... Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays Yoga, Science, Religion and Philosophy We may begin with a preliminary elucidation of the three terms, science, religion and philosophy. Science may be defined as a quest of knowledge, which lays a special emphasis on detailed processes in order to arrive at utmost precision, and the distinguishing methods... may yet be found to be rationally incorrigible. Philosophy is often described as "No Man's Land", since it falls outside the domain of science and religion - the two domains to which the entire humanity is related in one way or the other. Philosophy is something like science and something like religion, but it belongs to neither. It is like science a critical inquiry, an impartial inquiry, and an... developments of science may eventually come to substantiate the conclusions of philosophy. In the intermediate stages, therefore, there could be conflicts between philosophy and science, but since both are critical in their approach, these conflicts do not take serious proportions as has happened in regard to conflicts between science and religion. In recent times, however, science has influenced ...
... rare occurrences of illuminations, religion tends to formulate doctrines and puts them forward as dogmas, which are not defensible in terms of rationality but which are yet declared to be unquestionably valid. Religion and philosophy, religion and science stand in conflict on this very important issue. Philosophy and science often tend to reject the claims of religion, or while admitting their own limitations... limitations, not only of science, but also of religion, occultism and philosophy, too, will need to be developed. It is in that context that yoga, which is practical psychology and science of direct spiritual experience, promises to be a quest of the highest utility. It is true that spiritual experience is the final aim and achievement of religion, although the history of religion shows how many religious... discovery of such a wide totality that it is enabled to resolve conflicts between religion, science and philosophy, conflicts among religions themselves, conflicts among religions and spiritual experiences and conflicts in the field of direct spiritual experiences. In the meantime, it is to be admitted that philosophy has played a role of a bridge between the spirit and the intellectual Reason, and ...
... India will have to resolve four important questions, namely, those related to (1) the conflict of religions, (2) the conflict of religion and science, (3) the conflict between science and philosophy, and (4) the conflict between asceticism and materialism. It is evident that the conflict of religions cannot be resolved at the level of dogmas. For dogmas are themselves unquestionable, and if the... several decades. We have achieved much in the field of science, but we have still not related science to spirituality, and we have not yet seen how science itself can be enriched by the knowledge that spirituality can deliver. The conflict between science and philosophy has grown in the modern intellectual world and the credentials of philosophy have been severely questioned. The modern Indian philosopher... exemplified in Sri Aurobindo —a puissant and irresistible drive Jowards the synthesis of spiritual experiences. The conflict of religions and science can be resolved only if science expands itself into an inquiry of the v invisible' actuality, and if religion enlarges itself and transforms itself into an impartial open search of the verifiable and repeatable spiritual experience. Here, again ...
... India will have to resolve four important questions, namely, those related to (1) the conflict of religions, (2) the conflict of religion and science, (3) the conflict between science and philosophy, and (4) the conflict between asceticism and materialism. It is evident that the conflict of religions cannot be resolved at the level of dogmas. For dogmas are themselves unquestionable, and if the... decades. We have achieved much in the field of science, Page 468 but we have still not related science to spirituality, and we have not yet seen how science itself can be enriched by the knowledge that spirituality can deliver. The conflict between science and philosophy has grown in the modern intellectual world and the credentials of philosophy have been severely questioned. The modern... fully exemplified in Sri Aurobindo - a puissant and irresistible drive towards the synthesis of spiritual experiences. The conflict of religions and science can be resolved only if science expands itself into an inquiry of the 'invisible' actuality, and if religion enlarges itself and transforms itself into an impartial open search of the verifiable and repeatable spiritual experience. Here, again ...
... see the revolt of Philosophy (with Science concealed in her protective embrace) against the usurpation of religion. We find it, after achieving liberation, in its turn denying religion and usurping her sacred prerogative. In the modern era we see Science this time emerged and adult, keeping Philosophy behind her, in revolt against religion, first liberate herself, then deny religion & usurp her prerogatives... his parts of knowledge have resulted three illegitimate human activities, of which Philosophy, Religion & Science have severally made themselves guilty, the disputatious metaphysical philosophy of the schools, the theology of the Churches and the scientific philosophy of the laboratories. Philosophy, Religion & Science have each their appointed field and dominion; each can help man in his great preoccupation... guillotined Science wherever its presence attracted her attention. But all injustice—and that means at bottom all denial of truth, of the satyam and ritam—brings about its own punishment or, as Religion would put it, God's visitation & vengeance. Science liberated, given in her strenuous emergence the strength of the Titans, avenges herself today on her old oppressors, on Religion, on Philosophy, breaks ...
... of religion, science and yoga; Philosophy and practice of intellectual, aesthetic and practical skills. Applied Philosophy of nation-building and world unity. Third Year: Applied Philosophy of law and economics; Applied Philosophy of integral health; Applied Philosophy of technology and management; Applied Psychology... forms, and we need to derive from them the most valuable lessons, which are Page 210 relevant to the creation of a new road of education. These three forms are those of religion, philosophy and Yogic science. Our concern will be, not with any specific formula, nor with their conflicts, nor, again, with outer details of practices. Our concern will be to consider mainly the theme of the conquest... and mind, and also the study of the body and mind as the science of yoga looks upon them. This subject can also be studied in the context of evolution, and it can be argued that evolution does not stop merely at the evolution of man and that there is a possibility of mutation of species. Page 223 What is called philosophy of religion could also be a part of the curriculum at the tertiary ...
... account to Science, Philosophy & Religion in their own terms of that which we mean by Veda & Vedanta and our reasons for attaching a supreme importance to the conclusions we reach by them. In order that this satisfaction may be given the Vedantist must make it clear what he means by knowledge, what he holds to be the value of the criteria relied on respectively by Science, Philosophy & Religion and how... recognise & rise to the higher. The ancient Hindus, therefore, insisted on Veda as the supreme authority, allowing Philosophy, Science & Religion only as subordinate helps to knowledge, because they perceived the danger of giving too unlicensed a freedom to these great but inferior powers. Religion, putting Veda away into a sacred oblivion, follows the impulses of the undisciplined heart, not purified, but... freely in mind. Thus it comes about that even when Veda manifests in the mental world, it has although the higher & truer, to give an account of itself to the lower & more fallible, to Science, to Philosophy & to Religion. It must answer their doubts & questions, it must satisfy all their right and permissible demands. For although from the ideal point of view it is an anomaly that the higher should be ...
... the whole concept becomes incredible. Science, Philosophy, the great creeds which have set Knowledge as the means of salvation, have always been charged with atheism because they deny these conceptions of the Divine Nature. Science and Philosophy & Knowledge take Page 408 their revenge by undermining the faith of the believers in the ordinary religions through an exposure of the crude and... therefore at this dilemma that Philosophy & Science can satisfy the reason but cannot satisfy the heart or get mastery of the source of conduct; while Religion which satisfies Page 411 the heart and controls conduct, cannot in its average conceptions permanently satisfy the reason and thus exposes itself to gradual loss of empire over the mind. A religion therefore which claims to be eternal... oblivion by the imperious contempt of Science which thought that it had discovered a complete solution of the Universe, a truth and a law of life independent of religion and yet able to supersede religion in its peculiar province of reaching & regulating the sources of conduct and leading mankind in its evolution. But it has now become increasingly clear that Science has failed to substantiate its claims ...
... which is at war with science and philosophy or oscillates between irrational Page 115 belief and a troubled or else a self-confident scepticism. In Europe philosophy has been sometimes the handmaid—not the sister—of religion; but more often it has turned its back on religious belief in hostility or in a disdainful separation. The war between religion and science has been almost the leading... spirit behind, but they derive from it their main ideas and their cultural character. Together they make up its soul, mind and body. In Indian civilisation philosophy and religion, philosophy made dynamic by religion, religion enlightened by philosophy have led, the rest follow as best they can. This is indeed its first distinctive character, which it shares with the more developed Asiatic peoples, but... than life and action. Philosophy and religion are the soul of Indian culture, inseparable from each other and interpenetrative. The whole objective of Indian philosophy, its entire raison d'être , is the knowledge of the spirit, the experience of it and the right way to a spiritual existence; its single aim coincides with the highest significance of religion. Indian religion draws all its characteristic ...
... Ltd., Calcutta, 1942. Margolis, Joseph, Science Without Unity, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1987. Mario Bunge, Scientific Materialism, Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht, 1981. Maurice Merlin-Ponty, The Primacy of Perception, edited by James Edie, Evanston, North Western University Press, 1964. Mehta, J.L., Philosophy & Religion : Essays and Interpretation, Indian Council... The Evolution of the Soul, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986. Tagore, Rabindranath, The Religion of Man, George Alien Unwin Ltd., London, 3rd edition, 1949. PAGE–151 Tamini, I.K., The Science of Yoga, The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai, 2001. Tantia, N.M., Studies in Jain Philosophy, P.V. Research Institute, Varanasi, 1985. Tart, C., (ed.), Transpersonal Psychologies... London,1953. Radhakrishnan, S, Indian Philosophy, (2 Vols.) George Alien Unwin, London. Rama Rao Pappu and R. Pulligandla,(eds.)., Indian Philosophy: Past & Future, Motilal Banarasi Dass, Delhi, 1982. Ranade, R.D., A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy, Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, Bombay, 1968. Renoir, Louis, Religions of Ancient India, New York, 1968. Renou ...
... Prior to the invention of printing and facilities of modern science, India produced colossal literature, which certainly dealt with philosophy and theology, and religion and yoga; but it also dealt with logic and rhetoric and grammar and linguistics; it dealt with poetry and drama; it produced works on medicine and astronomy and other sciences; in the fields of arts, the literature spanned from painting... built republics, kingdoms and empires; it constructed philosophies and cosmogonies; it developed sciences and arts and poems; it raised all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works; it organised communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals; developed and systematised physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration... recovery of the old spiritual knowledge and experience in all its splendour, depth and fullness is its first, most essential work; the flowing of this spirituality into new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge is the second; an original dealing with modern problems in the light of Indian sprit and the endeavour to formulate a greater synthesis of a spiritualised society ...
... knowledge provide as sounder foundations for the philosophy of value and philosophy of value-oriented education. Already great scientists and philosophers of science have begun to acknowledge the need to bridge the gulf between science and value, just as there is a need to bridge the gulf between art and value. It is recognised that the development of science should be supplemented by enormous development... secondly, it eliminated the study of philosophy, dharma and spiritual knowledge three elements, which are the supreme components of the Indian heritage; thirdly, while it introduced some Page 59 elements of world history and world geography and modern science, it presented the dominant British view of history and disturbed the Indian view of science, which always looked upon scientific... scientific inquiry as a part of the holistic quest in which Science, Philosophy and Yoga had a sound system of interrelationship; and fourthly, it omitted altogether physical education and skills of art and craft and others related to science of living, which were kept alive in India throughout the ages. What has been lost in terms of pedagogy and richness of contents of knowledge and skills has still ...
... resulting from the principles, powers and processes that govern the experiences and realisations of the highest possible objects of knowledge. And, finally, there is the affirmation that science, philosophy, poetry, religion and other disciplines, whatever their specific distinctions from each other and whatever their conclusions, — they can reach or fulfil their goals when they open up to those higher faculties... action and creativity. All this explains the constant concern for psychological explorations in our culture and the development of yoga, and Page 1 its special relationship with religion and philosophy. Yoga has been looked upon as practical psychology, and yogic methods have something of the same relation to the customary psychological workings of man as has the scientific handling of the... guided effort to unite our being with the divine reality and divine nature. Indeed, Yoga is a science, — an intuitive science, — which deals with the ranges of the psychical and spiritual being and discovers greater secrets of physical, psycho-physical and other higher worlds. As in all true science, the object is an assured method of personal discovery or living repetition and possession of past ...
... foundation of morality and ethics. In the wider sense of the word, religion dealt with the uncharted regions of human experience, uncharted, that is, by the scientific positive knowledge of the day. In a sense it might be considered an extension of the known and charted region, though the methods of science and religion were utterly unlike each other, and to a large extent they had to deal... world. Science does not tell us much, or for the matter of that anything about the purpose of life. It is now widening its boundaries and it may invade the so-called invisible world before long and help us to understand this purpose of life in its widest sense, or at least give us some glimpses which illumine the problem of human existence. The old controversy between science and religion takes a... imprisonment in Ahmadnagar Fort prison camp during the years 1942 to 1945, and forms part of his book The Discovery of India. As he speaks of his own life's philosophy, one can sense that Nehru is impatient with all forms of religion, philosophy, metaphysics, mysticism and spirituality that are primarily concerned with the existence of other worlds beyond this one. He has little sympathy with people ...
... poetry at a discount. He felt that there was value in poetry and he felt that there was value in philosophy and he felt that religion had value. Still, according to him, philosophy could not stand in its metaphysical speculations against the concrete demonstrations of Science. Only one thing in Philosophy gripped him with an irresistible force. It was concerned with the problem of what are called Universals... belief in Him. The intellect's assent to the actuality of these things was part and parcel of Philosophy and Religion. Yet Science set its face like flint against such assent. The ideal, the spiritual, could not be accepted as truths. Mallarme could not pass beyond Science — and yet he could not give up what Science denied. He had to find a way to keep both. Page 237 His solution was Art... rhythm, significant design. According to Mallarme, this play gives us in its own fashion all that the highest philosophy and the deepest religion can, and it does not demand intellectual assent and consequently it does not demand that we intellectually contradict the verdicts of Science. We can accept Atheism and Materialism and still avoid the dead hand of these "isms" upon our whole being: we can ...
... each has its own intense delight, as philosophy has its joy of deep and comprehensive understanding and religion its hardly expressible rapture. Still it remains true that the poet may express precisely the same thing in essence as the philosopher or the man of religion or the man of science, may even give us truth of philosophy, truth of religion, truth of science, provided he transmutes it, abstracts... meet on their tops. Truth of poetry is not truth of philosophy or truth of science or truth of religion only, because it is another way of self-expression of infinite Truth so distinct that it appears to give quite another face of things and reveal quite another side of experience. A poet may have a religious creed or subscribe to a system of philosophy or take rank himself like Lucretius or certain Indian... meeting-place are worth dwelling upon; for if poetry is to do all it can for us in the new age, it will include increasingly in its scope much that will be common to it with philosophy, religion and even in a broader sense with science, and yet it will at the same time develop more intensely the special beauty and peculiar power of its own insight and its own manner. The poetry of Tagore is already a new ...
... Aurobindo, for example, which has been acclaimed as the greatest philosophical work of this Century, is according to Sri Aurobindo himself not philosophy but record of his own experience seen and realised and lived. You see the truths of religion or Philosophy and Theology differ according to the differing mental and intellectual per ception of their authors or founders. Spiritual truth is always one... निहितं गुहाया महाजनः येनगतः स पन्था || (The truth of religion lie hid in the caves, amid Page 85 the conflicting claims. The only way is to tread the path that the Greats have trod). I am afraid you will never find a solution to the truths of religion on mental planes as is evident from the differing philosophies. Under the circumstances it is best to. follow one you prefer... prefer as we have done in choosing the integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and find out the truth by your own personal experience. Science deals with laws of physical nature. But we have a vital nature, a mental nature. Psychology is an effort at the study of our vital and mental nature, but this is a very imperfect and perfunctory way to learn because it studies only the surface and does not ...
... awakened consciousness; man will always turn his generalisations into a religion, even though it be only a religion of positivism or of material Law. Philosophy is the intellectual search for the fundamental truth of things, religion is the attempt to make the truth dynamic in the soul of man. They are essential to each other; a religion that is not the expression of philosophic truth, degenerates into ... of all real progress in the practical and mental life of the race. The entering stream of Eastern thought found in Europe the beginning of an era which rejected religion, philosophy and psychology,—religion as an emotional delusion, philosophy, the pure essence of the mind, as a barren thought-weaving,—and resolved to devote the whole intellectual faculty of man to a study of the laws of material Nature... obscure beginnings of modern thought and science. The fourth and last attempt which is as yet only in its slow initial stage is the quiet entry of Eastern and chiefly of Indian thought into Europe first through the veil of German metaphysics, more latterly by its subtle influence in reawakening the Celtic, Scandinavian and Slavonic idealism, mysticism, religionism, and the direct and open penetration ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Religion, Idealism, Morality and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter I Religion and Yoga Religion and the Truth The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy—so you must not tie yourself to any of these... "But religion is not like a house or a cloak, which can be changed at will. It is more an integral part of one's self than of one's body. Religion is the tie that binds one to one's Creator and whilst the body perishes, as it has to, religion persists even after death." M. K. Gandhi, on a statement by B. R. Ambedkar concerning change of religion, in The Collected Works of Mahatma... propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter. It is news to me that I have excluded Mahomedans from the Yoga. I have not done it any more than I have excluded Europeans or Christians. As for giving up one's past, if that means giving up the outer forms of the old religions, it is ...
... root of the historic insufficiency of religion as a guide and control of human society lies there. Churches and creeds have, for example, stood violently in the way of philosophy and science, burned a Giordano Bruno, imprisoned a Galileo, and so generally misconducted themselves in this matter that philosophy and science had in self-defence to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get... it will give to all the fundamental parts of our being. It will give that freedom to philosophy and science which ancient Indian religion gave,—freedom even to deny the spirit, if they will,—as a result of which philosophy and science never felt in ancient India any necessity of divorcing themselves from religion, but grew rather into it and under its light. It will give the same freedom to man's seeking... cannot be killed, it only changes its form. In its more moderate movements the revolt put religion aside into a corner of the soul by itself and banished its intermiscence in the intellectual, aesthetic, practical life and even in the ethical; and it did this on the ground that the intermiscence of religion in science, thought, politics, society, life in general had been and must be a force for retardation ...
... Prior to the invention of printing and facilities of modern science, India produced colossal literature, which certainly dealt with philosophy and theology, and religion and yoga; but it also dealt with logic and rhetoric and grammar and linguistics; it dealt with poetry and drama; it produced works on medicine and astronomy and other sciences; in the fields of arts, the literature spanned from painting... built republics, kingdoms and empires; it constructed philosophies and cosmogonies; it developed sciences and arts and poems; it raised all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works; it organised communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals; developed and systematised physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration... thought. The Vedic and the Upanishadic spirituality has remained constantly alive in varied degrees, and the Upanishads have particularly been the sufficient fountainhead not only of Indian philosophy and religion, but of all Indian art, poetry and literature. The Vedic and the Upanishadic quest was that of immortality and of the eternal Truth in its integrality, discoverable on the heights beyond ...
... do is vigorously to Europeanise, rationalise, materialise ourselves in the practical parts of life,—keeping perhaps some spirituality, religion, Indianism as a graceful decoration in the background,—than the great catastrophe of the war proves that Europe's science, her democracy, her progress were all wrong and she should return to the Middle Ages or imitate the culture of China or Turkey or Tibet... although for a different end and a greater motive. Therefore to everything that serves and belongs to the healthy fullness of these things, it gave free play, to the activity of the reason, to science and philosophy, to the satisfaction of the aesthetic being and to all the many arts great or small, to the health and strength of the body, to the physical and economical well-being, ease, opulence of the... spirituality takes them Page 35 all and gives them a greater, diviner, more intimate sense. Philosophy is in the Western way of dealing with it a dispassionate enquiry by the light of the reason into the first truths of existence, which we shall get at either by observing the facts science places at our disposal or by a careful dialectical scrutiny of the concepts of the reason or a mixture ...
... and the spiritual delight. For that reason Europe has never been able to develop a powerful religion of its own; it has been obliged to turn to Asia. Science takes possession of the measures and utilities of Force; rational philosophy pursues reason to its last subtleties; but inspired philosophy and religion can seize hold of the highest secret, uttamaṁ rahasyam . Heraclitus might have seen it... offerings of the devout in the Shaiva or Vaishnava temples. But Greece with its rational bent and its insufficient religious sense was unable to save its religion; it tended towards that sharp division between philosophy and science on one side and religion on the other which has been so peculiar a characteristic of the European mind. Here too Heraclitus was, as in so many other directions, a forerunner... the cultured few. That was because Greek philosophy, losing its ancient affiliation to the Mystics, separated itself from the popular religion; but as ordinarily Philosophy alone can give light to Religion and save it from crudeness, ignorance and superstition, so Religion alone can give, except for a few, spiritual passion and effective power to Philosophy and save it from becoming unsubstantial, ...
... fresh interpretation. Oriental Institute, 1957-62, Baroda, 3 Vols, Bloomfield, M., The Religion of the Veda, New York, 1908. Brunton Paul and Venkataramaiah, Conscious Immortality, Sri Ramanasramam, 1984, Tiruvallamalayi. Chattopadhayaya, D.P. and Ravinder Kumar (eds..), Science, Philosophy and Culture: Multidisciplinary Explorations, PHISPC, New Delhi, Vols. I-II, 1997. Dandekar... study in contrast, George Alien and Unwin Ltd., 1937, London. Hiriyanna, M., The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, Alien and Unwin Ltd., 1948, London. Keith, A.B., Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, 2 Vols., H.O.S, Reprinted, Delhi, 1925. Marshall, John, Mohenjodaro and the Indus Civilization, Arthur Probsthain, London, 1931. Matilal, B.K., Perception: An Essay... Chairman of Auroville Foundation. From 2000 to 2006, he was Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. From 2006 to 2008, he was Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC). Currently, he is Education Advisor to the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Other Titles in the Series The New Synthesis of Yoga - An Introduction Varieties ...
... attempt to harmonise the two... makes philosophy a greater thing than either science or religion. "' In that sense, he finds mysticism to be perfectly consistent with a world-view in which there is no place for God or for a moral order. There is another side of Bertrand Russell, and that is his scientific objectivism which gave him a sharp and uncompromising attitude towards the distinction between... the mind and spirit. The age of religion seemed to be drawing to a close. Even the morality derived from religion seemed to be receding into the background. The achievements of modern science, that confirmed the validity of the methods of free inquiry and verification through experience, provided the needed, leverage for securing a freedom undreamt of when religion reigned supreme among men and society... philosopher, and in philosophy, too, he introduced certain new concepts. He showed that logic could be the key of philosophical thought, and that when that key was applied properly, certain "insoluble "problems of metaphysics would be found to be non-existent. At least this is what he claimed. He succeeded in showing a close relationship between philosophy and science. Philosophy, according to Russell ...
... means that science and faith are drawn a little closer to one another. A philosophy which achieves this much has not failed, even though it cannot comprehend all 'the deep things of God.' Text from Galloway's The Philosophy of Religion, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927), pp. 371-401 . Notes and References 1.Pfleiderer's Gifford Lectures on The Philosophy and Development... superstition, or to drift into obscurantism. Surely the more excellent way is to exercise our reason on the content of our religion, and to follow its leading so far as we legitimately can; only thus can we hope to bring religion into vital relations with science and philosophy. It is, indeed, well not to expect too much from speculative thought, and there are those who like to remind us that 'our little... problem of religious philosophy — the problem how to reconcile the idea of God which in the outcome of scientific and speculative thinking with the idea of God which is postulated to explain religions experience. As a recent worker in this field has put it: we have to establish the Being of God "in such a manner as to meet the legitimate demands of modern science and philosophy," and to expound the ...
... part, but only a part. We shall devote ourselves not to politics alone, nor to social questions alone, nor to theology or philosophy or literature or science by themselves, but we include all these in one entity which we believe to be all-important, the dharma , the national religion which we also believe to be universal. There is a mighty law of life, a great principle of human evolution, a body of spiritual... ourselves first and to mould everything to the law of India's eternal life and nature. It will therefore be the object of the Karmayogin to read the heart of our religion, our society, our philosophy, politics, literature, art, jurisprudence, science, thought, everything that was and is ours, so that we may be able to say to ourselves and our nation, 'This is our dharma .' We shall review European civilisation... sanātana dharma , the eternal religion. Under the stress of alien impacts she has largely lost hold not of the structure of that dharma , but of its living reality. For the religion of India is nothing if it is not lived. It has to be applied not only to life, but to the whole of life; its spirit has to enter into and mould our society, our politics, our literature, our science, our individual character ...
... experience & every random idea about an experience as it occurred to the mind & set it up as a revealed truth & almost a semi-divine communication, to make a hopeless amalgam & jumble of science, religion & philosophy all expressed in the terms of the imagination—this has been the scientific method of Theosophy. The result is that it lays its hands on truth & muddles it so badly that it comes out to... will never do to allow the science of Indian knowledge to be represented to the West through this strange & distorting medium. For this society of European & European-led inquirers arose from an impulse on which the Time-Spirit itself insists; their object, vaguely grasped at by them, was at bottom the systematic coordination, explanation & practice of Oriental religion & Oriental mental & spiritual... outset & went into strange bypaths. It fell into the mediaeval snare of Gnostic mysticism, Masonic secrecy & Rosicrucian jargon. The little science it attempted has been rightly stigmatised as pseudo-science. A vain attempt to thrust in modern physical science into the explanation of psychical movements,—to explain for instance pranayam in the terms of oxygen & hydrogen!—to accept uncritically every ...
... indeterminative. Religions, creeds and forms are only a characteristic outward sign of the spiritual impulsion and religion itself is the intensive action by which it tries to find its inward force. Its expansive movement comes in the thought which it throws out on life, the ideals which open up new horizons and which the intellect accepts and life labours to assimilate. Philosophy in India has been... Another political spirit has awakened in the people under the shock of the movement of the last decade which, vehemently national in its motive, proclaimed a religion of Indian patriotism, applied the notions of the ancient religion and philosophy to politics, expressed the cult of the country as mother and Shakti and attempted to base the idea of democracy firmly on the spiritual thought and impulses... , but even these are only first indications and we may be quite sure that much lies behind them that will go far beyond anything that they yet suggest. This is true whether in religion and spirituality or thought and science, poetry and art or society and politics. Everywhere there is, at most, only a beginning of beginnings. One thing seems at any rate certain, that the spiritual motive will be ...
... then the only true science. An ordered use of that knowledge for a progressive social efficiency and well-being, which will make his brief existence more efficient, more tolerable, more comfortable, happier, better appointed, more luxuriously enriched with the pleasures of the mind, life and body, is the only true art of life. All our philosophy, all our religion,—supposing religion has not been outgrown... consciousness, to arrive at a greater way of existence, to progress in the spirit and grow into the full light of self knowledge Page 67 and some divine inner perfection? Are not religion, philosophy, science, thought, art, society, all life even means only of this growth, instruments of the spirit to be used for its service and with this spiritual aim as their dominant or at least their ultimate... the cult and practice of the materialistic reason and that anything which falls below or goes above that standard does not deserve the name. A too metaphysical philosophy, a too religious religion,—if not indeed all philosophy and all religion,—any too idealistic and all mystic thought and art and every kind of occult knowledge, all that refines and probes beyond the limited purview of the reason dealing ...
... of Human Unity; (1) Frontiers of Physics and Biotechnology; (m) Theories of Justice; (n) Problems of Energy; (o) Philosophy of Science: Induction, Critical Rationality, March of Knowledge; (p) Synthesis of Science and Spirituality; (q) Contemporary challenges of Education; (r) Utopias and New Visions of the Future; (s) Space Travel and... 1. Greek Culture, Renaissance and contemporary scientific climate; 2. Religions of the past and the contemporary attitudes; 3. Relevance of lessons of French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Russian Revolution, Discovery and development of USA, to the contemporary world; 4. World of Science and the Future; 5. World of Industry and Commerce and the Future; Page... life and mind; 4. Evolutionary process; 5. Mystery of the human body and human intelligence; 6. A bird's eye view of the world history; 7. What is Philosophy? 8. What is Religion? 9. The visual arts; Page 207 10. Music and dance; 11. Languages and Literatures; 12. Countries of the world. The second component of this ...
... Christian idea, which like all oriental religious thought claims to make religion commensurate with life and, against whatever obstacles may be opposed to it by the unregenerate vital nature of the animal man, spiritualise the whole being and its action, modern Europe separated religion from life, from philosophy, from art and science, from politics, from the greater part of social action and social existence... life-value of Indian philosophy is intimately bound up with a right appreciation of the life-value of Indian religion; religion and philosophy are too intimately one in this culture to be divided from each other. Indian philosophy is not a purely rational gymnastic of speculative logic in the air, an ultra-subtle process of thought-spinning and word-spinning like the greater part of philosophy in Europe; it... is the organised intellectual theory of the intuitive ordering perception of all that is the soul, the thought, the dynamic truth, the heart of feeling and power of Indian religion. Indian religion is Indian spiritual philosophy put into action and experience. Whatever in the religious thought and practice of that vast, rich, thousand-sided, infinitely pliable, yet very firmly structured system we ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter I The Intellect and Yoga Intellectual Truth and Spiritual Experience Intellectual truths? Do you think that the intellectual truth of the Divine is its real truth? In that case... need of his life. The spiritual or mystic line is one of them and man tries to satisfy it in various ways, by superstitions of all kinds, by ignorant religionism, by spiritism, demonism and what not, in his more enlightened parts by spiritual philosophy, the higher occultism and the rest, at his highest by the union with the All, the Eternal or the Divine. The tendency towards the search for spirituality... even in the darkened earth consciousness stands firm beyond as the one ultimate certitude. Art, poetry, music are not Yoga, not in themselves things spiritual any more than philosophy either is a thing spiritual or science. There lurks here another curious incapacity of the modern intellect—its inability to distinguish between mind and spirit, its readiness to mistake mental, moral and aesthetic ...
... alleged convergence between religion and science is a shallow, empty, hollow, spin-doctered sham.” 22 “Science and religion cannot be reconciled,” concurs Peter Atkins, “and humanity should begin to appreciate the power of its progeny [science, that is] and refuse all efforts at a compromise. Religion has failed, and its failure should be brought into the open. Science, with its present successful... do not overlap … To cite the old clichés, science gets the age of rocks, and religion the rock of ages; science studies how the heavens go, religion how to go to heaven.” 20 Knowing what we do about sociobiology, it is clear that its representatives could not possibly accept such a standpoint. According to them, biology, based on physics, is the science that will provide humanity with a total ... “all in favour of a dialogue between science and religion, but not a constructive dialogue. One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious.” 24 The End of Science? It is not the intention of this book to attack science, but to examine its claims to exclusivity ...
... not bring them nearer to each other. Those who like Mr. Krishnaswamy Aiyar think that because Europe will take much of India's religion and philosophy, therefore she will learn to love and respect the Indian people, forget that Europe adopted a modified Judaism as her religion, yet hated, despised and horribly persecuted the Jews. European prejudice will always refuse to regard Asiatics as anything but... an inexplicable exception. The world of Liberalism and enlightenment to which alone liberal philosophy is applicable and in which alone liberal institutions can flourish, is the world of Europe and America which has inherited the legacy of Rome and Greece, of Christianity and rationalistic thought and science. Asia stands outside that charmed enclosure. That this is the mental attitude of Mr. John... nineteenth century. But the very keenness of this appreciation makes it utterly impossible for Mr. Morley and men like him to understand and sympathise with Asiatics. To them Asia is a home of monstrous religions, barbarous despotisms, grotesque superstitions and a primitive morality. That this half-civilised continent contains peoples as capable of self-government as any European race is a thing which they ...
... Glimpses of Vedic Literature Yoga, Science, Religion and Philosophy ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Religion, Idealism, Morality and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter II Idealism and Spirituality Human Perfection and Spirituality I would not describe the perfections you describe in your letter, fine though they are, as spiritual in the proper... cardinals or the Reverend Holmes or pacifists like Lord Robert Cecil or in the past Tolstoy who spent his whole life trying in vain to live according to his ideals. Idealising intellectualism and religionism are all that is left of spirituality in Europe. Page 418 × This is the draft of a letter reproduced in ...
... formulate some important general statements, and formulate also some questions which would necessitate further research, and which would also involve discussions of important issues in science, philosophy, ethics, religion and even occultism. For yoga aims at knowledge and claims validity for the knowledge acquired through yogic methods, and if this claim is sustained, it will have far-reaching consequences... however, that yogic quest is often prefaced by an entry into the fields of subtle-physical, inner vital and inner mental, — even as, yogic quest is often prefaced by a serious quest in philosophy, science, religion, ethics or aesthetics. But even if this prefatory quest in these fields happens to be necessary in most cases, it has to be underlined that the central field, — the distinctive field, —... but with due discrimination, and without diluting their 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 ...
... imagination in poetry, literature and philosophy, we cannot but be impressed by the stupendous work he has left for posterity covering every field of human thought and activity with the only exception of finance and economics. Yoga, philosophy and spirituality are his forte but there is hardly any field of human relations, society, politics, education, arts, science and literature where he has not some... 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... Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects Direct Approach To Sri Aurobindo Some one has very pertinently remarked that Sri Aurobindo is the only Master who has left nothing for his disciples to say and and that is perfectly true. If we took note of the various writings of Sri Aurobindo, from his daily letters to the ashramites to the highest flights ...
... part, but only a part. We shall devote ourselves not to politics alone, nor to social questions alone, nor to theology or philosophy or literature or science by themselves, but we include all these in one entity which we believe to be all-important, the dharma , the national religion which we also believe to be universal. There is a mighty law of life, a great principle of human evolution, a body of spiritual... ourselves first and to mould everything to the law of India's eternal life and nature. It will therefore be the object of the Karmayogin to read the heart of our religion, our society, our philosophy, politics, literature, art, jurisprudence, science, thought, everything that was and is ours, so that we may be able to say to ourselves and our nation, 'This is our dharma .' We shall review European civilisation... sanatana dharma , the eternal religion. Under the stress of alien impacts she has largely lost hold not of the structure of that dharma , but of its living reality. For the religion of India is nothing if it is not lived. It has to be applied not only to life, but to the whole of life; its spirit has to enter into and mould our society, our politics, our literature, our science, our individual character ...
... became complete and the connection of philosophy with life and its energies or spirit and its dynamism was either cut or confined to the little that the metaphysical idea can impress on life and action by an abstract and secondary influence. Religion has supported itself in the West not by philosophy but by a credal theology; sometimes a spiritual philosophy emerges by sheer force of individual genius... used quite concretely in mathematics and all the external sciences. From the philosophical point of view it is the same thing. In the present instance, the spiritual theorem of existence may be stated in this way: the Absolute in the relativities or Oneness in multiplicity. But to explain "the mental consequences", we must go into philosophy and I believe you are rather unprepared for that. And to really... understanding] can be satisfied and with which our nature of mind has provided us is philosophy, and in this field it must be a spiritual philosophy. Such systems have arisen in numbers in the East; for almost always, wherever there has been a considerable spiritual development, there has arisen from it a philosophy justifying it to the intellect. The method was at first an intuitive seeing and an intuitive ...
... Evolution, Religion and the Unknown God Bibliography Allègre, Claude: Dieu face à la science , Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1997 Amzallag, Gérard Nissim: La Raison malmenée , CNRS Editions, 2002 — L’Homme végétal , Albin Michel, 2003 Arsac, Jacques: La science et le sens de la vie , Fayard, 1993 Baxter, Stephen: Revolutions in the Earth ... Russell on Religion , Routledge, 1999 Gribbin, John: The Fellowship , Penguin Books, 2006 Gribbin, Mary and John: Being Human , Phoenix, 1995 Guittès, Emmy: Le passage de la matière à la vie , La Baconnière, 1966 Guttman, Barton S.: Evolution , Oneworld Publications, 2007 Harris, Sam: The End of Faith , W.W. Norton & Company, 2004 Hellman, Hal: Great Feuds in Science , John Wiley... Fuller, Steve: Kuhn vs Popper , Icon Books, 2003 Garreau, Joel: Radical Revolution , Doubleday, 2005 Gingerich, Owen: God’s Universe , The Belknap Press (HUP), 2006 Gjertsen, Derek: Science and Philosophy – Past and Present , Penguin Books, 1989 Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas: The Occult Roots of Nazism , New York University Press, 1994 Gould, Stephen Jay: Punctuated Equilibrium , The Belknap ...
... as their experience of themselves deepens and increases. Thus true spirituality will not lay a yoke upon science and philosophy or compel them to square their conclusions with any statement of dogmatic religious or even of assured Page 228 spiritual truth, as some of the old religions attempted, vainly, ignorantly, with an unspiritual obstinacy and arrogance. Each part of man's being has... follow and will follow in the end, put on it what fetters you please. The dharma of science, thought and philosophy is to seek for truth by the intellect dispassionately, without prepossession and prejudgment, with no other first propositions than the law of thought and observation itself imposes. Science and philosophy are not bound to square their observations and conclusions with any current ideas... starving of the vital being and an utmost bareness or even squalor as the rule of spiritual living, nor by a puritanic denial of art and beauty and the aesthetic joy of life, nor by a neglect of science and philosophy as poor, negligible or misleading intellectual pursuits,—though the temporary utility even of these exaggerations as against the opposite excesses need not be denied; it will be all things ...
... the vital self by the purification of the emotions and the clarification of the intellect was the principal work of the past. The purification has been done by morality and religion, the clarification by science and philosophy, art, literature and social and political life being the chief media in which these uplifting forces have worked. The conquest of the emotions and the intellect by the spirit... believes this evolution to be a development of matter and the satisfaction of the reason, the reflective and observing intellect, to be the highest term of our progress. Here it is that our religion parts company with Science. It declares the evolution to be a conquest of matter by the recovery of the deeper emotional and intellectual self which was involved in the body and over-clouded by the desires of the... emotions connected with the prāṇa that seek to feed upon the world in the beast and in the savage man who approximates to the condition of the beast. Out of this animal state, according to European Science, man rises working out the tiger and the ape by intellectual and moral development in the social condition. If the beast has to be worked out, it is obvious that the body and the prāṇa must be conquered ...
... Synthesis of Yoga is that Yoga should be distinguished clearly from philosophy and religion with which it is likely to be confused. According to Sri Aurobindo, the age of philosophy and religion is over, and the new age will insist on the deepest, widest and highest realisations that can be attained by the methods of Yoga. For although philosophy aims at discovering the highest reality, its methods are those... internationalism, according to Sri Aurobindo, is not enough; there is a need of a religion of humanity or an equivalent sentiment which recognises a single soul in humanity of which each human being and each people is Page 39 an incarnation and soul form. This religion has already expressed itself in the philosophy of humanitarianism, which itself is a most prominent emotional result of the Age... although religion aims at connecting the individual with the highest reality, its methods are predominantly those of credal belief, rituals, ceremonies and prescribed acts embodied in various routines of life and social institutions, -- the methods that conflict with the modern insistence on undogmatic experiential demands of the search and realisation of realities. Both these, -- philosophy and religion ...
... problems of human existence; consequently, there came about a general decline in science, in philosophy, and in all other domains of life. On the other hand, the previous training Page 104 provided by the Vedic religion to the physically-minded early common man and by the post-Vedic and Purano-Tantric religion to the common man of the later periods who developed increasingly his intellectual... accomplished had for its aid the power of memory and the perishable palm-leaf. The colossal literature extended to various domains, — philosophy and theology, religion and yoga, logic and rhetoric, grammar and linguistics, poetry and drama, medicine and astronomy and the sciences. It dealt also with politics and society, music and dancing, architecture and painting, all the sixty-four accomplishments, and... elements in the Vedas has remained alive throughout the ages, and it is this tradition which is seen as a source of Indian civilization, its religion, its philosophy, its culture. It is, however, true that there was an external aspect of the Vedic religion and this aspect took its foundation on the mind of the physical man and provided means, symbols, rites, figures which were drawn from the most ...
... us sounder foundations for the philosophy of value and philosophy of Value-Oriented Education. Already great scientists and philosophers of science have begun to acknowledge the need to bridge the gulf between science and value, just as there is a Page 649 need to bridge the gulf between art and value. It is recognized that the development of science should be supplemented by enormous... transcends all divisions of race and religion in the Religion of Man. And there arose also the Nationalist call of 'Vande Mataram' that gave birth to the movement of the National System of Education with the aim of recreating the ancient Indian Spirit that was at once spiritual, intellectual, scientific, artistic and productive. - Sri Aurobindo formulated the philosophy of education to embody the light... education of the soul; -It eliminated the study of philosophy, dharma and spiritual knowledge—three elements, which are the supreme components of the Indian heritage; -While it introduced some elements of world history and world geography and modern science, it presented the dominant British view of history and disturbed the Indian view of science, which always looked upon scientific inquiry as ...
... ideal receded and visible matter of fact was enthroned in its place and encouraged an ugly realism and utilitarianism; in its war against religious obscurantism Science almost succeeded in slaying religion and the religious spirit. But philosophy had Page 78 become too much a thing of abstractions, a seeking for abstract truths in a world of ideas and words rather than what it should be, a... reintroduce the beginnings of scientific and philosophical knowledge into a Page 76 semi-barbarous Christendom and to the half-pagan spirit of the Renaissance and a long struggle between religion and science to complete the return of a free intellectual culture in the re-emerging mind of Europe. Knowledge must be aggressive, if it wishes to survive and perpetuate itself; to leave an extensive ignorance... industry, the opening of markets, exploitation and trade following the flag, his idea of religion at best a pietistic formalism or the satisfaction of certain vitalistic emotions. He values education for its utility in fitting a man for success in a competitive or, it may be, a socialised industrial existence, science for the useful inventions and knowledge, the comforts, conveniences, machinery of production ...
... resolution raises a deepest question whether religion, philosophy and yogic science have to play a major role, all that is relevant to, these issues in these three fields should suitably be made a part of the programme of studies at various stages of learning; and 3. Since the claims and counterclaims in the concerned fields of religion, philosophy and yogic science are still in unresolved conditions,... underlying materialism and it accepts the affirmation of Spirit, which is the truth underlying religion or religionism. The methods of this education are attempted to be derived from Yogic science which transcends tendencies of exclusivism that we find among conflicting philosophies, doctrines and religions. As a matter of fact, it can be said that we possess in India today those experiences, insights... lessons, which are relevant to the creation of a new road of education whereby the crisis created by the three pulls and counter pulls can be resolved. These three forms are those of religion, philosophy and Yogic science. Our concern will be, not with any specific formula, nor with their conflicts, nor, again, with outer details of practices. Our concern will be to consider mainly the theme of the ...
... Truth-Conscious- ness. Science, of course, knows nothing about this divine principle, nor even about whatever lesser play of it may be in force between it and the mind-plane as connective sub- territories or "anterooms" of its plenary splendour, a lesser play which the world's different religions as well as certain philosophies figure as "Heaven" or "Nous". Science at its top knows only of the... scheme of monism-in-pluralism which we have derived from science comes to be charged with the motifs of soul-individuality and soul-continuity. With these two motifs the philosophy of science gets completed and, in its completeness, grows the outline of a new mysticism which does not need to throw away anything really valuable in the past of religion but can put into all ancient spiritual values a mighty... desire to come somehow to terms with religion and mysticism no less than with science, but it is often difficult to separate his keen complexity from ingenious obscurity and, while he is frequently profound as well as large-visioned, it is doubtful whether he comes really to grips with whatever exceeds the unbifurcated nature on which his philosophy is founded. Religion and mysticism, familiar with experience ...
... schemes." 6 Science and philosophy of science have thus come to advise us to accept in all humility our limitations in respect of knowledge, in respect of truth and in respect of certainty. But is this the end of the journey? Human aspiration refuses to accept it, and a question is raised : Are there any avenues which we can justifiably pursue, such as those proposed by religion, occultism, rat... rationalistic philosophy and spirituality and persuade science and philosophy of science to join what can become a combined or synthetic quest, not only for the purposes of expanding conquest of the realms of truth but also those of the realization of the highest possible ideals of human welfare, human solidarity and human fulfillment? Phenomenon of Consciousness: Problem of Science and Spirituality... object of cognition by physical senses, it cannot be argued that matter alone exists. 2 Nonetheless, materialistic bias has continued to preponderate in the field of philosophy, epistemology, science and philosophy of science. And this preponderance can be seen in the way in which concepts such as those of infinity, eternity, universality, essence, explanation, causality and others have come ...
... detailed idea of some of the great movements and events as also of inspiring biographies, not only of kings and queens, but also of our great builders of religion and spirituality, of philosophy and ethics, of language and literature, science and technology, of art, of music and dance and sculpture and architecture. In addition, a brief idea of the various aspects of Indian life and of the values... (i) New cultural awakening (j) Science and spirituality Part II Achievements of Indian Culture 1. Religion and Spirituality: (a) The aim of life and paths of wisdom (b) Materialism, Asceticism and the Middle Path (c) Spirit of tolerance, assimilation and synthesis (d) True understanding of religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zor... (b) An in-depth of one of the schools of Indian painting, dance, drama, sculpture or architecture (c) Folklore and folk dances (d) Indian arts and crafts 4. Indian Philosophy and Science: Page 198 (a) Methods of knowledge: Intuition, Reason and Sense-experience (b) An in-depth study of one of the great Indian scientists or philosophers (c) Indian ...
... intelligence. Page 167 Inevitably there was a close link between religion and philosophy. The relationship between religion and philosophy was complementary, each one helping the other. Philosophy was made dynamic by religion, and religion was enlightened by philosophy. Thus philosophy and religion have been predominant in Indian culture and all the other elements have followed as... expression. We shall illustrate this in the field or philosophy, art and politics. Philosophy and Religion One of the most striking and unique features of Indian culture is that philosophy and religion have always worked together, in tandem as it were. Philosophy has been made dynamic by religion and religion has been enlightened by philosophy. What the intellect grasped through... the touch of the religious sense. It was a birth time and youth of the seeking intellect and philosophy was the main instrument by which it laboured to solve the problems of life and the world. Science too developed, but it came second, as only an auxiliary power. It was through profound and subtle philosophies that the intellect of India attempted to analyze by the reason and logical faculty what had ...
... incipient disintegration, marked politically Page 4 by the anarchy which gave European adventure its chance, inwardly by an increasing torpor of the creative spirit in religion and art,—science and philosophy and intellectual knowledge had long been dead or petrified into a mere scholastic Punditism,—all pointing to a nadir of setting energy, the evening-time from which according to the... before the invention of printing and the facilities of modern science; yet all that mass of research and production and curiosity of detail was accomplished without these facilities and with no better record than the memory and for an aid the perishable palm-leaf. Nor was all this colossal literature confined to philosophy and theology, religion and Yoga, logic and rhetoric and grammar and linguistics,... inexhaustible many-sidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems Page 7 and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual ...
... the elements of a mystic capture of the Divine through the heart and the senses and a religion of the joy of God's love, delight and beauty. In the Tantra the new elements are taken up and assigned their place in a complete psycho-spiritual and psycho-physical science of Yoga. Its popular form in the Vaishnava religion centres round the mystic apologue of the pastoral life of the child Krishna. In the... lines by a shifting of the center of synthesis from knowledge to spiritual love and delight the earlier significance of Vedanta. The perfect outcome of this evolution is to be found in the philosophy and religion of divine love promulgated by Chaitanya. Thus under the stress of temperamental variation the poetry of the Vaishnavas puts on very different artistic forms in different provinces. There... mean nothing else, but this is quite negatived by the use of the same figures by the devout poets of the religion of Chaitanya. All the spiritual experience that lay behind the symbol was embodied in that inspired prophet and incarnation of the ecstasy of divine love and its spiritual philosophy put into clear form in his teaching. His followers continued the poetic tradition of the earlier singers ...
... no better record than the memory and for an aid the perishable palm-leaf. Nor was all this colossal literature confined to philosophy and theology, religion and Yoga, logic and rhetoric and grammar and linguistics, poetry and drama, medicine and astronomy and the sciences; it embraced all life, politics and society, all the arts from painting to dancing, all the sixty-four accomplishments, everything... with an inexhaustible many sidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts... formation, typal construction and thought and philosophy, when the outward forms of Indian life and culture were fixed in their large lines and even their later developments were being determined in the seed. The great classical age of Sanskrit culture was the flowering of this intellectuality into curiosity of detail in the refinements of scholarship, science, art, literature, politics, sociology, mundane ...
... knowledge provide us sounder foundations for the philosophy of value and philosophy of value-oriented education. Already great scientists and philosophers of science have begun to acknowledge the need to bridge the gulf between science and value, just as there is a need to bridge the gulf between art and value. It is recognised that the development of science should be supplemented by enormous development... Chattopadhyaya, who has undertaken a very laudable project of Consciousness, Science, Society, Value and Yoga. For the present purpose, I shall make only a few brief remarks. Science, like philosophy, aims at grasping, in its own way and through its own methods, the nature of the Ultimate Reality. During the last hundred years, science has crossed rapidly several horizons, and we are now in the presence of... available in the natural and social sciences and in the spiritual and mystic realm. The Theory of Everything, which scientists seek in vain, can never be grasped by natural scientists working alone. Philosophy has to wear the mantle of holistic, integrated thinking and give to a benighted world a modern, universally acceptable philosophy of living. Such a philosophy will have to fulfil certain criteria ...
... vast and unprecedented effort to transcend the barriers of all denials, including denials of materialism as also denials of asceticism and world-negating philosophies and spiritual disciplines. We are in a need of a new epistemology, a new philosophy of a denial of denials and a new synthesis of yoga in which spiritual disciplines of the past can all be reconciled and in which a path is opened up for... age of development which must lead to such a new and larger synthesis. We are not called upon to be orthodox Vedantins of any of the three schools or Tantrics or to adhere to one of the theistic religions of the past or to entrench ourselves within the four corners of the teaching of the Gita. That would be to limit ourselves and to attempt to create our spiritual life out of the being, knowledge and... potentialities. We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future. A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhhism, but to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking; and, beyond that, the ...
... became complete and the connection of philosophy with life and its energies or spirit and its dynamism was either cut or confined to the little that the metaphysical idea can impress on life and action by an abstract and secondary influence. Religion has supported itself in the West not by philosophy but by a credal theology; sometimes a spiritual philosophy emerges by sheer force of individual genius... spiritual thinking, deriving from it sometimes a creed or theology, sometimes its supporting spiritual philosophy,—the former, ordinarily, is the occidental method, the latter the oriental: but spiritual experience is the final aim and achievement of religion, its sky and summit. But also religion has sometimes banned occultism or reduced its own occult element to a minimum; it has pushed away the ... knowledge and experience as an approach to it, formulated some kind of mystic philosophy: but more often it has confined itself to occult knowledge and practice without any spiritual vistas; it has turned to thaumaturgy or mere magic or even deviated into diabolism. Spiritual philosophy has very usually leaned on religion as its support or its way to experience; it has been the outcome of realisation ...
... the contemplation of supernatural things to the examination of natural things, from heaven to earth — theology finally accepted to yield her crown to science and philosophy. The physical and the mental world, society, human institutions, and religion itself were explained by natural causes. What characterised the higher intellectual life of the period following the Middle Ages was an abiding faith... supernatural presuppositions. It was, therefore, scientific, keeping in touch with the new sciences, particularly with the sciences of external nature. The new movement found in the work of Descartes its most significant formulation. He elaborated, for the future centuries, a method on which science and philosophy could found themselves confidently. In looking back at the past, it is interesting... it expressed itself in modem philosophy. The history of this new era, the modern, is marked by a further awakening of the reflective spirit, a more insistent criticism and protest against absolutism and collectivism as represented by tradition. The need grew strong for freedom in thought, in feeling and in action. Reason became sovereign in science and philosophy. It was being increasingly accepted ...
... recent savage; it is supported by an imposing apparatus of critical research and upheld by a number of Sciences, unhappily still young and still largely conjectural in their methods and shifting in their results,—Comparative Philology, Comparative Mythology and the Science of Comparative Religion. It is my object in these chapters to suggest a new view of the ancient problem. I do not propose to... compositions have had the most splendid good fortune in all literary history. They have been the reputed source not only of some of the world's richest and profoundest religions, but of some of its subtlest metaphysical philosophies. In the fixed tradition of thousands of years they have been revered as the origin and standard of all that can be held as authoritative and true in Brahmana and Upanishad... notions or religious aspirations. Nor do occasional passages, quite out of harmony with their general spirit, destroy this total impression. The true foundation or starting-point of the later religions and philosophies is the Upanishads, which have then to be conceived as a revolt of philosophical and speculative minds against the ritualistic materialism of the Vedas. But this conception, supported by ...
... value to the “Science” of Comparative Mythology, yet the study,—not the Science, for we have not yet either the materials or the equipment for a true Science,—the comparative Study of Religions & of religious myths & ancient traditions as a subordinate part of that study is of the utmost use & importance. The researches of Comparative Religion although they cannot yet constitute a science, should at... less impostures upon posterity. European scholars believe that they have fixed finally the meaning of Veda. Using as their tools the “Sciences” of Comparative Philology & Comparative Mythology, itself a part of the strangely termed Science of Comparative Religion, they have excavated for us out of the ancient Veda a buried world, a forgotten civilisation, lost names of kings and nations, wars & battles... invaders and, secondly, in the interpretation of the Vedic religion as a worship of Nature-powers & Vedic myths as allegorical legends of sun & moon & star & the visible phenomena of Nature. The latter generalisation rests partly on new philological renderings of Vedic words, partly on the Science of Comparative Mythology. The method of this “Science” can be judged from one or two examples. The Greek story ...
... mechanical philosophy’.” 656 Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke entitles the second chapter of The Roots of Nazism : “The modern German occult revival 1880-1910”. There he writes about that period: “Occult science tended to stress man’s intimate and meaningful relationship with the cosmos in terms of ‘revealed’ correspondences between the microcosm and macrocosm, and strove to counter materialist science, with... later a doctor in philosophy”, writes Peter Orzechowski. “In the course of these studies it has become clear to me that history, as a simple presentation of the facts, cannot explain the historical events. This is especially true as far as the history of the Third Reich is concerned … There is a wealth of quotations which show that Hitler conceived National Socialism as a religion. Until now no historian... historian has drawn serious conclusions from this fact. The National Socialist religion appeared too abstruse to the analytical, scientific intelligence for it to be worthy of an examination. This religion seemed to be rooted too deeply in the occult for a historian to be able to study it without becoming himself suspect of occultism to his colleagues.” 651 “Irrationalism in its multifarious manifestations ...
... sentiment which opposes pure instinct and a faith founded on dreams to the sterile fanaticism of the intellect. Yet a real divorce is impossible. Science could not move a step without faith and intuition and today it is growing full of dreams. Religion could not stand for a moment if it did not support itself by the intellectual presentation, however inadequate, of profound truths. Today we see it... religious aspiration and scientific faculty, as a beginning; and in the resultant progress an integrality also of the inner existence. Love and knowledge, the delight of the Bhakta and the divine science of the knower of Brahman, have to effect their unity; and both have to recover the fullness Page 439 of Life which they tend to banish from them in the austerity of their search or the... Writings from the Arya (1914-1921) Writings from the Arya (1914-1921) Other Writings from the Arya Essays in Philosophy and Yoga The Needed Synthesis What is the Synthesis needed at the present time? Undoubtedly, that of man himself. The harmony of his faculties is the condition of his peace, their mutual understanding and helpfulness the means ...
... s method of teaching. In our national schools in Bengal, as with geography and history, so we teach philosophy based on the national system of education. We explain to the students in our national colleges in what regard our philosophy is greater and more comprehensive than other philosophies in the world. In Government schools the degree-holders know what Schopenhauer has to say, but they have... only come into existence when these castes and creeds are abolished. But this line of argument—that we will have a nation only when everyone in the country has the same religion and there is only one caste—is a fallacious one, for religion and caste are not permanent aspects of a nation. Other people argue that although India is a vast country geographically, still it cannot be termed a nation. But we... But we have to guard against damaging our foundation in the process. We must make use of Western science as Japan did, but in implementing its ideas we must not be blind to the achievements of our forefathers. For example, in Government medical colleges the students remain unaware of our Ayurvedic science, though there are many occult and valuable truths behind it, to which the Western system has no ...
... the seeker through the process of the burning of aspiration itself, — and, therefore, in need of no indispensable external agencies of guidance, — teacher, book, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy, science, occultism or religion, — even though they may be utilised as and when indicated or offered on the way, but in the end transcended by the inward force of the constant need to burn and burn luminously and... distinctiveness of object and method, even though this distinctiveness has characters that are, in some measure or the other, shared by all the great Page 73 quests of science, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics and religion. The yogic quest transcends all other quests by its insistence on attaining answers to the deepest questions that all other quests raise in some way or in some degree, and attempt... to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity ...
... claimed the right to rid man of the fantastic encumbrance of religion and the nebulous futilities of metaphysical philosophy. But religion and philosophy have now turned upon science and convicted her, on her own statement of facts, of an equal liability to the two Page 286 universal difficulties of human reason. The system of science seems to be itself only another feasible and fruitful co... enlarge the narrow rigid circle traced by physical science and bring us nearer to the Reality. There is nothing now to bar the most rational mind,—for true rationalism, real free thought need no longer be identified, as it was for some time too hastily and intolerantly, with a denial of the soul and a scouting of the truths of spiritual philosophy and religion,—there is nothing to prevent us from proceeding... depends on its solution. And even that, until this great question is settled, is only a stumbling forward upon a journey of which we know not the goal or the purpose, the meaning or the necessity. The religions profess to solve these grand problems with an inspired or revealed certainty; but the enormity of their differences shows that in them too there is a selection of ideas, separate aspects of the Truth ...
... ts of the reason, although it helped to make free the way for philosophy and science. It so corrupted religion as to provoke in the ethically minded Teutonic nations the violent revolt of the Reformation, which, though it vindicated the freedom of the religious mind, was an insurgence not so much of the reason,—that was left to Science,—but of the moral instinct and its ethical need. The subsequent... spirituality in Judaic Christianity, 1 —was dominated by the preoccupation of a terrestrial and ethical righteousness and the promised rewards of right worship and right doing, but innocent of science and philosophy, careless of knowledge, Page 94 indifferent to beauty. The Hellenic mind was less exclusively but still largely dominated by a love of the play of reason for its own sake, but even... the beautiful in every activity, in every creation, in thought, in art, in life, in religion. So strong was this sense that not only manners, but ethics were seen by it to a very remarkable extent in the light of its master idea of beauty; the good was to its instinct largely the becoming and the beautiful. In philosophy itself it succeeded in arriving at the conception of the Divine as Beauty, a truth ...
