Ancient Wisdom : a book on Theosophy by Annie Besant.
... remains as it is? We would be like Hans Christian Andersen's emperor walking naked through the streets of his capital. Thus, after exploring the outermost frontiers of worlds that were not unknown to ancient wisdom, Sri Aurobindo discovered yet another world, not found on any map, which he called the Supermind or Supramental , and which he sought to draw down upon Earth. He invites us to draw it down a... subconscious regions, or from higher superconscious ones. Thus this small frontal being 49 is surrounded, overhung, supported, pervaded by and set in motion by a whole hierarchy of "worlds," as ancient wisdom well knew: "Without effort one world moves in the other," says the Rig Veda (II.24-5), or, as Sri Aurobindo says, by a gradation of planes of consciousness , which range without break from pure... or inner force before realizing it is a consciousness. Consciousness is force, consciousness-force , as Sri Aurobindo calls it, for the two terms are truly inseparable and interchangeable. The ancient wisdom of India knew this well, and never spoke of consciousness, Chit , without adjoining to it the term Agni , heat, flame, energy: Chit-Agni (sometimes also called Tapas , a synonym of Agni: ...
... contemporary life to India's ancient wisdom;" (2) "Gandhi, therefore, again it seems to us, was able to move other men in the direction of greatness - toward heroism, that is." Finally, you declare: "If Sri Aurobindo has anything of this sort to his credit, it has not come to our attention." I should like to start with the point about Gandhi and the ancient wisdom of India. Let me ask: "What... a Ramana Maharshi. Nor can we deny that nothing short of the mystical life, the Yogic spirituality, is the beau ideal of the Upanishads and the Gita, the vibrant luminous essence of India's ancient wisdom. Now I may ask: "Whatever be Gandhi's greatness - and surely he was no small creature - can we regard him as a knower of Brahman, Atman, ishwara by direct concrete experience and reaksation... enjoined by him in any of his writings. All that he enjoins are truthfulness and non-violence. Valuable virtues, no doubt, but in themselves not at all identical with God-realisation such as India's ancient wisdom envisaged. You will perhaps say that Gandhi was not only a moral man but also a religious one. Granted. But surely you cannot put mere religion on a par with God-realisation. Religion at its best ...
... deeply grasp the nature and meaning of the modern idea of evolution. And thus, in Aurobindo, we have the first grand statement of an evolutionary spirituality that is an integration of the best of ancient wisdom and the brightest of modern knowledge. It wasn't that other great thinkers had not seen that evolution is basically Spirit-in-action (it was obvious to Schelling and Hegel, for example). Nor was... As such, Aurobindo's message is still far ahead of its time. vii The world remains, to speak in very general terms, divided into two highly contentious camps: those who believe in the ancient wisdom traditions (and therefore tend to completely distrust the modern notion of evolution), and those who believe the modern scientific view of evolution (which completely dispenses with any notions ...
... sympathetic that by some kind of alchemy of identification the best of the foreign has been received and assimilated. The secret of India's continuity can be traced to the original reservoirs of ancient wisdom, to renew itself, to advance further and create novelties that are not entirely novel. India is today at a critical stage where external influences are rushing from various directions with... clutches of ignorance and imprisoning modes of social structures and uninspiring ideals that are constantly being bombarded on the minds of the youths. Let us also admit that while recovering the ancient wisdom, we must stress the need for new creation. What has been golden in India's past is so refashioned and chiselled that it can bear the burden of a new quest and a new accomplishment. The country ...
... harm wrought by the dangerous tide we have to defeat. We talk of India's ancient wisdom, but we conceive it in terms that do it scant justice. So when we think of giving a new vitality, a contemporary life, to this wisdom we go no further than morality and religion. We never stop to ask: What is meant by India's ancient wisdom? Surely the most pointed answer is: the Upanishads and the Gita. There are... The Indian Spirit and the World's Future Our Ancient Wisdom and Its Genuine Revival THERE is at present, because of many causes, a general decline of values and a general confusion of mind all over the earth. In India this state of affairs has a critical significance obtaining nowhere else. Not that the Indians are in comparison with other peoples more... Ramakrishna, a Vivekananda. Nor can we deny that it is the mystical life, the Yogic spirituality, that is the aim and ideal of the Upanishads and the Gita, the vibrant luminous essence of India's ancient wisdom. When we add religion to morality we do bring in something more that is valuable, but mere religion cannot be put on a par with God-realisation. Religion at its best is a mental and emotional ...
