Sri Aurobindo : conversations
THEME/S
4th January, 1939
Disciple : X's expression showed the usual gesture which to the company present indicated the coming of a question.
Disciple : What is the effect of fasting on yoga?
Sri Aurobindo : On what?
Disciple : The effect of fasting on yoga.
Sri Aurobindo : Oh, on yoga? It gives a sort of excitement or an impetus to the vital being but the general effect does not seem to be sound or healthy.
I fasted twice : once in Alipore jail for ten days and another time in Pondicherry for twenty-three days. At Alipore I was in full yogic activities and I was not taking my food, and was throwing it away in the bucket. Of course, the Superintendent did not know it, only two warders knew about it and they informed others saying : "The gentleman must be ill; he will not live long". Though my physial strength was diminishing I was able to raise a pail of water above my head which I could not do ordinarily.
At Pondicherry while fasting I was in full mental and vital vigour. I was even walking eight hours a day and not feeling tired at all, and when I broke the fast I did not begin slowly but with the usual normal food.
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Disciple : How is it possible to have such energy without food?
Sri Aurobindo : One draws the energy from the vital plane instead of depending upon physical substance. Once in Calcutta I lived for a long time on rice and banana. It is a very good food.
Disciple : The trouble is that one can't draw conclusion from your case.
Sri Aurobindo : At best one can draw the conclusion that it can be done. Once R. C. Dutt called me to dinner and was surprised to find that I was taking only vegetarian diet; while he said he could not live without meat. With the vegetarian diet I was feeling light and pure. It is only a belief that one can't do without meat; it is a question of habit.
Disciple : Can fasting be a cure for diseases also?
Sri Aurobindo : Yes, if you know the process. The Europeans sometimes fast for that purpose but in their case it is the mental idea that works. You start with the idea of being well or ill, and it happens accordingly.
Disciple : Can neurasthenia be thrown off like that?
Sri Aurobindo : In the case of neurasthenic and hysteric persons the nervous envelope is damaged.
Disciple : Then it is the question of the nervous sheath.
Sri Aurobindo : All the diseases come from outside. The force of the disease pierces, what the Mother calls, "the nervous envelope" and then enters the physical body. If one is conscious of the nervous envelope, – the subtle
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nervous sheath, then the disease can be thrown away before it enters the physical body, as one throws away the thoughts before they enter the mind.
Disciple : "X" told us once that she used to have the headache which was just above the head and it was very severe. We laughed at it because we could not believe that head-ache could be above the head.
Sri Aurobindo : How do you know there can't be such a head-ache? If the consciousness can be lifted above the head and remain there why not the head-ache?
The body is a mere mass of responsive vibrations; everything comes from outside and finds a response in the body.
Disciple : If everything comes from outside then what are we? What belongs to us?
Sri Aurobindo : In one sense nothing belongs to you. The Physical is made up, one can say, of various predispositions, energies of the past, and what you have acquired in this life. These are there ready to act under favourable conditions, under the pressure of nature. It is Universal Nature that gives the sense of "I" or "I am doing everything". This "I" and 'mine' have no meaning except in another sense.
Disciple : The other day I could not understand what you said about fundamental personality. What is the truth behind personality?
Sri Aurobindo : There are two things : Personality and the Person, which are not the same. The true person is the eternal Divine Purusha assuming many personalities and
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it is thrown in Time as the Cosmic and the Individual for a particular purpose, use or work. This true Person is all the time conscious of its identity with the Cosmic. That is why liberation is possible.
Disciple : Is Cosmic liberation static or dynamic?
Sri Aurobindo : It is either, or both. In the static aspect one realizes the pure Self as the Infinite, One, without movement, action or quality.
In the dynamic liberation, it depends upon where and how you experience the unity. If it is in the mind you feel your mind as one with the Cosmic Mind; in that case your own mind does not exist. If you feel the unity in the vital, then your vital being becomes a part of the cosmic vital, one with cosmic life. You can experience the Unity on the physical plane; then you feel your body as a speck of Universal Matter. Or, the identity can be above the Mind, by breaking open the lid that divides the Mind from the Infinite. Just as there is a wall that separates the psychic being from the outer nature, so also there is a wall above the head. You break the wall or, what is called the lid, and you feel yourself as the Infinite, and your individual self in the Infinite. That opening can be either vertical or horizontal. This realization makes dynamic liberation possible, – not merely a liberation of Laya.
Disciple : Is it true that illness comes from Sadhana?
Sri Aurobindo : From Sadhana? Not necessarily.
Disciple : I think he means that illness may come in the course of Sadhana for purification.
Sri Aurobindo : That is a different thing. It can be a circumstance in the sadhana.
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Disciple : When I was a new-comer here and used to have physical trouble, people said it was due to Sadhana and so I used to hide it from you lest you should stop the use of your Force.
Disciple : Some Sufis and Bhaktas, devotees, take illness and other troubles as gifts from the Beloved, – the Divine. So, can one say that everything comes from the Divine?
Sri Aurobindo : They are right in a way. They take everything as coming from the Divine and it is a very good attitude if one can truly take it. Whatever happens is with the sanction of the Supreme. If you neglect the chain of intermediate causes there is a Superior Cause to everything.
Disciple : If a thing happens due to our negligence, can we say that it happened by the Divine's sanction?
Sri Aurobindo : I say, "neglecting the intermediate causes."
Disciple : Would there not be some danger in that attitude? We may shirk our responsibilities and lay it on the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo : I said about the Bhakta – the Devotee, not about everybody. For the Bhakta what happens is the best and he takes it in that light.
For the Yogi who has to conquer these things they will come, otherwise there would be nothing to overcome. It would be no real conquest at all. One can always feel the difficulties as opportunities, and in one sense one can say that whatever happens is for the best. Hostile forces also are recognized as hostile, but from another standpoint they become the Divine power throwing out attacks for the work to be done. Ultimately all powers are from
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the Divine, they assist in the work. They throw up difficulties to test the strength. It is the Divine that has created the opposition and it is the Divine who sends you the defeat so that you may conquer the difficulties hereafter. This is necessary also to counter the ego's sense of responsibility. At one time I experienced the hostile forces as the gods trying to test my strength. You have to act not for success but for the sake of the Divine, though it does not mean that you must not work for success. Arjuna complains to Sri Krishna in the Gita that he speaks in "double words" : saying "do not be eager for the result" but at the same time he said "fight and conquer."
Disciple : There was a letter from our friend "X" in which he has tried to show that the Gita is a book on psychoanalysis and that Sri Krishna was a great psycho-analyst! He psycho-analyzed Arjuna and worked out his complexes. He was very much perturbed at your denunciation of Freud's psycho-analysis in the 'Bases of Yoga.' You have run down the greatest discovery of the modern times.
Sri Aurobindo : Psycho-analysis means that the subconscient is there in man and it influences the consciousness. It means to say that if you suppress anything it goes down into your being and comes up in queer and abnormal forms.
Disciple : What, according to them, is this subconscient?
Sri Aurobindo : They say it is inconscient. Then how does it throw up everything and raise symbols in your consciousness? Modern psychology is only surface deep. Really speaking a new basis is needed for psychology. The only two important requisites for real knowledge of psycholiogy are :
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i. Going inwards, and,
ii. Identification.
Those two are not possible without yoga.
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