{"id":4500,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4500"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:26","slug":"20-22-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\/20-22-july-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-20_22 July 1953.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

 <\/span><\/b>22 July 1953 <\/font><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two factors that have to be
\nconsidered in the matter [the causes of illness]. There is what comes from
\noutside and there is what comes from your inner condition. Your inner condition
\nbecomes a cause of illness when there is a resistance or revolt in it or when
\nthere is some part in you that does not respond to the protection; or even
\nthere may be something there that almost willingly and wilfully calls in the
\nadverse forces. It is enough if there is a slight movement of this kind in you;
\nthe hostile forces are at once upon you and their attack takes often the form
\nof illness.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (19 May)
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 \u201cSome part in you that does not respond to
\nthe protection.\u201d What does this mean, Mother? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have
\nalready explained it to you. What is it that you do not understand? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have understood the sense of the words,
\nbut I do not understand why it is so. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Because I
\nsaid \u201csome part of the being\u201d? You understand very well, don\u2019t you, what \u201cbeing
\nunder protection\u201d means? You understand also \u201cgoing out of the protection\u201d? If
\nyou do something contrary, for example, if you are under the protection of the
\nDivine and for a moment you have a thought of doubt or ill-will or revolt,
\nimmediately you go out of the protection. So the protection acts around you to
\nprevent adverse forces from coming upon you or an accident from happening, that
\nis to say, even if you lose consciousness, because of the protection even your
\nlack of consciousness will not produce a bad result <\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Page \u2013 167<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 immediately.
\nBut if you go out of the protection and are not all the time vigilant, then
\neither you will be attacked by the adverse forces or an accident will happen. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But those who are not conscious? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Those who
\nare not conscious? But there, too, I have said that I was not speaking of
\nordinary people. I am not speaking of ordinary people, they are not under a
\nspecial protection. Ordinary people are under ordinary conditions. They have no
\nspecial protection watching over them. I am not saying all this for them. They follow
\nall the ordinary laws of life and you cannot explain things to them in the same
\nway You were thinking of everybody, that it was so for everybody? It is only
\nfor people who do yoga, it is not for everybody. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Can one get ill through fear? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. I knew
\nsomeone who was so full of fear that he got cholera! There was cholera in the
\nnext house and he got so frightened that he caught the illness and without any
\nother reason, there was no other reason for his catching it: it was through
\nsheer fright. And it is a very common thing; in an epidemic, it is so in the
\nmajority of cases. It is through fear that the door is opened and you catch the
\nillness. Those who have no fear can go about freely and generally they catch
\nnothing. But still as I have said there,<\/span>\u00b9<\/span> you may have no fear in the mind, you may
\nhave no fear even in the vital, but who has no fear in the body?.. Very few. <\/span><\/p>\n

A
\nstrict discipline is needed to cure the body of fear. The cells themselves
\ntremble. It is only by discipline, by yoga that one can overcome this fear. But
\nit is a fact that one can catch anything through fear, even invite an accident.
\nAnd, you see, from a certain point of view everything is contagious. I knew a <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font><\/span>Questions and Answers 1929 (19 May).<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Page \u2013 168<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>person who
\ngot a wound through the kind of fear that he felt seeing someone else\u2019s wound.
\nHe really got it. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the difference between mental,
\nvital and physical fear? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If you are
\nconscious of the movement of your mind, the movement of your vital and the movement
\nof your physical, you know it. <\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nmental, it is very simple: thoughts come. You begin thinking, for example,
\nthere is this illness and this illness is very contagious, perhaps you are
\ngoing to catch it, and if you catch it, it is going to be a terrible affair and
\nwhat is to be done so as not to catch it?.. So the mind begins to tremble: what
\nis going to happen tomorrow? etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nvital, you feel it. You feel it in your sensations. All at once you feel hot,
\nyou feel cold, you perspire or all kinds of unpleasant things happen. And then
\nyou feel your heart beating fast and suddenly you have fever and then the
\ncirculation stops and you become cold. <\/span><\/p>\n

Physically,
\nwell.. When you do not any longer have the other two fears, you can become
\naware of the physical fear. Generally, the other two are much more conscious.
\nThey hide the physical fear from you. But when you have no longer any mental or
\nvital fear, then you become aware of it. It is a curious little vibration that
\ngets into your cells and they begin shivering that way. But the cells are not
\nlike a heart beating very fast. It is in the very cells: they tremble with just
\na slight quivering. And it is very difficult to control this. Yet it can be
\ncontrolled. <\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nam sure that most of you have felt this as, for example, when one does an
\nexercise which is not done often or does it for the first time; these are tiny
\nlittle vibrations which seize you in all the cells. And then naturally, you
\nlose your full control over the movement. The body does not answer to the Force
\nany more. When you want to put your will to do something, that brings <\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Page \u2013 169<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 about a
\nkind of resistance and incapacity in the body. Only, you are not aware of it
\nusually because your attention is drawn more to the mental apprehension or to
\nthe kind of vital recoil which is very apparent in the consciousness, whereas
\nyou are not so very conscious of the resistance produced in the body. Generally
\nin all sports (athletics and all competitions), a certain incident occurs: you
\nmust have noticed with your friends that some do much better than usual, while
\nothers who usually do well are almost incapacitated at that moment. They do
\nmuch worse. Well, this depends on those small vibrations. Because you lose your
\nfull control. Your will has no longer the full control over the body, for it
\nvibrates and answers to forces other than yours Naturally I am not speaking of
\nthose whose head is in a whirl or whose vital is altogether upset. Nothing can
\nbe done with them, it is better that they don\u2019t try. But I mean those who have
\nsome control over themselves, who undergo the training, you see, but at the
\ntime of the competition, cannot do as well as usual; it depends on a lack of
\nreceptivity in the body which gets this little tremor in the cells of which you
\nare not conscious but which acts as an obstruction. That prevents it from
\nreceiving the Force fully. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are illnesses tests in the Yoga? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Tests? Not
\nat all. <\/span><\/p>\n

