{"id":4498,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4498"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:25","slug":"17-1-july-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/05-questions-and-answers-volume-05\/17-1-july-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-17_1 July 1953.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n1 July 1953<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font><\/b> <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe human being is at home and safe in
\nthe material body; the body is his protection. There are some who are full of
\ncontempt for their bodies and think that things will be much better and easier
\nafter death without them. But in fact the body is your fortress and your
\nshelter. While you are lodged in it the forces of the hostile world find it
\ndifficult to have a direct hold upon you\u2026 Directly you enter any realm of this
\n[vital] world, its beings gather round you to get out of you all you have, to
\ndraw what they can and make it a food and a prey. If you have no strong light
\nand force radiating from within you, you move there without your body as if you
\nhad no coat to protect you against a chill and bleak atmosphere, no house to
\nshield you, even no skin covering you, your nerves exposed and bare. There are
\nmen who say, \u2018How unhappy I am in this body\u2019, and think of death as an escape!
\nBut after death you have the same vital surroundings and are in danger from the
\nsame forces that are the cause of your misery in this life <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is here upon earth, in the body
\nitself, that you must acquire a complete knowledge and learn to use a full and
\ncomplete power. Only when you have done that will you be free to move about with
\nentire security in all the worlds.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (12 May)
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

(A child) After death people enter the
\nvital world, but those who do good go to paradise?<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Where is
\nyour paradise? Who has taught you that? They have spoken to you of heaven and
\nhell and purgatory?.. No? Not of
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 130<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

all that?
\nFrom where did you gather your idea of paradise? From which book? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have heard about it. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But from
\nwhom? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I do not remember now. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is
\ngenerally what religious priests say to the faithful to encourage them to do
\ngood. For it is a notorious fact that life is not more easy for the good than
\nfor the wicked; usually it is the contrary: the wicked succeed better than the
\ngood! So people who are not very spiritual say to themselves: \u201cWhy should I
\ntake the trouble of being good? It is better to be wicked and have an easy
\nlife.\u201d It is very difficult to make them understand that there are many kinds
\nof good and that sometimes it is worth the trouble perhaps to make an effort to
\nbe good. So to make this intelligible to the least intelligent, they are told:
\n\u201cThere, it is very simple. If you are quite obedient, quite nice, quite
\nunselfish, if you always do good deeds, and if you believe in the dogmas we
\nteach, well, when you die, God will send you to <\/span>Paradise<\/span>.
\nIf you have sometimes good will, sometimes bad, if, sometimes you do good,
\nsometimes you don\u2019t and if you think very much of yourself and very little of
\nothers, then when you die, you will be sent to Purgatory for another
\nexperience. And then if you are thoroughly wicked, if you are always doing harm
\nto others, doing all kinds of bad things and you do not care about the good of
\nanyone and particularly if you do not believe in the dogma that we teach you, then
\nyou will go straight to Hell and for eternity.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This
\nis one of the prettiest inventions I have ever heard of: they have invented
\neternal hell. That is to say, once you are in hell, it is for eternity You
\nunderstand what that means, for eternity? You will be tortured and burnt (in
\nthe hot countries
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 131<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

you are
\nburnt, in the cold countries you are frozen), and that for eternity. That is
\nit. So I do not know who taught you those pretty things; but they are simply
\ninventions to make people obey, to keep them under control. <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nare teachings which are not like that. There are religions which are not like
\nthat. But still one can, in a poetic, picturesque, descriptive manner speak of
\na paradise; because this paradise means a wonderful place where there is utmost
\njoy and happiness and comfort\u2026 And yet that depends upon the religion to which
\nyou belong. For there are heavens where you pass your time singing praises to
\nGod, you do nothing else \u2013 but in the end that must be somewhat wearisome;
\nhowever, there you pass your time playing music and singing the praises of God.
\nThere are other heavens, on the contrary, where you enjoy all possible
\npleasures, all that you desired to have during your life, you have in heaven.
\nThere are heavens where you are constantly in blissful meditation but \u2013 for
\npeople who are not keen on meditating, that must be rather tiresome. However,
\nthat depends, you know: they have invented all kinds of things so that people
\nmay really want to be wise and obey the laws given to them. <\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nman\u2019s imagination is so creative, such a form-maker, that there really are in
\nthe world places like these heavens. There are places also like these hells and
\nthere are places like these purgatories. Man creates out of nothing the things
\nhe imagines. If your consciousness is enlightened, then you can be pulled out
\nof these places; otherwise you are shut up, imprisoned there by the very belief
\nyou had when alive. You will tell me that it is equal to a life, but it is an
\naltogether illusory and extremely limited existence. It is real only for those
\nwho think like that. As soon as you think differently, it does not exist for
\nyou any longer; you can come out of it. You can pull a person out of these
\nplaces, and immediately he perceives that he was imprisoned in his own
\nformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Man
\nhas an extraordinary power of creation. He has
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 132<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

