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... and serious effort to overcome Page 16 the inertia - at least so much as the Force wants me to do so that it can then complete the purification by itself. Do you think that I allow the inertia to play with me willingly and that I do nothing to overcome it? Are you going to deny the tamas in you and put all the fault of your want of progress on the Divine Force... times, when I read a piece of philosophy or yogic literature I feel like falling into meditation. Is it not a sign of laziness in the mind? Page 9 It is quite natural to want to meditate while reading Yogic literature - that is not the laziness. The laziness of the mind consists in not meditating, when the consciousness wants to do so.   How is it that 1 can c... Can a purely sattwic man become very angry or passionate? No - he can only be firm or severe when severity is needed.   Are depression, despair and fear reactions of tamas or rajas? Tamas.   "Not only will the Purusha stand apart and be trigunatita, beyond the three gunas, but the Prakriti, though using the gunas, will be free from their bondage." So says the ...

... get up and act. It is like that, this is tamas. Tamas is a purely material thing; it is very rare to have a vital or mental tamas (it may occur but through contagion), I believe it is more a tamas of the nerves or the brain than vital or mental tamas. But laziness is everywhere, in the physical, the vital, the mind. Generally lazy people are not always lazy, not in all things. If you propose something... shouldn't one? What is "physical tamas"? You don't know that, you don't? Then, congratulations! For instance, does it never happen to you that being seated you don't want to get up, that having something to do you say, "Oh! I have to do all that...." Is it the same thing as laziness? Not quite. Of course, laziness is a kind of tamas, but in laziness Page 365 there is an ill-will... ill-will, a refusal to make an effort—while tamas is inertia: one wants to do something, but one can't. I remember, a long time ago, having been among some young people, and they remarked that when I decided to get up I used to get up with a jump, without any difficulty. They asked me, "How do you do it? We, when we want to get up, have to make an effort of will to be able to do it." They were so ...

... activity of a much higher kind. 25 May 1966 How can one get out of this mental laziness and inertia? By wanting to, with persistence and obstinacy. By doing daily a mental exercise of reading, organisation and development. This must alternate in the course of the day with exercises of mental silence in concentration. 1 June 1966 Page 398 ... concentration and will. 7 April 1965 Are mental indifference and lack of curiosity a sort of mental inertia? Usually they are due to mental inertia, unless one has obtained calm and indifference through a very intense sadhana resulting in a perfect equality for which the good and bad, the pleasant and unpleasant no longer exist. But in that case, mental activity is replaced by an intuitive activity... encourage others to do the same? The body is afraid of anything new because its very base is inertia, tamas ; it is the vital which brings the dominance of rajas (activity). That is why, generally, the intrusion of the vital in the form of ambition, emulation and egotism, obliges the body to shake off tamas and make the necessary effort to progress. Naturally, those in whom the mind predominates ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   On Education

... one cannot achieve anything. 18 May 1937 Do you think that the tiredness comes from too much mental work? No, it comes from mental tamas . 21 January 1941 ( A teacher wrote that his students did not work very hard. ) Continue to be patient—is some kind of mental tamas; one day they will wake up. Page 135 The students cannot learn their lessons, even when... that one must become strong to cure weakness. Mother, would you tell me how one can become strong? First you must want it integrally and then you must do what is needed. How to get rid of mental inertia? The cure is not in trying to wake up the mind but in turning it, immobile and silent, upward towards the region of intuitive light, in a steady and quiet aspiration, and to wait in silence... their mind. Intelligence and capacity of understanding are surely more important than regularity in work. Steadiness may be acquired later on. Mother, how can one get rid of laziness? Laziness comes from weakness, or from lack of interest. For curing the first—one must become strong. For curing the second—one must do something interesting. Sweet Mother, You have told ...