... spiritual resurgence and provided to all the posterity an unfailing fountain of spiritual waters that have poured themselves into all lines of inquiry and expression, not only those of religion and philosophy but even of science, art, literature, architecture and polity. If India stands as a unique spiritual civilisation and if India has been able to keep some illuminating light burning even in its... which was injected very powerfully at the very source in the early Vedic times and this has enabled India to build not only an astounding and exceptional structure of religion, philosophy, literature, art, architecture, and sciences of various kinds and skills and technologies of innumerable varieties, but also huge and powerful edifices of empire and statecraft and commerce and industry and opulence... human knowledge dwarfs the divinations of Newton and Galileo, even the discovery of the inductive and experimental method in Science was not more momentous..." This discovery was the discovery of Yoga. The ancient seers made a distinction between religion and Yoga. Religion is a matter of belief, rituals and ceremonies, even though it may involve an inner practice of moral and spiritual discipline ...
... each religion are still apt to declare that the truth declared in their . religion gives the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies have missed or only imperfectly grasped so that they deal with subsidiary and Page 112 inferior aspects of the truth of things or can merely prepare less evolved minds for the heights which have still not been scaled by other religions. Religious... have created a climate in which increasing number of adherents of different religions are getting ready to admit that Truth is everywhere and cannot be a sole monopoly of one group of religious adherence. More tolerant, more receptive and more impartial studies are being initiated and developed to study religions and philosophies for the discovery of the truth and the help they contain and no longer merely... books of Yogashastra, science of yoga. There is a need to develop a comprehensive exposition which would include not only the yogic systems which have developed in India but also in various parts of the world. viii Vide, Sri Aurobindo, Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 20,p.3. Page 102 II Problem of Conflicting claims of Religions and Spiritual Experiences ...
... compose and inform the thing which is usually called religion. Meanwhile the thought is the highest man has really attained and it is by the thought that the old society has been broken down. And the thought is composed of two separate sides, judgment or reason and imagination, both of which are necessary to perfect ideation. It is by science, philosophy and criticism on the one side, by art, poetry and... manifestations brooding in action, active in thought, energetic in stillness, creative in repose, full of a mastering intention in that which appears blind and unconscious. The great truths of religion, science, metaphysics, life, development, become concrete, emotional, universally intelligible and convincing in the hands of the master of plastic Art, and the soul of man, in the stage when it is rising... and idealism on the other that the old state of humanity has been undermined and is now collapsing, and the foundations have been laid for the Page 436 new. Of these science, philosophy and criticism have established their use to the mass of humanity by ministering to the luxury, comfort and convenience which all men desire and arming them with justification in the confused struggle of passions ...
... education, skill-oriented education and that will introduce to the students the connections between values, skills, and interdisciplinary information, knowledge and wisdom, which will unite science, philosophy, humanistic studies, art and spirituality. That minimum introductory programme may be tentatively regarded as a programme of spiritual education in common schools. * * * In practical... felt aspiration to know, possess and to the highest and the best. The commencement of yoga may come about by one's own natural development; and one can reach it by the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; one may approach it by a slow illumination or leapt to it by a sudden touch or shock; one may arrive at it by a pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a... routines tied up with the institutional frameworks of any given religion. Thus, spiritual education would provide, only optionally, acquaintance with churches, temples, mosques, etc., and that, too, only as illustrative information about religion, without any intention or provision for advocacy of any adherence to any particular religion. * * * In particular, spiritual education would lay ...
... Cambridge. Vide Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness, p. 214. Vide., Bohm, David, Wholeness And The Implicate Order, Routledge, 1980, London, pp. 174 5. Vide., Bowker, John, (ed.). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Introduction of, Oxford University Press, 2000; Galloway, George, CharlesScribner's Sons... regarded as the books of Yogashastra, science of yoga. There is a need to develop a comprehensive exposition which would include not only the yogic systems which have developed in India but also in various parts of the world. 25 Vide, Sri Aurobindo, Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 20, p.3. 26 Vide, Radhakrishnan, S., Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1923, Oxford... Vol. 19, pp. 773-4. 24 All developed religions have been accompanied by systems of methods by which spiritual experiences can be realized by an aspirant, and thus the history of yoga, in order to be comprehensive, must take into account the yogic systems that religions have developed; however, systems of yoga have also developed independent of religions, and there are a number of varieties of ...
... ess,—forming a field of consciousness with which material Science, the Science of this immediately visible world, cannot yet deal, and for the most part, not believing in it as fact, refuses to deal. Theosophy is, therefore, properly speaking, a high scientific enquiry. It is not or ought not to be a system of metaphysics or a new religion. Page 74 ... Essays Divine and Human Essays Divine and Human 1910-1913 Essays Divine and Human Science & Religion in Theosophy I have said that I wish to write of Theosophy in no strain of unreasoning hostility or spirit of vulgar ridicule; yet these essays will be found to be much occupied with criticisms and often unsparing criticisms of the spirit and methods... decry it for that reason, but it is necessary that it should be put in its right place and not blot out for us the diviner knowledge of our forefathers. Theosophy is or should be a wider & profounder Science, a knowledge that deals with other levels & movements of consciousness, planes if you like so to call them, phenomena depending on the activity of consciousness on those levels, worlds & beings formed ...
... now she will deal with the great brood of her returning children, with Christianity, with Buddhism, with European science and materialism, with the fresh speculations born of the world's renewed contact with the source of thought in this ancient cradle of religion, science and philosophy. The vast amount of new matter which she has to absorb, is unprecedented in her history, but to her it is child's... from which the noise of the world was shut out. Her thoughts flashed out over Asia and created civilisations, her sons were the bearers of light to the peoples; philosophies based themselves on stray fragments of her infinite wisdom; sciences arose from the waste of her intellectual production. When the barrier was broken and nations began to surge through the Himalayan gates, the peace of India departed... the other nations, who are now on the verge of decadence and death. The peoples of Europe have carried material life to its farthest expression, the science of bodily existence has been perfected, but they are suffering from diseases which their science is powerless to cure. England with her practical intelligence, France with her clear logical brain, Germany with her speculative genius, Russia with ...
... effectively with the problems of human existence; consequently, there came about a general decline in science, philosophy, and all other domains of life. On the other hand, the previous training provided under the Vedic religion to the physical mind and under the post-Vedic and Purano-Tantric religion to the inner faculties had created favourable conditions for the growth and development of multisided... ed had for its aid the power of memory and the perishable palm-leaf. The colossal literature ex- tended to various domains - philosophy and theology, religion and yoga, logic and rhetoric, grammar and linguistics, poetry and drama, medicine and astronomy besides the sciences. It dealt also with politics and society, music and dance, architecture and painting, all the sixty-four accomplishments, and... Post-Vedic Age: Robust Intellectuality and Vitality During the post-Vedic age, which extended right up to the decline of Buddhism, we see the rise of the great Philosophies, many-sided epic literature, beginnings of arts and sciences, emergence of vigorous and complex societies, formation of large kingdoms and empires, "manifold formative activities of all kinds and great systems of living and ...
... from the Karmayogin (1909-1910) Essays in Philosophy and Yoga Stead and Maskelyne 01-January-1910 The vexed question of spirit communication has become a subject of permanent public controversy in England. So much that is of the utmost importance to our views of the world, religion, science, life, philosophy, is crucially interested in the decision... in favour of spiritualism, it is no argument against the facts that they contradict the received dogmas of science or excite the ridicule alike of the enlightened sceptic and of the matter-of-fact citizen. If they are against spiritualism, it does not help the latter that it supports religion or pleases the imagination and flatters the emotions of mankind. Facts are what we desire, not enthusiasm or ...
... way of the development and growth of philosophy and science. The records of History show how the Christian Church burned a Giordano Bruno, imprisoned a Galileo, and so generally misconducted itself in this matter that philosophy and science had in self-defence to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get a free field for their legitimate development. And this happened because men in... However, in India it is impossible to eliminate religion for it is a very powerful and dynamic force. Let us now look at the deficiencies of religion in this light. The shortcomings of religion The study of history shows that us that religion as a guide of human society has had some serious shortcomings. First, we see that in the past it has often stood in the way... tendency and law. It follows that we should move from Religion to Spirituality. This does not mean, as some secularists tend to believe that we should discard Religion; rather religion has to be enlightened and raised up to a higher level and wider domain. In that domain there will be place for all religions, all view points and every human activity. For all human activity can become ...
... in other religions, and even had space for the theories and discoveries of science. “Theosophy swept Europe with an impetus and energy comparable to that of Wagner or Nietzsche. Wagner may have created a religion of his own, but few people at the time would explicitly have acknowledged it to be such. Theosophy, on the other hand, did announce itself as a full-fledged organized religion – or rather... natural, prime fascination, along with religion. The practice of both is in fact one and the same – a Church which condemns occultism will use magical formulas to change bread and wine into the body and the blood of its God – and it is only in the “great” religions that both are separated. If one defines spirituality as the essence of religion, as authentic religion without dogma, one can even maintain... rather as the definitive and supreme synthesis of all religions, the universal and all-encompassing ultra-religion of the future. It thus posed a challenge and a threat to existing faiths that generated considerable alarm. With its declared foundations in what purported to be ‘esoteric Buddhism’, its hierarchy of ‘secret masters’ and its all-embracing scope, Theosophy offered a complex framework that ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter IV Science and Yoga Science, Yoga and the Agnostic I do not think anything can be said that would convince one who starts from exactly the opposite viewpoint to the spiritual... that Science can explain the fundamentals of existence. They hold that Science is only concerned with process and not with fundamentals. They declare that it is not the business of Science nor is it within its means to decide anything about the great questions which concern philosophy and religion. This is the enormous change which the latest developments of Science have brought about. Science itself... between religion and science never arose in India (until the days of European education) because religion did not interfere with scientific discovery and scientists did not question religious or spiritual truth because the two things were kept on separate but not opposing lines. The defect in what X writes about Science seems to be that he is insisting vehemently on the idea that Science is still ...
... attempts to explain religion have resulted in the compilation of an immense mass of amazingly ingenious perversions, such as certain pseudo-scientific attempts to form a comparative Science of Religion. It has built up in the approved Page 130 modern style immense facades of theory with stray bricks of misunderstood facts for their material. Its mild condonations of religion have led to superficial... cultured in all its human capacities intellectual, moral, aesthetic, trained to use them rightly and to range freely, intelligently and flexibly in all questions and in all practical matters of philosophy, science, art, politics and social living. The ancient Greek mind was philosophic, aesthetic and political; the modern mind has been scientific, economic and utilitarian. The ancient ideal laid stress on... given by rational experience, analogies drawn from our knowledge of the apparent facts of existence, appeals even to the physical truths of science, all the apparatus of the intelligent mind in its ordinary workings. But this is the weakest part of spiritual philosophy. It convinces the rational mind only where the intellect is already predisposed to belief, and even if it convinces, it cannot give the ...
... Derek Gjertsen: Science and Philosophy , p. 155. × J. Bernard Cohen: The Birth of a New Physics , pp. 25 and 52. × Russell on Religion , p. 93. ... Stephen Hawking). The acceptance of such a view would put science and the crucial decisions made by scientists in our societies beyond the reach of the general public. It would also mean certain defeat for religion and spirituality in any comparison or confrontation with science, for science has the hard arguments at its disposal, while religion and spirituality seem to reason in the clouds or apparently... result has been that academic science has divided the integrality of the human experience into two separate spheres: the sphere of the materially perceptible and the sphere of the non-material, at best treated agnostically but more often with supercilious disdain. Science metaphysically dogmatized became Scientism. The hypothetical gap between science and religion or spirituality turned into a cause ...
... either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as links them to the one true philosophical cult. Even the discoveries of physical Science have been elevated into a creed and in its name religion and spirituality banned as ignorance and superstition, philosophy as frippery and moonshine … “Mankind seems now indeed inclined to grow a little modester and wiser; we no longer slay our fellows in... cannot be our sole monopoly; we are beginning to look at other religions and philosophies for the truth and help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as false or criticise what we conceive to be their errors. But we are still apt to declare that our truth gives us the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies have missed or only imperfectly grasped so that they deal with... half-revelations, with religions and philosophies, sects and schools and systems. To these the many minds of a half-ripe knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and will have it that this or the other book is alone the eternal Word of God and all others are either impostures or at best imperfectly inspired, that this or that philosophy is the last word of the ...
... the Age of Scholasticism) philosophy was considered only as a handmaid of Religion, it had to echo and amplify and reason out the dogmas (which were sometimes real spiritual experiences or revelations); but the New Illumination came and philosophy declared her autonomy, only that autonomy did not last long. For today in Europe, Philosophy has become the handmaid of Science. It was natural, since ... rasa. The observer already comes into the field with a definite observational angle, and a settled viewpoint. The precise sciences of today have almost foundered on this question of the observer entering inextricably into his observations and vitiating them. So in philosophy too as it is practised in Europe, on a closer observation, if the observer is carefully observed, one finds not unoften a core... intimate inscape. This is darsana, seeing, as philosophy is named in India. One sees the truth or reality and describes it as it is seen, its limbs and gestures, its constituents and functions. Philosophy here is fundamentally a recording of one's vision and a translation or presentation of it in mental terms. The procedure of European philosophy is different. There the reason or the mental light ...
... the Age of Scholasticism) philosophy was considered only as a handmaid of Religion, it had to echo and amplify and reason out the dogmas (which were sometimes real spiritual experiences or revelations); but the New Illumination came and philosophy declared her autonomy, only that autonomy did not last long. For today in Europe, Philosophy has become the handmaid of Science. It was natural, since ... tabula rasa. The observer already comes into the field with a definite observational angle and a settled viewpoint. The precise sciences of today have almost foundered on this question of the observer entering inextricably into his observations and vitiating them. So in philosophy too as it is practised in Europe, on a closer observation, if the observer is carefully observed, one finds not unoften a core... intimate inscape. This is dar ś ana, seeing, as philosophy is named in India. One sees the truth or reality and describes it as it is seen, its limbs and gestures, its constituents and functions. Philosophy here is fundamentally a recording of one's vision and a translation or presentation of it in mental terms. The procedure of European philosophy is different. There the reason or the mental light ...
... refuge in a return to the religious idea and a society governed or sanctioned by religion. But organized religion, though it can provide a means of inner uplift for the individual and preserve in it or behind it a way for his opening to spiritual experience, has not changed human life and society. What is needed is not religion so conceived, but a total spiritual direction given to the whole life and the... the world, not only in the political field, but in practically every important field, to themes relevant to deeper levels of consciousness, even ethical and spiritual. It is clearly recognized that science alone cannot save the world or give to it the happiness and fulfilment that it is seeking. There are deeper questionings and explorations; attempts are being made to turn more and more decisively to... must welter in a universalized confusion and discord out of which it is impossible to build a greater harmonic life. On the contrary, given the potencies of the universal force provided by science, there would be increasing hungers and calls for life satisfaction of individuals, classes and nations, a rich fungus of political and social and economic nostrums and notions, a hustling malady of ...
... true also that the harmony she established in her culture between philosophical truth and truth of psychology and religion was not extended in the same degree to the truth of physical Nature; physical Science had not then arrived at the great universal generalisations which would Page 124 have made and are now making that synthesis entirely possible. Nevertheless from the beginning, from as... experimental psychology and a profound psychic science, India's special strength,—but study of mind too and of our inner forces is surely study of nature,—in which her success was greater than in physical knowledge. This she could not but do, since it was the spiritual truth of existence for which she was seeking; nor is any really great and enduring philosophy possible except on this basis. It is true... part of a general cessation of new intellectual activity, for philosophy too ceased to develop almost at the same time. The last great original attempts at spiritual philosophy are dated only a century or two later than the names of the last great original scientists. It is true also that Indian metaphysics did not attempt, as modern philosophy has attempted without success, to read the truth of existence ...
... imagination, but less as a dynamic life-motive than in poetry and in certain aspects of general thought or through movements like Theosophy that draw from ancient and oriental sources. Science and philosophy and religion still regard it with scorn as an illusion, with indifference as a dream or with condemnation as a heathen arrogance. It is the distinction of Indian culture to have seized on this great... lives, no vital human figures in art and poetry, no significant architecture and sculpture. And that is what our devil's advocate tells us in graphic phrases. He tells us that there is in this religion and philosophy a general undervaluing of life and endeavour. Life is conceived as a shoreless expanse in which generations rise and fall as helplessly and purposelessly as waves in mid-ocean; the individual... puppets of supernatural powers; the art is empty of reality; the whole history of the civilisation makes a drab, effete, melancholy picture. There is no power of life in this religion and this Page 152 philosophy, there is no breath of life in this history, there is no colour of life in this art and poetry; that is the blank result of Indian culture. Whoever has seen at first hand and felt ...
... Tiruvallamalayi. Chattopadhayaya, D.P, and Ravinder Kumar (eds.), Science, Philosophy and Culture; Multidisciplinary Explorations, PHISPC, New Delhi, Vols, I-II, 1997. Dasgupta, S.N. and De, S. K,, History of Sanskrit Literature, University of Calcutta, 1947, Calcutta, Dasgupta, S,N,, A History of Indian Philosophy, Cambridge University , Press, Cambridge, 1932, Vols. I and II; 1940... Chairman of Auroville Foundation. From 2000 to 2006, he was Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. From 2006 to 2008, he was Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC). Currently, he is Education Advisor to the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Other Titles in the Series The New Synthesis of Yoga - An Introduction Varieties... translation), Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1973, Madras, XI Edition. Kenopanishad (with Śānkara-bhāsya) (text with Hindi translation), Gita Press, 1969, Gorakhpur, Reprint. Keith, A.B., Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, 2 Vols., H.O.S, Reprinted, Delhi, 1925. Kumārila Bhatta, Tantra-Vārtika, translation by Ganganath Jha, Shri Satguru Publication, 1983, Delhi, II Edition ...
... in man upon earth." The spiritual aim will not impose a yoke upon science and philosophy "Thus true spirituality will not lay a yoke upon science and philosophy or compel them to square their conclusions with any statement of dogmatic religious or even of assured spiritual truth, as some of the old religions attempted, vainly, ignorantly, with an unspiritual obstinacy and arrogance... starving of the vital being and an utmost bareness or even squalor as the rule of spiritual living, nor by a puritanic denial of art and beauty and the aesthetic joy of life, nor by a neglect of science and philosophy as poor, negligible or misleading intellectual pursuits, - though the temporary utility even of these exaggerations as against the opposite excesses need not be denied; it will be all things... in the Spirit, in the eternal Reality of his being." Science, ethics and art in the spiritual society "It would embrace all knowledge in its scope, but would make the whole trend and aim and the permeating spirit not mere worldly efficiency, but this self-developing and self-finding. It would pursue physical and psychical science not in order merely to know the world and Nature in her processes ...
... the Upanishads, Brahmasutras and Gita, and was always combated by other Vedantic philosophies and religions which drew from them and from spiritual experience very different conclusions. At the present time, in spite of a temporary exaltation of Shankara's philosophy, the most vital movements of Indian thought and religion are moving again towards the synthesis of spirituality and life which was an essential... It is easy to say that these ideas are fantastic, chimerical and impracticable, that there is no spirit and no eternal and nothing divine, and man would do much better not to dabble in religion and philosophy, but rather make the best he can of the ephemeral littleness of his life and body. That is a negation natural enough to the vital and physical mind, but it rests on the assumption that man... and method of Indian culture and it will be perfectly clear that the value of life and its training were amply recognised in its system and given their proper place. Even the most extreme philosophies and religions, Buddhism and Illusionism, which held life to be an impermanence or ignorance that must be transcended and cast away, yet did not lose sight of the truth that man must develop himself under ...
... to be opened up and explored. And it is for this reason that the basic science of this quest, namely the science of Yoga, included pursuit of Dharma, Darshan Shastra as also Kala. Hence, the range of cultural activities of India centred on the quest of spiritual truth but it also promoted quest through science, philosophy, art and several other means. Intense spirituality, robust scientific and... these characteristics of our culture, we must have full provision for pursuit of all these aspects, so that our students can be recipients of our true Indian heritage. Just as science is a quest of truth, just as philosophy is a quest of truth, even so art, too, is a quest of truth. But each one of them has its own specific method which distinguishes it from all others. The chief characteristics of... Youth in search of a Higher Life •Arjuna's Argument at Kurukshetra and Sri Krishna's Answers •Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays •A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth •A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher •A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man •Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga •Sri Aurobindo and The ...
... signs of advancing decline. Sciences, which were developing with tremendous force and vitality, stopped suddenly in the thirteenth century to develop and grow; philosophical inquiry continued but not on original lines; and fresh vigour came to be infused in the country with development of a number of new languages derived from old classical tongues. Excessive religionism and outer ritualism and ceremonies... mutual assimilation There came about hardening of certain institutions coupled with opulence and richness; Indian spirituality inspired and supported art, architecture, sculpture literature philosophy and various sciences and arts to such a degree that there was nothing in the cultural domains which was not attempted and was not brought up to a high level of achievement. Page 209 A few invasions... at the root of the critical problems of social, political, economic and environmental complexities. The second task is to channelise its , ancient spiritual knowledge in new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge. The third task is to formulate a greater synthesis of a spiritualised society, a task which is most difficult and yet which is most urgent and imperative. ...
... academic philosophy and criticism. Nowadays the heart of the nation is rising to higher Page 710 things; history, the patriotic dramas, political writings, songs of national aspiration, draughts from the fountain of our ancient living religion and thought are almost the sole literature which command a hearing. There are signs also that books recording the results of modern science and the... A New Literary Departure 07-October-1907 We have received from the publisher Srijut Abinash Chandra Bhattacharya, a small volume in Bengali, entitled Bartaman Rananiti or "The Modern Science of War". The book is a small manual which seeks to describe for the benefit of those who, like the people of Bengal under the beneficent Pax Britannica, are entirely unacquainted with the subject, ...
... natural philosophy", 61 we are plunged indeed in "metaphysical" depths. But the view we have taken is in full accord with Einstein's own mental bent. In addition to the pair of epigrams we have quoted, there are those memorable and penetrating pronouncements: "Religion without science is blind; science without religion is lame"... Page 241 After referring to Heidegger as "a critic of technological society and of the role of science", Naess also notes his turning away from common religion but acutely remarks: "Heidegger has no place for God, whose absence nevertheless plays an important role in his thinking. He does not... all his aloofness from conventional religion, subscribing to — as he puts it 70 — "the firm belief, which is bound up with deep feeling, in a superior mind revealing itself in the world of experience". Here, on a certain level, we have a straight contact of the world of science with that of Sri Aurobindo. ...
... The Concept of Lokasangraha. What is Concentration? How to practise it? The Difference between Religion and Yoga Occultism - the Science of the Subliminal. What is Philosophy? Scientific Method Limitations of Science and Philosophy Is Mathematics Knowledge? Beauty of Nature Beauty of Poetry, Art, Music Six Limbs of... Scientific thinking, (b) Mathematical thinking, and (c) Philosophical thinking? How to transcend Thought? What is the nature of Yoga? What is the relation of Yoga with Psychology, Science, Philosophy, Religion, Occultism, Art, Music, Literature, Technology and Life? How can we arrive at an artistic and creative experience? What is the essence of Music? What is the essence of Art?... Yoga in the Veda, Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita, the Yoga Sutra, Yoga and Yogic Research; New Paths of Yoga Yoga and Knowledge of Sciences and Arts, Yoga and Medical Sciences, Yoga and Technology Yoga, Religion and Morality, Yoga and Collective Life, Yoga and change in the world-conditions: the idea of Cosmic Yoga, Yoga and the New World of Truth, Harmony and ...
... They spit on their own Mother. They deny they own culture. Such is the will of religious and scientific West. But the Fact remains: "religions" are a modern Western fabrication. There has never been any "Hindu religion," and there may be another Science yet to be discovered. Before US, there were simply seekers of Man and of his WHAT on this Earth. It is the great betrayal of Man. ... or a Man-quake that's never done with that Ape—as if that question were my only heartbeat, the life of my life amidst all those democratic or other carcasses with their deathly Science and no less deathly religions. But on the Page 6 earth, it's perfect Hell and an electronic Falsehood repeated millions of times over in every language—except in penguin or canary tongue. But ... become or incarnate, and they wondered, they questioned, WHAT? They were IN SEARCH. That is the sad plague of our religious and scientific two thousand years (and that Science came to deliver us from that Religion, but the better to imprison us): there is no "WHAT?" anymore. The only "discoveries" that remain to be made are those of the West and its sick man and sick Earth. At the end ...
... indifferent Matter, or else, if Matter and the world built on it were an illusion, they would be rejected as nought by the sole existent Spirit. It is true, he may find that a number of religions, spiritual philosophies and systems of Yoga have attempted to build some meaningful relationship between the material world and God, whether conceived in deistic, pantheistic, theistic or in some primitive or... A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man Discontent of the Contemporary Man The contemporary man, who has attempted to go beyond superficialities in order to think, live and act at deeper and higher levels, finds himself in a state of discontent. He has witnessed the triumphs of science and technology; he feels satiated but not satisfied. As for his internal... the magnificence of Spinoza and Leibnitz. He may witness the conflict between Galileo and God, sharpen his intellect on the whetstone of materialism, pursue zealously the dispassionate inquiries of science, probe the 'fourth' dimension, examine evolution and mutation, and dream of a new physics, a new biology and a new psychology. He may hear the categorical imperative, practise the austerities ...
... remarkable fact that the rational mind of modern times, inspired by the spirit of science which has turned towards spirituality for whatever reason, is often attracted to the pure Vedanta or the Buddhistic philosophy of India. The chief reason for this appears to me to be this that the truth and the essence of religion are looked upon as anthropomorphic by the scientist. The scientist can hardly accept... inspiration from a different source. With regard to philosophy something similar Page 298 might be said. Most of the Indian philosophies, such as the philosophies of Shankara, Ramanuja, the sage Kapila and Patanjali are but intellectual expressions of different spiritual visions and realisations. If it be so, then is it not possible for science also to become a vehicle or expression of spiritual... and are independent of each other. From the standpoint of norms and. ultimate values that science brings forward, reasoning does not occupy the most important place. Science presumes to arrive at a logical conclusion from observation of facts of Nature. The advantages and benefits that we get from science are its material side. But there is another aspect of the scientific intellect which is incorporated ...
... The Yoga of Divine Love; Part IV: The Yoga of Self-Perfection. Volume 22 — Letters on Yoga, PART ONE: The Supramental Evolution; Integral Yoga and Other Paths; Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga; Reason, Science and Yoga; Planes and Parts of the Being; The Divine and the Hostile Powers; The Purpose of Avatarhood; Rebirth; Fate and Free-Will; Karma and Heredity; etc. Volume ... on Savitri (1967); Sri Aurobindo's 'The Life Divine': Lectures (1966) Radhakrishnan, S. Religion in a Changing World (1967) Ray, P. C. The Life and Times of C. R. DOS (1927) Raymond, Lizelle. The Dedicated (1953) Reddy, V. Madhusudan. Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy of Evolution (1966) Richard, Paul. The Dawn over Asia Roy, Anilbaran. Sri Aurobindo... (1967) Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man (1960); translated by Nemard Wall. Tagore, Rabindranath. The Religion of Man (1931) Toynbee, Arnold. Civilisation on Trial (1948) Vama, V P. The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo (1960) Walker, Kenneth. A Study of Gurdjieff's Teaching (1957) Wasti, Syed Razi. Lord Minto and the Indian Nationalist ...
... the seeker through the process of the burning of aspiration itself, — and, therefore, in need of no indispensable external agencies of guidance, — teacher, book, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy, science, occultism or religion, — even though they may be utilised as and when indicated or offered on the way, but in the end transcended Page 8 by the inward force of the constant need to bum and... to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow Page 12 illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may he pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or... Aurobindo's book The Synthesis of Yoga is related to yogic experiences that can be attained by the application of yogic shastra, independent of any religion or any spiritual practice that is tied to any religion, even though spiritual disciplines of religions may coincide with or may adopt or recognise for their own aims some or other aspects of this shastra. Page 7 3 Yogic Experience ...
... prose elements of these great components is fundamentally a quest. Just as philosophy is a quest, religion is a quest, science is a quest, or Yoga .is a quest, poetry, too, is a quest, but it has its own technique and specific method and manner. All these pursuits have different methods of discovering the truth. Philosophy is the discovery of truth in intellectual conceptions or perceptions, arrived... the midst of toil and battle of life. His poetry is, therefore, the poetry of life. And can there be poetry without life? Mere thought may be enough for philosophy, mere devotion may be enough for religion, mere observation may be enough for science, but poetry is a cry, a call, an aspiration that rises in the heat of life movement. Another feature of poetry, — and this is specially underlined in... arrived at by the method of ideation, ratiocination, and logical arrangement of thought-processes. Religion is devout pursuit of God through the method of worship, adoration, acceptance and practice of ethical and religious prescriptions. Science is a perception of processes of things, their mechanism and their synthetic idea arrived at by the method of observation and experimentation so as to facilitate ...
... systematically in various cultures of the world, and in India, this systematic exploration and practice have been recognized as Yoga, and it has come to be clearly distinguished from religion, occultism and philosophy. Yoga 18 is a systematic and methodized pursuit of spirituality and direct spiritual experience. Spirituality, in its distinctiveness, aims at the knowledge and possession of the... revealed truth. But religion is still governed by page - 36 mental consciousness; it often revolves in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices of set prescriptions and forms. Religion does promise eventual arrival at spiritual experience, but often, it is claimed that spiritual experience is beyond the normal limitations of humanity, even though the founders of religions, it is acknowledged... ed, were blessed with the rare ability of divine seeing and divine hearing. The claims of one religion are often in conflict with those of other religions, and the issue of the conflict remains as yet an unresolved issue. It is the limitations of morality and religion 21 that have compelled the quest of direct spiritual experience. But even in the realm of direct spiritual experience the issue ...
... of her philosophy, the sustaining force of her religion, the fundamental idea of her civilisation and culture. I have suggested that the formal turn, the rhythmic lines of effort of this culture must be regarded as having passed through two complete external stages; while a third has taken its initial steps and is the destiny of her future. The early Vedic was the first stage: then religion took its... activities. No Indian religion is complete without its outward form of preparatory practice, its supporting philosophy and its Yoga or system of inward practice or art of spiritual living: most even of what seems irrational in it to a first glance, has its philosophical turn and significance. It is this complete understanding and philosophical character which has given religion in India its durable... not put a gulf between them like some religions, but considered the knowledge of the world and things as a preparatory and a leading up to the knowledge of Self and God. All Shastra was put under the sanction of the names of the Rishis, who were in the beginning the teachers not only of spiritual truth and philosophy,—and we may note that all Indian philosophy, even the logic of Nyaya and the atomic ...
... evolutionist". Certainly, he was at pains to show that 25. Human Energy, pp. 130-31. 26. Ibid., p. 67. Page 63 pantheism need not be what it was in a philosophy and science which he saw continuing from a completely anti-Christian past. He felt Christianity to have a deeply modifying bearing upon it and thus saving his own natural proclivities from outright heresy... of nineteenth-century thought, spirit seems something so small and frail that it becomes accidental and secondary.,. I propose...to develop a third view-point towards which a new physical science and a new philosophy seem to be converging at the present day: that is to say that spirit is neither super-imposed nor accessory to the cosmos, but that it quite simply represents the higher state assumed in... associations of Western philosophy to read a merely pantheistic sense into the more subtle and complex thought of the ancient Vedanta". And Sri Aurobindo's remark gets an added relevance from the fact that the home of this more subtle and 42.Richard Falckenberg, History of Modern Philosophy (Calcutta, 1953), pp. 471-72. 43.The Dictionary of Philosophy, edited by Dagobert D. Runes ...
... immortality."² If we wish to study the history of science of Yoga, we shall have to begin with the theme of the Vedic Yoga. The scope of the history of Yoga is very vast, and it should cover not only the Indian history of yogic science but also the study of yogic methods and their results as we find in the esoteric core of a number of religions such as Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Judaism... development of Yogic science. And it is to this study that we may invite ourselves. II At the outset, it may be said that it is somewhat unfortunate that whenever we speak of Yoga today, we appear to be referring to that System of physical Yogic postures, which have been elaborately described in Hatha Yoga or else to that particular orthodox system of philosophy which has come to be... vicious circle can be broken only if our upward endeavour can. get unmixed positive support from science and only if the moral and Spiritual foundations can be strengthened and made increasingly unshakable. This is the real issue. It has been contended that all true knowledge belongs to science and can be acquired only by scientific methods. Morality, it is argued, is a matter of emotional ...
... A complete psychology cannot be a pure natural science, but must be a compound of science and metaphysical knowledge. 14 Thus another characteristic of yoga psychology — in which it differs from modern psychology — is that it is part of and inseparable from philosophy. Though both yoga psychology and yoga philosophy are based on experience and constitute a unified body of... superconscient). 10 From the standpoint of yoga psychology, the reductionistic view of psychoanalysis which tries to explain all human motivation, including the pursuit of art, philosophy and religion, in terms of the unconscious is due to an incomplete and lopsided view of consciousness. Commenting on the psychoanalytical reductionism, Sri Aurobindo writes: They [the psychoanalysts]... yogic knowledge — it is based on experience, not on thought or reasoning. Thus yoga psychology, like modern psychology, is an empirical science, that is, a body of knowledge based on observed or experiential data; Page 303 it is not a philosophy arrived at by speculative thought. Criticizing the inadequate scientific basis of early modern psychology, Sri Aurobindo states; ...
... required to be opened up and explored. And it is for this reason that the basic science of this quest, namely the science of Yoga, included pursuit of Dharma, Darshan, Shastra as also Kala. Hence, the range of cultural activities of India centred on the quest of spiritual truth but it also promoted quest through science, philosophy, art and several other means. Intense spirituality, robust scientific and... these characteristics of our culture, we must have full provision for pursuit of all these aspects, so that our students can be recipients of our true Indian heritage. Just as science is a quest of truth, just as philosophy is a quest of truth, even so art, too, is a quest of truth. But each one of them has its own specific method which distinguishes it from all others. The chief characteristics of... Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays Philosophy of Indian Art From various accounts which have evidential value, it is clear that India pursued the quest of the knowledge and the experience of reality through a multiple and even integral approach. The basic quest of India was to discover the causes of disintegration and to find effective remedies ...
... essence of each religion/sect on fundamental issues such as: - Who am I? - Purpose of life. - How human beings are interconnected? - Concept of oneness of all. - Harmony of religions 2.3Values may be culled out from traditional texts in the context of programmes on Education in Human Values. 2.4Highlight educational philosophies of Indian thinkers... Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education VII ANNEXURE III INDIAN COUNCIL OF PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH NATIONAL SEMINAR ON PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION New Delhi 18-20 January, 2002 REPORT OF RAPID SURVEY OF REACTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS OF PARTICIPANTS Professor R.M. Kalra(Honorary Adviser)... 1.1The Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) orgnized at New Delhi a three day National Seminar from 18 to 20 January, 2002 on "Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education : Theory and Practice". 1.2 A Pre-Seminar Discussion on "Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education" was also organized on 5 m January, 2002. Participants deliberated on several issues related to the theme of the Seminar ...
... Party, the philosophy of Indian nationalism as advocated by nationalist leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bepin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sri Aurobindo and others was untenable and was even an avoidable menace. There was a view among journalists such as that of Mr. N.N. Ghose of the Indian Nation that because there is diversity of race in India, because there is diversity of religion in India... unjustifiable and it should not be resorted to any extent whatsoever. IV Philosophy of Indian nationalism is also the philosophy of patriotism. In view of this philosophy, patriotism is not limited to the love of the land of the country, janmabhumi, but it is also love for the people of the land. This philosophy goes even further and inspires love of the values of the culture that have been... Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY OF INDIAN NATIONALISM I A most luminous and revelatory exposition of philosophy of nationalism and of Indian nationalism is to be found in the writings of Sri Aurobindo. In fact, Sri Aurobindo's own life is a flaming example of Indian nationalism, not only in ...
... either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as links them to the one true philosophical cult. Even the discoveries of physical Science have been elevated into a creed and in its name religion and spirituality banned as ignorance and superstition, philosophy as frippery and moonshine. And to these bigoted exclusions and vain wranglings even the wise have often lent themselves, misled by some... cannot be our sole monopoly; we are beginning to look at other religions and philosophies for the truth and help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as false or criticise what we conceive to be their errors. But we are still apt to declare that our truth gives us the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies Page 3 have missed or only imperfectly grasped... half-revelations, with religions and philosophies, sects and schools and systems. To these the many minds of a half-ripe knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and will have it that this or the other book is alone the eternal Word of God and all others are either impostures or at best imperfectly inspired, that this or that philosophy is the last word of the ...
... hindrance or bar and there is also the freedom to promote and propagate synthesis of religions. At the same time, Indian secularism insists on the promotion of moral and spiritual values which are common to all religions and to no religion as also on the promotion of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Secularism so defined and understood is thus a very special value that is uniquely Indian. ... any particular doctrine of ethics, religion or spirituality. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion one can pursue these values devotedly and zealously. This point is extremely important in the context of the Indian situation where there are a number of religions, including atheistic religions, and where there are people of no religion. This is again important in the context... ness in which all religions receive equal protection, treatment and respect, and in which there is place for everyone whether he belongs to one religion or another or to no religion. Again Indian secularism encourages us to approach everything, whether material or spiritual, with a sense of sacredness. In Indian secularism there is freedom for the propagation of each religion without hindrance ...
... back, more especially in the sphere of religion, to the original truth which convention has overlaid, defaced and distorted; but from that first step it must proceed to others and in the end to a general questioning of the foundations of thought and practice in all the spheres of human life and action. A revolutionary reconstruction of religion, philosophy, science, art and society is the last inevitable... things.” This presence is the psychic presence, and her words mean that only the beings on the Earth have a soul. To put it more clearly – for the soul is one of the least understood issues in religion and philosophy, especially in the West – the divine Consciousness is present, “hidden”, in everything upon the Earth; in beings belonging to the vital world, even the amoeba and the snail, this Presence may... that because we are more advanced than certain ancient peoples in our own especial lines of success, as the physical science, therefore necessarily we are also more advanced in other lines where we are still infants and have only recently begun to observe and experiment, as the science of psychology and the knowledge of our subjective existence and of mental forces. Hence we have developed the exact ...
... the enigma. Science has discovered Evolution; Religion and Philosophy have discovered something of that which is involved and evolves in this cosmic Existence. But the two discoveries have refused to shed light upon each other; each has shut itself up in its own formulas. This is because each is a creation and activity of Mind, Science of the concretising experimental mind, Philosophy of the abstracting... plan, the significance are secret and mysterious to us because we live on the surface of ourselves and things and are not in touch with either their core or their height or depths. Science on one side, Religion and Philosophy on the other try to arrive at the hidden Truth, but each touches and only just touches one end of it and refuses to go farther and discover the other end or the link and reconciling... cannot see what is there, but only speculate, infer or conjecture. Science questing with its measuring rod of empirical experiment begins to have a dark glimpse of the Inconscient; it knows the universe as an organised freak that has emerged from the material Inconscience and will go back to its source. Religion and Philosophy rise on the wings of spiritual experience or in a balloon of metaphysical ...
... right reasoning from data, even if with insufficient materials right reasoning were possible, seem yet to be beyond the reach of our human weakness. The continued wrangles of philosophy, dogmatisms of science and quarrels of religion are so many proofs that we are yet unripe for the highest processes of thought and inquiry. How few of us have even the first elementary condition of truth-seeking, a quiet... any value to words. On the other hand scientists as soon as they go beyond the safe limits of observation & classification of data, as soon as they begin to reason & generalise on the basis of their science, show themselves to be as much subject to the errors of the intellect as ordinary mortals. They too like the metaphysicians use words in a fixed sense established upon insufficient data and forge these ...
... towards the highest which can be experienced, realised, and verified, repeated and made permanent. This is what explains how the Indian consciousness can permit various thought-formulations and philosophies and religions and yet maintain the spirit of mutual understanding, synthesis and even comprehensiveness in which contraries can meet and confess to each other their uniqueness, limitations and needs for... unfailingly that this call of the Veda defines best the Indian identity. It is remarkable that these essential elements of Indianness have inspired the complex structure of Indian religion and spirituality, Indian philosophy and ethics, Indian sociology and polity, Indian art and literature, — indeed, Page 451 every aspect of Indian life. In every field of culture great and noble ideals have... current political or economic philosophy or practice. We have to realise that there is something precious in our own national genius that can absorb all that was precious in India's antiquity and in the western modernity and yet develop something fresh and new. We need to develop new philosophies and new forms of critical knowledge; but we do not need to imitate western philosophy and western criticism; we ...
... signs of advancing decline. Sciences, which were developing with tremendous force and vitality, stopped suddenly in the thirteenth century to develop and grow; philosophical inquiry continued but not on original lines; and fresh vigour came to be infused in the country with development of a number of new languages derived from old classical tongues. Excessive religionism and outer ritualism and ceremonies... assimilation. There came about hardening of certain institutions coupled with opulence and richness; Indian spirituality inspired and supported art, architecture, sculpture, literature, philosophy and various sciences and arts to such a degree that there was nothing in the cultural domains which was not attempted and was not brought up to a high level of achievement. A few invasions from the North-West... is at the root of the critical problems of social, political, economic and environmental complexities. The second task is to channelise its ancient spiritual knowledge in new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge. The third task is to formulate a greater synthesis of a spiritualised society, — a task which is most difficult and yet which is most urgent and imperative. ...
... towards the highest which can be experienced, realised, and verified, repeated and made permanent. This is what explains how the Indian consciousness can permit various thought-formulatfons and philosophies and religions and yet maintain the spirit of mutual understanding, synthesis and even comprehensiveness in which contraries can meet and confess to each other their uniqueness, limitations and needs for... unfailingly that this call of the Veda defines best the Indian identity. It is remarkable that these essential elements of Indianness have inspired the complex structure of Indian religion and spirituality, Indian philosophy and ethics, Indian sociology and polity, Indian art and literature, — indeed, every aspect of Indian life. In every field of culture great and noble ideals have been erected, and... current political or economic philosophy or practice. We have to realise that there is something precious in our own national genius that can absorb all that was precious in India's antiquity and in the western modernity and yet develop something fresh and new. We need to develop new philosophies and new forms of critical knowledge; but we do not need to imitate western philosophy and western criticism; we ...
... element and the common bond of all religions.” 20 The second accomplishment of science is that; by its technological realisations which have become the normal environment of humanity at the present time, it is building a transitional world between the human being of the bygone civilisations and the new species in the making. This extremely important role of science, seen in the perspective of Sri... behaviour, has in modern times relied on reductionism as the chief explanatory concept.” 4 Nevertheless, there is obviously more than scientism (i.e. dogmatic science) in the contemporary world. The adherents of the main religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, are counted in the hundreds of millions. The Pope draws crowds of hundreds of thousands; in the year 2001 the participants... become one. Nothing can be more remarkable and suggestive than the extent to which modern Science confirms in the domain of Matter the conceptions and even the very formulae of language which were arrived at, by a very different method, in the Vedanta, – the original Vedanta, not the schools of metaphysical philosophy, but of the Upanishads. And these, on the other hand, often reveal their full significance ...
... universal philosophy based on science. Just like Comte and Spencer before him, he projected a vision which resembled a religion. He proposed to fuse the inorganic with the organic and bring them under one law, but both were still in the rudimentary phases of scientific exploration. (The cell was supposed to be nothing but a blob of plasm, and the existence of the atom was still controversial.) Science as... the a-religious religion of human progress was the keynote of the nineteenth century. It would lead to the perfect society of perfected human beings, ‘supermen’ in one of several variations imagined and longed-for at the time, of which Nietzsche’s is the best known. 13 Although the ideas of these once prominent people have been overtaken by the enormous expansion of the sciences, and have faded... an Englishman.”) “By formulating the principle of the struggle for life and of natural selection,” writes Pichot, “Darwin has not only revolutionized biology and natural philosophy, he has also transformed political science. … The idea of applying Darwinism to the human society and politics has been immediate.” 9 This goes to show how sudden was the impact of the Darwinian revolution, and how ...
... ing of science, not for his contribution to science itself.” (Alan Grafen) No TV programme, no conference, no seminar, no panel of importance about the relation of science and religion, or science versus religion, without the presence of Professor Dawkins. All this, added to his articles, books and remunerative awards, makes him one of the most distinct voices in the choir of public science. “It’s... tragedy.” 9 Larry Witham quotes Weinberg as having said: “Whatever naturalism is, it is better than religion, which is tantamount to belief in fairies. … I am all in favour of a dialogue between science and religion, but not a constructive dialogue.” “Science has tended to destroy religion and has allowed intelligent people to reject God,” asserts Weinberg, adding wryly: “We should not retreat... species through Darwinism, the biological sciences claimed to complete the totality of all science as well as of its explanation of nature. As in the ideology of that time positivist knowledge constituted the ultimate goal of humanity, the new science, having become the all-round explication and the source of all truth, was supposed from then on to replace religion and morality,” writes André Pichot. 7 ...
... earth-- consciousness stands as the one ultimate certitude. Art, poetry, music are not Yoga, not in themselves things spiritual any more than philosophy is a thing spiritual or Science. There lurks here another curious incapacity of the modern intellect --its inability to distinguish between mind and spirit, its readiness to mistake mental, moral and aesthetic idealisms... the outer world from the standing-ground of the inner spiritual experience. The more you go inward or upward, the more the view of things changes and the outer knowledge Science organises takes its real and very limited place. Science, like most mental and external knowledge, gives you only truth of process. I would add that it cannot give you even the whole truth of process; for you seize some of the... things are once admitted to scrutiny, the mind of humanity will long remain satisfied with explanations so ineptly superficial and external, explanations that explain nothing. If the defenders of religion take up an unsound position, easily capturable, when they affirm only the subjective validity of spiritual experience, the opponents also seem to me to be giving away, Without knowing it, the gates ...
... prepared us for a greater religion. Reason is not the supreme light, but yet is it always a necessary light-bringer and until it has been given its rights and allowed to judge and purify our first infra-rational instincts, impulses, rash fervours, crude beliefs and blind prejudgments, we are not altogether ready for the full unveiling of a greater inner luminary. Science is a right knowledge, in... the use of the materialistic investigation of the universe and its inquiry the greatest possible service to the finality of the spiritual explanation of existence. In any case materialistic science and philosophy have been after all a great and austere attempt to know dispassionately and to see impersonally. They have denied much that is being reaffirmed, but the denial was the condition of a severer... it confronts us and be strong to find within as well as behind it the Divine. Materialistic science had the courage to look at this universal truth with level eyes, to accept it calmly as a starting-point and to inquire whether it was not after all the whole formula of universal being. Physical science must necessarily to its own first view be materialistic, because so long as it deals with the ...
... recovery of the old spiritual knowledge and experience in all its splendour, depth and fullness is its first, most essential work; the flowing of this spirituality into new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge is the second; an original dealing with modern problems in the light of the Indian spirit and the endeavour to formulate a greater synthesis of a spiritualised... inborn nature and assimilate to it all we receive, and evolve out of it all we do and create. Religion has been a central preoccupation of the Indian Page 26 mind; some have told us that too much religion ruined India, precisely because we made the whole of life religion or religion the whole of life, we have failed in life and gone under. I will not answer, adopting the language... and freedom, the waning of great ideals, the loss of the gust of life. Perhaps there was too much of religion in one sense; the word is English, smacks too much of things external such as creeds, rites, an external piety; there is no one Indian equivalent. But if we give rather to religion the sense of the following of the spiritual impulse in its fullness and define spirituality as the attempt ...
... presence is the aim of religion, to grow into harmony with its eternal nature of right, love, strength and purity is the aim of ethics, to enjoy and mould ourselves into the harmony of its eternal beauty and delight is the aim and consummation of our aesthetic need and nature, to know and to be according to its eternal principles of truth is the end of science and philosophy and of all our insistent... after him, is a thing that is not really done even in societies which like the Indian erect spirituality as their aim and principle. It admits philosophy in a still more remote fashion; and if nowadays it eagerly seeks after science, that is because science helps prodigiously the satisfaction of its vital desires, needs and interests: but it does not turn to seek after an entirely scientific life any... consumer and his political status and action. Society is the organisation of these three things and, fundamentally, it is for the practical human being nothing more. Learning and science, culture, ethics, aesthetics, religion are assigned their place as aids to life, for its guidance and betterment, for its embellishment, for the consolation of its labours, difficulties and sorrows, but they are no part ...
... finds the terms useful and makes them the springboards for his own leaps of dialectic. Sir James Frazer saw human history as moving from the age of magic to the age of religion, and again from the age of religion to the present age of science. Oswald Spengler has elaborated with immense erudition his theory of the growth and decline of civilisations; and Arnold Toynbee has likewise seen the historical process... From 'symbol' to 'type', from 'type' to 'convention' - and a dead end; then the individualistic revolt, the assertion of reason, the beginnings of the reign of science the derogation of revelation and faith and religion - to what end? "The dawn of individualism is always a questioning, a denial"; 11 the debris of past formalisms dead to life has to be cleared first, the dead church, the... fail to love humanity. Page 479 With whom are they in love then?" 30 then "religion" can be passive no more in the face of antagonism of interests, clash of egos, man becoming wolf to man, but will fight all evil with the infallible weapon of the deeper law of love by identity. Not science merely, not the vague notion of "progress", not formalised dogmatic creed, not regimentation ...
... are two things. First, the vulnerability of religion and legislative authority to a rational scrutiny and secondly, passing of the test of a free and public examination as the criterion for a sincere respect. In Europe where the mental support of religion was a credal theology, Kant's declaration reinforced the parting of ways between religion and philosophy. Sri Aurobindo's reaction to such... The 19th century materialism, fresh with the triumphs of science made all rationality synonymous with scientific rationality. But even as early as the 18th century, Kant in his preface to the work, The Critique of Pure Reason (1781), had declared, "Our age is the age of criticism to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion and the authority of legislation are regarded by many... material in this section, i.e. II, has been taken bodily from the excellent article by S. Korner on the Laws of Thought in the Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (1967). Page 382 of being as such, or b) of the subject matter common to all sciences, or c) of the activity of thinking or reasoning. As prescriptive laws they have been conceived of as expressing absolute or conventional standards ...
... argue that, apart from his desire for a "face" borrowed from a human-divine historical figure, there is no vacuum left to be filled by Christianity in the science-inspired philosophical religion of faith in the world, which is the basic religion of Teilhard. The desire for a God-Man's face is a legitimate one; but it never has for Teilhard an utter indispensability, nor is it ever given by him an ... "pan-Christism" - with its Universal Evolver Christ. But Rideau is not quite logical in equating Teilhard's "religious apologetics" with "a long philosophical tradition". Teilhard does use science in the interests of religion but there is a momentous difference between his apologetic procedure and that of a whole line of Christian philosophers in the past. Rideau" tells us that "in his sense of ... the Indies that call me with even more urgency than St. Francis Xavier's.'" What de Lubac and Rideau suggest is valid, as far as it goes, for Teilhard certainly wanted to reconcile science and religion; but he never thought that the shortcoming lay always on the side of unbelievers. One of Rideau's quotations 6 from him runs: "Everything stems from the perception and acceptance of a sense ...
... Systems of Indian Philosophy: Main schools and their fundamental doctrines; b) Indian ethics: outline study of ethics and yoga of Geeta. c) Dharmashashtras and Nitishashtras of India; d) Arthshashtra of India (a bare outline); e) Other numerous social sciences; f) Concept of 64 sciences and arts. Class XII a) Religions in India; spirit of... Clarity of thought: there is a distinction between appearance and reality (Examples from science, history, literature and philosophy). 4. Cleanliness and purity of the body, exercises for the body. Class VI I. Science and Values Striking facts revealed by science: 1. Extraordinary phenomenon of intelligence in animals and birds. 2. Possibility... Development of Value-Consciousness and Experience: 1. What is the process of thinking? How is thinking different in science from that in philosophy? 2. What is technology? How should technology be learnt? 3. What is the difference between art and technology? 4. Observation of the different levels of being in man: the distinction between the physical man, the vital man ...
... splendour, depths and fullness. Sri Aurobindo considers this to be the most essential work. Secondly, an endeavour must be made for the flowing of this spirituality into new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge. The third aim that should be pursued should consist of an original dealing with modern problems in the light of Indian spirit, and the goal should be to formulate... truth of the Indian nation and its history, the philosophy of Swaraj, the philosophy of ends and means, the philosophy of patriotism, and the philosophy of education and national reconstruction. And the way and the speed with which this philosophy succeeded in a short period of two years in breaking the old apathy and timidity and in fixing in the national consciousness the idea and force of Swaraj... foundations, as we discern them in Sri Aurobindo's writings, are those relating to the philosophy of the individual and the aggregate, philosophy of the national aggregate and national unity, philosophy of nationality and nation-state, and philosophy of nationalism, internationalism, and universality. The philosophy of the individual and the aggregate underlines an inevitable interconnection between ...
... was unable to save its religion; it tended towards that sharp division between philosophy and science on one side and religion on the other which has been so peculiar a characteristic of the European mind”, wrote Sri Aurobindo in his essay on Heraclitus. 13 “… Heraclitus prepares the way for the destruction of the old religion [by the sophists], the reign of pure philosophy and reason and the void... India the philosophy of world-negation has been given formulations of supreme power and value by two of the greatest of her thinkers, Buddha and Shankara … The spirit of these two remarkable spiritual philosophies, – for Shankara in the historical process of India’s philosophical mind takes up, completes and replaces Buddha, – has weighed with a tremendous power on the thought, religion and general... obscure beginnings of modern thought and science. “The fourth and last attempt, which is as yet only in its slow initial stage is the quiet entry of Eastern and chiefly of Indian thought into Europe, first through the veil of German metaphysics, more latterly by its subtle influence in reawakening the Celtic, Scandinavian and Slavonic idealism, mysticism, religionism, and the direct and open penetration ...
... " Einstein sums up his notion of science's dependence on response to a Superior Intelligence mathematically operative in the cosmos: "Science without religion is lame." And he goes on to state also that the scientific truth discovered on the spur of the religious or mystical feeling has in science itself no rational justification for its discovery: science cannot even provide the value of the very... impression. We may remark at the very beginning that, historically, science and religion have not always stood in stark opposition. And most significantly the absence of stark opposition has been with regard to the science that is the very foundation of all sciences: physics. What is called classical or Newtonian physics was with Galileo and Kepler and Newton "the thinking of God's thoughts after Him"... to knowledge and truth except when it has a mathematical form and is operative with scientific concepts. With this prejudice he pairs his epigram "Science without religion is lame" with a complementary pointed phrase: "Religion without science is blind." However, there is no whittling down of the typical character of the intuitive act. Between reality and the scientific mind there is, in Einstein's ...
... —documents of revelatory and intuitive philosophy of an inexhaustible light, power and largeness and, whether written in verse or cadenced prose, spiritual poems of an absolute, an unfailing inspiration inevitable in phrase, wonderful in rhythm and expression. It is the expression of a mind in which philosophy and religion and poetry are made one, because this religion does not end with a cult nor is limited... of appreciation of its value; for even if the amplest acknowledgement by the greatest minds were wanting, the whole history of philosophy would be there to offer its evidence. The Upanishads have been the acknowledged source of numerous profound philosophies and religions that flowed from it in India like her great rivers from their Himalayan cradle fertilising the mind and life of the people and kept... empyrean of the spirit. The Vedas and the Upanishads are not only the sufficient fountain-head of Indian philosophy and religion, but of all Indian art, poetry and literature. It was the soul, the temperament, the ideal mind formed and expressed in them which later carved out the great philosophies, built the structure of the Dharma, recorded its heroic youth in the Mahabharata and Ramayana, intellectualised ...
... of cosmic nature. "Science without religion," says Einstein, "is lame; religion without science is blind." When the two, by being complementary, are entirely different in field and function, how, asks Einstein, can science have any bearing on religion and how can we talk of any religious significance in the theory of relativity? Einstein's conception of science and religion is open to criticism... there is for Einstein an utter divergence between science and religion. Science, he believes, deals with what is, religion with what should be: the one with truth, the other with value. Science is impotent to provide principles necessary for judgment and action, it is not even able to justify its very basis - the value of the search for truth. Religion is equally impotent to give any knowledge of the... Science, Materialism, Mysticism Mysticism and Einstein's Relativity Physics I When Archbishop Davidson, in the early days of relativity theory, asked Einstein what effect his theory would have on religion, Einstein answered: "None. Relativity is a purely scientific theory and has nothing to do with religion." This answer seems to give short shrift ...
... AUROBINDO: The attempts of scientists like Jeans and Eddington to find Reality by science are futile. You can't found metaphysics on physical science; for, when you have built your philosophy, after some thirty years or so science will change and your building will tumble down. All you can say is that certain conclusions of science agree with and correspond to certain conclusions of metaphysics. You can't... can't make metaphysics depend on physics. PURANI: The Continental scientists have now refused to build philosophy on science. They say it is not their business to explain but only to lay bare the process. Eddington says in his Gifford Lectures that the human mind, the subject, ultimately accepts one conclusion out of a number of conclusions not because of the nature of objective reality but because of... evolution is universal and human evolution cannot be bound down to a set of philosophical ideas or rules of practice. No epoch, no individual, no group has the monopoly of truth. It is the same with religion—Christian, Mohammedan, etc. PURANI: I don't think such a wide view is possible unless one reaches the Universal Mind. SRI AUROBINDO: Not necessarily. One can see this much while remaining human ...
