Necessary Conditions for the Transformation of the Physical Body

When the body experiences an influx of energy, for whatever source, it frequently finds that it cannot ‘hold’ that energy and must find a release for it. This may be expressed as some form of twitching or moving of the limbs, nervous drumming with the fingers, uncontrolled activity of the facial muscles or an urge to get up and ‘do’ something, or in some cases, expression of an ecstatic dancing. In some people this turns into a type of restlessness, and they undertake physical labor, or challenge the body through extreme sports, or dissipate the energy in sex or other forms of physical release. If they cannot hold the energy, they may also resort to use of alcohol, drugs, such as sedatives or sleeping aids, or dissipating, enervating activities to shunt off the excess energy, or at least temporarily overpower its action in the body..

The challenge for the yogic practitioner is to develop the power to receive, accumulate and hold the force as it descends and enters the mind, life-energy, nervous system and the physical body. The more this power to hold the force is developed, the greater the power that can be channeled and utilized effectively.

The developments associated with Hatha Yoga are, for example, one method that can be utilized to train the body to hold more energy with a dynamic poise and control. Pranayama utilizes techniques to purify and strengthen the nerve channels. Raja Yoga works to bring calmness and a force of stillness to the mind. Each of these techniques can be part of a training action undertaken to expand the receiving and holding power for the higher energies, although it must be noted that there are other methods that can be equally or even more effecitve, without the time and effort needed to perfect the practice of Hatha Yoga or Pranayama for instance. This can be done by a conscious opening of the psychic aspiration and consecration to the higher force as it descends, which can then allow that force to work and modify the body, life-energy and mind to meet its requirements. Practitioners who successfully undertake this approach frequently report a sense of wideness in their awareness far exceeding the normal restriction of active awareness to the limits of the physical body or its immediate vital envelope.

The Vedic Rishis described their experience of the action of the force through the expression satyam, rtam, brihat, ‘the truth, the right, the vast.’. The more the consciousness is able to exceed the limtis and bounds of the physical body, the greater the experience of the vastness that is the unbounded condition of the universal creation. In their presence the atmosphere was calm, still and immensely powerful.

Sri Aurobindo was recognised to have created such a presence around himself. The experience was palpable for those who came within the range of his physical presence. The Mother indicated that when she approached Pondicherry, she experienced Sri Aurobindo’s presence some two miles from shore. The peace that radiated from his being was experienced as solid and pervasive by those who reported on their interactions with him.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Wideness and calmness are the foundation of the Yogic consciousness and the best condition for inner growth and experience. If a wide calm can be established in the physical consciousness, occupying and filling the very body and all its cells, that can become the basis for its transformatio; in fact, without this wideness and calmness the transformation is hardly possible.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, Calm — Peace — Equality, pp. 19-20