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Mother Links Finite Man to Social Infinity

 

Man is finite. His actions are infinite. It is the Infinite that has become the finite Man. But while acting, the finite man has not relinquished his infinity. Every finite action has its infinite invisible residue.  This is an inescapable rule of life in society. The greatest of leaders arise sometimes from the lowest social stratum for this reason. Any work done in any plane leaves a powerful substantial residue in other planes. Often these powers are accumulated around the other visible expressions of the projected work.

Only in the field of politics is this phenomenon fully seen and fully utilized, often through undesirable means and objectionable strategies. The church wielded great power, perhaps all the power in Europe until the Middle Ages. It is not equally understood in the financial field or in the business world. The rule is, as any power that is fully organized in the society rises in the social pyramid, it gives rise to equally great invisible powers around it. This is true of all knowledge, arts, athletics, organizations and every other walk of life.

This is so because finite man, the small organisations and the separate fields of activity that act in the society are really the Infinite whose other dimensions are occult to our vision. We are trained to see only the visible form or the organised expression. When rain falls, we see the water collecting in the reservoirs and running through the rivers but the rest is lost as far as we are concerned. We refuse to see that every drop of rain that falls is stored somewhere or the other. The resources of groundwater are said to be 97% while the surface accounts for only 3%.

We now believe that the Indian spiritual past is lost, as we do not see it anywhere. Mother says that people in India have the knowledge, and the bodies of Indians carry light. One soul attaining illumination ensures that all his progeny have the capacity to renew the enquiry. Twenty-one generations past receive the spiritual benefits of one person realizing his soul. This is literally true for anyone who has even a little spiritual experience. Our present interest, confined to its monetary expression, and perhaps including its organisational version, is directed towards finding the link between man and those reservoirs of power. More important than these is to know the characteristic of Mother's consciousness in forging that link. To those who want to rise to world-class accomplishment, I have only two things to speak,

  • 1) They should clearly understand that such social power is collected in endless measure above in the social pyramid. That understanding should become pure, clear faith, and
  • 2) They must have the perseverance to work out a method to reach the power.

Given this knowledge and will, they can attain to fame or wealth or power in that dimension. Let us consider other related subjects, ideas, examples, and so on. The following are some examples, some of which I shall try to explain.

  • V.P.Menon
  • V.K.K. Menon
  • M.S. Subbulakshmi
  • MGR
  • NTR
  • The porter who became the railway minister
  • Pranab Mukerji
  • State Bank of India Chairman
  • Ford as Vice-President
  • Two percent shares of Tata
  • Shastri as Prime Minister
  • Ramakrishna Iyer
  • Catherine the Great
  • Louise of Versailles
  • Vampa in Count of Monte Cristo
  • Kalidasa
  • Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice
  • Kamaraj
  • Indira Gandhi

The examples cited above are of several types, but all of them belong to one category, that is,  a link between the individual and the center of power is forged.

Typically, these are:

  • Long, sustained work that becomes service or power.
  • A felt need in the power center for a trait or endowment found below.
  • Physical proximity.
  • Organisational power that becomes good will or reputation.
  • A changing circumstance in the nation that enables an individual to rise.
  • A negative move that yields a positive result.
  • An imperceptible relation between a field of power and the field of work.
  • Conscious forging of a relationship with the higher center.

The swearing-in ceremony for twenty one ministers was to be held in Rashtrapathi Bhavan when one of them was admitted in the hospital. Because the ceremony would have to be repeated on another day because of that one person, Indira picked Mukerji instead, who was physically by her side.

A railway porter who became a driver was driving the Chief Minister's car. The Chief Minister was travelling with the Prime Minister and the driver was listening to their conversation. When they alighted, the driver approached the Prime Minister and gave her the information that the Chief Minister had withheld. He thus became a Railway Minister after a stint of membership in the Rajya Sabha.

When the princess saw the handsome face of a shepherd, she fell for him. Thus Kalidasa became a prince.

It is easier to forge a link negatively or by questionable ways, but that too will yield results only when the rules of accomplishment are followed. We are not taking that direction. We shall examine the territories of power, the rules that forge the link, the caution that is to be observed and the quality of result that issues and its bearing on the means employed. The main ideas can be briefly stated before we take them up for long detailed explanations.