... be an image created by Nescience in the field of vision. Science comes & undeterred by prison & the stake tells us that the sun never voyages through our heavens, is indeed millions of miles from our heavens, and it is we who move round the Sun, not the Sun round us. Nay those Heavens themselves, the blue firmament into which poetry and religion have read so much beauty and wonder, is itself only an... condition which is truer and therefore more permanent than either. But though Science dreams not as yet of her goal, her feet are on the road from which there is no turning back,—the road which Vedanta on a different plane has already trod before it. Here then is a great fundamental fact which demands from philosophy an adequate explanation of itself;—that all variations resolve themselves into... Omniscient Mind and by such other terminology; Mind, Thought, Knowledge, Omniscience, Partial Science, Nescience are merely modes in which Consciousness figures under various conditions and in various receptacles. But the Pure Consciousness of the Brahman is a conception which transcends our modes of thinking. Philosophy has done well to point out that consciousness is in its essence purely subjective. We ...
... applications related to children's science, children's technology, children's philosophy and children's psychology, the combination of which could aim at skill-oriented and value-oriented education. Children's philosophy has gained ground today internationally, but our country has still not awakened to this area. At the international level, research in children's philosophy is limited in its scope. In... Indian children are also expected to assimilate the lessons of a long and fruitful Indian history of science and technology. We have neglected this subject for long, and children's university should give us a ready opportunity for conducting a coordinated research in which science, technology, philosophy and psychology are properly synthesized. Another council of research and applications could... early stages of growth. Children's science and technology are being fostered in all progressive schools of the world; there are even special encyclopedias centered on this subject. The Children's University should develop fresh material, including latest data. A much greater effort is needed in our country to develop the subject of children's science and technology, considering that Indian ...
... elements no human culture could be perfect. Sri Aurobindo's Works may be said to be the international form of Indian culture. My friend Sri Chandrashekharan, the Andhra poet, says : " No other philosophy or religion gives to life on earth such high significance." Apart from the material advance there are purely psychological factors also that have emerged: ( 1 ) Inter- nationalism; (2) A universal... malaise which manifest themselves in increasing nervous disorders. We may ask ourselves whether this scientific advance with its utility to life and its mastery of science-data is leading man towards the Truth. It is true , science gives efficiency which is very essential but efficiency alone is not, or cannot be, the goal of life. To a strictly rationalistic, that is, scientific, outlook Truth... consider the adequacy of the psychological means, which modern man proposes to employ, remains. " Reason and Science " as psychological means can only help but are not sufficient to solve the problems now facing humanity. This is, perhaps, being granted even by votaries of reason and science now after the experience the world has had during the last forty years. 1 want to deal particularly with ...
... 2 but ultimately won by science. As mentioned in one of the first chapters, Galileo’s premises would become the foundations of the revolutionary scientific method. His first premise, and the most important one, was that only matter and material things should be the object of science. This created, from the start, a gap between science on the one side, and religion, occultism and everything else... and the non-material worlds of occultism, religion and fantasy or superstition conjured by them – could not. The fundamental materialism of science, and its offhand dumping of all else, have become so common that at present to academic science and its popularization the world is wholly and exclusively material. Galileo’s second premise was that science cannot handle wholes, it has to divide or reduce... necessary to enable any science to be done at all. But, again, this division has impoverished the world in which we live, reducing it as it were to black and white, this in total contradiction with our experience. Galileo’s fifth premise says that the language of science is mathematics, using the data of measurement. To quote his own words from Il Saggiatore : “Philosophy is written in that vast ...
... himself the answers to the problems that beset him? Belief in traditional religions has waned and this has been followed by doubt concerning the absolute character and universal applicability of religious values and of moral teachings. At the same time it is now realised more clearly than ever that science cannot provide man with a normative morality or with a mystic fervour to lean upon... is not altogether the 'captain of his own soul' and capable of making his own choices; for man never is and never can be anything except the product of economic conditions; his philosophy, his code of ethics, his religion, even his tastes and preferences, are not, as he thinks, his free choice, but simply what he must believe because of the environment in which he has grown up. 6 All these... Gibbs-Smith in Ideas, p. 334. Page 184 "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the kindliness of a heartless world, the soul of souless circumstance. Religion is the opiate of the people. The removal of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for its real happiness... Criticism of religion disillusions man so that he may think, act, and shape the ...
... not with fundamentals. They declare that it is not the business of Science nor is it within its means to decide anything about the great questions which concern philosophy and religion. This is the enormous change which the latest developments of Science have brought about. Science itself nowadays is neither materialistic nor idealistic. The rock on which materialism was built and which in... of consciousness oversteps the limits of science and enters the realm of philosophy; it cannot claim to be a scientific theory. What Sri Aurobindo observed more than half a century ago is perhaps even truer today. Most continental scientists have now renounced the idea that Science can explain the fundamentals of existence. They hold that Science is only concerned with process and not... consciousness that the world is a creation. 22 Conclusion and Summary Science can only describe the processes of things. To try to explain the essential nature of a thing on the basis of our normal experience is necessarily to go beyond the limits of science into the realm of philosophy. The materialistic and mechanistic theory of consciousness which attempts to explain the ...
... hindrance or bar and there is also the freedom to promote and propagate synthesis of religions. At the same time, Indian secularism insists on the promotion of moral and spiritual values, which are common to all religions and to no religion as also on the promotion Page 421 of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Secularism so defined and understood is, thus, a very special value that is uniquely... religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion, one can pursue this integral process through a process of exploration, even experimentally and experientially. VII Morality and Spirituality In any sound philosophy of value-oriented education, an effort should be made to arrive at clear conceptions... one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of the rituals or ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. Furthermore, both of them are independent of any authority expect that of one's own free judgement and direct spiritual experience. It is also useful to distinguish religion from ...
... this is the Upanishads. If that be so, our preoccupation with these works is misplaced. We must put them away as lumber of the past, interesting records of the beginnings and crude origins of religion and philosophy but records only, not authorities for our thought or lamps for our steps in life. We must base ourself not on the Vedas and Upanishads, but, as for that matter many of us are well inclined... thinkers deny the rank of a science to philology or are so much impressed by the failure of this branch of nineteenth-century inquiry that they doubt or deny even the possibility of a science of language. We need not therefore yield a servile assent to the conclusions of the philologists from any fear of being denounced as deniers of modern enlightenment and modern science; for we shall be in excellent... coordination such as Tolstoy & other European idealists have seen again in their dreams,—for it is at least conceivable that, given certain spiritual conditions which would constitute, in the language of religion, a kingdom of Heaven on earth or a government of God among men, the elaborate arrangements of modern administration,—whose whole basis is human depravity & the needs of an Iron Age,—would become ...
... highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul. In the sphere of morality, likewise, it is her mission to purge barbarism (mlecchahood) out of humanity and to aryanise... the sources of that inexhaustible strength. They were drawn from religion. It was the Vedantic teachings of Oyomei and the recovery of Shintoism with its worship of the national Shakti of Japan in the image and person of the Mikado that enabled the little island empire to wield the stupendous weapons of western knowledge and science as lightly and invincibly as Arjun wielded the Gandiv. INDIA'S... load of tamas , lies under the curse of impotence and inertia. We choose to fancy indeed, now-a-days, that if we acquire Science, all will be well. Let us first ask ourselves what we have done with the knowledge we already possess, or what have those, who have already acquired Science, been able to do for India. Imitative and incapable of initiative, we have striven to copy the methods of England, and ...
... Aurobindo's Philosophy (Sri Aurobindo Karyalaya, Anand, 1949). Ray, Prithwis Chandra. Life and Times of C. R. Das (Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1927). Read, Sri Herbert. Collected Essays in Literary Criticism (Faber & Faber, London, 1938). Richards, LA. Coleridge on Imagination (Roudedge, London, 2 nd Edition, 1950). Science and Poetry ... 1949). Blackstone, Bernard. The Consecrated Urn : An Interpretation of Keats in terms of Growth and Form (Longmans, London, 1959). Boodin, John Elof. God: A Cosmic Philosophy of Religion (Macmillan Company, New York, 1934). Bowman, Archibald Allan. A Sacramental Universe, the Vanuxem Lectures edited by J.W. Scott (Princeton University Press, 1939). Bowra... Press, Oxford, 1922). Spurgeon, Caroline E. Mysticism in English Literature (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1927). Stace, WT. Time and Eternity : An Essay in the Philosophy of Religion (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1952). Stambler, Bernard. Dante's Other World : The Purgatorio' as Guide to the Divine Comedy (Peter Owen, London ...
... religious sense. It was a birth time and youth of the seeking intellect and, as in Greece, philosophy was the main instrument by which it laboured to solve the problems of life and the world. Science too developed, but it came second only as an auxiliary power. It was through profound and subtle philosophies that the intellect of India attempted to analyse by the reason and logical faculty what had... of wisdom from a highest ether of knowledge. The second or post-Vedic age of Indian civilisation was distinguished by the rise of the great philosophies, by a copious, vivid, many-thoughted, many-sided epic literature, by the beginnings of art and science, by the evolution of a vigorous and complex society, by the formation of large kingdoms and empires, by manifold formative activities of all kinds... these godheads put on their highest nature and are names of the one nameless Ineffable. But the greatest power of the Vedic teaching, that which made it the source of all later Indian philosophies, religions, systems of Yoga, lay in its application to the inner life of man. Man lives in the physical cosmos subject to death and the "much falsehood" of the mortal existence. To rise beyond this death ...
... himself, he is a voyager of Space and Time, and a neighbors of the Moon and Jupiter. Modern youth is an internationalist and a lover of Science. To his inborn sense of idealism, the divisions of the world, political blocks of humanity, discriminations of religion, race and colour are unreal—they are falsehoods. He craves for a world which is one and united in harmony. In his deep reflective... A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth Let us understand the contemporary youth Youth is the central propelling force of the future, the future which promises to be radically different in regard to both content and direction. Whether we acknowledge it or not, this Future is in the making, and the contemporary youth is alive to it, consciously or... towards vices like indulgence, idle cynicism, political competitiveness, selfish commercialism and destructiveness. Winds of change are blowing everywhere, and there is a tempest of unrest. New philosophies are being formulated, and not all of them are idealistic. Music, literature, art and wealth are being put at the disposal of the means to provide vulgar excitements, and indulgence is sought to ...
... the Great Life that is growing along with us. Some shadow of it we perceive in those adventures that pull us a little out of our humanly happy grooves — the adventures of art, philosophy, science, social experiment, religion, selfless love. But the true glory of life lies precisely in carrying out more and more these adventures. And the culminating glory is what may be called the quintessence of them ...
... admits as against Amal that there has been a "revolution" in science; he admits that the old materialistic philosophy has no longer even half a rotten leg to stand upon; its dogmatic theory of Matter has been kicked out God knows where. But still, says Russell, Matter is there and everything in this world obeys the laws of physical science. This is merely a personal opinion on a now very doubtful matter:... from understanding the full consequences of Relativity. Russell, however, is an eminent philosopher, though not one of the great ones. I would count him rather as a strong and acute thinker on philosophy and science. Here he has an advantage, for Jeans and Eddington are only amateur philosophers with a few general ideas for their stock in trade. (3.) As for their general intellectual standing Russell... Novelists and Musicians Western Notions of the History of Philosophy It is very strange that in books on philosophy by European writers, even in standard textbooks like Alfred Weber's History of Philosophy, 1 there is no mention of any of the Indian philosophies. To the Western writer philosophy means only European philosophy—they begin with the Greek Thales and Anaximander, as if human ...
... medieval world-view which was centered around religion and conceived of man s earthly existence as a mere preparation and test for the promised life after death. Simultaneously, the Aristotelian scholars who constituted the scientific community during the Middle Ages began a critical reflection on their traditional approach to science. Aristotelian science was based on daily-life experience and common... the natural philosopher Giambattista della Porta in 1560. The final institutionalisation of modem science is generally attributed to the foundation of the Royal Society in England in 1662, and to the Academic des Sciences in France in 1669.The modem image of man originated in Renaissance philosophy and particular influence can be found in the works of humanists like Petrarch (De Remedius Utriusque... 1958). Hermetic literature dates from the first to the last parts of the third century AD, and was rediscovered during the Renaissance. Hermetism is an effort to bridge the gap between religion and science and to deify man through knowledge of the world and experience of the transcendent divinity. 6. Cf. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization Part V: The Renaissance. (New York: Simon ...
... spiritual education; he had also recommended the need to provide for study of different religions. He had stressed the importance of the spiritual state of silence and made recommendations as to how this state of consciousness can be promoted. The Kothari Commission Report had also emphasised the need to synthesise science and spirituality and even brought out the truth of the ancient Indian ideal, which... all studies and practices, which aim at the discovery and practice of impartial search for the truth and a comprehensive truth. Spiritual education will never prohibit but always insist on philosophy and science, their methods, and scrupulous adherence to their specific criteria and to critical and self-critical inquiry into these criteria. There are three great domains of aesthetics, — music,... against this, it must be stressed that there is a clear distinction between spiritual education and religious education. It may be said that the distinguishing feature of a religion is a doctrine or a belief or a dogma. Every religion has its distinctive doctrine, "prescribed acts", its rituals, ceremonies, social and religious institutions. On the other hand, what is distinctive of spirituality is its ...
... before. In fact scientism, “the belief that science is or can be the complete and only explanation,” has occupied all the grounds which religion had to vacate, and is now a worldwide pseudo-religion to be accepted by every student in any academic institution. Religion and spirituality have not (yet) found the arguments to counter the physical arguments of science, and scientists like Stephen Hawking, Richard... illustrate the confrontation between his overwhelming spiritual experiences and the worldview which had been his background before 1908. The dominant values and tenets of science, politics, history, sociology, psychology, religion and traditional spirituality were checked against his day-by-day exploration into the new realms of experience opening up before him. This thin booklet contains 572 thoughts... the true law of human life and to shape his earthly existence into its image is the meaning of his evolution. This is the fundamental tenet of the philosophy of the Arya .” These statements were found in his notes, now published as Essays on Philosophy and Yoga 2 and other volumes of his complete works. During the year of his imprisonment he had taken the Upanishads and the Gita as practical ...
... Therefore, we have to integrate internationalism with the religion of humanity. But, again, religion of humanity must not be construed in the image of a dogmatic, ritualistic and institutional framework of any particular creed. Religion of humanity should be conceived in terms of spirituality that transcends the boundaries of institutional religion. Spirituality demands, not adherence to any credal belief... inner meaning of religion, and it is that to which the religion of humanity also must arrive before it can fulfil itself in the life of the race. 4 Page 496 V We have spoken of the spiritual issue and of the spiritual solution, but the question is as to what we should mean by the term "spirituality". We have already distinguished spirituality from religion and pointed out... of education, of science, of ethics, of art, of economic and political structure. There would be an emphasis on embracing of the entire range of knowledge but the whole trend and aim would be to concentrate on the spirit as the object of discoveries, of self-development and self-finding, even while not neglecting efficiency and chiselled perfection. Physical and psychical sciences would be pursued ...
... of Vedic philosophies, the dominance of religions rich with the sap of the old Vedic spirit, the traditional teachings of particular Yogic schools, the theory & practice of the Guru-parampara. It would be as great a mistake to exaggerate as to belittle the importance of any of these aids in themselves. Vedic knowledge was rich, many-sided, elastic, flexible; but the metaphysical philosophies are limited... dependence on powerful and widely-practised systems of psychological discipline,—systems, as we say in India, of Yoga. The influence of religion has been yet more dynamical; it is always indeed more dynamical than the influence of philosophy, because religion appeals to the higher, secret, unattainable parts of our nature through the emotions and sensations which are better developed in humanity... —though these also have helped,—our religious systems have done much to preserve the thoughts and experiences of the early Rishis to their distant posterity. This vitalising core of philosophy, this saving essence of religion, Yoga, has itself an inner reality and an outer body. It has organised and variously summarised its different parts of experience and various methods of experiment in a great number ...
... has recommended education about religion and not religious values. Awareness of religions has been conceived as one of the major source of values. The Framework observed that "What is required today is not religious education but education about religion, their basics, the values inherent therein and also a comparative study of the Philosophy of all religions. These needs to be inculcated at... thought is religion, which is most misused and misunderstood concept. The process of making the students acquainted with the basics of all religion, the values inherent therein and also a comparative study of the philosophy of all religions should begin at the middle stage in schools and continue up to the university level. The students have to be made aware that the concept behind every religion is common... compared to those who do not; even those who subscribe to political philosophies that profess 'religion as opium of the masses'—continue to be practicing Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and the like. Second division arises with respect to schools of religious thoughts—from which religion to derive the inspiration from. Religions have two facets—the philosophical elements and practice elements ...
... tion of Vedic vocables is based on a re-examination of a large part of the field of comparative Philology and a reconstruction on a new basis which I have some hope will bring us nearer to a true science of Language. This I propose to develop in another work, the "Origins of Aryan Speech". I hope also to lead up to a recovery of the sense of the ancient spiritual conceptions of which old symbol and... cannot see how this argument involves a regressus ad infinitum except in so far as the whole idea of evolution and progressive causality lies open to that objection. As to the origins of the Vedic religion, that is a question which cannot be solved at present for lack of data. It does not follow that it had no origins or in other words that humanity was not prepared by a progressive spiritual experience... ritualistic materialism of the Vedas." From both premiss and conclusion I have dissented and I have finally described, not only the Upanishads, but all later forms, as a development from the Vedic religion and not a revolt against its tenets. Our Indian doctrine avoids the difficulty in another way, by interpreting the Veda as a book of ritual hymns and revering it as a book of knowledge. It puts ...
... Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays Yoga, Religion and Morality While stressing the imperative need of Yogic education and of a radical change in the aims, methods and structure of education in the light of Yoga, it is necessary to point out that by Yoga — which is only one of the systems of Yoga — and that Yoga does not mean either religion... religious life may be a first approach to yoga, but it is not indispensable. Religion is very often only a revolving about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue. Sometimes, the absoluteness of the moral values is sought to be derived from some religious sanction. Thus religions have attempted to erect a system and declare God's law through the mouth... The truth is that neither morality nor religion represents the highest status of man's consciousness. They may prepare, but they are only stations on an evolutionary journey. Both of them are a seeking. Morality is a seeking for a guiding principle of conduct; but this seeking is mental, and, when it goes beyond that, it no more remains morality. Religion is a seeking for the Divine, but the method ...
... with the Christian religion and morals. He was soon followed in this by like-minded but scientifically qualified persons who created organizations and published a literature to combat the institutionalized threat of official science. “On the one hand, modernists say that science is impartial fact-finding, the objective and unprejudiced weighing of evidence,” writes Johnson. “Science in that sense relies... and above all repeatable experiments. That kind of objective science is what makes technology possible, and where it can be employed it is indeed the most reliable way of determining the facts. On the other hand, modernists also identify science with naturalistic philosophy [Johnson’s term for scientific materialism]: In that case science is committed to finding and endorsing naturalistic explanations... Institute’s Centre for the Renewal of Science and Culture [a powerhouse of Intelligent Design] seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies.” 12 The battle was on – and is still on, in dust clouds of confusion. Original Darwinism and subsequent neo-Darwinism; creationism and Christian evolutionism; science as theory and science as metaphysical dogma; Christian theology ...
... and never to forget that natural science assumptions with which we started are provisional and revisable things."4 III INDIAN BACKGROUND (1) VEDA Psychology in India as elsewhere in ancient times was not a separate science; it was connected with life, and life in those days was centred round religion and philosophy and so psychology was intimately... Tagore awakened the latent music in me, another Indian, Sri Aurobindo, brought me to religion. He opened the way to my religious consecration. Indeed, my debt to India is very great, and is due in part to Tagore and in part to Sri Aurobindo.'" Gabrid Mistme " Psychology is necessarily a subjective science and one must proceed in it from the knowledge of oneself to the knowledge of others... occur to " some one ", they are " somebody's". It would be too much to claim objectivity _____________________ ³A constructive survey of Upanishadic philosophy, P. 129 Page 110 for these experiences when even physical science is now finding that its observations are no longer strictly objective. It is argued that one can study psychological phenomena by observing the outer behaviour ...
... whole universe to matter conceived and defined so as to be philosophically inconceivable.” Camille Flammarion, astronomer and spiritist, wrote: “Spiritism is not a religion, it is a science of which we hardly know the ABC. Physical science teaches us that we live in the middle of a world which is invisible to us, and that it is not impossible that there are beings (equally invisible to us) who also live... created a new science and a new philosophy; and I believe that never has such a complete illustration of a new branch of human knowledge been due to the labours and researches of a single man. Never have such vast masses of widely scattered and hitherto quite unconnected facts been combined into a system and brought to bear upon the establishment of such a grand and new and simple philosophy.” 18 He... Evolution, Religion and the Unknown God 5: Alfred Wallace: The Other Darwin My contribution is made as a man of science, as a naturalist, as a man who studies his surroundings to see where he is. And the conclusion I reach is this: that everywhere, not here and there, but everywhere, and in the very smallest operations of nature to which human observation ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Religion, Idealism, Morality and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter IV Social Duties and the Divine Family, Society, Country and the Divine Family, society, country are a larger ego—they are not the Divine. One can work for them and say that one... they have to abide by the rules of the order, but that is their own choice, not a responsibility which has been laid on them without their choice. Society recognised this door of escape from itself; religion sanctioned the idea that distaste for the social or worldly life was a legitimate ground for taking up that of the recluse or religious wanderer. But this was mainly for men; women, except in old ...
... After all, as long as there is death, She said simply, things will always end badly. 4 Always end badly—we may sing, paint, poeticize, create religions (in fact, this is why we create religions) and philosophize (this is also why we create philosophies), but it will always end up with this radical calling into question, which renders all our endeavors and our most beautiful songs futile. For the... hope of reaping those laurels—ah, later!—and we go on and on with the vain song, while awaiting our turn to open our two eyes upon the Enigma. Remove this accident and everything changes: religions, philosophies, songs, life. It is the one and only radical event in the world. It is what changes everything and determines everything. It is as if it were THE question given me to resolve, 5 She said... will leak somewhere else, it is the great leak everywhere. It is the red evening of the West, 13 the one Sri Aurobindo already saw fifty-three years earlier, when we were glorying in all our sciences and discoveries. There is nothing to discover except ourselves! There is no superpower except in ourselves, no other source of new energy than in ourselves! This is what is being hammered into the ...
... in itself is non-existent. What we see of it is a form or forms created by a particular relation between our sense-experience and the all-existence in which we move. Science discovers that Matter resolves into forms of Energy; Philosophy discovers that Matter is only a substantial appearance and the one reality is Spirit. But what brings about this phenomenon of forms of Energy or this appearance of... greater supramental illumination. But the body seems to be from the beginning the soul's great obstacle. Its opposition is a compelling cause of asceticism and of the condemnation put by most religions upon Matter. The conflict begins with Life and increases as higher principles evolve. There is a discord between Life and Matter ending in death, the defeat of Life; but really there is a constant... Writings from the Arya (1914-1921) Writings from the Arya (1914-1921) Other Writings from the Arya Essays in Philosophy and Yoga Chapter XXIV Appendix II: Matter Life then is not an inexplicable dream or impossible evil; it is a force of being, a pulsation of the divine All-existence capable of divine outflowering. But there still remains the problem ...
... particularly to one which occurs in his brief essay on Materialism. 5 In this article he goes on to say that the godheads of Materialism, namely, reason, science, progress and freedom in fact are preparing humanity for a greater religion than it has had in the past. This brings me to the main point I wish to make here. In the intellectual domain what Sri Aurobindo offers us is not... undertaken to manifest the Divine involved in Nature. This is in fact the true aim of all religion. However, religions including Hinduism are facing a crisis because they have lost sight of this true aim. What then is the ideal that humanity or the Time Spirit cherishes today, no matter what religion one belongs to? A divine and terrestrial perfection of the human being, not just the... reason. To cite a couple of examples of this: Although Sri Aurobindo does not accept in its entirety either the philosophy of Buddhism or of the Vedanta as interpreted by Shankara, he is second to none in acknowledging the truth of the spiritual experiences on which these philosophies were based and the great contributions made to spirituality by Buddha and Shankara. Similarly, although he does ...
... The Veda and Indian Culture _____________Appendix II____________ Important Landmarks of Indian History (Relevant to Indian Spirituality, Religion and Philosophy) The ancient dates of Indian history are quite uncertain. The earliest records of Indian history are the Vedas, but the period, when they were composed, has been a matter of controversy... transition from the age of Intuition to the age of Reason. The great epic literature (mainly the Ramayana and Mahabharta), great philosophical systems, codes of ethics, codes of statecraft as also great sciences and arts began to develop during this period. The great Purano-Tantric age, which began during this period, extends upto about 800 A.D From 200 B.C to 300 A.D. India had a period of political... were made to arrive at a new synthesis; one from the side of the Muslims, and the other from the side of the Hindus. The former was exemplified in the attempt of Akbar (1542-1605) to create a new religion called Din-i-Ilahi, and the latter was exemplified by the life and work of Guru Nanak (1469-1538). The work of Guru Nanak gave rise to the subsequent Sikh Khalsa movement which was astonishingly original ...
... highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal Religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul. In the sphere of morality, likewise, it is her mission to purge barbarism (Mlechchha hood) Page 270 ... vision, tremendous, swift and inexorable forces, gigantic figures of energy, terrible sweeping columns of force. All is growing large and strong. The Shakti of war, the Shakti of wealth, the Shakti of Science are tenfold more mighty and colossal, a hundredfold more fierce, rapid and busy in their activity, a thousandfold more prolific in resources, weapons and instruments than ever before in recorded history... manifestations of Goddess Kali)" ran the Report, "exalt Bhawani as the manifestation of Sakti. Indians must acquire mental, physical, moral and spiritual strength.... They must draw strength from religion. How this is to be done is described in moving and powerful terms. The book is a remarkable instance of perversion of religious ideals to political purposes." A little farther the Sedition Com-mitee's ...
... or bar and there is also the freedom to promote and propagate synthesis of religions. At the same time, Indian secularism insists on the promotion of moral and spiritual values, which are common to all religions and to no religion as also on the promotion of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Secularism so defined and understood is, thus, a very special value that is uniquely Indian. f.There... or religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other of to no religion, one can pursue this integral process through a process of exploration, even experimentally and experientially. VII MORALITY AND SPIRITUALITY a. In any sound philosophy of value-oriented education, an effort should be made to arrive at clear conceptions of... in one religion or another or whether one believes irnio religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of the rituals or ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. Furthermore, both of them are independent of any authority except that of one's own free judgement and direct spiritual experience. f.It is also useful to distinguish religion from what ...
... distinctions and verbal oppositions, but upon the facts of spiritual experience and vision. In such synthetic and intuitive philosophies truths are arranged according to the place of each in the actual fact of things, as different laws and generalisations are arranged in Science, each positive in its own field and each having its proper relation to the others. The perfection of this method is to be found... succeed in popularising within those limits a more serious and original thinking and a more thorough knowledge in each branch of human enquiry. Attempts have been made but, outside the field of religion and philosophy, they have usually foundered in their inception for want of adequate support; they have not found, as they would have found elsewhere, an interested circle of readers. Now, however, there ought... contempt; this was admitted by so great a philological scholar as Renan when in the evening of his days he had to apologise for his favourite pursuits as "our petty conjectural sciences". Philology is in fact not yet a science, but rather far too largely a structure of ingenuities and plausible conjectures. It set out with the hope of discovering the origin of language and the scientific laws of its ...
... spiritual education; he had also recommended the need to provide for study of different religions. He had stressed the importance of the spiritual state of silence and made recommendations as to how this state of consciousness can be promoted. The Kothari Commission Report had also emphasised the need to synthesise science and spirituality and had even brought out the truth of the ancient Indian ideal... all studies and practices, which aim at the discovery and practice of impartial search for the truth and a comprehensive truth. Spiritual education will never prohibit but always insist on philosophy and science, their methods, and scrupulous adherence to their specific criteria and to critical and self-critical inquiry into these criteria. There are three great domains of aesthetics, — music... t. In all scientific inquiries, these difficulties present themselves, and where spiritual education enters into the field, one has to be more scientific than the current sciences demand of the scientist; for current sciences deal with objective facts, whereas spiritual processes involve both objective and subjective facts. This is the reason why spiritual education should constantly be surcharged ...
... existence in the midst of which however helpful it might be to a victorious concentration on physical science and social economy and material well-being, neither religion nor philosophic wisdom could renew their power in the fountains of the spirit nor art and poetry, which are also things of the soul like religion and wisdom, refresh themselves from their native Page 222 sources of strength. Now... inward, shielded from the profane, but rather a sight which will endeavour to draw these godheads again to close and familiar intimacy with our earth and embody them not only in the heart of religion and philosophy, nor only in the higher flights of thought and art, but also, as far as may be, in the common life and action of man. For in the old days these things were Mysteries, which men left to the... Thought now dwells much on the idea of a vast creative will of life and action as the secret of existence. That way of seeing, though it may give room for a greater power of art and poetry and philosophy and religion, for it brings in real soul-values, has by its limitation its own dangers. A spirit which is all life because it is greater than life, is rather the truth in which we shall most powerfully ...
... a perfected body. We could even speak of a divine life on earth; our human dream of perfectibility would be accomplished and at the same time the aspiration to a heaven on earth common to several religions and spiritual seers and thinkers. The ascent of the human soul to the supreme Spirit is that soul's highest aim and necessity, for that is the supreme reality; but there can be too the descent... intention of the Spirit in world-nature; they are not incompatible with each other: rather their divergence has to be healed and both have to be included and reconciled in our view of the future. The Science of the West has discovered evolution as the secret of life and its process in this material world; but it has laid more stress on the growth of form and species than on the growth of consciousness:... gives a clue to the secret of our being and a meaning to the world. The East has always and increasingly put the highest emphasis on the supreme truth of the Spirit; it has, even in its extreme philosophies, put the world away as an illusion and regarded the Spirit as the sole reality. The West has concentrated more and more increasingly on the world, on the dealings of mind and life with our material ...
... problem clearly put and squarely faced often brings its own solution. Confrontation of Science and Religion It is not so much spirituality and Yoga as the accredited credal religions that have historically clashed with the spirit and findings of Science. For what characterises a truly spiritual life is a direct 1.Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p. 1054. 2. Ibid., p... course of our essay, much of the conflict between Science and Religion is solely due to this overstepping of respective spheres and is therefore devoid of any veritable raison d' ê tre. But before we may arrive at the reconciling solution, we propose first to analyse the reasons, historical as well as metaphysical, that have tended to put Science and Spirituality in two opposite camps; for a problem... reaction of sheer survival and self-defence, against the silly tenets and crude and inadequate dogmatic notions of popular religions. Science could not but recoil with a sense of estranged indifference, contempt and scepticism from what claims to determine truths even in Science's own domain by some so- 4.Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 137. 5.Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, p. 165 ...
... the earlier significance of Vedanta. The perfect outcome of this evolution is to be found in the philosophy and religion of divine love promulgated by Chaitanya. It is the later developments of Vedantic philosophy, the Puranic ideas and images and the poetic and aesthetic spirituality of the religions of devotion that inspired from their birth the regional literatures. The literature of the Sanskrit... the elements of a mystic capture of the Divine through the heart and the senses and a religion of the joy of God's love, delight and beauty. In the Tantra the new elements are taken up and assigned their place in a complete psycho-spiritual and psycho-physical science of Yoga. Its popular form in the Vaishnava religion centres round the mystic apologue of the pastoral life of the child Krishna. In the... the result of a subtle and very profound intelligence working on the stuff of sight and spiritual experience. This is the result of the constant unity India has preserved between philosophy, religion and Yoga. The philosophy is the intuitive or intellectual presentation of the truth that was sought for first through the religious mind and its experiences and it is never satisfied by discovering truth ...
... this made the universities of Cambridge and Oxford the main breeding ground of the official religion. The prospect of a sinecure as a country clergyman, a vicar, attracted Charles, for then he would have lots of leisure to devote to his hobby of exploring nature. At that time many of the books on “natural science” were indeed written by clergymen. “Naturalism was mostly the preserve of enthusiastic amateurs:... sorts of things that have been rejected.” Statements of this kind usually betray an un-scientific attitude or a lack of knowledge. It is a frequent experience for the student of the history and philosophy of science to find how reputed authors blindly copy incorrect matters or references, and thereby contribute to the creation of untruths and outright legends. André Pichot does have reasons to write: “The... × Tim Lewens: Darwin, p. 6. × Derek Gjertsen: Science and Philosophy, p. 106. × Denyse O’Leary: op. cit., p. 111. ...
... of materialism, atheism, liberalism, science and progress. Most of the British intelligentsia had been shocked by the French Revolution, but even in Britain the rise of the new ideas could not be halted. The result was the Victorian age, named after the dapper and long-reigning Queen Victoria (1819-1901), and symbolizing a period of official Anglican religion (similar to Catholicism), strict morals... materialism, as he secretly scribbled away in his notebooks working out his theory.” 2 As he wanted to be a “philosophical naturalist” and contribute to the science of his time, he was forced to take an increasingly critical stance towards the religion of his youth, and of his wife. On the Beagle he had been “quite orthodox, but his faith waned with time … The Old Testament was ‘no more to be trusted... × Bertrand Russell on Religion, p. 177. × John Carey (ed.): The Faber Book of Science, p. 136. × Stephen ...
... province), his philosophy of organism is but a bloodless and loveless abstraction compared to Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of the Life Divine evolving from the life mundane as we know it. Gathering the threads of his argument, Maitra concludes by saying that Sri Aurobindo has really given us "an outline of future philosophy", touching the whole arc of our being and combining the functions of religion, philosophy... accomplishment practically and existentially fulfilled is a magnificent contribution to various sciences Page 37 which, in their way and in the frame of their possibilities, confirm Sri Aurobindo throughout." 80 Not satisfied with so comprehensive a statement of his philosophy, Sri Aurobindo turned to some of its applications in the fields of social and political ... Barin: "No one is God but in each man there is a God and to make him manifest is the aim of divine life. That we can all do." 81 When man so manifests the divine, then his philosophy, art, science, ethics, social existence, and vital pursuits will be, "no longer an exercise of mind and life, carried in a circle, but a means for the discovery of a greater Truth behind mind and life and ...
... outward-going even in their spiritualism. It was therefore the great age of formalised metaphysics, science, law, art and the sensuous luxury which accompanies the arts. Nearer the beginning than the end of this period, when India was systematising her philosophies and developing her arts and sciences, turning from Upanishad to Purana, from the high rarefied peaks of early Vedanta and Sankhya with... wholly in high society, familiar with and fond of life in the most luxurious metropolis of his time, passionately attached to the arts, acquainted with the sciences, deep in law and learning, versed in the formalised Page 161 philosophies. He has some notable resemblances to Shakespeare; among others his business was, like Shakespeare's, to sum up the immediate past in the terms of the present:... with their inspiring sublimities and bracing keenness to physical methods of ascetic yoga and the dry intellectualism of metaphysical logic or else to the warm sensuous humanism of emotional religion,—before its full tendencies had asserted themselves, in some spheres before it had taken the steps its attitude portended, Kalidasa arose in Ujjayini and gathered up in himself its present tendencies while ...
... passages from Sri Aurobindo's The Synthesis of Yoga, which will make the position of his Integral Yoga-philosophy unambiguously clear. (1) "The spiritual life does not need, for its purity, to destroy interest in all things except the Inexpressible or to cut at the roots of the Sciences, the Arts and Life. It may well be one of the effects of an integral spiritual knowledge and activity to... those who are somewhat knowledgeable automatically reject the idea of any pronounced religious training there. For they know that the teachings and world-philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are far removed from the propagation of any credal religion and its tenets: what they emphasise is an experiential spiritual outlook on life and the world-existence. And when such is the situation in fact, it... things'—what does he mean by 'spiritual things'?... Spiritual things.... They [the students] are taught history or spiritual things, they are taught science or spiritual things. That is the stupidity. In history, the Spirit is there; in science, the Spirit is there — the Truth is everywhere. And what is needed is not to teach it in a false way, but to teach it in a true way. They cannot get that ...
... intention of the Spirit in world-nature; they are not incompatible with each other: rather their divergence has to be healed and both have to be included and reconciled in our view of the future. The Science of the West has discovered evolution as the secret of life and its process in this material world; but it has laid more stress on the growth of form and species than on the growth of consciousness:... a perfected body. We could even speak of a divine life on earth; our human dream of perfectibility would be accomplished and at the same time the aspiration to a heaven on earth common to several religions and spiritual seers and thinkers. The ascent of the human soul to the supreme Spirit is that soul's highest aim and necessity, for that is the supreme reality; but there can be too the descent... gives a clue to the secret of our being and a meaning to the world. The East has always and increasingly put the highest emphasis on the supreme truth of the Spirit; it has, even in its extreme philosophies, put the world away as an illusion and regarded the Spirit as the sole reality. The West has concentrated more and more increasingly on the world, on the dealings of mind and life with our material ...
... ical and ontological pursuits are concerned, modern science finds itself imprisoned in a blind alley and it is only in the Yoga-Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo that science can discover its true self and true mission. Reality is eluding the grasp and probe of science in its present development. Someone has remarked that the strength of science lies in its naivety. It started on its journey with... Mother, p. 52) We have tried to show in course of the third chapter that much of the conflict between Science and Religion is solely due to this overstepping of respective spheres and is therefore devoid of any veritable raison d' ê tre. Thus the so-called conflict between Science and Spirituality arises from a misunderstanding of each other's position, role and field of study. And it... irritation: What is all this talk about present-day science and future science? Science is science and it is bound to be ever the same in its intrinsic nature, and it cannot but be that science, in its very nature and methodology, must perforce be antithetical to the methods of inquiry and exploration as preconised by the mystics and the yogis: science and spirituality will always be at poles apart and ...
... business of philosophy & religion to dispel his delusion & force him to face the truth. THE STUDENT But many wise men are of the opinions that these smaller ideals are the truth, not religion and philosophy which are a delusion. THE GURU Tell me one of these newborn truths that profess to dispel the knowledge that is without end & without beginning; for you know more of the science of the West... because there was any natural conflict between Religion & Science, but because there was natural & irreconcilable antipathy between the obscurantism of political ecclesiastics & resurgent knowledge. Again Asia came to the rescue of Europe and from the liberal civilisation of the Arabs, Science was reborn into her mediaeval night, and the light of Science, persecuted & tortured, struggled up until the... indeed to this difficulty of language, its natural imperfection and the imperfection of the minds that employ language, to which all the confusion and sense of difference in religion & philosophy is due, for religion & philosophy are one & above difference. Nor was Shankara so entirely opposed to Karma as is ordinarily imagined from the vehemence of his argument in some places. For what do you mean when ...
... preexisting philosophical system, minute & careful at least & to my experience profound as well as elaborate. Where is the indication of any other than a Vedic origin for this well-appointed metaphysics, science, cosmology, psychology? Everywhere it is the text of the Veda that is alluded to or quoted, the knowledge of Veda that is presupposed. The study of Veda is throughout considered as the almost indispensable... metaphysical, scientific or psychological knowledge which the author thinks himself entitled to take for granted, just as a modern thinker addressing educated men on the ultimate generalisations of Science takes for granted their knowledge of the more important data and ideas accepted by modern men. All this mass of thought so taken for granted must have had a previous existence and history. It is indeed... literary trace of its passage and progress. But it is also possible that the Vedas themselves when properly understood, contain these beginnings or even most of the separate data of these early mental sciences. It is possible that the old teachers of Vedanta were acting quite rationally & understood their business better than we understand it for them when they expected a knowledge of Veda from their students ...
... Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE—AND THEIR ONLY SOLUTION The problems of life are age-old problems. They have so far defied any solution by mental, moral and material means. Science and technology have no doubt extended the boundaries of knowledge but they have left the fundamental problems of life untouched... even in early sixties, science has done nothing to change the basic nature of man, his possessive, acquisitive and domineering instincts, his predatory habits, his bellicosity and distrust of fellowmen and, last but not least, his incapacity to control his own nature, the passions, lusts, greed's and desires that dominate him to the end of his life. What at the best Science has achieved is the ... his own primitive nature, brought him face to face with the dangers of fratricidal wars threatening the annihilation, if not of the whole, of a large and the most advanced section of the human race. Science has placed in his hands such lethal weapons, conventional, nuclear, chemical and bacteriological, as when used on a global scale, may easily bring about the collapse of civilisation and a return to ...
... Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over materialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and... millions of men by the means which our past has placed in our hands, that is our object. The European is proud of his success in divorcing religion from life. Religion, he says, is all very well in its place, but it has nothing to do with politics or science or commerce, which it spoils by its intrusion; it is meant only for Sundays when, if one is English, one puts on black clothes and tries to feel... spoken. All other study at this period should be devoted to the perfection of the mental functions and the moral character. A foundation should be laid at this time for the study of history, science, philosophy, art, but not in an obtrusive and formal manner. Every child is a lover of interesting narrative, a hero-worshipper and a patriot. Appeal to these qualities in him and through them let him master ...
... activated by the mind through the pineal gland. He was certainly a first-rate figure in the history of philosophy and mathematics, and as he is the intellectual patron saint of France, one better thinks twice before poking fun at his pineal gland and his vortices. Since then, materialistic science has not found anything resembling a solution of the mind-body problem. This being the case, it is encouraging... books that do not age and continue influencing a culture even though being little known. “The phrase ‘the Great Chain of Being’ was long one of the most famous in the vocabulary of Occidental philosophy, science, and reflective poetry,” writes Lovejoy, “and the conception which in modern times came to be expressed by this or similar phrases has been one of the half-dozen most potent and persistent p... Sri Aurobindo: Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, p. 172. × Arthur Lovejoy: The Great Chain of Being, p. vii. × A.C. Crombie: Medieval and Early Modern Science, vol. II, p. 37. ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter III Philosophical Thought and Yoga Metaphysical Thinkers, East and West European metaphysical thought—even in those thinkers who try to prove or explain the existence and nature... as it is now beginning to retire. Its discoveries may be used by philosophy, but on the grounds proper to philosophy and not on the grounds proper to Science. The philosopher must judge the scientific conceptions of relativity or discontinuity or space-time, for instance, by his own processes and standards of evidence. So too, Science has no instrumentation or process of knowledge which can enable it... of action and growth in the spiritual life. Here I am driven to a rather lengthy digression from the main theme—for I am met by X 's rather baffling appeal to Whitham's History of Science. What has Whitham or Science to do with spiritual truth or spiritual experience? I can only suppose that he condemns all intrusion of anything like meta physical thought into the spiritual field—a position excessive ...
... Archer is allergic to philosophy, and particularly to India's inward-looking spiritual philosophy. Measuring the creations of Indian art and literature with a yard-stick fashioned by Mammon in Science's forge and on Moloch's anvil. Archer finds everything Indian a negation of culture and a denial of life. An excessive emphasis on the elusive claims of the Spirit: a religion that sports polytheism... second place, all that it has rejected is still held in honour". 12 There is "the still surviving force of Indian religion, thought, culture" that laves in the Infinite, sees the Divine behind the phenomenal play, dares the great adventure of invading the Invisible and makes a mighty science of the experiences of Yoga. Sri Aurobindo concedes that Western culture, although "narrow at the top... at all, we must resume India's great interrupted endeavour; we must take up boldly and execute thoroughly in the individual and in the society, in the spiritual and in the mundane life, in philosophy and religion, in art and literature, in thought, in political and economic and social formulation the full and unlimited sense of her highest spirit and knowledge. 6 It was with these large aims ...
... at all they exist, be really known. Religion, Page 555 except in ethical & rationalistic creeds like Buddhism and Confucianism which have put aside all such questionings as outside the human domain, has always insisted that revelation is the indispensable angel and intermediary and the intellect at best only its servant, assistant and pupil. Science & rationalism have virtually agreed to... or the need of the human mind to know beyond the laws of phenomena, seized in metaphysical philosophy upon only so much as was necessary for conduct, sought to establish on pure logic & reason the few fundamental principles it needed and, feeling obscurely the necessity of completing itself by physical science, as soon as it entered that field, far outpaced the accomplishment of Europe or Arabia, ended... it is because we have not as yet the clear and steady use of the faculties. In three of the external aids by which Veda has been perpetuated in India, religion, Yoga, the guru-parampara, this fundamental principle is amply admitted. Religion starts from Page 556 revelation; it rests upon spiritual and moral experience. Yoga, admitting the truth of verbal revelation, the word of God ...
... of Indian philosophy can be seen as beginning with the age of intuitive knowledge, which, beginning with the Veda, was subsequently represented by the early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads. This age gave way to the age of rational knowledge, when inspired scriptures made room for metaphysical philosophy, even as afterwards metaphysical philosophy had to give place to experimental science. Sri Aurobindo... of Indian history, we find that they are not only the fountainhead of Indian yoga and philosophy and religion, but of all Indian art, poetry and literature. Sri Aurobindo points out: "It was the soul, the temperament, the ideal mind formed and expressed in them which later carved out the great philosophies, built the structure of the Dharma, recorded its heroic youth in the Mahabharata and Ramayana... concrete, and whose cast of thought is practical and experimental. In the Veda, he finds an ancient psychological science and the art of spiritual living of which the Upanishads are the philosophical outcome and modification and Vedanta, Sankhya and Yoga and other intellectual philosophies are late results of the labour of the rational logical endeavour. The Vedic doctrine, as enunciated by Sri Aurobindo ...
... “Natural philosophy” – what we now call “science” – however controversial it may have become at present, seemed an almost miraculous discovery at the time of Galileo, Kepler and Newton. × Sri Aurobindo: A Dream of Surreal Science , in Collected Poems, p. 145. ... will of man attaches itself for the moment or through the centuries. In philosophy it gives equally good reasons for monism and pluralism or for any halting-place between them, for the belief in Being or for the belief in Becoming, for optimism and pessimism, for activism and quietism. It can justify the most mystic religionism and the most positive atheism, get rid of God or see nothing else. ... thought: namely, the thought that we no longer live in the ‘modern’ world. The ‘modern’ world is now a thing of the past. Our own natural science today is no longer ‘modern’ science. Instead … it is rapidly engaged in becoming ‘postmodern’ science: the science to the ‘postmodern’ world, of ‘postnationalist’ politics and ‘postindustrial’ society – the world that has not yet discovered how to define ...
... ages, all the pride and glory of human dreams, all the boundless variety and magnificence of human achievements will be buried for ever beneath the smoking ruins of a misguided Science. Neither modern psychology, nor philosophy, nor the facile socio-economic nostrums of Communism or Democratic Socialism will have saved mankind from this total destruction. There are some well-meaning thinkers who... Transformation, that alone can deliver man from his present darkness. And, as we have just seen, this trans- formation is far beyond the capacity, even beyond the conception, of any modern science or philosophy, ethics or psychology. It is not enough to know the superficial layers of man's being and consciousness; it is not enough to explore some parts of his Unconscious, individual or collective;... it is based on a regenerative and transformative philosophy of life.¹ And to have a philosophy of life one must first have a goal of life. The average man has forgotten today that life has a goal other than the petty satisfaction of passing desires by the not always unquestionable use of money and power. He hardly feels the need of a higher philosophy than Dialectical Materialism, which flaunts before ...
... labour and activity before the invention of printing and the facilities of modern science. All this colossal literature was not confined to philosophy and theology, religion and yoga but extended into the fields of logic and rhetoric and grammar and linguistics, poetry and drama, astronomy, mathematics, various sciences and medicine. This intellectual literature embraced all life, politics and society... was many-sided and led to the development of republic, kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces, temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts... intuitive knowledge; next, the age of intuitive knowledge gave place to the age of rational knowledge, during which meta-physical philosophy reached great heights of subtlety and excellence, during the third stage, metaphysical philosophy gave way to experimental science. This process which seems to be a descent, is really a circle of progress. For in each case, the lower faculty is compelled to take ...
... development of religion and spirituality was guided, up-lifted and more and more penetrated and suffused by the Vedantic saving power of spirituality. The next stage of Indian civilisation, the post-Vedic stage was marked by a new climate as a result of the efflorescence of intellectual search and rise of great philosophies, many-sided epic literature, beginning of art and science, and evolution... a shifting of the centre of the synthesis from knowledge to spiritual love and delight the earlier significance of the Vedanta. The perfect outcome of this evolution is to be found in the philosophy and religion of divine love promulgated by Sri Chaitanya. It is true that the Vedic Gods rapidly lost in the Puranas their deep original significance. The great Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva came... Purano-Tantric age covered all the time between the Vedic age and the decline of Buddhism. But this was not the last possibility of the evolution of religion in India. It appears that there is a hidden design in the development of Indian religion. It certainly aims to mediate between God and man, but it wants to train all aspects of man all sections of human society, and all ranges of the potentialities ...
... 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 an unbridgeable differentiation between the Lord and His creatures. If in their grosser forms these religions aim only at the ignorant joys of the lower heavens, yet there is a far higher and profounder... and need of the individual soul according to its own nature and personality. It is for this reason that the normal European mind finds it so difficult to understand Indian religion as distinct from Vedantic or Sankhya philosophy, because it cannot easily conceive of a personal God with infinite qualities, a personal God who is not a Person, but the sole real Person and the source of all personality... which is foreign to Indian thought. The personal God of the European religions is a Person in the human sense of the word, limited by His qualities though otherwise possessed of omnipotence and omniscience; it answers to the Indian special conceptions of Shiva or Vishnu or Brahma or of the Divine Mother of all, Durga or Kali. Each religion really erects a different personal Deity according to its own heart ...
... were indeed, I thought, the true substance & foundation of the Upanishads, if not of all “Hindu” religion & spirituality. Certain considerations were added which, it seemed to me, delivered me from the intellectual necessity of implicit submission to European standards and modern theories. Modern Science might not be infallible; some suggestions there are that lead us to the possibility of a fundamental... Studies The Hymns of Madhuchchhandas [A] Chapter I In a work devoted to the formulation of the early Vedantic philosophy of the Upanishads—and especially to that philosophy as we find it massively concentrated into some of its greatest principles in the Isha Upanishad, I hazarded the theory that the Vedas were not a collection of sacrificial... passages that do not agree with this theory, do not, at least, permit us to accept it as an all-sufficing explanation, but we can account for them by a progressive moralising of the old naturalistic religion destined [to] culminate in the idea of the universal God and open the way for Vedanta. In the sacrifice we see the systemisation of the old savage sense of dread and weakness, having as its result ...
... give place to science,—for much the same reason, in fact, for which philosophy replaced poetry in Greece. On the opposite side it was sometimes suggested that the poetic mind might become more positive and make use of the materials of science or might undertake a more intellectual Page 210 though always poetic criticism of life and might fill the place of philosophy and religion which were... ic and therefore its greatest and completest work either in philosophy or in Science. The age of developed intellectualism in Greece killed poetry; it ended in the comedy of Menander, the intellectual artificialities of Alexandrianism, the last flush of beauty in the aesthetic pseudo-naturalism of the Sicilian pastoral poetry; philosophy occupied the field. In the more rich and complex modern mind... its way, but very little of it is intimately alive and true, and afterwards Germany failed to keep up a sustained poetic impulse; she turned aside to music on the one side and on the other to philosophy and science for her field. The French mind got away very soon from romanticism and, though greatly enriched by its outbreak into that phase, went on to a more genuine intellectual and intellectually aesthetic ...
... causes, then we may say that there is a lack of life. Life in its largest sense is the great web of our internal and external action, the play of Shakti, the play of Karma; it is religion and philosophy and thought and science and poetry and art, drama and song and dance and play, politics and society, industry, commerce and trade, adventure and travel, war and peace, conflict and unity, victory and defeat... spiritual and the natural being. But if her philosophies, her religious disciplines, her long list of great spiritual personalities, thinkers, founders, saints are her greatest glory, as was natural to her temperament and governing idea, they are by no means her sole glories, nor are the others dwarfed by their eminence. It is now proved that in science she went farther than any country before the... Europe owes the beginning of her physical science to India as much as to Greece, although not directly but through the medium of the Arabs. And, even if she had only gone as far, that would have been sufficient proof of a strong intellectual life in an ancient culture. Especially in mathematics, astronomy and chemistry, the chief elements of ancient science, she discovered and formulated much and well ...
... are now vital and real forces and it is these needs which will reconstruct our society, recreate and remould our industrial and commercial life and found a new and victorious art, literature, science and philosophy which will be not European but Indian. The impulse is already working in Bengali art and literature. The need of self-expression for the national spirit in politics suddenly brought back... the country by preventing an even more rapid and thorough disintegration than actually took place and by giving respite and time for the persistent national self to emerge and find itself. It was in religion first that the soul of India awoke and triumphed. There were always indications, always great forerunners, but it was when the flower of the educated youth of Calcutta bowed down at the feet of an... purposeless and therefore impossible. Whenever it has stood on the defensive, it has contracted within narrower limits and shown temporary signs of decay. Once the soul of the nation was awake in religion, it was only a matter of time and opportunity for it to throw itself on all spiritual and intellectual activities in the national existence and take possession of them. The outburst of anti-European ...
... and widest seeing is the wisest; for then all knowledge is unified in its one comprehensive meaning. All religions are seen as approaches to a single Truth, all philosophies as divergent viewpoints looking at different sides of a single Reality, all Sciences meet together in a supreme Science. For that which all our mind-knowledge and sense-knowledge and suprasensuous vision is seeking, is found most... The evolutionary process (involving this and other lives, this and other "worlds"), having now reached the stage of Man the mental being - Man with his languages, crafts, sciences and technologies, his philosophies and religions, his social and political institutions, his arts of life and his menacing arts of death - well, what next? If he cannot (or will not) shed the limitations of his present mentality... the Spirit. In his arduous and anxious climb towards the heights, Man seeks support and light from both circumambient Nature and God the invisible Power, but he finds that the divers philosophies and the warring religions only tend to confuse and distract him. Man perseveres nevertheless, and moves from higher to still higher peak, and arrives at more and more synoptic views of unity and harmony: ...
... acrobatised far from the more tangible realities of existence. Ancient Page 139 Philosophy in Europe was more dynamic, but only for the few; in India in its more spiritualised forms, it strongly influenced but without transforming the life of the race.... Religion did not attempt, like Philosophy, to live alone on the heights; its aim was rather to take hold of man's parts of life even more... at first they served or lived in the shadow of Religion, ended by emancipating themselves, became Page 140 estranged or hostile, or have even recoiled with indifference, contempt or scepticism from what seem to them the cold, barren and distant or unsubstantial and illusory heights of unreality to which metaphysical Philosophy and Religion aspire. For a time the divorce has been as complete... this downward gravitation, Religion was driven to cut existence into two by a division of knowledge, works, art, life itself into two opposite categories, the spiritual and the worldly, religious and mundane, sacred and profane; but this defensive distinction itself became conventional and artificial and aggravated rather than healed the disease.... On their side Science and Art and the knowledge of ...
... constitute that world. This is not a question of philosophy or morals; it is a question of the way the human being exists, not by chance or as a material organism, but as an incarnated soul. The new way in which the humans have to learn to see themselves, and which is the knowledge or “gnosis” India has to offer, is not a new dogmatic or ritualistic religion; it is the way of self-exploration leading to... receptive of these verities. Their synthesis is the integral vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the “perennial philosophy” worded for the present times. The knowledge of this revelation should not result in another systematization or be calcified in the dogmas of a new religion; it should provide the guidance for the adventure of consciousness into which humanity is engaging – the adventure into... should be kept in mind when reading the following passages by him. Quite aware of the confirmations of science, he explains here that the reality of what science tries to grasp, describe and understand is much more complex than science even accepts. The simple but crucial reason is that physical science has in Galileo, Descartes and Newton reduced reality to the realm of matter, declaring the other principles ...
... that year a book was published entitled The Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics, written by an American, J.B. Stallo. Commenting on the controversy, Herbert Dingle writes in Through Science to Philosophy (page 91): "Stallo was not a physicist - he was a judge; but (or should I say therefore?) he had an extremely logical mind, and with rigorous exactitude he pointed out the inconsistencies in... Science, Materialism, Mysticism Science Materialism Mysticism by Amal Kiran (K. D. Sethna) Foreword to the second Edition The Clear Ray Trust, Pondicherry, is happy to publish the second Edition of Amal Kiran's book "Science Materialism, Mysticism". The Issue Materialism versus Mysticism now seems to be an important point... with no real place in science. Newton said that the centrifugal force developed by a rotating body was due to the body's relation to absolute space. Here an unobservable factor, absolute space, is involved as the cause of an observed physical phenomenon. According to Einstein, science could not invoke such an entity as the cause of anything. Absolute space and time, so far as science is concerned, belong ...
... same words. Mother, here Sri Aurobindo says: "In its own sphere of finite knowledge, science, philosophy, the useful arts, its right, one would think, must be indisputable. But this does not turn out in the end to be true..." Then what should be the function of reason in the study of science, philosophy and the useful arts? A function of preparation, as I said; it is in order to prepare... defines religion as the seeking after the spiritual, that is, the Supermind, of what is beyond the ordinary human consciousness, and what ought to influence life from a higher realm. So, as religion seeks this it is beyond the reason, because it goes to the suprarational. And so how can reason help in the realm of religion? What he means is that if one uses reason to judge the field of religion and progress... reason you are sure to say foolish things. In here (I think it is in this very chapter), he shows that beauty belongs to a domain as lofty as that of religion; that through beauty one can come into contact with the Divine even as through religion. And the next chapter is "The Suprarational Good", and there he is going to show that reason cannot be the final judge also for what is good and not good; ...
