Illness: Its Prevention and Cure

The year 1933

I asked you not to consider what I thought of the matter in order to avoid personal hesitations. My physical condition is as follows: anything other than liquid food makes my stomach suffer. But I shall now forget all about the pain because I have handed it over to you. I think it was lack of faith that prevented me from going to my work. Tomorrow I must anyhow work.

If the pains are strong, you can abstain from work for a day or two till they have subsided. Of course if you feel that you suffer from anything else but liquid food, that settles the question. — You can take liquid food only and if you take the liquid food only then you will not be strong enough to work. But usually the thought takes a big part in determining these things. — The mind has the impression that any solid food will hurt and the body follows — so naturally as a result any solid food does begin to hurt.

The year 1934

I am going through a state in which the illness seems to have stopped all aspiration, all concentration. Is such a state inevitable?

It need not come if one is able to detach oneself from the body and the sense of illness.

By detaching yourself you must make it easier for the Mother’s Force to work on the body — that is the object.

Reject the movement of the vital physical and affirm the principle of health. The vital desires to be ill — throw out the desire.

How has the vital physical become like this? Formerly it did not want the illness.

It was the mind that did not want it; this vital when left to itself often wants illness, it finds it dramatic, thinks it makes it interesting to others, likes to indulge the tamas etc., etc.

It is no use stopping work because of rheumatism (unless it is of the kind that disables one from working), — it only makes things worse.

Does the Mother want me to consult the doctor?

Well, if you consult the doctor he will probably give you salicylate which will cure the pain but tends to spoil the stomach — if you can shake it off by the Force, that is the best.

If you don’t sleep enough the physical system becomes more open to these attacks. If it is kept in good condition, then usually it repels them automatically and one does not notice even that there has been an attack.

What is the Yogic method of getting rid of a pain or illness?

To separate yourself from the thing and call in the Mother’s Force to cure it — or else to use your will force with faith in the power to heal, having the support of the Mother’s Force behind you. If you cannot use either of these methods then you must rely on the action of the medicines.

I think my consciousness is separate from the vital movements, and yet it suffers.

If it is separate it should not suffer from them. Even for the pains, the body may suffer but the consciousness should not feel itself suffering or overpowered.

If my sciatica pains are nervous, surely they can be thrown out by an act of will on my part?

Sciatica is something more than nervous — it affects the movement of the muscles through the nerves. It can be got rid of at once, however, if you can manage to direct the Force on it.

After the evening meditation all the pains vanished. Does this mean that the being allowed the Mother’s working freely?

Yes, certainly — if you always received the Power and let it work, there would soon be no sciatica.

In spite of complete relief yesterday evening, I have got the pain again after last night’s sleep.

You had opened your consciousness, so the pain disappeared. If it came back during the sleep, it must have been because you lost touch and fell back into the ordinary consciousness. That often happens.