... an appearance? It is a subordinate act or state of consciousness, it is a self-oblivious identification with the modes of Nature in the limited workings of this lower motivity and with this self-wrapped ego-bounded knot of action of the mind, life and body. To rise above the modes of Nature, to be traiguṇyātīta , is indispensable, if we are to get back into our fully conscious being away from the obsessing... chapter; but it has now to indicate more precisely what are these modes, these gunas, how they bind the soul and keep it back from spiritual freedom and what is meant by rising above the modes of Nature. The modes of Nature are all qualitative in their essence and are called for that reason its gunas or qualities. In any spiritual conception of the universe this must be so, because the connecting medium... Nature's power of nescience, rajas as her power of active seeking ignorance enlightened by desire and impulsion, sattwa as her power of possessing and harmonising knowledge. The three qualitative modes of Nature are inextricably intertwined in all cosmic existence. Tamas, the principle of inertia, is a passive and inert nescience which suffers all shocks and contacts without any effort of mastering response ...
... The Yoga of Divine Works The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter X The Three Modes of Nature To transcend the natural action of the lower Prakriti is indispensable to the soul, if it is to be free in its self and free in its works. Harmonious subjection to this actual universal Nature, a condition of good and perfect work for the natural instruments, is not an... transcendence of her forces, qualities and modes of action; otherwise we are subject to her conditions and helplessly dominated by her, not free in the spirit. The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Therefore without... are not in sight or else are still only a far-off prospect. A radically different movement has to draw us back from the gunas and lift us above them. The error that accepts the action of the modes of Nature must cease; for as long as it is accepted, the soul is involved in their operations and subjected to their law. Sattwa must be transcended as well as rajas and tamas; the golden chain must be broken ...
... " Freedom—the first step—consists in transcending the modes of Nature. Mastery—the decisive step—lies in transforming the three modes of the lower Nature (Apsara Prakriti)—Tamas, Rajas, Sattwa—-into their equivalents of the divine Nature (Para Prakriti)—Shaman, Tapas, Jyoti. Describing this transformation of the modes of Nature, Sri Aurobindo states: Page 142 Here the disharmonies... arrive at freedom, all the three modes of Prakriti must be transcended so that Purusha, the soul, is no longer involved in their workings and subjected to their law. In order to transcend the three modes of Nature, the Gita prescribes a radically different method of self-discipline that enables one to draw back from the three modes and lifts one above them. It is to stand back in oneself from the... and work as a machine once put in action works by its own structure and propelling forces. 136 [Italics by the author.] This teaching of the Gita for arriving at freedom from the modes of Nature by standing back as their impartial Witness without accepting or interfering with them is quite similar to Eckhart's teaching about simply witnessing the unconscious patterns in one's normal self ...
... who is the Womb of the World bringeth each nature to its perfection and He matureth all those that are yet to be perfected. He indwelleth & presideth over all this His world and setteth all the modes of Nature to their workings. तद् वेदगुह्योपनिषत्सु गूढं तद् ब्रह्मा वेदते ब्रह्मयोनिम् । ये पूर्वदेवा ऋषयश्च तद्विदुस्ते तन्मया अमृता वै बभूवुः ॥६॥ 6) This is that secret mystery which is hidden... ज्ञः कालकारो गुणी सर्वविद्यः । तेनेशितं कर्म विवर्तते ह पृथ्व्याप्यतेजोऽनिलखानि चिन्त्यम् ॥२॥ 2) He envelopeth this whole Universe with Himself for ever, He that knoweth, Maker of Time, & the Modes of Nature dwell in Him; yea, all things He discerneth and by His governance the Law of Works revolveth in its cycle. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, of these thou shalt consider (as the substance wherein... subtle workings. आरभ्य कर्माणि गुणान्वितानि भावांश्च सर्वान् विनियोजयेद्यः । तेषामभावे कृतकर्मनाशः कर्मक्षये याति स तत्त्वतोऽन्यः ॥४॥ 4) So He beginneth works, that are subject to the modes of Nature, and setteth all existences to their workings: & when these things are not, thereby cometh annihilation of work that hath been done; and with the perishing of work, He departeth out of them; for ...
