To Prepare for

Spiritual Life

Cultivate

Equality (Samata)

A Compilation from the works of

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

To Prepare for

Spiritual Life

Cultivate

Equality (Samata)

© Quotations are copyright of

Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

All writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are copyright of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and have been reproduced here with their kind permission.

© 2017 AuroPublications, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry

www.aurosociety.org

Year of Publication 2017

Compilation done by Jamshed M Mavalwalla

Proof reading done by Archana Udaykumar

Cover done by Bharath S

Help in making e-book by Vivechana Saraf, Shivakumar and Uttam Mondal

Foreword

All over the world, there is a growing interest in Spirituality and Yoga.  There is a search for the true meaning and purpose of life, for deeper solutions to the problems which confront us all, and how we can contribute to the evolutionary change and progress.

In this search, more and more persons are turning to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for guidance and enlightenment.  But in their voluminous literature, they do not know where to find the answers they are looking for.

In this regard the Mother has said,

“It is not by books that Sri Aurobindo ought to be studied but by subjects—what he has said on the Divine, on Unity, on religion, on evolution, on education, on self-perfection, on supermind, etc., etc.” (CWM 12: 206)

On another occasion she said:

“If you want to know what Sri Aurobindo has said on a given subject, you must at least read all he has written on that subject. You will then see that he seems to have said the most contradictory things. But when one has read everything and understood a little, one sees that all the contradictions complement one another and are organised and unified in an integral synthesis.” (CWM 16: 309-310)

While there are several compilations which are now available, many sincere spiritual seekers have felt the need of Comprehensive Compilations from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on specific subjects, where the contents are further organised into sub-topics, so that one can get all that one is looking for at one place.

These books are an effort to fulfill this need and thus help spiritual seekers in their journey and sadhana.  We hope these compilations will help us to get a greater mental clarity about a subject so that we can channel our efforts in the right direction. For Sri Aurobindo has written:

“It is always better to make an effort in the right direction; even if one fails the effort bears some result and is never lost.” (CWSA 29: 87)

We will be glad to get suggestions and feedback from the readers.

Vijay

Preface

In the series of bringing comprehensive compilations on important aspects of Yoga we have brought out five books on Surrender, Aspiration and Rejection, four books on Love and two books on Peace. Now we present the first book on Equality, Samata.

The quotations in this compilation are taken from the volumes of the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA) and the Collected Works of the Mother (CWM), Second Edition. Each quotation is followed by the book title, volume number and the page number it has been taken from.

While the passages from Sri Aurobindo are in the original English, most of the passages from the Mother (selections from her talks and writings) are translations from the original French. We must also bear in mind that the excerpts have been taken out of their original context and that a compilation, in its very nature, is likely to have a personal and subjective approach. A sincere attempt, however, has been made to be faithful to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Those who would like to go through the fuller text are advised to go through the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA) and the Collected Works of the Mother (CWM), Second Edition.

The section headings and sub-headings have also been provided by the compiler to bring clarity on the selected topic. Also to emphasize certain portion in the quotations, the compiler has bold-faced some words.

I pray that this book may help the readers to understand the importance of Equality, Samata or Equanimity and are able to cultivate it, which will help them immensely in their spiritual life.

Jamshed M Mavalwalla.

“The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual life when one has to live in the ordinary occupations and surroundings is to cultivate an entire equality and detachment and the samata of the Gita with the faith that the Divine is there and the Divine Will at work in all things even though at present under the conditions of a world of Ignorance. Beyond this are the Light and Ananda towards which life is working, but the best way for their advent and foundation in the individual being and nature is to grow in this spiritual equality. That would also solve your difficulty about things unpleasant and disagreeable. All unpleasantness should be faced with this spirit of samata.” (CWSA 31: 344)

“Q: Are there any signs which indicate that one is ready for the path, especially if one has no spiritual teacher?

A: Yes, the most important indication is a perfect equality of soul in all circumstances. It is an absolutely indispensable basis; something very quiet, calm, peaceful, the feeling of a great force. ... That is the first sign.” (CWM 4: 97)

Contents

I—What is Equality, Samata?

II—Why in ordinary Human Life Inequality exist

III—Equality has two sides Passive and Active

IV—How to prepare oneself to be able to develop Passive Equality

V—Methods to develop Passive Equality

VI—How the principle of Endurance or Titiksha will lead to Passive Equality

VII—How the attitude of Indifference or Udasinata will lead to Passive Equality

VIII—The Third way of Submission or Nati to arrive at Equality

IX—Other Methods of getting Passive Equality

X—To prepare for Yoga Cultivate Equality

XI—The indispensable basis for Yoga is Equanimity

XII—Sonnet—The Divine Worker

XIII—Equality does not include inert acceptance

XIV—How Equality can become compatible with Action

XV—Other Quotations on Equality, Samata

XVI—Short Summary

I—What is Equality, Samata?

1. Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital

2. Equality means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done

3. Equality means self-mastery over the vital movements, anger, sensitiveness, pride, desire

4. Equality means not to let disturbance get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace

5. Equality means not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of things

6. Equality means always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit

“Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital; it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements, anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest, not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.” (CWSA 29: 130)

7. Equality is to remain unmoved within in all conditions

“Equality is to remain unmoved within in all conditions.” (CWSA 29: 130)

“This is the right inner attitude, of equality—to remain unmoved whatever may outwardly happen. But what is needed for success in the outward field (if you do not use human means, diplomacy or tactics) is the power to transmit calmly a Force that can change men’s attitude and the circumstancesand make any outward action taken at once the right thing to do and effective.” (CWSA 29: 244)

8. Samata is the capacity of receiving with calm and equal mind all the attacks and appearances of outward things

9. The attacks of outward things may be pleasant or unpleasant, ill-fortune and good-fortune, pleasure and pain, honour and ill-repute, praise and blame, friendship and enmity, sinner and saint, or, physically, heat and cold

“Samata

The basis of internal peace is samata, the capacity of receiving with a calm and equal mind all the attacks and appearances of outward things, whether pleasant or unpleasant, ill-fortune and good-fortune, pleasure and pain, honour and ill-repute, praise and blame, friendship and enmity, sinner and saint, or, physically, heat and cold etc. There are two forms of samata, passive and active, samata in reception of the things of the outward world and samata in reaction to them.” (CWSA 10: 3)

10. Samata means a wide universal peace, calm, equanimity, an equal feeling of all in the Divine

“Samata means a wide universal peace, calm, equanimity, an equal feeling of all in the Divine.” (CWSA 29: 130)

11. Samata is to face an attack without being disturbed and to reject it calmly

12. When one acts against the attack, one must do it calmly, without anger, excitement, grief or any other disturbing movement

“It [samata] is to face it [an attack] without being disturbed and to reject it calmly. Whether one tries to remedy or not remedy should make no difference. Only when one acts against it, one must do it calmly, without anger, excitement, grief or any other disturbing movement.” (CWSA 29: 133)

13. Samata mean the absence of desire and attachment

14. Samata does not mean the absence of ego

“Samata does not mean the absence of ego, but the absence of desire and attachment.” (CWSA 29: 133)

“I have said “samata” shows absence of desire and attachment —the ego-sense may disappear or it may remain in a subtilised and widened form — it depends on the person.” (CWSA 29: 133)

II—Why in ordinary Human Life Inequality exist

“The ordinary human soul takes a pleasure in the customary disturbances of its nature-life; it is because it has this pleasure and because, having it, it gives a sanction to the troubled play of the lower nature that the play continues perpetually; for the Prakriti does nothing except for the pleasure and with the sanction of … the Purusha. We do not recognise this truth because under the actual stroke of the adverse disturbance, … the mind shrinks back from the blow, while it leaps eagerly to the embrace of the opposite and pleasurable disturbances, joy, … but this does not alter the truth of the soul’s pleasure in life which remains constant behind the dualities of the mind. The warrior does not feel physical pleasure in his wounds or find mental satisfaction in his defeats; but he has a complete delight in the godhead of battle which brings to him defeat and wounds as well as the joy of victory, …” (CWSA 19: 190–191)

“Our secret soul takes a pleasure in this strife and effort, and even a pleasure in adversity and suffering, … but what really attracts the soul is the whole mingled weft of the thing we call life with all its disturbance of struggle and seeking, its attractions and repulsions, its offer and its menace, its varieties of every kind. To the rajasic desire-soul in us a monotonous pleasure, success without struggle, joy without a shadow must after a time become fatiguing, insipid, cloying; it needs a background of darkness to give full value to its enjoyment of light: for the happiness it seeks and enjoys is of that very nature, it is in its very essence relative and dependent on the perception and experience of its opposite. The joy of the soul in the dualities is the secret of the mind’s pleasure in living.” (CWSA 19: 191–192)

“I have never thought that there would no more be suffering in Auroville, because men, as they are, love suffering and call it to them even while they curse it.

But we shall try to teach them to truly love peace and to try to practise equality.” (CWM 10: 268)

“Ask it to rise out of all this disturbance to the unmingled joy of the pure bliss-soul which all the time secretly supports its strength in the struggle and makes its own continued existence possible,—it will draw back at once from the call. It does not believe in such an existence; or it believes that it would not be life, that it would not be at all the varied existence in the world around it in which it is accustomed to take pleasure; it would be something tasteless and without savour. Or it feels that the effort would be too difficult for it; it recoils from the struggle of the ascent, although in reality the spiritual change is not at all more difficult than the realisation of the dreams the desire-soul pursues, nor entails more struggle and labour in the attainment than the tremendous effort which the desire-soul expends in its passionate chase after its own transient objects of pleasure and desire. The true cause of its unwillingness is that it is asked to rise above its own atmosphere and breathe a rarer and purer air of life, whose bliss and power it cannot realise and hardly even conceives as real, while the joy of this lower turbid nature is to it the one thing familiar and palpable. … this lower … is rather the condition for the upward evolution of our human nature … But if we rest eternally on this plane, the madhyamagatih [the middle status] of the Gita, our ascent remains unfinished, the evolution of the soul incomplete.” (CWSA 19: 192)

“The movement which will lead us out of the disturbances of the lower nature must be necessarily a movement towards equality in the mind, in the emotional temperament, in the soul." (CWSA 19: 193)

III—Equality has two sides Passive and Active

“It will appear from the description of the complete and perfect equality that this equality has two sides. It must therefore be arrived at by two successive movements. .. The first may be described as a passive or negative equality, an equality of reception which fronts impassively the impacts and phenomena of existence and negates the dualities of the appearances and reactions which they impose on us. The second is an active, a positive equality which accepts the phenomena of existence, but only as the manifestation of the one divine being and with an equal response to them which comes from the divine nature in us and transforms them into its hidden values.” (CWSA 24: 709)

1. What is Passive or Negative Equality?

“One [Passive Equality] will liberate us from the action of the lower nature and admit us to the calm peace of the divine being; ...” (CWSA 24: 709)

“The first may be described as a passive or negative equality, an equality of reception which fronts impassively the impacts and phenomena of existence and negates the dualities of the appearances and reactions which they impose on us.” (CWSA 24: 709)

“The first [Passive Equality] lives in the peace of the one Brahman and puts away from it the nature of the active Ignorance.” (CWSA 24: 709)

2. What is Active or Positive Equality?

“... the other [Active Equality] will liberate us into the full being and power of the higher nature and admit us to the equal poise and universality of a divine and infinite knowledge, will of action, Ananda.” (CWSA 24: 709)

“The second is an active, a positive equality which accepts the phenomena of existence, but only as the manifestation of the one divine being and with an equal response to them which comes from the divine nature in us and transforms them into its hidden values.” (CWSA 24: 709)

“The second [Active Equality] lives in that peace, but also in the Ananda of the Divine and imposes on the life of the soul in nature the signs of the divine knowledge, power and bliss of being. It is this double orientation united by the common principle which will determine the movement of equality in the integral Yoga.” (CWSA 24: 709)

3. Two forms of Samata — Passive and Active Samata

“There are two forms of samata, passive and active, samata in reception of the things of the outward world and samata in reaction to them.” (CWSA 10: 3)

4. What is Passive Samata?

Passive Samata: “... samata in reception of the things of the outward world ...” (CWSA 10: 3)

5. What is Active Samata?

Active Samata: “... samata in reaction to them [things of the outward world].” (CWSA 10: 3)

“(2) Active [Samata]

It is this universal or samaananda in all experiences which constitutes active samata, ...” (CWSA 10: 5)

IV—How to prepare oneself to be able to develop Passive Equality

1. This equality cannot come except by a protracted [prolonged] ordeal and patient self-discipline

“This equality cannot come except by a protracted [prolonged] ordeal and patient self-discipline; so long as desire is strong, equality cannot come at all except in periods of quiescence and the fatigue of desire, and it is then more likely to be an inert indifference or desire’s recoil from itself than the true calm and the positive spiritual oneness.” (CWSA 23: 226)

2. To acquire Equality is difficult one has to strive slowly after it

3. Equality in its completeness is not easily attainable

4. The whole being has to be pervaded by calm and peace

5. The nerves and cells of the body have to be full of calm and peace

“Equality and self-control are most necessary to Yoga, but also most difficult, one has to strive slowly after them; they are not, at least in their completeness, easily attainable. The whole being has to be pervaded by calm and peace; the nerves and cells of the body have to be full of calm and peace. Until then what one has to strive to attain is an inner calm in the inner being which remains even when the outer is disturbed by invasions of grief, unease or anger.” (CWSA 31: 658)

6. To accept first that the inequality is his normal condition

7. To take at least the sting out of desires and preferences

“But since man in his present normal nature lives by his mental and vital formations, not in the freedom of his spirit, attachment to them and the desires and preferences they involve is also his normal condition. To accept them is at first inevitable, to get beyond them exceedingly difficult and not, perhaps, altogether possible so long as we are compelled to use the mind as the chief instrument of our action. The first necessity therefore is to take at least the sting out of them, to deprive them, even when they persist, of their greater insistence, their present egoism, their more violent claim on our nature.” (CWSA 24: 722)

8. Inequality is one of the spirit’s inner enemies that we have to discourage, expel, slay upon the altar of the growth of the spirit

“It is not one’s self, but the band of the spirit’s inner enemies that we have to discourage, expel, slay upon the altar of the growth of the spirit; these can be ruthlessly excised, whose names are desire, wrath, inequality, greed, attachment to outward pleasures and pains, the cohort of usurping demons that are the cause of the soul’s errors and sufferings. These should be regarded not as part of oneself but as intruders and perverters of our self’s real and diviner nature; these have to be sacrificed in the harsher sense of the word, whatever pain in going they may throw by reflection on the consciousness of the seeker.” (CWSA 23: 108–109)

9. The sufferings and distress comes as a part of karma, or part of the experience one has to go through till one is ready for spiritual change

10. The sadhak will recognise this and the suffering has to taken with an unshaken Equality and trust in the Divine Wisdom

“The sufferings and distress which come to people are part of their karma, part of the experience the being has to go through on its way through life after life till it is ready for spiritual change. In the life of the sadhak all vicissitudes are part of the path and, if he is a sadhak, he will recognise them as such though he may not understand their full meaning till afterwards—good and bad fortune, outward happiness and suffering are to be taken with an unshaken equality and trust in the Divine Wisdom till one has attained a position in which, united with the Divine Will, one can dominate them.” (CWSA31: 670)

“It is true also that one must be able to bear illness with calm, equanimity, endurance, even recognition of it, since it has come, as something that had to be passed through in the course of experience.” (CWSA 31: 565)

11. To be able to bear inconveniences is one of the most elementary necessities to enter into the true spirit of Yoga

“As for the inconveniences, you should take them as a training in samata. To be able to bear inconveniences is one of the most elementary necessities if one wants to enter into the true spirit of Yoga.” (CWSA 31: 313)

12. Recognise whatever is a wrong movement, wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action

13. Not to gloss over or defend the wrong movement

14. Offer it to the Divine for the Light and Grace to descend and substitute for it the right movement

“But, for a sadhak, to surmount them [personal feeling and sensitiveness] and live rather in the calm strength of the spirit is an essential part of his progress.