The Mother   >   Books   >   CWM   >   On Education

... from the mental and vital into this darker field. To many sadhaks it was rather a premature descent as their mental and vital were not sufficiently prepared for this entry into an obscure plane. So the physical used to send up wave after wave of its inertia to cover up any higher or deeper activity of the sadhana. As Sri Aurobindo pointed out to me, "The principle of tamas is inertia, aprakasa... in the Mother and feeling her force. If there is tamas, does it still allow one to work as usual?       Yes, in this case it is not a tamas of the vital but a tamas of the mental physical which remains inert and passive.         The adverse forces have pushed up the whole of my lower nature in its naked form. It is through inertia, sex, ego etc. that their attack is directed so furiously... THE PHYSICAL     In this second volume of letters, there is frequent reference to words such as inertia and tamas. Here these words are not intended to mean 'fatigue', 'lethargy' or 'unwillingness to act 'physically or mentally'. To understand properly the exact nature or character of tamas it would be good to know a little of the sadhana that was going on during that period.     In ...

... it.         The second reason: I was told that there is always a tendency to inertia in my external being and therefore I decided that the only way to get rid of it was by making the body work more and more for the Mother.       Overstraining only increases the inertia — the mental and vital will may force the body, but the body feels more and more strained and finally asserts... of self-dedication to the Divine, but it must be done with the necessary inner consciousness in which the outer vital and physical must also share.       A lazy body is certainly not a proper instrument for Yoga, it must stop being lazy. But a fatigued and unwilling body also cannot receive properly or be a good instrument. The proper thing is to avoid either extreme.         The higher... reason: I heard that fatigue comes because there is in our nature some unwillingness to work, for otherwise how is it that many people work day and night and yet are untouched by exhaustion or tamas?       Because they feel the force for work.           1 Deep or inherent delight. Page 97       You suggested to cut down my work. But to my eyes each ...

... Page 22 Sweet Mother, How can one get out of this mental laziness and inertia? By wanting to do so, with persistence and obstinacy. By doing every day a mental exercise of reading, organisation and development. This should alternate in the course of the day with exercises of mental silence and concentration. 1 June 1966 * Sweet Mother... * Sweet Mother, Are mental indifference and lack of curiosity a sort of mental inertia? Usually they are due to mental inertia, unless one has obtained this calm and indifference through a very intense sadhana resulting in perfect equality for which good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant no longer exist. But in that case, mental activity is replaced by an intuitive activity... not study for the sake of pleasure  one studies to learn and to develop one's brain. 1 February 1935 * It is quite impossible for me to study, because inertia is there. If you do not study, the inertia will go on increasing. 4 March 1935 * You tell me to study, but I dislike studying. You do not give enough time to study, that is why it ...

... tendency of inertia goes out of the nature. There are many [ defects of the physical consciousness ]—but mainly obscurity, inertia, tamas, a passive acceptance of the play of wrong forces, inability to change, attachment to habits, lack of plasticity, forgetfulness, loss of experiences or realisations gained, unwillingness to accept the Light or to follow it, incapacity (through tamas or through... physical must also share. A lazy body is certainly not a proper instrument for Yoga, it must stop being lazy. But a fatigued and unwilling body also cannot receive properly or be a good instrument. The proper thing is to avoid either extreme. A strong mind and body and life-force are needed in the sadhana. Especially steps should be taken to throw out tamas and bring strength and force into... Material Consciousness I do not see why you doubt the fulfilment in your material consciousness. If there is faith, quietude, openness in the rest of the being, the material is bound to open also. Tamas, inertia, ignorance, stupidity, littleness, obstruction to the true movement are universal characteristics of the material consciousness, so long as it is not enlightened, regenerated and transformed from ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - IV

... usually mental inertia. Mental inertia would not come to you to that extent if there were not the physical tamas.   The feeling "I can't aspire etc. What can I do?" is suggested by the physical inertia, but it must not be accepted as a truth.   The rush of inertia would not have mattered so much had it not been for a complete inert passivity of my mind and vital. ... there is a vital mental, a physical mental - in vital there is a mental vital, a physical vital - in physical there is a mental physical, a vital physical. How do you imagine then that vital can have no effect on the physical?   Inertia is mental, vital, physical, subconscient. Physical inertia can produce mental inertia, mental inertia can produce physical inertia, vital inertia almost always... something drawing away the vital force or from an invasion of tamas. But I don't know why it should be connected with the English study and happen only then.   I just read that if our vital lays its hold on the physical the transformation of the body can be done very quickly. Why then does my vital not try it? Laziness. The vital can be all right when things are going on swimmingly ...