... Equality Since knowledge, desirelessness, impersonality, equality, the inner self-existent peace and bliss, freedom from or at least superiority to the tangled interlocking of the three modes of Nature are the signs of the liberated soul, they must accompany it in all its activities. They are the condition of that unalterable calm which this soul preserves in all the movement, all the shock,... by the Gita in its elements of Karmayoga to equality; it is the nodus of the free spirit's free relations with the world. Self-knowledge, desirelessness, impersonality, bliss, freedom from the modes of Nature, when withdrawn into themselves, self-absorbed, inactive, have no need of equality; for they take no cognisance of the things in which the opposition of equality and inequality arises. But the... creatures, it is only in this way that it can manifest its free spirituality. Traiguṇātītya , transcendence of the gunas, is the unperturbed spirit's superiority to that flux of action of the modes of Nature which is in its constant character perturbed and unequal; if it has to enter into relations with the conflicting and unequal activities of Nature, if the free soul is to allow its nature any action ...
... A Greater Psychology 10 The Gunas of Prakriti: The Three Modes of Nature The Three Modes of Nature The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Therefore without a long... existence in the lower Prakriti contains them and its process and dynamic form are the result of the interaction of these qualitative powers. The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 220-21 The modes of Nature are all qualitative in their essence and are called for that reason its gunas or qualities. In any spiritual conception of the universe this must be so, because the connecting medium between... cast of psychological response to experience. All character of action and experience in us is determined by the predominance and by the proportional interaction of these three qualities or modes of Nature. The soul in its personality is obliged, as it were, to run into their moulds; mostly, too, it is controlled by them rather than has any free control of them. The soul can only be free by rising ...
... envelops !7.13-14! and wraps himself in his Yogamaya. 1 "All this world," says the Gita, "because it is bewildered by the three states of being determined by the modes of Nature, fails to recognise me, for this my divine Maya of the modes of Nature is hard to get beyond; those cross beyond it who approach Me; but those who dwell in the Asuric nature of being, have their knowledge reft from them by Maya... non-doer, the imperishable, the immutable Self. "Works affect me not, nor have I desire for the fruit of works;" for God is the impersonal beyond this egoistic personality and this strife of the modes of Nature, and as the Purushottama also, the impersonal Personality, he possesses this supreme freedom even in works. Therefore the doer of divine works even while following the fourfold law has to know... the same effective force of divine consciousness. Maya is not essentially illusion,—the element or appearance of illusion only enters in by the ignorance of the lower Prakriti, Maya of the three modes of Nature,—it is the divine consciousness in its power of various self-representation of its being, while Prakriti is the effective force of that consciousness which operates to work out each such self- ...
... Rajas —the quality that energises and drives to action; the quality of action and passion and struggle impelled by desire and instinct; the force of kinesis. Rajas is one of the three Gunas or modes of Nature. Ramakrishna —Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886), a spiritual teacher of modem India. rasa — taste, liking, pure taste of enjoyment; the response of the mind, the vital... Existence. sattva, Sattwa — the quality that illumines and clarifies; the quality of light, harmony, purity and peace; the force of equilibrium. Sattwa is one of the three Gunas or modes of Nature, the Self — the Atman, the universal Spirit, the self-existent Being, the conscious essential Existence, one in all. (The Self is being, not a being) Shakti — Force, Power; the Divine... tamas, Tamas —the quality that hides or darkens; the quality of ignorance, inertia and obscurity, of incapacity and inaction; the force of inconscience. Tamas is one of the three Gunas or modes of Nature. Tantra —a yogic system based on the principle of Consciousness-Power (conceived of as the Divine Mother) as the Supreme Reality; its method of discipline is to raise Nature in man into ...
