In the earlier article I discussed how a complete acceptance of outcomes enables one to enjoy a stress free life. However, circumstances or one’s tendencies seem to compel one to act in many and different ways. The question that then arises; Is there any place for our Will, i.e., the initial energy which propels us to try and attain a goal or outcome which our Desire Mind has chosen?
Without complicating matters by trying to analyze how the Mind chooses a particular goal or outcome (tendencies, past habits or Divine ordained etc), we can actually experience that we normally set goals or expectations and try our best to achieve them. However, here also you will find some will strive with fear or anxiety, some with great energy and others not.
To understand the power of our Will or Vital Force, as Sri Aurobindo called it, we need to experience how the tendencies or Gunas work. As we saw earlier, Tamas is relatively speaking the most difficult phase of the Gunas. This is because when we are in its control, action itself seems difficult. When we are depressed or in despair or lack hope and energy, our first instinct is to give up attempting to come out of this state. This means the surface Will Power has surrendered to the control of Tamas. Sometimes, when we regain our energy, we come out of that state but get trapped in doubts, fear, anxiety of outcomes or more importantly our abilities or capability.
These are only different grades of the same tendency. Unfortunately our Mind will sometimes rejoice thinking we have achieved something by moving to the next state but rarely does this stage help as the fears overwhelm one and push one back to the lower level whenever physical or mental energy is weak. If this stage of Tamas is not surpassed it is very difficult for our Will to come into play. In fact, many times the Will would be weakened by citing external or mitigating circumstances.
Many of us move from the Tamas stage to the lower end of the Rajas stage. Here, our actions and, therefore, our Will would mostly be motivated by anger, jealousy or some such strong negative emotion. The Will lacks sufficient energy but it is able to use the ladder of strong negative emotions to climb out of its state of inertia (see how strong is the factor of proving others wrong).
In the action oriented Rajas stage, the higher levels could be where the Will has sufficient energy and is driven by the need to be powerful, to be able to show success or achieve something which others feel is praiseworthy etc. However, here also the Will while strong would lack any discrimination of what it can achieve. Many times it is so strong it would single mindedly smash its way to its goal without looking at consequences to others or even its other constituents, i.e. the body’s ability to cope with so much effort or energy being unleashed. This is normally characterized as demonic power or force. Others may view the outcome of this effort as varying between good and bad and the persons who have such a Will or use the force will be mostly feared.
The Will or the usage of the same by persons with Sattva will be strong but will not cause harm (at least knowingly) to others or themselves. Balance of results and benefits would be pursued. The highest part of the Mind will be used to balance or control the Will as and when felt necessary. However, it is most important for all of us to understand (which we experience but may not categorize like that always) that none of us have only one type of tendency. In fact, it is impossible to live without it any day with each of the tendencies being in control of us (For example, sleep is not possible if we do not surrender to Tamas). It is also important to understand that there is nothing wrong in being controlled by the Gunas but we must only understand that to be so and not confuse it with our Will. We need to know that when afraid our Will is not active and has been controlled or surrendered to fear and so on.
(To be continued next Friday)
(This is the first article of a three-part series on ‘The power of our Will’. Feedback and questions may be e-mailed to joyofbeingrd@gmail.com
The writer is the Joint Managing Director of TVS & Sons Ltd., and MD, TVS Logistics)