... and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being—rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, Tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine. .. . 67 Surrender is giving oneself to the Divine, living for... Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga. SABCL. Vol. 23, p. 588. × Pertaining to Tamas. one of the three Gunas or modes of Nature (Prakriti); Tamas is the quality of ignorance, obscurity, inaction, and inconscience, and is inherent in the physical consciousness. ... demand in it; the physical consciousness is like a stone and what it calls surrender is often no more than inertia. 60 Page 105 It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once—and not always desirable; for personal effort is better than tamasic 61 inertia . The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force ...

... and all do not get enlightened together.   The inertia persists so powerfully because there is no sufficient resistance on my part. Some parts of my being try at times to repel it, but seeing that nothing improves by their efforts, they withdraw into a tamasic passivity. You are right. That is the real trouble - a laziness in the nature that cannot take the trouble to persist. ... evenings brought me a fall straight into inertia, you said, "Because the inertia is there in the physical consciousness and has made itself habitual - so the consciousness falls back to it." Well, the inertia is there in the mornings also and yet I remain in the higher consciousness. What is the exact reason for the fall after 4 p.m.? There is no mentally definite and rigidly effective reason... that it is a sign of great tamas in the body.   Are the conditions which allow Mothers Force to act in my body no longer there? Evidently not. There must be either a steady power of the will to act as the instrument of the Force or a great habit of openness in the body - and these conditions don't seem to be there.   But even before this inertia came, I never used my will ...

... ed out. Actually, we are very lazy. Sri Aurobindo wrote that he was very lazy—that consoled me! We are very lazy. We would like ( laughing ) to settle back and blissfully enjoy the fruit of our labors! So there, mon petit; it's time to go. × Tamas : the principle of inertia and obscurity. ... extremely strong sensations. I have always known that cruelty, like sadism, is the need to cut through a thick layer of totally insensitive tamas 1 by means of extremely violent sensation—an extreme is needed if anything is to be felt through that tamas. I was always told, for example (in Japan it was strongly emphasized to me), that the people of the Far East are very tamasic physically. The... individuals organizing such a thing. ( long silence ) It must be similar to what happened when the first men appeared. Have we ever really known how the first humans were formed, the first mental realization? Were they isolated individuals, or were they in groups—did the phenomenon take place in a collective milieu or in isolation? I don't know. It may be analogous to the case of the coming ...

... want—to make you feel helpless, defeated, overborne. You must not allow it. You are always expecting the Mother to do it [ remove vital dissatisfaction and revolt ]—and here again the laziness and tamas come in—it is the spirit of tamasic surrender. If the Mother puts you back into a good condition, your vital pulls you down again. How is that to stop so long as you say Yes to the vital and... attitude is likely to lead to stagnation and inertia. (See The Mother , Part I.) It is only the more mechanical parts of the being that can truly say they are helpless: the physical (material) consciousness, especially, is inert in its nature and moved either by the mental and vital or by the higher forces. But one has always the power to put the mental will or vital push at the service of the Divine... feeling "I do not want to do anything" that you have not been able to receive the help, but that is a temporary inertia of the physical mind and will. I do not see the use of your going back for a few months to a life which could not now satisfy you. The only course is to shake off the inertia of the will and persevere. So long as there is not the full presence and conscious working of the higher ...

Sri Aurobindo   >   Books   >   CWSA   >   Letters on Yoga - II

... bite the dogs, they would always be in a state of inertia, stretched out on the ground, motionless. Now, these trouble them, they begin to scratch, they move, and this awakens them a little from their tamas. For men, it is the same thing. When they have a small desire which they cannot satisfy, they are a little shaken up: they come out of their inertia and try to find a solution to their problem. It... all goes well, when you have the Knowledge also, all goes well, and when you are identified with the Divine, all goes even better, but till then you must will, choose and decide. Don't go to sleep lazily, saying, "Oh! The work will be done for me, I have nothing to do but let myself glide along with the stream." Besides, it is not true, the work is not done by itself, because if the least little thing... if you insist on identifying these lowest things of the Ignorance with the divine Truth or even the lesser truth permissible on the way. It cannot be done if you cling to your past self and its old mental, vital and physical formations and habits; one has continually to leave behind his past selves and to see, act and live from an always higher and higher conscious level. It cannot be done if you insist ...

