Occult Forces: Their Development and Proper Use

When a scientist studies the physical properties of matter and energy, and thereby creates an invention that can do things such as communicate voice or sound wirelessly across the world, or predict general weather patterns, or develop pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines that can cure, mitigate or prevent serious diseases, we seem to take these things for granted. If we reflect for a moment, however, it soon becomes obvious that the discoverers or developers of these ‘miraculous’ things (from our everyday standpoint) was able to explore occult forces and relationships and learn how to harness them.

It should not be surprising, therefore, to consider that there are other powers, material, vital or mental, which remain as yet unexplored and unused. There is a good deal of skepticism surrounding the discovery and use of occult powers. Part of this is due to inability to see or directly experience the action of these forces. Part of this is due to misleading attempts to take advantage of gullibility by proclaiming things that are not actual in order to obtain an advantage. Part of this is due to fear of the unknown. It must be noted that many people are skeptical about the advances of science as well, despite the evidence that is available to them of the functionality of the very scientific advances they are unsure about! Whatever the cause of the skepticism, it behooves us to appreciate that occultism, to the extent that it takes up the exploration and integration of powers of mind, powers of vital force, or material powers, is part of the methodology of human advancement and has been throughout human history.

One of the issues with respect to vital or mental forces on an occult level is that, while material research is able to be validated through reproducibility of results by different researchers following the exact same protocol, this is not realistic when it comes to powers that depend on the inner development and level of receptivity of each individual. There is also the potential influx of desire, ambition or greed that can skew the results claimed. Thus, a certain amount of care must be exercised when evaluating claims of occult powers to ensure that they are real and actual, while still appreciating the necessarily subjective level of experience that is involved. Those powers that can be seen to have an external and measurable effect can more easily be validated than those that are less palpable to the external senses.

It is interesting to note that many powers considered to be ‘occult’ have actually been taken quite seriously by various military services, such as the Russian and the American military. They practice things like remote viewing quite seriously and have indeed shown results. It is not just the military however that is exploring the use of direct mental power. Medical science is creating opportunities for individuals who are physically paralyzed to operate computers or prosthetic limbs through the power of thought. Clearly the reality of mental powers being able to impact the external world is now being recognised to an ever-greater degree.

Spiritual aspirants have regularly been advised about the development of occult powers through various methods of concentration, pranayama, the power of visualisation, or through other means as the spiritual practices develop. Swami Vivekananda, for example, described the development of occult powers as a consequence of the practice of the Raja Yoga as outlined by Patanjali. For the most part, seekers have been advised to renounce the use of such powers as they tend to distract from the spiritual focus, which for most paths involves liberation from the life in the world. At the same time, some paths acknowledge the reality of these powers and work to organize, enhance and utilize them as part of the integration and development of all powers of body, life and mind, but in a balanced manner and subservient to the spiritual aims.

The development of heretofore unused powers of body, life and mind is part of the evolutionary process. The challenge then is to accept the development of these forces, but at the same time to make a proper, harmonious and balanced use of them to further the divine intention in the manifestation. There may be times when a focus on spiritual development requires an intensive, one-pointed concentration without the distraction of the outer world, its demands and the development of powers appropriate to the world, but such periods do not solve the deeper significance that harmonizes the material world with the spiritual world as one “omnipresent reality”.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Occultism is associated in popular idea with magic and magical formulae and a supposed mechanism of the supernatural. But this is only one side, nor is it altogether a superstition as is vainly imagined by those who have not looked deeply or at all at this covert side of secret Nature-Force or experimented with its possibilities. Formulas and their application, a mechanisation of latent forces, can be astonishingly effective in the occult use of mind-power and life-power just as it is in physical Science, but this is only a subordinate method and a limited direction. For mind and life forces are plastic, subtle and variable in their action and have not the material rigidity; they need a subtle and plastic intuition in the knowledge of them, in the interpretation of their action and process and in their application, — even in the interpretation and action of their established formulas. An overstress on mechanisation and rigid formulation is likely to result in sterilisation or formalised limitation of knowledge and, on the pragmatic side, to much error, ignorant convention, misuse and failure. Now that we are outgrowing the superstition of the sole truth of Matter, a swing backward towards the old occultism and to new formulations, as well as to a scientific investigation of the still hidden secrets and powers of Mind and a close study of psychic and abnormal or supernormal psychological phenomena, is possible and, in parts, already visible. But if it is to fulfil itself, the true foundation, the true aim and direction, the necessary restrictions and precautions of this line of inquiry have to be rediscovered; its most important aim must be the discovery of the hidden truths and powers of the mind-force and the life-power and the greater forces of the concealed spirit. Occult science is, essentially, the science of the subliminal, the subliminal in ourselves and the subliminal in world-nature, and of all that is in connection with the subliminal, including the subconscient and the superconscient, and the use of it as part of self-knowledge and world-knowledge and for the right dynamisation of that knowledge.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 5 Occult Forces, pp 101-102

