... there is the impersonal Godhead, the impersonal Divine; but beyond the impersonal Divine there is the Divine who is the Person himself; and we must go through the Impersonal to reach the Supreme Divine who is beyond. Only it is good, as I said, for those who have been put by education into contact with too individual, too personal a God, to seek the impersonal Divine, because this liberates them from... that is what we call the impersonal Divine. Well, it happens—and this is very interesting—that there is a region like that, a region which... how to put it?... which is the negation of all that exists. Behind all the planes of being, even behind the physical, there is a Nirvana. We use the word Nirvana because it is easier, but we can say, "There is an impersonal Divine behind the physical, behind... the Mother? ( Long silence ) Yes, there is a difference. ( Silence ) There would not be a difference, perhaps, if the goal to be reached was the impersonal Divine and if one wanted to be identified and united with the impersonal Divine and dissolve in that. I think that in this case there wouldn't be any difference. But if the aspiration is to realise what is beyond, we said, what Sri Aurobindo ...
... experience of the Impersonal is that It is everywhere, without form or limitation in any place or time. The impersonal Divine has no abode and cannot have; it is all pervading. If anybody says the impersonal Divine has its abode in the heart he can be asked what he means by the impersonal Divine. Whatever impersonal Truth or Light there is, you have to find it, use it, do what you can with it ...
... personality in that which the Upanishad indicates by the single word He without fixing any attributes. It is there that our realisations of the personal and the impersonal Divine meet and become one in the utter Godhead. For the impersonal Divine is not ultimately an abstraction or a mere principle or a mere state or power and degree of being any more than we ourselves are really such abstractions. The ...
... want. ... but beyond the impersonal Divine there is the Divine who is the Person himself; and we must go through the Impersonal to reach the Supreme Divine who is beyond. 8 The view of God as the Supreme Divine, who is beyond the personal and the impersonal, resonated with my deepest intuitions. Eckhart speaks of God primarily as an impersonal Divine and, like Sri Aurobindo and the ...
... Personal Effort and Surrender There is no difference in the end between the two if the goal to attain is the Impersonal Divine, that is to say, if you want to unite and identify yourself with the Impersonal Divine, merge into it. But if your aspiration is to reach what is beyond, what Sri Aurobindo calls the supramental Reality, then there comes in a difference ...
... Personal Effort and Surrender THERE is no difference in the end between the two if the goal to be attained is the Impersonal Divine, that is to say, if you want to unite and identify yourself with the Impersonal Divine, merge into it. But if your aspiration is to reach what is beyond, what Sri Aurobindo calls the supramental Reality, then there comes in a difference ...
... between the Personal and Impersonal is a truth of the Overmind _ there is no separate truth of them in the Supermind, they are inseparably one." (P.5) If this refers to the Personal and Impersonal Divine, the question of the difference can hardly arise, because the Personal Divine (i.e. the Avatar) is not always there. It is only very rarely that the Divine becomes the Avatar to come on earth ...
... what the Yogin experiences today so many thousands of years after the Veda was revealed. No wonder, it is regarded as eternal truth, not the expression of any particular mind, not paurusheya but impersonal, divine & revealed. This hymn differs greatly, interestingly & instructively, from the hymn in which Varuna first appears. There the object is to ensure the ananda, the rayah & radhas spoken of in ...
... getting rid of the aboriginal in your nature will remain so long as you try to change your vital part by the sole or main strength of your mind and mental will, calling in at most an indefinite and impersonal divine Power to aid you. It is an old difficulty which has never been radically solved in life itself because it has never been met in the true way. In many ways of Yoga it does not so supremely matter ...
... through untrodden countries and unknown entangled regions, it is quite impossible. As for the work to be done it also is not a work for any sadhak of any path; it is not, either, the work of the "impersonal" Divine—who, for that matter, is not an active Power but supports impartially all work in the universe. It is a training ground for those who have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this ...
... feelings are the usual attitude of the physical consciousness left to itself towards the Divine—a complete Agnosticism and inability to experience. 2 Page 414 The knowledge of the impersonal Divine by itself does not affect the material facts of earth or at least need not. It only produces a subjective change in the being itself and, if it is complete, a new vision and attitude towards all ...
... which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence and consciousness is true and possible, but also an entirely personal consciousness and existence; the Impersonal Divine, Nirguna Brahman, and the Personal Divine, Saguna Brahman, are here equal and coexistent aspects of the Eternal. Impersonality can manifest with person subordinated to it as a mode of expression; ...
... with an inner problem—in spite of our blunders and imperfections, even in spite of our ill will and mistakes? And who hears? You who are with us? Is it you in your supreme consciousness, an impersonal divine force, the force of the yoga, or you, the embodied Mother with your physical consciousness—a personal presence really intimate to our every thought and act, and not some anonymous force? Can you ...
