Perfection
of the Body
Page 2
In
the pursuit of perfection we can start at either end of
our range of being and we have then to use, initially at
least, the means and processes proper to our choice. In
Yoga the process is spiritual and psychic; even its vital
and physical processes are given a spiritual or psychic
turn and raised to a higher motion than belongs properly
to the ordinary life and Matter, as for instance in the
Hathayogic and Rajayogic use of the breathing or the use
of Asana. Ordinarily a previous preparation of the mind
and life and body is necessary to make them fit for the
reception of the spiritual energy and the organisation of
psychic forces and methods, but this too is given a special
turn proper to the Yoga. On the other hand, if we start
in any field at the lower end we have to employ the means
and processes which Life and Matter offer to us and respect
the conditions and what we may call the technique imposed
by the vital and the material energy. We may extend the
activity, the achievement, the perfection attained beyond
the initial, even beyond the normal possibilities but still
we have to stand on the same base with which we started
and within the boundaries it gives to us. It is not that
the action from the two ends cannot meet and the higher
take into itself and uplift the lower perfection; but this
can usually be done only by a transition from the lower
to a higher outlook, aspiration and motive: this we shall
have to do if our aim is to transform the human into the
divine life. But here there comes in the necessity of taking
up the activities of human life and sublimating them by
the power of the spirit. Here the lower perfection will
not disappear; it will remain but will be enlarged and transformed
by the higher perfection which only the power of the spirit
can give. This will be evident if we consider poetry and
art, philosophic thought, the perfection of the written
word or the perfect organisation of earthly life: these
have to be taken up and the possibilities already achieved
or whatever perfection has already been attained included
in a new and greater perfection but with the larger vision
and inspiration of a spiritual consciousness and with new
forms and powers. It must be the same with the perfection
of the body.
The
taking up of life and Matter into what is essentially a
spiritual seeking, instead of the rejection and ultimate
exclusion of them which was the attitude of a spirituality
that shunned or turned away from life in the world, involves
certain developments which a spiritual institution of the
older kind could regard as foreign to its purpose. A divine
life in the world or an institution having that for its
aim and purpose cannot be or cannot remain something outside
or entirely shut away from the life of ordinary men in the
world or unconcerned with the mundane existence; it has
to do the work of the Divine in the world and not a work
outside or separate from it. The life of the ancient Rishis
in their Ashramas had such a connection; they were creators,
educators, guides of men and the life of the Indian people
in ancient times was largely developed and directed by their
shaping influence. The life and activities involved in the
new endeavour are not identical but they too must be an
action upon the world and a new creation in it. It must
have contacts and connections with it and activities which
take their place in the general life and whose initial or
primary objects may not seem to differ from those of the
same activities in the outside world. In our Ashram here
we have found it necessary to establish a school for the
education of the children of the resident sadhaks, teaching
upon familiar lines though with certain modifications and
taking as part and an important part of their development
an intensive physical training which has given form to the
sports and athletics practised by the Jeunesse Sportive
of the Ashram and of which this Bulletin is the expression.
It has been questioned by some what place sports can have
in an Ashram created for spiritual seekers and what connection
there can be between spirituality and sports. The first
answer lies in what I have already written about the connections
of an institution of this kind with the activities of the
general life of men and what I have indicated in the previous
number as to the utility such a training can have for the
life of a nation and its benefit for the international life.
Another answer can occur to us if we look beyond first objects
and turn to the aspiration for a total perfection including
the perfection of the body.
In
the admission of an activity such as sports and physical
exercises into the life of the Ashram it is evident that
the methods and the first objects to be attained must belong
to what we have called the lower end of the being. Originally
they have been introduced for the physical education and
bodily development of the children of the Ashram School,
and these are too young for a strictly spiritual aim or
practice to enter into their activities and it is not certain
that any great number of them will enter the spiritual life
when they are of an age to choose what shall be the direction
of their future. The object must be the training of the
body and the development of certain parts of mind and character
so far as this can be done by or in connection with this
training, and I have already indicated in a previous number
how and in what directions this can be done. It is a relative
and human perfection that can be attained within these limits;
anything greater can be reached only by the intervention
of higher powers, psychic powers, the power of the spirit.
Yet what can be attained within the human boundaries can
be something very considerable and sometimes immense: what
we call genius is part of the development of the human range
of being, and its achievements, especially in things of
the mind and will, can carry us half-way to the divine.
Even what the mind and will can do with the body in the
field proper to the body and its life, in the way of physical
achievement, bodily endurance, feats of prowess of all kinds,
a lasting activity refusing fatigue or collapse and continuing
beyond what seems at first to be possible, courage and refusal
to succumb under an endless and murderous physical suffering,
these and other victories of many kinds sometimes approaching
or reaching the miraculous are seen in the human field and
must be reckoned as a part of our concept of a total perfection.
The unflinching and persistent reply that can be made by
the body as well as the mind of man and by his life-energy
to whatever call can be imposed on it in the most difficult
and discouraging circumstances by the necessities of war
and travel and adventure is of the same kind, and their
endurance can reach astounding proportions and even the
inconscient in the body seems to be able to return a surprising
response.
-
Sri Aurobindo
