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Receptivity to the Universal Vital Forces · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In May 1973, a devotee from the West was visiting Oroville and
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  South India. At that time, it was primarily
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  an eroded, dusty plateau, not the lush, forested scene that
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  one can see today. If one visits.
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  May is an extremely hot month, and the visitor had just arrived
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  a couple of weeks earlier from the United States.
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  As he was walking around in the midday sun, he was struck by the
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  intensity of the sun's heat and force, and at one point he
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  curled up on a hillside, overwhelmed with heat stroke and
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  a pounding headache that accompanied it.
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  After lying there for a while, he was prompted to get up or he
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  would die on that hillside. So he found a way to get up,
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  walk back to shelter, and get some water.
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  He lived to tell about it, but the trauma was deep.
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  This is an example of not being able to open, receive and hold
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  the universal force that was flowing.
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  The mother tells another story where some individuals found a
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  way to open themselves and appreciate the power of the
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  sun's heat and force rather than succumbing to it.
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  There is a famous tale in the piranhas about a wife of Surya,
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  the sun God, who closed her eyes, trembled and could not
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  bear the intensity of her husband's force.
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  Because of her closing of her eyes and trembling, Surya
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  imprecated her to give birth to Yama, the God of death, and
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  Yami, the river Yamuna. She struggled for a long time to
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  find a way to deal with the effulgence of the sun, and her
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  story has many twists and turns in it.
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  Surya at one point asked his wife's father, once he
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  understood the issue, to reduce the intensity of his radiance
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  sufficiently to allow the wife to bear the force.
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  We see here an eventual accommodation whereby the
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  universal force can be received and assimilated through
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  achievement of an understanding between the universal force, in
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  this case the sun, and the recipient of that force in the
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  form of his wife. As we see in these texts, the
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  universal force has both an impersonal and a personal
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  aspect, and a relationship can be developed if one appreciates
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  the personality of that force and takes steps to befriend
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  rather than fear its power, the mother observes.
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  Quote I knew young people who had always lived in cities, in a
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  city and in those little rooms one has in the big cities in
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  which everyone is huddled. Now they had come to spend their
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  holidays in the countryside in the South of France.
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  And there the sun is hot, naturally not as here, but all
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  the same it is very hot. When we compare the sun of the
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  Mediterranean coast with that of Paris, for example, it truly
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  makes a difference. And so when they walked around
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  the countryside the first few days, they really began to get a
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  terrible headache and to feel absolutely uneasy because of the
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  sun. But they suddenly thought, why
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  if we make friends with the sun, it won't harm us anymore.
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  And they began to make a kind of inner effort of friendship and
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  trust in the sun. And when they were out in the
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  sun, instead of trying to bend double and tell themselves, oh
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  how hot it is, how it burns, they said oh how full of force
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  and joy and love the sun is, et cetera.
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  They opened themselves like this gesture and not only did they
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  not suffer any longer, but they felt so strong afterwards that
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  they went round telling everyone who said it is hot, telling them
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  do as we do, you will see how good it is, and they could
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  remain for hours in the full sun, bare headed and without
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  feeling any discomfort. It is the same principle.
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  It is the same principle. They link themselves to the
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  universal vital force which is in the sun, and receive this
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  force which took away all that was unpleasant to them.
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  When what is in the countryside? When one walks under the trees
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  and feels so close to nature, to the trees, the sky, all the
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  leaves, all the branches, all the herbs.
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  When one feels a great friendship with these things and
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  breathes that air which is so good perfumed with all the
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  plants, then one opens oneself, and by opening oneself communes
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  with the universal forces and for all things it is like that.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The
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  Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 4, Cosmic and Universal Forces,
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  pages 91 to 92.