Sphinx : (1) of Thebes, has a woman’s head & a lion’s body; she proposed the riddle “What walks on four feet in the morning, on two at noon, & on three in the evening?” to Thebans she met & killed those who failed to solve it. When Oedipus solved it with “Man”, she threw herself from her perch & died. (2) In Egyptian antiquities, a figure with a lion’s body & a man’s or animal’s head, glorified by Sphinx of Gizeh.
... appointed governor. And there I was at Giza, before the Sphinx. I was petrified. I was alone, the hordes of tourists having yet to descend on the world like Genghis Khan. I was twenty-two. I felt like the walking dead. Like an amnesiac child bearing his hole of pain, I was just two eyes staring at the sands and the Sphinx as at the infinity of the sea. There was nothing left, just ... want to fall, like Spartacus, in a thousandth futile revolt. Again, I went back to see the Sphinx. I was on my way to Port Said to catch a British ship bound for Bombay. To tell the truth. I did not give a damn about much of anything; I was like a suicide in reprieve. And there was that amazing Sphinx, as if some Titan had gathered up the Question of the Earth and shoved it into the pit of your... “rock,” those “strong and stubborn places” may well be our “wall of death” and the invisible Bastille against which the Earth is in revolt The next step of our species. 3 The Sphinx Sometimes one should be simple and renounce the literary plural to speak in the first person like the man in the street. “What time is it and where are you going? And what impels you, o man?” ...
... everything familiar. I did not know why, I was entranced by the gigantic Pyramids and the famous Sphinx. While looking at the photographs which were taken there by us, I am reminded of one of the Mother's writings: O serene and immobile Consciousness, Thou watchest on the boundaries of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou givest out Thy secret. They can become Thy soverign Will which... Creative Power—the sphinx of eternity who keeps vigil on the confines of the world like an enigma to be solved. This enigma is the problem of our life, the very raison d'être of the Universe. The problem of our life is to realise the Divine or rather to become once again aware of the Divine who is the Universe, the Origin, cause and goal of life . Those who find the secret of the Sphinx of Eternity become ...
... Aphorism - 109 Sri Aurobindo describes about the Sphinx in Savitri Book 3, Canto 4: On his long way through Time and Circumstance The grey-hued riddling nether shadow-Sphinx Her dreadful paws upon the swallowing sands, Awaits him armed with soul-slaying word: || 89.29 || According to Sri Aurobindo: The Sphinx is a symbol of the eternal quest that can only be answered by... by the secret knowledge. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: Constructions I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: A God's Labour The Mother discloses: Sri Aurobindo is here, as living and as present as ever, and ...
... the youngest there. All the other people used to talk and quarrel among themselves, but she never took part in these things - she was always grave and busy with her work. They called her the Sphinx. Whenever they had any trouble or wrangle, they would come to her to settle their affairs. She could read their thoughts and, as she replied more often to their thoughts than to their words,... concerned. Once a girl who had been appointed monitrice of the Studio got into the bad books of the elderly woman who was the Head of the place. This woman wanted to send away the monitrice. So the Sphinx was sought out by the young ones for help. She felt sympathy for the girl, knowing how poor she was and that if she left the place it would be the end of her painting career. The Head of the... elderly woman's hand and held it in a firm grip as if the very bones would be crushed. It was soon agreed that the monitrice would be allowed to stay on. Mahakali had been at work again. The Sphinx of the Studio was also the same serious self at home. She rarely smiled or laughed. And for this, once when she was about twenty, she got a scolding from her mother. She simply replied that she ...
... happened to be the youngest there. All the other people used to talk and quarrel among themselves, but she never took part in these things—she was always grave and busy with her work. They called her the Sphinx. Whenever they had any trouble or wrangle, they would come to her to settle their affairs. She could read their thoughts and, as she replied more often to their thoughts than to their words, they felt... who had been appointed monitrice of the Studio got Page 4 into the bad books of the elderly lady who was the Head of the place. This lady wanted to send away the monitrice. So the Sphinx was sought out by the young for help. She felt sympathy for the girl, knowing how poor she was and that if she left the place it would be the end of her painting career. The Head of the Studio had... the elderly woman's hand and held it in a firm grip as if the very bones would be crushed. It was soon agreed that the monitrice would be allowed to stay on. Mahakali had been at work again. The Sphinx of the Studio was also the same serious self at home. She rarely smiled or laughed. And for this, once when she was about twenty, she got a scolding from her mother. She simply replied that she had ...
