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useful for what you are doing to come to the surface. Particularly, if you have continued to
cultivate the power of concentration and attention, only the thoughts that are needed will
be allowed to enter the active external consciousness and they then become all the more
dynamic and effective. And if, in the intensity of concentration, it becomes necessary not
to think at all, all mental vibration can be stilled and an almost total silence secured. In this
silence one can gradually open to the higher regions of the mind and learn to record the
inspirations that come from there.

But even before reaching this point, silence in itself is supremely useful, because in most
people who have a somewhat developed and active mind, the mind is never at rest. During
the day, its activity is kept under a certain control, but at night, during the sleep of the
body, the control of the waking state is almost completely removed and the mind indulges
in activities which are sometimes excessive and often incoherent. This creates a great stress
which leads to fatigue and the diminution of the intellectual faculties.

The fact is that like all the other parts of the human being, the mind too needs rest and it
will not have this rest unless we know how to provide it. The art of resting one’s mind is
something to be acquired. Changing one’s mental activity is certainly one way of resting;
but the greatest possible rest is silence. And as far as the mental faculties are concerned
a few minutes passed in the calm of silence are a more effective rest than hours of sleep.

When one has learned to silence the mind at will and to concentrate it in receptive silence,
then there will be no problem that cannot be solved, no mental difficulty whose solution
cannot be found. When it is agitated, thought becomes confused and impotent; in an attentive
tranquillity, the light can manifest itself and open up new horizons to man’s capacity.

— The Mother*

*The Mother. The Collected Works of the Mother, Volume 12. 2nd ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Trust; 2003 pp.25-29.

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