The Power of the Quiet Mind and Vital to Resolve Problems We Face

We are habitually conditioned to try to solve problems with our mental capacity. We are taught to observe, organize, classify, compare and contrast, and examine similar past circumstances in order to determine a solution to whatever we are facing. This is the normal pattern for a mentally developed individual. Those who function primarily on the vital level do not necessarily go through this detailed process, but respond through what may be called instinct, feeling or emotional reaction. In either case, we oftentimes find that the result is less than satisfactory. The process generates a lot of stress and discomfort, including pressures we experience in the physical body that lead to indigestion, ulcers, high blood pressure and palpitations.

As we begin to understand the development of consciousness, we can see that physical, vital and mental methods of solving problems are limited and inefficient. We can also see that as we begin to explore the spiritual consciousness that represents the next stage of the evolution, that new possibilities arise, which operate from a totally different, even opposite, standpoint to the prior modes of understanding and decision-making.

The power of silence, the power of the quiet mind and vital, is a gateway to gaining access to the answers we seek. We are so busy formulating thought and acting in a frenzy that we oftentimes simply don’t take the time to stop, quiet the being, and allow answers to come.

A story in the Mahabharata illustrates the need to listen for the answers. A woman was undertaking extreme ascetic disciplines for purpose of gaining a suitable husband. After considerable time had elapsed and she had gained substantial spiritual power in her tapasya, she asked for the boon of a suitable husband. She asked multiple times without noticing any response. Eventually Shiva appeared before her and granted her the boon she had requested, namely that in a future lifetime she would have five husbands. She objected saying she only wanted one. Shiva replied that she had asked five times and thus had obtained the response for five husbands.

When we quiet the mind and vital, and pose the question facing us to the universe, the higher unified field consciousness responds and provides us the answer we need. We have to learn how to listen for the answer.

The Mother writes: “The noise made by all the words, all the ideas in your head is so deafening that it prevents you from hearing the truth when it wants to manifest.”

“To learn to be quiet and silent… When you have a problem to solve, instead of turning over in your head all the possibilities, all the consequences, all the possible things one should or should not do, if you remain quiet with an aspiration for goodwill, if possible a need for goodwill, the solution comes very quickly. And as you are silent you are able to hear it.”

“When you are caught in a difficulty, try this method: instead of becoming agitated, turning over all the ideas and actively seeking solutions, of worrying, fretting, running here and there inside your head — I don’t mean externally, for externally you probably have enough common sense not to do that! but inside, in your head — remain quiet. And according to your nature, with ardour or peace, with intensity or widening of with all these together, implore the Light and wait for it to come.”

“In this way the path would be considerably shortened.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter X Obtaining Answers and Solutions pp. 94-95