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Balancing Detachment, Indifference and Caretaking of the Body · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When we hear that we must cultivate detachment and
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  indifference to the physical body as the instrument of our
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  external interactions in the world, we tend to immediately
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  jump to the idea that we must renounce everything and simply
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  let the body do whatever happens without any care or concern for
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  its fate. This is due to the nature of our
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  minds that want simple black and white answers without any form
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  of nuance involved. It is much more difficult to
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  follow a more subtle understanding and achieve
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  detachment and indifference without moving toward neglect
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  and disintegration of the body. The balance to be achieved
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  requires proper care to be taken for the instrument, even while
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  we are willing to accept with equanimity and a peaceful poise
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  all the body's various situations.
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  The key to this more nuanced approach is similar to the way
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  we may handle a delicate musical instrument or a tool.
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  We care for it, ensure that it is maintained in proper working
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  order and good condition, and ready for use when it is called
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  into action. Whether that instrument or tool
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  stays with one or departs or somehow becomes damaged,
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  independent of our caretaking activity, should be the place
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  where we exercise detachment as we realize that we do not own
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  anything. Rather, we act more or less as
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  trustees for a time. When it is time for the body to
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  go, we let it go. Until that time, we accept it
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  for what it is and care for it in a responsible way.
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  Sri Orobindo mentions the fact that much of what we believe are
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  necessities for the body are simply long embedded habits.
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  Relying on food for providing energy to the body is one such
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  habit. It is interesting to note that
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  in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Paraman's Yogananda
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  describes a meeting with an individual who did not eat food
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  regularly but had extraordinary vitality and energy, and who
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  obviously was able to obtain energy from the universal force
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  that is always circulating around us.
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  Other such instances have also been reported elsewhere.
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  Whether we are in a position to change this habit in our own
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  lifetime, it is good to reflect on the fact that this is not a
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  universal requirement for the manifestation, but simply a way
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  of interaction that has acquired A substantial fixed pattern, Sri
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  Aurobindo observes. Quote.
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  We say then to the mind, this is a working of prakruti.
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  This is neither thyself nor myself.
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  Stand back from it. We shall find, if we try, that
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  the mind has this power of detachment and can stand back
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  from the body. Not only an idea, but in act,
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  and as it were, physically or rather vitally.
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  This detachment of the mind must be strengthened by a certain
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  attitude of indifference to the things of the body.
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  We must not care essentially about its sleep or its waking,
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  its movement or its rest, its pain or its pleasure, its health
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  or ill health, its vigor or its fatigue, its comfort or its
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  discomfort, or what it eats or drinks.
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  This does not mean that we shall not keep the body in right order
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  so far as we can. We have not to fall into violent
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  asceticisms or a positive neglect of the physical frame.
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  But we have not either to be affected in mind by hunger or
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  thirst, or discomfort, or ill health, or attach the importance
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  which the physical and vital man attaches to the things of the
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  body, or indeed any but a quite subordinate and purely
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  instrumental importance. Nor must this instrumental
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  importance be allowed to assume the proportions of a necessity.
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  We must not, for instance, imagine that the purity of the
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  mind depends on the things we eat or drink, although during a
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  certain stage restrictions in eating and drinking are useful
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  to our inner progress. Nor, on the other hand, must we
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  continue to think that the dependence of the mind or even
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  the life on food and drink is anything more than a habit, a
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  customary relation which nature has set up between these
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  principles. As a matter of fact, the food we
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  take can be reduced by contrary habit and new relation to a
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  minimum without the mental or vital vigor being in any way
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  reduced. Even On the contrary, with the
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  judicious development, they can be trained to a greater
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  potentiality of vigor by learning to rely on the secret
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  fountains of mental and vital energy with which they are
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  connected more than upon the minor aid of physical elements.
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  This aspect of self-discipline is, however, more important in
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  the Yoga of self perfection than here for our present purpose.
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  The important point is the renunciation by the mind of
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  attachment to or dependence on the things of the body.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother, Looking from within, Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, pages 161 to 163.