Page 48 - NAMAH-Jul-2017

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

perfect. Each small and trivial act ranging from Mother describes:
climbing a staircase to tearing open a sealed
envelope can be done consciously. One needs “Going up and down the stairs — you cannot
to be conscious not only when one is praying imagine how useful that can be from the point
but even during the most mundane acts like of view of physical culture, if you know how to
sweeping a floor, polishing a shoe or tying a knot. make use of it. Instead of going up because you
Every act then becomes a conscious offering at are going up and coming down because you
the altar of Truth. are coming down, like any ordinary man, you
go up with the consciousness of all the muscles
Many years back as a tender Boy Scout, I which are working and of making them work
was part of a group in camp where we were harmoniously. You will see. Just try a little,
playing the game of treasure hunting. We were you will see! This means that you can use all
following the trail of nicely designed paper the movements of your life for a harmonious
cuttings which we collected meticulously and development of the body.
stored delicately so as not to be damaged. Even
as children we knew that the paper cuttings were “You bend down to pick something up, you
consciously and artistically done and needed stretch up to find something right at the top of a
careful handling. Twenty years afterwards, cupboard, you open a door, you close it, you have
when I was a Scout Master, I conducted the to go around an obstacle, there are a hundred
same game but this time we, the elders, were and one things you do constantly and which
somewhat casual and in a hurry so we tore you can make use of for your physical culture
to pieces coloured papers to mark the trail. and which will demonstrate to you that it is the
The children too showed scant respect to the consciousness you put into it which produces the
paper-cuttings and crumpled them together in effect, a hundred times more than just the material
their pockets with disdain. They did not enjoy fact of doing it. So, you choose the method you like
the game with the fervour and excitement we best , but you can use the whole of your daily life
had when we had played the same game years in this way....To think constantly of the harmony
back. It is then I realised that the paper-cuttings of the body, of the beauty of the movements, of not
should have been consciously designed as was doing anything that is ungraceful and awkward.
done by our elders when we were children. You can obtain a rhythm of movement and
gesture which is very exceptional (1).”
The act of doing everything consciously brings
us towards perfection and is a great help in Reference
developing not only harmony in the mind but
also harmony in the body. It not only makes 1. The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother, Volume
what we want to do beautiful but also instils 9. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust;
harmony and grace in our own selves. The 1977, p. 155.

Dr. Soumitra Basu, a practising psychiatrist and member of SAIIIHR, is the Director of a school of
psychology, Integral Yoga Psychology. He is also one of the editors of NAMAH.

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