created a
\nwhole set of godheads in his own image, having the same faults as himself,
\ndoing on a bigger scale, with greater power whatever he does. These beings have
\na relative existence, but still it is an independent existence, just like your
\nthought. When you have a thought, a well-made mental formation which goes out
\nof you, it becomes an independent entity and continues on its way and it does
\nthat for which it was made. It continues to act independently of you. That is
\nwhy you must be on your guard. If you have made such a formation and it has
\ngone out, it has gone out to do its work; and after a time you find out that it
\nwas perhaps not a very happy thing to have a thought like that, that this
\nformation was not very beneficial; now that it has gone out, it is very
\ndifficult for you to get hold of it again. You must have considerable occult
\nknowledge. It has gone out and is moving on its way Supposing in a moment of
\ngreat anger (I do not say that you do so, but still when you were in quite a
\nrage against someone, you said: \u201cAh! couldn\u2019t some misfortune befall him?\u201d Your
\nformation has gone on its way. It has gone out and you have no longer any
\ncontrol over it; and it goes and organises some misfortune or other: it is
\ngoing to do its work. And after sometime the misfortune arrives. Happily, you
\ndo not usually have sufficient knowledge to tell yourself: \u201cOh! It is I who am
\nresponsible\u201d, but that is the truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

Note
\nthat this power of formation has a great advantage, if one knows how to use it.
\nYou can make good formations and if you make them properly, they will act in
\nthe same way as the others. You can do a lot of good to people just by sitting
\nquietly in your room, perhaps even more good than by undergoing a lot of
\ntrouble externally. If you know how to think correctly, with force and
\nintelligence and kindness, if you love someone and wish him well very
\nsincerely, deeply, with all your heart, that does him much good, much more
\ncertainly than you think. I have said this often; for example, to those who are
\nhere, who learn that someone in their family is very ill and feel that childish
\nimpulse of wanting to rush immediately to the spot to
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 133<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

attend to
\nthe sick person. I tell you, unless it is an exceptional case and there is
\nnobody to attend on the sick person (and at times even in such a case), if you
\nknow how to keep the right attitude and concentrate with affection and good
\nwill upon the sick person, if you know how to pray for him and make helpful
\nformations, you will do him much more good than if you go to nurse him, feed
\nhim, help him wash himself, indeed all that everybody can do. Anybody can nurse
\na person. But not everybody can make good formations and send out forces that
\nact for healing. <\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nany case, to come back to our paradise, it is a childish deformation \u2013 ignorant
\nor political \u2013 of something which is true in a sense but not quite like that I have
\ntold you many times and I could not repeat it too often, that one is not built
\nup of one single piece. We have within us many states of being and each state
\nof being has its own life. All this is put together in one single body, so long
\nas you have a body, and acts through that single body; so that gives you the
\nfeeling that it is one single person, a single being. But there are many beings
\nand particularly there are concentrations on different levels: just as you have
\na physical being, you have a vital being, you have a mental being, you have a
\npsychic being, you have many others and all possible intermediaries. But it is
\na little complicated, you might not understand. Suppose you were living a life
\nof desire, passion and impulse: you live with your vital being dominant in you;
\nbut if you live with spiritual effort, with great good will, the desire to do
\nthings well and an unselfishness, a will for progress, you live with the
\npsychic being dominant in you. Then, when you are about to leave your body, all
\nthese beings start to disperse. Only if you are a very advanced yogi and have
\nbeen able to unify your being around the divine centre, do these beings remain
\nbound together. If you have not known how to unify yourself, then at the time
\nof death all that is dispersed: each one returns to its domain. For example,
\nwith regard to the vital being, all your different desires will be separated
\nand each
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 134<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

