... and philosophy. Though I was born in a conservative Muslim family, I was drawn to all religions and went to Christian, Hindu, as well as Muslim places of worship. I was not yet on any particular spiritual path. Then, at the age of nineteen, I came in contact with Theosophy. In the teachings of H.P. Blavatsky, I found not only answers to all my intellectual questions but also a path of which I became... life—many of them seemingly chance incidents—have made me realize intimately the truth of the Mother's words about the role of one's inmost self—the soul or psychic being—in guiding one on the spiritual path. She has said: If you have within you a psychic being sufficiently awake to watch over you, to prepare your path, it can draw towards you things which help you, draw people, books, circumstances... There was a yearning in me, as yet unformulated, for something deeper than the philosophical light and the ethical path I had found in Theosophy. What my inner being seemed to be asking for was a spiritual path leading to self-discovery and God-realization. It is such a path that I found in Sri Aurobindo's yoga. Most probably, the reason why the Mother's Prayers and Meditations made a special appeal ...
... unenlightened, undisciplined man of the world. A sadhaka worth the name cannot permit himself to lead such a disordered life. For after all he has voluntarily decided to be an aspirant of the spiritual path. Therefore he has to resolutely choose, with a settled concentration and perseverance, the upward and inward orientation of his intelligent will. And for that the first movement of the sadhaka... the Mother of Might ? Do I not claim to be a since re sadhaka? In that ca se, how is it that I lap se into se lf-oblivion so easily and get caught in the traps laid by the six enemies of the spiritual path , the se enemies, sadripus, being (a) lust and desire, (b) anger and irritation, (c) greed and voracity, (d) delusion and deception, (e) pride and vanity, and , last , (f) envy and jealous... such by the conventional norms of a particular society. 'Temptation' has for us a far wider connotation. Any thought, feeling or act not behoving a sincere sadhaka who wants to advance on the spiritual path will be deemed to be a temptation , even if the particular thought, feeling or action is not judged 'unethical' by the society at large or even considered normal and laudable by men of the world ...
... make it intelligible? Or has Tagore by any chance thought that I was trying to convey a moral lesson or a philosophical tenet—there is nothing of the kind there, it is a frequent experience on the spiritual path that is being described in its own proper, one might almost say, objective figures—and that is surely a method of poetry proper. Or is it that the expression is too hard or clear-cut for the soft... of his activism—he has two strong ties that prevent it—ambition and need to act and lead in the vital/ and in the mind a mental idealism—these two things are the great fosterers of illusion. The spiritual path needs a certain amount of realism—one has to. see the real value of the things that are—which is very little, except as steps in evolution. Then one can either follow the spiritual static path... inner being generally remains always a possibility—at the worst, its fulfilment can be postponed, but even that only if the possessor of the possibility gives up or breaks away from the true spiritual path with out probability of early return, because he is in chase of the magnified and distorted shadow of his own ego or for some other distortions of the nature produced by a wrong egoistic ...
... power of Guru's grace, 27, 28 relevance in the spiritual life, 7, 8 self-realization, 21 silence, 24, 25 spiritual path, 43, 44 time, 25, 26 true self, 79 witness consciousness state, 67-76 Sri Ramakrishna, 27, 28 on spiritual path, 42, 43 stillness, 100, 101 śuddhi, 120 surrender, concept of, 52, 55, 63, 105-111, 121 T Tao... presence of mind, 33-35 reversal of consciousness, 30 scientific observation, 35, 36 self-realization, 52 silence, 25 simplicity of enlightenment, 25, 26, 30,31 spiritual path/practice, 42-44, 65,66 surrender, 52, 55, 63 time, 21, 22, 51 true self, 79 egoic self, 110, 124, 125, 144, 149, 153 continual state of waiting, 10, 11 insatiable... views, 77 Jivatman, 79, 80 personal, 80 true, 79 Universal, 79, 80 self-realization, 1, 20, 21 silence, 17, 24, 25, 98, 99 space, 17 spiritual evolution, 5 spiritual path, 42-44 spiritual practice, 65, 66 Page 171 aim of, 144-147 methods, 112-121 zeal in, 107 spiritual teachings, paradoxes in, 20, 21 spiritual ...
... of life here. Part B Jnaneshwar pertinently introduces the key idea of yogic lack of difference between various kinds of work, and makes this the first condition for progress on the spiritual path. According to it among all the works there is one underlying common factor, that whatever be these works they are all intrinsically of equal significance, none too small or big, none inconsequential... save him from every calamity or mishap. In it is uchit as well as param fulfilment, the most appropriate and supreme satisfaction of the purpose for which is taken the difficult and arduous spiritual path. Thus engaged in proper activity you remain undisturbed and unencumbered; you indeed attain a high state of perfection. You no longer get caught in corporeal transactions of the world, dehadic... and has well qualified himself to receive the supreme word from the Teacher. In it the Avataric mission shall be fulfilled. Part D Arjuna is promised that by following step by step the spiritual Path of Action, Karma Yoga, he shall obtain closeness to the supreme Being. Indeed, in its happy benignancy he shall finally obtain him. By doing works and offering these to him the doer of the works ...
... ita Gita. Indeed, it cannot be denied that renunciation is absolutely essential for the building up of a life of sadhana and for the acquisition of any realisation worth the name in the spiritual Path. Sri Ramakrishna referred to this essentiality when he spoke in his simple way: "Renunciation is necessary. If something is covering a certain other thing, you have to remove the first thing... before we attempt any discussion of these issues, we have first to know why, for what compelling reasons, traditional ascetic spirituality prescribes outer renunciation to the sadhakas of the spiritual Path. Surely it cannot be that the old Yogis have been obsessed with some irrational prejudices. There must have been some sound reasons behind their uncompromising attitude. And once we come... what sort of strange advice is that which prescribes decapitation as a remedial measure? We are afflicted with the sense of sorrow and suffering and it is also a fact that most men turn to the spiritual path in order to be freed from this consciousness of pain and be admitted into the consciousness of eternal bliss. But for that we cannot subscribe to that destructive solution which recommends the ...
... and who his mate, they making offerings to the well-kindled sacrificial fire? What is that fire in which are lit the fires of the cosmic powers that govern the worldly rounds leading them on the spiritual path, that on which they must progress in their expressive splendours of the supreme Truth? 1 Savitri, p. 639. Page 97 We are here in Sri Aurobindo's epic at a crucial... within, in her House of Meditation, and wills the blessings of the great Truth-Seers to come true. Savitri was a Yogini of exceptional merit and had advanced greatly on the occult-spiritual path to draw strength directly from the origin whence the words packed with mantric power come. By repeating in her heart of hearts the benediction-words of the holy sages and saying "Be it just so ...
... that I could not even go to the Samadhi. I was sitting on the cement bench under the Reading Room window, and it was happening all the while. 10:10:1994 I will have to go through the spiritual path, and not the psychic. I am told so. Spiritual consciousness must open to the higher. 12:10:1994 Day before yesterday, in the afternoon, I was taking my usual nap. When I was about... voice: "Who is the young man standing there outside?" I heard it very distinctly, "... the young man... ?" Then I went inside. 19:10:1994 The path is the spiritual. Yes, it is the spiritual path, and not the psychic. Can the supermind come down directly ? Unless the necessary instruments are ready it will not. Otherwise Page 30 these will get shattered ...