Universal Forces, the Chakra Energy Centers, and the Utilization of the Forces

Each individual has his own unique types and levels of receptivity, and these too can vary over time. The universal forces are constantly there, but if an individual is closed off, unresponsive, then he does not gain the full benefit of that force. The ancient description of the energy centres in the subtle body, the chakras, holds that we receive energies through an ascending series of centres, and each one has its own characteristic action and expression. In other words, the universal force is converted into specific types of energy based on which chakra is able to open and receive it, and to what extent. Some paths of yoga actually work to move energy from the lower chakras that govern drives such as sex, desire, greed, power, etc. and channel those energies through the higher centres which govern things such as compassion, expression, will, intellect and spiritual focus. One can look at the chakras as representing different vibrational intensities and levels. People make use of the energy not simply based on the chakras, but also based on the predominance of a particular Guna, tamas, rajas or sattva, at the time the energy is received.

Chakras can also close off or shut down and this is particularly true when there is trauma involved and the individual draws in as a form of protective device. Generally, there is some amount of energy flowing through various chakras at any point in time, although the higher chakras governing will, intellect and spiritual development may remain closed, or mostly closed, for people focused almost entirely on the external life and channeling energy thereby through the lower 3 chakras for the most part.

Spiritual aspirants have a special responsibility as the chakras open and they become receptive to forces that are working toward spiritual development. If they utilize the force to fulfil desires of various sorts, channeling the energy out through the lower chakras, they tend to suffer consequences. This includes individuals who, for instance, take up spiritual practices and then use the powers that result to exalt themselves through fame, acquire wealth or obtain sexual satisfactions. The force tends to withdraw eventually from such individuals and they wind up in many cases broken, physically, vitally and mentally. In some cases they see the effect of their misuse rebound upon them in very consequential ways.

On the other hand, those who become receptive to the forces that enhance spiritual progress, and who use those forces to continue to develop and grow spiritually, find that their capacity to receive them tends to expand, and there is an ever-increasing action that takes place as they tune themselves to the higher vibrational patterns that act through the higher chakras.

“The Mother writes: “Each person has a different receptivity. No two receptivities are the same in quality and quantity, but specially in quality. One enters into contact with very pure, very intense forces — what could be already called converted forces, that is, universal vital forces which are in contact with the Divine and not only receive the Divine but aspire to receive Him. So if you absorb these forces it gives you a great strength for progress. It is in this that the quality is much more important. And for the quality of the universal vital forces, it depends naturally a great deal on what one is, but also much on what one does.”

“If one uses these forces for a purely selfish action of a base kind, well, one makes it almost totally impossible for himself to receive any new ones of as fine a quality. All depends on the utilisation of the forces one receives. If, on the other hand, you use them to make progress, to perfect yourself, it gives you… it increases your capacity of receiving enormously, and the next time you can have a lot more. All depends (in any case, principally) on the use made of them. There are people, for instance, who are short-tempered by nature and haven’t succeeded in controlling their anger. Well, if with an aspiration or by some method or other they have managed to receive some higher vital forces, instead of this calming their irritation or anger… because they have no self-control it increases their anger, that is, their irritability, their movement of violence is full of a greater force, a greater energy, and becomes much more violent. So it is well said that to be in contact with universal forces does not make one progress. But this is because they make a bad use of them. Yet naturally in the long run, this bad use diminishes the capacity of receiving; but it takes time, it is not immediate. So it is very important to put yourself in a good condition to receive the higher forces and not the lower ones, and secondly, when you have received them use them for the best thing possible, in order to prepare yourself to receive those which are of a higher quality. But if you open yourself, receive the forces and afterwards, being satisfied with having received them you let yourself fall into all the ordinary movements, well, you close the door and the force no longer returns.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp 96-97

