About sriaurobindostudies

studying the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother since 1971, this blog is meant to systematically review the writings of Sri Aurobindo.

Consciousness Pervades All Forms, Beings and Entities in the Universal Creation

In his play Hamlet, William Shakespeare comments on the limitations of the objective mind and its ability to understand existence: ““There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.  Our mind’s view of the existence of the universe and its significance is blindered by our reliance on what we can observe with our senses, and our ability to correctly organise and interpret what we perceive.

We thus believe that the universe is some vast mechanical location, and while material energies are at work, it is a vacant, dead space, without any essential meaning other than as the backdrop of our own lives on a minor planet, in a minor solar system, in a minor arm of a minor galaxy in one corner of the vast universe. Some modern thinkers have, alternatively, likened the universe to a type of hologram within which we play act our existence.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna describes for Arjuna the action of the Time-Spirit. It is clear from his statement that there is a pervasive, active consciousness in the universe that creates, guides, controls and develops the rolling out of the manifestation. It is our limitation of perception and understanding that prevents us from experiencing and interacting with the consciousness throughout all forms, beings, entities and, indeed, the entire universe in its own right.

In the Taittiriya Upanishad, there is a fascinating passage that recounts levels of conscious awareness above that of the human level, as it describes the measure of bliss of each successively more refined conscious being. We term these beings with higher levels of conscious awareness, angelic beings, gods, demigods, or creators.

The Rig Veda, in Mandala X, Sukta 129 briefly describes the levels of consciousness and their respective role in the creation. “There were Casters of the seed, there were Greatnesses; there was self-law below, there was Will above.”

A disciple asks: “Is time only subjective or it is something concrete like a personality?”

The Mother writes: “All forces are personal; all things in Nature are personal. But if we consider them as impersonal things, our relation with them is impersonal.”

“Take for instance what has just happened. If you are a meteorologist and have calculated all the wind-currents and all that, and say, ‘Given that this has happened, that will happen, and there will be so many days of rain, and all that.’ So this is a force for you, which we are compelled to call a force of Nature, and you can do nothing about it except look on quietly and wait for the number of days to pass. But if it happens that you have this personal relation with the little conscious entities which are behind the wind, behind the storm, behind the rain, the thunder, behind all these so-called forces of Nature, which are forces and personal forces, if you have a personal relation with the and can create a kind of friendship through this relation, instead of considering them as enemies and inexorable mechanisms which you have to put up with without being able to do anything, perhaps you could manage to establish a slightly more friendly relation and have an influence over them and ask them: ‘Why do you feel like blowing and making the rain fall, why don’t you do it elsewhere?’ “

“And with my own eyes I have seen… I have seen this here, seen it in France, seen it in Algeria… the rain falling at a particular, altogether fixed place, and it was exactly a place where it absolutely needed to rain, because it was dry and there was a field which needed watering, and at another place there was… at a distance from here to the end of the hall, at the other place there was a small sunlit spot, everything was dry, because to have the sun there was necessary. Naturally, if you seek the scientific point of view, they will explain this to you very scientifically. But I indeed have seen it as the result of an intervention… someone who knew how to ask it and obtained it.”

“In Algeria I saw not a few things like that, very interesting ones. And there, just because there was a certain atmosphere of a little more real knowledge it could be said, there were little entities, as for example entities which handled snow, you see, which produced snow, and which could come, enter a room and tell someone, ‘Now snow should fall here!’ (It had never snowed in that country, never.) ‘Snow! you are joking. So near the Sahara it is going to snow?’ ‘It must, because they have planted fir trees on the mountain, and when we see fir trees, we come. The fir trees are there to call us; so we come.’ And so, you see, there was a discussion, and the little being went away with the permission to bring snow, and when it had gone, there was a little pool of snow water on the floor, melted snow which had turned into water. It was physical… and the mountain was covered with snow. In Algeria! It is very near the Sahara, you go down a few kilometres and you are at the Sahara. Someone had playfully covered all the hills with fir trees. ‘The fir tree belongs to cold countries. Why do y ou call us? We are coming.’ All this is a true story, it is not an invention.”

