge is what we touched upon last time. And one of the points I made was: When you have the capacity to as if to lean into a state of consciousness, you can draw almost any memory from any part of your life at whatever age. All you need is the link-point to that experience and then lean into the experience, and you can recall even word to word, sometimes entire conversations, which without that link, you will say, ho, I have forgotten. You lean back, make the link, enter the state, and you find all the experiential content is available.
And so this straight away blows the biological basis of memory and teaches you that all memory is innate to consciousness.
I also mentioned how there's a whole body of memory from past life experience, at least held in essential content, which we can draw upon. And even somehow the inner being does draw upon and brings to the forefront every now and then when required, especially in times of crisis. And all this…Then we briefly took up the state, poise of listening, which was the,…We also discussed other kinds of learning: the practical learning, and the body sense sensations, body consciousness, applied learning, interactive learning, and the pure receptive state of listening. So all this broadly summarises the themes that we covered last time.
As you have seen that we had, it's quite deeply integrated what we discussed with many fine nuances. And I would highly recommend for you to listen to it again and again and with this poise of the receptive, aware mind. And in that case you will find, although we discussed certain things and you thought you understood, the second time or even a third time you will find you understand more deeply and perhaps it imprints and draws out an experiential content within you also.
And so I would highly recommend for you to explore this. This is a quick summary of what we covered last time. And before we proceed, there were several questions which have come both in the chat box as well as in the emails, so, we would take them up now.
Alina (0:17:28):
Tattvum is asking: “How to join directly to Zoom?”
Sraddhalu (0:17:34):
So you will see when we are webcasting, there is the Zoom symbol at the bottom, well, right for you, left for me. And that is because we are using Zoom as a platform to link between Alina and me. And from there, we link the two and feed it into the YouTube, so, we don’t actually have a Zoom-link in which you can connect, rather, Zoom is used as a platform only for webcasting into YouTube. So you are free to connect on the chat box and interact there. At some point, if there is a requirement for a special kind of interaction, we may do in future a Zoom call and I will announce in advance the link to use in case that is required. But for now, this is all we have.
Alina (0:18:27):
So we will proceed with some other questions we received. Shantha is writing: “Ramanujacharya”, maybe I don't pronounce correctly. Ramanujacharya’s disciple Koorathalwar remembered the whole text or scripture once read exactly and reproduced. Could you please explain how it was possible?
Sraddhalu (0:19:02):
Okay. Yes, the story in fact is quite fascinating. Ramanujacharya was one of the very great saints of, in the south who established a certain lineage of the Vaishnava tradition in a space which was largely Shaiva, that is followers of Shiva, and the king was not very supportive of him, was even hostile.
At some point in order to write a commentary which was based on an earlier text, he went to Kashmir and met with the pandits there and the king there and asked to have access to that original text in their library. For some reason, the pandits did not want this outsider to have access. So, they put conditions that, you have to personally come and read and you cannot take notes. So, he is there with his disciple Koorathalwar, and they go through the whole text, he's not allowed to take notes, only what he can retain.
And as he leaves and comes back home, he is disappointed that he has not been able to retain everything except Koorathalwar tells him, oh that's fine I have the whole thing by heart, just on reading it. So that's became then the basis for him to be able to write a detailed commentary.
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So Shanta's question is: “How could Koorathalwar remember the whole text or scripture once read and reproduce exactly, weeks, months later, even sometimes years later?”
So there are people who seem to have this kind of an extraordinary memory ability. But if you ask them how they do it, they will say, I don't know, I just have it. How does it actually work? And Sri Aurobindo explains. So, you have to finally read Sri Aurobindo to get all your answers for this kind of a deep knowledge.
One of the texts which you will find very helpful is this little booklet called ‘The Brain of India’. There is another text which is compiled today in, as Sri Aurobindo's writings on education. It is not complete. In fact, Sri Aurobindo wrote a very large number of series of articles which in total would become a fat book on education. But because he wrote them as a series, what has happened is people have chopped off portions from the series. So, The Brain of India is one part of it. And then separately from that are other articles which have to do with the training of the senses, and a couple of chapters which you will find, it all comes in under “System of National Education”, that's the title under which they have put these articles.
So he discusses the full development of the mind and the faculties including of course the brain. So I'm coming to the, including of course the memory, so now I'm coming to the aspect of the memory. He explains how:
There are two parts to the memory: There is the automatic memory that belongs to the layer of consciousness of the substance of mind, what we spoke of last time, wherever there is consciousness, there is memory. So that's […] (0:22:12) substance of mind is the citta. It has an inherent memory which is automatic. And this memory is perfect. Nothing is ever forgotten on this layer.
And then there is the functional memory on the surface, which is where we forget. And particularly between these two is a gap. So, I've given this example before, when I ask you to remember something, your intention to remember is actually a turning of your awareness inward to recall. And from inside the memory which you are seeking comes forward and meets you. You never actually went in and extracted the memory.
The inner consciousness recognising what you need put forward the memory. You never tap into memory on your own. It may at best throw two or three items and you may select. That's about all you may do. So that part is automatic. It is this surface part which is, which needs training. So this is one of the key-points he explains.
And if the gap between the two can be bridged, then all of us without effort can have this kind of an access of total recall. How do you do that? So there again he explains the rationale for the obstructions. There's a general discussion, I will read about this: He says, not just for memory but for all the senses, he says, sometimes we do not understand or we cannot recall or we cannot reproduce an image, etc., he says:
“The fault may be with the nerve currents. The nerves are nothing but channels, they have no power in themselves to alter the information given by the organs. But a channel may be obstructed and the obstruction may interfere either with the fullness or the accuracy of the information …”
Now, why am I giving this so much importance? Because, as always, Sri Aurobindo generalises, whenever he speaks of something, he is going to first principles, and here the first principle is: Any channel can have any obstruction. So, what he is telling you in this context will apply to all other levels of consciousness and all other channels. Okay? So this is extremely important what he is saying.
“… not as it reaches the organ where it is necessarily and automatically perfect, but as it reaches the mind.” That’s where you have, “the channel can be defective”.
So: “The only exception is in case of a physical defect in the organ as an instrument. That is not a matter for the educationist, but for the physician.” Now: “If the obstruction is such as to stop the information reaching the mind at all, the result is an insufficient sensitiveness of the senses.”
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And so, he discusses all the different kinds of problems there. And then: “The obstructions can be removed and the sensitiveness remedied by the purification of the nerve system.” How do you do that? “The remedy is a simple one which is now becoming more and more popular in Europe for different reasons and objects, the regulation of the breathing.” Pranayama. “This process inevitably restores the perfect and unobstructed activity of the channels and, if well and thoroughly done, leads to a high activity of the senses. The process is called in Yogic discipline nāḍī-śuddhi or nerve-purification.”
