... being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the vijñāna and which we may describe in our modern turn of language as the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or supermind. There the One and the Many meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the divine Truth and the inspiration of the divine Will and Knowledge. If we can break down the veil of the intellectual, emotional... Page 417 break down entirely the opposition of the lower and the higher existence, the false gulf created by the Ignorance between the finite and the Infinite, God and Nature, the One and the Many, open the gates of the Divine, fulfil the individual in the complete harmony of the cosmic consciousness and realise in the cosmic being the epiphany of the transcendent Sachchidananda. And these... speaks of the Jiva as a portion of the Lord. × Vijānataḥ. Vijnana is the knowledge of the One and the Many, by which the Many are seen in the terms of the One, in the infinite unifying Truth, Right, Vast of the divine existence. × ...
... reason for the Overmind's insufficiency is the peculiar posture of relation in it between the One and the Many. All the levels of world-being are a play of the Many and the One: the nature of each level is defined by the terms characteristic to it of this play. In the Supermind the One and the Many are balanced and integrated and, while the One does not annul or engulf the Many, the Many always... come out of it anywhere in the world-series as an inevitability but as a mode of its infinite freedom founded in the perfection its plane manifests through the balance and integration of the One and the Many: its plane alone is free enough and perfect enough to fulfill evolutionary mind, life-force and matter by converting the progressive Lightward straining of darkness and dusk into a process ...
... also it must be remembered that we are using a temporal figure in respect of an extra-temporal fact – there and then is formed a characteristic range of reality which is a perfect equation of the one and the many: that is to say, the one in becoming many still remains the same immaculate one in and through the many, and likewise the many in spite of its manifoldness-and because of the special quality of... the descent or fall from the Supermind leads, in the first instance, to the creation or appearance of the Overmind. It is the level of consciousness where the perfect balance of the One and the Many is disturbed and the emphasis begins to be laid on the many. The source of incompatibility between the two just starts here as if Many is not – One and One is not Many. It is the beginning of... highest heaven. Next is the domain of the Supermind with which the manifestation of the Divine starts. We have said it is the world of typal realities, of the first seed-realities, where the One and the Many are united and fused in each other, where the absolute unity of the Supreme maintains itself in undiminished magnitude and expresses and formulates itself perfectly in and through the original ...
... the mind. In the third poise of the Supermind the mental consciousness, or mind, comes into existence because the diversification has got to individualize itself. There in the first poise of the One and the Many the Truth-Consciousness is present and the Infinite. There is of course a supporting concentration of the Supermind even when the being projects itself into the movement and is involved... Many,—the two terms of the expression of the Satchidananda. All actually lives so, but the divided consciousness of man compels him to live either in the One or in the Many. In actuality, the One and the Many do co-exist, but in man's consciousness either he is compelled by the limitedness of his consciousness to accept the position of the One or accept to live in the many. He must abandon the many... This is inevitable in the present conditions. "The Divine Soul is not so enslaved to diversity and duality." Infinite self-Concentration and infinite self-expansion and diffusion, bring about the One and the many: Self-concentration is Being, self-extension is the Many. It is constant self-extension and diffusion of the One in the Many and the Many in diffusion are drawn always to the One. This vast view ...
... together in perfect Unity which allows free interpenetration of One and Many. The One and the Many basing themselves on the Infinite have a free interchange Page 253 and mixing. In the Supramental Truth Consciousness, total and individual determinations are held together. In All and the One, the One and the Many are held tgether, in clarity, "in complete incomparable Unity," and "yet close... in the universal, or to create infinite centres. Without determining or limiting action, there would not be any cosmos, without limiting or determining action we would not have a world of the One and the many. And Mind makes this limiting determination for the infinite, therefore, it is necessary. Only, it is a subordinate term of the Supermind and so is Life and so is Matter, Matter is a world of... y of the Truth is absent. Truth is present but the integrality of the truth is not present. In the Supermind the essential truth is completely held, Truth of the total, that is to say, of the One and the Many, is held together in complete clarity. Here it uses the individual self-determination of all, self-determination—you have established a relation without being limited by any of the determinations; ...
... from his fundamental view of existence itself and go back to it for their constant justification. As in Indian, so in Greek philosophy the first question for thought was the problem of the One and the Many. We see everywhere a multiplicity of things and beings; is it real or only phenomenal or practical, māyā, vyavahāra ? Has individual man, for instance,—the question which concerns us most nearly... primordial principle, a result or an origin, a oneness of totality or a oneness of nature or a oneness of essence,—the various standpoints of Pluralism, of Sankhya, of Vedanta? Or if both the One and the Many are real, what are the relations between these two eternal principles of being, or are they reconciled in an Absolute beyond them? These are no barren questions of logic, no battle of cloudy ...
... nothing else exists. But Shankara makes an irreconcilable opposition between the one and the many. In his eyes, what appears as many is really one: the manyness is seen because of ignorance, and all that characterises it is inapplicable to the one. Thus, consequent on his opposition of the one and the many, is the impassable gulf he digs between the status and the movement, the formless ...
... Ignorance and that the man who knows Brahman as both the Ignorance and the Knowledge, as both the One and the Many, crosses by the Ignorance, by the experience of the Multiplicity, beyond death and by the Knowledge enjoys Immortality. In other words, the Upanishad expounds an integral view of the One and the Many, of the One and the All, and of the Knowledge and the Ignorance, where the experience of the... third as Paribhū who eventuates everywhere and manifests the realm of becomings and eventualities. (e)The Upanishadic view of knowledge is that of a status of consciousness in which the One and the Many are not separated from each other but where the Many issue from the One, which, even though transcendental of the Many, manifests the Many as inherently present and yet transcended in the One ...
... also it must be remembered that we are using a temporal figure in respect of an extra-temporal fact—there and then is formed a characteristic range of reality which is a perfect equation of the one and the many: that is to say, the one in becoming many still remains the same immaculate one in and through the many, and likewise the many in spite of its manifoldness—and because of the special quality... the descent or fall from the Supermind leads, in the first instance, to the creation or appearance of the Overmind. It is the level of consciousness where the perfect balance of the One and the Many is disturbed and the emphasis begins to be laid on the many. The source of incompatibility between the two just starts here as if Many is not-One and One is not- Many. It is the beginning of Ignorance... heaven. Next is the domain of the Supermind with which the manifestation of the Divine starts. We have said it is the world of typal realities, of the first seed-realities, where the One and the Many are united and fused in each other, where the absolute unity of the Supreme maintains itself in undiminished magnitude and expresses and formulates itself perfectly in and through the original ...
... also it must be remembered that we are using a temporal figure in respect of an extra-temporal fact—there and then is formed a characteristic range of reality which is a perfect equation of the one and the many: that is to say, the one in becoming many still remains the same immaculate one in and through the many, and likewise the many in spite of its manifoldness—and because of the special quality of... lines. Thus the descent or fall from the Supermind leads, in the first instance, to the creation or appearance of the Overmind. It is the level of consciousness where the perfect balance of the One and the Many is disturbed and the emphasis begins to be laid on the many. The source of incompatibility between the two just starts here as if Many is not-One and One is not-Many. It is the beginning of Ignorance... heaven. Next is the domain of the Supermind with which the manifestation of the Divine starts. We have said it is the world of typal realities, of the first seed-realities, where the One and the Many are united and fused in each other, where the absolute unity of the Supreme maintains itself in undiminished magnitude and expresses and formulates itself perfectly in and through the original ...
... discordant Page 355 and disparate. All universal existence moves between these two terms, a diversification of the One, a unification of the many and diverse, and that must be because the One and the Many are fundamental aspects of the Infinite. For what the divine Self knowledge and All-knowledge brings out in its manifestation must be a truth of its being and the play of that truth is its Lila... concrete experience and a more living and full-bodied language. Here it becomes opportune to see how in this aspect of the Reality we must regard the relation we have discovered between the One and the Many; this amounts to a determination of the true connection between the individual and the Divine Being, between the Soul and the Ishwara. In the normal theistic conception the Many are created by ...
... inclusion is spiritual and psychological; it is a translation of the two forms of the Many, all and individual, into a unifying spiritual experience,—a translation of the eternal unity of the One and the Many; for the One is the eternal unity of the Many differentiating and undifferentiating itself in the cosmos. This means that cosmos and individual are manifestations of a transcendent Self who is... other; they are one and the same Reality experienced on two sides which are both necessary for the full knowledge and experience of each other and of that which they both are. So is it with the One and the Many, the finite and the infinite, the transcendent and the cosmic, the individual and the universal; each is the other as well as itself and neither can be entirely known without the other and without ...
... indeed only the Truth of the manifestation as it presents itself to the consciousness when it stands on the border line between Eternity and the descent into Time where the relation between the One and the Many in the evolution is self determined, a zone where all that is to be is implied but not yet in action. But the liberated consciousness can rise higher where the problem exists no longer and from... you have not read my "Riddle of This World", 1 but it is a similar solution I put there. X 's way of putting it is a trifle too "Vedantic-Theistic"—in my view it is a transaction between the One and the Many. In the beginning it was you (not the human you who is now complaining but the central being) which accepted or even invited the adventure of the Ignorance; sorrow and struggle are a necessary ...
... indeed only the Truth of the manifestation as it presents itself to the consciousness when it stands on the border line between Eternity and the descent into Time where the relation between the One and the Many in the evolution is self-determined, a zone where all that is to be is implied but not yet in action. But the liberated consciousness can rise higher where the problem exists no longer and from ...
... the human being can attain or realise for himself ,—for, in the Gita, the Purushottama is the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Being who is beyond the Immutable and the Mutable and contains both the One and the Many. Man, says the Gita, can attain the Brahmic consciousness, realise himself as an eternal portion of the Purushottama and live in the Purushottama. The Purushottama consciousness is the consciousness ...
... that escapes definition. In the universe there is a constant relation of Oneness and Multiplicity. This expresses itself as the universal Personality and the many Persons, and both between the One and the Many and among the Many themselves there is the possibility of an infinite variety of relations. These relations are determined by the play of the divine existence, the Lord, entering into His manifested ...
... knowledge to extend one's conscious existence so as to embrace the whole Multiplicity. This is the double or synthetic ideal of the Isha Upanishad; to embrace simultaneously Vidya and Avidya, the One and the Many; to exist in the world, but change the terms of the Death into the terms of the Immortality; to have the freedom and peace of the Non-Birth simultaneously with the activity of the Birth. ( Verses ...
... the mental thinker; the latter, thus separated, has to conquer death and division by a developing experience as the individual Inhabitant and finally to recover by the reunited knowledge of the One and the Many the state of Immortality. This is our proper course and not either to devote ourselves exclusively to the life of Avidya or to reject it entirely for motionless absorption in the One. BIRTH ...
... follows after the Knowledge only, enters as if into a blinder darkness than he who follows after the Ignorance and that the man who knows Brahman as both the Ignorance and the Knowledge, as both the One and the Many, as both the Becoming and the Non-Becoming, crosses by the Ignorance, by the experience of the Multiplicity, beyond death and by the Knowledge takes possession of Immortality. For the Self-existent ...
... for we have the knowledge of ourselves as our timeless immutable self possessing itself in cosmos and beyond cosmos: this knowledge becomes the basis of the Divine Play in time, reconciles the one and the many, the eternal unity and the eternal multiplicity, reunites the soul with God and discovers the Divine in the universe. It is by this realisation that we can approach the Absolute as the source ...
... eternal and infinite relations of this One from whom all things proceed, these Many of whom the One is the essence and the origin and this Energy, Power, or Nature through which the relations of the One and the Many are maintained, we shall see a certain justification even for the dualist philosophies and Page 376 religions which seem to deny most energetically the unity of beings and to make ...
... "life here the Overmind is perfection; but, as compared to what is still beyond, the Overmind is imperfect Nature rounded off in general without a flawless balance and harmony between the One and the Many. The Overmind is not Ignorance: it is Knowledge, yet it is Knowledge on the way to being Ignorance. So the Neo-Platonic Nous is very distant from being "supramental" - and the proof is ...
... fail to satisfy the integral philosophic sense of the human mind: all life and thought are based on a fundamental recognition of identity and difference, the universal and the particular, the one and the many. All things tend to indicate a ground of unity just as much as each thing tends to express a unique shade of it: cosmos is at once a universe and a pluriverse. The most satisfying as well ...
... Brahman, but we cannot know the Paratpara Brahman. God in the world is Brahman-Iswara-Atman, Prakriti or Shakti and Jiva. These are the three terms of His world-manifestation. 23 The One and the Many are both of them eternal aspects of the Absolute Parabrahman which is Itself neither one nor many in an exclusive sense. It is beyond unity and multiplicity in its essential truth as it is beyond ...
... manifested before and will manifest again,—the Many are eternal in the One, only they are sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest. Dwaita is true, because although from one point of view the One and the Many are eternally and essentially the same, yet, Page 66 from another, the idea in its manifestation is eternally different from the Intelligence in which it manifests. If Unity is eternal ...
... plane of divine archetypes and towards whom our souls must rise and through whom we must strive for an evolutionary expression of those archetypes in our entire nature and for a harmony of the One and the Many in a new collective life. Sri Aurobindo's feeling of divine concretenesses behind the philosophical intellect's graspings of significance on high significance within the passing pageant ...
... is a Reality, wide as the sky, which acts in and through all beings. All are its becoming and manifestation. There is nothing but that. That is all- It manifests at the same time as the One and the many, in and beyond creation, as the moving and the motionless. It is that which has been worshipped as God by the religions. It is not a mere guess or fantasy, but a reality that can actually be ...
... far, as the end and aim of this new Yoga is concerned, One without a second, our philosophical tenet has not been adequately matched by the other tenet. Which is ; Verily All this is Brahman—One and the Many, this is the starting point of all our philosophical disputes. We lose sight of the experience and realisation of the ancient sages that the One has become Many and the Many are One. When actual ...
... One is broken up most strikingly, he could recognise as if from a terrible effect the root cause that had remained hidden. The root cause leading to the total division was the Overmind where the One and the Many are not in an integral balance but the One withdraws into the background or sinks into a basis and multiplicity has full play. The unity is never lost, yet it permits the multiplicity to work ...
... indeed only the Truth of the manifestation as it presents itself to the consciousness when it stands on the border line between Eternity and the descent into Time where the relation between the One and the Many in the evolution is self determined, a zone where all that is to be is implied but not yet in action. But the liberated consciousness can rise higher where the problem exists no longer and from ...
... indissoluble identity with the Divine's pure essence and absolute unity. The differentiation or variability there in the Immutable is a play immanent in the integral self-nature of the Supreme. The one and the many form on that level a single entity, an undivided whole: the unity running in and through and holding the multiplicity and the multiplicity being the playfulness of the unity. Multiplicity however ...
... indissoluble identity with the Divine's pure essence and absolute unity. The differentiation or variability there in the Immutable is a play immanent in the integral self-nature of the Supreme. The one and the many form on that level a single entity, an undivided whole: the unity running in and through and holding the multiplicity and the multiplicity being the playfulness of the unity. Multiplicity, however ...
... being towards the integral divine fulfilment. But what is the nature of this unifying movement of progress, and what is that plane of consciousness on which the final reconciliation between the One and the many, between Time and Eternity, silence and activity, and Spirit and Matter can be effected? We are awake on the physical, vital and mental planes of consciousness, all of them planes of the separative ...
... man live in God and God in man; to convert human life into a vehicle of the divine Light, and human nature into divine nature. They met to declare that Spirit and Matter, Heaven and Earth, the One and the many are essentially one, and that their oneness can be dynamically expressed in every movement of human life. It was for the complete transformation of homo sapiens and his ascent into the Divine ...
... is capable of long and deep meditation and as little weighted as possible with the conventions of material life". 29 Man and Nature and God are then inseparable to our understanding, and the One and the Many, the visible and the invisible, seem lost in the ineffable experience of harmony and peace. And as for the great architectural wonders of the Moghul period, isn't the Taj - when seen with an ...
... the One is not and cannot be the Many, though the Many live in and for the One. This is Dwaita. The only tests to which we can subject these three interpretations of the relation between the One and the Many, all of which are equally logical and therefore equally valid to the reason, are the statements of the Upanishads and the Gita and the experiences of Yoga when the Jivatman or individual Self ...
... The Means of Realisation Vedanta is merely an intellectual assent, without Yoga. The verbal revelation of the true relations between the One and the Many, the intellectual acceptance of the revelation and the dogmatic acknowledgement of the relations do not lead us beyond metaphysics, and there is no human pursuit more barren and frivolous than ...
... different things. Death wants to see the face of Truth, but he forgets that Truth defies Reason. By Reason one can never understand the secret of the Universal Drama which the Universe is. The One and the Many are not opposed to each other; for, as the poet says in the above lines: "The Many are the innumerable One." Savitri says to Death: Our human words can only shadow her. To thought ...
... actual. And if that is so, what appears as the One holding concealed within itself the multiple and diverse play of its own rich being would be logically prior to the other Unity in which the One and the Many are equally balanced and act as if constitutive of each other: in other words the Primordial Unity would be presupposed, as it were, by the Consequent. (8.4.1987) You have written ...
... their interpenetration. Their essential forms were not blurred. They became sharper and more definite in their communion. They moved 'like reeds in a single stream', in the consummate music of the One and the Many. It was not an extinction, much less a degradation of the individual, but an apotheosis. The being of Keats too is not conceived as merged and lost in the Universal Spirit: The soul of Adonais ...
... this, it is because there exists in you the ineffable synthesis of what our human thought and experience would never have dared join together in order to adore them - element and totality, the one and the many, mind and matter, the infinite and the personal; it is because of the indefinable contours which this complexity gives to your appearance and to your activity, that my heart, enamoured of cosmic ...
... alone is and the Many are an illusion (Mayavada Adwaita), in which case there is only the transcendental reality, with the universe a phantasmal appearance; (2) the universe, as a system of the One and the Many, is the sole reality, in which case God is nothing except Nature and hence, despite appearance, everything of Nature is equally divine. Nature, as we know it, is, for the ancient Vedanta, merely ...
... differential contradictions there is supposed to be a perpetual incompatibility between the transcendent and the cosmic states of the Divine—as also between the Personal and the Impersonal, the One and the Many. The supramental consciousness, on the other hand, does not raise these problems, for there the way of experience of the mental Ignorance is abolished and the basis of all things is an indefeasible ...
... the human being can attain or realize for himself; for in the Gita, the Purushottama is the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Being, who is beyond the immutable and the mutable and contains both the One and the Many. Man, says the Gita, can attain the Brahmic consciousness, realize himself as an eternal portion of the Purushottama and live in the Purushottama. The Purushottama Consciousness is the the ...
... on the distinction between the real reality of the Absolute and the partial and misleading reality of the relative universe. For we have in this unfolding of knowledge the two terms of the One and the Many, as we have the two terms of the finite and the infinite, of that which becomes and of that which does not become but for ever is, of that which takes form and of that which does not take form ...
... 1.) Since Brahman is in the essentiality of its universal being a unity and a multiplicity aware of each other and in each other and since in its reality it is something beyond the One and the Many, containing both, aware of both, Ignorance can only come about as a subordinate phenomenon by some concentration of consciousness absorbed in a part knowledge or a part action of the being and ...
... Moreover such a divine soul would live simultaneously in the two terms of the eternal existence of Sachchidananda, the two inseparable poles of the self-unfolding of the Absolute which we call the One and the Many. All being does really so live; but to our divided self-awareness there is an incompatibility, a gulf between the two driving us towards a choice, to dwell either in the multiplicity exiled from ...
... which teaches the reconciliation, by the perception of essential Unity, of the apparently incompatible opposites, God and the World, Renunciation and Enjoyment, Action and internal Freedom, the One and the Many, Being and its Becomings, the passive divine Impersonality and the active divine Personality, the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the Becoming and the Not-Becoming, Life on earth and beyond and the ...
... universal existence. That is a very ancient doctrine; it is the whole basis of the largest vision of the Upanishads,—as when the Isha tells us that Brahman is both the mobile and the immobile, is the One and the Many, is the Self and all existences, ātman, sarvabhūtāni , is the Knowledge and the Ignorance, is the eternal unborn status and also the birth of existences, and that to dwell only on one of these ...
... progress constitutes the larger terms of the life of the race. Nature works always through these three terms and none of them can be abolished. She starts from the visible manifestation of the one and the many, from the totality and its constituent Page 421 units and creates intermediary unities between the two without which there can be no full development either of the totality or of the ...
... his philosophy there is a wonderful synthesis, based Page 41 on the Vedanta, of ancient and modern thought. In him the values of being and becoming, of Spirit and matter, of the One and the many, of the eternal and the temporal, of the universal and the individual, of the personal God and the absolute Godhead, are integrated in a vision of the whole, which has never been surpassed in ...
... 20 intellectual terms, except perhaps in the Symposium. Plotinus too perhaps loses the wholeness of the vision while putting it into a philosophical system. For the problem of the One and the Many appears to be worrying that system in some way or other: else the emphasis on the flight of the alone to the Alone would not be so great and the concept of the absorption of the soul into the ...
... from his book: "In his philosophy there is a wonderful synthesis, based on the Vedanta, of ancient and modern thought. In him the values of being and becoming, of Spirit and matter, of the One and the many, of the eternal and the temporal, of the universal and the individual, of the personal God and the absolute Godhead, are integrated in a vision of the whole, which has never been surpassed in ...
... of supernal archetypes or truths of what is here expressed and worked out by a course of difficult evolution. They are a faultless cosmos in which no division of ignorance is made between the One and the many contained in It and which guides covertly or overtly this evolutionary mould of itself where the Divine has set up by Its all-might the figure of a great initial nescience as if in a wager with ...
... Supermind — the last-named a creative divinity bringing forth the truths inherent in the triple depth of Spirit behind it and holding in a perfect or archetypal cosmos a balanced interplay of the One and the Many. The Supermind manifests below itself a hierarchy of "planes" disclosing the reality in various partial ways. At the lower end of the ladder there are the realms of Universal Mind, Life-Force ...
... found the electron as the basis of Matter. By the difference in position and number of electrons you get the whole multiplicity of objects. Here too you find the one that is the many, and that the one and the many are not two different things. Both are true and through both you have to go to the Truth. When you come to politics, the truth again is various. Democracy, plutocracy, monarchy, etc.—all have ...
... selective action is chosen by the Divine. SRI AUROBINDO: Then the individual is the Divine and there is no longer any individual and we come to Shankara. What is the meaning of my insistence on the One and the Many? Anilbaran seems to have a rigid mind. If he reads my philosophy in that way, he will never understand it. It has to be taken as a whole. (After some time to Purani) You have seen that the ...
... MANILAL: One who has a solitary realisation of the One. SRI AUROBINDO: If he has a solitary realisation of the One, how can he be expected to have knowledge of the many? DR. MANILAL: I mean the One and the many. SRI AUROBINDO: That is not solitary. That is a comprehensive realisation. DR. MANILAL: I mean that; it was a wrong expression. SRI AUROBINDO: Not expression, but a wrong statement. Even ...
... whose other name is Inconscience. In the older disciplines the central or key truth, the heart of reality where the higher and the lower – Brahman and Maya, the Absolute and the Contingency, the One and the Many, God and the World – met and united in harmony was bypassed: one shot from below right into the supreme Absolute; the matrix of truth-creation was ignored. Even so, at the other end, the reality ...
... you have not read my "Riddle of this World" ; but it is a similar solution I put there. A.B.'s way of putting it is a trifle too "Vedantic-Theistic"—in my view it is a transaction between the One and the Many. In the beginning it was you (not the human you which is now complaining but the central being) which accepted or even invited the adventure of the Ignorance. Sorrow and struggle are a necessary ...
... great tragedy that the understanding of man cannot seize any particular truth without at once opposing it to its complementary truth which is as valid as itself. The Supreme is at once the One and the Many; He is simultaneously immanent and transcendent; He is at once personal and impersonal; and yet He is beyond all the formulations. The Jivatma, the individual self, is a reality the same time ...
... Self-possession of the One and then there are the Many or the multiple on this side. World of ignorance, infinite succession of the movement of the many. There are these two things going on : One and the Many. These many are changing constantly because they flow in time. The flux of the many that we see on this side, flows all the time from the One. Between the world of flux and the world of the One ...
... suspension of the active physical self. Light has often been wooed and won, but at the expense of Life, which has gone either pale or grey with neglect. But a fusion of Light and Life, of the One and the Many, of the Transcendent, the Universal and the individual, of utter silence and the stupendous stir and hum of the cosmic movement, of the Spirit and Matter in an integrated and divinised human ...
... of Matter. By difference of position and number of electrons you get the whole multiplicity of objects. There also you find the One that is Many, and yet is not two different things. Both the One and the Many are true and through both you have to go to the Truth. When you come to politics, democracy, plutocracy, monarchy etc. all have truth, even Hitler and Mussolini stand for some truth. ...
... narrow and one-sided achievement, however high it might be, but for the widest synthesis: for the reconciliation of Spirit Page 39 and Matter, Heaven and Earth, Light and Life, the One and the Many. As the most perfect embodiment of that decision of the national soul, an epitome of its past manifold achievements and a harbinger of the great synthesis that was preparing in the womb of ...
... in Matter, and the other, intense and exclusive, renouncing life in its intolerant thirst for the Light, and creating a permanent divorce between Purusha and Prakriti, Spirit and Matter, the One and the Many. The Vedic Yoga, grown obsolete and somewhat obscure, survives in some of its lingering vestiges only in some forms of Paurânic Bhakti Yoga and Tantra, it is the Sânkhya that holds the field; ...
... possible for him to have the experience. Many Parts, Many Personalities The being is made up of many parts. One part may know, the other may not care for the knowledge or act according to it. The whole being has to be made one in the light so that all parts may act harmoniously according to the Truth. The consciousness has in it many parts and many movements and in different conditions and... these differences. Everybody is an amalgamation not of two but of many personalities. It is a part of the Yogic perfection in this Yoga to accord and transmute them so as to "integrate" the personality. The "tragi-ridiculous" inconsistency you speak of comes from the fact that man is not made up of one piece but of many pieces and each part of him has a personality of its own. That is a thing... is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge. We are composed of many parts each of which contributes something to the total movement of our consciousness, our thought, will, sensation, feeling, action, but we do not see the origination or the course of these impulsions; ...
... Nirmal Nahar, for his prompt reply to our many queries. He shed light on many points and personalities for us. Us means: Maryse Prat, Diane Lemoulant and me, yours truly. In fact, without Maryse's attentive deciphering (not easy), typing and organizing the sequence of these letters, we would have been floating rudderless on a sea of papers. Because many of these letters were undated, and then some... Dilip - Volume II Note of Thanks TO : MOTHER AND SRI AUROBINDO To: Revered Gobindo Gopal Mukhopadhyaya, Sanskritist, musician, who personally knew many spiritual personalities of the epoch. Without his constant affectionate encouragement we do not know when these letters would have seen the light of day. By the way, it was another Mukhopadhyay, Dr... scattered here and there in scrapbooks. A real jigsaw puzzle! Diane Lemoulant brought to bear her particular quality to this work by reading, checking, verifying. As for me, I added my bit, since I knew many of those then living in the Ashram. Page 9 We three made a good team. So again, at the end, our heartfelt gratitude to Mother and Sri Aurobindo who brought us together. So as ...
... physical body and many of the sadhakas have not yet been able to establish direct inner contact with the Master and the Mother, they wonder where to find the right solutions. Yet they vaguely feel that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have already furnished relevant answers to all their possible problems and questions in their extensive writings on Yoga. But for many valid reasons many of these young sadhakas... it that many of us who claim to be sadhakas of Sri Aurobindo's Path so easily lose our attitude of wakeful vigilance and fall prey to any and every invading temptation?" Readers are requested to excuse this sort of personal vein of writing. Finally, the author hopes and even trusts that many sadhakas who are already relatively advanced on the path of Sadhana will find many points... Integral Yoga as ushered in by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But a common complaint with many of these students has been that they often miss the beauty and the significance of the 'wood' because of concentrating on individual 'trees'. In other words, even after going through the hundreds of pages of many of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother dealing with the Puma Yoga, they somehow lack ...
... culture, that India at any time belonged to those who could occupy it by means of armed might, and that the independent India that had emerged in 1947 was a cockpit of many races, many religions, many cultures, many languages, and many other things. The most sinister aspect of this version was that Indian heroes who had fought and finally defeated every foreign invader were to be found only in footnotes... secular version, and is supposed to promote national integration. Voices of dissent are not with solid evidence or straight logic but with a swearology coined by subversive politics. Many scholars have been hounded out. Many others have been silenced. It was in the midst of this stifling atmosphere that K. D. Sethna's work came like a breath of fresh air. To start with, his was a lonely voice... available by modern research methods and incisive logic was solidly on their side. Sri Aurobindo was the first in modern times to bridge the gulf between modernity and Indian traditions in many fields, particularly as regards the spiritual vision of Sanatana Dharma, taking modernity as well India's heritage at their highest. India's history could not escape his penetrating eye. Here ...
... "The highly sattwic are few; the abnormally rajasic are few; of the middle sort there are many. According to my observation, this is true not only of this Ashram but of others." (Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, Volume One, p. 348) Sri Aurobindo elsewhere opines that many of the members of the Ashram are not living in a spiritual consciousness but "in the ordinary egoistic... excerpts are from Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo: NB: "The physical condition of many sadhaks and sadhikas is not cheering in the least." Sri Aurobindo: "Far from it." NB: "You know best about the condition of their sadhana." Sri Aurobindo: "Very shaky, many of them." NB: "D finds the world outside much better, to which I would reply that here [in this Ashram]... before us by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and an ardent and one-pointed practice to reach that Goal are conspicuous by their overall absence in many. And as a natural consequence of this dampening of spiritual zeal, we in our group-life have been encountering many sorts of unpleasant and undesirable incidents and happenings. Some sadhaks and sadhikas are behaving erratically; some others are manifesting ...
... of the Mother The Mother with Letters on the Mother Many Powers and Forms I see the Mother in various forms but I am unable to understand their meaning. Is it true that she shows herself to us in different forms and aspects? Of course. The Mother has many forms on the supraphysical planes. 12 March 1933 Sometimes when I see the Mother I feel... the only thing—there is Knowledge and Power and Love and many other powers of the Divine. As a special experience only it may stand. 30 April 1933 I can see the Mother in different forms, on every level, in my ādhāra. I cannot understand what is the purpose of her taking different forms. It is always so—the Mother manifests in many forms according to the need of what has to be done. 29 ...
... This has been my experience for so many, so many, so many years, so many years! The danger is not the children, it is not laziness, it is not even that the children are rebellious: the danger, the great danger is the parents. Those who send their children here should do it knowingly, they should do it because it is unlike anywhere else. And there are many who won't come... And those who come only... ordinary way and learn in order to get a good job, to earn their living and have brilliant careers, should not send them here." There. We should... And that is very important. You see, there are many, many parents who send their children here because it is less expensive than anywhere else. And that is worse than anything, worse than anything. We should... we should... we must absolutely tell them: ...
... the first time in one month. She says she won't eat. CHAMPAKLAL: She will eat all right. DR. MANILAL: She counts everything—how many luchis she had given, how many you have taken. SRI AUROBINDO: She won't be able to know how many I have taken and how many others have taken. But there is no reason why she should cry. It is I who ought to cry as I didn't have the fritters. (Laughter) ... (Laughter) PURANI: He leaves nothing to chance—try everything so that one at least may hit. DR. MANILAL: Yes. Fomentation, embrocation, massage, etc. SRI AUROBINDO: Perhaps you tried too many things, each reacting with the other and producing no result. EVENING DR. MANILAL: Mridu was weeping today, Sir, because she was late and you had finished your meal. SRI AUROBINDO: She shouldn't ...
... hours." But there, one has not the sense of time, it is not the same sense—it is the content of the action that matters, and during those hours many, many things are done, many. And so I meet you there very regularly, but many others also, and I am at many places at the same time! And when a person tells me, "But I saw you last night, you did this and that", then up there somewhere, I say, "Yes, it... example, the problem of many who are taken as mad, but who are simply in this subtle consciousness ( same gesture of superimposition ) which dominates at a given moment and which makes them say things that have no meaning here but have a very clear meaning there. And the consciousness is like this ( gesture of superimposition, of almost melting together ). This explains many cases of so-called madness... 1967 1967 Notes on the Way 30 August 1967 For the last several nights I have been passing almost the whole night, many hours, in a place which must certainly belong to the subtle physical and where the material life gets reorganised. It is vast—vast—the crowd is innumerable, but these are individualities, not a crowd; that is to say, I have to deal ...
... Impressions of Japan You ask me for my impressions about Japan. To write on Japan is a difficult task; so many things have been already written, so many silly things also... but these more on the people than on their country. For the country is so wonderful, picturesque, many-sided, unexpected, charming, wild or sweet; it is in its appearance so much a synthesis of all the other countries... perhaps, the most distinctive and widely spread characteristic of the Japanese. That is what you may observe as soon as you reach that land of Page 152 the Rising Sun where so many people and so many treasures are gathered in a narrow island. But if you have—as we have had—the privilege of coming in contact with the true Japanese, those who kept untouched the righteousness and bravery... countries of the world, from the tropical to the arctic, that no artistic eye can remain indifferent to it. I believe many excellent descriptions have been given of Japan; I shall not then attempt to add mine, which would certainly be far less interesting. But the people of Japan have, in general, been misunderstood and misinterpreted, and on that subject something worth saying remains to be said. In most ...
... of February 1985, stated: Secret Chambers "This month it will be fourteen years since the construction started. So many tough, nice, beautiful, funny things, so many persons giving it a try, so many psychological processes, so many aspirations and discoveries. So many people involved in shaping the events, especially in the early years. There was Huta, the "gardienne", who shocked us one day ...
... Mother has not only one appearance, but many at different times. 14 May 1933 Today while seeing the Mother on the terrace, I clearly saw the Mother's light and that her height was a bit taller than normal. Was this true? Yes. Many see like that, as if the Mother were taller than her ordinary physical appearance. 29 September 1933 The Mother has many different personalities and her appearance... the reason for these differences in her appearance? Does it depend on the extent to which she turns outwards? It is rather, I think, dependent on the personality that manifests in front—as she has many personalities and the body is plastic enough to express something of each when it comes forward. 4 December 1933 ...
... from different countries. But on its left was an unprecedented scene of many kinds of animals and birds of land and sky. All the animals, both gentle and ferocious, were there together, many of them never seen before. There were ever so many offspring. Beyond, on one side, there was a wide serene lake in which bloomed lotuses of many colours as well as of shimmering gold and silver, which held one spellbound... distance, there were different kinds of beautiful, bright and fascinating flower plants of varied hues, never seen before. Behind them were numerous trees of diverse kinds. Many of them were adorned with lovely glistening blossoms while many were of lustrous colours. Beyond them, very very far, there was a vast open space in the midst of which shone an exquisite, radiant and magnificent throne of superb ... colours. The whole tree was profuse with lotus-like flowers of many shades including silver and golden ones in between. These sparkling flowers were so fascinating that one would keep on looking at them. I was allured by this enchanting sight for a pretty long time. After this were seen multicoloured mountains glowing with light. The peaks of many of them were not visible. At this place, some people were ...
... to be the unit individual consciousness. Many such cells combine to form the organism, the individual (who in this way may be viewed as a composite or collective being). Many individuals form the family—-each family with its group consciousness (whence the idea of kuladharma, the genius of the family or the tradition and stamp of a Royal House). Many families formed the tribe, Page 84 ... with its particular consciousness. And then families and tribes have formed the modern nation, each one a distinct and almost a well-developed soul. The grouping continues to enlarge and we have the many nations combining to form the human group as a whole; humanity too has its own consciousness and its own soul. There is no limit to the volume or dimension of the group. The earth has its soul co ...
... said to be the unit individual consciousness. Many such cells combine to form the organism, the individual (who in this way may be viewed as a composite or collective being). Many individuals form the family – each family with its group consciousness (whence the idea of kuladharma, the genius of the family or the tradition and stamp of a Royal House). Many families formed the tribe, here too each with... with its particular consciousness. And then families and tribes have formed the modern nation, each one a distinct and almost a well-developed soul. The grouping continues to enlarge and we have the many nations combining to form the human group as a whole; humanity too has its own consciousness and its own soul. There is no limit to the volume or dimension of the group. The earth has its soul consciousness ...
... The Mother Abides - Final Reflections The Golden Chain You have been here for many years, for many, many years. From childhood you are here, most of you, perhaps all of you. Some of you are going out, some are likely to stay, some are still undecided. If you are asked, "What have you gained by your long stay here?", I can tell you what you have gained. It is... something else. Be sure of that. You yourselves don't know perhaps, but that thing is there within you. You have not passed your time in vain here—you have the Mother's touch. Mother said many many times, "Whoever gets my touch, whoever has a second of true aspiration, of true love for me, he is finished for this life, for all lives—he is bound to me. I have put a golden chain round his neck;... Mother's Presence that redeems all that. In any mood of depression, dejection, difficulty, always know that it is there in you to support you, to bring you peace and strength, and it is never failing. So many times she has said: "Everything else fails in this world; I will never fail you." October 26, 1976 Page 75 ...
... The Mother Abides - Final Reflections The Iron Chain How many of you have been here since the beginning, I mean from the kindergarten classes—any? One, two, three, four— oh, a good many! Very creditable, very creditable indeed, that so many have continued so long and passed through. This is really something creditable. I will tell you a story in this... much and remained here. After some years Gandhiji thought of the young man. "Where is he? He was a nice man. Where has he gone?" Then he learned that the young man was here in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. How many years? "Seven years!" Gandhiji was astounded. "How is it? I know the young man. I know he was a restless person, so uncertain about himself, about his movements—he could not stick to one place or one... With the golden chain you are the beloved of the Mother, or her lover, but with the iron chain you become her physical slave. Yes, I am trying to hint that those who have been here for long, many from their infancy, have earned a particular merit: from the spiritual point of view this continuance, this continuity, is itself something significant; it is an achievement. Even if you do not pass ...
... make things effective. SATYENDRA: He always speaks in superlatives. But he seems to be a great figure. He has many admirers and followers in South India. NIRODBARAN: You must have seen in yesterday's Hindu the review of an annual of English literature. It is a symposium of many writers of the British Empire. From India four names have been chosen—one Kashi Prasad Ghose, Toru Dutt, Sarojini... the English. Take the Decameron . In the English translation there are so many things in French. SRI AUROBINDO: I am reminded of Gibbon. Whenever he wanted to quote anything which might offend the current taste, he used its Latin form. But in English there are more outspoken things than in Boccaccio's Decameron . Many English novels deal with erotic, even vulgar, matters. NIRODBARAN: Why then... poem was given to Sri Aurobindo by Purani. SRI AUROBINDO (after, reading it) : How can he rhyme "era" with "aura"? NIRODBARAN: Modern rhymes, I suppose. Dilip was surprised that a poem with so many metrical errors was being sent for publication. PURANI: Nolini has kept it back. Of course R.N. doesn't know of it yet. SRI AUROBINDO: It is not a poem at all. His French poems are very beautiful ...
... views. Before I begin to sketch, many disappointing ideas arise, such as, it won’t come out successful, it won’t resemble a human figure, etc.; these ideas come to my mind and I get nervous. Of course it does not resemble X but as a drawing it is not bad. You must be prepared to be unsuccessful many many times before you can truly learn. It is with the effort of many failures that you prepare a progress ...
... exception—many little children wanted to remain the full night and it was so nice to see them fallen asleep at last, on the sand near each other, in the midst of the work. The concreting finished at 4 a.m. in the morning, but many of us remained on the top to await in silence the dawn of a new future. When in the evening of the same day 8 Aurovilians were taken to prison, it was clear for many that... collaboration. They have given a big push and accelerated the time of the work. You see how Mother calls her children and how they answer. For us is a deep joy to have the occasion to work together with many of our friends of the Ashram, to feel the unity around our common love for the Mother. And we know how you also contribute to that with your prayers. Together in aspiration for new Light, Yours ...
... The Book of Nature When you and I are together you often ask me questions about many things and I try to answer them. Now that you are at Mussoorie and I am in Allahabad we cannot have these talks. I am therefore going to write to you from time to time short accounts of the story of our earth and the many countries, great and small, into which it is divided. You have read a little about English... think he becomes the master and the elephant is his servant. So, as thought grew in man he became cleverer and wiser. He found out many things — how to make a fire, how to cultivate the land and grow his food, how to make cloth to wear and houses to live in. Many men and women used to live together and so we had the first cities. Before the cities were made men used to wander about from place to... could only be written once and then copied out by hand laboriously. Of course there could not be many books. You could not just go to a bookseller or a bookstall to buy a book. You had to get someone to copy it and this took a long time. But people in those days wrote beautifully and we have today many books in our libraries which were beautifully written by hand. In India we have specially books in ...
... regions like that—not many, but they exist. On the other hand, there are many unpleasant places in the vital world and it is better not to go there. Leaving aside those who are so attached, so rivetted to their bodies that they don't even want to leave them, those who can easily learn to go out of their bodies ought to do so with great care. I haven't been able to teach this to many people, for that would... place in the vital world where I knew that many of our boys go to rest—at least, in their physical sleep, they look as if they are resting. But since they don't really know how to rest, instead of accumulating energy, they lose it. Some of them lose a tremendous amount of energy: instead of recovering their energy, they waste it. So I went there and saw many rows in which there were things that looked... The others said, "No, we are quite all right as we are, we don't want to learn anything else!" When we see you in dream, where do we see you? Is it always the same place? There are many different places, many. It may be in the subtle physical, for all of you live in my physical atmosphere and so it is in the subtle physical that you see me most often. And there you feel that what you see is almost ...
... Mother There are many Mothers in the cosmic and spiritual planes who help people in their search for the Divine. Above them, I have read, is the transcendental Mother and above her comes the supreme Mother. X and Y profess to have seen and spoken to the transcendental Mother in her embodied aspect. This is hard to believe. There are not many Mothers, there is One in many forms. The transcendental ...
... you ruler over many things. New Testament Bholanath Ghosh hailed from old Benares. Born on 4 December 1923, he was neither very old nor was he an ancient arrival here. He joined the Ashram in 1949, a day before the February Darshan, and expired on 18 July 1989. Even his life in the Ashram was not too long — just over 40 years. Yet the many happy memories he left in so many prevailed on me ...
... results of your observation and study. It must not be a "poor mind", a mind, that is to say, that has not many ideas nor the capacity of reasoning and argument. Your mind must be capable of thinking of many different things, gathering knowledge of different kinds, considering a problem from many different sides, not following only a single line or track: it must be somewhat like a Japanese fan opening... opening out full circle in all directions. You have, for example, several subjects to learn at school. Well, learn as many as possible. If you read at home, read as many varieties as possible. I know you are usually asked and advised to follow a different way. You are to take as few subjects as possible and specialise. Yes, that is the general ideal: specialisation, to be an expert in one... you wish to be successful in something you must do that only and nothing else. I was rebuked very much because I was busy with many different things at the same time. I was told I would be in the end good for nothing. I was studying, I was painting, I was doing music and many other things. I was repeatedly warned that my painting would be worthless, my music would be worthless, my studies would be incomplete ...
... results of your observation and study. It must not be a "poor mind", a mind, that is to say, that has not many ideas nor the capacity of reasoning and argument. Your mind must be capable of thinking of many different things, gathering knowledge of different kinds, considering a problem from many different sides, not following only a single line or track: it must be somewhat like a Japanese fan opening... opening out full circle in all directions. You have, for example, several subjects to learn at school. Well, learn as many as possible. If you study at home, read as many varieties as possible. I know you are usually asked and advised to follow a different way. You are to take as few subjects as possible and specialise. Yes, that is the general ideal: specialisation, to be an expert in one thing... you wish to be successful in something you must do that only and nothing else. I was rebuked very much because I was busy with many different things at the same time. I was told I would be in the end good for nothing. I was studying, I was painting, I was doing music and many other things. I was repeatedly warned that my painting would be worthless, my music would be worthless, my studies would be incomplete ...
... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 6 The Golden Chain You have been here for many many years, isn't it? – many many years. From your childhood you are here, isn't it? perhaps all of you. Some of you are going out, Some are likely to stay, some still undecided. If you are asked: 'What have you gained here by your long stay, for some, a very... but something else. Be sure of that. You don't know perhaps yourselves, but that thing is there, within you. You have not passed your time in vain here: you have the Mother's touch. Mother said many many times: "Whoever gets my touch, whoever has a second of true aspiration, true love for me, he is finished for this life, for all lives – he is bound to me. I have put a golden chain round his neck... Mother's Presence that redeems all that. In any mood of depression, dejection, difficulty, always know that it is there in you to support you, to bring you peace and strength, and it is never failing. So many times She has said: "Everything else fails in this world, I will never fail you." Page 30 ...
... being already wanted it and was seeking for it. It was probably your psychic which brought you here. There are so many things which happen and you don't even ask yourself why. You take them... it is like that because it is like that. It would be very interesting to know how many of you, till I spoke to you about it, had asked yourselves how it happened that you were here? Naturally, most of the... which, besides, are not worth much and explain everything in the dullest possible way, but there is a deeper reason which as yet you do not know. And are there many of you who would be very much interested in knowing why they are here? How many of you have asked yourselves this question: "What is the true reason for my being here?" Have you asked yourself the question? I asked you once, Sweet... that grope after its mother. " Thoughts and Glimpses, SABCL, Vol. 16, p. 382 Sweet Mother, how is it that one seeks something and yet does not know that one is seeking? There are so many things you think, feel, want, even do, without knowing it. Are you fully conscious of yourself and of all that goes on in you?—Not at all! If, for example, suddenly, without your expecting it, at a ...
... crude enough. I am speaking of more refined people, a little more noble, who put on a pretty cloak to cover their desires. How many things in the course of the day, how many thoughts, sensations, gestures are turned exclusively towards the Divine in an aspiration? How many? I believe if you have a single one in the whole day, you may mark that in red letters. When I say, "If you are sincere, you... and Answers 1929-1931 ( 14 April 1929 ) Many people accept certain theories, some of which are very convenient, and they say, "Everything is the result of the divine Will"; others say, "The Divine is everywhere and in everything and does everything"; yet others say, "My will is one with the divine Will, it is He who inspires me." Indeed, there are many theories and they say that. Naturally, their... It is not a personal inspiration: "Everything is the result of the divine Will." "It is not I who am acting, it is the Divine who is acting through me." They do all that they wish to do. There are many people like that. Therefore I said, "Do not use the Divine as a pretty cloak to hide your desires." "The question is to be sincere. If you are not sincere, do not begin Yoga." Questions and ...
... Uddhava might have had numberless teachers and instructors, but the Guru of his soul was Sri Krishna alone, none other. We may learn many things from many places, from books, from nature, from persons; intuitions Page 82 and inspirations may come from many quarters, inside and outside, but the central guidance flows from one source only and one must be careful to keep it unmixed, undefiled... swear by one principle or rule of life or be led blindly by one man. Truth, it is said, has many facets and the human being is also not a Cyclops, a one-eyed creature. To fix oneself to one mode of seeing and believing and even behaving is to be narrow, restricted, sectarian. One must be able to see many standpoints, appreciate views of variance with one's own, appraise the relativity of all standards... indeed: but it is equally true that he is multiple. God is not a point, but a limitless infinity, so that when one does reach Him one arrives at a particular spot, as it were, enters into only one of his many mansions. Likewise, God's manifestation upon earth has been infinitely diverse, his Vibhutis, Ava-taras, his prophets and vicegerents have been of all sorts and kinds. Precisely because God is at once ...
... other. Uddhava might have had numberless teachers and instructors, but the Guru of his soul was Sri Krishna alone, none other. We may learn many things from many places, from books, from nature, from persons; intuitions and inspirations may come from many quarters, inside and outside, but the central guidance flows from one source only and one must be careful to keep it unmixed, undefiled, clear... swear by one principle or rule of life or be led blindly by one man. Truth, it is said, has many facets and the human being is also not a Cyclops, a one-eyed creature. To fix oneself to one mode of seeing and believing and even behaving is to be narrow, restricted, sectarian. One must be able to see many standpoints, appreciate views of variance with one's own, appraise the relativity of all standards... indeed: but it is equally true that he is multiple. God is not a point, but a limitless infinity, so that when one does reach Him one arrives at a particular spot, as it were, enters into only one of his many mansions. Likewise, God's manifestation upon earth has been infinitely diverse, his Vibhutis, Avataras, his prophets and viceregents have been of all sorts and kinds. Precisely because God is at once ...
... from the nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way." 15 We do not possess self-knowledge because we know ourselves not as the Person but as an ego, which is an identification of the Person with the many personalities that constitute the outer nature of our being. In terms of... Introduction Our Many Selves Sri Aurobindo on Our Many Selves: Planes and Parts of the Being "Man is in his self a unique Person, but he is also in his manifestation of self a multi-person ... " 14 In this statement Sri Aurobindo makes a distinction which is fundamental in understanding his explanation of the nature of the human being—the distinction... distinction between the Person and its many personalities. This distinction is far from apparent to us in our ordinary consciousness. "The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nature in a jumble and, identifying itself with these movements, thinks 'I am doing this, feeling that, thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc.' The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you ...
... incertitudes. 5) Keep to one way, the way shown to you by me. It is by following this way that you can reach the wideness you want—if you run about on many ways, that will bring not wideness but confusion. 6) Here in the lower nature there are many things, but they are in a state of disharmony, so to follow them all together means disharmony, confusion, want of organisation, fight. In the higher... me the flower called Supramental Future. Both these things gave me hope, especially the latter, for I have been wondering whether I would realise up to the supramental consciousness. These days many forces have been pulling me in different directions; in this way I don't arrive at the Truth or at the organisation of my being. Now and then I get experiences, Page 98 but I also get confusion... very law of life seems to be fight and disagreement. Today I felt a quiet peace in the vital and the Mother's consciousness. For a long time I remained quiet after seeing the Mother. I am getting many experiences, but the consciousness gets diverted by suggestions and by activity. 1) A quiet mind makes consciousness easier. 2) If you keep a quiet mind and a constant contact with myself and ...
... Page 230 existence as eternally one in the Being, God, eternally many by His nature or conscious-energy in the souls whom He becomes or who exist in her. In Greece also Anaximander denied the multiple reality of the Becoming. Empedocles affirmed that the All is eternally one and many; all is one which becomes many and then again goes back to oneness. But Heraclitus will not so cut the knot... does not increase or diminish, nor does it lose for a moment its eternal nature and identity which is that of the ever-living Fire. Many values which reduce themselves to the same standard and judge of all values; many forces which go back to the same unalterable energy; many becomings which both represent and amount to one identical Being. Here Heraclitus brings in his formula of "One out of all and... of all and all out of One." How are we to understand these two pregnant utterances? Must we read them into each other and conclude that for Heraclitus the One only exists as resultant of the many even as the many only exist as a becoming of the One? Mr. Ranade seems to think so; he tells us that this philosophy denies Being and affirms only Becoming,—like Nietzsche, like the Buddhists. But surely this ...
... useless. 5 March 1937 For many people the present morning meditation with the Mother has had a good result. They are able to receive better than when there was only pranam. But in my case the withdrawal of pranam has meant a reduction of psychological pressure by 84 percent. Different people react differently to the change. Pranam had become to many a routine, to many a mere occasion of pulling... is for so long as the Mother has need of rest. It is not intended as a permanent arrangement. Only, if the sadhaks really want the Pranam to continue as before, they should make a better use of it. Many spend the time looking at what the Mother is doing, whom she smiles on, whom she pats or how she blesses people and gossip about it afterwards—most take it as a routine. All that is a wrong spirit and... misconception, wrong feelings etc.—creates an open door for the suggestions of the Adversary who delights in falsehood and administers plenty of it to the minds of the sadhaks. This apart from the fact that many throw all sorts of undesirable things on the Mother through the Pranam. The whole thing tends to become a routine, even where there are not these reactions. Some of course profit, those who can keep ...
... trained under her own direct guidance many of her children into capable teachers who would properly understand her principles of education, be clear about the true nature of the goal she set before SAICE, and honestly and whole-heartedly try to bring that into fulfilment. So far so good. But the fact cannot be denied that with the inexorable passage of time many of these Mother-trained early teachers... progressively transforming it into a University Centre in 1953. This University Centre is currently known as "Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education" more familiarly known as "SAICE", its acronym. Many a novel and original experiment in education has been conducted in this "Centre" under the Mother's direct guidance and is still being conducted under the able supervision of her loving children drawn... international community. These experiments have broken a new pathway in the field of education, for the building up of a new type of a nobler humanity destined to arise in the not so distant future. Now, many people in the outside world, keenly interested in the future welfare of the human race, are evincing a healthy curiosity about what exactly is going on in SAICE. This book will go a long way to meet ...
... people who are yogis at all nor aspirant for yoga know how to put in their proper place, seem to take an inordinate importance in the consciousness of the sadhaks here — not all, certainly, but many. In this as in many other matters they do not seem to realise that, if you want to do yoga, you must take more and more in all matters, small or great, the yogic attitude. In our path that attitude is not one... consciousness steadily put in its place. But for that these things of eating and drinking must be put in their right place, which is a small one. You say that many have left the Ashram because they did not like the food. I do not know who are the many; certainly, those who came here for serious sadhana and left, went for much more grave reasons than that. But if any did go because of an offended palate... only among the most minor values even in the human life, are promoted by many here to a rank they ought not to have. At the same time it is better, if it is possible, to have well-cooked rather than badly-cooked food. The idea that the Mother wants tasteless food to be served because tasty food is bad for yoga, is one of the many absurdities that seem so profusely current among the sadhakas in this ...
... creatures in a world that he has made or has suffered to be full of wickedness and suffering and evil. The universal Will has evidently many other and more supple modes than that, an infinity of interests, many other elements of its being to manifest, many lines to follow, many laws and purposes to pursue. The law of the world is not this alone that our good brings good to us and our evil brings evil, nor... birth in a body are not an easy and simple thing, as it would or might be if Nature were all of one piece and evolution were only a raising of the degrees of a single power. For there are many strands, many degrees, many forms of energy of Nature. There is in the world of birth an energy of physical being and nature, arising out of the physical an energy of vital being and nature, arising out of the vital... sorrow and misfortune. There is a rule Page 382 of right in the world, but it is the right of the truth of Nature and of the truth of the spirit, and that is a vast and various rule and takes many forms that have to be understood and accepted before we can reach either its highest or its integral principle. The will in the intellectual being may erect knowledge and truth of knowledge as the ...
... Part I — Recollections and Diary Notes Champaklal Speaks Pranam Like all of Mother's programmes, the arrangement for her giving Pranam also underwent many changes. In the early years Mother used to come downstairs for meditation and Pranam in the Meditation hall in which the Mother's couch is kept since 18th November 1973. During meditation and Pranam... was brought by Purani from Bharooch; his father had used it during his worship and meditations. (After Mother stopped coming downstairs, Promode Kumar's Darshan painting was hung on this wall.) For many years, Mother's chair was kept beside the staircase, facing east, during the time people came to her for Pranam or distribution. (On special occasions her chair was kept along the northern wall of inner... In 1927, when Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved from Library House to Meditation House, Bijoy was given the small room which later became Bula's room (the room to its north was Purani's). And for many years, after Bijoy shifted to another place, Mother used that small room to accept Pranam in the mornings. Talking of that period reminds me that while Mother gave Pranam here I swept her two rooms ...
... which can be everywhere at the same time and is not subject to inconscience. It is not yet ready for what it should be. Even physically there will be many changes, many useless things must disappear. It must be malleable, plastic, and be able to do many things at the same time, and more... about which we do not know. It will not be limited like this body, (gesture) and there will be much more power... thing without even having to get up from my chair. You see how easy it becomes, like this — we could do so many things, and we will be able to do other things which seem strange. Physically, I can be at the same time here and there. I can be in many places. I can communicate simultaneously with many people. To have something in my hand, I have only to wish and I shall have the thing in my hand. With this... (the body) who wants only this. But it is stupid. You know, I speak to so many people, all the time; even when I am working I can always talk with them. At night, I go to each one to see and to talk to them. I visit them, but most of them are not conscious. But I do not remember everything because I see so many people. I see and talk even when I am working, it does not prevent me.... You see ...
... that we have now is not due solely to our liberation from political bondage. No doubt, many hidden energies have found release by this liberation and their breaking forth is conducive to the sense of youth. Yet, when we reflect that we are the only nation in the world whose civilisation has continued alive for so many thousands of years, we cannot help wondering how after so long a history we can still... without losing our typical quality. India is not a drab unity of culture: she is multiform, so much so that sometimes she is mistaken for a colossal colourful confusion. There is really no confusion but a many-sidedness through which yet runs a single secret strain. Both in body and mind she is a subtle persistent identity in the midst of a myriad variations. The variations, however, are as important as the... adaptive without being loose or unstable, then the collective being can keep unimpaired through vicissitudes, even rise phoenix like out of an apparent perishing and one cycle will evolve into another and many cycles run their courses before the final collapse. Certain of the ancient civilisations had this Page 8 kind of continuity and resurrection. But even they could not last indefinitely ...
... Someone comes and tells you he was Napoleon, another was Shakespeare and so on. How many Shakespeare and Napoleons and Caesars have manifested in this way, there is no counting! There are spirits who are extremely talkative and bewitch you with extraordinary stories, many that seem so true and genuine on the face, many others, of course, full of the grossest self-contradictions. The fact, however... developed psychic being to the extent that it is capable of controlling and guiding the outer life. How often does an ordinary man get in contact with his psychic being! Years and years pass for many or most to have just a passing taste of this movement. It is this moment that abides and is carried over to the next life, all other things are simply effaced. At Page 157 a given... is there in your head even if you do not speak it out. That is how it reveals secrets known to you alone, even secrets you have totally forgotten. They can imitate other personalities. They know many other small tricks to confuse or astound you. Page 160 ...
... of the real Man to which we are moving where Consciousness and Force are fulfilled and in harmony and the One at unison with the many. That life will be founded on the awareness of one Consciousness in many minds, one Force working in many lives, one Delight of being in many hearts and bodies.—Man's difficulties; first, he only knows and governs a part of himself, the greater part of himself is subconscient ...
... that forms now my Collected Works: eight volumes in English and as many volumes in Bengali. All of you are leaving our Centre of Education, a Centre where you have been for so many years. To complete your course and come out of the Centre, it's all right; but to go where? It seems you have already come to a decision; there are many amongst you who have made their choice. That's good, for it means... : be sure and certain of that. You carry that within you for all time and wherever you go, wherever in the entire world. You carry in you a portion, a spark of her Love; and that will save you from many difficulties, from much danger. If you can keep that in your active memory, it will be still more beneficial. That's all. 25 October 1978 Page 87 ...
... causes, which may come from atavistic malformation or also from education or from the environment you have lived in or from many other causes. And these bad creases you try to smooth out, but they wrinkle up again. And then you must begin the work over again, often, many, many, many a time, without getting discouraged, before the final result is obtained. But nothing and nobody can prevent you from doing... tells them, “Be careful! you know, there is a purpose to this. You are here for this work, don’t miss your opportunity!” And how many years are wasted. The Mother Questions and Answers (1956): 6 June 1956 … you have many sides to your personality or rather many personalities in you; it is indeed their discordant movements each getting in the way of the other, as happens when they are expressed... Our Many Selves Organisation, Harmonisation, Unification A human being is made of many different parts and it takes time and conscious effort to harmonise and unify all these parts. The Mother Words of the Mother - II: The Soul (the Psychic) Organise your life, your work, your consciousness. Organisation consists in putting each thing in ...
... that", there is no experience by which we can limit It, there is no conception by which It can be defined. Page 38 An Unknowable which appears to us in many states and attributes of being, in many forms of consciousness, in many activities of energy, this is what Mind can ultimately say about the existence which we ourselves are and which we see in all that is presented to our thought and... a partial logic which declares that because the One is the reality, the Many are an illusion, and because the Absolute is Sat, the one existence, the relative is Asat and non-existent. If in the Many we pursue insistently the One, it is to return with the benediction and the revelation of the One confirming itself in the Many. We will guard ourselves also against the excessive importance that the... which all else turns. It is the point of Light at which the intended complete self-manifestation in the Many begins to emerge. But the liberated soul extends its perception of unity horizontally as well as vertically. Its unity with the transcendent One is incomplete without its unity with the cosmic Many. And that lateral unity translates itself by a multiplication, a reproduction of its own liberated ...
... has descended through many gradations of its workings and passed through many agents. There are many creators or rather 'formateurs', form-makers, who have presided over the creation of the world. They are intermediary agents and I prefer to call them 'formateurs' and not 'creators'; for what they have done is to give the form and turn and nature to matter. There have been many, and some have formed... would be made all of light, and he said, "Then I won't be able to paint any longer" and he was miserable! Perhaps, indeed, there are many people who cling to their ignorance?... It is suffering which makes us conscious of a higher force. That is true, in many cases it is like that and that is the apparent justification of suffering. If human beings did not suffer, perhaps they would never make... done!" Someone told me after having read Genesis , "God took seven days to do all that, then He said that it was good! He has a strange opinion!" At a certain time, the great Teresa had to face many calamities. She complained to God, saying, "Why do Page 286 these things happen to me, who am full of goodwill?" Then, it seems, God replied, "It is thus that I treat my friends. It is ...
... rigour of quest of their own specialised field, they explore occultism, even as they do explore many fields of inquiry such as those of science, philosophy, art and others. Nonetheless,, many of the adverse judgements against yoga issue from indiscriminate clubbing of the occult and yogic experiences, and many of the infirmities which are found in the claims of occultists tend to be held also against... to serve as a preface to the descriptions of yogic experiences available in the history of relevant literature. A few broad rough strokes have been cast, and many important systems of yoga such as those of the Veda and the Upanishads, and many traditions of the East and the West have been either just mentioned or altogether unpardonably ignored. (a) From what has been indicated here and what can... climes and conditions, and many of them are the greatest intelligences of the past, and some of them Page 54 world's most remarkable figures. These experiences must therefore, be taken into account seriously and honestly and must not be immediately dismissed simply because they are not only beyond the average man in the street but also not easily seizable even by many cultivated intellects ...
... said, 'My dear children! that world and our world here are two quite different things and people coming from that world might speak of many such things, but what they say is not all quite true.” Hearing this, we asked our father, 'Then why do those people speak of many such things?' The father replied, 'It has become their nature.' And we asked the father, 'What is it that you call nature?' He... was quite a new world. As we went higher, we saw elderly people who were busy doing their work cheerfully. In this way we saw many a world and the atmosphere of each succeeding world was of a superior character. Little by little, we rose higher and yet higher and saw many wonderful worlds, worlds where physical necessities like food and drink and bath, etc. were absent. At last we saw a dazzling... was in the same place as before. I looked at the clock and it was 3.10 a.m. In only one hour I felt as if I was back after many years. In my childhood, my father had told me a very interesting story of a sage who had gone for a bath in a river and in one plunge had passed many years of experience. The story as far as I remember was, in brief, like this: The sage asked God to show him His Lila, and ...
... beauty of simplicity. I am perfectly aware that the Mother said so many things to so many people —each a shade different from the other—as regards the Matrimandir. Nevertheless all are true and genuine. But according to time, situation and circumstances we may try our best to work out everything by Her Grace. She has given us many ways and means to do so. The only thing we need is what the Mother has... and sisters, Greetings to all. Although I am not a member of the Council, I take this opportunity to express my feeling regarding the Mother's Vision of the Matrimandir. She repeatedly said to many people that if the Matrimandir would be materialized, the world's problems would be solved—the course of the world would be changed. She told me that the Supreme Truth and the Supreme Love would manifest... misunderstanding. For these causes are always on both sides and each one's endeavour should be to efface them in himself first before demanding anything from others . All of us have gone through so many confusions and controversies after the Mother's passing. I don't think we wish to go through yet another phase of crisis and setbacks. However, I request you all: Let us collaborate harmoniously and ...
