Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Just Because We Cannot Observe It Directly, Does Not Mean Spiritual Force Does Not Exist
Transcript
- 0:01A devotee reported several incidents that appeared to be
- 0:04the result of spiritual force. The first occurred in early 1973
- 0:10in Los Angeles. He attended a talk by Udar Pinto
- 0:15of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and afterwards joined his party for
- 0:19dinner, at which there was extensive discussion.
- 0:22Udar told the devotee. You should come to the ashram.
- 0:27The devotee replied that he had no money and had no idea how he
- 0:31would be able to pay for the plane flight or stay in
- 0:34Pondicherry, India. Udar said Mother will provide
- 0:40afterwards. That night when the devotee went
- 0:44back to his parents house where he was staying, he was
- 0:47confronted by them. They insisted he see a
- 0:51psychiatrist as they felt he had abandoned his career and
- 0:55prospects by chasing crazy ideas.
- 0:58He declined. They then said that their only
- 1:02other option was to give him a ticket to India and funds for a
- 1:05year's stay so that he could see for himself and work it out of
- 1:10his system. He saw the way the Mother had
- 1:14chosen to provide as a spiritual event intervening in his life.
- 1:21Another incident occurred for the devotee the same year.
- 1:25The Mother used to give darshan from the balcony on specific
- 1:28days each year. The August 15th, 1973 darshan
- 1:33was not expected to occur due to her fragile state of health.
- 1:38The devotee was, however, awakened early in the morning
- 1:41around 3:00 AM with a jolt of powerful energy just about
- 1:46lifting him out of the bed, and he reported feeling like he was
- 1:50almost walking on air. And he knew at that moment that
- 1:55the darshan would take place, despite the fact that everyone
- 1:59had indicated it would not occur.
- 2:02When he went to the ashram building later that morning, he
- 2:05saw the sign that announced the darshan would occur in the
- 2:09evening. People everywhere have
- 2:13inexplicable stories relating to their inner spiritual
- 2:16experiences, their relations with their guru, miracle cures
- 2:21that occur after praying to the guru, etcetera.
- 2:25In his extraordinary book, Autobiography of a Yogi,
- 2:29Paramount's Yogananda recounts innumerable incidents of
- 2:33spiritual forces at work, many of his own direct experience,
- 2:38numerous with witnesses and recounts of trusted individuals
- 2:43in his life who provided similar evidence of things that were
- 2:47inexplicable to the logical mind, but which advanced the
- 2:52spiritual direction, guidance, and growth of the individuals
- 2:57involved. One incident involved his being
- 3:00healed from a dire case of Asiatic cholera.
- 3:05Quote. My life was despaired of.
- 3:08The doctors could do nothing. At my bedside, Mother
- 3:12frantically motioned me to look at Lahiri Mahosia's picture on
- 3:16the wall above my head. Bow to him.
- 3:19Mentally, she knew I was too feeble even to lift my hands.
- 3:23And in salutation, if you really show your devotion and inwardly
- 3:29kneel before him, your life will be spared.
- 3:33I gazed at his photograph and saw there a blinding light
- 3:37enveloping my body and the entire room.
- 3:40My nausea and other uncontrollable symptoms
- 3:44disappeared. I was well at once.
- 3:49I felt strong enough to bend over and touch Mother's feet in
- 3:52appreciation of her immeasurable faith in her, girl grew.
- 3:57O omnipresent Master, I thank Thee that thy light hath healed
- 4:03my son. I realized that she too had
- 4:07witnessed the luminous blaze through which I had instantly
- 4:12recovered from a usually fatal disease.
- 4:16End Quote. Sri Aurobindo himself told of
- 4:20his experiences during his time as an under trial detainee and
- 4:25also during his trial in the Alapur bomb conspiracy case.
- 4:30He was eventually acquitted in his tales of prison life and in
- 4:34the remarkable Uttar Para speech he provided ample evidence and
- 4:39examples in his own life. Of spiritual power at work, Sri
- 4:46Rabindo writes quote. It is evident that if spiritual
- 4:51force exists, it must be able to produce spiritual results.
