{"id":4541,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4541"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:43","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:43","slug":"44-24-october-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/08-questions-and-answers-volume-08\/44-24-october-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","title":{"rendered":"-44_24 October 1956.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n24 October 1956<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have something here, I don’t know if it will take us very far,
\nbut still it will make a good change. All these last few weeks the subject was
\nalways progress: how to progress, what hindered progress, how to use the supramental
\nForce, etc. This is going on, I have a whole packet still! But we may change
\nthe subject for once. <\/span><\/p>\n

Someone has asked me a question about death: what happens after
\ndeath and how one takes a new body. <\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, it is a subject which could fill volumes, no two
\ncases are alike: practically\u00a0 <\/span>everything
\nis possible in the life after death as everything is possible on earth when one
\nis in a physical body, and all statements when generalised become dogmatic. But
\nstill one may look at the problem in some detail, and sometimes one makes
\ninteresting discoveries. <\/span><\/p>\n

The question is like this: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen an especially developed soul leaves the body, does it take
\nwith it the subtle physical sheath? When it reincarnates, how does it introduce
\nthis into the new body?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Even to
\nanswer this, as I have told you, it would be necessary to write volumes or to
\nspeak for hours. For, to tell the truth, no two cases are alike <\/span>― <\/span>there are
\nsimilarities, classifications can be made, but they are purely arbitrary. What
\nI wanted to do was to read to you the following, for it is quite amusing<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>oh, I don’t want to be\u2026 not serious! Let us say it is quite
\ninteresting:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese questions are asked with reference to an old Indian
\ntradition, the occult knowledge of the sage-king Pravanahana who is mentioned
\nin the Upanishads (Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka): <\/span><\/i><\/b>
\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 333<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u201cIt is said that after death, the soul of one who has done good
\ndeeds takes the path of the ancestors, `pitriyana’, it becomes smoke, night,
\netc., attains to the world of the fathers and finally to the lunar paradise.
\nThe Brahmasutra deduces from this that the soul takes with it all the elements,
\neven those of the subtle physical, which will be needed in the next
\nincarnation.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

So a question: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs this correct? Is the subtle physical sufficiently conscious in
\nthat case?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

We shall keep aside the questions; I am continuing: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen the Upanishads add: after having exhausted the store of good
\ndeeds, the soul leaves the lunar paradise, reaches the sky, then the air, then
\nthe clouds, taking on the nature of each of these things, precipitates on the
\nearth as rain, enters the seeds, penetrates the body of the father in the form
\nof food, and finally builds up the body of the child.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is really a rather complicated process, isn’t it? (Laughter)<\/i><\/b>
\nBut I found it very amusing. And now the question
\n(laughing):<\/i><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs it necessary to follow this uncertain and hazardous process?
\nDoes not the soul directly animate the body with all the mental, vital and
\nsubtle physical elements organised around it and necessary for the next life?
\nDoes it take up the elements of the subtle physical world? If so, how do they
\nharmonise with the hereditary characteristics? Above all, must it s through the
\nbody of the father?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 334<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

There we are! <\/span><\/p>\n

The only thing I can say is that it is possible things sometimes
\nhappen like that. Quite probably<\/span>― <\/span>at least I hope so <\/span>― <\/span>the person
\nwho described this may have observed a phenomenon of this kind; I hope it is
\nnot a mere mental construction of his occult imagination\u2026.It raises a few
\npractical problems! But still, of course, there is nothing impossible. Only, it
\nis difficult to imagine the soul entering the rain, which enters the seed,
\nwhich makes the plant sprout up, and then entering the father’s stomach in the
\nform of food, more or less cooked (!) and finally proceeding to the conception
\nof the child. I don’t say it is impossible, but it is very, very, very <\/span>com<\/span>plicated! <\/span><\/p>\n

I may say that I have been present at innumerable incarnations of
\nevolved souls in beings either preparing to be born or already born. As I said,
\nthe cases are quite different; it depends more on psychological conditions than
\non material ones, but it also depends on material conditions. It depends on the
\nstate of development of the soul which wants to reincarnate <\/span>― <\/span>we take the
\nword \u201csoul\u201d here in the sense of the psychic being, what we call the psychic
\nbeing <\/span>― <\/span>it depends on its state of development, on the milieu in which it
\nis going to incarnate, on the mission it has to fulfil ― that makes many
\ndifferent conditions\u2026.It depends very largely on the state of consciousness of
\nthe parents. For it goes without saying that there is a stupendous difference
\nbetween conceiving a child deliberately, with a conscious aspiration, a call to
\nthe invisible world and a spiritual ardour, and conceiving a child by accident
\nand without intending to have it, and sometimes even without wanting it at all.
\nI don’t say that in the latter case there cannot also be an incarnation, but it
\nusually takes place later, not at the conception. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the formation of the child it makes a great difference. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the incarnation takes place at the conception, the whole
\nformation of the child to be born is directed and governed by the consciousness
\nwhich is going to incarnate: the choice of the elements, the attraction of the
\nsubstance <\/span>― <\/span>a choice of the forces <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 335<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>and even the substance of the matter which is
\nassimilated. There is already a selection. And this naturally creates altogether
\nspecial conditions for the formation of the body, which may already be fairly
\ndeveloped, evolved, harmonised before its birth. I must say that this is quite,
\nquite exceptional; but still it does happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