... spiritual knowledge and experience in all its splendour, depth and fullness is its first, most essential work The flowing of this spirituality into new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge An original dealing with modern problems in the light of the Indian spirit and the endeavour to formulate a greater synthesis of a spi... way of being, our inborn nature and assimilate to it all we receive and evolve out of it all we do and create. Religion has been a central preoccupation of the Indian mind; some have told us that too much religion ruined India, precisely because we made the whole of life religion or religion the whole of life, we have failed in life and gone under. I will not answer, adopting the language used by the... say nothing of the numerous special forms to which each has given birth. Spirituality is much wider than any particular religion and in the larger ideas that are now coming on us, even the greatest religion becomes no more than a broad sect or brand of the one universal religion; by which we shall understand in the future man's seeking for the eternal, the divine, the greatest self, the source of unity ...
... work of European scholarship on Indian subjects fantastic, unsound and ephemeral. It cannot, we think, be the final attitude; an independent scrutiny of the ancient scriptures and forms of philosophy and religion is needed through the whole range of Indian thought and devotion both to recover their more ancient and original forms and principles often concealed by later accretions and crystallisings... The lines are, Page 570 Vidyāḥ samastās tava devi bhedāḥ Striyaḥ samastāḥ sakalā jagatsu. Is there not a hint of a distinction between the simple bhedāḥ and sakalāḥ ? "All sciences, O Goddess, are different parts of thee, all women entirely in the worlds." The sense would then be that wherever the feminine principle is found in the living personality, we have the entire presence... religious rationalist. The universe is there to reply. Hinduism worships Narayana in the stone, the tree, the animal, the human being. That which the intellectual and spiritual pride or severity of other religions scorns, it makes its pride and turns into its own form of logical severity. Stocks and stones, the quadruped and the human being, all these are equals in God, our brothers in the Divine, forms that ...
... practice and a complete freedom of thought in religion as in every other matter have always counted among its constant traditions. The atheist and the agnostic were free from persecution in India. Buddhism and Jainism might be disparaged as unorthodox religions, but they were allowed to live freely side by side with the orthodox creeds and philosophies; in her eager thirst for truth she gave them their... sure and firm to be the means of a stable and powerful evolution that have given to Indian civilisation this wonderful and seemingly eternal religion with its marvellous wealth of many-sided philosophies, of great scriptures, of profound religious works, of religions that approach the Eternal from every side of his infinite Truth, of Yoga-systems of psycho-spiritual discipline and self-finding, of suggestive... tolerance and assimilative spirit, its vivacity, intensity, profundity and multitudinousness of experience, its freedom from the unnatural European divorce between mundane knowledge and science on the one side and religion on the other, its reconciliation of the claims of the intellect with the claims of the spirit, its long endurance and infinite capacity of revival make it stand out today as the most ...
... got rid of the obsession of the life and body and provided for the indispensable satisfaction of the gross needs which our physical and animal nature imposes on us. Knowledge, science, art, thought, ethics, philosophy, religion, this is man's real business, these are his true affairs. To be is for him not merely to be born, grow up, marry, get his livelihood, support a family and then die,—the vital... understand or misunderstand ideals, organise to get them carried out and even, it would appear, fight and die for them. He knows he has to think about ethical problems, social problems, problems of science and religion, to welcome new political developments, to look with as understanding an eye as he can attain to at all the new movements of thought and inquiry and action that chase each other across the modern... It is caught and killed or at least diminished and stifled in formal creeds and pious observances; it is unmercifully traded in and turned into poor and base coin by the vulgarity of conventional religions; but it is still the light of which the religious spirit and the spirituality of man is in pursuit and some pale glow of it lingers even in their worst degradations. This very complexity of his ...
... 334 including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge that He is in all men and all things and that... people of India through the members of the "Society for the Protection of Religion". To protect the Hindu religion was to protect all true religion; it was to be able to assimilate the latest genuine science and philosophy; it was to see the One reality behind the facade of manifold appearance; it was to achieve closeness to God in all acts, thoughts and words; it was, above all, to win victory... were events of no more than marginal relevance to the "work" Sri Aurobindo had to do. In its first issue, the Karmayogin, described itself as "a weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, etc."; among the contributors would be "Srijut Aurobindo Ghose and others"; the cover illustration was of the Chariot, with Arjuna and Sri Krishna seated in it; and one of the ...
... Western civilization has been since the last two-three centuries; Page 398 2. India's presence world-wide could be seen in the language and literature, religion and philosophy, and science and technology of many peoples, east and west, north and south; 3. A long spell of unrivalled power and prosperity made India self-centered and complacent so that she neglected... indigenous 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 ...
... spoken and the Avatars descended, so that mankind may be inspired to this great call upon its upward-straining energies. The aim of rationalism & Science is to make man content with his humanity and contradict Nature, baffling her evolution; the aim of religion,—but not unhappily of the creeds & Churches—is to farther the great aim of Nature by pushing man towards his evolution. The attainment of God... contradicts God's intention in us. He dwells secret in Nature & compels us towards Him by His irresistible attraction. Materialistic movements are as unnatural & abnormal as ascetic & negatory religions & philosophies. Under the pretence of bringing us back to Nature, they take us away from her entirely; for they forget that Nature is only phenomenally Nature but in reality she is God. The divine element... Self-Reality, overcome the present limits of its merely apparent nature. This necessity is the imperative justification of religion,—not of a church, creed or theology; for these things are all outward religiosity rather than the truth of religion, but of that personal and intimate religion, a thing of temper and spirit and life, not of views or ceremonies which draws each man to his own vision of the Supreme ...
... sounds, the description of which formed the staple of our daily reading, were such as most of us would at no time see or hear. We learned science without observation of the objects of science, words & not the things which they symbolised, literature by rote, philosophy as a lesson to be got by heart, not as a guide to truth or a light shed on existence. We read of and believed in English economy, while... He values also the things of the mind in a leisurely comfortable way as adorning and setting off his enlightened ease and competence. A little art, a little poetry, a little religion, a little scholarship, a little philosophy, all these are excellent ingredients in life, and give an air of decorous refinement to his surroundings. They must not be carried too far or interfere with the great object of... though Page 1102 we read Milton & Burke and quoted Byron & Shelley, nor of history though we talked about Magna Charta & Runnymede, nor of philosophy though we could mispronounce the names of most of the German philosophers, nor science though we used its name daily, nor even of our own thought & civilisation though its discussion filled columns of our periodicals. We knew little & knew ...
... their merits but theirs is ultimately a refinement of past religion and this refinement is turned basically towards individual salvation in some other-world. What they do for this world is not organic to the Yoga and springs from conventional ethico-social motives — good and helpful motives, surely, yet not the direct issue of a super-science of the Spirit such as Sri Aurobindo has developed. The Sri... sense, reached a formula which, according to all precedents and all the rules of scientific philosophy, ought to have been hopelessly wrong. In actual fact it was subsequently shown to be exactly right and is known as Maxwell's law to this day." What is most remarkable at present in the field of Science is that Einstein has given "intuition" a legitimate place at the very basis of theoretical physics... migrating cranes: "Not here, not here, somewhere afar is our home!" To effect a switch-over to the Here and Now, an age of Science, emphasising matter and asserting evolution, had to come. And, along with it, as its inner rationale, as the total Light of which Science was just a one-sided disclosure, there had to dawn the age of an Integral Yoga such as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have discovered ...
... taught by the Christian religion], and second, that natural selection [a scientific mechanism] had been the chief agent of change.” 21 When the Renaissance had made the return of science possible – la nuova scienza – Galileo Galilei picked up where the ancient Greek scientists had had to leave off. He defined the principles of science which are still valid today. 1. Science should be about matter... bond in being well salted in early life.” Huxley “longed for science to be seen as a moral calling greater than any religion. … He and Hooker had effectively become joint leaders of a group of young scientists who wanted to reform Britain’s old guard of clerical dilettantism and entitlement.” They wanted to “swamp the parsons … to split science from theology.” Calman writes about Huxley’s “anticlerical... waging on religion, Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion and Daniel Dennett in Breaking the Spell among others . They rightly point to Darwin as their inspiration. Apparently hesitant and “agnostic,” it doubtlessly was Darwin’s intention to found his theory on scientific materialism, against the natural theology of clergyman Paley. As Stephen Gould put it: “Darwin applied a consistent philosophy of ...
... Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over materialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and... s of philosophy. It is the one religion which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge, that He is in all men and all things and that in Him we move and have Page 11 our being. It is the one religion which... much that was delusion and maya . But now day after day I realised in the mind, I realised in the heart, I realised in the body the truths of the Hindu religion. They became living experiences to me, and things were opened to me which no material science could explain. When I first approached Him, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Bhakta, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Jnani. I came to ...
... Society] nor against any of the Theosophists, to all of whom I wish the best. I am not against them" (Talk with a disciple, 11 January 1926). Science & Religion in Theosophy. Circa 1910-12. Heading in the manuscript: "Papers on Theosophy / II / Science & Religion in Theosophy". (Although not so identified, "The Claims of Theosophy" evidently is the first of the papers.) Page 505 ... ry fragment is all that exists of a proposed story. The Beauty of a Crow's Wings . 1910-12. Editorial title. Science . 1914-21. Editorial title. Religion . Circa 1927. Editorial title. Reason and Society . Late 1930s or 1940s. Editorial title. The piece seems to be related to The Human Cycle... written after 1910 and published during his lifetime are included in Essays in Philosophy and Yoga , volume 13 of THE COMPLETE WORKS. Short writings on the Vedas, the Upanishads and other specialised subjects are included in the volumes devoted to those subjects. Most of the writings in the present volume deal with philosophy, yoga, and yogic psychology. The contents have been divided into four parts: ...
... and education about religions and advocated that there is no constitutional disability in imparting education about religions in our educational system. The Sriprakasa Committee had advocated moral, emotional and cultural education as understood in their widest connotations. The Kothari Commission recommended value-education that is in coherence with the development of science and scientific temper... Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION- II We are passing through a critical stage of a battle between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities. At a time when forces of unity and harmony can triumph and science and technology can be used to abolish poverty and deprivation, precisely at that time... have changed little or only marginally. The main difficulty has been that there has been a long drawn out debate on what values should be promoted and what place should be given to the study of religions, which are closely connected with value systems. In answer to this debate, there is one thing which is very clear, and that is the Fundamental Duties, which have been listed in the Constitution, which ...
... especially in the sphere of religion, to the original truth which convention Page 27 has overlaid, defaced or distorted; but from that first step it must proceed to others and in the end to a general questioning of the foundations of thought and practice in all the spheres of human life and action. A revolutionary reconstruction of religion, philosophy, science, art and society is the last... claim on existence and the high road and the distant or immediate goal of his individual and social destiny. In Europe and in modern times this has taken the form of a clear and potent physical Science: it has proceeded by the discovery of the laws of the physical universe and the economic and sociological conditions of human life as determined by the physical being of man, his environment, his ... of a falsely enlightened vitalistic motive-power with a great force of servile intelligence and reasoning contrivance subjected to it as instrument and the genius of an accomplished materialistic Science as its Djinn, its giant worker of huge, gross and soulless miracles. The War was the bursting of the explosive force so created and, even though it strewed the world with ruins, its after results may ...
... in an uneasy combination to give a new form to her mentality and type of life. The change, whose real nature could not be distinguished so long as the field was occupied by the battle between Science and Religion, now more and more reveals itself as an attempt of humanity to recover its lost soul. Long overlaid by the life of the intellect and the vital desires, distorted and blinded by a devout religious... nearly a hundred fine plates preceded by five chapters of letterpress, one side of the artistic work of the South,—its bronzes, chiefly representing the gods and devotees of the Shaiva religion,—for the Shaiva religion has been as productive of sublime and suggestive work in the plastic arts as has been the Vaishnava all over India of great, profound and passionate poetry. This book is a sumptuous production... manifests its essential being void of all that is petty, transient, disturbed and restless. In their human figures it is almost always devotion that is manifested; for this in the Shaiva and Vaishnava religions is the pure state of the soul turned towards God. The power of the artist is extraordinary. Not only the face, the eyes, the pose but the whole body and every curve and every detail aid in the effect ...
... bitter taste. There is in man the search for the Absolute. In former times, man turned to religion to satisfy aspirations which seemed to be denied by his surroundings. But religion is gradually losing its hold, and the young especially are turning away from it. One reason is that all religions take their inspiration from the past. Their founders or heroes were mighty figures who lived centuries... As late as yesterday it was Sri Ramakrishna who came to enrich the spiritual inheritance of India by including in it all religions, showing by his experience that God - the same God - can be found and reached through all religions. The unity of all religions is truly the message that Sri Ramakrishna brought to India and to the world. It was left to another son of India, Sri Aurobindo... 12 the most blatant autocracies acclaimed by the very people whom they were to ruin. Moreover, science has abandoned its ideal of "truth". Limiting itself to the knowledge reached through the senses, and consistently refusing to admit any higher source of knowledge, science has found that it can truly know nothing. It declared henceforth truth unknowable and decided to confine itself ...
... human philosophy, religion, science is really nothing but an attempt to get at the right data upon which it will be possible to answer the question and solve, as satisfactorily as our knowledge will allow, the problem of our existence. The hope of a complete escape from our present strife with and subjection to our lower and troubled nature and existence arises when we perceive what religion and ... philosophy affirm, but modern thought has tried to deny, that there are two poises of our soul-existence, a lower, troubled and subjected, a higher, supreme, untroubled and sovereign, one vibrant in Mind, the other tranquil in Spirit. The hope not only of an escape, but of a completely satisfying and victorious solution comes when we perceive what some religions and philosophies affirm, but others... Purusha and Prakriti of which we have had occasion to speak in the Yoga of Works, but which is of equal importance for the Yoga of Knowledge. This division was made most clearly by the old Indian philosophies; but it bases itself upon the eternal fact of practical duality in unity upon which the world-manifestation is founded. It is given different names according to our view of the universe. The Vedantins ...
... 22 And "consciousness" is taken "in its widest sense to indicate every kind of psychism, from the most rudimentary forms of interior perception imaginable to 20. Science and Christ, p. 85. 21. The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin, p. 139. 22.The Phenomenon of Man, p. 59. Page 46 the human phenomenon of reflective thought". 23 The word "psyche" or "psychic"... Rockliff, London, 1960), p. 61. 27. An Introduction to Teilhard de Chardin (Collins, A Fontana Original, Theology and Philosophy, London, 1968), pp. 78-79. Page 47 of his definitions of Teilhard's "phenomenology". He 28 calls the tatter "a science which seeks to describe the universe as an observable phenomenon in its totality and its intrinsic coherence and to discover... Paul's phrase, God 'all in all') but at the same time in an absolutely legitimate sense: for if in the last resort Christians become 'one with God' this unity is achieved not by way of 1. Science and Christ, p. 128. . 2. Ibid., p. 136. 3. Ibid,, p. 122. 4.I bid., p. 124. 5. Ibid., p. 171. 6."Christ in the World of Matter", Hymn of the Universe, p ...
... upon earth, tip-top, A-1: my daughter Science and I have Page 554 arranged that between us. Man will raise his noble brow, the head of creation, dignified, free, equal, fraternal, democratic, depending upon nothing but himself, with nothing greater than himself anywhere in existence. There will be no God, no gods, no churches, no priestcraft, no religion, no kings, no oppression, no poverty... voice of the scientist and the expert will be loud in the land and guide mankind to the earthly paradise. A perfected society; health universalised by a developed medical science and sound hygiene; everything rationalised; science evolved, infallible, omnipotent, omniscient; the riddle of existence solved; the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the world; evolution, of which man, magnificent man,... retiring disposition and inclined to keep myself behind the veil or in the background at the best of times. But what is this I hear?—it does not seem to me from reports that Reason even with the help of Science has kept her promise. And if not, why not? Is it because she would not or because she could not? or is it because she both would not and could not, or because she would and could, but somehow did not ...
... contained in one second. A little second that is. Like a white flame. A drop of the great Ray. And so much fuss for nothing. So many cries, so many quests and steps and words, religions and philosophies: How complicated they make it! She said. But we pause for a second, and it is there. It is always there. It stares like a lost child, it understands so little of all this fuss: "Well, is... thanks to our religions, we have exhausted all the old heavens above, we are at the bottom of the pit and only one layer remains —the way out is below. This is “the Sun in the darkness” of the Vedas. But we have to grasp the lever of the Transition. We have to understand what is going on. To understand is imperative. This whole Flame, stifled by the aberration of religions, discredited... inside a tomb. And again, we seem to hear Mira Ismalun, madcap that she was, who had so well understood Goethe: "Beyond the tombs, forward!” But were we to abolish death, what would be left of the religions? And of their salvations? Whereas now that we come to the bottom of the pit, now that we despair of ever finding any heaven in the midst of the sticky tidal wave that seems to have engulfed the world ...
... on which various sciences, philosophy and yogic systems converge today together, represent an ever growing mass of synthesis of knowledge. Considering this work, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have advanced the theme of synthesis of science and spirituality to a high level of maturity. But it cannot be said, as yet, that their work represents the summit of the synthesis of science and spirituality... l Yoga.htm PART SEVEN Integral Yoga: Synthesis of Science and Spirituality The integral yoga as developed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is, although perfected in all its aspects, still an unfinished chapter opening itself to the future that is in the making. It is impossible to turn this yoga into a religion; it has no dogmas and rituals that can be mechanically believed in... and spiritual quest; on the other hand, there are increasing number of spiritual seekers who value greatly science and scientific method and who are keen to develop scientific and illumined synthesis of science and spirituality. It may even be said that the thesis of the synthesis of science and spirituality is gaining ground among increasing number of seekers as the most important thesis of our times ...
... when taught concentration, can control and direct energy for a definite end. It is a pathway which, once cleared, can lead to the vastness of the Spirit. Yoga is different from philosophy. While in philosophy, what is important is theory and speculation, in Yoga what counts is practice and direct experience. However, traditionally one was not to undertake alone this difficult journey. Only... emphasis is laid on bhakti as a supreme motivation of Karma Yoga and crown of Jnana Yoga. In recent times, Sri Ramakrishna synthesised various systems of Yoga as also inner practices of different religions like Christianity and Islam into a large synthesis. Swami Vivekananda expounded the concept of synthesis of Yoga in his various works. The latest task of synthesis of Yoga has been accomplished... instructions were directly passed from the guru to the pupil. They were even meant not to be divulged to any one. Nevertheless some ancient texts exist and may help to shed light on this great science. We will extract some verses from one of them, Hatha ; Yoga Pradipika (Light on Hatha Yoga) written in Sanskrit by Yogi Swatmarama, hoping that it will enable the reader to understand better the ...
... constitute an extremely sound basis for the development of yoga-shastra, science of yoga, distinct from the development of religions, the Page 86 distinguishing features of which have been rituals, ceremonies and dogmatic beliefs and prescribed modes of conduct and worship. 4. For the development of any science or shastra, one single experience or experiment is not enough. There should... yogic experiences and realizations are indispensable, and it is a part of the demonstration that yogic experiences are not matters of sporadic or accidental occurrence, but, as in any other science, so in the science of yoga, the same experiences can be produced by the employment of the same methods, and therefore, by repetition and by verification, limitations of the experiences and the limitations of... constituents and modes. It was the varied and repeated experimentation stretched over long periods of time that provided a sound ground for some kind of systemization of the science of Yoga as also for the development of that science. The richness of the data that we find in the Vedas and Upanishads as also repeated confirmations of the same or variety of yogic experiences and realizations provide us the ...
... how a true harmony between oneself and humanity can be established. At higher levels in secondary or higher secondary courses, introductory topics which would provide reflections on religions, science, philosophy and Yoga should form an important part of studies. As these subjects are full of complexities and controversies, great care should be taken to prepare learning materials that would encourage... 3. Clarity of thought: there is a distinction between appearance and reality (Examples from science, history, literature and philosophy). 4. Cleanliness and purity of the body, exercises for the body. Class VI I. Science and Values Striking facts revealed by science: 1. Extraordinary phenomenon of intelligence in animals and birds. 2. Possibility of intelligence... Experience 1. What is the process of thinking? How is thinking different in science from that in philosophy? 2. What is technology? How should technology be learnt? 3. What is the difference between art and technology? 4. Observation of the different levels of being in man: the distinction Page 97 between the physical man, the vital man, the mental man the spiritual man and ...
... grand basic principles and lines of Indian religion, philosophy, society have already been found and built and the steps of the culture move now in the magnitude and satisfying security of a great tradition; but there is still ample room for creation and discovery within these fields and a much wider province, great beginnings, strong developments of science and art and literature, the freedom of the... subject. His was a richly stored mind, the mind at once of a scholar and observer possessed of all the learning of his time, versed in the politics, law, social idea, system and detail, religion, mythology, philosophy, art of his time, intimate with the life of courts and familiar with the life of the people, widely and very minutely observant of the life of Nature, of bird and beast, season and tree... and profit. The exterior powers that stand out in front are the curious intellect, the vital urge, the aesthetic, urbanely active and hedonistic sense life. It is the great period of logical philosophy, of science, of art and the developed crafts, law, politics, trade, colonisation, the great kingdoms and empires with their ordered and elaborate administrations, the minute rule of the Shastras in all ...
... Page 181 August 3, 1926 Religion is as much useful and in the same manner as any other form of culture, e.g., art, science, ethics, etc. All these help the development of man; they prepare the materials which will enrich his higher spiritual life.... But as the other departments of culture—aesthetics, morals, science—can be abused, so religion also can be abused and in fact is very often... others. Their mathematics and astronomy and other subjects were derived from India and Greece. It is true they gave some of these things a new turn, but they have not created much. Their philosophy and their religion are very simple and what they call Sufism is largely the result of Gnostics who lived in Persia and it is the logical outcome of that school of thought largely touched by Vedanta. ... p and set up the idolatry of the Vedas. He forgets, I am afraid, that he is doing the same in economics by his Charkha and Khaddar, and, if one may add, by his idolatry of non-violence in religion and philosophy. In that way every one has established idol-worship. He has criticized the Arya Samaj but why not criticize Mahomedan-ism ? His statement is adulatory of the Koran and of Christianity ...
... politics could no longer be as they had been before … Darwin, by formulating the principle of the struggle for existence and selection, did not only revolutionize biology and natural philosophy: he transformed political science. Possessing this principle enabled to get hold of the laws of life and death of a nation, laws which had escaped the speculation of philosophers”, wrote Vacher de Lapouge. 418 The... put the British side by side with the Germans, if not above them, at the top of the tree of humanity. Darwinism was taken for granted as solid science – which it was not. André Pichot, a French epistemologist and historian of the ideas underlying science, shows in his essay La société pure – de Darwin à Hitler that Darwin’s evolutionary theory, based on his observations of nature, did not have a... ‘Since the theory of evolution has been promulgated they can cover their natural barbarism with the name of Darwin and give free play to their bloodthirsty instincts as their being the last word of science’ … The gospels of power were preached above all in imperial Germany and in the Anglo-Saxon countries. In the latter too ‘Social Darwinism’ was easily combined with the Germanic-Aryan idea, also called ...
... Page 264 is too great to be overlooked. It was inevitable that the religions formerly crushed down and almost smothered by the discoveries of Science,—even those creeds most philosophically insufficient and crude,—should be raising their heads and showing an unexpected vitality. Science prevailed for a time over religion by exposing the irrationalities and prejudices which had overgrown and incrusted... involves a spiritual and psychical activity, but this Science has not yet seen. When therefore idealistic philosophies argue in precisely the opposite sense and urge that the spiritual activity is the cause of the material operation, nay that the activity is the material operation and matter does not exist but is essentially spirit, it is natural for Science to brush aside the argument as metaphysical, mystical... mere ideas the truth of which cannot be demonstrated by definite evidence or actual experiment. All Hindu philosophies, however, not only the Vedantic, but Sankhya and Buddhism agree in rejecting the materialistic reading of the Universe and oppose to the well-tested certainties of Science certainties as well-tested of their own. Hindu thought has its own analysis of the Universe arrived at by processes ...
... supports, the second will give him no standing ground except religion. It lays bare the full implication of the ethical consciousness. Ethics is essentially normative: its key terms are "right", "duty", "obligation", "good", "ought". These terms cannot be derived from natural factors with any finality: the study of natural factors is science - a study which is purely descriptive and not m the least normative... guided by its own Truth-light. Philosophically, ethics can be neither valid nor imperative without a religious sanction. Goodwill has its sole logical support in a sense of God-will. Religion and Religionism Pacifism, therefore, should identify itself with faith in the Infinite and the Eternal, an open acknowledgment of the supra-rational Page 44 source of the flow of... earth. However, we must admit that a religious orientation of rational man is insufficient to transfigure life so long as there is no marked turn towards mystical experience. For, religion tends to degenerate into religionism. What should be a matter of soul-discovery and of living contact and communion with the divine depths and heights of our being stops with a narrow creed, a rigid ritualism, a bigoted ...
... whenever I find some leisure from my science subjects, I turn to philosophical books and read them with all my appetite. "Unfortunately, our system of education is so narrow that if you offer science, you can't do philosophy, and vice versa. And yet, every good professor tells me that science is incomplete without philosophy, and philosophy is incomplete without science. But officially, nobody recognises... professors in my search of a satisfactory answer. I read a number of books also. I spent days and months of deep contemplation. I studied the history of religions, I studied philosophy of religion, and I also studied a good deal of psychology of religion. I made a special study of the ontological argument, cosmological argument, teleological argument, historical argument; I studied Deism, Pantheism, Theism... by then quite ripe in their educational thought. My father wanted us to have a good grounding in the Vedic tradition, but he also wanted us to have a good grounding in Western tradition of Science and Philosophy. He had dreamt a sort of a synthesis of the East and the West. My mother wanted us to have a good physical education and refinement of nature and manners. Her attitude tended to be spiritual ...
... to assert its rights & liberties; but it has died, as the patients of Molière's doctors had the felicity of dying, according to the rules of the science; therefore it is satisfied. It is not, however, Buddhism & Adwaita alone, but every logical philosophy that arrives at a similar result; we find always that when we would explain existence in an ultimate term which shall be subject to logic, we fail;... substance of our own philosophies, we shall see why this must be so and cannot be otherwise. Their most important data are vast & vague conceptions, infinite in their nature, Being, Non-Being, Consciousness, Prakriti & Purusha (Nature & Soul), Mind, Matter. How can these entities be compelled to give us their secret except by a profound & exhaustive interrogatory such as modern Science has applied to the... the strong foundation of all these age long jarrings in religious sect and school of philosophy. Here again opinion is master, very clearly founded not on data, not on pure truth, but on truth as seen in the colouring & with the limitation of our education & temperament. We can see from examples in modern Science how these differences work out & where their remedy is to be found. Physicists & geologists ...
... regarded to be the origin of the ancient science of geometry. Three most famous Shulba Sutras ate those of Āpastamba, Baudhāyana and Kātyāyana. As in the case of Kalpa Vedānga , each of the Vedangas has further subsidiary literature. All this and much more may be regarded to constitute the vast Vedic literature. Itihāsa, Purānas and Vedic systems of philosophy also are included as parts of the Vedic... lord Shankara himself. Parashurama is supposed to have learnt Dhanurveda from Lord Shankara. Dronacharya learnt this science from Parashurāma, and Arjuna learnt it from Dronācharya. Sattyaki is supposed to have learnt this science and art from Arjuna. Gandharvaveda is the science of music, derived from Sāmaveda, and we have already dealt with this subject briefly, while dealing with the Vedānga... great impact on the religious and spiritual mind of India. The tradition of philosophy in India goes back to very early times, and based upon the Veda, several systems of philosophy have flourished. These systems are: Ny ā ya, Vaisheshika, Sānkhya, Yoga, Poorva Mimāmsā and Uttara Mimāmsā. All these systems of philosophy accept the authority of the Veda, and although there are differences among them ...
... the truths of modern physical science are discoverable in the hymns____ The ancient civilisations did possess secrets of science some of which modern knowledge has recovered, extended and made more rich and precise but others are even now not recovered. There is then nothing fantastic in Dayananda's idea that Veda contains truth of science as well as truth of religion. I will even add my own conviction... with an inexhaustible many-sidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts... deep study of the Veda and, struck by the light it threw on his own experiences, rediscovered its lost meaning. A series of extracts from early manuscripts on the Veda:) I seek not science, not religion, not Theosophy, but Veda— the truth about Brahman, not only about His essentiality, but about His manifestation, not a lamp on the way to the forest, but a light and a guide to joy and action ...
... in the resurrection of the body - these too are the same élan seeking an outlet. And an outlet is sought in all our straining towards perfect beauty in art, perfect truth in philosophy, perfect law in science, perfect conduct in ethics, perfect health in day-to-day living. The mind yearns to immortalise its products and find means to transcend the limits of space and time, the body longs... your differences with his teaching. He is not primarily arguing out a system. With his instinct towards harmony he has pressed on in spiritual experience. His is not an integral philosophy for the sake of philosophy, his is an integral Yoga, and all his philosophising is a statement in mental terms of what he has realised. The Life Divine expresses nothing except his experience, his realisation... of it there is the whole debris of failure cumbering human history. "Man is finite, man is mortal" - this has been the cry through the ages. "Something indeed is infinite and immortal," the religions say, "but there is a residue of finitude and mortality which is irreducible" - and this contention is not based only on argument: it has behind it a lack of realisation. The great prophets ...
... human knowledge dwarfs the divinations of Newton and Galileo, even the discovery of the inductive and experimental method in Science was not more momentous... " 1 This discovery was the discovery of Yoga. The ancient seers made a distinction between religion and Yoga. Religion is a matter of belief, rituals and ceremonies, even though it may involve an inner practice of moral and spiritual discipline... Vedic Yoga, and brought about a fresh synthesis. Yoga, like science, was never looked upon as a closed book; like science. Yoga encouraged fresh quest and fresh realizations. Yoga came thus to be recognized as a science par excellence. We have in the records of the Vedas and the Upanishads the names of those who developed this great science of Yoga. The generic name is Rishi, the illumined seer,... Ashram, there were specialists in each of the four Vedas; in Phonetics, Metrics, Grammar, and Niyukta. There were also philosophers well-versed in the science of the Absolute. There were logicians. There were also specialists in the physical sciences and arts. In this forest university, the study of every available branch of learning was cultivated. In the Ramayana (vi, 126; ii,90-2), we have an interesting ...
... background presence throughout his life, for his relations with the Church never changed: if anything, they grew worse. On 22 August 1947 he was commanded to confine himself to pure science, not venture into religion or philosophy, and at the beginning of the next years this order was repeated, 14 along with a warning that otherwise very serious measures might be taken against him. De Lubac 15 also tells... dans le monde, 1933, in Science et Christ, p. 136). 27 "In future, the only religion for man is the religion that will teach him in the first place to recognize, love and serve with passion the universe of which he is a part" (Le sens humain, 1929). 28 The idea of "a unity in convergence is the only one that can be the basis of the morality and religion of a universe which is being... doubts we should give a more and more important and explicit part in our philosophy and our religion." What do we find in these words? At once a corrective to the canard that Teilhard was exclusively an evolutionary immanentist and an admission that his stress does fall on evolutionary immanentism. But if his philosophy and his religion do give primacy to "a God immanent to the evolution of the world" he ...
... be called divine states of consciousness, even though they might have rejected what is normally called 'God' in many other religions. Page 59 Philosophy of religion is concerned not only with the determination of the meaning and significance of history of religions, but its primary concern has been that of a critical examination of the religious belief in God, in soul of man and in the... Substance is the all-inclusive Whole within which fall the parallel differentiations of thought and extensions as its corresponding aspect," 5 says Galloway in his book titled, The Philosophy of Religion. His philosophy is described as 'logical monism', and essentially the world as a whole is a single substance which is God. Thus the totality of the world is nothing but God; God was the only Page... For further reference see Galloway, G. (1920) The Philosophy of Religion (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons) p. 382 and Hick, J. (1970) Arguments for the Existence of God (London: Macmillan), pp.68-69. 2.And this will be clear with the following quotation by Parmenides. 3.Quoted in Russell, B. (2002), History of Western Philosophy (New York: Routledge) pp. 66-67. 4.Quoted in ...
... and their corresponding values is often obscured by attempts that confine values exclusively to the domain of morality or by attempts to derive values and morality from a particular religion. It is true that religions prescribe values and very often they have well-knit codes of moral conduct. However, values are at the same time, so to say, autonomous and are found to be the highest expressions of... Development ought to aim at the growth of this kind of inter-relationship between the individual and the collectivity. But even this is not enough. Development needs the promotion of science and technology. Fortunately, science and technology have reached today amazing heights of achievement. But in order that the pace of progress is enhanced, there must be a positive encouragement to the development of... contrast is drawn between creativity and scientific attitude. Often this contrast is portrayed to show a conflict between art and science. But if we look into the problem closely, we shall find that this conflict is imaginary rather than real. As a matter of fact, science itself can be conceived as a creative activity. For creativity is, in its essence, an outpouring expression of curiosity or urge ...
... industry, the opening of markets, exploitation and trade following the flag, his idea of religion at best a pietistic formalism or the satisfaction of certain vitalistic emotions. He values education for its utility in fitting a man for success in a competitive or, it may be, a socialised industrial existence, science for the useful inventions and knowledge, the comforts, conveniences, machinery of ... or misunderstand ideals, organise to get them carried out and even, it would appear, fight and die for them. He knows he has to think about ethical problems, social problems, problems of science and religion, to welcome Page 276 new political developments, to look with as understanding an eye as he can attain to at all the new movements of thought and inquiry and action that chase... starving of the vital being and an utmost bareness or even squalor as the rule of spiritual living, nor by a puritanic denial of art and beauty and the aesthetic joy of life, nor by a neglect of science and philosophy as poor, negligible or misleading intellectual pursuits, — though the temporary utility even of these exaggerations as against the opposite excesses need not be denied; it will be all things ...
... However each of these formulas has a part truth behind it—with its advantages and disadvantages. As all religions and philosophies point to the Supreme but each in a different direction, so all medical fashions are ways to health—though they don't always reach it. Medicine is not exactly science. It is theory + experimental fumbling + luck. The theory [ of allopathic medicine ] is imposing... and guesswork for it to rank as an exact science. There are many scientists (and Page 582 others) who grunt when they hear medicine called a science. Anatomy and physiology, of course, are sciences. There are plenty of allopathic doctors who consider homeopathy, Nature-Cure, Ayurveda and everything else that is not orthodox "medical science" to be quackery. Why should not homeopaths... doctor has often to intuit what medicine he should give or what mixture—and it is those who intuit best that succeed best. All is not done by sole rule of book or sole rule of thumb even in orthodox Science. The Right Use of Medicines X wrote two or three days ago that you were not regular in taking his medicine and in that case he could not be responsible (if the treatment was not strictly followed ...
... terrestrial matter Page 21 could have an action on this rather disgusting and increasingly deceptive whole... we have been hideously deceived by our Religions but even more firmly and more rationally crusted over by our Science which at least had one thing to its credit in that it searched for something and wanted to find the key to this terrestrial Enigma. Now, they have blinded us even... The Philosophy of Love The Philosophy of Love Everyday I awake a philosopher. I look at the state of the world and the ages. Today I awoke with the philosophy of Love. Love Love for the sea Love for music Love for beauty Love for Mother Divine Love I feel great pity for these poor men, who are what, who love what ? This world... love, to feed on that sunny throbbing life, or it digs through the earth to find its light and its breath of love. And it searches and searches everywhere to find... That which has neither name nor philosophy but which breathes in the wind, beats in the wind, and what beats ? Millions of beings and creatures throughout millennia are stubbornly searching for the same nameless Thing voraciously, in diverse ...
... experience—the help one needs to reach the goal." What is the difference between mechanical, religious and psychological methods? Religious methods are those adopted by the various religions. Not many religions speak of the inner Truth; for them, it is more a matter of coming into contact with their God. Heaven and hell: this is a roundabout way of saying... 1 Psychological methods are those... Conversations Conversations Words of the Mother - III 18 January 1951 This talk is based upon the Mother's essay "The Science of Living" ( On Education , CWM, Vol. 12, pp. 3-8 ). The psychic being is formed by the inner Truth and organised around it. The vital is the dynamism of action. It is the seat of the will, of impulses, desires, revolts... grace, its own splendour and beatitude. The psychic being is characteristic of man, and if one goes to the bottom of the matter, perhaps this is what gives man his superiority. Many of the old philosophies did not have a complete knowledge of the classification of the being—the psychic being, the inner Truth were not known to them. These systems had very simplistic notions, such as the outer and the ...
... the human being and his possibilities. Formerly, the human mind in its generality did not go very far in these directions. Its philosophy was speculative and metaphysical, but with little actuality except for the intellectual and spiritual life of the individual, its science explorative of superficial phenomenon rather than opulent both in detail and fruitful generalisation; its view of the past was... diseased, abnormal, but for the sake of artistic effect, to add another tone to its other glaring colours. Realism professes to render the same facts in the proportions of truth and science, but being art and not science, it inevitably seeks for pronounced effects by an evocative stress which falsifies the Page 114 dispositions and shades of natural truth in order to arrive at a conspicuous... t or dull exhausted decadence or in a luminous and satisfied self-exceeding. At the very beginning and still more and increasingly afterwards this modern movement, in literature as in thought and science, takes the form of an ever widening and deepening intellectual and imaginative curiosity, an insatiable passion for knowledge, an eager lust of finding, a seeking eye of intelligence awakened to all ...
... religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion, one can pursue this integral process through a process of exploration, even experimentally and experientially. V Morality and Spirituality • In any sound philosophy of value-oriented education, an effort should be made to arrive at clear conceptions of... in one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of the rituals or ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. Furthermore, both of them are independent of any authority except that of one's own free judgment and direct spiritual experience. It is also useful to distinguish religion from what... Both the moral and the spiritual are to be distinguished from what is called "religious" Religion, has the following distinguishing features: 1. Specific religious dogma regarding the nature of Reality, laid down in scripture or by traditional founder, prophet or incarnation; 2. Every specific religion has, as its essential ingredients, certain prescribed acts, rituals and ceremonies; ...
... universe..." Implications in tune with the Hindu procession of the Avatars could not be brought out by Teilhard from his philosophy, nor could any other open correspondence with the Vedanta be established by him in spite of his philosophy 13. Science and Christ, pp. 60-61, Page 91 approaching suggestively close to it - the natural sense of his intuitions could... could not emerge because it could have no fitness in current Christianity. The Christianity which can grow out of Teilhardism will thus have to be considerably different from the religion to which he tried to conform his intuitions. Understood in the true light, the Cosmic Christ who is central to his thought must lead to an Indianised Christianity giving prominence to Pantheos but holding the transcendent... ous Super-organism. Formulated wholly from within outward in a spontaneous fashion instead of partially from without inward with the Roman Catholic Church now and again in view, the real religion of Teilhard de Chardin would be this Indianised Christianity as modified and modernised by his brilliant many-faceted reading of biological fact. Such a Christianity would perhaps be opened ...
... the power of the mantra, the six chakras and the Kundalini Shakti is one of the central truths of all that complex psycho-physical science and practice of which the Tantric philosophy claims to give us a rationale and the most complete compendium of methods. All religions and disciplines in India which use largely the psycho-physical method, depend more or less upon it for their practices. Rajayoga... treated as an error, a morbid state of the mind or a hallucination. Therefore the dependence has remained absolute, and Science neither finds nor seeks for the real key of the dependence and therefore can discover for us no secret of release and mastery. The psycho-physical science of Yoga does not make this mistake. It seeks for the key, finds it and is able to effect the release; for it takes account... embodied soul, is in his earthly nature the physical and vital being and how, at first sight at least, his mental activities seem to depend almost entirely on his body and his nervous system. Modern Science and psychology have even held, for a time, this dependence to be in fact an identity; they have tried to establish that there is no such separate entity as mind or soul and that all mental operations ...
... THE REAL RELIGION OF TEILHARD DE CHARDIN His Version of Christianity and Sri Aurobindo's Expose of the Ancient Vedanta Roman Catholicism and Pantheism The Roman Catholic Church has shown deep concern over the real religion behind the scientific-spiritual philosophy of the Jesuit... other being evolutionism's progressive earth-building drive - which he deemed necessary in order to counteract the "detaching mysticism" he found in the Roman Catholic religion, its stress on a supra-cosmic transcendent 18. Science and Christ, pp. 58-59, 19. Ibid., p. 59. Page 11 goal, its neglect of the concerns of modem Humanism, its refusal to take the world and its... is when the "friend" meditates before a picture of Christ. What happens is thus related: 6 2. Writings in Time of War, (Collins, Fontana Books, London, 1968), p. 121, fn. 10. 3. Science and Christ (Collins, London, 1968), p. 124. 4. The Hymn of the Universe (Harper & Row, New York, 1965), p. 42, fn. 2. 5. Ibid., pp. 53-54. 6. Ibid., 42-43. Page 5 ...
... distorting interests, to study everything, to analyse everything, to know the principle and process of everything. Philosophy, Science, learning, the reasoned arts, all the agelong labour of the critical reason in man have been the result of this effort. In the modern era under the impulsion of Science this effort assumed enormous proportions and claimed for a time to examine successfully and lay down finally... however imperfect, obscure and limited, is still a hidden action of the universal KnowledgeWill inherent in existence that creates and directs all things according to their nature. True, even Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. They fall into subjection to the tyranny of their own ideas, their partial systems, their hasty generalisations and by the innate drive of... race as the authority and law-giver. Its only widely acknowledged rival has been faith. Religion alone has been strongly successful in its claim that reason must be silent before it or at least that there are fields to which it cannot extend itself and where faith alone ought to be heard; but for a time even Religion has had to forego or abate its absolute pretension and to submit to the sovereignty of ...
... 11. Ibid., pp. 55-56. 12. Christianity and Evolution, translated by Rene Hague (Collins, London, 1971), p. 68. 13. Ibid. Page 20 Christian religion, insisting, as this religion does, that God in no way is constitutive of the universe or identical with its finite elements or effective in fusing the human soul with Him. But, whether the Pauline Epistle... to feel myself drawn by Matter - or more strictly by something that 'shone' at the heart of Matter. At this age when I suppose other children feel their first 'sentiment' for a person or for art or religion, I was affectionate, well-behaved, even pious. That is, catching it from my mother, I loved 'the little lord Jesus' dearly. But in reality my genuine self was elsewhere. To find out about this you... Roman Catholicism as its immediate context, he could not help Christocentring that instinct. But the Divine at all times in matter, through matter, even as matter, is his basic and primary religion. Teilhard begins his life with the divinity investing the visible tangible world-substance and it is at first explicitly dissociated from "the little lord Jesus". In "something that 'shone' at the ...
... tiger and the ape. The forces of cruelty, lust, mischievous destruction, pain-giving, folly, brutality, ignorance were once rampant in humanity, they had full enjoyment; then by the growth of religion and philosophy they began in periods of satiety such as the beginning of the Christian era in Europe to be partly replaced, partly put under control. As is the law of such things, they have always reverted... fulfilment, but before that happens another recoil is inevitable. We see plenty of signs of it in the reeling back into the beast which is in progress in Europe and America behind the fair outside of Science, progress, civilisation and humanitarianism, and we are likely to see more signs of it in the era that is coming upon us. A similar law holds in politics and society. The political evolution of the... Essays from the Karmayogin (1909-1910) Essays from the Karmayogin (1909-1910) Essays in Philosophy and Yoga The Process of Evolution 18-September-1909 The end of a stage of evolution is usually marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of the evolution. It is a principle of Nature that in order to get rid of any powerful tendency ...
... yourself with religion, with spirituality—all these things which are anti- science?" I knew that in order to answer her question, I would be required to present a long chain of thought and data. And neither of us had the time for this long presentation. So I said briefly : "I shall explain to you when you can give me some more time. But briefly, I make a distinction between religion and spirituality... airport when I could write down the following lines: "There are three things which seem similar to each other, but they are quite different from each other. These are : religion, philosophy and Page 28 Yoga. Religion is a turning to God or to a representative of God or one who has come to be looked upon as God. But this turning is a turning of the mind and the heart supported by pious... how things work out. I shall write to you letters from time to time. But I have to make one last request before I leave. I want to know more about your country, about your culture, your philosophy, your science, your people, your leaders and all your plans. Send me any number of books. You do not need to consult me. Your choice of books will be final; let the booksellers send the bills direct to ...
... We create religions, philosophies, systems, yet we are nothing but so-called "higher” mammals in Nature's great crucible. Nature has no philosophy: She simply "does.” And what She does is the philosophy. We add all sorts of things to it, which She takes into account... for a moment, then blows them away if they do not suit her progress. She moves forward, that is her philosophy. We do not know... and make us emerge into the open air, free and fully formed, instead of being an amorphous Precambrian little larva unknowingly imbibing the great sap of life. So we are not fabricating science, machines, religions or philosophies; we are fabricating the Shakti. We are letting the being grow beneath its bell jar. But it is only a bell jar. Mirra had been building up her cyclone for twenty-six years... always be nothing until this one second is filled with “something” that IS. So we can make all the fuss we want, boast of the seven wonders of the world and a forthcoming eighth, create philosophies and religions, make little children and take lots of trips, but that leads nowhere if our little second is not right now. At page 800, we will find ourselves as we were before, after all the baptisms we ...
... The Upanishads and the Gita had swum into his ken and stimulated in him a spirit of restless philosophical inquiry into the "first and last things" and the realm of "ends and means". Religion, humanism, science: God, man, Nature: Providence, foreknowledge and fate: rebirth, evolution and progress - what did they mean? He would not take things simply on trust. He must think things out for himself... the materialistic dogmatisms of the nineteenth century. Three Angels seem to strive for mastery in the world, and this strife is seen reflected in man's consciousness. Religion held sway first, then Science slowly pushed it to a corner. The secrets of Nature were wrested one by one, and they were sorted out, Page 159 categorised, and all but taken for granted: Man's spirit... On the other hand, there are poems like A Child's Imagination, Revelation, The Sea at Night and the sonnets on Death that are poetry first, and philosophy only afterwards. Finally, a dialogue like The Rishi and poems like Who and A Vision of Science have an Upanishadic ring, and come to us like whispers and communications from another world, the world of the archetypes and the superconscient ...
... Chairman of Auroville Foundation. From 2000 to 2006, he was Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. From 2006 to 2008, he was Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC). Currently, he is Education Advisor to the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Other Titles in the Series The New Synthesis of Yoga - An Introduction ... of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth Edited by Kireet Joshi The Aim of Life The... remain inevitable. Page 98 Kireet Joshi (b. 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondich- ...
... tendencies? It is true that such originality and power as we still possess has hitherto busied itself mostly in other paths than those of industry and the sciences which help industry. It has worked chiefly on the lines of Religion and Philosophy which have always been the characteristic bent of the national mind, continuing through Rammohan Ray, Dayanand Saraswati and Keshavchandra Sen, the long and... clear and practical examination of Life and Nature which men call Science, and its application to the needs of Life which men call Industry, in which we are deficient and in which Europe excels. And if we question the past we learn that this is exactly what has not come down to us through the ages along with our Religion and Philosophy. Our early history is scanty and, in many respects, uncertain... knowledge may not fail for want of co-operation. If we get these, if we realise the progress of Science and mechanical invention and resolutely part with old and antiquated methods of work, if we liberate ourselves from hampering customs and superstitions, none of which are an essential part of our religion; if, instead of being dazed in imagination by the progress of Europe, we learn to examine it ...
... expansions of markets that promote multiplication of physical and vital wants, consumerism and motivations of economic security, competitive methods of enrichment, and profit-making. And, fourthly, science and philosophy, the two great magnets that uplift the powers of Reason towards greater heights of truth, beauty and goodness, have tended towards the denials that emerge from materialism resulting in refusals... and lasting order. In this context, the emergence of a religion of humanity is of a greater significance, although he finds its present intellectual form hardly sufficient. Sri Aurobindo, therefore, advocates the emergence of a spiritual religion of humanity and explains that he does not mean by it what is called a universal religion, a system, a creed of intellectual principle and dogma and outward... the practical recognition of this truth, it is the awakening of the soul in man and the attempt to get him to live from his soul and not from his ego which is the inner meaning of religion, and it is that to which the religion of humanity also must arrive before it can fulfil itself in the life of the race. 8 In spite of the difficulties and critical trials through which humanity may be required ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter II Doubt and Faith Doubt and Yoga As to doubts and argumentative answers to them I have long given up the practice as I found it perfectly useless. Yoga is not a field for in... anyone who practises good, O beloved one, come to woe." Gita 6.40.—Ed. × Sri Aurobindo , Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, volume 13 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, p. 199 . ...
... where the rational and the infrarational meet and the impulses and the instincts of man stand in need above all of the light and the control of the reason. In its own sphere of finite knowledge, science, philosophy, the useful arts, its right, one would think, must be indisputable. But this does not turn out in the end to be true. Its province may be larger, its powers more ample, its action more justly... The Human Cycle The Human Cycle The Human Cycle Chapter XIV The Suprarational Beauty Religion is the seeking after the spiritual, the suprarational and therefore in this sphere the intellectual reason may well be an insufficient help and find itself, not only at the end but from the beginning, out of its province and condemned to tread either diffidently... lower mentality which has, if left to itself, the habit of doing things or seeing what is done and taking all for granted without proper observation and fruitful understanding. But as with truth of religion, so with the highest and deepest truth of beauty, the intellectual reason cannot seize its inner sense and reality, not even the inner truth of its apparent principles and processes, unless it is ...
... the role Louis was to assume. Her eyes had penetrated the future, because Thémanlys really devoted his pen and speech to the furtherance of the Cosmic Philosophy. Thrice a week, and for a number of years, he spoke extempore on this Philosophy. The gatherings were held at Passy, N°54 Rue Nicolo, where the family lived. Passy of the 16 th arrondissement is a posh locality of Paris. It is studded... liked to come to grips with matter. Her involvement, therefore, was practical: she took in her charge the publication of the Cosmic Philosophy's mouthpiece, the French periodical, La Revue Cosmique. The Cosmic Review was a monthly. In it Theon expounded his philosophy, but the greater part was contributed by Madame Theon. "It was dictated in English by Théon's wife while she was in trance," said... exist.' Mentally, an absolute refusal to believe in a 'God'." This refusal stemmed from a sort of misunderstanding. "Up to the age of twenty-five or so, I knew of no other God than the God of religions, the God as men have made him, and I would not have him at any price. I denied his existence, but with the certainty that if such a God did exist, I detested him." But the real God - the Divine ...
... make it a living reality in his thoughts and actions. We have used the word " religion of mankind " but religion is not to be understood in the narrow sense of an external social religion. It is a kind of spiritual religion that is meant. In the last century some thinkers and poet! had accepted this spiritual religion of humanity. It was s microscopic minority at that time. It was that which inspired... the unity of mankind is to be truly established. As Sri Aurobindo says, the question is of converting an animal collectivity into a divine one. Man has failed to live his religion in his life but if mankind today can make a religion of human unity and live it in its life then the unity of mankind would Page 69 be attained much sooner. The world is already one; mankind is one —unity of... cultural unitnot mankind - all external efforts should be continued till yth inner unity is attained. Sri Aurobindo in " The Ideal of Human Unity " has given the following conception of the religion of mankind. "A religion of humanity means the growing realisation that there is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which we arc all one, that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth, that the human ...
... merely an image done by some one off-hand. It is a product—a ripe product of Greek Culture which has given Europe its cultural forms. The Greeks had a very intensive cultural life,—they created philosophy, sciences and arts. They had their own conception of perfection which * An address to the students and staff of J. J School of Arts, Bombay. Mr. Gondhlekar, Dean, presided. January 8, 1954. ... artist. Because his sensibility is refined, the artist gets impressions which the ordinary man is unable to get. In ancient times art and religion were two sister-activities of the human spirit, because their originating impulse was the same. Religion affirmed a Supra-sensual, a Supra-intellectual Reality as the cause and goal of human life. Art reached out to that Supra-sensual, Supra-intellectual ...
... of a monstrous commercialism. Nor is this due, as is so often asserted, to its divorce from religion or to any lack of idealism. Idealistic philosophy has been equally at the service of the powers of good and evil and provided an intellectual conviction both for reaction and for progress. Organised religion itself has often enough in the past hounded men to crime and massacre and justified obscurantism... will of man attaches itself for the moment or through the centuries. In philosophy it gives equally good reasons for monism and pluralism or for any halting-place between them, for the belief in Being or for the belief in Becoming, for optimism and pessimism, for activism and quietism. It can justify the most mystic religionism and the most positive atheism, get rid of God or see nothing else. In aesthetics... eclecticism or sceptical curiosity,—still the truths it discovers or the ideas it promulgates become, the moment they are applied to life, the plaything of forces over which the reason has little control. Science pursuing its cold and even way has made discoveries which have served on one side a practical humanitarianism, on the other supplied monstrous weapons to egoism and mutual destruction; it has made ...
... time for art and science, the Hebrew genius found its expression best in its philosophy and literature. The Old Testament is universally known; we have already mentioned the Talmud; and among scores of other works equally deserving of mention, we must single out the Zohar, which embodies the teaching of the Cabala. In the Cabala, whose constituent elements are mysticism and philosophy, is enshrined the... Judaism What exactly did Mother mean by Théon's 'Jewish background? To understand it in some measure let us refresh our memory about Judaism. Judaism is one of the oldest extant religions of mankind. The history of the Jews is one of strife and persecution. Judaism's main persecutors have been its two daughters: Christianity and Mohammedanism. These quarrelsome sisters do not forget... of civilisation' of which Sri Aurobindo saw a vestige in the first, so-called 'primitive' stage of our own cycle. However, recent archeological findings in Israel (reported in February 1988 in the science journal Nature) seem to indicate that the 'age' of modern man will have to be revised to about 100,000 years. This is still hardly enough, but archeology being itself relatively new-born, we can ...
... by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion, which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge that He is in all men and all things... That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion, which embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a Page 37 sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over materialism... Aurobindo made his famous Uttarpara speech. Here are some extracts from that speech: "I realised what the Hindu religion meant. We speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatan Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions are preponderatingly religions offaith and profession, but the Sanatan Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to be believed as ...
... Archaeological remains of animals [cited in letter to K.D. Sethna]. Anderson, James, Structural Aspects of Language Change (Longmans, London, 1973). Apte, V.M., "Religion and Philosophy", "Social and Economic Conditions", in The Vedic Age, ed. R.C. Majumdar and A.D. Pusalker (Allen & Unwin, London, 1952). Asthana, Shashi, Pre-Harappān Cultures of India and the... underlying the Diversity of Culture", in Interrelations of Culture (UNESCO, Paris, 1951). Chattopadhyaya, DebipRasād, Harappān Religion and the Aryan Question (Prakashana, Bangalore, 1987). Chattopadhyaya, K., Studies in Vedic and Indo-Iranian Religion and Literature (Bharatiya Vidya Prakasan, Varanasi, 1976). Childe, Gordon, The Aryans (London, 1926). New Light on the Most... Spoke in the Wheel", in Administration, .Vol. XXVI no. 1 (Spring 1981). Duchesne-Guillemin, J., Religion of Ancient Iran, tr. K.M. JamaspAsa (Bombay, 1973). Encyclopaedia Britannica (1960), II; (1934), XIX. (1977) XVI. Page 436 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. J. Hastings (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1925) [V.125]. Fairservis, Walter jr ...
... we find not only the sufficient fountainhead of Indian philosophy and religion, but of all Indian art, poetry and literature. It is there that we find the soul, the temperament, and the ideal mind which later ripened into what we now call Indian genius of spirituality, intellectuality, askesis and vitality. The development of the science of Yoga can be seen in a new stage of synthesis when we... of consciousness in the fields of physiology, health, medicine, cybernetics, epistemology, mental sciences, education— in the very science and technology of evolution on the earth. Page 263 These data belong to Yoga, which has been regarded primarily as a Science of Consciousness, the science of Psychology, par excellence. One of the most striking ideas that Yoga puts forward is that no... Indian culture may significantly be described as the history of the theme of Consciousness, and its supreme achievement has been the development of the science of Consciousness and practical application of that science. This entire science is the science of Yoga. Right from the times of the Veda up to the present day, we find extraordinary explorations of consciousness. Vedic Rishis attained, as the Vedas ...
... She had, almost continuously, thrown out with exuberant self-confidence an amazing variety of literatures, philosophies, schools of painting and architecture and dancing and music, sound systems of government, fruitful traditions in medicine and engineering, and the elaborate sciences of grammar, mathematics, chemistry and astrono my, "One of the oldest races and greatest civilisation on this... vigorous order and freedom; it developed a great literature, sciences, arts, crafts, industries; it rose to the highest possible ideals and no mean practice of knowledge and culture, of arduous greatness and heroism, of kindness, philanthropy and human sympathy and oneness; it laid the inspired basis of wonderful spiritual philosophies; it examined the secrets of external nature and discovered and... still and always spiritual, philosophical, religious, ethical, but the inner austerer things seem to draw back a little and to stand in the background.... It is the great period of logical philosophy, of science, of art and the developed Page 7 crafts, law, politics, trade, colonisation, the great kingdoms and empires with their ordered and elaborate administrations, the minute rule ...
... and education about religions and advocated that there is no constitutional disability in imparting education about religions in our educational system. The Sriprakasa Committee had advocated moral, emotional and cultural education as understood in their widest connotations. The Kothari Commission recommended value-education that is in coherence with the development of science and scientific temper... Teacher and Teacher Education PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE-ORIENTED EDUCATION - III (Issue of "FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES") We are passing through a critical stage of a battle between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities. At a time when forces of unity and harmony can triumph and science and technology can be used to abolish poverty and deprivation... have changed little or only marginally. The main difficulty has been that there has been a long drawn out debate on what values should be promoted and what place should be given to the study of religions, which are closely connected with value systems. In answer to this debate, there is one thing which is very clear, and that is, the Fundamental Duties, which have been listed in the Constitution ...
