Ned: Okay, in the Aurobindoan mythos, the Asuras are the dark forces, the antidivine forces, part of a fixed principle of creation that is actually necessary to drive our evolution (Jacob Boehme says similar things, of course). In Mother’s Agenda, Mirra talks about her second husband Paul Richard. This is the fellow who was connected to Hitler, if you’ll remember. He was himself a preacher and apparently had occult powers as well, but they came from the Asura (I really have no clue what I am talking about here though). Interestingly, he preached an ascetic spirituality, though according to Mirra he never practiced it himself. In the Agenda, she says he had no control over himself, writing, “Boys, girls — nothing got past him!”
Bob: Heh, she would know!
Ned: Here is the bit I wanted your comment on. This is something Satprem wrote in his commentary on that section: “It is remarkable that throughout Indian tradition Asuras are depicted as great ascetics. They try to wrest Power by dint of asceticism and austerities. But in fact, human beings are incapable of perceiving and seizing true power — true power is transparent.” Can you unpack that last statement for me a bit?
Bob: Yes. “True power is transparent” — because it does not rely on the accumulation of personal strength or power but acts as a a channel for Divine power to flow through. The requirement for this is merely a willingness to be nothing, which is what a real ascetism would produce. But the kind of thing that people think they can get by practices which purport to strengthen the will in an egoic sense seeks to capture power through the accumulation of some kind of psychic energy which by its nature is limited, because it does not flow from the Divine (although in actuality everything, including this false power, flows from the Divine).
Ned: Hmmm, am absorbing all of this. The strengthening of the egoic will — I guess that doesn’t come from the Divine directly but indirectly through the darkness — yet even that contains the seeds of a deeper Truth. It would just take longer that way and involve more suffering. Now, this part — “They try to wrest Power by dint of asceticism and austerities” — why would the dark forces use asceticism as a point of approach?
Bob: Well . . . am thinking this through. My sense is somewhat as follows. Okay, first: for those of us who know the Divine, power is limitless and available and flows like a river of crystal, ever new but for those who think of Power in and of itself for its own sake, it is like everything else in their universe, limited, and therefore must be accumulated by one at the expense of others. So in a personal sense, the use of asceticism and austerities steals from the personal resources of the body and soul so as to accumulate power for whatever purpose they intend.
Ned: Fascinating.
Bob: Thought of in this way, the practitioner becomes his own first victim in the search for power.
Ned: I guess this is why it’s all so mixed in the Intermediate Zone — the dark forces and their instruments all have such a mixed consciousness and nature. Mirra said in the Agenda that in spite of everything she had a very deep relationship with the dark forces. They had a spark of the Divine which allowed them to keep existing. I mean Paul Richard was a preacher, and also a vegetarian, by the way.
Bob: But he could not avoid stealing power from those weaker than him. That was where he showed his weakness . . . this kind of power is actually parasitical.
Ned: Yeah, that is the key. Whereas the true sage actually constantly gives out power to those weaker than him/herself — because he/she has access to the Infinite. So surrendering to the sage’s presence is empowering in a very real sense.
Bob: Absolutely.
Bob: Heh, she would know!
Ned: Here is the bit I wanted your comment on. This is something Satprem wrote in his commentary on that section: “It is remarkable that throughout Indian tradition Asuras are depicted as great ascetics. They try to wrest Power by dint of asceticism and austerities. But in fact, human beings are incapable of perceiving and seizing true power — true power is transparent.” Can you unpack that last statement for me a bit?
Bob: Yes. “True power is transparent” — because it does not rely on the accumulation of personal strength or power but acts as a a channel for Divine power to flow through. The requirement for this is merely a willingness to be nothing, which is what a real ascetism would produce. But the kind of thing that people think they can get by practices which purport to strengthen the will in an egoic sense seeks to capture power through the accumulation of some kind of psychic energy which by its nature is limited, because it does not flow from the Divine (although in actuality everything, including this false power, flows from the Divine).
Ned: Hmmm, am absorbing all of this. The strengthening of the egoic will — I guess that doesn’t come from the Divine directly but indirectly through the darkness — yet even that contains the seeds of a deeper Truth. It would just take longer that way and involve more suffering. Now, this part — “They try to wrest Power by dint of asceticism and austerities” — why would the dark forces use asceticism as a point of approach?
Bob: Well . . . am thinking this through. My sense is somewhat as follows. Okay, first: for those of us who know the Divine, power is limitless and available and flows like a river of crystal, ever new but for those who think of Power in and of itself for its own sake, it is like everything else in their universe, limited, and therefore must be accumulated by one at the expense of others. So in a personal sense, the use of asceticism and austerities steals from the personal resources of the body and soul so as to accumulate power for whatever purpose they intend.
Ned: Fascinating.
Bob: Thought of in this way, the practitioner becomes his own first victim in the search for power.
Ned: I guess this is why it’s all so mixed in the Intermediate Zone — the dark forces and their instruments all have such a mixed consciousness and nature. Mirra said in the Agenda that in spite of everything she had a very deep relationship with the dark forces. They had a spark of the Divine which allowed them to keep existing. I mean Paul Richard was a preacher, and also a vegetarian, by the way.
Bob: But he could not avoid stealing power from those weaker than him. That was where he showed his weakness . . . this kind of power is actually parasitical.
Ned: Yeah, that is the key. Whereas the true sage actually constantly gives out power to those weaker than him/herself — because he/she has access to the Infinite. So surrendering to the sage’s presence is empowering in a very real sense.
Bob: Absolutely.
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