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Is Spiritual Force Real? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Srioro Bindo once told about an incident that helped spark his
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  interest in yoga force. His brother was very ill.
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  A wandering Yogi came by and when he learned of that illness,
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  asked for a glass of water, which he then proceeded to
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  infuse with mantras. The illness was quickly overcome
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  when Srioro Bindo's brother drank the mantra infused water.
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  Srioro Bindo remarked that anything that has that kind of
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  power needs to be investigated. An incident was reported by
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  someone who had no knowledge whatsoever of spirituality or
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  yogic power. He had been poisoned and was in
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  terrible pain and was unable to breathe.
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  He then heard an inner voice that said do yogic breathing.
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  He had no idea what this was all about since he had never heard
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  about nor studied yoga and was following a purely Western
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  educational and career path. He reported that he experienced
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  something that took over his breathing in a way that he had
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  never before experienced. He eventually recovered with a
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  deep sense that there was a spiritual reality to the world
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  and that he had something else to do with his life.
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  Then follow his former career path, he left college and began
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  to study yoga. His life was entirely
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  transformed through the experience.
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  Many people around the world have reported similar
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  experiences, seeming miraculous interventions in their lives.
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  New directions, new insights, new powers of action.
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  These are not able to be categorized in our normal mental
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  framework as they originate outside that framework.
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  Many people have experienced out of body events where they saw
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  their awareness move outside the physical body and then observe
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  the body from a different point of view from another part of a
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  room or from above looking down. Some people have observed
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  emergency workers trying to revive the body and eventually
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  they went back into the body and woke up.
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  If the consciousness can leave the body yet remain whole and
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  aware, it is a sign that we are not purely material beings but
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  have consciousness that can and does survive outside the
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  physical frame. Spiritual force or yogic force
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  is not some theoretical potentiality to be debated and
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  analyzed. It is something that must be
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  experienced to be appreciated and believed.
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  The above examples and situations are just the very
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  first rudimentary signs of a spiritual or yogic power at
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  work. As individuals have taken up the
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  practices of yoga and developed a spiritual focus in their
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  lives, new expressions of spiritual force come into play.
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  For example, many people find that they experience deep peace
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  in the presence of a yogic master, or they feel like
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  interchange is taking place. They feel a sense of deep
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  consecration or a feeling of wide compassion encompassing the
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  entire world. These experiences have been
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  recounted endless times by people from all cultures and
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  times. They may be cloaked in a
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  religious or philosophical framework, but when we get to
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  the core experience, we see the similarity of the actual event
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  that has taken place and the changes that it is brought to
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  the fore. How many people have seen their
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  path forward in life totally changed and transformed as a
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  result? Sri Aurobindo notes quote All
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  the world, according to science is nothing but a play of energy,
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  a material energy it used to be called, but isn't.
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  It is now doubted whether matter, scientifically speaking,
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  exists except as a phenomenon of energy.
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  All the world, according to Vedanta, is a play of a power of
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  a spiritual entity, the power of an original consciousness,
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  whether it be Maya or Shakti, and the result and illusion or
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  real in the world. So far as man is concerned, we
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  are aware only of mind energy, life energy, energy and matter.
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  But it is supposed that there is a spiritual energy or force also
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  behind them from which they originate.
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  All things in either case are the results of a Shakti, energy
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  or force. There is no action without a
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  force or energy doing the action and bringing about its
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  consequence. Further, anything that has no
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  force in it is either something dead or something unreal or
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  something inert and without consequence.
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  If there is no such thing as spiritual consciousness, there
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  can be no reality of yoga. And if there is no yoga force,
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  spiritual force, yoga Shakti, then also there can be no
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  effectivity in yoga. A yoga consciousness or
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  spiritual consciousness which has no power or force in it, may
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  not be dead or unreal, but it is evidently something inert and
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  without effect or consequence. Equally, a man who sets out to
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  be a Yogi or guru and has no spiritual consciousness or no
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  power in his spiritual consciousness, a yoga force or
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  spiritual force is making a false claim and is either a
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  charlatan or a self deluded imbecile.
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  Still more is he so if having no spiritual force, he claims to
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  have made a path others can follow.
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  If yoga is a reality, if spirituality is anything better
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  than a delusion, there must be such a thing as yoga force or
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  spiritual force. End Quote Reference Srioro Bindo
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  and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 7
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  Spiritual Forces of Help and Succour, pages 159 to 160.