“All depends on your relation. This too, it is quite possible the meteorologist scholars would have been able to explain. I know nothing about it, they explain everything one wants.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp.84-86

Impersonal and Personal Aspects of Consciousness in the Universal Manifestation

Our understanding of existence is very much rooted in our own anthropocentric view of things. We generally recognise the awareness we hold within ourselves, and, viewing other beings and forms in our visible environs, we either attribute to them no consciousness, or, at best, lower forms or development of consciousness. For anything that exists outside the range of perception provided by our senses, we only admit existence when we find a way to capture and measure those things, and we treat them as purely physical-material actions of the universal energy, without any form of consciousness whatsoever.

This view, however, is being challenged, both by the experience of rishis, sages and shaman who are able to experience the consciousness of other forms and beings, and who are able to understand the unity of the universal creation and who thereby recognise that consciousness permeates all existence, albeit in forms or powers different than those that are specific to human consciousness.

Modern science is now starting to recognise the pervasiveness of consciousness as well. Once scientists recognised that Matter is a form of Energy, it was a relatively small step to begin to recognise that Energy is a form of Consciousness. This is the current revolution in understanding that scientists are awakening into.

Yet our conception of consciousness at this level remains quite uncertain, diffused and impersonal. We attribute personality to our own individuality, but fail to recognise that there may be, in fact, are, other beings who have personal awareness and who act as a conscious self-directing force within the larger manifestation. The entire evolution of consciousness is an obvious process of increasing self-awareness. Therefore, in stages beyond that of the human development, we would expect greater self-awareness and a greater sense of autonomy. Beings who represent higher stages of the evolution of consciousness would necessarily be expressions of greater powers of personal awareness than our human status.

While consciousness is involved in Matter and the early life-forms, and thus, does not appear to exhibit the characteristics of personality, it may also be that we simply do not perceive what may nevertheless be present. Researchers of the plant kingdom report entire networks of communication between trees in a forest for instance, and expressions of pain or at least reactions of stress (as far as we are able to measure and interpret) in trees when they experience the pain or suffering of another tree in their network. Similarly, expressions of grief at the death of a member of a tribe of elephants is a well-documented phenomenon, implying, once again, individuality and a perception of relationship that occurs between separate conscious beings.

This leads us to the idea that there may be consciously active beings who act to support human development, as well as consciously active beings who are hostile to human development, or who want to take advantage of human beings. There is a long history in human development of encounters with angels or demons, beings who exist on another level but whose action intersects with human life on certain levels or in particular circumstances, for good or ill.

Do we live in a mechanical universe as the only conscious beings? Or is there a supreme conscious Being who creates, organizes, contains and constitutes the entire universal existence? Just as we can view light as either a wave or a particle, is it not possible to see the universe from both an impersonal and a personal aspect?

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The forces are conscious. There are besides individualised beings who represent the forces or use them. The wall between consciousness and force, impersonality and personality becomes much thinner when one goes behind the veil of matter. If one looks at a working from the side of impersonal force one sees a force or energy at work acting for a purpose or with a result, if one looks from the side of being one sees a being possessing, guiding and using or else representative of and used by a conscious force as its instrument of specialised action and expression. You speak of the wave, but in modern science it has been found that if you look at the movement of energy, it appears on one side to be a wave and act as a wave, on the other as a mass of particles and to act as a mass of particles each acting in its own way. It is somewhat the same principle here.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp. 83-84

Universal Forces and the Subconscient

There are many functions of our existence that take place without the conscious awareness or intervention of the mind. All of the complex functions of the body and its organs, for instance, are very much independent of control by our conscious mind and will, although some of these functions may, through intensive training and focus, come under at least partial control, such as the generation of inner heat in the Tibetan practice of tummo.

There are similar subconscious processes that occur on the levels of perception, feeling, emotion and mental ideation. The entire realm of what we call ‘instinct’ is a basically automatic reaction in one of the vital responsive systems that takes over instantaneously when the necessary triggers or precursors arrive and prod the vital nature. This all takes place at the subconscious level.

