Thread by @Auro_Mere

211.1)"(The talk is based upon #SriAurobindo's Bases of Yoga, Ch.5)

(—Illness marks some imperfection or weakness or else opening to adverse touches in physical nature & is often connected also with some obscurity or disharmony in the lower vital or physical mind or elsewhere—)"

211.2)"(Question—Sweet Mother, how can we make the body immune to every attack?)
Well, #SriAurobindo has written it later, hasn’t he?.."

211.3)"(—The absolute immunity can only come with the supramental change.
For below the supramental it is the result of an action of a Force among many forces and can be disturbed by a disruption of the equilibrium established..
In the supramental it is a law of the nature—)"

211.4)"(Q—Sweet Mother, is the subconscient stronger than the mind, vital and physical?)
What do you mean by stronger?..
It has a greater power. Well, just because it is subconscient it is everywhere, everything seems steeped in the subconscient.."

211.5)"..“Subconscient” means half conscious: not conscious & not unconscious. It's just b/w the two; half-way; so things slide down into it, one doesn’t know that they are there, & from there they act;
& it's b/c one doesn’t know that they are there that they can remain there.."

211.6)"..There are many things which one doesn’t wish to keep & drives out from the active consc,, but they go down there, hide there, & b/c it is subconscious one doesn’t notice them;
but they haven’t gone out completely, & when there's a chance to come up again, they come up.."

211.7)"E.g. there are bad habits of the body.. it's in the habit of upsetting its balance—the functioning becomes defective...
You manage by concentrating the Force & applying it on this defect, to make it disappear but it doesn’t disappear completely, it enters the subconscient"

211.8)"..And then, when you stop paying attention properly & preventing it from showing itself, it rises up..
You thought for months perhaps or even for years, that you were completely rid of a certain kind of illness.. & suddenly one day it returns as though it had never gone.."

211.9)"..And the method is to change the subconscient into the conscient—if each thing that rises to the surface becomes conscious, at that moment it must be changed.."

211.10)"..There is a more direct method still: it is to enter the subconscient in one’s full consciousness and work there, but this is difficult.
Yet so long as this is not done, all the progress one has made—I mean physically, in one’s body—can always be undone.."

211.11)"(Q—Sweet Mother, when one sees an illness coming, how can one stop it?)
Ah! First of all, you must not want it and nothing in the body must want it. You must have a very strong will not to be ill. This is the first condition.."

211.12)"..The second condition is to call the light, a light of equilibrium, a light of peace, quietude and balance, and to push it into all the cells of the body, enjoining them not to be afraid, because that again is another condition.."

211.13)"..First, not to want to be ill, and then not to be afraid of illness.
You must neither attract it nor tremble.
You must not want illness at all.
But you must not because of fear not want it; you must have a calm certitude and a complete trust in the power of the Grace..."

211.14)"..& then think of something else, not be concerned about this any longer.
When you do these things..(refusing the illness & forgetting it exists)..you may even be in contact with people having contagious diseases, & you do not catch them.
But you must know how to do this"

211.15)"..Many people say, “Oh, yes, here I am not afraid.”
They don’t have any fear in the mind, their mind is not afraid, it is strong, it is not afraid;
but the body trembles, and one doesn’t know it, because it is in the cells of the body that the trembling goes on.."

211.16)"..The body trembles with a terrible anxiety and this is what attracts the illness.
It is there that you must put the force and the quietude of a perfect peace and an absolute trust in the Grace.."

211.17)"..And then, sometimes you are obliged to drive away with a similar force in your thought all suggestions that after all, the physical world is full of illnesses, and these are contagious, and because one was in contact with somebody who is ill, one is sure to catch it.."

211.18)"..There are all kinds of stupidities of which the air is full.
These are collective suggestions which are passed on from one person to another by everybody.
And if by chance there are two or three doctors, then it becomes terrible. (Laughter).."

