There is a material view of life that is much in vogue today. This is so because we have lost that other sight, entrenched in an exclusively material vision and understanding. But slowly mankind is recovering the lost sight and with it new horizons are opening up before us. One such perspective is looking at things and creation and mankind from an Energy perspective or Energy systems, so to say. We receive and throw out many kinds of energies which have an impact upon our life and surroundings. These energies do not vanish after they are released from our mouth as speech or acts and even thoughts and feelings. They hold their course, affect and influence all that is open to them, Eventually these ‘energies’ and their jostling effects come back full circle, multiplying and multiplied, back to haunt or enrich us as the case may be. This is the standard play of Nature in which we are bound.
But there is another play, a yet another form of Energy that descends from Above, from the very Source of all Energies and Forces and Powers and it comes to heal and succor, help and transform us. Some are instinctively open to this Source, others receive it from time to time. There are yet others to whom this Source is made available, so to say, for the special work that is given. The present talk is based on this Energy perspective of the human being.
Words of the Mother
As soon as a patient enters his office, he senses whether he will be able to cure him or not. And if he can cure him, he loses all his energy, he gives everything to the patient.
That doesn’t matter; what he needs is to learn to receive, to universalize his receptivity. That’s just what Sri Aurobindo was saying: that “inwardness.” Not to depend exclusively on outward means, but to lean more on the universal Will (gesture above the head) than on the individual will; that way, you always have an inexhaustible source instead of depending on what you eat, how much rest you get, this and that.
That’s the method exactly: to broaden your receptivity indefinitely and depend on the forces that circulate constantly in the world, so that only the most physical materiality is dependent on food and sleep. Because even what you eat feeds you differently according to your receptivity, your inner attitude; there is a capacity for extracting the Force from things, which can be gained from a broadening of the receptivity.
You understand, to shrink from giving narrows you – you should give generously and receive generously.
(Mother looks at the photo again)
He has quite a considerable vital capacity…. But the true solution lies in the psychic development. Besides, that’s how doctors cure people, much more than through medicines – much more. With some doctors, when the patient comes into contact with them, he feels supported, helped.
(silence)
July 18, 1964
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Human beings don’t know how to keep energy. When something happens – an accident or an illness, for example – and they ask for help, a double or a triple dose of energy is sent. If they happen to be receptive, they receive it. This energy is given for two reasons: to restore order out of the disorder caused by the accident or illness, and to impart a transformative force to repair or change the source of the illness or accident.
But instead of using the energy in this way, they immediately throw it out. They start stirring about, reacting, working, speaking … They feel full of energy and they throw it all out! They can’t keep anything. So naturally, since the energy was not sent to be wasted like that but for an inner use, they feel absolutely flat, run down. And it is universal. They don’t know, they do not know how to make this movement – to turn within, to use the energy (not to keep it, it doesn’t keep), to use it to repair the damage done to the body and to go deeply within to find the reason for this accident or illness, and there to change it by an aspiration, an inner transformation. Instead of that, right away they start speaking, stirring about, reacting, doing this or that!
In fact, the immense majority of human beings feel they are living only when they waste their energy. Otherwise, it does not seem to them to be life.
Not to waste energy means to utilize it towards the ends for which it was given. If energy is given for the transformation, for the sublimation of the being, it must be used for that; if energy is given to restore something that has been disrupted in the body, it must be used for that.
Naturally, if a special work is given to someone along with the energy to do this work, it’s very good as long as it is being used towards the end for which it was given.
But as soon as a man feels energetic, he immediately rushes into action. Or else, those who don’t have the sense of doing something useful start gossiping. And still worse, those who have no control over themselves become intolerant and start arguing! If someone contradicts their will, they feel full of energy and they mistake that for a ‘godlike wrath’!
July 21, 1958
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I’ve noticed that when I do material things – small things – there seems to be a tremendous vital force flowing into the work, and in the end I find myself exhausted through having done nothing at all! How come all that vital energy goes away?
It’s because all the vital force is used to keep the body’s balance in the phase of transformation. That’s what I have called “the change of government,” it’s the phase of transformation. And during that change, well, all the vital force is there just to keep your balance so you don’t topple over. Because it’s difficult.
One must remain very calm and do what is indispensable, nothing more.
In ordinary life, when one doesn’t know, with people who don’t know, there is a tremendous wastage of vital forces, for no reason. Well, we no longer have the right to do that because all that vital force is there, as I said, concentrated to keep the body’s balance.
It’s a very, very widespread state in all those who … not who do the yoga, but for whom the yoga is done. And it’s done … (how can I put it?) almost without their knowledge – all that puts them in a fit state to do it is, first, aspiration, and then, trust. Those are the two things: the faith, the trust that the divine Consciousness is at work, and then the aspiration for transformation. That’s all that’s needed. And the work is done. But that work implies, in fact, not a loss of equilibrium but a change of equilibrium. A change of balance. And in order to go from one equilibrium to the other, well, one must stay very calm.
But the difficulty you are referring to is something I have every minute.
People who don’t know (there are many of them, almost all of them don’t know) feel they are ill. But it’s not an illness: it’s a change of balance, which takes on all kinds of forms depending on each one’s character and nature. So when you don’t pay attention and there is a loss of balance, something happens which results in what doctors call “an illness,” but if I had the time to have fun and ask them questions, they would be forced to tell me that each case is different – each case: there aren’t two identical cases. They say, “Yes, it looks like this or it looks like that or it looks like this.” And it’s nothing but the transition from the old millennial equilibrium to a new equilibrium which isn’t yet established, and in the transition between the two, well … one must be careful, that’s all. And cling very, very firmly to the higher Harmony.
May 22, 1966