... It is prone to indulging in doubting everything and in every field. Many a sadhaka' s sadhana-life has been shattered because of this doubting mania. The Mother has warned the aspirants on the spiritual path about this crafty enemy and advised them what to do in this regard. Let us listen to her: "... when faith has been granted, when one has had this sudden inner illumination, in order to preserve... s beyond normal mind into the 'spiritual mind planes'; and, then, further on to Supramental Gnosis and beyond. But these sadhana s are not meant for us who are just pygmies and tyros on the spiritual Path. Page 283 ...
... goal. It is not that the sadhaka theoretically loses sight of the spiritual goal. He quite remembers the precise nature of this goal which he set before himself when he first entered the spiritual path. He continues to have a clear intellectual conception about what as a sadhaka he is expected to do. He may even eloquently talk to others about the responsibilities of a sincere sadhaka. But the... unavoidable rigours and difficulties with a smiling face and in a spirit of adventure. And when there is zeal for progress and inner gladness in the sadhaka' s heart, what does it matter even if his spiritual Path gets occasionally crossed by some difficulties? For in such a situation all the outer sorrows and sufferings, perils and disasters, cannot but lose the venom of their sting. Page 17 ...
... guidance. Spiritual search is like a search in a virgin forest, and the law of that search exacts from the seeker the highest price of self-sacrifice and consecration. The guide and teacher on the spiritual path, therefore, deserves the highest reverence. The intricacies and hazards of the spiritual endeavour are known to the teacher, and it is often unwise to reveal them to the seeker in advance. Spiritual... surgery. These operations the pupil cannot perform by himself; a teacher is needed. And just as a doctor demands from the patient a high degree of trust and obedience, so does the teacher of the spiritual path. But there is a third reason for the reverence demanded of the pupil for the teacher. The Indian educational and yogic system recognized that the real teacher is the supreme Brahman seated ...
... now that of a Yogin sociologist. "...He was already known as the 'seer' Sri Aurobindo, although still involved in political life, and as yet not manifested to his future disciples on the spiritual path. For Nivedita he was the expression of life itself, the life of a new seed grown on the ancient soil of India, the logical and passionate development of all her Guru's teaching. 52 "A... Lizelle Reymond. Page 310 "...he was already known as the 'seer' Sri Aurobindo, although still involved in political life, and as yet not manifested to his future disciples on the spiritual path. For Nivedita he was the expression of life itself, the life of a new seed grown on the ancient soil of India, the logical and passionate development of all her Guru's teachings... "Aurobindo's ...
... is a heart that will die. You take up the spiritual path only when you feel you cannot do otherwise. 27 October 1952 When the path is known it is easy to tread upon it. 19 August 1954 To follow the path to the end, one must be armed with a very patient endurance. 4 September 1954 Page 29 On the spiritual path each step forward is a conquest and the result ...
... Speaks When to take to this Path? A doctor wanted to stay here. He asked Mother if she would advise him to take up the spiritual path. Mother: “You should take up this spiritual path only when you cannot do otherwise, when nothing else matters to you.” ...
... guidance. Spiritual search is like a search in a virgin forest, and the law of that search exacts from the seeker the highest price of self-sacrifice and consecration. The guide and teacher on the spiritual path, therefore, deserves the highest reverence. The intricacies and hazards of the spiritual endeavour are known to the teacher, and it is often unwise to reveal them to the seeker in advance. Spiritual... surgery. These operations the pupil cannot perform by himself; a teacher is needed. And just as a doctor demands from the patient a high degree of trust and obedience, so does the teacher of the spiritual path. But there is a third reason for the reverence demanded of the pupil for the teacher. The Indian educational andyogic system recognized that the real teacher is the supreme Brahman seated ...
... human makeup and of the processes and principles by which one's ordinary nature can be transformed so as to manifest a higher level of consciousness. The reader may recall the four aids on the spiritual path mentioned in the Mahabharata alluded to earlier (p. 20). The first of the four aids—Shastra—which consists of "the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers, and processes that govern the ...
... finds that here while beauty and greatness, sweetness and might, the Rose and the Flame, come together yet they stand apart. They would not find themselves in the single soul of the world. The spiritual path and the occult-psychic path run parallel but do not yet become one. Aswapati must therefore advance towards the diviner spheres. II: 13 In the Self of Mind On ...
... takes you to the original sound of om... everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, history of evolution, history of man, gods of the creation and of Nature... Savitri is the spiritual path, the Tapasya, Sadhana — everything in its unique body. It has an extraordinary 15 The Future Poetry, SABCL, Vol. 9, p. .57. 16 Raymond Frank Piper, Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, ...
... final goal. 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 vibrations of each stage of ...
... thoughts and incommunicable in words, but realizable only through experience. Some of the teachers, like Eckhart, have used only minimal mental concepts to serve as "pointers" or "signposts" on the spiritual path. A few others, like Sri Aurobindo, have provided elaborate intellectual maps as guides on the inner journey. However, all teachers have relied on the power of the consciousness behind their words ...
... Gorakshanath was the preceptor of Nivritti’s great-grandfather Trimbakpant. Nivritti was given the Mantra Rama-Krishna-Hari and was further told that he should initiate his brother Jnaneshwar in the spiritual path. A mission for him was already marked out by the Yogi. In the epilogue to Jnaneshwari the author gives the lineage of his Gurus, starting from Matsyendranath who directly received the yogic lore ...
... Body, an article by Sri Aurobindo Published in Bulletin of Physical Educiation, April, 1949. Page 254 "You can help and have helped others," he wrote, "and drawn them to the spiritual path and you have made many turn towards us who of their own motion would not have thought of doing so. There is a power in you to draw others like that and it seems that not only nature but the Divine ...
... Paul and the Church Fathers than of Christ himself, although the shining core of Christ’s mission has remained present on the Earth for a long time to contact with the soul and follow its true spiritual path, called bhakti by the Indians, devotional love. “To humanise Europe”, as Sri Aurobindo put it, Christianity and the then still living force of its founder used the apparatus of the Roman Empire ...
... Aurobindo, such an attitude cannot agree with the Integral Yoga because Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s Yoga is about changing the human nature, which is such a difficult undertaking that formerly no spiritual path, and certainly no religious one, has even tried to attempt it. As every aspirant is soon to find out: “This yoga is a spiritual battle; its very attempt raises all sorts of adverse forces.” ...
... essence the theodicy of Gnosticism throughout the centuries, while also completing it. The Mother stressed that it was “a story,” and that one could know its inner meaning only by experience on the spiritual path. “When the Supreme decided to exteriorize Himself in order to be able to see Himself, the first thing in Himself which He exteriorized was the Knowledge of the world and the Power to create ...