The first condition of inner progress is to recognise whatever is or has been a wrong movement in any part of the nature,— wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action,—and by wrong is meant what departs from the Truth, from the higher consciousness and higher self, from the way of the Divine. Once recognised it is admitted,—not glossed over or defended,—and it is offered to the Divine for the Light and Grace to descend and substitute for it the right movement of the true consciousness.” (CWSA 29: 131)

15. The test is the presence of an undisturbed calm in the mind and spirit

16. Detect the source if trouble, anxiety, grief, revolt, disturbance comes

17. Discourage them by his will, his spiritualised intelligence and his soul

“The test that we have done this is the presence of an undisturbed calm in the mind and spirit. The sadhaka must be on the watch as the witnessing and willing Purusha behind or, better, as soon as he can manage it, above the mind, and repel even the least indices or incidence of trouble, anxiety, grief, revolt, disturbance in his mind. If these things come, he must at once detect their source, the defect which they indicate, the fault of egoistic claim, vital desire, emotion or idea from which they start and this he must discourage by his will, his spiritualised intelligence, his soul unity with the Master of his being. On no account must he admit any excuse for them, however natural, righteous in seeming or plausible, or any inner or outer justification.” (CWSA 24: 722)

18. Must separate himself from the troubled prana and keep seated in his higher nature in the buddhi

19. And reject the claim of the desire-soul

20. If the will and intelligence itself is at fault then one must self surrender to the Master of our being

21. The buddhi must teach the whole being that the ego and desire-soul has no just claim of any kind

22. And all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being

“If it is the prana which is troubled and clamorous, he must separate himself from the troubled prana, keep seated his higher nature in the buddhi and by the buddhi school and reject the claim of the desire-soul in him; and so too if it is the heart of emotion that makes the clamour and the disturbance. If on the other hand it is the will and intelligence itself that is at fault, then the trouble is more difficult to command, because then his chief aid and instrument becomes an accomplice of the revolt against the divine Will and the old sins of the lower members take advantage of this sanction to raise their diminished heads. Therefore there must be a constant insistence on one main idea, the self-surrender to the Master of our being, God within us and in the world, the supreme Self, the universal Spirit. The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea must discourage all its own lesser insistences and preferences and teach the whole being that the ego whether it puts forth its claim through the reason, the personal will, the heart or the desire-soul in the prana, has no just claim of any kind and all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being.” (CWSA 24: 722–723)

23. The complete self-surrender is the only way by which the absolute calm and peace can come

“This complete self-surrender must be the chief mainstay of the sadhaka because it is the only way, ... by which the absolute calm and peace can come.” (CWSA 24: 723)

24. These truths are valuable only if they are put into practice

25. Very persistent efforts are necessary to master the least weakness, pettiness and meanness in one’s nature

“All of you who have come here have been told many things; you have been put into contact with a world of truth, you live within it, the air you breathe is full of it; and yet how few of you know that these truths are valuable only if they are put into practice, and that it is useless to talk of consciousness, knowledge, equality of soul, universality, infinity, eternity, supreme truth, the divine presence and... of all sorts of things like that, if you make no effort yourselves to live these things and feel them concretely within you. And don’t tell yourselves, ‘Oh, I have been here so many years! Oh, I would very much like to have the result of my efforts!’ You must know that very persitent efforts, a very steadfast endurance are necessary to master the least weakness, the least pettiness, the least meanness in one’s nature.” (CWM 9: 71)

V—Methods to develop Passive Equality

1. Effort towards Passive Equality starts from three Principles of Endurance, Indifference and Submission

“The effort towards a passive or purely receptive equality may start from three different principles or attitudes which all lead to the same result and ultimate consequence,— endurance, indifference and submission.” (CWSA 24: 709)

2. Passive Samata consist of Titiksha, Udasinata, Nati

“Passive samata consists of three things

...

titiksha, udasinata, natihitisamata” (CWSA 10: 3)

VI—How the principle of Endurance or Titiksha will lead to Passive Equality

1. The principle of endurance relies on the strength of the spirit within us to bear all the contacts, impacts

“The principle of endurance relies on the strength of the spirit within us to bear all the contacts, impacts, suggestions of this phenomenal Nature that besieges us on every side without being overborne by them and compelled to bear their emotional, sensational, dynamic, intellectual reactions.” (CWSA 24: 709)

2. The attitude of Titiksha is to bear calmly and firmly all contacts pleasant or unpleasant as one who is stronger, greater than any attack of the world

“Titiksha is the bearing firmly of all contacts pleasant or unpleasant, not being overpowered by that which is painful, not being carried away by that which is pleasant. Calmly and firmly to receive both and hold and bear them as one who is stronger, greater, vaster than any attack of the world, is the attitude of titiksha.” (CWSA 10: 3)

3. The outer mind’s strength is a limited force of consciousness

4. That outer mind can maintain itself at all is due indeed to the strength of the spirit within it

5. But it cannot bring forward the whole of that strength to meet the attacks of life

6. If it could, it would be at once the equal and master of its world

“The outer mind in the lower nature has not this strength [the strength of the spirit within us]. Its strength is that of a limited force of consciousness which has to do the best it can with all that comes in upon it or besieges it from the greater whirl of consciousness and energy which environs it on this plane of existence. That it can maintain itself at all and affirm its individual being in the universe, is due indeed to the strength of the spirit within it, but it cannot bring forward the whole of that strength or the infinity of that force to meet the attacks of life; if it could, it would be at once the equal and master of its world. In fact, it has to manage as it can.” (CWSA 24: 709-710)

7. To the mind, there are always three kinds of reactions

8. Certain impacts it is able to assimilate equate or master them

9. The reactions are of joy, pleasure, acceptance, approval

“It [outer mind in the lower nature] meets certain impacts and is able to assimilate, equate or master them partially or completely, for a time or wholly, and then it has in that degree the emotional and sensational reactions of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, liking, love, etc., or the intellectual and mental reactions of acceptance, approval, understanding, knowledge, preference, and on these its will seizes with attraction, desire, the attempt to prolong, to repeat, to create, to possess, to make them the pleasurable habit of its life.” (CWSA 24: 710)

10. Finds certain impacts too strong or too dissimilar and discordant which it cannot bear or equate or assimilate

11. It seeks to protect itself or escape or avoid or minimise their recurrence

12. These movements are of fear, anger, shrinking, horror, aversion, disgust, shame

13. The inability to deal with them is part of the imperfection of our nature

“Other impacts it [outer mind in the lower nature] meets,

but finds them too strong for it or too dissimilar and discordant or too weak to give it satisfaction; these are things which it cannot bear or cannot equate with itself or cannot assimilate, and it is obliged to give to them reactions of grief, pain, discomfort, dissatisfaction, disliking, disapproval, rejection, inability to understand or know, refusal of admission. Against them it seeks to protect itself, to escape from them, to avoid or minimise their recurrence; it has with regard to them movements of fear, anger, shrinking, horror, aversion, disgust, shame, would gladly be delivered from them, but it cannot get away from them, for it is bound to and even invites their causes and therefore the results; for these impacts are part of life, tangled up with the things we desire, and the inability to deal with them is part of the imperfection of our nature.” (CWSA 24: 710)

14. Certain impacts the mind succeeds in holding at bay or neutralising them

15. A reaction of indifference, insensibility or neutral

16. The same impact may arouse at one time and another the pleasurable, the adverse or the neutral reactions

“Other impacts again the normal mind succeeds in holding at bay or neutralising and to these it has a natural reaction of indifference, insensibility or tolerance which is neither positive acceptance and enjoyment nor rejection or suffering. To things, persons, happenings, ideas, workings, whatever presents itself to the mind, there are always these three kinds of reaction. At the same time, in spite of their generality, there is nothing absolute about them; they form a scheme for a habitual scale which is not precisely the same for all or even for the same mind at different times or in different conditions. The same impact may arouse in it at one time and another the pleasurable or positive, the adverse or negative or the indifferent or neutral reactions.” (CWSA 24: 710-711)

17. Confront the unpleasant impacts and teach one to suffer, to bear them with perseverance, with fortitude

18. This attitude, this discipline brings out three results, three powers of the soul

“The soul which seeks mastery may begin by turning upon these reactions the encountering and opposing force of a strong and equal endurance. Instead of seeking to protect itself from or to shun and escape the unpleasant impacts it may confront them and teach itself to suffer and to bear them with perseverance, with fortitude [courage], an increasing equanimity or an austere or calm acceptance. This attitude, this discipline brings out three results, three powers of the soul in relation to things.”  (CWSA 24: 711)

19. First, what was before unbearable, becomes easy to endure

“First, it is found that what was before unbearable, becomes easy to endure; the scale of the power that meets the impact rises in degree; it needs a greater and greater force of it or of its protracted incidence to cause trouble, pain, grief, aversion or any other of the notes in the gamut of the unpleasant reactions.” (CWSA 24: 711)

20. Secondly, the conscious nature divides itself into two parts

21. One of the normal nature in which the customary reactions continue to take place

22. Another of the higher will and reason which observes and is not troubled or affected by the passion of this lower nature

23. The lower nature begins to lose the force and power of its reactions

24. Submits to the suggestions of calm and strength from the higher reason and will

25. And gradually that calm and strength take possession of the mental and emotional

26. Third power is to remould all our modes of experience by the strength of the spirit

Secondly, it is found that the conscious nature divides itself into two parts, one of the normal mental and emotional nature in which the customary reactions continue to take place, another of the higher will and reason which observes and is not troubled or affected by the passion of this lower nature, does not accept it as its own, does not approve, sanction or participate. Then the lower nature begins to lose the force and power of its reactions, to submit to the suggestions of calm and strength from the higher reason and will, and gradually that calm and strength take possession of the mental and emotional, even of the sensational, vital and physical being. This brings the third power and result, the power by this endurance and mastery, this separation and rejection of the lower nature, to get rid of the normal reactions and even, if we will, to remould all our modes of experience by the strength of the spirit.” (CWSA 24: 711)

27. Then this method is applied to the pleasant reactions

28. Endures with calm the impacts which bring joy and pleasure

29. Refuses to be excited by them

30. Replaces the joy and eager seeking of the mind after pleasant things by the calm of the spirit

31. Thus the soul becomes gradually equal to all things, master of itself

32. The soul becomes adequate to meet the world with undisturbed serenity of the spirit

“This method is applied not only to the unpleasant, but also to the pleasant reactions; the soul refuses to give itself up to or be carried away by them; it endures with calm the impacts which bring joy and pleasure; refuses to be excited by them and replaces the joy and eager seeking of the mind after pleasant things by the calm of the spirit. It can be applied too to the thought-mind in a calm reception of knowledge and of limitation of knowledge which refuses to be carried away by the fascination of this attractive or repelled by dislike for that unaccustomed or unpalatable thought-suggestion and waits on the Truth with a detached observation which allows it to grow on the strong, disinterested, mastering will and reason. Thus the soul becomes gradually equal to all things, master of itself, adequate to meet the world with a strong front in the mind and an undisturbed serenity of the spirit.” (CWSA 24: 711–712)

33. Titiksha is the power to bear calmly all touches without any reaction in the centre of the being

34. The mind or body may suffer but the observing Purusha remains unshaken, observing only as witness

35. Inwardly it presents an equal front of endurance to all

“Titiksha.The power to bear steadily & calmly all sparshas without any reaction in the centre of the being, whether they are pleasant or painful. The mind or body may desire or suffer, but the observing Purusha remains unattracted and unshaken, observing only as Sakshi and as Ishwara holding the system firmly together & calmly willing the passing of the dwandwas. It does not crave for or demand the pleasure. It does not reject the pain. Even when pleasure or pain are excessive, it wills that the mind and body should not shrink from or repel them, but bear firmly. It deals in the same way with all dwandwas, hunger & thirst, heat & cold, health & disease, failure & success, honour and obloquy etc. It neither welcomes & rejoices, nor grieves & avoids. It gets rid of all jugupsa, fear, shrinking, recoil, sorrow, depression etc, ie all the means by which Nature (bhutaprakriti) warns us [against] & tries to protect from all that is hostile. It does not encourage them, nor does it necessarily interfere with such means as may be necessary to get rid of the adverse touches; nor does it reject physically, except as a temporary discipline, the pleasant touches; but inwardly it presents an equal front of endurance to all.” (CWSA 10: 24)