Much of what enters through the vital envelope remains subliminal to us and if it finds a corresponding receptivity in the subconscious of the individual, it sets up a sympathetic vibration. This is illustrated by the musical instrument called the sitar, which has primary strings and ‘sympathetic’ strings. When the primary string is played, the sympathetic strings vibrate automatically. When any vibration enters the subconscient, it awakens any responsive ‘strings’ that may be lying there, seeds sprout and movement of energy ensues, as if from within us, but really as a response and reaction to the vibrations that have reached us from outside.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “The universal forces act very often through the subconscient — especially when the force they send is something the person has been in the habit of obeying and of which the seeds, impressions, ‘complexes’ are strongly rooted in the subconscient — or, even if that is no longer the case, of which there is a memory still in the subconscient.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pg. 83

Universal Forces, the Aura and the Individual Consciousness

Many people hold that the truth of existence is an “either/or” proposition. If the universal forces create all of existence, then the individual is essentially an illusory conception; and on the other hand, if the individual is a real and separate entity, then the universal is somehow denied or disproven. It is however not necessary to go to either of these two extremes in our understanding of our existence in relation to the universal manifestation. Sri Aurobindo resolves this conflict in chapter 4 of The Life Divine, a chapter titled ‘Reality Omnipresent”. The universal is real and each individual form, formation or being is also real, being constituted of and being a nexus of the action for the universal forces. The individual is not wholly separate and independent but is part and parcel of that universal creation, dependent on it and the forces that manifest, for his own existence.

There is a constant interchange taking place between this ‘nexus’ in the form of an individual being or formation, and the universal forces that are acting to create the existence we experience. These larger forces act upon us and condition and drive our responses and actions. Because they are not obviously palpable to our external senses in a direct way, we tend to know them primarily through their effects. There is however an intervening “buffer” that acts to receive the external impacts, and this is the aura or vital envelope. As a person becomes more able to experience the impacts on the aura, he is able to begin to have direct knowledge of the interchange that is taking place and thereby work to accept, modify or reject the action of some of these forces.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Each man has his own personal consciousness entrenched in his body and gets into touch with his surroundings only through his body and senses and the mind using the senses.”

“Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside.”

“But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again. Or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp. 82-83

The Material Universe, the Causative Plane and the Forces of Manifestation

When we look at existence from the individual standpoint, we see a number of solid forms interacting with one another. We do not see how they came into existence (other than the physical, material, practical methodology we can observe, which fails to give us the causative factors or significance.) We do not see the forces that play through each of these forms, and we experience most of our life as originating within each form ‘somehow’. This view is unfortunately so limited and framed as to prevent us from gaining a complete or true understanding of existence.

In the Taittiriya Upanishad, a young seeker was instructed to practice concentration of thought. He began with the idea of the material, physical nature being the basis of things, but as he carried out his concentration, he eventually recognised that Matter is dependent on Prana, or the Life-Force, for its existence, and in turn, the Life-Force is dependent on Mind, and then in turn, comes the “causal plane” of existence, which itself eventuates from the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss in an ultimate realisation.

Western science has been following a similar curve of enlightenment. Scientists now recognise that Matter is a condensed form of energy. All forms are developed through some intelligence that utilizes certain principles and rules to create and operate the interaction of all physical forms and forces. Now scientists, as they push into the quantum world, are beginning to recognise that there is consciousness that stands behind and acts as the original power that develops all the forces and forms of mind, life and the physical reality of the universe. The forms are created through various expressions of what we call ‘radiation”, the streaming of energy, which is identified as a wave-form until it is actually ‘observed’ at which time it is perceived as a ‘point’. Thus, everything in the universe is apparently capable of being seen both as a wave and as a particle.

While it is easiest for us to observe these things at the physical level, it is also true that a similar process works on the vital, mental and spiritual levels of existence. The more subtle levels tend to be closer to the causative plane, while the denser levels are the result of that causative action.

