EWS #42: On Palmistry
Sept 07, 2019
Topics:
Narad (0:00:02):
Namaste. Good afternoon and welcome to our continuing series, Evenings with Sraddhalu.
The last series, you'll remember that we concluded with astrology. So, I welcome you. Namaste. Could we begin today with palmistry, and then carry on with other healing modes if we can. I have very little connection with palmistry, but Jyoti Priya once did read my palm and she only made one comment, she said, 'Oh, square hands, they are good'. So I don't think that tells us anything about palmistry. <laughs>
Sraddhalu (0:01:36):
Square hands represent practical hands or a practical energy and such people are very good with tools and they execute things.
Narad (0:01:48):
I'm horrible, well my father would cringe if I lift up the hammer. So...
Sraddhalu (0:01:53)
But you work with soil.
[Narad] With soil yes.
[Sraddhalu] And the plants
[Narad] Yes.
[Sraddhalu] That's your, it's not the fine skill of maybe electrical tools but doing things. It's a doer's hand, whereas hands which are more long and tapered tend to be artistic, not action oriented. So it's just an interesting example of how the hand can reveal an aspect of the personality. But the question we could ask is why is that so? And to what extent does it bind you. There's a lot of interesting observations which palmistry gives to you, starting for example the shape of the hands, length of fingers, proportions of fingers and then the lines which is where, it gets more interesting and it seemed in the earlier stages to be almost something arbitrary. If you take a book on palmistry, they'll just say, this means that, that means that, that means that, and all you're doing is mugging up a whole lot of nuances of hands. And when you take an actual hand from someone, it never fits exactly there. So the hand may say, for example, if there's a line here which goes like this, then it means this. But what you find here is another line going that way, and what do you make of it? So in my study with palmistry I was always looking for what's the root principle behind from which you should be able to derive all these lines and their meanings. Is there something at all like that or is it just an arbitrary set of lines which wouldn't make sense. There has to be some underlying rationale or principle or some mechanism by which it expresses whatever it does and then the second question would be to what extent does it express and what does it really express because, again you will see in the palmistry book they'll say this is your headline, this is your heart line, this is your lifeline, and this is your fate line and then they'll describe whatever elements in it. But what does that mean and so and why is it there and not somewhere else and why is it pretty much universally the same? What makes it common among all of us? So my whole exploration was to try to get into the science or the insight behind the forms. Now what we see today though is more recently in the last, let's say 20 years, there has been a lot of research with genetics which has brought out insights and knowledge which confirm elements of palmistry. And I give one example. So there is a relatively recent research that looks at proportions of finger lengths. And what they found was that if while you are still a fetus in the womb, okay that's a very early stage, not after you are born, while you are still a fetus in the womb and your hands, palms, fingers are growing, the levels of certain hormones determine the length of your fingers and in particular proportions of lengths. So the proportion between your middle finger and first finger and proportion between middle finger and ring finger is directly expressive of the level of certain hormones, estrogen or testosterone or other other hormones. And as a result, the length being changed or representing the state of hormones and then the finger lengths or proportions get frozen pretty much after birth, it actually describes or determines your sexual orientation in later life, which you could never see in the earlier years. So the connection is quite fascinating that your behavior, let's say in your teenage or late teenage, where the sexual energies will kick in and interests and attractions will kick in, are actually reflected in the proportions of your fingers, but which are determined in womb by certain balances of hormones. Now when you think about it, the connection is so distant and it seems to be so fixed and the representation in the finger lengths. Now if you look at the literature of palmistry, you will find confirmation of finger lengths representing certain things or proportions representing things. And you would wonder how did the palmists in the past figure out that this connects to hormones. Right? So in fact the way they looked at it was not hormones, they looked at it more as expressions of energy. And if you look at hormones, the physical hormones, and try to understand what they actually express, and look at it from an energetic perspective, your energy body concretizing or crystallizing to become your physical body represents certain energy qualities and streams into hormonal molecules. Let's put it that way. So the balance of hormones is actually a representation in body of balance of certain energy flows.
[Narad] You mentioned sexual orientation. Orientation in what way?