... cheques (and India was a difficult country where documents and cheques are concerned), took upon her all legal responsibilities, and so on. People are often troublesome. People who want to follow the spiritual path are most often a very troublesome lot, because their effort brings to the fore difficulties which otherwise would have remained unattended, and because the aspirants in their struggle with the ...
... class Beachcroft had come second to Aurobindo in Greek; ironically, in the final examination, Beachcroft had done better than Aurobindo in Bengali.) After some early experiences Aurobindo’s spiritual path had broadened considerably, and he paid but scant attention to the proceedings in the courtroom and the goings-on in jail. His inner voice had told him that he would be acquitted for lack of evidence ...
... occult and spiritual development shows us that ‘early’ in this case is not a synonym for ‘rudimentary.’ In the first years of her marriage to Paul Richard, Mirra was already very advanced on the spiritual path; she had already gone much farther than most human beings can ever hope to go. Some people were aware of this and went to listen to what she had to say. And she explained the place of the human ...
... say you heard Sri Aurobindo's voice telling you during a meditation: "Weeping and depression are not for you. You must be a warrior. Be bold. Smile out." If we are sincere in our choice of the spiritual path, we shall always have the presence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with us and that presence is at the same time an extreme sweetness and a never-failing strength. Physical suffering is not always ...
... brought for her. She expressed her pleasure by touching and feeling them. She told me: Child, come to me every day at 4 p.m. I thanked her and took my leave. Thus I resumed my journey on the spiritual path. ...
... of his activism—he has two strong ties that prevent it, ambition and need to act and lead in the vital and in the mind a mental idealism—these two things are the great fosterers of illusion. The spiritual path needs a certain amount of realism—one has to see the real value of the things that are—which is very little, except as steps in evolution. Then one can either follow the spiritual static path of ...
... The Giraffe symbolises aspiration. Camel [ Camel manifesting violet light ] Patient progress and endurance as a gift of the Divine Grace. Deer and Antelope The deer = speed in the spiritual path. The deer is perhaps a symbol of speed in the spiritual progress. The deer is Immortality, the antelope is Rapid Movement. Boar It [ the boar ] is rajasic strength and vehemence ...
... the inner being generally remains always a possibility—at the worst, its fulfilment can be postponed, but even that only if the possessor of the possibility gives up or breaks away from the true spiritual path without probability of early return—because he is in chase of the magnified and distorted shadow of his own ego or for some other distortion of the nature produced by a wrong egoistic misuse of ...
... progress. Do not allow these ideas [ of unfitness ] to gain on you or even to occupy your mind. It is not by their merit or their effort or the capacity they show that men advance in the spiritual path, but by their opening to the divine help and grace. For that you must have the confidence that whatever your own weakness, the grace will not fail you. Difficulties may come, dry and barren moments ...
... and go straight, using the power of Truth and the Divine Force supporting you to overcome the difficulties and set straight what has been made crooked by the falsehood. All who enter the spiritual path have to face the difficulties and ordeals of the path, those which rise from their own nature and those which come in from outside. The difficulties in the nature always rise again and again till ...
... Chapter II Qualities Needed for Sadhana Indispensable Qualities It goes without saying that the qualities you speak of are helpful in the approach to the spiritual path, while the defects you enumerate are each a serious stumbling-block in the way. Sincerity especially is indispensable to the spiritual endeavour, and crookedness a constant obstacle. The sattwic ...
... true answer, that this was all wrong from the spiritual point of view—that you should not allow another's difficulties to add themselves to your own and upset you and drive you out of the straight spiritual path—and I gave the reason because each sadhak has his own way and his struggles and difficulties and they concern only himself and the Mother. That is a principle we have always insisted upon and we ...
... to her without trying to know your opinion. I was keeping up the communication partly in order not to shock or pain her too much and partly with a desire to see that she might also take up the spiritual path some day. What attitude should I keep with respect to her? I return the letter, but I leave the necessity of reply or otherwise to your own discretion. To keep any attachment is obviously ...
... to give some help. But these means are not likely to be sufficient for the future. I understand that Sri Aurobindo's work has to pass through three stages, the first when he was finding out the spiritual path and laying the foundations of his sadhana, a second, now begun, for creating a nucleus of spiritual workers and a number of institutions as the basis for his work, and last, the full work in India ...
... a definite orientation to our existence; That determines our destiny; in the consciousness of That you should unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to advance with the same steps on the spiritual path: this is the secret of a durable union. March, 1933 Page 79 (Someone asked the Mother about interviewing people of Aspiration to find out their views on things, including sex ...
... to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way. That other way is the concentration in the head, in the mental centre. This, if it brings about the silence of the surface mind, opens ...
... Divine----With the deeper minds the dissatisfaction with the ideals of the past or the present, with all mental or vital or material solutions of the problem of life has increased and only the spiritual path is left. It is true that the European mind having little light on these things dallies with vital will-o'-the-wisps like spiritism or theosophy or falls back upon the old religionist; but the ...
... Grace." Is it good, is it healthy to think like this? Not only is it right, good and healthy to think like this, but it is an absolutely indispensable attitude if one wants to advance on the spiritual path. As a matter of fact, it is the first step without which one cannot advance at all. That is why I always say: "Whatever you do, do the best you can, and leave the result to the Lord; then your ...
... our lives; it is That which determines our destinies; it is in the consciousness of That that you must unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to move forward at the same pace on the same spiritual path, that is the secret of a lasting union. March 1933 Page 291 It was not at all a selection. I simply said that this girl looked the best of the three, that is all. In any case ...
... is made on the subtle planes one must be serious. I, of course, was unaware of this contact - being more deeply 'sunk in stony sleep' of the natural body than you who have travelled far on the spiritual path which I see only far off and am aware of intellectually. But the evidence of the TLS and the odd confirmatory detail of the comb 1 mildly coveted on that very day is incontrovertible. I did not ...
... in closing the review of so useful and "luminiferous" a medium of vibrant Word meant to become Flesh in us - do better than quote an extremely helpful hint for all who are troubled on the spiritual path by "tests" when they make sincere efforts to overcome defects: "One does not always know whether it is the hostiles who are trying to break the resolution or putting it to the test (for they ...
... and comprehensiveness and globality are pointers to the highest Truth, then Sri Aurobindo by his super-synthesis, his absolute integrality, can surely be regarded as "more advanced on the spiritual path, more perfect, more correct, more enlightened than others". And it is not unreasonable to suppose that one who is such is likely also to give us the last word on sundry problems literary and ...
... to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way. That other way is the concentration in the head, in the mental centre. This, if it brings about the silence of the surface mind ...
... The soul, otherwise called the psychic being, is man's spiritual being: the growth of the spiritual being means the advent and establishment bf the true personality. There is, of course, a spiritual path that turns the soul away from its instruments and demands that it should concentrate exclusively upon itself, upon its essential essence, upon its transcendent existence; but that is not our path ...
... and insoluble so life continues to be as poor, unhappy, dark and ignorant as ever before. If a change for the better of human life is to be brought about, it must be done by men taking to the spiritual path. There is no other way. Mind and mental humanity have long been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Hence the imperative necessity of the spiritual change. And this can only be brought ...