... Tavern door opens ... a flash of light comes upon the streets and reflects a rugged face. Drunken, that's why he staggers, remember. And yet He is the Prince of Peace of whom the ancient wisdom tells, And by their silence men adore the lovely silence where He dwells. Wonderful! [He reads out the last line again. ] I saw the King of Kings again, a thing... I saw the open tavern door flash on the dusk a ruddy glare, And saw the King of Kings outcast reel brawling through the starlit air. And yet He is the Prince of Peace of whom the ancient wisdom tells, And by their silence men adore the lovely silence where He dwells. I saw the King of Kings again, a thing to shudder at and fear, A form so darkened and so marred that childhood ...
... which has been perceived as the fundamental need, if we are to relate ourselves properly with the world and with all that may be beyond ourselves and the world. An important message of the ancient wisdom in regard to self-knowledge is that of bondage and liberation and immortality a knowledge that is so secret and so precious that in order to be qualified even to enter into the portals of that... order to surmount our present predicaments and various threats that are directly relevant to the issues of our survival and fulfilment. We may hasten to add that while the importance of the ancient wisdom of India is to be underlined, we should not be blind to the need of exploring other systems of wisdom and even new knowledge. Ancient Indian wisdom has always counselled us to rise higher and higher ...
... perceived as the fundamental need, if we are to relate ourselves properly with the Page 46 world and with all that may be beyond ourselves and the world. An important message of the ancient wisdom in regard to self-knowledge is that of bondage and liberation and immortality — a knowledge that is so secret and so precious that in order to be qualified even to enter into the portals of that... present predicaments and various threats that are directly relevant to the issues of our survival and fulfilment. We may hasten to add that while the importance of Page 48 the ancient wisdom of India is to be underlined, we should not be blind to the need of exploring other systems of wisdom and even new knowledge. Ancient Indian wisdom has always counselled us to rise higher and higher ...
... understanding, is an indispensable means of this perfection. Perfection cannot come without self-knowledge and God-knowledge and a spiritual attitude towards our natural existence, and that is why the ancient wisdom laid so much stress on salvation by knowledge,—not an intellectual cognizance of things, but a growing of man the mental being into a greater spiritual consciousness. The soul's salvation cannot ...
... forth some wonderful shining ray of light to the world which is enough to illuminate the nations. Others live for centuries on what is to her the thought of a moment. God gave to her the book of Ancient Wisdom and bade her keep it sealed in her heart, until the time should come for it to be opened. Sometimes a page or a chapter is revealed, sometimes only a single sentence. Such sentences have been the ...
... value of the Veda. We must take seriously the hint of Yaska, accept the Rishi's description of the Veda's contents as "seer-wisdoms, secret words", and look for whatever clue we can find to this ancient wisdom. Otherwise the Veda must remain for ever a sealed book; grammarians, etymologists, scholastic conjectures will not open to us the sealed chamber. For it is a fact that the tradition of a secret ...
... unreal in essence, divides the total being of man, the microcosm, as it divides also the world-being, the macrocosm. Both have a higher and a lower hemisphere, the parārdha and aparārdha of the ancient wisdom. The higher hemisphere is the perfect and eternal reign of the Spirit; for there it manifests without cessation or diminution its infinities, deploys the unconcealed glories of its illimitable ...
... to the matter you will observe that, so long as an irreducible quantity of imperfection is acknowledged, a tremendous hiatus is caused between the Divine and earth-existence. All, says the ancient wisdom, is the Divine. But if all is the Divine, then all can manifest divine values perfectly in an evolutionary scheme like our earth's: there cannot be an irreducible quantity of the imperfect ...
... Dates of Publication of the Articles in 'Mother India' Indian Nationalism at Its Truest How Shall We Grow in Greatness? Our Ancient Wisdom and Its Genuine Revival Our Real National Anthem The Ideal Flag for India Pacifism and the Indian Spirit The Significance of the English Language in India Sri Aurobindo ...
