Drawing on the Universal Energy for Life-Force

If we observe the way we receive energy normally, we can determine that the sun is the immediate source of physical energy and it then gets transformed, or converted, into other forms of energy including life energy. The first step in this transformation comes about through the ability of plants to turn solar energy into life-energy. The plants then store the produced energy, using some of it for growth and some for life activities. Animals, in turn consume plants to obtain a share of this physical energy which they need to survive and thrive. Some beings then consumer animal flesh to take this energy, now several steps removed from its source, The secret to direct conversion of solar energy into life-force, and the creation of storage mechanisms for that energy in the form of the physical forms of the plants (and animals) is held by the absolute simplest living organisms we know!

Somewhere locked away in the coding of our existence, this secret lies hidden. Some individuals have found ways to partially unlock this secret and they are able to draw their life-force directly from universal forces without requiring the medium of food and the conversion steps implied thereby.

Paramahansa Yogananda relates a tale in his classic text Autobiography of a Yogi, of an individual he met who was able to draw the energy directly from the universe and who thereby needed to eat very little, if anything, in order to maintain an active life.

Many people, mostly unconsciously, have some amount of capacity to draw on the universal forces more or less directly, even if they remain primarily dependent upon consumption of food to provide the basis for their physical existence. They absorb the energy through receptivity, and through the breathing process, they absorb Prana and distribute it to work within their body.

Another secret lies in the mitochondria within the body’s cells. This is the “energy factor” that converts the components absorbed from the food into usable biological energy.

This opens up an entire range of speculation about the possible future ability to reduce, or even entirely abandon, the need for food to convert, store, and provide energy in the ascending scale of what is known as the ‘food chain’. Once the linkage between a physical processing capability and the utilization of universal force has been broken, we can conceive of a future in which the individual can draw energy directly.

It is interesting to note that in a corresponding way, Nikola Tesla envisioned the production of mechanical and useful electrical energy directly from the atmosphere without intervening mechanisms. The example provided by those individuals who have learned to rely on universal forces rather than physical food for their sustenance and energetic needs provide a further hint of our future status.

A disciple asks: On what do our physical reserves [energy reserves] depend, Mother?

The Mother responds: “Physical reserves? You mean the reserve of energy? It depends on the capacity to receive the universal vital force; because in fact, through food also it is these vital forces one receives but one receives them from below. But in order to have reserves you must know how to receive the universal vital forces constantly and to have a kind of balance in the being which prevents you from spending more than you have.”

“A proportion has to be kept between the receptivity and the expenditure. It is a kind of harmony in the being which must be established. Only, some people have an almost instinctive power of attracting towards them the vital forces or absorbing them — the universal vital forces, I mean — and so they make up their expense as they go along spending. These people can produce much more than others. Some of them, in certain conditions like sleep or a kind of repose or relaxation, can accumulate forces and later they exhaust them, so to say, in their activities and they must yet once again charge the battery afterwards — this is already a much less favourable condition.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp. 93-94

Overcoming the Discomfort of Cold Temperatures

Dealing with the heat radiation that comes from the sun is a matter of gaining the ability to absorb and utilize the energy without being overwhelmed by its force. Turning then to the issue of how to deal with cold, we have an entirely different scenario, in that we have a reduction in the energy available to us to absorb heat. Cold represents a lack of force, rather than an active force in its own right.

Nevertheless, it is useful, and important, to be able to determine how the body can effectively respond to cold. The normal reaction is an attempt to shrink in and close off the body from the impact of the cold, and in particular, to protect the body core. Obviously shelter, clothing and external heat generation are mechanisms we utilize, but this is not the answer to the question raised by the disciple to which the Mother responded.

The famous escape artist Harry Houdini reported that he systematically trained his body to bear the cold by bathing in ice and eventually he used this capability as part of his career. In this case, he habituated the body to respond to cold and accept it rather than try to escape it or protect against it through external means.

The Tibetan tradition describes a practice known by the name of tummo, which is a form of meditation practice which utilizes pranayama and visualisation. Advanced practitioners are able to withstand extreme cold, and Western scientists, studying the phenomena, have validated the increase in body heat by skilled practitioners of this method.

The great Tibetan yogi, Milarepa, is said to have utilized ttummo as part of his spiritual practice. It is noted that he spent long periods of time in the Himalayan mountains meditating without apparently suffering the cold of the caves he was frequenting.

A well-known French traveler, author and Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, Madame Alexandra David-Neel, described her initiation and development in the practice of tummo, and her subsequent ability to withstand extreme cold.

We thus see several different techniques, one through habituation, the other through active generation of internal heat, used by people seeking to mitigate the impact of cold on the body. In neither case, is the individual burdened by feeling like he is suffering from the cold.

A disciple asks: “Can one do the same thing when it is cold?”

The Mother answers: “Yes, I think so. I think one can always do the same thing in all cases.”

“The sun is a very powerful symbol in the organisation of Nature. So it is not altogether the same thing; it possesses in itself an extraordinary condensation of energy. Cold seems to me a more negative thing: it is an absence of something. But in any case, if one knows how to enter the rhythm of the movements of Nature, one avoids many discomforts. What makes men suffer, what disturbs the balance of the body is a narrowness, it is always a narrowness. It happens because one is shut up in limits, and so there is, as Sri Aurobindo writes here, a force which presses too strongly for these limits — it upsets everything.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp. 92-93