Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Imagination Can Help or Harm Depending on the Intention Behind Its Use
Transcript
- 0:01Every great power that humanity discovers and wields in the
- 0:04world has both its negative and its positive side.
- 0:10It can either be utilized to destroy or to support, benefit,
- 0:16and create. For example, humanity has
- 0:20harnessed the use of fire. Fire can burn down the house, or
- 0:25it can cook one's food. Rocket technology can be used to
- 0:30create weapons or to explore the solar system.
- 0:35Certain medicines can be used to poison an individual.
- 0:41This truth about the powers of the external life also applies
- 0:46to the inner powers that we develop and wield as human
- 0:49beings. Each emotion has the power to
- 0:53uplift or to oppress. We can either encourage growth
- 0:58or destroy the opportunity for growth depending on the mood,
- 1:02energetic stance, emotional vibration and the thought we
- 1:07harbour about anything. We think we are, we do, we
- 1:11should be, or we can do. Much of the trauma that
- 1:16individuals suffer is due to harsh words and energy that they
- 1:20internalize from others and then accept that about themselves.
- 1:25Emotional bullying is one such misuse of the power of emotion.
- 1:30For instance, on the level of thought, we can either think of
- 1:36positive things or negative things, positive growth.
- 1:41Or we may simply focus on our limitations, our inabilities,
- 1:45our weaknesses and deficiencies, and use that line of thought as
- 1:50an excuse for inaction, or even worse, for taking up things we
- 1:55know to be counter to our ultimate goal.
- 1:59The same thing works with respect to the power of
- 2:01imagination. We can imagine all the possible
- 2:05negative consequences of something.
- 2:07We can imagine darkness, despair, destruction and become
- 2:12not just pessimistic but fatalistic about our own lives
- 2:17as well as about the future of humanity.
- 2:21How many people today imagine that we have created for
- 2:24ourselves a doomsday scenario, whether nuclear weapons, greed,
- 2:29pollution, climate change, or even alien invasions or
- 2:35catastrophic meteor strikes? Yet we can also see that there
- 2:41are signs of real progress in a number of areas.
- 2:45More and more people are paying attention to achieving a change
- 2:48of consciousness that can harmonize and solve the crises
- 2:53we are facing, and that the fact of the crisis is a sign of the
- 2:58pressure of nature for humanity to change and evolve beyond the
- 3:02limitations that have created these crises.
- 3:06For these people. The glass is half full rather
- 3:10than half empty, the mother writes.
- 3:14Quote The imagination is like a knife which may be used for good
- 3:19or evil purposes. If you always dwell in the idea
- 3:23and feeling that you are going to be transformed, then you will
- 3:27help the process of the yoga. If On the contrary, you give in
- 3:32to the dejection and bewailed that you are not fit or that you
- 3:37are incapable of realization, you poison your own being.
- 3:44End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the
- 3:48Mother Powers within, Chapter 3, Imagination, page 34.