... a certain limited justification for so calling it, yet appears to the Yogin who has climbed beyond and to whom our night is day and our day night, not free will at all, but a subjection to the modes of Nature. He regards the same facts, but from the higher outlook of the whole-knower, kṛtsna-vit , while we view it altogether from the more limited mentality of our partial knowledge, akṛtsnavidaḥ ,... arrives and it is in contradiction to this ignorant claim that it affirms the complete subjection of the ego-soul on this plane to the gunas. "While the actions are being entirely done by the modes of Nature," it says, "he whose self is bewildered by egoism thinks that it is his 'I' which is doing them. But one who knows the true principles of the divisions of the modes and of works, realises... concealed, in the mind of the saint as in that of the sinner. When our eyes are really opened on our action and its springs, we are obliged to say with the Gita " guṇā guṇeṣu vartante ", "it was the modes of Nature that were acting upon the modes." For this reason even a high predominance of the sattwic Page 222 principle does not constitute freedom. For, as the Gita points out, the sattwa ...
... of the created things. purusa (Purusha): The soul or conscious being supporting the action of Nature. Page 60 rajas: One of the three gunas, fundamental qualities or modes of Nature; the kinetic principle in Nature characterised by desire, action and passions. rājasika (Rajasic): Full of the quality of rajas, the kinetic principle. rāksī māyā (Rakshasi Maya):... samskāras (Sanskaras): Fixed mental formations; impressions of past habits, experiences stored up in the subconscious parts. sattva (Sattwa): One of the three gunas, fundamental qualities or modes of Nature; the principle of light and harmony in Nature. sādhaka (Sadhak): One who practises the discipline of Yoga. sādhanā (Sadhana): The discipline of Yoga as a means ofrealisation; practice... also, an occult powergained by Yoga. sūksma śarīra (Sukshma Sharira): The subtle body. sv ā dhisth ā na: See cakra. tamos: One of the three gunas, fundamental qualities or modes of Nature; the principle of obscurity and inertia in Nature. tantra: A path of spiritual discipline based upon the principle of Consciousness-Power (conceived as the Mother) as the supreme Reality ...
... truth it is always one and equal in all things and creatures and the division is only a phenomenon of the surface. As long as we live in the ignorant seeming, we are the ego and are subject to the modes of Nature. Enslaved to appearances, bound to the dualities, tossed between good and evil, sin and virtue, grief and joy, pain and pleasure, good fortune and ill fortune, success and failure, we follow helplessly... the iron or gilt and iron round of the wheel of Maya. At best we have only the poor relative freedom which by us is ignorantly called free-will. But that is at bottom illusory, since it is the modes of Nature that express themselves through our personal will; it is force of Nature, grasping us, ungrasped by us that determines what we shall will and how we shall will it. Nature, not Page 95 ... world is the one divine Will of which Nature is the executrix; for she is the master and creator of all other wills. Human free-will can be real in a sense, but, like all things that belong to the modes of Nature, it is only relatively real. The mind rides on a swirl of natural forces, balances on a poise between several possibilities, inclines to one side or another, settles and has the sense of choosing: ...
... association with which the soul in Prakriti lives in a certain ignorance born of Maya, traiguṇyamayī māyā , conceives of itself as an ego of embodied mind and life, works under the power of the modes of Nature, thinks itself bound, suffering, limited by personality, chained to the obligation of birth and the wheel of action, a thing of desires, transient, mortal, a slave of its own nature. Above this... eternal Brahman, an apparent duality which founds the operations of his universal existence. The Soul is without origin and eternal, Nature too is without origin and eternal; but the modes of Nature and the lower forms she assumes to our conscious Page 417 experience have an origin in the transactions of these two entities. They come from her, wear by her the outward chain of cause ...
... and conservatism; Rajas that of elan for newness, possession and adventure; and, finally, Sattwa is the mode of harmony and balance and light. Now, the dominance of any one of these three modes of Nature may lead to a particular type of reposeful quiet which may deceitfully take the appearance of 'equality'. These phoney samat ā s may be recognised by the following signs: (i) Tamasic... the last siddhi we have been aiming at. For this equality too may break down under severe testsand stresses. Therefore the sadhaka has to proceed further, transcendthe action of all the three modes of Nature, including that of noble Sattva. In Sri Aurobindo' s words: "Perfect security can only be had by resorting to something higher than the sattwic quality, something higher than the discerning ...
