The Physical Being

The Year 1933

Can I not command my body to cut down its sleep to two or three hours only? I have heard that many Yogis are able to minimise their sleep.

It is not possible to do at once what you like with the body. If the body is told to sleep only 2 or 3 hours, it may follow if the will is strong enough — but afterwards it may get exceedingly strained and even break down for want of needed rest. The yogis who minimise their sleep succeed only after a long tapasya in which they learn how to control the forces of Nature governing the body.

How is one to get out of one’s limited physical personality?

Getting out means the consciousness widening so that one does not feel oneself any longer as shut up in the body or identified with the body and with the ordinary personality.

The Peace is not of the nature of inertia, but the inertia of tamas is a degradation of peace or rest as rajas is a degradation of divine Force. So when the physical is invited to peace and cannot receive it, it brings up inertia instead.

Does the mental tamas remain till one realises the supermind?

No. The mental tamas need not remain — the physical can only disappear altogether by the supramental descent.

Does not the whole nature get transformed only when the Supramental descends?

Yes — but there is a preliminary transformation in which the tamas can be greatly reduced or remain in the most material or be changed in its character.

Tamas cannot of itself turn into Peace. One has to bring down Peace from above.

What would be the activity of the transformed mechanical mind?

It would be no longer mechanical, but a basis of permanent illumination in the body consciousness.

Some friend said: “One feels the inner touch gone because one may not be quite ready to retain the Divine’s pressure. Probably it might be the Divine Himself who takes it away, for our physical body may get fatigued by the constant working.” Is this a fact?

Yes, the ordinary physical consciousness is not able to hold the contact and it does get tired — also it cannot assimilate much at a time. But it is not always the Divine who takes away the pressure; the lower consciousness itself loses it or gives it up.

Why is the physical mind so much open to the vital suggestions and forces?

The physical depends on the vital, at every step — it could not do anything without the help of the vital — so it is quite natural that it should receive its suggestions.

What makes the physical so weak that it can’t do without the vital’s help?

The physical is not weak, it is inert, because inertia is its principle — it is meant to be an instrument.

If our vital is a projection from the vital world itself, why does it feel everything new and strange when it enters there during night?

The vital does not feel anything strange there. It is the physical consciousness that feels strange when it gets the transcript of the experience.

The year 1934 

It is not necessary to have committed anything — the obstacles of vital and physical Nature are sufficient to bring a pause. One has to remain quiet during the pause and not allow vital disappointment and depression.

The true passivity does not lead to inactivity — but the physical may wrongly take the pressure of passivity for an invitation to inaction.

Is the inertia due to the pressure of the Force?

The pressure of the Force never produces inertia. It is a resistance or non-response in the physical that produces it.

“You” are not the body. It is perfectly possible for the body to be strained without the mind or vital knowing or feeling it. The result appears only afterwards.

It is more often the physical that lowers like that without cause. In the vital it is only when there is a general feeling of want of interest in the sadhana because the sadhana is concerned with things it does not understand or seek for or else because it is not bringing results rapidly or brilliantly or for some other similar reason.

The body needs rest, if it is given the needed rest, it can be taught to recover quickly — if forced it quickly becomes tamasic.

Cannot the vital aspirations drive out the mental or physical tamas by their intensity?

For the time being only. It must be a higher power that will take them away permanently.

When there is intensity in the vital it always brings down a lot of energy. What does the intensity in the physical give?

Solidity or stability.

You wrote: “Get rid of the tamas of the physical which makes it painful.” I am not aware of this tamas specially during the meditation when the spine and the body ache.

That you don’t feel it does not prove that it is not there. You had better become conscious of the tamas if you are not. By tamas I mean the inertia of the physical being which resists the Power and so causes the aching of the spine and the body. Why should the spine and body ache if there were no physical resistance?