  • Man functions as a finite organism in an infinite field and has the choice of functioning as an infinite factor at any time.
  • The Infinite Power above responds to the infinite below, not the finite.
  • The moment our daily activities are fully converted into their character of infinity, both the fields are ready to link with each other.
  • Actual linkage is made when the intensity of the lower field matches that of the above.
  • The beneficial link is made by acts of service, honesty, resourcefulness, presence of mind, and so on.
  • The presence of negative traits that can make themselves felt in the work cancels it.
  • Most of these successes are short-lived as the motives of goodness are of short duration.
  • Having converted the lower field to its infinite character and forged a link, it is within our power to see that the link is enduring and the results are ever increasing. That power comes out of pure goodness.

Man has discovered the value of gold, metals and oil. As they existed there in the same abundance before his discovery, the powers that I now speak of exist at the top levels of society but remain unrecognized. This article is an invitation to recognize those powers.

I. Human Choice

In this one issue - relating the finite below with the Infinite above - there are several issues. This can be explained from several points of view, but now I will take up human choice. I will refer to other ideas by their names.

  • 1) Human choice between right and wrong raises one to the infinite invisible power. This choice can be called the choice of values instead of skills, energy, or understanding. As values are the skills of the spiritual plane, it can be called spiritual choice.
  • 2) We know man lives in the surface mind, in time, centered in ego as a finite entity. When he moves to the depths - the inner mind, the subliminal, the psychic - he crosses into the Timeless or Simultaneous Integrality of Time and Timelessness, sheds the ego and becomes the infinite entity. Our issue can be explained from this angle too.
  • 3) Mother's consciousness extends its width, height and intensity, trying to reach its totality.
  • 4) The social pyramid of human effort meeting the descending inverted pyramid of grace becomes a multi-dimensional, integrated sphere.
  • 5) Beyond this multi-dimension of integration lies the dimensionless creativity of Spirit lying above in potential. Coming down into our world, this creativity turns into evolution where God discovers the joy of self-discovery.
  • 6) This phenomenon can also be explained by the social analogy of the administrator, the politician, the Guru and the spiritually evolving Avatar.

Human choice gains in significance as it shows us where we can relate with man and have a real beginning. We know all great results begin in an imperceptible, veiled, thin, and apparently insignificant but well-marked preference for the Good as against the Evil.  One should begin there. The finite we know is finite in form, content, appearance, and inner significance. It starts as a finite work, in a finite routine and is felt as a flat finite. It ends with a known finite result. That is called a success. Teaching a lesson in the class, diagnosing a patient, cooking a meal, arguing a case in court, buying in a shop are such activities that we know well. These events, though finite in every way, are really of the infinite. That infinity emerges when we approach it from our infinite center which does not lie in the parts of our being or the immutable soul, but in the evolving soul, known as the psychic.

  • Parts of the being are finite.
  • The central being too is finite in the sense that it is changeless and is a witness.
  • The psychic is the evolving soul, the soul of Prakriti and therefore is the highest height to which man can attain in creation.
  • It is here God exists in His unity, the original unity, unity in the diversity of the Many.
  • God here enjoys the Lila of discovering His own inherent unity in the apparently divided Many.
  • Man has to shift from his vital to mind, from mind to the soul and from soul to the psychic which is infinity in life.
  • This is achieved by consecration.
  • If consecration is taken to, it will not last, as the concentration required is great.
  • So, man must take a deep abiding decision to consecrate and prepare all his parts of the being over time. Even then, one act will be consecrated and then the effort will not be backed by sufficient yogic energy.
  • Suppose a man succeeds in one act, that act will open the Infinity.

When acts are initiated like this, the common experience of our devotees is that the flat, dull, neutral, routine act changes into a lively, energetic, positive action of creation. A casual breakfast turns into a great life-long partnership. Next, one's very first act is to maintain the success achieved and add to this the other items of daily work until all major and minor activities are covered by consecration. Once this is done, one achieves the conversion of the finite into the infinite at the level of one's own existence. Really, this first great step is difficult to achieve, even to attempt. The die is cast. The infinity above is now theoretically available. One must fill the in-between layers with energy of commensurate yogic energy. That is done by the single-minded devotion to the goal. As one rises, his hands will be strengthened. His part is essentially done and he must preserve it according to the rules. No rule small or great on the way can be disregarded or flouted. The aspects of this accomplishment are many, but all will fall under one broad category of yogic common sense. The effort must be sustained, flawless, with ever-increasing energy, power, organisation and perfection. The human choice at each moment will be crystal clear, between Right and wrong.