... assimilating India's cultural heritage after his return from England, through his days as a nationalist leader, to his flowering as a Yogi, scholar and thinker contributing to the recovery of the ancient wisdom of the Veda and Upanishads. These writings were not published during his lifetime, but were discovered in his manuscripts after his passing. Several of them are appearing here for the first time ...
... a Birth that has to be delivered out of the envelope of the human consciousness." Whether or not we fully penetrate the significance of all these variously modulated deliverances of the ancient wisdom, the loftiness of their import is undeniable. They set the concept of Māyā and that of Asura far above mere magic, the conjuring craft, the sorcerer's skill and its practitioners the Dāsa-Dasyus ...
... expansion, cooling, galaxy formation, and life, but space and time exist before and after the bang.” 9 How shall the intellectual outsider choose between this mathematical hypothesis and the ancient wisdom – which is only wisdom if it is knowledge, though not necessarily mental knowledge? “What will happen,” asks Claude Allègre, “if it is proven tomorrow that the big bang does not define the beginning ...
... first center of a planetary society... Ah! ...tomorrow's society. 2) We solemnly dedicate this city as the constantly renewed synthesis of the latest conquests of science and the most ancient wisdom. 3) We solemnly set as the chief function of this city the preparation of every child to his highest spiritual and planetary... There you are! ...destiny, that this city may become ...
... by it. The immediate provocation was the ill-conceived partition of Bengal in 1905. There he initiated a comprehensive programme of building the nation founded on its sounder values, on its ancient wisdom and culture. In it was bom Indian nationalism, in the nourishing soil of its rich past, firmly established in its worthy tradition, with its own natural disposition and governing character, its ...
... which the experience of Nirvana leads is only an aspect of the Supreme Truth-Consciousness, which somehow includes it along with all mutable consciousness. The supreme Brahman, in the words of the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads, is at the same time the Quality-less and the All-Qualitied, nirguṇo guṇi The Great Purushottama, in the words of the Bhagavad Gita, transcends and includes the Immutable and ...
... Schrodinger and others have come to the conclusion that this new orientation will press the scientific inquiry into the field of self- knowledge. Here we see the modern quest converging on the ancient wisdom. In the fourth story, which is also taken from the Chhandogya Upanishad we have a dialogue between Narada and Sanatkumara. When Narada approaches Sanatkumara, Sanatkumara says: Tell me what ...
... Institute of Educational Research, Auroville: The Aims of Life and The Good Teacher and the Good Pupil. Speaker: Professor Alain Bernard * India's ancient wisdom and value system are great heritage for mankind. * Humanity is one. The ideas and ideals of Sri Aurobindo are reflected in the institute. Evolution of mankind and its constant search for God ...
... say, a collective illusion, and if the illusion ceased the world would also cease. But he did not go so far. It was Shankara who took up the line and completed the teaching. In the more ancient wisdom, however, if one goes back to the teaching of the Vedic Rishis, for example, one finds no idea of escape from the world; they sought a realisation upon earth and they even conceived a golden age ...
... Nor watch my moods, nor with your eyes wait on me Nor disillusionize by close observance But keep as to an equal courtesy. MAJORDOMO Your Majesty— KING PHILIP Well, sir, Your Ancient Wisdom— MAJORDOMO The Kings of Spain— Page 795 KING PHILIP Are absolute, you'ld say, Over men only? Custom masters kings. I'll not be ruled by your stale ceremonies As kings ...
... irrational authority. Europe is certainly not going to exchange a Catholic for a Theosophical Pope, the Council of Cardinals for the Esoteric Section, or the Gospel and the Athanasian Creed for Ancient Wisdom and Isis Unveiled . Will India long keep the temper that submits to unexamined authority and blinds itself with a name? I believe not. We shall more and more return to the habit of going to ...
... the only real basis left for the denial of an eternal Mind beyond mind superior to its creations and originative of the cosmos. Page 40 All other foundations for the rejection of this ancient wisdom have disappeared or are disappearing before the increasing light of modern knowledge. Page 41 × Cf. for ...
... also that Indian metaphysics did not attempt, as modern philosophy has attempted without success, to read the truth of existence principally by the light of the truths of physical Nature. This ancient wisdom founded itself rather upon an inner experimental psychology and a profound psychic science, India's special strength,—but study of mind too and of our inner forces is surely study of nature,—in ...