... Traditionally, one's mantra is never to be repeated before anyone except the guru. × Tamas : inertia. ... words that mustn't be translated like that. Then it was sent to me in Paris for correcting. It was literally impossible. There was this Themanlys, my brother's schoolmate; he wrote books, but he was lazy-minded and didn't want to work! So he had passed that job on to me. But it was impossible, you couldn't do a thing with it. And what words! Theon would invent words Page 441 for the subtle... what oriented my night, for I started my night looking at this problem: How can I make them accept this? For neither should they fall into the other extreme and slip from this weary agitation into tamas . 3 That's obvious. But how many letters I receive from people telling me, 'I feel listless, all I want to do is sleep, to rest, not do anything.' They go on complaining. The experience I ...

... most of which entail considerable struggle and suffering. This heady rajasic wine is not only useful, but indispensable, at a particular stage of evolution, when the being is enveloped in the tamas (inertia) of Matter and needs to be shaken up and vitalised; but once that stage is passed, and a decisive step forward is taken towards the relative equipoise Page 111 of Sattwa,¹ and... "¹ But along with this aspiring surrender of the body and its actions, there must go a thorough rejection of the "physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, t mas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda ¹. The Words of the Mother. Page 114 may establish itself in a body growing always more... Page 116 So long as the soul does not come to the front of our consciousness, it is always the ego that is the organiser and ruler of our nature. It may be a tamasic ego, wallowing in inertia and indolence and sheer physical amenities; or it be rajasic, drunk with desires and revelling in strife d struggle for power and possession; or it may be sattwic, stationing itself in the growing ...

... you mentally a bit lazy and indifferent to the opportunity I give you each week to ask me a question. Your questions are rather commonplace and don't give the impression that you are really searching for the secrets of life and the world. 18 April 1966 Sweet Mother, Are mental indifference and lack of curiosity a sort of mental inertia? Usually they are due to mental inertia, unless... pleasant and unpleasant no longer exist. But in that case, mental activity is replaced by an intuitive activity of a much higher kind. 25 May 1966 Page 335 Sweet Mother, How can one get out of this mental laziness and inertia? By wanting to do so, with persistence and obstinacy. By doing every day a mental exercise of reading, organisation and development. This should... encourage others to do so? The body is afraid of anything new because its very base is inertia, tamas; it is the vital which brings in a dominant note of rajas, activity. That is why, as a general rule, the intrusion of the vital in the form of ambition, emulation and vanity, compels the body to shake off the tamas and make the necessary effort to progress. Naturally, those in whom the mind is dominant ...

... qualities of which are quite different from the qualities or Gunas of Apara Prakriti. The minimum experience is that of quietude, and even this quietude can be easily distinguished from the Guna of tamas, of inertia, with which it may seem to have some resemblance. But this quietude can be further intensified by developing the capacity to remain longer and longer in that state of quietude. Quietude becomes... impulse to love and to be loved, and it tends to fall into the mechanical routine of life and organizations to which tamas tends to cling. Finally, the tamasic man is totally governed by routine, mechanical repetition of the cycle of life and unintelligent acquiescence to ignorant inertia that does not allow the individual to press beyond the established routine of manual work, unintelligent labour and... steadiness. The sattwic mind has quiet happiness, and clear and calm content and inner ease and peace. The tamasic mind can also remain well-pleased in its indolence and inertia but dhrti of the tamasic mind is founded in inertia and ignorance. The happiness of dhrti of the rajasic mind consists of drinking of a fiery and intoxicating cup. The joy that it seeks is nectar to the lips at the first ...

