Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / No Man Is an Island

Transcript

No Man Is an Island · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:01
  We are rarely conscious of the constant interchange taking
• 0:05
  place on the vital level of our being.
• 0:08
  Vital vibrations are constantly active in the world, and all
• 0:12
  beings wind up being exposed to them and absorbing them.
• 0:17
  Those who live in more isolated locations tend to have less
• 0:20
  direct and intense exposure simply because many of these
• 0:25
  vital forces are weak or tend to disperse over time and distance
• 0:31
  or lose their intensity. Those who live in the midst of
• 0:35
  dense urban environments are subjected to all manner of vital
• 0:38
  forces that are constantly active and which bombard them
• 0:43
  from all sides. Fleeting desires, short lived
• 0:47
  emotions tend to dissipate yet have their immediate impact.
• 0:52
  If an individual who is subjected to these vital forces
• 0:55
  actively responds and begins to vibrate responsibly, then the
• 1:01
  vital force is perpetuated and even potentially enhanced.
• 1:06
  If an individual is aware and is able to tamp down on the action
• 1:10
  of that force, then its vibratory pattern is muted and
• 1:15
  eventually it subsides. We can understand the action of
• 1:20
  vital forces on living beings when we look at the principle of
• 1:23
  the sitar. This musical instrument has
• 1:26
  master strings and sympathetic strings which vibrate when the
• 1:30
  master string is played. Strong action of the master
• 1:34
  string can therefore set the sympathetic strings fully into
• 1:38
  motion, while light action of the master string has a very
• 1:41
  transitory effect on the sympathetic strings.
• 1:46
  The salient features of vital forces, then, are the intensity,
• 1:51
  the proximity, the focus, and the receptivity status of those
• 1:56
  who feel that vibration. An extremely strong force,
• 2:01
  focused and directed, can impact individuals who even live in
• 2:05
  isolation, while a weak force may tend to be counteracted,
• 2:10
  modified or is dispersed amidst the myriad of vital forces
• 2:15
  always being received and transmitted by all living
• 2:18
  beings, the Mother writes. Quote You live vitally in the
• 2:24
  vital world, with all the currents of vital force
• 2:27
  entering, going out, joining and opposing each other, quarreling
• 2:31
  and intermingling in your consciousness.
• 2:34
  And even if you have made a personal effort to purify your
• 2:37
  vital consciousness, to master in it the desire being and the
• 2:42
  little human ego, you are constantly under a sort of
• 2:46
  obligation to absorb all the contrary vibrations which come
• 2:50
  from those with whom you live. 1 can't shut oneself up in an
• 2:55
  ivory tower. It is yet more difficult vitally
• 2:58
  than physically, and one takes in all sorts of things.
• 3:03
  And unless one is constantly wide awake, constantly on one's
• 3:08
  guard, and has a quite an efficient control over all that
• 3:13
  enters, so as not to admit in one's consciousness unwanted
• 3:17
  elements, one catches the constant contagion of all
• 3:21
  desires, all the lower movements, all the small obscure
• 3:26
  reactions, all the unwanted vibrations which come to us from
• 3:31
  those around us. End Quote.
• 3:34
  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of
• 3:39
  Life, Chapter Eight, Life, A Mass of Vibrations, pages 184 to
• 3:45
  185.