I don't read further, but he explains, the habit of calm and habitual steadiness of the nerves is also essential because the emotions distort. For this also, you can use “nāḍī-śuddhi, nerve-purification” which quiets the system and gives a deliberate calmness to all the internal processes and prepares the purification of the mind.
So “nerve-purification” leads then to purification of the mind. Mind purification will open to the inner and higher faculties of mind including what is today called the ‘sixth sense’. In fact, he explains, in the yoga tradition, mind is the sixth sense, and the mind's power to perceive through the five senses directly, bypassing the biology, which is what we call ‘clairvoyance’ and various ‘occult powers’, is innate to our sixth sense, which is the manas. And therefore, when you purify the mind, automatically all this access also opens out.
Now all this is to highlight to you the importance of the purification. So there are two terms:
nāḍī-śuddhi, and cittaśuddhi. Cittaśuddhi will be the purification of the substance of mind itself. Both of these are required. Nāḍī-śuddhi would be done by this breathing exercise, the most basic of which as it is taught in pranayama is: the breathing-in through left nostril and then breathing-out, slow and deep, consciously following the air, and then you do the right nostril three times. And then you do left-in, right-out, right-in, left-out, and that's one cycle, and you repeat this cycle three times. And then eventually you open both nostrils and follow with full awareness. Now all this will be distorted by the biological training you have that you're taking the air into the lungs. You can start with that.
But at some point you will notice, as you breathe-in, you can breathe, [making inhaling sound into the head, and when you breathe-out, from the head. And at that point you notice, it's not the physical air but the lifeforce, prāṇa, which you're taking in through the left nostril, out through the right, and in through the right, out through the left. You are purifying the nerve channels, subtle nerve channels, which lead to the physical, gross-physical nerve channels by pushing lifeforce in and out through these different extremities.
And then we understand why we have two nostrils when the air passage is the same. In fact, these represent two different aspects of the functioning of prāṇa within us and they relate and are cross-connected to the two halves of the brain. So right nostril to the left half of the brain, left nostril to the right half of the brain. So in reality we experience this when we do this alternate nostril breathing, we can feel the flow purifying the physical space of the brain but into which it is actually the subtle channels as well as the physical channels. And this would be nāḍī-śuddhi.
The result of which would be the stabilisation of the nerves as well as the amplification of your sense organs and with it a critical element required for the memory is, which we didn't touch upon last time is: How do you remember if you have not first noticed?
So a very important point Sri Aurobindo makes is: Most people don't have a memory problem, they have an observation problem.
When you did not observe, you don't remember. When you do observe, well, you'll find you can remember. So let's say, you pick a number, any arbitrary number, and for whatever reason now right now I'm thinking of 148. We could take a four-digit number also. Oh-yes, you heard the number. Did you notice it? Probably not. It passed. And you will forget.
But right now notice the number. Picture it in your mind. Try to assess the meaning that it has for you. Maybe for you straightaway there is an association, or there is not, in which case you build an association. Either you look at: 14 and 8, 1-4-8; or 1 and then 48; or look at the relationship, 1, from 1 to 4 to 8. Just observe. And that is when you realise, you have now noticed the number.
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Perhaps if you are more mathematically oriented, look at what are the relationships of this number with other numbers that you are aware of. You find that it can be divided perfectly by, let’s say, 4. And what do you get when you divide by 4? Or you notice 150 means something for you and this is 2 less than 150. It does not matter what. Observe. Notice.
The interesting thing is, with no other effort on your part, a week down, perhaps next time I may ask you, what was that number? And pop, you will recall. Prove it to yourself. You just heard this. You made no other effort. Tomorrow or day after, recall, what was the number? And pop, you will have it. You made no special effort to remember. You just made effort to observe. Notice that quite a large part of your memory is in good shape as is the case for most of us.
What is missing is the observation factor. And one of the means by which you can observe is deliberately turn attention and observe through multiple senses, including listening to the sound of the number 148, if you are more an auditory, you have a stronger auditory memory.
So in this way, observation and your senses amplification automatically makes for better remembrance.
But at the same time, the nāḍī-śuddhi combined with cittaśuddhi, which is now stilling of the mind, completely still, silent as much as you can, and then lean into the stillness and silence, but with utter awareness. This combination would open out all the faculties of your mind because as Sri Aurobindo explains later on in the same text, the sense-mind also is a channel, manas is also, citta is a channel, the manas which is the, the proper utilisation of the mind that also is a channel, so all channels could be clogged.
And the cittaśuddhi followed by, sorry, the nāḍī-śuddhi followed by the cittaśuddhi would make the manas itself quiet, purifying it. So you will see, recall in the Integral Yoga the first step of the four stages are purification, isn't it? And this is how all the faculties, all the instruments of your nature, once purified, suddenly you discover, actually they are in pretty good shape. You don't have a very big problem.
So this text which is put under the Collected Works under the title of A System of National Education. You may like to read on your own, but now with this deeper insight. And you will see, how much deep, precise, practical knowledge and insight Sri Aurobindo gives you for application not only in school classrooms but for us as adults in our daily life.
Okay. So perhaps that is a bit too detailed digression. But all this now brings us to the question: How did Koorathalwar remember an entire text?
Because this faculty is inherently latent in us, by this purification of the nadis, nerve channels, as well as the mind, substance of mind, the natural faculty of remembrance becomes more and more directly accessible. And for those who have lived a life in which this purification has already taken place from an early time, they find it easy to do, almost effortless. Then you notice, certain types of food tend to cloud, certain emotions tend to agitate, disturb, cloud and cover. I think, we can take the next question of Karthik because it relates to this.
Alina (0:34:33):
Karthik is writing: “To some audience I can express my ideas clearly, but to another set of people I am unable to express in the same way, some discomforts or inhibitions disturb my clarity of expression.”
Sraddhalu (0:34:51):
Mmhm. You see the exact same idea, only applied to expression. That with some people where he is comfortable, because the internal state of the citta, substance of consciousness, is calm, substance of mind consciousness is calm, he is able to articulate himself clearly. But with others, because there is discomfort, inhibition, disturbance in the emotions or thoughts, then the expression gets cluttered, broken. It's like flow of water which would be streaming laminar, you put a rock, and the water bumps, bounces around, foams and gets disrupted.