[Sraddhalu] In the sense of whether you are attracted to people of the same sex or different sex and so basically the whole study was trying, was showing how there is a genetic basis or rather hormonal basis to that aspect of the human behavior. But what is interesting is the energy flow representing in hormones fixed itself while still in the womb which is then revealing itself in late age, 20 years down and the palmists or at least the original palmists who tried to organize this knowledge were not looking at hormones, they were not measuring your blood flows and hormonal levels or looking at your growth in the womb, they were looking at energy in the energy body and seeing how it led to certain forms. Now you could ask why finger proportion is related to that and at some point you say well that's how it is. Except that modern genetic knowledge is showing us how clusters of genes which are associated let's say with finger lengths in this case or with proportions of body form also have other functions which relate to balance of hormones and so we see a connection in the genetic base of form and energy or in this case hormones or some other chemicals or some amino acids or a certain tendency for increase of or reduction in iron levels or vitamins or whatever and it's at a genetic level that you see this connection but again you could ask why so and at that point you say well that's how it is. So it seems to be at some level in the very design of the human form at in its energy body which then reflects in the physical body that certain clusters of physical appearances, emotional energies and even mental thought patterns seem to be bound together in the very mechanism in which nature has organized our body.
Narad (0:09:23):
So how much of this is due to the parents?
Sraddhalu (0:09:27):
So some of it would be connected to the heredity because a large part of the genetics comes from there. But as in this case, the finger length proportions is not dependent on the heredity but on the balance of hormones in the bloodstream while the child is in the womb so it would be more connected to the kind of food that the parents that the mother particularly ate which would trigger hormones or within her heredity if certain hormonal balances were increased or reduced or if she was opened to strong emotional experiences which would lead to shifts in hormones for example, all of which impact on the fetus in formation, but leave a lasting result. This is the interesting thing. So we have a hereditary influence, then there is the environmental influence which can impact the heredity. Today there is a lot of knowledge which we speak of as epigenetics which is not so much the genetics which you inherited but whether the genetics is triggered and to what extent and how they are triggered which is determined by environmental influences and not the genetic. So the genetic may bring a proclivity, a tendency but the triggers will be from the environment, which activate or deactivate the tendency. So I'm getting a little bit into this because on the one hand we would assume an inherited tendency will be fixed, but on the other hand we find that fixed tendency is not bound to activate unless there are environmental triggers, which environmental triggers could be emotional, could be mental, could be food related, psychological or even here psychological, so the certain patterns of thoughts or emotions for example, stress is created by problems external, the specific form of problem is not important, the kind of stress it creates now activates or deactivates certain genes, for example diabetes is often triggered by stress, stressful situations and somebody who has a less stressful life will find the diabetes symptoms declining. So the diabetes tendency may be inherited but its activation may depend on circumstances. So my point in going somewhat deep in this is to point out that even though it seems as if there is a fixed element, the activation of the fixed element is still part of our choice, of our life, of our thinking, emotions and patterns of living. So I want to highlight the aspect of freedom and this will reflect very importantly in our discussion on the palm. So coming back to the first example, the proportions of fingers determining a pattern of behavior let's say, could be activated by the stress in the mother, could be activated by a stress in the person or could be entirely dormant and may have never a chance to express itself. So what they found was certain orientations in this case need not be equally activated for all. For some it's more active, for some it's almost non-active and so again you come to the point that the palm indicates a tendency but the tendency itself may be more or less depending on environmental circumstances or even on the choice you make in your thought patterns and emotions which you can choose to change.
Narad (0:13:02):
Would it be reflected in the lines?
Sraddhalu (0:13:05):
The length of fingers being much more frozen that is an example which makes it feel as if it's more rigid. Are the lines frozen? This is the big question. If the lines were frozen then it would appear to be as deeply set and here's the interesting experience we have, the lines can change and sometimes they can change overnight. I want to share an experience with this. So this was during a period I was in my mid teens or late teens and this is a couple that was living in America house and it was a mother and a son I think and they were sent to me for a reason that they used to study palmistry and they were looking at their palm every day and one day one of them had this experience in the evening before sleeping, I think it was the lady, she had this experience of a bright blue light filling her room and she felt it was Sri Aurobindo's presence and next morning she woke up and because they were checking their palm every day, they look at the palm and there is an interlocked triangle, almost resembling Sri Aurobindo's symbol. with the symbol, of course proportions are not quite exact, but two triangles, one pointing up and pointing down interlocked on the palm somewhere here. And so they were looking for someone who could tell them the meaning of it and so someone directed them to me and we had an interesting chat. But the point was, it happened overnight. An entire set of lines just appeared. And equally it can disappear.