... through untrodden countries and unknown entangled regions, it is quite impossible. As for the work to be done it is also not a work for any sadhaka of any path; it is not, either, the work of the "Impersonal" Divine—who, for that matter, is not an active Power but supports impartially all work in the universe. It is a training ground for those who have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this ...
... was out to play. —Victory to Sri Aurobindo There was a great astonishment by the touch Of waves of Joy and Bliss And there was a realization of the Descent of Grace of the Personal and Impersonal Divine. —Victory to Sri Aurobindo I launched on the dedication pilgrimage with the object of learning to live for the Divine, to do every little work as best as I can for the Divine and to establish ...
... sufferings and disasters. But in reality it is not so. The question is why. Here comes the second cosmic Force operative in man's life. This may be called 'divine Compassion'. It is an impersonal divine Force of love and goodwill which is acting always in every man's life and in the world at large, irrespective of any variation of conditions and circumstances. Its sole purpose is to mitigate ...
... idea of Vasudeva that is in all and Vasudeva that is the Supreme Absolute – both are the same. I have seen instances in intense Gyana – knowledge – and intense Bhakti (devotion). Devotion of the Impersonal Divine may not be powerful for change; it tends to be more etherialised and the knowledge that enters into it makes devotion less intense or rapid. Page 140 Disciple : We have ...
... getting rid of the aboriginal in your nature will remain so long as you try to change your vital part by the sole or main strength of your mind and mental will, calling in at most an indefinite and impersonal divine power to aid you.... If you want a true * The practice of yoga. Page 140 mastery and transformation of the vital movements, it can be done only on condition you allow your ...
... ssage to the divine Sun. Huxley's attack on romantic idealism errs not merely because it fails to discern an evolutionary need. It errs also because he puts too much emphasis on the Impersonal Divine, the featureless infinite Spirit, the luminous "Cloud of Unknowing" into which the soul can rise out of its human individuality. He forgets that we have in our highest parts two sides - the ...
... The Yoga of Divine Love The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter VIII The Mystery of Love The Adoration of the impersonal Divine would not be strictly a Yoga of devotion according to the current interpretation; for in the current forms of Yoga it is supposed that the Impersonal can only be sought for a complete unity in which God and our own person disappear and ...
... Personal and Impersonal is a truth of the Overmind—there is no separate truth Page 123 of them in the Supermind, they are inseparably one" [p. 5]. If this refers to the Personal and Impersonal Divine, the question of the difference can hardly arise, because the Personal Divine (i.e. the Avatar) is not always there. It is only very rarely that the Divine becomes the Avatar to come on earth ...
... your nature. That difficulty will remain so long as you try to change your vital nature by the sole power of Page 724 your mind and mental will, calling in at most an indefinite and impersonal divine Power to aid you. It is an old difficulty which has never been truly solved because it has never been met in the true way. In the former ways of Yoga it did not supremely matter because the aim ...
... no escape from it except laya, Page 457 because it supposes that there is no higher principle of cosmic existence beyond itself—beyond itself is only the pure Spirit, the absolute impersonal Divine. Those who go through the heart (love, bhakti) do not accept laya, they believe in a state beyond of eternal companionship with the Divine or dwelling in the Divine without laya. All this quite ...
... this person, who is his very own. But something which has neither form nor characteristics nor any definite outline of any kind, and with which one cannot have a personal relation―that is the impersonal Divine. And so Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state in which the two are one. Still it is the same thing: it is like the right and wrong side of the same material. If you approach the Divine in ...
... "the Divine" once and another time "the Mother"? Probably he considers these the two aspects of the problem. The truth is that there are people who can more easily get into contact with an impersonal Divine than with a personal Divine. For them, for certain minds, certain types of intelligence, it is easier; they understand better or think they understand better. You see, there are certain... ...
... through untrodden countries and unknown entangled regions, it is quite impossible. As for the work to be done it also is not a work for any sadhak of any path ; it is not, either, the work of the "Impersonal" Divine - who, for that matter, is not an active Power but supports impartially all work in the universe. It is a training ground for those who have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this ...
... heard, always, in spite of our clumsiness and imperfection, in spite even of our bad will and our error? And who hears? You who are with us? And is it you in your supreme consciousness, an impersonal divine force, the force of Yoga, or you, Mother Page 72 in a body, with your physical consciousness? A personal presence that really knows each thought and each act and not some anonymous ...
... experienced as a play of the divine Delight, a Lila, and that in which the world loses itself is the heaven of beatitude of the eternal union. The Mystery of Love The adoration of the impersonal Divine would not be strictly a Yoga of devotion according to the current interpretation; for in the current forms of Yoga it is supposed that the Impersonal can only be sought for a complete unity in ...
... SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, the Supreme Absolute. That is the same thing as the Gita's idea of Vasudeva who is in all and Vasudeva who is the Supreme Absolute. Both are the same. Bhakti for the impersonal Divine may not be so powerful for the change of nature; it tends to be more etherealised. Nor does it seem to be very powerful as regards Knowledge. Here Bhakti predominates over Knowledge. SATYENDRA: ...
... reality is not the ego but the being who is impersonal and universal in his stuff of nature, but forms out of it an expressive personality which is his form of self in the changes of Nature. The Impersonal Divine is Sachchidananda, and in all the supramental formations of personality, the Sachchidananda would be expressed, but none of the formations would limit the infinity of the possibility in the infinity ...
... ignorance, it finds no escape from it except laya, because it supposes that there is no higher principle of cosmic existence beyond itself — beyond itself is only the pure Spirit, the absolute impersonal Divine. Those who go through the heart (love, bhakti) do not accept laya, they believe in a state beyond of eternal companionship with the Divine or dwelling in the Divine without laya. All this quite ...
... is to the Divine in him that one surrenders—if it were only to the human entity it would be ineffective. But it is the consciousness of the Divine Presence that makes the Guru a real Guru, so that even if the disciple surrenders to him thinking of the human being to whom he surrenders, that Presence will still make it effective. Q. (6) Does surrender to the impersonal (formless) Divine leave the... through it you surrender not only to the impersonal, but to the personal,—not only to Divine in self but to the Divine outside you; you get a chance for the surpassing of the ego not only by retreat into the self where ego does not exist, but in the personal nature where it is the ruler. It is the sign of the will to complete, surrender to the total Divine. Of course it must be a genuine spiritual... surrenders to the Divine all the spiritual possibilities including that of Moksha. Q. (4) Can anybody pass beyond the barrier of the gunas and ego? A. It is the double surrender that makes one free from the gunas. If only the higher self is free from the gunas and other parts remain their subject, then there is not the full liberation. Q. (5) Surrender to the Divine and surrender to ...
... and richest divine freedom and perfection. Arjuna is made to raise the question of this difference. It Page 398 must be remembered that the distinction between the impersonal immutable Akshara Purusha and the supreme Soul that is at once impersonality and divine Person and much more than either—that this capital distinction implied in the later chapters and in the divine "I" of which... diviner consciousness, a high impersonal motive, a spiritual standard of oneness with the will of the Divine acting on the world from the fountain light and with the motive power of the spiritual nature,—this is the new inner principle of works which is to transform the old ignorant action. A knowledge which embraces oneness with the Divine and arrives through the Divine at conscious oneness with all... enter into the impersonal and equal calm of the immutable eternal all-pervading Akshara Purusha, to aspire from that calm by a perfect self-surrender of all one's nature and existence to that which is other and higher than the Akshara, is the first necessity of this Yoga. In the strength of that aspiration one can rise to the immortal Dharma. There, made one in being, consciousness and divine bliss with ...
... where the action is no longer our own and where therefore the sense of personal virtue and personal sin is exceeded; where the universal, the impersonal, the divine spirit works out through us its purpose in the world; where we are ourselves by a new and divine birth changed into being of that Being, consciousness of that Consciousness, power of that Power, bliss of that Bliss, and, living no longer... to the still impersonal Self, certainly, but to you, the Lord. Tell me, then, what you are, who, as bhakti is greater even than this self-knowledge, are greater than the immutable Self, which is yet itself greater than mutable Nature and the world of action, even as knowledge is greater than works. What is the relation between these three things? between works and knowledge and divine love? between... draw it back into the Self. We can do this by the force of the things we have attained, calm, equality, passionless impersonality. For as we grow in these things, carry them to their fullness, subject all our nature to them, we are growing into this calm, equal, passionless, impersonal, all-pervading Self. Our senses fall into that stillness and receive the touches of the world on us with a supreme ...
... the personification —I came to know it later —of him who is called the Man of Sorrows." Much, much later, years later in fact, Mirra would understand what her experience meant: "The impersonal, eternal divine Love. Being this Love, I feel myself living in the centre of all things upon the Page 127 whole earth and, at the same time, it seems to me that I am immense, infinite... boundless love. A love that intensifies the impulses that are swift and straight and frank. A love that strengthens. Divine Love. Years before, Mother had related to us an ancient Chaldean legend. "Long ago, very long ago, in the arid country which is now Arabia, a divine being had incarnated upon earth to awaken there the supreme love. As one would expect, the Incarnation was persecuted by... which went through me, I saw it physically enter me. Obviously it was the descent of a Being —not a past incarnation, but a Being from another plane. The Light was golden. It was the incarnation of a divine consciousness." But where does music come from? "Once I went to the world of music," Satprem said to Mother. "And what I heard was so marvellous, so unbelievably beautiful, that even after ...
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