{"id":4379,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4379"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:35","slug":"39-2-april-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/04-questions-and-answers-volume-04\/39-2-april-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-39_2 April 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n2 April 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

You have said: \u201cBy Yoga the inner
\ntransformation that is in slow constant process in the creation is rendered
\nmore intense and rapid, but the pace of the outer transformation remains almost
\nthe same as in ordinary life. As a result, the disharmony between the inner and
\nthe outer being in one who is doing Yoga tends to be all the greater, unless
\nprecautions are taken…\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (16 June)
\n<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

What are these precautions
\n?<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That depends upon
\npeople. Each case is different. Individual precautions would be different
\naccording to individual reactions, difficulties, resistances. For each one
\nthere is a programme<\/span> to follow which is good only for
\nhim. There is no general rule. These things cannot be distributed as one
\ndistributes sweets. If someone asks me \u201cWhat should I do?\u201d \u2013
\nwell that, yes.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What are the causes of accidents? Are they
\ndue to a disequilibrium ?<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If one answers
\ndeeply…<\/span><\/span> Outwardly there are many causes, but there is a
\ndeeper cause which is always there. I said the other day that if the nervous
\nenvelope is intact, accidents can be avoided, and even if there is an accident
\nit won’t have any consequences. As soon as there is a scratch or a defect in
\nthe nervous envelope of the being and according to the nature of this scratch,
\nif one may say so, its place, its character, there will be an accident which
\nwill correspond to the diminution of resistance in the envelope. I believe
\nalmost everybody is psychologically aware of one thing: that accidents occur
\nwhen one has a <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 272<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

sort<\/span><\/span> of
\nuncomfortable\u00a0 <\/span>feeling, when one is not
\nfully conscious and self-possessed, when one feels uneasy. In any case,
\ngenerally, people have a feeling that they are not fully themselves, not<\/span> fully aware of what they are doing. If one were fully
\nconscious, the consciousness wide awake, accidents would not occur; one would
\nmake just the right gesture, the necessary movement to avoid the accident.
\nHence, in an almost absolute way, it is a flagging of consciousness. Or quite
\npossibly it may be that the consciousness is fixed in a higher domain; for
\nexample, not to speak of spiritual things, a man who is busy solving a mental
\nproblem and is very concentrated upon his mental problem, becomes inattentive
\nto physical things, and if he happens to be in a street or in a crowd, his
\nattention fixed upon his problem, he will not make the movement necessary to
\navoid the accident, and the accident will occur. It is the same for sports, for
\ngames; you can observe this easily, there is always a flagging of the
\nconsciousness when accidents occur, or a lack of attention, a little
\nabsent-mindedness; suddenly one thinks of something else, the attention is
\ndrawn elsewhere \u2013 one is not fully conscious of what one is doing and the
\naccident happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I was telling
\nyou at the beginning, if for some reason or other \u2013 for example, lack of sleep,
\nlack of rest or an absorbing preoccupation or all sorts of things which tire
\nyou, that is to say, when you are not above them \u2013 if the vital envelope is a
\nlittle damaged, it does not function perfectly and any current of force
\nwhatever which passes through is enough to produce an accident. In the final
\nanalysis, the accident comes always from that, it is what one may call
\ninattentiveness or a slackening of consciousness. There are days when one feels
\nquite… not exactly uneasy, but as though one were trying to catch something
\nwhich escapes, one can’t hold together, one is as though half-diluted; these
\nare the days of accidents. You must be attentive. Naturally, this is not to
\ntell you to shut yourself up in your room and not to stir out when you feel
\nlike that !<\/span> This is not what I mean. Rather I mean
\nthat you must watch all the more <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 273<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

attentively<\/span><\/span>, be all the more on
\nyour guard, not allow, precisely, this inattentiveness, this slackening of
\nconsciousness to come in. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are there not accidents which are almost inevitable? I just read of a
\ncase cited by an American who had the gift of clairvoyance. A child was playing
\non a railway track, it was in danger. Suddenly the witness saw an apparition
\nbeside the child and he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, \u201cThe child will be
\nsaved.\u201d But to his great astonishment the apparition put its hand over the eyes
\nof the child and threw it in some way under the train. This man was much troubled,<\/span> he could not understand why a being whom he had
\ntaken for a higher being would push a child to its death. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Certainly this may
\nbe true, but without having the vision oneself, one can’t explain it. <\/span><\/p>\n