... God-realisation such as India's ancient wisdom envisaged. You will perhaps say that Gandhi was not only a moral man but also a religious one. Granted. But surely you cannot put mere religion on a par with God-realisation. Religion at its best is a mental and emotional acceptance of the Eternal, the Infinite, the Divine. It can be a good preparation for the truly spiritual life, just as the practice of... small individual ego and, when the mystical experience is reached, service of mankind is a means to express that experience in the world. But this service is not the only means. Literature, art, science, educational activity, law, medicine, even humble private occupation, or anything else suiting one's abilities - all these and not social service alone are the legitimate means available. And true... calibre like Page 325 Gandhi may encourage and practise these things in an unusual way, but they still remain, for all their intensification, within the domain of ordinary morality and religion and never cross the barrier between them and God-realisation. Possibly at this point you will protest: "Don't you know that Gandhi was doing Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Work, and that the Indian ...
... Page 129 —higher thoughts, finer emotions, nobler urges—the field and expression of personal worth. The acquisition of knowledge, the creation of beauty, the pursuit of philosophy, art, literature, and science in their pure forms and for their own sake are things man holds dear to his heart. Without them life loses its charm and significance. Mind and sensibility must be free to roam, not... ancient Graeco-Roman culture worshipped, which was again revived by the Renaissance and which once again became a fresh and living force after the great Revolution and is still the high light to which Science and modem knowledge turns. THE MORE BEYOND And yet this is not the grand finale, the nec plus ultra. For, man does not stop with man; in the tremendous phrase carved by Nietzsche, "Man... culture—the kind admitted by communism, severely intellectual, rational, scientific, pragmatic-can be the be-all and end-all of human civilisation. Communistic Russia attempted to sweep away all traces of religion and church and piety; the attempt does not seem to have been very successful. As a matter of fact, Communism is best taken as a symptom of the disease society suffers from and not as a remedy ...
... The recovery of the old spiritual knowledge and experience in all its splendour, depth and fullness is its first, most essential work; the lowing of this spirituality into new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and critical knowledge is the second; an original dealing with modern problems in the light of Indian spirit and the endeavour to formulate a greater synthesis of a spiritualised society... these great things of the East are ill-rendered by their inferior English equivalents, discipline, philosophy, strength. Tapasya is more than discipline; it is the materialisation in ourselves by spiritual means of the divine energy, creative, preservative and destructive. Jnanam is more than philosophy, it is the inspired and direct knowledge which comes of what our ancients called dristi, spiritual... applied before, Page 9 to the problem of politics and the work of national revival. To realise that ideal, to impart it to the world is the mission of India. She has evolved a religion which embraces all that the heart, the brain, the practical faculty of man can desire but she has not yet applied it to the problems of modern politics. This therefore is the work which she has still ...
... spirituality to do with Art—with beauty and delight ? From the Indian point of view, spirituality is akin to Art. In fact, in ancient times, religion, philosophy and art were collateral activities and poetry, dance and music were allied to sculpture and painting. Religion affirms a Supracosmic Reality, a Creator of the Universe, and lays down rules to govern man's relation with Him and with his fellow beings... art. We have to bear in mind that Art is not only expression, it can be creative, also. Experience of Beauty In ancient times religion encouraged the experience of beauty as an aspect of the Divine. There were puritanical religions like Protestant Christianity and some philosophical schools that condemned beauty, or encouraged renunciation as indispensable to spirituality. ... law. The claim of science is {or rather was) that the knowledge of the external world which it obtains by using the senses and by experiments is the only valid knowledge: it is real, in opposition to the perception of the world by poetry, art, etc. which it characterised as "unreal," "imaginative,""impractical." In fact, the knowledge of the world which science gives is only one side of Reality ...
... y to do with Art-with beauty and delight ? From the Indian point of view, spirituality is akin to Art. In fact, in ancient times, religion, philosophy and art were collateral activities and poetry, dance and music were allied to sculpture and painting. Religion affirms a supracosmic Reality, a Creator of the universe, and lays down rules to govern man's relation with ______________... to bear in mind that art is not only expression, it can be creative, also. EXPERIENCE OF BEAUTY In ancient times religion encouraged the experience of beauty as an aspect of the Divine. There were puritanical religions like Protestant Christianity and some philosophical schools that condemned beauty, or encouraged renunciation as indispensable to spirituality. ... established law. The claim of science is (or rather was) that the knowledge of the external world which it obtains by using the sense and by experiments is the only valid knowledge : it is real in opposition to the perception of the world by poetry, ar etc.. which it characterised as " unreal, " "imaginative, "impractical". In fact, the knowledge of the world which science gives is only one side of Reality ...
... the roads of technology and thought, to the extreme limit of its humanisation." A still more positive assertion we encounter in How I Believe:" "Under the combined pressure of science and philosophy, we are being forced, experientially and intellectually, to accept the world as a co-ordinated system of activity which is gradually rising up towards freedom and consciousness. The only s... fundamental feeling. Not that the Super-Person that is his Christ need be irreconcilable with the anterior bedrock credo. But the reconciliation is impossible in the traditional terms of the Christian religion, where the world does not itself partake of God-stuff and is not projected from God's own being. And if, following Teilhard's self-misleading trend, we insist, as most Roman Catholic exeget-ists do... sign-posts to it. The vision in which Christian dogma culminates did no more than suggest a scientific possibility: the conviction of the truth of what had been suggested came wholly and solely from science. And the Christian Phenomenon itself is treated without religious preconceptions, as Teilhard 5 assures us in the chapter devoted to it: "As I am living at the heart of the Christian world, I might ...
... ideas of the arrangement of life, a harmonious, well-adapted, durable and serviceable social system, an imposing religion which will not be without its profundities, but in which symbol and ceremonial will form the largest portion and for the mass of man will be almost the whole of religion. In this stage pure reason and pure spirituality will not govern the society or move large bodies of men, but will... elements, its strong elements of reason and of spirituality. Even the savage, whether he be primitive or degenerate man, has some coherent idea of this world and the beyond, a theory of life and a religion. To us with our more advanced rationality his theory of life may seem incoherent, because we have lost its point of view and its principle of mental associations. But it is still an act of reason... but well enough contrived and put together to serve the simplicity of its objects. Or again we may not realise the element of reason in a primitive theory of life or of spirituality in a barbaric religion, because it appears to us to be made up of symbols and forms to which a superstitious value is attached by these undeveloped minds. But this is because the reason at this stage has an imperfect and ...
... disturb. But in this way he cuts himself off from experience and only the gods can know without experience. Sieyès said that politics was a subject of which he had made a science. He had, but the pity was that though he knew the science of politics perfectly, he did not know politics itself in the least and when he did enter political life, he had formed too rigidly the logical habit to replace it in any... makes of the senses. Many a materialist will tell you that only those facts can be accepted as a basis to knowledge which the senses supply,—a position which no man can substantiate and which his science daily denies in practice. These reasoners consent to trust to their sovereign subjective instrument when it settles for them the truths about this world visible to their lower instruments, but the... into which they enter who are addicted to knowledge alone." This sort of word worship and its resultant luminous darkness is very common in India and nowhere more than in the intellectualities of religion, so that when a man talks to me about the One and Maya and the Absolute, I am tempted to ask him, "My friend, how much have you experienced of these things in which you instruct me or how much are ...
... earthy matter which most resists all but a gross utilitarian treatment. There will be new unexpected Page 248 departures of science or at least of research,—since to such a turn in its most fruitful seekings the orthodox still deny the name of science. Discoveries will be made that thin the walls between soul and matter; attempts there will be to extend exact knowledge into the psychological... that these have laws of their own which are other than the physical, but not the less laws because they escape the external senses and are infinitely plastic and subtle. There will be a labour of religion to reject its past heavy weight of dead matter and revivify its strength in the fountains of the spirit. These are sure signs, if not of the thing to be, at least of a great possibility of it, of... have made themselves ready in a past existence,—but it must fail with the mass. When it passes beyond the few, the forceful miracle of the spirit flags; unable to transform by inner force, the new religion—for that is what it becomes—tries to save by machinery, is entangled in the mechanical turning of its own instruments, loses the spirit and perishes quickly or decays slowly. That is the fate which ...
... either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as links them to the one true philosophical cult. Even the discoveries of physical Science have been elevated into a creed and in its name religion and spirituality banned as ignorance and superstition, philosophy as frippery and moonshine. And to these bigoted exclusions and vain wranglings even the wise have often lent themselves, misled by some... cannot be our sole monopoly; we are beginning to look at other religions and philosophies for the truth and help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as false or criticise what we conceive to be their errors. But we are still apt to declare that our truth gives us the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies have missed or only imperfectly grasped so that they deal either... half-revelations, with religions and philosophies, sects and schools and systems. To these the many minds of a half-ripe knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and will have it that this or the other book is alone the eternal Word of God and all others are either impostures or at best imperfectly inspired, that this or that philosophy is the last word of the ...
... yourself from it. Each religion or sect says something different about the creation of the earth. The Buddhists declare it as from nothingness; some from the Shabda (original word), the Mahabharata as from the Egg. What is actually the truth of this subject? For the physical creation it is best to look to the knowledge Science gives. The egg is only an image — if we accept... They mean an absence of all that we know of as existence. Do the philosophers always make their philosophies practical? In ancient times in Europe and at all times in the East many have done so or done their best to do so. Modern philosophy does not aim at practice, only at thought. I came across this: "A silent or vacant mind does not ... self is meant the conscious essential existence one in all. Will you kindly elaborate the difference between "being" and "a being"? I suppose you would have to study philosophy in order to understand. Self is being, the essential conscious existence one in all, that is being. A being means one person out of many; an individualised conscious existence. ...
... References 1.Quoted in Henri de Lubac's The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin 2.Letters to Two Friends (Collins, The Fontana Library, Theology and Philosophy, London, 1972), p. 155. 3. Ibid., 4. The Design of Teilhard de Chardin: 5. Christianity and Evolution 6. Letters to Two Friends, 7. Ibid., 8. Science and Christ 9. Letters to Leontine Zanta ... habitual reaction of vehement anti-pantheism. By profession and mental affinity he was a scientist drawn towards a secular humanist world-view based on the theory of evolution, from which the only religion that could be derived was the sense of an infinite and unitary universe moving forward with the drive of an immanent cosmic consciousness or world-soul. But his religious upbringing and discipline... If, according to Teilhard, Christ's cosmicality can become a reality only when modern evolutionism is accepted, it is impossible for his cosmic Christ to figure in whatever St. Paul or contemporary religion posits in non-scientific terms. By insisting on evolutionism, Teilhard makes himself irrevocably unorthodox. As for the historic Jesus in this context, his being subsequent and subordinate to ...
... himself on science in most of his philosophical and theological writings. Rideau 3 himself cites J.M. Le Blond: "The tendency in fact in Teilhard's work is to move from science and technology to religion, the general direction is religious" (Mise en garde contre le P. Teilhard de Chardin in Etudes, September 1962, p. 283). Yes, Teilhard ends with religion, but by beginning with science; and what... has to come to terms with Evolution and that whatever does not do so fails to qualify for the religion of the future. Not only does Teilhard hold the Universal Christ to be the core of Christianity: he also considers this Christ as unable to carry out his unifying cosmic function unless we accept science's evolutionary world. Occasionally he states nothing more than that such a world is in the fitness... expression that has run beyond the exact need of the thought. There is the positive statement that the new religion could never have been part either of the imagination or of the description possible to any old religion. And yet we are told of Christianity's power to bring out of itself the new religion. A veritable paradox faces us - a sheer self-contradiction - unless Teilhard means by "Christianity" something ...
... contributions to the growth of the human race, that Indian civilisation has been the form and expression of a culture as great as any of the historic civilisations of mankind, great in religion, great in philosophy, great in 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... at all, we must resume India's great interrupted endeavour; we must take up boldly and execute thoroughly in the individual and in the society, in the spiritual and in the mundane life, in philosophy and religion, in art and literature, in thought, in political and economic and social formulation the full and unlimited sense of her highest spirit Page 91 and knowledge. And if we do that... the mind, the modern many-sidedness of the reason and inexhaustible habit of inquiry, the power of endless generalisation and precise detail. He would admire without reserve the miraculous growth of science and its giant discoveries, the abundant power, richness and minuteness of its instrumentation, the wonder-working force of its inventive genius. He would be overcome and stupefied rather than surprised ...
... the enlightened mind, the awakened spirit. But this practically means that there is an ideal, an eternal Dharma which religion, philosophy, ethics and all other powers in man that strive after truth and perfection are constantly endeavouring to embody in new statements of the science and art of the inner and outer life, a new Shastra. The Mosaic law of religious, ethical and social righteousness is... between action according to the licence of personal desire and action done according to the Shastra. We must understand by the latter the recognised science and art of life which is the outcome of mankind's collective living, its culture, religion, science, its progressive discovery of the best rule of life,—but mankind still walking in the ignorance and proceeding in a half light towards knowledge. The... Page 477 And this assent of the being, its conscious acceptance and will to believe and realise, may be called by the name which the Gita gives to it, his faith, śraddhā . The religion, the philosophy, the ethical law, the social idea, the cultural idea in which I put my faith, gives me a law for my nature and its works, an idea of relative right or an idea of relative or absolute perfection ...
... ordeal, stands convicted either of deliberate cruelty or of moral insensibility and, if a moral being at all, is inferior to the highest instinct of his own creatures.” 1 In modern day philosophy and science we find the problem voiced for instance in this way: “When you consider all the physical suffering that there is in the world; when you consider the stupidity of a good number of people; when... He cannot be both omnipotent and benevolent (as most religions claim).” (Paul Davies) The God here put into question is the Abrahamic God who stands outside the creation brought by him into being and for which he is therefore responsible. Theologians of the Abrahamic religions may say that he is an abstract God, rare mystics in these religions may say that he can be met in the heart, yet the general... in the beginning all was Darkness and Ignorance in the most absolute sense. From that Inconscient the Subconscient and Matter have emerged. The Inconscient we cannot imagine; what “Matter” means, science has given us a more complete idea in its discoveries of the billions of galaxies, the fantastic fireworks of the material universe, and the wonders in the subatomic world; the Subconscient is the murky ...
... he needs culture – higher thoughts, finer emotions, nobler urges – the field and expression of personal worth. The acquisition of knowledge, the creation of beauty, the pursuit of philosophy, art, literature, and science in their pure forms and for their own sake are things man holds dear to his heart. Without them life loses its charm and significance. Mind and sensibility must be free to roam, not... ancient Græco-Roman culture worshipped, which was again revived by the Renaissance and which once again became a fresh and living force after the great Revolution and is still the high light to which Science and modern knowledge turns. THE MORE BEYOND And yet this is not the grand finale, the nee plus ultra. For, man does not stop with man; in the tremendous phrase carved by Nietzsche... communism, severely intellectual, rational, scientific, pragmatic – can be the be-all and end-all of human civilisation. Communistic Russia attempted to sweep away all Page 125 traces of religion and church and piety; the attempt does not seem to have been very successful. As a matter of fact, Communism is best taken as a symptom of the disease society suffers from and not as a remedy ...
... how a true harmony between oneself and humanity can be established. At higher levels in secondary or higher secondary courses, introductory topics which would provide reflections on religion, science, philosophy and Yoga should form an important part of studies. As these subjects are full of complexities and controversies, great care should be taken to prepare learning materials that would encourage... and one must be neither in a great hurry nor lazy and sluggish. Page 36 One of the important aspects of the programme should be related to bridge the gap between the realms of science and the realm of values. The perception of the unity of the world is a necessary basis for durable striving for harmony and brotherhood. There are a number of topics that could be suggested which would ...
... great achievements which were registered by ancient Indians in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, natural scien ces, metallurgy, as also in the fields of grammar, ethics, philosophy, religion, psychic and spiritual sciences, yoga, art, music, dance, and architecture, hardly figure in our history books. Even the political account of Indian history suffers from great short comings and Indian students... , and from them and from the reaches between them and our ordinary mental consciousness there have descended forces and forms which have become embodied in literature, Page 109 philosophy, science, in music, drama, art, architecture, sculpture, in great and heroic deeds and in all that is wonderful and precious in the different organised or as yet unorganised aspects of life. To put students ...
... discern the thing it eventually realised as the basic rhythm of its life, we must look with an observing eye at the later middle period of the Shastras and the classic writings, the age of philosophy and science, legislation and political and social theory and many-sided critical thought, religious fixation, art, sculpture, painting, architecture. If we would discover the limitations, the points at... and vigorous order and freedom; it developed a great literature, sciences, arts, crafts, industries; it rose to the highest possible ideals and no mean practice of knowledge and culture, of arduous greatness and heroism, of kindness, philanthropy and human sympathy and oneness; it laid the inspired basis of wonderful spiritual philosophies; it examined the secrets of external nature and discovered and... trained in the capacities, habits and attainments, and habituated to the sense of honour and duty necessary for the discharge of his allotted function in life. He was scrupulously equipped with the science of the thing he had to do, the best way to succeed in it as an interest, artha , and to attain to the highest rule, canon and recognised perfection of its activities, economic, political, sacerdotal ...
... E SSAYS FROM THE K ARMAYOGIN (1909 - 1910) Sri Aurobindo was the editor of and principal writer for the Karmayogin , "A Weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c", between June 1909 and February 1910. Most of the contents of the Karmayogin are published in volume 8 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO . The fourteen pieces selected... Essays in Philosophy and Yoga Note on the Texts ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY AND YOGA consists of short prose pieces written by Sri Aurobindo after May 1909 and published by him in journals or books or both before his passing in 1950 Most of them are on aspects of philosophy and yoga Short prose pieces written between 1910 and 1950 but not published during Sri A... specialised subjects — the Vedas, the Upanishads, Indian culture, political theory, education, poetics — are included in the volumes of THE COMPLETE WORKS dealing with those subjects. Essays in Philosophy and Yoga is divided into five parts according to the date of writing and original place of publication of the constituent pieces: Part One, essays from the Karmayogin , 1909 - 10; Part Two, The ...
... truth. Since he does believe in the Divine he must automatically imply that God being the highest reality the direct union with Him is the highest value: not only philanthropy but art, philosophy, science, politics, industry fall into a lower place. This is simple logic. My advice to my friend has Page 54 respect for sincere social service: what it does ... in him. Here I may, in passing, draw attention to the truth that genuine world-work does not connote only social service and philanthropy. It includes inspired art, acute philosophy, constructive science, wise politics, fair industry. The swabhāva or innate nature of a man should determine his vocation; to ask a Beethoven, for instance, to stint for the problem of bad housing of... Yoga of any sort. The former seeks the Divine and ignores the Divine's world; the latter acknowledges the Divine's world but ignores the Divine - except in the weak and watery way of popular religion. If God exists, to refuse to be mystically united with Him can be no less a shortcoming than to refuse a share in His world's activity. To say this is not to recommend entranced isolation; it ...
... Science, Materialism, Mysticism LSD and the Mind of the Future 1 Extraordinary experiences by the use of drugs: this issue has been growing ever livelier since 1954 when Aldous Huxley conducted experiments on himself and wrote on the consciousness-changing effects of Mescaline. With the many- sided study of a drug 7000 times as potent - LSD... with a pill weighing 1/200,000 of an ounce, LSD not only releases the human consciousness from its common bounds but also expands it to an extent which seems infinite. We thus pass beyond medical science and even psychotherapy into profound parapsychology and impinge on the realm of metaphysical values. Two questions of extreme significance arise: (a) What is the bearing of psychedelic drugs,... the Page 346 proper use of LSD on well-chosen and sufficiently spaced- out occasions. And they could serve the ends of scientific no less than artistic thought; for, the progress of science also depends initially on - in Heard's phrase 8 - "the act of sudden insight, the brilliant hypothesis, the truly 'creative' leap". All in all, there is much to be said in favour of LSD as ...
... supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphasised by prevalent philosophies and religions that to escape from life is now commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga. No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim... relation to the customary psychological workings of man as has the scientific handling of the force of electricity or of steam to their normal operations in Nature. And they, too, like the operations of Science, are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. All Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner ...
... way all will be right upon earth—tip-top, A-I; my daughter Science and I have arranged that between us. Man will raise his noble brow, the head of creation, dignified, free, equal, fraternal, democratic, depending upon nothing but himself, with nothing greater than himself anywhere in existence. There will be no God, no priestcraft, no religion, no kings, no oppression, no poverty, no war or discord anywhere... mind, and the channel supermind which connects it to the Infinite. Occasionally, there is a chink through which the Light flows on this side of the mind, in society, in man, and that creates religion, philosophy, seeking for truth etc., etc. Now the question that Sri Aurobindo puts here is how to make a permanent relation between this lower triplicity of mind, life and body on this side,—the world of... circumstances. And so to establish a relation of cause and effect would not be rational. That is what seems to have happened in the realm of physical science in which the law of causation was supposed to act without exception. The latest position in science seems to be that instead of law of causation the law of Indeterminacy is prevailing. It is found that in many important cases the cause cannot be ...
... of the mind, life and body. In pursuit of this process, Sri Aurobindo acknowledges the contributions that can be made by the yogic systems which are at the back of all religions as also those which are independent of any religion. Sri Aurobindo also acknowledges the subtlety and complexity that are available in several exclusive systems of yoga, and underlines the importance of new elements which... fluidity, suppleness and subtlety have been absent in the later systems of philosophy. The Veda was at once a Book of Knowledge and a Book of Works; and while the great quest of Vedic Rishis aimed not only at liberation from our present bonds and littleness, but also at arriving at larger perfection, the later philosophies gradually narrowed down to become the means only of attaining liberation as... recorded in the Upanishads and in the Gita. Attainment of the Upanishads The spiritual substance of the Veda appears to have been captured in the Upanishads. The ancient psychological science and art of spiritual living that are to be found in the Veda as a body of inspired knowledge, but yet insufficiently equipped with intellectual and philosophical terms, are restated in a language that ...
... the interior and exterior development proceeded the spiritual and psychic relation with one of these beings became more and more clear and frequent; and although I knew little of the Indian philosophies and religions at that time, I was led to call him Krishna, and henceforth I was aware that it was with him (whom I knew I should meet on earth one day) that the divine work was to be done.' And you already... determined to think otherwise.' Also, in a letter to another disciple, Dilip Kumar Roy, he wrote: 'And philosophy! Let me tell you in confidence that I never, never, never was a philosopher — although I have written philosophy which is another story altogether. I knew precious little about philosophy before I did the Yoga and came to Pondicherry —I was a poet and a politician, not a philosopher. How... in the future of humanity and in finding harmonious solutions to the immense problems that besieged it, but rejected the panaceas offered by the established religions. Indeed Mirra never had any belief in the conventional Gods of the religions, the One-God-on-high; it was the God within that she always sought. One of the members of her study group in Paris was Madame Alexandra David-Neel who became ...
... curricula. While studying a subject in physical sciences, a student became deeply interested in the question: What is at the bottom of the ocean? While studying history, a student became deeply interested in the history of costumes; another became deeply interested in the history of weapons. These are only stray examples. But in a subject like philosophy, at higher levels of education, it was found that... and spiritual or yogic aspiration. The sense of the unity of the truths would also contribute to the reconciliation of the various branches of Knowledge, thus leading to the harmony of Science, Philosophy, Technology and Fine Arts. In the spiritual or yogic vision, there is an automatic perception of this unity, and in the teaching of the various subjects the teacher can always direct the students... them Page 90 and from the reaches intermediate between them and our ordinary mental consciousness there have descended forces and forms, which have become embodied in literature, philosophy, science, in music, dance, art, architecture, sculpture, in great and heroic deeds and in all that is wonderful and precious in the different organised or as yet unorganised aspects of life. To put the ...
... future, our call must be to Young India. We should declare to our youth that India is not merely a piece of land, nor is it only a hoary past. India is neither religionism, nor dogmatism, nor obscurantism. India is, we should affirm, science, spirituality, and universality. India has been the harbinger of successive dawns; she can become, if she wills, the cradle of the new future. We should, in brief... overall important questions which should be set to stimulate original reflection, introspection, and a search for meaning. What, for example, is the nature of thinking? How is science distinguishable from mathematics and philosophy? What is the essence of literature and music and art? Is history meaningful? Is there an aim in history? What is technology? What are the best methods of learning technology... A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth A philosophy of Education for the contemporary youth It is universally admitted that the possibility of an acceleration of man's quest of himself and of the universe constitutes the basic premise of all education. What precisely is man? What is the nature of the universe? And what is the secret formula of ...
... the last and shrillest of many hostile voices. This aesthetic side of a people's culture is of the highest importance and demands almost as much scrutiny and carefulness of appreciation as the philosophy, religion and central formative ideas which have been the foundation of Indian life and of which much of the art and literature is a conscious expression in significant aesthetic forms. Fortunately, a... it is to fall into total incomprehension or into much misunderstanding. Indian architecture, painting, sculpture are not only intimately one in inspiration with the central things in Indian philosophy, religion, Yoga, culture, but a specially intense expression of their significance. There is much in the literature which can be well enough appreciated without any very deep entry into these things,... the scrupulous and rigidly verifiable intellectual reasonings and conclusions of Western scientists have led to no conflicting or contradictory results? One could never imagine at this rate that the science of heredity is torn by conflicting "fantasies" or that Newton's "fantasies" about space and gravitational effect on space are at this day in danger of being upset by Einstein's "fantasies" in the same ...
... experience as an approach to it, formulated some kind of mystic philosophy: but more often it has confined itself to occult knowledge and practice without any spiritual vistas; it has turned to thaumaturgy or mere magic or even deviated into diabolism.13 Religion has had a mass base always, and thus anybody almost can take to religion; but occultism demands a preparatory stage of inner development... passage: Its most important aim must be the discovery of the hidden truths and powers of the mind-force and the life-power and the greater forces of the concealed spirit. Occult science is, essentially, the science of the subliminal, the subliminal in ourselves and the subliminal in world-nature ... and the use of it as part of self-knowledge and world-knowledge and for the right dynamisation... teach the gamesters a lesson that they badly needed. 45 While mastery of the occult science may thus lead to a precise, even an infallible, knowledge of things and powers and the ability to manipulate them, unless it is all sustained by a spiritual base and is properly subordinated to Truth, the science may recoil on the practitioner himself. "Cling to Truth" should hence be hung at the doorway ...
... sages is so shocking, each new seer or sage in turn has done that shocking thing—Buddha, Shankara, Chaitanya, etc. all did that wicked act. If not, what was the necessity of their starting new philosophies, religions, schools. of Yoga? If they were merely verifying and meekly repeating the lives and experiences of past seers and sages without bringing the world some new thing, why all that stir and pother... allopathic medicine is a science developed by painstaking labour—experiments researches, etc. To a certain extent. The theory is imposing, but when it comes to application, there is too much fumbling and guesswork for it to rank as an exact science. There are many scientists (and others) who grunt when they hear medicine called a science. Anatomy and physiology, of course, are sciences. I don't decry... and full moon days! Science or witchery? No. Not witchery nor science, but I suppose the common Indian idea. But don't doctors often make recommendations which are quite as absurd? 3) About A.B. I hear, R has stopped his sun-treatment which caused him headache. R traced the headache to his hot water bath and admonished him to use cold water... And fancy calling my science quackery! But who knows ...
... communion with God to utter some puissant sentence, which in after ages became the germ of mighty philosophies; he conducted a sacrifice, and kings and peoples rose on its seven flaming tongues to wealth and greatness; he formulated an observant aphorism, and it was made the foundation of some future science, ethical, practical or physical; he gave a decision in a dispute and his verdict was seed of a... facet towards imaginative religion, and if it accepts religion at all, requires it to be plain, precise and dogmatic; to such these allegories must always seem false in art and barren in significance. And there is the mental composition in which a strong metaphysical bent towards religion combines with an imaginative tendency seeking symbol both as an atmosphere around religion, which would otherwise... heroic striplings, earnest pursuers of knowledge, destined to become themselves great Rishies or renowned leaders of thought and action. He himself was the master of all learning and all arts and all sciences. The Rishies won their knowledge by meditation working through inspiration to intuition. Austere concentration of the faculties stilled the waywardness of the reason and set free for its work the ...
... every religion or spiritual discipline invariably teaches. Science, as Bertrand Russell admits, is incapable of furthering man's genuine progress, simply because it cannot remove his pitiful ignorance of himself and enlighten him on the true ends of life. "I mean by wisdom ! right conception of the ends of life. This is something which science in itself does not provide. Increase of science by itself... ever. The Divine in us wills to manifest. The Mission of the Psychic Being That the soul or psychic being has any mission to fulfil on earth is overlooked by almost all religions and philosophies. The general notion is that the soul has somehow got ensnared in Prakriti (Nature) or karma, and has, in consequence, to pass through numberless births and deaths, suffering the agonies ... against our finiteness only because we have an occult apprehension of infinity. Our struggle against death and disintegration is induced by a subconscious feeling that we are heirs to an undying life. Science advances forward to conquer more and more of knowledge and power, but what sustains and inspires its intrepid endeavours is nothing but a faith in the infinite potentialities of man. In fact, if life ...
... body, nor by an ascetic starving of the vital being and an utmost bareness or even squalor as the rule of spiritual living, nor by a puritanic denial of art and beauty, nor by a neglect of science and philosophy; it will be all things to all, but in all it will be at once their highest aim and meaning and the most embracing expression of themselves in which all they are and seek for will be fulfilled... satisfaction that we have solved a difficult problem, when Page 63 in fact we have only shelved it. You can live amicably with a religion whose principle is toleration. But how is it possible to live peacefully with a religion whose principle is 'I will not tolerate you.' How are you going to have unity with these people? Certainly Hindu-Muslim unity cannot be arrived on the basis... as a wider gate is opened under more favourable conditions. Till that attempt comes, a serious danger besets the soul of India. Let us briefly state the political philosophy of Gandhi's movement. This political philosophy was based on three planks, namely non-violence, non-cooperation and Hindu-Muslim unity. Each one of these contains a truth and yet in the hands of the Congress party ...
... for life, some of these accused persons without as much as glancing at what was happening around them, were absorbed in reading novels of Bankim Chandra, Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga or Science of Religions or European Philosophy. * Looking at these lads… one felt as if the liberal, daring, puissant men of an earlier age with a different training had come back to India. That fearless and innocent look... about their country and religion. A small library grew up as everyone in our ward had a few books with him. Most books in the library were religious — the Gita, the Upanishads, the works of Vivekananda, the life and conversations of Ramakrishna, the Puranas, hymns, spiritual songs, etc. Among other volumes were the works of Bankim, patriotic songs, books on European philosophy, history and literature ...
... for Europe its types of political activity, military discipline and science, jurisprudence of law and equity and even its ideals of empire and colonisation. And in India it was that early vivacity of spiritual life of which we catch glimpses in the Vedic, Upanishadic and Buddhistic literature, which created the religions, philosophies, spiritual disciplines that have since by direct or indirect influence... spiritual revolutions may not intervene in the very course of this present movement of mankind and divert it to quite another denouement. The human mind has not yet reached that illumination or that sure science by which it can forecast securely even its morrow. Page 356 Let us suppose, however, that no such unexpected factor intervenes. The political unity of mankind, of a sort, may then be realised... attachment to the small aggregate in which each man felt himself to be most alive had generated a sort of mental and vital insularity which could not accommodate itself to the new and wider ideas which philosophy and political thought, moved by the urge of larger needs and tendencies, brought into the field of life. Therefore the old States had to dissolve and disappear, in India into the huge bureaucratic ...
... convincing sentence pronounced on a part of Rollandian, Tagorean and Aurobindonian aims when Gandhi dogmatically declares: "I maintain that the profoundest utterances of man in every great philosophy or religion as in every great art must appeal equally to all. I cannot for the life of me see much in any specialisation which must mean nothing to the vast multitude. Its only tangible Page... to religion and mysticism. No true concession is made even by the fine declaration: "The organised life of the community is necessary, but it is necessary as a mechanism, not something to be valued on its own account. What is of most value in human life is more analogous to what all the great religious teachers have spoken of." For, what Russell has in mind, as his book Religion and Science... Church's ban on birth-control and divorce. He regrets also Gandhi's sympathy with such a ban just as he regrets the belief Gandhi shares, with many great men, in the soul and God. He offers us science as a mighty improver of the human mind by rendering it impervious to religious "irrationalism" and by improving the racial stock through sterilisation of the mentally unfit as well as through ...
... to religion and mysticism. No true concession is made even by the fine declaration: "The organised life of the community is necessary, but it is necessary as a mechanism, not something to be valued on its own account. What is of most value in human life is more analogous to what all the great religious teachers have spoken of." For, what Russell has in mind, as his book Religion and Science proves... convincing sentence pronounced on a part of Rollandian, Tagorean and Aurobindonian aims when Gandhi dogmatically declares: "I maintain that the profoundest utterances of man in every great philosophy or religion as in every great art must appeal equally to all. I cannot for the life of me see much in any specialisation which must mean nothing to the vast multitude. Its only tangible effect seems to... Catholic Church's ban on birth-control and divorce. He regrets also Gandhi's sympathy with such a ban just as he regrets the belief Gandhi shares, with many great men, in the soul and God. He offers us science as a mighty improver of the human mind by rendering it impervious to religious "irrationalism" and by improving the racial stock through sterilisation of the mentally unfit as well as through judicious ...
... Thought and Philosophy now is not new. It was the late Sir Francis Young-husband who said that it is the greatest contribution to contemporary philosophy after that of Henry Bergson. His master-piece, The Life Divine, was highly prized by Romain Rolland. In what consists the speciality of the contribution ? Apart from his spiritual experience what has he given to the world of philosophy ? There are... the psychic Research Society, London, it is difficult to call these phenomena superstition. In fact, we should be glad to welcome the almost unlimited field of experience opened out by these occult sciences. The subliminal part of man's being is not so ignorant as his surface Consciousness; it has a vast store of knowledge which can be available to man. So the human being has not only the surface... called there the degraded mortal. Thus, even among men there are some who have reached the golden Light of the Truth and crossed the dark ocean of Ignorance; they even promise to lead us to the Light. Religions assert that it is the destiny of man to attain the Light. There are thus all over the world individuals who claim to have gone beyond Ignorance, and there are collectivities that have tried and are ...
... order to answer that question we have to know, — to know what the soul can do, to know what it can do with itself, to know too what it can do with Nature and the world. The whole of human philosophy, religion, science is really nothing but an attempt to get at the right data upon which it will be possible to answer the question and solve, as satisfactorily as our knowledge will allow, the problem of... variations of a considerable consequence. It is this mechanical appearance of Prakriti which has preoccupied the modern scientific mind and made for it its whole view of Nature, and so much so that science still hopes and labours with a very small amount of success to explain all phenomena of life by laws of matter and all phenomena of mind by law of living matter. Here soul or spirit has no place... other is both the motive and the executive force of all existence in the universe. The Hour of God and Other Writings, pp. 51-52 This division was made most clearly by the old Indian philosophies; but it bases itself upon the eternal fact of practical duality in unity upon which the world-manifestation is founded. It is given different names according to our view of the universe. The ...
... × “… The phrase [the Great Chain of Being] … was long one of the most famous in the vocabulary of Occidental philosophy, science, and reflective poetry; and the conception which in modern times came to be expressed by this or similar phrases has been one of the half-dozen most potent and persistent presuppositions in Western... aside by the modern scientific-materialistic mind as magical and mystical. In the “flatland” of science only matter and nothing but matter exists. “… The triumphs of modern science went to man’s head in something of the way rum does, causing him to grow loose in his logic. He came to think that what science discovers somehow casts doubt on things it does not discover; that the success it realises in... in its own domain throws into question the reality of domains its devices cannot touch. In short he came to assume that science implies scientism: the belief that no realities save ones that conform to the matrices science works with – space, time, matter/energy, and in the end number – exist.” Thus writes Huston Smith, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in his book Forgotten Truth ...
... highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal Religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul. Page 197 By reaffirming the truths of Shintoism and drawing inspiration from the Vedantic teachings of... masterful strength; in this aspect her name is Bhavani. Modem science and technology, increasing as they do in geometric progression (the doubling period being ten years), make our world an unbelievable dynamo of accelerating strength: All is growing large and strong. The Shakti of war, the Shakti of wealth, the Shakti of Science are tenfold more mighty and colossal, a hundredfold more fierce... Congress is doing for the masses? Do you think merely passing a few resolutions will bring you freedom? I have no faith in that. The masses must be awakened... the essence of my religion is strength.... Strength is religion, and nothing is greater than strength." 2 Petitioning and prayer and pseudo-parliamentary posturing were unlikely to rid the country of foreign rule and redeem the dumb millions ...
... and widest seeing is the wisest; for then all knowledge is unified in its one comprehensive meaning. All religions are seen as approaches to a single Truth, all philosophies as divergent view-points looking at different sides of a single Reality, all Sciences meet together in a supreme Science. For that which all our mind-knowledge and sense-knowledge and suprasensuous vision is seeking, is found most... it shall grow more and always yet more towards the highest possible reach, largest possible breadth of universality and infinity. All man's age-long effort, his action, society, art, ethics, science, religion, all the manifold activities by which he expresses and increases his mental, vital, physical, spiritual existence, are episodes in the vast drama of this endeavour of Nature and have behind their... in the end the most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature and a sense of something unseen both in himself and her. Even if, as modern Science insists, religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship and the deification of natural forces, these first forms only embody in primitive figures a veiled intuition in the subconscient, an obscure ...
... closed to spiritual values, forced as they felt to comply with the positivism of their academic environment and the dominant Abrahamic religions. It is only recently that authors like Martin Bernal ( Black Athena ) and Christos Evangeliou ( The Hellenic Philosophy: Between Europe, Asia and Africa ) have shown how frequent the exchanges around the eastern Mediterranean were in ancient times, and how... explanation of the evolution of Life is, of course, totally unacceptable, not to say absurd, to the positivist biological sciences in the present day. With Darwin the biological sciences have tried to adapt their findings to the materialistic and mathematical tenets of the physical sciences. In this they followed the spirit of their times, the nineteenth century, when, as one author puts it, God gradually... scientific findings and hypotheses, and therefore to be incongruous. Today, however, his evaluation of the life in plants and the mind in animals is being validated in practically every new issue of the science magazines. The missing link is still missing, though now under the name of “common ancestor.” Punctuated equilibrium, the sudden appearance of new species, became a fashionable biological term only ...
... elements, no human culture could be perfect. Sri Aurobindo's works may be said to be the international form of Indian culture. My friend, Dr. Chandrashekhar, an Andhra Poet, says, "No other philosophy or religion gives to life on earth such a high significance as the works of Sri Aurobindo." There are people who are confident about solving man's problems by other than spiritual methods. There... a freer future. As the outposts of scientific knowledge- come more and more to be set on the borders that divide the material from the immaterial, so also the highest achievements of practical science are those which tend to simplify and to reduce to the vanishing point the machinery by which the greatest effects are produced. Wireless Page 23 telegraphy is Nature's exterior sign... in increasing nervous disorders. We may ask ourselves whether this scientific advance with its utility to life and mastery of sense data is leading man towards the Truth. It is true that science gives efficiency which is very essential but efficiency alone is not, and cannot be, the goal of life. To a strictly scientific and rationalistic view Truth is unknowable. What is urgently needed ...
... the existence of spiritual and supra-physical truths by science. Sri Aurobindo : That is a futile effort. You cannot found metaphysics on science. The whole basis of your thought will tumble every time science changes. Disciple : Can it not be said that there is something in philosophy which corresponds to the truth of science ? Sri Aurobindo : No; all you can say is that... that certain conclusions of metaphysics agree and correspond to certain conclusions of science. Disciple : The continental scientists have refused to build a philosophy of science. They say that it is not their business to explain, but to lay bare the process. Eddington in his Gifford Lectures (1934) said that ultimately it is the human mind, the subjective element, which accepts one conclusion... is a religious law. When reason got the upper hand over religion it began to question the foundation of religion and then the rationalists advocated the doing of duty for the sake of society, as a social demand. The rationalists have fragmentary ideas about these things. It has become Page 114 difficult now to study philosophy – there are so many new ones, like the poets ! ...
... Page 24 disintegration, marked politically by the anarchy which gave European adventure its chance, inwardly by an increasing torpor of the creative spirit in religion and art—science and philosophy and intellectual knowledge had long been dead or petrified into a mere scholastic Punditism — all pointing to a nadir of setting energy, the evening-time from which, according to the... their history have made them, are a rugged, strong and sturdy people, democratic in their every fibre, keenly intelligent and practical to the very marrow, following in ideas, even in poetry, philosophy and religion the drive towards life and action, capable of great fervour, feeling and enthusiasm, like all Indian peoples, but not emotional idealists ... in life simple, hardy and frugal, in their temperament... formation, typal construction and thought and philosophy, when the outward forms of Indian life and culture were fixed in their large lines and even their later developments were being determined in the seed. "The great classical age of Sanskrit culture was the flowering of this intellectuality into curiosity of detail in the refinements of scholarship, science, art, Page 30 literature ...
... many centuries—but perhaps the time had not yet come. Even our science and our religion have worked well to bring us to the point of such absolute and painful contradiction that the earth really had to emerge into a third position. We are there. We are in the physical passage to this third position. It is not a question of philosophy: it is a question of skin, bones and viscera. The whole question... undertaking is truly OUR undertaking. And those who want to divinize her or make a new religion of her are foolish—it is the earth that must be divinized, it is men that must be divinized, it is Matter that must be divinized. It is the reality of the earth that we want and of those that inhabit it— finished with religions. Let’s get to the work of true Matter. The Supramental Invasion Now, Mother... problem would come back as well. In that same year 1962, Mother noted rather mysteriously: There is nothing to “change”! The relations between things are what changes. As an analogy, look at what Science has discovered about the so-called composition of Matter at the atomic level—there’s nothing to change. Nothing to change! The constituent element doesn’t change: the relations between things are what ...
... dancing is a form of skill, a science, to which sufficient honour can never be paid. MUSIC MASTER. And I that music has been held in foremost esteem all down the ages. FENCING MASTER. And I still stick to my point against the pair of them that skill in arms is the finest and most necessary of all the sciences. PHIEOSOPHER. In that case where does philosophy come in? I consider you are... you like to study moral philosophy? MR JOURDAIN. Moral philosophy? PHILOSOPHER. Yes. MR JOURDAIN. And what's moral philosophy about? Page 195 PHILOSOPHER. It is concerned with the good life and teaches men how to moderate their passions. MR JOURDAIN. No, we'll leave that out. I'm as hot-tempered as they make 'em and whatever moral philosophy may say I'll be as angry... angry as I want whenever I feel like it. PHILOSOPHER. Well, do you wish to study physics — the natural sciences? MR JOURDAIN. The natural sciences? What have they to say for themselves? PHILOSOPHER. Natural science explains the principles of natural phenomena, and the properties of matter; it is concerned with the nature of the elements, metals, minerals, precious stones, plants, and animals ...
... From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga (1912-1947) From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga (1912-1947) Philosophy: God, Nature and Man Essays Divine and Human God: The One Reality The Divine Eternal and Infinite 1 There are three Powers with whom we have to reckon, three... permanently perfect. Every relative supposes an absolute. For a long time we have been asked not to believe in these Page 180 things, to put our trust only in the measuring rods of science and its calculations and crucibles, to accept only what is materially ascertainable and measurable. But these measurements are those of something that is limited—how can we ascertain by it whether... The instruments by which we question Nature in order to find out what is ascertainable have been proved to give only the results which are already contained in the question or in the questioner. Science gives us the measures and process of things within the physical limit, but it has failed [to] tell us what things are, their final origin or their reason of existence. In all this questing by one ...
... pupil, a master who can apply the method and guide the pupil through the stations of the journey, and a knowledge which will give direction to the pupil during the journey. Sufism is neither religion nor philosophy; it is neither belief nor a set of rituals; it is a discipline and a process of supra-rational knowledge. Throughout the ages, the teachers of Sufism have all said essentially the same... Introduction In an age where critical reason is said to reign supreme, claims of supra-rational knowledge are apt to be brushed aside as superstition or obscurantism. But recent breakthroughs in science, psychology and other branches of knowledge indicate that human civilization is reaching a point where we can no longer be so dogmatic in our rejection of the claim that beyond ordinary human consciousness... movement. This is evident from the reawakened interest all over the world in supra-rational knowledge and in such traditions as Vedanta, Yoga, Zen and Sufis m. Emerging from a triumphant period of science and empirical reason, this new movement will be highly critical of any purely speculative or unverifiable claim of knowledge. On the other hand, it will also , be critical of reason, and will reject ...
... therefore at liberty even on the ground of European science & knowledge to hesitate before the conclusions of philological scholarship. But for my own part I do not hold myself bound by European research&European theories.My scepticism of nineteenth century results goes farther than is possible to any European scepticism. The Science of comparative religion in Europe seems to me to be based on a blunder... hold the Vedanta philosophy, the Bhagavat Gita and some of the speculations—as the Europeans think them—or, as we hold, the revealed truths of the Upanishads. But although intellectually we are accustomed in obedience to Western criticism to base ourselves on the Upanishads & Gita and put aside Purana and Veda as mere mythology & mere ritual, yet in practice we live by the religion of the Puranas &... intellect, this illicit compromise between faith & reason cannot be enduring. If Purana & Veda cannot be rehabilitated, it is yet possible that our religion driven out of the soul into the intellect may wither away into the dry intellectuality of European philosophy or the dead formality & lifeless clarity of European Theism. It behoves us therefore to test our faith by a careful examination into the meaning ...
... necessary is to carry the inquiry to its end and test the highest and ultimate levels of experience. The Life Divine, pp. 648-54 Yoga is not a matter of theory or dogma, like philosophy or popular religion, but a matter of experience. Its experience is that of a conscient universal and supracosmic Being with whom it brings us into union, and this conscious experience of union with the... prepared to go through all that yourself, — as few can do except those of extraordinary spiritual stature — you have to accept the leading of a Master, as in Science you accept a teacher instead of going through the whole field of Science and its experimentation all by yourself — at least until you have accumulated sufficient experience and knowledge. If that is accepting things a priori, well... And the philosophies that lacked a sufficiently powerful means of spiritual experience died out and became things of the past because they were not dynamic for spiritual discovery and realisation. In the West it was just the opposite that came to pass. Thought, intellect, the logical reason came to be regarded more and more as the highest means and even the highest end; in philosophy, Thought ...
... doctrine. Rebirth is for the modern mind no more than a speculation and a theory; it has never been proved by the methods of modern science or to the satisfaction of the new critical mind formed by a scientific culture. Neither has it been disproved; for modern science knows nothing about a before-life or an after-life for Page 259 the human soul, knows nothing indeed about a soul at all... phenomena of a higher kind is a pretentious failure. But this may be because Science knows nothing at all that is fundamental about our psychology,—no more than primitive astronomers knew of the constitution and law of the stars whose movements they yet observed with a sufficient accuracy. I do not think that even when Science knows more and better, it will be able to explain these things by heredity;... phenomena were admirably accounted for by theories of spheres and I know not what else, before Galileo came in with his "And yet it moves," disturbing the infallibility of Popes and Bibles and the science and logic of the learned. One feels certain that admirable theories could be invented to account for the facts of gravitation if our intellects were not prejudiced and prepossessed by the anterior ...
... notions might have some niches to settle in like the white doves of purity. And last, though not least, there was the thrill, day after day, of receiving his letters — on art and science, religion and politics, philosophy and literature, the way of all flesh and the ascent to God's Grace redeeming flesh . . . was there any theme he could not write about and improvise on in a vein at once rapturous... e and that is 'overwhelming' enough in all conscience without starting philosophy for standard books and the rest of it. "And philosophy! Let me tell you in confidence that I never, never, never was a philosopher — although I have written philosophy, which is another story altogether. I knew precious little about philosophy before I did the Yoga and came to Pondicherry — I was a poet and a politician... abilities car his character; I am concerned only with his opinions and there too only with those opinions which touch upon my province — that of spiritual Truth. In all religions, the most narrow and stupid even, and in all non-religions also, there are great minds, .great men, fine characters. I know little about Russell, but I never dreamed of disputing the greatness of Lenin, for instance, merely because ...
... discussion, Mirra entered a pointed caveat against the half-baked Western missionary (like the Presbyterian himself) trying to take religion to the Orient: Listen, even before your religion was born - not even two thousand years ago - the Chinese had a very high philosophy and knew a path leading them to the Divine; and when they think of Westerners, they think of them as barbarians. And so you are... egoism goodness. 16 Mirra would gladly submit to this wonder-worker and learn to wield the subtle instruments of such a divine transformation. The marvels of modern science and technology are nowhere compared to the "supreme science" which is nothing less than "to unite with Thee, to trust in Thee, to live in Thee, to be Thyself; and then nothing is any longer impossible to a man who manifests... the Presbyterian approached Mirra afterwards, and an interesting conversation took place between them. Why hadn't Madame attended the sermon? "I am sorry," she answered, "but I don't believe in religion." What, was she a materialist? "No, not at all." Why, then, had she avoided the ceremony? Pressed for an answer, Mirra couldn't avoid plain-speaking: I don't feel that you are sincere, neither ...
... dominant scientific reductionism and to perceive reality with an unprejudiced eye. The laws of science are indeed exclusively, and only partially, the laws of the material level of existence, occupying the outer layer of the Globe of Being. This is why, out of necessity, they must remain incomplete till science can get out of its vicious circle asserting that everything is matter because there is nothing... worldview, which after all was intended to form the background and justification of their life — as did the Mother in her youth. ‘Up to my twenty-fifth year, or thereabouts, I knew only the God of the religions, the God as men have made him, and I did not want anything of it, nothing at all!’ (Then, as we know, she discovered the Revue cosmique with its teaching of the immanent God, the Presence in the... myself: “I do not want anything to do with that monster.”’ 6 All her life the Mother had felt uncomfortable about the use of the word ‘God’. ‘I do not like using the word “God” because the religions have made it into the name of an omnipotent being who differs from his creation and stands outside of it, which is not true.’ She found it ‘a dangerously hollow word,’ associated with a supra-earthly ...
... Mother on 281,286 Mother's experiences in 330 new dimension of poetic expression 367 original form 287, 328 parallels with poems 98 philosophy and 220,321,342 revision of 320 spiritual philosophy and vision 130 spiritual revelatory literature 286 Sri Aurobindo on 58,147,200, 255, 283,288,289,320,323,327 style of 242 support in sadhana... 57,186,205,258 Vishnu's Garuda 307 Vision, power of poet 162 vital 189 plane 209 vyakta 302 Vyasa 60,66,182,205,213 W Wordsworth 52,197,266,367 World Religion 272 Y Yeats, W.B. 30,33,34,125,197,367 yoga aesthetic 200 aim of 6 Integral 6,58 Kundalini 115 poetry and 77,342,347 Savitri holds the secrets of 60... Upanishad: English Version, Notes and Commentary 17.On Sri Aurobindo's Savitri 18.Our Light and Delight: Recollections of Life with the Mother 19.Problems of Early Christianity 20.Science, Materialism, Mysticism 21.Sri Aurobindo and Greece 22.Teilhard De Chardin and our Time 23.The Beginning of History for Israel 24.The Development of Sri Aurobindo's Spiritual System ...
... East Science, a search for objective truth, is in every one of its aspects and practices intertwined with the cultural and religious ideas of its time – as we have seen throughout our exploration of evolution and the evolutionary theories. We have also found that modern science, a product of the Western mind, reasons almost exclusively within the framework of the main Western religion, Christianity... materialism from that of divine Providence, the Great Mother of the religion of his culture. “Natural laws” should determine the precise way in which mechanisms or processes function, preferably in mathematical formulae, although Darwin would have been satisfied with “ascertaining sequences of events”. He too dedicated his life to science, to finding out the ways of “transmutationism”, the processes... of the English language, he was also widely read in cultural, political and scientific matters. His evaluation of science was not the negation by the stereotypical bearded mystic, it was positive. Behind the mono-dimensional view of scientific materialism he saw the contribution of science to the integration of humanity, and its enlarging of the knowledge and conditions of the physical realm necessary ...
... m; for great intensity of thought, when it does not isolate itself from emotion, reactive sensation and aesthetic response, as in science and in certain kinds of philosophy, must be attended by a quickening and intensity of these other parts of our mentality. In science and critical thought, where this isolation is possible, the objective turn prevailed,—though much that we call critical thought is... exulting in the revolt of the great denial, the hymn of the Void, an eternal Nihil which has taken the place of God, or else the large idea of Nature as a universal entity, the Mother of our being. To Science this Nature is only an inconscient Force; the poetic mind with its natural turn for finding a reality even behind what are to the intellect abstract conceptions, has passed through this conception... and an intuitive sense. But an insistent interest in future man has been the most novel, the most fruitfully distinguishing characteristic of the modern mind. Once limited to the far-off dream of religions or the distant speculation of isolated thinkers, the attempt to cast a seeing eye as well as a shaping will on the future is now an essential side of the human outlook. Formerly the human mentality ...
... As for science: "Let men learn for once that nature would have preserved them from science as a mother snatches a dangerous weapon from the hands of her child. "And he exalts virtue, saying, "Virtue! sublime science of simple minds... are not your principles graven upon every heart? Need we do more, to learn your laws, than... listen to the voice of conscience?... This is the true philosophy, with... the apotheosis of his greatest enemy — how did it come about that this man, after his death, triumphed over Voltaire, revived religion, transformed education, elevated the morals of France, inspired the Romantic movement and the French Revolution, influenced the philosophy of Kant and Schopenhauer, the plays of Schiller, the novels of Goethe, the poems of Wordsworth, Byron, and Shelley, the socialism... of Paris was told: That this work appears to have been composed solely with the aim of reducing everything to natural religion, and of developing that criminal system in the author's plan for the education of his pupil;... That he regards all religions as equally good, and as all having their reasons... That in consequence he dares seek to destroy the truth of Sacred ...
... born with a certain religious and philosophic attitude. But if for some reason or other you want to free yourself from this atavism and influence, if you begin to follow, study, practise the religion or philosophy of another country, you can change the conditions of your inner development. It is a little more difficult, that is, it asks for a greater effort for liberation, but it is very far from being... the nature of the present body, determine one's approach to the Divine. We can take a very... an over-simple example. If one is born in any particular religion, quite naturally the first effort to approach the Divine will be within that religion; or else if in former lives one has passed through a certain number of experiences which determined the necessity of another kind of experiences, quite naturally... to give it, yes. If one doesn't think about it, it doesn't signify anything at all. It's the importance one gives it which counts. Numbers are a way of speaking. It is a language, as all the sciences, all the arts, everything that man produces; it is always a way of speaking, it is a language. If one adopts this language it becomes living, expressive, useful. As we need words to make ourselves ...
... mind is not an instrument for knowledge and that in the domain of ideas everything is relative, everything is a way of seeing, everything is a way of living. Every science has its language, every religion its language, every philosophy its language, every activity its own language, and the more you learn these languages, the more do you have the impression of knowing many things. What matters is that ...
... moral force which we see pulsating in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, in the ancient philosophy, in the supreme poetry, art, sculpture and architecture of India? What was at the basis of the incomparable public works and engineering achievement, the opulent and exquisite industries, the great triumphs of science, scholarship, jurisprudence, logic, metaphysics, the unique social structure? What supported... subordinated". 19 In several other contributions too, nationalism, national unity, the philosophy of patriotism, the Kshatriya spirit, and politics and spirituality come under scrutiny, and these essays and the obiter dicta scattered in the rest invite the critical attention of students of political science generally and of Indian political thought in particular.* But there is room here only for... Nationalism is a religion that has come from God; Nationalism is a creed which you shall have to live.... You must remember that you are the instruments of God. ...in Bengal, Nationalism has come to the people as a religion, and it has been accepted as a religion. But certain forces which are against that religion are trying to crush its rising strength. It always happens when a new religion is preached ...
... of knowledge and the literature of power. Philosophy and science are the literature of knowledge while all prose and poetry that are pieces of art fall under the category of literature of power because they affect the emotions and change attitudes and remould character. Note next the adjective "essential" in relation to the philosopher's gift. Philosophy is supposed to make clear the basic principle... process. We may be told: "All fine poets do not offer us spiritual matter. They speak of all sorts of earthly things and some of them are even disbelievers. Lucretius, the great Roman poet, scoffed at religion, and said that the gods were created by human fear: he was a materialist and atheist by intellectual persuasion." This is quite true but what it means is simply that a lot of poetry does not directly... time far earlier than Shakespeare's. Even the Rishis of the Rig-veda were in a special sense pun-makers. According to Sri Aurobindo, there was throughout the hymns an esoteric cult and an exoteric religion, a hidden spiritual meaning and an outer secular suggestion. Go — wait a minute, I am not asking you to take a holiday. I am not using an English word. It is an instance of what the Rishis did: ...
... control, then the whole elaborate chain forged for us by outward world-appearances crumbles in a moment to pieces. For Indian philosophy the main practical application for man of the chain of causality was the Law of Rebirth,—a law of the Soul in Nature; for modern Science, which denies the soul and knows nothing about rebirth, its practical application for man as for plant & stone & animal is, simply... mental consciousness. So shall a man be free, calm & joyous and yet through action accomplish God's purpose in him in the motional universe. The strife between quietism and pragmatism in philosophy and religion is the intellectual symbol of an unaccomplished harmony in man. The universe and all things in it are the manifest Brahman and in the manifest Brahman there are always two eternal aspects,... things. If we do not perform the necessary work of self-criticism for ourselves, Page 503 mankind will eventually do it for us and cast away as falsehoods those exclusive religions or those onesided philosophies which on their too narrow pedestals we have erected with so much & so immature a fervour of self-satisfaction. For Truth in the end is invincible and gets the better of all mankind's ...
