April 21, 2000

Force

Mother in Her last years emphasized what She had been speaking of for a long time. She spoke of the abolition of mind and vital and doing yoga in the body. There She began to believe that She was breaking new ground. She often said that she received directly in the body, not through the soul, not even through the psychic. Also she declared that her body had spread all over the world, and that her body received on behalf of everyone’s body. These are entirely new concepts for the world of practicing yogis. What she thus received is Force. What is this phenomenon She is referring to and what is that Force?

Let us think about what we already know. As in the phenomenon Mother speaks of there are two phases of ascent and descent for which life does not always give us striking parallels, let us think aloud about what we know.

A baby starts listening to sounds, seeing objects and persons and the process of learning goes on imperceptibly. This is an unconscious process of learning. The mother and later the family teach the child many things. The teaching continues in the school. The child starts learning on his own, from the media and society. What knowledge comes to man comes from family, society, school, work, etc. Though they all come from various sources, they all enter him through his mind. Prior to the full development of the mind, the child learns through the senses. The learning, we can say, is through sensation and mind and it can be extended in certain cases to the soul. This is an ascending scale of receptivity. There is one more step of Supermind.

Sri Aurobindo revealed to us another grade of receptivity that has existed forever. It is the receptivity of the higher plane awakening in the lower plane, as mind in the body, spirit in the mind, etc. We saw that the newborn babe receives almost through its awakened spirit in the early years until the soul closes.

Man who started receiving from his family, school, society etc. begins to receive outside of them directly. Here he makes a great progress of dispensing with the instruments. As there are outer instruments, there are also inner instruments. The body learns from the mind through the vital. In the ascent, the body directly learns as the primitive man learned. When his vital develops, he receives or his body receives through his vital. Finally, his body receives through his mind, when we say the body is tyrannized by the mind. The body disregards the mind when it is faced with danger and goes all out to save itself. When it does so, it does so magnificently. It is called convulsive strength. People who escape from fire or drowning perform miraculous feats, releasing thirty or a hundred times more energy than their own ordinary energy. This is the original force or strength of body, not dominated by the mind. Still, this is not what we mean by Force.

Examples from life can explain if you concede that the body is initially conditioned by habits, later submits to vital preferences and finally to the understanding of the mind.

The strength of the unconditioned body of the primitive man is enormous, a hundred-fold greater than ours, but it is only the raw physical energy in very great measure.
So also, the native strength of the vital and the mental is unlimited, or at least a hundred-fold greater than we now know of. We call it the fresh energy of the warrior or the thinker.
The vital persuades the body to suspend its own initiatives and accept its own (vital) wishes. By doing so, the body loses its great brute strength but is tamed into energetic action energized by the vital.
When mind enters into the scheme of things, it dominates the vital and body through the vital.
The body and vital become docile instruments of the mind but they lose their original crude strengths.
At times of uncontrollable anger, the vital exhibits its own energy discarding the restraints of the mind. Then man is furious or in a rage.
Body, vital and mind are conditioned from above as well as from below.
The violinist playing soon finds his fingers have learnt and need no directions from his mind. We say the mind in the fingers has learnt, i.e. the subconscious has become conscious.
Above the mind there are four levels of mind. Supermind exists above them.
From body to the Being, each level has its own force and acts in conjunction with others.
The boy who memorizes his lessons uses the physical energy of his mind for a mental process.
He who understands the lesson uses the mental energy and learns a lot more.
One is weak when fear of infection grips him. His body falls ill, catching the infection more out of its vital fear than as a process of infection.
A cancer patient who is told by his benevolent doctor that he has no cancer releases his mental energy of belief and it cures his disease.
When one is greatly interested, the center of life moves from the physical to the vital and some hours pass like a few minutes. The vital energizes the physical and is fully influenced by the fresh energy.
Mother says in reading Savitri one should silence the mind so that the higher influence will be directly received.
There are eight or ten planes, each of which has its own energy called the force of that plane. There is an interplay of these forces as determined by the composition of personality, which determines the result.
Theoretically, any plane is free to release its force or receive the highest FORCE unhindered by that plane or other planes.
By FORCE we mean Mother’s Force that is above the Supermind.
It does act through every plane or in utter disregard of any plane.
A man who has lost his bunch of keys prays and gets the keys in several ways:

How he gets it	Mother’s action
1) He suddenly remembers the place where he left the keys.	Mother acted through his memory in which he has faith.
2) He forgets the keys, goes out and comes back to find them under the table.	Mother has acted through forgetting as memory does not interfere.
3) His brother finds the keys.	Mother acts through the good will of a brother.
4) He suddenly knocks his toes against the keys on the floor.	Mother acts through the heightened tactile sense of the man.
5) Four people pray and one finds the keys.	She acts through the man’s genial social personality.
6) He goes back in his mind to the places he visited and suddenly when his mind goes to his office, the keys come from there.	She lets Her Force act through past consecration.
7) He loves his bunch of keys very much and thinks of it with affection. A child throws the bunch at him.	Mother acts through the response of the bunch of keys to his attention.

As he is surrounded by so many forces, She acts through that person or force or organisation he relies on.
He can decide NOT to rely on any of his faculties or circumstances or persons. His one thought is to rely only on Her and Her Force only. In that case, as he turns, the keys will catch sight of him and they will no longer be lost. If his reception of the Force is more full, no other object of his will ever be lost thereafter.