... and trenchant intelligence which sought the One to deny the Many and because it had received the breath of the heights scorned or recoiled from the secret of the depths. But the steady eye of the ancient wisdom perceived that to know God really, it must know Him everywhere equally and without distinction, considering and valuing but not mastered by the oppositions through which He shines. We will put ...
... unlimited sense of her highest spirit Page 91 and knowledge. And if we do that, we shall find that the best of what comes to us draped in occidental forms, is already implied in our own ancient wisdom and has there a greater spirit behind it, a profounder truth and self-knowledge and the capacity of a will to nobler and more ideal formations. Only we need to work out thoroughly in life what ...
... allowed only under disguises or brought in as a minor power, its reign denied or put off in favour of the intellect or of a dominant materialistic vitalism. The former way was the type of the ancient wisdom at one time universal in all civilised countries—literally, from China to Peru. But all other nations have fallen away from it and diminished its large pervasiveness or fallen away from it altogether ...
... its profound and joyous contents—are the weapons in the hands of this Ganesha. It is the followers of the Nyaya School who attacked and demolished the Buddhistic Doctrines and established the Ancient Wisdom once again. The two parts of the Science of Vedic Interpretation, the Ritualistic and Theological parts, Karmakanda and Jnanakanda of Mimansa, the introductory and the culminating texts, are the ...
... and this proved to be true.” We remember that the Mother said that the story about what she usually called “the accident,” the fall into the Inconscient, was under different names known in the ancient wisdom traditions. “In every country, every tradition, the event has been presented in a special way, with different limitations, different details or particular features, but, truly speaking, the origin ...
... overdose of drugs, but soon resigned in favour of the still well-known Papus. 17 Barlet was impressed by the Cosmic Tradition developed by Théon, who based it on his own knowledge of the ancient wisdom and also on the occult material with which Alma provided him. The Mother has spoken more than once of that Tradition, anterior to the Vedic Rishis and the Chaldeans, and from which both originated ...
... conceptions more fit for philosophical analysis than for practical realisation. But this is a false distinction made by the division of our faculties. It is at least a fundamental principle of the ancient wisdom, the wisdom of the East on which we are founding ourselves, that philosophy ought not to be merely a lofty intellectual pastime or a play of dialectical subtlety or even a pursuit of metaphysical ...
... man attains by renunciation a supreme perfection of naiṣkarmya ." This ideal of renunciation, of a self-conquered stillness, spiritual passivity and freedom from desire is common to all the ancient wisdom. The Gita gives us its psychological foundation with an unsurpassed completeness and clearness. It rests on the common experience of all seekers of self-knowledge that there are two different natures ...
... unreal in essence, divides the total being of man, the microcosm, as it divides also the world being, the macrocosm. Both have a higher and a lower hemisphere, the parārdha and aparārdha of the ancient wisdom. The higher hemisphere is the perfect and eternal reign of the Spirit; for there it manifests without cessation or diminution its infinities, deploys the unconcealed glories of its illimitable ...
... planetary society... Ah! ... the society of tomorrow. 2.We do solemnly consecrate this city as the constantly renewed synthesis of the latest conquests of science and the most ancient wisdom. 3.We do solemnly establish as the chief function of this city the preparation of each child towards his highest spiritual and planetary destiny... Aïe! ...so that this ...
... For, in the very nature of its field of investigation and of the means adopted, physical analysis can reveal to us only the 'external signs and symbols' of the operation of Shakti. But, as the ancient Wisdom points out, the true foundation is above while the branchings are downward, ūrdhvavudhna nīchīna-śākha (Rig-Veda), ūrdhvamūlamadhaḥśākham (Gita), so that to know the essential truth of things ...
... Schrodinger and others have come to the conclusion that this new orientation will press the scientific inquiry into the field of self-knowledge. Here we see the modern quest converging on the ancient wisdom. In the fourth story, which is also taken from the Chhandogya Upanishad, we have a dialogue between Narada and Sanatkumara. When Narada approaches Sanatkumara, Sanatkumara says; "Tell ...