one run
\ntowards its own realisation, quite independently, for the physical being will
\nno longer be there to hold them together. But if you have united your
\nconsciousness with the psychic consciousness, when you die you remain conscious
\nof your psychic being and the psychic being returns to the psychic world which
\nis a world of bliss and delight and peace and tranquillity and of a growing
\nknowledge. So, if you like to call that a paradise, it is all right; because in
\nfact, to the extent to which you are identified with your psychic being, you
\nremain conscious of it, you are one with it, and it is immortal and goes to its
\nimmortal domain to enjoy a perfectly happy life or rest. If you like to call
\nthat paradise, call it paradise. If you are good, if you have become conscious
\nof your psychic and live in it, well, when your body dies, you will go with your
\npsychic being to take rest in the psychic world, in a blissful state. <\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nif you have lived in your vital with all its impulses, each impulse will try to
\nrealise itself here and there.. For example, a miser who is concentrated upon
\nhis money, when he dies, the part of the vital that was interested in his money
\nwill be stuck there and will continue to watch over the money so that nobody
\nmay take it. People do not see him, but he is there all the same, and is very
\nunhappy if something happens to his precious money. I knew quite well a lady
\nwho had a good amount of money and children; she had five children who were all
\nprodigals each one more than the other. The same amount of care she had taken
\nin amassing the money, they seemed to take in squandering it; they spent it at
\nrandom. So when the poor old lady died, she came to see me and told me: \u201cAh,
\nnow they are going to squander my money!\u201d And she was extremely unhappy. I
\nconsoled her a little, but I had a good deal of difficulty in persuading her
\nnot to keep watching over her money so that it might not be wasted. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now,
\nif you live exclusively in your physical consciousness (it is difficult, for
\nyou have, after all, thoughts and feelings, but if you live exclusively in your
\nphysical, when the physical
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 135<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

being
\ndisappears, you disappear at the same time, it is finished There is a spirit of
\nthe form: your form has a spirit which persists for seven days after your
\ndeath. The doctors have declared that you are dead, but the spirit of your form
\nlives, and not only does it live but it is conscious in most of the cases. But
\nthat lasts for seven or eight days and afterwards it is dissolved. I am not
\nspeaking of yogis; I am speaking of ordinary people. Yogis have no laws, it is
\nquite different; for them the world is different. I am speaking to you of
\nordinary men living an ordinary life; for these it is like that. <\/span><\/p>\n

So
\nthe conclusion is that if you want to preserve your consciousness, it would be
\nbetter to centralise it on a part of your being that is immortal; otherwise it
\nwill vanish like a flame in the air. And it is very fortunate, for if it were
\notherwise, there would be perhaps gods or types of superior men who would
\ncreate hells and heavens as they do in their material imagination, where they
\nwould imprison you; you would be imprisoned in heaven or in hell according as
\nyou pleased or displeased them. It would be a very critical situation and
\nhappily it is not like that. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is said that there is a god of Death.
\nIs it true? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I call
\nit the spirit of Death. I know it very well. And that is an extraordinary
\norganisation. You do not know to what an extent it is organised. <\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nbelieve there are many of these spirits of death, I believe there are hundreds.
\nI have met at least two of them. One I met in France and the other in <\/span>Japan<\/span>,
\nand they were very different; which leads one to believe that probably in
\naccordance with the mental culture, the education, the country and beliefs
\nthere should be different spirits. But there are spirits of all the
\nmanifestations of Nature: there are spirits of fire, spirits of air, of water,
\nof rain, of wind; and there are spirits of death. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each
\nspirit of death, whatever it may be, has a claim to a <\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 136<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

certain number
\nof deaths per day. Indeed it is a fantastic organisation; it is a kind of
\nalliance between the vital forces and the forces of Nature. For example, if the
\nspirit of death has decided: \u201cThat is the number of people to which I am
\nentitled\u201d, let us say four or five or six, or one or two persons, it depends on
\nthe day; it has decided that certain persons would die, it goes straight and
\nsettles down beside the person about to die. But if you happen to be conscious
\n(not the person), if you see the spirit going to a person and you do not want
\nhim to die, then you can, if you possess a certain occult power, tell it: \u201cNo,
\nI forbid you to take him.\u201d It is a thing that has happened, not once but
\nseveral times, in <\/span>Japan<\/span>
\nand here. It was not the same spirit. That is what makes me say that there must
\nbe many.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013
\nI don\u2019t want him to die. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 But I have a right to one death! <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013
\nGo and find someone who is ready to die.  <\/span><\/p>\n