You
\nare given an illness purposely to make you progress? Surely it is not like
\nthat. Actually, you may turn the thing round and say that there are people
\nwhose aspiration is so constant, whose goodwill so total that whatever happens
\nto them they take as a trial on the path to make progress. I knew people who,
\nwhenever they fell ill, took that as a proof of the Divine Grace to help them
\nto progress. They told themselves: it is a good sign, I am going to find out
\nthe cause of my illness and I shall make the necessary progress. I knew a few
\nof this kind and they moved on magnificently. There are others, on the
\ncontrary, who, far <\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Page \u2013 170<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 from making
\nuse of the thing, let themselves fall flat on the ground. So much the worse for
\nthem. But the true attitude when one is ill, is to say: \u201cThere is something
\nthat is not all right; I am going to see what it is.\u201d You must never think that
\nthe Divine has purposely sent an illness, for that would truly be a very wicked
\nDivine! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Even so, there are microbes in water? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

These
\npeople are in such a physical, mental, and vital condition that they are liable
\nto catch an illness, even without drinking water, I assure you! Their whole
\nbeing is a constant disharmony, their whole physical being. I do not mean
\ninwardly, they are perhaps all right there but those who are all right resist
\neverything. <\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nI have seen just the contrary. I have seen in this country, here, village
\npeople who had only such water as was no longer water to drink, it was mere
\nmud, I have seen it with my own eyes. It was yellowish mud in which cows had
\nbathed and done all the rest and people had waded through it after walking on
\nthe roads. They threw their rubbish and everything was in it. And then I saw
\nthese people. They entered it, it was, as I said, yellowish mud and there at
\nthe end there was a little bit of water \u2013 it was not water, it was yellowish,
\nyou know \u2013 they bent over, collected this water in their palms and drank it.
\nAnd there were some who did not even allow it to settle. Some knew what to put
\nin it, the herbs needed to make it settle, and if one leaves it sufficiently
\nlong it becomes a little clearer. But there were some who knew nothing at all
\nand drank it as it was. And I came to learn that there was just then an
\nepidemic of cholera all round and I said: \u201cThere are still people living in
\nthat village with that kind of water?\u201d I was told: \u201cWe do not have a single
\ncase of cholera….\u00a0 <\/span>\u201c They had become
\nimmune, they were habituated. But if there had been a single person who had
\ncaught it by chance, probably all would have been dead; for then fear <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 171<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 would enter
\nand with 170fear in them there would be no more resistance, for they were poor
\nmiserable things. But it is the moral conditions of these people that are
\nterrible, more than the physical conditions – the moral conditions. <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nare sadhus, you know, who accept the conditions of a dirty life through
\nsaintliness. They never wash themselves, they have nothing about them that
\nhygiene demands. They live in a truly dirty condition \u2013 and they are free from
\nall illness. Probably because they have faith and they do so purposely. Their
\nspirit is magnificent I am speaking of sincere people and not those who
\npretend. They have faith. They do not think of their body, they think of the
\nlife of their soul. They have no illness. There are some who come to a state in
\nwhich an arm or a leg or any part of the body has become completely stiff due
\nto their ascetic posture. They cannot move any more; anybody else would die
\nunder such conditions; they continue to live because they have faith and they
\ndo it purposely, because it is a thing they have imposed on themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore,
\nthe moral condition is much more important than the physical. If you were in
\nsurroundings where everyone was tidy and then you remained three days without
\ntaking a bath, you would fall ill. This is not to say that you should not take
\na bath! Because we do not want to be sadhus, we want to be yogis. It is not the
\nsame thing. And we want the body to take part in the yoga. So we must do
\nwhatever is necessary to keep it fit. However, this is only to tell you that the
\nmoral condition is much more important than the physical. <\/span><\/p>\n

Besides,
\nthese people, by their asceticism, wilfully spoil their body, torture
\nthemselves, yet if it was someone else who did the same thing, people would
\nshout, protest, declare he is a monster. But one does it by one\u2019s own choice.
\nAnd one bears it very well because it is imposed on one\u2019s own self and one
\nfeels a kind of glory in having done something very \u201cremarkable\u201d, through one\u2019s
\naspiration for the divine life! <\/span><\/p>\n