We can look at several things that happened to us and understand how Mother acted in each case. Her FORCE acts only when other forces are not relied on. What usually happens at moments of great crises is the FORCE pours down, brushes aside other forces and delivers the goods. The highest act the force can do is transformation. Something equally great is to energise a human organ that has been damaged or lost its native vigour. The one organ in the body which cannot be rectified when it goes wrong, is the liver. In the case of a drunkard, we witnessed the phenomenon of a damaged liver functioning again and the man’s digestive capacities being fully restored.

Man prays only under pressure. Therefore, the FORCE acting to create opportunities or to fulfill opportunities is rare. Force invoked on a child’s brain and mind can make him a genius. How many mothers have that patience or the process of knowledge?

The highest known human faculty is GRATITUDE. The gratitude of the body expressing the descending spirit is its last expression. As anything can be done either way, this too can be done selfishly or selflessly. The self-giving of the body that expresses its gratitude through the descending Force is the highest act one is capable of. Sri Aurobindo has said that those who are born great must learn to live alone and cannot expect a friend or a crew or a wife. Should that gratitude be gratefully received by another of the same description, that human hour becomes a divine moment.

Practical Strategy

Decide to withdraw our reliance in doing things with

1) our faculties and learn to insist on getting things done only by Mother.

2) Examine the medium through which we receive the benefit.

3) Shift to receiving the force directly at least in one event.

4) Observe that all acts are accomplished only by the Force and all our faculties and circumstances are only media.

5) Aim at one of two things:

Ø A full day when all acts are done only by Force, OR

Ø Any simple act chosen must be done every time only through the FORCE.

6) As soon as one of them is achieved, try in your chosen field.

7) If achieved, it will fairly last for a long time.

8) If you want the achievement to last forever and grow in consciousness, aim at purity of that act.

The hierarchy of the being is body, vital, mind, and Spirit. Body is the lowest and the Spirit the highest. Today when we want the body to learn a new skill – driving, typing, learning a new language, etc. – we cannot teach the body straight. If we try to teach the body driving a car directly without using the instrumentation of the mind, maybe the body will learn over a long time if we stay in a place where most people drive. We cannot say whether it will be years or months. That way the body must have a chance to do the work DIRECTLY and learn without thinking.

What we now do is go to a driving school. The mind learns first all that the body needs to learn. The learning is transferred to the body by training. As soon as it is fully transferred, the body has learnt driving, perhaps in a few weeks. Suppose our body is NOT related to our mind, we cannot teach the body through the mind. But yoga develops a new phenomenon. There is in the body an emotional center as well as a center of mind. No yoga tries to open these centers, but Purna Yoga does it. Sri Aurobindo was the first to mention it and Mother opened those centers in Herself. Then the body, instead of receiving through the mind, is able to receive directly through the mind center in the body. This reception is infinitely greater.

It is the Force that always accomplishes, but in our case the Force reaches the body through the mind and vital. In the process, the Force first turns into mental force and later vital force and then becomes a physical force. This way, the Force becomes a small force, very small indeed. When the Force reaches the body directly, it remains the full Force. It comes in a flood. Mother put Her hand on a paperweight when the Force came down. Her touch broke the weight.

When the Force comes down,

Ø It is felt through the body as a sensation.

Ø Stench changes into fragrance.

Ø Foul taste is transformed into sweetness.

Ø Enjoyment of the physical is raised through the vital, mental, spiritual, supramental and finally as enjoyment of Mother’s Consciousness.

Ø The Body thrills deep down in its Substance.

Ø To enjoy life like that is to do service to the Divine, to be a chaste soul.

The incoming Force can be tested to know from what level it descends. The problem on hand will be solved if the force from the next higher plane descends, or even a greater force of the same plane is released. It is not necessary that the ultimate Force must come down. Here are two ideas.

1) It is always the ultimate Force that comes down from other planes or any plane.

2) When working from below, i.e. the human effort, is successful, it releases greater force from the same plane. Human effort can never move the forces of the next higher plane. They are the forces of the higher planes in the measure the exercising individual represents the evolution of the society or the individual. The ultimate Force is moved when the human individual is capable of representing the movement of spiritual evolution.

Some examples from various levels where forces from higher planes or from the highest plane can be moved and experimented upon:

1) When one is overcome by sleep during work.

2) The work on hand like arranging the books, produces a vital reaction of dislike.

3) Mind refuses to understand after a few rereadings.

4) Mind that can understand refuses to take interest in reading.

5) Occasions that demand self-restraint evoke a reaction from various planes.

6) Opportunities are seen, but there is a reluctance to avail of them.

7) Warnings are seen. The tendency is to neglect them.

8) Mind or vital enjoys preoccupation or indulges in occupation.

9) We find ourselves fully qualified for the phrase in Savitri that explains man’s desire for eternal rest in the tenebrous womb.

10) The sannyasi’s impulse to shun life and take refuge in the Silence or Nirvana.

Overcoming sleep is physical, disgust is vital, the urge to think is mental. These are daily occasions we meet with. Let us experiment in all these regions. When we have succeeded, we must evaluate the plane from which the force issues. Persistence here will lead us to release the ultimate Force. We can see the source. We can evaluate the result and know.

Once we see the Force is from the ultimate plane, then we have to work for its continued presence and a greater receptivity by us until our plane of action is saturated. In this way, dead organs can be brought back to life. When they are revived, the revival will be in the higher planes or the highest planes that are characterized by

Ø Fragrance

Ø Sweetness

Ø Thrill

Ø Continued inrush of FORCE.

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