{"id":4504,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4504"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:28","slug":"29-23-september-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\/29-23-september-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-29_23 September 1953.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n23 September 1953
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEach spot of the body is symbolical of an
\ninner movement; there is there a world of subtle correspondences. But this is a
\nlong and complex subject and we cannot enter into its details just now. The
\nparticular place in the body affected by an illness is an index to the nature
\nof the inner disharmony that has taken place. It points to the origin, it is a
\nsign of the cause of the ailment. It reveals too the nature of the resistance
\nthat prevents the whole being from advancing at the same high speed. It
\nindicates the treatment and the cure. If one could perfectly understand where
\nthe mistake is, find out what has been unre0ceptive, open that part and put the
\nforce and the light there, it would be possible to re-establish in a moment the
\nharmony that has been disturbed and the illness would immediately go.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

Why is \u201ceach spot of the body symbolical
\nof an inner movement\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Because the
\nwhole physical world is the symbol of universal movements. So our body is the
\nsymbol of our inner movements. The whole world, the whole physical world is
\nlike a crystallisation – it is a materialisation, a crystallisation – of the
\nmovements in other planes of the universe. It is like the end of a process, it
\nis as though a projection on something that retains the image, fixes the image.
\nTherefore, at every point it is the same thing as in the whole material
\nuniverse. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The material is a plane, isn\u2019t it? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it is
\na final result. There is an increasing materiality and a
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 272<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

decreasing
\nmateriality, and the physical plane is at the centre: it is like a screen on
\nwhich all the intervening vibrations are projected and held, as upon a screen \u2013
\nit is an image, an image of all that is happening. We notice it because it is a
\nthing done, something concrete. It is as though you viewed the whole universe
\nas a movement of force and this movement of force were projected till it met a
\nscreen and on the screen it made an image, and this image on the screen is the
\nphysical world. And it is a mere image. The physical world which everyone takes
\nas the only reality is simply an image. It is the image of all that happens in
\nwhat we call the invisible. It becomes visible to us because there is a screen
\nwhich intervenes and stops the vibrations and that produces an image. If there
\nwere no such screen the vibrations would move on and nothing would be seen. And
\nyet all the movements would exist. But for us they would be invisible, if there
\nwere no screen to stop the vibrations. <\/span><\/p>\n

For
\nthe ordinary consciousness it is the image alone that is true, and what happens
\nbehind it is more or less problematical, but in the true consciousness, all
\nthat happens behind or before is the true thing and what one sees externally is
\nonly an image, that is to say, a projection on a screen, of something which
\nexists altogether independently. So, our body represents a small fragment in
\nthis set of images that is projected and it is a fragment which expresses
\nexactly all the vibrations of the inner state corresponding to this little
\npoint that is the body. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the cause of illnesses in animals?
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I think, as
\nin men, so in animals, there are as many causes as there are illnesses. These
\nare perhaps psychological movements, for animals have psychological movements. They
\nare perhaps accidents, for there is a whole domain of accidents. In fact,
\nscientists say that all diseases, even death, are always accidental. It is not
\na normal condition. So, for animals, it may be that, and it is perhaps also a
\npsychological condition. <\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 273<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

For
\nanimals who live with man, it is a sure fact. What they have gained from this,
\nthese poor creatures, is to become as sensitive and unbalanced as men, without getting
\ntheir intelligence! For example, animals possess a very sure instinct; you put
\na cow in a field where there are all kinds of grasses \u2013 good and bad, and some
\nwhich are even poisonous; but never will a cow touch a bad and poisonous herb.
\nNever. With the tip of its tongue it chooses quite surely what is good and
\nleaves the rest aside. But if you cut the grass and mix up the good and bad
\ntogether and you put that in the manger before the cow, it will eat up
\neverything and poison itself, for it has a kind of trust – an ignorant trust \u2013
\nthat what is placed there before it is for eating, and so it loses its
\ninstinct. Animals in their natural state do not ever overeat, they eat
\naccording to their hunger and if some food is left over and they do not want it
\nto be eaten by others, they hide it, bury it; they hide it with great care so
\nthat they may find it again when they are hungry. But an animal living with man
\nloses this instinct and eats not only all that is given but all that\u2019s left
\nwithin its reach. I lived for some time in a small town in the south of France.
\nThere was a grocer there who kept goats and one of them had become quite
\ngreedy. He had just received a barrel of molasses \u2013 you know what molasses
\nis?.. How do you call it here? It is crude sugar, \u201cjaggery\u201d. He had received a
\nbarrel of jaggery and \u2013 he opened it he opened the lid and forgot to put it
\nback. And there it was and the goat was roaming around. The goat thought that
\nit must be quite good since it was left there within its reach! It began to eat
\nit and found it truly excellent. And it went on as it had lost all its instinct
\n\u2013 until literally it fell dead, having eaten too much. Well, a wild animal
\nwould never do that. These are the advantages of man\u2019s company! <\/span><\/p>\n