Turning then to the individual forms and beings in the world, we begin to appreciate that they are the result, not the cause, and that they are reception and transmission points, a nexus, for the movement and expression of these waves of consciousness and the creative energy that arises from that consciousness to create the universe and its virtually endless forms and interactions.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “… they [cosmic forces] move in masses, waves, currents constantly constituting and reconstituting beings and objects, movements and happenings, entering into them, passing through them, forming themselves in them, throwing themselves out from them on other beings and objects. Each natural individual is a receptacle of these cosmic forces and a dynamo for their propagation; there passes from each to each a constant stream of mental and vital energies, and these run too in cosmic waves and currents no less than the forces of physical Nature. All this action is veiled from our surface mind’s direct sense and knowledge, but it is known and felt by the inner being, though only through a direct contact; when the being enters into the cosmic consciousness, it is still more widely, inclusively, intimately aware of this play of cosmic forces.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pg. 82

What Causes the Wind?

A young child was asked what causes the wind. The child replied: “When the trees move their branches and leaves, that is what makes the wind!” This extremely logical observation mirrors the way we tend to look at the world. We think that we make the decisions, that we are ‘in charge’ of what we do, and we fail to see that there are larger universal forces that move all action in us and others and in the world at large. When we pose for ourselves the analogous question, where do our feelings come from, or where do our thoughts come from, we tend to give the same response as the child about the wind!

If we reflect a little, however, we soon begin to recognise that there are indeed larger forces at work. We can see different societies that have developed different frames of reference, and the individuals in those societies tend to respond according to the pattern of their own society or culture.

The Bhagavad Gita states: “The Lord, O Arjuna, is seated in the heart of all beings turning all beings mounted upon a machine by his Maya.. [Ch 18, S. 61] We respond according to the action and interplay of the three Gunas. We speak of the ‘time spirit’ to describe a general approach to understanding life, action and our role in the world. This is an implicit recognition that there are universal forces that shape and guide our lives, our actions and our reactions, and as these forces move, so we move under their impulsion.

The question then arises as to how we can begin to know and understand these universal, cosmic forces that act upon us and determine situations and our responses to them. As long as we remain fixated on the outer world and the physical senses, we remain essentially oblivious to their action. When we shift our standpoint inwards or upwards, bring calm and clarity to our awareness, we can begin to experience the impact of these forces in our lives.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Universal forces means all forces good or bad, favourable or hostile, of light and darkness that move in the cosmos.”

“They [the cosmic forces] act on everyone, according to the person’s nature — and his will and consciousness.”

“These [impersonal forces of the world] we know only by their results, by the little that we can seize of their visible action and consequence. Among them it is mostly the physical world-forces of which we have some knowledge, but we live constantly in the midst of a whirl of unseen mind-forces and life-forces of which we know nothing, we are not even aware of their existence. To all this unseen movement and action the subliminal inner consciousness can open our awareness, for it has a knowledge of it by direct contact, by inner vision, by a psychic sensitiveness; but at present it can only enlighten our obtuse superficiality and outwardness by unexplained warnings, premonitions, attractions and repulsions, ideas, suggestions, obscure intuitions, the little it can get through imperfectly to the surface. The inner being not only contacts directly and concretely the immediate motive and movement of these universal forces and feels the results of their present action, but it can to a certain extent forecast or see ahead their further action; there is a greater power in our subliminal parts to overcome the time barrier, to have the sense or feel the vibration of coming events, of distant happenings, even to look into the future. It is true that this knowledge proper to the subliminal being is not complete; for it is a mixture of knowledge and ignorance and it is capable of erroneous as well as of true perception.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp. 81-82

Becoming Aware of Cosmic and Universal Forces That Impact Our Existence

Enormous forces are at work in the universe. Vast numbers of stars and their planetary groupings move at high speed. Radiation of various sorts streams throughout the universe. There is a cosmic background radiation that scientists can now measure as they develop ever-finer instrumentation to try to understand the universal creation. Here on earth, we exist due to the radiation provided by the sun which provides the energy needed to sustain life on the planet. We are subject to gravitational forces including the influence of the Moon.