... we call India, Bhawani Bharati, is the living unity of the Shaktis of three hundred million people; but she is inactive, imprisoned in the magic circle of Tamas, the self-indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons. To get rid of Tamas we have but to wake the Brahma within. It Is Our Own Choice Whether We Create a Nation or Perish. What is it that so many thousands of holy men,... nature of all great things that when they are not used or are ill used, they turn upon the bearer and destroy him. Our knowledge then, weighed down with a heavy load of Tamas, lies under the curse of impotence and inertia. We choose to fancy indeed, nowadays, that if we acquire Science, all will be well. Let us first ask ourselves what we have done with the knowledge we already possess, or... like the surges, vast, puissant, calm or turbulent at will, an ocean of action or of force. Page 70 India Can Be Reborn Many of us, utterly overcome by Tamas, the dark and heavy demon of inertia, are saying nowadays that it is impossible, that India is decayed, bloodless and lifeless, too weak ever to recover; that our race is doomed to extinction. It is a foolish and ...

... welded into unity. The Shakti we call India, Bhavani Bharati, is the living unity of the Shaktis of three hundred million people; but she is inactive, imprisoned in the magic circle of Tamas, the self-indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons. But if we could awaken the God within, if everyone - "from the Raja on his throne to the coolie at his labour, from the Brahmin absorbed in his Sandhya... of self-sacrifice ensures its future". 14 The crucial question was whether the Indian nation was as yet capable of such a national act of self-sacrifice. The old mood of slothful complacency and lazy acquiescence in foreign rule was still dominant enough in 1893 and for several years afterwards. But although Sri Aurobindo had for the time being withdrawn into silence, not for a second did he abandon... recorded history. Everywhere the Mother is at work... remoulding, creating. She is pouring Her spirit into the old; She is whirling into life the new. It is only in India that the pace is slow. Tamas or lethargy has taken possession of us, and there is no will to achieve an accession of strength: "We have abandoned Shakti and are therefore abandoned by Shakti. The Mother is not in our hearts, in ...

... not fit for the eighth class. This year it is the same thing. Her sister Y is clever but lazy. Several times I have had to check myself from getting impatient. She is interested, but she rarely works and hardly gets any result. How to deal with such cases? Continue to be patient. It is some kind of mental tamas: one day they will wake up. 6 August 1966 Mother, Was the recent cyclone... powdered milk and am not ready to risk that. When money is missing it must be replaced by an immense effort of goodwill and organisation. It is that effort that I am asking for, a triumph over tamas and lazy indifference. I do not want anybody to give up but I want everyone to surpass himself. With love and blessings. 18 July 1964 ( The disciple explained several problems concerning... that you will have a control over things in the very near future. The only thing to be done is to keep quiet. But I would like to know whether this attitude is correct—or is it tamas in a guise? Surely to be quiet is not tamas. In fact it is only in quietness that the proper thing can be done. What I call quietness is to do the work without being disturbed by anything and to observe everything without ...

... down one day when I saw suddenly a great darkness rushing into me and enveloping me and the whole universe … After that I had a great tamas [inertia] always hanging on to me all along my stay in England. I believe that darkness had something to do with the tamas that came upon me … It left me only when I came back to India. If people were to know all the truth about my life, they would never believe... I.C.S. examination.’ 10 Aravinda did very well indeed, so well that his interest in the obligatory subjects slackened and his teachers suspected him of wasting his remarkable gifts because of laziness. In fact Aravinda spent most of his time in general reading, giving himself a kind of complementary education that would constitute the stock of his enormous erudition. He read especially English... Europe. ‘He also taught himself Italian, German and Spanish in order to read Dante, Goethe and Calderon in the original tongues. A boy with so ambitious a programme could not rightly be accused of laziness.’ 11 The Foundation Scholarship awarded him by his headmaster must have come in useful for Aravinda. Grandmother Drewett had suddenly grown furious when Manmohan, weary of her bigotry, insulted ...

... have anything to ask me or it is so seldom. But that shows a terrible mental laziness! At times I tell you, "Don't question, try to find out by yourselves certain inner things", that is understood; but when I am here and tell you, "Haven't you any questions to ask?"  Silence... So, that proves that you have no mental curiosity. And I don't ask you necessarily to put questions on what I... indefinitely if you gibe the necessary time and care. I do not believe at all in limits which cannot be crossed. But I see very clearly people's mental formations and also a sort of laziness in face of the necessary effort. And this laziness  and these limits are like diseases. But they are curable diseases unless you have a really defective cerebal structure and lack something; if something... of half inertia of the mind which makes you think that you have too much work. If you observe yourself, you will find out that there is always something which pulls this way, something which pulls that way and then this kind of haziness as though you were living in cottonwool, in the clouds: nothing is clear. The usefulness of work is nothing else but that: to crystallise this mental power. For ...