(0:35:31):
Exactly the same thing happens to us both in our learning, absorption process as well as in our creative or expression process. The smooth flow is blocked when there are these blockages of disturbance. It could be in the nerves, it could be in the emotions, it could be in the mind's preconceptions or rigidities or preferences and so on. Once we catch this by the conscious stilling and purifying, we can allow something deeper to then act.
Now one of the key-ideas Shri Aurobindo also brings out which is in this, uh in this booklet, The Brain of India. I will read a portion from it. He says: we try to remove tamas through “moral purity”, awaken “the energy of tejas … electricity in the system” through the power of tapas, trained concentrated force of mind, “to be a reservoir of mental force and clarity” and “The awakening of illumination was actively effected by the triple method of repetition, meditation and discussion”. So again I will ask you to read in detail, I won't go too much in this.
And there he explains how the “repetition was meant to fill the recording part of the mind with the śabda or word, so that the artha or meaning might of itself rise from within”. So he is teaching you the training system of the ancients of how to draw that knowledge and awaken it from within. “Needless to say, a mechanical repetition was not likely to produce this effect. There must be that clear still receptivity and that waiting upon the word or thing with the contemplative part of the mind which is what the ancient Indians meant by dhyāna or meditation.”
Then he explains, he gives an example. You see, when you're learning a new language or you have a new concept, sometimes you've spent time, you find it's too difficult you let it go. After a few days you come back and suddenly you find the same text so easy, so spontaneous. Complex sentences that you did not understand now suddenly are absorbed easily. So, on a superficial level we will say, ah yes your brain got rewired. But he explains it more deeply.
He says: “This is because the jñātā or knower within has had his attention called to the subject and has been busy in the interval drawing upon the source of knowledge within in connection with it. This experience is only possible to those whose sattvic or illuminative element has been powerfully aroused or consciously or unconsciously trained to action by the habit of intellectual clarity and deep study.”
And then “The highest reach” of this, he says, is, when you do not even need to turn to external “aids” of books and grammar, you can draw directly from within. But this shows you that the potential or the faculty, the capacity is innate to all of us. Just the fact that you read something, you think you understand or you don't understand, you put it away, you go to sleep, you wake up, you read again and this time you understand.
What happened in between is the true knower inside, his attention drawn, that is your own inner being, now draws from the inner knowledge to fill. Catch this principle. It is the most powerful principle of learning as well as of remembrance.
So last time I had shared one of the practical points of application: Whenever you read, whenever you learn, wherever you have an insight and say, wow this is so interesting, become conscious, look for that part within you where you already feel you know, this constant inward reference builds that bridge, until there comes a point where as you are reading there is this inner layer where you already know which is being triggered as you read, so it's like on the surface little flashes but on the inside are the true flashes and at some point the inner is beginning to reveal more than the outer. Fascinating!
(0:40:06)
And then you are able to read a sentence and then say, ah yes, but there is so much more to it, and you, and that is drawn out. And this is all within our reach, for all of us, without exception. You have to make that initial effort. This should have been part of our training at school level. And one day it will have to be.
And Sri Aurobindo suggests this also, including, he says, the development of what is today called ‘paranormal’ or ‘parapsychological’ faculties which are natural to the liberated or purified manas, all these also will become a part of our education at some point. So coming to the question of Shantha, that remembrance; and then Karthik's observation that the emotional disturbance, discomfort, inhibition blocks, you know now the key, both to be able to absorb and retain at a deeper essential memory, experiential, and to be able to express and articulate what you have retained or which you need to express of your own experience, you need this stillness and purification.
So the training I would suggest for Karthik: Now that you're conscious, if you know you're going to meet an audience where you feel uncomfortable, consciously bring yourself into a poise of inner stillness before you go. You can't do it when you're there because you've already been rattled. But do it now before you go. Hold that poise and then as you go there, do not allow the past associations to ripple in and disturb. Go with the poise of equality. If you like, in your mind, you erase the specifics of the audience or the people that disturb you. Put your attention on this state, hold the state, go there, remembering the Divine if you like, invoking the divine presence, peace, stillness, clarity, light, whatever form it may be, articulate and express. And you'll find you will be far better than what you're able to do normally. In fact, you'll be able to present things that you did not plan to and they would come through perfectly because you held the state.
I hope we will have more to discuss about this when we come to this power of expression itself, but this is going to be one of the keys: Hold the poise. Hold the state. Train yourself not to be disturbed by the surface associations.
And if you have again looked back at the discussions we had on the practice of the Integral Yoga, the first foundation was the equality. Bring that equality in these parts where you find this disturbance and you'll find all this will become easily managed. How you will bring equality? Again, recall the discussion. Bring peace into these parts. Train them to become still, silent or hold the peace. And you have an intense awareness, intensified awareness in peace, holding rock solid, in which things can stream through perfectly, without distortion.
One of the things you may notice, what makes you uncomfortable or brings inhibition is an expectation. So either you know them and so there's an expectation of criticism from them or there's a fear or because you don't know them, you have an expectation that they will judge you. It is the expectation which is distorting. So in your mind, you have to consciously erase all those things and tell yourself, I'm doing this with no personal expectation with regard to anybody because it is to be done, it is the right thing. And if you can put yourself in this poise, the problem goes away.
It is one of the very painful experiences I used to have in childhood which led to this lesson. So I, again a personal experience I had, in our school we used to have what was called ‘the mass drill’, we had to follow with music a certain series of postures you had to learn by heart, there was a rationale to it. And of course, if you do it well, then you get a recognition prize as a competition. So I was there with my team. I knew all the moves. I had taught them. But when the music started, I was so nervous and so tense, I lost control of my body. And in the tension, my body started moving clack-clack-clack and faster and faster. And I was ahead of the music by several moves. And the people behind me who were following in my team also got pulled into my, let's say, stress or anticipation and I actually finished the whole thing one full cycle ahead of the music. And of course we were the worst although we knew everything. I came home. Something was wrong. I don't know what's gone wrong. I must have been 12 at that time or 11. What's gone wrong? So I came to my teacher M.P. Pandit and I said, I don't know why, I knew everything, it was, I knew so well, I had to win, I don't know what happened. And he just said one word: “expectation”. “You were expecting the prize”. That's it. I don't remember if he spoke more.
(0:45:33):
It's almost as if he transmitted a knowledge, I, if he used words or not, it doesn't matter. It touched me, moved me deeply. And from that point I said, no more, never again, irrespective of how well I can do or how badly I can do, I will erase consciously the expectation of the outcome and the prize and whatever may be the consequences of my actual doing. And so from then on in all the competitions or whatever activities we had, I would consciously dissolve that whole thing and focus on what I had to do and be in the present in doing right, and that was it.