Narad (0:15:03):
May I share a story? When Jyoti Priya looked at my palm, she said, your life ends in my late 20s, and then she saw and then she said Mother is continuing it.
Sraddhalu (0:15:20):
Fascinating. Show me your palm. So the form in which it is seen in the palm is that the particular line which is called the life line is relatively short. So it would show something like in what appears now and it may have been different there at that time but I would have estimated it more around 25 but next to it paralleling the lifeline is a second line which parallels closely and then extends all the way down and that line is often described as a line of protection and it represents or suggests a protective influence that is guiding. And so the way I would interpret it, of course now with hindsight, is that your life was going in a particular direction, your material life, that's your lifeline being the physical, we'll speak of it in a short while. Your material life was going in a certain direction and it comes to an abrupt end, but the inner life that kicks in, which has been guiding and that is where the transition you would have experienced around that age.
Narad (0:16:27):
I was 22.
Sraddhalu (0:16:28):
Okay, and what was the transition?
Narad (0:16:36):
I found Mother.
Sraddhalu (0:16:38):
Okay. So one life ended and the true life basically began there and the length of that is much longer but also the length is not so important now because it represents a deeper reality which is free and it is free to choose always. So often what you see in the palm as with astrology, these are more symbolic representations. So the question we could ask, does the line itself change? Yes, they can change and they can change overnight and quite dramatically with an entire symbol pattern appearing or disappearing or even shapes changing or fading out or returning. So during that period when I was playing around with the palm lines, I was pretty much seeing every few days and then it kind of faded out over a few years but I was still looking off and on and I was looking at a certain pattern and my life was going in a transitional period when it could take this form or that form. And to me it didn't matter too much because eventually it would all end up where it was going but it would go this passage or that passage. And every time that circumstances tilted in a particular direction of one form, the life length or the tail end of it began to fade out. And when things turned in the other form, it tended to come back. And it went back and forth several times over a few years and it was interesting to see that and I said okay so it suggests that if my life takes this form there will be either a period of a limited length of life which would kick in or a transition which takes place at that point where it ceases to be what it was, it takes a different form; whereas in that path it would be much more a continuity than a radical change. So this also, it can change, the life lines can change. The lines which used to be, which because at that time I had studied things and I had noted, which have pretty much vanished or they have changed shape that I don't recognize them anymore as they were then. There are people who in the palmistry itself have gone to such detail that they look at fine lines here between the, what would you call them? Phalange? The lines here and there is a method which is I found only in a few rare books with which you count those and then you do a certain calculation which actually gives you a number and a number which can be length of life but down to a number rather than following the length of line and then doing an estimate of what that represents and they come up with numbers which is quite fascinating also. But what I found in practice was none of this was really rigid, a large part of it was leaning towards an intuitive insight which we have discussed in our discussion on astrology and the lines themselves only being suggestions pointing in a direction. So for example, the second line which is not the lifeline here but the mind, they will call it head line, they call it heart line, because that's the vocabulary in the books. If that curves downwards, it tends to indicate, let's say an artistic or intuitive type of mind. Whereas if it goes flat across, then it tends to be a much more physical mind, let's say. That's the vocabulary we would use. And then there are variations you could have in that. And then if there are islands in the lines, they indicate problems. If there are splits, they indicate difficulties of various kinds. If there are lines which go along the length but break out they indicate positive things. If they go against the length they indicate negative things. Now all that was to me very obviously a symbolic representation of a certain flow of a trend. The way I would interpret it today with hindsight of that period and a deeper understanding of the human being. The three lines basically represent the physical life, the vital or emotional life and the mental life and events or unfolding energies which are on those three levels of the three bodies.