The Need to Prepare the Being to Receive, Hold and Utilize the Influx of the Higher Forces

The raw power generated by an electricity power plant is far greater than any single house can sustain. Thus, the utility company utilizes step-down transformers to systematically bring the power down to a level that the homes and the wiring to the homes can sustain.

A similar principle is at work with regard to the universal forces and the ability of any individual to receive and hold those forces. This is the reason that much of the work done in any yogic practice is to prepare the being to receive and utilize the force that descends.

Raja Yoga provides a great example. The first two steps, yama and niyama include various vital purifications and control and management of the vital forces active in the being, such as non injury, non stealing, truthfulness, contentment, etc. If any of these vital predilections is active, it can either misuse the energy coming in or waste it without accomplishing the spiritual objective. The next stage includes asana, in terms of maintaining a solid physical frame and capacity to hold and move energy. While this is mostly associated with the physical frame, actually the term asana can signify the entire being at all its levels. The goal of a solid ‘seat’ therefore is to have a framework, physical, vital and mental, that can hold the yogic forces when they enter and are activated in the being. The next step is pranayama which is the management of the prana or the vital force that activates and operates within the physical body. The prana is also the link between the external forces and the physical frame, and is usually controlled through management of the breathing process. There is a direct link also between the management of the thoughts and the management of the breath, so it is an essential step to gain control of the breath, purify the ‘channels’ through which the various forms of prana move, and bring the thoughts also under control, eventually leading to a quieting of the mental process. It is only after these 4 preliminary stages are accomplished that Raja Yoga moves on to the deeper practices that bring direct connection to the spiritual reality and the forces that are at work at those levels.

A disciple asks: “Sweet Mother, do the universal vital forces have any limits?”

The Mother answers: “I don’t think that forces have a limit, because in comparison with us they are certainly unlimited. But it’s our capacity of reception that is limited. We cannot absorb them beyond a certain measure, and then we must keep a balance between the expenditure and the capacity to receive. If one spends suddenly in a kind of impulse — for example, in an impulsive movement — if one spends much more than one has received, one needs a brief moment of concentration, calm, receptivity to absorb universal forces. You must put yourself in a certain condition to receive them; and then, they last for a certain time, and once you have spent them you must begin again to receive them. It is in this sense that there are limits. It isn’t the forces that are limited, it is the receptivity.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pg 96

How to Experience the Influx of Universal Forces Directly Through the Experience of a Wider Consciousness

The Vedic Rishis described a change in conscious awareness as representing satyam, rtam, brihat, the truth, the right, the vast. It is difficult for most people living in the modern world to gain a conception of the vastness of existence. We may know intellectually that the universe is large, we may know that the world, from our individual perspective is large, but the sense of infinity, the sense of unending wideness is missing as we remain circumscribed by the limits of our daily life and the frenetic pace of interaction that occurs within that life. Few are the times or occasions when an individual is able to extract himself from the hustle and bustle of daily life and focus his attention on the vastness that automatically widens his consciousness and opens it up to the direct impact of the universal forces.

In the days of the Vedic rishis, there was not a pervasive and overwhelming buzz of electricity, artificial lighting and constant vibrations of sound of television, radio, internet, fluorescent lights, billboard signs, motor vehicles, etc. They could sit quietly in nature, and naturally observe the stars, the ocean, the mountain ranges and thereby open themselves to an experience of Nature. Until an individual has an actual experience of that vast consciousness, it remains purely a mental concept and does not thereby create the necessary status of consciousness for the kind of direct connection that is described by the rishis.

The First Nations’ people of North America have a tradition for those with a calling to go on a ‘vision quest’. Typically they go out alone, into the wilderness, to commune with Nature, to experience a touch of the infinite expanse of the universal creation, and to let the day to day life slip away so they can experience a deeper realisation and understand who they are and why they are alive.