So at this point, it's interesting, and I don't actually remember what more he may have spoken or what he spoke. The thing which was transmitted was the experiential lesson and that shaped the whole pattern of behaviour. That was more powerful than if he had given detailed instructions, then I would have tried to remember steps. He gave a experiential bundle which was absorbed and shaped me inside out.
And so this I would bring again for the question from Karthik, but also linking it to Shantha’s, to remind us that all of us have this potential because it's already there. What's missing is only the clogging of the passages of the channels of consciousness. So we can go to the next question which would also complete this discussion.
Alina (0:47:01):
Tulsi is writing: “In my college days in Gujarat, I discovered accidentally a shortcut or an easy way to an excellent memory, it was cittavṛttinirodha. We were suggested by a professor to read Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. I followed literally each and every instruction, including yamas, niyamas, pranayamas, and I was preoccupied day and night to achieve cittavṛttinirodha, the first step towards realisation of Ishvara. A neighbour invited me to meditate regularly in her meditation room where a candle and some photos were placed. After about 10 days, I was in the class listening a lecture with my eyes closed, and at the end of the lecture I realised that the whole lecture was imprinted in my brain as if required I could repeat it word by word like a tape recorder.”
Sraddhalu (0:48:14):
Amazing! Amazing! And I'm glad to see she shared this at this point. There was more to her note which had to do with later how she came to the Ashram and recognised the same photographs of where she had been meditating as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and so on.
But this is the part which I thought worth sharing because what she has described as a young student with no prior background or practice of any kind, all she has done is read this book, Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. She has followed literally not just picking portions but literally following the basic psychological purification of yamas and niyamas. So, these are the restraints as well as the active efforts and the basic breathing of pranayam which we have already discussed specific to the nāḍī-śuddhi.
But the goal of all this was cittavṛttinirodha. This means: citta is the stuff of consciousness, we spoke of cittaśuddhi, purification of citta; vṛtti is the tendencies, agitations, oscillations, movements; nirodha is stilling and bringing into stillness and calm; so bringing the agitations of your consciousness into stillness, effectively the practice that we spoke of earlier as the cittaśuddhi, purification of the citta.
And since that was her goal and that was considered as the first step towards realisation of the Divine, but she was focusing on this, and then regular meditation starts in this poise with this intention, now what I want to highlight particularly from her discussion: it took her 10 days. At the end of 10 days listening in the class to a lecture with eyes closed, suddenly she realises that she has full recall.
(0:50:11)
You see how easy it can be. It sounds astounding. Had I said it that you will get results within a few days, you might say, ah he's exaggerating, no, it can't happen to me. That's how you'd say. But here's an example we are quoting from somebody. And I am again highlighting the fact that she had no prior opening to any of these things and she says that she discovered accidentally just by putting into practice and in 10 days.
There is another factor though which was very important. She says, I was in the class listening to a lecture with eyes closed. Why is that important? Because with the eyes open, she would have been again plugged in on the surface mind. With eyes closed automatically and because of the habit now of the 10 days only of meditation, she was already in that interiorised state with the citta in a stillness.
That was key. Now for most people, after 10 days, you might find opening the eyes, you may or may not be able to retain that poise. So fortunately, she had the eyes closed and this happened. After that, you know, you can pursue it and you will find with eyes open, you can have it, not difficult at all. But this ability to consciously bring mind into stillness, bring all your awareness into stillness at will and hold as long as you need is your key. It is also key, remember, for development of the intuition. It's, in fact, the first step of training for the intuition. So in fact, what is happening in the process, not only you have this recall, but you are also opening to the inner mind, and from there the intuitive consciousness, and all those things are beginning to kick in, in 10 days.
So I would ask, and I will now turn to the first question of Suraj: Are you willing to make that effort for 10 days? But really, totally dedicating yourself to it, and notice what happens within 10 days. Perhaps now you're an adult, perhaps you're no more a student, I don't know. So you may not have the same kind of occasion to test it out, but you'll have other similar occasions to test out.
And if nothing else, you may like to review last time's discussion in that state and you may find insights. Or take Sri Aurobindo's writings, read with that state. Of course, at that point, your eyes are open, but put yourself in that state and read. And when necessary, close your eyes and dwell on what you read. Again open and dwell. And you'll find suddenly it's as if something opens up. And what earlier you'd have struggled with words, now suddenly the thing flows and streams-in and literally. So, I, I am grateful for, to Tulsi for having shared this as an example. But it is to highlight that in fact all of us without exception already have the faculty, the ability within. All it needs is the purification. There, I think with this I would largely cover what I wanted to say today for the training of the memory.
There's one more dimension which is specific to this little booklet, The Brain of India, where Sri Aurobindo describes how the higher faculties or the intensification of the mental faculties required the biological basis. And that is why that period of student life was described as Brahmacharya, the celibacy, in which all the energies of the body are contained and drawn up and used to amplify the mind power, brain power, intelligence, and which is an extraordinary grasping power, subtlety, swiftness of thought conception, memory, creative intellectual force, all these get dramatically amplified and effective.
Observe. Well, read that, observe, apply it, test it out for yourself, and you will be convinced. All this, and I will perhaps use this as a point of closure for the memory aspect, points to beyond intuition to the thing which should be next step, the supramental, or if we use the vocabulary of Sri Aurobindo, later vocabulary, the “overmental”, as the basis or the inferior stage preparing for the supramental which also has its own memory, and here we come to some fascinating text which I will want to read from, this is from The Synthesis of Yoga, “The Supramental Instruments”.
He highlights the importance of memory in the earlier part of the chapter where he shows how it's something which is largely neglected today, how memory can actually function and become the basis for integration of past knowledge and so on and give access to so much more. But in the later part of the chapter, he now discusses the equivalent faculty or operation in the supramental consciousness, which in later vocabulary we may call the ‘overmental’.
(0:55:30)
He says: “The supramental memory is different from the mental, not a storing up of past knowledge and experience, but an abiding presence of knowledge that can be brought forward or, more characteristically, offers itself, when it is needed: …” So you see, it’s spontaneous. “… it is not dependent on attention or on conscious reception, for the things of the past not known actually or not observed can be called up from latency by an action which is yet essentially a remembrance.”
So the evidence he gives: Why it’s not? It’s just “a remembrance”. Because things you did not know or did not observe those also can be drawn forward in the same way as if you are remembering. You will recall, last time I mentioned this vocabulary Sri Aurobindo uses of: “mind of ignorance”, “mind of self-forgetful knowledge”, and “mind of knowledge”. So this is the transition into “mind of knowledge”. “Especially on a certain level all knowledge presents itself as a remembering, because all is latent or inherent in the self of supermind. The future like the past presents itself to knowledge in the supermind as a memory of the preknown.” Interesting!