And so what you see is a flow of energy with a certain intention and we are going to discuss that another time, which is the impulse of the karmic push or the impulse of an underlying will of events trying to complete themselves and something of that gets represented in these three flows. And then the pattern of the flow, whether it goes this way or that way, very clearly the direction represents or goes towards certain focal points of energy which have a qualitative character. So in palmistry itself these are called mounts, under each finger there are four, five and then a few more here which are associated with the planetary energies. So this will be the mount for the Sun and this is Mercury and over here is Venus and straight away that maps it to what we discussed last time, the framework of the planetary qualities mapping here and then those qualities expressed in your life or less expressed or more expressed. If the mount is more active, that energy is more active, if it's less active, if the mount is sunken, then the energy is less active and the lines seem to flow as if towards or attracted towards these mounts. So this is not how it's taught in palmistry. I'm just trying to explain to you what I have come to as a conclusion of the rationale behind. So when the energy flows, it's attracted to certain mounds or pushed away from certain mounds and that's what you're really seeing in the flow of the lines. For example, this patch under the thumb, well the thumb itself represents the willpower. Now again, if you went back to the fetal studies and hormones, I'm sure you would find, except they have not done it yet, you'll find thumb length, a proportion of the two digits of the thumb, representing a certain quality of energy or a map of certain hormonal tendencies, which indicates the willpower. So let's say a shorter digit versus a longer digit, the top part being shorter in proportion to the lower, would tend to indicate a more forceful will. Or the thickness of the thumb, length of the thumb would similarly indicate quality of the will energy. And well, it's just that. You spread your palms, spread your fingers, and the distance between them would again represent certain proportions or relations between what the fingers represent energetically. So, it goes into quite some detail. But the patch below the thumb is the mount of Venus and Venus astrologically again it maps there is to do much more with relationships, connections, affections or artistic expressions and so on. So this whole patch really maps out your outgoing relationships with people and things and you see the lifeline neatly curves around that. So there are lines which go like horizontally, lines which go vertically and the whole thing is given an interpretation. So for example what they say is deep lines which go vertically from here, they indicate deep friendships which can often have a lasting character. Horizontal lines which are much thinner, finer, represent lots of social connections. So I have seen people in whom you have a large number of social connections and nothing of deep personal relations. And the reverse equally. And there was one person I recall, when I looked at his palm, it was in Europe. It was my first trip out of India and the fellow said, Oh you are an Indian, all Indians can see palms. So it struck me, it hit me actually, he had no friends, he had only social relations. And I pointed out, you have nobody, you trust nobody. He says, yes, I don't care for anyone, I am just there to sell and I sell hot air. He said that was his business and then he gave examples of how he would buy up a house, cruise it up and then get a wealthy person, take him in a Mercedes car, show him up this cruised up house and sell it for 10 times the price. And I said you don't trust anyone, you have no friend. He said, yeah I don't. And his wife at that time, she said not even me. And he was embarrassed but soon after they divorced. So there are interesting patterns like this which are so obviously on the extreme and then there are things which are in between and that's where your interpretation is largely determined by the intuition. So I'm giving this as an example again of how the palm suggests, points to certain directions of behavior, of character. And so now we come to the core of it. You recall in Indian astrology, Sri Aurobindo's observation that the chart is much more representative of the character of a person than of events and circumstances. In the same way, the palm is expressive of the character much more. And to the extent that the character is a bundle of tendencies or habits ingrained in your personality, they influence or even tend to determine your outcome. So in the case of that man who had no friends or whose temperamentally did not trust anybody and his relationship with the world was how to use anyone, that pattern seen in the palm effectively sets a a direction of life in which well he will always be alone in a sense unless he changes his character but he's so happy with his character he's proud of it that well that's the life that he will live and it ends there.
Narad (0:27:03):
You say it sets the character. The palm therefore...