Examples from all planes where the right human choice is to be made:

Physical - how orderly the newspapers are kept.

Vital - how self-restrained we are in not interrupting another person's talk.

Mental - how mercenary we are in having an opinion that decides.

Spiritual - how prone we are in expressing or not expressing.

Drishti - how careful we are in taking note of visions and realizing what they indicate.

Intuition - how much we honour our inner promptings.

Overmind - how strong we are in preventing the interference of ignorance.

Supermind - how much we are able to see the other man's point of view.

Consciousness - how united our will is with our knowledge (Consciousness-Force)

Being - how much we are above being conscious.

  • Bring the day under this new consciousness gradually but fully.
  • It breaks only when the base is outstripped by the reach of ‘methods.'
  • Concentrate on the weak point. There will be only one.
  • The point gained should never be lost.

In rising from the finite below to the infinite above, we must note that as one moves his field of action from the physical, vital, mental and so on, to Mother, his own efficiency rises several fold. The vital man is ten times more effective than the physical man, the mental man is hundred times more so than the vital man, the spiritual person is a thousand times more effective than the mental man. And finally, one who is acting from Mother's consciousness is infinitely more powerful than the spiritual person. In life, we do often witness these changes, but they are unintentional and unconscious. Our plea is for a conscious, intentional rising above.

Politics, the military strength, money power, fame, status, etc., accumulate according to this rule when the persons draw upon higher levels of power either from themselves or from another person. V.P. Menon had not completed high school and he was stranded in Delhi. With the fifteen rupees that a good man offered him, he entered government service in Simla and retired as a close confidant of Lord Mountbatten. He could rule Orissa as its Governor. V.K.K. Menon, because of his friendship with Nehru, became the Defense Minister of India with no stint in the ruling party at all. We know of mining gold. I speak of mining money power at the summit.

A mere clerk in a bank in Madras whose brother was an unsuccessful lawyer, moved to the board of the bank still as a clerk and then as a secretary and could retire in 1950 with 30 lakhs of rupees which is equivalent to as many crores now. Tata has risen in reputation and only with 2% of shares in a great many other companies makes a greater bundle of money on their name. Reputation is money. London, Switzerland, and stock exchanges are visible power centers in terms of money. Around the top fifty banks in the world there lies an unofficial money power, almost equal to their asserts and deposits. It does permit official use, if the approach is from the higher quarters and the strategies are appropriate.

Perceptive people of penetrating insight see it around any big family or organisation. Such a power equals the power of the family or organisation. Today, it is an untapped potential and may remain as such forever. Tapped wrongly, it goes the way of all flesh. Tapped rightly, it is indestructible. If the money power is turned into a power of goodness, it not only grows but gains in its lease of immortality. It is known as the power behind the throne. Talents, strategies, and goodness can tap it. Devotion to Mother can endlessly tap it, as Mother has come down for that very purpose.

II.  Surface mind - inner mind - subliminal mind - Psychic Being

Moving from one end to the other also involves movements along other lines, such as,

  • From the gross plane to the subtle plane and then finally to the causal plane which is the supramental plane.
  • The personal, the particular and the individual are the beginning. The end is characterized by the impersonal, the general and the universal.
  • The mind exists on the surface and is known as surface mind of ignorance. One moves away from that to the depths by concentration in Jnana yoga. Those who seek Nirvana resort to enquiry into the structure of thought, destructuring the idea. The integral yogi resorts to consecration. To him, concentration is not the instrument but a means to achieve consecration. Thus, one moves into the depth in various ways and according to the path chosen, he lands at different destinations - Manomaya Purusha, the door of Nirvana or the Psychic being. Sri Aurobindo says the depth initially opens into the inner mind which is not spiritual but subtle. The subliminal, the result of the Superconscient and Subconscient meeting is located in the inner mind. The Psychic is buried in the subliminal.
  • In this movement, man also moves from Time to Timelessness and finally to their meeting place. Time belongs to the surface. Timelessness is represented by the Manomaya Purusha or Nirvana. A third status, which Sri Aurobindo calls less negative, is the Psychic Being which opens a dimension not liberally or essentially used by the Indian tradition. The evolving God, the Psychic Being, dwells there. It is neither Time of this world, nor the Timelessness of the higher world, but it is the higher world in the lower creation where God enjoys the Delight for which He created the world. Man has lived here or escaped into the higher world of moksha. Sri Aurobindo's discovery is the Supramental world of creation where there is no pain or suffering or death and everything is a marvel. The lowest point in that world is here in the psychic where Time-Eternity and Timeless-Eternity meet in their simultaneous integrality. The Supramental transformation starts with the psychic in mind and initiates the double opening upwards through the spiritual mind to the Supermind and downwards to the vital, physical consciousness and their substances.