... years, and would ordinarily have taken anything from 30,000 to 300,000, the transit of 30 years is perhaps not too slow. In trying to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, Paul Brunton in his book, "A Search in Secret Egypt", says, "That the Sphinx represents something divine or someone divine is suggested by the hieroglyph inscriptions on the walls of the Upper Egyptian temples, as at Edfu, where a god... some supernatural element in this stone being. Did the Egyptians or Atlanteans have the same conception or believe in the same evolutionary Avatarhood and hence the statue? Maybe. But the Sphinx is rather the symbol of the whole evolution from subconscient to the superconscient Light. He further asks whether the Pyramids are "vast and vain monuments" or are they reared merely to hold one ...
... and serene, Thou watchest at the confines of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou confidest Thy secret. These can become Thy sovereign will which chooses without preference, executes without desire." Prayers and Meditations, 10 November 1914 This immobile Consciousness is the "Mother of Dreams", 1 the sphinx of eternity who keeps vigil on the confines of the world like... universe. The problem of our life is to realise the Divine or rather to become once again aware of the Divine who is the Universe, the origin, cause and goal of life. Those who find the secret of the sphinx of eternity become that active and creative Power. To choose without preference and execute without desire is the great difficulty at the very root of the development of true consciousness and ...
... Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 28.May-22.Dec.1907 Bande Mataram The Sphinx 14-June-1907 Sir Henry Cotton has developed a sudden love for Lala Lajpat Rai. Though he has, like all Anglo-Indians—official or ex-official,—condemned and condemned unheard Ajit Singh, his love for Lajpat Rai knows no abating. He asked Mr. Morley to confirm... people of the country. Had it been otherwise—had the British taxpayer been guided by considerations other than those of advantage to Great Britain to take an intelligent interest in Indian affairs the Sphinx would have found himself bound to speak. Yet to these people our deluded Moderate friends must go and spend the money of poverty-stricken India in the vain attempt to "educate" them—with a view to ...
... Stone Age tools from Isimila, Tanzania – whose uranium dating shows them to be 330,000 years old – indicate that the makers were as intelligent as modern humans .” Colin Wilson: From Atlantis to the Sphinx , p. 203 (emphases in the text). × Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine , p. 832. ... The Mother: Questions and Answers 1950-51, p. 330. × Colin Wilson: From Atlantis to the Sphinx , pp. 98-99. × The meaning of this sentence seems to be exactly what the present chapter is about: ...
... dangerous necessity, the cross surmounted by an invisible crown which is imposed on us, the riddle of the true nature of his being proposed to man by the dark Sphinx of the Inconscience below and from within and above by the luminous veiled Sphinx of the infinite Consciousness and eternal Wisdom confronting him as an inscrutable divine Maya. To exceed ego and be our true self, to be aware of our real ...
... Prayers and Meditations. One cannot, for example, but be bewitched by the mystic grandeur of this image:— —"O Conscience immobile et sereine, Tu veilles aux confins du monde comme un sphinx d'éternité. Et pour-tant à certains Tu livres Ton secret." 2 In fact three notes blend together indissolubly and form what we call 'mantra'—even like the triple mystic syllable AUM. ... energy, a bare clear concentrated flame-wave of 1 And the hours pass like dreams unlived. 2 O serene and immobile Consciousness, Thou watchest on the boundaries of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou givest out Thy secret. Page 81 consciousness, of thought-force. In the Prayers and Meditations the fundamental unit of expression seems to be a ...
... these Prayers and Meditations. One cannot, for example, but be bewitched by the mystic grandeur of this image : 0 Conscience immobile et sereine, Tu veilles aux confins dumonde comme un sphinx d' êternitê. Et pourtant à certains Tu livres Ton secret.² In fact three notes blend together indissolubly and form what we call 'mantra' – even like the triple mystic syllable AUM Once... play and enjoy in the company of the Lord of Delight. ¹ And the hours pass like dreams unlived. . ² 0 serene and immobile Consciousness, Thou watchest on the boundaries of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou givest out Thy secret. (2) We have spoken of the three notes or strains in the Prayers and Meditations. Apart from this triple theme which after all ...