Sraddhalu (0:27:09):
Well, put it the other way. The palm represents the character, okay to the extent that he is set in his character, his life will follow that pattern, but if tomorrow he undergoes a significant shift then the palm would reflect that shift and if the shift takes place gradually well the change will be gradual, if it's overnight then you would see it also overnight. This is the interesting thing. The question is, is he capable of a significant shift? So in his temperament, I'm staying with that example, which is quite radical, quite extreme, it seems very unlikely. It could happen if his life underwent a massive crisis. If the crisis is foreseen is part of the push of the energy of his soul's intention or choice and it's already there set in the rhythm of things, one might even see a possibility of such a crisis and it could take two forms it could take a form where the line comes to an abrupt end or it's like a giant island or some break or something which indicates a radical shift and a transition. But again we couldn't say looking at the palm what would be the nature of that transition or whether the transition would be an end or a beginning of something else because those things are still left in the domain of possibility. We know for example of cases where the inner being chose a certain line of life, the outer nature resisted or was rigid or circumstances in the life were blocking, preventing and the person died. Well, the soul left because it couldn't continue or didn't want to continue in that situation or we also know of cases where it created such a crisis, the push within created such a suffocation and crisis that it broke through the rigidity of the personality. There was a breakdown of some kind which broke through the deeper possibility, but then there's the damage from the breakdown which may or may not be fully healed. And the person broke away from that suffocating situation to find their own life. So such things also could happen. Which one? Well, you can't say from the palm. And if there is a possibility, already the energies are heading towards the crisis, you might see a sign. But again, the outcome you cannot say. So the palm is at best the moment's representation of the surge of energies, tendencies and a reflection of the character which is ingrained in the current pattern and it stops there. To that extent it's extremely accurate.
Narad (0:30:07):
Which hand or both?
Sraddhalu (0:30:11):
That's another big question and we have different traditions. Some traditions they will say the right hand for men, left hand for women. In other traditions they will say right hand which indicates your future, left hand indicating your past, but again I try to understand why, what's behind it and what I came to as a conclusion and I won't say this is actually so, but this is what I understood it to mean, is that the hand which is much more active, which expresses you much more, is the hand where the changes are more expressed also, or it's the active hand which is expressive of the trends currently. The hand which is more passive for you is the hand which retains much more of the past and is less expressive of the future. So in that sense, there is a difference, sometimes a big difference. So again a palmist will say, well this is what was fated for you but this is what will happen maybe or it represents two different tendencies of energy or a big difference would indicate that you are master of your fate or you are changing your, you are overcoming your inherited or ingrained character tendencies which would be a more positive way of looking at it but again the point being you can with a will with an effort change your character, overcome or modify these energetic tendencies and to that extent define or decide the direction of your fate isn't it?
[Narad] How old is palmistry?
Difficult to say because we find indications of this kind of knowledge going back very very far perhaps essentially as old as astrology which in the Vedic tradition goes back all the way so in India, we could say about 10,000 years, astrology as a science and maybe older. But at least we have documentation of 10,000 years but that's about all we can say but the question I will ask is why palm? Why not some other part, let's say the foot? And I will again relate it to this. The hand is the most conscious part of your body. Perhaps second only to your face, isn't it? Think about it.
[Narad] Yes, absolutely.
It has also the largest numbers of nervous, fine nerve endings. Second only to your face or sexual organs perhaps, but that's not really counting. You're not using it, it's not expressing you. So face and palm is your biologically the most sensitive, the most conscious and the most expressive part of you. And obviously the energy of your character expressing itself through the body is pouring out through these, the face and palms. So each time you are reaching out in life to do some work, your face is expressing, your palms are executing. So the energy flowing through these would have the most obvious imprint of your character and personality and action in the world. And so representation there would be the most obviously expressive of this. The feet not so much. First of all, you're not so conscious. Not being conscious, they don't change. You don't express yourself through the feet. The energy flowing through is nominal comparatively. It can be intense when it flows through, but it is not expressive of the nuances of your character. So the suggestion here again would be looking at the face one should be able to also describe your character. Isn't that so? And again we find there is actually such a science. It does go back again very very far in the past, where and it has also, equally like the palm, some elements of it validated by physiological and psychological studies. So looking at the face, just as the palm has broadly a few types, the squarish type, the roundish type, the tapered type and so on, which determine or which