... actions is to arrive at a standardless state solely governed at every step by the omniscient spontaneity of the divine Wilt But for most of us — sadhakas taking the first tentative steps on the spiritual Path — this goal is still very, very far away. Yet it cannot be denied that the task even for the novice sadhaka is to do all acts in conformity with the Will of the Divine. What do we do then? How ...
... road. These last road-marks will surely appear in time and confront the traveller if he does not interrupt his journey. Let us now apply this journey-analogy to the case of a sadhaka on the spiritual path; and let us interpret the various obstacles he progressively meets on the way as these different road-marks lining the long route of the traveller. Now consider the case of any individual ...
... on Yoga, p. 1374) But this 'God-centricity' is not so easy to obtain: it can come only if we truly and integrally love the Divine. Now the question arises whether, as sadhakas of the spiritual Path, we fulfil the above condition. Of course, if someone asks us point-blank: "Do you love the Divine?", our prompt answer will be: "Surely we do." If now a second question is addressed to us seeking ...
... when recited correctly and with full faith. Page 152 along, for an absolute duffer like me, I am going to relate presently. When the time truly came for me to enter the spiritual path, he took a decisive step. His compassion towards me was boundless. He had gone on preparing me by a series of very subtle steps, before he finally threw wide open the portals of my heart. All this ...
... Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies, all human religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it sends out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of ...
... but also of power and dynamism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into' play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the spiritual path. Of the three fires one is the upholder – he who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the ...
... effort or culture. He alone can be a poet who is to the manner born. The same is true also of the spiritual life. But in this case, there is something more to take into account. If you enter the spiritual path, often, whether you will or not, you come in touch with hidden powers, supra-sensible forces, beings of other worlds and you do not know how to deal with them. You raise ghosts and spirits, demons ...
... which has the diabolical intent of sadhaka's sadhana. (iii) To be entirely convinced without the slightest reservation that the fear of death is absolutely inimical to the progress on the spiritual path; and to indulge in it in any way is tantamount to the harbouring of a deadly enemy in the citadel of one's spiritual self-defence. This conviction, if made genuine and strong, will electrify the ...
... the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way. That other way is the concentration in the head, in the mental centre. This, if it brings about the silence of the surface mind, ...
... those who are fit and open to its influence are being illumined by it. Anyway, the advent of this new race is inevitable. It is decreed by the Supreme. * The first requisite on the spiritual path is aspiration. One knocks at the gate of spiritual life because one aspires for it. It is the aspiration, the will in the seeker, the yearning of his soul for the Divine that pushes him forward ...
... deteriorated out of sorrow. One day Chimanbhai while telling me about his inner anguish said: "Pranab, if ever you come to the Ashram then never get married." The one who walks on the spiritual path doesn't know what his fate will be, how his life will unfold. How can one take the responsibility of another person's life? It is very painful both for oneself and for the person one marries ...
... matter. In other words, the very first principle of foundation of our life and teaching in the Ashram is freedom and individuality. No one is cajoled or persuaded to follow the spiritual aim or spiritual path. If one wants to know anything, one knows it freely, of oneself; if one wants to understand anything, one does it in freedom. Every moment you are free, you can step in any direction you like ...
... know how to eat fresh fruit!" And then there was one more outburst of laughter. Pavitra-da had participated in the First World War. A few days after the War ended he decided to turn to the spiritual path. He went to Mongolia in search of a guru and stayed there with a group of lamas. Once while recounting his adventures of those times, he said: "The Mongolians did not understand that one ...
... whole world into its image. It wanted to make therefore "a world where it could reign alone". This light can only be a guiding angel on the way to the Infinite and the Divine for the traveller of spiritual path. He. was not tempted by their per- suasion because he was dreaming of a state where all the differences between the ideals would not only be forgotten but reconciled and they would all "Become ...
... ascetic self-denial, but it has, all the same, an unmistakable lesson for those who engross themselves in unremitting mental activities either in the deluded hope of being thereby able to follow the spiritual path better or simply because they cannot overcome the force of habit. One of the reasons why we have so few original and creative thinkers in modern times is this inveterate habit of constant and ...
... our lives; it is That which determines our destinies; it is in the consciousness of That that you must unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to move forward at the same pace on the same spiritual path, that is the secret of a lasting union. 19 The limitations of human love in its many forms and the quality of divine love as the culmination and crystallisation of human love were to come up ...
... their bloody struggles against the Sforzas, then coolly tossed their victims off the Bridge of Sighs. Assuming that Theon's "genealogy” is correct, one may be surprised to see him set out on the “spiritual" path, but our conception of the "Spirit" is probably as erroneous as our perception of Matter, and for the same reason. When speaking of Napoleon, Sri Aurobindo saw God armed striding through Europe ...
... harbinger of a new light and force and life, I feel a deep joy in sharing this treasure of messages, correspondence and conversations, that give a wonderful insight and guidance to seekers on the spiritual path. It also shows the natural unfolding of the Mother’s relationship with a child of the Ashram and Her persistent guidance towards the flowering of a psychic being. Her encouragement, love and compassion ...
... ne was going only partly over my life-line. She told me that the life-line had to join the line of destiny and I would have to aspire for it strongly. She also explained that for people on the spiritual path it was much easier to change their destiny if they sincerely aspired towards the change. Since I was only fifteen years old then, I started folding and pressing my thumb on to the palm and placing ...
... cittavṛttinirodha ) or something similar, but that is not the way followed here. He should seek a guru who can give him what he wants. I had the good fortune of securing a real guide in the spiritual path, who initiated me into Rajayoga. But I have lost the chance of further guidance. I would now like to be guided by you. Reply that Sri Aurobindo gives help or guidance only to those who follow ...
... spiritual instructions or worldly matters. This limitation is absolutely necessary otherwise I could not do the work I have to do. All depends on whether the man who comes to me is meant for the spiritual path and its work—if not, then all I can do is to give him the kalyāṇecchā which one can always give. The rest depends upon himself or his karma. I shall ask Nolini for X 's letters and see. But ...
... lines really very different. One is a perpetual choice, not only of what one reads but of what one does, of what one thinks, of all one's activities, of strictly doing only what can help you on the spiritual path; it does not necessarily have to be very narrow and limited, but it must be on a little higher plane than the ordinary life, and with a concentration of will and aspiration which does not allow ...
... and a half of uninterrupted appearance. Sri Aurobindo lived at first in retirement at Pondicherry with four or five disciples. Afterwards more and yet more began to come to him to follow his spiritual path and the number became so large that a community of sadhaks had to be formed for the maintenance and collective guidance of those who had left everything behind for the sake of a higher life. This ...
... two strong ties that prevent Page 195 it, ambition and need to act and lead in the vital and in the mind a mental idealism—these two things are the great fosterers of illusion. The spiritual path needs a certain amount of realism—one has to see the real value of the things that are—which is very little, except as steps in evolution. Then one can either follow the spiritual static path of ...