- 4:55Therefore, there is no irrationality in the claim of
- 4:59those Sadaks who say that they feel the force of the Guru or
- 5:03the force of the Divine working in them and leading towards
- 5:07spiritual fulfillment and experience.
- 5:10Whether it is so or not in a particular case is a personal
- 5:14question, but the statement cannot be denounced as per SE
- 5:18and credible and manifestly false because such things cannot
- 5:23be. Further, if it be true that
- 5:27spiritual force is the original one and the others are
- 5:30derivative from it, and there is no irrationality, and supposing
- 5:35that spiritual force can produce mental results, vital results,
- 5:40physical results, it may act through mental, vital or or
- 5:45physical energies and through the means which these energies
- 5:49use. Or it may act directly on mine,
- 5:53life or matter as the field of its own special and immediate
- 5:57action. Either way, as prima facie if
- 6:00possible. In a case of cure of illness,
- 6:04someone is ill for two days, weak, suffering from pains and
- 6:08fever. He takes no medicine, but
- 6:11finally asked for cure from his guru.
- 6:15The next morning he rises well, strong and energetic.
- 6:19He has at least some justification for thinking that
- 6:22a force has been used on him and put into him, and that it was a
- 6:27spiritual power that acted. But in another case medicines
- 6:32may be used, while at the same time the invisible force may be
- 6:37called for to aid the material means.
- 6:40For it is a known fact that medicines may or may not
- 6:44succeed. There is no certitude here for
- 6:48the reason of an outside observer, one who is neither the
- 6:52user of the force nor the doctor nor the patient.
- 6:56It remains uncertain whether the patient was cured by the
- 7:00medicines only or by the spiritual. 4th with the
- 7:05medicines as an instrument. Either is possible, and it
- 7:09cannot be said that because medicines were used, therefore,
- 7:13the working of a spiritual force is per SE incredible and
- 7:17demonstrably false. On the other hand, it is
- 7:21possible for the doctor to have felt a force working in him and
- 7:25guiding him, or he may see the patient improving with a
- 7:29rapidity which according to medical science is incredible.
- 7:34The patient may feel the force working in himself, bringing
- 7:37health, energy, rapid cure. The user of the force may watch
- 7:43the results, see the symptoms he works on, diminishing those he
- 7:48did not work upon, increasing till he does work on them, and
- 7:52then immediately diminishing the doctor, working according to his
- 7:57unspoken suggestions, etcetera, etcetera, until the cure is
- 8:01done. On the other hand, he may see
- 8:05forces working against the cure and conclude that the spiritual
- 8:09force has to be contented with a withdrawal or an imperfect
- 8:13success In all that the doctor, the patient, or the user of
- 8:19force is justified in believing that the cure is at least
- 8:23partially or even fundamentally due to the spiritual force.
- 8:29Their experience is valid, of course, for themselves only, not
- 8:33for the outside rationalizing observer.
- 8:36But the latter is not logically entitled to say that their
- 8:40experience is incredible and must be false.
- 8:44Another point, it does not follow that a spiritual force
- 8:48must either succeed in all cases or if it does not, that proves
- 8:53its non existence. Of no force.
- 8:56Can that be said? The force of fire is to burn,
- 9:00but there are things it does not burn under certain
- 9:04circumstances. It does not burn even the feet
- 9:08of the man who walks barefoot on red hot coals.
- 9:12That does not prove that fire cannot burn or that there's no
- 9:16such thing as force of fire. Agni Shakti, I have no time to
- 9:22write more. It is not necessary either.
- 9:25My object was not to show that spiritual force must be believed
- 9:29in, but the that the belief in it is not necessarily a delusion
- 9:35and that this belief can be rational as well as possible.
- 9:39End Quote Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother.
- 9:44The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 7, Spiritual Forces of
- 9:48Help and Succor, pages 160 to 162.