Period of Endurance

“Moreover, this discipline or this growth into equality of spirit has its necessary epochs and stages. Ordinarily we have to begin with a period of endurance; for we must learn to confront, to suffer and to assimilate all contacts. Each fibre in us must be taught not to wince away from that which pains and repels and not to run eagerly towards that which pleases and attracts, but rather to accept, to face, to bear and to conquer. All touches we must be strong to bear, not only those that are proper and personal to us but those born of our sympathy or our conflict with the worlds around, above or below us and with their peoples. We shall endure tranquilly the action and impact on us of men and things and forces, the pressure of the Gods and the assaults of Titans; we shall face and engulf in the unstirred seas of our spirit all that can possibly come to us down the ways of the soul’s infinite experience. This is the stoical period of the preparation of equality, its most elementary and yet its heroic age. But this steadfast endurance of the flesh and heart and mind must be reinforced by a sustained sense of spiritual submission to a divine Will: this living clay must yield not only with a stern or courageous acquiescence, but with knowledge or with resignation, even in suffering, to the touch of the divine Hand that is preparing its perfection. A sage, a devout or even a tender stoicism of the God-lover is possible, and these are better than the merely pagan self-reliant endurance which may lend itself to a too great hardening of the vessel of God: for this kind prepares the strength that is capable of wisdom and of love; its tranquillity is a deeply moved calm that passes easily into bliss. The gain of this period of resignation and endurance is the soul’s strength equal to all shocks and contacts.” (CWSA 23: 226)

VII—How the attitude of Indifference or Udasinata will lead to Passive Equality

1. The attitude of Impartial Indifference regards the passions of the mind as things born of the illusion of the outward mentality

2. These passions of the mind are inferior movements unworthy of the calm truth of the single and equal spirit

3. All vital and emotional disturbance to be rejected

4. By the tranquil observing will and dispassionate intelligence of the sage

“The second way is an attitude of impartial indifference. Its method is to reject at once the attraction or the repulsion of things, to cultivate for them a luminous impassivity, an inhibiting rejection, a habit of dissociation and desuetude [withdrawal]. This attitude reposes less on the will, though will is always necessary, than on theknowledge. It is an attitude which regards these passions of the mind as things born of the illusion of the outward mentality or inferior movements unworthy of the calm truth of the single and equal spirit or a vital and emotional disturbance to be rejected by the tranquil observing will and dispassionate intelligence of the sage.” (CWSA 24: 712)

5. Besides the mind is voluntarily bound by the petty joys and troubles of life

6. In reality the petty joys and troubles of life can have no inner hold on mind

7. If the soul chooses then he can cast off its habit of holding troubles

“First, it is found that the mind is voluntarily bound by the petty joys and troubles of life and that in reality these can have no inner hold on it, if the soul simply chooses to cast off its habit of helpless determination by external and transient things.” (CWSA 24: 712)

8. This attitude puts away desire from the mind

9. Replaces desire by an impartial and indifferent peace

10. This attitude discards the ego which attributes these dual values to things

11. Replaces ego by the pure self which is not troubled or excited

12. Here the emotional mind is quietened

13. The intellectual being rejects the thoughts of the ignorance and rises to the one truth that is eternal

“It puts away desire from the mind, discards the ego which attributes these dual values to things, and replaces desire by an impartial and indifferent peace and ego by the pure self which is not troubled, excited or unhinged by the impacts of the world. And not only is the emotional mind quieted, but the intellectual being also rejects the thoughts of the ignorance and rises beyond the interests of an inferior knowledge to the one truth that is eternal and without change. This way too develops three results or powers by which it ascends to peace.” (CWSA 24: 712)

14. A division can be made, a psychological partition between

15. The lower or outward mind still subservient to the old habitual touches

16. And the higher reason and will which stand back to live in the indifferent calm of the spirit

17. The inner soul of calm regards the trouble of the outer mind with a detached superiority

18. Does not regard troubles as its own so rejects them

19. Finally the outer mind too accepts by degrees this calm and indifferent serenity

“Secondly, it is found that here too a division can be made, a psychological partition between the lower or outward mind still subservient to the old habitual touches and the higher reason and will which stand back to live in the indifferent calm of the spirit. There grows on us, in other words, an inner separate calm which watches the commotion of the lower members without taking part in it or giving it any sanction. At first the higher reason and will may be often clouded, invaded, the mind carried away by the incitation of the lower members, but eventually this calm becomes inexpugnable, permanent, not to be shaken by the most violent touches, naduhkhenagurunapivicalyate [not shaken even by great sorrow]. This inner soul of calm regards the trouble of the outer mind with a detached superiority or a passing uninvolved indulgence such as might be given to the trivial joys and griefs of a child, it does not regard them as its own or as reposing on any permanent reality. And, finally, the outer mind too accepts by degrees this calm and indifferent serenity; it ceases to be attracted by the things that attracted it or troubled by the griefs and pains to which it had the habit of attaching an unreal importance.” (CWSA 24: 712–713)

20. The third power comes of an all-pervading power of wide tranquillity and peace

21. Comes a bliss of release from the siege of our imposed self-torturing nature

22. The deep undisturbed happiness of the touch of the eternal and infinite

“Thus the third power comes, an all-pervading power of wide tranquillity and peace, a bliss of release from the siege of our imposed fantastic self-torturing nature, the deep undisturbed exceeding happiness of the touch of the eternal and infinite replacing by its permanence the strife and turmoil of impermanent things, brahmasamsparsamatyantamsukhamasnute [he enjoys the exceeding happiness of the touch of the brahman]. The soul is fixed in the delight of the self, atmaratih [the delight of the self], in the single and infinite

Ananda of the spirit and hunts no more after outward touches and their griefs and pleasures. It observes the world only as the spectator of a play or action in which it is no longer compelled to participate.” (CWSA 24: 713)

23. Udasinata is indifference to the dualities

24. Udasinata means literally being seated above, superior to all physical and mental touches

25. Udasina is free from desire, does not feel the touch of joy & grief, pleasure and pain, liking and disliking,

26. Or he feels them as touching his mind and body, but not himself

“Udasinata is indifference to the dwandwas or dualities; it means literally being seated above, superior to all physical and mental touches. The udasina, free from desire, either does not feel the touch of joy & grief, pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, or he feels them as touching his mind and body, but not himself, he being different from mind and body and seated above them.” (CWSA 10: 3–4)

Period of high-seated impartiality and indifference

“There is next a period of high-seated impartiality and indifference in which the soul becomes free from exultation and depression and escapes from the snare of the eagerness of joy as from the dark net of the pangs of grief and suffering. All things and persons and forces, all thoughts and feelings and sensations and actions, one’s own no less than those of others, are regarded from above by a spirit that remains intact and immutable and is not disturbed by these things. This is the philosophic period of the preparation of equality, a wide and august movement. But indifference must not settle into an inert turning away from action and experience; it must not be an aversion born of weariness, disgust and distaste, a recoil of disappointed or satiated desire, the sullenness of a baffled and dissatisfied egoism forced back from its passionate aims. These recoils come inevitably in the unripe soul and may in some way help the progress by a discouragement of the eager desire-driven vital nature, but they are not the perfection towards which we labour. The indifference or the impartiality that we must seek after is a calm superiority of the high-seated soul above the contacts of things; it regards and accepts or rejects them but is not moved in the rejection and is not subjected by the acceptance. It begins to feel itself near, kin to, one with a silent Self and Spirit self-existent and separate from the workings of Nature which it supports and makes possible, part of or merged in the motionless calm Reality that transcends the motion and action of the universe. The gain of this period of high transcendence is the soul’s peace unrocked and unshaken by the pleasant ripplings or by the tempestuous waves and billows of the world’s movement.” (CWSA 23: 226–227)

VIII—The Third way of Submission or Nati to arrive at Equality

1. The third way is that of submission to the will of God

2. An unegoistic acceptance of things and happenings as a manifestation of the universal Will

3. Or a complete surrender to the Divine

“The third way is that of submission, which may be the Christian resignation founded on submission to the will of God, or an unegoistic acceptance of things and happenings as a manifestation of the universal Will in time, or a complete surrender of the person to the Divine, to the supreme Purusha. As the first was a way of the will and the second a way of knowledge, of the understanding reason, so this is a way of the temperament and heart and very intimately connected with the principle of Bhakti. If it is pushed to the end, it arrives at the same result of a perfect equality.” (CWSA 24: 713)

4. Here one thing of importance is to approach God

5. To be in touch and tune with the universal and infinite Existence

6. Or to be united with the Divine, become his channel, instrument

7. Then the knot of the ego is loosened

8. We find that we are no longer bound pleasant or unpleasant

9. Refer all to the Master of our being

“For the knot of the ego is loosened and the personal claim begins to disappear, we find that we are no longer bound to joy in things pleasant or sorrow over the unpleasant; we bear them without either eager acceptance or troubled rejection, refer them to the Master of our being, concern ourselves less and less with their personal result to us and hold only one thing of importance, to approach God, or to be in touch and tune with the universal and infinite Existence, or to be united with the Divine, his channel, instrument, servant, lover, rejoicing in him and in our relation with him and having no other object or cause of joy or sorrow.” (CWSA 24: 714)

10. A division between the lower mind of habitual emotions

11. And the higher psychical mind of love and self-giving takes place

12. The lower mind changes, transforms itself, is swallowed up in the love, joy, delight of the Divine

13. Then all within is the equal peace and bliss of that union

“Here too there may be for some time a division between the lower mind of habitual emotions and the higher psychical mind of love and self-giving, but eventually the former yields, changes, transforms itself, is swallowed up in the love, joy, delight of the Divine and has no other interests or attractions. Then all within is the equal peace and bliss of that union, the one silent bliss that passes understanding, the peace that abides untouched by the solicitation of lower things in the depths of our spiritual existence.” (CWSA 24: 714)

14. Nati is the submission of the soul to the will of God

15. Acceptance of all touches as His touches, of all experience as His play with the soul of man

16. Receiving everything as the play of Krishna and therefore in itself delightful

17. This continual joyous namaskara to God constantly practised we arrive eventually at the entire elimination of grief, pain

18. The entire freedom from the dualities and find the Brahmananda in every smallest detail of life & experience

“Nati is the submission of the soul to the will of God; its acceptance of all touches as His touches, of all experience as His play with the soul of man. Nati may be with titiksha, feeling the sorrow but accepting it as God’s will, or with udasinata, rising superior to it and regarding joy and sorrow equally as God’s working in these lower instruments, or with ananda, receiving everything as the play of Krishna and therefore in itself delightful. The last is the state of the complete Yogin, for by this continual joyous or anandamayanamaskara to God constantly practised we arrive eventually at the entire elimination of grief, pain etc, the entire freedom from the dwandwas, and find the Brahmananda in every smallest, most trivial, most apparently discordant detail of life & experience in this human body.” (CWSA 10: 4)

19. We get rid entirely of fear and suffering

20. The Yogin receives everything with equal Ananda

21. All the ordinary values of experience changes

22. Bad fortune reveals itself to him as good fortune

23. Defeat & ill-success as the fulfilment of God’s immediate purpose and a step towards ultimate victory

“We get rid entirely of fear and suffering; AnandamBrahmanovidvannabibhetikutaschana [He who possess the delight of the brahman has no fear from anything in the world]. We may have to begin with titiksha and udasinata but it is in this ananda that we must consummate the siddhi of samata. The Yogin receives victory and defeat, success and ill-success, pleasure and pain, honour and disgrace with an equal, a samaananda, first by buddhi-yoga, separating himself from his habitual mental & nervous reactions & insisting by vichara on the true nature of the experience itself and of his own soul which is secretly anandamaya, full of the samaananda in all things. He comes to change all the ordinary values of experience; amangala reveals itself to him as mangala, defeat & ill-success as the fulfilment of God’s immediate purpose and a step towards ultimate victory, grief and pain as concealed and perverse forms of pleasure. A stage arrives even, when physical pain itself, the hardest thing for material man to bear, changes its nature in experience and becomes physical ananda; but this is only at the end when this human being, imprisoned in matter, subjected to mind, emerges from his subjection, conquers his mind and delivers himself utterly in his body, realising his true anandamaya self in every part of the adhara.” (CWSA 10: 4)

Period of calm submission leading to a powerful and intense surrender

“If we can pass through these two stages [of endurance and indifference] of the inner change without being arrested or fixed in either, we are admitted to a greater divine equality which is capable of a spiritual ardour and tranquil passion of delight, a rapturous, all-understanding and all-possessing equality of the perfected soul, an intense and even wideness and fullness of its being embracing all things. This is the supreme period and the passage to it is through the joy of a total self-giving to the Divine and to the universal Mother. For strength is then crowned by a happy mastery, peace deepens into bliss, the possession of the divine calm is uplifted and made the ground for the possession of the divine movement. But if this greater perfection is to arrive, the soul’s impartial high-seatedness looking down from above on the flux of forms and personalities and movements and forces must be modified and change into a new sense of strong and calm submission and a powerful and intense surrender. This submission will be no longer a resigned acquiescence but a glad acceptance: for there will be no sense of suffering or of the bearing of a burden or cross; love and delight and the joy of self-giving will be its brilliant texture. And this surrender will be not only to a divine Will which we perceive and accept and obey, but to a divine Wisdom in the Will which we recognise and a divine Love in it which we feel and rapturously suffer, the wisdom and love of a supreme Spirit and Self of ourselves and all with which we can achieve a happy and perfect unity. A lonely power, peace and stillness is the last word of the philosophic equality of the sage; but the soul in  its integral experience liberates itself from this self-created status and enters into the sea of a supreme and all embracing ecstasy of the beginningless and endless beatitude of the Eternal. Then we are at last capable of receiving all contacts with a blissful equality, because we feel in them the touch of the imperishable Love and Delight, the happiness absolute that hides ever in the heart of things. The gain of this culmination in a universal and equal rapture is the soul’s delight and the opening gates of the Bliss that is infinite, the Joy that surpasses all understanding.” (CWSA 23: 227–228)

IX—Other Methods of getting Passive Equality

1. An inner renunciation of personal desire leads to Equality

“What then are the lines of Karmayoga laid down by the Gita? Its key principle, its spiritual method, can be summed up as the union of two largest and highest states or powers of consciousness, equality and oneness. The kernel of its method is an unreserved acceptance of the Divine in our life as in our inner self and spirit. An inner renunciation of personal desire leads to equality, accomplishes our total surrender to the Divine, supports a delivery from dividing ego which brings us oneness.” (CWSA 23: 95)