... in an infinite diversity, and it can assume an infinite variety of aspects and formations: in the spiritual evolution it is inevitable that there should be a many-sided passage and reaching to the one Truth, a many-sided seizing of it; this many-sidedness is the sign of the approach of the soul to a living reality, not to an abstraction or a constructed figure of things that can be petrified into a dead... transference from the limited truth of the physical field to the much more complex and plastic field of life and mind and spirit.... " In the evolution of the spiritual man there must necessarily be many stages and in each stage a great variety of individual formations of the being, the consciousness, the life, the temperament, the ideas, the character. The nature of instrumental mind and the necessity... pure spiritual self-realisation and self-expression need not be a single white monotone, here can be a great diversity in the fundamental unity; the supreme Self is one, but the souls of the Self are many and, as is the soul's formation of nature, so will be its spiritual self-expression. A diversity in oneness is the Page 421 law of the manifestation; the supramental unification and integration ...
... Only, those who do want to understand will lose out—there are many. (Satprem:) But look, Mother, perhaps you're receiving some protests from a certain number of people, but there are many here, many more than... well, of course I can't say "more than you think"(!), but who are doing their job quietly and trying to understand—there are many. And it helps them, it does them good. To tell the truth... Bulletin last time was meant for the people of the Ashram. So I think we should put a note to say that's not the case. ??? The passage where I say, "Humans are crusted over." 2 Yes. Many people in the Ashram took it to mean themselves. Well, maybe that's not so wrong! I find I am myself rather crusted over. ( Mother laughs ) But I don't want to say unpleasant things! It's ...
... Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7 The Iron Chain* How many of you have been here since the beginning, I mean from the Kindergarten classes - any? One, two, three, four... Oh, a good many. Very creditable, very creditable indeed, that so many have continued so long and passed through. This is really something creditable. I will tell you a story... and continued to remain. After some years Gandhiji thought of the young man. "Where is he? He was a nice man. Where is he gone?" Then he learnt that the young man was here in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. How many years? "Seven years!" Gandhiji was astounded. "How is it? I know the young man. I knew he was a restless person, so uncertain about himself, about his movements – he could not stick to one place or... Mother. With the golden chain you are the beloved of the Mother, or her lover, but with the iron chain you become a physical slave. Yes, I am trying to hint that those who have been here for long years, many from their infancy, have earned a particular merit: from the spiritual point of view this continuance, this continuity, I may add, is itself something significant, it is an achievement. Even if you ...
... strands of hair but they were probably blown away and nowhere to be found. I was feeling upset. Some said that ‘I was a fool’. Many other comments were made about me. But what was done could not be undone. Doubt gives way to Faith Mother would talk to me about many things. I listened carefully but some doubts lingered in my mind. Although I knew that our Mother was the Divine Mother, mental... to the Meditation room. I went to Her in the morning and then in the afternoon. After giving the Balcony Darshan, She would come inside. That was another opportunity for Her darshan. Sri Ma told us many stories. It was mostly Pavitra-da who was present during this time. Once She was brushing her hair whilst talking with us. She said, "I am losing all my hair". She then put the loose strands of her... asked me to let her know whenever I needed any money. I said, "Mother, what will I do with money?" Still She insisted on giving me money. Gradually She drew me very close to Her. She spoke to me about many things. I did not understand all of it. I found Her words on Yoga and sadhana especially difficult to grasp. But I could not summon the courage to ask for explanations then. Once Mother went into a ...
... and death, one knows nothing!" That's why I was a little absorbed. ( silence ) For so many, so many years I have had all kinds of experiences. For about sixty years I have been constantly looking after people who are said to be "dying"—constantly. Well, there are almost as Page 80 many cases as there are people—there are categories, but the cases are innumerable (and I am not referring... certain way, I mean, to have the true key... one has it only with the Power. Well, that Power... ( Mother shakes her head ) It's hard to explain if I want to make myself understood. For instance, many times (many times, very often), people told me they wanted to die for some reason or other; and by doing a certain thing, it happened. The "thing" wasn't always the same, but the result was in appearance... it made no difference. 1 And it has also happened that I've "resurrected," as it is called, someone who had been declared dead. This is to tell you that all the various possibilities (not all, but many), all that has been shown to me. Naturally, it is always a movement of the consciousness [that brings about death] and a certain movement of the will, but... What I was wondering about today ...
... particular endeavour is one among many; it is only one movement in our sadhana. We are engaged in many other things. To raise one particular item of work to something like perfection requires time and means and resources which are not at our disposal. But we do not seek perfection in one thing, our aim is an integral achievement. An outside view may find many things to criticise and criticise... are people who write wanting to join our University and they ask what kind of diploma or degree we prepare for, the career we open out. To them I say: go elsewhere, please, if you want that; there are many other places, much better than ours, even in India, in that respect. We do not have their equipment or magnificence. You will get there the kind of success you look for. We do not compete with them ...
... this particular endeavour is one among many; it is only one movement in our sadhana. We are engaged in many other things. To raise one particular item of work to something like perfection requires time and means and resources which are not at our disposal. But we do not seek perfection in one thing, our aim is an integral achievement. An outside view may find many things to criticise and criticise much... people who write wanting to join our University¹ and they ask what kind of diploma or degree we prepare for, the career we open out. To them I say: go elsewhere, please, if you want that; there are many other places, much better than ours, even in India, in that respect. We do not have their equipment or magnificence. You will get there the kind of success you look for. We do not compete with them ...
... this in Nazism. Occultism in general developed in parallel with the industrialization of Germany, so much so that “in almost no other country there were so many miracles performed, so many ghosts conjured, so many illnesses cured and so many horoscopes read as in Germany up to the Third Reich”. The spiritists themselves came in different flavours: New Psychologists, plain Occultists, Animists, Sp... The Living and the Dead The years we are looking back to were also those of a high tide of spiritism, then together with astrology the most practiced form of occultism. Spiritism in its many varieties has been since times immemorial a way of contacting the invisible worlds and the beings that are supposed to populate them; it plays an important role in the world’s myths and legends. Nowadays... The poets Rainer Maria Rilke and Stefan George, the novelist Thomas Mann, the Russian communist leader Leon Trotsky, the artists of Der blaue Reiter, the group to which Kandinsky belonged, and so many more – all could be met in the Türkenstrasse or Schellingstrasse, on the Odeonplatz or in the neighbourhood of the university. Not to forget the personages populating the first chapters of this book ...
... phenomenon of the upsurge of difficulties of personal character in many sadhaks after they have settled down in the Ashram and dwelt there for some months or some years. The reason behind the sadhaks' troubles and the troubles they create for other individuals living in the same community is threefold: (1) close concentration of many people within the confines of a small space; (2) sadhana extending... whole thing sinks and there is no longer any vehement trouble." (On Himself, p. 157) We can now understand the occult reason behind the genesis and recrudescence of many sorts of weaknesses in the consciousness of many sadhaks in the Ashram. But the Page 42 matter does not or, rather, should not end there. Sadhaks should on no account be complacent about their weaknesses or give... ng action of the Consciousness-Force constantly operative in our Ashram atmosphere. The following three excerpts from Sri Aurobindo's writings will explain the rationale behind the manifestation of many kinds of psychological difficulties encountered amongst the inmates here: (1) "The Ashram is an epitome of the human nature that has to be changed ... outside people put as much as possible a ...
... something but kept silent, that too Mother was aware of. Everything she is now making me understand, either by showing me actual happenings or making me do them myself. I have many instances of this before me. All this may seem banal to many, but to me writing about it is itself an offering. I did not approve the worship of anyone's photograph. In childhood I was attracted by the Arya Samaj. Seeing the... The Mother’s Training When Mother's son Andre came to Pondicherry for the first time, she told him, “Champaklal has been trained by me.” I feel that she is still training me. There were many things that I did not like, and sometimes I spoke out my opposition. But sometimes when Mother herself was doing those things, though a strong reaction would arise in me, I would not express it; but ...
... appearance of a body with many hands and then with many eyes). The flow of bright glistening liquid could mean a flow from the higher consciousness (lake). Then, the golden light of Supramental Truth spreads all around from the huge figure. This would bring in its wake the increase in the activities of the inner consciousness and progress in sadhana (indicated by the ringing of many bells). ...
... infallible dogma, set up no single narrow path or gate of salvation; it was less a creed or cult than a continuously enlarging tradition of the Godward endeavour of the human spirit. An immense many-sided many-staged provision for a spiritual self-building and self-finding, it had some right to speak of itself by the only name it knew, the eternal religion, sanātana dharma . It is only if we have a... the temple. And since intellectual truth turned towards the Infinite must be in its very nature many-sided and not narrowly one, the most varying intellectual beliefs can be equally true because they mirror different facets of the Infinite. However separated by intellectual distance, they still form so many side-entrances which admit the mind to some faint ray from a supreme Light. There are no true... still more the need of variety of spiritual experience and knowledge. Even in the days of decline when the claim of authority became in too many directions rigorous and excessive, she still kept the saving perception that there could not be one but must be many authorities. An alert readiness to acknowledge new light capable of enlarging the old tradition has always been characteristic of the religious ...
... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Complexity of the Being and Its Destinies To foresee destiny! How many have attempted it, how many systems have been elaborated, how many sciences of divination have been created and developed only to perish under the charge of charlatanism or superstition. And why is destiny always so unforeseeable? Since... this unfortunate interference. This is only one example. But the problem is much more complex, for, to the physical and vital destinies, there must be added the mental destiny, the psychic destiny, and many others besides. In fact, the higher a being stands on the human scale, the more complex is his being, the more numerous are his destinies and the more unforeseeable his fate seems to be as a consequence ...
... mouth enabling man to pronounce many languages. In his time divisions between the various branches of anatomy did not exist. He investigated problems of physiology and embryology, and he also studied the systems of nerves and arteries and other aspects of the body. He anticipated the principle of blood circulation and prepared the ground for further analyses on many subjects. We present here... human body not only as artists would do, searching for beauty and harmony, but also as scientists would, with the desire for knowledge that a person devoted to science can bring. As a matter of fact, many of these painters and sculptors were also scientists. Some took advantage of the discoveries in anatomy made at the time, but some others like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo themselves per formed... enquiry. "Those who devote themselves to practice without science are like sailors who put to sea without rudder or compass and who can never be certain where they are going." This is one amongst the many notes written by Leonardo with the intention of publishing a Treatise on Painting. Leonardo felt that the human body is a complex unity within the larger field of nature, a microcosm wherein ...
... duality of Spirit and Nature; it leaves room for his many trinities and million aspects. Even when it concentrates on a single limiting aspect of the Divinity and seems to see nothing but that, it still keeps instinctively at the back of its consciousness the sense of the All and the idea of the One. Even when it distributes its worship among many objects, it looks at the same time through the objects... Europe; for here the worshipper of many gods still knows that all his divinities are forms, names, personalities and powers of the One; his gods proceed from the one Purusha, his goddesses are energies of the one divine Force. Those ways of Indian cult which most resemble a popular form of Theism, are still something more; for they do not exclude, but admit the many aspects of God. Indian image-worship... popular mind nourished on the thoughts, images, traditions, and cultural symbols of the Purana and Tantra; for these things are only concrete representations or living figures of the synthetic monism, the many-sided unitarian ism, the large cosmic universalism of the Vedic scriptures. "Indian religion founded itself on the conception of a timeless, nameless and formless Supreme, but it did not feel ...
... good man for the next attempt. Prafulla has lost confidence in himself. Because he could not do it—Many will try but fail—Partly—Cowardice—Then he had someone to help—A man will not succeed if he cannot do it by himself—You will not be able—Make Sudhir do it—No but he will do what you tell him—A good many prophecies fail— Page 1367 Yes, make a good attempt—No—You will not be overborne with... Manik Spirits are without body—Linga sharir is not body but mind. No shape visible to mortal eyes—They are the thoughts of the spirit which are shaped so as to present a visible scene—many of the scenes are not only thoughts but actual visions— Perhaps not real or maybe the spirit of the first wife—The second wife was probably present and was anxious to be in the photo. There may have... little more modest—Where has Bhababhusan put the bag—No you are very careless—What made you send him—Why not go yourself—Begin what? Bengalees are a timid race but they are very desirous of being brave—Many make attempts, but few can succeed—You do a lot of work but not properly Because you do not see to the execution—Barin may try but he will not succeed when you cannot help him—My dear fellow, why try ...
... haste to be busy about too many things, we have forgotten and left out of account the one thing needful. We have sought to increase our consciousness, but away from the centre of consciousness; so what we have actually gained is not an increase, in the sense of a growth or elevation of consciousness, but an accumulation of consciousnesses, that is to say, many forms and external powers or... invariably crooked and perverse. We live and move in the cold and blighting, and withal shallow, glare of the brain-mind. Page 135 III We of the modern age know many things – perhaps too many; and we yearn and strive to know yet more. We are never content with the knowledge that we have at the moment; our mind is always restive to leap beyond its immediate ken, thinking always... activities, something that gives to our most perfect creation, the impress of an experiment, of what is tentative, transitional, temporary. The ancients, on the contrary, knew not many things – not so many as we know; but what they knew they knew well, they were sure of their knowledge. Their creations were not perhaps on the whole as rich and varied and subtle – even in a certain sense as deep ...
... human form. The Avatar (at least when understood in the true sense) is the incarnation upon earth of the supreme Truth. Now, many meanings are given to this word. There is even a word avatar in French which has a very special meaning! It is said that an adventurer has many avatars , that is, he changes his appearance, personality, occupation.... But originally (as it is said in the Gita, for example)... reason and takes an earthly body, it is said that he is an Avatar. He may take many successive bodies according to the needs and circumstances, but it is always what could be called the "central being" which takes an earthly body. That is what is called an Avatar. I thought you knew that. Sri Aurobindo has explained this in many places. "Imperial Maheshwari is seated in the wideness above the thinking... ritual has brought down and to this you may speak." This is right, but the nature of the priest must be known, his occult knowledge and also the forces with which he has an affinity. So, there may be many things in there.... There is "something" (unless it is a stupid ignoramus who has performed the ceremony, one who has no power at all, has brought down nothing, made only a show—but this is rather rare; ...
... Namaskar. So much water has flowed under the bridge these past many years. Time is running out. Life is too short to waste. That is why I was inspired to write this letter to you, knowing that you will surely understand the value of the Mother's Vision regarding the Matrimandir—where now so many controversies are going on among so many groups. At the moment Roger Anger is here. He has appeared on... Sri Aurobindo speaks, the total self-giving to the Divine Will whatever happens, even in the midst of the night . There is the night and there is the sun, the night and the sun, again the night, many nights, but one must cling to the Will to surrender, cling to it as through a tempest, and give up everything into the hands of the Supreme Lord, until the day when the Sun comes forever, the total ...
... to 'learn' the worldly ways or be free. She, of course, preferred her freedom and happily continued with her spontaneous ways. In the courtyard there were many berry trees and Kamala used to collect the best ones and bring them for me. Though many others lived in the ashram, she gave them only to me. Her elder sister Yashoda, who later married Vallabhbhai Patel's son, was also staying there. Kashibhai... Om'. I remember that vividly—it reminded me of Janak Videhi the legendary philosopher-king, father of Sita. There is a lot that can be written about Kashibhai's virtuous character. He helped many people in many ways. For instance, he willingly purchased the train tickets for those who wanted to come to Pondicherry but had no money. Later, when he settled in Pondicherry, he used to send the Bulletin ...
... not succeeded. Many unwanted thoughts come. Sri Aurobindo : What are they? Disciple : Some nonsense. Sri Aurobindo : Some extraordinary non-sense like perpetual attendance on the Maharajah or successor to Mussolini? Disciple : No sir, the thought of the Maharajah comes very rarely. But why does not one succeed in meditating even after so many trials? The last... mountains and forests. Sri Aurobindo : Yes. One sees many things i.e. by the inner sight. These are symbols of life or energy. Sky is the symbol of the mind. Mountain is the symbol of the being with its different planes and parts with the Divine as the summit. Forests are symbols of the vital. Disciple : These visions are seen by many (quite common). Sri Aurobindo : Oh yes, as the... something will be always there behind which will be able to govern the nature. Also the sense of Eternity and of yourself as Immortal. Even though the body dies you know you are immortal. Also there are many things more. For example, freedom from every thing even from the world. You realize the Transcendental and the Universal consciousness. Realization of the fundamental being may be the beginning ...
... of December. In recent times, many more have taken to this habit. And in this they are encouraged by their Page 126 parents and guardians. And the adverse psychological consequence of this long absence on the consciousness of the students is easily imaginable. Outside, in their respective places of temporary sojourn, these students are exposed to many undesirable influences and they... and learn in order to get a good job, to earn their living and have brilliant careers, should not send them here.' We should... And that is very important." (Ibid.) (5)"...there are many, many parents who send their children here because it is less expensive than anywhere else. And that is worse than anything, worse than anything. We should... we should... we must absolutely tell them:... sensitive children was very wholesome. These young students imbibed the ideals of the place quite smoothly. But in recent times things have been somewhat different. We are constrained to state that many parents and guardians today do not much care to understand fully the implication of the "Students' Prayer" and of the "Declaration" given by the Mother to the students of her Centre of Education. For ...
... limited; it can be many things at a time and take more than one enduring poise even for all time. We find that in the principle of Supermind itself it has three such general poises or sessions of its world-founding consciousness. The first founds the inalienable unity of things, the second modifies that unity so as to support the manifestation of the Many in One and One in Many; the third further modifies... from the maintenance and operation of such a dualism. It may be said that the first consequence would be a lapse into the ignorance of Avidya which takes the Many for the real fact of existence and views the One only as a cosmic sum of the Many. But there would not necessarily be any such lapse. For the individual Divine would still be conscious of itself as the result of the One and of its power of... priority not in time but in relation of consciousness, and no statement of supreme spiritual experience, no Vedantic philosophy denies this priority or the eternal dependence of the Many on the One. It is because in Time the Many seem not to be eternal but to manifest out of the One and return into it as their essence that their reality is denied; but it might equally be reasoned that the eternal persistence ...
... beyond its true pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the parent of error. This is a zone which many sadhakas have to cross, in which many wander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge. Especially if their sadhana is mainly in the mental and vital, they have to meet here many difficulties and much danger; only those who follow scrupulously a strict guidance or have the psychic... he can rest, but only a stage. And yet these stages have to be passed through, for the Supramental or the Supreme Truth cannot be reached in one bound or even in many bounds; one has to pursue a calm, patient, steady progress through many intervening stages without getting bound or attached to their lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda. This is in fact an intermediary state, a zone of transition... Towards Overmind My Pilgrimage to the Spirit November 6, 1932 Q. In our yoga one is to pass through many planes and zones, not known to the past yogas. How can one know that they are transitional stages? How can one save oneself from misunderstanding and struggle resulting from it? A. All these experiences are of the same nature and what applies to ...
... in thy body. त्वं नृचक्षा वृषभानु पूर्वीः कृष्णास्वग्ने अरुषो वि भाहि । वसो नेषि च पर्षि चात्यंहः कृधी नो राय उशिजो यविष्ठ ॥३॥ 3) Thou art the male with the divine vision, in the wake of many dawns shine out luminous in the black nights, O Fire. O prince of the riches, lead and carry us over beyond the evil; O youthful god, make us aspirants for the treasure. अषाळ्हो अग्ने वृषभो दिदीहि... Vast all-protecting sacrifice. अच्छिद्रा शर्म जरितः पुरुणि देवाँ अच्छा दीद्यानः सुमेधाः । रथो न सस्निरभि वक्षि वाजमग्ने त्वं रोदसी नः सुमेके ॥५॥ 5) O Fire of worship, towards homes of bliss many and without a gap, towards the gods shining out wise in understanding, like a conquering chariot bring the plenitude; O Fire, do thou make earth and heaven firmly established for us. Page 189 ... of mortal besiege us. इळामग्ने पुरुदंसं सनिं गोः शश्वत्तमं हवमानाय साध । स्यान्नः सूनुस्तनयो विजावाऽग्ने सा ते सुमतिर्भूत्वस्मे ॥७॥ 7) O Fire, achieve at my call the Revealing Speech the many-actioned, the lasting conquest of the Light. May there be for us a Son of our begetting pervading in his birth; 1 O Fire, may there be created in us that true thinking of thine. SUKTA 16 अयमग्निः ...
... The admission of women in an Ashram of spiritual seekers might strike many people as a dangerous novelty. In the history of past attempts to build a spiritual community, many an organisation has been wrecked because of wrong relationships developing between men and women dwelling together. But Sri Aurobindo's Yoga, as in many other fields of life, does not want to run away from difficulties; instead... followed in the early years of the Ashram. But over the years, especially in recent times, an Page 83 unhealthy trend has set in. Many young people in their twenties or thirties, men and women alike, have started joining the Ashram in large numbers. Many of these youthful sadhaks and sadhikas have taken to the habit of having a girlfriend or a boyfriend of their own, depending on the case. ...
... the vital or the physical? Between the unseen source of a movement and its manifestation, its external expression through the individual, there are all these steps and many others; and on each many modifications of it take place, many distortions and deformations. It is these changes that give the illusion of a new creation, a new origin, or a new starting-point for a movement. It is like when you put... into a number of explanations into which we cannot now enter. Mind is one movement, but there are many varieties of the movement, many strata, that touch and even press into each other. At the same time the movement we call mind penetrates into other planes. In the mental world itself there are many levels. All these mind-planes and mind-forces are interdependent; but yet there is a difference in... and are identified with it and with the one Divine Consciousness and yet consent to act as though they were something separate, a division of the whole. There are many intermediary stages between that ignorance and this full knowledge, many ways of participating in the play. There is a state of ignorance in which you do a thing and believe that it was you who decided it; there is a state of lesser ignorance ...
... endeavour is one among many; it is only one movement in our Sadhana. We are engaged in many other things. To bring one particular item of work to something like perfection requires time and means Page 118 and resources which are not at our disposal. But we do not seek perfection in one thing, our aim is an integral achievement. An outside view may find many things to criticise and criticise... prepare students to read Sri Aurobindo's works and Mother's? Is it to prepare them for the Ashram life or also for other 'outside' occupation? There are so many opinions floating around, and even those older people whom we expect to know make so many different statements, that one does not know what to believe and act by. Then on what basis can we work without any real sure knowledge? I pray, Mother,... are people who write wanting to join our University and they ask what kind of diploma or degree we prepare for, the career we open out. To them I say: go elsewhere, please, if you want that; there are many other places, very much better than ours, even in India, in that respect. We do not have their equipment or magnificence. You will get there the kind of success you look for. We do not compete with ...
... the other end—not at all. Because the other end is the new creation, so it's clear that.... How MANY steps will it take, how many incomplete or imperfect things, approximations, attempts—how many MINUSCULE realizations—for you to simply acknowledge, "Yes, indeed, we're on the way..."? For how many... oh, you could practically say centuries will it be like this before the glorious body of a supramental... worlds, and all sorts of things like that. I saw many things. But it seemed so... like champagne bubbles! "That's all very nice," I said, "for widening my power of imagination so I can present these forms to the Lord.... But it's not necessary!" ( Mother laughs ) It really seemed so.... There was a time when I considered it a great creative power (and many things that I saw in those moments of super-creativity ...
... illumined and made the very Page 5 form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storied edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when... Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 1 I A Yoga of The Art of Life (1) WHEN Sri Aurobindo said, "Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for humanity," many heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the great soul was after all not entirely lost to the world, his was hot one more name added to the long list of Sannyasins that India has been producing age... interpretation of his saying. So he changed his words and said, "Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine." But I am afraid this change of front, this volte-face, as it seemed, was not welcomed in many quarters; for thereby all hope of having him back for the work of the country or the world appeared to be totally lost and he came to be, looked upon again as an irrevocable "metaphysical" dreamer, ...
... for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when... Kanta Gupta - Vol. 3 PART ONE A Yoga of the Art of Lift 1 WHEN Sri Aurobindo said, "Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for humanity," many heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the great soul was after all not entirely lost to the world, his was not one more name added to the long list of Sannyasins that India has been producing age... interpretation of his saying. So he changed his words and said, "Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine." But I am afraid this change of front, this volte-face, as it seemed, was not welcomed in many quarters; for thereby all hope of having him back for the work of the country or the world appeared to be totally lost and he came to be looked upon again as an irrevocable "metaphysical" dreamer, aloof ...
... Disciple : Sometimes meditation is automatic. Sri Aurobindo : At that time you must sit, otherwise you feel uneasy. Disciple : The other day I was having peace, and ananda, and I saw many visions. But I had to go to sleep, for I thought, if I kept up at night I might fall ill. I saw the flower signifying sincerity in my vision. Sri Aurobindo : Sincerity means to lift all our... thing is, the physical being has got a limit. The vital being can feel the energy, peace, etc. but Page 52 the physical cannot be taxed beyond its capacity. That is what happened to many Sadhaks here. They overworked till a reaction took place. The force comes for your particular work, not to increase the work and keep it for the other purposes. If you go on overdoing it then the natural... sleep, even ten minutes of sleep may be enough, but of course, it is not ordinary sleep but going within. If you can draw the Force with equanimity and conserve it, these things can be done. As I said many Sadhaks felt that sort of thing when we were dealing with the vital. But when the Sadhana came into the physical there was not that push any more and people began to feel easily fatigued, lazy, and ...
... 30 December 1950 This talk is based upon the Mother's essay entitled "Foresight" ( On Education , CWM, Vol. 12, pp. 77-79 ). "To foresee destiny! How many have attempted it, how many systems have been elaborated, how many sciences of divination have been created and developed only to perish under the charge of charlatanism or superstition. And why is destiny always so unforeseeable? Since... nearly always variable and therefore unforeseeable." In mathematics, one sometimes takes a great many numbers to try and find all the possible combinations of them. At once one finds that it becomes impossible, for there are many numbers that are beyond expression. Similarly, if you have a great many destinies that come together in you and occur in various combinations, depending on the part of the... sometimes very heterogeneous, that results in the destiny of the individual." A person may have a great many personalities within him—ten or twenty, for example—and each one has its own destiny. In the physical world, an individuality means a human body; so, in a human body there are many individualities, each one with its own destiny. What happens then? Conflicts, friction, inner disorder created ...
... But there, you don't have the sense of time at all, it's not the same sense at all—what matters is the CONTENT of the action, and during those hours, many, many things are done, so many. I meet you very regularly, but many others too, and I am at many places at the same time! And when someone tells me, "Oh, I saw you last night, Page 269 you did this and that," then somewhere up above I... experience. For instance, the problem of many people who are called mad, and who are simply in that subtle consciousness ( same superposed gesture ): at certain times it prevails, which makes them say things that are meaningless here but have a very clear meaning over there, and so the consciousness is like this ( superposed gesture, almost merged ). That explains many cases of so-called madness. Certain... and it went on, the state of consciousness went on with open eyes; and in that state of consciousness there was ... (I can't say "I" because it's not the same "I," you understand; at such times I am many people), but the "I" of that moment was in the habit (not here materially but "up there") of wearing a gold watch ( gesture to the wrist ) and had forgotten to put that watch on; and looked and noticed ...
... fact, then, is that Sri Aurobindo has seen something, experienced something, so vividly that, although many-splendoured, it is a living vision to him; this 'mystic' experience has comprised life and spirit, the world, the cosmos and the transcendent, and it is therefore a total, if also a many-sided, vision; the epic, Savitri, is an attempt both to retell an old story and to record in symbolic... In the new form it will be a sort of poetic philosophy of the Spirit and of Life... 86 Page 320 ...it expresses or tries to express a total and many-sided vision and experience of all the planes of being and their action upon each other. 87 Savitri is an experiment in mystic poetry, spiritual poetry cast into a symbolic... must be a new extension of consciousness and aesthesis to appreciate a new kind of mystic poetry. Moreover if it is really new in kind, it may employ a new technique.. .new in some or many of its elements. 90 ...if I have not poetical genius, at least I can claim a sufficient, if not an infinite capacity for painstaking.. .for waiting and listening for the true ...
... Aurobindo Ashram. It so happened that the Mother graciously admitted many children, in every academic session to Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. And this process continued year after year. These children grew up in the Ashram atmosphere under the Mother's direct guidance and blossomed into a new type of human beings in many aspects of their education, personality and character. But there... SAICE students in actual practice. There were many initial hurdles but they were very soon successfully crossed. Parents residing outside and their children were both very happy with this development; for the problem they had faced in the beginning was now adequately solved. But a hitch arose from another quarter, from some of the teachers of SAICE, — and many of them were quite senior. They sincerely... issue any Certificate nor does it confer any degree or diploma to the successful candidate after proper academic examination. But there are others who affirm equally strongly that they personally know many cases where the alumni of SAICE have secured lucrative jobs or have entered other institutions of higher learning on the basis of some "papers" issued to them by SAICE. And these "papers" they call ...
... Someone comes and tells you he was Napoleon, another was Shakespeare and so on. How many Shakespeares and Napoleons and Caesars have manifested in this way, there is no counting! There are spirits who are extremely talkative and bewitch you with extraordinary stories, many that seem so true and genuine on the face, many others, of course, full of the grossest self-contradictions. The fact, however, is... has a developed psychic being to the extent that it is capable of controlling and guiding the outer life. How often does an ordinary man get in contact with his psychic being? Years and years pass for many or most to have just a passing taste of this movement. It is this moment that abides and is carried over to the next life, all other things are simply effaced. At a given point of our life, there... what is there in your head even if you do not speak it out. That is how it reveals secrets known to you alone, even secrets you have totally forgotten. They can imitate other personalities. They know many other small tricks to confuse or astound you. Page 407 ...
... independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the realisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives. In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence, this inner light is there.... In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a certain control and protection, something which... catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence, the supreme Presence, in matter. But only in a few exceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending over many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent, fully organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious enough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only ...
... know, I am your only child, your only daughter!” He kept quiet for a few minutes, then he said, “Don’t boast. You are not the only daughter I have. I have many daughters all over the world.” I thought now he is boasting! But when he fell ill so many people wrote him letters asking if there was anything they could do for him. People sent money and their good wishes. People would write to him from all... know, I am your only child, your only daughter!” He kept quiet for a few minutes, then he said, “Don’t boast. You are not the only daughter I have. I have many daughters all over the world.” I thought now he is boasting! But when he fell ill so many people wrote him letters asking if there was anything they could do for him. People sent money and their good wishes. People would write to him from all... and had to go home. I was left all alone with this work. One day I was going upstairs and the Mother opened her door. I was thinking how lucky I was to have so many children. At that moment Mother said, “How good it is that you have so many children.” I wondered how she could know exactly what I was thinking. Then she asked me to start dance classes. I did both these things simultaneously. She selected ...
... tell you the value of the privilege that he had. He wrote hundreds of letters to Sri Aurobindo, and he got answers from Him, on a number of subjects. He also used to be with Sri Aurobindo for many, many years. And if you read Mother India, you'll often find excerpts from Talks With Sri Aurobindo there - they are all recorded by him for he was a participant of those talks. He had a correspondence... after having read these two books of Page 263 Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo. So, personally, I owe a great debt to him for getting for me illumination from Sri Aurobindo on many, many important points, not only of metaphysics, but chiefly of Yoga. If you read this correspondence, I'm sure you'll find therein a great fund of humour. I don't know if you are interested in humour... today is breaking all those old shackles. The prison wall is broken down, and we see everywhere the rise of that new vision. Even in the Ashram, having lived here for so many decades, as my brother Kireet said, I see how many Indian women, with or without their husbands, their sisters, their brothers, and their children, are flocking here, dressed in beautiful saris, with their vanity bag hanging ...
... essence the One becoming many but not for that matter separating itself from the many. "I shall be Many", "aham bahu syām": that was the first Will of the Divine, the One without a second, ekam evādvitīyam. But because of the intervention of Cosmic Ignorance this 'many' thought itself to be different from the One, but the One continues to view the many as the One-in-many. As a result this One... One, the fundamental Reality, is always seeking to annul the veil of Ignorance and bring the many back to the consciousness of One-4h-many. This divine seeking is Page 191 expressed in the world as the Attraction of the One exercised on the One-in-many. And as a consequence the 'many', which ignorantly experiences itself to be different and cut off from the One, is unknowingly... y but constantly feeling a reflex urge, albeit obscure and distorted, to move towards the One. But as the essential truth is hidden from the 'many' which is shrouded in ignorance and dominated by the sense of a separative egoism, this ineluctable urge towards the unique Source cannot retain its pure form but becomes caricatured and perverted in the egoistic human heart. There, love's apparent ...
... is common to many old authors and compiers, but it is especially applied to Veda-Vyasa or Krishna Dvaipayana.He was the son of Rishi Parashara and Satyavati. From his complex- ion (dark) he received the name Krishna, and from his birthplace (an island, dvip, in the Yamuna), the name Dvaipayana. He was a Rishi himself and is traditionally cited as the author of the Mahabharata and many other works... Vedas (Veda-Vyasa means "the one who arranged the Vedas"). No one knows exactly how many verses the Mahabharata originally contained. Some speak of 4400 verses, some others of 8800, still some others of 26400. What is certain is that over a period of time, the number of verses increased tremendously, many times its original size, and the epic as it is known today (110000 shlokas —or, as some people... Nalopakhyanam in verse) said: "I believe certain portions of the mighty poem which here appear, and many other episodes, to be of far greater antiquity than has been ascribed to the Mahabharata generally. Doubtless the 'two hundred and twenty thousand lines' of the entire compilation contain in many places little and large additions and corrections, ... and he who ever so slightly explores this poetical ...
... ere live, a "man," apparently, but looking on himself and all around with an unborn child's eyes, with millions of years behind him which were so many little creatures and so many hopes—for what? Our Neanderthal man has grown a lot, devoured so many creatures big and small, and "civilizations" one upon another, our twenty-year-old death-row convict has never come out of his camp or of his terrible... were there so many sanctities since the Teutonic invasions and the so-called "liberation"—but Hell is perfectly there, so too the democratic and political Prison of a thousand parties stabbing each other behind their rightist or leftist barbed wires: they have borrowed everything from the slogan-churning electronic machine, their brains are washed and corrupt, they have so many machines under... disaster? Or is it to compel us to find the solution? A wild bird cries out, there on the ocean of ages. Did we come from so far away through so many centuries and sorrows and prisons under this king or that, this pope and so many others, this prophet and all others, vanished and returned, those revolutionaries from here and there with no revolution ever, and again our blood, again our ...
... mental ego which can continue to exist for quite a long time. But one can have experiences without the ego being dissolved. Otherwise who would have experiences? How many people are there who have dissolved their ego? There can't be very many, I think. When one has an experience it is as though one went through his ego to have his experience, and one can, if he continues, end up by diminishing the ... people who have such a power of formation that they succeed in making what they imagine real. There are not many of these but there are some. They imagine something and their formation is so well made and so powerful that it succeeds in being realised. These are creators; there are not many of them but there are some. If one thinks of someone who doesn't exist or who is dead? Ah! What do you... progress to be made in the world, because they have the capacity of imagining something that's not yet manifested. But there are not many. One must first be capable of going beyond the manifested universe to be able to imagine something which is not there. There are already many things which can be imagined. What is our terrestrial world in the universe? A very small thing. Simply to have the capacity ...
... Science of Living" , On Education Why? If one has an aim, one can follow quietly the way which leads to the goal. It is not necessary to have a goal in order to follow the way quietly. So many men who have no goal follow quite calmly the course of their daily round without making any effort! An aim gives joy. Sometimes it takes an entire lifetime to attain one's aim; one would then... has decided to do it and an act imposed by circumstances, more or less favourable, do not have at all the same result. It is known, for instance, that people who follow yogic discipline often fast. Many yogic disciplines require very long fastings and those who practise them are generally very happy to do so, for that is their own choice. But take this very person and put him in circumstances where... control yourself better and better. That is the Science of Living. To perfect oneself, one must first become conscious of oneself. I am sure, for instance, that the following situation has arisen many times in your life: someone asks you suddenly, "Why have you done that?" Well, the spontaneous reply is, "I don't know." If someone asks you, "What are you thinking of?" You reply, "I don't know." "Why ...
... humanity"; so many people say, "I am going to do Yoga to be able to serve humanity, make the unhappy happy, organise the world in the happiest way for everybody." I say this is not sufficient—I do not say that this is bad in itself, although I have heard an old occultist say wittily: "It won't be so very soon that there will be no more misery in the world, because there are too many people who are... The main trouble is that you think with words, but these words are empty of meaning; most of the time they are mere words—you talk of the Divine, you talk of the Supreme, you talk of Yoga, you say many things, but does all that correspond in your head to something concrete, to a thought, a feeling, a clear idea, an experience? Or are they simply words? It is said that Yoga is the "final goal of... dominate others—this is the worst reason, the most selfish, that which brings the most harmful consequences. Others who are greatly troubled, who have a very difficult life, who have worries, sorrows, many cares, say, "Oh, I shall find something that will give me peace, tranquillity, and I shall be able to get a little rest." And they rush into Yoga thinking they are going to be quite happy and satisfied ...
... Everybody and anybody can have a book, read it right through and he is quite free to practise it or not as he pleases. This is all very well, but it creates a certain confusion in many minds, and people who have read many books think that it is enough and that all sorts of miraculous things must happen to them because they have read books, and that they don't need to take the trouble of practising.... be of many kinds, and its nature can be quite varied. There is superficial curiosity, and there is deep curiosity; there is even idle curiosity; then there is curiosity which is suffused with a charming or inspiring sense 1. The Mother, Collected Works of the Mother, vol. 9, pp. 66-67. Page 172 of wonder. A detailed analysis of the psychology of curiosity can bring out many hues... Hussein. Page 173 O nce upon a time there was a Mahatma who was a great ascetic and a great pandit. He was honoured by all, full of years and wisdom. His name was Junun. Many young boys, many young men used to come to him to receive initiation. They stayed in his hermitage, became pandits themselves, then returned home after a long and studious retreat. One day a young man came ...
... yourself! You have said in the same talk: "Peace has been given to you several times and often you lost it...." "Chance" , Questions and Answers 1929-31 Yes, how many times has peace been given to you and how many times have you lost it? Innumerable times, I have said. Divine peace, not only ordinary peace (because, for ordinary peace, I believe you may go around the world several times... the contact and makes an effort, one manages to get rid of the obstacle? That happens only when you are truly an a first class sadhak! There are not many who do that. Those who do it I must congratulate, for they will go very fast. But there are not many who know the cause—I have Page 409 told you that—ninety-nine times out of a hundred it is the poor Divine who is guilty: it is He who has... necessarily it is a chance occurrence which makes you unhappy, I say that it does not correspond to the order of truths, which is very different. One may be very happy in the midst of disorder! There are many who are perfectly satisfied with their disorder and would not like to change it. A happy chance may come from a set of circumstances which harm nobody. We do not see it harming anyone or anything ...
... farther advanced in China than before. PURANI: They say the Japanese are not good in the air. They missed their targets many times. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know about that. The Japanese are good at concentrating on one thing at a time, but aeronautic requires concentration on many points at once. PURANI: Mussolini is asking all Italians to close down their firms in Djibouti and he does not want... successful in many other things. As I said, the Cosmic Spirit rnay want him to go that way. Even from the standpoint of ethics, one can't say Hitler is immoral. He is very restricted as regards food, is supposed to have no wife or mistress and leads a very controlled life in all respects. He shows qualities which are considered moral. Robespierre was also a moral man and yet he killed many people. ... NIRODBARAN: Then what did you mean when you spoke of a true voice? SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, that is the psychic voice. But there can be many other voices from many planes. And how will you say which is right? What would you say of Lord Curzon's decision? NIRODBARAN; For the Bengal Partition? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Was he right? He thought he had the right inspiration in what he was doing, while others ...
... about all that. EVENING DR. MANILAL: If Joan of Arc was a saint, how could she be burnt alive, Sir? SRI AUROBINDO: She was declared a saint only some years ago! And what did you have in mind? Many saints have been killed, burnt, riddled with arrows. NIRODBARAN: Christ was crucified. DR. MANILAL: Some say it is not true. (Laughter) PURANI: How? It is written in the books! (laughter)... Puranas. The topic changed. What exactly Sri Aurobindo refers to in the following is not remembered. SRI AUROBINDO: I have sent both the synopsis and the summary down to Nolini. I don't know how many pages they will be in type. I think there will be about two hundred pages altogether. Manilal might find them easy. (Laughter) DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: It may be more... but you can't express it. When you try to express it, you limit it because expression comes from the mind and from mental ideas and thoughts. DR. MANILAL: It is like sweetness. Sir. There are so many kinds of sweetness, but we can't define it. SRI AUROBINDO: One can define it to a certain extent. DR. MANILAL: How will you express the sweetness of a pomegranate, Sir? SRI AUROBINDO: That ...
... त्वमग्ने पुरुरुपो विशेविशे वयो दधासि प्रत्नथा पुरुष्टुत । पुरुण्यन्ना सहसा वि राजसि त्विषिः सा ते तित्विषाणस्य नाधृषे ॥५॥ 5) O Fire, thou takest many forms for man and man and thou foundest for him his growth as of old, O thou lauded by many voices; many are the things on which thou feedest and thou illuminest them all with thy force, and none can do violence to the fury of thy blaze when thou blazest... sacrifice with his many delights who establishes all, Fire who dwells in the house, master of the house, the supremely desirable. त्वामग्ने अतिथिं पूर्व्यं विशः शोचिष्केशं गृहपतिं नि षेदिरे । बृहत्केतुं पुरुरुपं धनस्पृतं सुशर्माणं स्ववसं जरद्विषम् ॥२॥ 2) Thee, O Fire, men seated within as the ancient guest, the master of the house with his tresses of light,—vast is his intuition, many are his forms ...
... peaceful, etc. SRI AUROBINDO: How will you know then without inner perception? Maurice Magre saw peace and inner beauty in many faces, which he didn't see outside the Ashram. For us it is nothing compared to what is yet to be done. All the same, it is something. I see light in many people here which I don't see in worldly people. NIRODBARAN: They say about Z also that they don't find any sign by which... or horse-racing in Bombay. CHAMPAKLAL: The Mother said she is much bothered by these thefts. She wants to know— SRI AUROBINDO: Does she? CHAMPAKLAL: She sees and knows many things— SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, she sees many things that she doesn't want to see. It doesn't mean that she will see this too. We are not concerned with it and she does not use her inner power for these things. CHAMPAKLAL:... When that work is done, the effect may be seen on the outer physical. NIRODBARAN: But something may be reflected before the final achievement? SRI AUROBINDO: May be or may not. CHAMPAKLAL: Many thefts are committed in the Ashram. Do you know who the thief is? Or perhaps you don't want to know and wish to play the part of Ignorance? SRI AUROBINDO: Why would I know? It is not my work. It ...
... thus that I was able to witness many sacrifices. There used to be Vedic recitation in chorus also and at that time two teams were formed, who in turn did the recitations. There was also one individual devoted to Veda and he used to chant Veda in a continuous rhythm, and I liked it very much and even now I have liking for it. This Yajna at Tapogiri was in many ways extraordinary, for nowhere else... Among those who were the spectators, I could only see Pranab, the other individuals were unrecognisable, or perhaps they did not want themselves to be recognised, as was my impression. I saw there many Sadhus, Sanyasins, Tantric Kapaliks, Vairagins, Avadhuts, Jain Sadhus, Aghoris etc., even family men as well as Sufis were there, all engrossed in their particular sadhana. There were among others... legs, with fire blazing below them. Some were naked, moving about, some standing still on one leg. They had big tridents in their hands. In one place, there was a fierce fire burning, around which many Digambars (naked sadhus) were seated and they were cutting their own limbs and offering them as oblations in the fire. The strange thing about this was that whereas bad smell comes out of limbs when ...
... have already led to the rejection of quite a few, many more than one, inappropriate “corrections” that were sought to be introduced into Savitri ; and I can equally assure him that my other queries, if properly investigated, will lead to the rejection of many more. But unless the editors’ views are appropriately modified and made more flexible, many unnecessary, often inappropriate and at times seriously... in keeping with their altered contents. But in many cases it is not so. I am convinced about this point than ever before and am ready to establish it at any time before any independent and competent authority. It is now clear to me that if the Table of Corrections is carried out in toto, what will happen is that along with the happy elimination of many genuine “transmission errors”, some other new and ...
... Centenary Tribute Long Live Amal Kiran! It is difficult to write anything on Amal, who is a profound scholar, skilled in many arts and sciences. He is a prolific writer on so many subjects, - literary, historic, scientific, archaeological and spiritual. To read his books is to sharpen one's intellect and to widen one's mind. But I would not go into... respectful daring which Sri Aurobindo welcomed and even asked for his suggestions. And what has emerged from this correspondence is such a treasure of knowledge, which enlightens us on so many aspects of Savitri . On many occasions, Sri Aurobindo holds his ground and strongly defends himself. Sure of the inspiration he has received from above, he gives a detailed analysis of the lines, images or words ...
... consciousness over the years and the readiness to lead a routine existence confronts many a sadhak in the Ashram. And this is not the morbid imagination of a pessimist mind; it is very much true to fact and cannot escape the notice of any one who would keep his eyes open. And this risk arises because of the situation of many heterogeneous elements coming close together in the short space of our Ashram c... Ashram community because our aim is to practise a 'collective yoga'; and this implies that individual sadhaks will not only have to contend against the difficulties of their own personal nature but fight many problems as representatives of the whole group. Because of the fact of inner solidarity with all, each member of the collectivity is at all times exposed to the influences coming from all others and... lowered down in his consciousness, and willy-nilly he will start copying others in their unspiritual tendencies, forgetting in the process his own original aspiration. And this has been the tragic fate of many promising sadhaks. Here we may recall some memorable lines from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: Page 45 "Heaven's call is rare, rarer the heart that heeds; The doors of ...
... of all existences, that an atom of Thy joy is sufficient to efface so much darkness, so many sorrows and a single ray of Thy glory can light up thus the dullest pebble, illumine the blackest consciousness! Thou hast heaped Thy favours upon me, Thou hast unveiled to me many secrets, Thou hast made me taste many unexpected and unhoped for joys, but no grace of Thine can be equal to this Thou grantest ...
... the way, as I said, in order not to make a mistake. Why then don't we do that instead of reading books! Because very few people would be able to do it, whereas many can read books (there are not many who understand them, but many can read them!). And this is still more difficult than understanding a book. And if it were taught to children when they are quite young? It is possible that... "Men are too easily inclined to believe that they have climbed into regions quite divine when they have only gone above the average level. There are many stages between the ordinary human mind and the Supermind, many grades and many intervening planes. If an ordinary man were to get into direct contact even with one of these intermediate planes, he would be dazzled and blinded, would be crushed... messenger to that place.... It is preferable to have someone who can guide you there, because otherwise you can lose your way and go elsewhere! And then you go. It is like a very big library with many many small compartments. So you find the compartment corresponding to the information you wish to have. You press a button and it opens. And inside it you find a scroll as it were, a mental formation which ...
... Everybody and anybody can have a book, read it right through and he is quite free to practise it or not as he pleases. This is all very well, but it creates a certain confusion in many minds, and people who have read many books think that it is enough and that all sorts of miraculous things must happen to them because they have read books, and that they don't need to take the trouble of practising.... ( Translated from the Gujarati ) Once upon a time there was a Mahatma who was a great ascetic and a great pandit. He was honoured by all, full of years and wisdom. His name was Junun. Many young boys, many young men used to come to him to receive initiation. They stayed in his hermitage, became pandits themselves, then returned home after a long and studious retreat. One day a young man came... Then, full of confidence Yusuf went back to his Master. The Mahatma was overjoyed to see him again and find him ready. And this is how Yusuf received from Mahatma Junun the great initiation. Many, many years went by, Yusuf grew in wisdom and mastery. He became one of the greatest and most exceptional saints of Islam. ( Mother speaks to the children. ) So, this is to tell you that you must not ...
... that forms now my Collected Works: eight volumes in English and as many volumes in Bengali. ... All of you are leaving our Centre of Education, a Centre where you have been for so many years. To complete your Course and come out of the Centre, it's all right; but to go where? It seems you have already come to a decision, there are many amongst you who have made their choice. That's good, for it means... : be sure and certain of that. You carry that within you for all time and wherever you go, wherever in the entire world. You carry in you a portion, a spark of her Love; and that will save you from many difficulties, from much danger. If you can keep that in your active memory, it will be still more beneficial. That's all. Page 209 ...
... I find that many people are upset over X’s and Y’s departure. Why should one be upset when a person leaves? I feel neither sympathy nor pain in such cases. I rather feel for you, thinking that you have taken so much trouble, spent so much of your time for them. But why are people so frequently leaving the Ashram? Is there any undue pressure of sadhana? In this year, just see how many departures! We... We didn’t see so many going when we came. Is there any special reason or simply the action of the same hostile force? If so, why should that force succeed to such an extent now? SRI AUROBINDO: I don’t know why. It is perfectly irrational. People have been going as well as coming since the Ashram began. Perhaps it arises from the ignorant idea that the people who go like X and Y are great bhaktas ...
... comprised of many substances combining variously into many forms,—like the elements of the chemist, which now turn out not to be elements,—nor yet of many substances composing by fusion one substance,—as hydrogen & oxygen seem to compose water,—but is always & eternally one substance variously concentrated into many elements, innumerable atoms, multitudinous forms. There are not many lives composing... currents. It would be easy, by quoting isolated texts from the Upanishads, to establish on them any system whatever; for the sages of the Upanishads have made it their business to see Brahman in many aspects, from many standpoints, to record all the most important fundamental experiences which the soul has when it comes into contact with the All, the Eternal. This they did with the greater freedom because... fusion or by any other sort of combination one composite life, as pluralistic theories tend to suppose, but always & eternally one Life variously active in multitudinous substantial bodies. There are not many minds acting upon each other, mutually penetrative and tending to or consciously seeking unity, as romantic theories of being suppose, but always & eternally one mind variously intelligent in innumerable ...
... brought up in many various kinds of trainings, his unwholesome eccentricities wear away and the unsocial, egoistic elements of character are to a large extent discouraged. He moves among ancient and venerable buildings, the mere age and beauty of which are in themselves an education. He has the Union which has trained so many great orators and debaters, has been the first trial ground of so many renowned... and to create the feeling among their pupils that they belong to the community, that they are children of one mother. There are many obstacles to this result in the circumstances of Indian Universities. The Colleges are not collected in one town but are scattered among many and cannot assemble within themselves so large and various a life. They are new also, the creation of not more than fifty years—and... an occasion like the present, it is inevitable that the mind should dwell on one feature of this gathering above all others. Held as it is towards the close of the year, I am inevitably reminded that many of its prominent members are with us for the last time in their College life, and I am led to speculate with both hope and anxiety on their future careers, and this not only because several familiar ...
... It is so far shared by many less loyal people that they consider industrial prosperity as prior to and the cause of political advancement. The idea is that we must be rich before we can struggle for freedom. History does not bear out this peculiar delusion. It is the poor Page 238 peoples who have been most passionately attached to liberty, while there are many examples to show that nothing... Book One Book One Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 24.Oct.1906 - 27.May.1907 Bande Mataram Many Delusions 05-April-1907 In a country where subjection has long become a habit of the public mind, there will always be a tendency to shrink from the realities of the position and to hunt for roundabout, safe and peaceful paths to national... regeneration. Servitude is painful and intolerable, servitude is killing the nation by inches, servitude must be got rid of, true; but the pains and evils of servitude seem almost more tolerable to a good many people than the sharp, salutary pangs of a resolute struggle for liberty. Hence the not uncommon cry, "The violent and frequently bloody methods followed by other nations are not suited to a gentle ...
... Sitaram Among the Not So Great His Ways What amazed me and could have or should have amazed many others too, is that though I was acquainted with him for many years (not as student, but as a colleague and friend) I have not heard his voice ever raised above the normal conversational levels — that voice needed sharp or attentive ears. Even the little... then came Mahalingam, then an energetic-looking young man Ananda Bharati. They were great supports in Sitaram’s publishing work. For the washing too, many came and went, some true ones stuck on, the chaff flew, the grain stayed. (Rani, Prashant and many more that I cannot name or recollect.) What Kaala could not change was the real Sitaram. He remained steadfastly “Sitaram” — never a word of complaint... culprit. He was again taken to Madurai; but nothing much could be done. Then the hearing too was impaired. Sitaram continued but now seemed to feel the burden of the years. His achievements were many but not sung about, and most of us are not attuned enough to “hear” Silence! The adage “out of sight, out of mind” may be expanded by adding “out of earshot, out of mind”. So let us hearken to at least ...
... had positively said (I insisted, and I repeat it at every opportunity) that on Wednesdays and Saturdays, I don't want to see many people.... I said, "I have work to do, I can't." But I do understand: everyone is harassed. They bring me piles of requests—I turn down as many as I can. There's something to be found. What if I called you early? Whatever is convenient to you. There's no... anything, so you can go into an experience. That I can do any time. Page 411 Yes, but still there's a minimum.... No. Because how many times have you told me, "Oh, I had something to tell you, now it's gone away," how many times! No, those were experiences that no longer seemed to me worth saying. No, that's not it—the state is immutable, mon petit, twenty-four hours a day... really when the work is concentrated on the transformation.) It's not that the rest of the time is a denial, not at all: that state of consciousness is immutable. Basically, I don't think there are many Page 412 minutes, even in a day's twenty-four hours, when the body isn't conscious of the divine Presence—that's how the body is. But the daytime hours are spent in action, they're for others; ...
... had so many complexes that he couldn't find any other theory than that for every human action. He says that the sense of injustice in children is born from their inability to retain their excrement. (Laughter) And what is surprising is that everybody in Europe believes it. His real contribution is about the subconscient. Even there some of his disciples, such as Jung, are throwing out many things... NIRODBARAN: Radhakrishnan seems to have said that he doesn't believe there is anyone who can challenge Shankara. It was in a talk in Belur Math regarding Sri Aurobindo. SRI AUROBINDO: There have been many people who have challenged Shankara. PURANI: Yes, Vaishnavas, Ramanuja, Madhava, etc. After this Nirodbaran referred to Professor Amarnath Jha's lecture in the Hindu on Indian English where he... thought he looked like a college professor. DR. MANILAL: I feel cold in the head. Sir; that's why I have put this cloth on it. Usually I catch cold in the chest and head. NIRODBARAN: In spite of so many layers of garments? He has at least five on. DR. MANILAL: Only one is warm. SRI AUROBINDO: Even there he doesn't hold the record. I remember in London that the strength of Sarat Ghose—one of the ...
... has descended through many gradations of its workings and passed through many agents. There are many creators or rather "formateurs", form-makers, who have presided over the creation of the world. They are intermediary agents and I prefer to call them "Formateurs" and not "Creators"; for what they have done is to give a form and turn and nature to matter. There have been many, and some have formed... and ignorant, not because it is material. It is a mistake to make "matter" a synonym for obscurity and ignorance. And the material world too is not the only world in which we live: it is rather one of many in which we exist simultaneously, and in one way the most important of them all. Page 102 For this world of matter is the point of concentration of all the worlds; it is the field of co ...
... and Mother India . Many letters in these journals were revised by Sri Aurobindo before publication. By the mid-1940s a significant body of letters had been collected, typed and revised. In 1945 plans were made, with Sri Aurobindo's approval, to publish a collection of his letters. The work of compiling and editing these letters was done under his guidance. At that time, many typed or printed copies... Yoga, along with many additional ones, were published under the titles On Yoga II: Tome One and On Yoga II : Tome Two , as Volumes VI and VII of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education collection. The first tome, with further additions, was reissued in 1969. In 1970 a new edition of the letters was published under the title Letters on Yoga ; this edition contained many new letters not... typed copies. Many unpublished letters were discovered while reviewing correspondences long held by the Ashram; some of these had never been assessed to find letters for publication; others had been assessed, but relatively few letters were selected at the time. Additional letters were received by the Ashram upon the passing away of disciples. From the three sources mentioned above, many letters have ...
... examples. It's really very interesting." But something left her puzzled. "I have had all sorts of experiences," Mother said, "for so many, so many years. For about sixty years, constantly I have aided people who are said 'to die.' Constantly. Well, there are almost as many cases as there are people. ... At least twice it happened to me —in this very existence —'to die,' as people call it; and both ... u when, as she was racing ahead of the other children, she had sailed into the air and fallen from a height of about three metres. And not a scratch to show for it! Mirra related to the Théons many of her personal experiences. That of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice was one. She had gone there with her mother. In the Dungeon she had relived a scene from a past life wherein she was strangled and thrown... where the subjects of sleep and dream were concerned. On one occasion when Satprem complained to Mother about his bad nights, she shed much fresh light upon sleep, then proceeded to say, "There would be many interesting Page 157 things to tell about sleep, because it is one of the things 1 have studied the most." Indeed, over the decades during which she trained her sleep, the number of ...
... has been living throughout the ages and manifesting in a multitude of forms. Each of us has been born in many different countries, belonged to many different nations, followed many different religions. Why must we accept the last one as the best? The experiences gathered by us in all these many lives in different countries and varying religions, are stored up in that inner continuity of our Page... born in this country, therefore it is the best of all countries." One might as well make the same claim for his family, "Because I come of this family that has lived in the same place for so many years or so many centuries, therefore I am bound by its traditions; they alone are the ideal." Things have an inner value and become real to you only when you have acquired them by the exercise of your free... founding a religion needs to have many followers. The strength and greatness of a religion is adjudged by men according to the number of those that follow it, although the real greatness is not there. The greatness of spiritual truth is not in numbers. I knew the head of a new religion, the son of its founder, and heard him say once that such and such a religion took so many hundreds of years to be built ...
... Mother would write on the card in the presence of the child so that the child would remain for more time in Mother's presence, would bf happy to see her write and also, if the child were wise, would lean many things from that experience. But this was possible only because in those days there were very few children. Some children used to put both their hands on Mother's feet and look at her so expressively... Mother's name. But she wanted it and I obeyed; then she would often ask me to fetch a particular one from among them for her use. Of course, not all the envelopes that came were beautiful. I still have many of them. While writing to people Mother would either choose the folders from her own collection or ask from mine, indicating which photo it had to have. At times she was particular that it should... prepared for the person or asked for one more beautiful than the one previously chosen. To some Mother would give Sri Aurobindo's books or her own, sometimes more than one. That became a tradition and many asked for books on their birthdays; some wrote beforehand, some sent a long list, some asked for only one or two. Mother would give some all they asked for, to some only one and to some none at all ...
... book. The result was a new book titled by the Mother Flowers and their Messages . Since 1969, some of us had been discussing the possibility of bringing out a book on flowers with colour plates. Many ideas were put forward by those who were working on this project, regarding the write-up to be given under the name of each flower. One person wanted the quotations to be from Savitri , another favoured... collecting flowers to take to the Mother. The Ashram gardeners were a great support and started growing rare flowers so that the Mother could write about them. In their enthusiasm they even produced many new flowers for which they got seeds from all over the world. Some of these flowers were grown in the refrigerator, as they required special temperatures. At the beginning the Mother Herself wrote... this work would also be taken to the Mother the next day for clarification from Her. The result of this was the book Flowers and their Messages . While working on this book, I also asked the Mother many questions on flowers. Not all the questions and answers and clarifications were included in the book Flowers and their Messages . We are therefore reproducing the questions and answers here as a separate ...
... several forms of Indian philosophy which base themselves upon the One Reality, but they admit also the reality of the world, the reality of the Many, the reality of the differences of the Many as well as the sameness of the One ( bhedābheda ). But the Many exist in the One and by the One, the differences are variations in manifestation of that which is fundamentally ever the same. This Page 392... see as the universal law of existence where oneness is always the basis with an endless multiplicity and difference in the oneness; as for instance there is one mankind but many kinds of man, one thing called leaf or flower but many forms, patterns, colours of leaf and flower. Through this we can look back into one of the fundamental secrets of existence, the secret which is contained in the one Reality... action and movement. The one Reality, the Divine Being is bound by neither since it is in no way limited; it possesses both. There is no incompatibility between the two, as there is none between the Many and the One, the sameness and the difference. They are all eternal aspects of the universe which could not exist if either of them were eliminated, and it is reasonable to suppose that they both came ...
... Molossian, trained the boy's body, Lysimachus taught him letters, Aristotle tried to form his mind. Philip was anxious that Alexander should study philosophy, "so that," he said, "you may not do a great many things of the son that I am sorry to have done." To some extent Aristotle made a Hellene of him; through all his life Alexander admired Greek literature, and envied Greek civilization. To two Greeks... fought as though it had been a duel to decide which of the two should be king. He liked hard work and dangerous enterprises, and could not bear to rest. He laughed at some of his generals, who had so many servants that they themselves could find nothing to do. "I wonder," he told them, "that you with your experience do not know that those who work sleep more soundly than those for whom other people work... grasp. In this little item, perhaps, lay his greatest influence upon history. Mentally he was an ardent student, who was too soon consumed with responsibilities to reach maturity of mind. Like so many men of action, he mourned that he could not be also a thinker. "He had," says Plutarch, "a violent thirst and passion for learning, which increased as time went on. He was a lover of all kinds of reading ...
... aesthetic interdependence of successive images", resulting in a new kind of unity. 3S It cannot be that all this poetic chatter and the many sudden bursts of imagery are about "nothing". The truth, perhaps, is that there is not one rigid form but the possibilities of many forms; as Kenner puts it, "a slight change in the angle of cut will reveal a wholly new surface". 39 Kenner's own analyses are very... necessity, to write his own history, and in writing it, to make it." 51 The Cantos may thus be almost called a sort of universal congress of epic heroes, or a junction where many epic highways meet, or even a Babel where many epic languages strive towards a basic unity of understanding and harmony. Page 391 ... What have you done, Odysseus, We know what you have done... 41 'What gain with Odysseus, 'They that died in the whirlpool 'And after many vain labours, 'Living by stolen meat, chained to the rowingbench, 'And lie by night with the goddess?' 42 Knowledge the shade of a shade, Yet must thou ...
... said that the path of Yoga is difficult; it is a walk on the razor's edge. The path of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is much more difficult. In the course of sadhana the Force touches many planes, works on many levels, arouses many possibilities of fulfilment as well as fall. Sri Aurobindo corresponded with his disciples on topics of Yogic interest. No question has been considered too trivial and no path... an easy and natural opening to the occult and the unseen. To such a seeker guidance has to be all the more alert, all the more detailed and plenary. For the many-levelled working of the Yoga-Force opens the doors in many directions towards many possibilities. Occasions arise when the ego is pushed up, ambition increases. One feels absolutely certain of one's action. Through the author the ringing warning... was the period, when Gods were called down to inhabit those who were fit to assimilate their consciousness. The Grace of the Divine Mother had favoured and had begun to work upon me and I was dragged many a time in trance and came back with different types of experiences. Once I saw myself acting as a military officer on a mountain in one of my past lives." Dr. Govindbhai reported this matter to the ...
... in your turn, to express the idea in any form. An idea can be expressed in many different forms, in many different thoughts, just as when you come down to a more material level, a thought can be expressed through many different words. Going downwards, towards expression, that is, spoken or written expression, there are many different words and different formulas which may serve to express a thought... idea behind, which can be expressed in many different thoughts. It is like a great hierarchy: there is a Principle right at the top, which itself is not the only one, for you can go still higher up; but this Principle can be expressed in ideas, and these ideas can be expressed in a great number of thoughts and this great number of thoughts can make use of many languages and an even greater number of... naturally from the thought expressed by the words to the idea which is behind and which could be expressed in other words, other forms. The characteristic of the idea is the power to clothe itself in many different thoughts. And when you have achieved this, you have already gone much deeper than by merely understanding the words. Naturally, if you continue to concentrate and know how to do it, you can ...
... have agreed to call germs, microbes, this and that and many other things. It may be accompanied by a sensation, may be accompanied by a taste, also by a smell, if one has very developed subtle senses. There are these formations of illness which give a special taste to the air, a special smell or a slight special sensation. People have many senses which are asleep. They are terribly tamasic. If... If all the senses they possess were awake, there are many things they would perceive, which can just pass by without anyone suspecting anything. For example, many people have a certain kind of influenza at the moment. It is very wide-spread. Well, when it comes close, it has a special taste, a special smell, and it brings you a certain contact (naturally not like a blow), something a little more... were not so, there would not be any possibility of opening it to the Force and the Force curing it; for without this consciousness in it would not be able to respond. In Europe and America there are many people now who recognise this fact and treat their illnesses by making conscious mental suggestions to the body which counteract the obscure secret suggestions of illness in the subconscient. There ...
