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The
Mother Answers on Perfection of the Body - IV
Mother,
usually we see that many of us take an interest in the games
and activities in which there is some excitement, but few
take interest in serious activities, serious exercises.
Why is that?
Because
in the vast majority of cases, what gives interest is vital
satisfaction. For you to be interested in training exercises
which don't have the stimulus of games, the reason must govern
the being. In ordinary men reason is the summit of human consciousness,
and this is the part of the being which must govern the rest,
for it is orderly and reasonable, that is, it does things
with a feeling for order, for goodness, usefulness, and in
accordance with a plan, a specific plan, recognised and used
by each one, whereas the vital part of the being likes excitement,
the unexpected, adventure—all that makes games attractive—above
all, competition, the effort to win, victory over the opponent,
all these things; it is the vital impulse, and the vital in
man being the seat of enthusiasm, ardour, normal energy, when
the attraction of the unexpected, of struggle and victory
is not there, it goes to sleep, unless it is in the habit
of obeying, regularly and spontaneously, the will of the reason.
And this is even one of the first things for which all physical
training is useful: the fact that it cannot be done really
well unless the body is in the habit of obeying the reason
rather than the vital impulse. For instance, the whole development
of bodily perfection, of physical culture with dumb-bells
and the exercises which have nothing particularly exciting
and demand a discipline, habits which must be regular, reasonable,
which give no scope to passion, desire, impulse—one must
order one's life according to a very strict and very regular
discipline—well, in order to do them really well one
must be in the habit of governing one's life by the reason.
This
is not very common. Usually, unless one has taken good care
to make it otherwise, the impulses—the impulses of desire—all
the enthusiasms and passions with all their reactions are
the masters of human life. One must already be something of
a sage to be able to undergo a rigorous discipline of the
body and obtain from it the ordered, regular effort which
can perfect it. There is no longer any room there for all
the fancies of desire. You see, as soon as one gives way to
excesses, to immoderation of any kind and a disorderly life,
it becomes quite impossible to control one's body and develop
it normally, not to mention that, naturally, one spoils one's
health and as a result the most important part of the ideal
of a perfect body disappears; for with bad health, impaired
health, one is not much good for anything. And it is certainly
the satisfaction of desires and impulses of the vital or the
unreasonable demands of certain ambitions which make the body
suffer and fall ill.
Naturally,
there is all the ignorance of those who don't even know the
most elementary rules of life; but everybody knows one must
learn how to live and, for instance, that fire burns and water
can drown! People don't need to be told all that, it is something
they learn fast as they grow up; but the fact that the control
of reason over life is absolutely indispensable even for good
health, is not always accepted by the inferior man for whom
life has no savour unless he can live out his passions.
I
remember a man who came here a very long time ago, to stand
as a candidate for the government. It so happened that he
was introduced to me because they wanted my opinion of him,
and so he asked me questions about the Ashram and the life
we lead here, and about what I considered to be an indispensable
discipline for life. This man used to smoke the whole day
and drank much more than was necessary, and so he complained,
you see, that he was often tired and sometimes could not control
himself. I told him, ``You know, first of all, you must stop
smoking and you must stop drinking.'' He looked at me with
an unbelievable bewilderment and said, "But then, one
doesn't either smoke or drink, it is not worth living!"
I told him, "If you are still at that stage, it is no
use saying anything more."
And
this is much more frequent than one thinks. To us it seems
absurd, for we have something else which is of course more
interesting than smoking and drinking, but for ordinary men
the satisfaction of their desires is the very reason for existence.
For them it seems to be an affirmation of their independence
and their purpose in life. And it is simply a perversion,
a deformation which is a denial of the life-instinct, it is
an unhealthy interference of thought and vital impulse in
physical life. It is an unhealthy impulse which does not usually
exist even in animals. In this case, instinct in animals is
infinitely more reasonable than human instinct—which,
besides, doesn't exist any more, which has been replaced by
a very perverted impulse.
Perversion
is a human disease, it occurs only very rarely in animals,
and then only in animals which have come close to man and
therefore have been contaminated by his perversion.
There
is a story about some officers in North Africa—in Algeria—who
had adopted a monkey. The monkey lived with them and one day
at dinner they had a grotesque idea and gave the monkey something
to drink. They gave it alcohol. The monkey first saw the others
drink, this seemed to it something quite interesting, and
it drank a glass, a full glass of wine. Afterwards it was
ill, as ill as could be, it rolled under the table with all
kinds of pains and was really in a very bad way, that is,
it gave the men an example of the spontaneous effect of alcohol
when the physical nature is not already perverted. It nearly
died of poisoning. It recovered. And some time later it was
again allowed to come for dinner as it was all right, and
somebody placed a glass of wine in front of it. It picked
it up in a terrible rage and flung it at the head of the man
who had given the glass to it.... By that it showed that it
was much wiser than the men!
It
is a good thing to begin to learn at an early age that to
lead an efficient life and obtain from one's body the maximum
it is able to give, reason must be the master of the house.
And it is not a question of yoga or higher realisation, it
is something which should be taught everywhere, in every school,
every family, every home: man was made to be a mental being,
and merely to be a man—we are not speaking of anything
else, we are speaking only of being a man—life must be
dominated by reason and not by vital impulses. This should
be taught to all children from their infancy. If one is not
dominated by reason, one is a brute lower than the animal;
for animals don't have a mind or a reason to dominate them,
but they obey the instinct of the species. There is an instinct
of the species which is an extremely reasonable instinct that
regulates all their activities for their own good, and automatically,
without knowing it, they are subject to this instinct of the
species which is altogether reasonable from the point of view
of that species, of each species. And those animals which
for some reason or other become free of it—as I was saying
just a while ago, those which live near man and begin to obey
man instead of obeying the instinct of the species—are
perverted and lose the qualities of their species. But an
animal left to its natural life and free from human influence
is an extremely reasonable being from its own point of view,
for it only does things which are in conformity with its nature
and its own good. Naturally, it meets with disasters, for
it is constantly at war with all the other species, but it
does not itself act foolishly. Stupidities and perversion
begin with conscious mind and the human species. It is the
wrong use man makes of his mental capacity. Perversion begins
with humanity. It is a distortion of the progress of Nature
which mental consciousness represents. And, therefore, the
first thing which should be taught to every human being as
soon as he is able to think, is that he should obey reason
which is a super-instinct of the species. Reason is the master
of the nature of mankind. One must obey reason and absolutely
refuse to be the slave of instincts. And here I am not talking
to you about yoga, I am not talking about spiritual life,
not at all; it has nothing to do with that. It is the basic
wisdom of human life, purely human life: every human being
who obeys anything other than reason is a kind of brute lower
than the animal. That's all. And this should be taught everywhere;
it is the basic education which should be given to children.
The
reign of reason must come to an end only with the advent of
the psychic law which manifests the divine Will.
8
May 1957
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The Mother
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