... into the path and following it. 17 December 1929 I entirely surrender myself and depend upon your divine Grace. If in your pleasure you direct that I should remain in the Asram, I feel the spiritual path will lose many of its difficulties for me. If on the other hand you should direct that I should go back to Nellore may I request at least that you will graciously accord me darshan tomorrow. ...
... I have said this many times, but this is an opportunity to repeat it: it is sincerity . A sincerity which must become total and absolute, for sincerity alone is your protection on the spiritual path. If you are not sincere, at the very next step you are sure to fall and break your head. All kinds of forces, wills, influences, entities are there, on the look-out for the least little rift in ...
... 10 Thus even a purely intellectual discrimination, not yet founded on experience, is valuable and "a thing not to be despised". A crucial distinction that one needs to make on the spiritual path is the difference between the psychical and the spiritual. Due to an inadequate knowledge of yogic psychology, psychical phenomena and experiences—which pertain to the inner or subliminal co ...
... natural now, that you cannot believe you are the Page 102 same person. This is the surest indication that you have truly progressed. When can one say that one has truly entered the spiritual path? The first sign (it is not the same for everybody) but in a chronological order, I believe, is that everything else appears to you absolutely without importance. Your entire life, all your ...
... this many times, but this is an opportunity to repeat it: it is sincerity . Page 247 A sincerity which must become total and absolute, for sincerity alone is your protection on the spiritual path. If you are not sincere, at the very next step you are sure to fall and break your head. All kinds of forces, wills, influences, entities are there, on the look-out for the least little rift in ...
... lines really very different. One is a perpetual choice, not only of what one reads but of What one does, of what one thinks, of all one's activities, of strictly doing only what can help you on the spiritual path; it does not necessarily have to be very narrow and limited, but it must be on a little higher plane than the ordinary life, and with a concentration of will and aspiration which does not allow ...
... make it intelligible? Or has Tagore by any chance thought that I was trying to convey a moral lesson or a philosophical tenet—there is nothing of the kind there, it is a frequent experience on the spiritual path that is being described Page 247 in its own proper, one might almost say, objective figures—and that is surely a method of poetry proper. Or is it that the expression is too bad or ...
... to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way. Page 6 That other way is the concentration in the head, in the mental centre. This, if it brings about the silence of the surface ...
... himself to me if I cleave to him always; that I will never cease to do whatever may come." It is altogether unprofitable to enquire who or what class will arrive first or last at the goal. The spiritual path is not a field of competition or a race that this should matter. What matters is one's own aspiration for the Divine, one's own faith, surrender, selfless self-giving. Others can be left to the ...
... served because with the deeper minds the dissatisfaction with the ideals of the past or the present, with all mental or vital or material solutions of the problem of life has increased and only the spiritual path is left. It is true that the European mind having little light on these things dallies with vital will-o'-the wisps like spiritism or theosophy or falls back upon the old religionism; but the deeper ...
... it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly, he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed ...
... this plane are often hostile to the true aim of spiritual life and establish contact with the seeker and offer him powers and occult experiences only in order that they may lead him away from the spiritual path or else that they may establish their own control over him or take possession of him for their own purpose. Often, representing themselves as divine powers, they mislead, give erring suggestions ...
... activity of the psychic being, which is best helped by devotion and self-giving, are the most powerful means for arriving at this condition. Everyone whose psychic being calls him to the spiritual path has a capacity for that path and can arrive at the goal if or as soon as he develops a single-pointed will towards that alone. But also every sadhak is faced with two elements in him, the inner ...
... difficulties and troubles, you must keep this confidence that by relying on the Divine, the Divine will take you through. Now I answer the questions you put to me in your letter. 1) If to follow the spiritual path is your resolve, marriage and family life can only come across it. Marriage would be the right thing only if the sexual push was so strong that there was no hope of overcoming it except by a controlled ...
... has happened even to those who are troubled by these circular movements and have been again and again on the point of rushing away in despair. There is nothing more futile than to despair in the spiritual path and throw up the game: it is to break a working which would have led one to the realisation asked for if one had persevered. Thirst for the Divine is one thing and depression is quite another ...
... Receiving Their Influence There are no conditions for receiving the influence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother 1 except faith, an entire sincerity in following the spiritual path and a will and capacity to open oneself to the influence; but this capacity usually comes as the result of sincerity and faith. It is quite possible to follow the Yoga while remaining outside ...
... thought. And yet they are all 'in search of a soul' and those who are not 'under analysis' have some sort of guru, Zen or Indian, or something less reputable, and really want to discover some spiritual path, just so long as it does not involve any control of their 'way of life' especially in sexual matters, where total democratic freedom prevails. It's a mad society but at the same time so many sincere ...
... earthly endeavour and expression. Such a seer could not but have some meaning for me. However, I was engrossed in my own pursuits and they were not always such as might lead one to the spiritual path. The analytic intellect had grown rather strong in me and I came to carry like a challenging flame the modern temper of doubt and denial. During a short period I professed downright materialism ...
... position of a Guru and tell her to turn more to us, but I think the insistence need not be too peremptory and absolute. After all, you can help and have helped her and others and drawn them to the spiritual path and you have made many turn towards us who of their notion would not have thought of doing so. There is a power in you to draw others like that and it seems to me that not only Nature but 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 vibrations of each stage of ...
... majority of human beings tread. A number of times I could persuade my mind to trust the Mother's Force and be sure of Its final Victory. But it was not easy to keep my steps always steady on the spiritual path. Suggestions were constantly hovering in the atmosphere, and would descend on me unexpectedly. I was not knowledgeable about spiritual matters—I could not distinguish chalk from cheese. And a gigantic ...
... etc. 14 May 1936 Mother, do You believe that everything I tell You will be without hypocrisy? I truly hope that you are not a hypocrite, for hypocrisy is a great obstacle on the spiritual path. 16 May 1936 I see clouds all around me shutting out Your light. How can I feel Your presence again? The first condition is to keep your mind calm and peaceful. It is in calm that ...
... our lives; it is That which determines our destinies; it is in the consciousness of That that you must unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to move forward at the same pace on the same spiritual path, that is the secret of a lasting union. March 1933 At Aspiration (Auroville) They want to have a meditation at the same time and with the same programme as the Ashram. The necessary ...
... deeper minds the dissatisfaction with the ideals of the past or the present, with all mental or vital or Page 149 material solutions of the problem of life has increased and only the spiritual path is left. It is true that the European mind having little light on these things dallies with vital will-o-the-wisps like spiritism or theosophy or falls back upon the old religionism; but the deeper ...
... Purusha and the elan of Prakriti so that there is a quiet intensity of love moving most naturally towards the Divine. Our Bhakti is activated by that speciality of Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's spiritual path - the Psychic Being - the true Soul which lies behind what they term the desire-soul and which passes from birth to birth in a subtle progression and is not set on reaching Page 146 ...