... them to curl back, others that straighten them; others which twist them all awry; and others which bring them back to the first position. So there always are as many muscles as correspond to the various attitudes of these lips and as many others that serve to reverse these attitudes; and these it is my purpose here to describe and represent in full, proving these movements by means of my mathematical... necessary for the painter to know the inner structure of man. The painter who has a knowledge of the nature of the sinews, muscles, and tendons will know very well in the movement of a limb how many and which of the sinews are the cause of it, and which muscle by swelling is the cause of the contraction of that sinew; and which sinews expanded into most delicate cartilage surround and support... foot. And always set your figures so that the side to which the head turns is not the side to which the breast faces, since nature for our convenience has made us with a neck which bends with ease in many directions as the eye turns to various points and the other joints are Partly obedient to it. Page 83 Of human movement When you wish to represent a man in the act of moving ...
... another way. Why don't you have this urge within you? What is lacking in you? After having repeated this a thousand times — or how many times I do not know — I still see, after a match, there is one who has broken his arm, and another who is limping, and many other unpleasant stories which I am ashamed of repeating; but all that does not change anything in your being, or help you to surmount these... harmony in the daily life. Discipline and confidence are indispensable to develop the sporting faculties. It helps to sharpen one's senses and to develop the power of concentration, of endurance and many other things — the list of good qualities is endless — like the control over the body, its movements, its extraordinary development. And what the sportsman can achieve and endure is really fantastic... takes the trouble, one can master and prevail over the situation. But one has to want it, and want it truly. It is fantastic what one can achieve. With the help of physical education one can get rid of many illnesses and defects that were pronounced incurable. And in the field of sports — the Page 135 dedication and effort they put in — in order to exceed or even transcend themselves ...
... to a cake of soap, he wanted to take the soap, and to take the soap he put the former piece aside. It is an authentic story. I am not inventing it. Many people here are like that. I won't tell you their names but I know them well. There are many like that. They have a right to something, they will ask for it even if they don't need it, because they have the right. This indeed is... well, in fact... displeasure. It is infinitely more difficult to be good, to be wise, to be intelligent and generous, to be more generous, you follow me, when one is rich than when one is poor. I have known many people in many countries, and the most generous people I have ever met in all the countries, were the poorest. And as soon as the pockets are full, one is caught by a kind of illness, which is a sordid attachment... needing to be in the state of misery and suffering in which it is. There! So there is nothing that's bad in itself, but there are many things—almost all—which are not in their place. Perhaps in the body also it is like that. There is nothing that's bad in itself; but many things are not in their place, and that is why one becomes ill. There is created an inner disharmony. So the result is that one ...
... she's old, she's old, she's old...." And so I.... As a fact I am younger than they! ( laughter ) Yes. ( silence ) But the difficulty comes from the fact that many do not understand the simplicity of the thing. Yes. Many of them are still seeking experiences up above, and visions, and mental silence, and all that, while that's not it at all. No, that's not it. I see lots of people... see, the condition they're in: those who come with aspiration, those who come with curiosity, those who come out of... a kind of obligation, and then those who are thirsty for light—there aren't too many, but there are several children. Today I saw one, he was so sweet!... His father lives at the lake, he bought some property at the lake; he lives there with his wife and children, and it was the birthday... oh! I have the impression that there is a sort of display now, a display of everything that should not be. Yes. But the flame, the flame of aspiration ( Mother shakes her head ), not many bring it to me. Provided they are what they call "comfortable," that's all they want—and free to do some nonsense they wouldn't do in the world! While you feel you could hasten the coming—you COULD ...
... has gone the way of all empires, but the Greek nation, after many centuries of political non-existence, again possesses its separate body, because it has preserved its separate ego and therefore, really existed under the covering rule of the Turks. In recent times after the Second World War, we see this phenomenon being repeated many times. We see this in the case of Germany, Vietnam, Korea,... psychological, cultural, spiritual unity and not merely by a centralized State held together by force, which is the hallmark of the State unit. In the formation of a nation, there are many factors that play an important role; these are geography, race, language, religion, economic interests and interdependence, a common aspiration, common dangers and suffering and even a common enemy... that would seem to forbid now and always any idea of a voluntary partition or dissolution of Switzerland's longstanding natural, local and historic unity. We thus see that there are many powerful factors that play important roles in varying amounts in the formation of a nation. But the ultimate cementing factor is not any of these but a dominant subtle and psychological element. This ...
... deceive oneself any longer and things take a very serious aspect. You all, my children, I may tell you,—I have already told you many times and I still repeat, you live in an uncommon freedom. Externally there are a few small restrictions, for, as we are many and have not the whole earth at our disposal, we have to submit ourselves to some discipline to a certain extent, so that there may not... single aim in one's life: that alone exists, nothing else. You feel it in yourself whether you want it or not. If you do not, you can have a life of good will, service, understanding; you can work in many other ways. But between that and doing Yoga there is a great difference. To do Yoga you must want it consciously, you must know first of all what it is,—know what it is and then take the resolution... it means that you are not yet what you ought to be. I do not say that the thing can be done forthwith, but that this is the truth of the matter. For, on this level, on the spiritual level, too many people,—in fact, the majority of those who take up the spiritual life—do Yoga for personal reasons, all kinds of personal reasons: some because they are disgusted with Page 6 life, ...
... How Many? "How many whelps you gave birth to?" — To a lioness asked her forest friends. "But a prince and with a princely mane, In whose roar roar of the fire blends." "How many colours make your bow?" — Asked the white to the arc of the sky. "The colour of joy is my favourite, To see which you need a singular eye." "How many shadows did you cast ... village potter Was at work shaping his pots; In the school when God saw Children he had afterthoughts. 15/07/98 5:20 PM Page 45 How Many Lives? How many lives has death granted to me? Nine lives, they say, a cat has — nine to die; In the deeps of silence deeper than night Nine dreams of loneliness nine times cry. A sudden... When the pale moon drifted in the night?" And the spirit replied to the boy, "But then one yet stayed in the daylight." "How many years from eternity Did you take to fashion our time?" "I forgot to count the hours," replied God; "Lulled to sleep I was by your rhyme." 12/07/98 4:10PM Page 39 New Birth A new dawn came from ...
... ity of Force and Substance. It has lost sight even of the obvious fact that all minds are one Mind taking many standpoints, all lives one Life developing many currents of activity, all body and form one substance of Force and Consciousness concentrating into many apparent stabilities of force and consciousness; but in truth all these stabilities are really only a constant... Mental man is a great improvement on the mere animal, but he is also a prey to various dissatisfactions. What is the reason? Sri Aurobindo's diagnosis is pointed and clear: the mind of man, a helper in many ways, a gleaner of bits of truth and partial fragments of knowledge, is nevertheless rooted in a basic Ignorance, functions from behind a veil that separates it from the source of the Truth-consciousness... There are transparent patches through which light trickles in. Messiahs have been our beacon lights. The ideal of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man has been repeatedly placed before us. Many a man and woman has transcended in the past the limiting ego and claimed the larger freedom of a more universal consciousness. Page 293 But these exceptions have nevertheless ...
... – Correspondence Champaklal Speaks 10 February 1934 There is a feeling of sickness around. I have a heavy headache. What is it all due to? There are so many sadhaks who are sick at present. It is caught by one person from another or from the atmosphere. It is largely an auto-suggestion. Is it true that because the 21st [February] is coming near those... falling sick? 1 No, that is all nonsense. 10.2.1934 Sri Aurobindo × This I had asked because there were many sadhaks who said it. But I myself did not believe it.—Champaklal ...
... I also remember Jatin Banerji curing many cases of sterility by a Sannyasi's medicine given to him. Cases of ten or fifteen years' sterility were cured by it and people got children within ten months. There were some peculiar rules to be observed before taking the medicine: for example, the woman had to take a bath, the hair had to be down, etc., etc. Many such things known to India are being lost... There are many miracles of Christ of that sort: he spat on some earth and put it on a blind man's eyes and the man was made to see. CHAMPAKLAL: Satyen's Guru also cured a case of leprosy and the man became a painter afterwards! SRI AUROBINDO: In the Bible there is also the multiplication of fish and the descent of the Holy Ghost and the disciples getting gift of tongues—speaking many languages... and drive out the psychic being, the nature is left without any divine support. Then Dr. Becharlal and others cited some cases of miracles. DR. BECHARLAL: Brahmananda on several occasions fed many people out of a small quantity of food. Also, when the ghee ran short, he used to take water from the Narmada and have things fried in it. And when the occasion was over and a fresh supply of ghee came ...
... eyes of many, a kind of hubris that our species has been prone to. We are not distinct from nature, we do not ride above it, and neither are we evolution’s greatest work … Darwin is sometimes portrayed as one of a series of revolutionary thinkers who have exposed the modesty of man’s position. Copernicus demonstrated that the Earth is not at the centre of the universe, but merely one of many planets... typical one among many in every sizable nation. Darwinism equipped each government to whatever it claimed – territory, markets, science, technical innovation, cultural superiority – with a ‘scientific’ justification. For the struggle for life was the law of the world; the victor proved he was the best and therefore entitled to the spoils. “All the warmongers of that time – and there were many – made Darwinism... conquered the thought and self-view of humanity because so many different theories could assemble under it. Proof of this is that Alfred Wallace, basing himself on the same ideas, reached the same conclusions. But also swimming in the same intellectual waters were Lamarck, Erasmus Darwin, Robert Chambers, Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley, and many others now less well remembered. The father of eugenics ...
... justice persist in the stream of things, preserve a measure Heraclitus admits relative standards, but as a thinker he is obliged to go beyond them. All is at once one and many, an absolute and a relative, and all the relations of the many are relativities, yet are fed by, go back to, persist by that in them which is absolute. Page 243 ... Heraclitus - VI Heraclitus is the first and the most consistent teacher of the law of relativity; it is the logical result of his primary philosophical concepts. Since all is one in its being and many in its becoming, it follows that everything must be one in its essence. Night and day, life and death, good and evil can only be different aspects of the same absolute reality. Life and death are in... All our concepts of Him are partial and relative; "He is named according to the pleasure of each." This is nothing more nor less than the truth proclaimed by the Vedas, "One existent the sages call by many names." Brahman is willing to be called Vishnu, and yet he is not willing, because he is also Brahma and Maheshwara and all the gods and the world and all principles and all that is, and yet not any ...
... its place, there was a big beautiful garden. At different places, the buildings were bright with that golden light. The atmosphere was full of fragrance of many kinds spreading out from many flowers. Along with this was heard the ringing of many bells accompanied by sweet music. The vision ended, but it is not adequately rendered into words. ...
... writings but sometimes She also wrote from memory sayings from other saints, She knew so many beautiful quotations of famous people by heart. The Mother would write these short passages in my notebook for dictation as well as recitation. Sometimes she would write just one quotation at a time and sometimes she would write many quotations and use only one or two out of these. Passages for recitation and dictation... children together to recite. The first section here consists of these recitation lessons by the Mother. They are not complete because we could not trace all the recitations. But I have included as many as I could find in my notebooks and those of other children and Mrityunjaya Da’s diary. Since there is no proper date wise record of all the recitations and the dates on which the Mother wrote in my ...
... this knowledge must have been lost, for many men have discovered things like these and never noted them down; and we too, we may make discoveries but don't always take care to note them down and make them accessible to others. And Nature is an almost infinite field of study and discovery. Pavitra: Those who discovered explosives—how many died and how many had accidents.... That's man, it is... this is not the only one, there are many such. For example, the fig—the unripe fig—if you touch the white juice that oozes from the fig—but it's awful—you have boils all over the mouth and become quite ill, and you get ulcers in the stomach also. But when the fig is ripe and you take care not to touch the white juice, it is a perfect food. I could give you a great many examples of this kind. But now we... and confident aspiration towards the Divine calls down in response the intervention of the Grace. "Who can stand before You, O Lord, and say in all sincerity: 'I have never made a mistake'? How many times in a day we commit faults against Your work, and always Your Grace comes to efface them! "Without the ceaseless intervention of Your Grace, who would not oftentimes have come under the merciless ...
... Articles Articles On Education Foresight To foresee destiny! How many have attempted it, how many systems have been elaborated, how many sciences of divination have been created and developed only to perish under the charge of charlatanism or superstition. And why is destiny always so unforeseeable? Since it has been proved that everything is ineluctably... this unfortunate interference. This is only one example. But the problem is much more complex, for, to the physical and vital destinies, there must be added the mental destiny, the psychic destiny, and many others besides. In fact, the higher a being stands on the human scale, the more complex is his being, the more numerous are his destinies and the more unforeseeable his fate seems to be as a consequence ...
... in a man who eats grape fruit in principle. G. K. Chesterton Kiran Chowdhury was born in Chottogram (Bangladesh) in 1912. He was a dear friend of mine. He was known to many and many more have heard of him (many anecdotes are orally passed on). He was a legend even in his lifetime. I write about this friend just to perpetuate (so to say) the memory of an interesting simple man. I could not... Kiran-da shifted to the new place. A tin-roof shed was built. Kiran-da lived in one corner, the rest was his working place. He started off in right earnest on several fronts. Many a night did we (some of us boys) spend there, and after many cups of tea came to know of Kiran-da’s works and his dreams and his troubles. He started to build a wall to surround the whole area (no New Creation’s Blocks existed... too, amongst whom should be included cows and goats. A “pundit” it is said is one who knows something of everything and everything of something. Kiran-da knew something of everything or at least of many things but of nothing did he know everything. Because of the first trait he could have been and was a useful man. But somewhere in his makeup a complex, a mixture of oversensitivity, oversimplicity ...
... Aurobindo, 241-2] Disciple: They say the Japanese are not good in the air. They missed their targets many times. Sri Aurobindo: I don't know about that. The Japanese are good at concentrating on one thing at a time, but aeronautics requires concentration on many points at once ... I was thinking about how some races have the sense of beauty in their very bones. Judging... It is not this profaner who is speaking. One day, in our "talks", we told Him, "There are so many bothers in the Ashram: servant bother..." (it was there then too; today it's getting worse). "Somebody said to me doctor-bother - because I was a doctor at that time - then engineer bother, so many bothers in the Ashram." Then Sri Aurobindo said, smiling, "Yes, bothers are our brothers!" He waited... must have felt, in your own experiences. I've given you in my way a few instances showing the truth of this line from Savitri - His "living eyes" are all the time with you and I could give you many more examples of this truth. Perhaps, from time to time, I might, but I have already shown you enough of my feelings. So this proves that they are "living eyes" and you cannot escape, you can't. Whether ...
... "It is I who cured myself"; if they make a progress, they want to think, "It is I who have progressed"; if they organise something, they want to proclaim, "It is I who am organising." And many, many of those who try to do otherwise, if they look within themselves, would see how seldom spontaneously, sincerely (not as when one says something because one knows it should be said, or as one thinks... if these forces had not been there. That comes later.... But to begin with, how many times, if one thinks, if one quite simply observes oneself, does one catch oneself saying, "It is I!" And, then, one congratulates oneself sometimes, one says, "After all I can do something, I am capable!" I am going further: how many people would be capable of doing anything at all if simply deprived of the pleasure... effect the cure of an illness, whether one should exercise one's willpower or only live in the confidence that it will be done or rely entirely on the divine Power. Mother replied: "All these are so many ways of doing the same thing.... "But whatever you ask for or whatever your effort, you must feel, even while trying your best, using knowledge or putting forth power that the result depends upon ...
... Aurobindo's 'Na-masi' Lilabati (1864-1924) was Swarnalata's younger sister. Given the social atmosphere of the times, she showed a lot of courage by getting many widows —who were sent to her by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar — to marry again. Many distressed women found a refuge in her. It never occurred to her to put a label —or use big words like 'social service' —on the help she gave spontaneously, ... Rajnarain's name was mentioned in their presence: 'He is our second Vaidyanath.' Indeed, many a high-caste Brahmin considered this remarkable Page 74 Kayastha to be a better Brahmin than himself. Rajnarain dearly loved this grandson of his, Auro, who was a man after his own heart. They talked of many things: "of cabbages —and kings —and why the sea is boiling hot —and whether pigs... away by the waves of their laughter!" All those waves of laughter floated away to rejoin their source: the ocean of eternal Ananda. Today's visitor will see many things at Deoghar, but not that hallowed house, hallowed by so many noble sons of India — including Vivekananda 1 — its every brick so full of sweet 1. Swami Vivekananda met Rajnarain Bose several times at Deoghar ...
... persistence and an inflexible will. Indeed, the vital in man's nature is a despotic and exacting tyrant. Moreover, since it holds within itself power, energy, enthusiasm, effective dynamism, many have a feeling of timorous respect for it and try always to please it. But it is a master that is satisfied by nothing and its demands have no limit. Two ideas, very widespread, specially in the West... of the environment in which one is born. Only an almost abnormal growth of consciousness and the constant help of Grace can achieve this Herculean task. Besides, this task has rarely been attempted; many famous teachers have declared it unrealisable and chimerical. Yet it is not unrealisable. The transformation of character has been realised in fact by means of a clearsighted discipline and a perseverance... of education. That is why it is of prime importance that the education of the child's vital should begin as early as possible, indeed, as soon as he is able to use his senses. In that way, many bad habits will be avoided and harmful influences eliminated. The education of the vital has two principal aspects, very different as to the goal and the process, but both are equally important ...
... you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heard, from what you have read, what you have been taught, and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not many. Only those who have an intense intellectual life, who are in the habit of reflecting, observing, putting ideas together, gradually... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Individuality Is a Conquest “The limitations of the body are a mould; soul and mind have to pour themselves into them, break them and constantly remould them in wider limits till the formula of agreement is found between this finite and their own infinity. ” Sri Aurobindo Essays in Philosophy and Yoga:... all the so-called higher fields of human intelligence, who had absolutely contradictory opinions on the same subject, and were not aware of it. And if you observe yourself, you will see that you have many ideas which ought to be linked by a sequence of intermediate ideas which are the result of a considerable widening of the thought if they are not to coexist in an absurd way. Therefore, before an ...
... enlarged over so many years for closeness and intense aspiration - enables help from them to flow freely to those who appeal to him for assistance. He has always been scrupulous in insisting that the help comes from them, while readily accepting to intercede on behalf of any troubled questioner. In this way, through his personal influence and example, as well as through his many writings on life... happened many years ago, and unfortunately Amal gift for falling and rising again did not prevent the catastrophic breakage of his good right leg a couple of years ago - as a result of which he is now riding a wheelchair, instead of the spirited white horse of his dreams. But this has not banished the smile from his eyes, nor prevented him from tranquilly continuing to fulfil all his many r... latest poem 1 to be included in The Secret Splendour: (p. 662) Far from his own heartbeat, his wakeful day Breathes a huge mountain-air's lucidity And views a wide earth many-faced yet one. A calm conspiracy of signalling stars, An infinite mystery's throb on silvery throb Of news from nowhere tingling everywhere, Is now his sleep. Within his ...
... known publicly. Is there a being somewhere and nobody knows him?... It would surprise me if there was no communication. I do not know. Well, there are many, many, quite an outburst of new Christs, of Kalkis, 1 of Supermen, oh! There are very many of them, but generally, in some way there is communication, in any case their existence comes to be known; well, among all of them, all with whom I have... 15 November 1967 One has the feeling that unless something like a miracle happens, in the sense in which man understands miracles, well, it will take many centuries. But did you ever expect that it would not take time? Yes, evidently. But I never thought—I never thought that it could come quickly. First of all, one has only to try, as I do... into the plant, the plant into the animal, the animal...? We do not know, but in the way things move... Now that they have become so clever in calculating, when do they think the earth was formed? How many millions and millions of years? And all that to arrive at where we are now. Naturally, the more it moves, the more it goes quickly, it is understood, but quickly... quickly? If the process has ...
... endless persistence and an inflexible will. Indeed, the vital, in man's nature, is a despotic and exacting tyrant. Moreover, since it holds within itself power, energy, enthusiasm, effective dynamism many have a feeling of timorous respect for it and try always to please it. But it is a master that is satisfied by nothing and its demands have no limit. Two ideas, very widespread, specially in the West... the environment in which one is born. Only an almost abnormal growth of consciousness and the constant help of Grace can achieve this herculean task. Besides, this task has been rarely attempted, many famous teachers have declared it unrealisable and chimerical. And yet it is not unrealisable. The transformation of character has been realised in fact by means of a clear-sighted discipline and... of education. That is why it is of prime importance that the child's education of the vital should begin as early as possible, indeed, as soon as he is able to use his sense organs. In that way, many bad habits would be avoided and harmful influences eliminated. The education of the vital has' two principal aspects. They are very different as to the goal and the process, but Troth are equally ...
... Shyamsunder. So the file is not useless. There are so many things there which correspond to the Mother's wish. Otherwise she would never approve of my giving this file to Shyamsunder. Pourna Prema came to me on the 4th of this month and we had a heart-to-heart talk regarding the Mother's wishes about the Matrimandir. Pourna revealed to me many things, all that the Mother told her. I was amazed to... after two years. I noticed certain things which were contrary to the Mother's vision. I would not dare to say anything if the Mother had not written to me about the Matrimandir. She also told me many things personally while doing the sketches. In 1972 when Shyamsunder asked me about these particulars, I asked the Mother if I could give my file to him. She agreed instantly. Not only that, but ...
... Future Destiny"? Yet, I have ventured to do so with a trepidant heart. I have felt like taking up this ticklish task and that for the following reason. In course of their close contact with me many of the senior students of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education have often asked me some interesting - at times embarrassing - questions concerning our Ashram, its functioning and its possible... Master and the Mother, does spirituality, as Sri Aurobindo understood it, count for much in the Ashram life of today? Are we not slowly veering round to the status of a religio-cultural community? Do many Ashramites still aspire after and make an effort for the acquisition of spiritual consciousness? And if yes, who guide and illumine the sadhaks in their spiritual endeavour? Can one contact the Presence... For a mood of laisser-aller seems to have gripped quite a few among the disciples here. I may be utterly mistaken in my assessment but that is the feeling gaining currency in the minds and hearts of many of the young people here. Faced with such a situation and with a view to answering satisfactorily the questions put by my students, I prayed fervently to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to give ...
... as usual, in the Holy Week before Easter, when in many places the murderers of Christ were even forbidden to appear in public. Though there were unmistakable signs of an imminent eruption of anti-Semitism, the authorities took no preventive measures, which enforced the populace in their belief that the Tsar himself wanted it. Jews were killed, many more were wounded, and their houses were ransacked... of the Jews, now legally free citizens of the German nation, was inevitably influenced by the tribulations in their past. Not only did the reactionary German right disagree with their emancipation, many rightist organizations frowned at Jewish membership and more and more of them inserted “the Aryan paragraph” into their statutes. The majority of Jews who participated in the political process were... This choice was also influenced by another differentiation within the Jewish community between rich, well-to-do and poor. There were only a few Rothschilds, Rathenaus, Ballins and Wittgensteins, but many peddlers and pawn-brokers, with in between the respectable middle class of lawyers, doctors, journalists and clerks. The most eye-catching difference in the German Jewish population was that between ...
... you two questions which were asked and Sri Aurobindo's answers. It's not that the questions express a very high state of mind, but I am afraid many people let themselves fall into this kind of mental state. And so I think the answers will be very useful to many people also. Here's the first question: "It seems to me that the number of people in the world accepting the truth of our Yoga of Tra... still clings to its old ways, manners, habits. Many do not seem even to have awakened to the necessity of a change. It is when this is realised and done, that the Yoga will produce its full results in the Ashram itself, and not before." 2 This indeed is a programme for next year, my children. I hope that next year I shall be able to say that many have tried to make their external life the expression... from another poem, which are a magnificent illustration of our message for the next year. This message was written because it is foreseen that next year will be a difficult year and there will be many inner struggles and even outer ones perhaps. So I tell all of you what attitude you should take in these circumstances. These difficulties may perhaps last not only twelve months, that is, one full ...
... and sun and fire and of righteousness and justice. However, you can see that Gushtasp did not immediately find his place and work in the world. He tried many things without success, and even at first incurred the enmity of many men, for example that of the good smith. At last, however, he gained his true station in life and was able to help others until the time came for him to govern... from far and wide. On the way we came across a woodcutter who had just cut a bundle of thorns. This was the way he earned his livelihood. Seeing that he was poor, I asked him why he did not go to the many feasts given by Hatim Tai. 'Those who earn their living,' he answered me, 'have no need of the bounty of Hatim Tai.'" Why then did Hatim Tai declare that the woodcutter was a better man than himself... promised that he would accomplish this new feat. He took some knives and made them into a ball bristling with sharp points. Then he set out on his quest and found the dragon with fiery breath. He shot many arrows at the body of the monster, leaping from side to side to avoid its claws. Then he fastened the ball of knives to the end of a pike and thrust it down the dragon's throat. The dragon closed its ...
... by the strangling world of publicity. Consequently, the public is inundated with messages about food and foodstuffs which have usually little to do with truth, but which are calculated to kindle as many desires as possible. As a result, the consciousness of the true needs of the body is obscured. In the affluent or relatively well-off classes of modern societies, mothers are being besieged by... find out experimentally one's own optimum diet. Whether one lives in the cold northern countries or in a hot tropical country would have a major impact on the type of diet which can be appropriate. And many more factors: age, type of body, type of activity, psychological make-up, family situation, budgetary considerations, state of health, seasonal variations and climate. These are only some of the main... influence the choice of diet. If one's main concern is, for instance, Page 140 to make the body a fit servant in the pursuit of a higher truth of oneself, one would select from among many possible food items those most useful in promoting qualities such as endurance, strength, agility and lightness which are most necessary in serious spiritual seeking. Mindset and psychological ...
... (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha). Seekers have different natures; therefore different ways of seeking have been prescribed, and the goal sought is also different for each. But even if the outer view sees many goals, the inner vision understands that the goal sought is one and the same for all seekers: it is self-fulfilment. In the Upanishad Yajnavalkya explains to his wife that all is for the self. The wife... the self, happiness is for the self, suffering is for the self, life is for the self, and death too is for the self. Therefore the importance and necessity of this question as to, what the self is. Many wise and learned people ask what is the use of worrying over the problem of self-knowledge. To waste one's time in such abstruse discussion is madness, better to engage oneself in the more important... there is no need of the process and practice (sadhana) even then the heart wells out in hymns and prayers. Only one has to remember that the way is not the objective and my way may not be another's. Many men of devotion have this notion that one who does not take to hymns and prayers, who does not take delight in them, is not a spiritual man (one following the true law). This is a sign of error and ...
... contains many letters on yoga. These differ from those published in Letters on Yoga in that the ones published here are framed historically by events and conditions in the Sri Aurobindo Page 849 Ashram between November 1926 and November 1950. The questions provided along with some of the letters in this volume refer to some of these events and conditions. Many of the letters... s' questions. Many letters that Page 855 appeared in the 1970 edition of Letters on Yoga without questions, including almost all the letters making up Part Two, Section IX of that book ("Sadhana in the Ashram and Outside"), have been shifted to Part Four of Letters on Himself and the Ashram . The questions of the correspondents have been provided for many such letters. ... Aurobindo's letters begin with personal comments unrelated to the more substantial remarks that follow. The editors have left out many such personal openings. Sri Aurobindo often marked the transition from one part of a letter to another with a phrase such as "As to . . .". Many such phrases now stand at the beginning of abbreviated letters. In some cases the editors have published texts of a ...
... Was all a mere accident requiring no further explanation? (7) 'H' is an active enterprising person full of grit and energy. He has many a high dream and hopes to achieve many great things in many fields of life. And it is true he moves very far along many of his chosen tracks. But strangely he fails to reach the successful end in any of his enterprises. Somehow everything gets bogged down before... lapse of an eternity of time from now. Now, many people cannot reconcile themselves to this view of waiting for such an inordinately long time to reap the fruits of one's actions. Therefore, they have put forward the alternative theory of rebirth in an attempt to explain many of the obvious anomalies of human life. For they are puzzled at many of the strange facts of earthly existence and wonder:... bear its corresponding fruit, and none can digest a sin to ineffectivity. Look at "Sejobabu" [the zemindar Mathur Biswas]: he indulged in many types of sinful acts in his youth; the result was that he had to suffer a lot before his death due to the attack of many virulent illnesses. (Vide Kumar Nandy, Ramakrishna-Kathasara) Nor should one seek false consolation from an illusory hope that if ...
... seem to me to be the indispensable metaphysical basis of the Upanishad. The Isha Upanishad does not teach a pure and exclusive Monism; it declares the One without denying the Many and its method is to see the One in the Many. It asserts the simultaneous validity of Vidya and Avidya and upholds as the object of action and knowledge an immortality consistent with Life and Birth in this world. It regards... numerically, but in essence. Numerical oneness would either exclude multiplicity or would be a pluralistic and divisible oneness with the Many as its parts. That is not the unity of Brahman, which can neither be diminished nor increased, nor divided. The Many in the universe are sometimes called parts of the universal Brahman as the waves are parts of the sea. But, in truth, these waves are each... in physical Nature and must necessarily evolve out of it. They can be withdrawn into pure infinite Being and can again be manifested out of it. The infolding and unfolding of the One in the Many and the Many in the One is therefore the law of the eternally recurrent cosmic Cycles. THE VISION OF THE BRAHMAN The Upanishad teaches us how to perceive Brahman in the universe and in our self-existence ...
... to look: "But why isn't it realised? What is there in my faith?" And if you go on looking with the same sincerity, you will find that there are many little things in it, so many little things—not big, as big as this—which are repulsive. Little things. So many times a little conceit comes in, and then a desire, not a very violent one—it doesn't show itself very much. The importance it gives you, the power... physical, vital, mental, psychic, spiritual, etc. Well, all these inner states of being correspond to invisible worlds. There is a physical world, a vital world, a mental world, a psychic world, and many spiritual worlds, a whole range of more and more subtle worlds approaching nearer and nearer to the Supreme. So, since you carry within yourself a corresponding range, by studying and becoming aware... your stomach and the rest, but not your psychic being. And yet it is correct to say that it is within you. It extends beyond you too, but it is in another dimension. And one can say that there are as many dimensions as there are different worlds. Certainly all these invisible worlds—so-called invisible worlds—are contained, so to say, in the material universe. But they don't occupy the place of other ...
... spot' many of us have been doing most of the time. We pretend to do the necessary sadhana by displaying the inessential trappings of a spiritual life Page 183 but the flaw remains at the very base: we do not pay sufficient attention to the eradication of our ego-centricity and its attendant evil, self-love. This self-love prospers in the sadhaka' s consciousness in many different... the necessity of eradication of self-love from the consciousness of the sadhaka, for so long as this bane is allowed to remain, it proves itself highly detrimental to any progress in sadhana. Many, many are the harmful effects produced by this nuisance of self-love. It completely disrupts the right functioning tiff all the inner faculties of the sadhaka' s consciousness. Thus it invades his mind... really is but always in a distorted way: and we think ourselves to be what we are not. Self-love constantly creates in the sadhaka a sense of illusion and delusion and he is led to commit many a mistake and take many false steps on the path of sadhana. Our emotional nature too falls often under the corrupting influence of self-will and self-love. A black veil is then interposed before the eyes ...
... in the world of plants and trees. Deserts have been created in so many countries because too many trees have been cut down. That is why people have at last woken up. It is only now that they have realised what a bond of friendship exists between man and nature. In several countries movements for planting trees have been initiated. Many organisations have been set up to promote this and they even have... Mother! How can anyone pass? Impossible! Nobody can pass such tests! It is not easy to pass tests every second.” The Mother laughed: “There are many who do it. They pass these tests of every moment. Especially in the world outside there are many who do it quite easily.” I kept looking at the Mother in disbelief. I somehow was not convinced by what She said. I told Her: “Perhaps, Mother,... have a tree-planting day every year! I got diverted into telling you so many things while talking about this neem tree. So let me get back to the real subject. The Mother came and stopped under this neem tree and suddenly said: “You know at every second everyone is put to a test.” I was taken aback. A test? I had just completed my studies and come to the Ashram. I felt a huge relief at having ...
... slaves to their vast quantities of servants, clothes and furniture. You cannot make a heap without making a hole; and too often the luxury of some represents the poverty of many others. Page 204 There are too many beautiful, great and useful things to be done in the world for those who are not wholly devoid of intelligence to be allowed to waste their time, money and thought in futile... than any other. Maisun was a daughter of the tribe of Kalb; she had spent her early years in tents in the desert. One day, she was married to Caliph Muawiyah, but although he was rich and had many slaves, she was not happy with him; and in spite of all the luxury around her, she could find no peace of mind. Often when she was alone, she would sing softly to herself verses she had composed in... Her song was heard by the Caliph and he banished her from his court. So the poetess returned to her tribe, happy to see no more of the rich dwelling that made her sad. In all countries, many people are beginning to understand that a simple life is more desirable than a life of extravagance, vanity and show. There are more and more men and women who though they can afford to buy costly ...
... vitality of ideas and sentiments. A feeling or a thought, Nationalism, Democracy, the aspiration towards liberty, cannot be estimated in the terms of concrete power, in so many fighting men, so many armed police, so many guns, so many prisons, such and such laws, ukases, and executive powers. But such feelings and thoughts are more powerful than fighting men and guns and prisons and laws and ukases. Their... Radical Government of modern times is bracing itself to a policy of repression. It thinks Page 495 England has only to stamp her foot and all the trouble will be over. Yet only consider how many ideas are arising which find in British despotism their chief antagonist. The idea of a free and self-centred Ireland has been reborn and the souls of Fitzgerald and Emmett are reincarnating. The idea ...
... For this reason, it is very beautiful and pleasant. The cowherd girls can roam freely there. Within that forest of Vrndāvana, there are many small forests and gardens. There is a great mountain by the name of Govardhana, which is not very far from Vrndāvana. It has many tall peaks. As the Mandarācala mountain looks enchanting by the side of Nandanavana, Govardhana mountain looks splendid by the side of... Each and every tree in this forest has been used to its fullest extent. The density of the forest now appears thin, like the sky. We no longer find any pleasure while looking at the forest. There were many beautiful trees in and around the cowshed, the gates of which have round locks. But those trees are no more, because the forest fire burned them. Formerly, there was an abundance of grass and wood at... quite pathetic. These trees no longer produce flowers and fruit, like before. Even the birds that lived in these trees have all flown elsewhere. Besides, the inhabitants of this place have cut down many trees in this forest. There is no happiness here anymore. We can hardly relish any fruit and even the air appears stale. This forest, devoid of birds, does not give us any delight, just as rice ...
... goes to the Truth above the mind and hears the voices. SRI AUROBINDO: From the Truth-Consciousness? (Laughter) PURANI: Yes. By Overmind he means anything above the mind. He has many influential disciples and many rich persons follow him. SATYENDRA: It is all right if he only gives them Rama-nama and stops there. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, otherwise, if they go by voices, they will land themselves... he is a special personality, he need not have come all the way here to know that. SATYENDRA: That special personality was hiding there, Sir, and it came out here. (Laughter) PURANI: He hears many voices and attaches great importance to them. And because he has got some correct guidance at times from such voices he takes them as authentic. Just before the Hindu Muslim riot in Lahore, he heard... predicting that a great calamity would befall him but in the end be all right. Actually he got stabbed in the back. The voice told him not to perturbed and he became well soon. SRI AUROBINDO: There are many kinds of voices. Some are of greater beings who have more knowledge than human being. Some voices come from one's own mental, vital and physical planes. And then there are voices of the inner being ...
... revelation of a new curiosity, inquisitiveness and sensitiveness is to be found. His was the inspiration and channel for an unceasing quest, a many-sided research through mental seeking and logic and argument which inundated the entire country like a flood. Many are the lines of investigation and imaginative display that bear testimony to the mind's manifold inquisitiveness. A deep longing, a luminous... luminous perception of the Soul developed and expanded in hundred branches. The mind's business is to manifest and apply a soul-intuition in as many fields and forms, in as many directions as possible and one form through which mind finds expression is literature. In the literature of Bankim the mind of modern Bengal has begun to take a definite shape. If there is in the Bengali race a capacity to understand... and ideal in Bankim and culminated in Vivekananda as an unavoidable necessity of life, as an object to be realised, as a supremely desirable material asset. If we look into the personal history of many a Bengali youth of the modern age, we would find almost everywhere an initial inspiration and the influence from Vivekananda. True, not all are influenced or likely to be influenced by this colossal ...
... of all existences, that an atom of Thy joy is sufficient to efface so much darkness, so many sorrows and a single ray of Thy glory can light up thus the dullest pebble, illumine the blackest consciousness! Thou hast heaped Thy favours upon me, Thou hast unveiled to me many secrets, Thou hast made me taste many unexpected and unhoped-for joys, but no grace of Thine can be equal to this Thou grantest ...
... Kafirs to be killed according to the Koran? PURANI: Don't know. They find so many things in the Koran. Even the idea of non-cooperation, they say, is found in it. That was during the Khilafat agitation. They say that Mohammed was threatened with his life and he fled and that was non-cooperation. SRI AUROBINDO: Many people have fled in such circumstances! Then I myself was a non-cooperator since... forbidden by the Koran? SATYENDRA: I don't know. PURANI: There is no injunction against it in the Koran, as in the case of art. SRI AUROBINDO: Art is different; it is idolatry. But there are so many things without injunctions in the Koran. Is there an injunction against killing brothers? PURANI: No, but if someone is a drunkard he can be killed. That is how they killed Murad. They themselves ...
... but still under the tree. No eye opened, many leaves yellowed and fell. From the 12th it began raining. The plant was brought farther out to get three hours' sun, but from the 12th to the 23rd there was practically no sun, but on the contrary heavy showers. As a result of this rain about three-and-a-half dozen eyes opened almost at the same time, and many of them sent forth very tiny shoots. Thinking... Thinking that the plant would not be able to nourish so many shoots, I nipped one dozen weak ones. 6 On the 24th, the sun was once again bright and hot. I noticed at about 10.30 or 11.00 a.m. that some tender shoots had drooped. This I attributed to the sudden change of weather. I shifted the plant to a still sunnier position so that next day it got about four and-a-half hours' sun—from 7.30 ...
... sylphs, nymphs, undines, dryads, salamanders, brownies, elves, imps, and so many others. The account of the supraphysical beings does not end even here. There are many more of them to speak about. For example, when men, particularly the evil-natured ones, die, their hungry and desire-driven vital beings may assume many forms and move about in the earth's atmosphere just beyond the gross physical... world - and in many others, infinite others - there are beings which have a form whose substance is similar to the one of the world. This means that if you are able to enter consciously into that world with the part of your being which corresponds to that domain, you can move there quite objectively, as in the material world. And there, there are as many, and even many more things to... edition of this book, they are advised to go carefully through this book by Mr. Mukhopadhyaya. In that way they will come to know many unknown facts and the doors of many mysteries will be opened to them. The very titles of some of the chapters of the book make it clear how many recondite subjects the author has dealt with and all strictly based on scriptural quotations. Some of the representative titles ...
... longer a Law, but rather the many-sided dynamic truth of all action and life, the organic movement here of the Infinite. That was what the ancient thinkers saw in it before it was cut and shredded by lesser minds and turned into an easy and misleading popular formula. Action of Karma follows and takes up many potential lines of the spirit into its multitudinous surge, many waves and streams of combining... force we call Karma turns out to be no such precise and invariable mechanism as we hoped; it is rather a thing of many planes that changes its face and walk and very substance as it mounts from level to higher level, and on each plane even it is not one movement but an indefinite complex of many spiral movements hard enough for us to harmonise together or to find out whatever secret harmony unknown to us... contending truths and powers. Truth to the supramental sight is at once single and infinite and the complexities of its play serve to bring out with an abundant ease the rich significance of the Eternal's many-sided oneness. The complexity of the lines of Karma is much greater than we have yet seen in the steps of thought that we have been obliged to cut in order to climb to the summits where they converge ...
... protect themselves occultly before going out of the body—it can be done in many ways. The simplest way, one which needs no special knowledge is to call the Guru or, if one knows somebody who has the knowledge, to call him in thought or spirit; or to protect oneself by making a kind of wall of protection around oneself (one can do many things, can't one?); this can prevent such beings from entering. If... that so-and-so had worries, that another had a problem to solve, and that its solution was such and such a thing. This was an exceptional case—that happens only to gifted persons and there are not many of these. But the number of persons who remain conscious under chloroform is greater than one thinks; but generally, when one wakes up from chloroform one feels pretty uneasy and remembers but vaguely... doing there in that ridiculous position?" And you rush back into it! That happened to me once in Paris. I had been treated to a good dinner, and then I went to a conference hall, I believe. There were many people, it was very hot, I was standing there with the good dinner in my stomach, and suddenly I felt ill at ease. I told the person who was with me, "I must go out immediately." Once outside (it was ...
... controlling Spirit within all creatures that makes one form into many fashions: the calm and strong who see Him in their self as in a mirror, theirs is eternal felicity and 'tis not for others. Page 64 13. "The One Eternal in the transient, the One consciousness in many conscious beings, who being One orders the desires of many: the calm and strong who behold Him in their self as in a mirror... 4. He said to his father, "Me,.0 my father, to whom wilt thou give?" A second time and a third he said it, and he replied, "To Death I give thee." . 5. "Among many I walk the first, among many I walk the mid most; something Death means to do which today by me he will accomplish. 6. "Look back and see, even as were the men of old, — look round! — even so are they... are the bricks to him and how many and the way of their setting; and Nachiketas too repeated it even as it was told; then Death was pleased and said to him yet farther; 16. Yea, the Great Soul was gratified and said to him, "Yet a farther boon today I give thee; for even by thy name shall this Fire be called; this necklace also take unto thee, a necklace4 of many figures. __________ ...
... The Spirit of Auroville I also received a letter dated March 1st 1976 from M. André, who was in Paris: Dear Huta, Many thanks for your aerogramme of the 22nd. I am glad that you went to the Matrimandir on the 21st and placed Mother's blessing packet and flowers in the Mahakali pillar. Certainly this will have been quite good in restoring the real meaning... I am now more than ever confident in the Mother's Victory, not only in the Ashram and Auroville, but throughout the whole world. For the time being I plan coming back to the Ashram in May, but many things can occur which will change my plans. So à bientôt, In the Mother's Light, André ...
... beyond its true pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the parent of error. This is a zone which many sadhaks have to cross, in which many wander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge. Especially if their sadhana is mainly in the mental and vital, they have to meet here many difficulties and much danger; only those who follow scrupulously a strict guidance or have Page 299... which he can rest, but only a stage. And yet these stages have to be passed through, for the Supramental or the Supreme Truth cannot be reached in one bound or even in many bounds; one has to pursue a calm patient steady progress through many intervening stages without getting bound or attached to their lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda. This is in fact an intermediary state, a zone of transition... sadhana without a fairly long period of preparation and purification (unless one has already a great spiritual strength and elevation). Sri Aurobindo himself does not care to accept many into his path and rejects many more than he accepts. It would be well if he can get his father to pursue the sadhana no farther—for what he is doing is not really Sri Aurobindo's Yoga but something he has constructed ...
... this side is two feet long, and this side the same, how many feet will the whole be? Put it this way. If it were two feet in this direction and only one in that, must not the area be two feet taken once? BOY: Yes. SOCRATES: But since it is two feet this way also, does it not become twice two feet? BOY: Yes. SOCRATES: And how many feet is twice two? Work it out and tell me. BOY:... SOCRATES: If it is three feet this way and three that, will the whole area be three times three feet? BOY: It looks like it. SOCRATES: And that is how many? BOY: Nine. SOCRATES: Whereas the square double our first square had to be how many? BOY: Eight SOCRATES: But we haven't yet got the square of eight feet even from a three-foot side? BOY: No. SOCRATES: Then what length will... don't understand. SOCRATES: Here are four squares. Has not each line cut off the inner half of each of them? BOY: Yes. SOCRATES: And how many such halves are there in this figure? [BEHD.] BOY: Four. SOCRATES: And how many in this one? [ABCD.] BOY: Two. SOCRATES: And what is the relation of four to two? BOY: Double. SOCRATES: How big is this figure then? ...
... first-class things in a learned language. Both in French and English people to whom the language was not native have done remarkable work although that is rare. What about Jawaharlal's autobiography? Many English critics think it first-class in its own kind; of course he was educated at an English public school, but I suppose he was not born to the language? Some of Toru Datt's poems, Sarojini's, Harin's... take for their subject. One can be faithful to history if one likes but even then one has to expand and deal creatively with characters and events, otherwise the work will come to nothing or little. In many of his dramas Shakespeare takes names from history or local tradition, but uses them as he chooses; he places his characters in known countries and surroundings but their stories are either his... possibility. It is true that sometimes he follows closely the authorities he had at his disposal, such as Holinshed or another and in plays like Julius Caesar he sticks to the main events and keeps many of the details, but not so as to fetter the play of his imagina- tion. So C don't think you need care at all about either historians or biographers, even if Chaitanya Charitamrita could be regarded ...
... and Knowledge is Action and Action is Knowledge; this status is, however, that of comprehensiveness. The second poise modifies that unity so as to support the manifestation of the Many in the One and the One in the Many; in this status, unity predominates and differentiations, too, are united, but here, Page 5 the Supreme Transcendental Reality projects its eternal portion, the individual... individual. Thus there comes about the play of the individual with the transcendental and with universal in the supramental unifying consciousness. This is the manifestation of the Many-in-the One, and the One-in-the Many; this status is that of the apprehending consciousness within the overarching unifying comprehensiveness of the Supermind. The third poise further modifies it so as to support the ... limited at a given time to one poise or one form of action, and it is difficult for it to hold several poises simultaneously. But the Divine Nature is not so particularized, nor so limited; it can be many things at a time and take more than one enduring poise or status for all time. Triple status of the Supermind In the yogic realization of the Supermind, Sri Aurobindo has found that ...
... is one movement, but there are many varieties of the movement, many strata, that touch and even press into each other. At the same time the movement we call mind penetrates into other planes... Now, there are mental planes that stand high above the vital world and escape its influence; there are no hostile forces or beings there. But there are others—and they are many—that can be touched or penetrated... physical mind. Certainly not of the higher mind, for there are no adverse forces there. The reference is to the mind that deals with material things. Are there beings in the mental worlds? Yes, many. They are completely independent; they have their own life, their own relations among themselves, as in other worlds. Only for a physical consciousness, time and space are not the same in the vital... world, you can meet these beings, speak to them, even make an appointment with them for the next time! Can they exercise their influence on a human being, as the beings of the vital worlds do? Many mental formations try to realise themselves upon earth, but these are generally created by human beings; they then continue to work in the mental world with the intention of influencing the mind of ...
... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 2 Rishi Dirghatama MANY of the Upanishadic rishis are familiar to you. Vedic rishis are perhaps not so. Today I will speak of one of the Vedic rishis. Some names of great Vedic rishis must have reached your ears-Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Atri, Parasara, Kanwa (I do not know if it is the same Kanwa of whom... though fallen on such evil days composed the world famous epic poem (I am referring obviously to Milton and his Paradise Lost). We remember also here the deaf incomparable master of music Beethoven. Many of the sayings of Dirghatama have become so current that they are now familiar even to the common man. They are mottoes and proverbs we all quote at all times. "Truth is one, the wise call it in... "Heaven is my father, Earth my mother" – this is also from Dirghatama. The famous figure of two birds with beautiful wing5 dwelling on the same tree comes also from Dirghatama. There are a good many sayings of this kind that have become intimate companions to our lips of which the source we do not know. When we read the mantras of Dirghatama we are likely to exclaim even as the villager did when ...
... against enumerated by Mr. Ranade are founded upon misconceptions. Heraclitus' affirmation is not simply that the One is always Many, the Many always One, but in his own words, "out of all the One and out of One all." Plato's phrasing of the thought, "the reality is both many and one and in its division it is always being brought together," states the same idea in different language. It means a constant... tendency, once in action, has always the upper hand over the upward or that cosmos is eternally proceeding out of the original substance and eternally returning to it, but never actually returns. The Many are then eternal not only in power of manifestation, but in actual fact of manifestation. It is possible that Heraclitus may so have thought, but it is not the logical conclusion of his theory; it ...
... was not unlike that of soldiers observed a century later in World War II. Field surgeons often marvelled at the fortitude of the many badly wounded men. At first, doctors theorized that the soldiers seemed oblivious to pain simply because they were glad to be alive. But many years — and scientific experiments — later, pain specialists came to recognize that Livingstone and the young soldiers were ex... sequence of perception and reaction is known as a reflex arc and there are thousands of such arcs all over the body. Pain therefore is a necessary protective mechanism, yet it is hardly a reliable guide. Many dangerous tumors, for instance, cause no pain at all until the damage done to the body is beyond repair. It is now generally accepted that while pain from the skin, muscles, joints and tendons travel... can have a strong impact on the patient and affect his chances of recovery. In pharmaceutical companies the world over an intensive search is going on for the perfect pain reliever. But because so many pain relieving drugs have undesirable side effects, notably addiction, there is a corresponding trend nowadays to look for safer ways to help people control pain. This includes relaxation, meditation ...
... self and its egoistic interests, you ask for the Divine's ways in you and in the world. Page 106 This leads you to the border of aspiration. For aspiration too has many degrees and it is expressed on many levels. But the core of aspiration is in the psychic being, it is there at its purest, for there is its origin and source. Prayers come from the other, the lower or secondary levels... The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 7 Prayer and Aspiration There are many kinds of prayers. There is one external and physical, that is to say, simply words learnt by rote and repeated mechanically. It does not mean much. It has usually one result, however, making you quiet. If you go on repeating a few words or sounds for some time, it puts you into a state of... have, for example, found in you something which is not in harmony with your ideal, a movement of obscurity or ignorance or even bad will. You wish to see it changed. You do not express the thing in so many words, but it rises up in you like a flame, an ardent offering of the experience itself which seeks increase Page 105 and greatening, to be made more clear and precise. It is true all ...
... selfish gains, gains for oneself, for one's class or community, or even for one's country. We must have a global view of the human society which is a complex and multifoliate organism. Many interests have to be served, many lines of growth have to be encouraged, liberty for contraries all in the framework of a wider harmony. The ancient Rishis invoked the aid of the gods Mitra and Varuna for the esta... In any case whatever one is given one possesses and enjoys only for the moment, there is nothing like permanent possession. All have equal right to all things. This is an ideal which I do not think many would care to adopt and follow. In India it appears the word "communism" has been taken in the sense of the régime of the common man. Not that there is any harm in this deviation of the meaning. If... their services placed at the disposal of the commonwealth. These are names which we may not like because of unhappy associations in the past, but the realities, the types of forces they represent are, many of them, permanent features of Nature's economy. They come up in other forms and names. They have suppressed bourgeois bureaucracy in Russia, but it has reappeared in what is termed nowadays as the ...
... 3 FEBRUARY 1940 PURANI: Many people are coming from Bengal for the darshan and many Zamindars too. NIRODBARAN: Zamindars? Only in name, perhaps. SRI AUROBINDO: Kiran S. Roy is coming. Suren Ghose seems to be arranging for seven persons to accompany him. I don't know how many will actually come. NIRODBARAN: I am glad that Bengal is turning now... quietude of mind. PURANI: I shall write to him. SATYENDRA: I know him immediately. He came here once. He wanted advice from me, but as I kept silent he wrote to Purani. He has been in contact with many Yogis but remains unsatisfied. He has read the Arya too. CHAMPAKLAL: Pujalal was saying that Parvati, worshipping the sun by gazing at it, obtained Shiva. How is it she didn't go blind by gazing ...
... not busy with your little self and its egoistic interests, you ask for the Divine's ways in you and in the world. This leads you to the border of aspiration. For aspiration too has many degrees and it is expressed on many levels. But the core of aspiration is in the psychic being, it is there at its purest, for there is its origin and source. Prayers come from the other, the lower or secondary levels... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 3 Prayer and Aspiration THERE are many kinds of prayers. There is one external and physical, that is to say, simply words learnt by rote and repeated mechanically. It does not mean much. It has usually one result, however, making you quiet. If you go on repeating a few words or sounds for some time, it puts... have, for example, found in you something which is not in harmony with your ideal, a movement of obscurity or ignorance or even bad will. You wish to see it changed. You do not express the thing in so many words, but it rises up in you like a flame, an ardent offering of the experience itself which seeks increase and greatening to be made more clear and precise. It is true all this is capable of being ...
... born. (3) They flow plentifully in their own floods, and each casts in the other his seed, they strive like runners in a race and wing like eagles and their voice is a voice of many winds. (4) When their vast many-hued mother brings her teats of plenty, then man the thinker awakes and knows the mystery of hidden things. (5) Let this race of the thought-gods be mighty in me and heroic, let... their speed of movement and eager for their journey, they are lovely with the beauty of their joy and mingled together in light, yea they embrace each other with their splendours, and are mighty with many mights. (7) Because, O gods, you are fierce and swift and bold, yet firm the steps of your luminous strengths, therefore are you now this mighty troop and company. (8) They are white and bright ...
... the place exactly as I myself would. There are regions like that—not very many, but some. On the other hand, there are many unpleasant places in the vital world where it is better not to go. Those who can easily learn to go out of their bodies should do so with a great deal of caution. I could never teach this to many people, for were they to do it alone, it would mean abandoning them, sometimes ...
... All this reminds me of an incident narrated by Sri Aurobindo. When he visited Chanod-Karnali, he had a living vision of Mahakali in a srone image in a small temple on the Narmada. So many visit the same temple but how many have this living darshan? Similarly, we have all heard that Sri Ramakrishnadev even talked with the image of Kali at Dakshineshwar. And again there is the idol of Jagannatha in the... freely, without preconceptions, you will be surprised to find that what you initially disliked you will begin to like and, as you concentrate, it will gradually take you deeper and deeper, revealing many wonderful secrets of inner life. I repeat that you will have to keep your consciousness completely free from all narrowness. By Her infinite Grace, the revelation came to me spontaneously. That darshan ...
... revealed to the knower. This knowledge of Indra is many-sided. The real function of Indra is to harmonise the hidden truth of all objects and movements. Hence he is called Purarmdhih or Purudhi , i.e., a city made of comprehensive intelligence as it were. Indra does not want dissolution in the One Existent, but he wants a diverse and many-sided manifestation. In unfolding or blossoming alone... formations lose their divided and mortal nature and appear as immortal, cadences and expressions of the Truth. That is why the mental Purusha or Indra is called Purutamam Purunam. No other god has so many diversified forms as Indra. It is because he is at the root of all manifold diversities. Indra comes with plenitude; he conquers for the sadhaka sahasrinam vajam (a thousandfold plenitude). Vajam ...
... rejuvenate the human system. Many diseases which require operation for their cure in Allopathy are cured by Unani and Ayurvedic medicines without operation. There were many specific cures known in India but I am afraid they are getting lost. I remember the case of Jyotindra Nath Banerji who had a remedy for sterility from a Sannyasi and he used it with success. Many cases of barrenness for ten or ...
... India . Many letters in these journals were revised by Sri Aurobindo before publication. Page 586 By the mid-1940s a significant body of letters had been collected, typed and revised. In 1945 plans were made, with Sri Aurobindo's approval, to publish a collection of his letters. The work of compiling and editing these letters was done under his guidance. At that time, many typed or... Yoga, along with many additional ones, were published under the titles On Yoga II: Tome One and On Yoga II : Tome Two , as Volumes VI and VII of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education collection. The first tome, with further additions, was reissued in 1969. In 1970 a new edition of the letters was published under the title Letters on Yoga ; this edition contained many new letters not... typed copies. Many unpublished letters were discovered while reviewing correspondences long held by the Ashram; some of these had never been assessed to find letters for publication; others had been assessed, but relatively few letters were selected at the time. Additional letters were received by the Ashram upon the passing away of disciples. From the three sources mentioned above, many letters have ...
... June 23, 1972 ( Mother gives Sujata the manuscript of a note she wrote for Auroville. ) "Jesus is one of the many forms the Divine has assumed to come in contact with the earth. But there are and will be many others. Auroville's children must replace the exclusivism of one religion by the vast faith of Knowledge." ...
... thrown them away from thee; thou hast not entered into the net of riches, in which many men sink into destruction." Yama continued and made a distinction between Ignorance and Knowledge, and he pointed out that Nachiketas had proved that he was truly desirous of the Knowledge, since he could not be tempted by so many desirable things. He said: "For far apart are these, opposite, divergent, that... now comes to describe how rare it is to find someone who is keen to hear of that Truth, that Reality, that Supreme God who is immortal. He said: "Not many find it easy to hear of Him; even among those who have heard of Him, there are not many who have come to know Him. The man who can speak of Him wisely or the man who is skillful to win Him is a miracle. But even if one such is found,i t will... reason is that He is subtler than the most subtle, and He has many aspects, and therefore, an inferior man cannot truly expound the knowledge of Him. If he expounds, one will not be able to know Him. This is how Yama explains: "An inferior man cannot tell you of this; for thust old thou canst not truly know this, since He is thought of in many aspects. Yet unless you are told of Him by another, you cannot ...
... giving me an independent flat in "HUTA HOUSE" named by the Mother. So perhaps she became an instrument in the accomplishment of the Mother's plan. Many apparently insignificant occurrences have significant effects in the end. For instance, Dyuman told me many years later that at first the Mother had thought of giving me work in her own kitchen and letting me cook her own food. So she asked him whether... won a National Award for "excellence in printing and designing of books") might never have been written by the Mother, and many other books which are the very essence of truth and containing the Mother's teaching, of great spiritual value to the whole of humanity, as well as so many other treasures given by the Mother, might never have come into existence. There would have been no slides of Meditations ...
... is also very rich, holding many shares of the Suez Canal. A lieutenant here, who used to attend the French cabinet meetings as a police officer, said that Mandel was the only clean and honest man. In Reynaud there was something excited and unsteady, but he was very intelligent. Outwardly his decisions were all right but one could see that inwardly he was liable to make many mistakes. SATYENDRA: It... call, people will join. SRI AUROBINDO: How can that be possible without organisation? SATYENDRA: During the Dandee march it happened automatically. SRI AUROBINDO: But he admitted there were many mistakes. Of course he says he will start the civil disobedience in his own way. Nobody knows what that way is. PURANI: The Viceroy says that in any such private organisation one man gets more power... coastline. PURANI: But if after landing they can be checked successfully once, then it will break their morale. Hitherto they have thought themselves invincible. SRI AUROBINDO: Not one check, but many checks. PURANI: At any rate England knows all about their plan and preparation. ...
... India . Many letters in these journals Page 518 were revised by Sri Aurobindo before publication. By the mid-1940s a significant body of letters had been collected, typed and revised. In 1945 plans were made, with Sri Aurobindo's approval, to publish a collection of his letters. The work of compiling and editing these letters was done under his guidance. At that time, many typed... Yoga, along with many additional ones, were published under the titles On Yoga II: Tome One and On Yoga II : Tome Two , as Volumes VI and VII of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education collection. The first tome, with further additions, was reissued in 1969. In 1970 a new edition of the letters was published under the title Letters on Yoga ; this edition contained many new letters not... typed copies. Many unpublished letters were discovered while reviewing correspondences long held by the Ashram; some of these had never been assessed to find letters for publication; others had been assessed, but relatively few letters were selected at the time. Additional letters were received by the Ashram upon the passing away of disciples. From the three sources mentioned above, many letters have ...
... Dr. Nripendra Among the Not So Great The Apple (“CART”) I add the “cart”, for Nripen-da did so much (so many projects) that it could not be just one apple. Any way one looked (especially if unwell) — the hand of Nripen-da was evident (obviously in the realm of health care). His the idea, and his the hand that gave the push and kept pushing — often against... and it was not only the children who took them home — to mix with a handful of rice — considered very healthy. I think some refinement or improvement was achieved by adding a few pieces of brinjal. Many took the neem-bhaja to the Dining Room at lunch time. These three items are no more part of the Dispensary’s repertoire — a pity and a nostalgia. Nripen-da it seems urged Jalad-da to start a poultry... with soup. It was for long popularly known as “Vitamin”. Some older persons also took this as an extra item to the DR at lunch. This kitchen now has grown tenfold in size and variety, and caters to many, not only children. The children have shifted to Corner House. One child contracted the much-feared smallpox. The child had to be quarantined and even other members of the family could not approach ...
... Well, it is this attitude; if you can tell yourself, "Good, perhaps the divine Grace deserves our confidence", simply this, nothing else, you will avoid many difficulties, many. In fact this avoids many difficulties even in ordinary life, and many worries. And particularly here, if you can do that, well, you will see things which seemed formidably difficult dissolving suddenly like clouds. There... goes on in this way, I shall never get there." So this is to lose one's faith. One must always keep the faith that one is sure to succeed. Many people begin, and then after some time come and tell you, "Oh, I shall never be able to go through. I have too many difficulties." So this means not having faith. If one has started, Page 440 one begins with the faith that one will reach the goal... the body, and before it had died completely, a vital being had entered and taken its place. Such cases have been known. And these beings are demons. In life they become veritable demons. There are not many of them. There are beings of the vital, but of a higher kind, emanations of Asuras, for example, who have decided for one reason or another that they would try to be converted, not to be anti-divine ...
... now so many trees must have been planted everywhere only to get cut once again making deserts! This is the great tragedy. Building and breaking means sheer waste of time, money, energy and above all consciousness... All this leads us to confusion, chaos and catastrophe. The Mother has written correctly: Life could be quite simple and easy if man's mind did not introduce in it so many useless ...
... body leaps to the eyes, even as the clear contour of a living organism. As we know, however, an individual human frame may contain many personalities, many Jekylls and Hydes may lodge in the same physical tenement, even so, the physical unity that is India may harbour many and diverse independent elements. Admitting even that, the problem does not end there, it is only the beginning. The problem that ...
... body leaps to the eyes, even as the clear contour of a living organism. As we know, however, an individual human frame may contain many personalities, many Jekyls and Hydes may lodge in the same physical tenement, even so, the physical unity that is India may harbour many and diverse independent elements. Admitting even that, the problem does not end there, it is only the beginning. The problem that ...
... your communications. I shall see what can be done. Meanwhile here are two questions that do not call for a reply. What have you done for the Divine to make so many demands? What have you done to the Divine, to receive so many blows? The Mother ...
... men from whom you would naturally accept leading and guidance, and they say that Nationalism will ruin the country. What is it that makes them talk like this? Many of them are patriots, many of them are thoroughly sincere and honest, many of them Page 822 desire the good of the country. What is it that is wanting in them? This is wanting. They are men who have lived in the pure intellect... of that force. What is it that we have learned then? What is the need of the situation of which I am to tell you today? It is not a political programme. I have spoken to you about many things. I have written about many things, about Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Arbitration and other subjects. But there was one Page 825 truth that I have always tried, and those who have worked... God will bring many more. He Himself is behind us. He Himself is the worker and the work. ( Applause ) He is immortal in the hearts of His people. Faith then is what we have in Bengal. Some of us may not have it consciously; some may not call it by that particular name. As I said, we have developed intellectuality, we have developed it notably and we are still much dominated by it. Many have come to ...
... it cannot be said from the sounds themselves what the preparation is. The gods in the overmental plane have not many heads and arms—this is a vital symbolism, it is not necessary in other planes. This figure may have belonged to the subtle physical plane. The many-headed or many-armed figures belong usually to the vital plane.... The world you see is in some subtle physical plane where men... much more difficult. Generally, those who see are misled because they give the meaning or interpretation they wish to give according to their desires, hopes and prepossessions. And then, too, there are many different planes in which you can see. There is a mental seeing, a vital seeing, and there are some visions that are seen in a plane very close to the most material. The visions that belong to the last... Infinite realities which cannot be limited by these symbolic forms, though they may be somewhat expressed by them; they might be expressed as well by other symbols, and the same symbol may also express many different ideas. A symbol is the form on one plane that represents a truth of another. For instance, a flag is the symbol of a nation....But generally all forms are symbols. This body of ours is ...
... musician. NIRODBARAN: But so is it in poetry. PURANI: After all there aren't many artists here NIRODBARAN: Quite a lot: Krishnalal, Anilkumar, Nishikanto, Jayantilal. PURANI: Nishikanto is defunct. NIRODBARAN: Nonetheless he is an artist and there are others Champaklal, Sanjiban, etc., etc. PURANI: There are many musicians too Dilip, Sahana, Anilbaran. NIRODBARAN: Anilbaran? If he is a... they have given against the election. PURANI: And did he always play according to the rules of the game? SRI AUROBINDO: Doing what he says is playing by the tales of the game? He seems to cherish many illusions, one of them being to capture the Congress in a year. NIRODBARAN: He still seems to have a big following. In Calcutta he addressed a large gathering. SRI AUROBINDO: Who says "large"... pressure. EVENING Purani read a letter from Armando Menezes, written to Udar. NIRODBARAN: Another poet will be added to the Ashram if Menezes comes. Somebody complained to me that there are many poets and artists in the Ashram but very few musicians. He says that music is not encouraged and developed here. SRI AUROBINDO: It may not have developed but it is encouraged. NIRODBARAN: He says ...