No
\nother questions?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 172<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 Well,
\nnow, I told you the other day that I would speak to you of illness; I thought
\nof it today and have made notes For you may tell me there are microbes, and
\nthat there are people who have no thought of illness and catch it all the same;
\nbut thinking is not the only factor, not by any means. Still, I shall try to
\nexplain to you now the notes I have made. (Mother looks at a paper.) <\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nhave told you first of all that all illness without any exception – without
\nexception \u2013 is the expression of a break in equilibrium. But there are many
\nkinds of breaks in equilibrium First, I am speaking only of the body, I am not
\nspeaking of the nervous illnesses of the vital or of mental illnesses. We shall
\nsee that later on. We are speaking only of this poor little body. And I say
\nthat all illnesses, all, whatever they may be (I would add even accidents) come
\nfrom a break in equilibrium. That is, if all your organs, all the members and
\nparts of your body are in harmony with one another, you are in perfect health.
\nBut if there is the slightest imbalance anywhere, immediately you get either
\njust a little ill or quite ill, even very badly ill, or else an accident
\noccurs. That always happens whenever there is an inner imbalance. <\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nthen, to the equilibrium of the body, you must add the equilibrium of the vital
\nand the mind. For you to be able to do all kinds of things with immunity,
\nwithout any accident happening to you, you must have a triple equilibrium –
\nmental, vital, physical – and not only in each of the parts, but also in the
\nthree parts in their mutual relations If you have done a little mathematics,
\nyou should have been taught how many combinations that makes and what a
\ndifficult thing it means! There lies the key to the problem. For the
\ncombinations are innumerable, and consequently the causes of illness too are
\ninnumerable, the causes of accidents also are innumerable. Still, we are going
\nto try to classify them so that we may understand. <\/span><\/p>\n

First
\nof all, from the point of view of the body – just the body – there are two
\nkinds of disequilibrium: functional and organic.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 173<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>I do not
\nknow if you are aware of the difference between the two; but you have organs
\nand then you have all the parts of your body: nerves, muscles, bones and all the
\nrest. Now, if an organ by itself is in disequilibrium, it is an organic
\ndisequilibrium, and you are told: that organ is ill or perhaps it is badly
\nformed or it is not normal or an accident has occurred to it. But it is the
\norgan that is ill. But the organ may be in a very good condition, all your
\norgans may be in a very good condition, but there is still an illness as they
\ndo not function properly: there is a lack of balance in the functioning. You
\nmay have a very good stomach, but suddenly something happens to it and it does
\nnot function properly; or the body may also be excellent, but something happens
\nto it and it does not work properly any more. Then you have an illness due to
\nfunctional imbalance not organic imbalance. <\/span><\/p>\n

Generally,
\nillnesses due to functional imbalance are cured much more quickly and easily
\nthan the others. The others become a little more serious. Sometimes they become
\nvery grave. So there are already two domains to see and know, but if you have a
\nlittle knowledge of your body and the habit of observing its working, you can
\nknow what kind of imbalance yours is.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most
\noften when you are young and leading a normal life, the imbalance is purely
\nfunctional. There are only a few poor people who for one reason or other have
\nhad an accident or imbalance before their birth, these carry with them
\nsomething that is much more difficult to cure (not that it is incurable; in
\ntheory, there is nothing incurable), but it becomes more difficult. <\/span><\/p>\n

Good.
\nNow what are the causes of this imbalance, whatever it may be? As I told you
\njust now, the causes are innumerable; because, first of all, there are all the
\ninner causes, that is, those personal to you, and then all the external causes,
\nthose that come to you from outside. That makes two major categories. <\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ninternal causes: <\/span><\/p>\n

We
\nsaid: you have a brain, lungs, a heart, a stomach, a liver, etc. If each one
\ndoes its duty and works normally and if all <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 174<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>move
\ntogether in harmony at a given moment and in the right way (note that it would
\nbe very complicated if you were obliged to think of all that, and I am afraid
\nthings would not go right all the time! Fortunately, it does not need our
\nconscious thinking), admitting however they are in good harmony with one
\nanother, good friends, in perfect agreement, and each one fulfilling its task,
\nits movement at the right time, in tune with the rest, neither too soon nor too
\nlate, neither too fast nor too slow, indeed, every one going all right, then
\nyou are marvellously well! Suppose now that one of them, for some reason or
\nother, happens to be in a bad mood: it does not work with the necessary energy,
\nat the required moment it goes awhile on strike. Do not believe that it alone
\nwill fall ill: the whole system will go wrong and you will feel altogether
\nunwell. And if, unfortunately, there is a vital imbalance, that is, a
\ndisappointment or too violent an emotion or too strong a passion or something
\nelse upsetting your vital, which comes in addition. And if furthermore your
\nthoughts roam about and you begin to have dark ideas and formulate frightful
\nthings and make catastrophic formations, then after that you are sure to fall
\nill altogether You see the complication, don\u2019t you, just a tiny thing can go
\nthe wrong way and thus through an inner contagion can lead to something very
\nserious. So what is important is to control things immediately. One must be
\nconscious, conscious of the working of one\u2019s organs, aware of the one that does
\nnot behave very well, telling it immediately what is to be done to set itself
\nright. What is needed (I shall explain it to you later on) is to give them a
\nlesson as one does to little children. When they begin indulging in unhealthy
\nfancies (indeed it is then the occasion to say it) you must tell them: no, it
\nis not like that the work is to be done, it is the other way! Suppose for
\nexample, your heart begins to throb madly; then you must make it calm, you tell
\nit that this is not the way to behave, and at the same time (solely to help it)
\nyou take in long, very regular rhythmic breaths, that is, the lung becomes the
\nmentor of the heart and teaches it how to work <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 175<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 properly.
\nAnd so on. I could give you countless examples.<\/span><\/p>\n

