(by Karmayogi)
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Sri Aurobindo
wrote ‘The Life Divine’ because He realised the Divine in His Life. One may say
that he did so to occupy his vacant hours in
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Folly that
assumes a relationship where none exists is the basis of superstition. Superstition is the organised emotional
energy that dynamises life, individual or social.
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When you turn on a light switch,
it is not necessary for you to stand there for the bulb to burn. But when you
start a car, you cannot let go of the wheel. In these two instances we know,
but there are several other instances where we do not know and stand by the
switch for a few minutes or for half an hour foolishly. If we foolishly let go
of the wheel after starting the car, we run into trouble. Our own life abounds
in umpteen instances at present. As in the Buckingham Palace where the bench
that was painted green had a policeman for years to prevent people from sitting
on it while the paint was wet, we are now doing things.
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It is worthwhile excavating
all such assumed reasons in our life and holding them up to reason so that we
can create a scale of progress to get rid of them.
Some common opinions that are right by mistake and wrong by assumption --
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The stones in the food become
kidney stones.
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Memory is
intelligence.
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Fluency in
speech is wisdom.
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Fair complexion
is beauty.
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Rich men are
wise.
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Marriage brings
affection automatically.
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Consciousness
is a function of energy.
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A talented public speaker is
an able leader.
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Mind learns
only in school.
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Whatever is in print is a fact.
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Statistical
fact is economic truth.
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Friends will be
faithful.
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Children will
be dutiful.
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Parents love
children and are responsible for them.
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Poverty is simplicity.
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Urban life is civilised
life.
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Men are bold,
women are timid.
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The older the religion the
richer the content.
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Old is gold.
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Kings were
great men and wise too.
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Science is
knowledge.
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Status symbols
give status.
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It requires intelligence to
learn several languages.
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The heart is true to the heart
that it once loved.
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The negative is to be avoided.
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There is a hell and a heaven to
which souls go after death.
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God is a Being in heaven.
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Eating more makes one healthy.
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Our energy comes from our food.
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The body grows old by age.
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Men become wise
by age.
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Meditation is
spiritual.
In an automatic machine, several functions are
direct and others are indirect. In other machines which are not automated,
functions are not related. The simple example of a car’s speed is variously
understood rightly, wrongly and after a fashion.
The speed of the car is determined directly by the driver.
It is directly a function of the efficiency of the engine, the flow of
fuel, the inflation in the types, the smooth
coordination of parts, especially the transmission, the tight fitting of
different parts, their lubrication and several other things.
It is not determined at all by the upholstery, the painting, the horn,
the height of the driver and whether he is a right hand driver or left hand
driver.
The obstruction of traffic on the road directly impinges on its speed
as the velocity of the air which is invisible.
The cost of the car, its newness are thought
to be related with its speed where right facts lead to wrong conclusions.
The arguments in an accident case will bring out all the possible superstitions as well as all the possible variations of human
imagination with respect to the speed of the car.
In one sense, this is a subject fit for serious rational study if one
desires to get at the first principles.
Equally, this can provide fun to those knowledgeable people in hearing
lay opinions.
Where one overlaps another,
a fertile field of creative imagination enters to do full work.
Our problem is neither the car, nor its speed, but the potentials of
the human mind to create superstitions, to make them articles of faith, award
them scientific status, condemn those who differ from it as irrational, to
found a school of thought, to found a religion of it and draw eternal solace from it and style it heaven and all others who
differ from us as inhabitants of hell.
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