... lure of the Many getting excessive. However, the voice of the Isha Upanishad in tune with that of Sri Aurobindo has to be heard, insisting on a due regard for the apparently finite, temporal, non-divine. According to this voice, exclusive knowledge of the One is, in the final perspective, as much Ignorance as exclusive knowledge of the Many. The integral aim of life is manifestation (many-festa-tion... of outer objects and processes. In Vedantic terms, the Play of the Many as distinguished from the Work of the One. When it is contrasted instead of being merely distinguished, it is dubbed Ignorance - avidya in opposition to vidya . The knowledge that Page 98 is ignorance consists in being aware of the Many to the exclusion of the One. The sense of the One is never quite lost... she encourages work as a means of spiritual progress, preferring it to passive and therefore empty contemplation. Not that she quite discourages contemplation. Everything has its proper place in her many-sided vision. But the contemplative capacity is rather rare, and mostly people flatter their egos by stretching out hours with eyes closed. It is better to occupy oneself in work which one inwardly ...
... beyond its true pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the parent of error. This is a zone which many sadhaks have to cross in which many wander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge. Especially if their sadhana is mainly in the mental and vital, they have to meet here many difficulties and much danger; only those who follow scrupulously a strict guidance or have the psychic... which he can rest, but only a stage. And yet these stages have to be passed through, for the Supramental or the Supreme Truth cannot be reached in one bound or even in many bounds; one has to pursue a calm patient steady progress through many intervening stages without getting bound or attached to their lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda. This is in fact an intermediary state... intermediate zone, care to go no farther and build there some half-truth which one takes for the whole truth or become the instrument of the powers of these transitional planes,- that is what happens to many sadhaks and Yogis. Overwhelmed by the first rush and sense of power of a supemormal condition, they get dazzled with a little light which seems to them tremendous illumination or a-touch of force which ...
... nothing and no one can put an end to the misunderstanding that divides the human species into two opposite camps, and the problem will not be solved. So many things have been said and written on this problem, it has been approached from so many angles, that a whole volume would not be enough to expound all its aspects. Generally speaking, the theories are excellent, or, in any case, all have their... daughters that looked like their fathers, social progress, similar occupations—all this has made it impossible today to discover one of these pure types: all men are feminine in many respects and all women are masculine in many traits, especially in modern societies. But unfortunately, because of the physical appearance, the habit of quarrelling is perpetuated, perhaps even aggravated by a spirit of rivalry... the human race, uniting conception and execution, vision and creation in one single consciousness and action. Until such a happy and radical solution is reached, India remains, on this point as on many others, the land of violent and conflicting contrasts, which can nevertheless be resolved by a very wide and comprehensive synthesis. Indeed, is it not in India that we find the most intense adoration ...
... I cannot reveal it. But what I always told you about your place and your work was perfectly true—I saw it at that moment. Perfectly true. Some things were revelations about other people—not many people; not many, but those who have a true relationship with me for the work. And very different relationships, in different worlds, on different levels and for different activities. But they aren't very numerous... ( Soon afterwards, regarding an old Playground Talk of March 12, 1951 , in which Mother said that man's two chief occupations are forgetting and keeping himself amused. ) Now I would say many things.... For instance, when the Lord draws nearest to men to establish a conscious relationship with them, it is then that, in their folly, men do the most foolish things. Page 46 It's... secondary), then he took me by the hand (that is, his right hand took my left hand: I was on his right), and we started walking on the road. And while we were walking on the road, after a time (there were many details and things I am not telling because they are incidental, they had their meaning at the time but they don't matter), while we were walking on the road, he suddenly leaned over towards me and ...
... cannot deceive oneself any longer and things take a very serious aspect. You all, my children, I may tell you, – I have already told you many times and I still repeat, you live in an uncommon freedom. Externally there are a few small restrictions, for, as we are many, and have not the whole earth at our disposal, we have to submit ourselves to some discipline to a certain extent, so that there may not... single aim in one's life: that alone exists, nothing else. You feel it in yourself whether you want it or not. If you do not, you can live a life of goodwill, service, understanding; you can work in many other ways. But between that and doing Yoga there is a great difference. To do Yoga you must want it consciously, you must know first of all what it is, – know what it is and then take the resolution... person, it means that you are not yet what you ought to be. I do not say that the thing can be done forthwith, but that this is the truth of the matter. For, on this level, on the spiritual level, too many people, – in fact, the majority of those who take up the spiritual life – do Yoga for personal reasons, all kinds of personal reasons : some because they are disgusted with life, others because they ...
... compare?” This was Kameshwar of many “gunas” (qualities). You couldn’t probably choose out one that would set him apart above the common man. He was perhaps “the common man” — put into many an uncommon corner. He came out of them unscathed (so to say) without much realising the extraordinariness. His centenary passed off without any fanfare (as must have many other centenarians’). Not that our... earthly sojourn (except the very last few days when he took ill). The new work he was given was ‘Liaison’ work between the Ashram and the many Departments of the Government and the Town. He had another thankless job too — to provide maids or man servants to the many ashram houses. (There was already one department for this — Padmasini-amma, Amrita-da’s relative, looked after it. But it was not enough... to this life. A voyage, with three false starts since 1920, had at last arrived at a midway point. The next leg of the pilgrim’s progress was about to begin. How did I miss Kameshwar — all these many years? We had much in common. He was quite close to me and my family. I was indebted to him in other ways (I’ll speak of it later), yet I passed him over! Perhaps he was too close to come into the right ...
... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Witnesses in the Being What is the meaning of “the mental witness”? The witness we have spoken about several times already, only here it is in the mind. There are witnesses everywhere. It is a capacity of the being to detach itself, to stand back and look at what is happening, as when one looks at something... That’s how it is. In all the parts of the being there is one side which can do this: put itself at the back, remain quiet and look, without participating. This is what is called the witness. One has many witnesses inside oneself, and often one is a witness without even being aware of it. And if you develop this, it always gives you the possibility of being quiet and not being affected by things. One ...
... illumined by the revelation of today. With my blessings. 22 February 1957 Page 158 ( Message for the inauguration of the Children's Dispensary ) Children's Dispensary As many cases so many cures. The most important thing in therapeutics is to teach the body to react properly and reject the illness. Blessings. 2 July 1963 ( Message for the inauguration of the School ...
... vanity of the man who thought that the earth was not large enough for his glory and that he must soar into higher regions. This is the story. A king of Persia named Kai Kaus had waged many wars and won many battles. He was so rich with the spoils of his enemies that he built two palaces in the Elburz mountains; and the gold and silver in the chambers were so plentiful that the brightness of the... speaks not but acts." The demon laughed at these wise words. But before long his boasting tongue was silent for ever. You have heard of great Solomon who was the King of Israel many years ago. There are many stories in the Bible and in other books which tell of his glory and his majesty. I shall tell you one story about him. He was very rich. He had a magnificent throne, his plates were... as common as stones in the city of Jerusalem. Merchants were constantly bringing him gold, silver, ivory, peacocks, monkeys, beautiful clothes, armour, Page 257 spices, horses, mules and many other riches. King Solomon built a splendid temple in honour of the God of his fathers and his nation. But before the temple was built, while the timber for it was still growing in the form of cedar-trees ...
... supramental plane. Men are too easily inclined to believe that they have climbed into regions quite divine when they have only gone above the average level. There are many stages between the ordinary human mind and the Supermind, many grades and many intervening planes. If an ordinary man were to get into direct contact even with one of these intermediate planes, he would be dazzled and blinded, would be crushed... n from the spiritual man of feats and miracles that would satisfy the vulgar external mind and leave it gaping with wonder. Moreover, the term "Yogi" is very vague and wide. There are many types of Yogis, many lines or ranges of spiritual or occult endeavour and different heights of achievement, there are some whose powers do not extend beyond the mental level; there are others who have gone beyond... can certainly answer any question that is Page 94 worth an answer from the supramental Light. The queries put must come from some sense of the truth and reality behind things. There are many questions and much debated problems that are cobwebs woven of mere mental abstractions or move on the illusory surface of things. These do not pertain to real knowledge; they are a deformation of knowledge ...
... can learn many things that our too limited physical faculties do not allow us to perceive. Some people, by a special culture and training, are even able to become and remain conscious of the deeper activities of their inner being, independently of their own cerebral transcription, and thus to evoke them and know them in the waking state with the full range of their faculties. Many interesting... desires are true dynamic centres of formation, they tend to organise, within and around us, the combination of circumstances that is most favourable to their satisfaction. In this way the fruit of many efforts made by our conscious thought during the day can be destroyed in a few hours at night. This is one of the main causes of the resistances which our will for progress often encounters within... dreams which we should contend with or transform, there are others which should on the contrary be cultivated as precious auxiliaries in our work within and around us. There can be no doubt that from many points of view our subconscient knows more than our habitual consciousness. Page 34 Who has not had the experience of a metaphysical, moral or practical problem with which we grapple in ...
... too many motives — e.g. that the Mother tries to allow the vital by indulging it in the beginning. She has no such intention. She behaves naturally and simply with the being — whatever change there is is in the vital's impressions about her action rather than in the action itself — except in so far as there is a change necessitated by the change in the consciousness. Many try to... foreign to this path — as if coming from the side like some solitary gust of sand. Yes, that is the right Knowledge. Beside the path prepared by the Mother, there are many sidetracks which try to attract the seeker of the Truth. They use deceptive means to pull the sadhak towards their side, separating him thereby from the Mother, his true Guide and Light. ... My psychic feels that whatever be our condition — be it full of difficulties, darkness or attacks — all will evaporate as soon as we get the Mothers physical touch. Why then do so many disciples say that they return from her with the same bad state they had before approaching her? Is it not because of their lack of faith in her divinity? Naturally, when there is not ...
... mind he had an idea that he would offer his lands (at Mala — and he did) and bring in 101 devotees from Mala to the Ashram. He did attract many from that area. Many of his family members also were drawn in, nephews, nieces, grand-nieces and grand-nephews and...) Many of these had not even seen Charu-da. Arriving here they had their first glimpse and taste of him. They may have heard of him in awe if not... some rising heat, “Why then have you come here, — go, go to the Samadhi first.” Sukhen hurried off to the Ashram. Before Sukhen’s arrival (a very recent event), his aunts and many others from Mala were already settled here — many were here before 1945 — Benoy (teacher in Mala — sugar-tin filler here), Abinash, Surendra (Dairy), etc. You could get into trouble with Charu-da for no apparent reason at... on, he was put in charge of the Dining Room counter. He served then as faithfully as any. The brand of faith that some of the old-timers mustered, which ruled their lives here, which saw them through many ups and downs, would seem to us now too rigid, cumbersome and somewhat straight-laced. But then who draws, or where to draw the line between “good” and “too good” in such matters? Let’s move on with ...
... at the right moment. For there is a growing interest in Indian yoga and spirituality in the Western world. Though much of this interest is not of the right kind it cannot be gainsaid that there are many people in Europe and North and South America whose interest is genuine, and the glamour of the exotic has little or no part in it. Nevertheless it cannot be denied that there is a good deal of misu... observation and experiment the forces and movements of the human psyche, its mental, vital and physical aspects, their mutual relation and influence. In the process of this inner exploration yoga discovers many capacities for knowledge, action and enjoyment which are not known to "empirical" psychology, for that deals with the surface nature of man. True, there is depth psychology but yoga avers that its depth... termed Self. As a self-luminous reality, it is designated Consciousness which is self-conscious. As a dynamic reality, it is known as Consciousness-Force. As Consciousness-Force it manifests itself on many levels. It is life in plants, instinct in insects and animals, mental intelligence, will and feeling in human beings and powers higher than mind in yogis and mystics. It has the power of self-determination ...
... You said that one with an exceptional capacity is called a great man. R has that in curing his cases. He also seems to have many vices. Do they also come from an overflow of energy? Yes, certainly. Many great men even have often very great vices and many of them. Great men are not usually model characters. What is this "overflow of energy" in the great men you spoke... use of calling a thing a vice when it is small and glorifying it when it is big? Napoleon and Caesar were great not merely in one small thing as in the case of R, but in many things. I suppose many great people were like them, otherwise they would not have been of much use to the world or to the Divine. It is not only the very very very big people who are of importance... men ought to be able to contain it and hold it back rather than be extravagant with it in wrong uses. Who said there was anything new in it? If there are Page 248 so many people in the world who have as much energy as great men, why are they not great? If they have such a stupendous lot of energy which they are keeping in reserve why do they not throw it out in something ...
... clowns. Page 12 But the thirst remains, and it is the Future's promise. We have tried to quench so many thirsts since the advent of this thinking species, "I think therefore I am" and millions of thoughts have risen to catch this I that is there, and as many unfulfilled shadows have wanted to catch the stars and the disappeared continents but have always come back on their same... everywhere except in this YOU ARE THERE that bursts forth suddenly through all the pores of his skin crushed by nothingness. Page 14 In the name of love we have put on so many detestable religious beliefs, or stuck on a sexual act prohibited by anchorites who hide forbidden pleasures underneath it, and the pure animal like the less pure man that followed, finds there an intense... ocean all pierced in a single drop, it is a second of all Times, the Music of the world in a single Note. Then all that remains is to create anew this wherefore the World has blossomed under so many stars. Page 16 So we scuttle this fossilized little I and land in another world. And how are we going to start again from a single cell without going through geological ages ...
... over this vast territory. But whenever they could, the great kings—South India can boast of many— built temples, founded schools and colleges. For education was a basic need of life as worship was a basic need of heart. Even in the fourteenth century, when Ibn Batuta, the Moorish traveller-explorer who spent many years in India, records his experiences of South Indian society, he is wonderstruck. "I saw... geographical India was culturally one. Because "The Vedic Rishis and their successors made it their chief work to found a spiritual basis of Indian life and to effect the spiritual and cultural unity of the many races and peoples of the peninsula." So, to be sure, one met with a multiplicity of regional tongues and a profuse variety of dialects. But one language, Sanskrit, was understood all over the great... awakening, when the arts and the sciences flourished alike, when the people obtained all social amenities, and when far-flung trade and commerce secured to the Tamils prosperity and power." In many countries of the world, we find that cultural efflorescence always took place in a prosperous society. That is how it should be. For how can culture flourish in an impoverished soil with the life h ...
... you out of the true consciousness as they do now. And how are they to be changed if the Mother's Force is not there in them to change them? 14 January 1936 It is true that the Mother is one in many forms, but the distinction between the outer and the inner Mother must not be made too trenchant; for she is not only one, but the physical Mother contains all the others in herself and in her is e... spiritual union must begin from within and spread out from there; it cannot be based on anything exterior—for, if so based, the union cannot be spiritual or real. That is the great mistake which so many make here: they put the whole emphasis on the external vital or physical relation with the Mother, insist on a vital interchange or else physical contact and when they do not get it to their satisfaction... helps the inner sadhana, but how much can be given and what will help or hinder, the Mother only can judge, the sadhak cannot be the judge—he will be led away by the desires and lower vital ego, as so many have been in fact. Such means of help by physical contact as the Mother had established have been largely spoiled by the sadhaks' misuse of them, the wrong attitude of which I have spoken. When the ...
... dots—miniatures are painted with a very fine brush, very pointed, and you make tiny dots with a big magnifying Page 104 glass. It gives me the impression of that work. And it takes many, many, many tiny dots to paint just a bit of cheek. ( silence ) Tiny dots, tiny dots. But it's so dull! So dull, so lackluster, so unchanging, so—uninteresting, really dull—that the slightest light... observation, if I may say so, but it doesn't even make me happy! It seems rather obvious.... Also the proportion is such that to get a really telling result, it would take years and years and years! Oh, how many years! How slow things are.... So I don't feel impelled to talk about it. I'd rather concern myself with something else—I do the work, but that's all. Page 105 ...
... or mere fantasies, indulged in by peoples who are less gifted than Westerners at separating subjective from objective realities. However, there are so many stories like these that it is difficult to believe that none of them is true. Moreover, many of these unusual feats have been witnessed and attested to by knowledgeable observers. Since we are primarily interested in describing the extreme limits... research with him have been published. Whether or not Geller's ability is genuine does not alter the fact that the existence of psychokinesis has been scientifically verified in many laboratories to the satisfaction of many reliable witnesses. Theoretically, PK ability can provide that extra edge which might explain some otherwise inexplicable athletic feats. But is there any evidence that PK occurs... dice. Subjects "will" specific die faces to turn up, or to fall to the left or the right. Willing is often mentioned by athletes. They often make many statements to suggest that at times they can actually "will" things to happen. There are many golf stories about changing the flight of the ball through the power of mind. Don Lauck notes that for years golf galleries had believed that Jack Nicklaus ...
... Going Higher and Higher 1980 A vast, open place is seen; it is very beautiful. Many men and women, young boys and girls are seen there. Here, a charming, attractive person is seen, who picks up one individual at a time from the crowd and tosses him up. Although many are eager to go to him, the selection of every individual is done only by that attractive person. Each ...
... a letter dated 9.2.77 from Gloria: Dear Huta, Last Saturday, many Aurovilians cleaned the mud, accumulated during the monsoon, from the bottom of the Matrimandir, so when you will come on 21st, it will not be dirty. It was a joyful work to clean for the Mother and the Matrimandir. With love Gloria Too much criticism, many hindrances, enormous ill will, numerous obstructions took place. Despite ...
... That's how it is. In all the parts of the being there is one side which can do this: put itself at the back, remain quiet and look, without participating. This is what is called the witness. One has many witnesses inside oneself, and often one is a witness without even being aware of it. And if you develop this, it always gives you the possibility of being quiet and not being affected by things. One... One detaches oneself from them, looks at them as at a dramatic scene, without participating in it. This does not change things very much. Sweet Mother, here we have the opportunity of learning many things; however, we don't use this opportunity. No, because it has come to you too easily, all this. One appreciates those things for which one has made a great effort. But you see, this has come to... For to profit by things one must appreciate them, you see. But this seems too natural for you to appreciate it. That's how it is. And as human nature is never constantly satisfied, you can even find many occasions for not being content, without even realising that if you were in other circumstances, they would be much more serious and [...] 1 occasions. You do not have any means of comparing, most ...
... Piero, his wife Gloria, and Vikas are doing the design, as I was told by some people. Once they take the correct measurements, height, width, etc. we shall know how many marble slabs will be required. I came to know that many people in Auroville are in favour of the Mother's lotus and her vision. They will surely collaborate. With kind regards In Mother's Truth Yours, Huta ...
... their techniques, the enrichment of their philosophies, and of their slow spread into other countries, usually as a travelling companion of Buddhism. Many different martial arts have evolved in India and China during the last 1,500 years, and many are still practised, but most of them have emanated from the founding schools; most kung fu, for example, is believed to have evolved from Shaolin Temple... These have clear relationships with kalaripayit. In ancient Indian classic dance, for in stance, many postures are strikingly similar to those of kalaripayit, and in kathakali dance theatre, one of the four classic Hindu dance-dramas, established during the 17th century in Kerala State in South India, many poses are very similar indeed to the postures of the martial arts. There are other strong... an attack from many people. Staffs whose ends are fitted with heavy, wooden balls may be used as flying weights, rather like the European mace. Alternatively, they may be covered in rags, soaked in oil, and set alight to frighten and deter opponents. This weapon may have originated in ancient times when fire was used to try to break up the charge of elephants in battle. Many kalaripayit weapons ...
... And an Aurobindonian's reply to the challenge of an imperfect world would be: "Life is no simple scheme of events and it has many chequered passages: its intricacy cannot be explained away or its difficulty met on the cheap; the process of the One becoming the Many is hardly the entire rationale of a world emerging from the brute blindness of matter into the hungerings of life and the dreamings... The Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo Doubts and the Life Divine A LETTER OF 1947 I myself have gone through many of your doubts and waverings. I have none of them any more. I may not be able to dispel all your difficulties, but some remarks may be of help to you. You seem to be struggling against three kinds of obstructions. The first... through the soul: the Cosmic Consciousness has to be compassed and the Transcendental Truth attained. Here, however, I must say that the Cosmic Consciousness and the Transcendental Truth have many shades and grades. Various Yogis have given out of their realisations various answers to the enigmas that are plaguing you. These answers they have couched in mental terms according to the type ...
... her at the end. There may be obstacles and many upsets in life in this world, it may take time, but even then they will achieve nearness to the Mother. SRI AUROBINDO I haven’t been able to write to you for a long time. I wanted to but couldn’t manage. This time more than seven hundred people have come for darshan - many came long before the 15th, many have stayed on even after that day till today... same today also, still I’m writing. I see that both you and your mother have been very ill. I hope this won’t happen again and all that has come to an end. This has happened in many places, here and also in the case of many sadhaks in Bengal. It hasn’t been easy to control the situation and bring it to an end. No, I am not angry with you, why should I be? Our love for you is undiminished, it will... your coming here, my will is that you should come with your dear mother at once. But... Our love and protection are with you always. THE MOTHER 11.11.1932 To Esha, our blessings. So many times I have answered your letters with my heart, but could find no time to write the answer on a sheet of paper. Hoping that your dear mother and yourself are quite well. Our love and protection ...
... make a little effort on this day, we accomplish the work of many lives as in a lightning flash. That is why I give so much importance to the birthday, because what one gains in one day is truly something incomparable. This is truly an opportunity in life. One is so open and so receptive that one can assimilate all that is given. I can do many things, that is why it is important. The birthday celebration... movement of total faith and devotion with the resolve to walk on the path of life with renewed energy. In the outside world this day also brings every year a special happiness and love into our lives. Many of the Mother’s children who live far away come rushing back to the Ashram even today in order to offer their pranam on this special occasion. They go to Sri Aurobindo’s room to meditate and as they... her: “Haven’t you made anything for me?” Smriti was both terribly surprised and embarrassed. From that time she never went to the Mother empty-handed. And even today she never fails to make as many handkerchiefs as she can in order to offer them to Her. The Mother must certainly be still appreciating these handkerchiefs from the subtle world and blessing Smriti with Her infinite love. Sumedha ...
... and came out with many botanical names. I told them the meanings given by Mother. Writing in Bhavan's Journal in 1962, he readily admitted that Sri Aurobindo "whose contact goes back to my boyhood" influenced him profoundly. "To the students of our College, Prof. Ghosh was a figure enveloped in mystery," ran his article, "He was reputed to be a poet, a master of many languages and in touch... College students were naturally sad at losing such a teacher, but their pride in him more than offset their sadness: 'their' Professor was now a political leader of all-India stature. We may note too that many of those who served the country under B. G. Tilak's leadership were Sri Aurobindo's students from Baroda College. Just as Auro-dada had tried to kindle the spirits of his brother and cousins at Deoghar... Munshi was one of them. Munshi was the founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an organ to revitalize Indian culture. His own position in Gujarat's literary world was preeminent ; plays and novels (many of them written while in jail) flowed abundantly from his pen. His historical novels in particular gave life to the epic of the ancient Aryans, living on the banks of the Saraswati in Vedic times. Agastya ...
... sadhana without a fairly long period of preparation and purification (unless one has already a great spiritual strength and elevation). Sri Aurobindo himself does not care to accept many into his path and rejects many more than he accepts. It would be well if he can get his father to pursue the sadhana no farther—for what he is doing is not really Sri Aurobindo's Yoga but something he has constructed... in the supramental yoga, here everything comes from the Divine himself. But if anybody wants it he can use it for the time being. November 1929 The relation of Guru and disciple is only one of many relations which one can have with the Divine, and in this Yoga which aims at a supramental realisation, it is not usual to give it this name; rather, the Divine is regarded as the Source, the living... Divine leave the being subject to the gunas and ego to a certain extent? Yes—because only the static part would be free in formlessness, the active Nature would be still in the play of the gunas. Many think they are free from the ego because they get the sense of the formless Existence, they do not see that the egoistic element remains in their action just as before. Is not surrender to the Divine ...
... of disproving the phenomenon offered to their attention. Such an attitude is good rather for limiting knowledge than increasing it. If it saves us from some errors of assertion, it betrays us into many errors of negation and postpones developments of the utmost importance to our human advance. I do not wish to argue the question of the existence or non-existence of Yogic siddhis; for it is not... avoid all mention of them at the outset of his mission in order not to Page 14 startle the incredulity of the Europeans. "These things are true" he said, "but let them lie hidden." And now many who have not the motives of Vivekananda, think that they can ape his spiritual greatness by imitating his limitations. There was no such weakness in the robust temperament of our forefathers. Our... of their processes carefully tabled by Patanjali. Even in the midnight of the Kali great Siddhas and saints have used them more sparingly, but with power and effectiveness. It would be difficult for many of them to do otherwise than use the siddhis since by the very fact of their spiritual elevation, these powers have become not exceptional movements, but the ordinary processes of their thought and ...
... France in one of my past lives. There was night meditation after 9-30 p.m. We sat in the upper verandah in the presence of the Mother. During this session of night meditation many people used to have experiences. There are many incidents which took place by the Grace of the Divine Mother. It so happened, one day, that the main gate was locked from inside for morning meditation by a young gate-keeper... period in the sadhana in the Ashram, when gods were called down to inhabit those who were fit to assimilate their consciousness. The Grace of the Divine Mother had begun to work upon me and I was dragged many a time into trance and came back with different types of experiences. Once I saw myself acting as a military officer on a mountain in one of my past lives. When I reported this vision at soup time,... out from my third eye, asking him to follow me. I proceeded with semi-closed eyes where my third eye led me and led the gate-keeper to the key which was lying in a corner of the garden. There were many such incidents of miraculous nature. However, I was much alert about these powers and miracles. I had been acquainted with thought transmission, telepathy and establishing keen contact at long distances ...
... over one's tongue! If people could learn to keep silent how many troubles would be avoided! Be quiet and gather strength and force not only to do work but also, chiefly, to achieve the Transformation. 3 March 1934 If only people did remain a little quiet before speaking, acting or writing, much trouble could be avoided. So many things are said uselessly, they bring misunderstandings and... Boasting, boasting―one of the greatest obstacles to progress. It is a foolishness one must carefully avoid if one aspires to a true progress. The criticising habit is more destructive than many bad habits. Médire est une chose très vile . I don't know how to translate médire into English. It is not exactly "speaking ill". Crooked mind, crooked tongue, crooked heart: this comes out... should make it a strict rule to speak (and even more to write) only what is absolutely indispensable . It is a marvellous discipline if you follow it sincerely. 27 July 1966 Neither too many nor too few words―just what is needed. I think the tendency to gather information is not bad? It is bad and harmful and lowers not only the consciousness of those who gossip, but also the ...
... you want the direct Action from the highest height, they seem to become mad. Yesterday morning I had that experience, which lasted for more than an hour, and it was difficult; but it taught me many things—many things. And all this is what we may call the “transfer of power”: it is the old power that withdraws. But then, Page 230 until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which... that carry in themselves a harmonious force), and the nerves are extremely sensitive and receptive to that vibration, which immediately puts them right again. It's very interesting, it explains many, many things. A day will come when all this will be explained and put in its proper place. Now isn't the time to reveal it yet, but it's very interesting. I really have the feeling that it's beginning ...
... know that to reach effortlessness at the crucial moment requires a lot of effort in many ways. Besides the relentless training, the conscious care of the body must be intense. Probably very few are more disciplined than modern athletes. They must be careful about their diet, their rest, their emotional relations and many other aspects of their lives as all these factors may powerfully affect their pe... in a way the simplest external manifestation of an enormous activity which involves the totality of the body -— inside out — with great rushes of blood and Page 39 air. There are also many minute chemical exchanges, each of which might be crucial to peak performance and survival. Probably, the most amazing thing is that, in peak effort, despite all the jerks, shocks, jumps, dizzy turns... body-mind connection is being addressed. In this approach, a so-called physical symptom may be the external manifestation of a less material problem of relation to one's own self as well as to others. Many experiences have shown that when the self-healing powers of the body are liberated, remarkable recoveries happen which Page 40 are found baffling by holders of the orthodox medical view ...
... hero to millions. His face as may be seen on many photographs was a study in energy, exuding radiant vitality. Yet he was a cripple. Such was the image of his personality that, although his lameness was a well-known fact, many people, when they met him for the first time, felt shocked to see his actual physical handicap. Indeed, Roosevelt took many precautions to minimise external manifestations... life and, as he had already entered public life, to continue his political career. Fortunately for the world— and probably for Roosevelt himself — Eleanor prevailed on her mother-in-law. According to many close witnesses she managed to maintain a remarkable equanimity in front of the disaster that befell her family. She was a continuous source of strength for F.D.R. She never doubted his capacity to ...
... Bengal in 1905. A section of the Congress named the Nationalist group demanded total freedom as a national birthright. The leaders of this movement were Sri Aurobindo, Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, among many others. As seen in the earlier chapters, this section of the Congress triggered a militant national awakening all over the country. The split in the Congress at Surat did not weaken the freedom movement;... India, particularly in Maharashtra, Punjab and South India. The political national consciousness was by this time fully dynamically awake. Page 92 During this period, there were many national leaders all over India; but it must be noted that there was no one leader who dominated or controlled the movement. A force and aspiration for freedom was released and leaders cropped up all... cs mark this phase. Firstly, it was based entirely on the concept of non-violence and peaceful resistance; secondly, it was centred exclusively around the personality of Gandhi. No doubt there were many other powerful leaders, but all of them unquestionably accepted the lead and the decision of Gandhi. It is also true that they often disagreed with him but ultimately, they all suspended their judgement ...
... how to go beyond the manifested universe in order to be able to imagine what is not there. And there are many, many such things. First of all, you must know how to get beyond the terrestrial manifestation, in order to be able to imagine Page 50 a new thing in it. And how many millions of years has earth existed! What has been the output of new things there? Countless, for no two... they are capable of realising what they imagine. They imagine some thing and they make such a strong well-shaped formation that they succeed in materialising it. They are truly creators. There are not many like that, but there surely are a few. You can meet a dead person also in your thought if he continues to be in the mental world; you can be in contact with his mind and have a sort of mental ...
... to be struggling to meditate. SRI AUROBINDO: (smiling) : Meditating? DR. MANILAL: (smiling back) : Trying hard. Sir, but without success since last Wednesday when I had a splendid meditation. Many undesirable things come to disturb me. SRI AUROBINDO: What are they? DR. MANILAL: Some nonsense. SRI AUROBINDO: Some extraordinary nonsense like the thought of perpetual attendance on your... a poet of that sort. How is it that some people lose at once their consciousness in meditation, and their body sways this side and that, even falls to the ground? SRI AUROBINDO: That happens with many. And that is why some Yogis bind themselves to a support to prevent falling. The Yogis who practise Asanas remain erect. DR. MANILAL: How can one succeed in meditation? SRI AUROBINDO: By quietude... being with its surface consciousness and emotional disturbances. One has to break through that to what is behind the heart. In some people the Force works behind the veil because it would meet with many obstacles and resistances if it worked in front. It goes on building or breaking whatever is necessary till one day the veil drops off and one finds oneself living in the Infinite. NIRODBARAN: Does ...
... all the qualities—there are many, aren't there?—all the virtues, all that man has conceived to be the most beautiful, most noble, most true, and to live that integrally, to let all one's actions be guided by that, all the movements, all the reactions, all the feelings, all... That is living a moral ideal of perfection. It is the summit of man's mental evolution. Not many people do it... but still... from the mental being—even the most perfect and most remarkable—to the true spiritual life without having realised this ideal of moral perfection for a certain period of time, however brief it may be. Many people try to take a short-cut and want to assert their inner freedom before having overcome all the weaknesses of the outer nature; they are in great danger of deluding themselves. The true spiritual ...
... Our Many Selves Becoming Conscious To become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking “it is hopeless” or “I cannot change”. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: Speech and Yoga “To know oneself and control oneself” what does... control yourself better and better. That is the Science of Living. To perfect oneself, one must first become conscious of oneself. I am sure, for instance, that the following situation has arisen many times in your life: someone asks you suddenly, “Why have you done that?” Well, the spontaneous reply is, “I don’t know.” If someone asks you, “What are you thinking of?” You reply, “I don’t know.” “Why... nothing or it is other words which come from your mouth. Are you able to say to what extent the atmosphere of the other person has influenced you and stopped you from saying what you had prepared? How many people can say that? They do not even observe that the person was in such or such a state and that it was because of this that they could not tell him what they had prepared. Of course, there are very ...
... and she said, “Yes, she can do it.” I had done my B.A. in French literature and had read many of the major French writers in the French language. I had also translated Mother’s Entretiens into English. Tehmi’s Painting Did you have many meetings with Satprem regarding the book? I had many meetings with Satprem, probably eighteen or more times in all. He was very pleased with the... the thought is worked out in a perfect beginning, middle and end in a way in which is not very common. Many poems contain a beautiful lyrical quality. “The early poems too are very powerful expressions of the kind of experience she had and as poetry hardly inferior to the later ones. There are many remarkable lines and stanzas though they are not as well-built as the later ones.” The following... excelled academically achieving the highest marks as she had an innate and natural ability to concentrate. She studied English literature at Saint Xavier’s College in Bombay and was taught there by many of the Jesuit fathers. She obtained degrees at Bombay University. After graduation she taught literature at Sophia College in Bombay. The Parsis I have met are all highly refined people and very ...
... don't think it is so well accepted here in our society. Once I had a very interesting conversation with the sport editor of a big Japanese paper. He was wondering why India was not doing so well in many sports. He asked me: "Why do you Indians consider that a pot-bellied man is a successful man?" In India, well fed means successful, doing well in life. The perception that a pot-belly is rather a sign... gymnastics, aquatics. In other words, in every district at least, let the Government provide one stadium, gymnasium, swimming pool, well maintained, instead of spending money to participate in so many competitions. If we were to spend that much money in providing for playgrounds, it will generally uplift the standard of physical fitness in the country and, who knows, someone may one day reach the... coaches to study the methods of the successful countries and adapt them. Then, after several years, Chinese athletes reappeared in international competitions and were able to compete with the best in many fields. Naturally, they were able to do such a thing because China is an authoritarian State. Here in India we are a free society and such methods cannot be used in the same way. About the results ...
... their cumulative effect of the Homeric "how" of saying things: Sing to me, Muse, of the man many-counselled who far through the world's ways Wandering was tossed after Troya he sacked, the divine stronghold. Many cities of men he beheld, learned the minds of their dwellers, Many the woes in his soul he suffered driven on the waters, Fending from fate his life and the homeward... expression, except for line 4: Sing, O Muse, of the man so weary and wise, who in far lands Wandered whenas he had wasted the sacred town of the Trojans. Many a people he saw and beheld their cities and customs, Many a woe he endured in his heart as he tossed on the ocean, Striving to win him his life and to bring home safely his comrades. Ah but he rescued them not, those... Sri Aurobindo - The Poet TWO ILLUMINATIONS FROM ILION A great poem illuminates many areas of art and life, provides insight into a number of technical problems and psychologico-cultural issues. I may bring forward two instances of such help from Sri Aurobindo's Ili on. Both have nothing quite directly to do with the central subject-matter or the poetic working ...
... most useful. For there are few days in our lives which do not give us the opportunity to learn greater patience. You want to see a very busy man to ask him something. You go to his house. Already many visitors are there and he keeps you waiting a very long time before seeing you. You stay there quietly, perhaps for several hours. You are patient. Another time, the person you wish to see is not... furniture, to the very last stick, into the fire. And when everything was burnt, he opened the kiln and found it full of the brightly glazed pottery which made him famous and which he had sacrificed so many years to discover. What was it that his wife and friends lacked that they could not wait for his hour of success to come, without harassing him and making his task more difficult? Simply patience... of small and untiring efforts. Enormous boulders have been completely destroyed, worn by raindrops falling one after another on the same spot. A grain of sand is nothing very powerful, but when many come together, they form a dune and check the ocean. And when you learn about natural history, you will hear how mountains have been formed under the sea by little animalcules piled one upon another ...
... Carmelite Order has given and is still giving many saints to Roman Catholic Christianity. The latest is St. Theresa of Lisieux. SATYENDRA: There are two Saint Theresas. One is the great and famous saint, she was Spanish. The recent Theresa is French. The Spanish Theresa's life was very quiet but intense. She said, "I will spend my heaven for mankind." Many miracles happened after her death. SRI... in by Vivekananda on his own. I am told Ramakrishna asked him to do more Tapasya, achieve greater Yogic realisation. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know exactly what Yogic realisation he had. I have read many books about him but couldn't gather a precise idea of it. Even the official biography of him doesn't give any definite information. PURANI: People say he did a lot of Tapasya at the time he was a... SRI AUROBINDO: The Spanish have produced many remarkable saints. Some of them had very powerful experiences. The German mystics show more the knowledge aspect of mysticism because they are more philosophic-minded. Boehme and Eckhart are examples. Among the French saints you find more love and charity and a flaming intensity. But the English saints are tremendous politicians. I don't know how they manage ...
... you must never say anything without previously asking—and in most cases it is useless even to ask. As for Pranam, Mother has stopped giving permissions—there are too many people already. As owing to these cases you will be meeting many people, you must resist all temptation and remain deaf to requests for interviews, Pranam or Yoga. 2 January 1936 ...
... A Journey to the New World 1979-11-14 The vision is about a book on a journey to the New World. Many people are trying to undertake this journey or seek the truth. The huge tent might mean the ascending consciousness in transit or under transformation. Many people are bunched together in that state in their search for truth. It is symbolic that Champaklal forgot his own name ...
... Anilbaran has again asked why the vitality of a nation is lost after a certain time and the nation degenerates. He says that for him it is inexplicable. SRI AUROBINDO: Why inexplicable? There are many factors. It would take too long to list them all, but the essential thing is that in every civilisation and culture there is a period of decline unless some new force is found, a process of new birth... discipline than the Greek. That is why it lasted longer than the Greek civilisation. EVENING Purani spoke of some healer with occult power somewhere in Uttar Pradesh—an educated man. He had performed many miraculous cures, even cures of mad people. The cases had been verified by Abhay. But one thing peculiar was that he didn't have that descent of power after food, so there was no cure after eating. ...
... It is all right. And another car, the one that belongs to A's friend. But why do you want to go so far? What is not there at the'Lake'? Mother, we have been there so many times, that we have seen everything at the 'Lake'. Everything! Really? You, who do not see farther than the tip of your nose! No, Mother, do not say that. It is because this is a... of your surroundings, to blossom in a harmonious and well-ordered life.... Life is not what you think. It is not what most people live — without an aim and without any charm. I know very well that many people are here because they happen to be here, without having even the slightest * inkling * why they are here. They give themselves to what pleases them. But you who understand, don't you see the... And everything culminates in that. You do not know how privileged you are. For it is He — the Supreme — who is with you, who is guiding you, showing you and watching over you, telling you so many things, teasing you and playing with you. He is always with you. A fall does not touch Him.... If only the effort is there.... It is He who has descended in your midst to transform you and lift you ...
... contrariness and contradictoriness. So if you wish to take a total view of the movement of universal progress, you will be somewhat puzzled. Page 302 There are so many lines that advance and there are so many which recede at the same time. Some come into the light, others go into the background and none independent or self-sufficient. There is a sort of intermingling, even coordination... from different starting-points. And they move not straight as the crow flies, but in a circle like the soaring eagle. When you concentrate upon one point of the circle, you will see relatively to it many others not advancing at all but receding and the point itself will seem at times to be going back towards a position already left behind. One goes back to pick up certain elements that have not been ...
... is not the only reality, there are many other planes superimposed' one upon another, each having its own special consciousness and power, its own laws of being and action. Obviously we all know apart from the material or physical being there is the vital being, the Page 218 life-force and there is the mental being, the mind-force. And there are many other levels like these. A miracle... potency. Yogis who do miracles possess this vital power, they have acquired it through a regular discipline and training. Spirit-calling, table-turning, even curing diseases and ailments in a moment and many other activities of the kind are manifestations of very elementary energies of life. From the occult point of view these are very crude and rudimentary examples of what a different kind of force can ...
... comparison with Napoleon. Hitler is a man of one idea; he has no other capacity or activity except that he is also a house-painter, while Napoleon had many sides: he was not only a military general, but also an administrator, organiser, legislator and many other things. It was he who organised France and Europe, stabilised the French Revolution. Besides being a legislator he established the bases of social... possible in a human being. DR. MANILAL: Napoleon is said to have been immoral. SRI AUROBINDO: If you mean that he was not chaste, it is true. As I said, he was a normal human being with enormous many-sided powers and capacities which very few people have possessed. Hitler's idea of the Nazi order is also not his. It is the idea of a Jew whom he murdered later on. PURANI: And you can see in ...
... don't know, I believe there won't be a dozen people here who have come to the Ashram and eaten the food of the Ashram without saying, "Oh! I am not used to this food. It is very difficult." And how many, how many hundreds of people who prepare their own food because they cannot eat the food of the Ashram! ( Mother slams the book down on the stool. ) And then, they justify this! So it is here that these... ) Ah! Where is this? ( To a child ) Do you know? ( Mother continues turning the pages and finds the sentence. ) 1 Here we are! Page 157 "The mind clinging to its own ideas"! See, how many times I have told you this! "The vital preferring its own desires"! And then the mind becomes the accomplice of the vital and gives admirable explanations for keeping the desires by reasoning, explaining... for instance, of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind, who are very eager to take a physical body on earth to have the experience of the psychic, for they don't have it. These beings certainly have many qualities that men don't, but they lack this divine presence, which is altogether exceptional and exists only on the earth and nowhere else. All these inhabitants of the higher worlds, the Higher Mind ...
... falling like heaven's own grace, Those eyes of deep dusk many-starred, The gently curved truth-pointing nose, The lips that open doors to me earth-barred, The chin that rounds off all my broken dreams, The delicate ears to which my moon-struck woes Are music's nectar-streams— O that small long-lost face, through many a smart Now reached again—from shadows won Back ...
... planes to which the God belongs. All creation has the two sides, the formed and the formless; the Gods too are formless and yet have forms, but a Godhead can take many forms, here Maheshwari, there Pallas Athene. Maheshwari herself has many forms in her lesser manifestations, Durga, Uma, Parvati, Chandi etc. The Gods are not limited to human forms—man also has not always seen them in human forms only ...
... 1961-09-08 The stars have no decisive influence. It is only if one does not believe in the Divine that one unnecessarily suffers by believing that they determine one's life. I have known many astrologers both in Europe and India. So far, nobody has been able to read the future correctly. There are three reasons for the failure. First; the astrologers do not know how to read the future properly... Supreme Being. And if it is doing Yoga, then all the more it should never believe in the power of the stars or in any other power. An astrologer who predicts a catastrophe for you is like a joker. Many jokers say things like “Today you will break your neck!” But in spite of the joke nothing happens. Only a great Yogi can tell you your future correctly. But even then there is the Supreme Will which ...
... Our Many Selves Our Manifold Being A psychic 37 self-knowledge tells us that there are in our being many formal, frontal, apparent or representative selves and only one that is entirely secret and real; to rest in the apparent and to mistake it for the real is the one general error, root of all others and cause of all our stumbling and suffering, to... thinking, in joy or in sorrow etc.” The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then you see that there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being … your being is full of innumerable tendencies at war with... is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge. We are composed of many parts each of which contributes something to the total movement of our consciousness, our thought, will, sensation, feeling, action, but we do not see the origination or the course of these impulsions; ...
... as a surprising revelation to many when they come to know that the case is quite different and all subjects, even the most mundane, are taught to the students in this International Centre of Education with equal interest and enthusiasm. But why so? Why the cultivation of these subjects in an avowedly spiritual Ashram institution? A similar problem puzzled many Ashramites when in the mid-forties... Aurobindo supporting the Mother in her new initiative! It was difficult to reconcile the two things on the part of many old-day sadhakas and Page 95 sadhikas of whom the vocal and forceful spokesman was no other person than the famous Dilip Kumar Roy who went so far as to write many a letter to Sri Aurobindo pointing out to him the oddity of the situation and asking for some clear explanation... Everybody is well aware of the fact that Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry is a reputed spiritual institution known all over the world for its distinctive brand of the Integral Yoga, Puma Yoga. Many hundreds of sadhakas and sadhikas permanently residing there are seriously practising this integral way of self-development and self-transformation. And Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education ...
... needed. They fled from the beer hall, declared all initiatives of the Nazis illegal and started organizing the suppression of the putsch. After a long and indecisive night in which many more blunders were committed and many a litre jug of beer (at a billion marks apiece) emptied, the Nazis, on Ludendorff’s initiative, started on a march towards the city centre around 11 am on 9 November. “Most marchers... who habitually addressed him as “Herr Hitler” will incur his wrath when continuing to do so.) The growing ranks of the SA, now mostly recruited among the unemployed, had to be fed and kept occupied. Many of them, although enjoying the comradeship and the intimidating swastika armbands and uniforms (if they had one), were no idealists: they were just hungry and penniless. They could not forever be kept... of his followers and sooner or later be overtaken by the dynamics of the situation.” (Ralph Reuth 215) “The storm troopers were impatiently pressing for action. Their restlessness had various causes. Many of them were professional soldiers, who after weeks of conspiratorial preparations were all keyed up for action. Some of the paramilitary organizations, which had been on battle alert for weeks, had ...
... so much so that you come to know a good many things about your own nature; that is why it is said that man can discover in sleep and dreams his true nature; it is not his true nature, his deeper nature, which is his psychic nature, but the spontaneous, uncontrolled nature. "Thus is destroyed in a few hours of the night the fruit Page 59 of many efforts made by our conscious thought during... to say repressed in the subconscient—driven down and repressed right at the bottom—and if you go and search in the subconscient you will find that it is waiting there to do its work. That is why so many people who have for years and years been able to control an unwanted movement are suddenly taken by surprise when this movement rushes up from below with all the greater force the longer it has been... During the night I am not afraid of certain things, but during the day I am afraid of them. Why? That means your vital being is older than your physical being. "There is no doubt that from many points of view our subconscient has greater knowledge than our habitual consciousness." "On Dreams" , Words of Long Ago Here I am going to correct one word: it is not the subconscient which ...
... Seer Poets Rishi Dirghatama Many of the Upanishadic rishis are familiar to you. Vedic rishis are perhaps not so. Today I will speak of one of the Vedic rishis. Some names of great Vedic rishis must have reached your ears —Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Atri, Parasara, Kanwa (I do not know if it is the same Kanwa of whom Kalidasa speaks in his Shakuntala)... though fallen on such evil days composed the world famous epic-poem (I am referring obviously to Milton and his Paradise Lost). We remember also here the deaf incomparable master of music Beethoven. Many of the sayings of Dirghatama have become so current that they Page 9 are now familiar even to the common man. They are mottos and proverbs we all quote at all times. "Truth is... Dirghatama. "Heaven is my father, Earth my mother"— this is also from Dirghatama. The famous figure of two birds with beautiful wings dwelling on the same tree comes also from Dirghatama. There are a good many sayings of this kind that have become intimate companions to our lips of which the source we do not know. When we read the mantras of Dirghatama we are likely to exclaim even as the villager did ...
... end of each defeat the Japanese are further than before. Disciple : They say that the Japanese are not good in the air. They miss their aim many times. Sri Aurobindo : I do not know about that. A pilot requires at a time concentration on many points. The Japanese are good at concentrating on one thing at a time. Disciple : Mussolini is asking all Italian firms to close down at... has been successful in many other things. Then how can you say it is not a true voice? As I said, the Cosmic Spirit may want him to go that way. Even morally, you can't say that he is immoral. He is very restricted as regards food and is supposed to have no wife or mistress and leads a controlled life in all other respects. Robespierre was also a moral man and yet he killed many people. Disciple... it to bring this result. There is a Cabalist prophesy : the golden age will come when the Jews will be driven off and persecuted every where. So, Hitler may be bringing that about. There are so many ways of looking at a thing. For instance, this American lady thinks, perhaps, that she is paying us a big sum, but we call it a joke. Disciple : Then, can one say that one has no responsibility ...
... what I did not know was what heroic deeds Sri Aurobindo had to perform before he saw "the source whence" the Earth's "agonies part and the inner reason of hell." How many dragons and goblins he had to vanquish I did not know, nor how many giants and ogres he encountered. The valorous deeds of the Knights of the Round Table pale into insignificance before Sri Aurobindo's heroic deeds. What adventures... Tintin (in French) have delighted me; I have hugely enjoyed Byomkesh and Feluda (in Bengali), and oh, so many more! This being so, you will readily understand that I also wanted to see if the Mystery that was puzzling me could be unravelled. Page 266 Surely, I thought, there are many hints lying scattered among Sri Aurobindo's writings and his letters? Clues are certain to be found strewn... have been fulfilment enough for any individual. It is common knowledge in India that some of these experiences come at the end of a lifelong sadhana. Attaining the Brahman Consciousness is said to take many lives of intense sadhana. But, "Nirvana in my liberated consciousness turned out to be ... a first step towards the complete thing, not the sole true attainment possible or even a culminating finale ...
... given in a forthright manner. Bitter pills were often preferred to sugar-coated ones. The strong-gutted took them. The queasy ones shied away and quit. Thus were sown seeds of many a controversy and debate. But for me and many others nothing better could have happened. Even hindsight has not changed our opinion. A few examples could vindicate or further vilify the above opinions. Either way they are... and worldly sense urging him to go back to family, friends, business, etc. and a small voice within equally urgent saying, “Stay, stay — there is more than meets the eye here.” Fortunately for him and many of us here the “small voice” came out best in the tussle — and Birenda stayed. He joined hands with Pranabda and together they started building brick by brick, from the foundation, this great and beautiful... tumble out. The jaws were a wee bit too large and square. This was what met the eye, but there was more that drew us, his students, near. He had in him what made a great teacher. He knew so much about so many subjects. He had much to give. As he could smile so could he growl. All this backed with patience and persistence made him into this “instant success”. Of course, his reputation as a “Knockout King” ...
... I had arranged his coming. You too will be glad to go to your own place'.” The Being added, “Sri Aurobindo seemed to be very pleased as he said this. I have never seen him so happy before, although many a time I have witnessed his showing pleasure without speaking. He was in such high spirits that I have no words to recount it. So, come! You do not need to do anything. Remain just as you are and go... Then we started rising higher and higher from out of those hanging creepers. Finally this magnificent Being stopped. Here I experienced a golden light radiating constantly from above. There were many persons—small as well as big. Some were moving about, several of them seemed to be doing something, but it was all hazy. I could not see anything clearly enough to know details. Then this royal Being... only when you yourself experience it. I had no mind to come out of this 'sleep'. But Sri Aurobindo aroused me in his own way, and advised, 'Now you have to do two things. First, on earth there are many children who are my own but only some of them are in search of my light. Out of them very few know what my light is. For these children you do not have to do anything. As for those who are seeking a ...
... planes to which the God belongs. All creation has the two sides, the formed and the formless; the Gods too are formless and yet have forms, but a Godhead can take many forms, here Maheshwari, there Pallas Athene. Maheshwari herself has many forms in her lesser manifestations, Durga, Uma, Parvati, Chandi etc. The Gods are not limited to human forms—man also has not always seen them in human forms only... mask his true form under others. What is primary on the mental plane is the perception, the idea, the mental significance and the form expresses that and these mental forms too can vary—there can be many forms expressing an idea in different ways or on different sides of the idea. Form exists but it is more plastic and variable than in physical nature. As to the Gods, man can build forms which they... purpose. The Formateurs of the Overmind have shaped nothing evil—it is the lower forces that receive from the Overmind and distort its forces. Vedic Gods of the Indian Tradition There are many forms of Agni,—the solar fire, the vaidyuta fire and the nether fire are one Trinity—the fivefold fire is part of the Vedic symbolism of sacrifice. Vayu and Indra are cosmic godheads presiding ...
... in all; but in manifestation why should not the Infinite throw itself out in infinite variety, Why must it be in an innumerable sameness? How many of these psychic seeds started long before others and have a great past of development behind them and how many are young and raw and half-grown only? And even among those who started together, why should not there be some who ran at a great speed and others... selves into it with results which will obviously be just such a stupendous difference of degrees, and even intervene by descending into the play through the gates of birth in human Nature. There are many complexities and the problem cannot be put with the rigidity of a mathematical formula. A great part of the difficulty of these problems, I mean especially... eyes when you can relieve it by an euthanasia? There can be no indubitable answer to a question put like that, because the answer depends on data which the mind has not before it. In fact there are many other factors which make people incline to this short and merciful way out of the difficulty- the nervous inability to bear the sight and hearing of so much suffering, the unavailing trouble, the disgust ...
... take the help of others, you can learn from persons and books. You can, for example, note how one particular idea has been given so many different forms by different poets. There is the pure or essential idea, then there is the typal or generic idea and then the many formulations. You can exercise your mind in this way, Page 34 teach it suppleness, subtlety, strength and other virtues... collateral ideas, organised them in a logical order, if, I say, you did not do anything like that before, you would find yourself, if not in a sad, at least in a funny situation. You can't imagine how many contradictory thoughts you are thinking in the course of an hour without the least surprise! For example, take this subject: "what is the goal towards which life is moving?" or "why do men take birth... our brain sunk in a crowded mass of impersonal notions. It is the stage of Mr. Everybody. The next stage is a little higher, that of thinkers, as they are called. There are other stages further up, many others, some beyond the domain of words, others still within the domain of ideas. Those who can mount sufficiently high are able to catch something that looks like light and bring it down with its packet ...
... take the help of others, you can learn from persons and books. You can, for example, note how one particular idea has been given so many different forms by different poets. There is the pure or essential idea, then there is the typal or generic idea and then the many formulations. Page 26 You can exercise your mind in this way, teach it suppleness, subtlety, strength and other virtues... them in a logical order, if, I say, you did not do anything Page 25 like that before, you would find yourself, if not in a sad, at least in a comic situation. You can't imagine how many contradictory thoughts you are thinking in the course of an hour without the least surprise! For example, take this subject: "what is the goal towards which life is moving?" or "why do men take birth... our brain sunk in a crowded mass of impersonal notions. It is the stage of Mr. Everybody. The next stage is a little higher, that of thinkers, as they are called. There are other stages further up, many others, some beyond the domain of words, others still within the domain of ideas. Those who can mount sufficiently high are able to catch something that looks like light and bring it down with its packet ...
... white light around Mother. Is it that truly I can see Mother's Light? Of course you can see it. Nowadays it is visible to many. 2 July 1933 Last evening when the Mother was walking on the terrace I saw a light on her body. What was it? Page 268 Many see light around the Mother. The light is there always. 26 July 1933 Today as soon as the Mother took her seat in the Pranam... the terrace. And some days, when the Mother is meditating, she sees some figure behind her. There is always light around the Mother which the eyes can see if the inner vision opens. There are also many beings that are around her. 4 September 1934 Page 270 ...
... even here the difference is superficial. It is a fact that Yogic experience runs everywhere on the same lines. Certainly, there are, not one line, but many; for, admittedly, we are dealing with a many-sided Infinite to which there are and must be many ways of approach; but yet the broad lines are the same everywhere and the intuitions, experiences, phenomena are the same in ages and countries far apart ...
... Public Statements and Notices concerning the Ashram (1927-1937) Autobiographical Notes On the Ashram (1934) Sri Aurobindo's Asram In order to remove many misunderstandings which seem to have grown up about his Asram in Pondicherry Sri Aurobindo considers it necessary to issue the following explicit statement. 1 An Asram means the house or houses... according to his will. Whatever money he receives is his property and not that of a public body. It is not a trust or a fund, for there is no public institution. Such Asrams have existed in India since many centuries before Christ and still exist in large numbers. All depends on the Teacher and ends with his life-time, unless there is another Teacher who can take his place. The Asram in Pondicherry... nothing in them of a public character. All houses of the Asram are owned either by Sri Aurobindo or by the Mother. All the money spent belongs either to Sri Aurobindo or the Mother. Money is given by many to help in Sri Aurobindo's work. Some who are here give their earnings, but it is given to Sri Aurobindo or the Mother and not to the Asram as a public body, for there is no such body. The Asram ...
... Mother’s Way There was a time when Mother was very particular about X, a sadhika. She would always give top priority to X's letters, needs, etc. But X had many pursuits, what you might call distractions. One day Mother gave me a letter to be delivered to X and said, “Tout de suite”, meaning immediately. C: “It will be done. But Mother, you are so particular... know that.” C: “Perhaps one day she will realise the value of what you are doing for her, I do not know.” Mother: “When that happens, I shall leave her.” Do you see? That was one the Mother's many ways of awakening people to the Truth, in this case X. Once the awakening is effected in an individual, there is no need for her to occupy herself further with him or her. ...
... think the extracts from Sri Aurobindo very fine, and the verses you sent of Mr. Sethna have a genuine poetic quality. There are many fine lines like 'The song-impetuous mind.' ‘The Eternal Glory is a wanderer Hungry for lips of clay.' "Many such lines show a feeling for rhythm which is remarkable since the poet is not writing in his native but a learned language. I... sympathy in favour of this or that person. Which brings me to his alert common sense. I have been told that Sri Aurobindo once said, in joke, that the Divine wanted the aspirants to surrender many things which they guarded jealously but one thing they did surrender with alacrity which was not exacted: common sense. Sethna was not one of these. For his common sense was never an absentee in... guarded by the intellect. But those who have once tasted of intellectual joys find it not a little hard to relinquish what they have grown to love. That is why I admired Sethna more than I admired many another who claimed being advanced sadhakas , to the deep chagrin of Sri Aurobindo. For when somebody once claimed that he was an advanced sadhaka and men like Sethna were mere poets he ...
... century. Gray alone seems to include in himself along with many characteristics of the conservative school of Johnson & Goldsmith all the revolutionary tendencies, not one or many but all, of the later poets. His earliest poem, the Ode on Spring, has many of the characteristics of Pope and Dryden; one of his latest, the Ode on Vicissitude, has many of the characteristics of Wordsworth. He is therefore the... poetry of Wordsworth & Shelley? The poetry of the eighteenth century differs entirely from that of another period in English literature. It differs alike in subject-matter, in spirit and in form. Many modern critics have denied the name of poetry to it altogether. Matthew Arnold calls Pope and Dryden classics not of poetry, but of prose, he says that they are great in the regions of half poetry;... beautiful in vivid and glowing colours, and imaginative in the sense of being full of splendid and original imagery, & especially of striking phrases & vivid metaphors. In the later Elizabethans & even many of the earlier all this was carried to great excess; the love of the strange and wonderful was carried into unnaturalness and distortion, sensuousness became lost in exaggeration and poetry became a ...
... It is not because you have a greater claim than theirs. If it were a matter of ordinary claim, there are many who would precede you. Some have been here since the beginning; some are more advanced than most in the spiritual life; some occupy a responsible position in the work of the Asram; yet many of them cannot come to the Mother separately every morning or meet her again in the afternoon as you have... brings with it its past experience of past lives and something of the old personalities, so much as it can make helpful for the present life; 2. the present formation due to this birth and made up of many complex factors; 3. the future being, which in our case means the great lines of higher consciousness above the present manifestation by joining which the transformation becomes more possible and the... adds to the past one. As for the present formation, it may obviously have elements which, not being joined or met with the Mother, may feel themselves strange to her. It is such an element which many feel standing in the way; but it is an exterior formation and does not belong to the past or to the future evolution, at any rate in its present figure. It must either disappear or change. 10 June ...
... .” 676 “Many people in the postwar years were yearning for a Führer who would be hard and at the same time clever, who would establish order, impose discipline on the people, put a stop to the multi-party system, take the reins of the leadership in his own hands and know how to keep them there”, writes Sebastian Haffner, adding: “Hitler was indeed the fulfilment of the dreams of many Germans.” 677... appears, will be amazed how many loyal followers he has and how these valuable, selfless men stand by him. Are there people who have not yet heard the call of the leader? Then it must reverberate still louder, so that it may not remain unheard any longer!” 678 “The whole of Germany waits only for one man.” (Karl Schworm) To most this man was not Adolf Hitler, and he was to many either the deposed Emperor... and it was because of this expectation that Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg was called the “Ersatz Kaiser”, which might be translated as “emperor-ad-interim”. Hitler, then, was one among many men of destiny, at times well-nigh forgotten or written off, and always underestimated. When at the beginning of 1920 Rudolf Hess heard Hitler speak for the first time, he was carried away. He would ...
... only what is publicly known: is there somewhere a being unknown to all? ... I would be surprised if there were no communication. I don't know. There are many, many of them you know, a whole crop of new Christs, Kalkis, 2 supermen, ooh! so many of them, but generally, communication is made somehow or other, at any rate their existence is known; well, among them, among all those with whom I have been... November 15, 1967 Nothing to say? No, the feeling is that unless something miraculous happens in the way men understand it, well, it will take many centuries. Page 362 But you never expected it not to take any time!? Evidently not. But I never believed, I never believed it could come quickly. First of all, if one tries, as... stone into the plant, the plant into the animal, the animal...? We don't know, but the way things are going ... Now that they are so smart in calculating, when do they reckon the earth was formed? How many billions of years ago? 1 All that time just to be where we are. Naturally, the farther we go, the faster things move, that's understood, but fast ... How fast? If the process is to be "natural ...
... told you many times, and couldn't repeat it too often, that we are not made of a piece. Within ourselves we have lots of states of being, and each state of being has its own life. All that is gathered together in a single body, as long as you have one, and acts through a single body; that's what gives you Page 247 the sense of a single person, a single being. But there are many of them,... and there are in particular concentrations on different planes: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, a mental being, a psychic being, and many others with all possible intermediaries.... So when you leave your body, all those beings will scatter. It's only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been capable of unifying your being around the divine center that those beings remain... is a god of death. Is it true? "Yes. As for me, I call him a 'genius of death.' I know him very well. And it's an extraordinary organization. You can't imagine how organized it is! I think there are many of those genii of death, hundreds of them. I met at least two of them. One I met in France, the other in Japan, and they were very different. Which leads me to believe that depending on the mental culture ...
... soul have become too acute for solution otherwise or if the outer being insists on having its experience. After our staying for so many years in the Ashram, how are these old difficulties surging up so powerfully? With many sex, demands etc. after a long discontinuance come up with a rush and they find it too difficult to overcome. Even some good people... sexual sensations in us. How does it happen like that? It is quite usual—just as the smell of very nice food may awake the desire of the food. I notice that there are many sadhaks who mix with ladies quite freely, while I can't. Does it mean that they do not feel the sex-difficulty? Some may not feel, others may not care whether they feel or not. ... vital to admit such movements. In what way does the vital being partake in matters of sex? Page 59 By desire, joy, personal attraction, passion and in many other ways. When one becomes more and more aware of the vital-physical, is sexual sensitivity a necessary stage in the sadhana? No — but since it has come, you have ...
... action. The lower nature has its hold on the individual and the psychic works through the individual. The psychic realisation is the realisation of the individual soul which feels itself as one in the many; your individuality is not lost in the realisation. The individual soul works in the mind and heart and other parts and purifies them, bringing in the realisation of devotion (Bhakti) and love. But... SRI AUROBINDO: No, it is only apparently lost. Everything remains behind. But if he doesn't want to go further, his Yoga stops there. That's all. When the subconscient change has to come about, many will find it difficult. There will be some who will drop out because they do not fulfil the demands made on them. For instance Harin. At the beginning he was swimming in poetry and kept some old movements... you know it is her nature to do. But no one could stand it; we thought whole thing would break. There was a great row in the vital. We had to withdraw. Of course we can do our work quicker, but how many will go through the ordeal? If the sadhaks had kept the right attitude at the time when the sadhana was in the vital, there would not have been so much difficulty today even in working out the s ...
... the country was made the home of many living and pulsating centres of life, art, culture, a richly and brilliantly coloured diversity in unity; all was not drawn up into a few provincial capitals or an imperial metropolis, other towns and regions remaining subordinated and indistinctive or even culturally asleep; the whole nation lived with a full life in its many parts and this increased enormously... diverse peoples, lands, kingdoms and, in earlier times, republics also, diverse races, sub-nations with a marked character of their own, developing different brands or forms of civilisation and culture, many schools of art and architecture which yet succeeded in fitting into the general Indian type of civilisation and culture. India's history throughout has been marked by a tendency, a constant effort to... will then be founded on her natural strengths and the principle of unity in diversity which has always been normal to her and its fulfilment the fundamental course of her being and its very nature, the Many in the One, would place her on the sure foundation of her Swabhava and Swadharma. This development might well be regarded as the inevitable trend of her future. For the Dravidian regional peoples ...