... didn't know, but with all my “civilisation”, I was like a degenerate gnome—degenerate and false, with false garb, a false life, a false science, a false self, and a small Kodak in my hand to tickle the Sphinx. —Listen, Nil, I don't know what you're seeking, but I can feel, because I love you. You are going to end up in despair. You will be all alone with your chromium mines, which are not worth any more... accident, an old failure, I don't know, a certain type of situation—which contains the disaster and the key to the new life; the two together. One has to go right to the bottom and wring the neck of the Sphinx. That is the whirlpool, and it goes faster and faster. Indeed one goes backwards into the future. It is like this crab-like shadow around us: one doesn't go out of the shadow, one goes to the point ...
... and the temple is the symbol of spiritual aspiration. This one being complex meant a rich and many-sided aspiration. Pyramid and Sphinx The pyramid is usually a symbol of aspiration—reddish perhaps Page 181 because it is in the physical. The Sphinx is a symbol of the eternal quest that can only be answered by the secret knowledge. Page 182 ...
... dangerous necessity, the cross surmounted by an invisible crown which is imposed on us, the riddle of the true nature of his being proposed to man by the dark Sphinx of the Inconscience below and from within and above by the luminous veiled Sphinx of the infinite Consciousness and eternal Wisdom confronting him as an inscrutable divine Maya.” 22 And he writes in The Life Divine : “The animal is ...
... foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.” I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep On the Dragon’s outspread wings. True, “the keyless gate,” “the grey Sphinx,” and “the Dragon’s outspread wings,” all concrete elements of his experience, are little more than poetic metaphors to us. But “God’s riddle sleep” ...
... Prayers and Meditations. One cannot, for example, but be bewitched by the mystic grandeur of this image:— 0 Conscience immobile et sereine, Tu veilles aux confins du monde comme un sphinx d'eternite. Et pourtant a certains Tu livres Ton secret, , 2 In fact three notes blend together indissolubly and form what we call 'mantra'—even like the triple mystic syllable AUM. ... and enjoy in the company of the Lord of Delight. 1 And the hours pass like dreams unlived.. 2 0 serene and immobile Consciousness, Thou watchest on the boundaries of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou givest out Thy secret. Page 278 (2) We have spoken of the three notes or strains in the Prayers and Meditations. Apart from this triple ...
... are trying to bring down is greater than ourselves, There was a reference to Egypt, and the question was : what do the pyramids and the Sphinx stand for. Sri Aurobindo : I don't know the details about them. Bu evidently the pyramids and the Sphinx must have been connected with the ancient Egyptian religion and occultism. The Egyptians seem to have developed the occult knowledge to a very ...
... or this exquisite passage reverberating with the sense of awe and intimacy in the presence of the infinite unknown: O Conscience immobile et sereine, Tu veilles aux confins du monde comme un sphinx d' éternité. Et pourtant à certains Tu livres Ton secret. lIs peuvent devenir Ton vouloir souverain, qui choisit sans préférer, execute sans désirer.³ In other words, we can say in a somewhat... possessing the expansion of things infinite." ³ La Mere, Prieres et Meditations, 10 November 1914. "O serene and immobile Consciousness, Thou watchest on the boundaries of the world like a sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou givest out Thy secret. They can become Thy sovereign will which chooses without preference and executes without desire." Page 287 II French ...
... And she this image yet recover, fired With godlike workings, brain and hands inspired, So stand, the blush of battle on her cheek, Voice made armipotent, deeds that loudly speak, Like some dread Sphinx, half patent to the eye, Half veiled in formidable secrecy. And he who raised her from her forlorn life Loosening the fountains of that mighty strife, Page 17 Where sits he? On what ...
... must Fade wholly away, yet to her fellow cried, "I pass, for thou hast laboured well and wide. Thou thinkest term and end for thee are not; But though thy pride is great, thou hast forgot The Sphinx that waits for man beside the way. All questions thou mayst answer, but one day Her question shall await thee. That reply, As all we must; for they who cannot, die. She slays them and their mangled ...
... Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate." I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. Page 536 I left the surface gauds of mind And life's unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body's alleys blind ...
... existence, Aswapati dives deeper only to come face to face with the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness: I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. 5 Ibid., p. 773. 6 Ibid., p. 96. Page 140 I left the surface gods of mind And life's unsatisfied ...
... Death's tremendous hour, A branch of heaven transplant to human soil; Nature shall overleap her mortal step; Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will. 18 So the Great Sphinx reveals her secret: The incredible comes to pass: the unhoped for incarnation comes down to earth as Aswapati's daughter though none can guess her essential divinity because, although Even ...
