The dry coconut – an image of the beingThe dry coconut – an image of the beingThe dry coconut – an image of the beingThe dry coconut – an image of the being
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The dry coconut – an image of the being

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  • Questions and Answers 1955
  • The dry coconut – an image of the being
Superstition
01/25/2019
Advice to educators
01/27/2019
Published by The Mother on 01/26/2019
Categories
  • Questions and Answers 1955
Tags
  • attachment
  • being
  • detached
  • dry coconut
  • physical consciousness
Sri Aurobindo

It is said that when one has realised, one becomes like the dry coconut which moves in the shell, which is free inside, no longer attached to the envelope and moving freely within. That’s what I have heard; it is the image for there being no attachment any more. You have seen this, when a coconut becomes completely dry, the nut inside is no longer fixed to the shell; and so when you move it, it moves inside; it is completely free, it is absolutely independent of the shell.

So the image of the being is given: the ordinary physical consciousness is the shell; and so long as the Atman is not completely formed it is attached, it holds on, it is stuck to the shell, and it cannot be detached; but when it is completely formed it is absolutely free inside, it rolls freely in the shell without being fixed to it.

Ref: Questions and Answers 1955

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