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Science and Occultism · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Scientists study the hidden, let's admit, the occult powers
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  of the material world and of our lives, while they clothe their
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  study in words that imply a process that would distinguish
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  what they do from the general term of occultism.
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  If we reflect carefully, we can see that science is essentially
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  a subset or branch of the larger field of occultism that does not
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  restrict itself solely to material energies or material
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  laws of development, but which delves into the nature of
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  existence and the operation of unseen forces across multiple
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  aspects and planes of our existence.
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  The path followed by the seeker in the Titeria Upanishad, who
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  started with an investigation of matter and moved through a
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  review of the plane of energy of life, the plane of mind, the
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  plane of the causal power of creation and the plane of pure
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  existence, Consciousness, bliss, is virtually identical to the
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  path followed by scientists who, while they start from matter,
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  eventually wind up looking at energy, mind and causality in
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  the form of universal consciousness.
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  The first terms of knowledge are steps along the way, but not a
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  final knowledge. And the further they go, the
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  more they begin to appreciate that they are forces and powers
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  at work, far beyond the limits of human perception.
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  And they also recognize that what they thought were universal
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  laws turn out to only apply in certain limited circumstances.
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  The opening up of the field of quantum mechanics has finally
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  forced scientists to begin to acknowledge that the mechanical
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  laws of Newtonian physics do not apply in all ways and at all
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  times. Thus we now have scientists
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  taking talking about multiple universes, infinite
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  possibilities carried out in infinite worlds where different
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  choices are made and different formulations of existence and
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  awareness apply. Albert Einstein declared quote
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  concerning matter. We have been all wrong.
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  What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been
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  so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.
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  There is no matter. Time does not exist, we invented
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  it. Time is what the clock says.
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  Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but
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  modes by which we think. The more I learn of physics, the
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  more I am drawn to metaphysics. I'm not an atheist.
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  The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds.
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  We are in the position of a little child entering a huge
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  library filled with books in many languages.
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  The child knows someone must have written those books.
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  End Quote. Nikola Tesla declared quote the
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  day science begins to study non physical phenomena, it will make
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  more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of
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  its existence. End Quote.
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  And thus we see scientists acknowledging and embracing the
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  science of occultism. A disciple asks Mother, can
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  physical science by its progress open to occultism?
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  The Mother responds quote, it does not call it occultism.
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  That's all. It is only a question of words.
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  They are making sensational discoveries which people with
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  occult knowledge already knew thousands of years ago.
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  They have made a long circuit and come to the same thing with
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  the most recent discoveries in medicine, in the applied
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  sciences, for instance, they're contacting in this way with a
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  wonderstruck interest, things which were known to certain
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  sages a very, very long time ago.
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  And then they present all this before you as new marvels.
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  But indeed they are rather old. They're marvels.
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  They will end up by practicing occultism without knowing that
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  they are doing so. For in fact, as soon as one
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  draws close, however slightly, to the truth of things, and when
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  one is sincere in one's search, not satisfied by mere
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  appearances, when one really wants to find something and goes
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  deep, penetrates behind appearances, then one begins to
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  advance towards the truth of things.
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  And as one comes closer to it, well, one finds again the same
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  knowledge that others who began by going within have brought
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  back from their inner discoveries.
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  Only the method and the path are different, but the thing
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  discovered will be the same, because there are not two things
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  to be found, there is only one. It will necessarily be the same
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  if all depends on the path. 1 follows.
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  Some go fast, others slowly. Some go straight, others, as I
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  said, go a long way round. And what labour, how they have
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  laboured. Besides it is very respectable.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The
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  Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 5.
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  Occult Forces pages one O 6 to one O 7.