So
\nI have seen several cases: sometimes it is just a neighbour who dies suddenly
\nin place of the other, sometimes it is an acquaintance and sometimes it is an
\nenemy. Naturally, there is a relation, good or bad, of neighbourhood (or
\nanything else) which externally looks like chance. But it is the spirit who has
\ntaken its dead. The spirit has a claim to one death, it will have one death.
\nYou can tell it: \u201cI forbid you to take this one\u201d, and have the power of sending
\nit away, and the spirit can do nothing but go away; but it does not give up its
\ndue and goes elsewhere. There is another death. <\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nis the same thing with fire. I saw the spirit of fire, particularly in <\/span>Japan<\/span>
\nbecause fire is an extraordinary thing in that country. When a fire starts,
\nsome eighty houses burn: a whole quarter. It is something fantastic. The houses
\nare of wood and they burn like match-boxes; you see a fire kindling and then
\nall of a sudden, puff!.. You have never seen a match-box catching fire? a
\nflash! like that, a flash! one, two, three, ten, twenty houses burnt down
\nbefore my eyes!.. So there are spirits of fire. One day, I was in my bed. I was
\nconcentrating, looking at
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 137<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\npeople.
\nSuddenly I saw something like a cloud of flames drawing close to the house. I
\nlooked and I saw it was a conscious being.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013
\nEh! what are you here for? <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013
\nI have the right to burn the house, start a fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013
\nThat\u2019s possible, I told it, but not here.  <\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nit could not resist. <\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nis a question of who proves the stronger. I said: \u201cNo, here you can\u2019t burn,
\nthat\u2019s all!\u201d Five minutes later I heard cries: \u201cAh! Ah!\u201d Two or three houses
\nfarther away, a house had caught fire. It had gone there as I had forbidden it
\nto come to my house. It had a claim to one house. There we are! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes when people are dying, they know
\nthat they are about to die. Why don\u2019t they tell the spirit to go away? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Ah! well,
\nthat depends upon the people. Two things are necessary. First of all, nothing
\nin your being, no part of your being should want to die. That does not happen
\noften. You have always a defeatist in you somewhere: something that is tired,
\nsomething that is disgusted, something that has had enough of it, something
\nthat is lazy, something that does not want to struggle and says: \u201cWell! Ah! Let
\nit be finished, so much the better.\u201d That is sufficient, you are dead. <\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nit is a fact: if nothing, absolutely nothing in you consents to die, you will
\nnot die. For someone to die, there is always a second, perhaps the hundredth
\npart of a second when he gives his consent. If there is not this second of
\nconsent, he does not die. <\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nknew people who should have really died according to all physical and vital
\nlaws; and they refused. They said: \u201cNo, I will not die\u201d, and they lived. There
\nare others who do not need at all to die, but they are of that kind and say:
\n\u201cAh! Well! Yes, so much the better, it will be finished\u201d, and it is finished.
\nEven
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 138<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

that much,
\neven nothing more than that: you need not have a persistent wish, you have only
\nto say: \u201cWell, yes, I have had enough!\u201d and it is finished. So it is truly like
\nthat. As you say, you may have death standing by your bedside and tell him: \u201cI
\ndo not want you, go away\u201d, and it will be obliged to go away. But usually one
\ngives way, for one must struggle, one must be strong, one must be very
\ncourageous and enduring, must have a great faith in the importance of life;
\nlike someone, for example, who feels very strongly that he has still something
\nto do and he must absolutely do it. But who is sure he has not within him the
\nleast bit of a defeatist, somewhere, who just yields and says: \u201cIt is all
\nright\u201d?.. It is here, the necessity of unifying oneself. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever
\nthe way we follow, the subject we study, we always arrive at the same result.
\nThe most important thing for an individual is to unify himself around his
\ndivine centre; in that way he becomes a true individual, master of himself and
\nhis destiny. Otherwise, he is a plaything of forces that toss him about like a
\npiece of cork on a river. He goes where he does not want to go, he is made to
\ndo things he does not want to do, and finally he falls into a hole without
\nhaving the strength to hold on. But if you are consciously organised, unified
\naround the divine centre, ruled and directed by it, you are master of your
\ndestiny. That is worth the trouble of attempting\u2026 In any case, I find it
\npreferable to be the master rather than the slave. It is a rather unpleasant
\nsensation to feel yourself pulled by the strings and made to do things whether
\nyou want to or not \u2013 that is quite irrelevant \u2013 but to be compelled to act
\nbecause something pulls you by the strings, something which you do not even see
\n\u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>that is exasperating. However, I do
\nnot know, but I found it very annoying, even when I was a little child. At
\nfive, it began to seem to me quite intolerable and I sought for a way so that
\nit might be otherwise \u2013 without people getting a chance to scold me. For I knew
\nnobody who could help me and I did not have the chance that you have, someone
\nwho can tell
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 139<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

you: \u201cThis
\nis what you have to do!\u201d There was nobody to tell me that. I had to find it out
\nall by myself. And I found it. I started at five. And you, you were five long
\nago\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Voila. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 140<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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