1. The renunciation of attachment to the work and its fruit is the beginning of a wide movement towards an absolute equality in the mind and soul

2. Equality is the sign of this adoration; it is the soul’s ground on which true sacrifice and worship can be done

“The renunciation of attachment to the work and its fruit is the beginning of a wide movement towards an absolute equality in the mind and soul which must become all-enveloping if we are to be perfect in the spirit. For the worship of the Master of works demands a clear recognition and glad acknowledgment of him in ourselves, in all things and in all happenings. Equality is the sign of this adoration; it is the soul’s ground on which true sacrifice and worship can be done.” (CWSA 23: 223)

3. When we get rid of desire the passions which are desire’s emotional results will fall into quietude

4. Then the joy and grief, success and failure, pleasant and unpleasant touches, which entertain passion, will pass out of our souls

5. A calm Equality will then be gained

6. But how can we change the nature of the doer of works in us?

7. By dissociating works from ego and personality

8. By seeing through the reason that all this is only the play of the gunas of Nature

9. By dissociating our soul from the play

10. By making first of all the observer of the workings of Nature and leaving those works to the Power that is really behind them, the Master of the universe

“We must get rid then of desire and, that propensity of

our natural being destroyed, the passions which are its emotional results will fall into quietude; for the joy and grief of possession and of loss, success and failure, pleasant and unpleasant touches, which entertain them, will pass out of our souls. A calm equality will then be gained. And since we have still to live and act in the world and our nature in works is to seek for the fruits of our works, we must change that nature and do works without attachment to their fruits, otherwise desire and all its results remain. But how can we change this nature of the doer of works in us? By dissociating works from ego and personality, by seeing through the reason that all this is only the play of the gunas of Nature, and by dissociating our soul from the play, by making it first of all the observer of the workings of Nature and leaving those works to the Power that is really behind them, the something in Nature which is greater than ourselves, not our personality, but the Master of the universe.” (CWSA 19: 255)

11. One should stands back and separate oneself from the lower vital

12. Refusing to regard its desires and clamours as one’s own

13. Cultivate an entire equality and equanimity in the consciousness with respect to them

14. Then the lower vital itself becomes gradually purified and calm and equal

“In our path that attitude is not one of forceful suppression, but of detachment and equality with regard to the objects of desire. Forceful suppression stands on the same level as free indulgence; in both cases, the desire remains; in the one it is fed by indulgence, in the other it lies latent and exasperated by suppression. It is only when one stands back, separates oneself from the lower vital, refusing to regard its desires and clamours as one’s own, and cultivates an entire equality and equanimity in the consciousness with respect to them that the lower vital itself becomes gradually purified and itself also calm and equal. Each wave of desire as it comes must be observed, as quietly and with as much unmoved detachment as you would observe something going on outside you, and must be allowed to pass, rejected from the consciousness, and the true movement, the true consciousness steadily put in its place.” (CWSA 35: 771—772)

2. When the Peace of the higher consciousness descends, it brings with it the tendency towards Equality, Samata

“When the peace of the higher consciousness

descends, it brings always with it this tendency towards equality, samata, because without samata peace is always liable to be attacked by the waves of the lower nature.” (CWSA 29: 128)

1. One of the thing by which complete Samata is dependent on is the descent of the Spiritual Calm and Peace from above

“Complete samata takes long to establish and it is dependent on ... the descent of the spiritual calm and peace from above ...” (CWSA 29: 131)

2. When the Peace descends then equanimity becomes easy and in the end automatic

“The Mother’s Peace is above you—by aspiration and quiet self opening it descends. When it takes hold of the vital and the body, then equanimity becomes easy and in the end automatic. (CWSA 32: 135–136)

3. Peace can also come by the growth of a strong samata in the being

“... though peace can come by the mental and vital liberation or through the growth of a strong samata in the being.” (CWSA 30: 363)

3. The Equality is above us, we have to call them down into the mind and the vital and the body

“The peace and the equality are there above you, you have to call them down into the mind and the vital and the body.” (CWSA 29: 66)

“As for the calm and equality needed, it must come down from above through the mind.” (CWSA 29: 60)

“What you are experiencing is the true foundation of the spiritual life and realisation. It has three elements—first, the love which is the heart of Bhakti; then the descent of peace and equanimity which is the first necessary basis for realisation of self and the higher knowledge—what comes with it is the descent of the force which will work out in you the whole sadhana; thirdly, the feeling of a guiding presence or power which is the basis of Karma—of work and action founded in the spiritual consciousness.” (CWSA 30: 320)

“The first thing the physical consciousness is worked on to acquire is quiet, peace and equanimity as a basis for other things—but what comes is a tendency to neutral quiet which looks like inertia with occasional peace and silence. What is necessary is to bring down peace and silence and a strong equanimity within into the external nature and the very cells of the body.” (CWSA 35: 378)

“In the practice of Yoga, what you aim at can only come by the opening of the being to the Mother’s force and the persistent rejection of all egoism and demand and desire, all motives except the aspiration for the Divine Truth. If this is rightly done, the Divine Power and Light will begin to work and bring in the peace and equanimity, the inner strength, the purified devotion and the increasing consciousness and self-knowledge which are the necessary foundation for the siddhi of the Yoga.” (CWSA 29: 108)

“Q: Do calm and equality come down from above by the Mother’s Grace?

A: When they descend, it is by the soul’s aspiration and the Mother’s grace.” (CWSA 32: 165)

“The progress of the sadhana is for most even such an alternation because it is precisely a struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness, those who want the divine transformation and those who want the continuance of the old ignorant Nature. At each step something has to be conquered from the hold of the Ignorance, something brought down from the Light above. When the whole nature is opened and the peace and equality are brought down into the vital and physical and settled there, then there is no inner disturbance, but the struggle continues until there is the beginning of the supramental transformation.” (CWSA 35: 635–636)

“The other [method of progress] is the descent of a full calm and strength and equanimity into these parts so that you may conquer life and its difficulties and do your work for the Divine. This calm and strength had often descended into your mind and higher vital, but these other parts were still open to much weakness and attachment and a self-indulgent movement. That must go if one wants to become a hero and master of spiritual action. ... Outer difficulties or inconveniences you should not allow to alarm or depress you. Inner difficulties should also be met with detachment, calm equality, the unshakable will to conquer.

For the rest, you have rightly said, ‘I must preserve my equanimity and have faith in Divine Guidance when falsehood’ —or any trouble or difficulty— ‘confronts me.’ ... The path of spiritual calm and strength and the consecration of all your forces to the Divine is the one safe way for you and that you must now consistently follow.” (CWSA 31: 264)

4. The growth of equality can come completely when there is spontaneous sacrifice to the Divine

“The cessation of desire of the fruit, of the attachment to the work itself, the growth of equality to all beings, to all happenings, to good repute or ill repute, praise or blame, to good fortune or ill fortune, the dropping of the ego which are necessary for the loss of all attachments can come completely only when all work becomes a spontaneous sacrifice to the Divine, the heart is offered up to Him and one has the settled experience of the Divine in all things and all beings. This consciousness or experience must come in all parts and movements of the being, sarvabhavena, not only in the mind and idea; then the falling away of all attachments becomes easy.” (CWSA 29: 237)

“Complete samata takes long to establish and it is dependent on three things— the soul’s self-giving to the Divine by an inner surrender, the descent of the spiritual calm and peace from aboveand the steady, long and persistent rejection of all egoistic, rajasic and other feelings that contradict samata.

The first thing to do is to make the full consecration and offering in the heart—the increase of the spiritual calm and the surrender are the condition for making the rejection of ego, rajoguna etc. effective.”

(CWSA 29: 131)

5. In Work which is a field of inner training one must learn Equality

1. Work can be inner training in three things, equality, desirelessness, dedication

“Work here and work done in the world are of course not the same thing. The work there is not in any way a divine work in special—it is ordinary work in the world. But still one must take it as a training and do it in the spirit of karmayoga— what matters there is not the nature of the work in itself but the spirit in which it is done. It must be in the spirit of the Gita, without desire, with detachment, without repulsion, but doing it as perfectly as possible, not for the sake of the family or promotion or to please the superiors, but simply because it is the thing that has been given in the hand to do. It is a field of inner training, nothing more. One has to learn in it three things, equality, desirelessness, dedication. It is not the work as a thing for its own sake, but one’s doing of it and one’s way of doing it that one has to dedicate to the Divine. Done in that spirit it does not matter what the work is. If one trains oneself spiritually like that, then one will be ready to do in the true way whatever special work directly for the Divine (such as the Asram work) one may any day be given to do.” (CWSA 29: 240–241)

2. If one insists on success, one is doing the work partly for the ego

3. Difficulties and outward failures come to warn one that one is doing the work for the ego

4. Difficulties and outward failures in work help to bring complete Equality

“For the sadhak outward struggles, troubles, calamities are only a means of surmounting ego and rajasic desire and attaining to complete surrender. So long as one insists on success, one is doing the work partly at least for the ego; difficulties and outward failures come to warn one that it is so and to bring complete equality. This does not mean that the power of victory is not to be acquired; but it is not success in the immediate work that is all-important; it is the power to receive and transmit a greater and greater correct vision and inner Force that has to be developed and this must be done quite coolly and patiently without being elated or disturbed by immediate victory or failure.” (CWSA 29: 241–242)

5. All work should be done with Equality of mind

“Self-dedication does not depend on the particular work you do, but on the spirit in which all work, of whatever kind it may be, is done. Any work, done well and carefully as a sacrifice to the Divine, without desire or egoism, with equality of mind and calm tranquillity in good or bad fortune, for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of any personal gain, reward or result, with the consciousness that it is the Divine Power to which all work belongs, is a means of self-dedication through Karma.” (CWSA 29: 246 247)

6. When the Inner Being begins to awake the first result is a state of neutral Equanimity

“There is a stage in the sadhana in which the inner being begins to awake. Often the first result is the condition made up of the following elements:

(1) A sort of witness attitude, in which the inner consciousness looks at all that happens as a spectator or observer, observing things but taking no active interest or pleasure in them.

(2) A state of neutral equanimity in which there is neither joy nor sorrow, only quietude.

(3) A sense of being something separate from all that happens, observing it but not part of it.” (CWSA 30: 241)

“What you have written about your condition seems to be correct as a whole. There is certainly a greater calm within and a freedom of the inner being which was not there once. It is this which gives you the equality you feel there and the capacity to escape from the more serious disturbances. The power to go among others without any invasion is also due to the same cause.” (CWSA 29: 146)

7. Accept with resignation what one cannot yet accept with gladness and so to arrive at a calm equality

1. For that have the constant idea that the Divine wills is always for the best

“To be free from all preference and receive joyfully whatever comes from the Divine Will is not possible at first for any human being. What one should have at first is the constant idea that what the Divine wills is always for the best even when the mind does not see how it is so, to accept with resignation what one cannot yet accept with gladness and so to arrive at a calm equality which is not shaken even when on the surface there may be passing movements of a momentary reaction to outward happenings. If that is once firmly founded, the rest can come.” (CWSA 29: 134)

X—To prepare for Yoga Cultivate Equality

1. A perfect equality of soul in all circumstances indicates that one is ready for Yoga

“Q: Are there any signs which indicate that one is ready for the path, especially if one has no spiritual teacher?

A: Yes, the most important indication is a perfect equality of soul in all circumstances. It is an absolutely indispensable basis; something very quiet, calm, peaceful, the feeling of a great force. Not the quietness that comes from inertia but the sensation of a concentrated power which keeps you always steady, whatever happens, even in circumstances which may appear to you the most terrible in your life. That is the first sign.” (CWM 4: 97)

2. The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual life is to cultivate an entire equality samata

“The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual life when one has to live in the ordinary occupations and surroundings is to cultivate an entire equality and detachment and the samata of the Gita with the faith that the Divine is there and the Divine Will at work in all things even though at present under the conditions of a world of Ignorance. Beyond this are the Light and Ananda towards which life is working, but the best way for their advent and foundation in the individual being and nature is to grow in this spiritual equality. That would also solve your difficulty about things unpleasant and disagreeable. All unpleasantness should be faced with this spirit of samata.” (CWSA 31: 344)

3. The Yoga cannot be done if equality is not established

“The Yoga cannot be done if equality is not established. Personal relations must be founded on the relation with the Divine in himself and the Divine in all and they must not be ‘ties’ to pull one down and keep bound to the lower nature but part of the higher unity.” (CWSA 31: 303)

4. To be able to bear adverse fortune with a calm equanimity and inner strength would be a very strong qualification for readiness to become a disciple

“Worldly life is a field of Karma (a field of growth) in which the soul progresses through the play of energies inner and outer, personal and universal producing a complexity of results until it is ready for the spiritual change. Once one practises this Yoga, the life becomes a part of the sadhana. Even so Sri Aurobindo seldom gives directions or advice in specific matters; only the Mother’s Force is there to help and if the sadhak is open and sincere, he can receive and become aware of help and guidance. For discipleship a certain readiness is necessary. To be able to bear adverse fortune with a calm equanimity and inner strength (not a tamasic inert acceptance) would be a very strong qualification for it.” (CWSA 35: 527)

5. Patience and equanimity are the first needs of the sadhak

“Each man has his defects—you and all others. So you should not allow that to destroy the harmony that should reign among workers. Remember that patience and equanimity and good feeling for all are the first needs of the sadhak.” (CWSA 35: 752)

6. Do not be over-eager for experience

7. What you have to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you

8. One of the many ways by which it can be built is Calm Equanimity

“Do not be over-eager for experience,—for experiences you can always get, having once broken the barrier between the physical mind and the subtle planes. What you have to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you— discrimination in the mind, the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that goes on in you and around you, purity in the vital, calm equanimity, enduring patience, absence of pride and the sense of greatness—and more especially, the development of the psychic being in you—surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion. It is a consciousness made up of these things, cast in this mould that can bear without breaking, stumbling or deviation into error the rush of lights, powers and experiences from the supraphysical planes.” (CWSA 30: 33)

9. One important condition to be able to receive the Divine Power is Equality

“To be able to receive the Divine Power and let it act through you in the things of the outward life, there are three necessary conditions:

1. Quietude, equality—not to be disturbed by anything that happens, to keep the mind still and firm, seeing the play of forces, but itself tranquil.

