Perfection
of the Body
Page 3
The
body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and
itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of
itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the
Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument
of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has
created the miracle we call the universe. Matter is the
field and the creation of the Inconscient and the perfection
of the operations of inconscient Matter, their perfect adaptation
of means to an aim and end, the wonders they perform and
the marvels of beauty they create, testify, in spite of
all the ignorant denial we can oppose, to the presence and
power of consciousness of this Superconscience in every
part and movement of the material universe. It is there
in the body, has made it and its emergence in our consciousness
is the secret aim of evolution and the key to the mystery
of our existence.
In
the use of such activities as sports and physical exercises
for the education of the individual in childhood and first
youth, which should mean the bringing out of his actual
and latent possibilities to their fullest development, the
means and methods we must use are limited by the nature
of the body and its aim must be such relative human perfection
of the body's powers and capacities and the powers of mind,
will, character, action of which it is at once the residence
and the instrument so far as these methods can help to develop
them. I have written sufficiently about the mental and moral
parts of perfection to which these pursuits can contribute
and this I need not repeat here. For the body itself the
perfections that can be developed by these means are those
of its natural qualities and capacities and, secondly, the
training of its general fitness as an instrument for all
the activities which may be demanded from it by the mind
and the will, by the life-energy or by the dynamic perceptions,
impulses and instincts of our subtle physical being which
is an unrecognised but very important element and agent
in our nature. Health and strength are the first conditions
for the natural perfection of the body, not only muscular
strength and the solid strength of the limbs and physical
stamina, but the finer, alert and plastic and adaptable
force which our nervous and subtle physical parts can put
into the activities of the frame. There is also the still
more dynamic force which a call upon the life-energies can
bring into the body and stir it to greater activities, even
feats of the most extraordinary character of which in its
normal state it would not be capable. There is also the
strength which the mind and will by their demands and stimulus
and by their secret powers which we use or by which we are
used without knowing clearly the source of their action
can impart to the body or impose upon it as masters and
inspirers. Among the natural qualities and powers of the
body which can be thus awakened, stimulated and trained
to a normal activity we must reckon dexterity and stability
in all kinds of physical action, such as swiftness in the
race, dexterity in combat, skill and endurance of the mountaineer,
the constant and often extraordinary response to all that
can be demanded from the body of the soldier, sailor, traveller
or explorer to which I have already made reference, or in
adventure of all kinds and all the wide range of physical
attainment to which man has accustomed himself or to which
he is exceptionally pushed by his own will or by the compulsion
of circumstance. It is a general fitness of the body for
all that can be asked from it which is the common formula
of all this action, a fitness attained by a few or by many,
that could be generalised by an extended and many-sided
physical education and discipline. Some of these activities
can be included under the name of sports; there are others
for which sports and physical exercises can be an effective
preparation. In some of them a training for common action,
combined movement, discipline are needed and for that our
physical exercises can make one ready; in others a developed
individual will, skill of mind and quick perception, forcefulness
of life-energy and subtle physical impulsion are more prominently
needed and may even be the one sufficient trainer. All must
be included in our conception of the natural powers of the
body and its capacity and instrumental fitness in the service
of the human mind and will, and therefore in our concept
of the total perfection of the body.
There
are two conditions for this perfection, an awakening in
as great an entirety as possible of the body consciousness
and an education, an evocation of its potentialities, also
as entire and fully developed and, it may be, as many-sided
as possible. The form or body is, no doubt, in its origin
a creation of the Inconscient and limited by it on all sides,
but still of the Inconscient developing the secret consciousness
concealed within it and growing in light of knowledge, power
and Ananda. We have to take it at the point it has reached
in its human evolution in these things, make as full a use
of them as may be and, as much as we can, further this evolution
to as high a degree as is permitted by the force of the
individual temperament and nature. In all forms in the world
there is a force at work, unconsciously active or oppressed
by inertia in its lower formulations, but in the human being
conscious from the first, with its potentialities partly
awake, partly asleep or latent: what is awake in it we have
to make fully conscious; what is asleep we have to arouse
and set to its work; what is latent we have to evoke and
educate. Here there are two aspects of the body consciousness,
one which seems to be a kind of automatism carrying on its
work in the physical plane without any intervention of the
mind and in parts even beyond any possibility of direct
observation by the mind or, if conscious or observable,
still proceeding or capable of continuing, when once started,
by an apparently mechanical action not needing direction
by the mind and continuing so long as the mind does not
intervene.
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Sri Aurobindo