indicate certain tendencies of character, in the same way the face can have a more squarish type, more oblong type and or more roundish type which is expressive of your character in some way. You have for example more obviously feminine features, more masculine features which are often seen in the jaw and the shape of the face itself overall and these would directly reflect in the hormonal balance at the fetal stage just as we spoke of the fingers. So a person in whom the balance of hormones is let's say more equitable, the face would represent a face which is not obviously feminine nor obviously masculine exaggeration but something which is more in between and would represent a particular quality of the energy or balance of the energy. So just looking at the face straightaway one recognizes, ah yes, the face is indicative of something, of this balance of the masculine or feminine energies, which would then reflect in a whole pattern of behavior which is associated with the more extreme feminine or the more extreme masculine types or the balance in between. The same with the eyes or the nose or the lips or the ears and recall our discussion in astrology where I gave the example of how in one particular case the eyes were representative of a certain planetary combination so in the chart for example the face is the second house so the combination of planets impacting second house would often be reflected in the form, color or certain tendencies in the face. So for example Mars being strong, the face skin would be more reddish, Mars is more stocky built so the face would be of a certain type and so on. You can actually describe elements of the face from the chart. And so in the same way the character is expressed in the face in a certain way. When the character changes, obviously the face expression also changes. We see this much more dynamically as an expression of your mood. When I am upset, the Mars energy is stronger. The force of that violence makes it more reddish, the face has more character, Mars quality. When I am pensive, thinking deeply, the aspect of the Jupiter energy would be stronger and it would express in a certain way. So the palm is not so expressive in terms of subtle shifts because you can only move your fingers but in the face you have literally I don't know how many thousand muscles we say 2,000 muscles for a smile, right, but the face is full of all these fine muscles and especially the lower half and the eyes. They are so expressive, unlike the palm, they are constantly shifting. And so unlike the palm, you do not see the broad tendency of your character, but you see the moment's state much more in the face. And then of course, if you wait a while and observe the face, you will also see certain broad tendencies. So my conclusion in this whole description is the palm and the face are both really expressing the same thing, the energy of your character. Here more fluidly expressed in the moment, in the palm less fluidly and therefore greater in permanence, and the horoscope even less fluid because that's almost mathematically fixed. But then which is most useful? What is mathematically fixed at an early stage which may have been overridden by your conscious effort or that which is the moment's expression? So the face in that sense is much more expressive and your body language.
Narad (0:38:40):
We have heard for years that the enlarged skull indicates a higher brain capacity. I'd like you to shed some light on that.
Sraddhalu (0:38:55):
Okay. You know nature creates these specialized types of human beings. They have specialized psycho-physical tendencies. So there are literally lineages and then even cultures which have become artistic. Lineages and then cultures which have become much more skilled in application of strength in action. There are lineages and cultures which have become more mental and even developing the higher faculties of mind of abstraction of thought and others who are much more oriented to outer expression and power and so on. And obviously, if the psychological type changes the physical shape will follow, representing it in some way. And the suggestion for us obviously and it's more intuitive is the head size somehow may suggest an increase of brain. Logically though it need not be. For example the whale has a brain which is much bigger than the human but they're not more intelligent. So intelligence seems to be mapped not to brain size but number of cells and more than number of cells, number of interconnections between cells and that can be even held in a smaller physical brain. Again if you look at the size between male and female of a certain, within a certain lineage, within a single family with same inheritance, the head size of the male tends to be slightly larger than the head size of the female, but it doesn't make any difference to the intelligence. But what is indicative and this is where the part becomes more interesting, our brain itself is organized bottom-up, let's say, where the lowest part is more reptilian, more instinctive the unconscious, subconscious and even inconscient tendencies are organized there and as the evolution of consciousness took place the higher faculties are layered ending with the prefrontal cortex as they call it, where your higher faculties of discrimination of right and wrong, good and bad, and sense of justice are expressed. It would make sense that they organize this way also in consciousness. Something of this part growing more on the frontal portion may suggest that at least the energy that nature is pushing in that lineage or that group or that family is wanting to develop this higher faculty of abstraction much more. So it's more like a suggestion of the energy pushing, shaping the head as a result. So it's not so much size of the brain, but which part of the brain is more in growth or in intensification of energy.
[Narad] I'd like you to expand a little more on the lineage. Is it hereditary? Is it environmental? What are these lineages?