... that choice no help was available and the cosmic spirit remained just an aspect of Non-being, the first Asat. But that Asat is ever inaccessible. Perhaps in it if all should vanish then the golden Sphinx might reveal something of her mystery. But it entails a danger, that of going out of the manifestation. That eventuality would mean the failure of the soul's mission itself. Though to free the self ...
... his tapas resplendent waters. The dreams of earth excelled in their rapid flow And the auspicious hour validated the world. True, the gods enter not this den of night And the dark-hued sphinx slays the soul of man And time is haunted by the ghost of death; But if life is to discover love's immensity And sunbright children are to be born in these bounds, She must take our mortal ...
... Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.” I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep On the Dragon’s outspread wings. I left the surface gods of mind And life’s unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body’s alleys blind To the nether mysteries ...
... the thinking or emotions — the cells of the body open themselves to receive the Force.’ 32 11-12 November. ‘The serene and immobile consciousness watches at the boundaries of the world as a Sphinx of eternity and yet to some it gives its secret. We have, therefore, the certitude that what has to be done will be done, and that our present individual being is really called upon to collaborate ...
... have gone! Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.” I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the gray Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep On the Dragon’s outspread wings. I left the surface gods of mind And life’s unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body’s alleys blind To the nether mysteries. ...
... Britain to America in 1873, and possibly Bimstein was in London in the same year. ‘London [at that time] was the haven of people claiming to be priests of Isis, students of the Kabbalah, friends of the Sphinx, and disciples of the dancing dervishes.’ 14 In London Bimstein became a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, routinely referring to itself as the ‘H.B. of L.’ Bimstein became ‘the group’s ...
... have gone! Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.’ I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep On the Dragon’s outspread wings. I left the surface gods of mind And life’s unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body’s alleys blind To the nether mysteries. ...
... capable of appreciating beauty and art." But don't you think the dim divination is somewhat arbitrarily defined as happening almost at once and without any strain? Of course if a poem remains a total Sphinx for ever and yields no significant suggestion to a cultured man in spite of his brooding on it and absorbing it and living with it, there is for all practical purposes failure. What I want to claim ...
... principle of unity in their workings and above it the ancients were obliged to conceive of a vague and ineffable Divinity, the unknown God to whom they built a nameless altar, or a Necessity with face of sphinx and hands of bronze to whom the gods themselves had to give an ignorant obedience, and it left the life of man at once the victim of an inscrutable fate and the puppet of superhuman caprices. That ...
... different and moving in too different domains for comparison to be possible. 3 February 1932 Page 537 I would be obliged if you would tell me your opinion of the apostrophe of Caesar to the Sphinx in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. I find it very fine, but Dilip says he is not thrilled by it. I am not thrilled by the speech either; it is a creation of the intellect, eloquent and on the surface ...
... gods or any other name for a sportive Chance whether undivine or dressed in divine glories, whether credited with a pliant flexibility to the prayers and bribes of man or presented with an immutable Sphinx face of stone,—but names only in fact for his own ignorance. And especially when we come to the pressing needs of our moral and spiritual being, no theory of chance or probability will serve at ...
... runner-up ) This Penseur of Rodin on the Runner-up Cards signifies the necessity of reflection to perfect means for a better result. Page 288 ( Concerning the painting "Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Gustave Moreau, reproduced on the Gymnastics Competition Award Card ) The Riddle of the World If you can solve it, you will be immortal, but if you fail you will perish. Page 289 ...
... the whole being exults in belonging to Thee without the least reserve, with a wide and complete surrender. O Consciousness, immobile and serene, Thou watchest at the confines of the world like the sphinx of eternity. And yet to some Thou yieldest Thy secret. They can become Thy sovereign Will which chooses without preference, executes without desire. Page 272 ...
... horror of filth and mire A bed for the golden river's song, A home for the deathless fire... I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings... I have delved through the dumb Earth's dreadful heart And heard her black mass' bell. I have seen the source whence ...
... intimate, more living and appealing to man. A great mystery of existence, its central rub is the presence of Evil. All spiritual, generally all human endeavour has to face and answer this Sphinx. As he answers, so will be his fate. He cannot rise up even if he wishes, earth cannot progress even when there is the occasion, because of this besetting obstacle. It has many names and many forms ...