If one takes the time to travel to isolated places, to the mountains, to the ocean, to a great old growth forest, and observes the night sky, for instance, there arises within a feeling of unlimited wideness that corresponds to the outer view. One can share in the experience of infinity, of a timelessness that escapes our normal daily awareness, of a beauty that captivates our souls as one leaves behind the limiting factors that distract us from the greater reality within which we live. Truly it is said that day for the ordinary man is night for the sage.

Sri Aurobindo describes this sense of wideness, and the power of Nature in his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, when he writes: “I know there shall inform the inconscient cells, At one with Nature and at height with heaven, A spirit vast as the containing sky And swept with ecstasy from invisible founts….”

The Mother notes: “But when one has this capacity in his own consciousness — for example, you go for a walk and come to a place which is somewhat vast, like the seashore or like a great plain or the summit of a mountain, a place where the horizon is fairly vast, then if you have this kind of physical instinct which suddenly makes you as vast as the horizon, you have a sense of infinity, immensity, and the vaster you become, the quieter and more peaceful you become.”

“It is enough for you to have a contact with Nature like that.”

“There are many other means, but this one is very spontaneous. There is also… when you see something very beautiful you can have the same thing: a kind of inner joy and an opening to the forces, and so this widens you and fills you at the same time. There are many means but usually one does not use them. Naturally, if you enter into contemplation and aspire for a higher life and call down the forces from above, this recuperates your energies more than anything else. But there are numerous methods.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp 95-96

Accessing Universal Vital Forces Directly or Through Vital Interchange With Others

The Mother clarifies a distinction between receiving the universal vital forces directly and receiving them through a vital interchange with other individuals. These two methods represent two entirely different statuses of consciousness. To receive the universal vital forces directly, a wide and receptive consciousness is needed. Many people do not appreciate that this is an actual, palpable experience of wideness, not restricted to a mental status. As the yogic practice develops, it is possible to have glimpses of this experiential state, and eventually to live constantly in that wideness, not limited to the awareness of the physical frame of the body.

Most individuals, however, identify themselves with the physical body and its limited frame. In such cases, they do not openly and consciously receive the universal vital forces (although these forces are constantly active and working on a subliminal level). They engage for the most part in interchange with other individuals similarly situated and draw in vital energies from those other individuals and pass along the vital energies they are holding to their associates. The Mother describes the limitations and the issues involved with such a process.

The Mother observes: “But those who draw back upon themselves, who turn and double up on themselves, cannot do this. One must live all the time in a very vast and very expansive consciousness (I don’t know if you understand the word, it means something which extends very homogeneously and quietly, as when the tide is at its height and the water spreads like that, quietly — that’s the impression). The vital must be like that — then one is open to the universal forces. But if, for example, one has the very bad habit of exchanging vital forces with one’s fellowmen, then one loses the capacity altogether. So unless one is in relation with someone, one receives nothing at all. But naturally if you receive forces through others, you receive at the same time all the difficulties of the other person, perhaps sometimes his qualities also, but these are less contagious. This indeed is something that shuts you up most.”

“Some people… unless they have more or less social relations with others, relations of friendship, conversing… and then it goes still farther… they don’t receive any forces; and this is how they receive them. But this always makes a soup. The forces one receives are already half digested, in any case they don’t have their primal purity, and this affects your own capacity.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp 94-95

Increasing Lifespan and Wellness Is the Trajectory of Human Development

If we observe the trajectory of human development, we can see a very clear direction taking shape. As we have become more conscious of the stages of life, and the processes that accompany those stages, including the increasing weakening and deterioration of the body and the life energy, and the eventual breakdown and thus, the movement toward the death of the body, we also have taken steps to learn how to increase health, wellness and longevity. Some of the means employed relate to developing an understanding of the factors that lead to the breakdown of the systems of the body, the increasing focus on hygiene and sanitation, the improvement in dietary understanding, and the need for exercise, etc. We thus see a dramatic improvement over the last century in both average lifespan (other than that caused through war, poverty, drought or famine or floods, etc.) and, with advances in medical science, definite improvements in the possibility of maintaining a general state of wellness commensurate to the increased lifespan. Of course, factors such as poor dietary habits, alcoholism, stressful work environments, and other lifestyle and diet issues can, for individuals, work against the general trend of humanity’s enhancements. Here we are focusing on the general trend, not the specific fate of any specific individual.

