On
26th January 2001, Gujarat, in Western India, was rocked by a devastating
earthquake. More than 50,000 people, perhaps even 1,00,000, were
killed. Many many more were disabled, rendered homeless. Entire
towns and villages were reduced to rubble. The television brought
stark pictures of this huge tragedy, of the immense-loss, sorrow
and suffering to viewers all over the world. Many of the images
were heart-rending in their poignancy. Immediately there was a spontaneous
response from all sides, from individuals, associations and national
govts., and relief, help and succour in all forms poured into Gujarat.
But
in the minds of many sensitive persons, as it happens after any
major calamity, many disturbing questions have arisen once again.
This
month we will take up some of these questions and try to provide
some answers through the revealing insights and words of Sri Aurobindo
and the Mother.
The
first question which often arises is:
Are these catastrophes the result of the play of blind forces
or does Nature do this on purpose? Is it a punishment from Nature
or a retribution on men for some past Karma?
The
Mother in one of her talks says that it is not at all so:
"When there
is an earthquake, for instance, or a volcano erupts, if there
are men staying nearby and these events cause their death, obviously
it is for these men a catastrophe, but we could very well imagine
that for Nature it is not so! We say, "What a terrible wind!"
naturally, for men it is "terrible", but not for Nature. It is
a question of proportion, isn't it?... It can be understood quite
easily that it is the play of Nature with tremendous forces and
that for her it is only a diversion; in any case, nothing catastrophic.
For the consciousness of Nature or the material consciousness,
physical forms and humanity upon earth are like ants. You yourself,
when you walk, you do not find it necessary to move out of the
way to avoid crushing the ants! unless you are a stubborn "non-violent"
person. You walk, and if you crush a few hundred ants, it can't
be helped! Well, it is the same with Nature. She goes on, and
if in the course of her march she destroys a few thousand men,
it is not of much importance for her, she can make again a few
millions!
And Sri Aurobindo in one of his letters says that it is wrong to
attribute notions of morality to Nature. He writes:
"Take the
popular account of reincarnation and Karma - it is based on the
mere mental assumption that the workings of Nature ought to be
moral and proceed according to an exact morality of equal justice
- a scrupulous, even mathematical law of reward and punishment
or, at any rate, of results according to a human idea of right
correspondences. But Nature is non-moral - she uses forces and
processes moral, immoral and amoral pell-mell for working out
her business. Nature in her outward aspect seems to care for nothing
except to get things done - or else to make conditions for an
ingenious variety of the play of life."
We
may feel that Nature does not punish, but perhaps it is God working
through Nature who does so. So the second question which often arises
is:
Are
these catastrophes a punishment by God for the sins of men and for
their past actions?
When
the Mother was asked, she replied through an interesting anecdote
from her personal experience, pointing out the limitations and foolishness
of such notions about God. She said,
"This reminds
me of what happened in Paris when I was seventeen or eighteen.
There was a "charity bazaar". This charity bazaar was a place
where men from all over the world came to buy and sell all kinds
of things, and the proceeds of the sale went to works of charity
(it was meant more for amusement than for doing good, but still,
charitable works profited by it). All the elegance, all the refinement
of high society was gathered there. Now, the bazaar was very beautiful
but not solidly built, because it was to last only for three or
four days. The roof was of painted tarpaulin which had been suspended.
Everything was lighted by electricity; the work was more or less
decently done, but naturally with the idea that it was only for
a few days. There was a short-circuit, everything began to blaze
up; the roof caught fire and suddenly collapsed upon the people.
As I said, all the élite of society were there - for them, from
the human point of view, it was a frightful catastrophe. There
were people near the entrance who tried to escape; others, all
ablaze, also tried to reach the door and run away. It was a veritable
scuffle! All these elegant, refined people, who usually were so
well-mannered, began to fight like street rowdies...
Now, a Dominican
priest, a well-known orator, was asked to give a speech over the
tombs of the unfortunate who had perished in the fire. He said
something to this effect: "It serves you right. You did not live
according to the law of God and He has punished you by burning
you."
And every
time there was a disaster this story was repeated. Naturally many
people protested and said, "Here's a God whom we won't have!"
But these ideas are quite typical of ordinary humanity.
"Sinning"
humanity is altogether a Christian idea, which falsified our idea
of the Divine - a Divine who punishes poor people because it is
their misfortune to be born "sinners" would not be very generous!..."
