The Power of Mastery

We operate on multiple levels at the same time. There is the external level comprised of actual physical, vital and mental actions we undertake. We speak, we express ourselves through gestures and body language. We undertake physical activities. At the same time however, there is the unspoken energetic vibration that we create and send out, which impacts others without words, without physical gesture, simply by vibrating and interacting with the vibrational field of others.

The true power of mastery comes not from external influence, persuasion, education, use of physical, vital or mental power to dominate others, but from the ability to vibrate and radiate an intense field that is able to neutralize, change or overcome the vibrational pattern with which it interacts.

We can get a hint of what this means when we observe that in some individuals there is an intense mental atmosphere that surrounds them and which dampens any raucous energies. When people enter their environs, they tend to feel the mental force and it moves their own vibrational levels to interact with that force. We also see instances where an individual has such a deep sense of peace and silence surrounding him that it is noticeable to others. A number of people noted that as a palpable experience when they happened to visit with Sri Aurobindo, for instance. There are numerous reports of people experiencing a surge in devotional or spiritual force in the presence of various masters. People have also reported similar occurrences with the Mother at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and they would report, for instance, being awakened out of sleep with an electric energy and a surge of devotion at times of key events in the life of the Ashram. In the face of such energetic forces, contrary energies are submerged, overwhelmed, reduced or even eliminated.

The Mother writes: “To control something, a movement, is simply to replace by one’s presence, without words or explanations, the bad vibration by the true one. This is what constitutes the power of mastery. It does not lie in speaking, in explaining; with words and explanations and even a certain emanation of force, you may have an influence on someone, but you do not control his movement. The control of the movement is the capacity to oppose the vibration of this movement by a stronger, truer vibration which can stop the other one… I could give you an example, you know, a very easy one. Two people are arguing in front of you; not only are they arguing, but they are on the point of coming to blows; so you explain to them that this is not the thing to do, you give them good reasons for stopping and they come to a stop. You will have had an influence on them. But if you simply stand before them and look at them and send out a vibration of peace, calm, quietude, without saying a word, without any explanation, the other vibration will no longer be able to last, it will fall away of itself. That is mastery.”

“The same thing applies to the cure of ignorance. If you need words to explain something, that is not true knowledge. If I have to say all that I do say for you to understand me, that is not mastery, it is simply that I am able to exercise an influence on your intelligence and help you to understand and awaken in you the desire to know and discipline yourselves, etc. But if by looking at you, without saying anything I am not able to make the light enter into you, the light which will make you understand, I won’t have mastered the movement or the state of ignorance.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XI Power of Control, pp. 97-98