Illness – The Force and Medicines

At present, for constipation I have to take a much stronger dose than before. And yet it is not fully effective. Have you anything to say?

No, except that it is a sign of great tamas in the body.

Are the conditions which allow Mothers Force to act in my body no longer there?

Evidently not. There must be either a steady power of the will to act as the instrument of the Force or a great habit of openness in the body — and these conditions don’t seem to be there.

But even before this inertia came, I never used my will or made a conscious opening to the Force for my illness. And yet Mother’s Force acted like a miracle!

Something was open in the consciousness which acted on the body — probably from the mind or the vital. But since the body-resistance and inertia rose up that indirect method is no longer effective.

Three hours are sufficient for digestion, though not for the full assimilation. That is why three hours after meals is given as the earliest time for taking an enema.

Between 3 and 6 I felt very hungry. But I think that this is not a true bodily appetite.

What is a true bodily appetite then? Hunger is of the body and its appetite. You will never get rid of your weakness and fatigue if you cling to artificial notions of that kind.

It is said that the feeling of hunger is vital — so hunger can be felt even when the belly is full.

Hunger when the belly is full is abnormal, but it is still physical and vital. Greed is vital.

I thought the extra appetite of 3 p.m. might be connected with the emptiness in which the being feels void, so that the vital or physical might interpret it as empty = hungry.

Not at all. It is a physical phenomenon. Inability to eat is a sign of illness and disorganisation in the system — when that is being cured, it is quite usual for the appetite to return with a great and unusual force for a time. In the same way people who have starved themselves out of asceticism and lost the normal power of eating, become for a time great eaters when they stop and recover the normal condition.

This voidness is not a voidness of food or a feature of the physical forces. So there is no reason why it should tend to hunger.

Z had feelings of weakness, lassitude, the body being broken down and incapable in a very violent way. That was cured and with it his constant fits of vital despondency. But the latter were largely due to his not being able to lead a free vital life here.

Perhaps you meant that it was not so much the medicines that cured the depression, lassitude, etc. but your Force. And as Z was not so open to you directly, you had to use R and his medicines as a medium for transferring it. When your Force is transferred through somebody, does not the influence of his lower stuff also get transferred consciously or unconsciously?

Yes, it may be, if his lower stuff is self-assertive.

Wherever there are physical or nervous cases (depending on the body or the physical nerves) it is possible for the physicians to do something by removing these causes. R besides recommends a free vital life to his patients, so that whatever vital despondency, depression, lassitude, inertia is due to the vital’s dissatisfaction at not getting indulgence may disappear.

The medical means have to be used when the mind, vital or body of the sadhaks is not responsive.

We allow the vital to indulge its desires because of bad health. When the body is cured and is fit to resume the sadhana, will not the vital start again with its depression if denied its demands and satisfactions?

It may very well do that.

If the patient is in a state of physical collapse, I suppose he has to be put together again somehow.

Some sadhaks hold the belief that an illness is a cherishable thing, that it comes from the Divine to test our faith: it makes us remember the Divine more often than otherwise!

All that is quite wrong. Illness is a wrong movement of the body and is no more to be cherished than a wrong movement of the mind or vital. Pain and illness have to be borne with calm, detachment and equanimity, but not to be cherished — the sooner one gets rid of them the better.

The peace and quietude are normal and so are my aspirations in spite of the pain in the body.

Probably it is because you put yourself in connection with the Force — or, if you don’t, then it may be because the vital becomes more subdued because of the pain, less rampant.

Occasionally does it not happen that the pain or illness becomes all the more violent because the force is put on it to throw it out?

It may for a time, but if the force is strong, quiet and persistent, it will get the better of the resistance — unless something in the consciousness supports the illness or is open too much to the adverse Forces, for in that case the struggle may be a long one.

Why could I not succeed in opening myself for the cure of the eyes as much as for the sciatica?

Because it is more material perhaps and the material is less receptive than the vital-physical.

You can use the will, but take medicine also.

In the morning I take two slices of bread, at lunch time rice and one slice and in the evening four pieces of bread. I do not take plantains because it is hard to digest them.

Your food is all right. Plantains are helpful towards getting rid of constipation, but on condition you can digest them; if you cannot digest, then of course we cannot ask you to eat them. Have a quiet will always for the constipation to go and at the same time keep yourself open for the Force from above to work.

You must first have it seen whether there actually are [head] lice or not; it is easy to see. Flytox[1] can be used, if there are, provided there are no ulcerations on the scalp — if there are it cannot be used. Flytox however can injure the eyes, so the eyes must be kept closed during the flytoxing.

[1] The brand name of a disinfectant and insecticide.