... arresting me. There were some people there [Ramchandra Mazumdar, Suresh Chakravarty (Moni), Biren Ghose, Bijoy Nag and Nolini Kanta Gupta]. Ramchandra was there preparing to give fight to the police and many other ideas were flying about when suddenly I heard a voice from above saying – No, go to Chanderangore.” ¹ After hearing the voice, Sri Aurobindo decided to act immediately. They started from... minutes. That day the C. I .D. men seemed to have been conspicuous in their absence. A boat was called and engaged for Chandernagore. Sri Aurobindo boarded the boat with Biren and Suresh. There are many stories current about Sri Aurobindo's departure for Chandernagore. Some have been published in magazines by persons who have written on wrong information or accepted rumour as fact and thereby created... but a young man on the staff of the Karmayogin , Ramchandra Majumdar, whose father had been warned that in a day or two the Karmayogin Office would be searched and myself arrested. There have been many legends spread about on this matter and it was even said that I was to be prosecuted for participation in the murder in the High Court of Shamsul Alam, a prominent member of the C .I.D., and that Sister ...
... asunder. स चिकेत सहीयसाऽग्निश्चित्रेण कर्मणा । स होता शश्वतीनां दक्षिणाभिरभीवृत इनोति च प्रतीव्यं नभन्तामन्यके समे ॥५॥ 5) He awakes to knowledge by his forceful and many-sided works; he is the Priest of the call of many powers surrounded Page 346 by lights of discernment and he takes possession of all that faces him,—let all that are alien be rent asunder. अग्निर्जाता दे... हरिवः । वस्वो वीरस्यापृचो या नु साधन्त नो धियो नभन्तामन्यके समे ॥९॥ 9) O Indra, O thou of the bright horses, O begetter of the shining hero, the shooter who strikes into his mark, many are thy measurings of things, many thy expressions of the truth which accomplish 5 our thoughts,—let all that are alien be rent asunder. तं शिशीता सुवृक्तिभिस्त्वेषं सत्वानमृग्मियम् । उतो नु चिद् य ओजसा ... पुरु विश्वं भूमेव पुष्यति देवो देवेषु यज्ञियो नभन्तामन्यके समे ॥७॥ 7) Fire is the companion dwelling in the gods, dwelling in the beings who are masters of sacrifice; he increases by his rapture many seer-wisdoms, even as all that is large, he is a god in the gods and a lord of sacrifice,—let all that are alien be rent asunder. यो अग्निः सप्तमानुषः श्रितो विश्वेषु सिन्धुषु । तमागन्म त्रिपस्त्यं ...
... and so many people"—in America that's all they ever wanted to know from me. When I asked for money from America, that's what they asked about, and that's what I had to send them: on such and such a date we started off with two houses and then little by little, like this and like that, it became what it is today. And now we have so many houses ( Mother laughs ), there are so many people, so many visitors... inner state, as though they'd been projected into a curve absorbing several lifetimes. This seems to be what's happening individually. People with the least bit of trust are gaining lifetimes... perhaps many lifetimes—and the world as well. The work is getting done in double time—even a lot more than double. But it's good, this book of yours. As I always say, "Be at least two generations ahead ...
... Myrtilla Collected Poems Lines on Ireland 1896 After six hundred years did Fate intend Her perfect perseverance thus should end? So many years she strove, so many years, Enduring toil, enduring bitter tears, She waged religious war, with sword and song Insurgent against Fate and numbers, strong To inflict as to sustain; her weak estate Could... Not variable breath of favour, crowned On high. And grieves it not, spirit renowned, Mortal ingratitude though now forgiven, Grieves it not, even on the hills of heaven, After so many mighty toils, defeats So many, cold repulse and vernal heats Of hope, iron endurance throned apart In lonely strength within thy godlike heart, Obloquy faced, health lost, the goal nigh won, To see at last thy ...
... and luminous—so that can be felt. For instance, by looking into someone’s eyes you can say with some certainty that this person has a living soul or that you don’t see his soul in his eyes. Many people can feel—“many”, I mean among evolved people—can say that. But naturally, to know exactly how far somebody’s soul is awake and active, how far it rules the being, is the master, one must have the psychic... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Recognising Another’s Soul; Looking at Oneself Sweet Mother, with the human mind is it possible to recognise another person’s soul? Things are not so clear-cut and separate as they are in speaking; that is just why it is quite difficult to see very distinctly and clearly in oneself the different parts... is insistent and is conscious oneself, then there comes a kind of plenitude which gives the feeling of something complete that contains unfathomable depths in which, should one enter, one feels that many secrets would be revealed… like the reflection in very peaceful waters of something that is eternal. And one no longer feels limited by time. One has the feeling of having always been and of being ...
... or going out of the body. The consciousness went up and remained above the body for a time. The feeling or vision of oneself in the form of an egg is frequent in such cases. It is not always so, for many go out in an individualised consciousness with an awareness of a subtle body, subtle thought, subtle sensation etc. and move about in the vital or even in the physical world till they come back to the... sleeping position in the Muladhara and taken the lengthened one in which it joins the embodied consciousness with the consciousness above. The power of exteriorisation is one that can be used for many purposes by the Yogi when it has been developed. It was a partial exteriorisation, part of the consciousness going out to the scene and surroundings described by you while the rest remained in... things must disappear. It must be able to face even formidable things without fear. A feeling like that of the shock and the stopping of the breath for a second and as if of falling down comes to many when the consciousness for a moment or a longer time exteriorises itself (goes up out of the body); the shock comes from the going up of the consciousness or from the return into the body. The Mother ...
... Colours Letters on Yoga - III Chapter I Light Seeing Light Light is always seen in Yoga with the inner eye and even with the outer eye, but there are many lights; all are not and all do not come from the paraṁ jyotiḥ . Lights of various colours are one of the first things people see when they meditate. There is no imagination in the seeing... sufficient. It is not necessary to have the mind quiet in order to see the lights—that depends only on the opening of the subtle vision in the centre which is in the forehead between the eyebrows. Many people get that as soon as they start sadhana. It can even be developed by effort and concentration without sadhana by some who have it to a small extent as an inborn faculty. The quietude of the mind... consciousness or attune it to the Truth. It [ Light ] is the power that enlightens whatever it falls upon—the result may be vision, memory, knowledge, right will, right impulse etc. There are many lights of various planes—there is also the Divine Light that comes down from the higher planes and illumines the Adhar. It is not necessary or possible to define [ the Divine Light ]. Page ...
... obsession with the Jews, who “inhabited Hitler’s mind”? “I don’t know. Nobody knows. Nobody’s even began”, said Alan Bullock in desperation after many years of study. 633 Werner Maser confesses: “The cause of Hitler’s anti-Semitism, despite the knowledge of so many details, is not completely explainable”, 634 which is a historians’ understatement. And Joachim Fest puts is as follows: “We can probably no... writes Peter Longerich in his book Der ungeschriebene Befehl (the unwritten order) about the direct responsibility of Hitler. He asserts that this responsibility can be proven by examining Hitler’s many utterances and talks to generals, groups of people belonging to the regime, and personal conversations. It was Hitler’s aim, says Longerich, never to give direct instructions, but to create “a certain... “Hitler gave confidentially direct oral orders with which he started particular operations of the systematic mass murder of the Jews.” 628 This is carefully worded by Longerich and supported by many persons involved in the historical process. Albert Speer said: “Nothing of any magnitude could conceivably happen, not only without [Hitler’s] knowledge, but without his orders”, and he repeated Rudolf ...
... Besant received many tributes during her lifetime. Perhaps the most beautiful one came from Sarojini Naidu: 'Mrs. Annie Besant was a great woman, a warrior, a patriot and a priestess. Many creeds were reconciled in her. Her essential qualities were her unquenchable thirst for freedom.' She inspired the people through her patriotic ideas. She delivered many of her speeches at Marina... of 1919. The Congress also agreed to separate electorates for Muslims in provincial council elections. Apparently, this pact paved the way for Hindu-Muslim cooperation and unity. However, there are many who feel that this was a wrong step and was in fact the first step in creating a permanent division between the Hindus and Muslims. The later history of India amply proves this. Sri Aurobindo had been ...
... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Body Formation and Character Mother, does a person’s body-formation express his character? No. Even the character itself is not a simple affair, that is, the character of a person is not the expression of his true being but the result of many things. For example, atavism may be expressed, that is, what ...
... Appendix Appendix Four Letters by Sri Aurobindo Prayers and Meditations 17 August 1938 There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the Divine Mother and her "Prayers", they say, explain this view. But, to my mental conception, to my psychic being, she is the Divine Mother who has consented to put on her the cloak of obscurity... that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine consciousness, not human turning into divine. The Mother was Page 384 inwardly above the human even in childhood, so the view held by "many" is erroneous. I also conceive that the Mother's "Prayers" are meant to show us—the aspiring psychic—how to pray to the Divine. Yes. 17 August 1938 Page 385 ...
... 9 April 1949 Gracious Mother, The head compositor of the English Section has requested me many times to try to give some job to his unemployed Hindi-knowing friend S. Each time I have refused, saying that there are already too many workers in our Press and it is not possible to employ any new hand. I advised him to find some other job for his friend. Now ...
... the right way of nursing them. So many plants have died without giving me sufficient experience! Tell me, Mother, what I should do to fulfil Your will more perfectly. From the spiritual point of view, in your work, there are two defects that are to be removed. One is a kind of restlessness which compels you to try always new things and to make too many experiments—and the other is a certain ...
... it's an activity. It's a world I was totally unaware of, and which is like this ( Mother interlaces her fingers to show a sort of interpenetration of the physical and that world ). There are so many, so many things to learn. Yes! ( silence ) Only those with a physical body have the kind of reactions—pleasure, displeasure—we have in physical life. The others no longer have it. That seems to... concrete and in which living Page 220 people are mingled with those we call dead—and they are the SAME, they are the same there. 1 For example, last night there was a very long activity with many people, and among those people was Purani (I see him very often); Purani had a major role, and M. and... (what's his name?) D.—D. and M. were quarreling! 2 ( laughter ) And one thing after another ...
... extension of his Executive Council. How many Congress members did the Viceroy propose last time? PURANI: Two, perhaps. SRI AUROBINDO: Now he may make it four and, if they refuse, he may take in the League, the Liberals and probably Savarkar and Ambedkar. PURANI: The Working Committee is giving counter-proposals, it appears. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, many are in favour of the National Government... 1940-contd Talks with Sri Aurobindo 3 JULY 1940 SATYENDRA: People here have become panicky about the currency. I hear that many people are coming to the Ashram to have their British notes changed into French money. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Yes, but there is not yet any official order. The post office is still giving out British money. SATYENDRA: ...
... are still too many unknowns. But because we have lived together constantly, there is quite a mingling of atmospheres [the doctor's and Mother's], and when he tried to pull his away... (because he doesn't know yet how to remain everywhere at the same time—not many people know how to do it, so they pull their atmosphere away, which causes a sort Page 72 of dislocation of many things and.... March 4, 1964 So, how are you? And you? Experiences... I have nothing to say. It's too much and too little at the same time—too many things, details, innumerable little observations, innumerable little changes; but nothing sensational, nothing to make a "nice picture," no. But first, I had asked you to tell me if you saw something... time. It seems to be an endless work. ( long silence ) Today the doctor is leaving for America for a brain operation. 6 It's far from being a safe affair, it's too new, there are still too many unknown elements. There have been a number of really very interesting things with him, but it's a sort of microscopic work, so it can't be told.... For instance, the way the auras, the vibrations ...
... inauspicious events took place and entire villages and towns were devastated. I would sneer in disbelief then. How many yagnas and austerities were necessary to bring the gods back onto our side! We have read about so many yagnas in Puranic stories or in the Mahabharata and heard so many stories from the elders ever since our childhood. But it is only after seeing the Mother make arrangements for... me gravely: “Who has left this plate of flowers?” I do not know why but I kept quiet. The Mother Herself then continued: “I know who has kept these flowers. I know each one’s flower-plate.” (Many used to offer their flowers on a plate or in a flower-basket and the Mother filled their container with garlands or different kinds of flowers.) The Mother went on very sadly: “You are most amazing... written: “How effortlessly we got a touch of Their body—there was no effort or striving of any kind on our part—but as a result we lost the real value of all the treasures that were proffered. How many times did They allude to this with some sadness—and we, like spoilt children of a rich man, wasted all the wealth away.” When Sri Aurobindo announced that this Mother was the same as the Divine Mother ...
... Newmania 25-May-1907 Yesterday the Special Correspondent of the Englishman finished his shilling shocker in many chapters, The Dreadful Boy Desperadoes of Dacca or The Violent Volunteers of Barisal . We have had many new things recently, the new Hinduism, the new School, the new Politics, the new Province, the new John Morley and now we have Newmania in the ...
... and the liberation from bondage is an illusion. Not only are we bound but in play, the mimic knots are of such a nature that we ourselves can at our pleasure undo them. Nevertheless the bonds are many and intricate. The most difficult of all their knots is egoism, the delusion that we have an individual existence sufficient in itself, separate from the universal and only being, ekamevadwitiyam, who... other. Brahman extends Himself in Time, Space & Causality which do not condition Him but exist in Him and can at any time be changed or abolished, and in Time, Space & Causality He attaches Himself to many namarupas which are merely existences in His universal being. They are real in manifestation, unreal outside manifestation. Page 6 ...
... be published. I am writing to Mother to tell her (it's my second letter). My own little mother looks so much younger and radiant—truly a natural, living soul, a living force. It will take me many, many years to make up for these three lost months, because each day is about six months in French time. ...
... Mother, I am sorry to inform You that S is reading some letters of K and H to You. S told the contents of them to G, and G told me. I am not at all sure of G's reports, as I told you already many times. Nothing can be decided or judged on what she says, as her statements are not reliable. It is better to drop all these accusations made by G or others and not to attach much importance to... cannot act on the reports of any of these women against one another. It seems evident that S is bent upon doing mischief. She is not the only one who does mischief and from that point of view many others—including G—are just as bad as she is. S has created turmoil in the atmosphere of the Ashram, and all against You and me. Against You in the sense that she says You are a puppet in my hands ...
... The Stars The stars have no decisive influence. It is only if one does not believe in the Divine that one unnecessarily suffers by believing that they determine one's life. I have known many astrologers both in Europe and India. So far, nobody has been able to read the future correctly. There are three reasons for the failure. First the astrologers do not know how to read the future properly... Supreme Being. And if it is doing Yoga, then all the more it should never believe in the power of the stars or in any other power. An astrologer who predicts a catastrophe for you is like a joker. Many jokers say things like "Today you will break your neck!" But in spite of the joke nothing happens. Only a great Yogi can tell you your future correctly. But even then there is the Supreme Will which ...
... Supramental plane. This is the natural order of the Yoga. These stages may overlap and intermix, there may be many variations, but the last two can only come in the advanced state of the progress. Of course the Supramental Divine guides this Yoga throughout but it is first through many intermediary planes; and it cannot easily be said of something that comes in the earlier periods that it is the ...
... A Perplexing question About Sri Aurobindo and Its answer While reading Sri Aurobindo's Bengali book of jail-reminiscences Karakahini (Tales of Prison-life), many readers have been puzzled by certain passages depicting the distressed state of mind in which Sri Aurobindo found himself. Knowing that already before going to jail he had the experience of Nirvana... December 22, 1938 Sri Aurobindo refers to the Nirvanic realisation and explains: "My experience of peace and calm after my first contact with Lele never left me, but in my outer nature there were many agitations and every time I had to make an effort to establish peace and calm there. Ever since that early experience the whole object of my Yoga has been to change this nature into the mould of the ...
... and obey its dictates. Here on earth there is the evolution with matter as the starting point, life as the medium, mind emerging from it. There are many grades, realms, combinations in the cosmos—there are even many universes. Ours is only one of many. The Planes and the Body The heavenly worlds are above the body. What the parts of the body correspond to are planes—subtle physical, higher, middle... are not conscious and which become conscious to us only by sadhana—those above the human mind—that is the higher consciousness. Below from the crown of the head to the throat are the layers (there are many of them) of the mind, the three principal being one at the top of the head communicating with the higher consciousness, another between the eyebrows where is the thought, sight and will, a third in... vital being containing several layers. From the bottom of the spine downward are the layers of the physical consciousness proper, the material, and below the feet is the subconscient which has also many levels. The experience of the splitting of the forehead from the middle and the pouring out of light signified the opening of the centre of thought, will and vision there. When this opens, there ...
... for a developing nervous system, which cannot stand the strain of too continuous an effort or of an activity that is imposed upon it and not freely chosen. At the risk of going against many current ideas and ruffling many prejudices, I hold that it is not fair to demand service from a child, as if it were his duty to serve his parents. The contrary would be more true, and certainly it is natural that... see what inner conditions are to be fulfilled so that this beauty can one day be manifested. So far I have referred only to the education to be given to children; for a good many bodily defects can be rectified and many malformations avoided by an enlightened physical education given at the proper time. But if for any reason this physical education has not been given during childhood or even in... seriously and wish to give their children the best conditions for normal development will easily find the necessary indications and instructions. The subject is being more and more thoroughly studied, and many books have appeared and are still appearing which give all the information and guidance needed. It is not possible for me here to go into the details of the application, for each problem is different ...
... maximum, but a harmony of perfection. When you pronounce this word, carefully, it casts a spell, it sounds like a mantra. It was really a magic word for the Greeks, who may have been, among all the many people on earth, past and present, one of the very few who had a quasi-religious feeling for what excellence represents. In our contemporary world, excellence, this elevating concept, does not seem... would expect from a great athlete. These handicaps created by modern society around sportsmen and athletes are hurdles on their way. It does not prevent them necessarily to reach true excellence. Many of those who have reached the summit in their specialities have displayed high human qualities such as courage, endurance, fearlessness, stoic composure in defeat, even Page 263 heroism... the individual towards what may be called perfect perfection. Excellence can be a secret recognition within oneself: whatever the external results, inwardly one may know the real achievement. So many sport amateurs in the world stand no chances to reach the top or even secondary summits. Yet they go on practising and they too are exhilarated when they feel they have given their very best or when ...
... local anaesthetic. If he is afraid of the operation, no use operating." The patient was finally operated upon after many years. As a rule, the Mother was not well-disposed towards operations. She had also many "divine objections" to our "human remedies". I wrote once, "I find that many things recommended for diseases are not much favoured by the Divine. So it is better to ascertain your opinion before... physical charge of keeping it in order.... "The Mother is rather anxious that you should take up this work; she had the idea, as I told you, when D. S. broke down (which was a pity because he was in many respects the ideal man for the charge), but she did not propose it because she was not sure you would like it...." Well, I accepted the proposal, with a good deal of diffidence; for I must confess... knowledge that she possessed was primarily intuitive, but also partly derived from her vast general experience in which, I am afraid, Europeans in general are superior to us. I had to forget or change many of my accustomed notions about drugs and stop or be careful about their use. I had to learn to employ as few medicines as possible and thereby give Nature a chance to heal. Sri Aurobindo sent me an ...
... themselves." Remember when he used to hear the sounds of crickets they were so noisy that he thought there were many crickets outside! Of rupa, or seeing not mere images but actual forms, "of which there were some instances in the jail & afterwards" there was "none here." Nevertheless, many experiences in the Alipore jail were now reemerging "on a new basis of perfection." The sweet taste of... disappear into thin air. Our severe scientist of the Spirit noted down everything meticulously as does an experimentalist in his laboratory to establish control. How many hours he walked, with what intervals, what were the results; how many hours he slept, the kind of sleep it was, the types of dreams he had. And all sorts of things besides. The main concern of a true scientist is with physical phenomena;... a few years, and sometimes concentrated work, to bring about this physical change. It proved that eventually the psychic body had been able to alter the physical sheath into its own image. Among the many elements of Yogic perfection, siddhi, he had also undertaken to develop physical beauty— saundarya. A willed modification Page 300 of form. We find in his Yoga diary under the date ...
... brings to mind quicksilver: pursue as you may, he is always one step ahead. He did not like the idea of rest and said that sleep only served to remind him of his mortal condition. So many things to do, so much to learn, so many possibilities.... He brings to mind too the echo of a perpetual galloping on the quickest of horses.... The bursting life-force inside him was quite evidently overwhelming, as was... Alexander did not know what to do, and in the end loosened the knot by cutting through it with his sword, whereupon the many ends sprang into view.... (Then Alexander wanted to invade the interior. But Darius was marching upon the coast from Susa.) Darius was encouraged by the many months of apparent inactivity which Alexander had spent in Cilicia, for he imagined that this was due to cowardice... and sometimes for the whole of the following day.... (For many years, Alexander continued his campaigns and further and further enlarged his empire. To make submission easier for his subjects, he proclaimed himself a God. He adopted more and more fully the customs and ways of living of the "barbarians", much to the displeasure of many Macedonians. Finally, he set his eyes upon India.) Alexander ...
... Originality in National Literatures It is a singular and as yet unexplained phenomenon in the psychology of mankind that out of so many magnificent civilisations, so many powerful, cultured & vigorous nations & empires whose names and deeds crowd the pages of history, only a select few have been able to develop a thoroughly original and self-revealing... Let us suppose that all historical documents, archives, records were destroyed or disappeared in the process of Time and the catastrophes of civilisation, and only the pure literature survived. Of how many nations should we have the very life, heart & mind, the whole picture of its life & civilisation and the story of its development adequately revealed in its best writing? Three European nations would ...
... didst enter into the waters; one was the god who saw thee but many and manifold were thy bodies which he saw, O Fire, O knower of all things born. को मा ददर्श कतमः स देवो यो मे तन्वो बहुधा पर्यपश्यत् । क्वाह मित्रावरुणा क्षियन्त्यग्नेर्विश्वाः समिधो देवयानीः ॥२॥ 2) Which of the gods was he who saw everywhere my bodies in many forms ? O Mitra and Varuna, where then dwell all the blazings... We desire thee, O Fire, O knower of all things born, when thou hast entered manifoldly into the growths of the earth and into the waters; there the lord of the law grew aware of thee, O thou of the many diverse lights, shining luminous beyond the ten inner dwelling-places. Page 415 होत्रादहं वरुण बिभ्यदायं नेदेव मा युनजन्नत्र देवाः । तस्य मे तन्वो बहुधा निविष्टा एतमथँ न चिकेताहमग्निः ...
... letter in a most unexpected way. I say 'unexpected' because we have not met each other even for once during the last so many months if not years. In his letter, among other things, P-da has expressed his anguish over the supposed absence of harmony and brotherly feeling among many Ashramites. He somehow feels that our collective life here is not as he thinks it should be. He wanted to meet some senior... epitome of this mystery; so any attempt to unravel it by the human mind is bound to be unfruitful. The only thing to hold on is this faith: "The Ashram is the cradle of the new world." Many thanks for showing me your note - Kishor) So, such is the genesis of this manuscript and I fervently pray from the depths of my heart: "O Mother, O Sri Aurobindo, let Your Will be ...
... can't one do better than that? Accidents! Every day there is something, an accident or an unpleasant story. Someone is limping, another one has broken his arm, yet another has twisted his ankle, and many others... the list is endless. What, there is no end to all this. That is the condition. Can't one be a little more conscious? All of you are in such a deplorable condition. You are wallowing in the... brutality. To me, it seemed to be a complete game in itself. I liked it very much. It must be played like that, without collisions or brutality. Then it is good. And how can I stop the game when so many people like to play football? It is not possible. I cannot do something that would hurt everybody. Moreover, it is a game which requires much talent. Better to find a way to avoid any accident. ... And it is not football alone, but gymnastics, sports and everything.... I am only asking you to become a little conscious, a little more conscious without getting excited. Then you will avoid many accidents. Every minute I am watching over you and giving you the Peace and the Force needed so that you may be conscious, conscious of your surroundings and of yourselves. But without result. It is ...
... It is not for arriving at the Truth. One can't arrive at the Truth by arguing. He can find plenty of proof of people whose faith has succeeded where all outer reason was against them. There are many such things in history. Page 316 If England had only thought and depended on reason then she should have made peace with Hitler. She had no chance against Germany. But in spite of... go the defeat (August I believe over London and September – the 'invasion idea' and 'preparation') 2. I wanted De Gaulle to become the chief of the Free French armies in North Africa. There were many obstacles and the Americans came in with their pro-Vichy attitude. But I went on pressing and ultimately it has succeeded. 3. Also about the Tunisian campaign. There was lot of swaying to and fro... But I believe in Brahman siding against Brahman – that the Brahman, I think, has been always doing. The distinction between the Ishwar consciousness and Brahmic consciousness is not clear to many people, and also some of the Monists consider Ishwar to be a lower status than Brahman because it is dissolved in the Pralaya. But Krishna took side openly in Maha Bharata and Rama also. Rama they ...
... preparing of luchis was mere play and not much work, but still I am tired of eating. Tired of eating? When you have so many people to feed! It is not the time for this kind of reaction. I was glad to see that all these outsiders will have a good impression of our cooking. Many Aroumé workers have the impression that I tell H everything. It is false. What do you care about the impressions ...
... SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Yes, and they say it is not retaliation. Extraordinary coincidences, I suppose. PURANI: Yes, many such coincidences are possible in this world. SATYENDRA: This is better than wordy warfare. PURANI: The Bengal Government is taking many communal measures. The Hindus should organise. NIRODBARAN: They held a protest day on the 4th. SRI AUROBINDO: Mere protest ...
... Appendix The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquering death. But this legend is, as shown by many features of the human tale, one of the many symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine ...
... charlatans, because many, perhaps most predictions went wrong, but most of all because it was thought that in the nature of things, in any rational theory of the universe the planets simply could not have any influence on our characters, lives and actions. None of these grounds are sufficient. If many astrologers are charlatans, so also Page 596 have there been many quacks in the field... always survived. It is not indeed the habit of educated Indians to profess explicitly their belief in it, they fight shy of that as a rule, but it is largely consulted by numbers of them, as also by many Europeans. This is an anomalous position which ought to be corrected. Either astrology is a true science and should be investigated, proved, improved where defective and generally rehabilitated in opinion... because men are too vitally interested in healing their ailments and preserving their bodies and know no other way of doing it,—that would not have done away with the truth underlying the science. That many predictions go wrong, proves nothing, essentially, against astrology any more than the constant failure of doctors to heal diseases proves anything essential against their science. The first reason ...
... in Shakespeare by the lines and passages in which the word thus seized and brought out is followed swiftly on the heels by another and another of its kind, many crowding together or even fused and run into each other in a single phrase of many suggestions,—for this manner is peculiarly his own and others can only occasionally come near to it. Such passages recur to the mind as those in the soliloquy... of poetic genius and are content with saying that the word of the poet is the speech of the imagination or that he works by an inspiration. But this is an insufficient account; for imagination is of many different kinds and inspiration touches the mind at different levels and breaks out through different media before it issues through the gates of the creative imagination. What we mean by inspiration... is a unique and wonderful thing; it has everywhere the royalty of the sovereign intuitive mind looking into and not merely at life and in this most myriad-minded of poets it takes like life itself many tones, but that intuitive readiness to get through, seize the lurking word and bring it out from the heart of the thing itself is almost always its secret. From that, he might have said, could he have ...
... and does not know why. Then, is it a universal play? No, not very universal; it exists in humanity, it is very human. How many human beings have a thought of their own? I am pretty sure there are none in ordinary humanity with its ordinary mental make-up. How many people have a thought as a result of reflection? Very few, and if they have it, they are considered terribly hard or remarkably ... world, forces exist: do mental forms exist in the mental world? Yes, there is a concrete mental world and there are mental forms which do not resemble vital forces but have their own law. There are many, innumerable mental forms. They are almost indestructible; one can only say that they change forms and relations, it is something very fluid, and moving all the time. "...You can understand only... you from outside is only an occasion for bringing out the knowledge that is within you." Questions and Answers 1929 ( 19 May ) Why are certain subjects so very difficult? That is due to many things—to the formation of the brain, to atavism, to the early years of education, particularly to atavism. But there is a very interesting phenomenon here: each new idea forms a kind of small convolution ...
... according to a pattern and given a permanent shape. It is on the contrary like a wild bush with its innumerable shrubs and trees which have been continuously growing. So many of the dead leaves and branches have been shed, so many flowers have dried up. But new twigs are constantly forming on top and radiating their beauty of green leaves and flowers in bloom. Sorrow and suffering, pain and misery... Every soldier has an equal self-devotion, "energy and steadfastness Page 286 to secure this victory. Nevertheless, all do not survive till the end, many have to give up their lives, and on this immolation of the many is founded the ultimate victory. So, in the evolution of man on earth, the first step is represented by sorrow and suffering, misery and pain; these are the signs and... moving forward every moment, it is assuming constantly an ever-new garb. This story of evolution has been one of the supreme discoveries of modern man in the field of knowledge. It has opened the door to many hidden mysteries, provided a solution to a number of problems. The deepest of all mysteries, the most complex and recondite of all problems of Creation is the origin and prevalence of suffering. ...
... much impersonality and renunciation of egoism as that of Truth or Bliss. Pure Beauty is universal and one must be universal to see and recognise it. O Lord of Beauty, how many faults I have committed against Thee, how many do I still commit.... Give me the perfect understanding of Thy Law so that I may not again fail to keep it. Love would be incomplete without Thee, Thou art one of its most perfect ...
... wrote: Dear Huta, Pourna told me about your effort for the lotus urn. I sent 200 Francs to Nata—as I did not know how to forward it to you. Nata should give them to you "for the Lotus". I asked many questions to Pourna about the Mother, the Yoga, mental silence, etc... I hope she did not mind too much. This is to learn, in the end, that questions are not to carry any more—not even what Mother will... was two year old. Dear Huta, I wish you full success in your endeavour and hope you will have advanced on the way next time we meet. After Samadhi, my first visit shall be for you. A bientôt! Many affectionate regards In Mother's Love and Joy Your sister Yiovne Garry Nata gave the 200 Francs to Shyamsunder for the Lotus project. ...
... on the original manuscript pages in their appropriate places. I often watched him doing it. One day I saw him having some difficulty with the pinning. What had happened was that the sheets were too many and it was not easy to insert the pin in all of them together. Pussh , I heard and saw that the pin had slipped. Pussh , again heard this sound, and again pussh . Then I ran to him am showed me... even when it was very easy. “Champaklal” would call. How sweet it was to hear the name from his mouth boundless delight filled me whenever he called me by name remember I had even kept a record of how many times in a day (and night) he called me by name for one reason or another. It noteworthy because he very rarely called anyone by name. I felt the same ananda when Mother called me by name. C Amrita ...
... will be, "Not all, but many have realised them, in different ages and in different climes. It is open to you and me, also, to have the realisation if we go through the proper procedure." If one wants to see London one has to go to London. You cannot say that there is no London because it is not visible from your room. Have you seen a positron? Have you seen a neutron? How many have seen them? To see ...
... know that someone was imputing most abject motives to some of my actions, without my giving any cause of offence. I am not even familiar with the person. The person is cultured and has been here for so many years. Above all, we find that you love the person, and the person also is so much attached to you. Still পরনিন্দা 89 is so strong in the nature! Do you think people need a "cause" for criticising... deeper in heart. I am still not sure. Can we say that Ramakrishna's mind or Christ's mind was as powerful as that of Buddha? Buddha's mind as a mind was more powerful, but had he as much or as many-sided a spiritual knowledge as Ramakrishna? I leave out Christ, because his spiritual knowledge was from the heart only and intense but limited. Or can we ever imagine that a supramental X... important and all three had that; nevertheless, I think that a powerful mind is an extra asset. In this intellectual age the mind is going to play a big part. Hasn't your great dashing intellect charmed many intellectuals of the age? Which intellectual age? The intellectual age is dead. Intellectuals are becoming less and less important. There is nothing dashing in my intellect. And what effect for ...
... Mother: I saw Tanmaya today. He told me that he no longer has anything to do, that he no longer has any classes because they have taken in too many students, and that it is impossible, it is impossible to continue this way. Then I told him to tell me himself how many children he thinks can be taken in his class. Is he here? Tara: Yes, Mother, he is here. The Mother: We shall see. Tara: Chitra... take them in the Kindergarten, the number will continue to increase here, Mother. The Mother: How many go from the Kindergarten to the school every year? Tara : I am not sure, Mother, but I think that according to the figures it must be twenty or twenty-five. The Mother: And how many leave the school every year? Tara : Kireet told me that it might be about fifty in 1972. The Mother:... and that doesn’t concern us, but here there are not twenty- five children every year. Not so many. It will end quickly, you see. If I say that I am taking only Ashram children, we will soon stop increasing the number. Tara : There are families who are coming to live here . The Mother: Not so many. Two, three, four may be. But I will see. If the decision is taken, I will see that we don’t ...
... and in the force of the Light they work out their lofty aggressions; conquerors, violently they march on their path, self-protecting they guard of themselves the soul against falsehood; for they are many and march without a gap in their brilliant ranks. Violent are they as a herd of rushing bulls; the nights come against them, but they overleap the nights; they possess the earth in our thoughts and... thousand branching paths, sometimes they rush direct at their goal; sometimes their paths are within, sometimes they follow outward Nature's thousand ways; the world-sacrifice fulfils itself by the many names of their godhead and by their ever-widening Page 562 march. Now they make themselves as galloping forces of our life, now they are gods and powers of the soul; at last they put on... godhead, for they have the radiant inspiration of the path. Who has known the place of their birth or who has sat in their high beatitudes? Who desires and seeks his Friend beyond? A Mother bore them many-hued in her soul and of her they tell him; a Violent One was their Father whose impulse drives all beings that are born, and him they reveal. Seven and seven the Thought-gods came to me and seven times ...
... playing with a whip without ever having sat on a horse”. 200 The first to follow Hitler’s example in this was the half-mad pervert Julius Streicher. It looked like a remarkable coincidence that so many of the top Nazis, actors in the great German drama, converged at the same time on the Munich scene. “Men, whose encounter would start a new political and philosophical structure, destined to promote... n completely different from ours, began to converge toward Munich … All principal members of the future high governing strata of the Third Reich happened to be on the same stage.” 201 It has struck many that not even a perceptive person would have been able, at the time of the rise of the movement, to pick them out from among the average members of German society. After all, Hess was an honoured war... the subject of their conversations was: killing, insurrection, imprisonment, murder, robbery!” 203 Both Strasser brothers had belonged to that successful gang. In fact, Gregor was around 1930 seen by many as Hitler’s rival for the leadership of the NSDAP. Otto will write when in exile: “Göring is a brutal egoist who cares nothing for Germany as long as he becomes something. Goebbels is a limping devil ...
... any case, there are many deities who are without sex. In all the stories told of the pantheons of all countries, there is a good deal that has been strongly influenced by human thought. So, this difference is simply a means used by Nature to achieve its aim, that's all, nothing more than that. We must take it like that. It is not an eternal symbol—not at all. Now, there are many people who are very... material creation? I am telling you it has not been like that from the beginning. A zoologist could tell you that there are species which are not like that at all. Nature has tried this method—it tries many things, it has made all possible species, made the two in one, made every possible thing.... It tries like this because probably this appears more practical to it! I don't know. That's all. But on... even then not totally, only partially. But still those who are so fond of this differentiation—let them keep it if they like! If it gives them pleasure.... It has its advantages and disadvantages, many disadvantages. Mother, then why do the forces of the vital world escape this condition? What? You say this differentiation does not exist in the vital world. I don't say it doesn't exist ...
... love; and I am there simply as a symbol and a messenger to guide and unite the efforts. Practically, if we were a little less short of funds, many difficulties would be wiped off. We have to be careful about every expenditure and because of that many useful things are not done. So, if you could find one person or more who might be interested in the enterprise, rather the adventure―for it is... food supplies) have Page 151 not diminished with the end of the war, I am obliged to request the inmates to be extremely careful to avoid all waste of any kind especially of food-stuff. So many people are lacking the most indispensable requirements of life. 1945 or 1946 The Ashram is having financial difficulty, yet people ask for their pound of flesh. As students we used to fast... that effort that I am asking for, a triumph over Tamas and lazy indifference. I do not want anybody to give up but I want everyone to surpass himself. X no longer works for the Ashram; like so many others he lives in the Ashram and works for himself. It is just that that is leading the Ashram to financial ruin. Page 152 X plucks coconuts from our trees. This time when he wanted ...
... students to read the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? Is it to prepare them for the Ashram life or for 'outside' occupations as well? So many opinions are floating in the air, and even the old disciples from whom we expect some knowledge make so many contradictory statements ... ( Laughing, to Pavitra: ) I suppose that's for you! 'that we no longer know what to believe nor on what to base... exactly 'force )... But that one also is ex-traor-dinary!... Yes, there are many things. What is so interesting in it is this insistence on the divinity of man ... If that—this feeling of the inner divinity—could be established in oneself in a constant way (I've seen this for most people I know), so MANY things would... There is no need for any effort at all, things fall away from you like ...
... must know how to go beyond the manifested universe in order to be able to imagine what is not there. And there are many, many such things. First of all, you must know how to get beyond the terrestrial manifestation, in order to be able to imagine a new thing in it. And (or how many millions of years has earth existed! What has been the output of new things there? Countless, for no two things upon... are capable of realising what they imagine. They imagine something and they make such a strong and well-shaped formation that they succeed in materialising it. They are truly creators. There are not many like that, but there surely are a few. Page 36 You can meet a dead person also in your thought if he continues to be in the mental world; you can be in contact with his mind and ...
... of work? Many kinds of work. For example, in our studies, we have many subjects to read. What do you do the whole day, from morning till evening? How much time do you devote to your toilet, to take your bath, to dress? Approximately, not exactly to a minute. About three quarters of an hour. How much time do you take for eating? Fifteen minutes. Every time? How many times per day... in this way, then it becomes very clear." I am going to explain it to you: when you have understood, it forms a little crystal in you, like a little shining point. And when you have put in many, many, many of these, then you will begin to be intelligent. That is the utility of work, not simply to stuff the head with a heap of things that take you nowhere. How is it that in people occupied with... makes you tremble, gives you anxiety. You do not know why, it has no apparent reason. It is their action. When one feels frightened, what should one do? That depends upon who you are. There are many ways of curing oneself of fear. If you have some contact with your psychic being, you must call it immediately and in the psychic light put things back in order. This is the most powerful way. ...
... future dawns of intelligence. Through innumerable cycles how many paths has she had to follow in order to reach at last the cave of the anthropoid, the primitive man? It is before him that will open the royal avenue leading to the palace of spirit. But how many races, how many generations will pass on the earth without discovering it, how many wrong paths will Nature follow in the footsteps of man. For... this momentous, endless, many-sided work, what can be the part of womanhood? It is true that, as soon as great events and works are in question, the custom is to relegate women to a corner with a smile of patronising contempt which means: this is not your business, poor, feeble, futile creatures.... And women, submissive, childlike, lazy perhaps, have accepted, at least in many countries, this deplorable... and bodies. He will be conscious of this Self as the divine creator and doer of all works, one in all existences; for the many souls of the universal manifestation are only faces of the one Divine. He will perceive each being to be the universal Divinity presenting to him many faces; he will merge himself in That and perceive his own mind, Page 167 life and body as only one presentation ...
... her thousand forces. For the Mother is one but she comes before us with differing aspects; many are her powers and personalities, many her emanations and Vibhutis that do her work in the universe. The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest... and Personality of the transcendent Mother. Each is something that she has seen in her vision, gathered into her heart of beauty and power and created in her Ananda. But there are many planes of her creation, many steps of the Divine Shakti. At the summit of this manifestation of which we are a part there are worlds of infinite existence, consciousness, force and bliss over which the Mother stands... The human mind shut in the prison of its half-lit obscurity cannot follow the many-sided freedom of the steps of the Divine Shakti. The rapidity and complexity of her vision and action outrun its stumbling comprehension; the measures of her movement are not its measures. Bewildered by the swift alternation of her many different personalities, her making of rhythms and her breaking of rhythms, her ...
... could see him alone. Generally, I arrange these things in Mona's office at Golconde. I think I will see him there. It is many years since we last met. Perhaps if we met on the road without being introduced to each other I would not know him, and he too would not recognise me. Many years have passed, he was eighteen when I left and in all these years hardly twenty letters have been written. He reads ...
... ) I feel like saying ( smiling ): nothing! Nothing, I see nothing.... There's no longer "something that sees," but I Am, I am a myriad things. I live a myr-i-ad things. There are so, so many—so many—that it's like nothing!... I don't know how to say it. Yes! ( long silence ) The body is becoming aware of the Force passing through, like this ( gesture through the fingers ). Like ...
... distinguish intellectually the many different and complex parts of one's being. This calls for "a very long training and a long discipline of study and observation", 6 to identify the respective sources of one's thoughts, feelings, actions and moods. This means being able to give a "label" to the different parts of our make-up which constitute the many selves of our being. To many people "label" and "labelling"... Our Many Selves Preface Yoga is generally associated with certain set practices such as postures, breathing exercises, meditation and the like. In addition, yoga is understood as consisting in certain rules and norms pertaining to aspects of one's outer life, such as diet, habits and acts of conduct. However, as taught by Sri Aurobindo, yoga consists ... mental understanding and gradually develop a deeper understanding. It is only rare individuals who have a deep self-understanding so as to be able to distinguish the different inner movements of their many selves without having first learnt to label them mentally. As the Mother once said to the children of the Ashram school: "... if nobody has ever taught you what the psychic or the vital is, you ...
... difference anywhere, for all is fundamentally the essential Divine; the difference is in the manifestation. Practically, we may say that the Jivatman is one of the divine Many and dependent on the One; the Atman is the One supporting the Many. The psychic being does not merge in the Jivatman, it becomes united with it so that there is no difference between the central being supporting the manifestation from... different qualities and personal consciousness-forms of her Godhead. All the greater Gods are in this way personalities of the Divine—one Consciousness playing in many personalities, ekaṁ sat bahudhā . Even in the human being there are many personalities and not only one, as used formerly to be imagined; for all consciousness can be at once one and multiple. "Powers and Personalities" simply describe... Supreme Brahman, not the Gods. The Gods are Personalities and Powers of the dynamic Divine. You speak as if the evolution were the sole creation; the creation or manifestation is very vast and contains many planes and worlds that existed before the evolution, all different in character and with different kinds of beings. The fact of being prior to the evolution does not make them undifferentiated. The ...
... memorable or the most important in a life, but the moments when the psychic took part—consciously took part in the occurrence. That's what remains. I could have narrated many such memories, it's very interesting. I had many in Italy. I travelled in Italy with my mother when I was fifteen, and I had lived a past life in Italy which was very conscious. Upon seeing the places, that ( the psychic... But the very interesting part was that thing which told me, "Over there." I went and saw, and found written on the wall precisely what I remembered having myself written. I've had many such memories, a great many, but that one was interesting, so that I know precisely the nature of the things that Page 214 remain, that are part of the development of the psychic being. There was another... so all those vibrations have participated in the formation of all these cells, and now they relive it all. It gives them a possibility of breadth, of diversity, of synthesis and coordination of many, many things. And the sense of having thus lived for a long, long, long time. ( silence ) Before I came to India for the first time, I was twenty-two and knew nothing of spirituality or anything ...
... ever? You have formed like many poets a bad habit of sticking in the mud between inspired jolts. You have to dissolve the habit—as a doctor you must find out a dissolvent which will do it. August 23, 1935 You surprise me by your phrase, "between inspired jolts", for most of the poems have been written by halves, quarters, with some intervals and many attempts in between. That is why... is quite unlike his. What did you mean by "the poet seems to have come out"? [5.6.35] Forceps delivery can't be more difficult. He is out—but with difficulty. A poem of 14 lines taking so many days! Anyway what do you think of it? My brother Monomohan in his early days would have taken 40 and been surprised at his own rash celerity in writing. I like it very well. August 7, 1935... discontentedly in the mud, some are sitting in the mud and dreaming dreams and seeing visions, some have their legs in the mud and their head in the heavens etc., etc., an infinity of combinations, while many are simply nowhere. But console yourself—these things, it seems, are inevitable in the process of great transformations. I send a poem as an offering—the result of the Darshan. By the way very ...
... has descended through many gradations of its workings and passed through many agents. There are many creators or rather 'formateurs', form-makers, who have presided over the creation of the world. They are intermediary agents and I prefer to call them 'Formateurs' and not 'Creators'; for what they have done is to give the form and turn and nature to matter. There have been many, and some have formed... interfered and spoiled what was begun well by others." Questions and Answers 1929-1931 ( 30 June 1929 ) You say, "Many creators or rather 'formateurs', form-makers, have presided over the creation of the world." Who are these 'formateurs'? That depends. They have been given many names. All has been done by gradations and through individual beings of all kinds. Each state of being is inhabited... not the Divine Will that acted directly on Matter to give to the world the required form, it is by passing through layers, so to say, planes of the world, as for example, the mental plane—there are so many beings on the mental plane who are form-makers, who have taken part in the formation of some beings who have incarnated upon earth. On the vital plane also the same thing happens. For example, there ...
... There are psychological reasons for this, but I don't want to speak about them here. There, then! Sweet Mother, here it is said: "All men are feminine in Page 153 many respects and all women are masculine in many traits, especially in modern societies." Yes, there is no pure type. Then why is there a complex still? Because they don't know themselves. They don't know themselves... world or in... It is in the vital world. (Pavitra) Mother, in the mind also, there are beings of the mind... There are beings of the mental world which are also sexless, not all, but many. There are many of them. There are some of these mental formations which are persistent, you see, which are very well made, very well harmonised, persistent, some kind of mental constructions, mental formations... Naturally, not by prohibition, because wherever that has been tried, it has never succeeded. But they succeeded. It is there. Now it is there. It took more than half a century to spread. Now there are many countries in which women are in the Government. ( To Pavitra ) Are there any in France? Are there women members of Parliament? (Pavitra) Yes. There are? (Pavitra) Yes. Ministers. There ...
... work: to organise your cerebral capacity... I am going to explain it to you: when you have understood, it forms a little crystal in you, like a little shining point. And when you have put in many, many, many of these, then you will begin to be intelligent. That is the utility of work, not simply to stuff the head with a heap of things that take you nowhere. * Essentially, from the general point... The Sunlit Path Developing the Mind and Senses Do Many Different Things Sweet Mother, at school it is not possible to take many subjects. We have to specialize. Yes, yes! I have heard that, especially from your teachers. I don't agree. And I know it very well, this is being continuously repeated to me: if anything is to be done properly, one must specialize... great grandparents heard the same thing, and from all time it has been preached that if you want to succeed in something you must do only that. And as for me, I was scolded all the time because I did many different things! And I was always told I would never be good at anything. I studied, I did painting, I did music, and besides was busy with other things still. And I was told my music wouldn't be up ...
... the danger of overshadowing the universal truths upon which we seek to build human society. Now, it is not that we are unconscious or oblivious of the many evils attendant upon the system of preaching a man – the history of the rise and decay of many sects and societies is there to give us sufficient warning; and yet if we cannot entirely give the go-by to personalities and stick to mere and bare principles... necessary, as a corrective, but it belongs only to a temporary stage. Since, however, we are after a universal iqeal, we must also have an integral method. We shall have to curb many of our susceptibilities, diminish many of our apprehensions and soberly strike a balance between opposite extremes. Page 47 We do not speak like politicians or banias; but the very truth of the... show? Granting that principles require personalities for their fructuation and vital functioning, what remains to be envisaged is not one personality but a plural personality, the people at large, as many individuals of the human race as can be consciously imbued with those principles. When principles are made part and parcel of, are concentrated in a single solitary personality, they get "cribbed and ...
... Bharati was married at the age of fifteen to Chellamai, a beautiful girl of seven. She was a source of inspiration for Bharati later in life and he sings many songs which express the heights of his advaitic experience. Many years of Bharati's life were spent in the field of journalism. He began his career as a journalist, as sub-editor in ' Swadeshmitran ' in November 1904. During... He composed and sang a poem praising Bengal and published it in the Swadeshmitran in September 1905. Bharati was a great admirer of Sister Nivedita. His meeting with her brought about many changes in his personality; he was greatly attracted by her rare vigour, love and strength. Above all he was deeply touched by her intense patriotism. Bharati soon had a vision of Mother India or Bharata... keenest interest. Sri Aurobindo would take up a hymn from the Rigveda, read it aloud once, explain the meaning of every line and phrase and finally give a full translation. I used to take notes. There are many words in the Rigveda whose derivation is doubtful and open to differences of opinion. In such cases, Sri Aurobindo used to say that the particular meaning he gave was only provisional and that the matter ...
... was going from place to place, observing all and speaking to people. Among the people, curiously, some I seemed to recognise, some of those even who are here now; there were also many strangers from other countries, a good many of them. Regarding those who are here now and who I seemed to recognise there, the impression is rather vague and I cannot name them. But some of those who were here and have passed... free, when you are happy, when you are noble in spirit, you come in contact with that inner ashram, you breathe that atmosphere. In dreams also, while asleep, apparently asleep, many of you must have seen the Mother, many must have had Sri Aurobindo's darshan. That is because you came in contact with that inner atmosphere and entered into it. Now our task is to come more and more in contact... in fact the inner reality of our ashram here, the inner ashram which is within us all; what we see at present is the outer form, the material form, which is a good deal deformed and even falsified in many ways. Indeed, that inner ashram had an other-worldly atmosphere of its own, an atmosphere of rarefied heights. I have told you very often that those who are here are fortunate; they breathe this atmosphere ...
... written. 4 March 1960 The Author PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION There are many ways of presenting a biography. Due to many external and internal causes this form has been chosen. It is gratifying to note that many people have liked the form and the book has served as a sourcebook. In this edition necessary additions have been made. 7... my own disciples in cold print." How could one probe into such an inner life — infinitely rich not only in its human content of intellectual, emotional and volitional movements, but filled with many varied spiritual experiences which transcend the human consciousness? The move ment of ascent of consciousness from Mind to Supermind, from the human to the Divine, is accompanied in his case by a... Government that spoiled my game by prosecuting me and forcing me to be publicly known as a "leader". October 1934 * Q: What is the truth behind personality? Sri Aurobindo: There are many personalities in man. But the true person is also there; it is the Eternal thrown out in time as the Cosmic and the individual for a particular purpose, use or work. This true person is all the time ...
... for his selfless pity, and his soulful benevolence. "When death overtook him, in the very prime of life, there was desolation in many a poor home in his district. It not only left his own children in absolute poverty, but destroyed the source of ready relief to many helpless families among his relations and neighbours. His quick intellectual perceptions, his large sympathies, his selflessness . ... early Bengalis had gone even farther a field, as Swami Vivekananda observed on 11 March 1898, after his visit to the Far East. "You may easily imagine my astonishment when I saw written on the walls of many Chinese and Japanese temples some very familiar Sanskrit mantras . . . they were all Page 99 written in old Bengali script." Krishna Dhan refused. Honest to the core, he did not... unjust demands of society. Rajnarain Bose sorrowed at the change in his 'son belov'd.' "Although I am pained," he writes, "still I pray to God that he remains in happiness wherever he may be. He has many exceptional qualities: he is a gentleman, he is amiable and benevolent, and he has not lost these qualities by his sojourn in England. His heart is extremely sweet. And that sweetness is reflected on ...
... One idea may give birth to many thoughts, and can be expressed in many different ways; and yet it remains what it is. Sometimes we look fixedly at a point; one forgets everything at that moment and if there is a noise one is disturbed. What is this state? Concentration! It is exactly the very principle of concentration. Can you do it spontaneously? Yes, many times. Indeed, that's very... a faculty and have a direct experience somewhere in the higher mind or the psychic being or in some other part of the being. There are many reasons for this: it may be the result of former lives, it may be a phenomenon of consciousness of this life, it could be many things. In any case, for it to be fully useful, it should be done with the will to use it for one's progress and become conscious of the... reacted very fast. He had taken poison by mistake: instead of taking one dose of a certain medicine, he had taken twelve and it was a poison; he should have died, the heart should have stopped (it was many years ago) and he is still quite alive! He reacted in the right way. Page 404 If these things were narrated they would be called miracles. They are not miracles: it is an awakened consciousness ...
... Opposed to the fear-infested, delusion-darkened hotchpotch that is the masses' spurious Hinduism, there is the splendid many-sided unity of the genuine one, a grand harmony of a thousand truths. Its fundamental tenet is the old Rig-Vedic formula: "The One whom the sages call by many names." Unity and multiplicity, simplicity and complexity, the supra-cosmic and the cosmic, the universal and the individual... combines the three Yogas in a synthesis. What is more, it throws Page 78 the synthesis open to all without distinction. To realise the One everywhere and see the One in the Many as well as the Many in the One is the goal of the Hindu mystic, the climax of the Hindu religious experience. And Sri Krishna in the Gita declares that even a Chandala, a scavenger, can become a knower of God... sparks are all evolving souls. To be ready to forego this spirituality just because the social structure within which it first flourished and still nourishes has become decadent in many respects and is resistant in many ways to the influence of spirituality - to value more the abolition of untouchability than the existence of the God-knowers and God-lovers who open up for man the possibilities of a ...
... there is Page 171 hardly any feeling of liberation—there is something which is amused again and says: "Oh, again! How many times one limits oneself...." How many times you think that you are advancing, continuously, smoothly, uninterruptedly, and yet how many times you set a little limit in front of yourself. It is not a big limit, for it is a very small thing in an immense whole, but it... ) and it is... there is nothing left but the Lord, everything is That—but so absolutely that everything which is not That disappears! But at the moment the proportion is such ( laughing ), that too many things would have to disappear! I have understood that. 17 and 24 August 1963 ...
... the episode. Time went by as it has to. Some more Ashramites, some old and many new, were sent to work under Louis. It was hard to please Louis. A stream of workers or helpers tried and failed. Kittu had a short stint with me — Batti — as an “Also Ran” along with him. I did not quit at the time and lay dormant for many a year then rejoined in 2002 as an “Overall Helper” to all the other farms of... trees — nearly 3000 of them! Once a week or so Louis came to the Play Ground for an interview with the Mother. Again needlessly we wondered: was he a prodigal or a prodigy? One evening, after many years of Louis working in Lake Estate, news reached the Mother, thence us, that there was a strike by the paid workers at Lake. Louis was there to protect the property and oppose them if necessary.... would be 1903. Assuming he started working at Lake in the late 50’s (after or just before the S. Pool was inaugurated in 1957) he served the Mother at least i.e. 32 years 1956 to 1988 — not too long as many here would aver, but solidity and intensity of his service, much of it physical and of a practical nature, would be hard to match. Another Great entry into the ranks of Among the Not So Great’s. ...
... You are the only person in the world to whom I have written so many letters. Then there are her talks. She saw my reports of these conversations and made corrections wherever necessary. She spoke mainly about spirituality and art, but also touched on various other subjects relating to many spheres of life. There are facsimiles of many of her letters, comments and messages to me. A few of these... development of the consciousness. Each of the Mother's letters and talks revealed numberless unknown things in a new light. I enjoyed this work thoroughly. On 31st October 1969 I showed the Mother the many notebooks containing the first rough handwritten draft of The Story, which I had completed. She asked me to read something from them. I wondered how to select a passage there were more than fifty ...
... over a year and learned this system thoroughly. Many Japanese have been influenced by Dalcroze — the composer Koscak Yamada; the originator of modern dance in Japan, Baku Ishii; the Kabuki actor Ichikawa Sadanji II; the modern drama pioneer Kaoru Osannai; the dancer Michio Ito. All of these people felt that Dalcroze's teachings were fundamental to many of the arts. But Sosaku Kobayashi was the first... Dalcroze's Eurhythmics came to be adopted at Tomoe. Before starting Tomoe Gakuen, the headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi, went to Europe to see how children were being educated abroad. He visited a great many elementary schools and talked to educators. In Paris, he met Dalcroze, a fine composer as well as an educator. Dalcroze had spent a long time wondering how children could be taught to hear and... inspiration. It was the poet Basho who wrote: Listen! a frog Jumping into the silence Of an ancient pond! Yet the phenomenon of a frog jumping into a pond must have been seen by many others. Down through the ages and in the whole world, Watt and Newton cannot have been the only ones to notice the steam from a boiling kettle or observe an apple fall. Having eyes, but not seeing ...
... Aurobindo : I don't believe it. In many cases I have seen that Congress people are not noted for their truthfulness. They say what suits them. But if they propose to come out of the Assembly because of failure in Rajkot or Jaipur, it is not at all good. These small states must be deprived of their power and be made like Jamindars. One never knew that there were so many states. Disciple : Jaipur... do not seem to have settled on any programme. Today's paper says that Gandhiji has wired to Subhas not to stand for the presidentship. But he does not seem to have paid any heed to it. It may be that many delegates may vote against him. Sri Aurobindo : The only thing he speaks of is challenging the British Government and attacking the States – rather a tall order. Disciple : Yes, Gandhiji... and Mrs. Hymans wrote for the mass – "He stood on the burning deck, when all but he had fled" – That sort of thing. Tupper sold more in his life than all the best poets put together. It is curious, many of the modern poets are communists, but they don't write for the mass. Page 216 ...
... they do? Disciple : Medical relief, famine relief. Sri Aurobindo : Famine relief is not all the year round. Medical relief is something. Disciple : Education also. Now a days in many places of spiritual work they feed the poor – it is done as the Seva – Service to, Daridra Narayana – the poor as Narayana. Sri Aurobindo : I see no idea in that. What is the use of feeding... have done something for the poor, I suppose. If you could find out the cause of poverty and try to remove that, that it would be some real work. Disciple : But that is not easy. There are so many difficulties, political, economic etc. Sri Aurobindo : I don't think it is so insoluble as all that. If you give the people education – by education I mean proper education – not the modern... has not this kind of poverty as we have in India. That is because of their education – they are not so helpless. Disciple : Some thousands were fed on the birthday of a holy man. There were so many people on this occasion that they were not allowed to touch him. Sri Aurobindo : If they were allowed to touch him, he will feel like the President of America who had to shake hands with thousands ...
... individual who was lying in the cloth. That individual, although appearing inert, gave the impression of being full of consciousness. He made many men lie down similarly and tied all of them in a bundle. It is surprising how he could tie in the same cloth so many people. Then he put the bundle on his shoulder and walked away. Even afterwards, snow-white light was seen at that place. Hence, the next scene ...
... Part I — Recollections and Diary Notes Champaklal Speaks Why so many Clips? It was long ago. I used to wash dhoti everyday and dry it myself. Once it so happened that I needed clips to hold the dhoti on the cloth line. I asked for some from Prosperity. Purushottam was then in charge of Prosperity. Every evening he would present all requisition chits from... the Prosperity room (in Library House) just before we all gathered there for 'games'. 1 That day Purushottam had presented my chits to Mother. When I went in, Mother asked, “Why do you want so many clips?” I said: “You can come and see the size of my cloth!” I spoke with a touch of vehemence. She kept quiet: she did not say anything. The next day she started telling me, very sweetly: “ ...
... be that the true spirit of his philosophy and mystic poetry will be unintelligible to all except the initiates, but there is scope for all for a clear intellectual comprehension. His approaches are many sided and suited to different tastes and capacities of understanding. There is the intellectual, the emotional and the imaginative approach. He teaches as much through the abstract as through the concrete... One must have the divine's command and the divine commission to do the divine's work, then only his voice will carry the needed weight. In the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago there were many representatives of the different religions of the world Page 80 but who has heard of their names and what about their learned papers read out so eloquently at the time? Only Vivekananda... had the divine commission and was an orator by divine right while the others were not. In India, during the last seventy-five years or so, we have had a number of commentaries on the Gita written by many eminent men in different fields of life but without any or much spiritual background. The result is all these commentaries have disappeared leaving to posterity only the work of Sri Aurobindo and it ...
... Hindu, Muslim, Christian and others, spiritual institutions on such organised scale are not many. For, at the head of a spiritual institution there must be a self-realised man, the Guru or the Teacher who is very rare and difficult to find. A Ramakrishna-Vivekananda or a Sri Aurobindo appears once in many centuries to lead the benighted humanity to the path of Dharma or righteousness—though we are... And Yoga - Some Aspects Religion And Spirituality It is trite to observe that the religion and spirituality are not one and the same though in the minds of many of the present and the utterance of the past generation of spiritual teachers and thinkers they are or were identical. The distinction between these two has been clearly brought out by Sri Aurobindo ...
... particular individual is very complex in its character. For just as in the case of Page 27 physical light there are many different "colours", visible or invisible, in the visible spectrum or beyond, so in the case of consciousness there are many levels and ranges accessible to man, extending from the "blind" Inconscient up to the heights of the supreme Superconscient. And what is... physical seeing, a subtle physical seeing, an ordinary vital seeing, an inner subliminal vital seeing, a common mental seeing, an inner mental seeing, a psychic seeing, a spiritual mental seeing with many variations in it, an overmental seeing and so on and so forth. And when we pass on to the Higher Hemisphere of Supermind and the trinity of Sachchidananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss), we first develop ...
... existence is not the only reality, there are many other planes superimposed one upon another, each having its own special consciousness and power, its own laws of being and action. Obviously we all know apart from the material or physical being there is the vital being, the life-force and there is the mental being, the mind-force. And there are many other levels like these. A miracle happens,... Yogis who do miracles possess this vital power, they have acquired it through a regular discipline and training. Spirit-calling, table-turning, even curing diseases and ailments in a moment and many other activities of the kind are manifestations of very elementary energies of life. From the occult point of view these are very crude and rudimentary examples of what a different kind of force can ...
... and undefiled Ananda? On the other hand, we do find that suffering is not always mere suffering, that it can be turned into a thing of joy; it is a fact proved in the lives of many a martyr and many a saint. Many indeed are those who have not only borne suffering passively but have welcomed it and courted it with happiness and delight. If it is said it is a perverse kind of pleasure, and if one ...
... pure and undefiled Ananda? On the other hand, we do find that suffering is not always mere suffering, that it can be turned into a thing of joy; it is a fact proved in the lives of many a martyr and many a saint. Many indeed are those who have not only borne suffering passively but have welcomed it and courted it with happiness and delight. If it is said it is a perverse kind of pleasure, and if one ...
... thus give an aspect of contrariness and contradictoriness. So if you wish to take a total view of the movement of universal progress, you will be somewhat puzzled. There are so many lines that advance and there are so many which recede at the same time. Some come into the light, others go into the background and none independent or self-sufficient. There is a sort of intermingling, even coordination... from different starting-points. And they move not straight as the crow flies, but in a circle like the soaring eagle. When you concentrate upon one point of the circle, you will see relatively to it many others not advancing at all but receding and the point itself will seem at times to be going back towards a position already left behind. One goes back to pick up certain elements that have not been ...
... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Asceticism and Self-Mastery Mother, for self-mastery are not the ascetic methods useful sometimes? No! You cure nothing. You only give yourself the illusion that you have progressed, but you cure nothing. The proof is that if you stop your ascetic methods, the thing is even stronger than before; it comes... and the vanity can get puffed up, it becomes very easy. One makes a great demonstration of his ascetic virtues, and so considers himself an extremely important personage, and that helps him to endure many things. It is much more difficult to master one’s impulses quietly, composedly, and to prevent them from showing themselves—much more!—without taking ascetic measures. It is much more difficult not ...
... ('Savitri' in Sri Aurobindo's handwriting) Page 33 Page 34 Savitri — "The Truth of Tomorrow" The Mother spoke many a time on Savitri, its importance and its profound help on the path of integral yoga. She said it could have a direct impact on the soul. The Mother has explained in detail how Savitri can... meditation on Savitri. She has revealed how by the help of Savitri one can kindle the psychic flame, the flame of aspiration — in fact how one could orient oneself towards the Goal. She said that many sublime steps could be realised on the spiritual path in order to seek and unite with the Divine, by the help of Savitri. She emphasised: Savitri is self-revelatory. No one can explain the ...
