The Value and Importance of Looking from Within

External impressions, sensations, impulsions, events all traverse the nervous pathways from the sense organs to the mind, which tends to react to these sensations and thereby remains in a constant state of disturbance. In the modern world, with our addiction to social media, mobile phones, television and radio, and the constant bombardment of stimulation from the external world, we generally find it hard to stay focused and concentrate on a specific thought, or project or even just to sit quietly and be receptive in a state of meditative awareness. We get carried away in political disputes, economic concerns, arguments, disagreements, and contrary opinions. We get scandalized or traumatized by what is happening around us, in our world. In some cases, we see destructive and harmful things being done to pollute or destroy the environment, harm people, demean and harass them and we easily become provoked. In other cases we may be personally attacked, bullied, harassed or belittled.

Those who reach a point of harried restlessness, try to dull their senses with sedatives of various sorts. Their minds are abuzz with all these impressions so that they cannot sleep, they resort to sleeping pills. Those who aspire to a different way often abandon the external activities, or at least, go on a ‘retreat’ to get away from these impulsions, at least for a specified period of time. Some feel called to fight injustice and expose harmful practices in order to find ways to improve them. Some accept the challenge and simply engage in whatever is demanding their attention. Yet, unless they have achieved a poise of calm and equality, and an inner status of awareness, they can easily succumb to a feeling of impotence in the face of wrong-doing, or a sense of meaninglessness, become bitter, cynical, frustrated, or even homicidal or suicidal in their reactions.

For spiritual aspirants, the answer is not simply to turn away entirely from the external life and its impressions; after all, seekers are part of this world and have a role to play. They then have to find a solution that allows them to quiet the inner reaction while nevertheless participating in the life of the world. This is where the concepts of “living within” and “looking from within” come into play. Spiritual practices are not fulfilled solely by specific types of external actions such as reading, praying, singing, or postures. Nor are they fulfilled by living in a monastery, a cloister, an ashram, or a cave, the desert or the forest. People carry the external world with them wherever they are. The true sanctuary is deep within. The ability to remain calm, quiet, unprovoked, equal to all external circumstances is the foundation of spiritual progress. Responses that come from this inner depth of quiet, receptivity and strength tend to have a greater positive impact over the long term than simply engaging at the level that is provoking the response.

Hermann Hesse, in his book Siddhartha, explores these themes and shows the illusion of attachment to the outer life, and the need for an inner state of quiet poise.

A seeker told a story of his time living at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the year 1973, and how he felt like he was provided a brief, yet powerful, glimpse of what is meant by “living within” and “looking from within.” He was there at the time of Mother’s Mahasamadhi on November 17, 1973. He actually received ‘birthday blessings’ on the morning of that day. The message was “live within: be not shaken by outward happenings.” He spent the day in an abstracted state while carrying out his daily activities and duties. That night, when he slept, he had a dream where a great darkness had descended on the earth, and then suddenly, there was an intense brilliant light that illuminated everything. With a joyful heart, he awoke and went in the early morning hours, while it was still dark, to the main Ashram building. When he got there, all the lights were on, people were milling around, and some were crying. He was told that Mother had left her body. Strangely, he stayed calm, with the mantra “live within: be not shaken by outward happenings” reverberating in his mind, while the vivid reality of his dream of brilliant light removing the darkness remained active. Through the next days he remained something of an observer as people came from all over the world, many with deep grief and tears, to honor the Mother and Her work. Intriguingly, after they went through the Ashram grounds to the meditation hall where her body was lying in state, they came away with their grief removed and they were at peace. They too, were given the sense of ‘living within’ and ‘looking from within’, and their external reactions were quieted, and their pain soothed..

Some of the greatest spiritual teachings have taken place under the most difficult of external circumstances. The Bhagavad Gita, the teaching of Sri Krishna to Arjuna, took place on a battlefield at the start of a great, traumatic civil war that was going to pit disciples against gurus, and youth against respected elders, and cousins against cousins. The need for equality of mind and ‘living within’ and ‘looking from within’ could not have been greater!

When we live in a time of great challenges, great disruptions, tremendous change and the dislocations caused by rapid change, it is more important than ever to take one’s standpoint deep within, and see from the view of the deeper spiritual force that moves and develops the entire creation.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “The inner spiritual progress does not depend on outer conditions so much as in the way we react to them from within — that has always been the ultimate verdict of spiritual experience. It is why we insist on taking the right attitude and persisting in it, on an inner state not dependent on outer circumstances, a state of equality and calm, if it cannot be at once of inner happiness, on going more and more within and looking from within outwards instead of living in the surface mind which is always at the mercy of the shocks and blows of life. It is only from that inner state that one can be stronger than life and its disturbing forces and hope to conquer.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Introductory Note