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Coincidence or Control? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The mind, with its need to correlate facts, gather
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  evidence, and develop proofs, finds it difficult, if not
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  impossible, to credit ideas that seem to fall outside the logical
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  reason. Based on the mind's limited
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  understanding of the oneness of the Universal creation, the mind
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  sets up certain rules and holds doggedly to them until such time
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  as more facts come in to conveniently overturn the past
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  rules. Witness the idea that the sun
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  revolves around the earth, which only in recent centuries was
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  overturned by a new understanding of the operations
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  of the solar system. So the question of whether and
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  to what extent an interaction between an individual and the
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  forces of nature, for instance control of the weather, is one
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  that has adherents on both sides.
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  Those wedded to science and mental logic tend to disbelieve
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  in this possibility, while those who have a more mystical bent
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  can understand the way these forces interact in the unified
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  field of consciousness. At the same time, the mind is
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  being confronted with evidence in the field of quantum physics,
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  which seems to defy the logical rules.
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  Ideas such as quantum entanglement, where two
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  particles distant from one another are linked together such
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  that action by 1 represents action by the other, or the idea
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  that the fact of observation of an event changes the result, or
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  even the results that seem to show that certain current events
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  change the past, all challenge the traditional mental rules in
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  ways that make it clear that those rules are not only limited
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  but arbitrary and incorrect when a greater picture and more facts
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  can be brought together into a coherent picture.
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  The question of the interaction between consciousness in the
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  human being and the natural world is therefore open for
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  review and consideration. We read stories of various
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  shaman who have some connection to the natural world and who are
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  thus able to exercise a certain amount of control over the
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  weather. For instance, one of the most
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  famous stories involves Tibet's famous Yogi Milarepa.
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  In the years before he took up the practice of yoga.
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  After his father died, his uncle and aunt stole away the family's
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  wealth and left his mother, sister and himself in a
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  dependent and destitute position.
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  He yearned for revenge and went to study with a magician who
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  taught him the secret of control of the weather.
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  He went back to his village, called in a hailstorm and
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  destroyed much of the village. Many traditions tell of the
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  ability to control storms. Traditions also speak of the
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  ability to bring needed rainfall to a region.
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  Tales in the Puranas of India tell of how regions either had
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  rainfall withheld or were provided with rainfall based on
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  various actions of kings or curses made by Brahmanas who had
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  been somehow insulted or harmed. The question of interaction
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  between human individuals and the weather is one that has
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  frequently come up all around the world in the tradition of
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  the Abrahamic religions. There is the famous story of the
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  catastrophic flood that, while neither caused by nor prevented
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  by human intervention, yet was known in advance by Noah with
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  sufficient time to build an ark and populate it with two of each
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  species. Similarly, population centers
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  were destroyed by climatic events, which were revealed in
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  advance to Lot, who was told by God to depart to safety before
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  the event took place. Many people experienced an event
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  during the Mother's last balcony darshan in August 1973.
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  It was uncertain that she would actually give darshan that day.
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  On the morning of August 15th, 1973, the announcement was made
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  for a late afternoon, early evening darshan time.
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  People began collecting in the street below the balcony hours
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  in advance. It was pouring rain.
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  Shortly before the time of the darshan.
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  The clouds parted, the rain stopped, and the mother came out
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  to give her blessings to the crowd of the people in the
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  street below. She went back inside and the
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  rain promptly started up again. We also hear of instances where
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  the sense of peace was so solid that nothing, even storms, could
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  disturb it, as is related by the mother in an anecdote about Trio
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  Robindo during a great cyclone. The mother notes quote.
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  I have had innumerable examples of the power of right attitude.
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  I have seen crowds saved from catastrophes by one single
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  person keeping the right attitude.
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  But it must be an attitude that does not remain somewhere very
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  high, and leaves the body to its usual reactions.
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  If you remain high up like that, saying, Let God's will be done,
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  you may get killed all the same, for your body may be quite
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  undivine, shivering with fear. The thing is to hold the true
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  consciousness in the body itself, and not have the least
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  fear and be full of the divine peace.
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  Then indeed, there is no danger. Not only can attacks of men be
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  warded off, but beasts also, and even the elements can be
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  affected. I can give you a little example.
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  You remember the night of the great cyclone, when there was a
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  tremendous noise and splash of rain all about the place.
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  I thought I would go to Sri Aurobindo's room and help him
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  shut the windows. I just opened the door and found
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  him sitting quietly at his desk writing.
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  There was such a solid piece in the room that nobody would have
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  dreamed that a cyclone was raging outside.
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  All the windows were wide open. Not a drop of rain was coming
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  inside. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother Looking from within, Chapter 1.
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  Looking at Life and Circumstances, page 4.