Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Distinguishing an Attitude of Equality From One of Indifference

Transcript

Distinguishing an Attitude of Equality From One of Indifference · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:00
  The mental framework frequently wants to find an either or
• 0:04
  option rather than looking at the nuance needed to resolve
• 0:08
  multiple views of pending questions.
• 0:11
  Thus, when we are asked to consider achieving a poise of
• 0:15
  equality in the face of provocation of any sort,
• 0:18
  positive or negative, we will tend to shift toward a poise of
• 0:23
  indifference and thereby give up the initiative to action.
• 0:27
  It is difficult for us to conceive of maintaining such a
• 0:30
  standpoint and at the same time engaging in the action needed to
• 0:35
  fight for a principle or to achieve the evolutionary goal
• 0:40
  before us. This was the conundrum that
• 0:43
  paralyzed Arjuna on the battlefield.
• 0:45
  When he said I will not fight. Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita
• 0:51
  provided the answer to Arjuna. He was not to demonize the
• 0:55
  opposition, but he was to fight for the principle of truth and
• 1:00
  be ready to kill the opponents, even those who were respected
• 1:04
  and honoured, elders and teachers and family members.
• 1:08
  A tough lesson to be sure. It is easy to become upset, to
• 1:14
  claim the enemy before us as a demon or somehow utterly evil
• 1:19
  and worthy to be destroyed. We may feel we are fighting for
• 1:23
  the truth, but this leads to the question, particularly in
• 1:28
  complex areas that have balancing aspects on each side,
• 1:32
  of whether we are impartial enough to actually judge the
• 1:36
  truth of the situation, and if so, are we ready to meet the
• 1:41
  challenge and do so without demonizing the opponent?
• 1:46
  If we take a longer view, we can see the arc of evolution tending
• 1:51
  towards greater understanding, more harmony in our interactions
• 1:55
  with others and with nature, and with more compassion and empathy
• 2:01
  as we identify suffering. This does not imply that most of
• 2:06
  humanity has adopted these principles as a basis for their
• 2:09
  actions. It means that more people have
• 2:13
  been aware of these issues and aspire towards realizing them in
• 2:17
  circumstances that are both complex and mired in the ways of
• 2:22
  the past. Change does not come easily,
• 2:26
  quickly, or on a scale that transforms life all at once.
• 2:31
  This basic understanding represents a true sense of the
• 2:34
  purpose of our lives and the direction that we can support.
• 2:39
  Similarly, the apparent increase in power of retrogressive forces
• 2:44
  does not imply that the evolutionary change has failed
• 2:47
  or been reversed. Rather, it may paradoxically
• 2:52
  show that the evolutionary trend is gaining steam and those
• 2:56
  wedded to the old ways and habits are fighting with all
• 2:59
  their power to derail the changes.
• 3:04
  Fioro Vendo notes quote No doubt hatred and cursing are not the
• 3:10
  proper attitude. It is true also that to look
• 3:14
  upon all things and all people with a calm and clear vision to
• 3:18
  be uninvolved and impartial in one's judgments is a quite
• 3:23
  proper yogic attitude. A condition of perfect samata
• 3:27
  can be established in which one sees all as equal, friends and
• 3:32
  enemies included, and is not disturbed by what men do or by
• 3:38
  what happens. The question is whether this is
• 3:41
  all that is demanded from us. If so, then the general attitude
• 3:46
  will be of a neutral indifference to everything.
• 3:49
  But the Gita, which strongly insists on a perfect and
• 3:53
  absolute samatta, goes on to say fight, destroy the adversary,
• 4:00
  conquer. If there is no kind of general
• 4:03
  action wanted, no loyalty to truth as against falsehood,
• 4:07
  except for one's personal sadhna, no will for the truth to
• 4:12
  conquer, then the summit or indifference will suffice.
• 4:17
  But here there is a work to be done, a truth to be established,
• 4:21
  against which immense forces are arranged, invisible forces which
• 4:26
  can use visible things and persons and actions for their
• 4:29
  instruments. If one is among the disciples,
• 4:33
  the seekers of this truth, one has to take sides for the truth,
• 4:38
  to stand against the forces that attack it and seek to stifle it.
• 4:43
  Arjuna wanted not to stand for either side, to refuse any
• 4:48
  action of hostility even against assailants.
• 4:51
  Sri Krishna, who insisted so much on samata, strongly rebuked
• 4:57
  his attitude and insisted equally on his fighting the
• 5:00
  adversary. Have Samata, he said, and seeing
• 5:05
  clearly the truth, fight. Therefore to take sides with the
• 5:10
  truth and to refuse to concede anything to the falsehood that
• 5:14
  attacks, To be unflinchingly loyal and against the hostiles
• 5:19
  and the attackers is not inconsistent with equality.
• 5:24
  It is personal, an egoistic feeling that has to be thrown
• 5:28
  away. Hatred and vital ill will have
• 5:31
  to be rejected, but loyalty and refusal to compromise with the
• 5:36
  assailants and the hostiles, or to dally with their ideas and
• 5:41
  demands and say, after all, we can compromise with what they
• 5:45
  ask from us, or to accept them as companions and our own
• 5:50
  people. These things have a great
• 5:52
  importance. It is a spiritual battle, inward
• 5:56
  and outward. By neutrality and compromise or
• 6:00
  even passivity, one may allow the enemy forces to pass and
• 6:04
  crush down the truth and its children.
• 6:07
  If you look at it from this point, you will see that if the
• 6:11
  inner spiritual equality is right, the active loyalty and
• 6:16
  firm taking of sides is as right, and the two cannot be
• 6:21
  incompatible. End Quote.
• 6:25
  Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother, Looking from Within,
• 6:29
  Chapter 2. Looking at Oneself and Others,
• 6:32
  pages 45 to 47.