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How Do We Know That a Spiritual Force Is Working in Our Lives? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  How can we know that the spiritual force is actually
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  working in us? An actual experience of a force,
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  or what is called a spiritual experience, is a specific,
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  generally short lived event that enormous numbers of people have
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  had. Yet the experience recedes and
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  the daily life goes on, seemingly in its old habitual
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  patterns, with little noticeable change and with the old routines
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  seemingly firmly entrenched. Spiritual literature and
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  scriptural texts from virtually every tradition in the world
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  provide ample evidence of the overwhelming experience and then
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  the let down effect when it withdraws.
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  The dark night of the soul is a recognized phenomenon.
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  Devotees suffer when the object to their love is withdrawn or
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  hidden from them. People struggle with challenges
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  to their faith and the absence of visible signs always in front
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  of them. There are several ways we can
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  know the action of a spiritual force within us, even when it is
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  not overtly felt or acknowledged.
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  It is clear that the instruments of body, life, and mind are
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  severely limited in their ranges of perception, so it is no
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  wonder that much of the action of spiritual forces is not seen
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  or acknowledged. One way, of course, is the
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  actual event or experience that one does get a glimpse or
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  perception about, and potentially a repetition of some
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  similar event from time to time. Another way is to look back at
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  the arc of one's life to see how major radical changes have
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  occurred over time in the way one sees, feels, responds.
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  Most people do not experience this kind of major alteration in
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  their views, reactions, or perceptions about things.
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  So for someone to have such changes take place, it becomes
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  clear that another force is at work.
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  Charles Dickens, in his tale A Christmas Carol, actually
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  illustrates this principle quite clearly.
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  A modern materialistic businessman who cares for no one
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  and nothing other than amassing his wealth, has an experience
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  where he is visited by the ghost of his former partner and then
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  has visitation from ghosts who show him successively past,
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  present and future. He is shaken by the experience
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  and when he awakens from the dream state he was in during the
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  experience, he is a changed man who takes care to help and care
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  about others. Who could have imagined a more
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  radical transformation inhabit an action than what we see here?
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  The visitation by ghosts is a frequent theme in Western
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  literature about how forces have changed outcomes.
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  It also occurs frequently in the works of William Shakespeare,
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  for instance, what the actual forces at work are.
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  Whether ghosts or simply a transcription of some spiritual
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  force in imagery that is common in a particular cultural
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  background cannot obviously be immediately determined without
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  more detailed understanding of specific cases.
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  However, the changes are radical and transformative and provide
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  the signs of a new spiritual energy and insight at work in
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  the being. Many who have such a
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  transformative experience do not have such a radical overnight
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  change, but tend to grow into it over a period of time.
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  Looking back at one's feelings, thoughts, responses and
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  reactions of the past and what they are now can usually provide
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  clear evidence of a force at work to bring about a change of
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  consciousness and put that change of consciousness into
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  action, Srioro Bindu observes. Quote.
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  The fact that you don't feel a force does not prove that it is
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  not there. The steam engine does not feel a
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  force moving it, but the force is there.
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  A man is not a steam engine. He is very little better, for he
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  is conscious only of some bubbling on the surface which he
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  calls himself, and is absolutely unconscious of all the
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  subconscious, subliminal, super conscient forces moving him.
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  This is a fact which is being more and more established by
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  modern psychology, though it has got hold only of the lower force
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  and not the higher, so you must not turn up your rational nose
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  at it. He twitters intellectually
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  foolishly, about the surface results and attributes them all
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  to his noble self, ignoring the fact that his noble self is
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  hidden far away from his own view, behind the veil of his
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  dimly sparkling intellect and the reeking fog of his vital
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  feelings, emotions, impulses, sensations and impressions.
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  So your argument is utterly absurd and futile.
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  Our aim is to bring the secret forces out and unwalled into the
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  open, so that instead of getting some shadows or lightnings of
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  themselves out through the veil, or being wholly obstructed, they
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  may pour down and flow in rivers.
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  But to expect that all at once is a presumptuous demand which
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  shows an impatient ignorance and inexperience.
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  If they begin to trickle at first, that is enough to justify
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  the faith in a future downpour. You admit that you once or twice
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  felt a force coming down. It proves that the force was and
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  is there and at work, and it is only your sweating herculean
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  labor that prevents you feeling it.
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  Also, it is the trickle that gives the assurance of the
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  possibility of the downpour. One has only to go on and by
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  one's patience deserve the downpour or else without
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  deserving, slide on until 1 gets it.
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  In yoga, the experience itself is a promise and foretaste.
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  But get shut off till the nature is ready for the fulfillment.
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  This is a phenomenon familiar to every Yogi when he looks back on
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  his past experience. Such were the brief visitations
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  of Ananda you had sometimes before.
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  It does not matter if you have not a Leech like tenacity.
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  Leeches are not the only type of yogi's.
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  If you can stick anyhow or get stuck, that is sufficient.
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  End Quote. Reference Trior, Bindu and the
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  Mother. The Hidden Forces of Life,
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  Chapter 7, Spiritual Forces of Help and Succor, pages 166 to
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  167.