And then he discusses other faculties such as the imagination, intelligence, and the judgement, and other faculties. But Mother uses this phrase slightly modified in her, some of her descriptions in the Agenda, where she uses the phrase “memory of the future” which is natural to that supramental or overmental stage even. And this is to say, that being the true memory actually is already there as an operation behind it all, currently superconscious to us and yet because it is existent, it supports all these intuitive as well as inner mind functions which support the outer mind function. Isn't it?
So increasingly as we become still, clear, and transparent, the influence of that now becomes activated, and something of these things begin slowly to seep-in, shape and lift our normal functioning of mind, including its faculties, and now particularly the context of memory. So I want to link it all the way to this term, phrase, “supramental memory”.
And you see there's a continuity. Do not ever allow this vocabulary to trouble you. Supramental only says, it is ‘supra’-’mental’, but it is behind and supporting the mental, not separate, not far. In fact, it is something so essential fundamentally that there is no other finally, you may say. But to our surface functions, because we are so narrow, limited and separated, that we are not aware of it, though it is aware of us all the time. Isn't it? I think this would cover the whole discussion of memory and we would be ready to move on to other parts but there's one more, couple of more questions, we can take them now.
Alina (0:58:57):
Vijayalakshmi is writing: “How do we connect to the thread, the thread to the past birth learnings? How do we get our all learnings back in memory or in consciousness? How do we know that we were and why we are here now, sometimes it feels very heavy? What if we miss the memory of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in the next birth? How do I take the memory to connect back?”
Sraddhalu (0:59:36):
Yes. We've actually covered this in some detail in the past, several times, the link to the past birth, past memories, particularly soul experience, but perhaps I present it in a different way in context of what we have so far covered. First of all, past birth learning does not mean you will recall the languages you spoke or the things you did in detail, because those things may not have been absorbed in the soul memory. What I referred to last time when I spoke of the huge stock of rich experience from past birth, which is available to us actually, was not of those specifics though you could have elements of those specifics if that was absorbed by the soul memory.
(1:00:23)
Largely, it is the soul memories of its maturing experiences which often shape our personality to the extent that they have been integrated. So, but in principle, because of the familiarity that comes with it, you may find it easy to recover that kind of memory. So for example, let's say, you had a vivid life in a different country with a different language. In this lifetime, because that impression is still vivid, you will suddenly find a familiarity with that language or elements of that culture of that country. And you may read or make a little bit of effort and you will be able to absorb very quickly. Or you may meet people from there and you will feel a certain kind of familiarity or their value system will be familiar to you, although new at this moment and yet familiar. So things like that, yes, so in that sense, you could draw on that store.
The specifics though would still need to, you would need to go through. You would still need to learn that language, but you'll find it's very quickly absorbed because the mood of the language, the rhythm of the language, the familiarity which is intuitive is there. So yes, that can be drawn upon to the extent that the soul has chosen or matured or carried with it, not all would be. So the elements where the soul influence stood out, those experiences would be absorbed. Things done mechanically, superficially, with the soul half asleep will not be recalled. Even the sense of familiarity may not be there. Or at best, a distant kind of memory, ha yes, perhaps, but it seems far away, not real, not living. So a lot depends on your individual soul maturity, and experience.
Rather, I would put the second half of the question as the priority: How do you ensure what you have now is carried into the next, because this is in our capacity? And of this we have spoken before, and I would particularly recommend for you to go back on this channel Integral Studies on the talks on The Life Divine, where I have taken the last six chapters of The Life Divine but the half chapter before where Sri Aurobindo discusses this:
What is the content of soul memory?
How does it carry over?
How does it choose?
How does it integrate?
And then, how can we make the continuity of consciousness from one life to the next and the three requirements for that continuity?
It's been discussed in very great detail. I think, it is covered over six talks or, of the text. I would highly recommend for you to go through that. I don't want to repeat here because it would not do justice to make a superficial recall. But what is important is, this should be one of our objectives. In all that we learn today, irrespective of your age, the things which you value, the things which you cherish, especially what nourishes your soul, you must be able to absorb deep in the soul-consciousness-experience-memory and integrate with its values and aspirations so that it may transfer into the next and with it the requirement for the necessary individualisation and the removal of the barrier between the outer and inner.
And these you will have to work upon consciously. At least once you have the intention, the rest will happen. And if you have too much anxiety about missing the memory of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, don't worry. How did you find them in this life? Notice that something deep within you recognised and said, ah yes, this is what I was looking for.
Well, you will have that in the next. The question is: Will the soul influence be awake enough that you will find it early? Or, will you have to again go through the same kind of struggle of wandering? And there we come to this very odd, I would say, sad sometimes paradox.
You may choose to take birth in a family which has already that value system or that knowledge or that access to the teachings or the practice. But because you grew up in that family, you do not value what is given to you, and instead you go out looking for the things that you did not get from your family and the very opposite and waste or sometimes lose your way which has happened to so many people who have grown up in the Ashram School even though their families had it, the environment had it, the inner, integration of the inner was not strong enough and the outer layers of the mind-desire complex were attracted by some other things and they kind of lost their way.
(1:05:23):
Of course, eventually the soul, after having exhausted all those, will push forward its influence and many of them say, ah yes, now I want to retire and settle in the Ashram. No! That's not quite going to work. But, well, as Mother said, many are preparing for another life.
On the other hand, you take birth in an environment where you're denied all this, you're yearning, you're struggling, you're aching for something deeper and truer. You don't know where it is. And then one day you glimpse it, and then another glimpse, and then you find it. And you say, wow, this is so precious, and you plunge into it.
Which path is better for you? Well, ideally we would have the full recall or the sense at least of ‘yes, this is what we want’ with the environment nourishing, and still you will have parts which will say, but what is it that I have missed of the world? And it happens to everybody. But hopefully that passage will be short, brief, superficial, and you will not have to struggle too much. And that's one of the things which you will find I keep insisting upon.
Recognise what you have today as an opportunity. Yes, the diversions and digressions, maybe you need to satisfy certain parts in you, but become conscious what is central to you, in your aspiration, in your being's sense of priority. Just becoming conscious automatically aligns those impulses and clears the path enormously, makes things smoother.
So I think that sufficiently answers question. We can go to the, well, I'll just look at the chat box before we go to the next question. There are few questions in the chat box.
