My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

March 3, 1932

This action of the mental nature is the usual obstacle to progress. Each part of the nature wants to go on with its old movements and refuses, as far as it can, to admit a radical change and progress, because that would subject it to something higher than itself and deprive it of its sovereignty in its own field, its separate empire. It is this that makes transformation so long and difficult a process.

Mind gets dulled because at its lower bases is the physical mind with its principle of tamas or inertia—for in matter Inertia is the fundamental principle. A constant or long continuity of higher experiences produces in this part of the mind a sense of exhaustion or of unease or dullness.

Trance or Samadhi is a way of escape—the body is made quiet, the physical mind is in a state of torpor, the inner consciousness is left free to go on with its experience. The disadvantage is, that trance becomes indispensable and the problem of the waking consciousness is not solved, it remains imperfect.

Sri Aurobindo