No
\nquestion? <\/span><\/p>\n

Then
\nwe shall drop the subject. It seems this lady <\/span>\u00b9<\/span> was quite preoccupied with maladies. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font><\/span>The one who put the questions in Questions
\nand Answers 1929.<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 274<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

You said that this physical world was a
\nprojection of invisible worlds. Then why should the divine Emanations come into
\nthe physical world to transform it? They have only to do the work in the
\ninvisible planes; then the projections will be good. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That indeed
\nis a serious question!… You know the image sometimes given to the universe: a
\nserpent biting its tail? And it is taken as the symbol of the infinite, of the
\nuniverse. Well, it is a fact. In the creation there is a progressive, a greater
\nand greater materialisation. But we could take another image (I am taking an
\napproximate image): the universe is a circle or rather a sphere (but for the
\nconvenience of explanation, let us take a circle). There is a progressive
\ndescent from the most subtle to the most material. But the most material
\nhappens to touch the point of origin of the most subtle. Then, if you understand
\nthe image, instead of going all the way round to change matter, it is much more
\neasy to do the thing directly, for the two extremities meet – the extremely
\nsubtle and the extremely material touch, since it is a sphere. Hence, instead
\nof doing all that (Mother draws a circle<\/i>),
\nit is much better to do this (Mother
\ntouches the extreme material end of the circle<\/i>). In fact, psychologically
\nit is that. The rest will follow quite naturally. If that is done (Mother touches the same extreme material end<\/i>),
\nall the rest will get settled as a matter of course. And it is not even like
\nthis! It is precisely for the convenience of work that all has been
\nconcentrated or concretised at one point so that instead of having to spread
\noneself out in the infinite to change things, one can work just on the point
\nthat serves as the symbol of the whole universe. And from the occult
\nstandpoint, earth (which is nothing from the astronomical standpoint; in the
\nimmensity of the astronomical skies, earth is a thing absolutely without
\ninterest and without importance), but from the occult and spiritual point of
\nview, earth is the concentrated symbol of the universe. For it is much more
\neasy to work on one point
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 275<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

than in a diluted
\nvastness. All those who do the work know this. Well, for the convenience and
\nnecessity of work, the whole universe has been concentrated and condensed
\nsymbolically in a grain of sand which is called Earth. And therefore it is the
\nsymbol of everything; all that is to be changed, all that is to be transformed,
\nall that is to be converted is there. This means that if one concentrates on
\nthis work and does it there, all the rest will follow automatically, otherwise
\nthere will be no end \u2013 and no hope. <\/span><\/p>\n

But that is
\nalso why this point appears as particularly bad! Because everything is
\nconcentrated. And that can be particularly good also. For always there are the
\ntwo, the two opposites are together. And always the best borders on the worst,
\nor the worst borders on the best (it depends on the side you look from). But it
\nis because of the worst that you can find the best and it is because of the
\nbest that you can transform the worst \u2013 the two act and react upon each other\u2026
\nThat was published in the Bulletin<\/i>: the
\n\u201cEvil Persona\u201d.<\/span>\u00b9<\/span>
\nIt is always said that there is a dark double of all the stars and a luminous
\ndouble of all the planets. In the occult way, it is said that there is a
\nluminous earth. All that is the experience of the luminous earth. Sri Aurobindo
\nhas described the experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/font><\/span>"THE EVIL Persona\u201d<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat you say about the \u201cEvil Persona\u201d
\ninterests me greatly as it answers to my consistent experience that a person
\ngreatly endowed for the work has, always or almost always perhaps one ought not
\nto make a too rigid universal rule about these things a being attached to him,
\nsometimes appearing like a part of him, which is just the contradiction of the
\nthing he centrally represents in the work to be done. Or, if it is not there at
\nfirst, not bound to his personality, a force of this kind enters into his
\nenvironment as soon as he begins his movement to realise. Its business seems to
\nbe to oppose, to create stumblings and wrong conditions, in a word, to set
\nbefore him the whole problem of the work he has started to do. It would seem as
\nif the problem could not, in the occult economy of things, be solved otherwise
\nthan by the predestined instrument making the difficulty his own. That would
\nexplain many things that seem very disconcerting on the surface.\u201d<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0<\/font><\/span>Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga<\/font><\/span><\/i>, Cent.Vol. 24, p. 1660, also Bulletin<\/i>, August 1953<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 276<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

What experience? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is an
\nexperience that I had and I wrote about it to Sri Aurobindo. He answered me
\nsaying that it was an experience of Vedic times, an experience that happened in
\nthe luminous double of the earth\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>That
\nwill come out somewhere one day.<\/span>\u00b9<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font><\/span>The experience referred to is one which
\nthe Mother had on 26 November 1915. This has been described in her Prayers and
\nMeditations. Sri Aurobindo\u2019s reply to the Mother, dated 31 December 1915, is
\npublished in The Mother, SABCL Vol. 25, p. 384. <\/font>
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 277<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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