Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 2

PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND YOGA

      My friends wonder why I take so little food. But why should I eat much just to satisfy the body's appetite?

      Food is necessary for the maintenance of the body which is the instrument of the sadhana, so it must be taken in sufficient quantity for that. It is not to satisfy the appetite but for this purpose that you must take sufficient food.

      I think you said some time ago that the absence of my appetite was due to the inertia and the resistance of the lower vital. I wonder what sort of connection exists between the appetite and inertia.

      All ill-health is due to some inertia or weakness or to some resistance or wrong movement there, only it has sometimes a more physical and sometimes a more psychological character. Medicines can counteract the physical results.

      Could I have two more spoons of sugar as I get one extra cup of milk!

      Mother does not approve of 12 spoons of sugar as so much is bad for the health. 10 spoons is already a lot. She can give you some Nergine¹ to put in your extra milk in place of sugar. One spoon in each cup (not more than two in a day). Nergine is very strengthening.

      Somebody referring to the Ashram food said, "We cannot eat such vegetables. They are not meant for human souls. The people in charge ought to know that we are not divine souls.

1 A French preparation, something like Bournvita but less tasty.

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We pass our outer life just like worldly men, but the food is not like what they eat. In other Ashrams, people feel a glow of renunciation, owing to sannyasa; therefore they don't mind what they eat."

      Does the human soul eat vegetables? If they don't want to be divine souls why are they here — or if they have no aspiration? Aspiration to the Divine ought surely to give a glow sufficient for not minding about vegetables.

      On the same day my friend N's pain in his toe began to decrease, there entered a similar pain into the corresponding toe of my foot. Is it not rather interesting?

      Yes. but that kind of experience should not be pushed too far.

      At times I watch the Mother's Force lifting my body-consciousness to a higher level. I become unaware of the contents of the body — like the bones, flesh, etc. Then any trace of illness, even of a violent pain, vanishes!

      To be able to do that is very good.

HEAD-COLD

      When there is a cold in the head, the thinking mind becomes passive and impressions and impulses come up from the subconscient, and the mechanical mind goes on.

      What you describe happens very usually during a cold in the head, as ordinarily one depends upon the brain cells for transmission of the mental thought. When the mind is not so dependent on the brain cells, then the obscuration by the cold does not interfere with clear seeing and thinking and one is not thrown back in the mechanical mind.

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      Regarding detachment from the head: it is particularly difficult if not impossible, as the head is the centre of my sadhana.

      You can do it by not identifying yourself with your head or any part of your body.

      The cold has already entered my head! I wonder what made it do so?

      Well, turn it out.

      There is a cough, perhaps as a result of the cold. This cough has brought about a throat-pain, which has become so acute that it is difficult to swallow food. Such physical resistances are hindrances to my rising above. After some effort, once I did break through them and flew upwards. But the pressure of the pain pulled me down quickly.

      These things are largely nervous suggestions to the physical vital which it accepts and materialises. You can never be free from these attacks if you do not learn to disbelieve and resist against these suggestions.

      They must be repelled quite as much as the sex or ego suggestions.

      During the intensity of the pain how to be free from such suggestions?

      It is nothing more than what I told you — the suggestion of the adverse Force and a mechanical habit of response in the outer consciousness during the periods when it is not lifted up and exalted. Even in such intensity it must be able to reject these things.

      The present cold appears to be of an abnormal type. It has

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not only prevented the sadhana, but created a disorder in the body. It has affected my head, stomach, eyes and caused a resistance in the throat, which means the physical mind. I want to get out from this mess immediately and prepare myself for the coming occasion (15th August Darshan).

      Whatever it may be — the power of illness to prevent the sadhana ought not to exist. The Yogic Consciousness and its activities must be there whether there is health or illness.

      The coming of the cold in the head has encouraged my outer consciousness to rise above! For, if it remains calm and concentrated above, the cold gets veiled. It appears again only when the consciousness comes down and is diffused.

      It is the only final cure for the habit of illness, when the whole outer nature becomes part of the consciousness above.

      How is it that in spite of my foresight I could not prevent the cold from getting in?

      Something in the physical admitted it.

      It seems several people caught the same cold suddenly yesterday evening. Was there then any general attack on the physical mind?

      There may have been. Attacks are always going about and sometimes several people become susceptible to them at a time.

      If several people together become sensitive to the same attack of cold at a time, has it anything to do with the inner working?

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      What inner working? Why should the cold have any connection with an inner working. A cold conies from an outer attack.

      Why are all sorts of things coming into me? Can nothing be done?

      If you shake off your sense of helplessness and call down the Force or let it pass, then something can be done.

EYE-STRAIN

      There is a strain in my eyes. Reading has become difficult. What to do?

      For the eyes you can try boric acid lotion; it should at least take away the pain.

      You will have to be careful about your eyes. Reading by night (too much) is unadvisable. There are two suggestions of the Sun-treatment man which I have found to be not without foundation. First, one should blink freely in looking at things or reading and not fix the eyes or stare. Second, palming gives a very useful rest — palming means keeping the hands crossed over the closed eyes (without pressing on the eyes) so as to shut out all light.

      Nirod says there is nothing the matter with your eyes except a little congestion. It must be due probably to too much straining of the eyes, especially reading at night.

      What type of eye-pain is this that it never ceases?

It is overstrain with insufficient relaxation of the gaze in reading and writing etc.

      Two years ago I had a strong strain of the eyes. Medical

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treatment gave no result. So with your consent I left the matter to the Mother to cure it. Those days I did not even have faith except in some vague mental form. I resumed my reading and writing which had been given up earlier. And lo! I was cured. Why do I not have the same result now?

      One gets often a result more easily when the consciousness is in the mental plane than when it is down in the physical.

      Why is there no abating of the external troubles like the sciatica, stomach-upset and eye-strain?

      It is like the rest — part of the general physical resistance and its inertia.

      The eyes' condition is much worse than before. Has this increasing resistance of the body any connection with the psychological state?

      No, except in so far as a state of inertia predisposes the body to non-resistance to physical ailments.

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