For Nature walks upon her mighty way
Unheeding when she breaks a soul, a life;
Leaving her slain behind she travels on:
Man only marks and God’s all-seeing eyes.
Even in this moment of her soul’s despair,
In its grim rendezvous with death and fear,
No cry broke from her lips, no call for aid;
She told the secret of her woe to none:
Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.
Yet only her outward self suffered and strove;
Even her humanity was half divine:
Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all,
Her nature felt all Nature as its own.
Sri Aurobindo
Savitri, Book I, Canto I, page 8.
How to master physical suffering?
It is just the experiences I am having now.
The body is in a state in which it sees that everything depends simply on how it is linked with the Divine — upon the state of its receptive surrender. I have had the experience even during these last days. The same thing which is the cause of a — more than a discomfort — a suffering, an almost unbearable ailment, with just a change in the receptivity of the body towards the Divine, disappears all of a sudden — and can even move to a blissful state. I have had the experience several times. For me it is only a question of sincerity become intense — in the consciousness that everything is the action of the Divine and that his action moves towards the quickest possible realisation, in the given conditions.
I might say: the cells of the body must learn to seek their support only in the Divine, until the moment when they are able to feel that they are the expression of the Divine.
This is indeed the experience at present. The experience of changing the effect of things, that I have; but it is not mentalised, so I cannot tell it in words. But truly, the cells have begun to feel, first of all that they are wholly ruled by the Divine (this is translated by: “What Thou willest, what Thou willest”), this state, and then a kind of receptivity which is (how to say it?) passive — not immobile, it is… probably one might say a passive receptivity (Mother opens her hands with a smile), but I do not know how to explain.
All words are false, but one might say: “Thou alone art” — yes, the cells feel: “Thou alone art.” Yes, it is like that. But all this, it is as though the thing got hardened — words harden the experience. There is a kind of plasticity or suppleness (a trustful, very trustful suppleness): “What Thou willest, what Thou willest.”
(Silence)
In a certain attitude (but it is difficult to explain or define), in a certain attitude all becomes divine. And there, what is wonderful is that when one has the experience of everything becoming divine, all that is contrary disappears quite naturally, quickly or slowly, instantly or little by little, depending on things.
That is indeed wonderful. That is to say, to become conscious that all is divine is the best way of making all divine — annulling all oppositions.
The Mother,
Notes on the Way, CWM volume 11, pages 273 – 274.