The mind is
always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is doing, but allow
ourselves to be carried away in the stream of continual thinking. When we try to concentrate, this stream of
self-made mechanical thinking becomes prominent to our observation. It is the first normal obstacle (the other is
sleep during meditation) to the effort for yoga.
The best thing to
do is to realize that the thought-flow is not yourself; it is not you who are
thinking, but thought that is going on in the mind. It is Prakriti with its thought energy that
is raising all this whirl of thought in you, imposing it on the Purusha. You as the Purusha must stand back as the
witness observing the action, but refusing to identify yourself with it. The next thing is to exercise a control and
reject the thoughts – though sometimes by the very act of detachment the
thought-habit falls away or diminishes during the meditation and there is a
sufficient silence or at any rate a quietude which makes it easy to reject the
thoughts that come and fix oneself on the object of meditation. If one becomes aware of the thoughts as
coming from outside, from the universal Nature, then one can throw them out
before they reach the mind; in that way the mind finally falls silent. If neither of these things happens, a
persistent practice of rejection becomes necessary – there should be no struggle
or wrestling with the thought, but only a quiet self-separation and
refusal. Success does not come at first,
but if consent is constantly withheld, the mechanical whirl eventually ceases
and begins to die away and one can then have at will an inner quietude or
silence.
It should be
noted that the result of the yogic processes is not, except in rare cases,
immediate and one must apply the will-patience till they give a result which is
sometimes long in coming if there is much resistance in the outer nature.
References:
Growing within
– The psychology of Inner Development
(Compilation
of the works of Sri Aurobindo)
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