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What Causes the Wind? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  A young child was asked what causes the wind.
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  The child replied when the trees move their branches and leaves,
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  that is what makes the wind. This extremely logical
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  observation mirrors the way we tend to look at the world.
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  We think that we make the decisions that we are in charge
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  of what we do, and we fail to see that there are larger
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  universal forces that move all action in US and others and in
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  the world at large. When we pose for ourselves the
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  analogous question Where do our feelings come from?
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  Or where do our thoughts come from?
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  We tend to give the same response as the child about the
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  wind. If we reflect a little, however,
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  we soon begin to recognize that there are indeed larger forces
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  at work. We can see different societies
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  that have developed different frames of reference and the
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  individuals in those societies tend to respond according to the
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  pattern of their own society or culture.
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  The Bhagavad Gita states. Quote The Lord, O Arjuna, is
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  seated in the heart of all beings turned, turning all
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  beings mounted upon a machine by his Maya.
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  Chapter 18. Sloka 61.
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  We respond according to the action and interplay of the
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  three gunas. We speak of the time spirit to
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  describe a general approach to understanding life, action and
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  our role in the world. This is an implicit recognition
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  that there are universal forces that shape and guide our lives,
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  our actions, and our reactions. And as these forces move, so we
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  move under their impulsion. The question then arises as to
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  how we can begin to know and understand these universal
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  cosmic forces that act upon us and determine situations and our
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  responses to them. As long as we remain fixated on
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  the outer world and the physical senses, we remain essentially
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  oblivious to their action. When we shift our standpoint
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  inwards or upwards, bring calm and clarity to our awareness, we
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  can begin to experience the impact of these forces in our
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  lives, Sri Aurobindo observes. Quote.
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  Universal forces means all forces, good or bad, favorable
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  or hostile, of light and darkness that move in the
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  cosmos. They, the cosmic forces, act on
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  everyone according to the person's nature and his will and
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  consciousness. These impersonal forces of the
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  world we know only by their results, by the little that we
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  can seize of their visible action and consequence.
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  Among them it is mostly the physical world, forces of which
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  we have some knowledge. But we live constantly in the
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  midst of a whirl of unseen mind forces and life forces of which
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  we know nothing. We are not even aware of their
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  existence. To all this unseen movement and
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  action, the subliminal inner consciousness can open our
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  awareness, For it has a direct knowledge of it, by direct
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  contact, by inner vision, by a psychic sensitiveness.
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  But at present it can only enlighten our obtuse
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  superficiality and outwardness by unexplained warnings,
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  premonitions, attractions and repulsions, ideas, suggestions,
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  obscure intuitions, the little it can get through imperfectly
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  to the surface. The inner being not only
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  contacts directly and concretely the immediate motive and
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  movement of these universal forces and feels the results of
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  their present action, but it can to a certain extent forecast or
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  see ahead their further action. There is a greater power in our
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  subliminal parts to overcome the time barrier, to have the sense
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  or feel the vibration of coming events, of distant happenings,
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  even to look into the future. It is true that this knowledge
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  proper to the subliminal being is not complete, for it is a
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  mixture of knowledge and ignorance, and it is capable of
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  erroneous as well as of true perception.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Arobindo and the Mother, The Hidden
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  Forces of Life, Chapter 4, Cosmic and Universal Forces,
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  pages 81 to 82.