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Miracles, Belief, Powers and the Evolution of Consciousness · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  For most people, there is a tremendous barrier of skepticism
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  about things that they cannot see or experience for
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  themselves. There is also a good deal of
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  ignorance about how things actually work in the world,
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  which can lead to misconceptions and a tendency towards
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  gullibility when someone appears to speak with authority,
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  particularly when it concerns things that otherwise are unable
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  to be verified by the external senses.
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  The role of miracles is to bolster the credibility and
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  acceptance of specific religious groups or leaders.
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  The concept is that if one can perform various miracles, one
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  has knowledge and powers that people can see and experience
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  and thus A level of trust and reliance is built up.
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  The lack of knowledge about the mechanisms involved can lead
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  people to believe that these things represent direct divine
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  intervention through the chosen intermediary and thus
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  establishes the primacy of that particular path.
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  Teaching religion or religious leader.
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  Another factor which enters in nowadays is the ability to
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  mislead. Through slate of hand
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  misdirection and through the use of tools of modern computer
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  science including artificial intelligence, AI seeming
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  miracles are created and disseminated, when in fact they
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  are not miracles at all, but rather carefully staged events,
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  motion pictures, magician tricks, Internet reports or
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  videos, and the advent of careful editing or manipulation
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  to create things like fake news all may fall into this category,
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  thus confusing the subject even more.
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  And to this the factor of vanity and the factor of ambition by an
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  individual desirous of gaining fame, adherence, fortune, et
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  cetera. And we have a recipe for even
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  more confusion. The reality is that spirituality
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  is not connected to the ability to perform miracles.
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  While new powers may develop as the result of spiritual
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  practice, these are more general developments available not just
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  to create belief or adherence to a specific religious leader, but
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  become natural developments of the evolution of consciousness,
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  such that as humanity reaches a general point of readiness,
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  these powers will begin to appear across larger numbers of
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  people. Further, it should be noted that
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  these powers are not miracles in the sense of violating the laws
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  of nature, but are developments adhering to the logic of
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  nature's progression. In Her Questions and Answers
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  1929, fourteenth April, the Mother wrote quote.
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  Ambition has been the undoing of many yogis.
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  A story is told of a Yogi who had attained wonderful powers.
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  He was invited by his disciples to a great dinner.
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  It was served on a big low table.
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  The disciples asked their master to show his power in some way.
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  He knew he should not, but the seed of ambition was there in
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  him, and he thought, after all, it is a very innocent thing, and
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  it may prove to them that such things are possible, and teach
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  them the greatness of God. So he said, take away the table,
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  but only the table. Let the tablecloth remain as it
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  is, with all the dishes upon it. The disciples cried out.
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  Oh, that cannot be done, everything will fall down.
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  But he insisted, and they removed the table from under the
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  cloth. Lo, the miracle, the cloth, and
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  all that was upon it remained there, just as though the table
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  was underneath. The disciples wondered.
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  But all on a sudden the Master jumped up and rushed out,
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  screaming and crying. Nevermore shall I have a
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  disciple? Nevermore Woe is me, I have
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  betrayed my God. End Quote.
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  The Mother explains further quote.
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  This is a temptation that every teacher meets at every step, for
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  the very simple reason that ordinary humanity, in a general
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  way, not being in personal contact with the divine powers,
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  understands nothing of what an illumined consciousness may be,
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  and asks for material proofs. It is on this demand that most
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  religions are established, and for reasons which I may very
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  frankly call political, they have put at the origin of their
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  religion a more or less considerable number of miracles
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  as having been performed by the Founders.
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  And they have thus more or less crudely encouraged among
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  ignorant people the taste, the necessity for seeing what they
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  call miracles, in order to believe in the divine power of a
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  person. This is an extraordinary
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  ignorance, because it is not at all necessary to have a divine
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  power or consciousness to perform miracles.
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  It is infinitely more easy to perform miracles with the help
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  of small entities of the vital world who are material enough to
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  be in touch with the physical world and act upon it, then to
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  live in the consciousness of the higher regions and to work upon
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  nature only through the intermediary of all the other
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  domains. It has been repeated over and
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  over again to all human intellects that the proof of a
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  being's divinity is that he can raise the dead, cure maladies,
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  and do many other things of the same kind except making a fool,
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  Wise Mother added later. This is a Muhammadan story, I
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  believe, as it was said that Jesus raised the dead, healed
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  the sick, made the dumb speak, gave sight to the blind.
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  One day an idiot was brought to him to be made intelligent, and
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  Jesus ran away. Why did you run away?
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  He was asked I can do everything, he answered, except
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  give intelligence to an idiot. Well, I guarantee that this is
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  not a proof. It proves only one thing, that
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  these masters are in contact with the powers of the vital
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  world and that with the help of those beings they can perform
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  these miracles. That's all.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Auro Bindo and the Mother, The Hidden
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  Forces of Life, Chapter 5, Occult Forces, pages 125 to 127.