... during such seizures. Here also attacks come occasionally and he questions himself, "What is the use of writing after all?" And this hampers his work, he says. SRI AUROBINDO: These moods come to many people. They are a kind of Tamas (inertia) which should not be indulged in. NIRODBARAN: Nishikanto says that it would be useful not to write if he could meditate or think of the Divine instead. This... teacher found that you were progressing with extreme rapidity and there was no need of a teacher any more. SRI AUROBINDO: I don't remember having any teacher in Sanskrit. I think I learnt it by myself. Many languages, in fact, I learnt by myself—German and Italian, for instance. For Bengali, however, I had a teacher. CHAMPAKLAL: Did you learn Gujarati in Pondicherry? SRI AUROBINDO: No. I picked it ...
... case the effect produced depends naturally on the receptivity of the person. Supposing the person is receptive; the force of consciousness is put upon the affected part and its pressure restores order. Many of you here can tell how Sri Aurobindo cured them. It was like a hand which came and took away the pain. It is as clear as that. In other cases, if the body lacks receptivity altogether or if its... in order to be able to receive what is helpful, what should be received, you must, after having relaxed this contraction, begin trying to widen yourself—you feel you are widening yourself. There are many methods. Some find it very useful to imagine they are floating on water with a plank under their back. Then they widen themselves, widen, until they become the vast liquid mass. Others make an effort... upon the contraction. One can act through thought, by calling the peace, tranquillity (the feeling of peace takes away much of the difficulty) like this: "Peace, peace, peace... tranquillity... calm." Many discomforts, even physical, like all these contractions of the solar plexus, which are so unpleasant and give you at times nausea, the sensation of being suffocated, of not being able to breathe again ...
... there are many disputes among the teachers. Disputes! Not too many, I hope! Discussions. (Laughter) How do I want it? I can tell you things in general, you see, but the details of the organisation... What is your problem? So far what you have said about the University 2 consists of general ideas, but what about the details? Yes... Page 355 There are many differences... there are many reasons.... If you have a career and your career depends on the good opinion others have of you, then that's a utilitarian reason. If you have a little, or much, vanity and like compliments, that's another reason. If you attach great value to others' opinion of you because you feel they are wiser or more enlightened or have more knowledge, that's yet another reason. There are many others... in this matter he was incapable of controlling those around him. He could only awaken similar vibrations in them, and so probably justify their weakness as regards this. He could say to them in so many words "Above Page 352 all, don't fly into a temper", but that is no use at all. It is the eternal "Do what I say, not what I do." But that has no effect. ( Silence ) Mother, the problem ...
... obstacle of which the ancient Rishis saw the far-off promise. The dark path is there and there are many who make like the Christians a gospel of spiritual suffering; many hold it to be the unavoidable price of victory. It may be so under certain circumstances, as it has been in so many lives, at least at the beginning or one may choose to make it so. But then the price has to be paid with... finders of the Way had to face these things in order to conquer. No difficulty that can come on the sadhak but has faced us on the path; against many we have had to struggle hundreds of times (in fact that is an understatement) before we could overcome; many still remain protesting that they have a right until the perfect perfection is there. But we have never consented to admit their inevitable necessity... ” On his way back Narada came first to the Yogi. “I have asked Vishnu; Page 33 you will realise Him after six more lives.” The Yogi raised a cry of loud lamentation, “What, so many austerities! Such gigantic endeavours! And my reward is realisation after six long lives! O how hard to me is the Lord Vishnu.” Next Narada met again the Bhakta and said to him, “I have no good news ...
... Nolini Kanta Gupta's Collected Works in English (1970) is a veritable treasure of seminal ideas, insights, and flashes of intuitive perception that illumine like flares in the nightly sky many a recondite terrain of intellectual discourse. In his writings we come across a sweep and a depth of thinking which has a freshness and wholesomeness unusual to the mental stratosphere. At the same... it (in his "Nolini Kanta Gupta's Perceptions of Poetry" in Tributes to Nolini Kanta Gupta, Sri Mira Trust, Pondicherry, 1988): "There is a catholicity of outlook, a way of seeing God's world in its many moods of joy, an intimacy, even an identity, with the hidden divinity in the grain and in the star, an appreciation leaping over all conventionality, of the bright as well as the obscure, but it is... Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo took this opportunity to look once more at the text and add lines or change lines or punctuation marks. Again, when Nolinida started editing the Advent, he brought out many cantos of Savitri for the first time in this journal. During the period 1946-51, parts of Savitri came out in the Pathmandir Annuals under the advice or guidance of Nolinida. He also translated ...
... placed me among those who had been accused along with me…. I found myself among these young men and in many of them I discovered a mighty courage, a power of self-effacement in comparison with which I was simply nothing. I saw one or two who were not only superior to me in force and character, very many were that — but in the promise of that intellectual ability on which I prided myself. He said to me... Because of the fault of inferior heredity and an āsuric education many black sheep have also taken birth; and those who have been ordained to inaugurate the new age are unable to manifest their inherent force and strength. Among the youth is a marvellous sign of manifesting the age of gold, a religious bent of mind and in the hearts of many, a longing for yoga and half-expressed yogic powers. ... children of Mother India were born in an irreligious atmosphere or one of religious decline and receiving an education in keeping with that, they had grown short-lived, small, selfish and narrow in spirit. Many powerful great souls were born among these people and it is they who have saved the race in its hour of great peril. But without doing work commensurate with their energy and genius, they have only ...
... guidance they had learned to depend exclusively in all the details of their lives. She was there, who had been leading their spiritual unfoldment from stage to stage, across many a path and by-path, over many a gulf and chasm, many a quagmire and precipice, toward the perfection that had attracted them to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Their contact with Sri Aurobindo had always been through her... Aurobindo. What is particularly remarkable in Page 383 herself in the background and shunned the lime-light, became now the cynosure of countless eyes and the hope and refuge of many wandering souls. Many who came to see the Ashram came again, and again, to see more, and more; for they felt that here there were more things below than on the surface; and some even came, decided to stay and... transcend the normal levels of human consciousness and ascend to the radiant heights of the Spirit. Concentration came easier and the need for total self- consecration became more imperious than ever. Many felt an urge, never felt in the same way before, to ferret out all that was unholy and unlovely in them, all that opposed their self- transcendence, and fling them away for ever, so that the influence ...
... guidance they had learned to depend exclusively in all the details of their lives. She was there, who had been leading their spiritual unfold-ment from stage to stage, across many a path and bye-path, over many a gulf and chasm, many a quagmire and precipice, towards the perfection that had attracted them to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Their contact with Sri Aurobindo had always been through... Prayers were written by the Mother in 1914, Page 68 in the background and shunned the lime-light, became now the cynosure of countless eyes and the hope and refuge of many wandering souls. Many who came to see the Ashram came again, and again, to see more, and more; for they felt that here there were more things below than on the surface; and some even came, decided to stay and... transcend the normal levels of human consciousness and ascend to the radiant heights of the Spirit. Concentration came easier and the need for total self-consecration became more imperious than ever. Many felt an urge, never felt in the same way before, to ferret out all that was unholy and unlovely in them, all that opposed their self-transcendence, and fling them away for ever, so that the influence ...
... even here the difference is superficial. It is a fact that Yogic experience runs everywhere on the same lines. Certainly, there are, not one line, but many; for, admittedly, we are dealing with a many-sided Infinite to which there are and must be many ways of approach; but yet the broad lines are the same everywhere and the intuitions, experiences, phenomena are the same in ages and countries far apart... future—though that is possible, but it does look as if they indicate it—or rather some certitudes and many potentialities of the future. Even the astrologers admit that there is another element of determination in man himself which limits the field of astrological prediction and may even alter many of its ascertained results. There is a very tangled and difficult complex of forces making up any det... which is independent of Time so that it can be felt in the moment—one has not to think of millions and millions of years in order to realise it. So too the rigid distinction of One against Many, a One that cannot be many or of an All that is made up by addition and not self existent are crude mental notions of the outer finite mind that cannot be applied to the Infinite. If the All were of this material ...
... duties. Can a sadhak allow this? Can he say to himself: “The Divine has many ways of giving”? What is to be done if a person begins to quarrel because one has accepted a gift in one case and refused in another? What is to be done to avoid such bitterness around one, provoked by repeated refusals? “The Divine has many ways of giving.” This is the correct thing. One never has any obligation ...
... The Gods in their wisdom wanted India to remain one and undivided. Further, there is an Indianness and an Indian ethos, which has been brought by the communion and intercourse between the many races and the many communities that have lived in this land for centuries. There is a heritage, which has devolved on us from our Aryan forefathers. There is an Indian tradition, which overrides all the minor ...
... “Darwinism was built bit by bit between 1859 and 1910, integrating into the original Darwinian theory various elements which were not part of it, and eliminating at least as many. The whole process came about with many difficulties and controversies, for the theses which were to be adjusted were sometimes antagonistic. … This constant crisis was in a way normal, for Darwinism has never been able... survive and breed in their environment was an experiential fact which many have called a tautology: the fittest are most fit. Darwin – and he was well aware of the fact – had put together a superficial explanation without an inner justification or substance, and therefore in point of fact hollow. In other words, Darwin had solved the many questions cropping up in his explorations during the Beagle voyage... inspired authors. Then there was orthogenesis, which held that evolution was the work of an inner driving force. And Lamarckism and neo-Lamarckism were intertwined or confused with natural selection in many minds. This is understandable if one considers that the environment plays a dominant role in both theories. Each time the environment has come into play, Lamarckism has raised its head, favoured by ...
... general idea, for its movements to be conscious instead of being absolutely unconscious, how many years! For a civilisation, how many years would be necessary simply to get back all that is lost? There have been many civilisations on the earth, there are scientists trying to rediscover what has been, but nobody can say with certitude exactly what was there: the major part of these civilisations is... Nature, which has succeeded in understanding laws of an altogether unique order and has accumulated so many experiences of all kinds to reach self-understanding and self-expression, if all this disappeared, it would be necessary, naturally, to begin all over again. And then, for a new-born child, how many years of slow and insipid education are needed for its brain to be ready to express even a simple general... If five or ten thousand years are still needed to make this platform, this proves that it is not now that things will be done—they will be done, that is well understood, they will be done, but... How many lives have you all had? What do you remember of your past lives? What is the good of all the efforts you have made in your past lives to perfect yourselves, to try to understand yourselves, to master ...
... endeavour to establish that Kingdom on earth must bring with it a luminous gaiety. Of Sri Aurobindo's own humour Roy gives many an invaluable instance. And without those examples he could not have made complete the picture that is the main object of this book about the many-sided interplay of the human and the divine. For the humour, besides being an element of a truth-revealing sunshine of the spirit... in whose Ashram at Pondicherry I had been for nearly a year when Dilip Kumar Roy came there, "burning his boats" behind him but bringing with him the flame which had lit that bonfire — his colourful, many-shaded, complicated, questioning, impetuous, expansive and at the same time dreamily idealistic and Krishna-haunted personality. We had several things in common. There was the intense love of ... the habit of considering cheerfulness unphilosophical, I was more reserved and reticent and my circle of intimates was somewhat small. But in this circle Roy took a prominent place from the beginning. Many and happy have been the hours we have spent together — the differences in our temperaments, no less than our affinities, have attracted us to each other. And it is both the differences and the affinities ...
... belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness. I think many aspire only on the mental plane in the beginning. How can I bring down this aspiration into the heart, so that it may have an effect more easily and quickly? By concentrating on the heart while aspiring. There are so many things to aspire for. How is a man to choose one from another? How can he... a clouded state? If one cannot do without straining. But it is not so effective as the true spiritual will in which there is no straining. When I sit down to meditation many thoughts seem to attack me. If I go about and work or simply walk, I feel a little more conscious than in the meditation. Then it is better not to meditate; probably you become too passive... consciousness"? The consciousness that is aware of the Divine and the Truth and does not look at things from the ego — it is wide and calm and strong and aspires to union and surrender—it is many things besides, but this is is the essential. What is "surrender"? How is one to offer a total and sincere surrender? By becoming conscious of the Divine, offering everything ...
... Baroda the council ceased to exist as it was impossible to keep up agreement among the many groups." Although Sri Aurobindo's attempt at a close organization of the whole movement did not succeed, "the movement itself did not suffer by that," he wrote, "for the general idea was taken up and activity of many separate groups led to a 1. According to a Secret Police report, "In more than... physical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organised movement. As soon as the idea was sown it attained a rapid prosperity." The few young men with revolutionary aim in no time became many. At Calcutta Jatin set up his residence at 108C, Upper Circular Road. It became a training ground and the Society's study centre. P. Mitter, Surendranath Tagore, A. Rasul, S. G. Deuskar, Debabrata Bose... brothers were members? Both Jyotirindranath and Rabindranath wrote rousing patriotic songs, a testimony to their continued sympathetic adherence to the Swadeshi Movement. Rabi Babu personally took part in many meetings that were held then. Their niece, Sarala Ghosal (or, Sarala Devi Page 312 Choudhurani —1872-1945) was an exceptionally gifted woman. A polyglot, she knew English (gold medallist ...
... the poverty problem is there; we leave the solution to the future and forget that by the time the solution comes, the masses will have sunk into a condition of decay from which it will take the nation many decades to recover. We have been accustomed to deal only with the economical side of this poverty, but there is a moral side which is even more important. The Indian peasantry have always been distinguished... means of livelihood. We have heard of villages where the liquor shop and the prostitute, institutions unknown twenty-five years ago, have now the mastery of the Page 985 poorest villagers. Many of the villages in West Bengal are now well supplied with these essentials of Western civilization. The people ground down between the upper millstone of the indigo planter and the nether millstone... pointing us from the beginning of the present year by the success of the Ardhodaya Yog organization, by the call to the village which was the dominant note of the Pabna Conference, by signs and omens of many kinds which those who keep their eyes open will easily understand. We have now Samitis for spreading Swadeshi, Samitis for physical culture and self-defence, Samitis for the organization of meetings ...
... habitually towards the sun or psychic predisposition (e.g. a faith in one's spiritual destiny) or if he has acquired the psychic turn. That does not mean that the sunlit man has no difficulties; he may have many, but he regards them cheerfully as "all in the day's work". If he gets bad beatings, he is capable of saying, "Well, that was a queer go, but the Divine is evidently in a queer mood and if that is his... say, difficult to do completely. That is why we do not insist on total surrender at once, but are satisfied with a little to begin with, the rest to grow as it can. I have explained to you why so many people (not by any means all) are in this gloomy condition, dull and despondent. It is the tamas, the inertia of the Inconscient, that has got hold of them. But also it is the small physical vital which... (mind, higher vital etc.), there was plenty of vigour and verve and interest in the details of the Asram work and life as well as in an inner life; the physical vital was carried in the stream. But for many this has dropped; they live in the unsatisfied vital physical and find everything desperately dull, gloomy and without interest or issue. In their inner life the tamas from the Inconscient has created ...
... would not be troubled by them and would refuse to regard them as part of itself—this liberation too can only come here by sadhana." May 24, 1937 Sri Aurobindo That's marvelous! There are so many people to whom that could be said. "This kind of condition which is between two things one of which is being left but will not let go its hold and the other is Page 163 almost or... can be overcome and the cup emptied for filling with the Divine Light." January 15, 1937 Sri Aurobindo "As for sadhana, it is not that you have no capacity, but what has happened to many has happened to you—the physical consciousness has risen up and veiled the psychic which was about to come forward. It has risen up with the insistence on the value of its own small ignorant ideas and... a permanent condition and if one sees clearly and rejects them consciously, then it can be got over quickly—but even if it lasts a long period, it can in the end be overcome and that is happening to many now. Naturally, the physical consciousness persuades the mind that it is everlasting and cannot be got over; but that is not true." May 21, 1937 Sri Aurobindo That's good! It seems just the ...
... ill I was at their side. In the evening I was the last to go to bed, in the morning I was the first to get up. 1 The dampness of the convent caused many children to fall sick and Pestalozzi was blamed for it by their parents. It took many months to manifest, but finally Pestalozzi won the confidence of most of the children. "They felt that through me they were getting further than other children;... imagine that it was some entirely new magic formula. Yet on examination many of the theories seemed to have been advocated before, and the men who were attempting to put them into practice seemed anything but magicians. And so, not finding what they had expected, critics blamed Pestalozzi for their own misconceptions, pointing out that many of his ideas were not original, and deeming this a fault. In fact... instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic and religion. The boys were given simple agricultural jobs and weaving to do, the girls were set to spinning, gardening and cooking; initially there were many difficulties and little response from children and parents, but after some time the situation improved, and the children became more cheerful and healthy. It is an indescribable joy to see boys ...
... garden with roses, many zinnias, gallardias, sunflowers and even violets. I did not see any wallflowers. We have verbena, but without fragrance, jasmine bushes and lovely creepers, like bougainvilleas in different colours and flowers I have not seen in Europe; I shall describe them when I know their names. Here we know them by names given to them by Mother. As for the fruits there are many bananas, lemons ...
... within. SRI AUROBINDO: He seems to have many minds. He wrote to us that he didn't want to be in any organisation. By going out he found himself disorganised, probably. Another time he wrote he wanted to see the influence of other Yogis. Purani brought in Roosevelt in some connection. SRI AUROBINDO: It seems this Wilkie is almost certain to be elected. Many Democrats are supporting him. All the ...
... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves Need for Establishing a Relation between the Outer and the Inner “The disadvantage [of trance or Samadhi ] is that trance becomes indispensable and the problem of the waking consciousness is not solved; it remain imperfect.” “Waking consciousness is not solved”? And naturally! Because if in order to... while remaining conscious of it that you should have the other experiences; and you must not lose contact with your ordinary outer consciousness if you want it to profit by the experience. There are many people… I knew people like that, who used to meditate for hours, almost all the time… they spent their time meditating, and then if by chance… if someone disturbed them in their meditation, if they ...
... so many modern disputants smother thought under polysyllables or charm inquiry to sleep by the spell of formulas and cant words. Search always; find out the reason for things which seem to the hasty glance to be mere chance or illusion. How can we find out the reason for things? If we try to do it with the mind, will it not be yet another illusion screening the Truth? There are many planes ...
... October October Mother’s Agenda 1969 October 15, 1969 ( Heavy rain poured down on that day. ) We've brought too many Europeans here, it changes the climate! Do you have anything to tell me?... Me, I have nothing, except quarrels, stupidities, conflicts... all sorts of stupid things... 1 ( there follows a long affair which will remain unsaid... dare say something untrue.... In the past, it seemed impossible to me, but from experience I've learned (!) that they do it. How they do it, I don't know... And that's not the only thing, there are many others. But they do it ingenuously. If they had a will to deceive me, I would know it instantly, but they do it ingenuously—they deceive themselves. They see things like this ( Mother makes a ...
... Mother and Sri Aurobindo 26 October 1932 MYSELF: Sweet Mother, shake me up again and again until I am able to succeed in this matter. I have experienced many times that for the first few days after a new experience I always happen to be very wakeful about what I experience, but slowly, if I am not sufficiently earnest about keeping what I gain, it gets lost... know what is the true nature and source of the movement in you and report them carefully — as in fact you had begun to do when you first had the psychic opening and could see the movements in you or many of them at least very clearly. (26.10.32) ...
... It is enough for you to have a contact with Nature like that. There are many other means, but this one is very spontaneous. There is also… when you see something very beautiful you can have the same thing: a kind of inner joy and an opening to the forces, and so this widens you and fills you at the same time. There are many means but usually one does not use them. Naturally, if you enter into con... and Universal Forces The Hidden Forces of Life Universal Vital Force Sweet Mother, how can one draw on “the universal vital Force”? One can do it in many ways. First of all, you must know that it exists and that one can enter into contact with it. Secondly, you must try to make this contact, to feel it circulating everywhere, through everything, in... than they spend. And this does not correspond to any knowledge. It is a natural, spontaneous movement. It is the movement… a movement of joy in what they are doing—of joyful expenditure. One can do many things with that. I knew young people who had always lived in cities—in a city and in those little rooms one has in the big cities in which everyone is huddled. Now, they had come to spend their ...
... Disciple : When I read the first article of the Arya I could not understand anything, so I gave it up. Sri Aurobindo : Many people cannot understand it. The Arya requires two things. First of all, a thorough knowledge of the English language which many Indians have not got. And secondly, it requires a mind that is subtle and comprehensive. I wrote the Arya , really speaking, for myself... suppose that the method in India did not change. During this period many subjects were taught and the system was much more elaborate. Disciple : What is the classical time you refer to ? Sri Aurobindo : The time of Kalidasa, for instance. You see the subjects women had to study in those days. You will see there were so many arts and accomplishments they had to learn. Then there was a time... example, Robespierre at, one time could not pass the sentence of death; on a criminal. Sri Aurobindo : That was in his young age and he got over that. Disciple : In C.R. Das there were many personalities : the lawyer, the poet, the politician etc. Sri Aurobindo : In your article you have said that Das's speeches 'were not logical. But in earlier days all his speeches were logical ...
... the Indian terminology, sruti, heard from the lips of the man of experience or realisation. In many ways, therefore, the Socratic method and the Indian philosophical method are similar. Socrates used to go to the market and ask questions to the passer-bys. But his questions were so deep that many young people found in him a great teacher. He had, therefore, gathered around him a band of young... who have no wisdom know that I do not have it. This is the truth of the oracle." But during this enquiry, Socrates showed the people whom he interviewed their ignorance and this embittered many. Already many elderly philosophers and politicians of Athens were afraid of the great influence that Socrates wielded over young people. They, therefore, brought a charge against him. They said: "Socrates... often the discussions would end in stimulating questions instead of arriving at conclusions. But when he would arrive at conclusions, it would be only after examining the subject freely and from as many points of view as possible. This method seems to have been practised by Zeno of Elea a disciple of Parmenides. For, if we read Plato's dialogue parmenides, we find that Zeno uses the same kind ...
... Mother, your true self, your soul. As I have said, there are very many forces and movements in you and without you that drag you in conflicting directions, you have to marshal them, direct them towards one goal, organise your being, your self, rather your selves, for you are not one self but many selves; you are not one person, but many persons. All of them have to be comprehended, coordinated, and finally... (New Talks) In Her Company ALL of you, I suppose, sometime or other attend the meditation, the evening meditation at the Playground. If not all, at least a good many or most of you. Perhaps a few of the younger ones do not. When the. Mother was giving this collective meditation in the Playground, almost always there used to happen a strange phenomenon. She has spoken... know them and even guide their action. Sri Aurobindo has spoken of this mystery and I think I have referred to it in my Reminiscences. Sri Aurobindo himself used to do automatic writing, as perhaps many of you , the older ones particularly, know it. I will explain. Sri Aurobindo used to allow these other-worldly forces and invisible beings to enter into his physical personality, in the same way as ...
... beauty in it, there are many other elements besides. Disciple : There is the emotional element but where or when does the element of beauty enter – at the beginning or at the end? Sri Aurobindo : It may be at the beginning or at any other time. There is the emotional element, the element of faith, the element of love, of beauty, of ananda and so many other things. Disciple... a's body had a glow which he used to hide from men by covering his body. Can one say it was inner beauty? Sri Aurobindo : It may be the light of the Spirit; that is not beauty. There are many people who are not spiritual but are beautiful and some spiritual men are not beautiful. Disciple : What is meant by saying that the Supreme is the True, the Good and the Beautiful '' ... ACHCHIDANAND as Brahman comes more easily as a constant experience and A NANDA – delight – comes in to complete it, so to say, Delight is the essential Reality of existence. Disciple : But many people are satisfied with the experience of the immobile aspect of the Brahman. Sri Aurobindo : It depends. If you approach the Absolute negatively – i.e. as a negation – you reach a more ...
... carelessness, rough, violent and unseeing handling, indifference; there is also in many a feeling that it does not matter if things are quickly spoilt, they will be replaced; one worker was even heard to say to another, "why do you care? it is not your money." To take one instance only. Taps in Europe will last for many years—here in a few months, sometimes in a few weeks they are spoilt and call for... who are not Yogis at all nor aspirants for Yoga know how to put in their proper place, seem to take an inordinate importance in the consciousness of the sadhaks here—not all, certainly, but many. In this as in many other matters they do not seem to realise that, if you want to do Yoga, you must take more and more in all matters, small or great, the Yogic attitude. In our path that attitude is not one... steadily put in its place. But for that these things of eating and drinking must be put in their right place, which is a very small one. You say that many have left the Asram because they did not like the food. I do not know who are the many; certainly, those who came here for serious sadhana and left, went for much more grave reasons than that. But if any did go because of an offended palate, ...
... in all; but in manifestation why should not the Infinite throw itself out in infinite variety, why must it be in an innumerable sameness? How many of these psychic seeds started long before others and have a great past of development behind them and how many are young and raw and half-grown only? And even among those who started together, Page 522 why should not there be some who ran at... Heredity Karma and heredity are the two main causes [ of one's temperament ]. According to some heredity is also subject to Karma, but that may be only in a general way, not in all the details. Many things in the body and some in the mind and vital are inherited from the father and mother or other ancestors—that everybody is supposed to know. There are other things that are not inherited, but peculiar... themselves into it with results which will obviously be just such a stupendous difference of degrees, and even intervene by descending into the play through the gates of birth in human Nature. There are many complexities and the problem cannot be put with the rigidity of a mathematical formula. A great part of the difficulty of these problems, I mean especially the appearance of inexplicable contradiction ...
... must first of all feel the need for it and want it, and then aspire, and then try! For trying, there are innumerable methods which have been prescribed and attempted by many. These methods are generally long, arduous, difficult; and many people get discouraged before reaching the goal, for, the more they try, the more do their thoughts start whirling around and being restless in their heads. For each... with, the foundation must be there, unshakable. ( Silence ) Someone has asked me what I meant by these words: "One must be calm." It is obvious that when I tell someone, "Be calm", I mean many different things according to the person. But the first indispensable calm is mental quietude, for generally that is the one that's most lacking. When I tell someone, "Be calm", I mean: Try not to have... of wisdom! And all its power, energy, physical strength are there, gathered, collected, concentrated and―without a shadow of agitation―ready for action when the order is given. I have seen people, many people, who could not sit still for half an hour without fidgeting. They had to move a foot or a leg, or an arm or their head; they had to stir restlessly all the time, for they did not have the power ...
... education. That is why it is of prime importance that the vital education of the child should begin as early as possible, indeed, as soon as he is able to use his senses. In this way many bad habits will be avoided and many harmful influences eliminated. This vital education has two principal aspects, very different in their aims and methods, but both equally important. The first concerns the development... a will that no failure can weaken. Indeed, the vital in man's nature is a despotic and exacting tyrant. Moreover, since it is the vital which holds power, energy, enthusiasm, effective dynamism, many have a feeling of timorous respect for it and always try to please it. But it is a master that nothing can satisfy and its demands are without limit. Two ideas which are very wide-spread, especially... environment in which one was born. Only an almost abnormal growth of consciousness and the constant help of Grace can achieve this Herculean task. That is why this task has rarely been attempted and many famous teachers have declared it to be unrealisable and chimerical. Yet it is not unrealisable. The transformation of character has in fact been realised by means of a clear-sighted discipline and a ...
... me: I have seen them often, they come back often and I know them very well—I can put names to them. But these states of consciousness weren't exclusively in this or that person: they were in many people and in many ages. And it's more and more often like that. I think it's to make the [cellular] aggregate more supple, to give it suppleness. ( silence ) Sri Aurobindo wrote somewhere, I don't remember... understand better. You see, what seems to be perpetuated or preserved isn't individuals: it's states of consciousness—states of consciousness. Those states of consciousness manifest through many individuals and many different lives, and those states of consciousness are what progress towards a more and more luminous perfection. There are now, at present, all kinds of "categories" of states of consciousness... manifested in people. It's very interesting. The body is now growing very impersonal. But once, I had a curious experience with you.... I've never had visions with open eyes, but once (it struck me), many years Page 241 ago, downstairs, you were telling me a story about cats and talking about the "king of the cats" you had met, the genius of the species—and your face (it was extraordinary) ...
... East are not understood by many even among those who claim to follow them. In the Vishnu Dharmottar Purana the six limbs—(Shadanga) of the art of painting are enumerated showing that Indian Art must have reached a high standard of development before the canons of art could be formulated. We have no time to go into these six limbs. But I will take only one, Sādṛśya. Many people mistake "Sādṛśya" ... function of the artist is very high—indeed, it can even be the highest, if he can rise to it. When I saw you sitting in the Gallery and copying the master-pieces of Greek Sculpture I wondered how many of you were conscious of the connection of art with life. Appolo Belvedre is not merely an image done by some one off-hand. It is a product—a ripe product of Greek Culture which has given Europe its... infinitely multitudinous forms and colours of life. He may have felt or seen some significance, some meaning in the forms or in the movements. He may have seen a Reality through the forms. There are so many possible experiences and interpretations of experiences for the artist. Because his sensibility is refined, the artist gets impressions which the ordinary man is unable to get. In ancient times ...
... the getting of a new heart by throwing away all that we were into the fire of sacrifice and being reborn in the Mother. Self-abandonment is the demand made upon us. She asks of us, "How many will live for me? How many will die for me?" and awaits our answer. Page 1033 ... sense of self-abandonment which Chaitanya felt for Hari, must be felt by Bengal for the Mother. Then only will Bengal be herself and able to fulfil the destiny to which after Page 1030 so many centuries of preparation she has been called. The great religions of the world have all laid stress on self-abandonment as the source of salvation and the law applies not only to spiritual salvation... the plans, the methods better than any that we can devise. She asks us for our hearts, our lives, nothing less, nothing more. Swadeshi, National Education, the attempt to organise Swaraj are only so many opportunities for self Page 1032 surrender to her. She will look to see not how much we have tried for Swadeshi, how wisely we have planned for Swaraj, how successfully we have organised ...
... पूर्वीर्हि गर्भः शरदो ववर्धाऽपश्यं जातं यदसूत माता ॥२॥ Page 397 2) Who is this Boy whom thou bearest in thyself when thou art compressed into form, but thy vastness gives him birth? For many seasons the Child grew in the womb; I saw him born when the Mother brought him forth. हिरण्यदन्तं शुचिवर्णमारात् क्षेत्रादपश्यमायुधा मिमानम् । ददानो अस्मा अमृतं विपृक्वत् किं मामनिन्द्राः क... क्षेत्रादपश्यं सनुतश्चरन्तं सुमद् यूथं न पुरु शोभमानम् । न ता अगृभ्रन्नजनिष्ट हि षः पलिन्कीरिद् युवतयो भवन्ति ॥४॥ 4) I saw in the field as though a happy herd that ranged continuously in many forms of luminous beauty. None could seize on them, for he was born; even they that were old among them, grow young once more. के मे मर्यकं वि यवन्त गोभिर्न येषां गोपा अरणश्चिदास । य ईं जगृभुरव... that obstruct us from every side cannot pen him in. एतं ते स्तोमं तुविजात विप्रो रथं न धीरः स्वपा अतक्षम् । यदीदग्ने प्रति त्वं देव हर्याः स्वर्वतीरप एना जयेम ॥११॥ 11) O thou who art born in many forms, I illumined in mind, accomplished in understanding, perfect in works, have fashioned for thee this song of thy affirming to be as if thy chariot. If thou, O Strength, take an answering delight ...
... wield it; he can only scowl and spit. Shaw is like a fencing expert, parrying blows and dealing death-wounds with such smooth ease, such effortlessness, such absence of violent waste that he appears to many eyes "vegetarian" and "sexless". But you have just to look around and you will see the corpses mounting up. It is also a certain intellectual impersonality in Shaw, a freedom from pseudo-romantic fog... intense - only, it issues through the channel of thought. "Long" and "rambling" are another pair of inapt and superficial adjectives. If Shaw is "long", it is because he is both inexhaustible and many-angered - he has much to fight and plenty of energy to go on fighting. "Rambling" is a misobservation of his intellectual fecundity: he has everywhere the fencing-expert's skill that never fails to... the midriff, thrusting at the heart, sticking into the jugular. He loves to play with his opponents in an intricate all-wounding manner; he does not want merely to kill, he wants also to expose on as many sides as possible the Page 74 rottenness of which his opponents are composed; he "rambles" over their whole bodies and attacks them from every quarter and with his entire repertory ...
... old traditions [ stotras, homas, aradhanas, recitations, etc. ] are still strong with many—let them satisfy this tendency in this way so long as it does not drop from them. Useless and therefore inadvisable [ to sacrifice animals to Kali ]. External sacrifices of this kind have no longer any meaning—as so many saints have said, sacrifice ego, anger, lust etc. to Kali, not goats or cocks. Page... Vedanta and Yoga, in which Hinduism is one with Sufism of Islam and with the Christian mystics. But even here it is not Vedanta and Yoga in their traditional limits (their past), but widened and rid of many ideas that are peculiar to the Hindus. If I have used Sanskrit terms and figures, it is because I know them and do not know Persian and Arabic. I have not the slightest objection to anyone here drawing... his lower nature. Hindu religion appears to me as a cathedral temple half in ruins, noble in the mass, often fantastic in detail, but always fantastic with a significance—crumbled and overgrown in many places, but a cathedral temple in which service is still done to the Unseen and its real presence can be felt by those who enter with the right spirit. The outer social structure which it built for ...
... SATYENDRA: There are many people like that who are attached to Gandhiji because of his personal charm, his personality, not because of any idea or principle he stands for. Patel, for instance. SRI AUROBINDO: Has none gone for his ideas? SATYENDRA: I don't think so. It is as things are here. There are not many people here who have come for your philosophy. SRI AUROBINDO: Why "not many"? Very few. ... Vaishya Sabha is putting him up. SRI AUROBINDO: He ought not to have any difficulty as he is a Brahmin. PURANI: Yes, a Brahmin in South India is honoured everywhere. SRI AUROBINDO: And he has many disciples here. If he had the gerua (the saffron robe) he would have still more advantage. NIRODBARAN: But in Bengal he would have a hard time. SATYENDRA: Why? NIRODBARAN: In Bengal Sannyasis ...
... way to see that he might be quite safe. (Laughter) This story is told by Scott in Quentin Durward. But it turned out later on that the king actually died twenty-four hours after the astrologer. Many other stories are there where the hour of death was precisely known. NIRODBARAN: Turkey is on the point of taking grave decisions. Is it about joining the war? SRI AUROBINDO: Probably. She is... Mediterranean. NIRODBARAN: That means the involvement of the Balkan powers. SRI AUROBINDO: She is consulting them. NIRODBARAN: Russia seems to be frightened by Germany's success and is taking many precautions in the Balkans and the Baltic. SRI AUROBINDO: Precautions won't help if Hitler is triumphant. (After a while to Purani) Do you know if there are still any people with political tendencies... That is, knowledge won't have power; they don't go together. SRI AUROBINDO: Won't have? PURANI: Or need not have. SRI AUROBINDO: That is another matter. SATYENDRA: We have seen this in so many people who have knowledge but no power. One who may have experience or knowledge of Sat need not know of Chit and thus have no power, unless it is of Chit-rupa. SRI AUROBINDO: If knowledge gave power ...
... experiences. The word 'yoga' evidently comes from the same root as jungo in Latin, to unite; and the aim of yoga is to effect the union between the one (the individual) and the many (the All). This sense of union can come in many ways. It may come as an experience of intimate partnership, father-son or lover-beloved relationship; it may come as the experience of a personal God, of an aspect of God (Peace... his subsequent activities—politics, journalism, authorship, etc.—proceeded as it were from the surface, without in any way affecting the deeper inward peace. 102 Second came, not many months afterwards in his solitary cell in the Alipore Jail, his experience of the omnipresent Deity in the form of Narayana, Vasudeva. As he described his experience later in the course of the celebrated... looked at them I saw Vasudeva, it was Narayana whom I found in these darkened souls and misused bodies. 103 Although the ground is the absolute silence, there is structured above the many-chambered mansion of the divine manifestation Sarvam khalvidam Brahma: all is Brahman. Third came, during the first four or five years of 'silent yoga' in Pondicherry, the experience ...
... trouble is, most often they have no doubts! ( Mother laughs ) No, Mother, I say this in all humility, because I've been doing this work for... eighteen years now; and I see how many years it took me, how many blunders, and how much help Sri Aurobindo gave me until I really started getting into the proper spirit. So I have compassion for these people, I quite understand why they make mistakes... everything, it takes too much time. Manage with them the best you can. Page 364 Bah, bah, listen! Nothing short of a grace will do!... For me, it means an extra load, more complications, many extra things—I'm by no means looking forward to it, you know. Well, once in a while, if it really makes no sense at all.... I think we have to be a little.... Yes, Mother, I also feel we ...
... The Indian Spirit and the World's Future Miracle THE Indian mind and the European have many points in common, but there is also a marked difference. The difference can perhaps be best brought to light by referring to the word "miracle". The non-Indian world is always prone to be startled by supernatural events: the mouth gapes, the eyes bulge out and the... supernatural became so familiar, so immediate, so basic indeed that at a certain period of India's history the natural began to seem a miracle, an inexplicable wonder. How did the eternal One become the Many of Time? This question worried the Indian mind. And the answer was: Maya. The unexpected and the impossible are the teeming universe. Matter and not Spirit is the startling fact. This world of ours... between Nature and Super-nature. St. Francis, calling the sun his brother and the moon his sister and all things one family of God, catches a spark of the Gita's Vasudeva sarvam, "All is the Divine." Many sentences of the German mystic Eckhart and some discourses of Lady Julian of Norwich are strangely reminiscent of the talks between master and disciple in the Upanishads. Individuals in Europe, therefore ...
... Champaklal Visions of Champaklal Illumined Place I was passing by several zigzag and intricate paths. I do not describe the paths. On the way there, I saw many different figures which were neither men nor animals nor birds. All of them were very busy. Some of them were even wanting to devour me. At some places, it was not possible to understand what they were... their peaks were invisible. These mountains were of various colours. Some of them were quite black and some of mixed colours. They looked very beautiful. The road further was blocked, therefore, many a time I had to turn back. After wandering for a long time there, at last I reached a place, but it was all dark. One could see from here that there was an illumined place far far away. In this dark ...
... I do not know what work I have to do there, also there are many reasons and complications which prevent me from going there. For some time I had been feeling to write to You all this before I received this note. I am really sorry that I shall not be able to be the guardian—I am helpless and hopeless. Please do forgive me. There are many capable people who can carry out this wonderful mission according ...
... 1 —Transcendent and Universal? Yes. Has she not descended here (amongst us) into the Darkness and Falsehood and Error and Death in her deep and great love for us? Yes. There are many who hold the view that she was human but now embodies the Divine Mother and her Prayers, they say, explain this view. But to my mental conception, to my psychic feeling, she is the Divine Mother who... that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine Page 31 consciousness, not human turning into divine. The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood, so the view held by "many" is erroneous. I also conceive that the Mother's Prayers are meant to show us—the aspiring psychic—how to pray to the Divine. Yes. 17 August 1938 ...
... and strengthen the life of the individual in the frame of a vigorous society and restore the freedom and energy which India had in her heroic times of greatness and expansion. Many of our present social forms were shaped, many of our customs originated, in a [time] 1 of contraction and decline. They had their utility for self-defence and survival within narrow limits, but are a drag upon our progress ...
... finders of the Way had to face these things in order to conquer. No difficulty that can come on the sadhak but has faced us on the path; against many we have had to struggle hundreds of times (in fact, that is an understatement) before we could overcome; many still remain protesting that they have a right until the perfect perfection is there. But we have never consented to admit their inevitable necessity ...
... the whole year of 1966 the Mother asked me to retouch and repaint many of the Savitri paintings according to her instructions. I told the Mother: When I have finished re-touching and re-doing the Savitri paintings according to your guidance, I shall have no work. She smiled and affirmed: You see, you will have so many things to do. Only idle people can say they have no work! ...
... including Dr André, in favour of sending troops to Indo-China? NIRODBARAN: Perhaps because Dr. André has his brother there. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh, his brother is there? PURANI: Yes, and many other relatives. Many people here have their relations there. SRI AUROBINDO: But instead of sending troops, André should bring his relatives back. (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: M.N. Roy has been expelled from ...
... nothing about it. Even here there are many, perhaps hundreds, if you ask them individually not to repeat what they have read but to say what they feel and think by themselves about the question, what is the intention behind the universal evolution or if there is any intention at all, they will not be able to give a better answer. I do not think that there are many who will be able to tell you in all ...
... nothing about it. Even here there are many, perhaps hundreds, if you ask them individually not to repeat what they have read but to say what they feel and think by themselves about the question, what is the intention behind the universal evolution or whether there is any intention at all, they will not be able to give a better answer. I do not think that there are many who will be able to tell you in all ...
... Ravana the ten-headed demon. Weakening under the blows of the warriors who were attacking him from every side, Ravana made use of his magic power. Suddenly, at his side, among the demons, many Ramas and many Lakshmans magically appeared. They were in truth nothing but false and deceptive appearances, but the monkeys and the bears, taking them for real people, halted in confusion: how could they continue... These pots are very pretty, but they are so light and fragile that they break with the slightest use. Although they look just as serviceable as any other earthenware, they are only good to look at. Many people are like Kagazi pottery. They have a beautiful appearance; but if you try to put them to any kind of test, you will see that everything about them is ornament. Do not put the slightest trust... weight for their fragile nature to bear. A Brahmin sent his son to Benares to study under the guidance of a Pundit. Page 218 Twelve years later the young man returned to his home town, and many people hurried to see him, thinking that he had become a very profound scholar. They placed before him a book written in Sanskrit and said: "Explain the doctrine to us, honourable Pundit." The ...
... which they can call down to incarnate in that form. I knew people―not many, this does not often happen, but still I knew some―who chose special circumstances, prepared themselves through special concentration and meditation and aspiration and sought to bring down, into the body they were going to form, an exceptional being. In many countries of old―and even now in certain countries―the woman who was... souls have incarnated and then left. There are many reasons why they go away. Children who die very young, after a few days or a few weeks―this may be for a similar reason. Most often it is said that the soul needed just a little experience to complete its formation, that it had it during these few weeks and then left. Everything is possible. And as many stories would be needed to tell the story of souls... thoughts come? Haven't I told you why bad thoughts come?... For as many reasons as there are bad thoughts! Each one comes for its own special reason: it may be through affinity, it may be just to tease you, it may be because you call them, it may be because you expose yourself to attacks, it may be all this at once and many more things besides. Bad thoughts come because there is something c ...
... destroyed all her forests and the result is there is flood every year. Disciple : There are so many Maharajas, Chiefs, Nawabs all over India. Sri Aurobindo : Germany was like that at one time. Napoleon swept away half of the number and the last war swept off another half. Japan also had many princes but they voluntarily abdicated their power. The Japanese are not greedy for money. They can... destroyed all her forests and the result is there is flood every year. Disciple : There are so many Maharajas, Chiefs, Nawabs all over India. Sri Aurobindo : Germany was like that at one time. Napoleon swept away half of the number and the last war swept off another half. Japan also had many princes but they voluntarily abdicated their power. The Japanese are not greedy for money. They can... federation. Sri Aurobindo : The Bombay Ministry seems to be working efficiently. They have escaped the socialists trap. These socialists do not know what is socialism. Disciple : There were many humourous speeches in the Sindh-assembly. The League has been exposed. Sri Aurobindo : Yes, the Sindh Premier – I always forget his name – seems to be a strong man and stands up for his ideas ...
... contact with many people who said that they had a great inner aspiration, an urge towards something deeper and truer, but that they were tied down, subjected, slaves to that brutal necessity of earning their living, and that this weighed them down so much, took up so much of their time and energy that they could not engage in any other activity, inner or outer. I heard this very often, I saw many poor people―I... here: "A Yoga turned towards an all-embracing realisation of the Supreme will not despise the works or even the dreams, if dreams they are, of the Cosmic Spirit or shrink from the splendid toil and many-sided victory which he has assigned to himself in the human creature. But its first condition for this liberality is that our works in the world too must be part of the sacrifice offered to the Highest... who react most and have the intensest aspiration. That's all. I am waiting for the contrary to be proved to me. I would very much like to see the contrary but I haven't yet seen it. As there are many energies which are not utilised, since this terrible compulsion of having something to eat or a roof to sleep under or clothes on one's back does not exist―as one is sure of all that―there is a whole ...
... what is the thing to be strengthened and brought forward—this is the only thing to do; and to leave them, to leave them free to blossom; simply to give them the opportunity to see many things, to touch many things, to do as many things as possible. It is great fun. And above all, not to try to impose on them what you think you know. Never scold them. Always understand, and if the child is ready, explain;... life and leading an ordinary life, having a spiritual consciousness and having an ordinary consciousness—there is only one consciousness. In most people it is three-quarters asleep and distorted; in many it is still completely distorted. But what is needed, very simply, is not to leap from one consciousness into another, but to open one's consciousness ( upward gesture ) and to fill it with vibrations ...
... the worlds of thy session; three are thy tongues, O thou born from the Truth, they are many: three too are thy bodies desired by the gods, with them protect undeviatingly our words. अग्ने भूरीणि तव जातवेदो देव स्वधावोऽमृतस्य नाम । याश्च माया मायिनां विश्वमिन्व त्वे पूर्वीः संदधुः पृष्टबन्धो ॥३॥ 3) Many are the names of thee, the Immortal, O Fire, O knower of the births, O god who bearest... and rich in the power of a wealth most full of the strength of the gods. भूरीणि हि त्वे दधिरे अनीकाऽग्ने देवस्य यज्यवो जनासः । स आ वह देवतातिं यविष्ठ शर्धो यदद्य दिव्यं यजासि ॥४॥ 4) For, many flame-forces they have founded in thee, O Fire, men who have the will to sacrifice to the godhead. So, bring to us the formation of the godhead, O youthful god, when thou worshippest with sacrifice... harm nor any distress. इळामग्ने पुरुदंसं सनिं गोः शश्वत्तमं हवमानाय साध । स्यान्नः सूनुस्तनयो विजावाऽग्ने सा ते सुमतिर्भूत्वस्मे ॥५॥ 5) O Fire, achieve at my call the Revealing Speech, the many-actioned, the lasting conquest of the Light. May there be for us a Son of our begetting pervading in his birth; 5 O Fire, may there be created in us that true thinking of thine. ...
... be divided into four planes—mental overmind and the three you have written [ intuitive overmind, true overmind and supramental overmind ]—but there are many layers in each and each of these can be regarded as a plane in itself. There are many stages in the transition from mental overmind to supramentalised overmind and then from that to supramental overmind and from that to supermind. Do not... in various formations and diverse play of forces, building thus different worlds out of this dispersion. In the Intuition the nature of Knowledge is Truth not global or whole, but coming out in so many points, edges, flashes of a Truth that is behind it and supplies it with its direct perceptions. Page 154 It is from the Overmind that all these different arrangements of the creative... As Page 156 a manifestation of the One Divine with a thousand aspects, a development of all the potentialities in the one existence, a play of Forces and Ideas which you can look at from many centres and points of view, each having its own truth in the whole. In the highest overmind all these prepare to meet and reunite themselves in one central Truth which is the Supramental. Page 157 ...
... POEMS It must be clear from the above that Savitri is a Commedia doubled with a Ramayana. The general scheme of the epic may now be indicated. "Savitri was originally written many years before the Mother came", wrote Sri Aurobindo to a correspondent in 1936, "as a narrative poem in two parts, Part I Earth and Part II Beyond...each of four Books—or rather Part II consisted of... And indeterminable strange rocks and caverns That into silent blackness huge recede, Dwell the great serpent and his hosts, writhed forms, Sinuous, abhorred, through many horrible leagues Coiling in a half darkness... 118 This is like the descent into Dante's Hell, and Ruru is aghast when he sees the shapes and hears the cries in Death's Kingdom... what it has snatched and submerged —this is the psychological motif behind Sri Aurobindo's two most striking masses of achievement in blank verse during early life, and it renders his many-sided poetic masteries in them a kind of foreshadowing of the blank verse of Savitri in which today he is embodying his Yogic explorations of the Unknown in a more luminously mystical ...
... "Yes, they are limited and they can be counted." With great curiosity and eagerness the questioner asked: "How many? how many?" Quietly the one who was speaking extended her hand and put out one single index-finger, and said: "Only one." So, that is the truth. All these many bodies, many persons you see, it is only appearance, there is only one Soul and every one is that. If you realise this truth ...
... Vivekananda brought India, the knowledge-sun of humanity, out of the tenebrous abyss of degradation and established her in her original glory and her pristine Light. Many had preceded him with the message of the awakening of India and many a man of action had come down to clear the path and create the field. But Vivekananda was a Seer. He saw and revealed the mystic Word, by the force of which the godhead... diffused his inspiration and illumination over the firmament and set the country's heart-strings vibrating. That is why we do not find anything static in his creation. He has sketched many forms and has pointed out many a line of multiple beauty. But these were merely constructive hints and suggestions. If we adhere to anyone of them in toto we shall be cramping Page 231 and limiting ...
... cured soon afterwards I Sri Aurobindo described another type of cure. "I also remember Jatin Banerjee curing many cases of sterility by a Sannyasi's medicine given to him. Cases of ten or fifteen years' sterility have been cured by it and people got children within ten months.... Many such things known to India are being lost now." Prayer, of course, has a great power as is known. Mother told... to his work. A cure without medicines. And Mother. She healed. She healed all wounds —inner or outer —that life is wont to inflict on us. She had such a tender way of doing it too! Oh, how many times did I see her with children who had fallen sick, removing their pain, curing them of fever by passing her hand over and over again, so gently, from the top of the head to the back and down the... Aurobindo said forcefully, this time to Nirod. "What happy-go-lucky fancy-web-spinning ignoramuses you all are. You speak of silence, consciousness, over mental, supramental, etc. as if they were so many electric buttons you have only to Page 169 discover everything about the working of all possible modes of electricity, all the laws, possibilities, perils, etc., construct roads of ...
... शरदो ववर्धाऽपश्यं जातं यदसूत माता ॥२॥ 2) Who is this boy, O young mother, whom thou carriest in thyself when thou art compressed into form, but when thou art vast thou hast given him birth? Through many years grew the child in the womb, I saw him born when the mother brought him forth. हिरण्यदन्तं शुचिवर्णमारात् क्षेत्रादपश्यमायुधा मिमानम् । ददानो अस्मा अमृतं विपृक्वत् किं मामनिन्द्राः कृण... क्षेत्रादपश्यं सनुतश्चरन्तं सुमद् यूथं न पुरु शोभमानम् । न ता अगृभ्रन्नजनिष्ट हि षः पलिक्नीरिद् युवतयो भवन्ति ॥४॥ 4) In that field I saw ranging apart what seemed a happy herd in its many forms of beauty; none could seize on them, for he was born, even those of them who were grey with age became young again. के मे मर्यकं वि यवन्त गोभिर्न येषां गोपा अरणश्चिदास । य ईं जगृभुरव ते... undivine obstructions that besiege us cannot hem him in. एतं ते स्तोमं तुविजात विप्रो रथं न धीरः स्वपा अतक्षम् । यदीदग्ने प्रति त्वं देव हर्याः स्वर्वतीरप एना जयेम ॥११॥ 11) O thou of the many births, I the sage, the thinker, the man of perfect works have fashioned for thee this laud like a chariot. If, indeed, O god, thou shouldst take an answering joy in it, by this we could conquer the ...
... Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo April 1935 Manibhai is all right. A little astonishing that the eye responded so well and so soon! With many people or in many cases it does. It depends on certain conditions either of the conscient or of the subconscient. I was under the impression that it is quite possible to know intuitively, with the Yogic... painting vision? It can or it may not. Why did not everything open up in me like the painting vision and some other things? All did not. As I told you, I had to plod in many things. Otherwise the affair would not have taken so many years (30). In this Yoga one can't always take a short cut in everything. I had to work on each problem and on each conscious plane to solve or to transform and in each... of some essential instruments. Since a general practitioner has to be ready for all "blessed conditions" and cure them, many apparatus are necessary... You can consult Pavitra. Mother has already spoken to him about ordering instruments from France—here they are too costly, many of them. April 9, 1935 About patient Z, confidentially, I hear she bothers herself with environmental influences ...
... "Vijnanamaya Kosha" (Knowledge sheath), and "Anandamaya Kosha" (Bliss sheath). He possesses also for his self-expression and manifestation many instruments and vehicles; such as, his body, his life, his mind, etc. And these instruments have many different modalities so far as their active functioning is concerned; such as, desires, aspirations, imaginations, memories, reason-power, discriminations... second psychic being in another physical body and continue its forward journey through this combined action. (iii)Or, the psychic may retire to the psychic world and remain immersed there for many many years in a supremely delightful preparatory repose. We may very well imagine that our readers may have had a shock of surprise to know of the second alternative course just now mentioned above... quit his body suddenly, passing all his apprehension. And there is no end to his troubles if he has foolishly ended his life through an act of suicide, while in a state of intense emotion or passion. Many departed "jivas" linger for a short or a long period of time in a state of half sleep and half wakefulness. Some of them may hover near their just-dead bodies for some time in their subtle vital bodies ...
... have written—such as the formula that "the universe is good",—but for Page 325 many or most of the statements marshalled for condemnation by the writer one can surely say that they are not irrational at all. "Integrating the personality" may have no meaning to him, it has a very clear meaning to many, for it is a truth of experience—and, if modern psychology is to be believed, it is not ... prehistoric beginning and in the middle (Pythagoras was one of the greatest of mystics) and not only in the ebb and decline; the mystic cults flourished in Rome too when its culture was at high tide; many great spiritual personalities of Italy, France, Spain sprang up Page 324 in a life that was rich, vivid and not in the least touched with decadence. This hasty and inept generalisation has... spiritual self-development which without them do not exist. A new outlook on things arises which brings with it, if fully pursued into its consequences, a great liberation, inner harmony, unification—many other possibilities besides. These things have been experienced, it is true, by a small minority of the human race, but still there has been a host of independent witnesses to them in all times, climes ...
... law means a new rhythm. If the world of matter were a plane figure, then the numberless beings of the sense-world are so many fixed points on that plane, and the animals of the world of sense-mind are so many moving points, and the human beings of the world of mind are so many points which revolve each on itself as they move or stand. Man comprises in himself all these, the standing, the moving and... harmony higher and greater than all those that went before. And that rhythm will be a key to all the others. ON THE EVE OF THE COMING RHYTHM A night burdened with many secret treasures, but covered with many layers of dreadful darknesses, was the beginning. Then layer after layer of the darkness began to feel, to answer to a touch of burning inward light and it revealed, it turned into... Here are many pure fires and lucent flames, a magnificent multitude that evolve and involve, work and play and rest, each moving in its own and true way, delighted, unhindered and harmonious. When at rest, they are in luminous peace, unlike the lower forces who lapse into dull inertia when they have no work. And their work when they are in motion is ordered and harmonious, evolving of many truths ...
... new law means a new rhythm. If the world of matter were a plane figure, then the numberless beings of the sense-world are so many fixed points on that plane, and the animals of the world of sense-mind are so many moving points, and the human beings of the world of mind are so many points which revolve each on itself as they move or stand. Man comprises in himself all these, the standing, the moving and... higher and greater than all those that went before. And that rhythm will be a key to all the others. ON THE EVE OF THE COMING RHYTHM A night burdened with many secret treasures, but covered with many layers of dreadful darknesses, was the beginning. Then layer after layer of the darkness began to feel, to answer to a touch of burning inward light and it revealed, it turned into... Here are many pure fires and lucent flames, a magnificent multitude that evolve and involve, work and play and rest, each moving in its own and true way, delighted, unhindered and harmonious. When at rest, they are in luminous peace, unlike the lower forces who lapse into dull inertia when they have no work. And their work when they are in motion is ordered and harmonious, evolving of many truths ...
... law means a new rhythm. If the world of matter were a plane figure, then the numberless beings of the sense-world are so many fixed points on that plane, and the animals of the world of sense-mind are so many moving points, and the human beings of the world of mind are so many points which revolve each on itself as they move or stand. Man comprises in himself all these, the standing, the moving and... rise a harmony higher and greater than all those that went before. And that rhythm will be a key to all the others. ON THE EVE OF THE COMING RHYTHM A night burdened with many secret treasures, but covered with many layers of dreadful darknesses, was the beginning. Then layer after layer of the darkness began to feel, to answer to a touch of burning inward light and it revealed, it turned into... Here are many pure fires and lucent flames, a magnificent multitude that evolve and involve, work and play and rest, each moving in its own and true way, delighted, unhindered and harmonious. When at rest, they are in luminous peace, unlike the lower forces who lapse into dull inertia when they have no work. And their work when they are in motion is ordered and harmonious, evolving of many truths ...
... consciously from one life to another without losing anything of its consciousness. How many people upon earth have reached that state?... Not many, I believe. And usually they are not in the least inclined to narrate their adventures. There are people who tell the life of others. Yes, I know. I know many things, I have heard all that one can hear. They tell stories after stories.... They look... survived in history! How many are there! There are hundreds of them! And you hear their stories: "I was this, I was that, I did this", or in séances the so-called spirits come and speak to you. A large number of people indulge in this playing with "spirits", practising automatic writing and particularly in communicating with spirits. Now, there are garrulous spirits. They come to many places at the same... them or sometimes only the last, the nearest, the most physical activity, with an uncoordinated movement—dreams having no sense. But there are as many different kinds of nights and sleep as there are different days and activities. There are not many days that are alike, each day is different. The days are not the same, Page 38 the nights are not the same. You and your friends are doing ...
... because the Divine would Himself be conceived as being simultaneously single and multiple, unitary yet many-poised, essentially one but numerically not bound by oneness. Does Sri Aurobindo grant the identity? It is a cardinal characteristic of his vision, bound up with God's being One-in-Many. Unless God is at the same time multiple and single, the manifold world would have no basis in God... akin to the time-old one: if God, having all-knowledge, has foreseen everything, have we any power to deviate from His plan, and do we not have inevitably to carry out the details of it? Many Christian theologians have attempted to solve the dilemma: some have said that God's knowledge is in eternity and eternity is different from time and such knowledge does not clash with free action... existence and it can exist, be it ever so subjectively, in nothing save God if He is the Sole Reality, and to understand such an existing is as much a hurdle as to understand God's being One-in-Many. Besides, our Page 92 evolution, difficult and shot with evil and suffering, out of the Inconscient, demands that God should be such. All other accounts would fail ...
... discussion was submitted to Mother with the remark:) Sri Aurobindo says in his book on education that the child should be taught in his mother-tongue. Sri Aurobindo did say that, but he also said many other things which complete his advice and abolish all possibility of dogmatism. Sri Aurobindo himself has often repeated that if one affirms one thing, one should be able to affirm its opposite; otherwise... it very well, considered it to be an essential part of the knowledge of languages. 23 August 1965 ( In the course of a conversation about French, a disciple pointed out to Mother that now many French people, especially newcomers, speak in English, even to people who know French perfectly well. Mother concentrated for a moment and said: "So much the worse for them." The disciple then asked ...
... science, great in thought of many kinds, great in literature, art and poetry, great in the organisation of society and politics, great in craft and trade and commerce. There have been dark spots, positive imperfections, heavy shortcomings; what civilisation has been perfect, which has not had its deep stains and cruel abysses? There have been considerable lacunae, many blind alleys, much uncultured... civilisation has been without its unfilled parts, its negative aspects? But our ancient civilisation can survive the severest comparisons of either ancient or mediaeval times. More high-reaching, subtle, many-sided, curious and profound than the Greek, more noble and humane than the Roman, more large and spiritual than the old Egyptian, more vast and original than any other Asiatic civilisation, more in... look from the view-point of the present and the fruitful workings of the progressive Time-Spirit, we can say that Page 79 even here in spite of our downfall all is not on the debit side. Many of the forms of our civilisation have become inapt and effete and others stand in need of radical change and renovation. But that can be said equally well of European culture; for all its recently acquired ...
... worked closely with the Mother nor even seen her physically. So, in many cases, there is very little knowledge of the Mother’s way. Many people try to do things in their own way, to do what they think best and not always necessarily in keeping with what would have been the Mother’s way. I always speak about the Mother to everyone but many go on preferring their own way. What can you tell us of the Auroville... and gave them to many people and it helped them in sickness and pain and in times of trouble. What changes do you see taking place in the Ashram in the future and will it be different in any way from what it is now? There have to be changes. We live in a changing world. The changes in the Ashram since the Mother’s passing have not always been as good as they could be. Many people have not worked... s to the yoga? The Americans who have come to the Ashram are highly evolved people and their presence is a gift to the Ashram. Many Americans in the Archives department are wonderful men and women and have progressed very much inwardly and have contributed in many ways to the work and are of great value to the Ashram. I have a very good feeling about the Americans in the Ashram. What were some ...
... this human nature out of which we have to struggle into the Light.... The dark path is there and there are many who make like the Christians a gospel of spiritual suffering; many hold it to be the unavoidable price of victory. It may be so under certain circumstances, as it has been in so many lives at least at the beginning, or one may choose to make it so. But then the price has Page 681 ... prevent your sharing in the fruit of the victory hereafter. I do not know what Krishnaprem has said but his injunction, if you have rightly understood it, is one that cannot stand as valid, since so many have done Yoga relying on tapasya or anything else but not confident of any Divine Grace. It is not that, but the soul's demand for a higher Truth or a higher life that is indispensable. Where that... though I do not think it is—for I have seen people treading it for years; but a way with only natural or even only moderate fits of rough weather, a way without typhoons surely is possible—there are so many examples. Durgam pathastat may be generally true and certainly the path of laya or nirvana is difficult in the extreme to most (although in my case I walked into nirvana without intending it or rather ...
... things fashion themselves. ThomaS Carlyle Biren Palit was from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) — Chittagong (many would prefer Chottogram). Diwanpur was his birthplace, may have been a small town or village. Biren-da was an ordinary looking man in build and appearance — like many other Bengalees, i.e. of medium height, rather of the leaner category. He sported a thick black moustache, also common... enough. What stood him apart were big black eyes that seemed unblinking, gazing at the world around and the unusually long hair, also thick and black, that hung below his waist (could be the envy of many a girl). I have no recollection of his hair turning grey (I have noticed this phenomena in some others from Chittagong — not the length but the non-greying). Biren-da was born on the 27th of February ...
... then you cannot know what will happen to you. That is all I wanted to say now it is left to you to choose and decide. 22 October 1952 * Sweet Mother, We see many people leaving the Ashram, either to seek a career or to study; and they are mostly those who have been here since childhood. There Page 44 is a kind of uncertainty in... power and tries to slow down the divine action, not out of ill-will but in order to be sure that nothing is forgotten or neglected in the haste to reach the goal. Few are ready for a total consecration. Many children who have studied here need to come to grips with life before they can be ready for the divine work, and that is why they leave to undergo the test of ordinary life. 11 November 1964... their studies here? Surely there must he a great difference between them and ordinary people. What is the difference? Often, as soon as they find themselves in the midst of ordinary life, many of them realise the difference and regret what they have lost. Few of them have the courage to give up the comforts they find in their ordinary surroundings, but even the others no longer face life ...
... but many times I caught the right visions and the Mother accepted them all. I simply felt that the powerful vibrations which were coming from the Mother entered my brain and heart. Then at once I expressed all that I realised with inner eyes. Now I felt inspired to do paintings of Sri Aurobindo's Poems. I expressed my feelings to the Mother. She said: But Sri Aurobindo has written many po... Mother saw me in her music-cum ¬interview room where we used to work. It was a Friday. She said with a smile: People liked the exhibition very much. They told me and wrote to me of it. I received many notes about the big portrait of Savitri . The exhibition is really a success. A dear old lady expressed her view regarding the Savitri paintings: Huta, I saw the exhibition of Savitri paintings ...
... century and is attributed to painters of the Kangra state under the enlightened patronage of Raja Sansar Chand (1775 1823), a king who had many artists in his employ. Except for one or two, these pictures represent unfinished Kangra paintings similar to many others of their kind (perhaps master sketches kept in the family of the Pahari artists and which served as models, namoonas, for subsequent... learning from every possible pandit till he felt confident to return to the court of his father's patron where he was recognized as the greatest of poets. Sriharsa is said to have produced a great many works but his most famous kavya is the Naishadhacharita. The story goes that the King wanted the poet to go to Kashmir to have his work approved by Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, who presided... subsequent pictures). The series in fact consists largely of drawings exe9uted in bistre with a fine brush, and although colour is indicated in many of them they illustrate the art of pure drawing. Their style is known as "Kangra kalam"" (brush, style), and was at its height during the reign of this King. ________ *According to Dr Ananda Coomaraswamy, the famous art historian, Rajput painting ...