Good.
\nWe say then that there is an imbalance between the different parts of the
\nbeing, disharmony in their working. That is what I have just told you. And then
\nthere are internal conflicts. These are quarrels. There are internal quarrels
\namong the different parts of yourself. Supposing there is an organ (it happens
\nvery often) that needs rest and there is another that wants action, and both at
\nthe same time. How are you going to manage it? They begin to quarrel. If you do
\nwhat one wants, the other protests! And so you have to find a middle term to
\nput them in harmony. And then, at times, if you add to the physical the vital
\nand mental (I do not speak of the speculative mind or the independent vital, I
\nam speaking of the mental and vital parts of the body, because there is a
\nphysical vital and a physical mind; there is a physical mind and this physical
\nmind is the worst of all, it is that which goes on all the time and you have
\nthe utmost difficulty in stopping it: it goes on and on and on); well, if there
\nis a dispute between them, between the mind, the vital and the physical, you
\nhave a battlefield, and this battlefield can become the cause of all possible
\nillnesses. They fight violently. One wants something, the other does not, they
\nquarrel and you are in a kind of internal whirlwind. That can give you fever \u2013
\nyou do get it usually \u2013 or else you are seized by an inner shivering and you
\nhave no longer any control. For the most important of all causes for bodily
\nillness is that the body begins to get restless; it trembles and the trembling
\nincreases more and more, more and more and you feel that you will never be able
\nto re-establish the balance, it eludes you. Then in that case you must know
\nwhat the dispute is about, the reason of the dispute and find out how to
\nreconcile the people within you. <\/span><\/p>\n

All
\nthese are functional imbalances. <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nare other kinds of imbalance and they are more or less a part of what you were
\nsaying just now. There is an aspiration within you (I am now speaking of people
\nwho do yoga or at any rate know what the spiritual life is and try to walk on <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 176<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>the path), within
\nyou there is a part of the being\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013
\neither mental or vital or sometimes even physical – that has understood well,
\nhas much aspiration, its special aptitudes, that receives the forces well and
\nis making good progress. And then there are others that cannot, others still
\nthat don\u2019t want to (that of course is very bad), but there are yet others that
\nwant to very much but cannot, do not have the capacity, are not ready. So there
\nis something that rises upward and something that does not move. That causes a
\nterrible imbalance. And usually this translates itself into some illness or
\nother, for you are in such a state of inner tension between something that
\ncannot or something that clings, that does not want to move and something else
\nthat wants to: that produces a frightful unease and the result usually is an
\nillness. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now
\nthere is the opposite, almost the opposite, that is, the whole being goes
\nahead, progresses, advances in an increasing equilibrium and achieves
\nremarkable progress; you have the feeling you are in a wonderfully favourable
\nstate, everything is going on well, you are sure; and you see yourself already
\ngloriously well on the way Crack! an illness. Then you say: \u201cHow is it? I was
\nin such a good condition and now I have fallen ill! It is not fair.\u201d But this
\nhappens because you are not completely conscious. There was a small part in the
\nbeing that did not want to move. Usually it is something in the vital;
\nsometimes it is a tiny mental formation that does not agree to follow;
\nsometimes it is simply something in the body which is quite inert or has not
\nthe slightest intention of moving, that wants things to remain always as they
\nare. It pulls backward, separates itself wilfully, and naturally, even if it is
\nquite small, it brings about such an imbalance in the being that you fall ill.
\nAnd then you say to yourself: \u201cIt is truly a pity, I was going on so well, it
\nis not fair! Truly God is not kind!.. When I was making so much progress, He
\nought to have prevented me from becoming ill!\u201d.. It is like that. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now,
\nthere is still another thing. You do the yoga according to your capacity. You
\nhave been told: \u201cOpen yourself, you <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 177<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nwill
\nreceive the Force.\u201d You have been told: \u201cHave faith, be of goodwill and you
\nwill be protected.\u201d And indeed you are bathed in the Consciousness, bathed in
\nthe Force, bathed in the Protection and to the extent you have faith and open
\nyourself, you receive all that, and it helps you in keeping fit and in
\nrejecting the little inner disturbances and re-establishing order when these
\ncome, in protecting yourself against small attacks or accidents which might
\nhave happened. But if somewhere in your being \u2013 either in your body or even in
\nyour vital or mind, either in several parts or even in a single one \u2013 there is
\nan incapacity to receive the descending Force, this acts like a grain of sand
\nin a machine. You know, a fine machine working quite well with everything going
\nall right, and you put into it just a little sand (nothing much, only a grain
\nof sand), suddenly everything is damaged and the machine stops. Well, just a
\nlittle lack of receptivity somewhere, something that is unable to receive the
\nForce, that is completely shut up (when one looks at it, it becomes as it were
\na little dark spot somewhere, a tiny thing hard as a stone: the Force cannot
\nenter into it, it refuses to receive it \u2013 either it cannot or it will not) and
\nimmediately that produces a great imbalance; and this thing that was moving
\nupward, that was blooming so wonderfully, finds itself sick, and sometimes just
\nwhen you were in the normal equilibrium; you were in good health, everything
\nwas going on well, you had nothing to complain about. One day when you grasped
\na new idea, received a new impulse, when you had a great aspiration and
\nreceived a great force and had a marvellous experience, a beautiful experience
\nopening to you inner doors, giving you a knowledge you did not have before;
\nthen you were sure that everything was going to be all right The next day, you
\nare taken ill. So you say: \u201cStill that? It is impossible! That should not
\nhappen.\u201d But it was quite simply what I have just said: a grain of sand. There
\nwas something that could not receive; immediately it brings about a
\ndisequilibrium. Even though very small it is enough, and you fall ill.<\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Page \u2013 178<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 You
\nsee there are reasons! \u2013 many reasons, numberless reasons. For all these things
\ncombine in an extraordinarily complex way, and in order to know, in order to be
\nable to cure an illness, one must find out its cause, not its microbe. For it
\nhappens that (excuse me, I hope there are no doctors here!), it happens that
\nwhen microbes are there, they find out magnificent remedies to kill the
\nmicrobes, but these remedies cure some and make others much more ill! Nobody
\nknows why Perhaps I know why. Because the illness had another cause than the
\npurely physical one; there was another. The first was only an outer expression
\nof a different disorder, and unless you touched that, discovered that disorder,
\nnever would you be able to prevent the illness from coming. And to discover the
\ndisorder, you must have an extensive occult knowledge and also a deep knowledge
\nof all the inner workings of each one. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thus
\nwe have seen in brief, very rapidly all the internal causes. Now there are
\nexternal causes that come and bring complications. <\/span><\/p>\n

