Question : Why or how is it that some persons seem to come out unhurt, even without a scratch, from major accidents, while for others, even the slightest thing turns into something very serious? Is it all a play of chance or is there something behind of which we are not usually aware but which is the determining factor?
The Mother, in one of her talks, took up this issue and explained how there is always a moment of choice where one can decide whether one will be saved or not, whether the accident will be very minor or end up in something very serious. And it all depends on whether one has an awakened Consciousness within and it is possible for everyone to have it.
The Moment of Choice
There is a moment for choice, even in an accident. For instance, one slips and falls. Just between the moment one has slipped and the moment one falls there is a fraction of a second. At that moment one has the choice: it may be nothing much, it may be very serious. Only, the consciousness must naturally be wide awake and one must be in contact with one’s psychic being constantly – there is no time to make the contact, one must be in contact. Between the moment one slips and the moment one is on the ground, if the mental and psychic formation is sufficiently strong, then there is nothing, nothing will happen – nothing happens. But if at that moment, the mind according to its habit becomes a pessimist and tells itself: “Oh! I have slipped….” That lasts the fraction of a second; that doesn’t take even a minute, it is a fraction of a second; during a fraction of a second one has the choice. But one must be so awake, every minute of one’s life! For a fraction of a second one has the choice, there is a fraction of a second in which one can prevent the accident from being serious, can prevent the illness from entering in. One always has the choice. But it is for a fraction of a second and one must not miss it. If one misses it, it is finished.
One can make it afterwards?
No. Afterwards there is yet another moment…. One has fallen, one is already hurt; but there is still a moment when one can change things for the better or worse, so that it may be something very fugitive the bad effects of which will quickly disappear or something which becomes as serious, as grave as it can be. I don’t know if you have noticed that there are people who never miss the opportunity of an accident! Every time there is the possibility of an accident, they have it. And never is their accident ordinary. Every time the accident can be serious, it is serious. Well, usually in life one says: “Oh! he is unlucky, he is unfortunate, indeed he has no luck.” But all that is ignorance. It depends absolutely on the working of his consciousness. I could give you examples – only I would have to speak about certain people and I don’t want to. But I could give you striking examples! And this is the sort of thing one sees all the time, all the time here! There are people who could have been killed and who come out of it unscathed; there are others for whom it was not serious, and it becomes serious.
But that does not depend on thought, on the working of the ordinary thought. They may apparently have thoughts as good as the others-it is not that. It is the second of the choice -people knowing how to react just in the right way at the right time. I could give you hundreds of examples. It is quite interesting.
An Awakened Consciousness
This depends absolutely on character. Some have such an awakened consciousness, so alert, that they are not asleep, they are awake within. Just at the second it is required they call the help. Or they invoke the divine Force. But just at the second it is needed. So the danger is averted, nothing happens. They could have been killed: they come out of it absolutely unhurt. Others, on the contrary, as soon as they have the least little scratch, something gets dislocated in their being: a sort of fright or pessimism or defeatism in their consciousness which automatically comes up – it was nothing, they had just twisted their leg and the next minute they break it. There is no reason for it. They could very well have not broken their leg.
There are others who climb up to a first floor on a ladder which gives way under them. They could have collapsed – they come out of that without the least hurt. How did they manage it? Apparently this seems wonderful, and still this is how things happen to them. They find themselves lying on the ground in an altogether fine state; nothing has happened to them. I could give you the names, I am telling you exact facts.
So, on what does this depend? It depends on whether one is sufficiently awake for the second of the choice…. And note that this is not at all mental, it is not that: it is an attitude of the being, it is the consciousness reacting in the right way. It goes quite far, very far, it is formidable, the power of this attitude. But as it is just a fraction of a second, it implies an altogether awakened consciousness which never sleeps, never enters the inconscient. For one does not know when these things are going to happen, isn’t that so? Hence, one does not have the time to wake up. One must be awake.
I knew someone who, indeed, should have died and did not die because of this. For his consciousness reacted very fast. He had taken poison by mistake: instead of taking one dose of a certain medicine, he had taken twelve and it was a poison; he should have died, the heart should have stopped (it was many years ago) and he is still quite alive! He reacted in the right way.
If these things were narrated they would be called miracles. They are not miracles: it is an awakened consciousness.
The Mother
