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Courage: A Force Against Gravity "Courage is the total absence of fear in any form." - The Mother

Fear, as we all have experienced, is an emotion that pulls one down – either into depression, or insecurity, or jealousy, strife, irritation, anger, loneliness, inferiority. Basically, it is an emotion that belittles, narrows, constricts, lowers. Courage, on the other hand, is a raising up, an expansion, a widening of one’s limits. Courage implies an overcoming of something small in oneself or in the circumstances. And therefore, courage is a force against gravity, a force against that which pulls one down.

In the following passages, I have tried to explore different facets of courage as one experiences it in collective life as well as personal life. The passages bring out the fact that courage too, like any other emotion or quality, operates at various levels and for one’s courage to be absolute, one has to draw upon the Absolute

Courage for Oneself

"You fall into the water. You are not daunted by the great watery mass. You make good use of your arms and legs, grateful to the teacher who taught you how to swim. You grapple with the waves and you escape. You have been brave.

You are asleep. "Fire!" The cry of alarm has awakened you. You leap from your bed and see the red glare of the blaze. You are not stricken with mortal fear. You run through the smoke, the sparks, the flames, to safety. This is courage. …

For whose sake did you swim? For your own.

For whose sake did you run through the flames? For your own. …

The courage shown in each case was for the sake of self. Was this wrong? Certainly not. It is right to take care of your life and to defend it bravely. But there is a greater courage, the courage which is shown for the sake of others¹."

Courage for the Others

"You have heard about firemen who rescue people from blazing houses; of miners who go down into deep shafts to bring out their companions imperiled by flood, fire or poisonous gas; of men who venture into houses shaken by earthquake and who, in spite of the danger from crumbling walls, pick up and carry out the helpless people who would otherwise die beneath the ruins; and of citizens who for the sake of their town or their country confront the enemy and undergo hunger, thirst, wounds or death²."

"IN TRUE COURAGE THERE

IS NO IMPATIENCE AND NO

RASHNESS."

The Mother

Courage for Quiet Action

"The Rajah of Almora, in order to repel some invaders who had raided his mountain country, enrolled a number of men in a new regiment and provided each one with a good sword.

"Forward, march!" commanded the Rajah.

Instantly the men unsheathed their swords with a great clang and flourished them with loud cries.

"What is this?" demanded the Rajah.

"Sir," they replied, "we want to be ready so that the enemy does not take us by surprise."

"You can be of no use to me, you nervous and excitable men," he told them. "Go home, all of you."

You will notice that the Rajah was not impressed by all this noise and waving of swords. He knew that true bravery needs no clamor and clash.

In the following story, on the other hand, you will observe how calmly the people behaved and yet how brave they were in face of mortal peril at sea.

Towards the end of March 1910, a Scottish vessel was carrying passengers from Australia to the Cape of Good Hope. There was no trace of a cloud in the sky and the sea was calm and blue.

Suddenly the ship struck a reef six miles off the west coast of Australia.

Immediately the whole crew was on the move, each man hurrying as whistles were blown. But this noise was not the result of confusion and panic.

An order rang out: "Man the boats!"

The passengers put on their life-belts.

A blind man led by his servant walked across the deck. Everyone made way for him. He was helpless and all wanted him to be the first to be saved.

A short time later the ship had been evacuated, and soon it sank.

On one of the life-boats a woman began to sing. And in spite of the sound of the waves which at times drowned her voice, the oarsmen could hear the refrain which put strength into their arms:

Pull for the shore, sailors,

Pull for the shore.

The shipwrecked people reached the shore at last and were taken in by some good fishing folk.

Not one passenger had been lost. In this way four hundred and fifty people had saved themselves by their quiet courage³."

In recent times we have the example of the organized evacuation of the World Trade Center towers, just before their collapse.

All the above examples speak of Courage that rises up in face of a physical calamity. And often when we think of courage, we associate it with such events. But in our daily lives, it is courage in the vital and the mental that is required more often than the physical.

""THE MORAL COURAGE AND ENDURANCE ARE OFTEN MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO GET THAN THE MATERIAL COURAGE AND ENDURANCE."

The Mother

Courage of the Mind

There is yet another kind of courage, greater even than physical courage, such as was shown by Vibhishan when he dared to speak the truth even at peril to his life.

"Vibhishan’s act was one of physical courage, for he did not fear his brother’s blows; but it was also an act of mental courage, for he did not hesitate to utter words that the other courtiers, physically as brave as he, would not have let fall from their lips. This courage of the mind is known as moral courage.

Such was the courage of Moses, the leader of Israel, who demanded from the Pharaoh of Egypt the freedom of the oppressed Jewish people.