This trajectory also has moved into the fields of vital and mental factors, and the need for techniques of stress reduction, life satisfaction, and mental stimulation and purpose become relevant as the lifespan continues. We are beginning to recognise that a vegetarian or vegan diet can actually provide benefits not only physically but also vitally and mentally, and we see an increasing trend in this direction as well. The real question that then begins to limit longevity and wellness is whether the increased life represents a benefit to an individual, or is seen as a burden. In this sense, the Mother’s statement that “an aimless life is a meaningless life” becomes centrally relevant. Increased life and health will be dependent on the attitude of the individual toward having a meaningful life.

If we follow this trajectory further, we find that humanity is now beginning to explore more seriously what heretofore has been a random circumstance, to explore ways to actually develop more inward relation to the body and its processes and its ability to receive and utilize energy, and thus, there is experimentation with breath control techniques, the use of sound vibrational therapy, and the use of deep meditation techniques to begin to positively impact what have generally been thought to be subconscious and automatic functioning of the various bodily systems.

We also recognise that various animals have the ability to regenerate parts of their body that become injured. The genetic coding for this lies hidden deep within the human being, and cutting edge research is exploring the details of the human genome and experimenting with the idea of actually turning on, or off, various code sequences that govern issues that confront us in extending lifespan and wellness.

The fields of spiritual development and Western science are both converging toward an understanding that our past, and even our current, view of human life and wellness is based almost entirely on physical anatomy and physiology. But given the trends we see, we can begin to open our minds to a time when, through one direction or another, or through a combined impact, we can begin to replace or regenerate worn out organs, we can learn to optimize the care and feeding of the human body’s machinery, and thereby find ways to extend considerably more, human life, while at the same time, providing a higher quality of that extended life. Are there individuals who already have some of this capacity?

The Mother writes: “But those who know instinctively or who have learnt to receive and accumulate the universal vital forces, these can last almost indefinitely. The wear and tear is very little, especially if they know how to do it and do it with knowledge and method; then here it can reach a certain degree of perfection.”

“When one knows, sometimes just two or three minutes are sufficient to recuperate the energies spent over a long period. Only, one must know how to do it.”

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

Biological Energy Developed from Food and from Other Sources

People are not generally consciously aware of the energy interchanges that take place to fuel their bodies and drive their life energies. They understand that they need to eat food as a form of ‘fuel’ for their energy, and they count ‘calories’ that are produced by various food sources. Clearly, the connection between matter (in the form of food) and energy (in the form of life action and biochemical processes) is recognised and accepted. We also recognise that Einstein’s famous equation about the convertibility of Matter and Energy in physics also holds true in the field of life. And for most people, the entire subject of life-energy comes down to food and various stimulants.

Stimulants provide an artificial short-term apparent energy boost, not by bringing in new energy sources, but by prodding the biochemical systems to overproduce compared to their natural status. In fact, stimulants tend to eventually weaken the system by using stored energy for short-term requirements at the expense of longer-term balance, wellness and harmonious functioning of the body.

Food of course has its limitations as an energy source. There may be insufficient food, or it may be of poor quality, or it may have offsetting side effects depending on its composition and purity. The ability to convert food into life-energy also tends to weaken over time as various organ systems reduce their efficiency in action through ‘wear and tear’. Thus, we see the decline of the bodily systems, eventual weakening of the organs and the immune system, and the advent of disease, suffering and eventual death.

There are other sources of energy, and those who have figured out how to access and utilize them can find ways to extend both the length of life and the health and wellness experienced during that time. Certain yogic practices, and in particular hatha yoga and the practices of pranayama, can dramatically benefit the body both short- and long-term.

Some individuals have learned how to draw energy from others, and there are cases of individuals feeling drained or exhausted after meeting with such an individual. Those people tend to thrive at the expense of others, with the only issue here being the fact that energy sources other than material food actually exist.

