Calm Summary

Read more about Calm from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

What Is Calm?

Calm is a still, unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect.

Calm is a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid.

Calm is not to have restless, excited, agitated thoughts; it is to quieten the mind and stop turning around in all the imaginations and observations and mental constructions.

Why Is Calm Important?

It is in calm that one can unify one's being around the highest aspiration.

It is in a calm and patient confidence that lies the certitude of victory.

In Different Parts of Being

Physical

To relieve tension, ten minutes of real calm, inner and outer, are more effective than all the remedies in the world. In silence lies the most effective help.

The imperative condition for cure is calm and quietness. Any agitation, any nervousness prolongs the illness.

When one is quite calm, well balanced, very quiet, one has a solid basis and can receive a large number of forces.

Vital

It is only in the calm that one can know and do. All that is done in agitation and violence is an aberration and a folly. The first sign of the divine presence in the being is peace.

By bringing down strength and calm into the lower vital (region below the navel) [fear can be eliminated]. Also by will and imposing calm on the system when the fear arises. It can be done in either way or both together.

Mental

So long as the mind is restless, it is not possible to get at the inner Truth. Calm, peace, quietude—that is the first necessary condition.

It is the calm and still mind much more readily and with a much greater purity than the mind in agitation and action that opens to the Infinite, reflects the Spirit, becomes full of the Self and awaits like a consecrated and purified temple the unveiling of the Lord of all our being and nature.

Importance in Yoga

It is the first secret of Yoga, to maintain the inner calm always and from that calm to meet everything.

Wideness and calmness are the foundation of the Yogic consciousness and the best condition for inner growth and experience. If a wide calm can be established in the physical consciousness, occupying and filling the very body and all its cells, that can become the basis for its transformation; in fact, without this wideness and calmness the transformation is hardly possible.

How Can One Achieve Calm?

One sits quietly, to begin with; and then, instead of thinking of fifty things, one begins saying to oneself, "Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, calm, peace!" One imagines peace and calm. One aspires, asks that it may come: "Peace, peace, calm." And then, when something comes and touches one and acts, say quietly, like this, "Peace, peace, peace." One must not look and listen to the thoughts. One must not pay attention to everything that comes. It is as though one were learning how to call a friend: by dint of being called he comes. One makes peace and calm one’s friends and calls them: "Come, peace, peace, peace, peace, come!"

As soon as there is the least sign of discontentment, of annoyance, the vital must be spoken to in this way, "My friend, you are going to keep calm, you are going to do what you are asked to do, otherwise you will have to deal with me." And to the other, the enthusiast who says, "Everything must be done now, immediately", your reply is, "calm yourself a little, your energy is excellent, but it must not be spent in five minutes. We shall need it for a long time, keep it carefully and, as it is wanted, I shall call upon your goodwill. You will show that you are full of goodwill, you will obey, you won't grumble, you will not protest, you will not revolt, you will say 'yes, yes', you will make a little sacrifice when asked, you will say 'yes' whole-heartedly."

To control the buzz of the physical mind, one must reject it quietly, without getting disturbed, till it feels discouraged and retires shaking its head and saying, "This fellow is too calm and strong for me." There are always two things that can rise up and assail the silence,—vital suggestions, the physical mind's mechanical recurrences. Calm rejection for both is the cure. There is a Purusha within who can dictate to the nature what it shall admit or exclude, but its will is a strong, quiet will; if one gets perturbed or agitated over the difficulties, then the will of the Purusha cannot act effectively as it would otherwise.

Surrender everything, reject all other desires or interests, call on the divine Shakti to open the vital nature and bring down calm, peace, light, Ananda into all the centres. Aspire, await with faith and patience the result. All depends on a complete sincerity and an integral consecration and aspiration.

Read more about Calm from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.