2. Absolute faith—faith that what is for the best will happen, but also that if one can make oneself a true instrument, the fruit will be that which one’s will guided by the Divine Light sees as the thing to be done—kartavyam karma.

3. Receptivity—the power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and the presence of the Mother in it and allow it to work, guiding one’s sight and will and action. If this power and presence can be felt and this plasticity made the habit of the consciousness in action,—but plasticity to the Divine Force alone without bringing in any foreign element,—the eventual result is sure.” (CWSA 29: 266)

10. A complete Equality is one of the step by which the surrender of all the being and nature to the Divine Will can be prepared and achieved

“Anentire self-consecration, a complete equality, an unsparing effacement of the ego, a transforming deliverance of the nature from its ignorant modes of action are the steps ,—a self-giving true, total and without reserve.” (CWSA 23: 221)

11. The perfect Equality makes the path safe

“So, if one wants to be safe on the path, it seems to me that to seek for peace, for perfect calm, perfect equality, for a widening of the consciousness, a vaster understanding and liberation from all desire, all preference, all attachment, is certainly an indispensable preliminary condition. It is the guarantee of both inner and outer equipoise. And then on this equilibrium, on this foundation which must be very solid, one may build whatever one wants. But to begin with, the foundation must be there, unshakable.

It is the guarantee of both inner and outer equipoise.

And then on this equilibrium, on this foundation which must be very solid, one may build whatever one wants. But to begin with, the foundation must be there, unshakable.” (CWM 8: 328)

“What attitude should I keep so that nothing can harm me?

Perfect detachment, equality, disinterestedness.” (CWM 17: 107)

XI—The indispensable basis for Yoga is Equanimity

“The indispensable basis for Yoga, which must be well established before you can walk freely on the path, is equanimity.” (CWM 3: 53)

1. One of the indispensable thing is to conquer perfect unshakable peace and Equanimity

“Three things indispensable to begin with:

Absolute sincerity in the whole being and all its activities.

Complete self-surrender without any reservation.

Patient work on oneself and at the same time a steady conquering of perfect unshakable peace and equanimity.” (CWM 14: 41)

2. Equanimity gives immutable peace and calm

“Equanimity: immutable peace and calm.” (CWM 14: 172)

3. Calm and peace lets an integral equanimity establish itself more and more

“Be very careful to remain always calm and peaceful and let an integral equanimity establish itself more and more

completely in your being.” (CWM 14: 133)

“The first step is perfect calm and equanimity.” (CWM 14: 134)

4. In Yoga, as in every great human effort, there is always adverse interventions and unfavourable circumstances which have to be overcome

5. To face them with equanimity will diminishes their importance and effect and in the end gets rid of their persistence

“In Yoga, as in every great or serious human effort, there is always bound to be an abundance of adverse interventions and unfavourable circumstances which have to be overcome. To give them too great an importance increases their importance and their power to multiply themselves, gives them, as it were, confidence in themselves and the habit of coming. To face them with equanimity—if one cannot manage a cheerful persistence against them of confident and resolute will —diminishes on the contrary their importance and effect and in the end, though not at once, gets rid of their persistence and recurrence. It is therefore a principle in Yoga to recognise the determining power of what is within us—for that is the deeper truth—to set that right and establish the inward strength as against the power of outward circumstances. The strength is there—even in the weakest; one has to find it, to unveil it and to keep it in front throughout the journey and the battle.” (CWSA 31: 697)

6. A strong basis of equanimity in your external being will be able to bear the Divine Descent

“Where the external being offers resistance to the inner being or cannot hold the entirety of the Ananda, there is this confusion and anarchy in expression.

You must have a strong body and strong nerves. You must have a strong basis of equanimity in your external being. If you have this basis, you can contain a world of emotion and yet not have to scream it out. This does not mean that you cannot express your emotion, but you can express it in a beautiful harmonious way. To weep or scream or dance about is always a proof of weakness, either of the vital or the mental or the physical nature; for on all these levels the activity is for self-satisfaction. ...

If you have to bear the pressure of the Divine Descent, you must be very strong and powerful, otherwise you would be shaken to pieces. Some persons ask, “Why has not the Divine come yet?” Because you are not ready. If a little drop makes you sing and dance and scream, what would happen if the whole thing came down?” (CWM 3: 11)

7. Equanimity is the essential condition of union and communion with the Divine

“You can easily know when a thing comes from the Divine. You feel free, you are at ease, you are in peace. But when something presents itself to you and you jump at it and cry out, ‘Oh, at last I have it’, then you can know for certain that it does not come from the Divine. Equanimity is the essential condition of union and communion with the Divine.” (CWM 3: 10)

8. The firm basis of all spiritual power is equanimity

“The quieter you are, the stronger you become. The firm basis of all spiritual power is equanimity. You must not allow anything to disturb your poise: you can then resist every kind of attack.” (CWM 3: 34)

9. With perfect equanimity you are safe

“No attachments, no desires, no impulses, no preferences; perfect equanimity, unchanging peace and absolute faith in the Divine protection: with that you are safe, without it you are in peril. And as long as you are not safe, it is better to do like little chickens that take shelter under the mother’s wings.” (CWM 3: 48)

10. Peace and equanimity are one of the few things that give physical body strength

“This body is built up, on the one side, of a material basis, but rather of material conditions than of physical matter, on the other, of the vibrations of our psychological states. Peace and equanimity and confidence, faith in health, undisturbed repose and cheerfulness and bright gladness constitute this element in it and give it strength and substance.” (CWM 3: 89)

11. The strength of the Yogi lies in a perfect equanimity in all circumstances

“All feelings of shrinking and disgust and fear that disturb and weaken the human mind can be overcome. A Yogi has to overcome these reactions; for almost the very first step in Yoga demands that you must keep a perfect equanimity in the presence of all beings and things and happenings. Always you must remain calm, untouched and unmoved; the strength of the Yogi lies there. An entire calmness and quietness will disarm even dangerous and ferocious animals when they confront you.” (CWM 100–101)

12. The essence of endurance is that the vital should give up its likes and dislikes and protect equanimity

13. If the vital tends to air its petty grievances just stop to consider how very happy you are, compared to so many in this world

14. Endure the little insignificant troubles of your life

“But the very essence of endurance is that the vital should learn to give up its capricious likes and dislikes and preserve an equanimity in the midst of the most trying conditions. When you are treated roughly by somebody or you lack something which would relieve your discomfort, you must keep up cheerfully instead of letting yourself be disturbed. Let nothing ruffle you the least bit, and whenever the vital tends to air its petty grievances with pompous exaggeration just stop to consider how very happy you are, compared to so many in this world. Reflect for a moment on what the soldiers who fought in the last war had to go through. If you had to bear such hardships you would realise the utter silliness of your dissatisfactions. And yet I do not wish you to court difficulties—what I want is simply that you should learn to endure the little insignificant troubles of your life.” (CWM 3: 136)

15. In quarrels, the wisdom of equanimity is to observe, understand how and why all this occurs

16. This will make you to always smile and never have a violent reaction

“.. take simply the petty quarrels like those I hear about at least a dozen of them a day (at least), idiotic, (I wonder how, having one’s reason, one can quarrel about such things), well, at the time you utter those words that should not be uttered, that are simply silly, do you see that you are truly stupid —not to say anything worse—spontaneously?... You always give an excuse. You have always the feeling that the other person is wrong, and that you are right and that, indeed, he must be told that he is wrong, yes? Otherwise he would never know it! Isn’t that so? I am putting the thing rather glaringly, as though under a small microscope, so that it may look a little bigger. But it is like that. And so long as it is like that, you are a million miles away from the true consciousness. When you are unable immediately, instantaneously to step back, put yourself in the place of the other person, understand why he has this feeling, have a glimpse of your own weakness, compare the two and come to the conclusion: ‘Well, it is that, that’s the true thing’, it means that you are still very far behind. When you are able to do it spontaneously, instantaneously, when it does not take time, when it is a natural movement, then you may feel satisfiedthat you have made a little progress.... How many times do you have the experience during the day? Even if you do not come to an open quarrel, how many times is the reaction there in the head, there, something that leaps up in the head, instead of this wisdom of equanimity which, at the very moment things are happening and it is observing them, understands how they are happening and why all this occurs—and that impersonally enough to be able to smile always and never have a violent reaction, never.” (CWM 5: 63–64)

17. It is much more difficult to lead a life of moderation and balance, in equanimity and serenity

18. Compared to try to contend with over-indulgence in pleasure and the obscuration

19. Or by over-indulgence in asceticism and the disintegration it causes

“It is a recognised fact that in order to progress rapidly, one must not be afraid of difficulties; on the contrary, by choosing to do the difficult thing at every opportunity, one increases the will-power and strengthens the nerves. Now, it is much more difficult to lead a life of moderation and balance, in equanimity and serenity, than to try to contend with over-indulgence in pleasure and the obscuration it entails, by over-indulgence in asceticism and the disintegration it causes.” (CWM 12: 49)

“Not to eat as the method of getting rid of the greed of food is the ascetic way. Ours is equanimity and non-attachment.” (CWSA 31: 422)

20. An Ideal child keeps equanimity in success as well as in failure

“AN IDEAL CHILD

...

IS POISED

He keeps equanimity in success as well as in failure.” (CWM 12: 150)

21. Calm, Equanimity ought to be constantly practised by the teacher

“Example [for a teacher] is the most powerful instructor. Never demand from a child an effort of discipline that you do not make yourself. Calm, equanimity, order, method, absence of useless words, ought to be constantly practised by the teacher if he wants to instil them into his pupils.” (CWM 12: 193)

22. Closeness to the Divine will grow with Equanimity

“Closeness to the Divine will always grow with the growth of consciousness, equanimity and love.” (CWM 14: 20)

23. The true Agni will grow in perfect equanimity

“The true Agni always burns in deep peace; it is the fire of an all-conquering will.

Let it grow in you in perfect equanimity.” (CWM 13: 159)

24. The love will grow to its full blossoming In the deep peace of Equanimity

“In the deep peace of equanimity the love will grow to its full blossoming in a sense of pure and constant unity.” (CWM 14: 172)

25. He who lives in the Divine Consciousness regards all things with a perfect Equanimity

“Tolerance is only the first step towards wisdom.

The need to tolerate indicates the presence of preferences.

He who lives in the Divine Consciousness regards all things with a perfect equanimity.” (CWM 14: 187)

26. To get out of confusion and obscurity in petty quarrels and difficulties is to remain firm in Equanimity

“You know by experience that there is only one way of getting out of confusion and obscurity; it is to remain very quiet and peaceful, firm in equanimity and to let the storm pass away. Rise above these petty quarrels and difficulties and wake up once more in the light and the power of my love which never leaves you.” (CWM 14: 226)

27. When we remember the Divine always He gives us the strength to face all circumstances with Equanimity

“The Divine is present among us. When we remember Him always He gives us the strength to face all circumstances with perfect peace and equanimity. Become aware of the Presence and your difficulties will disappear.” (CWM 14: 232)

28. The greatest progress is made through a steady and cheerful Equanimity

“My word to you is: Do not cherish suffering and suffering will leave you altogether. Suffering is far from being indispensable to progress. The greatest progress is made through a steady and cheerful equanimity.” (CWM 14: 247)

Meet all adverse circumstances with equanimity

“Meanwhile we must meet all these adverse circumstances with patience, endurance and equanimity.” (CWM 14: 258)

29. Anger can completely disappear when the Equanimity of the higher consciousness takes complete possession of the lower vital

“When it is the psychic that rules all the movements of the being, then it [anger] completely disappears and when the equanimity of the higher consciousness takes complete possession of the lower vital. Till then one can establish a control, diminish and reduce it to a touch that has no outward effect or a wave that passes without self-expression.” (CWSA 31: 274–275)

“Q: Sweet Mother!When will the vital yearn for the Divine? May its passion be changed into psychic love, its anger into

A:Equanimity” (CWM 17: 41)

30. The difficulties may be taken as an excellent opportunity for practising Equanimity

(The disciple asked whether two relatives who did not get along well should live together in the same house.)

The psychological difficulties may be taken as an excellent opportunity for practising equanimity.

With love and blessings.” (CWM 17: 389)

31. Once Equanimity is established then praise and blame may have no effect

“Naturally, praise and blame may have that effect (the human nature is more sensitive to these than to almost anything else, more even than to real benefit or injury), unless either equanimity has been established or else there is so entire a confidence and happy dependence upon someone that both praise and blame are helpful to the nature. There are some men who even without Yoga have so balanced a mind that they take and adjudge praise and blame calmly for what they are worth, but that is extremely rare.” (CWSA 31: 352–353)

32. Peace, Equanimity in the emotional being and the vital will purify the emotions and deliver the vital

“What you have to aspire for and bring down in you is the peace of the Mother’s consciousness. Peace, calm, equanimity in the emotional being and the rest of the vital especially—it is that which will purify the emotions and deliver the vital.” (CWSA 31: 114)

33. Old small habits of physical vital can go entirely when the physical vital gets Equanimity

“The vital in the physical easily slips back to its old small habits if it gets a chance. It is there that they stick. They go entirely only when that part gets equanimity and a simple natural freedom from all desires.” (CWSA 31: 257)

34. Loss of Equanimity is unyogic

“If there is desire there will be attachment, demand, craving, loss of equanimity, sorrow at not getting, all that is unyogic.” (CWSA 29: 61)

35. Calm Equanimity has to be maintained in both of helpful and adverse, fortunate or unfortunate happenings, good or evil fortune, success or failure of effort

“Helpless acceptance [of difficulties] is no part of the Yoga of works—what is necessary is a calm equanimity in the face both of helpful and adverse, fortunate or unfortunate happenings, good or evil fortune, success or failure of effort. One must learn to bear without flinching and disturbance, without rajasic joy or grief, doing all that is necessary, but not dejected if difficulties or failure come—one still goes on doing what can be done, not sinking under the burden of life.” (CWSA 29: 243)

36. The basis of equanimity in the external being Is ...

1. Good health, a solid and well poised body

2. Strong nerves

3. One sleeps well and eats well

4. One is calm, well balanced and very quiet

“Q: What is it that you call “the basis of equanimity in the external being”?

A: It is good health, a solid body, well poised; when one

does not have the nerves of a little girl that are shaken by the least thing; when one sleeps well, eats well.... When one is quite calm, well balanced, very quiet, one has a solid basis and can receive a large number of forces.