We recognise some of these forces ourselves to some degree when we deal with sunburn, UV rays impacting our vision, etc. We harness electricity to run much of our lives. These unseen forces are now able to be measured, quantified and harnessed to a great degree.

These are the universal cosmic forces at the material level of the creation. There are also similarly universal forces that operate on the vital, the mental and indeed other planes of existence that we cannot ‘see” but which we can experience in their impact on our lives.

Those who take up spiritual practices tend to develop awareness of many of these more subtle forces. Just as we have found ways to identify and measure material forces of the universe, we are finding ways to identify and measure these other, more subtle, levels of vibration and their impacts.

Sri Aurobindo writes in his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Book I, Canto 3: ““Awakened to the lines that Nature hides, Attuned to her movements that exceed our ken, He grew one with a covert universe. His grasp surprised her mightiest energies’ springs, He spoke with the unknown Guardians of the worlds, Forms he descried our mortal eyes see not, His wide eyes bodied viewless entities, He saw the cosmic forces at their work And felt the occult impulse behind man’s will.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pg. 80

An Accident Avoided

The Mother advises us that we are generally not aware of the action of all the subtle forces and how they interact to cause circumstances that occur in the external world. She further notes that with awareness, many accidents could be avoided. This reminds us of an incident reported some time back:

It occurred in 1981. Two devotees were in the process of traveling across the USA visiting various national parks. It was mid- to late-summer when they reached Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is noted not only for its geysers and other geological features, but also for the abundance of wildlife.

The devotees were driving on one of the main roads in the park in a Dodge van. The driver had an intimation that “something” was going to happen, and he was driving exceedingly slowly on the road in the near twilight conditions. A park ranger came up behind the van and was clearly frustrated with how slowly the van was moving. After a few minutes, the park ranger passed the van and sped by. The driver remained extremely cautious, not sure why, but feeling that there was something up ahead that would require immediate reaction. Suddenly a massive bison ran into the roadway immediately in front of the van. The driver hit the brakes hard, and all kinds of things in the van went flying through the cabin. When the van stopped, there was an enormous bison right in front of the vehicle within inches. Had the driver been moving at any faster speed, a tragic accident would clearly have occurred. The uncanny sense of an impending event saved everyone from the harm that would clearly have occurred in a collision with a fully mature adult bull bison standing almost 6 feet tall and weighing likely close to 2000 pounds.

The devotees were shaken by the near-miss, but were grateful for what was so clearly a warning and an intimation that protected them from this accident that was “waiting to happen”.

The exact mechanism that brought this subtle awareness could not be described by the participants. They attributed it to Divine Grace. The Grace clearly acted, and there was a subtle vital awareness that it awakened in the driver. We can speculate that perhaps while driving in a park known for its wildlife, particularly bison herds, and the time of year, and the time of day, the driver was somehow subtly alerted to the possibilities, but it goes beyond that simple explanation by the fact that the speed of the vehicle was far below the normal driving speeds, and yet, was exactly the speed that could be driven to avoid the collision.

The Mother speaks of other senses and possibly some subtle sense had opened up to be receptive to what was moving in the world in that natural setting at that time. There was clearly some type of premonition alerting them. The participants did not know why or how. We will likely never know the exact cause or action that created the situation, the awareness of the situation and the response to the situation. We can only know that we are confronted with a clear example of ‘an accident avoided.’

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 3 Hidden Forces Around, pg. 78

Causes of Accidents

Western scientists tell us that the universe is always tending toward a state of lower energy and less organisation, a concept that they call ‘entropy’. While this concept was developed and applied in the field of physics, particularly in the law of thermodynamics, it has been extended and claimed to apply throughout many levels of existence, and some even claim that it is so pervasive that eventually all of existence will reach a status of equilibrium in total dispersal, emptiness, and lack of cohesion. The concept of the expanding universe and the increasing dispersion of the energy at work in the universe, is claimed to be the result of increasing entropy in furtherance of this theory.

On the other side of the debate, however, is the idea that we can see an evolution of consciousness that shows an increasing level of integration, complexity and organisation, and thus, acts as a counter-weight to entropy.

