October 17, 2018 – The Witness Part I

God found in Nature, Nature fulfilled in God.

Already in him was seen that task of Power:

Life made its home on the high tops of self;

His soul, mind, heart became a single sun;

Only life’s lower reaches remained dim.

But there too, in the uncertain shadow of life,

There was a labour and a fiery breath;

The ambiguous cowled celestial puissance worked

Watched by the inner Witness’s moveless peace.

Sri Aurobindo

Savitri, Book I, Canto III, page 37

The Witness – Part 1

Sweet Mother, what does “the reduction of the mental being to the position of a witness” mean?

Have you never felt this? As though you were a little behind or above things, and were looking at them taking place but were not doing anything yourself? Witness means an observer, someone who looks on and does not act himself. So, when the mind is very quiet, one can withdraw a little in this way from circumstances and look at things as though he were a witness, a spectator, and not participating in the action himself. This gives you a great detachment, a great quietude, and also a very precise sense of the value of things, because it cuts the attachment to action. When you know how to do this with yourself, when you can withdraw and watch yourself acting, you learn many things about yourself. When you are all mixed up and take part in the action, you do not observe yourself acting, you don’t know what you are like. But when you draw back and look at yourself, you can perceive many imperfections which you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

The Mother

Questions and Answers 1954, CWM vol 6, page 360