If
\nyou were in a perfectly harmonious environment where everything was full of a
\ntotal and perfect goodwill, then evidently you could lay the blame only on
\nyourself. But the difficulties that are within are also without. You can, to a
\ncertain extent, establish an inner equilibrium, but you live in surroundings
\nfull of imbalance. Unless you shut yourself up in an ivory tower (which is not
\nonly difficult but not always recommendable), you are obliged to receive what
\ncomes from outside. You give and you receive; you breathe in and absorb. So
\nthere is a mixture and that is why one can say that all is contagious, for you
\nlive in a state of ceaseless vibrations. You give out your vibrations and
\nreceive also the vibrations of others, and these vibrations are of a very
\ncomplex kind. There are still (we shall say for simplifying the language)
\nmental vibrations, vital vibrations, physical vibrations and many others. You
\ngive, you receive; you give, you receive. It is a perpetual play. Even granting
\nthat there is no bad will, there is necessarily contagion. And as <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 179<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>I was
\nsaying just now, all is contagious, everything. You are looking at the effect
\nof an accident: you absorb a certain vibration. And if you are over-sensitive
\nand, over and above that, you have fear or disgust (which is the same thing,
\ndisgust is only a moral expression of a physical fear), the accident can be
\ntranslated physically in your body. Naturally you will be told that those who
\nhave such reactions are in a state of nervous imbalance. It is not quite true.
\nThey are persons with an ultra-suprasensitive vital, that is all. And it is not
\nalways a proof of inferiority, on the contrary! For as you progress
\nspiritually, a certain hypersensitivity of the nerves occurs and if your
\nself-control does not increase along with your sensibility, all kinds of
\nuntoward things may happen to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nthat is not the only thing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unhappily
\nthere is much bad will in the world, and among the different kinds of bad will
\nthere is the small type that comes from ignorance and stupidity, there is the
\nbig type that comes from wickedness and there is the formidable one that is the
\nresult of anti-divine forces. So, all that is in the atmosphere (I am not
\ntelling you this to frighten you, for it is well understood that one should
\nfear nothing \u2013 but it is there all the same) and these things attack you,
\nsometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Unintentionally, through
\nother people: others are attacked, they don\u2019t know, they pass it on without even
\nbeing aware of it. They are the first victims. They pass the illness to others.
\nBut there are wilful attacks. We were speaking the other day of mental
\nformations and of wicked people who make mental formations to harm you, make
\nthem wilfully to do harm. And then there are others who go still a step
\nfurther. <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nis a misguided, perverted occultism which is called black magic, it is a thing
\none must never touch. But unfortunately, there are people who touch it through pure
\nwickedness. You must not believe it is an illusion, a superstition; it is real.
\nThere are people who know how to do magic and do it, and with their magic they
\nobtain altogether detestable results\u2026 It is understood <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 180<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>of course
\nthat when you have no fear and remain under protection, you are sheltered. But
\nthere is a \u201cwhen\u201d, there is a condition, and then if the condition is not
\nalways fulfilled, very unpleasant things may happen. So long as you are in a
\nstate full of strength, full of purity \u2013 that is, in a state of invincibility,
\nif anybody does anything against you, that falls back upon him automatically,
\nas when you throw a tennis-ball against the wall, it comes back to you; the
\nthing comes back to them exactly in the same way, sometimes with a greater
\nforce, and they are punished by their own wickedness. But naturally it all
\ndepends on the person against whom the magic is done, on his inner force and
\npurity I have come across such things, many cases like this. And in such cases,
\nin order to resist, one must be, as I said, a warrior in the vital, that is, a
\nspiritual fighter in the vital. All who do yoga sincerely must become that, and
\nwhen they do become that, they are altogether sheltered. But one of the
\nconditions for becoming it is never to have bad will or a bad thought towards
\nothers. For if you have a bad feeling or bad will or a bad thought, you come
\ndown to their level and when you are on the same level with them, well, you may
\nreceive blows from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now,
\nwithout going to that extreme, there are in the physical atmosphere, the
\nearth-atmosphere, numerous small entities which you do not see, for your sight
\nis too limited, but which move about in your atmosphere. Some of them are quite
\nnice, others very wicked. Generally these little entities are produced by the
\ndisintegration of vital beings – they pullulate – and these form quite an
\nunpleasant mass. There are some which do very fine things. I believe I narrated
\nto you the story of the little beings who tugged at my sari to tell me that the
\nmilk was about to boil and that I had to go and see that it did not boil over.
\nBut all of them are not so good. Some of them like to play ugly little tricks,
\nwicked little pranks. And so most often it is they who are behind an accident.
\nThey like little accidents, they like the whole whirl of forces that gather
\nround an accident: a mass <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 181<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>of people,
\nyou know, it is very amusing! And then that gives them their food, because, in
\nreality, they feed upon human vitality thrown out of the body by emotions and
\nexcitements. So they say: just a small accident, it is quite nice, many
\naccidents!.. <\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nthen if there is a group of such small entities, they may clash with one
\nanother, because among themselves they do not have a very peaceful life: clashing
\nwith one another, fighting, destroying, demolishing each other. And that is the
\norigin of microbes. They are forces of disintegration. But they continue to be
\nalive even in their divided forms and this is the origin of germs and microbes.
\nTherefore most microbes have behind them a bad will and that is what makes them
\nso dangerous. And unless one knows the quality and kind of bad will and is