*
"Accidents
are due to many things; in fact they are the result of a conflict
of the forces in Nature, a conflict between the forces of growth
and progress and the forces of destruction. When there is an accident,
an accident that has lasting results, it is always the result
of a more or less partial victory of the adverse forces, that
is, of the forces of disintegration, disorganisation.
There are
teachings which take Karma in an altogether superficial and human
sense and tell you: "Oh! you have met with this accident because
in a former life you did something bad, so that comes back upon
you in the form of an accident." This is not true, not at all
true. This is but human justice, it is neither the justice of
Nature nor the justice of the Divine."
But the question persists.
Why do so many innocent and good people have to suffer and die?
How can God or Nature permit this?
This
is not a simple question. It raises some of the most important and
difficult issues which various philosophies and religions have tried
to answer in their own way. It is not possible to take up this question
here in depth. We will merely quote a brief excerpt from a letter
of Sri Aurobindo related to this topic, which gives a different
insight, though not a complete answer:
"Nature in
her deeper aspect as a conscious spiritual Power is concerned
with the growth, by experience, the spiritual development of the
souls she has in her charge - and these souls themselves have
a say in the matter. All these good people lament and wonder that
unaccountably they and other good people are visited with such
meaningless sufferings and misfortunes. But are they really visited
with them by an outside Power or by a mechanical Law of Karma?
Is it not possible that the soul itself - not the outward mind,
but the spirit within - has accepted and chosen these things as
part of its development in order to get through the necessary
experience at a rapid rate, to hew through, even at the risk or
the cost of much damage to the outward life and the body? To the
growing soul, to the spirit within us, may not difficulties, obstacles,
attacks be a means of growth, added strength, enlarged experience,
training for spiritual victory? The arrangement of things may
be that and not a mere question of the pounds, shillings and pence
of a distribution of rewards and retributory misfortunes!"
No
doubt there is somewhere the hidden working of a Divine Will and
Power behind every movement in the creation. But what could be the
purpose of the Divine Power behind these destructions?
The
Mother explains that it is not the Divine Power which causes the
destruction. It is rather due to the resistance from man and Nature
to the transforming Power of Kali. She says,
"Behind all
destructions, whether the immense destructions of Nature, earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, etc., or the violent human
destructions, wars, revolutions, revolts, I find the power of
Kali, who is working in the earth-atmosphere to hasten the progress
of transformation.
All that is
not only divine in essence but also divine in realisation is by
its very nature above these destructions and cannot be touched
by them. Thus the extent of the disaster gives the measure of
the imperfection.
The true
way of preventing the repetition of these destructions is to learn
their lesson and make the necessary progress."
But we must realise that the destructive power of Kali which breaks
all resistances is only one aspect of the divine working. Simultaneously
there is the Divine Grace, Love and Compassion which are there to
help, protect and save those who call for the Grace or who are open.
As the Mother says,
"And then,
there is added the vision of the action of Grace, which comes
to moderate the results wherever possible, that is to say, wherever
it is accepted. And this explains why aspiration, faith, complete
trust on the part of the earthly human element, have a harmonising
power, because they allow the Grace to come and set right the
consequences of this blind resistance."
One
final question remains:
What
should be our attitude in the face of such calamities. What can
we do to provide a true and a permanent help? Can we do something
so that these catastrophes do not recur?
The
Mother has given a clear and a categorical answer. Even a few of
us with the right aspiration and sincerity can bring about a major
change. She says,
"Now if there
is awakened somewhere upon earth a receptivity and openness sufficient
to bring down in its purity something of the Divine Consciousness,
this descent and manifestation in matter can change not only the
inner life, but the material conditions also, the physical expression
in man and Nature. This descent does not depend for its possibility
upon the condition of humanity as a whole. If we had to wait for
the mass of humanity to reach a state of harmony, unity and aspiration,
strong enough to bring down the Light and change the material
conditions and the movement of Nature, there would be little hope.
But there is a possibility that an individual or a small group
or limited number may achieve the descent. It is not quantity
or extension that matters. One drop of the Divine Consciousness
entering into the consciousness of the earth could change everything
here."
We do not think
that all the questions are answered. But we do hope that we now
have a slightly deeper understanding of why natural disasters take
place and what should be our attitude when we ourselves face them
or even when they strike others.