III. Moving from the ego to the psychic

This is often spoken of, but never achieved. Ego is formed as a different entity separating the individual from the totality. This office is done by the dividing mind in the plane of limited Time in the surface mind where the infinite by this process is rendered into the finite.

Ego is a centre, a centre that coordinates thought into reason. It does so by receiving the physical, vital sensations in the brain where they are converted into thought which goes back to control the body and the vital. This is a movement confined to the realms of the physical and mental through the vital. Being gross, the physical sensation is unable to cross over into the realms of the spiritual mind planes and therefore creates a separativity, separate from the universal, transcendental whole. Hence, Sri Aurobindo says that the roots of the ego are in the mental, rather in the thinking mind and its knot in the heart, where the energies are strongest. To move away from the ego, this formation must be dissolved. When it is dissolved, the ego allows the Psychic to emerge. We may ask, why? The ego is the self of the finite while the psychic is the Self of the Infinite. It is natural that when the self of the finite dissolves, its place must be taken by the Self of the Infinite.

The question is, how is it to be achieved?  Of course, assertion of the ego is not going to achieve it. Absence of assertion of ego achieves the end only negatively. It does not help the abolition of ego. The formation of ego starts from the physical, vital sensation changing into thought and organising itself into a centre. That centre is the ego. Dissolution of the ego must then begin with the dissolution of sensation. The Jnana yogi achieves this by denying the senses entry into mind. This may achieve the immediate goal of the Jnana yogi but will not contribute to the dissolution of ego, as the moment the yogi comes out of the concentration, the senses invade him.  The method of Purna Yoga is not to deny the senses their role, but to purify them by denying the role of distortion. Purified senses communicate to the mind purified perceptions, thus eliminating the role of separate existence. Ego, dissolving through the purified senses, is one result of the double opening - downward opening - and when it is sufficiently dissolved in the vital, the pranamaya purusha emerges. Finally the psychic emerges.

IV. Mother's consciousness extends in all directions

When praying for a particular result, Mother's consciousness acts at that point to produce the desired result prayed for. It is a spotlight. The indivisible, infinite power at the social summit I speak of responds not to the spotlight of prayer but to the total consciousness. How shall we move from the spotlight to totality? Totality consists of width, height and intensity. When both horizontal width and vertical height are achieved, the intensity of Her consciousness must be raised to be equal to the power we wish to evoke.

The width is increased by adding to one successful consecration many others at that level till all are included. The height is attained by attempting prayer that is needed for great work. Intensity comes by intense aspiration.

V. The Human Pyramid and Mother's Sphere

Human effort spreads horizontally when there is great energy but no higher level of organisation that is needed to rise. Capacity to organise at a higher level enables man to rise. In either case of horizontal expansion or vertical growth, only one movement is possible, not both, unless greater and greater energy continues to generate itself from below. In that case, man grows on both sides as a pyramid.

Mother's Grace can be explained as an inverted pyramid spread all over the higher regions and trying to descend to man. What can be achieved by human effort is a trickle compared with what Mother's consciousness can accomplish. The one is finite and the other is infinite.

The rising human pyramid of effort meets the descending Mother's inverted pyramid of Grace to become a complete sphere of divine action. At this point, each point finds its relation with every other point and maintains its relation of perfect integration, opening up infinite dimensions of action.