So you have three influences always. Sri Aurobindo points out you have heredity, you have environment, nurture, nature and nurture and then the third is the soul's influence. Between the three, wherever there is a conflict, the soul has the ability to override the other two. Okay, now the interesting thing is, which is the one that's pushing your evolution? Nature herself is only repeating. And at best you can say natural selection which knocks out and nature cannot really knock it out on her own. So something is knocked out and then things which are slightly varied, changing, but that would take thousands of years. What we see is specializations developing within two or three generations. So certainly nurture, environmental influence has a bigger power to shape than nature. And what is increasingly becoming apparent in modern studies is this is the epigenetic aspect. The epigenetics actually carries over through generations, even if genetics doesn't change. So for example, if rats have been stressed out in a cage, including stress created by behavior of electric shocks with a certain part of the cage being electrified, the parents of the rats now having got the stress, that epigenetic character triggered by the stress is carried into the children and then into the grandchildren. Ayurveda would say seven generations but in the study I have read they only speak of two generations and they stop there. But then interestingly the grandchildren still had instinctive fear of that part of the cage for the electric shock. So something of the knowledge is actually transmitted and there is no genetic change but there is epigenetic change. So that's the part of the expression around the genes and that carries much more information than the genetic itself. So what you're seeing is a frozen core so to say, which is like a spine around which something more fluid develops, which over time imprints itself and stabilizes inside the genetic core as now something acquired as a capacity or a tendency and fixed. But in between is this passage where something is still semi-fluid, developing, stabilizing, fixing. So in Ayurveda we will say, this is the Ayurvedic knowledge, if something is sustained for seven generations it gets fixed into you and so it would become a part of your genetics. But before that it's tending to, it's tending to enter but not yet fully stabilized. That being the case, there still comes a third factor. What is really choosing for your behavior to go this way or that? And that's where the soul's influence would come into a great significance. And I'm going to put it this way. Let's say there's a certain lineage of artists and the child obviously growing up in an artistic environment will have the nurture influence for being artistic or at least having artistic training but now a soul looking to take birth who wants an artistic experience will say here is an environment which is conducive to my experience and will choose that for birth and so what will tend to happen is within the artistic lineage, souls would take birth who want that experience and very quickly in the lineage you would develop a specialization where all three are aligned. The soul urge will push now, take full advantage of the genetic and epigenetic support and amplify to a degree that it will be ingrained in the type. And to me it's not so much the physical genes but the energy stream that is carried that is more important. The vital force that is transmitted in the lineage and that captures much more, that's closer to the epigenetic element. That captures much more, this knowledge and the tendencies of character and that's developed and amplified now very quickly down a couple of generations, because the soul force aligned with these two.
Narad (0:46:27):
This may be a little bit extraneous but when Mother says we have all been together before or we would not be here to carry on this work, how is that expressed in your terms?
Sraddhalu (0:46:44):
There are groups of souls that have alignment of purpose. There are souls which aspire for a particular kind of realization or who choose to serve for a particular work and so Mother uses the term group of souls or a family of souls and all those of us who are aligned to this new manifestation of the supramental consciousness. It's not something that the soul has chosen suddenly, oh yeah, I'm born now, let me see, hey, that looks interesting. It doesn't go like that. The soul has taken birth with that intention, recognizing this opportunity. And if it has taken birth with that intention, then it has already been preparing for it earlier. And every time that there was an opportunity like this, these souls have come together to prepare for this new possibility and work for it and then when the opportunities were not so strong, they have wandered around preparing for the next opportunity and then again coming together for this opportunity. And so mother's very clear statement and she said, all of us who are here, she said, you've all been promised that when the opportunity would come for the realization, you would be given a chance. Promised by who? By her. And then she says, you may not remember, but I remember. And she said, that's why you're here. Now that was a way in which she was trying to remind us of why we are here and then she went to the extent of saying the opportunity here is so important what it represents in evolutionary terms is so important that it's worth it to set aside all other distractions that you may dedicate yourself to this realization and she suggests in the wording that you know the things you've been doing across lives across lives you've done this and that and you're repeating it what's the point of wasting your energy in those distractive tendencies this is the time when you can do this and you will not get this chance again. So she says it's worth setting aside all those distractions to dedicate yourself to this purpose. And I'm going to generalize this to all who are listening here. What she said is not limited to those who were sitting in front of her in the 1950s. I said this to somebody recently. He said, 'oh so and so is so lucky he was there in the 1950s'. Okay? And I said to the guy, 'how do you know you were not there?' He said, 'I don't know'. So I said, 'how do you know you were not in the ashram with the mother in the 1930s? And then you left your body at that point and now you've incarnated here and that's what's brought you here'. He says, 'yeah, I don't know'. So I said just because you don't know, it doesn't mean that it's not so, right? And I'm saying this again, not being in the ashram, the ashram was what? 50, 100, 200 people. We were with them for so many incarnations, every time that this work was to be done. And so, we may not remember in this life, but the soul knows, the soul remembers, and that's why it's been drawn to this. It's been attracted, it recognizes the presence and the work that Sri Aurobindo and the mother represent. It says, this is it, this is what I want, this is what I have come for. And then wherever you are in the world, whatever external form of circumstances and work you may be doing, if you have this affinity and call to be a part of the work of the new creation and the new manifestation, know that you have taken birth for this purpose. And whatever scope and form of work you're doing, this is what your life should be dedicated for. And it doesn't mean you have to leave all that and settle in the ashram, that's not what she intended. Even those that she prepared in the ashram, she launched into the world so that this consciousness or this commitment to manifesting the new world can take plant its seeds in all activities of the world, everywhere in the world. What is important is not where you are or what you are doing, but that you commit yourself to manifesting something of the new consciousness in your life. And that's what we are here for.