... ca vedyaḥ , Krishna will say in a subsequent chapter; but it is the knowledge of him in the workings of Prakriti, in the workings of the three Page 116 guṇas , first qualities or modes of Nature, traiguṇyaviṣayā vedāḥ . This Brahman or Divine in the workings of Nature is born, as we may say, out of the Akshara, the immutable Purusha, the Self who stands above all the modes or qualities... all-sufficient to him, but does works for the sake of the Divine only, as a pure sacrifice, without attachment or desire. Thus he gains equality and becomes free from the Page 118 modes of Nature, nistraiguṇya ; his soul takes its poise not in the insecurity of Prakriti, but in the peace of the immutable Brahman, even while his actions continue in the movement of Prakriti. Thus is sacrifice ...
... Sweet Mother, I have not understood this: "At best we have only the poor relative freedom which by us is ignorantly called free will. But that is at bottom illusory, since it is the modes of Nature that express themselves through our personal will; it is force of Nature, grasping us, ungrasped by us that determines what we shall will or how we shall will it. Nature, not an independent ego... the Truth. But so long as one sees as one speaks, oh, what a lamentable poverty! Sri Aurobindo writes: "As long as we live in the ignorant seeming, we are the ego and are subject to the modes of Nature. Enslaved to appearances, bound to the dualities, tossed between good and evil, sin and virtue, grief Page 56 and joy, pain and pleasure, good fortune and ill fortune, success and ...
... imperfection might not matter. Calm, untroubled, not depressed, not elated, refusing to accept the perfection or imperfection, fault or merit, sin or virtue as ours, perceiving that it is the modes of Nature working in the field of her modes that make this mixture, we could withdraw into the silence of the spirit and, pure, untouched, witness only the workings of Prakriti. But in an integral realisation... before we reach this last perfection, we can have the union with the Divine in works in its extreme wideness, if not yet on its most luminous heights; for we perceive no longer merely Nature or the modes of Nature, but become conscious, in our physical movements, in our nervous and vital reactions, in our mental workings, of a Force greater than body, mind and life which takes hold of our limited instruments ...
... declaration: 'To action alone hast thou the right, not to its fruits.' "Next, Gita points out that action is never done by the ego; it is done by the three modes of Nature, Prakriti. In regard to this, the Gita says: 'The three modes of Nature perform all works. With understanding clouded by the sense of ego, man thinks : "It is myself that is the doer of action." (3.27) "Hence, the Gita asks ...
... Letters on Yoga. SABCL. Vol. 23, p. 588. × Pertaining to Tamas. one of the three Gunas or modes of Nature (Prakriti); Tamas is the quality of ignorance, obscurity, inaction, and inconscience, and is inherent in the physical consciousness. ...
... movements and experiences, the observer or witness. There is again an inner cleavage. There is this emotional mind in which these moods and passions continue to occur according to the habit of the modes of Nature and there is the observing mind which sees them, studies and understands but is detached from them. It observes them as if in a sort of action and play on a mental stage of personages other ...
... On the contrary in the full flood of action the soul is free from its works, is not the doer, not bound by what is done, and he who lives in the freedom of the soul, not in the bondage of the modes of Nature, alone has release from works. This is what the Gita clearly means when it says that he who in action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in cessation from works, is the man of ...
... and this affirmation of the social law by a war which destroys in its process and result all that constitutes society. Sannyāsa is the renunciation of life and action and of the threefold modes of Nature, but it has to be approached through one or other of the three qualities. The impulse may be tamasic, a feeling of impotence, fear, aversion, disgust, horror of the world and life; or it may be ...
... 1951 Sweet Mother, I have not understood this: “At best we have only the poor relative freedom which by us is ignorantly called free will. But that is at bottom illusory, since it is the modes of Nature that express themselves through our personal will; it is force of Nature, grasping us, ungrasped by us that determines what we shall will or how we shall will it. Nature, not an independent ego ...
... tamas (Tamas) —the quality that hides or darkens; the quality of ignorance, inertia and obscurity, of incapacity and inaction; the force of inconscience. Tamas is one of the three Gunas or modes of Nature. Upanishads —a class of Hindu sacred writings, regarded as the source of the Vedanta philosophy. vairāgya —distaste, disgust for the world and life. the vital (being) —the life-nature ...