VI. The Dimensionless Divine Sphere

The sphere of action described above is of infinite dimensions of integrated actions of the universe. Above this lies the dimensionless, purposeless, pure consciousness, a consciousness of original creativity which is the domain of the Supreme.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of this Supreme, Transcendent consciousness in our life emanating from the Being of the Becoming where God enjoys the knowledge emerging from Ignorance, the original purpose of Lila.

VII. For our purpose, an analogy can be constructed of the administrator, politician, guru and the spiritually evolving Avatar.

The power of the government rests in the administrator rising from the lowest levels to the Senior Secretary. Even at his height, the administrator can only execute the orders of the politician. Politicians are often under the spell of a Guru like Mahatma Gandhiji.  It is the spiritually evolving avatar of Sri Aurobindo who won Indian freedom in the subtle plane in 1910 which the Guru tries to realize in the gross material plane. To all devotees, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother are available to achieve the highest at the social summit. The devotee, by his devotion, must rise to the centers of power at the social summit and by appropriate actions and strategies realize their material results.

Latent Heat:  After the liquid reaches the boiling point of temperature, until all of it is evaporated, the temperature does not rise beyond the boiling point. All the heat that the liquid receives goes into it and we call it latent heat. Power of several descriptions gets stored in several places in the life organisation. The power of money I speak of is one such. In the human organisation as well as life organisation, there are thousands of pockets of such power. They remain unutilized forever, like the enormous memory we have of the past. It is said that our memory contains the entire memory of the earth. Civilization and science have drawn upon many such resources. What I speak is not new.

VIII. Skill, energy, knowledge, silence, intuition and Jnana

When each plane of our existence organises its functions, it is able to draw upon the resources of the environment as never before. The physical does so by skill, the vital by energy, the mind by knowledge, the higher mind by silence, the yogi by intuition and the Supermind by Jnana.

Imagine the first time that man learnt the skill of hunting or writing. The scope that opened before him was tremendous. As the earlier skills made man civilized and later attitudes brought democracy to the population, my proposal now is that man should come forward to learn something by which his life will be ushered into the abundance of prosperity.

Skill, energy, and so on, however high they are able to rise, can only be neutral instruments which can be used either way. The prosperity, abundance, and the practical concept of infinity do not belong to the region where the positive coexists with the negative.

  • They belong to the region where there exists no negative vibration.
  • When the negative vibration is finally removed from us, we shall be ushered into that region of endless positive plenty.

Obviously, up to the level of the gods in the overmental plane, we know ignorance exists, and ego too survives. The presence of ego and ignorance enables the negative vibration to emerge in one form or another.

Is there an instrument, a strategy, or an attitude that can help eliminate the negative vibration? There is. It is Self-existent Goodness. Good can be the opposite of evil, which will serve no purpose. Silence, Peace, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Knowledge etc. do find an existence that is described as Self-existence that needs no opposition. So, Self-existent Goodness does exist and it belongs to the Supermind.  He who can acquire that Self-existent Goodness is immune from ego and negative vibrations and is connected to the supramental regions.  Mother exists above the Supermind. To evince pure goodness, to seek Mother out of goodness and for goodness serves us as the skill which will raise us to the social summit where money power is in abundance.

One acquires a skill through training, energy through food, knowledge through education, intuition through tapas. All these give you what you want but they come as endowments of ego, as it is the ego that exerts to secure the skill. Instead, they can all be acquired by Mother, that is, when the skill is acquired by training, consecration of the training can eliminate the ego. When the acquired skill has eliminated the ego, it is a skill given by Mother. Mother stands for Truth and Goodness. Such a skill gives one goodness which is self-existent goodness.

Skill, energy, knowledge, silence, intuition and Jnana acquired through Goodness give you the highest reward and enable you to reach the summit of power I speak of. While we are in life, we can ask for it and get it without fail. By moving to yoga, one is not permitted to ask anything, even the self-existent goodness.   

IX. What is the Right Attitude?

It is our tradition that one should not question one's elders, teachers, boss, and such superiors. This stifles the personality and individuality. Therefore, in the West, children are encouraged to question. These two are contradictory. Can we say,

  • It is wrong to question for purposes of assertion;
  • It is right to question for purposes of understanding.

In one sense, what is applicable to life will not be right in yoga; in another sense what is applicable to yoga will serve life better.

X. Right attitude and right motive

An attitude is towards others. Motive is for ourselves. Let the motive be one of reaching the summit.

