For instance, my cousin, almost 40, lives in a state institution and is diagnosed as severely autistic, and can only express himself in grunts and in rage. Another instance, my friend’s son, age 8, is diagnosed as severely autistic. He is an angelic child and very sweet, but cannot express himself verbally, needs constant care and attention, has seizures, and has severe anxiety.
To me, through reading Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, especially Savitri, this all seems like a facet of living in the world of Ignorance, something we have to accept as a part of the world in progress. That the individual soul, through its cycles, has had to now in this lifetime express itself in a body that is not functioning. This mistake is due to whatever incapacities of the fallen environment, the karma, or unconsciousness of the parents. However, I sense concomitantly it is also not a mistake, but part of the Divine’s unfolding for this soul, however painful it seems. I would like to hear your take on it in the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, as when I hear the stories of these children who suffer, it’s hard for me to truly understand and it will help me gain a foothold when I think or pray for these children.
All these theories about karma, etc., are simply ways of trying to make sense of an imperfect world we are living in at present. This is an undeniable fact that the world is far from perfect by any standards, human or divine. But we also have an innate drive towards perfection, at least of a world that is happy and peaceful and progressing without so much struggle and strife. Hence, we try to explain and justify it by the various theories, including the karmic ones. But karma is a mechanism for evolution through the choices and learning experiences we receive, rather than a tribunal of justice, of reward and punishment. A God who maims would not be God but some kind of an autocratic dictatorial judge rendering justice that is too late (other lives). But the God that Sri Aurobindo speaks of is the Redeemer, the Rescuer. Then why this suffering? It comes from the imperfect state of our nature circling through the mazes of ignorance and our matter-based life (the physical body) takes the biggest hit. It is the slowest to progress and change. And since all life upon earth is based on matter, on the common physical substrate, it will continue to be afflicted until this very base changes.
If it was only a question of the imperfection of matter in terms of its response to the higher Divine Forces, it could be solved by finding ways and means to make matter more receptive. But there is the additional problem of an imperfect consciousness limited on every side in every way.
Until there is a change of consciousness and as a result of it a change in the very physical body, it will be idle to expect an ideal, perfect world. We will only change the problem, not solve it.
Having said that, there are mechanisms of nature that make suffering much more bearable when the mind is functioning in a not-so-normal way. It is the parents and caregivers who suffer much more due to their expectations. But the autistic person looks at things differently. Perhaps it would be better if we could enter into its inner state and see how the child is experiencing the world and lead him along those lines rather than trying to force-fit him into our ideas and experience of normalcy.