... homage to his guru Sri Aurobindo is by emulating his example. He wrote on a myriad of subjects with felicity and fervour: poetry, criticism, history, comparative literature, yoga, spirituality, science, philosophy, inter-national relations, journalism, archaeology, mythology, art history and future studies. Like Dr. Faustus, Sethna seems to have taken the whole universe as his province, and the whole world... my first class (Philosophy Honours)," he later wrote to his correspondent Pradip Bhattacharya in his letter of 10 August 1978, "though by merely three or four marks and though I, a Philosophy student, happened to win the much-coveted Ellis Prize which a Literature-student was expected to capture." He was advised to take up law. Instead, he joined the M. A. program in Philosophy. His planned thesis... thesis was called "The Philosophy of Art" but it never got completed as he settled in the Ashram. At St. Xavier's School and College, Sethna was exposed to "a many-sided culture" and had "a mind razor-sharp". Along with literature he developed an interest in Philosophy. His Page xix "early preoccupation with religious studies" had inclined him towards "questions of metaphysics" ...
... the appearance of a divine race upon earth. 7 If these three aspects of higher education are to be conducted properly, one must take great care to ensure that methods of religion are not introduced. Religion implies normally the methods of belief or dogma, performance of rituals and ceremonies, and prescriptions of certain specific acts, which are considered to be religious as distinguished... falsity to India's own greater innate potentialities, which are demanded by the soul of India. Page 137 The major question, he pointed out, is not merely what science we learn, but what we shall do with our science and how too, acquiring the scientific mind and recovering the habit of scientific discovery, we shall relate it to other powers of the human mind and scientific knowledge to... Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF SRI AUROBINDO Sri Aurobindo wrote a series of articles on education in the Karma Yogin during 1909-10 under the title "A System of National Education" and "The National Value of Art". He also wrote "A Preface to National Education" which appeared in ...
... "water" and "fire" can ever be the symbols of spiritual truths. We study the philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato. But we do not delve into the spiritual culture or esoteric aspect of which their philosophies are but outer expressions. Behind the mythologies of China, Japan, old-world America and Australia there lies a science of spiritual discipline which may not ¹ Katha, 11.1.10. Page 87... the Upanishads and the six systems of philosophy. Even Rammohan Roy who infused the Hindus with a new spirit and light could not go beyond the domain of the Upanishads. Besides, the few who engaged themselves in a discussion of the Vedas confined themselves more to the commentaries on the Vedas than the Vedas proper. The grammar of Panini, Nirukta, the science of derivation of meanings from the roots... further into the mystery. We just want to point out the difference between the outlook of the ancients and that of the moderns. The ancient seers dealt with supraphysical truths. Modern science and philosophy deal with abstract concepts. But these concepts are born of the rational intellect. We may call them theories, well-arranged and systematised; hence nothing extraordinary. But the ancient seers ...
... The Gods of the Veda Prefatory The beliefs and conclusions of today are, in these rapid and unsettled times, seldom the beliefs and conclusions of tomorrow. In religion, in thought, in science, in literature we march daily over the bodies of dead theories to enthrone fresh syntheses and worship new illuminations. The realms of scholarship are hardly more quiet and secure than... system of comparative philology could alone deserve to stand as a science side by side with the physical sciences and claim to speak with authority on the significance of doubtful words in the Vedic vocabulary. The development of such a science must always be a work of time & gigantic labour. Page 30 But even such a science, when completed, could not, owing to the paucity of our records be... considerations, but they are supported by more positive indications. The other Aryan religions which are most akin in conception to the Vedic and Page 26 seem originally to have used the same names for their deities, present themselves to us even at their earliest vaguely historic stage as moralised religions. Their gods had not only distinct moral attributes, but represented moral & subjective ...
... All, a negation that is a positive Permanence. It is an error to take these variations as a proof that spiritual experience is unreliable. All religions, all philosophies are equally desperate in their attempts to give an account of the Real and Ultimate; science itself for all its matter of fact physical positivism draws back bewildered from the attempt to touch the Real and Ultimate. It is the nature... is perhaps everything but in quite another way than the world now seen by us; to It we are obscurely moving by our thought, life and actions; we attempt to understand and approach by our religion and philosophy, at last we touch directly in some partial or, it may be, some complete spiritual experience. It is that spiritual experience, it is the method, it is the attainment of this realisation that... From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga (1912-1947) From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga (1912-1947) Yoga: Change of Consciousness and Transformation of Nature Essays Divine and Human Integral Yoga Integrality 144 Most Yoga has for its aim one or other of two great ends ...
... depressed classes: "But religion is not like a house or a cloak which can be changed at will. It is more an integral part of one's self than of one's body. Religion Page 204 is the tie that binds one to one's Creator, and while the body perishes as it has to, religion persists even after that.") If it is meant by the statement that the form of religion is something permanent... believe in anything but the religion in which he was born. All fanaticism is false, because it is a contradiction of the very nature of God and of Truth. Truth cannot be shut up in a single book, Bible or Veda or Koran, or in a single religion. The Divine Being is eternal and universal and infinite and cannot be the sole property of the Mussulmans or of the Semitic religions only,—those that happened... cannot be incompatible. 118 September 19, 1936 I do not take the same view of the Hindu religion as Jawaharlal [Nehru]. Religion is always imperfect because it is a mixture of man's spirituality with his end eavours that come in in trying to sublimate ignorantly his lower nature. Hindu religion appears to me as a cathedral-temple, half in ruins, noble in the mass, often fantastic in detail ...
... for one's private benefit. But there is surely a fine species of philanthropy and there are natures that have a true bent for it, just as there are natures with a true penchant for art or science or philosophy, industry or business or even warfare. Then philanthropy becomes a worthy occupation — a mode of fulfilling one's destiny. However, there is a human Page 189 destiny and there... Meister Eckhart or a Ramana Maharshi — much less to come anywhere near the Mother or Sri Aurobindo. But all can make a beginning in the inner life. By the inner life I do not mean merely the practice of religion — going to Church or temple, saying prayers or doing puja. I do not here envisage even the adoption of the life of a priest or a sadhu. No doubt, a priest or a sadhu is nearer the inner life ...
... Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society Religion, Idealism, Morality and Yoga Letters on Yoga - I Chapter III Morality and Yoga The Spiritual Life and the Ordinary Life The spiritual life ( adhyātma jīvana ), the religious life ( dharma jīvana ) and the ordinary human life of which... disorders of the mind or vital or body without it being evident what is their real cause. This has been recently discovered by European psychologists and much emphasised, even exaggerated in a new science called psycho analysis. Here again in sadhana one has to become conscious of these suppressed impulses and eliminate them—this may be called raising up, but that does not mean that they have to be ...
... eternal religion.' In order to combat the gloom and despondency in the air Sri Aurobindo launched the publication of two weekly journals, the Karmayogin in English and the Dharma in Bengali. The first issue of the Karmayogin came out on June 19, 1909, and that of the Dharma on August 23. The Karmayogin described itself as 'a weekly review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy... much that was delusion and Maya. But now day after day I realised in the mind, I realised in the heart, I realised in the body the truths of the Hindu religion. They became living experiences to me, and things were opened to me which no material science could explain. When I first approached Him, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Bhakta, it was not entirely in the spirit of the Jnani. I came to... belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose.' These wonderful words from the ...
... that lies behind the movements of the new age ? What is the intimate realisation, the underlying viewpoint which is guiding and modelling all our efforts and achievements—our science and art, our poetry and philosophy, our religion and society? For, there is such a common and fundamental note which is being voiced forth by the human spirit through all the multitude of its present day activities. ... "All our modern world is captured in the net of the Alexandrine culture and has, for its ideal, the theoretical man, armed with the most powerful instruments of knowledge, toiling in the service of science and whose prototype and original ancestor is Socrates." Indeed, it may be generally asserted that the nation whose prophet and sage claimed to have brought down Philosophia from heaven to dwell upon ...
... that lies behind the movements of the new age? What is the intimate realisation, the underlying view-point which is guiding and modelling all our efforts and achievements-our science and art, our poetry and philosophy, our religion and society? For, there is such a common and fundamental note which is being voiced forth by the human spirit through all the multitude of its present-day activities. ... "All our modern world is captured in the net of the Alexandrine culture and has, for its ideal, the theoretical man, armed with the most powerful instruments of knowledge, toiling in the service of science and whose prototype and original ancestor is Socrates." Indeed, it may be generally asserted that the nation whose prophet and sage claimed to have brought down Philosophia from heaven to dwell upon ...
... account of my father, but whenever I could, I attended without my father’s knowledge. I used to receive instruction at the Yugantar Office from Upendra Nath Banerjee on Mental Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Physical Philosophy, and from him I learnt what it was to sacrifice my life for my motherland and self-abnegation. I have visited Calcutta about 10 or 12 times and each time I put up at the Yugantar... 8 days at a time in the garden house of Barindra.” Barindra took him there saying that there was a mission for religion and self-abnegation and political purposes. The political purposes were to serve the motherland and to serve the people. He intended to teach illiterate people religion. The evidence confirms his statement that he left the Zilla School at Khulna in January 1907; that in the following... stay for 7 or 8 days at a time in the Garden house of Barindra. I first got to know the garden house while I was in the Jugantar office. Barindra took me there saying that there was a mission for religion and self-abnegation and political purposes. Q: Who used to live at the Garden house? A: Upendranath Banerjee who used to teach me from the books named above. Others also used to be there: Barindra ...
... the cycle of creation is a closed circle. The idea of progress was very much in vogue at one time. It was born under the auspices of Romantic Idealism; it was fostered and strengthened by youthful, Science in the first enthusiasm of her early discoveries, especially that of the fact of biological evolution. There has, however, been a setback since, when it was found that the original picture of evolution... being, the collective being too is a unit, a close knit living unit. As the individual has different parts and limbs, organs and systems, so is humanity composed of nations and races, cultures and religions. And as the parts of the "body natural" do not exist by themselves, independently of one another, each for its own sake without regard for others, so do the various human aggregates that form the... means not thousands but millions of years. And when archaeologists discovered that men could build hygienic cities, run democratic states, discuss and argue acutely on recondite problems of life and philosophy, women knew the use of ornaments and jewels of consummate beauty and craftsmanship in epochs when they were expected to be no more than wild denizens of the cave Page 233 or the ...
... asked by many. The Karma yogin's first number hit the stands on 19 June 1909, and every Saturday thereafter. The Karmayogin (Registered N°C. 532) was: "A weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, etc. Contributors: Page 499 Sj. Aurobindo Ghose and others. Office : 14 Sham Bazar Street, Calcutta." The office was shifted to 4 Shyampukur Lane in December 1909 ...
... deal and in its preoccupation with the underworld of the subconscious, misses the inworld of the subliminal and the overworld of the superconscious which are the true sources of art and philosophy and religion and mysticism, however crossed here and there these things may be by miasmas of the subconscious." (p. 65) One is reminded of the warning given to literary historians and critics... statement that Wordsworth's poetry is the reality, while his philosophy is the illusion, Bradley demonstrated the Wordsworthianness of his philosophical poems in which philosophy comes as felt thought in the proper emotional context. F.R. Leavis, on the contrary, claimed that any attempt at deriving a system of philosophy from Wordsworth's poem is bound to fail because it was far... far beyond Wordsworth's powers. Even if he had a philosophy, it is only as a poet he matters. Leavis's contention is Wordsworth had, though not a philosophy, a wisdom to communicate and that this wisdom has nothing to do with his 'nature mysticism' but with his preoccupation "with a distinctively human naturalness, with sanity and spiritual health", (p. 165) Wordsworth's primary interest, ...
... is above animal life and animal life above mere matter in which everything lay latent and unevolved. This new level has to be a step forward in evolution and not just Science, Philosophy Art, Ethics or Religion achieving combinations and permutations of the various aspects of man at his cleverest and noblest. Sri Aurobindo takes up the whole beautiful heritage of past progress but does not... stars are blind; there these lightnings flash Page 2 anot nor any earthly fire. For all that is bright is but the shadow of His brightness and by His shining all this shineth." Super-Science is here, a statement of some concrete fact. Even while denying the ultimate reality of the things we know, it denied by means of a greater affirmation of the Real. Our lustres faded in the high trance ...
... and blood and tears. Inheritor of the toil of human time He shall take on him the burden of the gods." 36 Well, such is the prophetic Vision of Sri Aurobindo: but, what have science and philosophy to say on this point? 35. The Life Divine, p. 4. 36. Savitri, Bk. III, Canto IV, p. 344. Page 25 ... philosophical anthropology and its twin brother existentialism are but modern denominations for a turn of mind as old as philosophy itself. Modern man has declared a war - or at least he has thought so - 4. William L. Davidson, "Image of God", Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VII, p. 160. Page 4 against all notions of trans-empiricism. 'Trans-positive' and '... species? Can there not be a further phase of evolution? Indeed, may we not pertinently raise 26.Julian Huxley, "Evolution and Genetics," in What is Science (Ed. by J. R. Newman). 27.G. R. Harrison, What Man May Be: The Human Side of Science, p. 125. Page 20 the query: just as the inorganic phase of evolution was followed by the biological phase wherein 'life invaded the material ...
... Prime Minister for all his lack of concern with what is popularly labelled as religion. In fact, this very lack of concern would distinguish, on the negative side, the spiritual aspiration of our modern age that had come out into the light by discarding the fears and fanaticisms and ascetic refusals of the old religions. And, on the positive side, could any contemporary political figure surpass Nehru... printed in every newspaper when, not long after India's independence, he went all the way to Calcutta to receive the relics of the Buddha's disciples Moggalana and Sariputta. However opposed to formal religion, he stood with his palms joined and held in front of his bowed head. No Marxist has stood thus even before the embalmed body of Lenin in Moscow's Red Square, It was also a sense of more than... on of Simla. The publication of this Will after his death has revealed the real Nehru perhaps more than anything else from his pen. While staunchly refusing to have the ceremonies of conventional religion performed over his body, he has left about the disposal of his ashes instructions which make a most lyrical and visionary document. There are two blending voices in this poetry of the idealist ...
... were the same as religion This is unfortunate, and this mistake should be avoided. There is a great difference between Dharma and religion. Dharma is law of life and development, and it is based upon the knowledge of the underlying truths of the universe. Religion, on the other hand, is predominantly a system of beliefs and practices of rituals and ceremonies; religion also tends to become... realisation has yet to be sought after and his instructions should be followed and practised; 3. One should increasingly gain the knowledge of the secret meaning of life and also the art an science of living; and 4. One should recognise one's true nature to understand the right rhythms of development that are appropriate to oneself in order to live according to them and achieve further ... become an institution which pervades the structure of the society. Each religion has its own set of doctrines and system of worship. But Dharma has no creed or systems of beliefs; it is based upon knowledge and can be practised and applied; it can be verified and tested. Dharma is the inner spirit of commitment to abide by the law of life and development. Karma is connected with inner spirit ...
... together with Mirra’s confirmation of it from her own experience. Speaking about this Tradition Alma said: ‘All truth, all beauty come from the old, simple and profound philosophy that is the source from where the vulgarized religions have drawn their primitive waters, now alas so often vitiated and corrupted.’ The second source was the rich, continuous flow of Alma’s direct experience, uttered in... sense that it has precise procedures and that, if one reproduces the circumstances exactly, one obtains the same results. It is a progressive science which can be practised and in which totally justified progress can be made as logical as in all other sciences acknowledged as such in modern times. But its object is a reality or realities which do not belong to the most material domain. Special capacities... eludes our ordinary senses.’ 4 She also said in answer to the question of a young student: ‘[Occultism] is the knowledge of the invisible forces and the power to handle them. It is a science. It is altogether a science. I always compare occultism with chemistry, for it is the same kind of knowledge as that of chemistry regarding material things. It is a knowledge of invisible forces, their various ...
... subject. His was a richly stored mind, the mind at once of a scholar and observer possessed of all the learning of his time, versed in the politics, law, social idea, system and detail, religion, mythology, philosophy, art of his time, intimate with the life of courts and familiar with the life of the people, widely and very minutely observant of the life of Nature, of bird and beast, season and tree... skeptical, for they rejected violently the doctrines of Charvak — yet profoundly scientific and outward-going even in their spiritualism. It was therefore the great age of formalised metaphysics, science, law, art and the sensuous luxury which accompanies the arts." — Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL), Vol. 3, pp. 217, 221-2. "The classical age of... or of the emotional or sensuous appeal. There was established here as in the other arts and indeed during all this era in all human activities a Shastra, a well recognised and carefully practised science and art of poetics, critical and formulative of all that makes perfection of method and prescriptive of things to be avoided, curious of essentials and possibilities but under a regime of standards ...
... with a sense of their function as architects and sculptors of life, creative exponents, fashioners of significant forms of the national thought and religion and ethics and culture. A profound stress of thought on life, a large and vital view of religion and society, a certain strain of philosophic idea runs through these poems Page 345 and the whole ancient culture of India is embodied in... disposed with artistic power and a telling effect in a poetic body given to traditions half legendary, half historic but cherished henceforth as deepest and most living truth and as a part of their religion by the people. Thus framed the Mahabharata and Ramayana, whether in the original Sanskrit or rewritten in the regional tongues, brought to the masses by Kathakas,—rhapsodists, reciters and exegetes... or modern people, and there is a gravity, a unified clarity and nobility of conception which balances at least in any true idea of culture the greater suppleness, more well-informed experience and science and eager flexibility of experimental hardihood which are the gains that distinguish our later humanity. At any rate it was no barbaric mind that was thus intently careful for a fine and well unified ...
... although their number is increasing throughout the world. Deep down most people are very confused. No philosophy offers them an outlook or intellectual support any more; the great religions are for the most part nothing but backward looking mammoth organizations; matter itself keeps escaping the grasp of science and technology suffers from the syndrome of gigantism, its machines being no longer in proportion... ‘miracle.’ We forget that our technological progress based on science is a concatenation of big and small miracles that have resulted in the atom bomb, the visits to the Moon and the personal computer. The question is how long humankind will be able to keep mastering all these miracles — if it is mastering them at all. It is in science that the mental, dividing consciousness has its greatest expansion... increase to a degree that it would break its own bounds. In this book it has already been pointed out that physical science has been moving for decades in occult territory without being aware of the fact or willing to recognize it. The present moment is especially interesting, as physical science now says it has discovered the sixth quark and its system of the composition of matter therefore should be complete ...
... between the religious and philosophical and the aesthetic mind of the people. Its survival into times not far from us was possible because of the survival of the cast of the antique mind in that philosophy and religion, a mind familiar with eternal things, capable of cosmic vision, having its roots of thought and seeing in the profundities of the soul, in the most intimate, pregnant and abiding experiences... centuries or in the singular skill and delicacy of the bronze work of the southern religions, a self-expression of the spirit and ideals of a great nation and a great culture which stands apart in the cast of its mind and qualities among the earth's peoples, famed for its spiritual achievement, its deep philosophies and its religious spirit, its artistic taste, the richness of its poetic imagination... that these old Indian artists knew the anatomy of the body well enough, as Indian science knew it, but chose to depart from it for their own purpose. It does not seem to me to matter much, since art is not anatomy, nor an artistic masterpiece necessarily a reproduction of physical fact or a lesson in natural science. I see no reason to regret the absence of telling studies in muscles, torsos, etc. ...
... borders of the wide and rich terrain of spirituality which can be ascertained from a larger enquiry that is not limited only to spirituality that is to be found acknowledged in the institutional religions of the world. For there are experiences, which are, spiritual but which can be attained by purely psychological and methodical processes, which are known in India as yogic methods. Hence, larger... this conception that differentia for spirituality which one might look for obtaining precision, except that, pedagogically, the concepts such as that of infinity can be utilized in mathematics and science to show how such a concept, which involves irresolvable paradox, evokes incomprehension and establishes the sense of the limits of rational understanding. He concedes that the kind of wonderment... religious, spiritual and other inherently evaluative forms of enquiry, there is any rational or objective basis of the kind to which we can apparently appeal in the case of (say) statements of natural science. In this connection, it can be suggested that spirituality can be studied as methodized effort of arriving at spiritual experiences, and, apart from important biographies in which such methods are ...
... criticism), that I am always wary of it and of the whole functioning of the critical reason whether in science or philosophy or theology. In all these matters everything depends on the original intuitive insight and if this is defective the whole system proves wrong (as has happened in science and philosophy again and again). I have just received a book on Mary in the New Testament edited by Raymond... The Christian mystery was presented in terms of Jewish symbolism and apocalyptic, but this has to be translated into the language of modern science and philosophy -just as the Greek Fathers interpreted it in the light of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. I feel perfectly justified therefore in interpreting the second coming of Christ and the New Creation of St. Paul in terms of evolution. Of... as minutely in his works. Everyone is inclined to stick to one past religion or another and discover in it an older formulation of whatever is newly revealed. I am a Parsi Zoroastrian and I could try to pick out from the Avesta and the religious traditions following it a "prescience" of the Aurobindonian spirituality and philosophy. As you must know, much of early Christianity - including the doctrines ...
... overhauling, a radical change of the ends and endeavours of life. There is, therefore, a crucial conflict of possibilities between two contrary eventualities. Religion, ethics, social and political creeds, .literature and arts, science and its materialistic ideologies have all failed to arrest the general decay and degradation; man is being fast drained of his humanity. And yet divinity is undeniably... advocate of what is and has been, rather than a guide to what should be. Its humanism is a squalid worship of the normal and the common, and its pragmatism and realism, wedded to materialistic science, a means of perpetuating the natural, unregenerate humanity of man. Salvation lies in breaking out of this vicious circle by turning the mind inwards and upwards, by an ascent of conscious- ness... privations and difficulties have been resolutely passed through, and yet the adventurous spirit of man has known no defeat or discouragement! It has embraced martyrdom and suffering in the service of science and the general advancement of its intellectual and material aims. If that is the price willingly paid for the accomplishment of passing terrestrial purposes, is it any wonder that the elite of ...
... evolution of the spiritual man and contended that this evolution is marked by a long process of progression in four fields which are directly relevant to the evolution of spirituality: religion, occultism, philosophy and methodized spiritual effort or yoga. He has also pointed out that the very law of the human type manifests the impulse towards self-exceeding, and that the means for a conscious transition... progressed during his race-history. It may be conceded that man has advanced in knowledge of the physical world, in Science, in the handling of his surroundings, in his purely external and utilitarian use of the secret laws of Nature. But it many be argued that despite the developments of science, man is what he always was in the early beginnings of civilization: he continues to manifest the same capacities... intellect or of character, there has been in later developments an increasing subtlety, complexity, manifold development of knowledge and possibility in man's achievements, in his politics, society, life, science, metaphysics, knowledge of all kinds, art, literature; even in his spiritual endeavour, less surprisingly lofty and less massive in power of spirituality than that of the ancients, there has been this ...
... ethical thought as also religious and spiritual thought should also be a part of the programme of exploration. These will include the study of good and evil, comparative study of religions, and the psychology of yogic sciences. Since art is also a great gate to the perception and practice of the value of Beauty, this also should form a part of the proposed programme. Value of harmony of the... capacities that constitute our personality and the correlation of each faculty with its corresponding values. Science and values should also be an important part of character development. Pursuit of the value of truth through science and self-knowledge as also the correlation of science and values with the theme of progress and welfare of human mind should be an important part of the programme. ... appropriate methods and that the effectivity of learning will depend upon an ever-vigilant discovery of more and more appropriate methods in each domain of learning. It is clear, for example, that while philosophy can be learned and be taught by a process of discussion, swimming cannot be learned and taught by discussion. In order to learn to swim, one has to plunge and swim. Similarly, the methods of learning ...
... the accomplishments of an individual are usually attributed to Agastiya, the mythical founder of Indian art and sciences. Among the arts he advocated were martial skills of armed and unarmed combat. Buddhism never succeeded in ousting the traditional Hinduism as the first religion of India, although it survived there for more than 1,500 years. Yet, when the teachings of Buddhism reached China... centre of intellectual life. Four of the world's great religions were created in the Far East. Both India and China had advanced medical systems, and had made great progress in the fields of mathematics, chemistry and astronomy. In the field of technology, the British sinologist, Dr Joseph Needham, in his erudite series of volumes, Science and Civilization in China, lists 34 Chinese technological... China. That event marks the beginning of an invasion of Chinese custom and thought by the culture and philosophy of the Indians. Buddhism gradually became a powerful force within China and as it did so, violent power struggles broke out between Taoists and adherents to the invading religion. Meanwhile, Indian monks travelling to China to disseminate the Buddha's teachings passed on the road ...
... theory was irresistible, more especially as it has always been Page 187 incurably loath to believe that the Asiatic genius can be original or vigorously creative outside the sphere of religion. In obedience to this [ incomplete ] Deftness & strength in dialogue, masterly workmanship in plot-making & dramatic situation and vital force of dramatic poetry are enough in themselves to make... Literature The Poetry of Kalidasa Early Cultural Writings Hindu Drama The origin of the Sanscrit drama, like the origin of all Hindu arts and sciences, is lost in the silence of antiquity; and there one might be content to leave it. But European scholarship abhors a vacuum, even where Nature allows it; confronted with a void in its knowledge, it... parentage. The one great body of original drama prior to the Hindu is the Greek; from Greece Europe derives the beginnings of her civilization in almost all its parts; and especially in poetry, art and philosophy. And there was the alluring fact that Alexander of Macedon had entered India and the Bactrians established a kingdom on the banks of the Indus before the time of the earliest extant Hindu play. To ...
... yet so vainly proud, is now no longer sufficient for him, and that to uncase, discover, set free this greater power within, shall be henceforward his great preoccupation. Then will his philosophy, art, science, ethics, social existence, vital pursuits be no longer an exercise of mind and life for themselves, in a circle, but a means for the discovery of a greater Truth behind mind and life and... a spiritual outlook on life. But the Japanese, for all their elegance and culture, and the general atmosphere of friendliness exuded by them, were rather allergic to spirituality. They had their religions, of course - Shintoism, Buddhism, Christianity, with their many sectarian divisions - and they had their picturesque ceremonies, religious and secular, and their elaborate codes of behaviour; but... captivating variety of coastline, valleys, rivers, lakes, rocks; the cycle of seasons and the rhythm of the hours of the day; the Emperor with his divine right; the eight million gods of the Shinto religion; Mount Fuji with its magnificence and the lesser mountains; the landscapes, gardens, spas; the architecture of the pagodas big and small; the supernal calm on the face of the statues of the Buddha; ...
... its nature be used and has always been used to justify any idea,... In philosophy it gives equally good reasons for monism and pluralism or for any halting-place between them, for the belief in Being or for the belief in Becoming, for optimism and pessimism, for activism and quietism. It can justify the most mystic religionism and the most positive atheism, get rid of God or see nothing else.... Ask... relations, and incidentally, this offers us in a phrase a definition of any true philosophy worth the name." For the proper connotation of the technical terms intellectus, ratio and wisdom used above, we may recall the words with which Herbert Read introduces his paper: "The Limitations of a Scientific Philosophy": "A distinction which runs through the whole development of human thought... show), 'theory' (from Gk. theoreo: behold), 'viewpoint', 'clarity', 'prevision', 'intuition' (from L. tueri tuit: look), etc. 2. Savitri, Book II, Canto X, p. 243. 3.Abel Rey, La Science dans l'Antiquit é , p. 445. 4.Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga p. 290. 5. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Page 123 Man is thus impelled almost imperatively to fall back ...
... Veda, the Dhammapada and other essential texts, and discovered her vocation as an orientalist and a Buddhist. Her biographer, Jean Chalon, points out: ‘For Alexandra Buddhism was not a religion but a philosophy.’ In 1892 she travelled to Ceylon and visited Colombo, then Madurai, Benares and Darjeeling on the subcontinent. As a member of the Theosophical Society she had no trouble finding friends... remember which one) came to see her because she had not attended, but ere long it was the clergyman who received the sermon from her. ‘Listen, even before your religion was born – not even two thousand years ago – the Chinese had a very high philosophy and knew a path leading them to the Divine, and when they think of Westerners, they think of them as barbarians. And you are going there to convert those... Today, there are about three million Baha’is in the world. The Baha’i religion has once again been severely persecuted in Iran before and after the foundation of the Islamic Republic there in 1979. The bases of the Baha’i religion are racial and religious harmony and a universal faith consisting of the essence of the great religions. Baha’ism stands for equality of the sexes, an international auxiliary ...
... Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion. Under the stress of alien impacts she has largely lost hold not of the structure of that dharma, but of its living reality. For the religion of India is nothing if it is not lived. It has to be applied not only to life, but to the whole of life; its spirit has to enter into and mould our society, our politics, our literature, our science, our individual character... espoused the cause of the peasants in India and fought valiantly for the freedom of the Press. Max Miiller calls Ram Mohan the father of Comparative Religion. Monier Williams says about him: "Ram Mohan is the first earnest investigator in the science of comparative theology which the world has produced." In Ram Mohan's personality and his life-work we glimpse the wide, cosmopolitan, international... to heavenly light, All Asia's holy place of pilgrimage, great Motherland of might! World-mother, first giver to humankind of philosophy and sacred lore, Knowledge thou gav'st to man. God-love, works, art, religion's opened door. 103 Six months after Sri Aurobindo's arrival at Baroda, he started contributing a series of political articles under the general ...
... overall important questions which should be set to stimulate original reflection, introspection, and a search for meaning. What, for example, is the nature of thinking? How is science distinguishable from mathematics and philosophy? What is the essence of literature and music and art? Is history meaningful? Is there an aim in history? What is technology? What are the best methods of learning technology... t ought to aim at the growth of this kind of inter- relationship between the individual and the collectivity. But even this is not enough. Development needs the promotion of science and technology. Fortunately, science and technology have reached today amazing heights of achievement. But in order that the pace of progress is enhanced, there must be a positive encouragement to the development... contrast is drawn between creativity and scientific attitude. Often this contrast is portrayed to show a conflict between art and science. But if we look into the problem closely, we shall find that this conflict is imaginary rather than real. As a matter of fact, science itself can be conceived as a creative activity. For creativity is, in its essence, an outpouring expression of curiosity or urge ...
... attributes. The Six Systems of Philosophy, shaddarshana —Patanjala, Sankhya, Vaishshikha, Nyaya, Mimansa, and Vedanta in its profound and joyous contents—are the weapons in the hands of this Ganesha. It is the followers of the Nyaya School who attacked and demolished the Buddhistic Doctrines and established the Ancient Wisdom once again. The two parts of the Science of Vedic Interpretation, the R... which the final differences vanish is the white tusk of this God with the elephant’s head. Reinstitution of the concept of Absolute Brahman in the Metaphysical Debate and the assertion of the Good of Religion, dharmapratishtha , are indeed the boons extended to us by him. He is the one who removes all obstacles and grants us the great fortune of happiness, mahasukha . In the glint of his eyes is the ...
... a sovereign power beyond himself, breathing into him the works he creates. Moderns tend to shy away from mystical notions about their art because of so-called scientific views, though the story of science itself is full of what have come to be labelled as "intuitive" flashes or leaps behind its logical or mathematical structures from Page xxviii sense-data. Superficial fashions often... occasion is the godlike movement of his Latin lines. Take those phrases where he describes the philosopher Epicurus, of whom he was a disciple, as triumphing over the crude superstitions of popular religion that blocked the path of rational investigation, and as pressing his intelligence upon the secret ways of things: Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra Processit longe flammantia moenia... felicitous pointer to a mysterious Platonic realm of flawless existences immune from transience, we are vaguely led to figure something detached from the hold of time in the depths of our being. No philosophy is formulated, yet what Aristotle and, long before him, the seers of the Rigveda called "the immortal in the mortal" gets imagined as opening secret eyes to appreciate the visionary drift of Keats's ...
... spoken. All other study at this period should be devoted to the perfection of the mental functions and the moral character. A foundation should be laid at this time for the study of history, science, philosophy, art, but not in an obtrusive and formal manner. Every child is a lover of interesting narrative, a hero-worshipper and a patriot. Appeal to these qualities in him and through them let him master... strange idea prevalent that by merely teaching the dogmas of religion children can be made pious and moral. This is an European error, and its practice either leads to mechanical acceptance of a creed having no effect on the inner and little on the outer life, or it creates the fanatic, the pietist, the ritualist or the unctuous hypocrite. Religion has to be lived, not learned as a creed. The singular compromise... or religious duty must be put in its place. Otherwise, religious teaching is of little use and would almost be better ungiven. But whether distinct teaching in any form of religion is imparted or not, the essence of religion, to live for God, for humanity, for country, for others and for oneself in these, must be made the ideal in every school which calls itself national. It is this spirit of Hinduism ...
... its own domain and still it is rounded off with a halo of magic and miracle. That is the nature of the logic of the infinite proper to the spiritual consciousness. We can have a Science of the Spirit as well as a Science of Matter. This is the Thought element or what corresponds to it, of which I was speaking, the philosophical factor, that which gives form to the formless or definition to that which... otherwhere. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way; when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity. The religious... coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is characteristically thoughtful, introspective—"introvert" —and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics. The growth of a philosophical thought-content in poetry has been inevitable. For man's consciousness in its evolutionary march is driving ...
... in its own domain and still it is rounded off with a halo of magic and miracle. That is the nature of the logic of the infinite proper to the spiritual consciousness. We can have a Science of the Spirit as well as a Science of Matter. This is the Thought element or what corresponds to it, of which I was speaking, the philosophical factor, that which gives form to the formless or definition to that which... otherwhere. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity. The religious... coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is characteristically thoughtful, introspective – “introvert” – and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics. The growth of a philosophical thought-content in poetry has been inevitable. For man's consciousness in its evolutionary march is driving ...
... including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge that He is in all men and all things and that in Him we move... scaffold or transportation for life, the accused were perfectly unconcerned, some of them absorbed in reading Bankim Chandra's novels, some Raja Yoga, or the Science of Religion by Vivekananda, and some the Gita, the Puranas and Western Philosophy...." "PRISON AND FREEDOM" "Man is a slave to outer circumstances, bound to his experiences of the physical world. All his mental operations proceed... pin-drop silence. The reception he got was extraordinary...." 167 On the 19th June Sri Aurobindo launched a weekly paper - Karmayogin in English, devoted to nationalism, religion, literature, science, philosophy etc. It was to be the mouth- piece of his new visions and aspirations, and his global envisaging of the future of India and the world. It was widely acclaimed, and had not therefore ...
... All other study at this period should be devoted to the perfection of the mental functions and the moral character. A foundation should be laid at this time for the study of history, science, philosophy, art, but not in an obtrusive and formal manner. Every child is a lover of interesting narrative, a hero-worshipper and a patriot. Appeal to these qualities in him and through them let him master... the mind and it should be taught to observe how these work for itself, it should proceed from the example to the rule and from the accumulating harmony of rules to the formal science of the subject, not from the formal science to the rule, and from the rule to the example. The first step is to make the young mind interest itself in drawing inferences from the facts, tracing cause 'and effect... strange idea prevalent that by merely teaching the dogmas of religion children can be made pious and moral. This is an European error, and its practice either leads to mechanical acceptance of a creed having no effect on the inner and little on the outer life, or it creates the fanatic, the pietist, the ritualist or the unctuous hypocrite. Religion has to be lived, not learned as a creed. The singular compromise ...
... mystic way, no one has realised transformation. Since art does not arrive at transformation, it is no of much value! But who has ever reached there till now, will you tell me? Neither philosophy nor religion, nor yoga. If you put the value in realisation and in the transformation of the world, for example one Page 82 single individual transformation, admitting that it is possible, and... only way of putting everything right is to become conscious once again. And this is very simple, very simple. Suppose that there are in the universe two opposing and contradictory forces, as some religions have preached: there was good and evil, and there always will be good and evil, there will be a conflict, a battle, a struggle. The one that is stronger, whether it be the good or the evil, will win;... come to the great composers? That is, is it only the melody that comes or is it what we hear? But that depends upon the musician. This is just what I was saying. For example, here in India, the science of harmony does Page 77 not exist much, so the thing is translated by melody. As soon as the vital intervenes, there comes a kind of harmonic complexity in the music. That gives it a richness ...
... apprehended in its purity, its objectivity, its real reality. Zen may be looked upon as a system of Yoga, having its own object and its own methods. Like Yoga, Zen is quite distinct from religion and philosophy. Yoga and Zen aim at rising above the level of rational search; they aim at direct experience by 1. D. T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (London: Rider, 1983), p. 46. 2.... of contemplation. Tat tvam asi (That art thou) was one such formula which pupils used to ponder day after day while taking the teachers cattle for grazing. The sutra system of Indian sciences and philosophies was a great help for teachers and students in promoting individual Page 133 explorations based on reflection and understanding. All over the world wise teachers acquire... is a psychological cultivation of the faculties and capacities of consciousness leading to a knowledge of reality, we can appreciate how Zen can be useful to those who aim at perfecting the art and science of education. Zen developed first in China, but it matured to a high degree of excellence in Japan. It is believed that Bodhidharma of India founded Zen in China. It is said that when he came ...
... outward-going even in their spiritualism. It was therefore the great age of for- malised metaphysics, science, law, art and the sensuous luxury which accompanies the arts. Nearer the beginning than the end of this period, when India was systematising her philosophies and developing her arts and sciences, turning from Upanishad to Purana, from the high rarefied peaks of early Vedanta and Sankhya with... age. The second period is the age of Reason. The great epic literature (mainly the Ramayana and Mahabharata), great philosophical systems, codes and ethics, codes of statecraft, as also great sciences and arts, began to develop during this period. Valmiki and Vyasa are the great representatives of that period. Then, Many centuries after these poets, perhaps a thousand years or even more,... with their inspiring sublimities and bracing keenness to physical methods of ascetic Yoga and the dry intellectual- ism of metaphysical logic or else to the warm sensuous humanism of emotional religion, before its full tendencies had asserted themselves, in some spheres before it had taken the steps its attitude portended, Kalidasa arose in Ujjayini and gathered up in himself its present tendencies while ...
... great misery. It is the vast web that is so deeply rooted in human Matter that we feel we cannot uproot it without uprooting life itself from our bodies. It is this cage of the “I” that all philosophies, religions and sociologies come up against; it is to remedy or break it open that one creates Marxism, heavens and hells, democracies and telephones, but the true way out⎯the evolutionary door⎯is down... we would doubtless rediscover the freedom and the happy harmony of the animal⎯and many other things that Mother discovered while going through the web. There lies the integral unity that Marxism, religions or all our equations have vainly sought. It is Einstein’s “unified field.” But first of all, Evolution never went backward. We will not return to the mongoose; even there, the fundamental cage would... all the molecules we like, like laboratory demiurges, but we will not produce what follows man, it is that simple. We will not have obtained the secret of man. This is the exact limitation of our science. Just as we can force and bombard all the particles we like, but we will not master the great Energy, except to produce deadly machines out of it. We will not have the secret of Matter. But at the ...
... moment, it's not here. ( silence ) A book like that (sufficiently veiled, of course), written in the simplest way possible (like I wrote 'The Science of Living,' I believe)—and it's fine, you speak to people in their own language. Above all, no philosophy! None! You simply tell some extraordinary stories in the same way you would tell an ordinary story. But the Story is there, that's the most important... the creation, which to the Christian religion is fundamentally a fall—it's really unclear how what has come from God could become so bad, but anyway, better not be too logical! it's a fall. The creation is a fall. And that's why they are far more easily convinced by Buddhism. I saw this particularly with Richard, whose education was entirely in European philosophy, with Christian and positivist influences;... friend of my brother), well, I had a series of visions (I knew nothing about India, mind you, nothing, just as most Europeans know nothing about it: 'a country full of people with certain customs and religions, a confused and hazy history, where a lot of "extraordinary things" are said to have happened.' I knew nothing.) Well, in several of these visions I saw Sri Aurobindo just as he looked physically ...
... substitution of new but still false and arbitrary ideas for the old and bring about a violent instead of a settled disorder of right values. Such a disorder often marks the inception of new philosophies and religions and initiates useful revolutions. But the true goal is only reached when we can group round the right central conception a reasoned and effective knowledge in which the egoistic life shall... them the centre of existence and the motions of life are arranged on the basis of a misconception. The truth is the very opposite, but its discovery would have been of little use if there were not a science that makes the new conception the centre of a reasoned and ordered knowledge putting their right values on the perceptions of the senses. So also for the mental consciousness God moves round the personal... mastery. In fact, we do pursue as an ideal, so far as we may, the elimination of all these negative or adverse phenomena. We seek constantly to minimise the causes of error, pain and suffering. Science, as its knowledge increases, dreams of regulating birth and of indefinitely prolonging life, if not of effecting the entire conquest of death. But because we envisage only external or secondary causes ...
... result of an increasing force of intellectual-ism; for great intensity of thought, when it does not isolate itself from emotion, reactive sensation and aesthetic response, as in science and in certain kinds of philosophy, must be attended by a quickening and intensity of these other parts of our mentality". 12 No doubt, the strong scientific penchant in the age has set up an ideal of objectivity... Chris-tianity and indeed of all established religion changed into an exclusive cult of the private conscience: God and the dwelling by the individual on his own ethico-religious impulse were taken to be the same thing so that ultimately whatever ethico-religious self the individual felt within him replaced the sense of deity and the whole of ethics and religion was summed up in the formula: "Il faut etre... diseased, abnormal, but for the sake of artistic effect, to add another tone to its other glaring colours. Realism professes to render the same facts in the proportions of truth and science, but being art and not science, it inevitably seeks for pro-nounced effects by an evocative stress ..." 17 The subjective trend is betrayed by this pressing towards a conspicuous vividness as well as by the original ...
... es, and were also divine-human persons who originated the several religions that still claim millions of followers today. But aside from the initial inspiration (which was basically a spiritual experience), what makes a particular religion distinctive are its dogmas, its theology, its body of ritual, its buttressing philosophy and ethics, its organised church and the rest of its institutional... look straight towards the future. Your religion, country, family lie there; it is the DIVINE. 49 Not just the tolerance of other religions, not only the friendly co-existence of religions, not even merely the mutual understanding and appreciation of the divers reigning religions. One must dare farther still: Beyond the Religions! Beyond all religionism! Forward to spirituality, to the Sole... this blatantly egoistic attitude that makes almost every religion stand in the way of true spiritual life. It is true all religions have thrown up giants and paragons of shining spirituality, but this is, as it were, in spite - not because of the religions. But the normal attitude is to make the accident of one's birth in a particular religion determine one's adhesion to it irrespective whether or ...
... did. Mirra thought that, in the twentieth century, the world had gone past that sort of stupid parochialism. With the advance of science and technology, with the advance in historical knowledge, especially knowledge of comparative civilisation culture and religion, there was surely no room for the old dogmatism. In our time, humanity is caught in a process of convergence towards the Future... amusing, so tragi-comic, in human affairs: the readiness of people to identify themselves with the country or religion of their birth, cry up its superiority ('My country!' 'My religion!' 'My prophet!' 'My language!'), and hold in Page 191 contempt all other countries, religions, or peoples. In times past, it was not easy to move from one part of the world to another, people lived ... 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 consciousness which persists through all births .... There are people ...
... highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal Religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul. In the sphere of morality, likewise, it is her mission to purge barbarism (Miechchhahood) „ out of humanity and... sources of that inexhaustible strength. They were drawn from religion. It was the Vedantic teachings of Oyomei and the recovery of Shintoism with its worship of the national Shakti of Japan in the image and person of the Mikado that enabled the little island empire to wield the stupendous weapons of Western knowledge and science as lightly and invincibly as Arjun wielded the Gandiv. ... his audience almost spell-bound. Every sentence that he uttered was full of meaning and set the audience thinking for days together. He was at his best when the subject matter pertained to religion or philosophy. He rarely dabbled in politics but references were made now and then to the down-trodden conditions of India, and illiteracy and ignorance of the masses. Though it is more than five decades ...
... path or the primrose path of easy success, for the invisible adverse forces are always around; but Grace too is near at hand. On 3 April there is a reference to the old religions and humanity's current needs. All great world religions had begun with mystic God-vision but had later been imprisoned in their "intellectual dogma and cult-egoism". If only these divers God-visions could "embrace and cast ... form, every limited form of life. It embraces all possibilities and manifestations and makes them the expression, the vehicle of a higher and more universal truth. It is not a new religion, much less a synthetic religion, that we want; it is a new life that has to be created and sustained by the new supramental Light, Force and Consciousness. Further, commenting on the two movements of perfection... that the new forces were active: ...the old world, the creation of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind, was an age of the gods and consequently the age of religions.... In the supramental creation there will no longer be any religions.... But all this is in the future; it is a future... which has begun, but which will take some time to be realised integrally.... We are now witnessing ...
... the self. It has been said that this gospel Page 53 is simply a reversion to the ancient barbarism of the religion of Odin; but this is not the truth. It is a new and a modern gospel born of the application of a metaphysical logic to the conclusions of materialistic Science, of a philosophic subjectivism to the objective pragmatic positivism of recent thought. Just as Germany applied the... Absolute and the individual and the universal, it looked into itself and saw that in fact, as a matter of life, That seemed to express itself as the ego and, reasoning from the conclusions of modern Science, it saw the individual merely as a cell of the collective ego. This collective ego was, then, the greatest actual organised expression of life and to that all ought to be subservient, for so could... the means of economic survival and domination; it is in fact only another kind of war, another department of the struggle to live, one physical, the other vital. And the life and the body are, so Science has assured us, the whole of existence. Thirdly, since the survival of the best is the highest good of mankind and the survival of the best is secured by the elimination of the unfit and the as ...
... (Guild Books), p. 33. 94. Selected Essays., pp. 258,271. Writing of Lucretius' De Return Natura and its basis on the materialistic philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus, Santayana writes: "Suppose.... Lucretius is quite wrong in his science...His poem would then lose its pertinence to our lives and personal convictions; it would not lose its imaginative grandeur. We could still... p. 1. 213. Savitri, p. 4. 214. ibid., p. 829. Cf. R.L. Megroz: "Science is a fragmentary statement of experience; poetry a multitudinous presentation of beauty; but mysticism is a self-consistent orientation of the whole personality, which may exclude much of the field of science, though not necessarily." (Francis Thompson, p. 189). 215. ibid., p. 856; also pp... spirits of nature. These myths also disclose the ties uniting man with the primary process of world creation and formation, which go back much further than the consolidation of matter from which science, later, dates its study of world evolution... Mythology is the original source of human history." (The Meaning of History, pp. 80-1). 25. Coleridge on Imagination, pp. 171-2. ...
... last century of the Christian era" - which makes no meaning and must be a printer's mistake. 2."Religion and Philosophy", The Age of Imperial Unity, p. 456. 3. Ibid., p. 451. 4.V. M. Apte, "Religion and Philosophy", ibid., p. 449. 5. Ibid. 6.Sircar, "Religion and Philosophy", ibid., p. 437. 7.Apte, loc. cit. Page 579 Another indication of antiquity... we realise that the time of Kautilya's Kubera differed from the days when this deity had a particular position related to the 1. Op. cit., p. 31. 2. Op. cit., p. 85. 3."Religion and Philosophy", The Age..., p. 464. Page 581 four quarters. Goyal 1 gives the information from the Arthaśāstra: "It is said that Brahmā, Indra, Yama and Senapati are the presiding... identity of Sātakarni I with the legendary Sālivāhana, reputed to be the founder of the Era of 78 A.D. No Sātavāhana whose coins or epigraphs have been found used any 1.Sircar, "Religion and Philosophy", The Age..., p. 438. 2."The Sātavāhanas and the Chedis", ibid., p. 199. 3. Ibid. Page 583 era: everyone reckoned only in his regnal years. Further, what about ...
... Some religions believe that this world is a world of test in which perfection is not intended to be realised. Imperfection, ignorance etc. are all there to test the human soul, they test his faith, his piety, his devotion. If man passes these tests in his life on earth then he would be rewarded in Heaven. Some philosophies assert that the world is an illusion, not a reality. Some religions advocate... g such a great problem one has to keep the mind open and admit untried possibilities, and undertake risks of experiment in new directions. It is just what man is doing in the realm of physical science. The way in which the mind has to be kept open and plastic is illustrated by Vinoba Bhave's attitude. He has been trying to live upto the ideal of "the world as a family", vasudhaiva ku ṭ umbakam... mental being, is transitional. He has yet to ascend to a Higher Consciousness beyond mind. This is the great spiritual Odyssey that is now to be consciously undertaken by man. If material science lays open before man a practically unlimited Page 50 field of adventure and research and experience in the outer interstellar Space, the Supramental is not without similar attractions ...
... of the Supermind and many other important details of the Vedic Yoga. Let me conclude by quoting from Sri Aurobindo what he wrote in his earliest manuscripts on the Veda: "I seek not science, not religion, not Theosophy, but Veda, the truth about Brahman, not only about His essentiality, but about His manifestation, not a lamp on the way to the forest, but a light and a guide to joy and action... some profound meaning but they are viewed as quite out of harmony with the general drift of the entire corpus. They want us to believe that the true foundation or starting-point of the later religions and philosophies is the Upanishad; and the Upanishad, in turn, is required to be conceived by us as a revolt of philosophical and speculative minds against the ritualistic materialism of the Vedas. How... and many others, the most extraordinary heights and amplitudes of a sublime and mystic poetry. Sri Aurobindo concluded that the mind of ancient India did not err when it traced back all its philosophy, religion and essential things of its culture to these seer poets; for he found that all the future spirituality of Indian people was contained there in seed or in first expression. According to Sri ...
... unification of intellectual and scientific discipline with those of intuitive experience. The journal also promised its readers studies in speculative Philosophy, translations of ancient texts and commentaries on them, in Comparative Religion, and "practical methods of inner culture and self-development". Page 107 As indicated by the subtitle of its French edition, Revue de Grande... the first year were the two massive treatises, The Secret of the Veda and The Synthesis of Yoga . Paul Richard's The Eternal Wisdom was a garner of the choicest thoughts of the great religions and philosophies of the world, the memorable utterances of the world's great thinkers, all arranged under Suitable headings like "The Divine Essence", "The Divine Becoming" and "The Way of Love" in a ... religious aspiration and scientific faculty, as a beginning; and in the resultant progress an integrality also of the inner existence. Love and knowledge, the delight of the Bhakta and the divine science of the knower of Brahman, have to effect their unity; and both have to recover the fullness of Life which they tend to banish from them in the austerity of their search or the rapture of their ecstasy ...
... highest possible objects of knowledge. We also see that the Rishis were able to make such an impact upon the Indian culture that in its later periods the seekers and practitioners of science, philosophy, poetry, religion and other disciplines came to accept that they could meet or fulfill their goals only when they could open up to higher supra-intellectual faculties, powers and realizations. The... of the Veda was expressed in symbols and figures which were taken largely from the rituals of sacrifice, and yet the yogic quest was not allowed to be limited or constrained by the limitations of religion. The Vedic Rishis were close observers of the psychology of the subconscient, the conscient and the superconscient, and their quest was not allowed to be thwarted by the forces and powers of the ... It is intuition that impels the Pure Reason to formulate concepts of infinity and eternity, even though in our ordinary experience we do not find anything corresponding to them. In the history of philosophy, we see the conceptual formulations of intuitions in terms of God, Immortality and Heaven. The rationalistic tradition has, through ontological argument, underlined the necessity of utilizing the ...
... of joy in the very body issuing from death. This is the great evolutionary challenge, and the next step of our species. The religious and scientific proponents have misled us. Both science and religion have crippled us – rendered us stupid – robbing us of our own powers and evolutionary secret, one by urging us to heaven, the other to a utilitarian machinery. We are not knowledgeable; we... stationary or declining species, or is set on a self-destruction course, as our anti-human virus portends. And, God knows, this so-called human age of ours is full of faults, which our sciences and religions try to patch as best they can. But our ship is sinking, and the more we try to improve our conditions, the heavier we become; the more we attempt to rectify our mistakes, the more we reinforce... body. In order to develop from shark to little seal on the icecap, it scarcely mattered whether one was a yellow, white or black fish, or even a scientific fish, because, in any case, that science was a science of fish, and hence outdated. “Wait a minute,” the scientists will say. “We live under the stars, erect on two feet, and we have telescopes and microscopes with which we count everything ...
... sins of the mind are the secret cause of the sins of the body. So too poverty & trouble will always return on man in society, so long as the mind of the race is subjected to egoism. 199) Religion & philosophy seek to rescue man from his ego; then the kingdom of heaven within will be spontaneously reflected in an external divine city. 200) Mediaeval Christianity said to the race, "Man, thou art... a picture, then thou wilt smile at the wonders of physical Science as the playthings of babies. Page 435 111) Knowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found out something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting; Wisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty silence. 112) Science talks and behaves as if it had conquered all knowledge: Wisdom... life and crucifixion of Christ, the exile of Krishna in Brindavun and the colloquy with Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra. The siege of Troy created Hellas, the exile in Brindavun created devotional religion, (for before there was only meditation and worship,) Christ from his cross humanised Europe, the colloquy at Kurukshetra will yet liberate humanity. Yet it is said that none of these four events ever ...
... extremely important book on education entitled Education and the Social Order, first published in 1932. It is a very readable book in which he presents a comprehensive philosophy of education covering a wide variety of subjects such as religion in education, patriotism in education, nationalism in education, competition in education, education under communism, educational economics, and propaganda in education... have long held that stupidity is very largely the result of fear leading to mental inhibitions, and the experience that we are having with our children confirms me in this view. Their interest in science is at once passionate and intelligent, and their desire to understand the world in which they live Page 391 exceeds enormously that of children brought up with the usual taboos upon... unfettered spontaneity. I do not mean these statements to be taken in an absolute sense; there will always be unforeseen contingencies in which older methods may become necessary. But the more the science of child psychology is perfected, and the more experience we acquire in nursery schools, the more perfectly the new methods can be applied. I have tried to bring before the reader the wonderful ...
... of Indian civilisation, its religion, its philosophy, its culture is more in consonance with historical fact than the European scouting of this idea. The nineteenth-century European scholarship writing in a period of materialistic rationalism regarded the history of the race as a development out of primitive barbarism or semi-barbarism, a crude social life and religion and a mass of superstitions,... by the growth of outward civilised institutions, manners and habits through the development of intellect and reason, art, philosophy and science and a clearer and sounder, more matter-of-fact intelligence. The ancient idea about the Veda could not fit into this picture; it was regarded as rather a part of ancient superstitious ideas and a primitive error. But we can now form a more accurate idea of... invasion from the north, an invasion of a Dravidian India of which the Indians themselves had no memory or tradition and of which there is no record in their epic or classical literature. The Vedic religion was in this account only a worship of Nature-Gods full of solar myths and consecrated by sacrifices and a sacrificial liturgy primitive enough in its ideas and contents, and it is these barbaric prayers ...
... different religion and social structure, there continued a constant effort of political unification and there was a tendency towards a mingling of cultures and their mutual influence on each other; even some heroic attempts were made to discover or create a common religion built out of these two apparently irreconcilable faiths and here too... this diversity will endanger or diminish the unity of India. Those vast spaces which kept her people from closeness and a full interplay have been abolished in their separating effect by the march of Science and the swiftness of the means of communication. The idea of federation and a complete machinery for its perfect working have been discovered and will be at full work. Above all, the spirit of patriotic... centre of light and learning, knowledge and culture which can train the youth of Andhra to be worthy of their forefathers: the great past should lead to a future as great or even greater. Not only Science but Art, not only book-knowledge and information but growth in culture and character are parts of a true education; to help the individual to develop his capacities, to help in the forming of thinkers ...
... there is a tendency to decry religion, although religion has played an important part in the past and can still play an important role in the future. He pointed out that religion has been a source of moral values. He said that the Western turmoil of today is due to the fact that religion is increasingly exiled from life. He added that spirituality is the base, religion is the structure and political... when one talks of values, one is afraid that one is going to be labelled as anti-secular. In this connection, he said that the distinction made by Kireet Joshi between religion and spirituality as also between morality and religion was very important. He remarked that politicians should not mistake value-education as religious education and put it out of the school Page 70 curriculum... have to be given importance. He said that character development is in fact a development from within. He also pointed out that religion has to play an important role in imparting basic emotional and moral values to the child. He also warned that while the concept of religion should be supported, communal-ism should be done away with. Page 81 Shri S.L.Jain said that Kireet joshi ...
... sentiment which opposes pure instinct and a faith founded on dreams to the sterile fanaticism of the intellect. "Yet a real divorce is impossible. Science would not "love a step without faith and intuition and to-day it is growing full of dreams. Religion could not stand for a moment if it did not support itself by the intellectual presentation, however inadequate, of profound truths. To-day we see... as an organ for the various groups and societies founded on its inspiration. "The Review will publish:- "Synthetic studies in speculative Philosophy. "Translations and commentaries of ancient texts. "Studies in Comparative Religion. "Practical methods of inner culture and self-development." Referring to the aim and object of the Arya, Sri Aurobindo declared again:... the spirit and develop towards the utmost possible harmony of individual freedom and social unity. "This is our ideal and our search in the Arya. "Philosophy is the intellectual search for the fundamental truth of things, religion is the attempt to make the truth dynamic in the soul of man. They are essential to each other. "Our first preoccupation in the Arya has therefore been with ...
... feeling or thought, like the honeybees of a great Comb, grain by grain, day after day, through our labors and pains and countless lives in one costume or another, through philosophy or no philosophy, through religions and foolish things in every language. We individualize the great Shakti; we bathe in it like tadpoles in a torrent, which will become pterodactyls or shrews, which will become mathematicians... ons. A Poetical Sleep She tried everything, that little Mirra, even poetry, "to see how it feels"—to Mathilde’s wild despair: “She will never achieve anything in life!" Painting, music, science, literature, practical work—She did not miss anything. Then, after a while, very well, I would leave it. I had experienced the thing and it didn’t seem to me important enough to devote a whole life... somewhere. To “go out" of the body, clearly, there has to be someone going out. And who goes out? Some beings have accumulated little drops of the great Shakti with a sword or a chisel, with religion or irreligion, anything, anything that fell into their hands: a piano or a brush; they have lived each minute as if they had to be in that minute—be anything but at least be —not stroll through ...