... It has been the occasion of the birth of saints and sages, souls that have traversed beyond and found the solution of the enigma. It has also hurled back into confusion and ruin souls that faced the Sphinx but could not answer her riddle – such, for example, as were Hamlet and Faust. In these latter the human consciousness has reached its high water-mark of normal development. They are the finest ...
... deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.' I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. I left the surface gods of mind And life's unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body's alleys blind To the nether ...
... most difficult branches of mathematics.) One after another, mathematicians have come forward, taken up the standard from their fallen predecessors and marched forward in their zeal to "wrest from the Sphinx the secret of his enigma." 37 And what an array of great names do we not find in this struggle against the unknown: Fermat, Euler, Legendre, Sophie Germain, Lejeune Dirichlet, Le-besgue, Liouville ...
... have gone Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.' I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. ... I have delved through the dumb Earth's dreadful heart And heard her black mass' bell. I have seen the source whence her agonies ...
... world. GOETHE AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL No problem is so vital to the human consciousness as the problem Page 135 of Evil – its why and wherefore It is verily the Sphinx Riddle. In all ages and in all climes man has tried to answer; the answers are of an immense variety, but none seems to be sure and certain. Goethe's was an ardent soul seeking to embrace the living ...
... partnership in a common labour organisation for common profit and achievement. This problem has to be sloved first, then only can the question of nationalism or other allied knots be unravelled. Nature the Sphinx has set the problem before us and we have to answer it here and now, if humanity is to be saved and welded together into a harmonious whole for a divine purpose. Page 35 ...
... brother who is the devourer. There is a third brother with a dazzling luminous facet—there I saw the Master of the worlds along with his seven sons." This is again a sphinx puzzle indeed. But what is the meaning? The universe, the creation has its fundamental truth in a Trinity: Agni (the Fire-god) upon earth, Vayu (the Wind-god) in the middle regions and in heaven ...
... cosmic mind and "trod along extinction's narrow edge" and "The belt he reached of the unchanging Truth". Beings were seen whose wings fold around created space. "The sun-eyed Guardians and the golden Sphinx" he saw there. There was "A wisdom waiting on Omniscience" in silence and complete passivity. It did not judge nor measure nor try to know "But listened for the all-seeing Thought". Aswapathy had reached ...
... sorrows 5 'the supreme maker of forms' 5 Page 903 organises parts of her being 6, 833 schooling, painting, music and sports, 6-7, 700 born to realise the Highest 7, 27 called 'the Sphinx' 7 avoids medication 7-8 communes with Nature 9, 833 falls while climbing a hill 9 develops inner relation with 'Krishna' 10, IS, 31, 86 comforting stricken humanity 10 (cf 136-7) ...
... as a professor in a well-known American university. He was also a lawyer. But what is more interesting—and here we shall never cease marveling at and wondering about the threads of that vertiginous sphinx we call "destiny”—is that at the beginning of 1910, and for the most ordinary reasons, or perhaps the funniest ones, if considered from the large perspective of the world, Paul Richard had to go ...
... flowed: —Nothing-at-all, Mr. Nothing-at-all... There are many beaches in geography... but, you are here, and I have gathered these shells for you... She closed her eyes, she looked like a smiling sphinx. —There are days... many days in the calendar... but, it is today. You are here and I am here—what wind has driven us?... What wave has brought you these shells?... There are shells, many shells ...
... seize, a voice sweeter and more compelling than any Aegean siren could command. The ring of that voice I sought to give to my words. I aimed at uttering the mystery of things; I aimed at making the Sphinx speak out. What lies hidden, what lies sealed, what moves from its secrecy suns and stars and hearts, that I endeavoured to unveil and present in the broad light of day. The labour of things, mundane ...
... their own typical temper, however strange-hued, and accorded him a high place in their poetic pantheon, unlike Mallarme whom most of them deem an exotic growth and a fantastic failure rather than a sphinx-like success. Something of the subtlety of Mallarme's Symbolism merges in something of the clarity that is French Classicism's to make the "pure poetry" of Valery. An instance is the Page 303 ...
... from the other. This kind of work in the body, from beyond and yet from completely inside, is exclusive to Supermind, for Supermind alone can solve radically the riddle of obscurity set by the Sphinx of matter. A third sign of Supermind's working from a physical centre is a unifying sweep through which persons touched by or attracted towards spirituality and Yoga are rapidly and triumphantly ...