211.19)"(—Attacks of illness are attacks of the lower nature or of adverse forces taking advantage of some weakness, opening or response in the nature,— like all other things that come and have got to be thrown away, they come from outside—)"

211.20)"(Q—When #SriAurobindo says that illness comes from outside, what exactly is it that comes?)
It's a kind of vibration made up of a mental suggestion, a vital force of disorder & certain physical elements which are materialisation of the mental suggestion & vital vibration"

211.21)"..It may be accompanied by a sensation, may be accompanied by a taste, also by a smell, if one has very developed subtle senses.
There are these formations of illness which give a special taste to the air, a special smell or a slight special sensation.."

211.22)"..People have many senses which are asleep. They are terribly tamasic.
If all the senses they possess were awake, there are many things they would perceive, which can just pass by without anyone suspecting anything.."

211.23)"..For example, many people have a certain kind of influenza at the moment. It is very wide-spread.
Well, when it comes close, it has a special taste, a special smell, and it brings you a certain contact (naturally not like a blow), something a little more subtle.."

211.24)"..Besides, there is always a way of isolating oneself by an atmosphere of protection, if one knows how to have an extremely quiet vibration.. it makes almost a kind of wall around you.
But all the time one is vibrating in response to vibrations which come from outside.."

211.25)"..You are never in an absolutely quiet atmosphere which emanates from you, that is, which comes from inside outward (not something which comes from outside within), something which is like an envelope around you, very quiet, like this.."

211.26)"..If you could see the dance of vibrations which is there around you all the time, you would understand..
For example, when you play, it is like this (gesture), & then it is like the vibrations of a point, it goes on increasing until suddenly, crash!… an accident.."

211.27)"..And it's a collective atmosphere like that.. it produces a kind of smoke around you.. & then it takes on a vibration like that, like that, more & more, more & more until suddenly the equilibrium is broken: someone breaks his leg, falls, is hit on mouth by a ball, etc."

211.28)"..And one can foretell beforehand that this is going to happen when it is like that. But nobody is aware of it...
It is only when you have this conscious extremely calm atmosphere, and as I say, when it comes from within ..that you can go with impunity into life.."

211.29)"..Otherwise if there is something bad to be caught, for example, anger, fear, an illness, some uneasiness, you are sure to catch it.
As soon as it starts doing this (gesture), it is as though you called all similar vibrations to come and get hold of you..."

211.30)"..What is to be wondered at is the unconsciousness with which men go through life;
there’s not one in a million who knows how to live, & they live like that somehow or other, limping along, managing, not managing; & all that for them, bah! What is it? Things that happen."

211.31)"..They don’t know how to live. All the same one should learn how to live.
That’s the first thing one ought to teach children: to learn how to live. I have tried but I don’t know if I have succeeded very much.
I have told you all these things very often, I think.."

211.32)"(—There is a difference b/w Yogic Force on mental & inferior planes & the Supramental Nature.
What is acquired & held by the Yoga-Force in mind-&-body consciousness is in the supramental inherent & exists not by achievement but by nature — it's self-existent & absolute—)"

211.33)"(X—Sweet Mother, I did not understand the last part)
In the outer consciousness, mental and physical—corporal—in order to get a result like the one we were speaking about just now.. you must have the yogic force, that is, the force given by the practice of yoga.."

211.34)"..Whereas if your body were supramentalised.. there would be no need of the intervention of any yogic knowledge or any yogic force to protect you, because you would be quite naturally protected by the very fact of this supramental nature.
That’s what #SriAurobindo says.."

211.35)"..But the supramental nature in the body is something yet to be realised. In physical consciousness it is possible but in the body, not yet.
Besides, #SriAurobindo has told us that it'd take 300 years, so we have time to wait.
We must only learn to wait, to last it out.."

211.36)"(Q—Sweet Mother, how can one transform pain into forms of pleasure?)
Ah! But that’s not something to be done, my children. I shall certainly not give you the method! It is a perversion.."