If anyone among you has received spiritual forces, forces of the Divine Ananda, for example, he knows from experience that unless he is in good health he cannot contain them, keep them. He begins to weep and cry, gets restless to expend what he has received. He must laugh and talk and gesticulate, otherwise he cannot keep them, he feels stifled. And so by laughing, weeping, moving about he throws out what he has received.

To be well balanced, to be able to absorb what one receives, one must be very quiet, very calm. One must have a solid basis, good health. One must have a very solid basis. That is very important.” (CWM 5: 22)

37. Let nothing disturb Equanimity and make every day the necessary progress

“Keep a cheerful mind and a peaceful heart. Let nothing disturb your equanimity and make every day the necessary progress to advance with me steadily towards the goal.” (CWM 14: 179)

38. Let goodwill and love be poured out upon all with Equanimity

“One should keep goodwill and love constantly in his heart and let them pour out upon all with tranquillity and with equanimity.” (CWM 14: 186)

39. Aspire for complete Equanimity, Samata

40. Once Equanimity is established rest may come as the Mother’s gift

“Particularly what you must aspire for is peace in all the being, complete equanimity, samata. The feeling that peace is not enough must go. Peace and purity and equanimity once established, all the rest must be the Mother’s free gift, not a result of the demand from the being.” (CWSA 29: 46)

41. It would be easier to get rid of wrong movements when you bring down a settled Peace and Equanimity into that part of the being

“It would be easier [to get rid of wrong movements] when you bring down a settled peace and equanimity into that part of the being. There will then be more of an automatic rejection of such movements and less need of tapasya. (CWSA 31: 707–708)

“Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the divine calm, light, force and knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.” (CWSA 31: 615)

42. The faith that calls down the Equanimity

43. Is the faith that the Divine Will is leading us in spite of our errors and weaknesses, in spite of the attacks of hostile forces, in spite of immediate appearance of failure

44. This faith accepts what happens not definitively but as something that has to be gone through on the way

“How to conciliate these two notions:

(1) that the Divine’s Will is behind all movements and happenings,

(2) that the Divine Will is distorted in the manifestation.

There are two kinds of faith:

The faith that calls down the equanimity and the faith that calls down the realisation.

These two faiths correspond to two different aspects of the Divine.

There is the Transcendent Divine and there is the Cosmic Divine.

The Will of realisation is that of the Transcendent Divine.

The Cosmic Divine is what is concerned with the actual working out of things under the present circumstances. It is the Will of that Cosmic Divine which is manifested in each circumstance, each movement of this world.

The Cosmic Will is not, to our ordinary consciousness, something that acts as an independent power doing whatever it chooses; it works through all these beings, through the forces at play in the world and the law of these forces and their results. It is only when we open ourselves and get out of the ordinary consciousness that we can feel it intervening as an independent power and overriding the ordinary play of the forces.

Then too we can see that even in the play of the forces and in spite of their distortions the Cosmic Will is working towards the eventual realisation of the Will of the Transcendent Divine.

The supramental realisation is the Will of the Transcendent Divine which we have to work out. The circumstances under which we have to work it out are those of an inferior consciousness in which things can be distorted by our own ignorance, weaknesses and mistakes, and by the clash of conflicting forces. That is why faith and equanimity are indispensable.

We have to have the faith that in spite of our ignorance and errors and weaknesses and in spite of the attacks of hostile forces and in spite of any immediate appearance of failure the Divine Will is leading us, through every circumstance, towards the final realisation. This faith will give us equanimity; it is a faith that accepts what happens not definitively but as something that has to be gone through on the way. Once equanimity is established there can be established too another kind of faith, supported by it, which can be made dynamic with something from the supramental consciousness and can overcome the present circumstances and determine what will happen and help to bring down the realisation of the Will of the Transcendent Divine.

The faith that goes to the Cosmic Divine is limited in the power of its action by the necessities of the play.

To get entirely free from these limitations one must reach the Transcendent Divine.” (CWSA 29: 90–91)

45. Once a basis of Equanimity is established the surface movements can be rejected with ease

“You must establish a basis of equanimity within—the peace of the inner being which these surface movements cannot touch,— then if they come on the surface, there will be no violent reaction and they can be rejected with more ease.” (CWSA 29: 135)

46. A perfect Spiritual Equanimity is a sure defence against all the perturbations that come through the environmental nature

“A perfect spiritual equanimity throughout the being is a sure defence against all the perturbations that might come through the environmental nature.” (CWSA 29: 136)

47. Getting the perfect Equanimity is difficult for all

“The difficulty of getting the perfect equanimity is a fact, but not for you alone—it has been so for all of us—it is too universal for you to make it a legitimate ground of discouragement. Nothing is more necessary, but nothing is more difficult. So there is no reason why you should discount my encouragement. My encouragement is given in spite of difficulties and not because I think there are none. Never mind these momentary mishaps— shake off the mood and once more en avant [move forward].” (CWSA 29: 136)

48. When there is an attack from adverse forces, one should try to overcome it with a calm spirit of equanimity

“When there is an attack from the human instruments of adverse forces, one should try to overcome it not in a spirit of personal hatred or anger or wounded egoism, but with a calm spirit of strength and equanimity and a call to the Divine Force to act. Success or failure lies with the Divine.” (CWSA 31: 780)

“The increase of samata is only a first condition [for attacks by adverse forces to become impossible in one’s work]. It is when on the basis of samata an understanding Force can be used to make their attacks nugatory[of no value or importance] that the attacks will become impossible.” (CWSA 29: 244)

49. What you must arrive at is a complete equanimity which sees things and people as they are but is not shaken, angered or grieved by them

“It is perfectly true that the egoistic sense of possession and the habit of falsehood are too common among the sadhaks. You should train yourself however to look at these things in those around you, even when they touch you close, without being disturbed or unquiet. What you must arrive at (of course it cannot be done at once but takes time) is a complete equanimity which sees things and people as they are but is not shaken, angered or grieved by them. We ourselves know what an obstacle all this egoism and falsehood are to our work, but are not impatient because we know also that they are part of human nature and have so much hold that it is difficult for the sadhak to get rid of them even when his mind really wishes to do so. They are with many sadhaks habits stronger than their will. When there is not a strong will to get rid of them or when the sadhak is not fully conscious, then it is all the more difficult. It is only a strong and always increasing awakening of the whole consciousness which can avail and it is that which we try to bring in all without yielding to impatience because of the slowness with which it comes or the imperfect effort of the sadhaks to overcome these defects of their nature.” (CWSA 35: 802)

50. Other quotation on Equanimity

“Keep firm faith in the victory of the Light and face with calm equanimity the resistances of Matter and human personality to their own transformation.” (CWSA 29: 102)

“As for leaving the result to the Divine, it depends on what you mean by the phrase. If it implies dependence on the Divine Grace and equanimity and patience in the persistent aspiration, then it is all right. But it must not be extended to cover slackness and indifference in the aspiration and endeavour.” (CWSA 29: 171)

“One has to proceed on a basis of firm quietude and equanimity with a steady aspiration. It is only if there is a vital excitement that progress becomes a strain and relaxation is needed; for this demand for relaxation is the vital’s counterpart of excitement and its way of relief from it.” (CWSA 29: 135–136)

“Pain and illness have to be borne with calm, detachment and equanimity, but not cherished—the sooner one gets rid of them the better.” (CWSA 31: 566)

“The first thing to do is to keep throughout a perfect equanimity and not to allow thoughts of disturbed anxiety or depression to enter you. It is quite natural after this severe attack of influenza that there should be weakness and some fluctuations in the progress to recovery. What you have to do is to remain calm and confident and not worry or be restless—be perfectly quiet and prepared to rest as long as rest is needed. There is nothing to be anxious about; rest, and the health and strength will come.” (CWSA 31: 587)

“If I have many times urged upon you equanimity, steadfast patience, cheerfulness or whatever is contrary to this spirit, it is because I wanted you to recover your true inner vital self and get rid of this intruder. If you give it rein, it is extremely difficult to get on to anywhere.” (CWSA 31: 775)

XII—Sonnet—The Divine Worker

The Divine Worker

“I face earth’s happenings with an equal soul;

In all are heard Thy steps: Thy unseen feet

Tread Destiny’s pathways in my front. Life’s whole

Tremendous theorem is Thou complete.

No danger can perturb my spirit’s calm:

My acts are Thine; I do Thy works and pass;

Failure is cradled on Thy deathless arm,

Victory is Thy passage mirrored in Fortune’s glass.

In this rude combat with the fate of man

Thy smile within my heart makes all my strength;

Thy Force in me labours at its grandiose plan,

Indifferent to the Time-snake’s crawling length.

No power can slay my soul; it lives in Thee.

Thy presence is my immortality.” (CWSA 2: 612)

XIII—Equality does not include inert acceptance

1. If there is temporary failure in the sadhana, one has to keep equality

2. But not to accept the failure as an indication of the Divine Will and give up the endeavour

3. Find out the reason of the failure and go forward in faith towards victory

“Equality is a very important part of this Yoga; it is necessary to keep equality under pain and suffering—and that means to endure firmly and calmly, not to be restless or troubled or depressed or despondent, to go on in a steady faith in the Divine Will. But equality does not include inert acceptance. If, for instance, there is temporary failure of some endeavour in the sadhana, one has to keep equality, not to be troubled or despondent, but one has not to accept the failure as an indication of the Divine Will and give up the endeavour. You ought rather to find out the reason and meaning of the failure and go forward in faith towards victory. So with illness—you have not to be troubled, shaken or restless, but you have not to accept illness as the Divine Will, but rather look upon it as an imperfection of the body to be got rid of as you try to get rid of vital imperfections or mental errors.” (CWSA 29: 134)

4. Equality means the mind seeing the play of forces, but itself tranquil

“To be able to receive the Divine Power and let it act through you in the things of the outward life, there are three necessary conditions:

1. Quietude, equality—not to be disturbed by anything that happens, to keep the mind still and firm, seeing the play of forces, but itself tranquil.

2. Absolute Faith ...

3. Receptivity ...” (CWSA 29: 266)

5. Equality means not to be disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you

6. Equality means to look at disturbance with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling

7. Equality means to try to understand what is behind disturbance, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them

8. Equality means to try to understand what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them

“Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital; it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements, anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest, not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.” (CWSA 29: 130)

XIV—How Equality can become compatible with Action

1. Equality is erroneously thought to be incompatible with action

2. It is the error of the intellectual man who thinks that action is possible when dictated by hopes, fears and passions or by the self-willed preferences

3. This would be the fact if the individual were the real actor and not merely an instrument

4. The universal is the Force which acts through the simulacrum of our individuality

“Such equality, it is erroneously thought, is incompatible with action. By no means; this is the error of the animal and the intellectual man who thinks that action is solely possible when dictated by his hopes, fears and passions or by the self-willed preferences of the emotion and the intellect justifying themselves by the illusions of the reason. That might be the fact if the individual were the real actor and not merely an instrument or secondary agent; but we know well enough, for Science and Philosophy assure us of the same truth, that the universal is the Force which acts through the simulacrum [unsatisfactory imitation] of our individuality.” (CWSA 13: 122)

5. The individual mind when chooses in ignorance and disregard of the universal, is working on the basis of a falsehood

6. This is not in the knowledge and the will of the Truth

“The individual mind, pretending to choose for itself with a sublime ignorance and disregard of the universal, is obviously working on the basis of a falsehood and by means of an error and not in the knowledge and the will of the Truth. It cannot have any real skill in works; for to start from a falsehood or half-truth and work by means of blunders and arrive at another falsehood or half-truth which we have immediately to change, and all the while to weep and struggle and suffer and have no sure resting-place, cannot surely be called skill in works.” (CWSA 13: 122)

7. Determinations of the universal is not self-willed preferences but are guided by the Truth of the Divine Will and Knowledge

“But the universal is equal in all and therefore its determinations are not self-willed preferences but are guided by the truth of the divine will and knowledge which is unlimited and not subject to incapacity or error.” (CWSA 13: 123)

8. The Yogin rises from the foundation of a perfect Equality to the consciousness of the one existence in all

9. The Yogin lives in that existence and not in the walls of his body, personal temperament or limited mind

“Therefore that state of the being by which the Yogin differs from the ordinary man, is that by which he rises from the foundation of a perfect equality to the consciousness of the one existence in all and embracing all and lives in that existence and not in the walls of his body or personal temperament or limited mind.” (CWSA 13: 123)

10. The Gita, strongly insists on a perfect and absolute Samata, also goes on to say, ‘Fight, destroy the adversary, conquer’

11. To take sides with the Truth and to refuse to concede anything to the Falsehood that attacks, to be unflinchingly loyal and against the hostiles and the attackers, is not inconsistent with Equality

12. The inner spiritual Equality is right, the active loyalty and firm taking of sides is also right, and the two cannot be incompatible

“No doubt hatred and cursing are not the proper attitude. It is true also that to look upon all things and all people with a calm and clear vision, to be uninvolved and impartial in one’s judgments is a quite proper Yogic attitude. A condition of perfect samata can be established in which one sees all as equal, friends and enemies included, and is not disturbed by what men do or by what happens. The question is whether this is all that is demanded from us. If so, then the general attitude will be one of a neutral indifference to everything. But the Gita, which strongly insists on a perfect and absolute samata, goes on to say, ‘Fight, destroy the adversary, conquer.’ If there is no kind of general action wanted, no loyalty to Truth as against Falsehood except for one’s personal sadhana, no will for the Truth to conquer, then the samata of indifference will suffice. But here there is a work to be done, a Truth to be established against which immense forces are arranged, invisible forces which use visible things and persons and actions for their instruments. If one is among the disciples, the seekers of this Truth, one has to take sides for the Truth, to stand against the Forces that attack it and seek to stifle it. Arjuna wanted not to stand for either side, to refuse any action of hostility even against assailants; Sri Krishna, who insisted so much on samata, strongly rebuked his attitude and insisted equally on his fighting the adversary. ‘Have samata,’ he said, ‘and seeing clearly the Truth, fight.’ Therefore to take sides with the Truth and to refuse to concede anything to the Falsehood that attacks, to be unflinchingly loyal and against the hostiles and the  attackers, is not inconsistent with equality. It is personal and egoistic feeling that has to be thrown away; hatred and vital ill-will have to be rejected. But loyalty and refusal to compromise with the assailants and the hostiles or to dally with their ideas and demands and say, ‘After all we can compromise with what they ask from us’, or to accept them as companions and our own people — these things have a great importance. If the attack were a physical menace to the work and the leaders and doers of the work, one would see this at once. But because the attack is of a subtler kind, can a passive attitude be right? It is a spiritual battle inward and outward; by neutrality and compromise or even passivity one may allow the enemy Forces to pass and crush down the Truth and its children. If you look at it from this point you will see that if the inner spiritual equality is right, the active loyalty and firm taking of sides is as right, and the two cannot be incompatible.” (CWSA 29: 131–132)