... iv fn. 2 Dyne,Sonia,48fn. 17 Earth's Answer, 54,174,232 Eden,157,162 Eliot, T.S., 40,41,42,43,256 Elohim, 220 "Elohim Creating Adam, The", 226 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, The, 50 fn. 25 Energy, 70,140 English Blake, 53 fn. 1 English Romantic Poets, 42 fn. 27 Enitharmon, 169,208 Entuthon-Benithon, 240,241,242 "Eternals"... 23,24,30 Moon, 115 "mortal god", 27,170,177 Mythology, Blake's, 221 Nature, 168,170,184 Neoplatonist tradition, 135,258 New Testament, The, 47 Newton, Newtonian science, 102,249, 258 Nicodemus, 40 Night, 8,184-87,191,192,196 Nimrod, 107 Nonesuch Press, ii Oaks, 83,194-95 "Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity", 204 Old Testament... Adam, 56, 57, 126, 157 Adam and Eve, 54, 99, 107, 157 Ahania, 1 80 Albion, 153, 188, 195-96, 202, 224, 234, 246, 249, 250, 262 Alchemic and Hermetic thought, iii, viii Alchemical philosophy, 27 America, 163, 202, 203 Ancient Mariner , The, 126 "And did these feet in ancient time . . ." (interpretation), 245-53 "Angel Tiger", 42 Annotations to Swedenborg's Divine ...
... affirmation and becomes universal and absolute. Thence arise the great world-negating religions and philosophies; thence too a recoil of the life-motive from itself and a seeking after a life elsewhere flawless and eternal or a will to annul life itself in an immobile Reality or an original Non-Existence. In India the philosophy of world-negation has been given formulations of supreme power Page 431 ... presentation or drive of personality or had a similar massive effect. The spirit of these two remarkable spiritual philosophies—for Shankara in the historical process of India's philosophical mind takes up, completes and replaces Buddha,—has weighed with a tremendous power on her thought, religion and general mentality: everywhere broods its mighty shadow, everywhere is the impress of the three great formulas... of our external consciousness or acceptable to that part of the reason which builds upon the data supplied by that consciousness and relies upon them as the one solid basis of knowledge. Physical Science is a vast extension of this mentality: it corrects the errors of the sense and pushes beyond the first limitations of the sense-mind by discovering means of bringing facts and objects not seizable ...
... the translation Vidula first appeared in this weekly edition Karmayogin English Weekly Calcutta "A Weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, etc." Started on June 15, 1909 by Sri Aurobindo, who wrote practically all of its articles and editorial comments, and published in it a number of his poems and translations. When... Love; Part IV: The Yoga of Self-Perfection. Volume 22 Letters on Yoga, Part One: The Supramental Evolution; Integral Yoga and Other Paths; Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga; Reason, Science and Yoga; Planes and Parts of the Being; The Divine and the Hostile Powers; The Purpose of Avatarhood; Rebirth; Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc. ... serve as an organ for the various groups and societies founded on its inspiration. The Review will publish:– Synthetic studies in speculative Philosophy. Translations and commentaries of ancient texts. Studies in Comparative Religion. Practical methods of inner culture and self development. In the Arya appeared serially most of Sri Aurobindo's important prose writings: ...
... areas: 1. The Divine, the Cosmos and the Individual 2. The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness 3. The Evolutionary Process and the Supermind 4. Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society 5. Questions of Spiritual and Occult Knowledge The letters in this volume have been selected from the extensive correspondence Sri Aurobindo carried on with his disciples ...
... us on the religious plane, through the Apocalypses of Isaiah, Hosea and John, or on the scientific plane, and now, following the teaching of Sri Aurobindo, on a plane which refers neither to science nor religion. Page 40 Everything, therefore, leads us to suppose that, stage after stage, we shall follow a path which will take us without interruption to the ultimate goal. The messengers... Judaism and later religions—Christianity and Islam—; the supreme Being, Purushottama, who, in the Gita, is both the immutable Being and the mutable Becoming—all these definitions result of the same vision, which has been for millennia at the root of our religious, or anti-religious, attitude. These definitions have established in us the notion, today verified by Science, of a unique Existence... study. It will no longer be adorned with the colours of religion, nor cloistered in yogic solitude. It will leave the sacred enclosures of faith to spontaneously become an integral part of our daily life. And it will govern all our activities without exception, whether individual or collective, whether pertaining to the conduct of peoples, Science, the arts, the exploitation of natural resources or to ...
... its way, but very little of it is intimately alive and true, and afterwards Germany failed to keep up a sustained poetic impulse; she turned aside to music on the one side and on the other to philosophy and science for her field. The French mind got away very soon from romanticism and, though greatly enriched by its outbreak into that phase, went on to a more genuine intellectual and intellectually aesthetic... outside the Christian conventions: though he spoke constantly of Christ and identified the supreme fact of both poetic experience and spiritual life as "Jesus the Imagination", he poured scorn on the religion of the churches no less than on the Christian Deism which the scientific eighteenth century invented for its convenience. And Jesus the Imagination is fundamentally a tran- Page 155 ... "is too large in its aim and varied in its approach to be satisfied by any definite or any fixed symbolic or hieratic method, it cannot rest within the special experience and figures of a given religion. There has been too universal a departure from all specialised forms and too general a breaking down of the old cut channels; in place of their intensive narrowness we have a straining through ...
... the fifth Veda, grammar, the ritual concerning the Manes, arithmetic, mantik, counting or reckoning of time, dialectic, politics, divine lore, the lore of the prayer, the lore of the ghosts, the science of warfare, astronomy, spell against serpents, the art of the muse [literally, of demigods, deva-jana]. This it is, 0 venerable Sir, that I have learnt. "And thus I am, 0 venerable Sir... mythological poems as the fifth Veda, grammar the ritual of the Manes, arithmetic, mantik, reckoning of time, dialectic, politics, the divine lore, the lore of prayer, the lore of the ghosts, the science of warfare, astronomy, spell against serpents and the art of the muse — all these are a name, — everything of this is a name. You may adore the name! "He who adores the name as Brahman... connoted the highest ideal of the teacher. The teacher was a Yogin, one who had realized or was a seeker of true knowledge that comes through the practice of Yoga, which was at that time a developing science and art of psychological concentration and perfection. The Vedic Rishis described their aspirations and victories in the form of Mantra, inevitable expression born out of innermost vision and realization ...
... feudal and Catholic Europe and the obscure beginnings of modern thought and science,’ 27 which would lead up to the Renaissance. The fourth attempt at spiritualization of the West by the East is happening at present. As the year of its beginning we could consider 1893, when Swami Vivekananda addressed the Congress of Religions in Chicago. ‘The influence of the East is likely to be rather in the direction... Upanishads and the philosophies with the later inertia or small and broken fragmentarily derivative activity; after the intellectual curiosity, the scientific development, the creative literary and artistic greatness, the noble fecundity of the classical age, he would be amazed by the extent of later degeneracy, the mental poverty, the immobility, the static repetition, the cessation of science, the long sterility... co-exist. But deep inside the selfish instincts of the races are still alive, reacting to differences of the colour of the skin, of the build of the body, of behaviour, common habits, culture and religion. The process of the unification of humanity, consisting of countless painful but also hopeful episodes, is still going on. In actual fact humanity has always been one, despite its colourful diversity ...
... The world was then in the melting pot. Science had just begun losing its long-held ground. The Promised Land to which it had boasted of leading humanity was receding into the mist of the future, for Matter itself was ceasing to be real and concrete. The supremacy of human reason was being challenged by the development of psychology and the new philosophies of Kierkegaard, Bergson and others. It... make the acquaintance of any Indian or undergo any Indian influence. These instructions were carried out to the letter" and Sri Aurobindo "grew up in entire ignorance of India, her people, her religion and her culture." 4 Sri Aurobindo's elder brothers, Benoy Bhusan and Manmohan, were sent to Manchester Grammar School, while Sri Aurobindo, being too young, was "educated privately by Mr... In 1885 the Drewetts had left for Australia, and "the three brothers lived in London for some time with the mother of Mr. Drewett, but she left them after a quarrel between her and Manmohan about religion. The old Mrs. Drewett was fervently evangelical Page 6 and she said she would not live with an atheist as the house might fall down on her." Sri Aurobindo's name was registered ...
... horizons of his knowledge. He continued the Page 55 work begun in retirement at Horton to gather up into his mind all that had been written by way of history or geo-graphy, science or philosophy or poetry. His reading was always enormous. He was like an encyclopaedia by the time he found leisure for Paradise Lost. We see this from the far-stretching references in his epic, the manner... 7 These are but a few samples of Milton's eye traversing the pageant of all history and geography and world-work. Scholars have found his reading to include not only standard philosophy and accepted religion: they have found it to include also heretical speculations, even a book like Bodin's Heptaplomeres whose very presence in a man's library risked the reader's head. Milton seems to have... little discouragement, and is practised with so little shame". Personal courage was another virtue of his. When he was told that in Rome there was a plot against him because he had spoken too freely on religion, he went to that city, moved about in as exposed a manner as possible and openly defended Protestantism for two months. What cut short his continental tour was the news of civil commotions in England ...
... the human being turned inwards and subjected to close scrutiny all that had gone before. This happened in literature (Proust, Rimbaud, Mallarmé), philosophy (Nietzsche and Bergson), psychology (Freud and Jung), biology (Darwin, Pasteur) and physical science (the Curies, Planck, Lorentz, Einstein). The incredible twentieth century, the greatest show in all history, was being prepared. And Impressionism... which again took place in Paris. The industrial revolutions went hand in hand with the rapid progress made in all branches of science, thus strengthening in ever greater measure the grip of humankind on nature. Yet there was a price to pay. ‘The marvellous strides of science [and technology] had brought the human race to a stage of material welfare ready to prove the faith of the Nineteenth Century... atheistic, if one may put it that way, in my childhood. I did not accept a being who declared himself to be the one and only and all-powerful, whoever he might be.’ 24 ‘All I knew was the God of the religions, God as men have created him, and I didn’t want him at any price. I denied his existence, but with the certitude that if such a God did exist, I detested him!’ 25 The Mother deemed herself ...
... Chap. 8. The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge We have seen that the creation of the ego and dualities was a necessary step which has been symbolized in some schools of Religion and Philosophy as the fall of man. The fall of man is this separation from the original Divine Consciousness and assumption of limitations in which the separation becomes dynamic, and has consequences in... direction partly. This is the intuition of Self which is Infinite, of the Purusha, a Being, a subjective Self or the whole cosmos. That is the first great intuition of all philosophies, all systems of yoga, and of all religions. There is a cognizing consciousness which is infinite, but which stands on the plane of indi-dividual consciousness as the Purusha. This consciousness Page 61 ... Para-psychology is trying to establish the well-attested fact that suprasensual perception and knowledge are possible. Sri Aurobindo says that to try to reduce psychology to a physical science is to take hold of it by the wrong end. Reactions of nerves are not fixed. The whole organization of nature in man is only a working equation of so many forces—physical, nervous, vital, intellectual ...
... profound in his spiritual practice and so finely touched by the tremendous truths of Indian seerhood should have to make concessions to his accepted religion and feel compelled not only here but in a number of other instances to argue the superiority of that religion: thus "Christian love" is sought to be made out so much greater than the love that flows from the heart of both Hinduism and Buddhism to all... has discussed all the aspects of "rebirth" in a few exceedingly insightful chapters of The Life Divine and put it in the right framework. If Griffiths is drawing strength, as he does, from modern science for his spiritual outlook he can ill afford to get round the individual soul's spiritual evolution. He has accepted many truths of the Spirit from India, which his too conservative co-religionists... carried away by the fascination of the subject. Already my letter has lengthened out inordinately. The new discussion must be reserved for some other time. I am not at home with Rupert Sheldrake's New Science of Life; so I shan't venture to treat it. Fritjof Capra's Tao of Modern Physics has been in my hands for quite a time and I think I can comment on it a little as well as on Griffiths's understanding ...
... the early years of our century Sri Aurobindo had already written A Vision of Science, in which the poet dreams of three Angels striving within him for mastery. Towards the end of it the second Angel, Science, is asked by the departing Angel of Religion to try and know who she herself really is: And Science confidently, "Nothing am I but earth, Tissue and nerve and from the seed a... we may face the "modernism" said to be making itself felt some time before the Lalians brought it to a focus soon after Independence. Let us look at the poems in full: A DREAM OF SURREAL SCIENCE One dreamed and saw a gland write Hamlet, drink At the Mermaid, capture immortality; A committee of hormones on the Aegean's brink Composed the Iliad and the Odyssey... or the experience of the Saints who figure in his Paradiso. By the way, apart from certain portions, the Divine Comedy is not even directly religious poetry: only its setting is in terms of religion. T. S. Eliot also is in part an effective poet of religious feeling and idea: the tension, confusion and resolution in Ash-Wednesday are not spiritual in the true sense and they are more misty ...
... personal confessions is the chief difficulty to the purely literary student who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness of religions other than the Christian. M. Schmölders has translated a part of Al-Ghazzali's autobiography into French:10 "The Science of the Sufis," says the Moslem author, "aims at detaching the heart from all that is not God, and at giving to it for sole occupation... Chairman of Auroville Foundation. From 2000 to 2006, he was Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. From 2006 to 2008, he was Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC). Currently, he is Education Advisor to the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Page 58 Other Titles in the Series The New Synthesis of Yoga - An... The Portals of Vedic Knowledge Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth Page 59 Edited by Kireet Joshi ...
... power stops; if the result comes, it is the Divine Power and not yours that brings it." Questions and Answers 1929 ( 23 June ) Well, it is this idea, which has been taught in almost all religions, that has made men atheistic, so much does it anger them—an anger of revolt: "What! It is not I!" And this "I", if you only knew how big it is! how it occupies the whole place.... It is this which... saying things, is of value only if it can make you understand the thing. A language (which is a kind of story) is of value only to the extent it is capable of putting you in contact with the Reality. Science is a language, Art is a language—all activity is a sort of language, that is, a way of expression.And the way of expression is of value only in as far as it puts you in contact with what it wants to... have no value for you. This is an essentially pragmatic point of view of the universe; things have value only in so far as they realise that for which they have been made, and the most beautiful philosophies of the world are of no use to those who do not understand them. The most beautiful works of art in the world are quite useless to those whom they do not put on the path of the Truth. And the most ...
... they stand, that which they try blindly to express. This has been the rule not only with the nation, but with Page 37 all communities. A Church is an organised religious community and religion, if anything in the world, ought to be subjective; for its very reason for existence—where it is not merely an ethical creed with a supernatural authority—is to find and realise the soul. Yet religious... evolution. The few who still valued the psychological element have kept their eye fixed on individuals and are not far from conceiving of history as a mass of biographies. The truer and more comprehensive science of the future will see that these conditions only apply to the imperfectly self-conscious period of national development. Even then there was always a greater subjective force working behind individuals... her great musicians, Beethoven and Wagner, and from all in the German soul and temperament which they represented. A nation whose master achievement has lain almost entirely in the two spheres of philosophy and music, is clearly predestined to lead in the turn to subjectivism and to produce a profound result for good or evil on the beginnings of a subjective age. This was one side of the predestination ...
... can perceive the possibility of a divine life for man in the world which will at once justify Science by disclosing a living sense and intelligible aim for the cosmic and the terrestrial evolution and realise by the transfiguration of the human soul into the divine the great ideal dream of all high religions. But what then of that silent Self, inactive, pure, self-existent, self-enjoying, which presented... conception. We erect a fiction of nothingness in order to overpass, by the method of total exclusion, all that we can know and consciously are. Actually when we examine closely the Nihil of certain philosophies, we begin to perceive that it is a zero which is All or an indefinable Infinite which appears to the mind a blank, because mind grasps only finite constructions, but is in fact the only true Existence ...
... great Bengali scholar in philosophy, now dead, use it with outrageous results. He once visited the Ashram and lectured on the progress of Indian thought in the world. And this is one of the sentences with which he developed his subject: "Then what's called Viveka-nanda sailed away and after many what's called hardships reached Chicago and there at the Parliament of Religions he at last what's called... what's called run away in order to avoid an explosion of laughter. I have quoted this learned professor as using the word "hard-ships". He used it correctly though comically, but I had at College a Science teacher who, knowing that a difficulty is a hardship, would ask about the text which we were studying and in which several points were often hard to grasp: "Have you any hard-ships?" Another misuse ...
... indivisible. "National unity is built on the common home, the common interest, and common love. "I believe that the strength which spoke in the Vedas and Upanishads, in the making of religions and empires, in the learning of scholars, and the meditation of the saints, is born once more amongst us, and its name to-day is Nationality. "I believe that the present of India is deep rooted... Woodroffe, Okakura, Ananda Coomaraswa-my, Nivedita and Abanindranath. Every facet of Indian life interested Nivedita. And she gave herself unstintedly to propagate Indian art, Indian culture, Indian science. She "had the eye of sympathy and intuition and a close appreciative self-identification," is how Sri Aurobindo described it. She it was who stood by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose when he was all alone... there was ever any ban on his re-entry into British India, said, "On the contrary, Lord Carmichael sent somebody [in 1915] to persuade me to return and settle somewhere in Darjeeling and discuss philosophy with him. I refused the offer." Vivekananda had once taken Nivedita to Jorasanko to meet Maharshi Debendranath. She came to hear about his youngest son, Rabi. One day she went to meet him. ...
... as it is now beginning to retire. Its discoveries may be used by philosophy, but on the grounds proper to philosophy and not on the grounds proper to Science. The philosopher must judge the scientific conceptions of relativity or discontinuity or space-time, for instance, by his own processes and standards of evidence. So too, Science has no instrumentation or process of knowledge which can enable it... life and the functioning of the body. But the mathematical exactitudes and rigid formulas of physical Science do not apply here and the mentality created by them would hamper spiritual experience. The Life Divine There is possible a realistic as well as an illusionist Adwaita. The philosophy of The Life Divine is such a realistic Adwaita. The world is a manifestation of the Real and therefore... me? Page 95 It would take too long. You can get it explained to you by someone, it is not difficult. The central idea is that the Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy—so you must not tie yourself to any of these things. 18 September 1933 "Therefore the psychic life-energy presents itself to our experience as a sort of desire-mind, which ...
... faculties and that it is much more important to acquire these than to specialise—unless, naturally, it be like M. and Mme. Curie who wanted to develop a certain science, find something new, then of course they were compelled to concentrate on that science. But still that was only till they had discovered it; once they had found it, nothing stopped them from widening their mind. This is something I have... decomposition of the features! And yet it is the same face. It was like a flash of lightning, and it was frightful. That kind of hideousness of torment and degradation—what has been translated in religions as "the torment of sin"—that gives you a face indeed! Even features that are beautiful in themselves become horrible. And it was the same features, the same person. Then I saw how horrible the... said and repeated, and there are people who will prove it: to do something well one must specialize. One must do that and concentrate. If one wants to become a good philosopher, one must learn only philosophy, if one wants to be a good chemist, one must learn chemistry only. And if one wants to become a good tennis-player, one must play only tennis. That's not what I think, that is all I can say. My ...
... superconscious which are the true sources of art and philosophy and religion and mysticism, however crossed here and there these things may be by miasmas from the subconscious. Much folly is committed by the psychoanalytic approach. A recent book, written in all seriousness, by a thinker named Wisdom is foolish enough to account for the Idealistic philosophy of Berkeley by the state of his bowels! Berkeley's... conforming very much to their de-mands or expectations; talented children, no less than young ruffi-ans, are often like that. The mother of this boy took him to a psychiatrist. The mighty man of mental science wanted to get the spontaneous response of the boy's subconscious. So he fired at him the startling question: "What would happen if I cut off your right ear?" The boy at once replied: "I would hear ...
... and uses as a lever of ascent into the fullness of the Life Divine, is not unfamiliar to the central body of Indian spiritual thought. It is implicit also in the thought of some of the old religions and philosophies of the world. But its practical application to spiritual life, which was the core of the Vedic spiritual culture, has long been forgotten or ignored, with the result that Page 203 ... may seem to us the machinery our mental ingenuity invents, however externally effective. Ignorant, we cannot construct a system of entirely true and fruitful self- knowledge or world-knowledge: our science itself is a construction, a mass, of formulas and devices; masterful in knowledge of processes and in the creation of apt machinery, but ignorant of the foundations of our being and of world-being ...
... its own image. One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in the conscious being ( caitya guru or antaryāmin ), the Absolute of the thinker, the Unknowable of the Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti, the One who is differently named and imaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga. To see, know, become and fulfil... the right condition for the full spiritual life in man. Vivekananda, pointing out that the unity of all religions must necessarily express itself by an increasing richness of variety in its forms, said once that the perfect state of that essential unity would come when each man had his own religion, when not bound by sect or traditional form he followed the free self-adaptation of his nature in its relations... śrotavyasya śrutasya ca . For he is not Page 55 the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite. Another kind of Shastra is not Scripture, but a statement of the science and methods, the effective principles and way of working of the path of Yoga which the sadhaka elects to follow. Each path has its Shastra, either written or traditional, passing from mouth to mouth ...
... recovery of the old spiritual knowledge and experience in all its splendour, depth and fullness is its first, most essential work; the flowing of this spirituality into new forms of philosophy, literature, art, science and criti- Page 370 cal knowledge is the second; an original dealing with modern problems in the light of Indian spirit and the endeavour to formulate a greater synthesis... meaningless, which are nonsensical in their very nature.... We are neither Vedantists, most of us now, nor Puranics, nor Tannics. We are just "Don't touchists". Our religion is in the kitchen. Our God is the cooking-pot, and our religion is, "Don't touch me, I am holy". If this goes on for another century, every one of us will be in a lunatic asylum. ( Collected Works , Vol 3:167) It is... prosperity. But whether the spiritual idea of India remains intact is a question that is not easily answered. To all appearances, India has gone the way of the rest of the world, worshipping mammon. Our religion, too, is consumerism. To say that spirituality is the master key to the Indian psyche these days would seem more the exception than the rule. When we re-examine Sri Aurobindo's ideas today ...
... their original Indian name. He studied at the Good School in Goa and was brought up in the Catholic Church. He said he was a good Catholic and took his religion seriously as a young man. Later he began to find some rather foolish things in all religions which is what ultimately led him to Sri Aurobindo. He passed his exams in Hubli and was sent to Mussoorie in the mountains of north India for further... private homes we were received with gracious hospitality. While I was visiting America there was a three-day seminar at Cornell University — an inter-religious conference. Leaders of all the world religions were invited. My hosts tried to get me on the program but it was declined because the conference had been planned two years prior. However, they said I could come and participate in the discussions... would have graduated, gotten a good job and settled down to a “humdrum” life. After he was thrown out he attended another school in Belgaum and from there went on to Bombay to the Royal Institute of Science for a degree in engineering. He was then sent to England in 1929 where he spent four years and earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the London University. However, there was nothing for ...
... of Indian seerhood should have to make concessions to his accepted religion and feel compelled not only here but in a number of other insta personally don't fancy this compromise. It is a pity that one so profound in his spiritual practice and so finely touched by the tremendous truthnces to argue the superiority of that religion: thus "Christian love" is sought to be made out so much greater than... has discussed all the aspects of "rebirth" in a few exceedingly insightful chapters of The Life Divine and put it in the right framework. If Griffiths is drawing strength, as he does, from modern science for his spiritual outlook he can ill afford to get round the individual soul's spiritual evolution. He has accepted many truths of the Spirit from India, which his too conservative co-religionists... why Griffiths flouts the scholarly consensus. But I won't dwell overmuch on these things lest I should convey to you a wrong impression of my attitude to him. Notes and References 1."Science Today and the New Creation", The Examiner (Bombay), February 27, 1982, p. 138 2.The Jerusalem Bible (Longman, Darton and Todd, London, 1966), p. 326 of the New Testament. 3. Pathway to God ...
... Aurobindo's epic of the spirit. The De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) of Virgil's contemporary Lucretius is materialistic philosophy turned into poetry. If Savitri is the poetry of the science of Spirit, De Rerum Natura is the poetry of the science of Matter. The world of Lucretius is the world of atoms moving through space impelled by the very dynamism inherent in them and building... with accretions) and its cosmic comprehensibility. For, there is in it all that is there in the world, in the heavens, in human experience, in war and love and glory, in ethics and religion, in thought and philosophy, in the Veda and the Vedanta. A more comprehensive and intergrated vision of life it is difficult to find elsewhere. Savitri is in direct line of the Vedic mantric poetry, the poetry... Aurobindo's poetry. He observed the discipline of the "Higher State" even if he ever descended to the egoistic plane. As poetry, both Savitri and Commedia are unique; both evidencing that philosophy and mystical experience could be rendered in poetry; both conferring in a wonderful way poetic concerteness and objectivity on their supernatural or spiritual beings and realms and visions, as ...
... feeling be raised. Let all feel and then unite. If they all unite then it is easy. Let the country get slowly prepared ... Sri Aurobindo: That is the history of every religion, sect or religious institution. It begins with religion and ends in commerce, everywhere you will find the same thing. Interview with Sri Aurobindo Ghose by a Sadhak 1924-10-25 On my visit to Motibabu, Motibabu... more of the Divine. In the Jaina Philosophy there is an idea that in this age this body would not be capable of bearing the supermind. We shall see. They say that we have to prepare our body infield of consciousness first. That may be the true body which is in the Supermind. We have to bring that body down into the physical. Besides Jaina Philosophy is concerned with individual perfection... psychic mate? Sri Aurobindo: How do you know a spiritual experience? How do you know when you have the right leader? It is all a matter of feeling and inner perception. It is an art and not a science. When she walks into your life you will know her right enough. As I have told you again and again, no rigid and hard and fast rule is possible in things like this. Union with woman is right in one ...
... place of the literary tongue. And although the consummation of its work was delayed for several centuries by the revival of Hinduism in the Puranic religions, the Veda itself benefited little by this respite. In order to combat the popularity of the new religion it was necessary to put forward instead of venerable but unintelligible texts Scriptures written in an easy form of a more modern Sanskrit. For... extension. The old Indian scholars did not use the same freedom or the same systematic minuteness in their speculations. Still this element in Sayana's commentary is the true parent of the European Science of Comparative Mythology. But it is the ritualistic conception that pervades; that is the persistent note in which all others lose themselves. In the formula of the philosophic schools, the hymns... Power and Grace at work in the mortal. It is far, therefore, from being an attempt to set down the results of intellectual or imaginative speculation, nor does it consist of the dogmas of a primitive religion. Only, out of the sameness of experience and out of the impersonality of the knowledge received, there arise a fixed body of conceptions constantly repeated and a fixed symbolic language which, perhaps ...
... the theory of Maya, but rather, the greatest Realist in philosophical history. One eminent follower of Shankara even declared that my philosophy and Shankara’s were identical, a statement which rather took my breath away. One used to think that Shankara’s philosophy was this that the Supreme Reality is a spaceless and timeless Absolute (Parabrahman) which is beyond all feature or quality, beyond... Shankara’s philosophy, it is to me unacceptable and incredible, however brilliantly ingenious it may be and however boldly and incisively reasoned; it does not satisfy my reason and it does not agree with my experience. I don’t know exactly what is meant by this yuktivada. If it is meant that it is merely for the sake of arguing clown opponents, then this part of the philosophy has no... energies, constructed or simply manifested according to the habit of the play of the particular energy. As for the elements, what is the pure natural condition of an element? According to modern Science, what used to be called elements turn out to be compounds and the pure natural condition, if any, must be a condition of pure energy; it is that pure condition into which compounds including what ...
... understood it even now? For a real understanding, a real knowledge is only possible when one is able to repeat the experience. This is at least as important to yoga, a matter of Truth, as it is to Science.) As a consequence the Mother, from the time of her withdrawal in 1959, was thought to be almost continuously ill. It certainly looked like it. “You are surrounded by people who treat you as an... to guess. It is much easier to become the medium of the forces of evil than it is to put oneself at the disposition of the Force of Good. “There are a group of people … who want to create a kind of religion based on the revelation of Sri Aurobindo. But they have taken only the side of power and force, a certain kind of knowledge and all that could be utilised by Asuric forces. There is a big Asuric being... Aurobindo … This appearance of Sri Aurobindo has declared that I have been a traitor to him and to his work, and has refused to have anything to do with me.” 20 It is not difficult to imagine the religion the Mother here talks about: one has only to think of the superman as conceived by Friedrich Nietzsche. “I am no longer in my body. I have left it for the Lord to take care of it, to decide if ...
... It is customary to divide education between the "humanities" and "science". The term "humanities" has come to mean nowadays a set of certain branches of knowledge: literature, philosophy, history, sociology, etc., while "science" is restricted to mathematics, physical and natural sciences, and the various parts of applied science, such as engineering. This classification may seem to some extent... rapidly, and the introduction of scientific methods in psychology, sociology, economics, history, has earned for them the name of "human sciences" (or "sciences of man"). But there is something more behind the common opposition between the humanities and science. The term "humanities" was initially equivalent to "classical studies" and it was introduced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries... necessary. It is therefore idle to oppose the humanities and science on this ground. There is no superior or inferior branch of knowledge. It is a question of personal interest and capacity, and also of general demand at the time Page 67 considered. Moreover, one may note that the division between the humanities and science is somewhat arbitrary pure mathematics is sometimes included ...
... and yet so vainly proud, is now no longer sufficient for him, and that to uncase, discover, set free this greater power within, shall be henceforward his great preoccupation. Then will his philosophy, art, science, ethics, social existence, vital pursuits be no longer an exercise of mind and life for themselves, in a circle, but a means for the discovery of a greater Truth behind mind and life and the... spiritualised humanity, even as the animal man has been largely converted into a highly mentalised humanity. Page 165 They will be comparatively indifferent to particular belief and form of religion, and leave men to resort to the beliefs and forms to which they are naturally drawn. They will only hold as essential the faith in the spiritual conversion. They will especially not make the mistake... the most famous, the most artistic, the most learned, the most religious, may well find himself far off the way leading from man to superman. Each race, each civilisation, each human society, each religion, represents a new attempt of Nature, one more effort adding to the long series of those she multiplied during countless time. Now, as among all the animal forms there was one from which man was to ...
... age which is bound to be marked by a very vast synthesis. A mass of new material is flowing into us. We are required to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and similarly of the great theistic religions of the world; we have also to assimilate the recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism. Relevance of Jainism has also to be underlined. We have to take into account the... concern should be to look for the actual living truths that the Gita or any other similar work contains, to extract from it what can help us or the world at large. As students of life and seekers of the science and art of life, we should avoid academic disputation or assertions of mere theological dogma. An impartial study of the Gita will show that it contains a very rich and many-sided thought, it... Arjuna, to raise some of the deepest questions that compel an answer at the deepest level. The answer that we find in the Bhagavadgita is, therefore, important not merely in the light of general philosophy or ethical doctrine, but it has also a bearing upon a practical crisis and the application of the highest knowledge to human life. The reason why the Bhagavadgita reads almost as fresh and ...
... certitude: There is a Power that no ruler can command; there is a Happiness that no earthly success can bring; there is a Light that no wisdom can possess; there is a Knowledge that no philosophy and no science can master; there is a Bliss of which no satisfaction of desire can give the enjoyment; there is a thirst for Love that no human relation can appease; there is a Peace that one finds nowhere... she said, "I enter into their consciousness and I know what I want to know." 2 The Ashram community, again, included men and women of divers races, religions, creeds, castes. But they were in the Ashram, not as representatives of a nation, religion, creed or caste, but simply as disciples of Sri Aurobindo, trying to practise his Yoga. The Mother didn't like Page 339 chronic backward ...
... be marked by a very vast synthesis. A mass of new material is flowing into us. We are required to assimilate the Page 46 influences of the great theistic religions of India and similarly of the great theistic religions of the world; we have also to assimilate the recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism. Relevance of Jainism has also to be underlined. We have to take into account the... concern should be to look for the actual living truths that the Gita or any other similar work contains, to extract from it what can help us or the world at large. As students of life and seekers of the science and art of life, we should avoid academic disputation or assertions of mere theological dogma. An impartial study of the Gita will show that it contains a very rich and many-sided thought, it... Arjuna, to raise some of the deepest questions that compel an answer at the deepest level. The answer that we find in the Bhagavadgita is, therefore, important not merely in the light of general philosophy or ethical doctrine, but it has also a bearing upon a practical crisis and the application of the highest knowledge to human life. The reason why the Bhagavadgita reads almost as fresh and still ...
... transcendent Reality to awaken that Reality's own hidden counterpart in ignorant mind and stumbling life-energy and imperfect material existence, such depth and dynamism of spirituality and occult science as I discovered to be quietly put in action by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from their poise in what they designated as "Supermind" I had never come across anywhere. No wonder I am "absorbed" in these... necessary, make comparisons with other paths of spiritual vision and practice. The comparisons are made not out of missionary zeal and with a one-track mind. I have sincerely studied what the great religions have to offer at their highest. Judaism's fervent energetic self-dedication to its grandiose all-demanding God, Zoroastrianism's call for a purity of prayer like a fire rising up to an o... school-days 1 delved with intense joy into the Socratic dialogues of Plato - the shorter ones: Crito, Phaedo, Apologia and Symposium. In the B.A. of Bombay University 1 had the pleasure of taking Philosophy Honours with Plato's Republic for special study. When I came to the Ashram, the Mother once told me that in a past life I had been an ancient Athenian. Later Sri Aurobindo, in reference to his ...
... night before the Sphinxes – and it hangs by a thread. A thread so slender, so frail in the midst of all our racket, as if everything were trying to cover it up, to falsify and pervert it, religions as much as sciences, and to replace the source with television aerials that only reveal our own chaos, or with church hymns that only chant our finite destiny. But how do you catch the “thread”? I can hardly... without distinction of ideas or religions – lending itself to study in terms of amount of limestone. So let us ask the one question that would enable us to become something other than a certain amount of limestone in a certain shirt. I have always found it surprising, astonishing, at any rate since Lamarck, 1 who dared to write his Zoological Philosophy the very year Darwin came down into... but human misery and my own, and a fire within growing like an ill-contained explosion, I steered due east – to India. A country where, after all, the “thread” did not end in a religion – unless there were millions of “religions,” as many as there were men, which was not so bad to begin with. Also I was not hankering after “heaven,” I was hankering after humanity. “Salvation” was very interesting for ...
... In the early years of our century Sri Aurobindo had already written A Vision of Science, in which the poet dreams of three Angels striving within him for mastery. Towards the end of it the second Angel, Science, is asked by the departing Angel of Religion to try and know who she herself really is: And Science confidently, "Nothing am I but earth, Tissue and nerve and from the seed a birth... t or the experience of the Saints who figure in his Paradiso. By the way, apart from certain portions, the Divine Comedy is not even directly religious poetry: only its setting is in terms of religion. T.S. Eliot also is in part an effective poet of religious feeling and idea: the tension, confusion and resolution in Ash-Wednesday are not spiritual in the true sense and they are more misty than... Now we may face the "modernism" said to be making itself felt some time before the Lalians brought it to a focus soon after Independence. Let us look at the poems in full: A Dream of Surreal Science 1 One dreamed and saw a gland write Hamlet, At the Mermaid, capture immortality; A committee of hormones on the Aegean's brink Composed the Iliad A thyroid, ...
... history, mathematics, logic, psychology, and philosophy. He also made great efforts to master the English language. His favourite subject was history and he made a detailed study of the modern European nations. His studies were not limited to the university curriculum. By himself he acquired a thorough grasp of the masterpieces of Western thought and philosophy. He had many other interests as well — sports... all he preached. He used to say to Narendra, "Test me as the money-changers test their coins. You must not accept me until you have tested me thoroughly. "' 4 Naren' s great respect for Western science and its analytical processes made him test Sri Ramakrishna s experiences and he accepted Page 297 only those which stood the test. One day, Narendra came to Dakshineshwar and found that... outside India; and at the same time whose grand brilliant intellect would conceive of such noble thoughts as would harmonize all conflicting sects... and bring a marvellous harmony, the universal religion of head and heart into existence; such a man was born his life's work was just near a city which was full of Western thought, a city which had run mad after these Occidental ideas ... There he ...
... Matter is not its truth, but merely a phenomenon of particular relation between our senses and the all-existence in which we move. When Science discovers that Matter resolves itself into forms of Energy, it has hold of a universal and fundamental truth; and when philosophy discovers that Matter only exists as substantial appearance to the consciousness and that the one reality is Spirit or pure conscious... is the obsession that drives him for deliverance to the life of the ascetic. To get rid of it he has even gone so far as to deny its existence and the reality of the material universe. Most of the religions have put their curse upon Matter and have made the refusal or the resigned temporary endurance of the physical life the test of religious truth and of spirituality. The older creeds, more patient ...
... for ever the One. This by a self-existent self-knowledge thou shalt know, through a supramental knowledge by identity—the problem, the opposition, the shifts of philosophy, the rifts of Science, the fragmentary upliftings of Religion are the devices of a still ignorant consciousness, a [. . .] seeking knowledge. 26 All existence is one in the Reality; manifold in its manifestation of... From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga (1912-1947) From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga (1912-1947) Philosophy: God, Nature and Man Essays Divine and Human Nature: The World-Manifestation The Divine and the Manifestation 22 All existence is Brahman, Atman & Iswara... his glory. Page 220 × These notes were written apropos of Bergson's "philosophy of change"; "you" below would refer to a proponent of this philosophy . ...
... higher states of consciousness and the powers by which the mental being rises towards superconscient as well as its ultimate and supreme possibility of union with the highest. Raja Yoga is psychic science, and it gives an account of the powers and states which are possible on the higher planes of the being. They can be acquired and fixed by certain processes and their use then becomes subject to the... tastes, lights, colours and other objects of senses which are neither at all available to ordinary persons or beyond the range from one's own ordinary senses. It is important to note that yogic science gives warning that these powers can only be entirely acquired or safely used when one has got rid of egoism and identified oneself with infinite will and infinite consciousness. It may also be mentioned... Yogic knowledge is the union with what can be perceived, felt or conceived to be the highest truth of the being, and as the Upanishad states, when that object is attained, all becomes known, even what science as we practise it aims to know: yasmin vijnate sarvam vijnātam bhavati Knowing it is That knowing which everything becomes known. Records of Yoga have described three movements ...
... be right upon earth, tip-top, A-l: my daughter Science and I have arranged that between us. Man will raise his noble brow, the head of creation, dignified, free, equal, fraternal, democratic, depending upon nothing but himself, with nothing greater than himself anywhere in existence. There will be no God, no gods, no churches, no priestcraft, no religion, no kings, no oppression, no poverty, no war or... scientist and the expert will be loud in the land and guide mankind to the earthly paradise. A perfected society; health universalised by a developed medical science and a sound Page 431 hygiene; everything rationalised; science evolved, infallible, omnipotent, ominiscient; the riddle of existence solved; the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the world; evolution, of which man, magnificent... disposition and inclined to keep myself behind the veil or in the background at the best of times. 'But what is this I hear? - it does not seem to me from reports that Reason even with the help of Science has kept her promise. And if not, why not? Is it because she would not or because she could not? or is it because she both would not and could not, or because she would and could, but somehow did not ...
... of self-torment or asceticism; it originated in his attitude of complete indifference towards physical enjoyments. The history of philosophy speaks of pre- and post-Socratic thinkers. Illustrating Socrates ' impact on the course of Western philosophy and science prior to Socrates, the intuitive visions of the Orphic mysteries, 2 had a decisive influence on Greek thought. Socrates and his followers... defeated. Thus, Socrates knew both the splendour of the Periclean age and the chaos of war — a war which brought not only material hardship but, even more crucial for Socrates, a confusion in the sciences and an erosion of moral values. Socrates taught that the great problem of any human being lies in the question of how to live his life. Endowed with rationality, each man must decide what course... above heaven", and of believing in gods of his own. Socrates defends himself, saying that these accusations are attempts of the ignorant to suppress diverse opinions and prevent free discussion in science, art and politics. In his life-long search for wisdom, Socrates had always exposed those who, without knowledge, claimed to have found the truth; in his eyes, ignorance disguised as knowledge is mere ...
... a world of wasteful endeavours and violent egotisms looked up for Light and found it neither in the votaries of Demos nor in the Commissars on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Religion had become religionism, science had ceased to be free inquiry being now mortgaged to the armour-plated Defence Establishments, and industry, commerce, even art, literature and education seemed to be helplessly tied... origins: Modern applied science, technocracy based on it, 'sport', at least its mise-enscène, I cannot integrate with my general outlook on life. The writers I consulted rather affirm me in my view... In this conflict I came across the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.... I felt: Here speaks one who wholeheartedly recognizes applied physical science and techniques, but has not lost... Communist leader Mao Tse-tung God is the mass of the (Chinese) people, if for Marshall Mcluhan (and the West) God is at the moment "science and the 'good life' ", the proper integral view would be to see God both in the great masses of the world's people and in science, the rockets to the moon, and in colour TV sets in every home. 42 Television would be coming to India in a big way at the same time ...
... and his greatest help in it."¹ THE MISSION AND ASPIRATION OF THE PSYCHIC What is the mission of the psychic ? Why does it descend into human birth? This is a moot problem of religion and philosophy, and upon its solution depend the meaning and purpose of human life, if it is conceded that man has a soul. Buddhism denies the existence of any soul or immortal entity subsisting in the midst... that is mysterious, inscrutable, baffling, and without any definite issue, and the Bhakta tends to withdraw from it in order to enjoy an unbroken continuity of the inner union. In almost all religions and philosophies there is a curious confederacy of silence over the purpose of the soul's birth in the material world. To call the birth a fall explains nothing, unless you account for the fall and discover... else, Sri Aurobindo's description and differentiation of the Jivâtmâ, the psychic entity and the psychic being are characterised by a clarity and precision remarkably rare outside the province of science, and reveal the three aspects of the same reality in such a way that the various spiritual realisations of them fall into their proper places without creating the confusion which not unoften bewilder ...
... the process of this absolute. The thinker is concerned to seek out and enforce the truth on himself and the world regardless of any effect it may have in disturbing the established bases of life, religion, ethics, society, regardless of any other consideration whatsoever: he must express the word of the Truth whatever its dynamic results on life. And this absolute becomes most absolute, this imperative... do to afflict it, just as it is ready to make all manner of sacrifices in the pursuit and the affirmation of the truth it knows and lives for. Bruno burning in the Roman fire, the martyrs of all religions suffering and welcoming as witnesses to the light within them torture and persecution, Buddha leaving all to discover the dark cause of universal suffering in this world of the impermanence and the... a respectable but still rather unpractical and often trivial curiosity: as he values ethics for its social effects or for its rewards in life, so he values knowledge for its external helpfulness; science is great in his eyes because of its inventions, its increase of comforts and means and appliances: his standard in all things is vital efficiency. But in fact Nature sees and stirs from the first ...
... Aurobindo stunned him with his reply: 'No, at present I do not take a bath. I am passing through some physical changes as a result of spiritual experiences. My hair draws fat from the body.' Now, has science any explanation to offer about these extraordinary phenomena or will it dismiss them as grandmother's tales? I leave you to find your own answers but I think I have told you enough about Sri Aurobindo's... there that I first came to know the wily detective Maulvi Sams-ul-Alam and had the pleasure of entering into a cordial relation with him.... The Maulvi made me listen to a most entertaining sermon on religion: "To be truthful is part of the religious life. The Sahibs say Aurobindo Ghose is the leader of the terrorist party; this is a matter of shame and sorrow for India. But by keeping to the path of rectitude... Sri Krishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work.' Then Sri Aurobindo goes on to speak of his experience: He made me realise the central truth of the Hindu religion. He turned the hearts of my jailors to me and they spoke to the Englishman in charge of the jail, "He is suffering in his confinement; let him at least walk outside his cell for half an hour in the ...
... He invents docks and telephones, but he has not even for a second invented himself. Has he ever once purely been himself—ή just a trace—free from ah this wrapping that cloaks itself in religion and philosophy and colors, lots of colors? We're born with a mudhole to clean out, 19 She said. To know, know, KNOW! I knew nothing, nothing but the things of ordinary life, external knowledge. I had... absurd little bit of truncated path we hurry along in order to become the super-something of today’s fashion or todays taste or today’s knowledge—but fortunately tastes change, and fashions, and sciences. But what does not change in all this? What is the constant? And She added in order to reassure the child, disconcerted by the prospect of a cobbler Beethoven: It isn't a downfall; it is just meeting... same truth, while fully engaged in his revolutionary movement, and experiencing the infinitudes of the Spirit in the very midst of the most violent or most commonplace everyday actions. Most of the religions have put their curse upon Matter, He would write, and have made the refusal or the resigned temporary’ endurance of the physical life the test of religious truth and of spirituality. The older creeds ...
... living with the Guru. Whether one desires initiation into spiritual philosophy or into the mystic folds of music or into the mystery of any of the arts and sciences, the best way of achieving mastery was to live with the Guru, to observe him, serve him and obey him, though not in fear but in love and complete trust. Caste, status, religion, even sex is irrelevant; the unique personal relationship is alone... descendents seem to have accounted for nearly twenty Nobel laureates. There is thus a whole Guru-Sishya linked sequence which is as significant in the secular arts and sciences as it certainly is in the art and science of spiritual philosophy. The sense of the Divine Presence and the feeling of Divine Guidance and Divine Protection are, however, the indispensable élan in all Gurukulas and Ashrams. ... Likewise, in the talks before 24 November 1926 and the resumed talks after 1938, among the subjects that figured were literature, poetry, art, politics, Vedic exegesis, education, psychology, philosophy, religion, war, and even nudity and birth-control, besides of course problems relating to the sadhana. Many of the letters (and the conversations too) have been collected, but many letters also lie scattered ...
... can no longer speak of philosophy or religion here — blown away. For centuries we have been told about “spiritualists” and “materialists,” but what matter are we talking about, and what spirit? What is the “spirit” of the fish to the amphibian? — It is another mode of breathing. Religion and philosophy are both pulmonary respiration. To see philosophies and religions breaking apart is very ... there to a new kernel of experience, until the puzzle is complete and the conclusion inevitable. We are not going into any kind of mysticism or philosophy, even Hindu philosophy, nor even into any kind of scientism. For what is the reptile's science to the archaeopteryx? We are going into the facts of the experience, strange though they may seem to us. And, like Darwin in the Galapagos, we start... something else, disguised in a man's skin. Perhaps that is the true question: the earth is full of beings who are not men. They are goats, rats or rabbits, but not men. They may have science, democracy or religion, but they are not men. They are very ingenious digestive tracts. No species is more fake. A rat is what it is, without pretence. Man is not what he is — he pretends a lot of things, with ...
... Page 467 temperament behind which give to the spoken symbol its import & its effect. Let me observe in passing, for the observation is needed in these days of the siege of our religion and philosophy by inadequate European conceptions, that we have here the key to an important difference between Vedantic & Western thought, which is not to the discredit of our great national Scripture. We... clash with the equally outreaching egoistic desires of other men. He escapes perhaps into mind and seeks an unlimited satisfaction in the enjoyments belonging to that more elastic principle, in art, science or literature; but there too, though freer & better satisfied, he is both fettered by his nerves and body and hedged in by the limitations of the mind itself. The mind in sensational & vital man, incapable... ego, shun the world." It is an escape, not a solution; God in man may admit escape for the few, but He denies it to the many, for He will not allow His purpose in life and world to be frustrated. Religion digs still deeper: "Replace many desires by one, drive out the desires of this miserable earth by the desire of God and of a future world not besieged by these unsatisfied yearnings." But to postpone ...
... spiritual self-discovery; occult knowledge was there but kept subordinate. We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came First, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material Nature, sought from them entirely material objects... age of development which must lead to such a new and larger synthesis. We are not called upon to be orthodox Vedantins of any of the three schools or Tantrics or to adhere to one of the theistic religions of the past or to entrench ourselves within the four corners of the teaching of the Gita. That would be to limit ourselves and to attempt to create our spiritual life out of the being, knowledge... potentialities. We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future. A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning ¹. All the Puranic tradition, it must be. remembered, draws the richness of its contents from the Tantra. ². The Cosmic Play ...
... not in question, but they do reveal that a certain narrow and limited type of representation has forever pursued us. As much in the ancient religions and their theological constructions as – Yes, but... Towarnicki: – in our Scholastism and our science and technology, which all proceed in the same way. Page 144 Listen, personally I haven't seen anything simpler than these words... "How should I live?" Yes, one always immediately looks for a mental answer. But what we actually need is an answer of a different order, something that has nothing to do with morality, philosophy, religion and all that. Each of these human approaches tries to give an answer or a satisfaction; and each, in the course of a person's development, may bring something. But it isn't something that can... What will he feel he has accomplished? That's when, perhaps, he will come to that "pure" moment, deep inside, when a man has to BE something. Not just a sum of machines + a family + philosophy + religion, but truly his own REAL human heartbeat. If one such second seizes hold of humanity because its machinery breaks down, then, truly, another dimension will be able to take over the human heart ...
... nature or operations of spiritual perception and reception of knowledge. For example, mind as a cognitive medium is basically 46. Letters on Yoga, p. 169. 47. See Samuel Hugo Bergman, "Philosophy and Religion" in Actes du Xl è me Congr è s International de Philosophie (Bruxelles, 1953), p. 13. 48. "par āñ ci kh ā ni vyat ṛṇ at svaya ṁ bhustasm āt par āṅ pa ś yati n ā ntar ā tman, ka ś... Purv-ardha), pp. 64-66. 5.& 6. Swami Nikhilananda (Translator), The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 81'. Page 141 segments of human experience and activity. Philosophy including Metaphysics, the various Sciences, Mathematics, etc., have thus their particular languages of discourse and investigation; and we know, for example, that "the physicist quickly gives up English as the language... Only the Unconscious knoweth this Consciousness." (Man a'rafa Rab-ba-h ū kal-l ā les ā nuh ū .... Mahram é ī n hosh juz b é - hosh n- ī s ṭ .) (See Bhagavan Das, The Essential Unity of All Religions, pp. 160-61.) The truths of the Infinite are not easy to put into words which are finite and coined by a consciousness that blinks with its mortal gaze. It is no wonder that Teachers ...
... before with this force in me and said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the sanatana dharma [the Eternal Law] which for us is nationalism … The Sanatan Dharma, that is nationalism... went hand in hand with a critical re-evaluation of them. This resulted, for instance, in the foundation, in 1828, of the reformist Brahmo Samaj by Rammohan Roy. Having learned to look at their own religion through the eyes of Christian Westerners, Roy and his contemporaries wanted to discard its superfluous and superstitious excrescences and to return to the fundamentals. Fundamental was the One God... boys: the Reverend William H. Drewett, Congregational minister at Manchester. And that is where Doctor K.D. Bose left his sons, with the recommendation that they would be allowed to choose their own religion when reaching the years of discernment, and with the strict instruction that all things Indian would be kept far from them. ‘I knew nothing about India or her culture,’ wrote Sri Aurobindo in reference ...
... understand, I couldn't attempt those details, because if I had, I would have lost my aim, I would have missed my realization. For her, it's all right, because she was educated. She knows philosophy, metaphysics, science, and what not! Moreover, she had the good fortune of meeting Sri Aurobindo. I would like to meet him. But as for me, I was all alone. So I had no option. I don't regret it. I came here... ready. For eighty percent of the people will be against me, and to convince them I must be really strong, well armed and sure! Once I am ready, no one will be able to stop me. All governments and religions will collapse. I will write to the Pope, asking him what they are preaching now. What did Christ tell us in the Gospels! He told his apostles to go and heal the sick and drive demons away. What are ...
... knowledge and teaching laid down by intuition, experience and wisdom, the science and art and ethic of life, the best standards available to the race. To elaborate the same idea, it may be said that Shastra is the recognised science and art of life which is the outcome of mankind's collective living, its culture, religion, science, its progressive discovery of the best rule of life. Evidently, the concept... wanted to study history, sociology, political science, economics, philosophy and literature. I also wanted to be acquainted with modern developments in science. I told him that my study of law, which I had undertaken under duress, had ultimately benefited me greatly because it gave me a concrete sense of our social institutions and even the philosophy of civilisation. I confessed that I was grateful... have reached a breaking-point. I felt shaky. There was a special reason. But I gave Page 68 a somewhat diversionary reply." I have done philosophy, too, as a subsidiary subject." "Not bad at all," said Professor Bapat. He continued. "Philosophy is a great discipline of logical thinking; and Law demands rigorous application of logic. But the question is as to where you will be more useful ...
... sensuousness & imagination which Kalidasa portrayed in Pururavus incompatible with the high austerity of religion. It is in the mouth of this champion of Heaven Kalidasa has placed one of the few explicit protests in Sanscrit of the ordinary sensuous man against the ascetic idealism of the old religion And yet I cannot think of her Created by a withered hermit cold. How could an aged... feelings which seem to have been left out in his composition. It is part of his self-assumed role in life to be the ideal king, the mirror of gallantry & conjugal duty, the champion of the gods & of religion. Yet it is Urvasie and not he who remembers that his "high capital awaits him long" and who shrinks from the displeasure of the people. He exhibits deference & a show of love to Aushinarie because... seen God and interpreted existence. It is this double aspect of Hindu temperament, extreme spirituality successfully attempting to work in harmony with extreme materialism, which is the secret of our religion, our life & our literature, our civilisation. On the one side we spiritualise the material out of all but a phenomenal & illusory existence, on the other we materialise the spiritual in the most definite ...
... spiritual self-discovery; occult knowledge was there but kept subordinate. We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects.... consciousness out of first a dead and then a struggling and troubled unconsciousness. A spiritual consciousness is emerging and it is through this spiritual consciousness that one can meet the Divine. Religions, full of mental and vital mixed, troubled and ignorant stuff, can only get glimpses of the Divine; positivist reason with its questioning based upon things as they are and refusing to believe in anything... descent which attempted to take up each lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual at the summit. The Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellectual philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried to reach it anew, not through a direct intuitive or occult process as did the Vedic seers, but by the power of the mind's reflective, speculative ...
... truth and all experience, since both vary with the outlook and the inlook of the knowing and experiencing mind and being; each man is said to have his own religion according to his own nature, but so too each man may be said to have his own philosophy, his own way of seeing and experience of existence, though only a few can formulate it. But from another point of view this variety testifies rather to... sense reality and deal with the flatness as if it were a fact; but in true phenomenal reality the flatness of the earth is unreal, and Science seeking for the truth of the phenomenal reality in things has to treat it as approximately round. In a host of details Science contradicts the evidence of the senses as to the real truth of phenomena; but, still, we have to accept the cadre provided by our senses... conscious of a false universe. We are back on the horns of the dilemma and with no prospect of getting free from our impalement on it, unless we escape by concluding that since all philosophy is part of Maya, all philosophy is also an illusion, problems abound but no conclusion is possible. For what we are confronted with is a pure static and immutable Reality and an illusory dynamism, the two absolutely ...
... remained very misty, was discarded by science, as were all matters occult and religious – but only up to a certain point. For it is touching when studying the history of Marxism, Fascism, Nazism, Russian communism and Maoism, among other national or worldwide movements, to see how desperately millions of people have been surrendering themselves to these pseudo-religions. Now, even the blessings of consumerism... religious origin.” 88 In their search for authenticity, the flower children spontaneously focused on forms of thought and spiritual practice in relation to the big gap in Western philosophy, psychology and religion: the spiritual life, the soul. For this they turned towards the East, and firstly, towards India. “According to what I am being told”, said the Mother in 1964, “I mean by people who listen... French and 250,000 Dutch would be practising Buddhists. “That which is permanent in the Hindu religion, must form the basis on which the world will increasingly take its stand in dealing with spiritual experience and religious truth,” 79 wrote Sri Aurobindo. And “that which is permanent in the Hindu religion” may well prove to be the synthesis he and the Mother first realised and then formulated. ...
... development with the outer would be ideal. Science, for instance, steadies reason arid gives a firm grounding to the physical mind. Art – I mean the appreciation of beauty pure and simple, without the sensual grasping at the object – trains up the aesthetic side of the mind. The true artist has always the pure love of beauty – free and impersonal. Philosophy cultivates the pure thinking power. And... That he does not speak except when necessary is also a good sign. He may be a Vaishnava or a Shaiva. That matters very little. That is religion ; but this man does not want any religion from him. He wants spiritual development. What has that to do with religion ? And about impressive appearance, most of the people, who have it, get it from the vital world and turn out to be deceptive. ... now, humanity has only got glimpses of the Truth – but not the Truth itself. Every spiritual movement has tended to the same and has helped the realisation of it to a certain extent. The Vaishnavite religion wanted to bring the Truth into the Page 69 vital and the aesthetic being but it remained satisfied with it. The Vaishnavites indulged themselves, you may say, spiritually. The austerity ...
... Time and again Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have warned against the danger of making their vision into a new religion. “… No new religion, no dogmas, no fixed teachings. One must avoid – one must avoid at all costs – that this should become a new religion.” (The Mother: Notes on the Way, p. 133) × ... human or earthly mind and life and body or in objects and events in the world of Matter.” (Sri Aurobindo: Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, p. 548) × Sri Aurobindo: Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, pp. 548-49. × ... people it is even altogether imperceptible. And yet it is working, growing – until it will be strong enough to assert itself visibly … “In the supramental creation there will no longer be any religions. The whole life will be the expression, the outflowering into forms of the divine Unity manifesting in the world. And there will no longer be what men now call gods. These great divine beings will ...