... Page 89 hardships to them. As soon as He uttered the word "mama", my thoughts went to my nieces, whose presence in the Ashram has mama-fied 134 me for many people! (Laughter) To continue with Sri Aurobindos reply: Also, don't you forget that though I am inflicting 'punishment', as you call it, or suffering, I am always with the Pandavas... more intuitively and perceptively. [N:] All right, sir. I accept. Still, a greater puzzle troubles me. How could you have allowed Draupadi to be dragged, to be insulted publicly before so many, in front of such a vast audience ? Why did you allow that ? For what reason? Can you explain that ? I asked him this with burning indignation. He answered: Peace! You are... the idea of grave vengeance. Then Mahakali's wrath fell upon the Kauravas because they'd insulted Her own Shaktis, Her powers. Beware! Have you finished your questions ? I've elsewhere to go, so many are calling me. [N:] I have another question. Now I accept poor Draupadi's humiliation, but what about Abhimanyu, that poor boy? Why was he sacrificed at the altar? Was this not a terrible ...
... you are personal. Where do you draw them from?—From what you have heard, from what you have read, what you have been taught, and how many of these thoughts you have are the result of your own experience, your own reflection, your purely personal observation?—Not many. Only those who have an intense intellectual life, who are in the habit of reflecting, observing, putting ideas together, gradually... all the so-called higher fields of human intelligence, who had absolutely contradictory opinions on the same subject, and were not aware of it. And if you observe yourself, you will see that you have many ideas which ought to be linked by a sequence of intermediate ideas which are the result of a considerable widening of the thought if they are not to coexist in an absurd way. Therefore, before an... out to them they are astonished. As a matter of fact, one has the habit of sleeping, speaking, eating, moving and one does all this as something quite natural, without wondering why or how.... And many other things. All the time one does things automatically, by force of habit, one does not watch oneself. And so, when one lives in a particular society, one automatically does what is normally done ...
... the bloodstream, causing irritation in the brain during normal circulation. In the afternoon a feeling of moral strength mounted as I became conscious of a physical freshness for the first time in many years. On the fourth day I awakened at 5.30 a.m. All symptoms were greatly relieved but headache was still severe. After the usual routine I went to bed at 6.30 p.m., my usual time, feeling very tired... transparent pea-pod with black spots appeared in the urine. At 10 A.M. I had a very severe attack of renal colic — similar to Page 158 those experienced at the very beginning of my illness many years before, when small stones were moving out of the kidney into the ureter and down to the bladder. Only those who have been the victims of renal colic — and of course the doctors — know what... condition which caused the burning in the penis, and now I wanted to urinate again. It was like passing pure acid! The burning was severe. Then followed a flow of slime, blood, coarse dark sediment, and many flakes of what appeared to be blood-stained skin-substance. This sparked off another tendency to panic. I was alone and in desperate pain. I knew that I dare not take a sedative, and wondered if ...
... brings to mind quicksilver: pursue as you may, he is always one step ahead. He did not like the idea of rest and said that sleep only served to remind him of his mortal condition. So many things to do, so much to learn, so many possibilities.... He brings to mind too the echo of a perpetual galloping on the quickest of horses.... The bursting life-force inside him was quite evidently overwhelming, as was... and then crossed the Dardenelles to start, at the age of twenty years, his 2800 mile journey into Asia. , During his Asian campaigns, Alexander founded or refounded Page 11 many cities to administer the conquered territories. The greatest of these was Alexandria in Egypt. From these cities, in territories later ruled by Alexander's successors, Greek culture spread and for the... whose beliefs are known only through the writings of his pupils Plato and Xenophon. He taught that virtue was based on knowledge, which was attained by a dialectical process that took into account many aspects of a stated hypothesis. He was indicted for impiety and corruption of youth (399) and was condemned to death. He refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock. Page 12 that would ...
... because of his independence of character that he could earn many English friends, and he did not hesitate to criticise the Government for its misdeeds or Englishmen for their arrogance. Moreover, Krishna Dhan had a deep love for the poor of his country and his door was always open to the sick and the needy. With money, medicines and in many other ways, he helped the common people — in fact, he was generous... the unexpected are an inseparable part of Sri Aurobindo's life. Indeed I shall be telling you the story of a life that is immensely strange and wonderful. It is a most fascinating life, rich in its many-sided splendours. Sri Aurobindo is pre-eminent in more ways than one: poet, philosopher, interpreter of Indian culture and spirituality, patriot and revolutionary; but, above all, a supreme Seer and... its spiritual significance is that it symbolises divine consciousness — a singularly appropriate and prophetic name for the child. Dr. K.D. Ghose was a remarkable person, a spirited man who was in many ways in advance of his time. After graduating from the Calcutta Medical College he went, in the year 1869, to Aberdeen in Scotland for further medical studies. He was one of the first Bengalis to do ...
... your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from the other, so that you may find out clearly the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions, and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, specially, his mental nature has a spontaneous... capital importance for us to become conscious of its presence within us, to concentrate on this presence and make it a living fact for us and identify ourselves with it. Through space and time many methods have been framed to attain this perception and finally to achieve this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find... understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a certain effort is needed to enlarge page - 39 it, make it supple and deep. Hence, it is very necessary that one should consider everything from as many points of view as possible. There is an exercise in this connection which gives great suppleness and elevation to thought. It is as follows. A clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed ...
... categories of gods, who are all on different planes, some very close to man, others very close to the Supreme, with many intermediaries. You will understand better what I want to tell you if I mention the gods of the Puranas—like those we saw the other day in the film—who in many ways are, I must say, inferior to man (!) although they have infinitely more power. There are gods of the Overmind ...
... Destroyers and Triple Dawn-lord, desiring thy mind of right thought, O Fire, a newest power for one born most new, repeats after me my words with an understanding yoked to mine, repeats the many words of my many births. यो म इति प्रवोचत्यश्वमेधाय सूरये । ददवृचा सनिं यते ददन्मेधामृतायते ॥४॥ 4) His utterance of truth answers "yes" to mine. May he give to the Illuminate, the Sacrificer of the ...
... the noble rhythm so satisfying in Greek and Latin unsuited to the brief Saxon vocables—or else the secret of a successful measure has not yet been discovered. Even were the solution found, there are many obstacles in the way of its acceptation. Yet a new metrical movement is felt to be a necessity and half-unconsciously strained after by the modern mind in poetry. If one could be found that, without... conception of the difficulties to be solved and a consistent method in their solution. The poems of Clough and Longfellow are, I think, the only serious essays in the hexameter in English literature. Many have dallied with the problem, from the strange experiments of Spenser to the insufficient but carefully reasoned attempts of Matthew Arnold. But it is only by a long and sustained effort like Evangeline ...
... November 1939 The stars have no decisive influence. It is only if one does not believe in the Divine that one unnecessarily suffers by believing that they determine one's life. I have known many astrologers both in Europe and India. So far, nobody has been able to read the future correctly. There are three reasons for the failure. First, the astrologers do not know how to read the future properly... Supreme Being. And if it is doing Yoga, then all the more it should never believe in the power of the stars or in any other power. An astrologer who predicts a catastrophe for you is like a joker. Many jokers say things like, "Today you will break your neck!" But in spite of the joke nothing happens. Only a great Yogi can tell you your future correctly. But even then there is the Supreme Will which ...
... sapling of a new variety of palm tree in a garden there. 1 I liked very much its fresh leaves and asked the gardener if he could give me a sapling. Traditionally, palm leaves symbolize Victory. He had many such saplings and readily gave me one. I brought it to the Guest House and planted it in a pot which I placed on the terrace outside the room Mother occupied when she lived in that house and was later... Beautiful!” This tree yields rare but really beautiful flowers. Those who have lived here from those old times know it as 'Champaklal's palm'. Madhav: “Ah, I see. It is the one which has survived so many cyclones that uprooted other trees in the compound—the one of which Mother was so proud for having defied the storm.” C: “Lucky palm!” × ...
... better instrument than the thinker's intellectual thought. But this sight cannot surely be equated with the normal sight of man whether physical or vital or even mental. Our habitual vision suffers from many serious disabilities. For example, it sees the part and misses the whole; its perception is limited to a short interval of time and cannot span the perspective of eternity; it hovers on the surface... into the depths of a thing; it is easily satisfied with the form and does not hunt after the essence; etc. Because of all these and similar deficiencies, Sri Aurobindo has used in Savitri many not-so-laudatory expressions to designate our customary human sight. Here are some of them: "erring sight"; "fallible gaze"; "scanty fringe of sight"; "ephemeral sight"; "single window's clipped outlook"; ...
... who could even say what one had eaten a few days back. SATYENDRA: They are not always correct. One can't accept the reports. SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? How do you know the reports are not correct? Many sciences are built up by experience and intuition and handed down by tradition: for example, the Chinese method of treatment by finding nerve centres and puncturing them with pins. PURANI: It is... schools. That will be better, for it will be a combination of Eastern and Western systems, especially in anatomy and surgery. SRI AUROBINDO: Why? Anatomy and surgery were known to Indians. There were many surgical instruments in ancient India. Besides, for ancient things like Ayurveda I don't believe in this modern system of schools and colleges. They make the whole thing mental and intellectual, while ...
... निष्क्रियाणां बहूनामेकं बीजं बहुधा यः करोति । तमात्मस्थं येऽनुपश्यन्ति धीरास्तेषां सुखं शाश्वतं नेतरेषाम् ॥१२॥ 12) One God & alone He controlleth the many who have themselves no separate work nor purpose; and He developeth one seed into many kinds of creatures; the strong-hearted behold God in their own Self, therefore for them is everlasting bliss and not for others. Page 246 नित... IV य एकोऽवर्णो बहुधा शक्तियोगाद् वर्णाननेकान्निहितार्थो दधाति । वि चैति चान्ते विश्वमादौ स देवः स नो बुद्धया शुभया संयुनक्तु ॥१॥ 1) He who is one and without hue, but has ordained manifoldly many hues by the Yoga of his Force and holds within himself all objects, and in Him the universe dissolves in the end, that Godhead was in the beginning. May He yoke us with a good and bright understanding... अजामेकां लोहितशुक्लकृष्णां बह्वीः प्रजाः सृजमानां सरुपाः । अजो ह्येको जुषमाणोऽनुशेते जहात्येनां भुक्तभोगामजोऽन्यः ॥५॥ 5) There is One, unborn, white and black and red, who is ever bringing forth many creatures with forms and her one unborn loves and cleaves to and lies with her; another unborn abandons, when all her enjoyments have been enjoyed. द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते ...
... images of them. As you were concentrating your attention on the electric light, it may have been the god of electricity you saw, Vaidyuta Agni. There is no reason why he should have many faces—the many-headed or many-armed figures belong usually to the vital plane—and it may not have been in his vital form that he was manifesting. As for the colours, colours are symbols of forces and Agni need not... one can see the forms of the Gods or one of the many forms in which the Ishwara reveals himself to the Bhakta. There is too an inner or subtle sense and sight by which one can see and experience forms and happenings which are not present to the physical eye and also those which belong to other planes than that of the physical world. There are many supraphysical worlds and one can get into contact... true or is going to be true. In this case the thing seen [ a vision of Krishna, silvery blue in colour, standing in a dance pose playing the flute ] can be taken as true since it has been seen by many and always in the same relation and still more because it has been confirmed by what was seen by Yashodabai and Krishnaprem. It means obviously that your singing by the power of the bhakti it expresses ...
... causes, which may come from atavistic malformation or also from education or from the environment you have lived in or from many other causes. And these bad creases you try to smooth out, but they wrinkle up again. And then you must begin the work over again, often, many, many, many a time, without getting discouraged, before the final result is obtained. But nothing and nobody can prevent you from doing... you only want to know how it is done? No, Mother, before the class, as we had no questions I opened many books and tried to find something in this way, but I couldn't find anything. You didn't find anything, because probably at that time there was no curiosity in your mind! There are many explanations in this book [ The Synthesis of Yoga ], so if you tumble into the midst of an explanation... Mother reads again :) "The representative ego which is the shadow cast by some central and centralising self on our superficial ignorance." And then: " We find that we are posed not of one but many personalities and each has its own demands and differing nature. Our being is a roughly constituted chaos into which we have to introduce the principle of a divine order. " Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis ...
... that this can be done overnight but still this indeed is the truth. It is just because even in this field, the spiritual field, there are far too many people (I could say even the majority of those who take to the spiritual life and do yoga), far too many of these who do it for personal reasons, all kinds of personal reasons: some because they are disgusted with life, others because they are unhappy... reasons for taking up yoga. But the simple fact of giving oneself to the Divine so that the Divine takes you and makes of you what He wills, and this in all its purity and constancy, well, there are not many who do that and yet this indeed is the truth; and with this one goes straight to the goal and never risks making mistakes. But all the other motives are always mixed, tainted with ego; and naturally... Immediately? (Pavitra) In a few minutes. One feels that it will be a revolution to change that. Yes, but a revolution can occur in half a second; it can also take years, even centuries, and even many lives. It can be done in a second. One can do it. Precisely, when one has this inner reversal of consciousness, in one second everything, everything changes... precisely this bewilderment of being ...
... And I was told by others that this was because I failed to "open myself, which decided many who said that I might be a good poet and musician but not a good Yogi. Sol wrote to Sri Aurobindo in despair that I could not have any experiences because I could not "open" the closed doors of my inner being, as so many pointed out. I also wrote to him what someone else had told me — about there being a division... see that you are in the ancient tradition? Read the lives of the saints — you will find them all (perhaps not all, but at least so many) shouting like you that there was no response and getting into frightful tumults and agonies and desperations until the response came. Many people here who can't say that they haven't experiences Page 280 do just the same — so it does not depend on experiences... "I think the extracts from Sri Aurobindo very fine, and the verses you sent of Mr. Sethna have a genuine Poetic quality. There are many fine lines like 'The song-impetuous mind.' The Eternal Glory is a wanderer, Hungry for lips of clay.' "Many such lines show a feeling for rhythm which is remarkable since the poet is not writing in his native but a learned language. I refer to ...
... there is nothing in it, and then they will easily turn to Christianity and embrace it." This was the confidence with which he translated, and many others who came to translate and many of those who interpreted the Veda coincided in their interpretations. And many of the Indian scholars who read these Western scholars, also dared not depart from Page 46 their interpretation. Even a philosopher... into what we can call knowledge, it was a constant failure. In fact, many of us who read the Western scholars interpreting the Veda found in their interpretations an echo of our own lack of understanding. The Western scholars came across this great body of Vedic knowledge in the early nineteenth century... Perhaps many people may not know that vast corpus of the Veda itself. Apart from the... because it is wonderful. It does not follow the logic of the finite; it follows the logic of the infinite. The one that is many. As. Sri Aurobindo says in The Synthesis of Yoga, the ultimate reality is simple complex. It is simple- complex at the same time. It is one that is many, it is static that is dynamic. It is the same thing which is said in the Upanishad. In the Isha Upanishad the same idea is ...
... but the Cantos were much shorter, and many themes which were treated at some length received briefer treatment. Particularly the Book now called The Traveller of the Worlds was greatly expanded. He began adding lines in considerable amount in 1938. Sri Aurobindo wrote in the 'Letters on Savitri ' to Amal in 1931: "There is a previous draft, the result of many retouchings, of which somebody told you;... Or who can tell for what great work in hand The greatness of our style is now ordained? What powers it shall bring in, what spirits command? writes: "It has since brought in many powers, commanded many spirits; but it may be that the richest powers, the highest and greatest spirit yet remain to be found and commanded." I believe that Sri Aurobindo's Savitri fulfils the sovereign potentiality... revelation of Sri Aurobindo's vision. THE MOTHER It is my task in this chapter to give a factual account of the long process that led to Savitri in its final form. As the grand epic has captured many hearts all over the world by its supernal beauty I thought that they would be much interested in the history of its growth, development and final emergence — the birth of the Golden Child. But I own ...
... far as poetical creation is concerned, the present is a period of transition, that is to say, there are many widely separate attempts, some fine and powerful beginnings but no large consummation, no representative work, no dominating figure. But it is a period full of hundreds of influences, many-motived, and therefore naturally rich in interesting and fruitful experiments. So far as the output of the... this crumbling sands One flame burns many phenomena". A wonderful compactness in expression and yet it holds a world of significance. It implies the rise of Life from Matter,—some Flame of original Fire burning has left this material world and sands as remnants and given rise to Life that like a flame burns in our very limbs. The line "one flame bums many phenomena" reminds one of the Upanishadic... the precursors of this new age may be counted Whitman, Carpenter, Yeats, A. E. Meredith, Stephen Phillips, Tagore in whose works one can see clear indications of the new spirit and experiments with many forms of poetic expression. The nature of this change may be said to consist in the deepening and enlarging of the thought-mind of man, a more profound and intimate way of seeing life, of feeling and ...
... the way of all empires, but the Greek nation, after many centuries of political non-existence, again possesses its separate body, because it has preserved its separate ego and therefore really existed under the covering rule of the Turk. So has it been with all the races under the Turkish yoke, because that powerful suzerainty, stern as it was in many respects, never attempted to obliterate their national... Greece attempted to reconstitute herself in her mainland, islands and Asiatic colonies, but could not reconstitute the old Greece because many parts had become Bulgarian, Albanian and Turk and no longer Hellenic. Italy became an external unity again after so many centuries because, though no longer a State, she never ceased to be a single people. This truth of a real unity is so strong that even... still left outside, the Austro-German, into the Germanic whole, although possibly in some other embodiment than Prussian hegemony or Hohenzollern Empire. 1 In both these historic instances, as in so many others, the unification of Saxon England, mediaeval France, the formation of the United States of America, it was a real unity, a psychologically distinct unit which tended at first ignorantly by the ...
... something to note there.... So many things there are which we do not know! ( Silence ) I have already had the experience, partially, that when one is in this state of inner harmony and no part of the attention is turned towards the body, the body works perfectly well. It is this... "self-concentration" which upsets everything. And this I have observed many times, many times.... In reality one does... 1969 1969 Notes on the Way 19 November 1969 This morning about eight o'clock, I could have said many things.... Because there came a day when many problems had cropped up as a consequence of something that had happened, then this morning (towards the end of the night), I had the experience that was the explanation. And for two hours I lived in an... It was so luminous, so clear; it was irrefutable. It lasted at least for four or five hours and then it petered out; gradually the experience diminished in intensity and clarity.... I had just seen many people, then... it is difficult to explain now. But all had become so limpid; all the contrary theories, everything was at the bottom ( Mother looks from above ), and all the explanations, all that ...
... the Time-spirit. And when we look back, especially upon the life of someone as great and many-sided a personality as our very own Amal Kiran, we have to be even more careful that we do not lose sight of the person who stands behind the personality. For, our persona is a mask that hides behind its veil of many hues, the face of the One Eternal whom we love in different forms. And this indeed is the... the true greatness of an individual, the greatness of the divine in him. For a man can be great and many-sided, he may possess a rare force of intellect, a strong and robust vital in a truly beautiful and healthy body. Yet if the secret soul is not born then there is nothing of true and lasting significance about him. The real worth of a man's life is not in what he does or does not do but in what... and attractive. For, is not the purpose of the Integral Yoga in one sense to reunite the diverse and even seemingly contradictory elements in our nature in and around the inmost soul, to offer this many-petalled unity at the Feet Divine with a Page 51 will and aspiration that He may fill this flower with His sweetness and joy so as to make this earth a little more fra-grant, a little ...
... nce with Sri Aurobindo is coming out in two volumes. It contains many new letters appearing for the first time with the exception of those which are strictly private. Now it may be called a complete set. This book adds a further chapter to the voluminous correspondence which Sri Aurobindo carried on with his disciples over many years; but it is a chapter with a big difference. It is in the new... from his supramental quarry, though at the cost of being dubbed a "wooden head" and many other complimentary epithets. Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Napoleon, Virgil, Shaw, Joyce, Hitler, Mussolini, Negus, Spanish Civil War, General Miaja, romping in, oh, the world-theatre seen at a glance exhibiting many-coloured movements for the eye's, the ear's and the soul's rejoicing. Now, the question... taught him?" I was anything but a tiger-cub. Was it the Guru's purpose to experiment with common clay and see how far it could be transformed by his Supramental Power? He has said that he turned many cowards into heroes during the Swadeshi days. Or could it be that—to adapt his own words—he tried to enlighten my understanding, raise me to his level and inspire willing obedience, by convincing me ...
... fighting force. In 1758, Lawrence raised the Madras Regiment, forming the several companies of Madras Levies into two battalions. The regiment has been through many campaigns with both the British Indian Army and the Indian Army. Many well-known British officers have commanded this regiment, Robert Clive being one of them. The regiment fought the Carnatic wars in South India. Thereafter... some real or imagined sympathy for the mutineers. Looting was endemic and neither the sanctity of holy places nor the rank of Indian aristocrats could prevent the wholesale theft of their possessions. Many a British family saw its fortune made during the pacification of northern India. Later, when prisoners started to be taken and trials held, those convicted of mutiny were lashed to the muzzles of cannon... 1857, the British recaptured Delhi, and in the following months, recaptured Kanpur and withstood a sepoy siege of Lucknow. The British victories were accompanied by widespread recrimination, and in many cases, unarmed sepoys were bayonetted, sewn up in the carcasses of pigs or cows, or fired from cannons. For more than a year the people of northern India trembled with fear as the British sated their ...
... means that in your outer body you belong to the animal species in the course of becoming a supramental species—you are not that yet! but within you there’s a psychic being which has already lived in many, many, countless species before and carries an experience of thousands of years within you, and which will continue while your human body remains human and finally decomposes. The Mother Questions... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves The Psychic Being and Individual Progress “This terrestrial evolutionary working of Nature from Matter to Mind and beyond it has a double process: there is an outward visible process of physical evolution with birth as its machinery,—for each evolved form of body housing its own evolved power of consciousness ...
... sleep I always ask to be conscious and to receive whatever you send me. No, you must ask to remember to call me when the situation gets unpleasant ( Mother laughs ); that has rescued people so many, many times, right in the midst of their nightly activity—not at the moment they woke up, no: right in their nighttime consciousness they have seen the results within and around them. Take the story of... appear to involve this body. Last night (ah, by the way, I remember noticing I was physically young—it was in the subtle physical, of course, and I was quite young)... but what a life I led, with so many... oh, revolutions, battles; I was involved in everything, there was tremendous activity. But I was being personally harassed by four or five of the most vile and disgusting old swine, and I had to ...
... ( On Mother's table are two double white hibiscus flowers called "Grace." Mother takes one and gives it to Satprem: ) N. had a dream last night in which Sri Aurobindo gave her many things, then I came and gave her two "Grace" flowers. And in the morning, she wakes up, goes to her garden... on the tree were two Grace flowers. It's amusing. So, what have you brought? I... very slowly. I'll have to change something in the organization again—it goes wrong very quickly. In the beginning [when Mother withdrew], I used to receive one or two letters daily, not even that many; now it's ten or twelve daily, and when I don't reply immediately, two days later I receive another letter: "I wrote to you but I haven't had a reply." So immediately I scribble on their letter two... eased in you—did you feel a relaxation? ( Satprem nods his head... silence ) The last two days, Sri Aurobindo was here all the time, all the time. Constantly, constantly mingled with things. And many people saw him and spoke to him—he was very, very present. The last two days. At times he seemed to go into a kind of... (I can't say) of inner stillness, then at other times he was very active. ...
... adaptive without being loose or unstable, then the collective being can keep unimpaired through vicissitudes, even rise phoenix-like out of an apparent perishing and one cycle will evolve into another and many cycles run their courses before the final collapse. Certain of the ancient civilisations had this kind of continuity and resurrection. But even they could not last indefinitely. For, the inner... When, however, there is a constant look into the inmost, a persistent pressure upon the deepest and widest Self, a people acquires the secret of perpetual life-renewal and never ages, no matter how many millenniums pass, what foreign invasions interfere with the physical expression and what defects and decadences set in as a result of its own folly. Even death may threaten again and again, but every... soul and thereby in the presence of "Virat", the infinite Self of the cosmos seeking its own highest manifestation through human history, such a people never dies and is everlastingly young in spite of many phases of apparent decline. In ways that are different in several respects but have a basic similarity India and China strike the historian as nations that can be said to have lived from remote ...
... Reminiscences XIV Eternal Youth This is about the time when you, the young, the children had not arrived here. The few of us who were here had grown up, many had become aged, even old, that is to say, had passed the middle age. I often wondered, well, we were here, had been growing up and becoming old, what would be the nature of this institution long... the ill omen of the comet appeared in the sky of India, that is to say, when there was the panic of bombing by the Germans, and the Japanese, even their advent in this country seemed imminent, then many thought that the only safe place was at the feet of the Mother at Pondicherry. Therefore their solicitations reached the Mother. The Mother said that it was not possible for her to refuse them. So... 25 years, at the age of 60,1 had to join the play ground and do gymnastic drill, and I am continuing doing that for these 12 years.... This is the fact of life not only of myself, this history of many old men is a speciality of this Ashram. Not only in respect of the body, even in mental make up, there came youth, newness, for in order to teach children we had to learn the elementary lessons newly ...
... - Vol. 1 Man to be Surpassed "MAN is a thing that shall be surpassed". This burning phrase of Nietzsche has unsealed many eyes: it has also scalded and frightened others. It has been hailed by many as the motto, the mantra of the age to come; it has been denounced equally as a false light, a lead of arrogance and egoism. Erich Kahler (a Czech now become... natural or normal self. But there is a danger here. For there can be a too much surpassing, a going away altogether, as religion or spirituality usually enjoins. Christianity, for example, which is in many senses a movement contrary to the Greek spirit, taught a transcendence that was for luring or driving the human soul away from the world and men towards an extra-terrestrial summum bonum. That ...
... poets is increasing, he says, and many have talents. But the talent depends on what use society will make of it. SRI AUROBINDO (laughing): Obviously! PURANI: You have seen at the end of the book what he says about the sale of poetry books? SRI AUROBINDO: No. PURANI: He has quoted a publisher's statement—very revealing. The publisher says that out of many books published, some—about one... PURANI: Mandel, Reynaud, Gamelin, etc. are going to be tried, it seems. SRI AUROBINDO: Gamelin for insufficient preparation. In that case Pétain is also to blame. He was Minister of Defence for so many years and he has done nothing. Mandel and others have been betrayed by Nogues. It seems he invited them to Africa to fight from there against Germany and then betrayed them to Pétain . It was very unwise ...
... all attachments and sentimentalities, the hunger that you call love. And there are a hundred others. There are as many kinds in the head too. There it is the perversions of thought, all the betrayals, the betrayals of your soul. It is inconceivable how one betrays one's soul, in how many ways, how persistently, the decisions, the points of view, the favourable explanations which your brain supplies... to cover up the place and retire. You must instead throw it wide open, receive the blow straight upon you. I have told you to seek out the place where the hidden thing lies. The black thing has many a cosy corner in your being. There are people who have it in the head, some in the heart, others down below; but wherever it is when you track it down it has the same look, the little black creature ...
... through developing or successive forms and many lives of the individual to its own highest reality. For if there is a conscious being in the form, that being can hardly be a temporary phenomenon of consciousness; it must be a soul fulfilling itself and this fulfilment can only take place if there is a return of the soul to earth in many successive lives, in many successive bodies. The process of evolution ...
... Her life; they were Her friends and She understood them. She could know all about a flower by identifying Her consciousness with it. In this way She named many flowers according to their inner significance. We, in the Ashram, grew up knowing many of the names the Mother gave to flowers. We knew that jasmine signified purity, that zinnias meant endurance, and so on. Let me relate how the Mother fostered... We held them all together in our hand and then let go or, to make the game more difficult, we arranged them on top of each other in a crisscross manner. Each player, in turn, would then pick up as many sticks as he could without moving any other stick. If any stick other than the one, which was being picked up moved, the player lost his turn. Whoever managed to get the maximum number of sticks was ...
... friend, It is quite impossible to tell you how glad I am to come into communication with you again. After so many years of separation, for old friends to be even partially united is a great happiness. If you will let me pour out my sentiments, I can write pages.—My name is Mo—— 2 Too many people are thinking—I am the friend who died in the years when you were at Baroda—I am Nair--- 3 My soul... things that represent some perfection, are a preparation, without them as a stage the perfection could not be reached, but they must not rest too long in the stage of preparation—I don't know—There are many excellent things in the world— You have not to arrange—Let it arrange itself under a higher impulsion—Not always—Speaking of precise defects interferes with the balance; it gives a tendency to exaggerate... it is being done? In some directions—Not balanced—Let the Power work—don't quarrel with it. When there is want of balance, it means that both sides are wrongly arranged with regard to each other. Many begin to be calm—None yet avail for action—What matters Page 1402 whence comes the truth—That let the recipient judge—The work—The work that is to be, not that which men imagine—Remove all ...
... The first [ case ] is vital indecision—the other is vital instability. 1 Those who can't choose, have the vital indecision and it is usually due to a too active physical mind, seeing too many things or too many sides at a time. The other rises from a lack of control and too much impulse. It [ failure in whatever one tries to do ] usually comes from a certain instability in the lower vital... really it is the whole difficulty of this raw and unreasonable sensitiveness which cropped up with this very infinitesimally small excuse—and that sensitiveness is one of the most persistent obstacles of many sadhaks here. There are two remedies for it—the psychic's confidence in the Mother and the surrender that goes with it, i.e. "whatever she wills is best for me", and the vastness which you feel now... which does not give a consistent support to the Will, but is restless and fluctuates from one interest to another. It does not mean an incapacity for success—usually one who has that could succeed in many directions, but the fluctuation prevents sustained success in any. It is a defect that has to be got over and can be got over. The failure [ in studies and in sadhana ] is due not to want of ...
... his books. But you said "it is self-evident." There are many people here—several hundred—if you ask them individually, not to repeat to you what they have read, but what they themselves feel and think about the intention of universal evolution and whether there is any intention in the universal evolution... I don't think there would be many who could tell you in all sincerity: "It is like this, it... —are you capable of describing it? Page 183 Yes. Yes! Well, I congratulate you. In spite of myself, it does happen. Well, very good. I hope there are many more like you, that's all. There are many conflicting elements in me, but all the same there is something... Yes, that's good, that's good—it is very good. So I can tell you that you have not wasted your time since ...
... things are immediately better, there is quite a considerable improvement. But there are lots of people doing a kind of black magic. Again? Yes, a great many. I have been told this several times, but naturally... There are a great many of those so-called swamis and sadhus who are quite simply tricksters, but they have a rudimentary occult knowledge in a field where, unfortunately, it takes... or two, but lots. And I know people who went and saw them, who begged them and tried to make them intervene [against Mother]. They have turned either against people around me or against myself. Not many against myself, but one or two of them think they are the "lords of the world," and therefore completely immune , so they have tried, but... It can cause a little friction, that's all, it's nothing... defect of the sight or the material organ: it's something else—something else that one wants me to learn. Because it constantly comes back as if to show me something. But there's so much work and so many people that I don't always have the time to stop and concentrate to see what it is. I would have to catch the exact point when the sight comes and when it goes, and follow the conditions of the con ...
... seen M.'s translation [another English translator]? Yes, in part. Many passages are very beautiful. Ah! I think that on the whole it will be effective—not everything is understood. Really? No, but ultimately that doesn't matter. What she has understood and brought out is brought out well and forcefully. Many deeper things are omitted. But we have no choice. Her merit is that what... undertake one work on a larger scale than before—the training of others to receive this Sadhana and prepare themselves as I have done, for without that my future work cannot even be begun. There are many who desire to come here and whom I can admit for the purpose, there are a greater number who can be trained at a distance; but I am unable to carry on unless I have sufficient funds to be able to maintain... on, for training in this Sadhana.... The first, which will be transferred to British India when I go there, already exists at Pondicherry, but I need funds both to maintain and to enlarge it.... Many more desire and are fit to undertake this Sadhana than I can at present admit and it is only by large means being placed at my disposal that I can carry on this work which is necessary as a preparation ...
... learn English, French, Latin and Greek? In childhood learning is easy." "You learned so many languages, read so many books! You must have been at your studies all day! Goodness, we'd never have been able to do so, we'd have been bored to death. Did you ever mix with the English boys?" "There weren't very many occasions for it, really. I was made to stay at home, mostly, you see. And you know, ... Later came Shaw and many others who spoke against social evils and injustices. In Turkey, Kamal Ataturk freed women from the burkha. Indian history recounts the stories of many brave and illustrious women - Samyukta, Subhadra, Padmini. There are also the great names of the queen of Jhansi as well as Rani Rashmoni, both of whom stood up to fight against foreign rule. In fact, many women in Bengal took... children. One of them was saying: "It seems you have said many beautiful Page 1 things to grown-ups. Please tell us something too." "I have spoken all about big things. You won't understand them." "Then tell us some stories. You have read lots of books, we're told. Do tell us something from them. The Mother has narrated to us so many things. Now it's your turn." "No, no, no stories," ...
... And on the Wikipedia website we find the following comment: “Many view the NDE as the precursor to an afterlife experience, claiming that the NDE cannot be adequately explained by physiological or psychological causes, and that the phenomenon conclusively demonstrates that human consciousness can function independently of brain activity. Many NDE-accounts seem to include elements which, according to several... Constant.” 2 Madame Théon was an even greater occultist than her husband. The Mother went two times to Tlemcen, in Algeria, in 1906 and 1907. The “pathways” the Mother built are what is described by many persons who have been clinically dead as tunnels, bridges or narrow mountain passes by which they feel protected and which they use to cross over directly into the Light. They are able to report this... to a later Gallup poll no less than 8 million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. Students of the phenomenon claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be much higher, as many persons who have gone through the experience are reluctant to talk about it for fear of ridicule. The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines “near-death experience” as follows: “Mystical or t ...
... must remain true and nothing must come between me and Her. (5) The Maya of the ego is difficult to surmount. It appears with new dazzles when you think you are killing or surpassing it. Many yogis fell and many seekers broke their journey midway. It is the Divine alone who can lead us without committing mistakes. So we must surrender ourselves unreservedly to Him alone and reject all desire and... rushes up to capture the Divine by his vital, mental and physical power instead of giving oneself completely to that Divine Power — he wants to possess the Divine with his Asuric ego. This is the case of many seekers who have fallen from the Divine path. They become the instrument of the dark power that dominates the world. They might have good wishes for the world, for the suffering of humanity, but... help the growth of the four professions by their labour. But it is to be noted that, although people choose the professions of the four, they hardly represent the inner dharma, or..., or soul-desire. Many choose one or other profession because they have to make their livelihood out of the work they were forced to do by necessity. (10) In the future there will be no suppression of the individual as ...
... have gone to the other extreme! I have so many that they would keep us at least till midnight if they were all to be answered! So I shall have to make a selection.... There is one at once very common and very practical which seems to me quite appropriate. I have noted―much too often, I must say―that most of you do not listen to what I say, so much so that many a time I have answered a question in detail... if you speak of "natural" things, I cannot tell you that this is not "natural", for that is the way of Nature. But still, I believe I have told you―not only once but many times, and Sri Aurobindo also has written this, not once but many a time―that we are not here to recommence, perpetuate, continue what is done elsewhere. And we have given a concrete form to this fact specially in our education; for... something. That's the first point. If you are here, well, first listen, don't think of something else.... But that too is not enough, that's just the beginning: there is one good way of listening and many bad ways of listening. I don't know if any of you are so fond of music as to know how to hear it. But if you want to listen to music, you must create an absolute silence in your head, you must not ...
... scrupled about grinding the faces of the poor. The passage is memorable, for in it is summed up the real Gandhi: "No sophistry, no jugglery m figures can explain away the evidence, the skeletons in many villages, present to the naked eye. I have no doubt whatsoever that both England and the town-dwellers of India will have to answer, if there is a God above, for this crime against humanity which is... India ran parallel to his battle with John Bull. He solemnly thought his country deserved to be tyrannised over by the British because of the heinous sin she had committed for centuries against so many millions of her own people by looking down upon them as pariahs, as outside the pale of social intercourse, as worse than beasts of burden. Unless we set about putting our own house in order we are... a just and bold critic of India. Even about the scurrillous book by Miss Mayo he said that it was a book Englishmen should put out of their minds but Indians must take to heart, for though it was in many respects a malicious exaggeration with not half a glance to spare for the good side of our land, it did drive home a few facts, a few truths. And the worst fact, the most painful truth about us was ...
... Aryan and the Dravidian blood has influenced the Bengali race. But we definitely know that the Bengali race is not totally pure or unalloyed. It is a mixture of many races. But here in the diversity of many races we are seeing the result of extraordinary capacities. The nervous system of the Bengalis is not very strong, but it is very sharp. Their vital energy is not solid, but it... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7 ON NATIONAL HERITAGE The Heart of Bengal BENGAL is a land of many rivers. The land of Bengal has been formed by the alluvial soil of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and their branches. The poet Bankimchandra addressed the Mother Bengal thus: Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying... influence of the spiritual world, the ideal world above, has manifested itself there more than anywhere else. We admit that for want of general strength the result has not been quite satisfactory in a good many cases, but the influence of the Light above has been responsible for the new creation. The wealth of Bengal is the wealth of her soul from above. Bengalis are not skilful in work and their special ...
... kept still for a while. Then slowly there came a voice from Sri Aurobindo. It was clearly not his own voice, there were many voices each of a different character and tone. The voice itself would say who it was. Some of them I remember very well. Once someone came and said many fine things about education, about literature, about our country. We got eager to know his name. After putting us off for... himself thus, "I am Theramenes." Theramenes was a political leader of ancient Greece. He spoke in a calm and subdued tone and gave us a lesson in political matters. So many others came like this, day after day, and taught us many things on various subjects. Someone even raised the question of Hindu-Muslim unity and offered us a solution as well. Who are these beings? Or, what are they? Do ... Chakravarti and myself. But there turned up practically every day Ramchandra Majum-dar, Biren Ghosh and Saurin Bose (a brother-in-law of Sri Aurobindo) who came with us to Pondicherry and stayed here many long years. A frequent visitor was Ganen Tagore of Ramakrishna Mission who acted as the link with Sister Nivedita. There were a few others who came once in a while. Sri Aurobindo had his own novel ...
... unusual nor astonishing, but rather, petty and limited. The many-sidedness of an Eratosthenes or the range of a Herbert Spencer have created in Europe admiring or astonished comment; but the universality of the ordinary curriculum in ancient India was for every student and not for the exceptional few, and it implied, not a tasting of many subjects after the modern plan, but the thorough mastery of... achievement. Brahmacharya and sattwic development created the brain of India: it was perfected by Yoga. It is a common complaint that our students are too heavily burdened with many subjects and the studying of many books. The complaint is utterly true and yet it is equally true that the range of studies is pitifully narrow and the books read miserably few. What is the reason of this paradox, the... these that will lead in the future evolution. In addition, the race has a mighty will-power which comes from the long worship of Shakti and practice of the Tantra that has been a part of our culture for many centuries. No other people could have revolutionised its Page 365 whole national character in a few years as Bengal has done. The Bengali has always worshipped the Divine Energy in her most ...
... that's right. They have no meaning, to such a point that... I remember one thing last night: suddenly I saw a functioning, and I said to myself, "Oh, if we knew this, HOW MANY THINGS—how many fears, how many combinations, how many... would crumble away, would lose all meaning!" It was... what we see as "laws of Nature," "ineluctable" things, it all was absurd, an absurdity! Yes, and I felt it as... Ignorance. Possibly.... It's possible, oh yes. Mon petit, EVERYTHING is possible, and not only possible: everything is. But everything isn't on earth, of course. You understand, there are many worlds, many regions—there is nothing that is impossible and that isn't: if a thing is possible, it means it exists somewhere. Logically, there has to be a Mother of Ignorance. (Satprem to Sujata:)... there wasn't the shadow of a fear in the body. Then he told me, "Yes, it's because it is able not to be afraid that you can do the work." The absence of fear is really the result of the yoga for so many years—for half a century. It was like this ( gesture, hands open ), offering its suffering, all the time like this. ( silence ) After last night, I have every reason to think that the work ...
... fount of the creative which spurs forth the act of creation. There might be many external agents that trigger off like the episode of the hunter and the wounded bird as in the case of Valmiki. There might also be many internal causes that could account for the act. However, the creative is so amorphous and protean that it takes many shapes - any shape - and remains the elusive and also the transient. The... easy to pinpoint this factor. For despite the plethora of theories and counter-theories, the wealth of actual evidence and data collated from creative artists upon Page 332 which many psychologists and psychoanalysts have built their own interpretations, the actual act and its manifestation remains for the most part mysterious. Insightful creative artists and writers have recorded... does not last for long - it wanes and ebbs, and so often traces a trajectory of pain and longing. It is ineffable. Perhaps it is the ineffable . In the Hindu cremation rites among the many unique mantras that are chanted, there is one that remains for a slightly longer time in the hearts of the genuine listeners: Vayur anilam amrtam athedam bhasmantam sariram Aum krato ...
... they should not be underrated for that reason. However, we must make one exception here. Although many of those mentioned above are no longer with us, Amal Kiran is very much with us with a background of nearly seventy years and merits a special place for his various contributions in so many disciplines of thought and creative research. His editing of Mother India for nearly half a... mention for their expositions in Sanskrit of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the Vedas. Later came Sundaram with achievements already to his credit. He attained the highest status as a poet with many works to his credit and won the highest literary laurels. His History of Gujarati Literature and other works in prose made him one of the undisputed voices of Gujarati genius. With... earned a special mention from Sri Aurobindo - "He knows how to write English", which he could not say about others. Although Amal's first love is poetry, his intellectual mind takes interest in many activities of life and thought. His letters to his friends on life, literature and yoga, his literary criticism, his political comments on the burning questions of the day as the editor of Mother ...
... the sum and combination of many factors and also, beyond the objective criteria, very much dependent on subjective perceptions. Hypochondriacs are well known to feel them selves in bad health or, at least, in much worse condition than they Page 179 really are. Mind appears to have extraordinary powers on the state of an individual's health and, as too many human minds are ordinarily cluttered... He became quite well known afterwards through the book he wrote to tell the story of his self cure under the title Anatomy of an Illness. This book made a profound Page 177 impact. To many, it was the discovery that illnesses and treatments are not to be left to doctors only: healing is a complex process where the so called "patient" must participate as consciously as possible. Ultimately... of what is going on in his body. But the fact is that there is a great risk of depersonalisation in most hospitals where patients are often treated as bodies with little care for their individuality. Many hospitals tend to become like "body-processors", healing factories where individuals easily feel lost. But it is not only the pressure of modern life which provokes a tendency towards depers ...
... the Darkness And itself becomes the Darkness. Invocation to Darkness has, it appears, become quite fashionable among a certain group of modern poets. It is a favourite theme on which many a poet, many a good poet has played each in his way, a characteristic variation. Curiously enough, I came across about the same time the work of another poet, a French poet, also modern and almost modernist... lly modern, though perhaps not quite modernist. It is an invocation to Darkness: That darkness is no more, The darkness in which my heart plunged when you came, It is no more there. Many are the lights now around the heart Arrayed as in a festive illumination. Ceaseless now There is the earth's merry-go-round all the time. But beyond still, Outside Time, the mind, even this... I have brooded over it and I am utterly confused; She in whose name one defies dark time, She at whose feet lies low the Supreme in his pure whiteness Why should she herself be black ? Many are the forms of blackness, But here is a very marvel of blackness. If you hold it in your heart, the lotus there shall bloom and burn bright— Oh, she is dark and her name is Mother Darkness: ...
... Darkness And itself becomes the Darkness. Invocation to Darkness has, it appears, become quite fashionable among a certain group of modern poets. It is a favourite theme on which many a poet, many a good poet has played each in his way, a characteristic variation. Curiously enough, I came across about the same time the work of another poet, a French poet, also modern and almost modernist... modern, though perhaps not quite modernist. It is an invocation to Darkness: That darkness is not more, The darkness in which my heart plunged when you came, It is no more there. Many are the lights now around the heart Arrayed as in a festive illumination. Ceaseless now There is the earth's merry-go-round all the time. But beyond still, Outside Time, the mind,... brooded over it and I am utterly confused; She in whose name one defies dark time, She at whose feet lies low the Supreme in his pure whiteness Why should she herself be black? Many are the forms of blackness, But here is a very marvel of blackness. If you hold it in your heart, the lotus there shall bloom and burn bright— Oh, she is dark and her name is ...
... physical disturbance. The physical has its limits. The vital being can go on feeling energy or peace or any other thing, but the physical can't be taxed beyond its capacity. The overtaxing happened to many sadhaks here. Dr. Manilal once felt such a flow of energy that he thought he could clean the whole Ashram and went on increasing his work till a reaction set in. The Force comes for the work allotted... even ten minutes' sleep may be sufficient, but then it is not ordinary sleep but a going deep within. If one can draw the Force with equanimity and conserve it, wonderful things can be done. As I said, many sadhaks felt extraordinary energy when we were dealing with the vital being. But afterwards the sadhana came down into the physical, there was not that push any more and people began to get easily fatigued... know the Mother had gone." NIRODBARAN: Good meditation? How do you. know? SRI AUROBINDO: By the inclination of your head perhaps. NIRODBARAN: I can't say. All I can say is that I was having many incoherent dreams and visions—perhaps in the surface consciousness. . SRI AUROBINDO: The surface consciousness of the inner vital being. Such experiences are common. Of course, when one goes still ...
... Darkness And itself becomes the Darkness. Invocation to Darkness has, it appears, become quite fashionable among a certain group of modern poets. It is a favourite theme on which many a poet, many a good poet has played each in his way, a characteristic variation. Curiously enough, I came across about the same time the work of another poet, a French poet, also modern and almost modernist... y modern, though perhaps not quite modernist. It is an invocation to Darkness: That darkness is no more, The darkness in which my heart plunged when you came, It is no more there. Many are the lights now around the heart Arrayed as in a festive illumination. Ceaseless now There is the earth's merry-go-round all the time. But beyond still, Outside Time, the mind... have brooded over it and I am utterly confused; She in whose name one defies dark time, She at whose feet lies low the Supreme in his pure whiteness. Why should she herself be black? Many are the forms of blackness, But here is a very marvel of blackness. If you hold it in your heart, the lotus there shall bloom and burn bright - Oh, she is dark and her name is Mother ...
... she was going from place to place, observing all and speaking to people. Among the people, curiously, some I seemed to recognise, some of those even who are here now, there were many strangers from other countries, a good many of them. Regarding those who are here now and whom I seemed to recognise there also, the impression is rather vague and I cannot name them. But some of those who were here and... in fact the inner reality of our ashram here, that inner ashram which is within us all; what we see at present is the outer form, the material form which is a good deal deformed and even falsified in many ways. Indeed that inner ashram has an other worldly atmosphere of its own, an atmosphere of rarified heights. I have told you very often that those who are here are fortunate, they breathe this atmosphere... when you feel nice and free, when you are happy, when you are noble in spirit, you come in contact with that inner ashram, you breathe that atmosphere. In dreams also, while asleep, apparently asleep, many of you must have seen the Mother, must have had Sri Aurobindo's darshan. That is because you come in contact with that inner atmosphere and enter into it. Now our task is to come more and more in contact ...
... him; one, he sucked the milk of many who nourished him with their overflowing. Two who have one lord and kinsman, for this pure male of the herds guard both in the human being. उरौ महाँ अनिबाधे ववर्धाऽऽपो अग्निं यशसः सं हि पूर्वीः । ऋतस्य योनावशयद् दमूना जामीनामग्निरपसि स्वसृणाम् ॥११॥ 11) Vast was he in the unobstructed wideness and grew, for the waters many and glorious fed the flame; in... Page 177 वृषायन्ते महे अत्याय पूर्वीर्वृष्णे चित्राय रश्मयः सुयामाः । देव होतर्मन्द्रतरश्चिकित्वान् महो देवान् रोदसी एह वक्षि ॥९॥ 9) The many Rays well governed in their course, grow passionate for the great Horse, the many-hued Bull. O divine Priest of the call, rapturous, awaking to knowledge, bring here the great gods and earth and heaven. पृक्षप्रयजो द्रविणः सुवाचः सुकेतव... strong and mighty Fire. अपां गर्भं दर्शतमोषधीनां वना जजान सुभगा विरुपम् । देवासश्चिन्मनसा सं हि जग्मुः पनिष्ठं जातं तवसं दुवस्यन् ॥१३॥ 13) One desirable and blissful gave birth to him in many forms, a visioned child of the waters and a child of the growths of earth: the gods too met with the Mind the Fire, strong at his birth and powerful to act 6 and set him to his work. बृहन्त ...
... empty self-satisfaction.” 483 “There were already many youth organizations of this kind before the First World War”, Bronder too points out, “protesting against the satisfaction and the bourgeois mentality of their world, the end of which was greeted with jubilation in 1914. From the ‘German Youth’ originated the movement of the Wandervogel , many of whose best elements would later join National-Socialism... towns and cities. Romanticism had been one big hymn to nature, conciliating man with suffering and death, and it was to nature that “the new romanticism”, refusing to yield to modern life, turned back. “Many of our generation sought such contact with nature”, wrote Albert Speer, the son of a stiffly conventional upper middle-class family. “This was not merely a romantic protest against the narrowness of... To the völkisch eye the peasant was the original and true German, guardian of the knowledge of yore, in permanent contact and exchange with the forces of nature. The praise of the peasant is sung in many pages of Oswald Spengler’s Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West) , a book that like few others mirrors the aspirations and desperations of the period in Germany which occupies us. The ...
... They want to create the same "habit of depression and trouble" that there has been in X and many others so as to use it as a lever against you; but there is no reason why you should allow it. The idea that we are driving away and will drive many by the pressure of our Yoga force is a silly notion among the many silly notions current in the Asram invented by the too idly active brains of the sadhaks.... them that they disappear—on the contrary: the only way is to grow out of them or let them die. 7 February 1933 Can sadhaks who leave the Mother totally forget her Grace after receiving it for so many years while living at her feet? Some of them seem to forget. Is there any possibility for them to return again to live at the Mother's feet? It depends on the person. How is it possible... everything else. The reasons for your not giving up the work are just the same as before and not in the least changed by anything that has happened. Jealousy is no doubt a great defect of the nature, but many here have it; almost everyone has some serious defect in his nature which stands in his way and gives trouble. But it is not a remedy for this to give up work and sadhana and abandon the Mother. You ...
... food when there was not a morsel. Perhaps he had to perform more miracles than you have to, though I should not forget that constant calls must be coming to you also for help in illnesses and many others in many ways. Moreover, Sri Krishna never actually became the Guru of a number of people. Well, he may have been rather wise in that and fortunate in the infrequency of correspondence in those days—but... of the Yogic force. Many customary illnesses have passed away from me permanently after an intimation that they would occur no more. In my last days in Calcutta that happened with regard to colds in the head, and when I was in the rue des Missions Étrangères with regard to fever. I had no cold or fever after that. So also with regard to things like the bad cough I had for many years; it was intimated... keep himself open as he was in those moments. The Force is not a matter for reasoning or theory but of experience. If I have written about the Force, it is because both the Mother and myself have had many thousand experiences in which it acted Page 37 and produced results of every kind. This idea of the Force has nothing to do with theory or reasoning but is felt constantly by every Yogin; ...
... physical experience and I guarantee that whoever has a sufficiently awakened consciousness can feel the same thing. I had the contrary experience also, the first time that I went out in a car after many, many years here. When I reached a Page 223 little beyond the lake, I felt all of a sudden that the atmosphere was changing; where there had been plenitude, energy, light and force, all that... say), take a sphere which is full of infinitesimal things in an incalculable number. If you change the relation of all these elements, well, the number is so great, the possibilities of relations so many that you may easily speak of an infinite, although from a philosophical point of view it is not an infinite; yet from a descriptive point of view one may say Page 217 that it is infinite... wants to translate this experience, one finds all words empty of sense, because language has been formed to translate human experience for the human mind. We have all the necessary words, even with many shades and niceties, to express human experience, since language has been made for that, but what language will you use to explain what is outside all language? It is extremely difficult. So you say ...
... them thoroughly. Rather they are hints whose purpose is more pragmatic than didactic; they are a kind of moral stimulus meant to goad and spur on those who are on the way. It is true that in my answers many aspects of the question have been neglected which could have been examined with interest—that will be for another time. 21 October 1929 The Ashram is becoming a more and more interesting i... , and the number of Ashram members (Sri Aurobindo's disciples living in Pondicherry) varies between eighty-five and a hundred. Five cars, twelve bicycles, four sewing machines, a dozen typewriters, many garages, an automobile repair workshop, an electrical service, a building service, sewing departments (European and Indian tailors, embroideresses, etc.), a library and reading-room containing several... 1930 I have also received the Grande Revue 3 and I read the article you mention. I found it rather dull, but apart from that not too bad. But the Mukerjee quoted there must have lived for many years Page 5 outside India (in America, I believe) and has become completely westernised; otherwise he would not give Gandhi and Tagore as the two most popular figures in India . On the ...
... bless the pair. The paper asks: "What will Western materialists say to this?" SRI AUROBINDO: They will say it is all humbug. SATYENDRA: What does Yoga have to say? SRI AUROBINDO: There are many possibilities. NIRODBARAN: But is it at all possible to create like this in new flesh and blood? SRI AUROBINDO: What is meant by flesh and blood? Does Somesh Bose's wife live all the time with... friend or relative, and if the dying condition or the death is not known to them or the man is not known to be living far away, people mistake his appearance for actual physical presence. There are many such well-attested cases. My brother Manmohan used to say he had heard from Stephen Phillips that the latter's mother visited him when she was on her death-bed at a distant place. But my brother... PURANI: I believe he went back to the hill. SRI AUROBINDO: Then one can't say what exactly happened? The Egyptians held that at the time of death the Ka or vital being goes out of the body and after many years can return to it if preserved. That is the tradition behind mummification. Perhaps Brunton materialised the tradition? (Laughter) PURANI: Brunton cites the instance of a dead sparrow being ...
... independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the realisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives. In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence, this inner light is there.... In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a certain control and protection, something which... catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence, the supreme Presence, in matter. But only in a few exceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending over many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent, fully organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious enough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only... less ready; they are those who have had at a certain moment a flash which has passed through their whole being and created a response, but that suffices. This does not happen to many people. Those ready to do yoga are not many if you compare them with the unconscious human mass. But one thing is certain, the fact that you are all here proves that at the least you have had that—there are those who are ...
... the evening, I saw a dark blue light around her like the colour of the flower named "Radha's consciousness". Is the light around her of different colours? For I have also seen white light around her many times, and sometimes a pretty pale blue light. There are various lights around the Mother indicating the forces that come from her. White is her own characteristic light, the pale blue is mine,—the... right shoulder. Does it have any significance? It means the impression of the Name with its power in some part of the being—(vital mental). 9 April 1934 The lights are the Mother's Powers—many in number. The white light is her own characteristic power, that of the Divine Consciousness in its essence. 15 July 1934 ...
... year. The second is that You do not want us to go out. I would like to know which rumour is true, because many students have already received Your permission to go out during the holidays. Neither one nor the other is true. Neither one nor the other is false. Both of them, and many others, are the more or less distorted expression of my synthesising and harmonising will. To each one ...
... without excessive haste. Page 166 If the mind remains quiet in all circumstances and happenings, patience will be more easily increased. Yoga cannot be done in a hurry―it needs many many years. If you are "pressed for time" it means that you have no intention of doing yoga―is it so? It is not the soul, but the ego and its pride that feel "defeat and humiliation". 10 November ...
... objectives they employed alchemists. Many stories have been written where the author has built up his narration around the subject of immortality. A similar motive has pushed man to go in for medical pursuits, including a hygienic way of life. The effort for overcoming sickness, disease and death through medical science is going on all over the world. Many eminent scientists are engaged in un ...
... half of the nineteenth century. Sri Aurobindo grew up there getting a firsthand experience of the modern West. Here I intend to take you back not only one century, to Sri Aurobindo's past, but many many more, to India's past whence sprung her fountain of Knowledge : the Veda. Let us start wading upstream. Godspeed. "A time-made body housed the Illimitable" ...
... y, it will be another grand occasion to celebrate. And therefore it is good not to miss at least the present one when he is becoming a nonagenarian. Amal-Kiran is a polymath, knowing many arts and sciences, a learning lifted by enlightening intuition and deepened by spiritual insight. Confined to a wheel-chair, like Stephen Hawking, the legendary Cambridge theoretical astrophysicist... provide excellent material for several PhD theses. Perhaps this suggestion of Devan Nair's should be taken up more seriously and pursued by establishing a suitable foundation. There are many ways of felicitating such a celebrity. One could organise a series of seminars or have highly specialised talks covering several aspects of the genius, bring out in his honour studies with contributions... volume in such a short time. An article of an admirer, too long to be incorporated in this collection, is being brought out separately as an accompanying booklet. Wishing Amal-Kiran again many joyous returns of the day. THE EDITORS Sri Aurobindo Ashram 25 November 1994 ...
... refusing fatigue or collapse and continuing beyond what seems at first to be possible, courage and refusal to succumb under an endless and murderous physical suffering, these and other victories of many kinds sometimes approaching or reaching the miraculous are seen in the human field and must be reckoned as a part of our concept of a total perfection.... " The body, we have said, is a creation... right spirit, it is a very good education, for it compels you to Page 97 make a special effort and to exceed your ordinary limits a little. It is certainly an opportunity to make conscious many of your movements which otherwise would always remain unconscious. But naturally, you must not forget that this must be an opportunity and a means for progress. If you just let yourselves go and... be expected to be yogis, and during the period of preparation a stimulus is necessary for the most material consciousness to make an effort for progress.... And this period of childhood may last for many years! The ideal would be exactly what I have written in the last Bulletin , 1 I don't know if you have read it, but I have written something like this: Have no ambition, above all pretend ...
... large. What is the reason for it and how can we put it right? Are you referring to all the activities of the Ashram or only to sports?... All the activities of the Ashram? I don't know very many, Mother: in the ones I see. ( After a long silence ) It is something rather complicated. I shall try to explain it. For a very long time the Ashram was only a gathering of individuals, each one... They were like separate pawns on a chess-board—united only in appearance—or rather by the purely superficial fact of living together in the same place and having a few habits in common—not even very many, only a few. Each one progressed—or didn't progress—according to his own capacity and with a minimum of relations with others. So, in accordance with the value of the individuals constituting this odd... . And this is what gives the impression that the general level has fallen, which is not correct. The general level is on a higher plane than it formerly was, but the individual level has dropped in many cases, and individuals who were capable of one realisation or another have felt, without understanding why, weighed down by a load they did not have to carry before, which is the result of this int ...
... of his disciples. SRI AUROBINDO: He said that himself and, if he did, it must be true. The Guru has to take up many things of the disciples. The Mother does that because she unites herself with the sadhaks and takes them up into herself. Of course, at the same time she also stops many things from happening in herself. A famous Yogi told a disciple, when the latter was becoming a Guru, "In addition... there is a risk. SRI AUROBINDO: Certainly. If one receives more than one gives, bad consequences may be there for the one who gives more. Hindu astrology speaks of Rakshasa Yoga: a husband losing many wives one after another means an incompatibility so that instead of supporting them he is eating them up. NIRODBARAN: What are vampires? SRI AUROBINDO: Those who constantly draw from other people's ...
... have to do it without showing themselves. I would reject any interference. To satisfy the curiosity of my intelligence. Page 1424 Yes.. I was in many countries. I have had many lives, had many occupations, studied many things. The last life I was a little bit of a scientist, something of a philosopher, dabbled in politics too and in literature, but could not get much success. I was... various materials and say which dates from what time. The theory of the Kalpas has existed in one form or another from times lost in the mist of oblivion. I composed many things, but they are not extant. Vyasa is a name under which many different people have been confused together. If you mean Krishna Dwaipayana, he is somewhere in the planes of being which are at the height of what may be called the... the freedom as of waters descending and flowing in many directions, afterwards the solid formation. My opinion is of no great value in that matter. The progress in these matters comes usually in two ways; either by a violent conversion which changes in a short time the whole direction of the nature, or by a slow and difficult process with many movements and reversions in which the progress made ...
... into many fashions; the calm and strong who see Him in the self as in a mirror, theirs is eternal felicity and 'tis not for others. नित्योऽनित्यानां चेतनश्चेतनानामेको बहूनां यो विदधाति कामान् । तमात्मस्थं येऽनुपश्यन्ति धीरास्तेषां शान्तिः शाश्वती नेतरेषाम् ॥१३॥ 13) The One Eternal in many transient, the One Conscious in many conscious beings, who being One ordereth the desires of many; the... give?" A second time and a third he said it, and he replied, "To Death I give thee." बहूनामेमि प्रथमो बहूनामेमि मध्यमः । किं स्विद्यमस्य कर्तव्यं यन्मयाद्य करिष्यति ॥५॥ 5) "Among many I walk the first, among many I walk the mid-most; something Death means to do which today by me he will accomplish. Page 101 अनुपश्य यथा पूर्वे प्रतिपश्य तथापरे । सस्यमिव मर्त्यः पच्यते सस्यमिवाजायते... entered into the net of riches in which many men sink to perdition. दूरमेते विपरीते विषूची अविद्या या च विद्येति ज्ञाता । विद्याभीप्सिनं नचिकेतसं मन्ये न त्वा कामा बहवोऽलोलुपन्त ॥४॥ 4) For far apart are these, opposite, divergent, the one that is known as the Ignorance and the other the Knowledge. But Nachiketas I deem truly desirous of the knowledge whom so many desirable things could not make to ...
... but the Gantos were much shorter and many themes, which were treated at some length, received briefer treatment. Particularly the Book now called The Traveller of the Worlds was greatly expanded. He began adding lines in considerable amount in 1938. Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Letters on Savitri to Amal in 1931: "There is a previous draft, the result of many retouchings of which somebody told... can tell for what great work in hand The greatness of our style is now ordained? What powers it shall bring in, what spirits command? writes: "It has since brought in many powers, commanded many spirits; but it may be that the richest powers, the highest and greatest spirit yet remain to be found and commanded." 15 1 believe that Sri Aurobindo's Savitri fulfils the sovereign... is the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo's vision* It is my task to give here factual account of the long process that led to Savitri in its final form. As the grand epic has captured many hearts all over the world by its supernal beauty, I thought that they would be much interested in the history of its growth, development and final emergence — the birth of the Golden Child. But I ...
... Mother. ( Long silence ) How many of you are there out there? A: About forty. ( Mother laughs ) I'm going to ask you an indiscreet question. How many are sincere? You can't know that just by looking at them. There won't be forty coming here! How many asked you if they could come? B: Five, six. That's reasonable. Who? B: There were D, E, F―and many people there feel much love for... in any case. One day you will come to me all in tears, saying: life has become unbearable! ( Laughter ) So, I am warning you. In the village, do they have cats and dogs? L: Yes, dogs―many, but not many cats. Page 328 Do you want a short moment of silence? ( Long silence ) So, good-bye. All: Good-bye. 28 April 1970 Who are the new ones? G: The new ones: D, you... Auroville Auroville Words of the Mother - I Aspiration Talks Between March and August of 1970, Mother met weekly in her room a small number of Aurovilians, many from Aspiration community―hence the name "Aspiration Talks". After an offering of flowers and the introduction of new persons, there was usually a period of conversation, though sometimes only what ...
... Intolerable interlude and infinite ill; Relapse and reluctation of the breath, Dumb tunes and shuddering semi-tones of death... Take thy limbs living and new-mould with these A lyre of many faultless agonies. Though the passage is perverse, the language gives us no mere pathology bluntly describing a "complex". There is a heat of the imagination captured in verbal appositeness... than about the movement of it. The intuitive faculty recognises indeed a norm which persists, but the persistence is in the thick of diversities and never clings to a monotonous or single-track method. Many shades and grades of words must be permitted: The vocabulary of Donne need not be cast out by Milton's, the Hopkinsian by that of Bridges. To be able to appreciate the poetic moment — even while noting... example, perhaps, of a certain style of great poetry can be produced than the closing lines of the quotation from Swinburne: ...Take thy limbs living and new-mould with these A lyre of many faultless agonies. Their excellence is wrought, on the side of rhythm, by a keen yet sublime movement disposing stresses irregularly in the first line to indicate the change spoken of there ...