... dharma of the Shudra by which humanity is maintained and from time to time purified; for the jnanam breaks down and is replaced by worldly, practical reason, the viryam breaks down and is replaced by lazy mechanical appliances for getting things done lifelessly with the least trouble, dana, yajna and shastra break down and are replaced by calculated liberality, empty ritual and tamasic social forms and... mighty effective and fighting force which once called in prepares perfect siddhi and an almost omnipotent control over our nature and our surroundings. Even when ashuddha, impure, tapas fights the enemy tamas; when shuddha, when the very action of Agni, it brings viryam, it brings jnanam, it brings Ananda, it brings mukti. Hotaram means therefore the warrior, the destroyer of the Daityas, Agni jatavedas;... ss or intelligent awareness which we call knowledge, so that we remember with the chitta everything noticed or unnoticed, but that knowledge is useless for our life owing to its lying enveloped in tamas; hrit or the rajasic reaction to impressions which we call feeling or emotion, or, when it is habitual, character; manas or active definite sensational consciousness rendering impressions of all kinds ...

... little to begin with, the rest to grow as it can. I have explained to you why so many people (not by any means all) are in this gloomy condition, dull and despondent. It is the tamas, the inertia of the Inconscient, that has got hold of them. But also it is the small physical vital which takes only an interest in the small and trivial things of the ordinary daily and social life and... to serve you with all I am and have and can earn. I am writing books which will, I am sure, increase my income which I will offer at your feet and Mother’s in due course. Please do not think I am lazy. On the contrary I have never worked harder in my life, for the first time doing music and literature simultaneously. A propos music, I will offer Rs. 566 in a few days (keeping Rs. 200... for many this has dropped; they live in the unsatisfied vital physical and find everything desperately dull, gloomy and without interest or issue. Page 139 In their inner life the tamas from the Inconscient has created a block or a bottle-neck and they do not find any way out. If one can keep the right condition and attitude, a strong interest in work or a strong interest in sadhana ...

... lethargy and sloth stalking the land masquerading as spirituality and sattwic vairagya. In point of fact, it was because he saw the blasting effect of tamas on the aspiration of the spiritual seeker that he, like the great Vedantin, condemned inertia unqualifiedly and held karma — works — undertaken in the spirit of the Gita as of the essence of his Integral Yoga. But he had accepted works primarily... because, clarity of vision being incumbent on him, he must see clearly how insidiously indiscipline betrays the aspirant into the slough of tamas of the worst kind —a fact which made the great Vivekananda inveigh so often against our vital lethargy and mental somnolence Page 243 masquerading as sattwic spirituality. "These tamasic people," he wrote scathingly in a letter, "will... homecoming to simple faith. For it began to dawn ____________________ * He wrote to me in a letter somewhat light-heartedly (26.10.34) :"But all that is probably because I am constitutionally lazy (in spite of my feats of correspondence) and so prefer the easiest and the most automatic method possible. Page 163 on me now after I had turned the full circle, that man must, at the ...

... creation. It is this that sustains the entire world. And one finds this only in a perfect tranquillity. And one should not mistake this tranquillity for…. It is not a tranquillity which tends towards tamas or inertia, but it is a tranquillity which is ever conscious, all-absorbing, and which is charged and which vibrates and which has a transforming intensity. It is this that I call tranquillity, it is something... you see how all this work gets done, even without my thinking about it. But I keep some work specially for myself, the work of transforming the body, which demands a real effort, otherwise I would be lazy like all of you. ( We laugh ) Mother, the gods and the goddesses help You in so many ways…. But for us, You are there, You support us and provide us with all that we need. It is for this, Mother…... physical body. It is vibration alone which has a direct effect on the physical body, not visions and experiences, etc., — all that belongs to the mental or rather to the vital, you understand? The visions, etc. belong to the vital-physical or the mental-physical plane and have a somewhat subtle and vague effect and are not so direct. They come and pass and leave a small imprint and that’s all; whereas ...