Andri has asked: “Will nāḍī-śuddhi or cittaśuddhi help with expressing yourself in non-native languages? Or, is it more about formulating the idea better prior to expressing?”
Well, actually both. The purification of these, let's say, nerve channels as well as mind channel, makes that all passage, in-and-out, becomes more smooth and transparent. So you can express yourself in your own language, you can have clarity of expression before you speak, or you may go with no prior preparation and smoothly transmit that which flows through, not knowing what word will be next but smoothly expressing, and equally this can happen in non-native languages.
I can share my own experience in this regard. You see, the Mother had wanted us in the Ashram School to learn French, from the kindergarten, which was quite unusual because you will see Sri Aurobindo highlights the importance of learning in your own mother tongue, and yet in the Ashram School from kindergarten on, you are taught French first, literally uprooting you from your culture, mother tongue, and then Sanskrit, which is like the only link you have, but it's one or two periods a week and in a very basic way, and then quite a large part of the initial education is in French, with a little bit of your mother tongue now introduced slightly, and then later you have English, mother tongue and Sanskrit pretty much equally presented, though most people take to English in greater strength because that's the today's society media and so on. Why?
And one of the reasons the Mother gave, so I think she gave two or three reasons, now I don't recall quite clearly, but one of the reasons she gave was, which she openly spoke of, she said, was: The French is a much more clear language where the structure of thought and grammar is better aligned.
Now this would be true equally of Sanskrit or even more true of Sanskrit, but, and so she wanted the clarity of mind which would come with French. And the second reason which she said was more an occult reason which, I think, by which she meant that, for herself to express and transmit certain ideas was easier in the French-mould and then she could imprint that directly and transmit it more directly. So that was the second dimension.
And the third which is that, she wanted or she felt that, in Europe the link point to the spirituality of India would be through France.
(1:10:01)
Now this has not yet happened in the way that she had wanted. Some of our ex-students went to France and they created a few yoga centres, but it never really caught on strongly as a centre for Sri Aurobindo’s teaching. There have been individuals, but that's about it.
When I had gone to France recently, a few years ago, literally I could draw upon my French which I had last spoken maybe 25 years ago and force myself to think in French, I struggled initially. So this is coming to my experience now. I struggled initially. Literally in my mind, the thought structure is in English and there's a layer which is translating into French. And so I am in this fine balance and often the French structure itself is becoming a English structure with French words. So, it's not quite French, but it's understandable.
There was a point where I was there for a, I had a workshop followed by a series of lectures, So I was saturated. I found often being there a few days, I as if got into the mould much more. It was happening. And then at some point, I caught the movement. And I found I could accelerate it. Instead of taking one week to get into that state, it took me one or two days. So at some point I was in that series of talks. There was also a concentration-meditation practice done in French. So it primed the mind to become completely still and transparent.
And then I had a series of talks in a school of yoga in Avion, which is, I think, the biggest yoga school in France. And I went there, sat there, concentrated, and there was a degree of transparency. I was conscious it was there. And then the words just flowed through in a way that it would happen normally that I would do in English. There was complete transparency, and it flowed with the French and the purity of accent and structure, even in the flow of the sentences which for me was astonishing. Of course, the audience also were surprised but for me was astonishing, ha, I am not able to do that normally.
But I caught the thing at that point, and I said, the key is always putting yourself in the right state of transparency.
So to come to Andri's question, you can do this in a non-native language. Initially, you will have some disruption because of this habit of translating and hesitating. But if you can bring transparency into those layers and a reasonably sufficient vocabulary that you don't have to struggle to find words, then at that point you are able to become quite transparent and the words flow. Even it can happen at that point that you start using words and sentence structures that you had only read of or heard from others and you had never consciously practised, they pop up when that flow takes place. So, all of this will be coming in our later discussion on the power of expression. But since the question has come up, it is to say: Yes, this purification will act in all circumstances not only in language, not only in non-native language, even in other forms of expression, including dance, music, singing, etc.
Another question from Anupam: “Can you explain the secret of avadhānaṃ and how can we develop this capacity?”
I have spoken about this in the past, but I will repeat because it fits perfectly with our current discussion. So this avadhānaṃ is this skill or capacity to do multiple things at the same time. One of the most renowned is aṣtāvadhānaṃ. Aṣtā is eight, eight skills or eight capacities simultaneously done. And the scope of the challenge is actually enormous. There are people who do śatāvadhānaṃ, that means a hundred things at a time, and there are those who do a thousand things at a time.
I am told, I've never seen hundred and thousand, but I've seen the eight. I am told by the people who have that knowledge that the eight things are more difficult than the hundred, because when you go to the hundred, they are not many different things. There could be many games of chess, there may be ten games of chess simultaneously, and so on, and the challenge actually is not as demanding. Whereas the eight is very demanding. I have described how it works before but bears repeating.
We had a demonstration here in the Ashram, at the, in fact at the Sri Aurobindo Society, where someone was brought who was skilled in this. He made an extraordinary performance. Unfortunately, it was not recorded with the video or not properly recorded. And afterwards we had a dinner meeting with him.
During the performance, I'll come to the meeting after, he had to do eight things. One of them was compose poetry on the spot one letter or one syllable at a time on a topic which was arbitrarily given to him. Another was to respond to certain questions by composing a song, by composing something again independently, but in response to a question. Somebody else was challenging him with interruptions. His job was to interrupt him at any point when he's concentrating, to break the concentration. And the eighth thing was someone ringing a bell at random. And you have to count and at the end say how many times the bell was rung.
(1:15:42):
So they were very independent, very different things, all demanding full creative power and attention. And he started with composing a piece of poetry with ‘a’ [अ]. So obviously being in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, it would be ‘Aravinda’. So the challenger now says, what letter you can't use. So, he says, now I prevent you from using the next letter as ‘ra’ [र]. Now he has to compose his poetry, the second syllable with a different syllable, at which point again the fellow will anticipate what is your third syllable going to be and prevent you from using. And so, literally you are creating a poetry, one syllable at a time, each time with a block on what next syllable you could use, and at the end of it you have a rhyme, rhythm, with four lines, with a meaning and with a surprising insight.