211.37)"..The first thing & the most indispensable is to nullify the pain by cutting the connection.
You see, one becomes conscious of the pain because it is there.
E.g., you have cut your finger, there’s a nerve that's affected, and so the nerve quickly goes to tell the brain.."

211.38)"..That is what gives you the pain to awaken your attention, to tell you: “You know, there’s something wrong.”
Then the thought immediately feels anxious: “What's wrong? Oh! How it hurts”, etc.,etc.—then returns to the finger & tries to arrange what is not yet destroyed.."

211.39)"..Usually one puts a small bandage.
But to not to have the pain.. you must simply cut the connection by thought, saying to the nerve, “Now remain quiet, you have done your work, you have warned me, you don’t need to say anything any longer; ploff! I am stopping you”.."

211.40)"..I knew someone who had…an ingrowing nail..
Well, I knew a boy who started pressing his nail, like this (gesture), with the idea that pain is simply an incapacity to bear certain intensities of vibrations, you see; so he went beyond the measure..."

211.41)"..And it hurt abominably at 1st, he pressed until his hurt was changed into a kind of pleasure..
If you have pain, & you give yourself still more.. then finally there’s a moment when you either faint away.. or else it changes into pleasure; but this isn't recommendable.."

211.42)"..The boy had never heard of yoga but he had found it out all by himself. But this is not recommendable because his toe became worse..
But my own method of saying to the nerve, “Now you have done your job, keep quiet..”, is much better.
One cuts it and then it’s over..."

211.43)"..When one has a very bad toothache.. the best way—in fact there’s no other—the best way is to.. cut the connection..
Naturally you must think of something else. If afterwards you start saying, “Do I still have the pain?…” (Laughter).."

211.44)"(—It's possible even to turn the pains of illness like any other pain into a form of pleasure; for pain & pleasure are both of them degradations of an original Ananda & can be reduced into the terms of each other or else sublimated into the original principle of Ananda—)"

211.45)"(Y—Mother, here #SriAurobindo has said that pain is a degradation of an original Ananda…)
Yes, but everything, everything is a degradation. He has said, pleasure also. Pleasure and pain are equally a degradation of Ananda.."

211.46)"..Besides, the capacity for balance of the human physical consciousness is very small.
If you have a pleasure which you push a little too far, whatever it may be, it immediately becomes a pain—whatever it may be.."

211.47)"..And there is always a place where one no longer knows whether it is a pleasure or a pain, it can as well be this or that.
But wait a bit, eat something that’s too sweet and you will see the effect.
At first it’s very good, then suddenly it becomes something…unbearable"

211.48)"(Z—Mother, there are periods when there is a collective illness in the Ashram…)
Yes, not only in the Ashram.
Unfortunately, first it comes in the town and then someone very kindly… people who spend their time frequenting the town, you see, bring it along here.."

211.49)"..And then here people are like Panurge’s sheep, when there’s one who has caught it, it is considered smart, it is an elegance, everybody catches it.

(Z—I wanted to ask why it is…)
Why? There! I have answered you.
Spirit of imitation! Panurge’s sheep!.."

211.50)"..Do you know about Panurge’s sheep? You don’t? Oh! It is… I think the 1st story…
I don’t know if he took it from old traditions, but still… you have heard of Rabelais? Yes? Well, it was told in France by Rabelais in a book… Perhaps Nolini knows!

(Nolini—Pantagruel)"

211.51)"..Rabelais tells the story of a flock of sheep which were transported on a boat & then…
For some reason or other one of them falls from the boat into the sea, & all the rest follow one after another (Laughter).
B/c one has gone over, all rush headlong into the water.."

211.52)"..So it has become famous. They are called Panurge’s sheep.

But there is only one way, it is to do as I said, it is the individual atmosphere, calm, luminous, quiet… Then one no longer becomes the sheep of Panurge.

There we are, my children. That’s all?"
(End)