... know how much of them is true. Have they really discovered? I don't know. Do you? We probably know a little bit of history starting from a particular cataclysm. But how many cataclysms have there been?... Yes, how many cataclysms have there been? Page 244 ( silence ) Now, for great upheavals men want to do without Nature's help. It seems that five nations have atomic bombs, and... people to whom I also send cards, maybe a little more), and all the Ashram people (except for very rare exceptions), it makes about 1,500 cards a year. There are only 365 days; so you can figure out how many cards have to be written every day.... D. comes every morning with my breakfast and a list of all the birthdays, and before seeing people or starting my work, I have to satisfy all those birthdays!... continents was probably a consequence of the cooling. Now they say that they have instruments capable of measuring the fact that the continents are still moving. They even said, a few years ago, that many parts of Siberia, which used to be so cold that nothing could be done there, were beginning to be cultivated, Page 245 and that, necessarily, the tropics aren't so warm anymore. But these ...
... darkness and it will be many centuries before the Greeks, rising out of their ashes like the legendary Phoenix,4 developed what has been recognized as the most brilliant civilization of the ancient world. Mythologically it also marks the end of an extremely long period going back to prehistory in which the object of people's worship had been the Mother Goddess known under many names. 5 As Aphrodite... Another phoenix would then arise from the marrow of its bones. It came to symbolize destruction and recreation. 5. "Under many names": When the agricultural communities in Greece worshipped Mother Earth they called the Great Goddess or the Mother Goddess by many names, (Gaea, Rhea, Demeter). Most of the female divinities in Greek mythology were originally Great Mother Goddesses; Hera in Argos... Gods and the World Sri Aurobindo's Ilion Sri Aurobindo's Ilion Introduction If we regard the powers of reality as so many Godheads we can say that the overmind releases a million godheads into action, each empowered to create its own world, each world capable of relation, communication and interplay with the others Overmind ...
... Vespucci, who explored the north coast of South America in 1499. Page 128 precise, the 'New World' was a 'discovery' only for the Europeans, because the lands were already inhabited, and many regions had developed a civilization of their own. Hard on the heels of the Iberians came the French and the British. They sent out their own expeditions. John and Sebastian Cabot discovered Canada... Virginia in 1607 was the start of their empire building, "nothing before could be called a British Empire." The Dutch were a little late in this colonizing game. They ousted the Portuguese from many places. Their most valuable possessions were Malacca, the Spice Islands, and the ports of India and Africa wrested from Portugal in the early seventeenth century. As a matter of fact, it was quite a... greatly curbed, and the Europeans had only themselves to contend with. The Europeans had also embraced a strange religion. Christianity. As happens with 'religions' Christianity too was divided into many sects. One of these was called the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish soldier. The Spaniards were notorious for the 'Inquisition' cruelties. Flush ...
... vineyard was planted with rows of grapevines. Pineapples too. Papayas and bananas of different types found their places in the garden. Guava from Benares soon turned into fruit-laden trees. And, oh, many, many other trees and shrubs delighted one's senses. Once the underthicket was cleared, a motorable road was laid. It ran all round, and was built from the debris of demolished buildings; a special... readers may read Satprem's Comets d'une Apocalypse, vol.1. It is in French though. Page 206 chief of 'Atelier' (Ashram's Workshop). By nature Abhay was very dynamic. He also had many bright and practical ideas. As chief of Atelier he had the manpower to execute his ideas. Working with him at the time was a retired engineer from the Indian Air Force. Bhadurida, as we called him,... fact, the period between 1910 to 1913 was Bharati's most creative period. He wrote Panchali Sapatham, Kannan Pattu, composed numerous devotional and patriotic songs during these years. He also made many translations from the Sanskrit into Tamil. The reason for this creative output is not far to seek. We shall be coming to it. Well, Subramania Bharati, 'the most dangerous member' of the India ...
... Sri Aurobindo, who was supposed to be immortal according to many of his disciples and followers, left his body in December 1950; the Mother, after years of what looked like physical deterioration and illness, left her body in November 1973. Both times the bewilderment in the Aurobindonian community was widespread and the faith of many deeply shaken. It is in this third phase that some harrowing... Christianity has been very “Eurocentric” and circumscribed in its outlook. The excuse is that Christian theology was embedded within a historical horizon beyond which it could not see or reach for many centuries. In Hinduism, the fact that the Avatar incarnates at times of evolutionary crises to put matters straight is better known than the fact that he also comes when a special work of evolutionary... Hatshepsut, Moses, Pericles, Socrates, Alexander, Confucius, Lao Tse, Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Shankara, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and undoubtedly many more in all times and climes. All of them were concretely aware that they had a specific, superhuman mission to fulfil and so they did. It should be noted that some of them were atheists, like Julius ...
... Shyamsunder asked me whether I had any coloured blocks of my paintings which could be printed in Auropress, Auroville. I said that I had, and added that many of them were the Mother's visions, related to me by her and painted under her direct guidance. These paintings were specially prepared for the Mother to send to people in India and abroad at Christmas... more copies as presentation articles. After that I lost track of the so-called 'presentations'. I only know that thousands of copies went to VAK, The Spiritual Book Shop, for sale. I purchased many folders to present to my friends. About one of the paintings, Seyril, one of the Matrimandir workers, wrote to me: Matrimandir "Peace" Auroville My dear Huta, "The Truth is at work ...
... Some Answers and Explanations Our Many Selves The Ordinary State of People - Identification and Dispersion One is always identified more or less with all that one does and all the things with which one is in contact. The ordinary state of people is to be in everything that they do, all that they see, all whom they frequently meet. They are like that. There... what they are, they are obliged to pull back towards them a heap of things which are scattered everywhere. There is a kind of unconscious fluidity between people, I have told you this I don’t know how many times; it produces a mixture, all that, as soon as it is no longer altogether material… It’s because you have a skin that you don’t enter into one another like that; otherwise even the subtle physical ...
... the form is very poetical)—an exact description, step by step, paragraph by paragraph, page by page; as I read, I relived it all. Besides, many of my own experiences that I recounted to Sri Aurobindo seem to have been incorporated into Savitri . He has included many of them—Nolini says so; he was familiar with the first version Sri Aurobindo wrote long ago, and he said that an enormous number of experiences ...
... the whole Communist side is moving, and the whole financial, American side is moving. There is an effervescence. It's sure to work, I KNOW it exists—the city is already there (it has been for many, many years). Interestingly, my creation was with Sri Aurobindo in the center, then when Sri Aurobindo left, I let it all rest, I didn't budge anymore. Then it suddenly started coming again, as if to say ...
... ask you a question? Mother — Yes, go ahead. I — Mother, you will not get angry with me? Mother — No, go ahead. I — Mother, many people here act wrongly in so many ways, behave incorrectly. And this wrong behaviour goes on and on. I do not know if You tell them anything. But you surely know about it! When I act wrongly, I have to bear its dreadful ...
... speeches are being interrupted by intervals of immobility and silence, the children listen and watch with great delight. Very many of them are interested by the fact which they had never noticed that they make many noises of which they are not aware, and also, that there are many degrees of silence. There is an absolute silence, in which nothing, absolutely nothing, moves. They look at me in astonishment... Maria Montessori began to travel extensively. Her writings were translated into many languages and her ideas spread remarkably quickly. In certain countries they even led to a new form of architecture. In Germany, Austria, America, Holland, India und Italy, special "Children's Houses " were built, many of them in collaboration with Dr. Montessori herself. In these buildings everything was ... in accord with this authority if he wishes to better his conditions. We have been studying the means towards a harmony between the child and the adult; and we have learned many deep things — but there are many more to be learned. Some of you will go back to your own country and home just to teach. Others will do more: you will go on studying the child. That is why we are all united ...
... as races, species, nationalities intermix, it produces a mixture of egos. And then the horizon begins to widen. It is as when one tries to widen his mind, to understand many different things, study many languages, the knowledge of many countries and ages, one widens his ego very much, one begins to grow less narrow-minded. Naturally, with yoga one can overcome all this consciously. Does the collective... person; it is the smallest kind of ego. Oh, there is of course a vital ego, a mental ego and a physical ego but these are minor individual egos. But this means the ego of a particular person. One has many egos inside oneself. One becomes aware of them when one begins to destroy them: when one has destroyed an ego, that which was most troublesome, usually it creates a kind of inner cyclone. When one comes... it sincere, spontaneous and not mixing it with desires and ambitions. There are spiritual ambitions, he speaks of them, and these are even the most dangerous. There we are. That's all? Mother, many people are asking whether the crisis about which you spoke to X in reference to 1957 is the same as the one of this year or whether it is different? Eh? The crisis about which you spoke to X ...
... conscious of this first, and once you are conscious of it, you try to adapt the outer action, outer movements to the inner ideal. But first of all you must become aware of the disharmony. For there are many people who think that everything is going well; and if they are told, "No, your outer nature is in contradiction with your inner aspiration", they protest. They are not aware. Therefore, the first step... telling me about? I don't know it!" So, obviously, they cannot establish any harmony if they are not even conscious of something within which is higher than their ordinary consciousness. This means that many preparatory stages are needed, preparatory states of awareness, before being ready for this harmonisation. You must first of all know what the inner aim of the being is, the aspiration, the descending... this is decreed somewhere. It is possible. But it is also possible that though it is decided, in order that the thing may take place as it ought to it is not good to reveal what is decided. There are many Page 2 things like that, because people are neither conscious enough nor pure enough to do what they should do, exactly as they should do it, with full knowledge of the result; for the result ...
... being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous... capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us, to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it. In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perception and ultimately achieving this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has... narrow in its understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a constant effort is therefore needed to widen it, to make it more supple and profound. So it is very necessary to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. Towards this end, there is an exercise which gives great suppleness and elevation to the thought. It is as follows: a clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed ...
... your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from the other, so that you may find out clearly the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, specially his mental nature, has a spontaneous... capital importance for us to become conscious of its presence within us, to concentrate on this presence and make it a living fact for us and identify ourselves with it. Through space and time many methods have been framed to attain this perception and finally to achieve this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find... narrow in its understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a certain cAort is needed to enlarge it, make it supple and deep. Hence, it is very necessary that one should consider everything from as many points of view as possible. There is an exercise in this connection which gives great suppleness and elevation to thought, It Is as follows. A clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed ...
... in whom the need for progress has become conscious enough to orient their life." (Ibid., p. 118) (3)"For us, however, this particular endeavour is one among many; it is only one movement in our Sadhana. We are engaged in many other things. To bring one particular item of work to something like perfection requires time and means and resources which are not at our disposal. But we do not seek... And all or some of these? Or is it to prepare the students to read Sri Aurobindo's works and Mother's? Is it to prepare them for the Ashram life or also for other 'outside' occupation? There are so many opinions floating around... on what basis can we work without any real sure knowledge? I pray, Mother, give us your guidance." The Mother's Answer: "It is not a question of preparing... are people who write wanting to join our University and they ask what kind of diploma or degree we prepare for, the career we open out. To them I say: go elsewhere, please, if you want that; there are many other places, very much better than ours, even in India, in that respect. We do not have their equipment or magnificence. You will get there the kind of success you look for. We do not compete with ...
... truths and contents of the spiritual experiences is to take recourse to verbal or intellectual formulations in which the doctrines of religions are made available to humanity. To these doctrines the many minds of a half-ripe knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and hold that this or the other doctrine or this or the other revelation or book ot revelations... beliefs; some believe in the existence of only one God, some believe in the existence of only one Absolute; some believe in one God but with inherent trinity and some believe in one God but also in many gods, too. And if we examine the beliefs of various cults and sects, we shall find hundreds of variations and subtle page - 71 differences which seem too difficult to be reconciled with each... religions is understood differently in different religions, and the significance of human action, even in those religions which do not believe in rebirth, is viewed differently. In the presence of these and many other differences among religions, the' problem of conflict of religions seems to be impossible of solution. Religions, therefore, tend to be exclusive and to look forward to their exclusive conquest ...
... frontal Chief. Blavat-sky, Olcott, Barlet and many others were its members. But in 1877 Blavatsky and Olcott severed their relation with the H. B. of L. It is known that Blavatsky's first Master was the magus Paulos Métamon, whom she had Page 50 met in Asia Minor in 1848 and again in Cairo in 1870. Métamon was either a Copt or a Chaldean. Many people, including Barlet, believed that "Dr... Russia and Prussia, each grabbing in turn what it could and when it could. The many Polish attempts at independence proved abortive. The uprisings were heavily repressed, which caused large-scale emigration to other Western countries. Page 51 ism. He spoke several languages with ease, and was adept at many crafts. A diversity of subjects interested him —scientific or artistic or sociological... on a hillside with extensive grounds. It took them about one year to make the place livable. Thus it was that on May 1, 1889, they came to live in Zarif. It was to become their base. They lived there many years with their devoted English secretary, Miss Teresa. "According to a legend, Tlemcen's origin goes back to a remote past. Moses visited it. Solomon stayed in it. Egyptian sorcerers, skilled ...
... less ready; they are those who have had at a certain moment a flash which has passed through their whole being and created a response, but that suffices. This does not happen to many people. Those ready to do yoga are not many if you compare them with the unconscious human mass. But one thing is certain, the fact that you are all here proves that at least you have had that—there are those who are very... you want to transform your vital. You have a great sincerity in your aspiration and the resolution to go to the very end. You have all that. You start observing and you see that two things can happen (many things can happen) but mainly two. First, a sort of enthusiasm takes hold of you. You set to work earnestly. In this enthusiasm you think, "I am going to do this and that, I am going to reach my... protest, you will not revolt, you will say 'yes, yes', you will make a little sacrifice when asked, you will say 'yes' whole-heartedly." So we get started on the path. But the road is very long. Many things happen on the way. Suddenly one thinks one has Page 249 overcome an obstacle; I say "thinks", because though one has overcome it, it is not totally overcome. I am going to take a ...
... made up only of magnificent and important things? How many "trivial" things had to be dealt with and done before there could Page 672 be produced a King Lear or a Hamlet ! Again, according to your own reasoning, would not people be justified in mocking at your pother—so they would call it, I do not—about metre and scansion and how many ways a syllable can be read? Why, they might say, is... spiritual experience is not true and genuine? The fall of a man from a great height does not prove that he never reached a great height. The experiences of Y have been those of many others before him and will be those of many others who do not yet have them; I fail to see why the fact of people having them or their intensity or the joy and confidence they give should make them suspect as untrue. ... given to the Divine, refuses to admit them. This is the subjective form of the universal resistance, but it may also take an objective form—opposition, calumny, attacks, persecution, misfortunes of many kinds, adverse conditions and circumstances, pain, illness, assaults from men or forces. There too the possibility of suffering is evident. There are two ways to meet all that—first that of the Self ...
... suddenly surged up the moment we wanted a complete manifestation. We took on all these problems a little prematurely, but it gave us the opportunity to solve them. In this way we learned many things and surmounted many difficulties, only it complicated things considerably. And in the present situation, given such a large number of elements who haven't even the slightest idea why they're here (!) ... well... who are all so near, so steeped in this atmosphere ... who among you noticed anything?—You simply went on with your little lives as usual. I think it was in 1946, Mother, because you told us so many things at that time. Right. (A child:) Sweet Mother, now that She has come, what should we do? You don't know? ( silence ) Try to change your consciousness. ( silence ) Now you... in which you ... you aspired to be here for the Hour of the Work's realization. But actually, to tell you the truth, I think your lives are so easy that you don't exert yourselves very much! How many among you have truly an INTENSE need to find their psychic beings? To find out truly who they are? To find out what their roles are, why they are here?... You just let yourselves drift. You even complain ...
... come away from a Yogic life of many years, I can't help feeling quite sad and discouraged.) "I may point out to you that nothing irreparable has happened. Of course the further one wanders away from the path, the more radical will be the conversion needed to return to it; but the return is always possible." (22-12-1943) * * * (You know that for many years I have been in the habit... pocket. I really wish I hadn't. Are you dead against speculation?) "You ought to know that I do not approve at all of speculation—but what is done is done." (17-12-1939) * * * (So many problems have been facing me of late. I wonder how they are to be solved happily.) Page 74 "The only way to a true and lasting happiness is a complete and exclusive reliance on the... that circumstances are compulsive? Another thing: why have you omitted those words which mean so much to me and with which you have always ended: "Love and blessings?") "My 'it is silly' covered many sides of the question, including the most exterior one. What you suggest as the foolishness of believing that circumstances are compelling when they are not, is part of it. "It is purposely that ...
... Education have been analyzed very carefully, although it may be remarked that many other possible conceptions also need to be explored. But the thrust of the paper is sharp towards its target, namely to arrive at that clear distinctiveness of those characteristic features that are distinctly spiritual as distinguished from many others which might seem similar but which are within the realm of religious... concepts, and his analysis helps us to create strong bases for spiritual pedagogy, but we need to go farther. There are grounds in yoga to show that spiritual experience has many gates and that there are many preliminary stages through which human psychology can be developed before one can enter into the realm of the spiritual in its distinctiveness. Moreover, it is underlined in yoga that... discovered and experienced. In art and music and poetry one can emphasize those points and those experiences, which can open up into the domain of the spiritual in its distinctiveness. All these and many more can be suggested as an important part of the curriculum for the spiritual education, and all this can be provided in such a manner and such a measure that all common schools can accept them ...
... innovations are promoted and implemented, and thus set in the country a new dynamism for a fresh pursuit of excellence. Page 13 III It is true that many educational innovations have been thought of, and many of them have been proposed for implementation. It is also felt that in due course of time the task of implementation will redeive due support, and we can look forward to the... experiments proposed and conducted by Sri Aurobindo, nothing palpable seems to have happened so as to arrest the onward march of the Macaulayan system. Reports of Dr. Radhakrishnan and of Dr. Kothari and of many others have stirred the minds of educationists and policy makers, but what is the net result in terms of the change that was so fervently advocated by the pioneering educationists at the turn of the... preoccupied with^conduct and smooth running of the present system. Principals of the schools are occupied with maximum percentage of success of their students in the examinations set up by Macaulay. Many Vice-Chancellors congratulate themselves when they are able to conduct examinations on time. Councils of educational research are occupied with churning out text books (with annual fanfare of controversies ...
... India whose works in Tamil were banned by the British Indian Government. Many publications in English and Tamil were produced here and circulated secretly in British Indian territory in spite of the ban on them. Indeed Pondicherry was a veritable factory of patriotic fervour. Soon the police rounded up as many as fourteen men who were charged with various offences under the Indian Penal... Omkar Swami and the Assassination of Ashe 'From a terrorist revolutionary sentenced to a long prison to a spiritual ascetic and teacher would seem to many to be a far cry indeed. Yet this is exactly what happened in the case of Sri Sadguru Omkar who is today a revered octogenarian Saint who has his Ashram opposite the Nandi Hills in Kolar district', wrote... Murder Case Those were the days when the seeds of the struggle for freedom, sown during the Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, had begun to sprout glowingly all over the sprawling British-ruled India. Many young men fired by the blaze of national spirit burst on the horizon spreading the message of freedom in secret, and also openly, committing acts of protest to tell the world what they sought. Some ...
... of the service of the Divine, even the bliss of divine union she seeks not for itself, but for the sake of service. In how many Prayers does she not pray to the Divine to let her be only a servant, an instrument, a docile manifesting channel of His Love and Grace ! And in many a Prayer the Divine too asks the Mother not to revel in the ecstasy of the absorbed union, but to turn her look towards the... servitor.” Hindrances to true Service But such a consummation of divine service cannot be achieved at a bound or by a jolly trot over a bed of roses. There are many obstacles to be met and overcome, many a pathless desert to be crossed under the dire menace of storms and thunders. We shall touch upon only the cardinal hindrances here and leave out the tremendous question of physical... birth to birth, are but a long preparation for it. This view gives a definite teleological significance to the otherwise unaccountable phenomena of life and death and the continued participation even of many liberated souls in the travail of the world. The soul comes down into the material world not to lose itself in the labyrinths of fleeting interests, not to become a sport of freakish desires and ...
... transformation into a, ahem, superman! But once there, you sweated buckets on that red, sun-baked laterite, and you had to drag pakamaram stems about, braided palm leaves, stones and bricks, and many, many buckets of water. You had to get accustomed to live with flies, mosquitoes, ants of a hundred varieties, cockroaches, geckos, rats, scorpions, venomous snakes. You had to learn Tamil and try to get... else on Earth would something like this be possible: the rudiments of a city being built by people of many nationalities, with scanty means, in a harsh climate, based on the principle of freedom, in the state of a country with its own laws and administrative structures? The problems are legion. So many figureheads have been liberal with wise advice but without risking to commit themselves in any personal... closest approach to monotheism the world had ever seen,’ writes an Egyptologist. It created a new life-style and a much more realistic form of art — the reason why Nefertiti’s bust is still admired by so many. The profound influence of queen Tiy on her son is a historical fact, but not much is known of the rationale of the whole enterprise. Could it have been that the sun disk, Aton, never depicted as ...
... transforming pressure upon her. Hence the sadhaka will have to wage his spiritual warfare for a long period of time. He will have to face and tackle many a difficult situation. Many types of obstacles, inner and outer, will block the path of his progress; many a serious test he will have to go through. What is more, it is not his Page 2 own personal nature alone which will try to resist... and nature in all their parts leaving no corner untouched. Surely this cannot be done in a day. We have to keep the fire of our tapasya burning bright for many years to come: we have to fight against the same difficulty and weakness of our nature many times over. It is because of this well-known phenomenon of sadhana that Sri Aurobindo has reminded us: "Patience is our first great necessary lesson...... para- Page 15 graph derives its substance from that commentary: 'Many come to the Path, attracted by the True Thing, but after some time one lets oneself go. When everything is easy and peaceful, one falls asleep. The human nature is still so crude that it becomes difficult for many to keep the inner attitude unmixed for a long time and to hold firm in one's original position ...
... in the glory of England, which is on the wane, but in the resurgence of Asia. Minto-Morley Minto is an archangel of peace, says Romesh Chandra Dutt; Morley an archangel of benevolence. With so many archangels to look after us, we are unfortunate indeed if we cannot be happy. Poor India! Within and Without Romesh Chandra Dutt is a statesman according to his own idea of himself and statesmen... Romesh Chandra with his large-hearted appreciation of the ruling qualities of the British race, Surendranath with his unswerving loyalty, Narendranath with his gratitude are, one would imagine, so many pillars of British rule. What about Romesh Chandra's letters to Lord Curzon, Surendranath's boycott or Narendranath's secret hopes of Theosophical rule of Mahatmas? Whoever says one thing with his lips ...
... all the more legitimate since we find that literal translations more completely betray than those that are reasonably free—turning life into death and poetic power into poverty and flatness. It is not many who can carry over the spirit of a poem, the characteristic power of its expression and the turn of its rhythmical movement from one language to another, especially when the tongues in question are... for the less is often greater than the more) it need not stand at all. Pushed too far, it would mean that Homer and Virgil can be translated only in hexameters. Again, what of the reverse cases—the many fine prose translations of poets so much better and more akin to the spirit of the original than any poetic version of them yet made? One need not go farther than Tagore's English version of his Gitanjali ...
... A great deal of capital is being made by the Moderate Press of the difference of attitude between Bengal and Maharashtra Nationalism over the acceptance of the creed. The Mahratta Nationalists are many of them willing to sign the creed on the understanding that it is not put forward as an ultimate aim of Indian political effort. The Bengal Nationalists, with one or two exceptions, are determined to... nt as an ultimate goal was objectionable, but the statement of self-government in the Empire Page 1084 as an immediate goal was permissible. When the Convention was first held at Surat, many of the Nationalist delegates from Maharashtra saw no objection to signing the creed as it stood, and some of them went to the Pandal and offered to sign but were turned away. It was because the Bengal ...
... most likely to give our energies and efforts the maximum power and serviceableness to the great age of mankind and of India on which we are entering. For at such a moment there are usually many false starts and many misdirected aims and by seeing our way and our goal more clearly we may better be able to avoid the waste of energy, talent and even genius to which they give rise. Page 399 ...
... possibility of fall or failure. It is also true that with many purification is the first need,—certain things have to be got out of the way before one can begin any consecutive inner experience. But the main need is a certain preparation of the consciousness so that it may be able to respond more and more freely to the higher Force. In this preparation many things are useful—the poetry Page 40 and... admire—perhaps he thinks like the man in the dream, "I have seen the Divine, indeed I feel I am one with the Divine,—I will call everybody to see that." This is a tendency which has injured the sadhana of many and sometimes ruined the sadhana altogether. In the thoughts you describe you came to see something in yourself which is there more or less in all human beings, the desire to be thought well of by others... Divine may be complete, selfless, true and pure. Purification and Preparation of the Nature I don't think there is any cause for dissatisfaction with the progress made by you. Experiences come to many before the nature is ready to make full profit from them; to others a more or less prolonged period of purification and preparation of the stuff of the nature or the instruments comes first while e ...
... The Inspirer, the conspirator, the conjuror: some people tried to diminish him with these words. True, Monnet could powerfully influence many statesmen. True, he "conspired" with the many collaborators, friends and accomplices who in many countries and in many different political parties were attracted to him. But the problem is not Monnet's action. The problem is that we cannot find a word which... directly approach many great leaders in the world was entirely disinterested. "The extraordinary power of Jean Monnet," said Jean Laloy, "came from his absolute disinterestedness. People knew that he never asked anything for himself." Recalling his work for the Victory Program in America, Monnet said, I have never tried to work in fields outside my experience — although there are many which I might... the story of a life full of adventures and picturesque anecdotes. People knew he did not write, so he would be asked to speak and they would publish these conversations which had moved so many things and so many people. It took years to rectify this misunderstanding. He refused all offers until he was sure that the underlying unity of his life could be expressed in a coherent book, without literary ...
... to be strengthened and brought forward - this is the only thing to do; and to leave them, to leave them free to blossom; simply to give them the opportunity to see many things, to touch many things, to do as many things as possible. It is great fun. And above all, not to try to impose on them what you think you know. * Never... existence can realise its own harmony and thus become fit to manifest beauty.... So far I have referred only to the education to be given to children; for a good many bodily defects can be rectified and many malformations avoided by an enlightened physical education given at the proper time. But if for any reason this physical education has not been given during childhood or even... a developing nervous system, which cannot stand the strain of too continuous an effort or of an activity that is imposed upon it and not freely chosen. At the risk of going against many current ideas and ruffling many prejudices, I hold that it is not fair to demand service from a child, as if it were his duty to serve his parents. The contrary would be more true, and certainly it is natural that ...
... renunciation of so many things that there is not one among all those who were protesting who would give up his attachments for this immortal life. That is, they would prefer to die Page 46 and keep their old habits to living immortally and losing them! There are many things, which must be given up.... I have just mentioned this by the way in that article, but there are yet many more. All the... determinism. Page 51 And not many have that power. I have said a very few do. In fact it is a very, very few. The last method, you have said, is to enter the domain of death deliberately and consciously while one is still alive.... Yes. What is the difference between entering consciously into death and consciously going out of one's body? Many people can go out of their body, can't... of Conquering It ". Why have you written "The Fear of Death" just now? Because it was necessary to say this. So far you had not said it, Mother, why do you say it now? Ah! There are many things I have not said. One must indeed begin one day. I don't think or have the impression that there was any occasion for it so far. Perhaps it came as the result of an experience.... Why, yes, I ...
... speaks like this, very easily, of becoming conscious of one's nights, having control over one's sleep-activities and all sorts of things of this kind, but you need to do many such little works like the one I have just described to you. Many of these are needed to obtain this result. When one is accomplished, you realise that there is another missing, and when this is done, you realise there is still another... and others which keep it in a state of animality. But it is only at that Page 179 particular time that this becomes very important, not before; and before reaching that moment, there are many other things to do. Certainly it is better to purify one's mind and purify one's vital before thinking of purifying one's body. For even if you take all possible precautions and live physically taking... to leave any corner dark. There you are. Why were eggs forbidden in the Ashram formerly? Now you give eggs. Eggs were forbidden? I don't know. That's what we were told. Ah, people say many things, but I am not responsible for all the things they say! ( Laughter ) I don't remember ever refusing Page 180 an egg to someone who needed it from the point of view of health. But if ...
... down in the vital it is more obscure and entangled—it is quite muddled. It is all mixed up and there are many of these things—when they are there, there are many. You must put some order there first before finding them. There are some which are entangled like this ( gesture ). For example, many people have the tendency to fly into a rage—suddenly it takes possession of them. Pouff! They get terribly... absolutely on the condition in which they died and their last wish, and on the resolution of the psychic. It is not a mechanical or imposed thing, it is different for each one. I have already told you many times that, for the destiny which follows after death, the last state of consciousness is usually the most important. That is, if at the moment of death one has the intense aspiration to return to continue... very tiny... serpent, the size of a microbe, but it is very small, all coiled up like that, rolled upon itself like that. Then one takes it by the tail and pulls it out. Sweet Mother, are there as many serpents as bad movements? Yes, precisely! ( Laughter ) That makes a lot, quite an army. When it is in the head it is troublesome, because it is still more difficult to discover them, and one is ...
... child ( Sujata ) on Sunday; I didn't look too great, did I? (Sujata:) No, Mother! I couldn't speak anymore.... Well, that's more or less something of my experience. Oh, it was ... many things, many more things than that. For two days the impression of not knowing whether you are alive or dead (but these are words on the surface), of not being very sure of the difference it makes.... And... 1967 ( For the past eight days Mother has been "ill," just as the conflict between Israel and Egypt was unfolding. ) A great battle.... I have learned a great many things. And it's going on. I've made discoveries.... Diseases, accidents, catastrophes, wars, all that, is because the human material consciousness is so small, so narrow that it has a rabid taste... , petty and limited like that, and narrow, which makes a mountain out of a molehill. There you are. ( silence ) Page 174 Because what took place is nothing new, it has happened so many times before, but the body's experience was different.... Previously, the consciousness of all the other inner beings was there and would fortunately counterbalance this idiotic tendency: even the vital ...
... this energy is expressed Page 672 Ueshiba: an exercise aimt at building up the "kokyu" or "concentrated power" in many different ways, of which throwing one's opponent is, all things considered, simply one expression amongst many. So, any true master can restore internal calm, heal the body, prevent certain illnesses, act on the body and soul as a whole and harmonize... all, Ueshiba Morihei, on learning that his father was dangerously ill, made a gift of all his property to his master, Takeda. Leaving behind the land he had made fertile, a village he had built and many warm friendships, he left Hokkaido for good. He was then 35. On his return journey. Master Ueshiba heard about a man whose powers and great sense of spirituality were praised: the Reverend Deguchi... by means of a Sino-Japanese alliance, so that the realization of the Kingdom of God could commence in Asia. However fantastic and illusory such an ambition may have seemed, Reverend Deguchi had many advantages. In actual fact, 'with the support of Tchang Tso-Lin (or Zang Zuolin), then master of Mukden, he raised an "Independent Army of the North West" which soon numbered ten or so units, and ...
... something happening in this clay world of ours. Many of us have had, then, the experience of seeing Shiva and Parvati sitting side by side! This is, in a few words, our impression of the Darshan. From the inner point of view, even a single Darshan has radically changed the lives of many people. One single look, one single smile saved so many people from their material, physical troubles... that there is no mystery. As our Dr. Sanyal says: "Where is your psychic being? Where are all the centres you speak of: your Anahata, Nabbipadma, 262 etc.? Where are all these? I have dissected so many bodies, I've found none, and I'm a renowned surgeon!" So there you are! But I suppose that, about the semblance, the mask that we know as 'Sri Aurobindo', I could mumble a few words. Our ... of Dr. Manilal. Now and then, the Mother coming into the room, with a sweet smile, sometimes with a glass of coconut water in Her hand, casting a very quick glance at us mischievous fellows, and many other memories come. Then the memory of the famous 'talks' when the impersonal aspect of the Purusha became personal, very intimate, like that of a human being, talking with us on various subjects: ...
... more complete; many have begun to admit this now. In the actual result what was achieved was a kind of compromise between the two points of view. There had come a time however when the success of the enemy appeared as a living menace. We began to hear the warning siren of imminent peril, orders were issued for the black-out of street lighting on the sea-face of Pondicherry and many other similar... associated with that strange episode. The German cruiser passed by the shores of Pondicherry without doing any damage here, though Madras city received a few shell-shots. But I distinctly remember how many of the local residents, that is, those who lived on the Pondicherry sea-face, fled pen-mell towards the west, in the direction of the present Lake Estate. They packed themselves into rows of "push-push"... in the matter of fighting capacity. And Bengalis of course were treated with special contempt. They had of late shown some courage or skill in the art of secret assassination, but in the opinion of many that was a "dastardly crime". But a trained and disciplined army was quite another matter. Now, a band of young men from Chandernagor taking the opportunity provided by the War formed themselves into ...
... co-disciples. Finally he did procure one.) The Mother saw with interest the photograph of your Gurudev. She had seen Loknath Brahmachari very often, but your Gurudev has always been near her for many years, long before you came, probably before his death even. When she saw the photograph a wonderful light appeared through it. And through his face is expressed a remarkable soul of aspiration, vision... anywhere, but since it was Her adesh, he went. He reached a lonely place and prayed and practised austerities. The Mother gave him Darshan. She was not the usual traditional Kali — black, naked and many-armed. She was a resplendent white form, sari-clad, the head covered by the anchal and wearing a golden diadem. She was two-armed, sitting on a lion. She told him that She would manifest on Earth with... name of Sri Aurobindo, the Brahmachari used to talk of a Mahapurush on some seashore. He did not mention the name of the Mahapurush or the place. When Sri Aurobindo the freedom fighter left Calcutta, many hoped he would come back and lead the nation. But Bharat Brahmachari shook his head and said: “From what I can see, this is not to be. Anyone who has reached the Upper World, He (Sri Aurobindo) is in ...
... anti-communist and anti-Semitic, which meant one and the same to him, he fled Russia and landed, towards the end of 1918, in a Munich in upheaval. There he became part of the community of Russian refugees, many of whom had connections with the rightist extremists. It may have been In Plain German which led Rosenberg to Dietrich Eckart, who accepted him as his collaborator, although Rosenberg’s first language... master race. The Protocols were a fake concocted by members of the Russian secret police in France to convince Tsar Nicholas II of the danger the Jews represented to his throne. It was one fake among many in a tradition of similar anti-Semitic writings, most probably written at the time of the Dreyfus Affair in France, which split that country into two, and of the first Zionist Congress held at Basel... Protocols Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf : “How much the whole existence of [the Jewish] people is based on a permanent falsehood is proved in a unique way by The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion … What many Jews unconsciously wish to do is here clearly set forth. It is not necessary to ask out of what Jewish brain these revelations sprang; but what is of vital interest is that they disclose, with an almost ...
... phenomenon, whether of dominant classes or dominant nations, can never be more than a temporary necessity; for the final aim of Nature in human life cannot be the exploitation of the many by the few or even of the few by the many, can never be the perfection of some at the cost of the abject submergence and ignorant subjection of the bulk of humanity; these can only be transient devices. Therefore we see... trained by a progressive approach till he is ready for the final universality. The family, the commune, the clan or tribe, the class, the city state or congeries of tribes, the nation, the empire are so many stages in this progress and constant enlargement. If the smaller aggregates were destroyed as soon as the larger are successfully formed, this graduation would result in no complexity; but Nature does... Greece, the signal success of a similar struggle of Nature in the development of Roman Italy. The whole past of India for the last two thousand years and more has been the attempt, unavailing in spite of many approximations to success, to overcome the centrifugal tendency of an extraordinary number and variety of disparate elements, the family, the commune, the clan, the caste, the small regional state or ...
... from the result that WAS coming... by their strident clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness of the result as a proof of their thesis! And it's so TRUE, it's an experience I've had so many, many times, not only for myself, but for lots of people. I think ("I think," like the scientists' "it appears") I can announce that something is getting organized in the Subconscient—it's beginning... and each cell was I can't say the property, but the possession of someone: what was under his direct control and reflected his "mood," as it is customarily called, his way of being. And there were many levels: you could go upstairs and downstairs.... And the impression I had of myself was that I was much, much taller and that I towered above it all; and I had a different texture, as if I were made... individuals as they know themselves—it is their subconscient. It is in the subconscient. The subconscient is a realm just as the material world is a realm—it's in the subconscient. There have been many efforts, concentrations, meditations, prayers to bring about the clarification and control of all those semiconscious reflexes that govern individuals—a great concentration on that point. And this ...
... short: Have you come for me or for them? From that day onwards I tried my best to obey her. Many people including my own misunderstood me, but I could not help it. Time flew on rapid wings. Our work progressed considerably well. The Mother took my consciousness to other spheres and let me see many extraordinary things in detail. She also made me feel their vibrations and meet numerous strange... beautiful bottle-green velvet cushion. I refused and sat on a carpet near her feet. The Mother gave me a separate wall-cupboard near her high-backed chair to keep stationery, a volume of Savitri and many other necessary things in connection with our Savitri work. The Mother made me understand the Savitri paintings through her numerous sketches. She also explained to me all about various colours... sent her the sketches, The sketches are quite all right. When you paint the eyes, see that the eyes of the Lord are as big as those of Nature, but without details, otherwise everything is good Many a time I forgot the whole world—even my existence—when I was painting at night, with everything hushed around me. In the morning also my time was occupied by various activities. Still the Mother ...
... become strong and powerful, get accustomed to the Divine Love after many a Page 203 fall. Then nothing is felt as too great a thing for the rest of the journey. For the Divine Love contains everything and can stand on anything. All that is quite correct. Even the ordinary human or the psychic love many are unable to feel or understand because it is not quite in the... If the love is absolute and complete and there have never been any vital demands connected with it the suggestion of revolt cannot come. Page 202 I have heard that many sadhikas love the Mother so much that they are ready to die for her. But if there is no physical expression of the Mother's love for them, they can't love her and some go so far as to revolt, weep or... for me it means that she has no love for me. It has another obsession also which comes from jealousy: why so much more for others and so little or nothing for me? These seem to be stumbling-blocks for many sadhaks. All that of course is not love, but self-love. Jealousy is only an ugly form of self-love. That is what people do not understand — they even think that demands and jealousy and ...
... such money will have to be faced." Madhav's memory was a storehouse. He knew where to put the finger and he would locate what he wanted. Many people had him as their contact man for the Mother and as a Secretary of the Ashram he had to ask Mother about so many things. He could draw upon his experiences in various Ashram matters. I remember several significant observations of his. One of the ... Madhavji in a pleasant manner. On another occasion, when I was sitting unknowingly at a place which should have been left empty, he asked me to occupy another place which he pointed out courteously. Many others, including myself, have had occasions where we were treated rudely by some Ashramites and I learned to take these things lightly for the sake of my own progress. Madhavji was a happy co... problems and on worldly problems. He passed away in 1993 at Madras, where he had been hospitalised, three months before would have been 75. Kind, helpful, generous, he will be remembered by many. Page 18 ...
... believed by many that nobody in Nazi Germany read it. Eberhard Jäckel, for instance, writes that Mein Kampf “was hardly read and still less understood”. 256 Both parts of Jäckel’s statement should be qualified. As to the first part: some ten million copies of Mein Kampf were printed till 1945; all couples were presented with a copy by the mayor as part of their marriage ceremony (many such copies... delivery, and bellowed from specially installed loudspeakers in all public places. It may be supposed that few people read Mein Kampf from cover to cover, for it is heavy fare for any reader – and how many ever take up ideological literature anyway? But its most accessible ideas were spread, repeated and commented upon all the time and everywhere in Naziland, and served as the mental framework of the ...
... it is even repulsive. Many would refuse to recognise it as beautiful. If it is vital in its origin, it need not come from beauty of mind or character; it is something in the life-force which may go with a good character but also with a bad one. Indians hardly appreciate the beauty of the Chinese or Japanese; like Europeans, they cannot appreciate beauty in Negroes. Many Asiatics could not appreciate... and who appreciate beauty in a subtle aesthetic way only? Yes, certainly. Artists who have trained their mind to a purely aesthetic look at beauty and beautiful things—for one instance. There are many others also, who have a sufficiently developed refinement of the aesthetic sense not to associate it with the crude vital wish for possession, enjoyment or sensual contact. 6 April 1933 The aesthetic ...
... strong spiritual inrush: most is spilt, much of the rest is corrupted. Many intellectual and physical upturnings of our soil are needed to work out a little result from a large spiritual sowing. " Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love... spirit, in the principle they represent, there is no difficulty in unifying them. They are simply different aspects of human progress which complete each other perfectly well and should be united with many others yet to form a more total and more complete progress, a more perfect understanding of life, a more integral approach Page 77 to the Divine. And even this unification which already ...
... it were. Sometimes they stand behind the active elements, throwing in some colour, some trait, some capacity here and there,—or they stand in front and there is a multiple personality, a many-sided character or a many-sided, sometimes what looks like a universal capacity. But if a former personality, a former capacity is brought fully forward, it will not be to repeat what was already done, but to cast... the spiritual individual in us, is the Person that we are; but the "I" of this moment, the "I" of this life is only a formation, a temporary personality of this inner Person: it is one step of the many steps of our evolutionary change, and it serves its true purpose only when we pass beyond it to a farther step leading nearer to a higher degree of consciousness and being. It is the inner Person that ...
... an asexual world, where there is neither man nor woman. ( Silence ) The body by itself has more than a feeling, a kind of... it is a knowledge—more than a knowledge, it is a fact: there are many, many beings, forces, personalities who manifest themselves through it, even sometimes several at the same time. That is a very common experience; we know, for example, that Sri Aurobindo is there, he... Sometimes a kind of transposition of Sri Aurobindo, a veiled Sri Aurobindo, and then sometimes a person whom I know very well, but who is not this one: once I was like that. This has happened to me many times. But here also, I have the feeling that it is someone... it is altogether different from what you usually are. Isn't it so! And I have the feeling that it is something I know. ...
... and blessings. Unfortunately my petty mind was not always quiet and silent. It built and broke numberless images and rambled on endlessly, impatient, restless, unchecked in its domain of reverie. Many a time I brushed away the cobwebs of imagination, but they entwined me yet more securely and made me immobile. A curious dread had begun to grow amid the chaos of my mental formations. They persisted... memories of my home life, of my girlhood, crowded my head. I turned over in my thoughts all that had happened since that fateful morning when I first met the Mother. Now I was nervous, scared by so many visible and invisible entities. One frequently does the wrong thing or commits errors simply because one is petrified with subtle fears and varied confusions. In answer to an incoherent letter from... French. A dictionary , Lights on Yoga, Prayers and Meditations, and a grammar book. Mother! Will you please give me the books? You see I can't write very well in French. The letter contains many mistakes. With love, Huta The Mother replied: It is not bad at all. There are only two mistakes. Soon it will be perfect. I will look for a dictionary and a grammar book. I don't ...
... Excellence of the Human Body Fitness O ne concept that has become quite significant in recent times is that of "fitness". It appears to be the sum total of many factors blended into one central-qualitative condition which is more than mere "well-being". These factors are mostly physical and correspond to precise capabilities of the body such as cardiovascular... likely to have a positive impact for the future of the human race, for its beauty and longevity. Literature on fitness and related subjects is very vast and growing by the day. There are of course many faddist and misleading books on these subjects which often peddle so-called miraculous methods for body transformation, some of which are indeed dangerous, but it is also not so difficult to find good... provided it is regular (minimum of three times a week) and sufficiently durable (between half an hour and one hour depending of the intensity of the exercise). Beyond these very basic notions there are many variations, types of exercises (aerobic or anaerobic exercises, strength exercises, flexibility exercises, etc.). It is for each person to find what is most suitable to his or her temperament, life ...
... Suez Canal, when steamships began plying between Europe and India, many Europeans had come. And under the impact of the culture they brought, the first reaction was a crude and confused attempt to imitate the ways of life it introduced. Under the cultural-political attack of Europe, Indians began to forget their own culture and many snapped the thin thread that linked them to their life-source. ... down her hair and, crisscrossing the land, holds her creation in a close embrace. But now her children, the educated men of Bengal, were turning away from her, from the truth of their forefathers; many were becoming agnostic or embracing Christianity. The very fabric of the Hindu society was threatened. Such was the scene when there appeared on the stage a rationalist and a great reformer, Raja ...
... Everest with the Swiss: Spring 1952 Nanga Parbat, Nanda Devi, Kang Peak, Kashmir, Garhwal, Nepal, and even Tibet. I had been all over the map. I had climbed many mountains, seen many sights, lived through many experiences. But one thing Page 498 had been missing — Chomolungma, the Great One. It was five years now since I had even seen it, on that strange, quick trip... people of the East there have been many that have to do with religion and the supernatural. "Was the Lord Buddha on the top?" I have been asked. Or "Did you see the Lord Siva?'-' From many sides, among the devout and orthodox, there has been great pressure upon me to say that I had some vision or revelation. But here, again — even though it may be disappointing to many — I can tell only the truth; and... well as organising all the other Sherpas and local porters. He climbed, and helped others climb, many of the high Himalayan peaks — but his heart and mind were always fixed on the highest of them all. Tenzing's autobiography, unfortunately now out of print, is a rare and wonderful record of his many adventures and achievements. Here we are presenting a few passages dealing with his expeditions ...
... again sang to him in silence, "Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindra."' For many years very little had been written about Sri Aurobindo and he had receded from the public view. This appreciation by Tagore, whose name was widely known in the country, attracted a good deal of attention. On reading it many felt that Sri Aurobindo was not, after all, an 'extinct volcano'! A disciple once asked... retired into complete seclusion in order to concentrate on his task of hastening the Supramental Descent, their minds were beset with many questions. From 1930 onwards they were given the freedom to write letters to Sri Aurobindo (I shall come back to this subject later) and many put all sorts of questions regarding the Supermind. Some were born of mere curiosity and Sri Aurobindo discouraged these, although... prevailing in those days in the Ashram brought out the latent poet in many disciples who had earlier neither the capacity for writing poems nor even an inclination towards it. I was myself one of those who came under the spell of the Muse, although I had never before written a line of poetry. J.A. Chadwick (Arjava) was another and I can give many more instances. At Cambridge Chadwick had been a brilliant scholar ...
... Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: Islam, Hinduism, and the Integral Yoga The Mother has explained: Jesus is one of the many forms which the Divine has assumed to enter into relationship with the earth. But there are and there will be many others; and the children of Auroville should replace the exclusiveness of one religion by the wide faith of knowledge. The Mother, Words ...
... sunset in the sky appeared two wonderful rainbows one over the other, perfect in their half-circle, with such vivid colours of beauty never seen before, all the landscape was in a clear golden light. For many of us it was like the sign of Mother to announce that the bad times for Auroville were finished and a new age was coming. We did not yet know that on this very day the President had signed the Ordinance... one year, and we will do concreting again in Matrimandir. Is your work in Bombay going on well? Your encouragement to have an unshakable faith in Mother's Victory has helped us very much to bear many difficulties. Now her Victory is becoming a reality. In Mother's Light. Gloria. Piero ...
... considerations pressed them upon her attention —technical, financial, legal, political, and so on. But truly speaking, this 'Yes' or ‘With my blessings' do not signify her willingness, vision or wish. So many things happened in this way. Several times the Mother told me: Child, do not believe it when people take my name and say 'Mother has said this', 'Mother has said that', and so on. Only believe... exactly according to my wish and instructions. In front of me they say: "yes, yes." But as soon as they go out of my room, they do quite contrary to what I had said, explained and asked for . So many times the Mother expressed her wish that the Matrimandir must be surrounded by natural beauties, as I have stated earlier. ...
... Why a blot? There are many words in Greek poetry which occur only once in the whole literature, but that is not considered a defect in the poem. It is called a hapax legomenon , "a once spoken Page 656 word" and that's all. তৃণাঞ্চিত for instance is a fine word and can adorn, not blot Tagore's poetry even if no one else uses it. I think Shakespeare has many words coined by him or at ...
... Mother's face is very much swollen, apparently because of an "infection." She has been unable to eat anything. ) You see, it's the Vatican. I fought and fought, but... there are too many lies around me. That's it, too many people tell lies all around. I was supposed to see P.L. tomorrow; I think it's better to wait for a few days. You could tell him—don't tell him why! Did it come through his ...
... numerous lives especially when coupled with tava ca . In that case all these many births could not be full incarnations,—many may have been merely Vibhuti births carrying on the thread from incarnation to incarnation. About Arjuna's accompanying him in each and every birth, nothing is said, but it would not be likely—many, of course. Buddha as an Avatar He [ Buddha ] affirmed practically something... for the lives in between the Avatar lives, it must be remembered that Krishna speaks of many lives in the past, not only a few supreme ones, and secondly that while he speaks of himself as the Divine, in one passage he describes himself as a Vibhuti, vṛṣṇīnāṁ vāsudevaḥ . We may therefore fairly assume that in many lives he manifested as the Vibhuti veiling the fuller Divine Consciousness. If we admit... × In the Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, "Many are my lives that are past" (4.5) and again, "I am born from age to age." (4.8) The correspondent asked how Krishna's past lives could be many (bahūni) if he was born only from age to age (yuge yuge). —Ed. ...
... whenever and wherever Mind becomes operative, these basic features of its functioning cannot but manifest in one form or another, overtly or in a clandestine way behind many deceiving masks. And this deplorable fact gives rise to many problems in the sadhana-life of the aspirant. We give below a short list of the defects, disabilities and wrong tendencies of the impure mind of man. The perusal of this... erring vital will sooner or later bring sense to the vital itself. (10) Enthronement of the Highest Level of Mind: Our mind is not a simple unidimensional faculty. There are many stages in its ascending movement, many a level in its dynamic functioning. The sadhaka has to mount step by step the stair of its upward ascension. Starting with the lowest and most fallible level, the 'physical... specific brand of difficulties and resistances at e very step of sadhana. Yet. on that account. we cannot feel disgusted with them and seek to reject or even annul them as far as possible. all though many of the adherents of traditional ascetic spirituality would prescribe that method of total rejection in their pure elan for an unburdened flight to the naked splendours of the Spirit. But ...
... Sūtra of Gautama, Baudhāyana and Āpastamba which appear to belong to 7th to 4th century B.C. In due course, the Dharma literature flourished extensively and as many as 100 Smritis seem to have been composed; some of them are in prose, but many are in poetic form. Among the authors of Smritis, Manu is the foremost, and there have been a large number of commentaries on Manu Smriti. Among these commentaries... believed that Yāska lived some time between 10th and 8th century B.C. Prior to Yāska also, there were many methods and systems of Vedic interpretation, such as Ādhi-daivata, Ādhyātma, Ākhyāna-Samaya, Aithihāsika, Naidāna, Pārivrājaka, Yājnika, etc. By the time we come to Yāska, the original meanings of many words had become obscure, and he mentions several words where there is no certainty of their meanings... is believed that in its original condition Veda was one, but it was Rishi Vyāsa who divided it into four parts. For this reason, Rishi Vyāsa is known as Vedavyāsa. The four Vedas have been divided in many ways under the categories of mandala, ashtaka, varga, sukta, anuvāk, khānda, prashna, chhanda, etc. Every word of the poetic and prose composition of the Veda has been counted and fixed. The entire ...
... If any particular woman contributed vitally to the growth of Wordsworth's poetry it could not be Annette Vallon. She may have stirred his poetic imagination and remained a significant stimulus for many years, but it was his sister Page 214 Dorothy who principally kept his genius alive; she was a true sister to his soul, feeding it and strengthening it by her own extreme sensitiveness... and erratic genius strength and staying power. Coleridge's tragedy was even greater than Wordsworth's for when he got estranged from his friend he lost Dorothy as well, whereas his friend had her for many more years to keep his mind kindled. But when Dorothy was made to play second fiddle in Wordsworth's emotional life and Coleridge had become just a splendid memory, the poet of The Prelude and the simple... and the supreme Ode on Intimations of Immortality started on the way to becoming a dry stick. TRAITS OF CHARACTER He grew not only staid and respectable but also ridiculous in many things. For instance, he refused to attend de Quincy's marriage to the country girl who had borne him several children. In his later years he could not endure to read Goethe; he found in Goethe's works ...
... certain areas of the cell, the whole course of activity shifts. Other entering molecules that seem to play a strategic role in making metabolism possible are the vitamins. They are of many sizes and participate in many biochemical processes, but the one thing they are said to have in common is that the cell is generally unable to manufacture them, so they must come "ready-made" with the diet. Minerals... grasping, holding and bringing together other molecules. Many of them also depend in some way on a mineral (or trace element) for their mysterious ability to create and destroy. In fact, the regulation of the cell's overall performance is carried out through altering the activity of the enzymes. As the enzymes go, so goes the entire metabolism. In many cases, molecules of a foreign substance, a contaminant... are many alternate paths and much flexibility, repeated shortages or deficiencies result in malfunctioning of the cell and even, if they continue, in its death. For tissue integrity to be maintained, the cells must have a ready supply of carbohydrate and fats which are used as the fuel for metabolism, a supply of Page 163 protein for building materials and a supply of the many miscellaneous ...
... the One Deity under many names, names which are used and even designed to express His qualities and powers. Was this conception of Dayananda's an arbitrary conceit fetched out of his own too ingenious imagination? Not at all; it is the explicit statement of the Veda itself: "One existent, sages"—not the ignorant, mind you, but the seers, the men of knowledge,—"speak of in many ways, as Indra, as Yama... even more, the word of eternal Truth on which man's knowledge of God and his relations with the Divine Being and with his fellows can be rightly and securely founded. This everlasting rock of the Veda, many assert, has no existence, there is nothing there but the commonest mud and sand; it is only a hymnal of primitive barbarians, only a rude worship of personified natural phenomena, or even less than... scholarship extending the hints of Sayana seemed to have classed it for ever as a ritual liturgy to Nature-Gods, the genius of the race looking through the eyes of Dayananda pierced behind the error of many centuries and received again the intuition of a timeless revelation and a divine truth given to humanity. In any case, we have to make one choice or another. We can no longer securely enshrine the Veda ...
... The difficulties about the concept of National Education that are encountered here do not exist in Bengal. Here in the Bombay Province, the meaning of the term "National Education" is not clear to many. National Education, with its specific connotation, is suspect and men of wisdom dismiss it. In Bengal, on the other hand, the need to explain the concept does not even arise. There may be people in... be altered or dropped. National Education must be on national lines and under national control. Why do we have to qualify the term "education" by calling it "national"? This question is asked by many. These people maintain that we are not a nation to begin with. According to their thinking, what we call a nation is an imaginary thing, not a reality. In India, they say, there are thousands of castes... subject of geography as an illustration. Page 813 Imagine how this subject is presently taught in Government and private schools! The students are told about such-and-such a country with so many districts, with their District Officers and so forth; this is the kind of information imparted in geography classes. But how is it useful? When we teach geography in Bengal according to the ideas of ...
... after flushing his bowels. After bandaging he was sent home with a psychological suggestion that many people begin to see when we open the bandage and that he too will see. In response to this suggestion, the patient asked: "Can I also see?" I said: "Why not?" The family members also reminded the patient many times during the day that in all probability he would be able to see when the bandage was removed... five years and I offered it to the Divine Mother whose Grace was at the root of all the miraculous results. The Mother worked many more miracles in my practice of the eye treatment, but this is not the place that I can relate all of them. Apart from five blind cures many incurable cases of high myopia and especially cases of children whose education was withheld on account of their bad eyes were cured... trained to reform his strainful habits of using mind, body and eyes and establish a new outlook and a new way of living and using the eyes and discard the use of a mechanical device called spectacles. Many English and German doctors had written books on Dr. Bates' method. I kept in touch with every new publication on Bates' method and studied all these books including the famous book The Art of Seeing ...
... supramental world―and in many others, infinite others―there are beings which have a form whose substance is similar to the one of that world. This means that if you are able to enter consciously into that world with the part of your being which corresponds to that domain, you can move there quite objectively, as in the material world. And there, there are as many, and even many more things to see and... it and go to a place which is more true, more real. So it is difficult to speak of all these worlds, these innumerable worlds, in a few minutes. It is a knowledge which needs a lived experience of many years, thoroughly systematic, and which requires, as I said, an inner preparation absolutely indispensable, to make it harmless. We all get the chance to have a little contact―very partial, very ...
... German scientists the word “Philologe”, philologist, bears a sadly disparaging and contemptuous significance & so great is the sense among serious thinkers of the bankruptcy of Comparative Philology that many deny even the possibility of an etymological Science. There is no doubt an element of exaggeration in some of these views; but it is true that Comparative Philology, Comparative Mythology, ethnology... the prestige of European thought and scholarship, the Vedas are a document of primitive barbarism, the ancient Vedanta a mass of sublime but indisciplined speculations. We may admit the existence of many deep psychological intuitions in the Upanishads; we do not easily allow to an age which we have been taught to regard as great but primitive and undeveloped the possibility of a profound and reasoned... When that day comes, we shall, I think, discover that the imposing fabric of Vedic theory is based upon nothing more sound or lasting than a foundation of loosely massed conjectures. We shall question many established philological myths,—the legend, for instance, of an Aryan invasion of India from the north, the artificial & unreal distinction of Aryan & Dravidian which an erroneous philology has driven ...
... As soon as we approached Sri Aurobindo we prostrated and our eyes touched his lotus feet. For about fifteen minutes we sat quietly, then the following conversation took place. Sri Aurobindo: “How many people are there at Kashibhai's?” He stopped after uttering Kashibhai's name. The ashram was known as Dikshitbhai's, not Kashibhai's. C: “Twenty and a family associated with the ashram there.” ... something taught by Dikshitbhai and Punamchandbhai.” Sri Aurobindo: “What is the practice you are doing?” C: “Whatever work I do I offer to the Lord and I offer it through you.” Sri Aurobindo: “How many practise yoga there? Give me their names.” I gave the names. Sri Aurobindo: “Do you feel anything during this practice?” C: “Yes, sometimes peace; I see at times light also.” Sri Aurobindo... Shandilya's Bhakti Sutra .... Once I asked Sri Aurobindo: “When will I have realisation?” In reply he told me the following story of Narada: Two devotees were doing their sadhana in a forest for many years. Once when Narada passed by, one of them asked him, “Bhagavan [a form of addressing holy and venerable souls], you are regularly visiting the Lord. Would you kindly ask Him on my behalf when I ...
... English has now acquired a richness and flexibility and power of many-sided suggestion which makes it unnecessary for poetry to depart from the ordinary style and form of the language. But there are other languages in which this is not yet true. Bengali is in its youth, in full process of growth and has many things not yet done, many powers and voices it has still to acquire. It is necessary that its... form and memorable. Bankim seemed to me to have achieved that in his own way as Plato in his or Cicero or Tacitus in theirs or in French Literature Voltaire, Flaubert or Anatole France. I could name many more, especially in French which is the greatest store-house of fine prose among the world's languages—there is no other to match it.... All prose of other languages seems beside its perfection, lucidity ...
... or rather for the consciousness of the body. There is no more cramming, because there is no more fortress to cram: it is the great manor of the world. And everyone is what they are, which makes for many different types of music; and since one no longer needs to rob his neighbour in order to fill one’s own cellars, earn a false living in order to try and stealthily make a true one with it, be anything... it can be seen, it is clear, and everybody out! But what is really marvellous is that, by themselves , the fakers will no longer be possible⎯those poor fakers, they delude themselves a lot, harbour many illusions, thirst for everything, suffer and toil a lot to catch what they are not … but if they can no longer delude themselves? That’s it, a world where one can no longer delude oneself. Is one... suffering. This is perhaps the great secret of the cage. One comes back to it again and again until one has learnt how to love everything and be everything⎯in brief, how to be divine. There are not many people who do their true job in the cage, but a few of them do it. Fakers vanish, they have no body on the “other side,” they are only aggregated Matter, which dissolves. But what happens to the others ...
... The constant self-expansion of the modern mind has broken down many limiting barriers; a vast objective knowledge, an increasingly subtle subjectivity, a vivid living in the past, present and future, a universal view of man as of Nature are its strong innovations. This change has found inevitably its vivid reflections in the wider many-sided interests, the delicate refinements, fine searchings, large... subsequent decades, until now all their sense and seeking have reached in the early twentieth a quite unprecedented subtle intensity, refinement and variety of motives and even a tense straining on many lines to find in everything some last occult truth and hitherto unimagined utterance, to go beyond all that poetry has ever done. This is in its very nature an effort which must end either in a lingering... are the most distinct powers of the English poetic mind. Often they thus stand out all the more remarkable by the magnificent narrowness of their self-concentrated isolation. Earliest among these many new forces to emerge with distinctness is an awakening of the eye to a changed vision of Nature, of the imagination to a more perfect and intimate visualisation, of the soul to a closer spiritual communion ...
... in the inconscience. Oh, we are in the ignorance,"—all this is laziness and weakness. And behind this laziness and weakness there is a huge bad will. There! I say this because many people have made this remark to me, many. And it is always a way of justifying oneself: "Oh, we are doing what we can." It is not true. Because if you are sincere, Page 34 once you have seen—as long as you have... That's very funny; because if it pleases God to reveal Himself to an unbeliever, I don't see what would prevent Him from doing so! On the contrary, He has a sense of humour—Sri Aurobindo has told us many times already that the Supreme has a sense of humour, that we are the ones who want to make Him into a grave and invariably serious character—and He may find it very amusing to come and embrace an ...
... has he done desiring thy grace of mind, new-given for him new-manifested,—he, the disperser of the destroyers, 6 the lord of the triple dawn who with attentive mind gives response to the many words of my many births. 7 Page 467 यो म इति प्रवोचत्यश्वमेधायसूरये । दददृचा सनिं यते ददन्मेधामृतायते ॥४॥ 4) May he who answers to me with assent give to the illumined giver of the ... istics of Indra. × The seer by this self-fulfilment on the higher plane is born, as it were, into many realms of consciousness and from each of these there go up its words that express the impulses in it which seek a divine fulfilment. The Mind-Soul answers to these and gives assent, it supplies to the ...
... presses on the subconscient and by that pressure these things come up. The emissions are of no great importance provided they are not frequent, but they indicate the presence of the sex-impulse there. Many are able to get a control by putting a strong will on the sex-organ or sex-centre before sleeping, but then succeed only after a time. With some it does not succeed because the will in them is not strong... self-externalising consciousness more occupied with outer than with inner things. I have resolved to abstain from/ Sunday indulgences or make them as infrequent as possible. I have already resisted many hankerings for a cup of tea. About food, tea etc. the aim of Yoga is to have no hankerings, no slavery either to the stomach or the palate. How to get to that.point is another matter—it depends... is the work of some hostile force which while being compelled to leave me, gave the last kick in parting. Some say it is. Do you think so? These things usually come from some adverse force. Many people show signs of progress after an illness. May I not expect some? Give me thy blessings that I may be cured without any complication setting in. It is true that one can use an illness in that ...
... establish the nature and uniqueness of a nation's creative spirit as well as the basic principle of its evolution and culture. These two ways, one tending to expansion, the other to profundity, are in many cases mutually dependent and are often the result of a sudden or rapid outburst. Ballad and folklore are the infant or immature form of a language and literature. Polished and powerful language and... by the magic touch of his own genius or made them fully mature and self-sufficient. The French are a very social race – they are proud to be called republican, so it is by the combined effort of many, the contribution of more than one genius, that their language and literature have been formed and enriched. Corneille, Racine, Molière, La Fontaine (or up the stream to Rabelais) – they are a goodly... soul of poetry, to Latin and to German, so too is Tagore the paramount and versatile poetic genius of Bengal who made the Bengali language transcend its parochial character. I think that Tagore has in many ways the title and position of a Racine amongst us. There is a special quality, a music and rhythm, a fine sensibility of the inner soul of Bengal. Its uniqueness is in its heart; a sweet ecstasy, an ...
... altogether higher and more valuable thing than any petty religious ceremony. There is no comparison. You speak of religious ceremonies. There is, for example, a being called Kali; there are many Kalis, of many varieties, installed in temples and houses. All of them almost are vital beings and forces, some are ugly and terrible. I have known people who had such a fear of Kali—their household Kali—that... holy places with the true religious feeling, that is to say, not to pray or beg something of God, but to offer themselves, to express gratitude, to aspire, to surrender. One in a million would be too many. These when they are there, get some touch of the Divine just for the moment. But all others go only out of superstition, egoism, self-interest and create the atmosphere as it is found and it is that ...
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