Page 13 - NAMAH-Jul-2022

Namah Editorial

considered: mind from our physical habits and emotional
turbulences, “He becomes the master of his
1. The triple vibration of ‘pain-pleasure- own responses to the world’s contacts, no longer
indifference’ is just an obligation of habit. the slave of external touches (9).”
Habits can also be changed or substituted.
This is what Behaviour therapy and Cognitive- 4. Sri Aurobindo points our one basic reason
Behaviour therapy attempt in counselling for eliminating our habitual reaction of pain-
sessions. pleasure-indifference:

2. By training, we can return the opposite “This elimination is possible because pain and
response: “… pleasure where we used to have pleasure themselves are currents, one imperfect,
pain, pain where we used to have pleasure the other perverse, but still currents of the
(7)”. That is how during altered states of delight of existence (10).”
consciousness, one can jump on a bed of thorns,
or walk through fire, or pierce oneself with a As to why this delight of existence became
weapon without having pain or bleeding. perverted and distorted, and how it can
be again rediscovered so that it becomes
It is interesting to note that these neuro- possible, “… to accustom the superficial being
vascular changes during altered states of to return instead of the mechanical reactions
consciousness are speculated to be mediated of pleasure, pain and indifference, that free
through opium-like chemicals in our body, reply of inalienable delight which is the
called endogenous opioids that are the body’s constant experience of the true and vast Bliss-
natural analgesics. It is also now believed that Self within us (11)”; we have to have an idea
these endogenous opioids are: of the depths and heights of consciousness
that are accessible to the deeper ranges of
a. Responsible for the placebo reaction — our being.
the psychological factor that is the real
therapeutic motivator in any treatment. In the end, we have to acknowledge that
b. The analgesia produced by acupuncture pain itself — in its physical as well as in its
and allied therapies. metaphysical perspective — serves a purpose
in existence. Imagine what can happen to a
In other words, the mind itself can relieve diabetic subject who has lost his capacity for
pain in the body by influencing the production experiencing pain — he becomes defenceless
of endogenous opioids. against impending accidents! Sri Aurobindo
writes:
3. The mind represents a plane of consciousness
that is free and flexible in comparison to the “Pain of mind and body is a device of Nature,
rigidity of the body and turbulence of the that is to say, of Force in her works, meant
emotions. The mental being has been devised to subserve a definite transitional end in her
for “flexibility and variation, for change and upward evolution. The world is from the
progress (8).” It is not bound by our usual point of view of the individual a play and
habitual reactions. If man can learn to free the complex shock of multitudinous forces. In

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