{"id":1636,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1636"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:09","slug":"09-heredity-past-lives-astrology-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram\/09-heredity-past-lives-astrology-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-09_Heredity, Past Lives, Astrology.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nHeredity, Past Lives, Astrology<\/font><\/b>
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHeredity and Past Lives<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is true that we bring most of ourselves from past lives. Heredity only affects the external being and all the effects of heredity are
\nnot accepted, only those that are in consonance with what we are to be or not preventive of it at least. I may be the son of my
\nfather or mother in certain respects, but most of me is as foreign to them as if I had been born in New York or Paraguay.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 June 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nSpeculations about His Past Lives<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is reported that you were Kalidasa and Shakespeare. I suppose it is true, at least regarding Kalidasa
\n\u2014  isn’t it?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAs to the report, who is the reporter? and in what “Reincarnation Review” have these items been reported?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n31 March 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nWe have various guesses about your previous lives. The other day I happened to ask
\nX <\/i>whether you were Shakespeare. He
\nwas diffident. My own belief is that you have somehow amalgamated all that was precious in those that manifested as
\nHomer, Shakespeare, Valmiki, Dante, Virgil and Milton: if not all, at least the biggest of the lot. Kindly let us know the
\ntruth. Among your other and non-poetic incarnations, some surmise Alexander and Julius Caesar.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nGood Heavens, all that! You have forgotten that Mrs. Besant claims Julius Caesar. I don’t want to be prosecuted by her for
\nmisappropriation of personality. Alexander was too much of a torrent for me; I disclaim Milton and Virgil, am unconscious of
\nDante and Valmiki, diffident like X <\/i>about the Bard (and moneylender?) of
\nAvon. If, however, you can bring sufficiently cogent<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>55<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nevidence, I am ready to take upon my back the offences of all the famous people in the world or any of them; but you must
\nprove your case.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSeriously, these historical identifications are a perilous game
\nand open a hundred doors to the play of imagination. Some may, in the nature of things must be true; but once people begin,
\nthey don’t know where to stop. What is important is the lines, rather than the lives, the incarnation of Forces that explain what
\none now is \u2014  and, as for particular lives or rather personalities, those alone matter which are very definite in one and have powerfully contributed to what one is developing now. But it is not always possible to put a name upon these; for not one
\nhundred-thousandth part of what has been has still a name preserved by human Time.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 April 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nOn both occasions when Paul Brunton saw you, he had the impression of you as a Chinese sage. In the early days of my
\nstay here, you struck me as a king of Hungarian gypsies! And when I say Hungarian, I mean the Magyar element which I
\nsuppose has mid-Asiatic characteristics. Do these ideas point to some occult truth or some outstanding fact of previous
\nbirth?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nConfucius? Lao-Tse? Mencius? Hang-whang-pu? (Don’t know
\nwho the last was, but his name sounds nice.) Can’t remember anything about it. As for the Hungarian gypsy, I suppose we
\nmust have been everything at one time or another, on this earth in some other cycle. But I am not aware of any particularly
\nMagyar or Chinese element in me. However, when I came here, I was told I looked just like a Tamil sannyasi and some Christians
\nsaid I was just like Christ. So it may be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMore seriously, Brunton seems to have thought I was Lao-Tse. Maybe, I can’t say it is impossible.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 December 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Mother or you are said to have declared that a divine
\ndescent was attempted during the Renaissance, with Leonardo  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>56<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nda Vinci as its centre \u2014  a very credible report since we believe you were Leonardo and the Mother Mona Lisa. I shall be
\nmuch interested to know something about the inner side of this phenomenon. Was Leonardo aware of a semi-avatarhood
\nor a pressure of spiritual planes?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nNever heard before of my declaring or anybody declaring such
\na thing. What Leonardo da Vinci held in himself was all the new age of Europe on its many sides. But there was no question of