Some people are ‘energized’ by any subject that holds their interest, by joyful or uplifting experiences, or through emotional interactions of a positive nature. This is actually part of a vital interchange that occurs all the time, although mostly unnoticed.

Spiritual practitioners also frequently report the descent of a force coming down from above the head and filling their being with force, light or energy. This represents yet another way that energy interchange can take place other than through the use of food.

The Mother notes: “Some people don’t know how to receive the forces at all. These live on the energies concentrated in the body — for there is some concentrated energy in all the cells of the body. They live upon that, but after some time, they are drained out completely if they don’t know how to recuperate; when they have spent all the energies which were concentrated inside them either they fall ill or they never recuperate them. So this cannot last very long; it lasts the average lifetime of human beings, and yet, at the end of a certain number of years they are no longer able to make the same effort or to produce as much, or above all to make any progress.”

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

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

Receptivity to the Universal Vital Forces

In May 1973, a devotee from the West was visiting Auroville in South India. At that time, it was primarily an eroded, dusty plateau, not the lush forested scene that one can see today if one visits. May is an extremely hot month, and the visitor had just arrived a couple of weeks earlier from the United States. As he was walking around in the mid-day sun, he was struck by the intensity of the sun’s heat and force and at one point, he curled up on a hillside, overwhelmed with heat stroke and a pounding headache that accompanied it. After lying there for a while, he was prompted to get up or he would die on that hillside, so he found a way to get up, walk back to shelter and get some water. He lived to tell about it, but the trauma was deep. This is an example of not being able to open, receive and hold the universal force that was flowing.

The Mother tells another story, where some individuals found a way to open themselves and appreciate the power of the sun’s heat and force rather than succumbing to it.

There is a famous tale in the Puranas about a wife of Surya, the sun-god, who closed her eyes, trembled and could not bear the intensity of her husband’s force. Because of her closing of her eyes and trembling, Surya imprecated her to give birth to Yama, the God of Death, and Yami, the River Yamuna. She struggled for a long time to find a way to deal with the effulgence of the sun and her story has many twists and turns in it. Surya at one point asked his wife’s father, once he understood the issue, to reduce the intensity of his radiance sufficiently to allow the wife to bear the force. We see here an eventual accommodation whereby the universal force can be received and assimilated through achievement of an understanding between the universal force, in this case the sun, and the recipient of that force in the form of his wife.

As we see in these texts the universal force has both an impersonal and a personal aspect and a relationship can be developed if one appreciates the personality of that force and takes step to befriend rather than fear its power.

The Mother observes: “I knew young people who had always lived in cities — in a city and in those little rooms one has in the big cities in which everyone is huddled. Now, they had come to spend their holidays in the countryside, in the south of France, and there the sun is hot, naturally not as here but all the same it is very hot (when we compare the sun of the Mediterranean coasts with that of Paris, for example, it truly makes a difference), and so, when they walked around the countryside the first few days they really began to get a terrible headache and to feel absolutely uneasy because of the sun; but they suddenly thought: ‘Why, if we make friends with the sun it won’t harm us any more!’ And they began to make a kind of inner effort of friendship and trust in the sun, and when they were out in the sun, instead of trying to bend double and tell themselves, ‘Oh! how hot it is, how it burns!’, they said, ”Oh, how full of force and joy and love the sun is!’ etc., they opened themselves like this (gesture), and not only did they not suffer any longer but they felt so strong afterwards that they went round telling everyone who said, ‘It is hot’ — telling them ‘Do as we do, you will see how good it is.’ And they could remain for hours in the full sun, bare-headed and without feeling any discomfort. It is the same principle.”

“It is the same principle. They linked themselves to the universal vital force which is in the sun and received this force which took away all that was unpleasant to them.”

“When one is in the countryside, when one walks under the trees and feels so close to Nature, to the trees, the sky, all the leaves, all the branches, all the herbs, when one feels a great friendship with these things and breathes that air which is so good, perfumed with all the plants, then one opens oneself, and by opening oneself communes with the universal forces. And for all things it is like that.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 4 Cosmic and Universal Forces, pp. 91-92