The Power of the Psychic Being

0:00 We evaluate things by the power they command. It can be physical power, the power of raw nature in the ocean, the wind, the volcano. Or it can be related to our human physical existence as muscular strength, speed trained responses, the power to effectuate physical actions. Or it may be the more subtle but nevertheless real power of the body to resist infections, heal itself from injuries, and deal with extreme situations. It can be vital power, the ability to command attention, direct the activity of others, gather and deploy wealth or sexual vitality, emotional strength, or other vital powers. It may be mental power with the ability to observe, compare, sort, distinguish and then correlate known facts with memory and training in order to make decisions, to carry out a process to direct and guide complex systems. In the Cana Upanishad, the powers of the physical realm, the vital realm, and the mental realm represented by the gods Agni, Vaio, and Indra, each express their specific power of action and their pride in the strength of that power. They each fail, however, when confronted with a greater power they had not suspected in the

1:33 pride of their own strength. In our human lives there is another power, a power that acts at a level beyond the individual powers of the body, life, and mind. It is the power of the soul, and it acts in a much more subtle fashion, which means that most people do not recognize its action. Spiritual seekers often recount stories related to their awakening to this spiritual life. They tell about their plans, their careers, the sudden interventions of circumstances that change their direction. In some cases they speak of near death experiences that transformed their worldview.

2:20 In other cases there are chance meetings, synchronistic events, unexpected results that brought about failures that broke through the shell of their external being and brought them to a place of despair and prayer with almost miraculous results. There is a proverb that says when God closes a door, he opens a window, which sums up one of the ways that a spiritual direction may arise for someone who previously had not acknowledged or recognized the spiritual need that was to change the life path forward. In the book called To Heal, the story of an African shamanic healer is told.

3:09 She tried to follow an externally driven career path, but obstacles kept arising, including serious health issues that dogged her every step. She came from a family of healers but wanted to take a different direction. Eventually she consulted with a healer who told her in no uncertain terms that she was destined to be a healer, and that until she accepted that direction and embraced it, she would continue to suffer. Once she took up the direction intended for her by her soul, life smoothed out in front of her and her health improved. It is difficult to recognize the power of the soul in bringing together these chance events, these synchronicities, these changes in direction, as we prefer to attribute them to some external force or circumstance.

4:07 There was a film made in India about a man who lost his shop to an act of God which meant the insurance company would not pay for the damages. He decided to sue God for his damages as everyone attributed the loss to an act of God and he decided if God was responsible, God should pay. He was not a believer, but he decided that the heads of churches, monasteries and spiritual denominations acted as agents for God, collected money in His name and therefore he sued them as the local agents. Along the way, he found things were more difficult than he anticipated and without knowing it, he was guided by Sri Krishna, who placed the Bhagwad Gita in his hands to give him strength and understanding.

4:59 The film was written as a comedy, but it highlighted the question of the soul's guidance in the life's events. A disciple asks, has the psychic any power? The mother answers quote power. It is usually the psychic which guides the being. One knows nothing about it because 1 is not conscious of it, but usually it is that which guides the being. If one is very attentive, one becomes aware of it. But the majority of men haven't the least idea of it. For instance, when they have decided in their outer ignorance to do something, and instead of their being able to do it all the circumstances are so organized that they do something else.

5:51 They start shouting, storming, flying into a Rage Against fate, saying that depends on what they believe, their beliefs that nature is wicked, or their destiny baleful, or God unjust, or no matter what. It depends on what they believe, whilst most of the time it is just the very circumstance which was most favorable for their inner development. And naturally, if you ask the psychic to help you to fashion a pleasant life for yourself, to earn money, have children who will be the pride of the family, etcetera, well, the psychic will not help you. But it will create for you all the circumstances necessary to awaken something in you, so that the need of union with the Divine may be borne in your consciousness. At times you have made fine plans, and if they had succeeded you would have been more and more encrusted in your outer ignorance, your stupid little ambition and your aimless activity, whilst if you receive a good shock and the post you coveted is denied to you, the plan you made is shattered and you find yourself completely thwarted. Then sometimes this opposition opens to you a door on something truer and deeper.

7:16 And when you are a little awake and look back, if you were in the least sincere, you say, ah, it wasn't I who was right, it was nature or the divine grace or my psychic being who did it. It is the psychic being which organized that. End Quote Reference Sri Orobindo and the Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution. Section 2. Role, function and Action of the Psychic. Pages 58 to 59.