\nAvatarhood or consciousness of a descent or pressure of spiritual planes. Mysticism was no part of what he had to manifest.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 July 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHis Horoscope<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThis year is said to be your brightest year according to the horoscope, Sir.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nHoroscope by whom? According to a famous Calcutta astrologer (I have forgotten his name) my biggest time comes much
\nlater, though the immediately ensuing period is also remarkable. Like doctors, astrologers differ.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 January 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nX <\/span> <\/i>told me that today [4 April<\/i>] is the birthday of Pondicherry because you came here on this date. If one can place oneself
\nin the year 2036 A.D. he may find that 4th April is celebrated as the birthday of the Earth’s spiritual life. Perhaps the horoscope of the Earth may show this more accurately; but is there a horoscope of the Earth as there are horoscopes of some
\nvillages?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPondicherry was born long ago \u2014  but if X <\/i>means the rebirth,
\nit may be, for it was absolutely dead when I came. I don’t know that there is a horoscope of the Earth. There was nobody
\npresent to note the year, day, hour, minute when she came into existence. But some astrologer could take the position of the
\nstars at the moment when I got out of the boat and build up the terrestrial consequences upon that perhaps! Unfortunately he
\nwould probably get everything wrong, like the astrologer who   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>57<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\npredicted that I would leave Pondicherry in March 1936 and wander about India till 1948 and then disappear while bathing
\nin a river among my disciples. I believe he predicted it on the strength of the Bhrigu Samhita
\n\u2014  the old dodge; but I am not
\nsure. Long ago I had a splendiferous Mussolinic-Napoleonic prediction of my future made to me on the strength of the same
\nold mythological Bhrigu. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 April 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nAstrologers tell all sorts of things that don’t come true. According to one I was to have died last year, according to another I was to have gone out from Pondicherry in March or May last year
\nand wandered about India with my disciples till I disappeared in a river (on a ferry). Even if the prediction were a correct one
\naccording to the horoscope it need not fulfil itself, because by entering the spiritual life one opens to a new force which can
\nchange one’s destiny. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n22 August 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\nIt is no doubt possible to draw the illnesses of others upon
\noneself and even to do it deliberately, the instance of the Greek king Antigonus and his son Dimitrius is a famous historical case
\nin point: Yogis also do this sometimes; or else adverse forces may throw illnesses upon the Yogi, using those round him as a door
\nor a passage or the ill wishes of people as an instrumental force. But all these are special circumstances connected, no doubt, with
\nhis practice of Yoga; but they do not establish the general proposition as an absolute rule. A tendency such as
\nX<\/i>‘s to desire or
\nwelcome or accept death as a release could have a force because of her advanced spiritual consciousness which it would not have
\nin ordinary people. On the other side there can be an opposite use and result of the Yogic consciousness: illness can be repelled from
\none’s own body or cured, even chronic or deep-seated illnesses and long-established constitutional defects remedied or expelled
\nand even a predestined death delayed for a long period. Narayan Jyotishi, a Calcutta astrologer, who predicted, not knowing then
\nwho I was, in the days before my name was politically known,  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>58<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nmy struggle with Mlechchha enemies and afterwards the three cases against me and my three acquittals, predicted also that
\nthough death was prefixed for me in my horoscope at the age of 63, I would prolong my life by Yogic power for a very long
\nperiod and arrive at a full old age. In fact I have got rid by Yogic pressure of a number of chronic maladies that had got settled in
\nmy body, reduced others to a vanishing minimum, brought about steadily progressing diminution of two that remained and on the
\nlast produced a considerable effect. But none of these instances either on the favourable or unfavourable side can be made into
\na rule; there is no validity in the tendency of human reason to transform the relativity of these things into an absolute.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 December 1949 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nKnowledge of Astrology<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI can’t say anything about the horoscope, as I have forgotten the little astrology I knew.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 September 1936  
\n  
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>59<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heredity, Past Lives, Astrology   Heredity and Past Lives   It is true that we bring most of ourselves from past lives. Heredity only affects…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","wpcat-37-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}