Such was the courage of Mohammed, the Prophet, who imparted his religious thought to the Arabs, and who refused to be silenced even though they threatened him with death.

Such was the courage of Siddhartha, the Blessed One, who taught the people of India a new and noble path, and was not terrified by the evil spirits who assailed him under the Bo-tree.

Such was the courage of Christ, who preached to the people: "Love one another," and was not intimidated by the pontiffs of Jerusalem who forbade him to teach, nor by the Romans who crucified him⁴."

When confronted with dangers, moral dilemmas, value crisis, it is mental and vital courage that come to the fore. But even these are related to certain outer stimuli, interactions. How does courage play a role in one’s inner growth, in one’s own interaction with oneself?

Courage for Inner Growth

Often there is a tussle between the various parts in oneself, one pulling towards the light, the other towards the shadow, and many others towards the grey areas in between. It requires discernment, sincerity, aspiration to know what is right, but it requires Courage to choose what is right. This is only the first step. Even more difficult is to consistently choose that which is right.

"Heroism is not what it is said to be: IT is to become wholly unified — and the Divine help will always be with those who have resolved to be heroic in full sincerity."

The Mother

Courage to Persevere in the Battle of Life

"There is a courage which can make you cross rivers and another that enables you to take the right path; but even more courage is needed to stay on the right path than to enter it.

Listen to the parable of the hen and her chicks:

Siddhartha, the Blessed One, used to instruct his disciples to do their best and then to trust that the best would bear its fruit.

"Just as," he said, "a hen lays eggs and broods on them and never thinks of fretting: `Will my little chicks be able to break out of their shells with their beaks and see the light of day?’ you too should have no fear: If you are persistent in the Noble Path, you also will come to the light."

And this is true courage: To walk the straight path, to brave storm, darkness and suffering and to persevere, moving ever forward, in spite of everything, towards the light⁵."

Courage for oneself, for others; courage in action, mental courage… all these and many more levels of courage are beautifully interwoven in the tale of Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, which as Sri Aurobindo has explained⁶, symbolizes the battle each of us have to fight within ourselves and in our own lives.

"Heroism is to be able to stand for the Truth in all circumstances, to declare it amidst opposition and to fight for it whenever necessary. And to act always from one’s highest consciousness."

The Mother

Courage: A Companion of Faith

The day of the battle had arrived. The two armies were arranged on either side when Arjuna lost his heart to remorse and let fall his mighty Gandiva, turning himself to stone, refusing to fight. Gently and firmly, the Divine Teacher, Sri Krishna, filled Arjuna’s nerves with steel, reminding him of his Arya dharma and his moral duty to right all wrong. Still Arjuna hesitated. Sri Krishna reminded him of the imperishability of the soul. Even then Arjuna felt not free from the grip of inaction. And then the Lord revealed to his human disciple the covert truth behind the play of forces of light and darkness, good and evil and the role that had been assigned to him, Arjuna. Only with the final understanding of this spiritual truth did courage once again rise up in Arjuna’s mind, heart and nerves and seated unperturbed in the chariot of his soul, he could let himself be guided into the battle, ready to fulfil his appointed task.

Why did Sri Krishna have to use all kinds of arguments – mundane and inferior to the final truth – before he could get his disciple to act? The action of the Divine Teacher is founded upon a deep truth of human psychology – that of the multiplexity of the human being. Each emotion is arranged on different rungs and each battle has to be therefore won at different levels. Courage too is organized thus and Arjuna must exert his will founded upon knowledge to rise step by step out of the psychological abyss he finds himself in.

What was the mental, emotional and physical state of Arjuna before Lord Krishna raised him up? He was as if drawn to his lowest depths. What seemed as compassion for others was actually an egoistic recoil from giving up all that one has cherished and held dear, in a final act of faith and surrender. An act requiring supreme courage. Thus, it was Fear at its most subtle that gripped Arjuna and Courage that raised him up – courage arising out of Knowledge and resting upon as well as assisting Faith and Surrender.

"Integral courage: Whatever the domain, whatever the danger, the attitude remains the same – calm and assured."

The Mother

"Spontaneous boldness: One of the results of perfect trust in the Divine."

The Mother

A Prayer for the Courageous

"Make of us the hero warriors we aspire to become. May we fight successfully the great battle of the future that is to be born, against the past that seeks to endure, so that the new things may manifest and we may be ready to receive them⁷."

Anuradha

Notes:
1 The Mother, `Courage’ in Tales of All Times
2 Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Refer to Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo. The terms `human disciple’, `divine teacher; too are borrowed from Sri Aurobindo.
7 The Mother

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