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The Miracles and Mysteries in Our Everyday Lives and the Conclusions We Can Draw From Them · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We are constantly surrounded by miracles in the sense that our
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  lives are filled with activities, events, processes
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  and circumstances that we clearly do not understand but
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  accept based on some explanation, assuming that
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  someone knows what it's all about.
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  Airplanes flying through the air, rockets traveling to outer
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  space and visiting the moon, wireless communication anywhere
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  in the world, wireless electric charging, and all the myriad
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  inventions that we take for granted in the modern world.
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  Who really knows what powers are at work to make these things
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  happen? We can harness energies, but can
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  we truly appreciate how these things are even possible?
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  We were travelling once from India to the United States and
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  took an escalator down to a baggage claim area.
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  We looked up and saw a young man standing at the top of the
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  escalator. Apparently seeing one for the
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  first time in his life and unable to comprehend what this
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  was, how it worked, and how he should interact with it, we went
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  back up, held his hand and helped him down the escalator.
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  It turns out he was a young villager from India who was
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  travelling on an airplane for the very first time and had
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  never been inside a modern airport previously.
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  To him, this whole thing was a mystifying and miraculous
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  situation. The very processes of life, the
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  organization of birth, growth and death.
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  The genetic code embedded in every living being, the atomic
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  structure of all material elements.
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  These are also all miraculous things which we tend to overlook
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  as we explain the science of it all to ourselves.
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  The functioning of our senses and the powers of the mind.
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  The power of creativity, the power of intuition, the power of
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  instinct, All of these represent other powers that we do not
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  fully understand but tend to take for granted.
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  Why then should we find it so mysterious that there are also
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  laws of cause and effect, the law of karma, the process of
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  soul growth and development, and that there are powers that
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  direct, guide and oversee this entire creation, including the
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  evolution of consciousness? If all of these miraculous
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  things surround us everywhere in our lives, why do we find it so
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  difficult to understand that just as there are material
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  forces at work, they are also vital mental and spiritual
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  forces at work in their own various ways, accomplishing
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  their own form of result? The Mother observes Quote.
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  But even from the purely material point of view, you are
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  used to certain things. They have been explained to you,
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  for example, electric light, or that it is enough to press a
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  button to start a car. You can explain it, you've been
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  told why, and so it seems absolutely natural to you.
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  But I had instances of people who did not know, who were
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  completely ignorant, who came from a place where these things
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  had not yet penetrated, and who were suddenly shown a statue
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  being lighted up by rays of light.
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  They fell on their knees in adoration.
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  It was a divine manifestation. And I have seen someone else who
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  was in the same state. It was a child who knew nothing.
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  In front of him a button was pressed and the car started.
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  It seemed a tremendous miracle to him.
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  Well, it is like that. You are used to certain things.
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  They seem absolutely natural to you.
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  If you were not used to them, you would see you would think
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  them miracles. Well, turn over the problem.
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  There is a heap of things you cannot explain to yourself.
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  There is a host of interventions which change the course of
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  circumstances and which you don't even notice.
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  And so everything seems to you ordinary, monotonous and without
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  any particular interest. But if you had the knowledge and
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  could see that all these things which seem absolutely normal to
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  you because you are used to them and have not even asked yourself
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  how does this happen in this way?
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  If you had the knowledge and saw how it happens, what it is that
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  acts, Why, for example, someone who acts so imprudently that he
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  would have broken his head does not break it.
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  Why everything seems arranged for a frightful accident to take
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  place and it does not occur. And thousands, millions of
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  things like that which happened every day and everywhere.
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  If you had enough knowledge to see why it is like that, then at
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  the same time you could say, look, there is something like a
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  force, a consciousness, a power which acts and which is not from
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  the material domain. Materially, logically, this is
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  what should have happened, and it did not happen.
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  You say, ah, it was his good luck, don't you?
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  And then you're satisfied. It's all right for you.
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  Silence. It is the ignorant, limited
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  egoistic consciousness which demands miracles.
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  As soon as one is enlightened, one knows that everywhere and
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  always there is miracle. And the more faith one has in
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  this miracle and this grace, the more capable one becomes of
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  seeing it or perceiving it constantly at every place where
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  it is. It is ignorance and lack of
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  faith. It is blind egoism which
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  prevents one from seeing. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter
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  7, Spiritual Forces of Help and Succor, pages 172 to 173.