More frequently there are cases in which, just at the moment of
\nits birth, that is to say, of its first gesture of independence, when the child
\nbegins to develop its lungs by crying as much as it can, at that moment, very
\noften, this sort of call from life makes the descent easier and more effective.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes days and at times months pass, and the preparation is
\nslow and the entry takes place very gradually, in quite a subtle and almost
\nimperceptible way. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes it comes much later, when the child itself becomes a
\nlittle conscious and feels a very subtle but very real relation with something
\nfrom above, far above, which is like an influence pressing upon it; and then it
\ncan begin to feel the need of being in contact with this something which it
\ndoes not know, does not understand, but which it can only feel; and this
\naspiration draws the psychic and makes it descend into the child. <\/span><\/p>\n

I am giving you here a few fairly <\/span>com<\/span>mon
\ninstances; there are many others; this may happen in innumerable different
\nways. What I have described to you are the most frequent cases I have seen. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, the soul which wants to incarnate stays at times in a domain
\nof the higher mind, quite close to the earth, having chosen its future home; or
\nelse it can descend further, into the vital, and from there have a more direct
\naction; or again it can enter the subtle physical and very closely govern the
\ndevelopment of its future body. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now the other question <\/span>― <\/span>the one about departure.<\/span><\/p>\n

That too depends on the degree of development, the conditions of
\ndeath <\/span>― <\/span>and above all on the unification of the being and its attitude at
\nthe time of leaving the body. The question here was about fully developed
\nbeings, that is, fully developed
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 336<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

psychic
\nbeings<\/span>
\n\u2014 <\/span>and I don’t know if it means a psychic being
\nwhich has profited by its presence in a physical body to do yoga, for then the
\nconditions are quite different. But in a more general way, I have often told
\nyou that, with regard to the external envelope of the being, everything depends
\non its attitude at the moment of death, and that attitude necessarily depends
\non its inner development and its unification.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we take the best instance, of someone who has unified his being
\ncompletely around the divine Presence within him, who is now only one<\/i><\/b>
\nwill, one<\/i><\/b> consciousness, this person will have grouped around his
\ncentral psychic being a fully developed and organised mind, an absolutely
\nsurrendered and collaborating vital and an obedient, docile and supple physical
\nbeing. This physical being, as it is fully developed, will have a subtle body<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>what Sri Aurobindo calls the \u201ctrue physical\u201d<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>which will infinitely sur<\/span>pas<\/span>s the limits
\nof its body and have enough suppleness, plasticity, balance to be able to
\nadhere to the inner parts of the being and follow the movement of the soul in
\nits\u2026 I don’t want to say in its ascent, but in its peregrinations outside the
\nbody. What the soul will do, where it will go<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>it
\nall depends on what it has decided before leaving the body. And this capacity to
\nkeep around itself the being that has been fully organised and unified in its
\nphysical life, will allow it to really choose what it wants to do. And this
\nalso represents a very different field of possibilities, from sing consciously
\nfrom one body into another, directly<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>there are
\ninstances in which one of these fully conscious and fully developed beings has
\nslowly prepared another being capable of receiving and assimilating it, and in
\norder not to stop its material work when it leaves one body, it goes and joins
\nanother psychic being, merges with it, combines with it in another physical
\nbody; that is an extreme case, extremely rare also, but one which forms part of
\nan altogether traditional occult knowledge<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>to the
\ninstance at the other extreme, where the soul having finished its bodily
\nexperience, wants to assimilate it in repose and prepare for another physical
\nexistence later, some<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 337<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

times much
\nlater. And so this is what happens, among many other possibilities: it leaves
\nin each domain<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>in the subtle physical, in the vital, in
\nthe mental domain<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>the corresponding beings; it leaves them
\nwith a sort of link between them, but each one keeps its independent existence,
\nand it itself goes into the zone, the reality, the world of the psychic proper,
\nand enters into a blissful repose for assimilation, until it has assimilated (laughing),<\/i><\/b>
\nas described in this paper, all its good deeds, digested all its good deeds,
\nand is ready to begin a new experience. And then, if its work has been well
\ndone and the parts or sheaths of its being which it has left in their different
\ndomains have acted as they should there, when it descends again, it will put on
\none after another all these parts which lived with it in a former life, and
\nwith this wealth of knowledge and experience it will prepare to enter a new
\nbody\u2026 This may be after hundreds or thousands of years, for in those domains
\nall that is organised is no longer necessarily subject to the deposition which
\nhere we call \u201cdeath\u201d. As soon as a vital being is fully harmonised, it becomes
\nimmortal. What dissolves it and breaks it up are all the disorders within it
\nand all the tendencies towards destruction and deposition; but if it is fully
\nharmonised and organised and, so to say, divinised, it becomes immortal. It is
\nthe same thing for the mind. And even in the subtle physical, beings who are
\nfully developed and have been impregnated with spiritual forces do not
\nnecessarily dissolve after death. They may continue to act or may take a
\nbeneficial rest in certain elements of Nature like water<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>generally it is in some liquid, in water or the sap of trees<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>or it may be, as described here
\n(laughing),<\/i><\/span> in the
\nclouds. But they may also remain active and continue to act on the more
\nmaterial elements of physical Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

I have given you here a certain number of examples; I tell you, I
\ncould talk to you for hours and there would always be new examples to give! But
\nthis covers the subject broadly and opens the door to imagination. <\/span><\/p>\n

There we are. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 338<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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