XV—Other Quotations on Equality, Samata

“For it is certain that so great a result [absolute equality] cannot be arrived at immediately and without any previous stages. At first we have to learn to bear the shocks of the world with the central part of our being untouched and silent, even when the surface mind, heart, life are strongly shaken; unmoved there on the bedrock of our life, we must separate the soul watching behind or immune deep within from these outer workings of our nature. Afterwards, extending this calm and steadfastness of the detached soul to its instruments, it will become slowly possible to radiate peace from the luminous centre to the darker peripheries. In this process we may take the passing help of many minor phases; a certain stoicism, a certain calm philosophy, a certain religious exaltation may help us towards some nearness to our aim, or we may call in even less strong and exalted but still useful powers of our mental nature. In the end we must either discard or transform them and arrive instead at an entire equality, a perfect self-existent peace within and even, if we can, a total unassailable, self-poised and spontaneous delight in all our members.” (CWSA 23: 103–104)

“As an inner equality increases and with it the sense of the true vital being waiting for the greater direction it has to serve, as the psychic call too increases in all the members of our nature, ..." (CWSA 23: 179)

“Equality does not mean a fresh ignorance or blindness; it does not call for and need not initiate a greyness of vision and a blotting out of all hues. Difference is there, variation of expression is there and this variation we shall appreciate, — far more justly than we could when the eye was clouded by a partial and erring love and hate, admiration and scorn, sympathy and antipathy, attraction and repulsion. But behind the variation we shall always see the Complete and Immutable who dwells within it and we shall feel, know or at least, if it is hidden from us, trust in the wise purpose and divine necessity of the particular manifestation, whether it appear to our human standards harmonious and perfect or crude and unfinished or even false and evil.” (CWSA 23: 224–225)

“As long as you are for some and against others, you are necessarily outside the Truth.

You should constantly keep good will and love in your heart and let them pour out on all with tranquillity and equality.” (CWM 13: 192)

(Significance of the twelve underground rooms which will radiate from the Matrimandir foundation)

Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equality, Peace.” (CWM 13: 226)

“All unpleasantness should be faced with the spirit of Samata.” (CWM 14: 226)

“Indifference is a stage of development which must lead to a perfect equality of soul.” (CWM 15: 171)

“Q: Mother,

Z came to me last night. We had a very long talk about his work. He seems to have gone with a calm satisfaction. If only I could work half as well as I can speak on the subject! Alas, that does not happen. Sometimes I fear that I am losing interest in work. Even in the work connected with fruits I am not half as enthusiastic as I used to be. It may be that I am losing interest or getting old or learning to work without feverish activity. You alone know.

A: I see it as the advent of Wisdom leading to true equality.

Blessings”. (CWM 17: 287–288)

“You have to make yourself an instrument of the invisible Force — to be able in a way to direct it to the required point and for the required purpose. But for that samata must be entire — for a calm and luminous use of the Force is necessary. Otherwise the use of the Force, if accompanied by ego-reactions, may raise a corresponding ego-resistance and a struggle.” (CWSA 29: 244)

“Turn your emotions towards the Divine, aspire for their purification; they will then become a help on the way and no longer a cause of suffering.

Not to kill emotion, but to turn it towards the Divine is the right way of the Yoga.

But it must become pure, founded upon spiritual peace and joy, capable of being transmuted into Ananda. Equality and calm in the mind and vital parts, an intense psychic emotion in the heart can perfectly go together.” (CWSA 29: 350)

“If, however, you practise living in the impersonal Self and can achieve a certain spiritual impersonality, then you grow in equality, purity, peace, detachment, you get the power of living in an inner freedom not touched by the surface movement or struggle of the mental, vital and physical nature, and this becomes a great help when you have to go beyond the impersonal and to change the troubled nature also into something divine.” (CWSA 28: 12)

“The universe is certainly or has been up to now in appearance a rough and wasteful game with the dice of chance loaded in favour of the Powers of darkness, the Lords of obscurity, falsehood, death and suffering. But we have to take it as it is and find out — if we reject the way out of the old sages — the way to conquer. Spiritual experience shows that there is behind it all a wide terrain of equality, peace, calm, freedom, and it is only by getting into it that we can have the eye that sees and hope to gain the power that conquers.” (CWSA 28: 464–465)

“As for voices, there are many voices; each Force, each movement of the mental, vital, physical plane may equip itself with a voice. Your voices were not even at one with each other; one said one thing, when it did not work out another said something inconsistent with it; but you were attached to your mental formation and still tried to follow.

All this happens because the mind and vital in these exaltations of the stress of the sadhana become very active. That is why it is necessary, first, to found your sadhana on a great calm, a great equality, not eagerly rushing after experiences or their fruit, but looking at them, observing, calling always for more and more Light, trying to be more and more wide, open, quietly and discerningly receptive.” (CWSA 30: 311 312)

“Then the ego movements of Prakriti can also disappear gradually from one field after another till none is left. For this [The Disappearance of the “I” Sense] a perfect samata even in the cells of the body and in every vibration of the being is necessary—samam hi brahma [For the brahaman is equal].” (CWSA 30: 395)

“There are two attitudes that a sadhak can have — either a quiet equality to all regardless of their friendliness or hostility or a general goodwill.” (CWSA 31: 312)

“Do not allow yourself to be shaken or troubled by these things [demands made by others]. The one thing to do always is to remain firm in your aspiration to the Divine and to face with equanimity and detachment all difficulties and all oppositions. For those who wish to lead the spiritual life, the Divine must always come first, everything else must be secondary.” (CWSA 31: 707)

“It is no use listening to what people say or to suggestions. Both are things by which one must learn not to be affected. A certain samata in these matters is needed in order to get the true poise. The one thing that matters is realisation of the Divine.” (CWSA 31: 314)

“Q: When is one said to be ready to hear the Mother’s voice from within?

A: When one has equality, discrimination and sufficient Yogic experience— otherwise any voice may be mistaken for the Mother’s.” (CWSA 32: 291)

“No path of Yoga is easy and to imagine that by leaving the world and plunging inside oneself one automatically shuffles off the vital and external nature is an illusion. If I ask you to develop equanimity and egolessness by work done with opening to the Divine, it is because it is so that I did it and it is so that it can best be done and not by retiring into oneself and shutting oneself away from all that can disturb equanimity and excite the ego.” (CWSA 35: 262)

“Q: In dealing with paid workmen, I sometimes behave in a very familiar way, sometimes in a neutral way and sometimes I get angry. How should I behave with them?

A: None of these ways is the right one; the first weakens the authority, the second is not dynamic, the last is obviously not helpful. In all work the nearer one gets to an entire equanimity (which does not mean indifference) in the mind and the vital feeling, the better. A calm detached attitude, with a fundamental sympathy in it but not of the sentimental kind, a clear unbiased eye observing their character and reactions, and a quiet and firm authority without harshness, capable both of kindness and of quiet severity, where severity is needed, would be the best attitude.” (CWSA 35: 757)

“But what if people were to remember that they were here for Yoga, make that the salt and savour of their existence and acquire samata of the palate! My experience is that if they did that, all the trouble would disappear and even the kitchen difficulties and the defects of the cooking would vanish.” (CWSA 35: 773)

If you are gloomy consider Samata is the way to overcome disgust with the world

“Q: No joy, no energy. Don’t like to read or write—as if a dead man were walking about. Do you understand the position? Any personal experience?

A: I quite understand; often had it myself devastatingly. That’s why I always advise people who have it to cheer up and buck up.

Q: Since one has to pass the time somehow, what is one to do? To bear the Cross gloomily, hoping for a resurrection?

A: To cheer up, buck up and the rest if you can, saying “Rome was not built in a day”—if you can’t, gloom it through till the sun rises and the little birds chirp and all is well.

Looks however as if you were going through a training in vairagya [disgust with the world]. Don’t much care for vairagya myself—always avoided the beastly thing, but had to go through it partly, till I hit on samata as a better trick. But samata is difficult,vairagya is easy, only damnably gloomy and uncomfortable.” (CWSA 35: 373–374)

“An absolute equality of the mind and heart and a clear purity and calm strength in all the members of the being have long been the primary condition on which the Power working in me has insisted with an inexhaustible patience and an undeviating constancy of will which rejects all the efforts of other powers to hasten forward to the neglect of these first requisites. Wherever they are impaired it returns upon them and works over and again over the weak points like a workman patiently mending the defects of his work. These seem to me to be the foundation and condition of all the rest. As they become firmer and more complete the system is more able to hold consistently and vividly the settled perception of the One in all things and beings, in all qualities, forces, happenings, in all this world-consciousness and the play of its workings.” (CWSA 36: 289–290)

“I think you should insist in your Calcutta centre on attention being given to what I call the Purusha side, that is to say, a basis of deep calm, strength, equality, wide consciousness and purity in the mental being, and as the vital and physical open, also in the vital and physical being. If that is attended to and successfully developed the play of the psychic, vital and physical experiences will be more steady, ordered and safe.” (CWSA 36: 341)

“Two things especially are needed for the life-realisation to take form, an entire faith and equality of mind—not disturbed by anything that may happen, knowing that all happens for the best by the inscrutable Will—and the instrumentation of the Divine Force in the adhara.” (CWSA 36: 419)

“It is not easy to have this equality in any full and perfect measure, but one should always try more and more to make it the basis of one’s inner state and outer movements.” (CWSA 29: 130)

“An absolute calm and passivity, purity and equality within, a sovereign and inexhaustible activity without isthe nature of Brahman as we see it manifested in the universe.” (CWSA 17: 46)

XVI—Short Summary

I—What is Equality, Samata?

1.      Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital

2.      Equality means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done

3.      Equality means self-mastery over the vital movements, anger, sensitiveness, pride, desire

4.      Equality means not to let disturbance get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace

5.      Equality means not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of things

6.      Equality means always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit

7.      Equality is to remain unmoved within in all conditions

8.      Samata is the capacity of receiving with calm and equal mind all the attacks and appearances of outward things

9.      The attacks of outward things are pleasant or unpleasant, ill-fortune and good-fortune, pleasure and pain, honour and ill-repute, praise and blame, friendship and enmity, sinner and saint, or, physically, heat and cold

10.      Samata means a wide universal peace, calm, equanimity, an equal feeling of all in the Divine

11.      Samata is to face an attack without being disturbed and to reject it calmly

12.      When one acts against the attack, one must do it calmly, without anger, excitement, grief or any other disturbing movement

13.      Samatamean the absence of desire and attachment

14.      Samata does not mean the absence of ego

II—Why in ordinary Human Life Inequality exist

1.      Because the ordinary human soul takes a pleasure in the customary disturbances of its nature-life

2.      Having this pleasure it gives a sanction to the troubled play that the play continues perpetually

3.      What really attracts the soul is the whole mingled weft of the thing we call life with all its disturbance and its attractions

4.       Men, as they are, love suffering and call it to them even while they curse it

5.      Ask the ordinary human being to rise out of all disturbances to the joy of the pure bliss-soul it will draw back at once from the call

6.      The true cause of its unwillingness is that it is asked to rise above its own atmosphere and breathe a rarer and purer air of life

7.      Whose bliss and power it believes he cannot realise and hardly even conceives as real

8.      While the joy of this lower turbid nature is to it the one thing familiar and palpable

9.      But if we rest eternally on this plane, our ascent remains unfinished, the evolution of the soul incomplete

10.      The movement which will lead us out of the disturbances of the lower nature

11.      Is a movement towards Equality in the mind, Equality in the emotional temperament, Equality in the soul

III—Equality has two sides Passive and Active

1.      A Passive or Negative Equality and Active or Positive Equality

2.      What is Passive or Negative Equality?

3.      What is Active or Positive Equality?

4.      Two forms of Samata — Passive and Active Samata

5.      What is Passive Samata?

6.      What is Active Samata?

IV—How to prepare oneself to be able to develop Passive Equality

1.      This equality cannot come except by a protracted [prolonged] ordeal and patient self-discipline

2.      To acquire Equality is difficult one has to strive slowly after it

3.      Equality in its completeness is not easily attainable

4.      The whole being has to be pervaded by calm and

peace

5.      The nerves and cells of the body have to be full of calm and peace

6.      To accept first that the inequality is his normal condition

7.      To take at least the sting out of desires and preferences

8.      Inequality is one of the spirit’s inner enemies that we have to discourage, expel, slay upon the altar of the growth of the spirit

9.      The sufferings and distress comes as a part of karma, or part of the experience one has to go through till one is ready for spiritual change

10.      The sadhak will recognise this and the suffering has to taken with an unshaken Equality and trust in the Divine Wisdom

11.      To be able to bear inconveniences is one of the most elementary necessities to enter into the true spirit of Yoga

12.      Recognise whatever is a wrong movement, wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action

13.      Not to gloss over or defend the wrong movement

14.      Offer it to the Divine for the Light and Grace to descend and substitute for it the right movement

15.      The test is the presence of an undisturbed calm in the mind and spirit

16.      Detect the source if trouble, anxiety, grief, revolt,

disturbance comes

17.      Discourage them by his will, his spiritualised intelligence and his soul

18.      Must separate himself from the troubled prana and keep seated in his higher nature in the buddhi

19.      And reject the claim of the desire-soul

20.      If the will and intelligence itself is at fault then one must self surrender to the Master of our being

21.      The buddhi must teach the whole being that the ego and desire-soul has no just claim of any kind

22.      And all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being

23.      The complete self-surrender is the only way by which the absolute calm and peace can come

24.      These truths are valuable only if they are put into practice

25.      Very persistent efforts are necessary to master the least weakness, pettiness and meanness in one’s nature

V—Methods to develop Passive Equality

1.      Effort towards Passive Equality starts from three Principles of Endurance, Indifference and Submission

2.      Passive Samata consist of Titiksha, Udasinata, Nati

VI—How the principle of Endurance or Titiksha will lead to Passive Equality

1.      The principle of endurance relies on the strength of the spirit within us to bear all the contacts, impacts

2.      The attitude of Titiksha is to bear calmly and firmly all contacts pleasant or unpleasant as one who is stronger, greater than any attack of the world

