Page 38 - NAMAH-Jul-2017

Namah Vol. 25, Issue 2, 15th July 2017

danger that this love will shrivel down to implanted habits, so much persistence
attachment. The ego distorts love and narrows is required. It is a process in which I am
it down to attachment. Relationships of this engaged to this day. Eventually though, the
kind can be suffocating, to say the least. There stranglehold of attachment will be gradually
is friction and everything grates. They persist released. But like everything on this path, the
particularly within family life: they arise process has to be seen to the very end.
unconsciously, sometimes even before birth
and can be very difficult to resolve. They In my experience, the only solution to any
are inside us without our knowing and the emotional complication comes through enquiry
roots are very deep. Eventually they need to and consciousness. It needs to be looked upon
be observed very closely because the effect as something quite apart from oneself. A
upon our growth can be very harmful indeed. disinterested poise really helps. We can allow
always the flame of Truth to purify and
In the past I have experienced such effects in harmonise. One starts with detailed work
a very vivid way. For me, the saadhanaa brought and observation but I feel the definitive
these attachments very much into the open. shift takes place when the Truth is sincerely
Soon they became something I had to resolve. invited to manage and govern every aspect of
I noticed that the ties had got completely our everyday life. If one can simply accept the
implanted in my nature. There was a long Truth as observer, the necessary change will
chain stretching far back, entirely without come. It is almost a reversal of consciousness
questioning or awareness. After a while here, and there are no boundaries. The aim is to
I was being asked to look upon them and maintain this station even outside those
they were appearing to me almost like an times of individual practice. The Truth brings
open sore. So for many years here, this left a knowledge and once embraced and known,
suffocating and at times quite toxic effect on emotional distortions disappear and a greater
my inner health. It was often so extreme that clarity emerges.
it was able to drag down the body to quite
alarming degrees. References

These kind of attachments need to be worked 1. The Mother. CollectedWorks of the Mother,
through. If not, one is liable to find oneself in Volume 14. 2nd ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
a very stifling net. They have appeared to me Ashram Trust; 2004, p. 351.
in many nuances and forms. The problem may
meet me with many faces but the procedure I 2. Sri Aurobindo. Birth Centenary Library, Volume
adopt will always be the same. I work through 20. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust;
the body and see what signals come from 1971, p. 419.
there. The Truth gives me a searchlight to
work through the emotional knots that lie 3. The Mother. Collected Works, Volume 15. 2004,
hidden in the body. I’m looking at deeply p.189.

James Anderson is a member of SAIIIHR and coordinating editor of NAMAH.

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