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The Power of Immobility in Action · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The Bhagavad Gita has an interesting verse that provides
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  a clue to the secret of action and inaction between static and
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  dynamic power. If you will quote, he who in
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  action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in
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  cessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment
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  among men. He is in yoga and a many sided
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  universal worker. End Quote.
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  Translated by Sri Aurobindo in Bhagwad Gita and its Message,
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  Chapter 4, verse 18. The Mother points out that the
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  ability to remain immobile under pressure of circumstances is
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  more difficult than letting the energies loose to react and
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  vibrate in tune with whatever is being imposed upon the being.
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  If we observe our reactions to circumstances and events, we
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  quickly can see how easy it is to get caught up in the energy
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  and respond to it. It is an interesting and
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  insightful experiment to try to practice immobility in the
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  physical, vital and mental beings.
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  When pressured, one quickly finds out how much harder it is
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  to remain calm and quiet than to react and spill energy in
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  response to these events. This can either be a positive
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  spillage in the form of joy or extreme happiness when something
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  occurs that one finds desirable, or a negative spillage when one
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  is pressured and insulted, assaulted, or outright attacked.
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  As long as one still vibrates under the impulsion of these
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  outer circumstances, the power of immobility is incomplete.
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  True mastery and the power to impact those external
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  circumstances through a pervading peace comes when the
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  immobility becomes perfected in the nature.
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  Some years ago, a devotee reported the following
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  experience. He was living at Triorbindo
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  Ashram at the time of the Mother's Maha Samadhi.
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  He arrived as usual at the ashram early the next morning to
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  find the lights on everywhere and people milling around and
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  many of them crying. He inquired and found out that
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  the mother had left her body. He had just in the morning on
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  the 17th of November, received a birthday blessings card from the
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  mother and the message was live within be not shaken by outward
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  happenings. He was still in something of a
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  walking trance state from the energy of the 17th, and he found
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  that he was non reactive but observant.
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  And this state continued for some days as people came
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  streaming in from all over the world, many with visible signs
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  of grief to begin with. As the days went on, the energy
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  in the ashram was so powerfully impacted that those who entered
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  with grief departed with peace in their hearts.
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  He felt like he had a brief glimpse of the power of
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  immobility granted to him as a grace, just at the moment when
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  outward circumstances were going to test that power within him.
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  The mother notes quote. I know what you want to say,
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  that a human being becomes aware of power only when it is
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  dynamic. A human being doesn't consider
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  it a power except when it acts. If it doesn't act, he does not
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  even notice it. He does not realize the
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  tremendous force which is behind this inaction, at times even
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  frequently a force more formidable than the power which
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  acts. But you may try it out in
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  yourself. You will see it is much more
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  difficult to remain calm, immobile, unshakeable before
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  something very unpleasant, whether it be words or acts
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  levelled against you, infinitely more difficult than to answer
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  with the same violence. Suppose someone insults you.
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  If in the face of these insults you can remain immobile, not
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  only outwardly, I mean integrally, without being shaken
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  or touched in any way, you are there like a force against which
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  one can do nothing. And you do not reply, you do not
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  make a gesture, you do not say a word.
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  All the insults thrown at you leave you absolutely untouched,
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  within and without. You can keep your heartbeats
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  absolutely quiet, you can keep the thoughts in your head quite
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  immobile and calm without there being in the least disturbed.
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  That is, your head does not answer immediately by similar
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  vibrations, and your nerves don't feel clenched with the
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  need to return a few blows to relieve themselves.
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  If you can be like that, you have a static power, and it is
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  infinitely more powerful than if you had that kind of force,
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  which makes you answer insult by insult, blow by blow, and
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  agitation by agitation. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 12, Power of
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  Immobility, pages 101 to 102.