Talks with Sri Aurobindo

10 FBBRUARY 1940

NIRODBARAN: If organisms are not the cause of a disease, can you sum up the etiology of a disease?

SRI AUROBINDO(laughing): You have to take into consideration all the factors, from the metaphysical down to the physical.

NIRODBARAN: That's why I said "sum up". What could be the direct cause of a disease? We speak of "lowered resistance", due to which one becomes vulnerable to the attacks of micro-organisms.

SRI AUROBINDO: "Lowered resistance" is a vague general expression.

NIRODBARAN: You have spoken of the nervous aura. If that aura is strong, no disease can come in.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, so long as the nervous aura is not penetrated, one is quite safe from any disease. Those who have strong auras are practically immune, except from some minor ailments. The resistance of the aura depends on its reaction to the impacts of life, the world, the environment, etc.

PURANI: A has never been a strong girl. From her childhood she has suffered from one disease or another. Her nerves are very weak.

SATYENDRA: Among these children T is the strongest.

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he is strong in every way and he has a certain element of a mental common sense. He had tremendous difficulties in England but he overcame them all while M's nervous system is rather weak. Any difficulty knocks him down at once. Though apparently he has a strong and well-built body, his nervous sheath is not strong. Then why he has been attacked by asthma which is more a nervous than a physical disease. It is those people whose nervous system is weak and unstable who get asthma.

NIRODBARAN: But M is said to be more receptive or psychic.

SRI AUROBINDO: Said by whom?

NIRODBARAN: That is the general impression.

SRI AUROBINDO: Your impression?

NIRODBARAN: Not particularly mine.

SATYENDRA: People here have impressions of many things which may not happen to be correct.

CHAMPAKLAL: Very often people form their impressions from the Mother's way of dealing with people. Some say that those who remain near her are more receptive. Because they are more receptive the Mother keeps them with her or sees them often. They are more psychic.

SRI AUROBINDO: There are many psychically advanced sadthaks whom the Mother sees only once or twice a year. Receptivity is a complex phenomenon. One may be receptive in one way, another in another way.

CHAMPAKLAL: Sometimes people hear something said by the Mother about somebody and they build up a story. For example, Y was said to be very receptive and to have had a past relation with the Mother and so was called by the Mother for special pranams, etc.

SRI AUROBINDO: Past relation? Receptivity is a different thing. There is no single reason for which the Mother sees people.

CHAMPAKLAL: Of course, they also say that the Mother may see some people very often because of their special needs or difficulties.

SRI AUROBINDO(smiling): All chat is humbug, because it is deduced by mental reasoning. If it were a question of seeing or feeling it would be a different matter.

EVENING

PURANI: J asks: Is there a universal plane called the universal psychic, like the universal vital or the universal mental? He thinks of the psychic as being only individual.

SRI AUROBINDO: It is a mistake to suppose that the psychic is only individual or consists only of individuality. There is a universal psychic like the rest.

PURANI: Is it there that the soul retires after leaving the body and gathers material for a new birth?

SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.

PURANI: He also asks how the distinction is made in The Life Divine between Being and Non-being. Does the Non-Being come after Overmind—or before it?

SRI AUROBINDO: Why is he particular about the Non-Being? You arrive at the Non-Being by following the negative path. That is to say, when you start from mind, I mean spiritual mind, you come or open yourself to the experience of Nirvana. This Nirvana is the negation of all that the mind can affirm as the Being but it is only a gate of entry into the Absolute. From this Nirvana you can either take up the negative or the affirmative path. By the negative you reach the Non-Being or what the Gita calls anirdeshyam (the Indeterminate). This Non-Being is the Buddhists Nirvana or Chinese Tao. The Buddhists consider it as Shunya, the Void, while to the Taoists this void, contains everything. Again, this Nirvana is not the same as the Brahmanirvana of the Gita.

By following the affirmative path you arrive at the Supermind and pass through it to the Sachchidananda. In my own case, I passed to the supermind from a Nirvana which was not of the Buddhist type but a state of mere being with the most indispensable positive element. The Goraknath people also follow this affirmative way.

From the point of view of realisation, there are three aspects of Brahmana—Atman or self, Purusha or Soul, Ishwara or God. The Adwaitins negate both Purusha and Ishwara and arrive at the unity of the Atman and Brahman. The Buddhists negate all the three aspects and arrive at Non-Being.