... day are but a candle-flame before the all-illuminating, all-embracing, all-fulfilling vision and work of Sri Aurobindo who may be said to lead Hinduism not only to transcend every other religio-spiritual path more strikingly than ever before but also to transcend even Hinduism's own past glories and powers. (26.5.1986) The priest-palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin's last written note ...
... are plus points in disguise, empty spaces waiting or calling for touches from beyond our humanity. You are on the ambiguous, borderline of a new life without quite knowing it. When one is on the spiritual path, the falling away of old movements without new ones taking their place are not really losses. The succession of them is no mere piling of negatives. The result of the adding up of subtrac- ...
... the impulse is not irresistible. One must have the wish and the will not to overstep that point. And, along with them, one must seek some kind of diversion. Of course, for those who are on the spiritual path the best way is to superimpose on the incipient erotic imagination the remembrance of the compassionate face of our Lord Sri Aurobindo and the affectionate countenance of our Divine Mother, ...
... Mother too has declared that the best thing in this Yoga is for the sadhak not to stand in her way but allow her to work towards making him a true Aurobindonian. One of the basic things in our spiritual path is, as you know, samata, "equality of consciousness", which empties us of personal reactions and produces a huge vacuum in which the impersonal Self of selves can slowly emerge and draw into ...
... spiritual realizations. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in French India in order to concentrate on his inner life and work. During his forty years there, he developed a new spiritual path, the Integral Yoga, whose ultimate aim is the transformation of life by the power of a supramental consciousness. In 1926, with the help of the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His ...
... CWM, Vol. 16, p. 294. 8 Ibid., p. 395. form. It therefore becomes accessible to us; it makes available to us in a concrete way the profundities that can lead us along the spiritual path on and on. We have to open it and read it, we have to breathe in it. Indeed in its origin that form of Savitri is varam rupam, the auspicious form of savitra himself, the Light of the Supreme ...
... through thought. Allow the paradox to be there. And allow the contradictions to be there, and look beyond. They are all perspectives. DALAL: Ramakrishna spoke about two attitudes on the spiritual path—the baby-cat attitude and the baby monkey attitude. The baby cat simply lies there on the ground and lets its mother Page 42 carry it wherever she wants. The baby monkey, on the ...
... orientation to our existence; it is this that decides our destiny; it is in the consciousness of this that you should unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to advance with the same step on the spiritual path — such is the secret of a durable union. MARCH 1933 The Mother ...
... has happened even to those who are troubled by these circular movements and have been again and again on the point of rushing away in despair. There is nothing more futile than to despair in the spiritual path and throw up the game: it is to break a working which would have led one to the realisation asked for if one had persevered. I have always said that since your soul wants the Divine truly, you ...
... envisioned or cognised by the faculty of our senses.” This is a straightforward stipulation of universal yogic preconditions which ought to be strictly followed to make a beginning on the spiritual path. Naturally, therefore, there cannot be any dispute about Jnaneshwar’s commentary on the fifth shloka of this chapter. But when he comes to the next verse, pragmatically Upanishadic with the force ...
... enjoy the cheerful richness and skill of its expression, the felicity of its poetry. This may not be to the same degree or to the same depth as the Gita would offer to those who are advanced on the spiritual path; yet it will certainly put one in intimate contact with it. ( Jnaneshwari : 18.1738- 49) Jnaneshwar owes much of his success to the excellence of ...
... the lower nature, so that the enlightened will can have its free play in him. By overcoming the sway of the lower nature and subduing the ego-sense does he prepare himself to make progress on the spiritual path. By action does the Yogin climb the difficult Hill of Yoga and acquire self-mastery. “By the self thou shouldst deliver the self,”—says the Gita. All that is gross and crude and degrading has to ...
... 609) But this inner preparedness 1 will not come by itself. The sadhaka should not lapse into a mood of inert indolence and idly bide his time hoping that, since he has come to the spiritual path, the divine Grade is bound to act in his case today or tomorrow but surely act it will. This is a vain expectation. The sadhaka has to do his part well and with full sincerity. In the Mother's ...
... love. We have come to the end of our rather long chapter on the eightfold daily sadhana a sadhaka should put into practice in an unremitting way if he would wish that his progress on the spiritual path advance steadily with a solid foundation. The eight limbs of this ceaseless sadhana are, as we have seen above: (1) "To be conscious of oneself; (2) "to be always vigilant"; (3) "to step ...
... attained to the union with the Divine's Consciousness; his personal will is far from being identified with the Divine's Will. Sohe cannot try to behave in a way as if he has reached the end of the spiritual path. He is still living in his separative ego-consciousness ever impelled by the motions of desires; he is full of personal likes and dislikes, preferences and antipathies, and seeking always after ...
... disposition man's vital is often inclined to what is evil and false; it shrinks from light and is enamoured of darkness. And it is because of this downward inclination that the sadhaka of the spiritual path meets so much difficulty in the vital part of his being . When the aspirant would ardently like to soar in the blue expanse of the sky on the wings of his aspiration, it is the gravitational ...
... since the earliest recorded history of the race. The occult traditions of ancient Egypt and Cabbala are full of their accounts. Zoroaster of ancient Persia specifically warned the aspirants of the spiritual path about the clever ploys of these hostile beings. The Vedas of India called them the Panis who like nocturnal robbers plunder the sadhakas of their truth-light, rt am Page 328 ...
... Aspiration Aspiration is one of the most essential elements conducive to the success in sadhana. Without an aspiration to support the sadhaka at every step, any meaningful progress on the spiritual path is not only difficult but highly improbable. Sri Aurobindo has reminded us that aspiration is one of the two crucial factors which open wide the window of spirituality, the other one being the ...
... there is a sense of Agni also in it. In another experience I felt the Mother's working as a burning fountain in the arms and the feet. Very good. On the spiritual path there are few things that are really abnormal. It is rather the habit of our ego or ignorance to take any new step, pressure or experience as something rare and miraculous. Obviously ...
... Dwijendra Lai Roy, Dilip had already made a name for himself as a singer, and with his many talents he could have had a glittering career, but there was a restless urge in him which drew him to the spiritual path. Sri Aurobindo gave him a long interview which has been faithfully recorded in Ray's well-known book, Among the Great. It is worth reading in full and I will refrain from giving you extracts ...
... mantra which surpasses man's entire knowledge.... Everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, history of evolution, history of man, gods of the creation and of Nature.... Savitri is the spiritual path, the Tapasya, Sadhana.... It has an extraordinary power, it is the Truth in all its plenitude that he has brought down here on earth.' Sri Aurobindo has encompassed all the three worlds, Heaven ...
... the help of Savitri one can kindle the psychic flame, the flame of aspiration — in fact how one could orient oneself towards the Goal. She said that many sublime steps could be realised on the spiritual path in order to seek and unite with the Divine, by the help of Savitri. She emphasised: Savitri is self-revelatory. No one can explain the real meaning of Savitri, or grasp it fully with ...
... choice. For the only other alternative is a life in the Ashram itself which would be soon a public scandal. What brings about such hopelessness after one has already entered the spiritual path? There is no hopelessness except where the will chooses the worse path. Page 68 ...