3.      The outer mind’s strength is a limited force of consciousness

4.      That outer mind can maintain itself at all is due indeed to the strength of the spirit within it

5.      But it cannot bring forward the whole of that strength to meet the attacks of life

6.      If it could, it would be at once the equal and master of its world

7.      To the mind, there are always three kinds of reactions

8.      Certain impacts it is able to assimilate equate or master them

9.      The reactions are of joy, pleasure, acceptance, approval

10.      Finds certain impacts too strong or too dissimilar and discordant which it cannot bear or equate or assimilate

11.      It seeks to protect itself or escape or avoid or minimise their recurrence

12.      These movements are of fear, anger, shrinking, horror, aversion, disgust, shame

13.      The inability to deal with them is part of the

imperfection of our nature

14.      Certain impacts the mind succeeds in holding at bay or neutralising them

15.      A reaction of indifference, insensibility or neutral

16.      The same impact may arouse at one time and another the pleasurable, the adverse or the neutral reactions

17.      Confront the unpleasant impacts and teach one to suffer, to bear them with perseverance, with fortitude

18.      This attitude, this discipline brings out three results, three powers of the soul

19.      First, what was before unbearable, becomes easy to endure

20.      Secondly, the conscious nature divides itself into two parts

21.      One of the normal nature in which the customary reactions continue to take place

22.      Another of the higher will and reason which observes and is not troubled or affected by the passion of this lower nature

23.      The lower nature begins to lose the force and power of its reactions

24.      Submits to the suggestions of calm and strength from the higher reason and will

25.      And gradually that calm and strength take possession of the mental and emotional

26.      Third power is to remould all our modes of

experience by the strength of the spirit

27.      Then this method is applied to the pleasant reactions

28.      Endures with calm the impacts which bring joy and pleasure

29.      Refuses to be excited by them

30.      Replaces the joy and eager seeking of the mind after pleasant things by the calm of the spirit

31.      Thus the soul becomes gradually equal to all things, master of itself

32.      The soul becomes adequate to meet the world with undisturbed serenity of the spirit

33.      Titiksha is the power to bear calmly all touches without any reaction in the centre of the being

34.      The mind or body may suffer but the observing Purusha remains unshaken, observing only as witness

35.      Inwardly it presents an equal front of endurance to all

Period of Endurance

VII—How the attitude of Indifference or Udasinata will lead to Passive Equality

1.      The attitude of Impartial Indifference regards the passions of the mind as things born of the illusion of the outward mentality

2.      These passions of the mind are inferior movements

unworthy of the calm truth of the single and equal spirit

3.      All vital and emotional disturbance to be rejected

4.      By the tranquil observing will and dispassionate intelligence of the sage

5.      Besides the mind is voluntarily bound by the petty joys and troubles of life

6.      In reality the petty joys and troubles of life can have no inner hold on mind

7.      If the soul chooses then he can cast off its habit of holding troubles

8.      This attitude puts away desire from the mind

9.      Replaces desire by an impartial and indifferent peace

10.      This attitude discards the ego which attributes these dual values to things

11.      Replaces ego by the pure self which is not troubled or excited

12.      Here the emotional mind is quietened

13.      The intellectual being rejects the thoughts of the ignorance and rises to the one truth that is eternal

14.      A division can be made, a psychological partition between

15.      The lower or outward mind still subservient to the old habitual touches

16.      And the higher reason and will which stand back to live in the indifferent calm of the spirit

17.      The inner soul of calm regards the trouble of the

outer mind with a detached superiority

18.      Does not regard troubles as its own so rejects them

19.      Finally the outer mind too accepts by degrees this calm and indifferent serenity

20.      The third power comes of an all-pervading power of wide tranquillity and peace

21.      Comes a bliss of release from the siege of our imposed self-torturing nature

22.      The deep undisturbed happiness of the touch of the eternal and infinite

23.      Udasinata is indifference to the dualities

24.      Udasinata means literally being seated above, superior to all physical and mental touches

25.      Udasina is free from desire, does not feel the touch of joy & grief, pleasure and pain, liking and disliking

26.      Or he feels them as touching his mind and body, but not himself

Period of high-seated impartiality and indifference

VIII—The Third way of Submission or Nati to arrive at Equality

1.      The third way is that of submission to the will of God

2.      An unegoistic acceptance of things and happenings as a manifestation of the universal Will

3.      Or a complete surrender to the Divine

4.      Here one thing of importance is to approach God

5.      To be in touch and tune with the universal and infinite Existence

6.      Or to be united with the Divine, become his channel, instrument

7.      Then the knot of the ego is loosened

8.      We find that we are no longer bound pleasant or unpleasant

9.      Refer all to the Master of our being

10.      A division between the lower mind of habitual emotions

11.      And the higher psychical mind of love and self-giving takes place

12.      The lower mind changes, transforms itself, is swallowed up in the love, joy, delight of the Divine

13.      Then all within is the equal peace and bliss of that union

14.      Nati is the submission of the soul to the will of God

15.      Acceptance of all touches as His touches, of all experience as His play with the soul of man

16.      Receiving everything as the play of Krishna and therefore in itself delightful

17.      This continual joyous namaskara to God constantly practised we arrive eventually at the entire elimination of grief, pain

18.      The entire freedom from the dualities and find the Brahmananda in every smallest detail of life & experience

19.      We get rid entirely of fear and suffering

20.      The Yogin receives everything with equal ananda

21.      All the ordinary values of experience changes

22.      Bad fortune reveals itself to him as good fortune

23.      Defeat & ill-success as the fulfilment of God’s immediate purpose and a step towards ultimate victory

Period of calm submission leading to a powerful and intense surrender

IX—Other Methods of getting Passive Equality

1.      An inner renunciation of personal desire leads to Equality

a.The renunciation of attachment to the work and its fruit is the beginning of a wide movement towards an absolute equality in the mind and soul

b.Equality is the sign of this adoration; it is the soul’s ground on which true sacrifice and worship can be done

c.When we get rid of desire the passions which are desire’s emotional results will fall into quietude

d.Then the joy and grief, success and failure, pleasant and unpleasant touches, which entertain passion, will pass out of our souls

e.A calm Equality will then be gained

f.But how can we change the nature of the doer of works in us?

g.By dissociating works from ego and personality

h.By seeing through the reason that all this is only the play of the gunas of Nature

i.By dissociating our soul from the play

j.By making first of all the observer of the workings of Nature and leaving those works to the Power that is really behind them, the Master of the universe

k.One should stands back and separate oneself from the lower vital

l.Refusing to regard its desires and clamours as one’s own

m.Cultivate an entire equality and equanimity in the consciousness with respect to them

n.Then the lower vital itself becomes gradually purified and calm and equal

2.      When the Peace of the higher consciousness descends, it brings with it the tendency towards Equality, Samata

a.One of the thing by which complete Samata is dependent on is the descent of the Spiritual Calm and Peace from above

b.When the Peace descends then equanimity becomes easy and in the end automatic

c.Peace can also come by the growth of a strong samata in the being

3.      The Equality is above us, we have to call them down into the mind and the vital and the body

4.      The growth of equality can come completely when there is spontaneous sacrifice to the Divine

5.      In Work which is a field of inner training one must learn Equality

a.Work can be inner training in three things, equality, desirelessness, dedication

b.If one insists on success, one is doing the work partly for the ego

c.Difficulties and outward failures come to warn one that one is doing the work for the ego

d.Difficulties and outward failures in work help to bring complete Equality

e.All work should be done with Equality of mind

6.      When the Inner Being begins to awake the first result is a state of neutral Equanimity

7.      Accept with resignation what one cannot yet accept with gladness and so to arrive at a calm equality

1. For that have the constant idea that the Divine wills is always for the best

X—To prepare for Yoga Cultivate Equality

1.      A perfect equality of soul in all circumstances indicates that one is ready for Yoga

2.      The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual life is to cultivate an entire equality samata

3.       The Yoga cannot be done if equality is not established

4.      To be able to bear adverse fortune with a calm equanimity and inner strength would be a very strong qualification for readiness to become a disciple

5.      Patience and equanimity are the first needs of the sadhak

6.      Do not be over-eager for experience

7.      What you have to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you

8.      One of the many ways by which it can be built is Calm Equanimity

9.      One important condition to be able to receive the Divine Power is Equality

10.      A complete Equality is one of the step by which the surrender of all the being and nature to the Divine Will can be prepared and achieved

11.      The perfect Equality makes the path safe

XI—The indispensable basis for Yoga is Equanimity

1.      One of the indispensable thing is to conquer perfect unshakable peace and Equanimity

2.      Equanimity gives immutable peace and calm

3.      Calm and peace lets an integral equanimity establish itself more and more

4.      In Yoga, as in every great human effort, there is always adverse interventions and unfavourable circumstances which have to be overcome

5.      To face them with equanimity will diminishes their importance and effect and in the end gets rid of their persistence

6.      A strong basis of equanimity in your external being will be able to bear the Divine Descent

7.      Equanimity is the essential condition of union and communion with the Divine

8.      The firm basis of all spiritual power is equanimity

9.      With perfect equanimity you are safe

10.      Peace and equanimity are one of the few things that give physical body strength

11.      The strength of the Yogi lies in a perfect equanimity in all circumstances

12.      The essence of endurance is that the vital should give up its likes and dislikes and protect equanimity

13.      If the vital tends to air its petty grievances just stop to consider how very happy you are, compared to so many in this world

14.      Endure the little insignificant troubles of your life

15.      In quarrels, the wisdom of equanimity is to observe, understand how and why all this occurs

16.      This will make you to always smile and never have a violent reaction

17.      It is much more difficult to lead a life of moderation and balance, in equanimity and serenity

18.      Compared to try to contend with over-indulgence in pleasure and the obscuration

19.      Or by over-indulgence in asceticism and the disintegration it causes

20.      An Ideal child keeps equanimity in success as well as in failure

21.      Calm, Equanimity ought to be constantly practised by the teacher

22.      Closeness to the Divine will grow with Equanimity

23.      The true Agni will grow in perfect equanimity

24.      The love will grow to its full blossoming In the deep peace of Equanimity

25.      He who lives in the Divine Consciousness regards all things with a perfect Equanimity

26.      To get out of confusion and obscurity in petty quarrels and difficulties is to remain firm in Equanimity

27.      When we remember the Divine always He gives us the strength to face all circumstances with Equanimity

28.      The greatest progress is made through a steady and cheerful Equanimity

29.      Anger can completely disappear when the

Equanimity of the higher consciousness takes complete possession of the lower vital

30.      The difficulties may be taken as an excellent opportunity for practising Equanimity

31.      Once Equanimity is established then praise and blame may have no effect

32.      Peace, Equanimity in the emotional being and the vital will purify the emotions and deliver the vital

33.      Old small habits of physical vital can go entirely when the physical vital gets Equanimity

34.      Loss of Equanimity is unyogic

35.      Calm Equanimity has to be maintained in both of helpful and adverse, fortunate or unfortunate happenings, good or evil fortune, success or failure of effort

36.      The basis of equanimity in the external being Is ...

a.Good health, a solid and well poised body

b. Strong nerves

c. One sleeps well and eats well

d.One is calm, well balanced and very quiet

37.      Let nothing disturb Equanimity and make every day the necessary progress

38.      Let goodwill and love be poured out upon all with Equanimity

39.      Aspire for complete Equanimity, Samata

40.      Once Equanimity is established rest may come as the Mother’s gift

41.      It would be easier to get rid of wrong movements

when you bring down a settled Peace and Equanimity into that part of the being

42.      The faith that calls down the Equanimity

43.      Is the faith that the Divine Will is leading us in spite of our errors and weaknesses, in spite of the attacks of hostile forces, in spite of immediate appearance of failure

44.      This faith accepts what happens not definitively but as something that has to be gone through on the way

45.      Once a basis of Equanimity is established the surface movements can be rejected with ease

46.      A perfect Spiritual Equanimity is a sure defence against all the perturbations that come through the environmental nature

47.      Getting the perfect Equanimity is difficult for all

48.      When there is an attack from adverse forces, one should try to overcome it with a calm spirit of equanimity

49.      What you must arrive at is a complete equanimity which sees things and people as they are but is not shaken, angered or grieved by them

50.      Other quotation on Equanimity

XII—Sonnet—The Divine Worker

XIII—Equality does not include inert acceptance

1.      If there is temporary failure in the sadhana, one has to keep equality

2.      But not to accept the failure as an indication of the Divine Will and give up the endeavour

3.      Find out the reason of the failure and go forward in faith towards victory

4.      Equality means the mind seeing the play of forces, but itself tranquil

4.      Equality means not to be disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you

5.      Equality means to look at disturbance with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling

6.      Equality means to try to understand what is behind disturbance, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them

7.      Equality means to try to understand what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them

XIV—How Equality can become compatible with Action

1.      Equality is erroneously thought to be incompatible with action

2.      It is the error of the intellectual man who thinks that action is possible when dictated by hopes, fears and passions or by the self-willed preferences

3.      This would be the fact if the individual were the real

actor and not merely an instrument

4.      The universal is the Force which acts through the simulacrum of our individuality

5.      The individual mind when chooses in ignorance and disregard of the universal, is working on the basis of a falsehood

6.      This is not in the knowledge and the will of the Truth

7.      Determinations of the universal is not self-willed preferences but are guided by the Truth of the Divine Will and Knowledge

8.      The Yogin rises from the foundation of a perfect Equality to the consciousness of the one existence in all

9.      The Yogin lives in that existence and not in the walls of his body, personal temperament or limited mind

10.      The Gita, strongly insists on a perfect and absolute Samata, also goes on to say, ‘Fight, destroy the adversary, conquer’

11.      To take sides with the Truth and to refuse to concede anything to the Falsehood that attacks, to be unflinchingly loyal and against the hostiles and the attackers, is not inconsistent with Equality

12.      The inner spiritual Equality is right, the active loyalty and firm taking of sides is also right, and the two cannot be incompatible

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