... Importance in the Emergence of True Self *Swadharma—the aim of your life *The Aim of Higher Education—an Aurobindonian paradigm *The Aim of My Life *The Journey to Love *The Modes of Nature and Mental Tamas *The Self and Self-Realization as the Base for Social Change *The Spirit in Management *Training the Mental Faculties—a resource guide on the Mind *Understanding ...
... lower nature. Most of the time it does not know what it really craves after. Our ego-conscious ness is always in turmoil because of the agitating pressure of the mutual interaction of the three modes of nature, these modes being Tamas or the principle of inertia, Rajas or the principle of vehemence, and Sattwa or the principle of bright rigidity. A disturbs state of constant worries and unhappiness ...
... the same in censure and praise, — He who prefers neither honour nor dishonour, neither friend nor foe and he who has renounced all egoistic initiative, he is said to have transcended the Gunas ( modes of Nature). 14.24 - 25 He who does not desire to give up a disagreeable work or who is not attached to an agreeable work, and he who is imbued with sattwa and a steady mind where all doubts ...
... rajasic or tamasic or a mixture of these qualities and its temperament is only a sort of subtler soul- colour which has been given to the major prominent operation Page 79 of the fixed modes of nature. But just as the psychic being, at a suitable stage of human evolution, begins to come forward more openly and sovereignly on the surface consciousness and takes recourse to the path of knowledge ...
... instrument of action is not liberated from the gunas, and therefore the action is not yet the full and luminous expression of the will of the Spirit. In a complete transformation of Nature, the modes of Nature, the action of Nature, the total vibrations of Nature express automatically (not by virtue of an obligation of a regular practice of Siddhis) the law of the divine Nature. This is what is meant ...
... puzzled by what he thinks as the contradiction in what you said yesterday about Gunas. Disciple : You said that a man like Hitler does what he does because of the action of the Gunas, the modes of nature. In other-words he does what the Cosmic Spirit makes him do and yet he is individually responsible for his actions. It seems contradictory. Sri Aurobindo : That is generally the case when ...
... has not made its total surrender to the Divine. We may think we are free, but the moment our cherished work is taken away from us, we react in an unyogic way, and betray our bondage to the lower modes of Nature. The best condition for attaining this freedom is to rise superior to all action and live in a state in which action and inaction become one. An authentic yogic action proceeds from an inner ...
... unmanyavasthayā tvāṁ vigatakalimalaṁ śaṅkaraṁ na smarāmi kṣantavyo me'parādhaḥ śiva śiva śiva bhoḥ śrīmahādeva śambho. I have never seen Thee, the robeless, companionless, devoid of the modes of nature, free from ignorance and illusion, whose eyes are fixed on the tip of the nose, who is settled in Yoga and is the knower of the Reality of the World. I have never thought of Thee, the listless ...
... divine power contains all the rest and can get rid of this initial error. 2 We see then that action is possible without the subjection of the soul to the normal degraded functioning of the modes of Nature. That functioning depends on the mental, vital and physical limitation into which we are cast; it is a deformation, an incapacity, a wrong or depressed value imposed on us by the mind and life ...
... the will of Nature in us; our personal will, we say, but our ego personality is a creation of Nature, it is not and cannot be our free self, our independent being. The whole is the action of the modes of Nature. It may be a tamasic action, and then we have an inert personality subject to and satisfied with the mechanical round of things, incapable of any strong effort at a freer action and mastery. Or ...
... Supreme without qualities who is possessed of all qualities, nirguṇo guṇī . 3 He is not bound by any mode of nature or action, nor consists, as our personality consists, of a sum of qualities, modes of nature, characteristic operations of the mental, moral, emotional, vital, physical being, but is the source of all modes and qualities, capable of developing any he wills in whatever way and to whatever ...
... Essays on the Gita XXII Beyond the Modes of Nature So far then extends the determinism of Nature, and what it amounts to is this that the ego from which we act is itself an instrument of the action of Prakriti and cannot therefore be free from the control of Prakriti; the will of the ego is a will determined by Prakriti, it is a part of the nature as ...