\ncapable of acting upon it, there is a ninety-nine per cent chance of not
\nfinding the true and complete remedy. The microbe is a very material expression
\nof something living in a subtle physical world and that is why these very
\nmicrobes (as I have said there<\/span>\u00b9<\/span>)
\nthat are always around you, within you, for years together do not make you ill
\nand then suddenly they make you fall ill. <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nis another reason. The origin of the microbes and their support lie in a
\ndisharmony, in the being\u2019s receptivity to the adverse force. I will tell you a
\nstory. I do not know whether I have already told it to you, but I am going to
\ntell you now for it will give you an illustration. <\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nwas in Japan. It was at the beginning of January 1919. Anyway, it was the time
\nwhen a terrible flu raged there in the whole of Japan, which killed hundreds of
\nthousands of people. It was one of those epidemics the like of which is rarely
\nseen. In Tokyo, every day there were hundreds and hundreds of new cases. The
\ndisease appeared to take this turn: it lasted three days and on the third day
\nthe patient died. And people died in such large numbers that they could not
\neven be cremated, you understand, it was impossible, there were too many of
\nthem. Or otherwise, if one did not die on the third day, at the end of seven <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font><\/span>Questions and Answers 1929 (19 May).<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 182<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>days one
\nwas altogether cured; a little exhausted but all the same completely cured.
\nThere was a panic in the town, for epidemics are very rare in Japan. They are a
\nvery clean people, very careful and with a fine morale. Illnesses are very
\nrare. But still this came, it came as a catastrophe. There was a terrible fear.
\nFor example, people were seen walking about in the streets with a mask on the
\nnose, a mask to purify the air they were breathing, so that it might not be
\nfull of the microbes of the illness. It was a common fear Now, it so happened I
\nwas living with someone who never ceased troubling me: \u201cBut what is this
\ndisease? What is there behind this disease?\u201d What I was doing, you know, was
\nsimply to cover myself with my force, my protection so as not to catch it and I
\ndid not think of it any more and continued doing my work. Nothing happened and
\nI was not thinking of it. But constantly I heard: \u201cWhat is this? Oh, I would
\nlike to know what is there behind this illness. But could you not tell me what
\nthis illness is, why it is there?\u201d etc. One day I was called to the other end
\nof the town by a young woman whom I knew and who wished to introduce me to some
\nfriends and show me certain things. I do not remember now what exactly was the
\nmatter, but anyway I had to cross the whole town in a tram-car. And I was in
\nthe tram and seeing these people with masks on their noses, and then there was
\nin the atmosphere this constant fear, and so there came a suggestion to me; I
\nbegan to ask myself: \u201cTruly, what is this illness? What is there behind this
\nillness? What are the forces that are in this illness?\u201d I came to the house, I
\npassed an hour there and I returned. And I returned with a terrible fever. I
\nhad caught it. It came to you thus, without preparation, instantaneously.
\nIllnesses, generally illnesses from germs and microbes take a few days in the
\nsystem: they come, there is a little battle inside; you win or you lose, if you
\nlose you catch the illness, it is not complicated. But there, you just receive
\na letter, open the envelope, hop! puff! The next minute you have the fever.
\nWell, that evening I had a terrible fever. The doctor was called (it was not I <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 183<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>who called
\nhim), the doctor was called and he told me: \u201cI must absolutely give you this medicine.\u201d
\nIt was one of the best medicines for the fever, he had just a little (all their
\nstocks were exhausted, everyone was taking it); he said: \u201cI have still a few
\npackets, I shall give you some\u201d – \u201cI beg of you, do not give it to me, I won\u2019t
\ntake it. Keep it for someone who has faith in it and will take it.\u201d He was
\nquite disgusted: \u201cIt was no use my coming here.\u201d So I said: \u201cPerhaps it was no
\nuse!\u201d And I remained in my bed, with my fever, a violent fever. All the while I
\nwas asking myself: \u201cWhat is this illness? Why is it there? What is there behind
\nit…\u00a0 <\/span>\u201c At the end of the second day, as
\nI was lying all alone, I saw clearly a being, with a part of the head cut off,
\nin a military uniform (or the remains of a military uniform) approaching me and
\nsuddenly flinging himself upon my chest, with that half a head to suck my
\nforce. I took a good look, then realised that I was about to die. He was
\ndrawing all my life out (for I must tell you that people were dying of
\npneumonia in three days). I was completely nailed to the bed, without movement,
\nin a deep trance. I could no longer stir and he was pulling. I thought: now it
\nis the end. Then I called on my occult power, I gave a big fight and I
\nsucceeded in turning him back so that he could not stay there any longer. And I
\nwoke up. <\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nI had seen. And I had learnt, I had understood that the illness originated from
\nbeings who had been thrown out of their bodies. I had seen this during the
\nFirst Great War, towards its end, when people used to live in trenches and were
\nkilled by bombardment. They were in perfect health, altogether healthy and in a
\nsecond they were thrown out of their bodies, not conscious that they were dead.
\nThey did not know they hadn\u2019t a body any more and they tried to find in others
\nthe life they could not find in themselves. That is, they were turned into so
\nmany countless vampires. And they vampirised upon men. And then over and above
\nthat, there was a decomposition of the vital forces of people who fell ill and
\ndied. One lived in a kind of sticky and thick cloud made up of all that. And so
\nthose who took in<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage – 184<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n this cloud fell ill and usually got cured, but those who were
\nattacked by a being of that kind invariably died, they could not resist. I know
\nhow much knowledge and force were necessary for me to resist. It was
\nirresistible. That is, if they were attacked by a being who was a centre of
\nthis whirl of bad forces, they died. And there must have been many of these, a
\nvery great number. I saw all that and I understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