XI. The very best of attitudes

In the measure one is able to accept 'wrong' as 'right', one's attitude rises in quality. A bully threatens a good man. The rowdy is determined to relieve the other man of his money or property or even life. Let us not consider the alternatives of man submitting to a threat. Let us only consider the positive side. By relying on his physical strength, the man refuses to yield. This is physical resistance. Being courageous - vital - the man refuses to be cowed down and sometimes succeeds. By an understanding of his position, if he believes that he cannot be hurt, it is a superior effort. This is mental courage. If the defying man succeeds by mental courage, we can witness the bully involuntarily shuddering, as mental courage is more powerful than physical courage.  To be able to work from a higher plane is a measure of civilization and in that measure, it is more powerful.  It is the same principle I invoke here to realize the accumulated power in the social summit. Such an accomplishment can still be enhanced when the results are achieved by an understanding or better still, love or instinct. The philosophy behind this principle is 'Truth expresses in creation as its opposite.' This is supramental knowledge. So,

  • Accept the opposites;
  • See the truth in the opposites;
  • Enjoy the touch of the disagreeable.

People readily see the power that the politician has, to confer vast economic benefits and they always seek it. Equally, similar benefits issuing from technology are fully recognized. Politics is vital, technology is mental. Does not spirituality lie above both of them? This article is a call to recognize the power of spirituality to confer the largest economic benefits on man. Please note that Mother lies above the plane of spirituality. The power I speak of is the power of Mother. In the previous century the weak were despised and crushed with contempt. Every man took care of himself. In the twentieth century governments have come under the influence of the Supramental force since 1967. So, society has come forward to support the individual in his personal effort, help the weak, restore them to normal life by rights and conveniences.

The oppressive Whole has turned around and is offering its helping hand now.

This is an unprecedented opportunity for man. Mother is at the head of this turnaround. She comes to man without waiting for him to reach Her by tapas. All that man has to do is to recognise the new opportunity and avail of it. His part is to invite Mother into his life.

  • Man's part is to invite Mother into his life.
  • Work done perfectly invites Her into his life.
  • Perfection in work and Self-giving are man's means to reach Mother.

Long ago, food was wealth. It was produced by farms. Later it was the turn of factories to produce wealth. What the farms and factories did successfully, human relationship did abundantly in the service sector. In all industrial nations, the service sector's role rises. What is the secret here? Man's relationship with the land was replaced by his relationship with machines.

  • Money is produced by man relating to the fields or the factories.
  • An idea that is yielding results is, ‘A greater quantity of money of higher value is produced by man relating to man'.
  • Man benefits by this idea, but is unconscious of it.
  • We invite man to be more conscious of his several opportunities.
  • One of those opportunities is the power at the social summit.

How do we rationalize it?

  • Wealth is produced by work.
  • Work is done by man on the land.
  • Work done in the factories produces more wealth.
  • Land and factories are material fields of a different order.
  • Man himself can be a field for man to work.
  • It is the Service Sector.
  • Therefore, the service sector generates more money than land or factories.
  • The subtler the field, the more powerful it is.
  • Fields and factories are the material organisations.
  • The service sector is the human organisation of external relationships.
  • Higher still lies the inner psychological organisation of man.
  • This organisation reveals to the mind what the naked eye does not see.
  • The social summit belongs to this invisible field of inner psychological organisation.
  • This is the organisation of human consciousness.
  • Mother's consciousness is the highest in the hierarchy.
  • Not only is it the highest, but it seeks us while we seek other fields.
  • The Infinity above waits for the finite to come to it and avail of the abundance.

This is spiritual knowledge that must be accepted as grace with faith and gratitude. To try and rationalize spirituality is the best way to lose it entirely and forever. As Sri Aurobindo tried to rationally express mysticism, even that is permissible here, but the spirit of the tradition holds good. The compromise is that one experiment can be made. Its infinite success must be accepted ipso facto and further experiments are not permissible. This is open to all who are full of self-giving good will and are capable of intelligent, organised, hard work. If someone is a trader selling at Rs. 50,000 a day, his income will rise to Rs. 500,000. He must gratefully acknowledge and accept what has revealed itself to him. He who has made such an experiment and accepted the results can reach the social summit of the infinite power of money, by the same rule.



story | by Dr. Radut