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A
Path of Protection Across the Vital
Page
2
Is
one snatched up by the vital zone upon leaving the body?
No,
it depends.
It
depends entirely upon the way people die: on the way they
leave their bodies, on what is around them, on the atmosphere
created for them.
If
they call me, then it goes well.
There
have been very, very few cases, a quite minimal number, when
people have called (not very sincerely) and their call hasn't
had much effect. But even these people have a protection.
There was a woman here, an old woman who was not very sincere
(she didn't live here—she only came to visit) and the
last time she visited she fell ill and died. Then I saw that
she was completely dispersed into all her desires, all her
memories, all her attachments... and it had all been scattered
here and there, into all sorts of things (one part of her
was seeking, seeking where to go and what to do); anyway,
it was rather pitiful. Afterwards I was asked, 'How did it
happen? She was calling all the time.' I replied that I had
not heard her call—it must not have been very sincere,
only a formula.
But
it's very rare that people get no response.
Not
long ago M.'s sister died (psychologically, she was in a terrible
state—she had no faith). Well, on that day, just when
I came to know that she was passing away, I remember being
upstairs in the bathroom communicating with Sri Aurobindo,
having a sort of conversation with him (it happens very often),
and I asked him, 'What happens to such people when they die
here at the Ashram?' 'Look,' he replied, and I saw her passing
away; and on her forehead, I saw Sri Aurobindo's symbol in
a SOLID golden light (not very luminous, but very concrete).
There it was. And with the presence of this sign the psychological
state no longer mattered—nothing touched her. And she
departed tranquilly, tranquilly. Then Sri Aurobindo told me,
'All who have lived at the Ashram and who die there have automatically
the same protection, whatever their inner state.'
I
can't say I was surprised, but I admired the mighty power
by which the simple fact of having been here and died here
was sufficient to help you to the utmost in that transition.
But
there are all sorts of cases. Take N.D., for example, a man
who lived his whole life with the idea of serving Sri Aurobindo—he
died clasping my photo to his breast. This was a consecrated
man, very conscious, with an unfailing dedication, and all
the parts of his being well organized around the psychic.The
day he was going to leave his body little M. was meditating
next to the Samadhi when suddenly she had a vision: she saw
all the flowers of the tree next to the Samadhi (those yellow
flowers I have called 'Service') gathering themselves together
to form a big bouquet, and rising, rising straight up. And
in her vision these flowers were linked with the image of
N.D. She ran quickly to their house and—he was dead.
I
only knew about this vision later, but on my side, when he
left, I saw his whole being gathered together, well united,
thoroughly homogenous, in a great aspiration, and rising,
rising without dispersing, without deviating, straight up
to the frontier of what Sri Aurobindo has called 'the higher
hemisphere,' there where Sri Aurobindo in his supramental
action presides over earth. And he melted into that light.
Some
time before his heart attack he said to his children: the
gown is old, it must be thrown away.
(silence)
But
people are so ignorant! They make such a fuss over death,
as if it were the end—this word 'death' is so absurd!
I see it as simply passing from one house into another or
from one room to another; you take one simple step, you cross
the threshold, and there you are on the other side—and
then you come back.
Have
I told you about the experience I had the day I suddenly found
myself in Sri Aurobindo's home in the subtle physical? Well,
it's as if I took a step and entered a far more concrete world
than the physical—more concrete because things contain
more truth. I spent a good while there with Sri Aurobindo
and then, when it was over, I took another step and I found
myself back here... slightly dumbfounded. It took me quite
some time to regain my bearings here, because it was this
world that seemed unreal to me, not the other.
But
it's simply that—you take a step, and you enter another
room. And when you live in your soul there is a continuity,
because the soul remembers, it keeps the whole memory; it
remembers all occurrences, even outer occurrences, all the
outer movements it has been associated with. So it's a continuous,
uninterrupted movement, here and there, from one room to another,
from one house to another, from one life to another.
People
are so ignorant! That's what irritates those who have passed
to the other side—people don't understand, they shoo
them away: 'What does he want? Why does he bother me? He's
DEAD!'
24
June 1961
- The Mother
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