... the future is not theirs. The four Powers that resisted now appear more clearly,—the Dragon of the nether foundations who preserves the old Law intact till the will of the Supreme is manifested, the Sphinx of the eternal questioning, the Night of the eternal negation, the Rock (stone Purusha, inert Shiva) of the eternal inertia. Still they are there, but a first victory has been assured against them ...
... remain psychologically cloistered and apart in the unity of the modern world. It may even be said that the future of humanity depends most upon the answer that will be given to the modern riddle of the Sphinx by the East and especially by India, the hoary guardian of the Asiatic idea and its profound spiritual secrets. For the most vital issue of the age is whether the future progress of humanity is to ...
... there are not only powers which call us to fulfil them and attract us with an irresistible force but other powers which have to be conquered and do not desire to yield themselves. The future is a sphinx with two minds, an energy which offers itself and denies, gives itself and resists, seeks to enthrone us and seeks to slay. But the conquest has to be attempted, the wager has to be accepted. We have ...
... surviving ... (a grim spectacle Of inconceivable grandeur — a miracle Wrought by Krishna, the Wizard!) ... this mighty drama Of the Timeless unrolling on Time's wheeling stage Of the fathomless Sphinx who pilots us through this Our inescapable maze of paradoxes That face us, dog us even as our own shadows. ( He lifts his eyes to hers ) Or ... may be ... we do know something after all ...
... d impulses and appetites are going to be solved in the transformed divine body to appear in time. We content ourselves with picking up here one theme, the theme, we might as well say, of the Sphinx-like problem of death and dissolution of the individual's physical body. For, we have been assured by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that as a crowning achievement of the Supramental Manifestation ...
... his own method of locomotion, found that he could no longer walk!" 18 (Gilbert N. Lewis.) But science could not avert for good the day of reckoning. It has at last come face to face with the sphinx of reality, apparently without any chance of solving its riddle. The self-assurance is broken, its pretension to uncover the body of reality is humbled; and as a result agnosticism grows. And note ...
... found that he could no longer walk!" (Gilbert N. Lewis, The Anatomy of Science, p. 1) But science could not avert for good the day of reckoning. It has at last come face to face with the sphinx of reality, apparently without any chance of solving its riddle. The self-assurance is broken, its pretension to uncover the body of underlying reality is humbled, and as a result agnosticism grows ...
... and cause of Death in Death itself? In his own inimitable prophetic notes we listen to his mission and self-ordained task as a world-redeemer: "He too must grapple with the riddling Sphinx And plunge into her long obscurity... He must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter's sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God .... ...
... where none have gone! Dig deeper, deeper yet Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate.’ 57 Now he had gone to ‘the very root of things / Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep / On the Dragon’s outspread wings’ – not only in yogic concentration, but with his whole avataric personality, to make the impossible possible. The result of his action and ...
... our life, all our work must be a constant aspiration towards the supramental perfection. 24 October 1954 The serene and immobile consciousness watches at the boundaries of the world as a Sphinx of eternity and yet to some it gives out its secret. We have, therefore, the certitude that what has to be done will be done, and that our present individual being is really called upon to collaborate ...
... how and why The Dragon of the dark foundations keeps Unalterable the law of Chance and Death; On his long way through Time and Circumstance The grey-hued riddling nether shadow-Sphinx, Her dreadful paws upon the swallowing sands, Awaits him armed with the soul-slaying word: Across his path sits the dim camp of Night. 24 It is an ancient secret: the descent ...
... weird image of the Traveller Soul coming across dreadful dangers in his journeying is the following: On his long way through Time and Circumstance The grey-hued riddling nether shadow-Sphinx, Her dreadful paws upon the swallowing sands, Awaits him armed with the soul-slaying word: Across his path sits the dim camp of Night. 22 17 p. 336. 18 p. 25. 19 . 80. ...
... mean ? Reaching here 11 a.m. on 21st? Then how can they stay at Salem till lunch—Salem is about the same distance from Pondicherry as Pondicherry is from Madras. Then—and here is the Riddle of the Sphinx—why forbid me uselessly to come there (where ?) by missing meditation ? Could I even do Page 202 that even if I wanted to play truant ? When am I to repair chucking meditation—confound ...
... for visions and expends. Why do I envy Raihana112 for her seeing the Gopis dance and sing that lovely song ? But then even granting all such visions are not even worthwhile discussing why does the sphinx of a Divine shower these on some while to otters they are denied ? If these visions have no value, if experiences don't contribute to a change of nature or of the subconscient Enfant Terrible— then ...