Narad (0:51:32):
With the descent of the supermind, does one have to know about Mother and Sri Aurobindo?
Sraddhalu (0:51:40):
No, obviously not. You may not know them in name or in form, but you will know them in consciousness. Because what Mother and Sri Aurobindo represent, and that's why I'm using this phrase represent, it's not this body and this form in which they were incarnated here, but that particular consciousness of the Divine that is manifested to bring down the new consciousness and the new world and they embody that consciousness, they represent that in an individualized form. And so for me even when I look at the Mother in this particular physical form and body it's not this body that I see, I see the Divine Mother who presides over the who has presided over and led our lives across incarnations and here she has embodied a part of herself in the human form and what she is behind that form is the whole of the Divine Mother and that's the mother that we relate to, that's what she is really.
Narad (0:52:56):
I hate to go back now but I want to ask you about this experience they have with rats in a maze. The first one takes an hour, the second one takes 30 minutes, and the third rat they put in goes right through.
Sraddhalu (0:53:04):
Yes.
Narad (0:53:07):
Is that imprinted from one to the other in their consciousness?
Sraddhalu (0:53:11):
It's something that we notice that when a group of individuals in a species acquires a certain capacity, the entire species finds it easier to develop that capacity. So in this case learning a particular maze and then you may do that maze here in this laboratory and a few days later you find the same maze in another laboratory, the rats they now solve it more easily, more quickly. And it suggests that we are all connected at the level of the species in consciousness. And each time that we grow as individuals, it imprints itself into the learning and knowledge and consciousness of the species. And the ashram as a focal point of the work of the new consciousness being manifested is intended to be such. Sri Aurobindo uses this phrase of a laboratory where human types and special types of each type of humanity is brought, often of the most difficult of those types has been brought for the work of the transformation of nature. And each time that the nature changes and something of the new consciousness is more established or the nature opens to the new consciousness more freely, it has its ripple effect in humanity. And I would broaden this concept now to not just the physical space but all of us in our own spaces as we work to develop ourselves and especially in relation to the new consciousness and the supramental consciousness and the supramental world that is manifesting, that is our most direct contribution to the whole of humanity. It often happens that the very fact that you are making this effort and you represent a certain type, all the difficulties of that type tend to accumulate in you and exaggerate in you. And all the opposition to that change which should be distributed in humanity tends also to accumulate around you because the energy of change being pushed in you triggers also the energy of opposition now to accumulate around you. So by the very fact that you are making a special effort, it seems to exaggerate the resistance and if you let go and say, no I am just going to have an easy life and do nothing, the energy goes away and suddenly everything is easy. And if you shift once again, I am going to make this change, there is an accumulation of the opposition or resistance. And rather than taking it personally, we just accept that that that's your work to overcome and change yourself enough that this difficulty will not have to be faced by others in humanity once you have been able to make the change and that's how it works and then ending with this idea- you're not doing this alone. Remember all of your life and your journey has been led by the Mother, that you've been brought in contact with her in this incarnation is because She remembers even if you forgot and therefore her help is in you, is inside you all the time and if you invoke her help, ask for her to do the work, then she pushes through the burden of the resistance and difficulty and carries you in her arms into the new consciousness, changing and shaping your nature, your character. Your palm, your horoscope, all that becomes irrelevant or changes to reflect the growth in your heart and let her lead your journey. And that's how you will find everyday becomes one more joyous step of growth and that's what we are here for, that's why we are born in this life.
Thank you.