It may be a
\nquestion of two absolutely different things. Perhaps, indeed, it was its
\ndestiny, in the sense that it was the end of the life necessary for its psychic
\nbeing, it was a death which had been predestined for some reason, because that
\ncan happen. Or perhaps it could be an adverse force which he took to be an
\nangel of light, for generally people make this mistake \u2013 when they see an
\napparition they always think it is something heavenly. It is heavenly if you
\nlike, but it depends on what heaven it comes from !<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

It is a strange
\nthing because… Yes, the moment of unconsciousness, the slackening of
\nconsciousness may be translated by this someone putting the hand over the eyes.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most
\ncommon activities of these intolerable little entities which are in the human
\nphysical atmosphere and amuse themselves at men’s expense, is to blind you to
\nsuch an extent that when you look for something, and the thing is staring you
\nin the face, you do not see it! This happens very often. You search in vain,
\nyou turn everything over, you<\/span> look into all possible <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 274<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

corners<\/span><\/span>, but you don’t
\nfind the thing. Then you give up the problem and some time later (precisely
\nwhen \u201cthe hand over the eyes\u201d is removed), you come back to the same place and
\nit is exactly there where you have looked, quietly lying there, it had not
\nstirred! Only you were unconscious, you did not see. This is a very, very
\nfrequent amusement of these little entities. They also take pleasure in
\nremoving things, then they put them back, but at times they also don’t put them
\nback !<\/span> They displace them,<\/span>
\nindeed they have all sorts of little diversions. They are intolerable. Madame Blavatsky<\/span> made much use of them, but I don’t know how she
\nmanaged to make them so amiable, because generally they are quite unpleasant. <\/span><\/p>\n

I had the
\nexperience \u2013 among innumerable instances \u2013 but precisely of two very striking
\ncases, of two opposite things, only it was not the same beings… There are little
\nbeings like fairies who<\/span> are very sweet, very obliging,
\nbut they are not always there, they come from time to time when it pleases
\nthem. I remember the time I used to cook for Sri Aurobindo; I was also doing
\nmany other things at the same time, so I often happened to leave the milk on
\nthe fire and go for some other work or to see something with him, to discuss
\nwith somebody, and truly I was not always aware of the time, I used to forget
\nthe milk on the fire. And whenever I forgot the milk on the fire, I felt
\nsuddenly (in those days I used to wear a sari) a little hand catching a fold of
\nmy sari and pulling it, like this. Then I used to run quickly and would see
\nthat the milk was just on the point of boiling over. This did not happen just
\nonce, but several times, and very clearly, like a little child’s hand clutching
\nand pulling. <\/span><\/p>\n

The other story is
\nof the days Sri Aurobindo had the habit of walking up and down in his rooms. He
\nused to walk for several hours like that,<\/span> it was his
\nway of meditating. Only, he wanted to know the time, so a clock had been put in
\neach room to enable him to see the time at any moment. There were three such
\nclocks. One was in the room where I worked; it was, so to say, his
\nstarting-point. One day he came and asked, \u201cWhat time <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 275<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

is<\/span><\/span> it ?\u201d He looked and the clock had stopped. He went
\ninto the next room, saying, \u201cI shall see the time there\u201d \u2013 the clock had
\nstopped. And it had stopped at the same minute as the other, you understand,
\nwith the difference of a few seconds. He went to the third room…the clock had
\nstopped. He continued walking three times like that \u2013 all the clocks had stopped !<\/span> Then he returned to my room and said, \u201cBut this is
\nimpossible !<\/span> This is a bad joke !<\/span>\u201d
\nand all the clocks, one after the other, started working again. I saw it
\nmyself, you know, it was a charming incident. He was angry, he said, \u201cThis is a
\nbad joke !\u201d<\/span> And all the clocks started going again !<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is said that the material world in its
\nunconsciousness has forgotten the Divine. Has it forgotten Him from the beginning ?<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is concomitant.
\nOne cannot say that the material world is the result of obscurity and
\nignorance; one cannot say either that the obscurity and ignorance are the
\nresult of the world of Matter; but the two are concomitant, in the sense that
\nboth have exactly the same cause. What we call the material world came into
\nbeing at the same time as the obscurity and ignorance, they are closely bound,
\nbut there is no cause and effect in the sense of a sequence in time. It is
\nconcomitant, both the things are the concomitant result of another cause: what
\nhas brought about obscurity and ignorance has at one go and at one time brought
\nabout the material world as we know it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 276<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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