... Aurobindo and the Mother, how far and in what way the insistent problems of food and sleep, fatigue and inertia, sex and sensuality, animal impulses and appetites, diseases and decay, and finally the Sphinx like problem of death and dissolution are going to be tackled and solved in the transformed divine body to appear in the course of the future evolution of man. We shall incidentally seek ...
... vision vouchsafed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, how far and in what way, the insistent problems of food and sleep, fatigue and inertia, disease and decay, sex and sensuality, and finally the sphinx-like problem of death and dissolution are going to be solved in the transformed divine body to appear in time. We shall incidentally seek to find out — in however meagre and suggestive a ...
... not be the only solution. Matter (the basic unconsciousness) was the master in this material world because, it was not properly faced and negotiated. One sought to avoid and by-pass it. It was there Sphinx like and none stopped to answer its riddle. The mystery is this. Matter, material Nature that is dubbed unconsciousness is not really so. That is only an appearance. Matter is truly inconscient, ...
... hangs heavy on the human consciousness. It has touched to the quick philosophers and sages in all ages and climes; it is the great question that confronts the spiritual seeker, the riddle that the Sphinx of life puts to the journeying soul for solution. ¹"The Hound of Heaven" Page 143 A modern Neo-Brahmin, Aldous Huxley, has given a solution of the problem in his now famous ...
... Summoner; he has a second brother who is the devourer. There is a third brother with a dazzling luminous facet – there I saw the Master of the worlds along with his seven sons.¹ This is again a sphinx puzzle indeed. But what is the meaning? The universe, the creation has its fundamental truth in a Trinity: Agni (the Fire-god) upon earth, Vayu (the Wind-god) in the middle regions and in heaven the ...
... not be the only solution. Matter (the basic unconsciousness) was the master in this material world because, it was not properly faced and negotiated. One sought to avoid and bypass it. It was there Sphinx-like and none stopped to answer its riddle. The mystery is this. Matter, material Nature that is dubbed unconsciousness is not really so. That is only an appearance. Matter is truly inconscient, ...
... partnership in a common labour organisation for common profit and achievement. This problem has to be solved first, then only can the question of nationalism or other allied knots be unravelled. Nature the Sphinx has set the problem before us and we have to answer it here and now, if humanity is to be saved and welded together into a harmonious whole for a divine purpose. Page —86 ...
... Till thou reach the grim foundation stone And knock at the keyless gate." I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. 64 The poet of Yoga describes things vivid to him, ever present or significant to him, and these might comprise happenings ...
... the Academie Jufian, a noted art school in Paris, and she was the youngest of the pupils in her class. But she was so poised and mature in her behaviour that the other art students called her the Sphinx, and often brought their problems to her. In her quiet way she exuded so much authority that, in a time of crisis, it was the force of her persuasion and the power of her commanding eyes that helped ...
... error and fate And tramples a road through mire and waste For the nameless Immaculate .... I saw that a falsehood was planted deep At the very root of things Where the grey Sphinx guards God's riddle sleep On the Dragon's outspread wings. I left the surface gods of mind And life's unsatisfied seas And plunged through the body's alleys blind To the nether ...
... contact with her, and yet the mind of this power was not satisfied. Her heart was unable to capture the one beloved. She was Page 192 "An exiled goddess building mimic heavens, A Sphinx whose eyes look up to a hidden Sun." Thus, trying to probe the depth and the secret of this vital plane, he was nearing a Spirit whose "passive presence was her nature's strength". But he could ...
... armoured, invincible" and "the ineffable planes already have felt 1-ds tread." "He has seized life's hands, "he has mastered his own heart." "He Page 301 too must grapple with the riddling sphinx." He has known the constitution of Matter and the laws of its workings, the lower life "He must call light into its dark abysms "He must enter the eternity of Night And know God's darkness ...
... Aurobindo in the Arya (July 1916), "is a stage of immense transformations. It may even be said that the future of humanity depends most upon the answer that will be given to the modern riddle of the Sphinx by the East and especially by India, the hoary guardian of the Asiatic ideal and its profound spiritual secrets. For the most vital issue of the age is whether the future progress of humanity is to ...
... threshold of the first grave at the beginning of time. Page 33 5 The Gates of the Sun There is a riddle. Probably the most powerful riddle since the 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 ...
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