Development of the Mind
Sri Aurobindo:
How can one develop the intellect?
By training it to see, observe, understand in the right way. Reading and study are only useful to acquire information and widen one's field of data. But that comes to nothing if one does not know how to discern and discriminate, judge, see what is within and behind things.
What you can do is to read not for pastime but with the clear intention of furnishing your mind with knowledge.
*
Study is of importance only if you study in the right way and with the turn for knowledge and mental discipline.
*
A man may have read much and yet be mentally undevel oped. It is by thinking, understanding, receiving mental in fluences from his intellectual superiors that a man's mind develops.
The Mother:
It is a good thing to begin to learn at an early age that to lead an efficient life and obtain from one's body the maxi mum it is able to give, reason must be the master of the house.
And it is not a question of yoga or higher realisation, it is something which should be taught everywhere, in every school, every family, every home: man was made to be a mental being, and merely to be a man
— we are not speaking of any thing else, we are speaking only of being a man — life must be dominated by reason and not by vital impulses. This should be taught to all children from their infancy. If one is not domi nated by reason, one is a brute lower than the animal; for animals don't have a mind or a reason to dominate them, but they obey the instinct of the species. There is an instinct of the species which is an extremely reasonable instinct that regu lates all their activities for their own good, and automatically, without knowing it, they are subject to this instinct of the species which is altogether reasonable from the point of view of that species, of each species.... Stupidities and perversion begin with conscious mind and the human species. It is the wrong use man makes of his mental capacity. Perversion begins with humanity. It is a distortion of the progress of Nature which mental consciousness represents. And, therefore, the first thing which should be taught to every human being as soon as he is able to think, is that he should obey reason which is a super-instinct of the species. Reason is the master of the nature of mankind. One must obey reason and absolutely refuse to be the slave of instincts. And here I am not talking to you about yoga, 1 am not talking about spiritual life, not at all; it has nothing to do with that. It is the basic wisdom of human life, purely human life: every human being who obeys any thing other than reason is a kind of brute lower than the ani mal. That's all. And this should be taught everywhere; it is the basic education which should be given to children.The reign of reason must come to an end only with the advent of the psychic law which manifests the divine Will.
To complement this movement of inner discovery, it would be good not to neglect the development of the mind. For the mental instrument can equally be a great help or a great hin drance. In its natural state the human mind is always limited in its vision, narrow in its understanding, rigid in its concep tions, and a constant effort is therefore needed to widen it, to make it more supple and profound. So it is very necessary to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. Towards this end, there is an exercise which gives great supple ness and elevation to the thought. It is as follows: a clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed its antithesis, formulated with the same precision. Then by careful reflec tion the problem must be widened or transcended until a syn thesis is found which unites the two contraries in a larger, higher and more comprehensive idea.
Many other exercises of the same kind can be undertaken; some have a beneficial effect on the character and so possess a double advantage: that of educating the mind and that of establishing control over the feelings and their consequences. For example, you must never allow your mind to judge things and people, for the mind is not an instrument of knowledge; it is incapable of finding knowledge, but it must be moved by knowledge. Knowledge belongs to a much higher domain than that of the human mind, far above the region of pure ideas. The mind has to be silent and attentive to receive knowledge from above and manifest it. For it is an instrument of forma
tion, of organisation and action, and it is in these functions that it attains its full value and real usefulness.
There is another practice which can be very helpful to the progress of the consciousness. Whenever there is a disagree ment on any matter, such as a decision to be taken, or an action to be carried out, one must never remain closed up in one's own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must make an effort to understand the other's point of view, to put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling or even fighting, find the solution which can reasonably satisfy both parties; there always is one for men of goodwill.
*
...The human mind is a public place open on all sides, and in this public place, things come, go, cross from all direc tions; and some settle there and these are not always the best. And there, to obtain control over that multitude is the most difficult of all controls. Try to control the thought coming into your mind, you will see. Simply, you will see to what a degree you have to be watchful, like a sentinel, with the eyes of the mind wide open, and then keep an extremely clear vision of the ideas which conform to your aspirations and those which do not. And you must police at every minute that public place where roads from all sides meet, so that all passers-by do not rush in. It is a big job. Then, don't forget that even if you make sincere efforts, it is not in a day, not in a month, not in a year that you will reach the end of all these difficulties. When one begins, one must begin with an un shakable patience. One must say, "Even if it takes fifty years, even if it takes a hundred years, even if it takes several lives,
what I want to accomplish, I shall accomplish."
However that may be, I believe it is a practice to be rec ommended to everyone: to keep a certain time every day for trying to make the mind quiet, even, still. And it is an unde niable fact that the more mentally developed one is, the quicker one succeeds; and the more the mind is in a rudi mentary state, the more difficult it is.
Those who are at the bottom of the scale, who have never trained their minds, find it necessary to speak in order to think. It happens even that it is the sound of their voice which enables them to associate ideas; if they do not express them, they do not think. At a higher level there are those who still have to move words about in their heads in order to think, even though they do not utter them aloud. Those who truly begin to think are those who are able to think without words, that is to say, to be in contact with the idea and express it through a wide variety of words and phrases. There are higher degrees — many higher degrees — but those who think with out words truly begin to reach an intellectual state and for them it is much easier to make the mind quiet, that is to say, to stop the movement of associating the words that constantly move about like passers-by in a public square, and to con template an idea in silence.
I emphasise this fact because there are quite a few people who, when mental silence has been transmitted to them by occult means, are immediately -alarmed and afraid of losing their intelligence. Because they can no longer think, they fear they may become stupid! But to cease thinking is a much
higher achievement than to be able to spin out thoughts end lessly and it demands a much greater development.