... world is the one divine Will of which Nature is the executrix; for she is the master and creator of all other wills. Human free-will can be real in a sense, but, like all things that belong to the modes of Nature, it is only relatively real. The mind rides on a swirl of natural forces, balances on a poise between several possibilities, inclines to one side or another, settles and has the sense of choosing: ...
... acts or governs action; he recognises that Prakriti, Force of cosmic nature following her fixed modes, is the one and only worker in him and in all things and creatures. But what has fixed the modes of Nature? Or who has originated and governs the movements of Force? There is a Consciousness—or a Conscient—behind that is the lord, witness, knower, enjoyer, upholder and source of sanction for her works; ...
... and cast of psychological response to experience. All character of action and experience in us is determined by the predominance and by the proportional interaction of these three qualities or modes of Nature. The soul in its personality is obliged, as it were, to run into their moulds; mostly, too, it is controlled by them rather than has any free control of them. The soul can only be free by rising ...
... the observer or witness. There is again an inner cleavage. There is this emotional mind in which these moods and passions continue to occur according to Page 352 the habit of the modes of Nature and there is the observing mind which sees them, studies and understands but is detached from them. It observes them as if in a sort of action and play on a mental stage of personages other than ...
... of the article written in Bengali by Upadhyay Brahmabandhav on the eve of the first appearance of the Bande Mataram newspaper in 1906. 189Pure. Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas are the three modes of Nature in the Samkhya philosophy. They correspond to the principle of intelligence, light, balance, harmony (Sattva); the principle of kinesis, energy, action (Rajas); and the principle of darkness ...
... arrives and it is in contradiction to this ignorant claim that it affirms the complete subjection of the ego-soul on this plane to the gunas. 'While the actions are being entirely done by the modes of Nature,' it says 'he whose self is bewildered by egoism thinks that it is his "I" which is doing them.' "¹ To awake to the agony of this servitude, and to be conscious that we are yoked to the leaden ...
... āram pramahasi pade nistraiguṇye śrīaravindāya namaḥ OM Giver of boons I offer at Thy feet songs of praises like a garland of flowers. Salutation to Sri Aurobindo, who is beyond the three modes of Nature and is the highest goal made of Light. Shivamahimnah stotram 31, 30 ॐ श्रीअरविन्दाय नमः वन्दे मीरां वन्दे मीरे ते चरणारविन्दम्। शरणं शरणं शरणम्। om śrīaravindāya namaḥ vande mīrāṁ ...
... vibrations and formations. That is why our nature can be changed in spite of Vivekananda's saying 2 Page 38 and Horace's adage 3 and in spite of the conservative resistance of the subconscient, but it is a difficult job because the master mode of Nature is this obstinate repetition and recurrence. As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from us by rejection... body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there. Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature. Men are not ordinarily conscious of either of these planes of their... them are we in control or even aware. What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is the general Nature, — universal Nature individualising itself in each person; for this general Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us, and that, whether formed now or before our birth ...
... recurrence of the same vibrations and formations. That is why our nature can be changed in spite of Vivekananda's saying and Horace's adage and in spite of the conservative resistance of the subconscient, but it is a difficult job because the master mode of Nature is this obstinate repetition and recurrence. As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from us by rejection but come back, it depends... them are we in control or even aware. What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is the general Nature,—universal Nature individualising itself in each person; for this general Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us, and that, whether formed now or before our birth, is... body consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there. Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature. Men are not ordinarily conscious of either of these planes of their own being ...
... a pale refracted light idealised as the burning body of the Sun and its splendour. This idealist vision also does not arrive at the essence of being, does not even touch it but only an inferior mode of Nature. Mind is the dubious outer penumbra of a conscious existence which is not limited by mentality but exceeds it. The method of the traditional way of knowledge, eliminating all these things, arrives... are still not entirely that which the universe really is, either in itself or its nature. As all that we are is the play and form, the mental, psychic, vital and physical expression of a supreme Self unconditioned by mind and life and body, the universe too is the play and form and cosmic soul-expression and nature-expression of a supreme Existence which is unconditioned by force and matter, unconditioned... one Spirit, one self and one existence. The individual is in nature one expression of the universal Being, in spirit an emanation of the Transcendence. For if he finds his self, he finds too that his own true self is not this natural personality, this created individuality, but is a universal being in its relations with others and with Nature and in its upward term a portion or the living front of a supreme ...