... which surround the little field of our waking self with a wide circumconscient existence of which our mind and sense catch only a few indications." 1 As a matter of fact, following the ancient Wisdom of the Upanishads, 2 we can broadly divide the totality of our existence into four provinces or states: the 'waking state' (jāgrat), the subliminal or the 'dream-state' (svapna), the s ...
... today is not an obscurantist credal religionism nor the vitalistic occult and pseudo-spiritual practices, but the integral all-embracing dynamic spirituality of the Upanishads and the Vedas whose ancient wisdom, pur ā n ī praj ñā , did not make this formidable division between Heaven and Earth, but accorded to both equal love and reverence. The Rishis went so far as to declare that "the Earth is the ...
... the ancients, who held that while there are several alternative ways of gaining knowledge, the most effective key to knowledge is the development of deeper and higher levels of consciousness. The ancient wisdom goes also further to affirm that there is a knowledge, knowing which every thing can be known, and that the door to that knowledge lies through inmost self-knowledge. This opens out before us a ...
... life and for the journey of life that would include the harmonious growth of the individual, family, society and the world, with special emphasis on the ideal of social service; 8.Expansion of ancient wisdom in the light of modern developments and research; 9.Education of the child should aim at the development of sterling character filled with patriotism and dedicated to self - reliance and dignity ...
... the ancients, who held that while there are several alternative ways of gaining knowledge, the most effective key to knowledge is the development of deeper and higher levels of consciousness. The ancient wisdom goes also further to affirm that there is a knowledge, knowing which every thing can be known, and that the door to that knowledge lies through inmost self-knowledge. This opens out before us ...
... him all my warmth of understanding and affection. During that period, my father went through a psychological upheaval, and while he continued his career of law, he took up a serious study of our ancient wisdom. He also began to practise meditation and I also practised it in my own way. "Unfortunately, with the growth of philosophical ideation in my mind, I. began to lose my earlier intensity of ...
... is to say, a collective illusion, and if the illusion ceased the world would also cease. But he did not go so far. It was Shankara who took up the line and completed the teaching. In the more ancient wisdom, however, if one goes back to the teaching of the Vedic Rishis, for example, one finds no idea of escape from the world; they sought a realisation upon earth and they even conceived of a golden ...
... is the infinite dynamic Consciousness-Force of the Divine Creator of the universe. The consummation of this evolutionary process is the uncurbed self-revelation of Sachchidananda on earth. Ancient wisdom saw the potential greatness of the earth. In the Vedas the earth is called the foothold of God and the mother of all creatures whose father is Heaven. In the Atharva Veda we have : "I am a son ...
... brahma (All this world is verily the Brahman), brahmaivedam viśwamidam varistham (All this universe is verily the Supreme Brahman). Page 295 Reality and Illusion. While the ancient wisdom declares that "the world is nothing but Brahman," that "the One Atman, who dwells in the hearts of all beings, has assumed all these multiple forms", and that "all these creatures have the one ...
... system is like a staircase, consisting of various levels, planes or gradations of consciousness ranging from the lowest—the Inconscient—to the highest, Sachchidananda (Fig. 2). Note : Ancient Indian wisdom divided the human being, the microcosm, as well as the world-being, the macrocosm, into a higher hemisphere, Parardha, and a lower hemisphere, Apararadha. The higher hemisphere is where the ...
... 2. Hemispheres of Existence: Our total being has a higher and a lower hemisphere of functioning, the aparārdha and the aparārdha of the ancient mystic Wisdom. There is a separation between these two hemispheres, very much acute in practice although unreal in essence. In reality, the origin, the continent, the initial and the ultimate truth ...
... highest peaks of superconscience, or which surround the little field of our waking self with a wide circumconscient existence of which our mind and sense catch only a few indications." 1 The ancient Indian wisdom expressed this fact by dividing our consciousness into three, or rather four, provinces: jāgrat or waking state, svapna or dream state, suṣupti or sleep state, and finally turīya ...
... dreadful aspect is only for those who are enemies of the Divine within and without. "Terrible," writes Sri Aurobindo, "is her face to the Asura." (10.9.1991) According to the ancient Indian wisdom, our non-spiritual condition, our delusive ignorance consists essentially in being locked up in ourselves, being exclusive of our true reality which includes everyone and everything, an inner... for two reasons. The inner being of what historically and geographically has come to be known as the Indian subcontinent is spiritually charged beyond that of any other country. From the time of the ancient Rigveda to our own day the soul-search for the Eternal and the Infinite has been more intense here than Page 113 anywhere else, India has the greatest potentiality for the work of ...