... K.D. Sethna, we will continue to use this name.) Sethna was ‘a brilliant philosophy graduate’ with a ready sense of humour and a broad ‘Renaissance mind.’ Besides his countless writings about Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and their yoga, he has published books on comparative religion, Christianity, the origin of the Aryans, science and the scientific paradigms, Greece and its culture, and on many other... brilliant period of the Ashram,’ Sri Aurobindo would say. ‘People were having brilliant experiences, big push, energy, etc. If our yoga had taken that line, we could have ended by establishing a great religion, bringing about a big creation, etc., but our real work is different, so we had to come down into the physical. And working on the physical is like digging the ground; the physical is absolutely inert... ‘in half an hour,’ withholding the things ‘prepared in the subtle dimension.’ Had the Mother continued this new creation with the help of the Gods, some of them incarnated in human beings, a new religion would have appeared on Earth with a force and a lustre we cannot even imagine. Now, nobody knows about it. As K.D. Sethna writes: ‘This was surely the mightiest act of renunciation in spiritual history ...
... be right upon earth, tip-top, A-l: my daughter Science and I have arranged that between us. Man will raise his noble brow, the head of creation, dignified, free, equal, fraternal, democratic, depending upon nothing but himself, with nothing greater than himself anywhere in existence. There will be no God, no gods, no churches, no priestcraft, no religion, no kings, no oppression, no poverty, no war or... supreme Light even in the darkened earth-consciousness stands as the one ultimate certitude. Art, poetry, music are not Yoga, not in themselves things spiritual any more than philosophy is a thing spiritual or Science. There lurks here another curious incapacity of the modern intellect—its inability to distinguish between mind and spirit, its readiness to mistake mental, moral and aesthetic idealisms... About a letter from the Carey-Perry School of the Chemistry of Life, Los Angeles) I think this will amuse you; it is an unexpected comment on Krishnaprem's scepticism about science + Yoga—or should it be, science = Yoga. Here there is both the addition and the equation. "The great plan of salvation for man,—it is truly a physico-chemical process" seems hard to beat, but "The Second Period of ...
... wonderfully to get through them. I am not a literary man, and I am not a historian; what, indeed, am I? I find it difficult to answer that question. I have been a dabbler in many things; I began with science at college, and then took to the law, and, after developing various other interests in life, finally adopted the popular and widely practised profession of gaol-going in India! You must not take... beginnings of Western aggression in the East — the coming of the big machine and the development of capitalism — the spread of industrialism and European domination and imperialism — and the ! wonders of science in the modern world. Great empires have risen and fallen and been forgotten by man for thousands of years, till their remains were dug up again by patient explorers from under the ¦ sands that... Airy nothing, as they deemed, These remain. So sings Mary Coleridge. The past brings us many gifts; indeed, all that we have to-day of culture, page-386 civilization, science, or knowledge of some aspects of the truth, is a gift of the distant or recent past to us. It is right that we acknowledge our obligation to the past. But the past does not exhaust our duty or obligation ...
... but it may be true for all I know. These theosophic and other modern attempts to square physical Science with Yoga (Yogis formerly did not bother to differentiate the spiritual functions of grey matter and white matter) make me always suspicious. It looks like manufacture of the mind, pseudo-science. It is true however that a passage in the Upanishads is supposed to give the soul hired lodgings... part of the instrumentation. It is absurd to make so much of it as all that. It is a sort of false materialism intended to placate minds that have a scanty knowledge of science. But what is the use of that? Everybody now knows that science is not a statement of the truth of things, but only a language expressing a certain experience of object§, their structure, their mathematics, a co-ordinated and utilisable... hriday vidārak : heart-rending. × dharma pāgal : mad about religion. × Con: short for Confucius. ...
... we may apply the same to this Parsi poet; Zarathrushtra formed his religion by praising beauty in Nature and Amal Kiran as his descendent has taken liberty, under the wide and luminous wings of Sri Aurobindo, to go one step farther in praising the beauty of the spiritual Muse, and in the process do away with all religion. His poetry and his talks on poetry and his bringing out Sri Aurobindo... This is the work of art; for reality is not based in the substance of things but in the principle of relationship. Truth is the infinite pursued by metaphysics; fact is the infinite pursued by science, while reality is the definition of the infinite which relates truth to the person. Reality is human; it is what we are conscious of, by which we are affected, that which we express." That would... "dvā suparnā, two birds beautiful of wings", we are transported to their many-splendoured world and they immediately become our companions too. What we would analyse as poetry and art and philosophy drops out suddenly and what we would see in the glow and grandeur of its expression is a miracle of speaking silence and the dynamism of an unfathomable peace. We meet in it the Rishi. Amal ...
... law of our plane, and on the other side there are the Asuric impulses and tendencies. Sri Aurobindo : That is the old conflict between Gods and Titans symbolised by all the religions. Disciple : But the religions say that you have to follow inc Deva and you are safe. Sri Aurobindo : It is not so easy ; and it may be very good for the Deva but not for the man because the Devas would... Disciple : There is a story of two Christian monks which is proved to be the same as that of Buddha and Ananda. Sri Aurobindo : Religions are very funny. Instead of all these absurdities, if they get to the thing that is behind the religion it would be more to the point or purpose. Disciple : What do you think of prayascitta – atonement – as a means of purification ? Sri... is changed into thought. Sri Aurobindo : How do you know that food particles are dead Matter ? Because there is no such gap, the transformation cannot be understood by science. It is futile to ask "why", because science can only know the "process", the "how", of things. Disciple : Bergson says that mental knowledge only applies to the physico-chemical world and that the problem of life ...
... 7: The Real Reality She was progressing alone in a world where appearances had exploded. The very ones who had sounded the first tocsin—or first chimes—with their colors or science did not know the meaning of their gesture. We walk blindfolded in the forest of the future while the future is already here, guiding our hands and our steps. She was twenty- three or twenty-four;... day the mental window replaced the window of the ape. Over there in Calcutta, Sri Aurobindo, like Mirra, was also seeing exploded appearances, and He would soon write: Everybody now knows that Science is not a statement of the truth of things, but only a language expressing a certain experience of objects, their structure, their mathematics, a coordinated and utilisable impression of their processes—... series of visions and in several of these visions ... (I knew nothing about India, mind you, nothing, just as most Europeans know nothing about it: a country full of people with certain customs and religions, a confused and hazy history, where a lot of "extraordinary things" are said to have happened. I knew nothing.) Well, in these visions I saw Sri Aurobindo just as he looked physically, but glorified; ...
... His intuitions helped him to read the Vedas as they should be read, and this right reading of the Vedas - of the Rig Veda especially - reinforced his evolving philosophy of life-transformation and world-transformation, the philosophy that was to be set forth in all its amplitude in The Life Divine. It was thus not at all surprising that, when the Arya came to be launched, Sri Aurobindo started... guide him through the present circuits and the possible steeper ascent of his life up to the luminous heights of his spirit". 46 If the Gita is a great manual of spiritual philosophy, it is also philosophy with a difference: the teacher is a divine personality, the pupil is his comrade and kinsman, and the occasion is the moment of a sanguinary clash of arms. Arjuna and Krishna have been... What is the clue to the mingling and melting together of Works, Knowledge and Love to flow onward as infallible irresistible existential action? What is the king-knowledge (Raja-Vidya), the king-science (Raja-Guhya), the right and just knowledge and the very law of our being? The secret of secrets is, says Krishna, that the Divine is in each individual being or thing, in all beings and things ...
... sun god Aton, never represented in human form but as the sun disk, was central to the theology of Heliopolis, perhaps the most ancient in Egypt, although he played only a minor role in the official religion. That Amenhotep and Tiy were profoundly dedicated to Aton is shown by the fact that he was revered in their palace at Malgatta, west of Thebes, and that the boat in which Tiy moved on the huge artificial... Akhenaton’s revolutionary undertaking – he has been called ‘the heretic king’ and ‘the most controversial of all kings of Egypt’ – went completely against the established and extremely powerful religion of the time, and is considered the first attempt at monotheism. The faceless Aton was declared the only God and the worship of all other gods, of the whole Egyptian panthéon, was abolished. The s... their world ‘realistic’ view and even their religious prejudices on times and events that were utterly different from the ones in which they themselves live. As the Mother said, the life, culture and religion of ancient Egypt were determined by an exceptional presence of the occult. What is occult is by definition unknown. It is worthwhile pointing out that many of the prominent Greeks – Solon, Pythagoras ...
... unhappiness. It is for the man to choose his work; the woman's part is to give help and encouragement.' "Now the question is: are you going to follow the way of the Hindu religion or the way of the new-fangled Reformist religion? You are a daughter of a Hindu family.... I have no doubt that you will follow the former way. "You may say that you are an ordinary girl, you have no strength of mind,... Aniruddha and Mrinalini as his wife Usha (the daughter of a Titan king). One can't vouch for the truth of the story since it involves a chronological anomaly, but it is not impossible according to occult science. Sri Aurobindo's composition of a long poem in Bengali, "The Abduction of Usha", lends some credence to the account. If true it suggests that Mrinalini's relation with Sri Aurobindo goes back many... existence. Mark that Sri Aurobindo was very particular to marry a Hindu girl in the Hindu way quite contrary to what his father had done. Sri Aurobindo after his return from England studied the Hindu religion and culture and must have found profound truths which must have influenced him in his choice. Besides, in Bengal the reformist Brahmo Samaj was at that time much in fashion and educated people were ...
... the past wrote much of the godheads and powers behind existence, but in the mask of legends and myths, sometimes of God, but not often with a living experience, oftener in the set forms taught by religions and churches and without true beauty and knowledge. But now the mind of man is opening more largely to the deepest truth of the Divine, the Self, the Spirit, the eternal Presence not separate and... intellectuality does not create an atmosphere favourable to moved vision and the uplifting breath of life, and for all its great stir of progress and discovery that age, the carnival of industry and science, gives us who are in search of more living, inner and potent things the impression of a brazen flavour, a heavy air, an inhibition of the greater creative movements, a level spirit of utility and prose... future poetry may do for us in the way and measure in which poetry can do these things, by vision, by the power of the word, by the attraction of the beauty and delight of what it shows us. What philosophy or other mental brooding makes precise or full to our thought, poetry can by its creative power, imaging force and appeal to the emotions make living to the soul and heart. This poetry will present ...
... to read a lot, and they should choose books of literary merit. Some people read in order to learn. They should choose instructive books on the subject or subjects they are interested in: philosophy, science, art, etc. And then there are the very few who want to understand life, its purpose and its goal. For them, Sri Aurobindo's books are the best reading of all. Blessings. 10 September... Why do we celebrate Christmas here? What special meaning does this day have for us? And why is a distinction made here between Europeans and Indians on Christmas Day? Long before the Christian religion made December 25th the day of Christ's birth, this day was the festival of the return of the sun, the Day of Light. It is this very ancient symbol of the rebirth of the Light that we wish to celebrate ...
... study. In the curriculum of the Ashram school all the usual academic subjects were found – mathematics and science (for which Pavitra built a well-equipped laboratory) as well as what are called the ‘humanities’: modern languages and Sanskrit, history, geography, sociology, psychology, philosophy, etc. The Mother made it clear, however, that everything is one, which means that all these kinds of knowledge... realities which are their foundation and without which they could not be manifest. ‘[The students] are taught history or spiritual things, they are taught science or spiritual things. That is what is idiotic. In history the Spirit is there; in science the Spirit is there: the Truth is everywhere. What is needed is not to teach all that in a false way, but to teach it in a truthful way.’ 30 The... but the realization of the next step in evolution. Science is young and still very much reductionist, materialistic in its perspective. But however materialistic its standard models are at present, the human being knows intuitively that there are realities other than the material one, because it contains these other realities in itself. Science has already come very far from its first, naive materialistic ...
... activity return. When we have known what the world is, when we have exhausted Science & sounded all the fathomless void, we have still to know what God is, & unless we know what God is, we know nothing fundamental about the world. Tasmin vijnate sarvam vijnatam. He being known, all the rest is known. Material Philosophy & Science have to admit in the end that because they do not know the Transcendental... have their parts of science,—their physics, their theory of evolution, their explanation of heredity. Proceeding from the human soul to the Universal, they have their minutely scrupulous, subtle & profound system of psychology. Asserting the existence of worlds & beings other than those that live within the compass of our waking senses, they have their cosmogony, theogony, philosophy of Nature & of mental... developing in full freedom his own philosophy, which even those who disagree with it must recognise as one of humanity's most marvellous intellectual achievements; in the former he is attempting to conquer for his own system the entire & exclusive authority of the Sruti. A commentary on the Upanishads should be a work of exegesis; Shankara's is a work of metaphysical philosophy. He does not really approach ...
... tradition. Our purpose is not to decide which experience is better than the other, but to verify them for ourselves. Philosophies and religions dispute about the priority of different aspects of God and different Yogins, Rishis and Saints have preferred this or that philosophy or religion. Our business is not to dispute any of them, but to realize and become all of them, not to follow after any aspect... there is made clear the much that has still to be done." 387 We have in fact spent all these centuries preparing the Base: a base of security and well-being through our science, a base of charity through our religions and morals, a base of beauty and harmony through our arts, and a mental base of rigorous exactitude, but these are all bases for something else . Absorbed as we are in our effort... and Sri Aurobindo found himself alone with sixty-four pages of philosophy to produce every month. Nevertheless, he was no philosopher. And philosophy! Let me tell you in confidence that I never, never, never was a philosopher – although I have written philosophy which is another story altogether. I knew precious little about philosophy before I did the Yoga and came to Pondicherry – I was a poet and ...
... type to type, from fulfilment to fulfilment. Therefore to know is really to be conscious of the thing in any or all of these three states. The knowledge of the Sthula is science. The knowledge of the Sukshma is philosophy, religion and metaphysics. The knowledge of the Karana is Yoga. When a man knows the Sthula, he knows it with his senses, that is, with the Manas, he knows the Sukshma with reason... always act upon each other. The prana forms the link between the physical and the mental man. I must here warn you against stumbling into the error of those who try to harmonise Yogic Science with the physical science of the Europeans and search for the Yogic Nadis and Chakras in the physical body. You will not find them there. There are certain centres in the physical nervous system with which the... themselves in clear and perfect sentences. He may know a thing without thinking it out, but if he thinks, he must think clearly and perfectly. The Yogin reasons when necessary, but not like the man of science. He sees the thing with his prophetic power interpreting the truth into thought; the pratyaksha gives him the Artha, the Page 1381 inspiration gives him the Vak, the intuition gives him ...
... loved to talk of Sri Aurobindo. He was sick, he used to tell me, of the European civilization and had definitely turned his back on its message of science and materialist rationalism even though his mind was grounded in the scientific and mathematical philosophy of the West. Nevertheless he .wrote to Sri Aurobindo such humble letters almost petitioning him to shed light on his super-brilliant and yet avid... to win a ___________________ 1 "Well-known or unknown has absolutely no importance from the spiritual point of view. It is simple the propagandist spirit. We are not a party or a church or religion seeking adherents or proselytes. One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men." This he wrote subsequently in a letter, in 1935. Page 311 passport... being consciously turned towards the one Truth — the. one Divine. But that is, for human nature one of the most difficult of tasks, much more difficult than a rigid asceticism or a fervent piety. Religion itself does not give this complete harmonised sincerity — it is only the psychic being and the one souled spiritual aspiration that can give it." "How beautifully he writes, Dilip!!" Chadwick ...
... all love and delight, all vision and Page 621 high striving, all poetry and drama, all, all are nought but gases and glands and genes and nerves and brain-cells: Science, philosophy, head of his mystical chemical stature, Music and painting revealing the godhead in sound and in colour, Acts of the hero, thoughts of the thinker, search of the scholar,... earthways; Streaming through mire it pours still the mystical joy of its birthplace, Green of its banks and the green of its trees and the hues of the flower. 40 Science and philosophy, introspection and interrogation, fact and myth and symbolism, hope and aspiration and ecstasy, all course through Ahana's universe of poesy to overwhelming effect. Now and then, and again... to imagine that the so-called "marvels of modern science" have emptied existence of all significant mystery. But isn't it an over-simplification to declare that the world is run by "electric hordes", that "an algebra of mind, a scheme of sense, a symbol language" can really pluck the heart of the cosmic puzzle?121 In 'A Dream of Surreal Science' Sri Aurobindo has summed up the Materialist Denial ...
... the rose and the breeze and the moonlight, bird and beast & human being, man and woman and children and land and houses and gold and silver and oxen and raiment, books and poetry and learning and science, mind, body and life are, when renounced, to become the material, instrument and medium of a divine enjoyment, objectively, by all that he keeps for us or gives back to us physically during and after... in the light of this original idea of sacrifice that we must understand the ancient transition from Veda to Vedanta. Sacrifice to the gods was from the earliest times the central idea of the Hindu religion, under the name of renunciation, sacrifice to God still remains its whole spirit and teaching. The gods, Masters of natural forces, act in Nature under God in the motional being of the Master of all... shall he have grief", so rings his cry of triumphant freedom; it does not run "He whose Self is dead to the knowledge of all becomings". The most powerful support and argument of purely ascetic philosophies is the Buddhistic idea, foreign to Vedic Hinduism, that true freedom and true bliss are impossible in the universe and can only become possible if we escape out of it into some world-shunning secrecy ...
... excuses to express a great universal truth. In a parallel manner, the epics of Dante and Milton have specifically dealt with the Christian ideas. To us, modern intellectuals and adorers of materia1 science most of the ideas of these two poets may seem not only grotesque but also superstitious – at least they will appear unfamiliar and strange. But once we cross the barrier of words and enter the realm... universality means transcending the limitations of time and clime. Now, the main reason why man remains confined to a particular time and clime is this that he clings to a particular avocation or religion or institution – his very nature is to live within the confines of time and space. External life (life of the outside world) – that is to say, mixing with men of various countries, acquaintance and... not come into contact with a particular time, space and the individual. In fact, the formless universality that does not or cannot bear the touch of the physical world is particularly a matter of philosophy. The philosophical truth always likes to shun the local colour, for its purpose is not to exaggerate or make a display of the truth. But the poet seeks for a living image of the truth. An image must ...
... in "a fire and earthquake of the soul", the devil is let loose, and he invokes the Night and imposes his treacherous reign. A whole people can be bewitched into accepting a philosophy of perversion and the religion of ignorance and hatred. III November was the month of the Siddhi Day, and as usual the sadhaks were looking forward to the Darshan on the 24th to receive... recovery, and there were also the details of the working of the Ashram. To the amazement of the attending doctors, the Mother showed a surprisingly close - if intuitive - knowledge of medical science. When the orthopaedic surgeon came from Madras to examine Sri Aurobindo, the Mother "put many intricate questions to him on various possibilities, the prognosis, lines of treatment, etc., etc ...
... 'serum and injection'. Praise the Lord! not for the illnesses, but for the doctors. However, each of these formulas has a part truth behind it - with its advantages and disadvantages. As all religions and philosophies point to the Supreme but each in a different direction, so all medical fashions are ways to health - though they don't always reach it. 28 IX. On medical prescriptions: NB: Krishna... expertise would surely be able to find the concealed complexes and hidden disorders that were supposedly playing havoc with her child's mind! In the psychiatrist's parlour the mighty man of mental science wanted to get the spontaneous response of the boy's subconscious. So he fired at him the startling question: "What would happen if I chop off your right ear?" The boy at once replied: "I would hear... patient V has, to our surprise, recovered. Our medical authority says that castor oil seeds are highly toxic and that 10 seeds are the extreme limit. This chap took more than three times 10! Is medical science mistaken or has your Force worked or is it the antidote or cow dung given by some villagers that did the miracle? Sri Aurobindo: Perhaps it was Force + the cow dung that Page 133 ...
... swear by the resurgence of Asia, and the inevitability of the explosion of the New Life, there was also an emphasis on mere mental constructions, on attempts at a laborious synthesis of science, philosophy and religion, rather than on the outleap of spirituality informing and transforming the entire existential stairway from Matter to Mind. But between Mirra and Sri Aurobindo, a plenary new und... the cultivation of the integral as well as the miniature; in a word, the Japanese interim had proved a sanctuary and phoenix-hour for the whole tapasya of a Mahasaraswati: Page 201 The science and craft and technique of things are Mahasarawati's province. Always she holds in her nature and can give to those whom she has chosen the intimate and precise knowledge, the subtlety and patience ...
... programme of yogic research. This is as it ought to be. For Yoga is not a closed book. It is not a body of revelations made once for all, unverifiable and unsurpassable. It is not a religion; it is an advancing Science, with its field of inquiry and search always enlarging; its methods are not only intuitive but include also bold experimentation and rigorous verification by means of abiding experience... Page 86 Overmental creation would have meant the possibility of the establishment of a new religion, but as Sri Aurobindo pointed out: ... it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old, for humanity.... A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded is my conception of the matter.¹ The descent of the Supermind into the Inconscient, and... pouring in of ever new ideas and motives and facts and possibilities call for a new, greater consciousness to meet and master the increasing potentialities of existence and harmonise them. Reason and Science can only help by standardising, by fixing everything into an artificially arranged and mechanised unity of material life. A greater whole-being, whole-knowledge, whole-power is needed to weld all ...
... vision and discipline inspired by the Aurobindonian Supermind's integrality. A Vision of Science is one of the two poems—the other being In the Moonlight which Sri Aurobindo refers to in a letter about the change in scientific outlook in our day. He says that it prophesies the awakening by science to the hollowness of its own early materialistic dogmatism, an awakening which is part presage... Encyclopaedia Britannica has the following pertinent passage: "After studying rhetoric he began the study of philosophy under Siron the Epicurean. One of the minor poems written about this time in the scazon metre tells of delight at the immediate prospect of entering on the study of philosophy, and of the first stirring of that enthusiasm for philosophical investigation which haunted him through the... thought-form is absent in Savitri: there is plenty of it and that is why the poem is a philosophy no less than a legend and a symbol. But the thinking is not from the mental level which is usually associated with thought. Thought-form can be taken by what arrives from Overhead through the Yogi's silent mind and the philosophy in Savitri is an idea-structure expressing a mystical vision, a spiritual contact ...
... resolved to do in life. I passed my Matriculation in 1939. Maths was one subject I could not get to like but my father wanted me to take up Science in college. And so, for my father's sake and despite my unwillingness, I joined college to study science. The consequences were terrible. I lost one year and then joined the Art department of the Berhampore College. That was in 1940. As I began... caught just in time. He ended up behind bars. (22) I remember in my childhood there used to be such a spontaneous feeling of oneness and love between different communities and religions in our town, such a strong sense of togetherness between them: Hindus, Muslims, the poor and the rich, the high and the low castes, everyone lived in a happy solidarity. All those we consider to be... today. Although I managed the club and prepared the boys, I did not know clearly what ideal I was to set before them in life. I could not accept any political, social, religious, or economic philosophy of those times. I wanted to build innumerable gymnasiums throughout Bengal where the work of preparing man would go on. Behind every club there would be an industry that would bring in money for ...
... Agni, the divine Flame. Sri Aurobindo read some riks. 13 June. Talk on the Duttatreya Yoga, a system current in Maharashtra, and on Mahatma Gandhi. 18 and 19 June. Talks on Jain philosophy and the physical sciences. 20 June. Sri Aurobindo spoke about some of his own spiritual experiences and about some of the Mother's experiences. 23 June. Talk on non-violence and on self-purification. ... spirit and develop towards the utmost possible harmony of individual freedom and social unity. "This is our ideal and our search in the Arya . ... "Philosophy is the intellectual search for the fundamental truth of things; religion is the attempt to make the truth dynamic in the soul of man. They are essential to each other . . . . "Our first preoccupation in the Arya has therefore... vital and material parts of our nature; it is they that pull down the mind which has accepted and even when it has long lived in the joy and peace and oneness. That, I suppose, is why the religions and philosophies have had so strong a leaning to the condemnation of Life and Matter and aimed at an escape instead of a victory. But the victory has to be won; the rebellious elements have to be redeemed ...
... accused persons without as much as glancing at what was happening around them, were absorbed in reading the novels of Bankimchandra, Vivekananda's Raja Yoga or Science of Religions, or the Gita, the Puranas, or European Philosophy. 32 As for the way Sri Aurobindo's unruffled demeanour struck the boys, we have the testimony of one of them, Upendranath Bandopadhyaya, as recorded in his... of forensic art. What was Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of action? What was it - in the individual as well as National planes? Just this, affirmed Chittaranjan: Vedantism. Sri Aurobindo was not a politician in the ordinary. Western sense of the term, but a deeply committed person to whom politics was as profoundly spiritual an experience as was religion itself. Elucidating this point, Chittaranjan... after being made to wait for about two hours at Lal Bazar, he was removed to Royd Street, where he stayed all evening being treated by the detective, Maulvi Shams-ul-Alam, "to a delicious lecture on religion". Under the cover of expatiating on the links between Hinduism and Islam, the Maulvi made a naive attempt to pump Sri Aurobindo for incriminating information, but of course without success. He ...
... had foretold came to pass afterwards in due course. I was impressed, naturally. So there were, really and literally, "more things in heaven and earth" than could be dreamt of by the "philosophy" of reason and science! It is all very well to talk contemptuously of supernatural phenomena (didn't the Christ castigate the itch for a "sign" as vulgar?) but when these fall within our ken and can be traced... when offered Brahmajnana by Sri Krishna, declined with thanks, saying: 'What have we to do with the All-pervasive Formleses and Knowledge of It, when we have you in our midst?, Of all the religions I feel the most powerful kinship with the Vaislhnava outlook because of its emphasis on Naralila — the Human Incarnation. To see the Divine in the human is, I agree, the summit vision — for me,... central problem no nearer solution. For if, say, our Tagores and Russells and Sarat Chatterjees had really seen the Divine in the course of their noble quests — through humanitarianism and art and science — would they have just stopped where they did? I mean to ask: would they have remained — unlike Sri Krishna, Chaitanya, Buddha, Ramarkrishna, Sri Aurobindo — as unhappy and unenlightened as they are ...
... and establishments. 32 From 12 to 16 August, a World Conference and Seminar was held under the auspices of World Union, and there were sections on the Philosophy of Education, Education for the Whole Man, Integration of Humanities and Science, and the Role of Parents and Teachers. The deliberations were inspired by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and sustained by the blessings of the Mother. On... "occultism made quick and easy for the masses" was fraught with unimaginable danger. If reliance on drug-action was a trap and a danger, an excessive dependence on the Overmental Gods of the religions also stands in the way of man's further evolution. As she had said in her conversation of 18 May 1966: As long as man stands dazzled, lost in admiration of the power, beauty, accomplishments... m, the whole machinery of human civilisation must sooner or later grind to a frustrating halt or end in a terrible crash. But if people could rise to the height of their potentialities, if modern science and technology could be matched by a new flowering of consciousness, a sovereign Truth-Consciousness future-oriented although with its roots in the living past, there was every hope that the Abyss ...
... not yet the chief researcher in the bomb outrage or functioning as [the Prosecutor] Mr. Norton's prompter and unfailing aide me-moire.... The Maulvi made me listen to a most entertaining sermon on religion. That Hinduism and Islam had the same basic principles: in the Omkara of the Hindus we have the three syllables, A,U,M; the first three letters of the Holy Koran are A,L,M. According to philological... by some rhythmic material energy and that in turn was caught hold of by Purushottam's body which considered itself under a compulsion to execute the rhythm by a dance. There is the whole (occult) science and genesis of the affair. "Purushottam thought he was inspired and in a trance; Ambu thought Purushottam was going to break his own head and other people's legs; a number of others thought P... talk a poetic feast which Wordsworth and others enjoyed... But occasionally he was difficult to endure because of his interminableness. Especially difficult was he when he insisted on discussing philosophy even when suffering from a roaring cold. He would keep chattering of 'omjective' and 'sumjective' — which are, of course, 'objective' and 'subjective' spoken when the nose is completely blocked with ...
... in the usual way. I never, however, studied it with Sri Aurobindo. He discussed history and politics with me, read poetry and drama to me in many languages, but never attempted to teach me religion or philosophy. As I have mentioned already, he had given some spiritual instruction to a couple of friends in Baroda; but when, one day, I put him one or two questions about sadhana, he put me off summarily... whose loving hand was invisibly pulling the strings the whole time, unfit though I was for a spiritual life. At this time, I was fully occupied in writing on a variety of subjects - physical sciences for the young, a biography of Shivaji for the University, a history of the national movement for the Congress, novels and short stories for the general reader, and a number of reviews for periodicals ...
... that such things really happened." "That is because you are born in the Age of Science. What you cannot see, touch or hear does not exist - this is what Science teaches you. But doesn't the great poet Shakespeare say that: 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio , Than are dreamt of in your philosophy'?" "And you?" asked Sampada. "I? I am not a scientist. I just told you... gentle and kind, and handsome too, with his silvery hair and beard framing his serene face lit by an inner glow. To everyone he was Rishi Rajnarayan. He used to tell me so many things about philosophy and religion, about my country and its past, its poets and its saints. A great scholar and sage, he was also a true patriot. Perhaps my brothers and I inherited many of his traits. My father may have been... their energy and Page 92 their dynamism. Sanskrit is the language in which have been expressed all our Scriptures. Our religion and culture are founded on the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the streams of whose thought and philosophy are flowing through our veins. In spite of the various invasions and calamities that she has undergone down the centuries, India ...
... the host of striking phenomena which have been revealed to us by the careful researches of psychical science. Readers will surely enjoy these accounts and come to appreciate the truth of the oft-quoted saying "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". There are, indeed, supraphysical worlds and supraphysical forces whose actions and influences upon... pages 415-16 of her book Entretiens 1957-58. Here is an abridged version of whatever is relevant to our present discussion: The Mother knew a man of science, a person of real ability and acute intelligence. He had studied higher Science and held an important position. He came in contact with a "medium" who had exceptional "psychic" attainments. The scientist used to attend all her "seances"... satisfy our curiosity? Of course, we are excluding from our purview the atheists and agnostics and the materialist scientists who are dead obsessed with the current tenets and pre-suppositions of science. For they will immediately answer without the least hesitation: "Such curiosity about the supraphysical worlds or about the possible fate of the departed souls is misplaced and meaningless; for, apart ...
... disintegrate. Sri Aurobindo : That is not sufficient because it would not change their ,whole outlook. What is wanted is some new religious movement among the Madans which would remodel their religion and change the stamp of their temperament. For instance, Bahaism in Persia which has given quite a different stamp to their temperament. Next day (6th) it was announced that the Khalifa had to... since Yakub Husain and others have favoured the Angora decision and Mad Ali opposes it. There may be two parties among the Muslims. The Servant points out that the new republic is secular and not religions. Sri Aurobindo : In the first four Khalifas there was the reality of the Khilafat. They were the centres of Islamic culture and had some spirituality. After that the Umayad and other dynasties... like the fort of Jinji – one pillar standing here, and another ceiling there and some hall out of recognition somewhere ! 4-8-1926 Disciple : The word "Dharma" has come to mean "religion", though the original sense is not that. It is the law of being – social or moral – which sustains the being. Is the old classification of men in four orders, according to the peculiar Dharma of ...
... And men have grown up, and nations and civilizations, each in its own way seeking the Great Secret, the simple secret – through war and conquest, through meditation or magic, through beauty, religion or science. Though, in truth, we do not know who is most advanced: the Acropolis builder, the Theban magician, the Cape Kennedy astronaut, or the Cistercian monk, for one has rejected life in order to... is one, the remedy is one, like Truth, and a single point transmuted will transmute all the others. That point, however, is not to be found in the improvement of our laws, our systems or sciences, our religions, schools of thought or many-hued isms – all those are part of the old Machinery; not a single nut needs to be tightened, added or improved anywhere: we are suffocating in the extreme. Moreover... farther, but simply here, under our nose, in this small living aggregate which contains its own key, like the lotus seed in the mud, and to pursue a third path, which is neither that of science nor that of religion – although it may one day combine both within its rounded truth, with all our whites and blacks, goods and evils, heavens and hells, bumps and holes, in a new human or superhuman geography ...
... ce and that is "overwhelming" enough in all conscience without starting philosophy for standard books and the rest of it. And philosophy! Let me tell you in confidence that I never, never, never was a philosopher—although I have written philosophy which is another story altogether. I knew precious little about philosophy before I did the Yoga and came to Pondicherry—I was a poet and a politician... has the capacity of Yoga in him and can open, even if open, if opening is delayed by other movements belonging to his ordinary nature. These things are part of the science of Yoga, as familiar as the crucial experiences of physical Science are to the scientific seeker. Page 163 As for the impression of swooning, it is simply because you were not in sleep, as you imagined, but in a first... are not prepared to go through all that yourself—as few can do except those of extraordinary spiritual stature—you have to accept the leading of a Master, as in Science you accept a teacher instead of going through the whole field of Science and its experimentation all by yourself—at least until you have accumulated sufficient experience and knowledge. If that is accepting things a priori, well, you ...
... of knowledge and the literature of power. Philosophy and science are the literature of knowledge while all prose and poetry that are pieces of art fall under the category of literature of power because they affect the emotions and change attitudes and remould character. Note next the adjective "essential" in relation to the philosopher's gift. Philosophy is supposed to make clear the basic principle... ourselves open to the objection: "All fine poets do not offer us spiritual matter. They talk of a multitude of earthly things and some of them are even disbelievers. The Roman Lucretius scoffed at religion and said that the gods were created by human fear: he was a materialist and atheist by intellectual persuasion." It is true that a lot of excellent poetry is ostensibly unconcerned with any divine ...
... knowledge and the literature of power. Philosophy and science are the literature of knowledge while all prose and poetry that are pieces of art fall under the category of literature of power because they affect the emotions and change attitudes and remould character. Note next the adjective "essential" in relation to the philosopher's gift. Philosophy is supposed to make clear the basic principle... ourselves open to the objection: "All fine poets do not offer us spiritual matter. They talk of a multitude of earthly things and some of them are even disbelievers. The Roman Lucretius scoffed at religion and said that the gods were created by human fear: he was materialist and atheist by intellectual persuasion." It is true that a lot of excellent poetry is ostensibly unconcerned with any divine ...
... knowledge and the literature of power. Philosophy and science are the literature of knowledge while all prose and poetry that are pieces of art fall under the category of literature of power, — because they affect the emotions and change attitudes and remould character. Note next the adjective "essential" in relation to the philosopher's gift. Philosophy is supposed to make clear the basic principle... ourselves open to the objection: "All fine poets do not offer us spiritual matter. They talk of a multitude of earthly things and some of them are even disbelievers. The Roman Lucretius scoffed at religion and said that the gods were created by human fear: he was materialist and atheist by intellectual persuasion." It is true that a lot of excellent poetry is ostensibly unconcerned with any divine ...
... the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed . . . . I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old, for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.4 18-8-1935 ¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother , p. 361. ² Sri Aurobindo, On Himself , p. 484.... entirely pacifist that he was opposed in principle and in practice to all violence and that he denounced terrorism, insurrection, etc., as entirely forbidden by the spirit and letter of the Hindu religion. It is even suggested that he was a forerunner of the gospel of Ahimsa. This is quite incorrect. Sri Aurobindo is neither an impotent moralist nor a weak pacifist. The rule of confining political... Yogic life. ² 24-6-1932 You can't expect me to argue about my own spiritual greatness in comparison with Krishna's. The question itself would be relevant only if there were two sectarian religions in opposition, Aurobindoism and Vaishnavism, each insisting on its own God's greatness. That is not the case. And then what Krishna must I challenge, – the Krishna of the Gita who is the transcendent ...
... gives to the Vedantic conception of Causality and Law of Nature an entirely different force and essential meaning from the vast generalisation of mechanical Energy popularised by modern Science. Law of Nature is to Science the tyranny of a self-existent habit in mechanical WorldForce which Intelligence, the indulged & brilliant youngest child of material Energy, can use indeed, can convert in its forms... fulfils it in the universal working of Nature—foreseen & intended in our waking consciousness, always indeed with a less extended working but still essentially & typically as God works, with a divine science if not the extended divine omniscience, a partial divine victoriousness if not the extended divine omnipotence. We shall be able to arrive at the precise & practical meaning of this identification... experiments & researches; they had too the same insatiable appetite for verification & more verification,—for without this harmony of boundless belief & inexorable scrutiny there can be no fruitful science; reason in man cannot accomplish knowledge without force of faith; faith cannot be secure in knowledge without force of reason. Thus experimenting, the Vedantin discovered above mind in life the ...
... the will of man attaches itself for the moment or through the centuries. In philosophy it gives equally good reasons for monism and pluralism or for any halting-place between them, for the belief in Being or the belief in Becoming, for optimism and pessimism, for activism and quietism. It can justify the most mystic religionism and the most positive atheism, get rid of God or see nothing else. In aesthetics... how do we detect the fallacies and refute the 'validity' of the inferences? There are two possible methods; the first one is to take recourse to the formal theorems and the rigorous methods of the science of logic; the second one is the simpler method of constructing another argument having exactly the same form but with a different subject matter such that the so-called right conclusions appear in... seen the light of day during the period of time we are speaking of. So the sadhaks of Page 151 that time had very confused ideas about many of the central aspects of Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy and Yoga. And as a result the notions they entertained or the questions they formulated were at times of a bizarre character. As NB, one of the principal correspondents of Sri Aurobindo, has remarked: ...
... Urizen: Of the primeval Priest's assum'd power, When Eternals spurn'd back his religion And gave him a place in the north, Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary. 82 There are three steps here, with a fourth implied: 1) Urizen's assumption of priest-power, 2) the spurning of his religion by the Eternals, 3) their giving him a place in the north, where his separate and dark creation... and brings liberation from that spirit's moralized religion, declares himself defiantly: "The times are ended; shadows pass, the morning 'gins to break; "The fiery joy, that Urizen perverted to ten commands, "What night he led the starry host thro' the wide wilderness, "That stony law I stamp to dust; and scatter religion abroad "To the four winds as a torn book... Europe which brings along with them Urizen and stellar bodies. There Urizen is pictured as established arbiter of man's destiny, lord of the Ten Commandments, with his religion of "serpent-form'd" temple spread over the earth, a religion which perverted godhead and alienated man from it in the time when the physical universe was organized, so that ...man fled from its face and hid In forests ...
... back to the late nineteenth century, the heyday of atheism and materialism drawing sustenance from mechanistic science. The early part of the present century when you and I had our school-days and college-days lived still under the shadow of the preceding century's doubts and denials. Science was undergoing a new influence - relativity theory and quantum theory had brought some strangeness into the Newtonian... or occasional dharmas relates to certain conventions of an age: these conventions may be passing social conveniences or legal technicalities. A further shade would refer to the outer trappings of religion - its observances, rituals, customary practices. To be told to transcend such dharmas would not contradict the clinging to what the Avatar periodically comes for in order to maintain terrestrial harmony... Newtonian and Laplacean universe, but the hold of post-Darwinian biology was very strong and the stress on our animal origin made religion and mysticism and poetic idealism look like fantasies. Yet now and again the great aspirations refused to be brushed off as being "wishful thinking". A poem of Laurence Binyon asked very pertinently the question: Eternity! how learnt I that strange word? ...
... meanwhile, however, we can live in its presence in several expectant ways. In Savitri there is spiritual philosophy put in the revealing language of a poet, its expression carrying the inspired and inevitable Word. We have in it mysticism, occult knowledge, religion, metaphysics, art, science, literature, history of man and history of earth, all that is noble and living, that can impart to our ... its worthy tradition, with its own natural disposition and governing character, its innate swabhāva and swadharma. True nationalism for Sri Aurobindo was Sanatana Dharma itself, the eternal religion based on spiritual knowledge and experience. 13 He saw that in it alone grow the values that acquire merit in every respect, worldly and otherwise. To it he now committed himself completely. In... must somehow see God... If He exists there must be ways to perceive His presence, to meet Him. However arduous the way, I am determined to follow that path. In one month I have felt that the Hindu religion has not told lies—the signs and hints it has given have become a part of my experience... My third madness is that other people look upon the country as an inert piece of matter, a stretch of fields ...
... own individual and social action". 33 Mirra of course took an active interest in the work of the society. The young men who joined it were expected to transcend the inhibiting notions of race, religion, creed, caste and dogmatic opinion, and seek unity in the solidarity of the spirit. Members were required to devote some time every day to meditation and self-culture, and also to seek opportunities... in the being, from a lack of receptivity to the divine forces. When you cut yourself off from the energy and light that sustain you, then there is this depression, there is created what medical science calls a "favourable ground" and something takes advantage of it. It is doubt, gloominess, lack of confidence, a selfish turning back upon yourself that cuts you off from the light and divine energy... 'Review," Sri Aurobindo wrote, my new theory of the Veda will appear as also translation and explanation of the Upanishads, a series of essays giving my system of Yoga and a book of Vedantic philosophy (not Shankara's but Vedic Vedanta) giving the Upanishadic foundations of my theory of the ideal life towards which humanity must move. You will see so far as my share is concerned, it will be ...
... poetical creation the originating inspiration comes from above the intellect. It might come through the intuitive soul or the soul of vision. Even when a truth either of mind or of life, of philosophy or religion, or science even, has to be expressed in poetry the creator has not merely to offer Page 64 "a precise and a harmonious or forcefully presented idea" to the mind. He has, in fact, to ...
... songs of mantric quality. It is Page 25 interesting to know that in our history the last songs written that had any quality were written in the Civil War, before the age of science and. reason. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "John Brown's Body" were two of the most stirring anthems written in this country. But in World War One and World War Two, there was absolutely nothing... maintain a sort of rough order in a world in which everything would have become infra-rational if this Mother of Might had not been there to maintain the higher values of life - ethics, idealism, religion, morality; some standard is being kept up by a conception of right, a conception of justice. It is this universal power that maintains some values in life so as to allow life to take an upward turn... more powerfully. Very strongly, the mother of Savitri puts the case of atheism, questioning the origin of suffering and pain in mankind. And the answer that you get has not been given anywhere in philosophy or literature. The answer is radical and it is a new answer. It shows the place of pain in the growth of man's evolution and shows the necessity which has invited pain into this cosmic scheme, and ...
... "The Punjāb, Sindh and Afghānistān", "New Indian States in Rajputana and Madhyadesa", "The Administrative Organisation", "The Coinage", "Social and Economic Conditions", "Religion and Philosophy", "Education, Literature and Sciences", A New History of the Indian People, edited by R. C. Manjumdar and A. S. Altekar (Motilal Banarsidass, Lahore, 1946), VI Ancient India, Bulletin of the Arch... Padmavati, 188, 189 Pahlavas, 530 Paijavana/Pijavana, 257 Palaeogoni,214, 418, 420 Palaesimundus, 214, 420 Palaesimoundou, 417, 418 Palaiogonoi, 375 Paleography: not an exact science, 29-32, 334-6 Palakka-Ugrasena, 203 Palibothra (see also Pātaliputra). 1, 3, 244, 386, 596 'Palibothrus', 201, 202 Palirhda/Palinda/Parimda/Pulinda/ Paulinda, 272-3... S. K., "The Problem of the Kusānas and the Origin of the Vikram Samvat" Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, XXXVIII, 1957 Duchesne-Guillemin, J., The Religion of Ancient Irān, tr. by K. M. JamaspAsa from the French (Bombay, 1973) Dupont-Sommer, A., "Une bilingue greco-araméene d'Aśoka", III, Journal Asiatique, CCXLVI, 1, 1958 ...
... a sort of hermitage of thought and peace.... Her thoughts flashed out over Asia and created civilisations, her sons were the bearers of light to the peoples; philosophies based themselves on stray fragments of her infinite wisdom; sciences arose from the waste of her intellectual production. Then came the invasions, India's sheltered progress was ended, and the long day's journey into the... through the whole-hearted service of the nation. As editor of the Bande Mataram, he taught his readers - and through them the nation - the very alphabet of patriotism and the basic tenets of the religion of Nationalism. As the directing intelligence behind the Nationalists, he gave them a cohesion, a purpose, a plank of action - both long-term strategy and short-term tactics - to battle with the... revolutionaries were to come safely through "the Valley of the Shadow of Death" that lay ahead of them, the long night of violence and repression and tribulation that seemed to stretch before them. A religion of humanity, a belief in the divinity of man, a faith in the compelling power of selfless action and high-spirited sacrifice - these were the cardinal needs of the moment. In an article, 'India ...
... Light and Force needed for the transformation of human life. Nothing else Page 41 will avail. No mental theorising or preaching can ovecome the subconscious forces of life. No religion or moral veneering will effect anything substantial and abiding. Those who are aspiring to help the world and its evolutionary march must go beyond the ignorant mental consciousness. Yoga is the only... have certainly written what you have been writing to me with copious quotations from Sri Aurobindo on the subject of the collective action on the material plane and the marriage of spirituality and science etc. But, as I have said, I was appealing to you with all the sincerity of my heart to silence these mental thoughts and put aside these ideas, however valid and salutary they may be, and delve deep... The ascent to and the descent of the Supermind for Page 57 the transformation of the earth-consciousness is a factor of incalculable importance in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and philosophy. All traditions have been swept away. A virgin forest has been cleared and a new path carved, a new trail blazed. The descent of the Supermind has made all the difference. Our Yoga is geared to the ...
... strong vibration which made her feel that something had happened to Sri Aurobindo. She went quickly to his room and found him lying on the floor. Her intuition and her considerable knowledge of medical science made her suspect a fracture. She rang the emergency bell. A.B. Purani, who was on the ground floor below preparing hot water for Sri Aurobindo's bath, ran up to find the Mother at the head of the staircase... several sections. The first part alone contains the following sections from which you can get an idea of the range of subjects covered: The Supramental Evolution Integral Yoga and Other Paths Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga Planes and Parts of the Being The Divine and the Hostile Powers The Purpose of Avatarhood Rebirth Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc. The second, third... 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 of mathematical philosophy and had little interest in poetry. At the Ashram he blossomed into a fine poet and wrote some exquisite poems which were published after his untimely death. Sri Aurobindo asked the disciples who ...
... The Mother also said to the same young man: ‘Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness. It is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is yoga, tapasya, sadhana, everything, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true... December I entered Sri Aurobindo’s room before dawn,’ writes Sanyal. ‘The Mother and I had a look at him; how wonderful, how beautiful he looked, with a golden hue. There were no signs of death as science had taught me, no evidence of the slightest discolouration or decomposition. The Mother whispered: “As long as the supramental light does not pass away, the body will not show any signs of decomposition... Aurobindo, On Himself , SABCL 26 p. 414. × Sri Aurobindo, ‘On Ideals and Progress’ in Essays in Philosophy & Yoga, CWSA 13 p. 145. × Id., p. 143. ...
... between 1962 and 1967, was an academic in England. (In 1935 he was appointed Spaulding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at Oxford.) In August 1934 he approached Sri Aurobindo through Dilip Kumar Roy, asking him to contribute an article for a proposed volume on contemporary Indian philosophy. In a letter of September 1934, published in Letters on Himself and the Ashram , volume 35 of THE COMPLETE... stories for children. Interested in spirituality, she became a student of Ralph Moriarity deBit (an American guru later known as Vitvan, 1883 - 1964). DeBit, then head of the School of the Sacred Science in Los Angeles, introduced Sloane to Sri Aurobindo in a letter of 30 June 1926. Sloane arrived in Pondicherry early in 1927, a few months after Sri Aurobindo had retired. [1] 3 August 1926. Written... text, began in August 1920 and ended in February 1922.) Fragmentary Life Sketch, c. 1928 . Sri Aurobindo wrote this isolated passage in 1928 or 1929 in a notebook used otherwise for notes on philosophy and yoga. Autobiographical Notes . Two of these unrelated pieces are from the year 1903. The third (a revision of the second) is from 1928. Page 559 A Day in Srinagar ...
... of both Buddha and Aśoka towards that of Megasthenes. And what Buddha's and Aśoka's time held in contrast to Megasthenes's is indirectly admitted in 1. Op. cit., p. 322. 2."Religion and Philosophy: Vaishnavism", The Age of Imperial Unity, p. 437. 3. Ibid.. Page 242 F. W. Thomas's remark 1 on the Hinduism in the environment of Megasthenes: "...the greatest... Altekar says: "It is well known how the Buddhist University of Nālandā owed most of its 1. The Age of Imperial Unity, p. 449. 2. Ibid., p. 447. 3. Ibid., pp. 449-50. 4."Religion and Philosophy", A New History..., p. 366. Page 402 prosperity to the patronage it received from the Hindu Gupta emperors.... 1 Several monasteries were built to accommodate the growing... and appointed the famous Buddhist scholar Vasubandhu as his minister. If Vasubandhu flourished in the fourth century A.D. and died after the 1.Barua, op. cit., p. 322. 2."Religion and Philosophy", A New History.., pp. 365-6. 3."The Foundation of the Gupta Empire", ibid., p. 155. Page 405 middle of that century, as is generally held, we have to take Chandra-gupta ...
... tread a new path in our own body-consciousness. We are here to open our small humanity to a new experiment. It is not a matter of creed and dogma and philosophy and policies; it transcends all ideologies whether capitalistic or socialistic, all religions and all atheism, all races whether white or black or yellow. We have to survive, and we can only survive if we change our human structure. On this... Ashram to Page 180 defend Sri Aurobindo and say that Sri Aurobindo is not a religion — not a single voice. So it is the "foreigners" who fight for Sri Aurobindo and for the soul of sleeping India. Auroville may well be the last Kurukshetra. 42 Yes, Mother had seen the cruel and merciless religion which would try to settle on the world in the name of Sri Aurobindo — a false Agenda... general decay. Such is the goal of the Agenda . Such is the Power it contains . The key is there. Page 97 No, it is not a matter for geneticists and biologists who know only the science of the old species and the mechanism of the old species — what can they know other than the laws of their tadpole bowl? There is another law, there is a marvel in the open air, outside of this fishbowl ...
... 1928: There is a Power that no ruler can command; there is a Happiness that no earthly success can bring; there is a Light that no wisdom can possess; there is a Knowledge that no philosophy and no science can master; there is a Bliss of which no satisfaction of desire can give the enjoyment; there is a thirst for Love that no human relation can appease; there is a Peace that one finds nowhere... His assurance. Doraiswamy-Appa was born on 2 nd January 1882. A multifaceted personality, his life grew into an opulent tapestry of signal achievements in many fields. The first facets were religion and classical music. His father, Vaidyanatha Iyer, was in the administrative service of the Raja of Kaalahasti. After his death, the family left Sayanapuram and came to Madras, where the children... That was all! Bharathiar flared up: "To begin with you have no idea of Tamil…society, you are ignorant of its history and culture and its architecture, its achievements in modern scholarship, in science, in politics.... Don’t you see it is Tamilians who have given asylum to Aurobindo Babu and you all...? In my opinion Tamilians, if not superior to Bengalis are at least their equals.".... Sri Aurobindo ...
... shown me a new Science of Philology showing the process & origins of human speech so that a new Nirukta can be formed & the new interpretation of the Veda based upon it. He has also shown me the meaning of all in the Upanishads that is not understood either by Indians or Europeans. I have therefore to reexplain the whole Vedanta & Veda in such a way that it will be seen how all religion arises out of... come here. He is expected daily, but he does not arrive. He will, no doubt, be a good karmavira in time; but at present he is too rajasic, with intervals of tamas, has too much faith in European religions & the arms of the flesh & too little faith in Yoga & the arms of the spirit. He went northward on his own initiative; I could have told him his efforts there would be fruitless, but it is always well... England & America. In this Review my new theory of the Veda will appear as also a translation and explanation of the Upanishads, a series of essays giving my system of Yoga & a book of Vedantic philosophy (not Shankara's but Vedic Vedanta) giving the Upanishadic foundations of my theory of the ideal life towards which humanity must move. You will see so far as my share is concerned, it will be the ...
... one could give up what one has in order to get it." What is that so pearl-like in Savitri? It depends upon one's approach towards it: there is philosophy in it, there is rich metaphysics, mysticism, occult knowledge, religion, science, literature, cosmogony, history of civilisation, history of evolution, everything that one wishes to have. But indeed it is the supreme revelation which brings... entirely from that point of view. 1: Sri Aurobindo spoke of future poetry as the voice of the spirit. It does not automatically follow that there shall be future painting or future music or future science expressing one aspect or another of that creative truth. These have to happen, but not as corollaries. The aesthetic urge has to find the needed means, appropriate instruments and manners of elegant... devotional or Bhakti poetry par excellence? That is Savitri. 15: It is at times said that a poet should be a philosopher, a prophet and a seer. His vision should stretch to the stars. His philosophy should unravel the mystery of the creation. As a prophet he should bring nobility of the spirit to our life. Can we say all that about Lucretius, the Latin poet? He promises to reveal the ultimate ...
... mathematical and armored fishbowl. This Secret is the memory of our fairy tales, an old memory that one finds everywhere, tenacious and irrepressible. We have clothed it with religions and Page 257 philosophies; Science tried to capture this impertinent bird and do better than it, through electronics or Boeings 707s. Others, too, tried to surpass it through meditations and evangelizations... History behind it — it is the eternal tragedy of the new “revelation,” the new “step of evolution,” the new Turning Point for the Earth which every time lets itself be engulfed in new religions and specious philosophies. But this time it was and it is a serious matter, it was and it is really a new step in evolution, a formidable Turning Point that I hope you will soon understand through my books... there is a pope with a Church of Christ and how many millions upon millions of little Christians — So, how many millions of little followers of the religion of Sri Aurobindo! Ah, yes! Page 85 This I realized and knew at once: the religion of Sri Aurobindo will not be . And I will destroy it. There will not be popes and priests of Sri Aurobindo — Nava I, Nava II, Nava III, ...
... Obviously, if the teachers recite them like a story... Spiritual things... They are taught history or spiritual things, they are taught science or spiritual things. That is the stupidity. In history, the Spirit is there; in science, the Spirit is there the Truth is everywhere. And what Page-217 is needed is not to teach it in a false way, but to teach it in... quite conflicting. When one person says, "This is good", another will say, "No, this is bad", and with the same logic, the same persuasive force. Consequently, it is not upon this that one can build. Religion has always tried to establish a dogma, and it will tell you that if you conform to the dogma you are in the truth and if you don't you are in the falsehood. But all this has never led to anything... anyone. Well, I must say we are not very rich in questions! It is not often that I have an opportunity of telling you something. I hasten to tell you that if you ask me technical questions on the sciences, physics or whatever, I could very well answer, "I know nothing about it, study your books or ask your teachers"; but if you ask me questions in my field, I shall always answer you. So, one last ...
... Causeries on Life and Literature 19.Adventures in Criticism 20.Classical and Romantic —An Approach through Sri Aurobindo 21.Mandukya Upanishad: English Version, Notes and Commentary 22.Science, Materialism, Mysticism 23.The Indian Spirit and the World's Future 24.A Follower of Christ & a Disciple of Sri Aurobindo: Page 136 Correspondence between Bede Griffiths and... make a small noise and cease to be. A profound awe, a solemn sense of universal Nature blindly and inexorably at work in its gigantic reaches of space and time, pervade his philosophical epic like a religion manque, even as the presence of ari "unweeting" power, absolute and endless in "crass casualty", is perceived in the world of Thomas Hardy. The atheisms of Lucretius and Hardy are really special... however weighty or profound, make on us the art-impact that is revelation: the consciousness has to take a particular pat- Page 75 tern before it can become the poetic word. The philosophy of Epicurus is the substance, the matter, of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura, but not till it has been stamped with the Lucretian sight and feeling, no less than shaped into the Lucretian word and ...
... combine to put off all except the most hardy intellect and the most persevering will; nor should it be forgotten that a philosophy that bases itself on the integral apprehension of truth cannot be understood merely with the discursive intellect. In insisting that philosophy is not merely ideas that are talked about but experience that transforms, Sri Aurobindo was in accord with age-long Indian... have defied decomposition for over 100 hours, and reposed "in a grandeur of victorious quiet, with thousands upon thousands having darśan of it?" 81 Neither everyday experience nor medical science would give even half that much time as the outside limit for a body in the tropics to resist decomposition after death. And then, - the sustained glow, the supernal calm, the gracious mien! Did all... the covered vault. There was nothing credal or sectarian about the ceremony. Not a word was spoken, there were no audible hymns or prayers, and no rites that indicated adhesion to any particular religion. The enveloping silence was, however, more eloquent and more profound than all the funeral orations of the world. The scene, with the sun slowly setting, was ineluctably symbolic of the happenings ...
... a dead and then a struggling and troubled unconsciousness. A spiritual consciousness is emerging and it is through this spiritual Page 224 piousness that one can meet the Divine. Religions, full of mental and vital, mixed, troubled and ignorant stuff, can only net glimpses of the Divine; positivist reason with its questioning based upon things as they are and refusing to believe in... less easy to say whether the poems are esoteric; for these words "esoteric" and "exoteric" are rather ill-defined in their significance. One understands the distinction between exoteric and esoteric religion—that is to say, on one side, creed, dogma, mental faith, religious worship and ceremony, religious and moral practice and discipline, on the other an inner seeking piercing beyond the creed and dogma... can be the opening of a communion with the Divine—of the hearing of the Voice that guides, of the Presence as well as the Image in the heart, of many other things that bring what man seeks through religion or Yoga. Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one's own being (as distinguished from worlds, etc.) and of one's consciousness. Yoga-experience — ...
... says: "At the time you speak of we were in the vital. People were having brilliant experiences, big push, energy, etc. If our Yoga had taken that line, we could have ended by establishing a great religion, bringing about a big creation, etc., but our real work is different, so we had to come down into the physical. And working on the physical is like digging the ground; the physical is absolutely... to the following: 'There is too an obscure mind of the body, of the very cells, molecules, corpuscles. Haeckel, the German materialist, spoke somewhere of the will in the atom, and recent science, dealing with the incalculable variations in the activities of the electrons, comes near to perceiving that this is not a figure but the shadow thrown by a secret reality. This body-mind is a very... Supermind or Divine gnosis...quite above" all the levels he then classified as also supramental. During the Arya's seven years Sri Aurobindo's "idea" was" the thinking out of a synthetic philosophy" for "the new age" of a "humanity" viewed as "moving to a great change of its life which will even lead to a new life of the race". While enunciating this aim in an editorial in his periodical's ...
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.