... all the basis of his confidence in himself and his life shorn away from under him at a single stroke. That is the nature of the crisis which he undergoes. Arjuna is, in the language of the Gita, a man subject to the action of the three Page 67 Gunas or modes of the Nature-Force and habituated to move unquestioningly in that field, like the generality of men. He justifies his name only... anyone, for each human being has in him something of the same temperament, turn of thought and balance of strength and weakness as Arjuna. Like Arjuna, we are all subject to the rule of the three modes of the nature-force, or gunas, to use the language of the Gita. Sattwa, rajas and tamas are the three chains which bind us and, like Arjuna, most of our being is rajasic and pragmatic, with a degree... and the Knower of the Field, so important for the practice of desireless action under the drive of the divine Will; and finally a clear statement of the practical operations and results of the three modes of Prakriti which he is bidden to surmount. To such a disciple the Teacher of the Gita gives his divine teaching. He seizes him at a moment of his psychological development by egoistic action when all ...
... stable; the appearance of stability is given by constant repetition and recurrence of the same vibrations and formations. That is why our nature can be changed in spite of Vivekananda and Horace and the subconscient, but it is a difficult job because the master mode of Nature is this obstinate repetition and recurrence. As for the things thrown away from us that come back, it depends on where you throw... my desires, my impulses, formations and tendencies of lower nature are mostly due to old debts of past life, some due to impressions of this life? What about heredity then? Do we not say that usually sensual parents have sensual issues, etc., etc.,? Another point—even if this subconscient is managed, is there not also universal nature which acts and reacts on individual consciousness and brings... superconscient, the subliminal, the subconscient of which we are not aware. What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is the general Nature, but the general Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us. That is what we usually call ourselves. Part of this is in habitual movement and ...
... recognises this truth of ego and this truth of works. He gives up the idea of a mental, vital, physical "I" that acts or governs action; he recognises that Prakriti, Force of cosmic nature following her fixed modes, is in him and in all things and creatures the one and only worker. The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 203 Our ego is only a face of the universal being and has no separate existence;... pale refracted light idealised as the burning body of the Sun and its splendour. This idealist vision also does not arrive at the essence of being, does not even touch it but only an inferior mode of Nature. Mind is the dubious outer penumbra of a conscious existence which is not limited by mentality but exceeds it. The method of the traditional way of knowledge, eliminating all these things arrives... knowledge of the principles of Being, its fundamental modes and its relations with the principles of the phenomenal universe. This was what was meant by the Upanishad when it spoke of the Brahman as that which being known all is known. 1 It has to be realised first as the pure principle of Existence, afterwards, says the Upanishad, its essential modes become clear to the soul which realises it. We ...
... failing him and all the basis of his confidence in himself and his life shorn away from under him at a single stroke. That is the nature of the crisis which he undergoes. Arjuna is, in the language of the Gita, a man subject to the action of the three gunas or modes of the Nature-Force and habituated to move unquestioningly in that field, like the generality of men. He justifies his name only in being... Knower of the Field, so important for the practice of desireless action under the drive of the divine Will; and finally a clear !14.21! statement of the practical operations and results of the three modes of Prakriti which he is bidden to surmount. !17.1! To such a disciple the Teacher of the Gita gives his divine teaching. He seizes him at a moment of his psychological development by egoistic action... there need be no apparent change in the action, he must act always by the law of his nature, even if the act itself seem faulty and deficient compared with that of another law than his own, he is troubled. The nature! but what of this sense of sin in the action with which he is preoccupied? is it not this very nature which drives men as if by force and even against their better will into sin and guilt ...
