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The
Mother Answers on Perfection of the Body - I
Mother,
how can the functioning of the body "attain to a
supreme capacity"?
Precisely
by transformation. This implies a total transformation. Sri
Aurobindo speaks about it later in what follows.
For
the moment, our body is simply a doubtful improvement on the
animal body, for if we have gained from a certain point of
view, we have lost from another. It is certain that from the
point of view of purely physical capacities many animals are
superior to us. Unless by a special culture and transformation
we succeed in really transforming our capacities, it could
be said that from the point of view of strength and muscular
power a tiger or a lion is far superior to us. From the point
of view of agility a monkey is far superior to us; and, for
instance, a bird can travel without needing any exterior mechanism
or plane, which is not yet possible for us... and so on. And
we are bound by the animal necessities of the functioning
of our organs; so long as we depend, for instance, on material
food, on absorbing matter in such a crude form, we shall be
quite inferior animals.
Therefore,
I don't want to anticipate what we are going to read, but
all this purely animal functioning of our body, all this part
which is exactly the same as in animal life—that we depend
for life on the circulation of the blood and to have blood
we need to eat, and so on, and all that this implies—these
are terrible limitations and bondages! As long as material
life depends on that, it is obvious that we won't be able
to divinise our life.
So,
we must assume that animality in the human being should be
replaced by another source of life, and this is quite conceivable—not
only conceivable but partially realisable; and this is obviously
the aim we ought to set before ourselves if we want to transform
matter and make it capable of expressing divine qualities.
In
the very, very old traditions—there was a tradition more
ancient than the Vedic and the Chaldean which must have been
the source of both—in that ancient tradition there is
already mention of a "glorious body'' which would be
plastic enough to be transformed at every moment by the deeper
consciousness: it would express that consciousness, it would
have no fixity of form. It mentioned luminosity: the constituent
matter could become luminous at will. It mentioned a sort
of possibility of weightlessness which would allow the body
to move about in the air only by the action of will-power
and by certain processes of control of the inner energy, and
so on. Much has been said about these things.
I
don't know if there ever were beings on earth who had partially
realised this, but in a very small way there have been partial
instances of one thing or another, examples which go to prove
that it is possible. And following up this idea, one could
go so far as to conceive of the replacement of material organs
and their functioning as it now is, by centres of concentration
of force and energy which would be receptive to the higher
forces and which, by a kind of alchemy, would use them for
the necessities of life and the body. We already speak of
the different "centres'' in the body—this knowledge
is very widespread among people who have practised yoga—but
these centres could be perfected to the point where they replace
the different organs by a direct action of the higher energy
and vibrations on matter. Those who have practised occultism
well enough, in its most integral form, it could be said,
know the process of materialisation of subtle energies and
can put them in contact with physical vibrations. Not only
is it something that can be done, but it is something which
is done. And all that is a science, a science which
must itself be perfected, completed, and which will obviously
be used for the creation and setting in action of new bodies
which will be able to manifest the supramental life in the
material world.
But,
as Sri Aurobindo says, before this can be done, it is good
to utilise all that we have in order to increase and make
more exact the control of physical activities. It is very
obvious that those who practise physical culture scientifically
and with coordination acquire a control over their bodies
that's unimaginable for ordinary people. When the Russian
gymnasts came here, we saw with what ease they did exercises
which for an ordinary man are impossible, and they did them
as if it was the simplest thing in the world; there was not
even the least sign of effort! Well, that mastery is already
a great step towards the transformation of the body. And these
people who, I could say, are materialists by profession, used
no spiritual method in their education; it was solely by material
means and an enlightened use of human will that they had achieved
this result. If they had added to this a spiritual knowledge
and power, they could have achieved an almost miraculous result...
Because of the false ideas prevalent in the world, we don't
usually see the two things together, spiritual mastery and
material mastery, and so one is always incomplete without
the other; but this is exactly what we want to do and what
Sri Aurobindo is going to explain: if the two are combined,
the result can reach a perfection that's unthinkable for the
ordinary human mind, and this is what we want to attempt.
As
he goes on to say—we shall probably read it next time—first
one has to fight against a formidable mass of stupid prejudices
which create an irreconcilable antagonism between material
and spiritual life. And it is something so deep-rooted in
human consciousness that it is very difficult to eradicate
it, even in those who think they have understood Sri Aurobindo's
teaching! And many people said, when for altogether different
reasons I began to hold meditations again, "Ah! At last!
We are returning to spiritual life... "' This was indeed
what prevented me from holding them for a long time. It was
in order not to encourage this stupidity. But for other reasons
it was necessary to do it and so I did. So long as this foolishness
is not uprooted from human consciousness, the supramental
force will always find it considerably difficult not to be
engulfed in the obscurity of a human thought which understands
nothing. That's all. All the same, we shall succeed.
I
chose this book, The Supramental Manifestation,
in order to have the opportunity of putting you into contact
with a truth expressed in an almost combative form, in order
to fight against this old division, this total lack of understanding
of the eternal Truth.
And
perhaps, when we have finished reading it, I shall be able
to tell you why we have started the meditations again—but
certainly not "to return to spiritual life''!
And
it is so deep-rooted. Oh! Even those who outwardly profess
to understand—when they think of the spiritual life,
they immediately think of meditation.
There
we are. Now, we shall have one all the same, but for another
reason!
(Meditation)
17
April 1957
- The Mother
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