Page 43 - NAMAH-Jan-2018
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Namah                                             Notes on counselling





        their own ambitions and pleasures to attend  Spiritual experience reveals that Reality invests
        to the child and which had become a habit  every level of the creation with meaning and
        from which now they find it difficult to be  purpose. “Consciousness is not an unaccountable
        dislodged even though they are now free   freak or a chance growth or a temporary accident
        from the burden of caregiving.           in a material and inconscient universe (1).”

        It is true that we have come a long way in   “Our existence is not a freak of some inconscient
        changing our attitudes towards disability  mechanical Force stumbling into consciousness
        since the ancient times of Rome and Sparta.  nor an inexplicable activity on the surface of
        That in an age of hedonistic pleasure, we  a blank Nothingness or an impassive inactive
        have been able to sustain and develop new   Infinite. There is a significance in our life, it moves
        models of caregiving which are a testimony  towards a spiritual end, it fulfils the drive of an
        to the degree of social maturity achieved in   eternal reality (2).”
        contemporary times. Doubtless to say, the
        values of compassion and love, improved  But this spiritual realisation leaves one question
        standards of healthcare, appropriate legal  unanswered. If Existence has a meaning and
        safeguards and advanced technological support  purpose, if life has an aim and a goal, if
        have all contributed to the enhancement of  evolution follows a progressive curve, if growth
        present-day caregiving norms.            implies a movement from Inconscience to
                                                 Superconscience, then it is difficult to conceive
        There is however a deeper perspective  why we have so much waste in nature.
        which explains the raison-d’être of disability
        and the justification of caregiving as  There is a waste of energy, a waste of
        being preparatory to some larger goal of  resources, a waste of the intellect, a waste
        evolutionary nature. An appreciation of  of life, a waste of time! There is a ‘waste’
        this perspective will enhance the quality  at every level of creation, at every plane of
        of caregiving and counselling for disabled  consciousness, in terrestrial as well as in
        subjects.                                individual life.

        A deeper perspective                     Consider the terrestrial existence. At the physical
                                                 plane, we have the great natural calamities —
        A deeper consciousness perspective of  the earthquakes, volcanoes, famines, tornados
        disability needs an understanding of two  and tsunamis. We also have man-made
        key Aurobindonian concepts: The itinerary  disasters, accidents and mishaps that grow in
        of ‘waste’ and the trajectory of an evolving  proportion with our gadgets and inventions.
        body-consciousness in a transformational  At the vital plane, we have the great wars, the
        paradigm. As we shall see, the first concept  internecine conflicts, the ethnic clashes, and
        leads to the other, giving a meaning to  the mismatch of civilisations. Besides there
        disability and pointing to its relevance in the  is the sub-culture of crime and the parallel
        cosmic scheme.                           kingdoms of the mafia which lead to a huge
                                                 deviation of resources. At the mental plane,
        The itinerary of ‘waste’                 we have the great conflict of ideologies, the

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