... 43 gains equality, samatvam, and becomes free from the modes of the Nature, nistraigunya; his soul takes its poise not in the insecurity of Prakriti, but in the peace of the immutable Brahman, even while his actions continue in the movement of Prakriti. Or, one even begins to gain entry into Para Prakriti, Higher Nature, and becomes a channel, instrument, nimitta matram, of the Supreme... a consciousness of his consciousness, a nature of ,his. nature, but in the obscurity of avidya, of this mental and physical existence self-forgetful of its source, its reality, its true character. Hence, there is the double nature of the Soul in manifestation, — the original nature in which it is one with its own true spiritual being, and the derived nature in which it is subject to the confusion... 70 As a foundation of this integral knowledge, the Gita makes a deep and momentous distinction between two Natures, the phenomenal and the spiritual Nature: "The five elements (conditions of material being), mind, reason, ego, this is my eight-fold divided Nature. But know my other Nature different from this, the Supreme, which becomes the Jiva and by which this world is upheld." 71 If ...
... and type the developing nature takes and can act only in the way this formed Prakriti lays on it and move in its narrow groove or relatively wider circle. The man is then sattwic, rajasic or tamasic or a mixture of these qualities and his temperament is only a sort of subtler soul-colour which has been given to the major prominent operation of these fixed modes of his nature. Men of a stronger force... considerable importance in the perfection of our power of nature; but we have to take it in its inner aspects, first, personality, character, temperament, soul-type, then the soul-force which lies behind them and wears these forms, and lastly the play of the free spiritual Shakti in which they find their culmination and unity beyond all modes. For the crude external idea that a man is born as a Brahmana... workings of Nature, Purusha and Prakriti. The presence and influence of the Purusha represents itself in nature as a certain power of our being which we may call for our immediate purpose soul-force; and it is always this soul-force which supports all the workings of the powers of the reason, the mind, life and body and determines the cast of our conscious being and the type of our nature. The normal ...
... the inner ways of the being. An eternal Truth-Consciousness must possess us and sublimate all our natural modes into its own modes of being, knowledge and action; a spontaneous truth-awareness, truth-will, truth-feeling, truth movement, truth-action can then become the integral law of our nature. Page 655 × ... received and assimilated by the inferior nature of the mind, life and body. But this is not enough; there is needed an entire remoulding of what we are into a way and power of the divine Supernature. The integration of our being cannot be complete unless there is this transformation of the dynamic action; there must be an uplifting and change of the whole mode of Nature itself and not only some illumination... healed by removing the divorce of our nature from the inner soul-reality, by abolishing the veil between our becoming and our self-being, by bridging the remoteness of Page 654 our individuality in Nature from the Divine Being who is the omnipresent Reality in Nature and above Nature. But the last division to be removed is the scission between this Nature and the Supernature which is 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; but, equally, Person can be the reality with impersonality as a mode of its nature: both aspects of manifestation face each other in the infinite variety of conscious Existence. What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences... though not his equal, and he is even capable of denying mind or real consciousness to it because its modes are other and narrower than those with which in himself and his kind he is familiar; he can observe submental being from outside but cannot at all communicate with it or enter intimately into its nature. Equally the superconscious is to him a closed book which may well be filled only with empty pages... n. To the Overmind intelligence these are separable Powers of the one Existence which Page 295 can pursue their independent self-affirmation and can also unite together their different modes of action, creating both in their independence and in their union different states of consciousness and being which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence ...
... matter. The first point is that there is more than one procedure for tackling effectively the problem. These procedures vary with the state of consciousness of individual sadhakas and the modes of their nature. Thus the procedure which may help me to overcome my fear of death may not be applicable in the case of another sadhaka. Every sadhaka has to be clear about this matter and choose one or more... all nature's weaknesses, fears and anxieties, - in particular, the fear of physical death, for one strongly feels that these fears and foibles are incompatible with the self-respect of a sincere sadhaka. (ii)To keep awake in one's consciousness the precise conviction that fear as a psychological movement does not belong to the sadhaka himself: it is not intrinsic to his true nature. It is... meet continually Nature's demand or keep pace with her; it gets out of the current. At a certain point of this growing disparity and disharmony between the form and the force that presses upon it, a complete dissolution of the form is unavoidable. A new form must be created; a new harmony and parity made possible. This is the true significance of death and this is its use in Nature." (CWM, Vol. 3, pp ...
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