... which may be called by different names depending on the order of reality one considers: tamas , inertia, obscurity, unconsciousness; rajas , movement, struggle, effort, passion, action; sattva , light, harmony, joy. Nowhere does any of these three elements exist in a pure state; we are always a mixture of inertia, passion, and light; we may be sattvo-tamasic, good but a bit dull, well-meaning but a... destruction to die out of the world; that which is its root must first disappear out of humanity [our emphasis]. Much less will mere immobility and inertia unwilling to use or incapable of using any kind of resistance to evil, abrogate the law; inertia, tamas, indeed, injures much more than can the [dynamic] rajasic principle of strife which at least creates more than it destroys. Therefore, so far as... that of the mammal, we know that it took many millions of years to overcome Matter's inertia and to "vitalize" it. Similarly, from the Neanderthal man to Plato, thousands of years were needed to overcome the resistance of the two previous levels and to "mentalize" Life, Page 290 to become the complete mental man. Even today, how many human lives are truly governed by the mind rather than by ...

... instance, in all automatic functionings, the body acts on its own and is not a servant of the mind. If it is fatigued, it can offer a passive resistance to the mind's will. It can cloud the mind with tamas, inertia, dullness, fumes of the subconscient so that the mind cannot act. The arm lifts, no doubt, when it gets the suggestion, but at first the legs do not obey when they are asked to walk; they have... light on things in which "humanity" automatically stepped down and got into its right place and all the rest rearranged itself in consequence. But all that is probably because I am constitutionally lazy (in spite of my present feats of correspondence) and prefer the easiest and most automatic method possible. I have a suspicion however that Krishnaprem's method is essentially the same as mine, only... resists surrender, for what it calls surrender in the early stages is a self-giving with a demand in it—the physical consciousness is like a stone and what it calls surrender is often no more than inertia. It is only the psychic that knows how to surrender and the psychic is usually very much veiled in the beginning. When the psychic awakes, it can bring a sud- den and true surrender of the whole being ...

... have been there for so many years on that plot of land, some two hundred young men on two feet, without having found the means of supporting themselves independently — through what ignorance or laziness? If there are no hands ready to work, there is no heart, no flame, nothing, except empty words. First of all, the Aurovilians need to learn to work , to create. After so many years, do all those... matter through one's body is very good. To put things in order around oneself helps to put things in order in oneself. Agenda XI , June 6, 1970 Like that, you will get rid of a whole category of lazy and "spiritual" chatterboxes. Satprem   August 9, 1981 The great Plan. Mother's Island. 60   August 10, 1981 To bring back the Fiat of the Supreme Transcendences, so that... originally in English) ... How I remember our first meeting in Nandanam — at one glance you had understood everything. Nobody in this world has understood as deeply as you have. No, it is not out of laziness that you did not write to me of late; you have such a burden on you and nobody with whom you can share — this I deeply feel. How lucky I am to have one Sujata near me. Your letter is also very ...

... we are virtuous, to do them good (like Raihana's Dr. Jones, what ?) and in any case to make them Page 31 do us good. (As in Abyssinia, what ?) We do not like to think of anyone lazily enjoying life, however refined may be the quality of his enjoyment. We feel that everybody ought to be doing something to help in the great cause — whatever it maybe — the more so as so many bad... include six Page 78 of them of which five I set to music yesterday and today. His rhythms are indeed wonderful. What a gift. Please note ālo/shubha/ālo and sudūra/tama/sāthee is the new metre invented by me from the musical tal 26 —a very handy and charming metre from the musical point again! So everything is going top-hole what ! Q'en dites-vous ? Must say something... the being and fulfils itself through him. To work with a full energy like this in one is quite salutary. The only thing is not to overdo it—that is to avoid any exhaustion or recoil to a physical inertia. As for the dedication make the sankalpa [resolution] always of offering it, remember and pray when you can (I mean in connection with the work). This is to fix a certain attitude. Afterwards ...