When
\nsomeone came to see me, I asked to be left alone, I lay quietly in my bed and I
\npassed two or three days absolutely quiet, in concentration, with my
\nconsciousness. Subsequently, a friend of ours (a Japanese, a very good friend)
\ncame and told me: \u201cAh! you were ill? So what I thought was true Just imagine
\nfor the last two or three days, there hasn\u2019t been a single new case of illness
\nin the town and most of the people who were ill have been cured and the number
\nof deaths has become almost negligible, and now it is all over. The illness is
\nwholly under control.\u201d Then I narrated what had happened to me and he went and
\nnarrated it to everybody. They even published articles about it in the papers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well,
\nconsciousness, to be sure, is more effective than doctors\u2019 pills!.. The
\ncondition was critical. Just imagine, there were entire villages where everyone
\nhad died. There was a village in Japan, not very big, but still with more than
\na hundred people, and it happened, by some extraordinary stroke of luck, that
\none of the villagers was to receive a letter (the postman went there only if
\nthere was a letter; naturally, it was a village far in the countryside); so he
\nwent to the countryside; there was a snowfall; the whole village was under
\nsnow.. and there was not a living person. It was exactly so. It was that kind
\nof epidemic. And Tokyo was also like that; but Tokyo was a big town and things
\ndid not happen in the same fashion. And it was in this way the epidemic ended.
\nThat is my story. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now
\nthis brings us naturally to the cure. All that is very well, we now have the
\nknowledge; so, how to prevent illnesses from coming, first of all, and when the
\nillness does occur, how to cure it?<\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Page \u2013 185<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>One
\nmay try ordinary means and sometimes that succeeds. It is usually when the body
\nis convinced that it has been given the conditions under which it must be all
\nright; it takes the resolution that it must be all right and it is cured. But
\nif your body has not the will, the resolution to get cured, you may try
\nwhatever you like, it won\u2019t be cured. This also I know by experience. For I
\nknew people who could be cured in five minutes, even of a disease considered
\nvery serious, and I knew people who had no fatal illness, but cherished it with
\nsuch persistence that it did become fatal. It was impossible to persuade their
\nbody to let go their illness. <\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nit is here that one must be very careful and look at oneself with great
\ndiscrimination to discover the small part in oneself that – how to put it? \u2013
\ntakes pleasure in being ill. Oh! there are many reasons. There are people who
\nare ill out of spite, there are people who are ill out of hate, there are
\npeople who are ill through despair, there are people.. And these are not
\nformidable movements: it is quite a small movement in the being: one is vexed
\nand says: \u201cYou will see what is going to happen, you will see the consequences
\nof what he has done to me! Let it come! I am going to be ill.\u201d One does not say
\nit openly to oneself, for one would scold oneself, but there is something
\nsomewhere that thinks in that way. <\/span><\/p>\n