And he came up. So what did he do? Instead of ‘Aravinda’, he said ‘Ati’, ‘Ati’ meaning ‘extreme’ or ‘higher’, ‘super’. And so obviously the next syllable might be ‘Manasa’, ‘Ati Manasa’ being supramental. So the fellow says you can't use ‘Ma’. So he has to use a different word. Imagine the challenge for the mind to compose poetry in this way. And he came out with something which was so extraordinary, so beautiful. Later he said he had himself never had such a wonderful session as he had here. And we have to understand why. Because of course the audience was very receptive, but there was, it was in a space that had a Presence. So I go up to him in the dinner meeting and I am waiting for the brilliant insight of, well, like Anupam has asked:
What's the secret? So I ask him: “How do you do, what is the secret?, how can we learn?” And he is very quiet, very still. And he says, the secret is to hold your mind in complete stillness, or hold yourself in complete stillness. He used different words, but that's what he was saying. I said, yes, but do you practise some special pranayama, nāḍī-śuddhi, concentration, meditation? He shakes his head again and says, complete stillness. I'm sure, he was asked this, he must have been asked this a thousand times in his life.
But at that point, I did not fully understand. I said, there's something missing. And it's only later, after I had fully understood what Sri Aurobindo was pointing to through this purification and this stilling that the whole thing came through and then of course confirmed by experience. When you are utterly still, you are utterly transparent. Not only the things from the higher can flow through, but your power to handle multiple things is also greatly amplified. And I'll explain why. You see, the way the mind works, it works in pieces. And that's why the avadhānaṃ or ‘aṣtā’–’avadhānaṃ’, eight things, become difficult because you have to handle this piece, then switch to that piece, then switch to that piece. And by then you have lost the thread with the first piece.
Because your mind is shifting states. But if you step back into this poise of stillness, and at some point your stillness leans back on the Self. The Self knows the whole universe in oneness, not in a million different pieces.
So, to the extent that, that sense of oneness of the Self fills or leans or becomes the base on which your mind leans back in stillness, all your eight things are as if one continuum. You are not switching states. You are not moving from one activity to another. You are holding simultaneously eight, hundred, thousand, infinity. Same equality. Of course, the mind is active, but the part that is active is superficial. Its activity itself, if it is embedded in the stillness, its activity is merely a turning of attention of superficial focus, like a spotlight within the light. But it's not like the blindness of the mind, where spotlight here means, the rest is dark. Here it is fully lit with special attention here, and when you come back, you have lost nothing because you are still holding it, but with no effort of mind.
(1:20:11):
In fact, no effort of mind, because mind is the one that makes effort. There is no effort, there is equality. This poise, in fact, or a step towards this poise is natural to that state that we call, that Sri Aurobindo calls “the higher mind”, where idea itself is large and can have multiple elements.
And then from there, when you go to the illumined mind, which is a seeing state of awareness of knowledge, again, there is no activity anymore. There is no thought process anymore. You are simply aware and turning in awareness.
And if this leans into a more intuitive poise and leans to [S]elf behind or the stillness of [S]elf, then this state becomes or rather the action of the aṣtāvadhānaṃ becomes easy, almost natural and effortless.
And the reference is your state. If your state is utterly still, it is effortless. If you have moved out of the stillness, you find you have to make effort, and you come back to that. And this is what I saw in him, which later I could now recognise, I say, ah yes he was in that state and he maintained that state afterwards during the dinner meeting also. And so when he said to me, stillness, at that point I felt something. But later looking back, I said, ah yes he had it, he was in the right state. So, I think that would answer Anupam's question.
Aditya's question is: “Will revising concepts with closed eyes help? Last week, last week you told that we should study in the same state of consciousness as in the exam.”
Yes, so if you are going to write an exam with closed eyes, you certainly you might close your eyes to do. But what is more important is this: Initially, certain concepts are better perceived with eyes closed. Because the moment you open your eyes, you tend to get exteriorised or you tend to reduce to the surface visual. And so automatically what happens is, as we are going deep into the thought or in study, people say, you are daydreaming, your eyes glaze over, your inner sight now turns, you don't need to physically close your eyes but you've already disconnected from the physical sight.
Equally when you are holding abstract or complex concepts, the mind disconnects from the physical sight and is seeing in that part of the mind. So, with physical eyes open or not is secondary.
I would suggest, you learn to integrate with physical eyes open. Otherwise you find yourself closing your eyes or when you open you've lost it. You close your eyes, you have it. That's a lack. So, initially you may find the need to close eyes to go deep or hold with complex idea, but then hold your eyes open and retain this, bridge it, so that you don't need to open physical eyes, instead, your mind can disengage, orient, focus inward, outward, upward, downward as needed without needing for the physical sight to be disturbed in any way, to be disrupted by this shift of attention. That would be a superior way. If initially it is helpful, do it. Revising a concept, you close your eyes because you conceive better, then open, hold, continue that conception. Look at the book, shift to conception, and back. You're internalising. But train yourself very quickly so that your eyes are open. At time of exam, you'll of course have to have your eyes open, you can't close and then while writing open and again close because you've lost the thread. So use it as an intermediate poise but link it. Afterwards it won't matter. And this is done very quickly. You'll be surprised how quickly it happens.
Narayanan asks, “What type of pranayam was Sri Aurobindo practising?”
I don't know if he has described in great detail but many of these involved holding breath and there are various, one of the best texts for this would be Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga where he describes the various kinds of pranayam. But you don't need to go too much into the advanced practices of pranayam. In fact, there can be a great danger. Sri Aurobindo himself documents how, of course, there was the amplification of the brain power and mind power from the lifeforce, but when he suddenly stopped the pranayam, he felt severely ill and would have even died. It was that close.
So I would not recommend for you to go into those advanced practices. In the Ashram School, we were taught some basic asanas and pranayam, but we were not taken into those advanced things. That was discouraged for this reason.
Rather, work on the purification of the channels. If you like to do a little bit of holding, do that. Work on the psychological dimension of purification and transparency and stilling. Build the peace, depth and intensity of the peace, and you will have pretty much the same result without the associated dangers which may come with it.
(1:25:34)
Dolores asks, “How to get the state of mind stillness?”
By practice, simply. And the practice would be most easily aided by the bringing down of the peace. I have left a recording of a guided process of meditation which was posted, I think, last year, 2021 September, it is titled “Guided Meditation for Descent of Peace”.
That would be perhaps the simplest. There are many ways you can learn to still your mind, but this is the easiest, where you open your mind to a higher peace of the Self, Presence, let it settle in, and your mind falls silent effortlessly. The key then is to habituate yourself to stay in that state. Once the habit forms, you will find, you can put yourself in state of mental stillness at will because now it's familiar. The problem is initially we just don't know what it's like. We don't know how to do it because it's such a new state. So the descent of the peace brings the state spontaneously, but then you must learn to habituate and extend it into activity. After that, you'll find, even when you have to do work, you have to read, study, interact with people, first you're automatically putting yourself in a state of stillness of mind and then you feel what is required in that person, in that conversation, response. As they speak, in that stillness of mind, you're able to identify, feel, connect, relate to, or even catch intuitively what they're communicating, and so on.
