Moving to A Higher Centre

Man has moved to a mental centre from his original physical centre. This is his evolution and it is slow. To hasten this process is yoga. When one centre has been used for long centuries and the different departments of that centre or plane are filled and overflowing with experiences, the species slowly moves to a higher center. All efforts of civilisation, education, learning and all yogic efforts are various measures of making this process CONSCIOUS and therefore quicker. This is the wider subject of yoga which is not our present concern. A miniature of this process often presents itself to the disciple of yoga and we are concerned with its various aspects. The questions before us are:

  • Can the disciple make a single one of his movements conscious?
  • If he makes it conscious, does he move to a higher centre with respect to this movement?
  • What are the sure indications of such a movement?
  • Which is the prime mover of the movement?
  • Is such a movement unknown to the general process of life?
  • If not, how does such a movement touch general life?
  • Are there minimum requirements for one to move from one plane to another?
  • Are the movements exclusive to yoga?

Each plane like life (vital) can be subdivided into different parts and expressed as areas or aspects of experience such as knowledge of life, strength of life parts, alertness, weight of experience, length of experience etc. etc. Man lives in the life plane till his experience fills his strength, knowledge, effectivity, alertness, keenness, satisfaction and when he feels there is nothing more for him to acquire at that plane, his higher part begins to show itself, i.e. his Mind. From then onwards his primary motive would be to KNOW in great detail the things that present themselves to him. This shift takes a long time. When man decides to complete his existence in the life plane, he does so more quickly than usual. The movement to a higher plane is best made when all is over in the lower plane. It can also be made by an effort of will, by an attitude, or by Grace before the right time. If so made, the arrears in the previous plane get completed much quicker because the central will is now active. Observation of one's life, understanding the components of an ACT, desire to move above, decision to complete the work in one plane and any CONSCIOUS effort help quicken the process. To be conscious is to be greater and therefore more powerful. Trust or faith in the existence of a higher plane or a Person of a higher consciousness generates similar greater energy and power to move above quickly. Mother explains sincerity as bringing the different parts of the being to the same level. In this context if a person wants to move to the mental plane, sincerity would mean to submit the vital to the mental. The lower plane moves to the higher by fulfilling itself and this process is slow. The higher plane brings up the lower by fulfilling the lower from above and this process is quicker. The will of the lower plane accepting the will of the higher plane is sincerity or surrender. It can also be explained as the RIGHT ATTITUDE to progress. In life the process of the lower moving to the higher is understood as 'casualness', the higher bringing up the lower as 'seriousness'. We speak of people as being casual meaning that they won't take initiative to move anything. Serious people see to it that things move.

Can we make a single one of our movements conscious? If so, how? The answer is in the affirmative. Let us take the example of writing. One is asked to write an article on Auroville. Let us say he lives in Pondicherry and has heard so many things, i.e. ALL about Auroville. He agrees and writes. The writing is satisfactory. If he subjects this movement of writing to observation or analysis or makes it conscious, ordinarily he will discover some such thing as the following: his mind and memory are packed with practically all facts about Auroville; he has read almost all Mother has written about it; he has enough experience in writing, being a graduate. He has accepted the assignment, collected his facts, arranged them in order, waited for a right moment and wrote them down. The writing has come out well. He is satisfied. I would say this is an unconscious or half-conscious act and the satisfaction he feels at the end confirms that he has made another round of his earlier vital or mental training. He has made no essential progress through the performance of this act. He has added to his writing-experience.

Writing is composed of:

  1. Thought content.
  2. Organisation of thought as is called for by the content, act of mental composition.
  3. The act of writing.
  4. The act of letting the thought move to composition and the composition into the act of writing .
  5. Evaluation of the writing in one's emotions.

If remembered facts are drawn upon, the thought content of the article becomes memory-reproduced. If one relies on his earlier writing experience in ordering the facts, it becomes another exercise in composition, an act of the mental muscle. Of course, in this series the act of writing becomes a physical one and the evaluation is satisfaction with success or disappointment with failure. Instead, as soon as the thought content comes into one's memory, if he presents it to his mind it becomes thinking. If he silences the mind, in other words, refuses to accept the facts of the memory, the same facts become enlivened. The facts pass into the mind from memory and stimulate thinking. Very many new ideas or new presentation of the same ideas come in. If he refuses to think, mind becomes silent. The facts convert themselves into thoughts and finally reveal the hidden ideas inside. Mind is still, ideas are alive, all from the same facts. Sometimes fresh ideas are seen entering the mind. Or, life responses bring in fresh connected ideas. If one refuses to organise these live ideas drawing upon his college writing habit, they arrange themselves in order of density in time. That is why we speak of ideas taking time to sink in. After an interval of the right duration when he is ready for writing, it suggests to him that he should write. Writing becomes an act not centred in the physical hand but one issuing out of the higher mental silences. The hand is seen writing. The act of writing is fresh. At the end there is no satisfaction. The joy of the mind spreads to the hand and when the writing is over, usually the writing is forgotten and joy lingers. In this process the physical act is upgraded to nervous, mental joy; mental thought process of the physical mind is upgraded to issue from stillness. The physical-mental activity becomes conscious and turns into a mental-spiritual act. The mechanism of this process is to deny the known lower process. Generally the moment the person refuses the usual response of the lower form of writing and mental repetition, a silence fills the mind and everything follows smoothly. That is, by making the act of writing conscious, thinking rises to silence. Vital impulses of companionship if subjected to this process of becoming conscious would immediately generate soft feelings of affection and love. Sex impulses denied would fill the nerves with energy for work.

Sure indications of this movement being right are, there is a general incursion of peace or silence, nerves become calm and at the lower end of the spectrum, nerves become energetic, body becomes fresh and there is a sense of upliftment.

The prime mover of this upgrading is the decision to move upwards; the attitude that all one's energies must be given to this progress. In other words, sincerity, i.e. to bring the lower planes of the act on a par with the higher parts of it.

Life and yoga are the same in the type of process; only their speed is different. The minimum requirement is the readiness of the plane or the soul. In life we say that we must seriously want it.

When we condemn ourselves as unfit, it is a kind of defense mechanism not to move above. A self-justification which suits the laziness. Mother says man is lazy.

Man loves to be clumsy, i.e. he does by his hands what the mind should organise. When a lower part does the work of a higher part, clumsiness results. Orderliness is what mind should think and plan and hand over to the body to execute. If the man does not use his mind to think out the order in which his house is to be kept and proceeds to put things around, we see a perfect expression of clumsiness. To do each part of the work by that part of the being intended for it is to act consciously. One cannot think with his hands in arranging articles. Lower members of the society want to express their affection by the body and the result is 19 children in the family. Affection flows out of the heart and not out of the physical-vital.

To sit down, dissect every act of oneself and delegate each part of the act to its respective part of the being is a progress in life which is at once yoga.