So
\nthere are two things you have to do when you have discovered the disorder, big
\nor small \u2013 the disharmony. Firstly, we said that this disharmony creates a kind
\nof tremor and a lack of peace in the physical being, in the body. It is a kind
\nof fever. Even if it is not a fever in general, there is localised fever; there
\nare people who get restless. So the first thing to do is to quieten oneself,
\nbring peace, calm, relaxation, with a total confidence, in this little corner
\n(not necessarily in the whole body). Afterwards you see what is the cause of
\nthe disorder. You look. Of course, there are many, but still you try to find
\nout approximately the cause of this disorder, and through the pressure of light
\nand knowledge and spiritual force you re-establish the harmony, <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 186<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>the proper
\nfunctioning. And if the ailing part is receptive, if it does not offer any
\nobstinate resistance, you can be cured in a few seconds. <\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nis not always the case. Sometimes there is, as I have said, a bad will: you are
\nmore or less on strike, at least you want the illness to have its consequences.
\nSo, that takes a little more time. However, if you do not happen to be
\nparticularly ill-willed, after some time the Force acts: after a few minutes or
\nhours or at the most some days you are cured. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now,
\nin the case of special attacks of adverse forces, the thing gets complicated,
\nbecause you have not only to deal with the will of the body (note that I do not
\nadmit the argument of those who say: \u201cBut as for myself I do not want to be
\nill!\u201d, for your consciousness always says that it does not want to be ill, one
\nmust be half-crazy to say, \u201cI want to be ill\u201d; but it is not your consciousness
\nthat wants to be ill, it is some part of your body or at the most, a fragment
\nof the vital that has gone wrong and wishes to be ill, and unless you observe
\nwith a good deal of attention you do not notice it). But I say that the
\nsituation gets complicated if behind this there is an attack, a pressure from
\nadverse forces who really want to harm you. You may have opened the door
\nthrough spiritual error, through a movement of vanity, of anger, of hatred or
\nof violence; even if it is merely a movement that comes and goes, that can open
\nthe door. There are always germs watching and only waiting for an occasion.
\nThat is why one should be very careful. Anyhow, for some reason or other, the
\ninfluence has pierced through the shell of protection and acts there
\nencouraging the illness to become as bad as it can be. In that case the first
\nmeans is not quite sufficient. Then you have to add something; you must add the
\nForce of spiritual purification which is such an absolutely perfectly
\nconstructive force that nothing that\u2019s in the least destructive can survive
\nthere. If you have this Force at your disposal or if you can ask for it and get
\nit, you direct it on the spot and the adverse force usually runs away
\nimmediately, for if it happens to be in <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 187<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span>the midst
\nof this Force it gets dissolved, it disappears; for no force of disintegration can
\nsurvive within this Force; therefore disintegration disappears and with it that
\nalso disappears. It can be changed into a constructive force, that is possible,
\nor it may be simply dissolved and reduced to nothing. And with that not only is
\nthe illness cured, but all possibility of its return is also eliminated. You
\nare cured of the illness once for all, it never comes back. There you are. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now,
\nthis is the general picture; on the details could be written books and books. I
\nhave given you only general explanations. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

With the causes you have told us about,
\none should be always ill! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But in
\nordinary life, most of the time, people are almost always ill – except a few
\nwho escape for reasons of a different order that we shall explain one day.
\nThere are very few people who are not more or less ill all the while. But even
\nin ordinary life, if within you there is trust, goodwill, a kind of certitude,
\nthis kind of inner confidence, oh! as there is in most children perhaps (I do
\nnot know, for, after all, those we see here are fairly exceptional, however,
\nthere is a trust in life, they are young and they have the feeling that the
\nwhole life is before them. Very few things are behind, everything is in front.
\nSo that gives them a kind of self-confidence, that pulls them out. <\/span><\/p>\n

Otherwise,
\nI do not know, in the ordinary life I have known very few people who did not
\ncomplain of having at least some physical ailment which they carried always
\nwith them You know perhaps that play of Jules Romains, Doctor<\/i> Knock<\/i>, in which he
\nsays that a healthy man is a patient unaware of his sickness. It is usually
\ntrue. When you are sufficiently busy not to be all the while occupied with
\nyourself, you do not notice it, but it is there. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 188<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 22 July 1953   \u201cThere are two factors that have to be considered in the matter [the causes of illness]. There is what comes from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","wpcat-126-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500","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=4500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}