Page 48 - NAMAH-Oct-2020

Namah Vol. 28, Issue 3, 15th October 2020

It is interesting that the habitual ruminating and were compelled to design, formulate
thoughts of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum and execute mighty projects. This is the
are a characteristic of what Sri Aurobindo characteristic of the vital mind. Typically
described as the physical mind. It is that part of such projects were time-bound which meant
the mind that is enmeshed in sensory schemata that they were always competing with time!
and regulates the physical consciousness where
our habits are scripted. If one is always poised Such dynamism gets inevitably linked with
in the physical mind, work is stereotyped. At the ego and that further complicates the
an optimal point in time one has to break matter. With the assertion of the ego
the rigidity of the physical mind to shift to comes a host of other boosting variables
a higher poise of consciousness when work — competition, jealousy, consumerism,
can start to be creative. As Sri Aurobindo greed and exploitation.
pointed out, “Skill in works will come when
there is opening of the physical mind and the Well, work is necessary and great projects are
body (2)”. needed to serve civilization. However yogic
insight reveals that work of great vitality is
There are two perspectives in this statement. also vulnerable to great vital lapses because the
Firstly, one has to break the boundaries of the vital (the repertoire of life-energy, emotions and
physical mind to shift to a higher poise so as passions) is usually untransformed.
to infuse creativity and newness in what so
long was a habitual and stereotyped work. There is another problem that is overlooked.
Secondly, unless one learns to relax the Work of mighty magnitude comes with a
body, one cannot effect a shift in the focus price for the perpetrators of work-culture are
of consciousness that is needed to rise above prone to succumb to stress and the plethora
habitual thinking. of ailments that follow.

It is significant that decades after Sri Work could also be done from a poise of
Aurobindo observed how rising above the ‘no-work’. That sounds strange but is a
rigidities of the physical consciousness great spiritual reality. If the outer dynamism
was needed for developing skill in works, is balanced by an inner poise of silence and
progressive muscular relaxation became an peace — a poise that is linked with timelessness,
important tool to allay stress in workaholic then the work at the outer level would not lead
executives. It is also an important therapeutic
tool in alleviating the stress of obsessive
subjects.

Work and the vital mind
Then there was another group of subjects
with high vitality who were always reeling
under the pressure to work, work and work.
They seemed to have inexhaustible energy

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