570. The Act Repeats

Acts repeating is a perennial theme, ever present all around us. Mostly we are unaware of the acts repeating in one form or another. Occasionally it strikes us in our life, especially the second time. An arrest warrant was passed against someone. With great effort, he managed to get a stay order. It then came to his memory that during his college days an arrest warrant  had been passed. It was held as a threat and was not executed. When the second arrest warrant was stayed, he could see the earlier act was repeated in his life exactly in the same fashion - warrant was issued, but not executed.  That made him think about his erstwhile employment. He was once removed from service by an order of suspension. It was almost a revelation that that order too was rescinded. Sometimes the character of the act or the cause of the act too may continue to repeat. In the above instant, the first warrant was caused by political idealism, the second by idealism of service. Even the removal from the service was due to greater devotion to duty.

In a family that was poor by any standard, the first daughter was married to one who was affluent. It so happened the second daughter too was courted by a wealthy family. It repeated a third time too. The reverse happened to another family that had to go for alliances with poor families in succession, in spite of the fact that was not there on the agenda. Sri Aurobindo describes the repetition as the momentum of the past initiated energy. It repeats for a very long time until the mould wears out. We enjoy good acts repeating, not the bothersome bad acts. Life consoles people saying, "Time alone can heal". It is true in life as life is of Nature that expresses the force of consciousness. Here once the die is cast, it is cast for a long time to come.

It is not so with the Spirit. The Spirit is a Being. It is equally so with consciousness. In life, we have to wait for Time to come. It is not in our hands. Moving to the Spirit, one can say to himself, "The Time has come", as Time is subordinate to Spirit. While in Spirit, the act does not repeat, as the mould is dissolved. One is master of one's life. One can act in such a way that Time can be made to come, which means karma can be escaped or even dissolved. To an Indian, it is inconceivable that one can get the better of KARMA. To a Westerner, the idea of karma is alien to his way of thinking. It is one reason for his endless progress. He who chooses to move to the Spirit can make a greater progress than one who does not believe in karma.