This is similar to the counter-balancing forces of centrifugal and centripetal force. One of these pulls systems apart, the other pushes them together. There is a dynamic tension between the two forces that leads to potential disruptions when the two interact.

We can see the same thing when it comes to the forces of existence, the force of increasing consciousness confronted by the force of decreasing consciousness, the forces of progress versus the forces of retrogression, the force of development versus the force of dissolution.

When the opposing forces meet and interact, we can expect to see unanticipated results and situations arise. This is the point at which what we term ‘accidents’ tend to arise. We can see this interaction occur on all levels, physical, vital, emotional, and mental, as well as the points where these different domains interact with one another. There are forces that actively work to create disharmony and dissolution, just as there are forces that actively work toward harmony and unity.

If an individual begins to become conscious and aware of the play of these forces, the movements that both support and oppose the progress one is attempting to make, the growth one is experiencing, it becomes possible to modify, ameliorate or even avoid many of these accidents. Observation and a calm discernment are the key to minimizing the influence of accidents in the life. While there may be forces or circumstances beyond one’s control, at least a certain number of them fall within the realm of individual action. In some cases, associating the thought and focus on the guru, the supportive forces or the chosen deity can add their influence into the situation to aid in meeting the opposing force more effectively.

The Mother notes: “Accidents are due to many things; in fact they are the result of a conflict of the forces in Nature, a conflict between the forces of growth and progress and the forces of destruction. When there is an accident, an accident that has lasting results, it is always the result of a more or less partial victory of the adverse forces, that is, of the forces of disintegration, disorganisation.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 3 Hidden Forces Around, pg. 78

Observing the Dance of Vibrations

Our normal human view of things is limited by the restraining effect of our senses, as well as our ability to consciously receive and interpret what we perceive through the senses. We do not generally experience the living, breathing life of plants or trees, for instance. We do not ordinarily see the vibration of the aura as it surrounds our bodies. Occasionally, we can see the vibrations of heat as it rises off a hot surface. We do not either work to extend our perceptions, nor even to extrapolate from what we can and do experience that all existence is made up of vibratory patterns that touch each other, impact each other and blend and mix with each other.

Many things that occur within us, our body reactions, health issues, vital and emotional responses, mental ideas and concepts, would be understood more clearly if we could actually see the vibrations that surround and penetrate us and their interaction to bring about the results that we actually experience.

The Mother observes: “If you could see that kind of dance, the dance of vibrations which is there around you all the time, you would see, would understand well what I mean.”

“For example, in a game, when you play, it is like this (gesture), and then it is like the vibrations of a point, it goes on increasing, increasing and increasing until suddenly, crash!… an accident. And it is a collective atmosphere like that; we come and see it, you are in the midst of a game — basketball or football or any other — we feel it, see it, it produces a kind of smoke around you (those vapours of heat which come at times, something like that), and then it takes on a vibration like that, like that, more and more, more and more, more and more until suddenly the equilibrium is broken: someone breaks his leg, falls down, is hit on the mouth by a ball, etc. And one can foretell beforehand that this is going to happen when it is like that. But nobody is aware of it.”

“Yet, even in less serious cases, each one of you individually has around him something which instead of being this very individual and very calm envelope which protects you from all that you don’t want to receive… I mean, your receptivity becomes deliberate and conscious, otherwise you do not receive; and it is only when you have this conscious extremely calm atmosphere, and as I say, when it comes from within (it is not something that comes from outside), it is only when it’s like this that you can go with impunity into life, that is, among others and in all the circumstances of every minute…”

“Otherwise if there is something bad to be caught, for example, anger, fear, an illness, some uneasiness, you are sure to catch it. As soon as it starts doing this (gesture), it is as though you called all similar vibrations to come and get hold of you.”

“What is to be wondered at is the unconsciousness with which men go through life; they don’t know how to live, there’s not one in a million who know how to live, and they live like that somehow or other, limping along….”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 3 Hidden Forces Around, pp. 77-78