... Self-awareness: In Psychology And Sri Aurobindo's Yoga The well-known present-day physicist, Fritjof Capra, has pointed out the emerging concurrence between modern physics and the ancient spiritual wisdom in their views regarding the nature of the universe. 1 In the field of modern psychology, too, especially in one of its latest schools - Transpersonal Psychology - one can discern the beginnings ...
... only a very small part of our complex total being comes into our conscious purview. The rest remains hidden behind and above, in the subliminal and the superconscient reaches of being. The ancient Indian wisdom expressed the same fact by dividing our consciousness into three, or rather, four provinces: j ā grat or 'waking state', svapna or 'dream state', susupti or 'sleep state', and finally... consciousness which are inaccessible for the moment to the reach of man's unregenerate waking awareness. Indeed, as Sri Aurobindo has aptly pointed out, the 'sleep state' and the 'dream state' of the ancient Yogic tradition "are so named and figured because it is through dream and sleep, — or trance which can be regarded as a kind of dream or sleep, — that the surface mental consciousness normally passes ...
... hemispheres of existence actually signify. Hemispheres of Existence Our total being has a higher and a lower hemisphere of functioning, the parārdha and the aparardha of the ancient mystic Wisdom. There is a separation between these two hemispheres, very much acute in practice although unreal in essence. 66 Ibid, p. 91. 67 Ibid, p. 308. 68 Ibid, p. 320. 69... Higher Mind is not an acquired knowledge but a self-revelation of eternal 9 Savitri, p. 28. l0 Ibid, p. 76. 11 Ibid, p. 42. 12 Ibid, p. 659. Page 155 Wisdom. For, we must not forget, "thought in itself in its origin on the higher levels of consciousness, is a perception,... a powerful but ... secondary result of spiritual vision..." 13 Now a few verses... This sight or drsti is to the Spirit what the eyes are to the physical mind and, Sri Aurobindo emphasises, "one has the sense of having passed through a subtly analogous process." 43 The ancient sages of India highly valued this power of internal spiritual vision; for, only this can make man a Rishi, a Kavi, or a Seer, and no longer a mere thinker. We now quote here certain verses ...
... the same in appearance.’ 19 The Mother’s experiences not only took her into realms which are being discovered by present-day physics, they also rediscovered arcane findings of the ancient Indian wisdom. She said for instance that in that new, multicolored matter ‘nothing moves, apparently, in a formidable Movement’; that vibration there ‘is so fast that it is imperceptible, that it is as it... that they label the truth. The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be. Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future. It is only in experience that there can be the knowledge of the Truth. No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine. Get experience of the... On 1 May the trade unions organized a march in support of the students and to press for better wages. Two days later students held meetings in the Sorbonne University and the police entered that ancient institution for the first time in history. Two days later the first barricades went up in the Latin Quarter and the provincial universities were occupied by their students. Huge demonstrations followed ...
... Its philosophical articles were a distillation of ancient Hindu wisdom presented through the prism of a synthetising vision. What had appeared disparate, anomalous and. ambiguous was discovered as integral parts of an organic whole. Each strand of Indian spirituality, each phase of Indian culture, even each thread of the epic tapestry of ancient India was viewed and interpreted in a new light. Philosophy... glimpse of the Future", "Motherland and Nationalism", "The Upanishads", "The Puranas", "The Eight Siddhis" etc., and a long sequence of essays on the Gita reveal an original approach to the ancient spiritual wisdom and philosophical thought. Some of these essays have been published in book form, but an English translation of them will enable non- Bengali readers to see what glittering nuggets of gold... absolutely uncontrollable. The sea flows and who shall tell it how it is to flow? The wind blows and what human wisdom can regulate its motions? The Will of Divine Wisdom is the sole law of revolutions and we have no right to consider ourselves as anything but mere agents chosen by that Wisdom. 30 When our work is done, we should realise it and feel glad that we have been permitted to do so much. ...
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