Neeraj asks, “In getting to know a new physical environment, can we tune into historical memories and themes of the place?”
Yes, you can. Some people have the natural ability to tune in. Again the key there will be stilling yourself entirely. The starting point is when you become totally still, you are like a mirror and then what is around you as if reflects in you without disrupting you. There are people who are naturally empathic, they identify and as if absorb and then they get overwhelmed. That's not the best way, because you're a victim. You deal with a patient, you get overwhelmed by their emotions. It's not helpful. It's more helpful to become completely still and then that attention turns to ‘what's there inside’, and you feel as if in a reflection but without getting yourself catching it, without identifying.
But in the case of an environment, it's different because you are tapping on many levels, mental, vital, emotional, physical, various other kinds. If you really want to get a full sense of it, then you must learn to become still on all these levels within you equally. That may take a little more time and practice, but if you train yourself to do it, then you will find you can easily pick up things. You can even take an object, a book, a piece of cloth, you hold, and you feel.
But that means already in your physical consciousness you have to have developed that stillness in which the receptivity is spontaneous. And in your mind then free of preconception, you stay like this as a mirror reflecting, and first impression comes, immediately your mind will jump to catch, you have to train yourself not to, and wait. And then a second impression unfolds, and then a third impression unfolds, and then if by then also a certain degree of intuitivisation has happened, you can actually choose to want to know, and ‘poof’, ‘poof’, ‘poof’ flashes, insights can begin to happen.
It's quite fascinating. And it's there in all of us. No exceptions. All you need is this very basic training of being able to still yourself ideally in all the parts, in all the layers, inward especially, all the way to the deepest that you can hold that stillness. So you see why Sri Aurobindo has this as one of the foundations of the sadhana. And equality then becomes as if the container in which one can hold this stillness, peace and the equality naturally.
And I think Shantha is asking, “How to identify substance of mind?”
It's just this awareness that you feel that's your substance of mind. So the part of the mind that's turned to senses is the citta. And the part of the mind which is like a substance of awareness, ‘I am conscious’, that’s your manas. Into that consciousness, there is like a focal point ‘I am conscious observing my consciousness and can change my conscious state’, this focal point is the buddhi, intelligent will. Often we feel ourselves here, somewhere in the forehead centre.
(1:30:43):
So, the awareness reaches out through your body, let's say, through your fingers, through your sight, and this part which flows through the senses is the, well, the sense-mind. The mind now turning upon itself becomes the substance of mind proper. The centre which is observing and determining, shaping, directing is your buddhi. Shift between these three states through: looking through the senses at the world, observing through senses and the working of sensory awareness and then turning that awareness upon yourself, on awareness itself that is, and then the focal point of that awareness which operates on this awareness can change its state, direct it and so on. Three components. It's as simple as that. No big deal.
But you have never done this. You have to train yourself to do it, and after a while it becomes quite natural. You observe, ‘ha today my mind is not so clear’, and you will yourself into clarity. ‘Right now I am sleepy but I have to do this work’, I pull myself out of sleep. Even the reverse is possible. Now my mind is fresh, I want to sleep, I relax it, still it and withdraw it inward and go to a poise from which sleep becomes spontaneous.
This ability to shift states of mind becomes now accessible once you have identified or distinguished between these layers. And as a practice you can experience it right now. As a skill you will take a few days. But a few days is not much. You don't even need a few weeks.
I think, then we go with the last question. If we have nothing, we'll keep it for next time. We had one more question which we had planned for today, we'll take it for next time, it's now one and a half hours, we have completed our time duration.
So, review now.
Review now all that we discussed: The importance of state, importance of training observation of your senses which feed into the memory, recognising the importance of the automatic memory versus the more active part of the memory. Removal of obstructions because the faculties are already there, the capacity is there. So, and the means for removing obstructions through nāḍī-śuddhi and cittaśuddhi. The poise of receptivity that comes with the cittaśuddhi. The capacity to amplify your mind power, brain power, which we found in the text of The Brain of India, as well as the writings on education which have to do with these faculties and powers, and how all of these naturally relate to the intuitive memory that opens to the “supramental memory”.
Among the questions we covered included the connection with the past life impressions that one can draw upon by simply this movement of turning inward to bridge with the, what is brought by the soul influence and memory. And especially when the bridging takes place with the inner mind and the outer, that's when these things become quite easily accessible. I did not dwell too much on this part of the turning, but that's about it.
And we saw examples from history as well as the rationale behind this kind of a perfect memory, total recall without losing anything. How emotions disturb, how preconceptions distort. And how within 10 days Tulsi was able to get this capacity literally to recall effortlessly by the practice of yoga or the practices associated with the yoga, which were not training to awaken something that's not there. They are training to awaken what is already there latent within you by removal of obstacles. That's all it is. Which brings us back to a very important concept which I've been highlighting in many of our discussions going back a few dozens of themes that the spiritual consciousness is intimately close to you. Your inner spiritual potential is right here, right now, just behind the curtain or just above the lid, not far away. And therefore the spiritual development and opening of your spiritual potential should be for you the easiest thing possible. And if you're struggling too much, then you're doing something wrong. Your very effort and tension and your idea that it is something far is creating a barrier and preventing.
(1:35:39):
You see all the essential methods we discussed were actually of stilling, quieting, of becoming transparent, of removal of disturbing obstacles and layers to allow that which is to simply come forward, isn't it? Recognize this deep truth. Highlight it within you. Let it become your living faith, this śraddhā, the deep conviction that this is so, is extremely precious. The opposite or false śraddhā, that things are far and difficult, is what makes it far and difficult by placing something that is near far away. Because in consciousness terms, your relationship is what determines distance. So recognize the value of this śraddhā, this faith of intimacy, of closeness. Because all these things are within you, in your deepest truth of being, you are Self, is this. And the active energy which has built you in the surface part as well as formed your inner layers is the Divine Mother who bridges all these and who is present, infused in all these. She is present in your thoughts, in your emotions, in your life-energies. And so in these parts when you turn in aspiration to her, her action can flow in and clarify, purify and make this possible most rapidly.
And this deep conviction which is already known to you, what I am saying resonates because you already knew it, it was only uncovered, this you must hold. So not only in capacity to learn but in capacity to articulate and to express, you will develop the same directness, transparency and free flow that you can become a pure instrument for the divine expression. And so this will be our theme for the discussion next time. We can take a moment to hold this poise in aspiration.
Namaste.