... The soul, otherwise called the psychic being, is man's spiritual being: the growth of the spiritual being means the advent and establishment of the true personality. There is, of course, a spiritual path that turns the soul away from its instruments and demands that it should concentrate exclusively upon itself, upon its essential essence, upon its transcendent existence; but that is not our path ...
... the sun does not shine in its glory as on earth. You see and feel the sunlight again when you approach the sun and are about to be consumed in its fires. In the same way, we are told that on the spiritual path too, the path of inner consciousness, when you leave the ordinary consciousness, when you lose that normal light and yet have not arrived at the other higher light you grope in an intermediary ...
... hut also of power and dynamism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the spiritual path. Of the three fires one is the upholder—he who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the ...
... sun does not shine in its glory as on earth. You see and feel the sunlight again when you approach the sun and are about to be consumed in its fires. In the same way, we are told that on the spiritual path too, the path of the inner consciousness, when you leave the ordinary Page 79 consciousness, when you lose that normal light and yet have not arrived at the other higher light ...
... matter. In other words, the very first principle of foundation of our life and teaching in the Ashram is freedom and individuality. No one is cajoled or persuaded to follow the spiritual aim or spiritual path. If one wants to know any thing, one knows it freely, of oneself; if one wants to under stand anything, one does it in freedom. Every moment you are free, you can step in any direction you like ...
... but when something else is adored in their name or in their stead. When we take some physical miracle or vital power or mental dogma as the object of our devotion, then we deviate from the true spiritual path and become worshippers of inferior gods or spirits of the lower Page 225 order. The spiritual world, or God as He verily is, is beyond the domains of the body, life and mind ...
... Gurus. If he goes on changing like that, he will get nowhere. Moreover, there will be a play of contrary influences. CHAMPAKLAL: But if one visits spiritual people one can get some help on the spiritual path. They say that Satsang has a great value in life. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, one can get some influence, but that is for ordinary people who want some good influence to help them in their lives, not ...
... person is really non violent or not and they approach person according to that feeling. But what I want to know is whether Jainism accepts any intermediary such as a Guru who helps a disciple in the spiritual path. There are religions like Buddhism who don't believe in such things. Buddhism strongly says that one has to rely on one's own effort. Nobody can help one. By the teachings or precepts or instructions ...
... outward appearances alone draw such superficial conclusions. To tell you the truth, by then I had left politics far behind me and was wholly absorbed in the spiritual life. "My progress on the spiritual path had to proceed unhindered, and that is why I had to leave all political activity aside. But before doing so I had already had the inward perception and certitude that the lines along which I had ...
... suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him; He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme.... "It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything, in its single body.... "It is incomparable; it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth." ...
... spiritual, probably they do not want to. They want this very religious atmosphere; a fixed, routine, religious path is what they prefer. Perhaps man is not yet fully ready to understand and follow the spiritual path beyond the religious.' * 'In 1945,' Dada said, 'I set up the physical culture groups with some very simple equipment, a set of parallel-bars and a pair of "dun-kath" (dipping ...
... is from this standpoint of the fostering of the light that Swaddhyaya, the concentrated musing on the sacred teachings, is so Page 297 much enjoined upon the followers of the spiritual path. It is, therefore, with an aspiration for this light—the light that leads, the light that watches and warns, and lifts and consoles us when we "fall upon the thorns of life and bleed"—that we ...
... his social and his racial destiny. Before Mirra Richard (the Mother) came to Pondicherry to meet Sri Aurobindo in March 1914, she had already traversed - as we saw earlier - a similar spiritual path, and she had recorded in 1912 that the aim to be attained was the realisation of human unity by "founding the Kingdom of God which is within us all"; and this was to be achieved through the twin ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter IV Sankhya and Yoga Sankhya In the spiritual thought of India during the time of the Rishis and even before, the Sankhya and Vedanta elements were always combined. The Sankhya account of the ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter VII Tantra Tantra and the Integral Yoga Veda and Vedanta are one side of the one Truth; Tantra with its emphasis on Shakti is another. In this Yoga all sides of the Truth are taken up, not... those who follow his special path of Yoga; your experiences follow a different line. In his Yoga there may be an occasional current in the spine as in other nerve channels or different parts of the body, but no awakening of the Kundalini in this particular and powerful fashion. There is only a quiet uprising of the consciousness from the lower centres to join the spiritual consciousness above and a descent... them formerly, but in their essence and carried to the fullest and highest significance. But Vedanta deals more with the principles and essentials of the divine knowledge and therefore much of its spiritual knowledge and experience has been taken bodily into the Arya . Tantra deals more with forms and processes and organised powers—all these could not be taken as they were, for the integral Yoga needs ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter V The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita The Teaching of the Gita This world is as the Gita describes it, anityam asukham , so long as we live in the present world-consciousness; it is only by turning... that does not matter. It makes no difference, even if you are right, to the spiritual excellence of the Gita. I care nothing whether Sanjaya and Krishna and Arjuna of the Mahabharat were myths or real persons. The only thing that is important is that the sadhana of the Gita is a real thing and can be lived and that if spiritually lived, its so-called inconsistencies are no inconsistencies but many well-related... vision seen by Arjuna included. The rest is a matter of opinion and, as I say, of no spiritual importance. The Gita was not meant by the writer to be an allegory—you can say, if you like, that now we should dismiss the ancient war element by interpreting it as if it were an allegory. The Gita is Yoga, spiritual truth applied to external life and action—but it may be any action and not necessarily ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter I The Newness of the Integral Yoga Old and New Truth Well, I don't suppose the new race can be created by or according to logic or that any race has been. But why should the idea of the creation... divine realisation is meant the spiritual realisation—the realisation of Self, Bhagavan or Brahman on the mental-spiritual plane or else the overmental plane. That is a thing (at any rate the mental-spiritual) which thousands have done. So it is obviously easier to do than the supramental. Also nobody can have the supramental realisation who has not had the spiritual. It is true that neither can... Secondly, the supramental transformation is not the same as the spiritual-mental. It is a change of mind, life and body which the mental or overmental-spiritual cannot achieve. All whom you mention were spirituals, but in different ways. Krishna's mind, for instance, was overmentalised, Ramakrishna's intuitive, Chaitanya's spiritual-psychic, Buddha's illumined higher mental. I don't know about B. ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter X Christianity and Theosophy Christianity The gospel of suffering, the obsessing sense of sin and the dramatic vital turn which goes with these things are certainly the most prominent defects... to me to have never clarified its intelligence by the spiritual light in the higher reaches of the mind; it is lacking in a spiritual philosophy and never really went beyond theology—in spite of one or two large thinkers who were the exception rather than the rule. One has to pass beyond even the higher mind, but not to have developed the spiritual light in it leaves the instrument defective and, instead... n of the spiritual personality, but so do Vaishnavism and Shaivism and other "Asiatic" ideals. The writer's ignorance of the many-sidedness of Asiatic wisdom deprives his depreciation of it of all value. The phrases which struck you as resembling superficially at least our ideal of transformation are of a general character and could be adopted without hesitation by almost any spiritual discipline ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter IX The Teachings of Some Modern Indian Yogis Ramana Maharshi According to Brunton's description of the sadhana he (Brunton) practised under the Maharshi's instructions, 1 it is the Overself... Ananda)—this is the third or supramental transformation. It does not always go in this order, for with many the spiritual descent begins first in an imperfect way before the psychic is in front and in charge, but the psychic development has to be attained before a perfect and unhampered spiritual descent can take place, and the last or supramental change is impossible so long as the two first have not become... exit to or towards the Transcendent it achieves is an ascent accompanied by a descent of the power, light, consciousness that has been achieved and it is by such descents that is to be achieved the spiritual and supramental transformation here. This possibility does not seem to be admitted in the Maharshi's thought,—he considers the Descent as superfluous and logically impossible. "The Divine is here ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter III Jainism and Buddhism Jainism The Jain philosophy is concerned with individual perfection. Our effort is quite different. We want to bring down the Supermind as a new faculty. Just as the... getting rid of the stream of birth and death in a purely phenomenal (not an unreal) world; the method of life by which this liberation could be effected was also a psychological method, the eightfold path developing right understanding and right action. His object was pragmatic and severely practical and so were his methods; metaphysical speculations would only draw the mind away from the one thing needful... do not quite see how service to mankind or any ideal of improvement of the world existence can have been part of his aim, since to pass out of life into a transcendence was his object. His eightfold path was the means towards that end and not an aim in itself or indeed in any way an aim. Obviously if right understanding and right action became the common rule of life, there would be a great improvement ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter II The Veda and the Upanishads The Vedic Rishis It is not I only who have done what the Vedic Rishis did not do. Chaitanya and others developed an intensity of Bhakti which is absent in the... the Veda and many other instances can be given. Why should the past be the limit of spiritual experience? I can't say whether any of them [ the Vedic Rishis ] attained the supramental plane, but the ascent to it was their object. Swar is evidently the illumined regions of Mind, between the supramental and the human intelligence formed by the rays of the Sun. According to the Upanishads those... niṇyā vacāṁsi nivacanāni kavaye —secret words that carry their significance only to the seer. They were equipped with an apparent meaning exoteric and religious for the people, esoteric, occult and spiritual for the initiates. That the people should not find out the real Truth was their intention; they wanted them only to know the outward truths for which they were fit. This picture of Vedic society ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter III A Realistic Adwaita The World Not an Illusion I do not agree with the view that the world is an illusion, mithyā . The Brahman is here as well as in the supracosmic Absolute. The thing to be overcome is... complete liberation possible; but the individual self or soul is not this ego. The individual soul is the spiritual being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the Divine but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false separative sense... consciousness, it must be a spiritual and not only a physical fact. In that case, it is the individual who evolves and grows into a more and more developed and perfect consciousness and obviously that cannot be done in the course of a brief single human life. If there is the evolution of a conscious individual, then there must be rebirth. Rebirth is a logical necessity and a spiritual fact of which we can ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter I Distinctive Features of the Integral Yoga The Meaning of Purna Yoga Purna Yoga means (1) that instead of approaching the Divine through the mind alone (Jnana) or the heart alone (Bhakti) or through will and... necessarily by the intellectual cognition, but in a spiritual experience, is also essential in the path of the integral Yoga. Page 375 The Importance of Descent in the Yoga I meant by it [ the phrase "a far greater Truth" ] the descent of the supramental Consciousness upon earth; all truths below the supramental (even that of the highest spiritual on the mental plane, which is the highest that... rejection as a mistake or an illusion, and, secondly, the character of this manifestation as a spiritual evolution with Yoga as a means for Page 373 the transformation of mind, life and body into the instruments of a spiritual and supramental perfection. The universe is not only a material but a spiritual fact, life not only a play of forces or a mental experience, but a field for the evolution ...
... Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter VI The Adwaita of Shankaracharya Shankara's Mayavada If Shankara's conception of the undifferentiated pure Consciousness as the Brahman is your view of it, then it is not the path of this Yoga that... it—illusion, Maya. It is on its road towards immergence. Mayavada, therefore, with its sole stress on Nirvana, quite apart from its defects as a mental theory of things, serves a great spiritual end and, as a path, can lead very high and far. Even, if the Mind were the last word and there were nothing beyond it except the pure Spirit, I would not be averse to accepting it as Page 454 the... metaphysical logic which deals in words and ideas, but by a spiritual experience which goes beyond Mind and enters into spiritual realities. Each mind is satisfied with its own reasoning, but for spiritual purposes that satisfaction has no validity, except as an indication of how far and on what line each one is prepared to go in the field of spiritual experience. If your reasoning leads you towards the Shankara ...
... The presentation of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has been enriched by copious references to other spiritual teachers and works, both Eastern and Western, including the perennial lore of such sources as the Gita and the Upanishads. Unlike most other spiritual paths and disciplines, Integral Yoga does not prescribe any set of concrete practices such as aāsana, prānāyāma... the Integral Yoga has been prompted primarily by the felt needs of students and beginners on the path of sadhana, there is much in the book from which a great deal of benefit can be derived by older and more "advanced" sadhakas. For, after all, from one viewpoint, all those who are following the path of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are like mates in various grades of the same preparatory school of... practice which most people associate with spiritual pursuit is that of meditation. This is specially true of the West where, particularly due to the influence of Zen Buddhism, spiritual practice is regarded as almost synonymous with the practice of meditation. Referring to this attitude in a critical vein, the Mother remarks, "...when they think of the spiritual life, they immediately think of meditation ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter II Asceticism and the Integral Yoga Not an Ascetic Path It is not indispensable to be an ascetic—it is enough if one can learn to live within in the inner being instead of on the surface, discover the soul or... mental work and social contacts is not favourable for Yoga, excessive seclusion has also its spiritual disadvantage. An inner concentration supported by a limitation of external contacts is sufficient. Some kind of activity and service to the Divine is also a very necessary element in the integral spiritual life. To be by oneself very much needs a certain force of inner life. It may be better... revives. If it does not and the potatoes fall away from you of themselves, then there is some hope that the thing is done! However, all this will make you think that I am hardly fit to be a guru in the path of asceticism and you will probably be right. You see, I have such a strong penchant for the inner working and am so persuaded that if you give the psychic a chance, it will get rid of the vital bonds ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter IV Transformation in the Integral Yoga The Meaning of Transformation By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature—I do not mean for instance sainthood or ethical perfection or Yogic siddhis (like... road and in thirty years of search and inner creation when I could have hastened home safely to my goal in an easy canter over paths already blazed out, laid down, perfectly mapped, macadamised, made secure and public. Our Yoga is not a retreading of old walks, but a spiritual adventure. Towards a Transformation of Earth Life I believe Krishnaprem's comment was on a passage in which I wrote that... full descent can thoroughly remove the veil and mixture and effect the full spiritual transformation. No metaphysical or logical reasoning in the void as to what the Atman "must" do or can do or needs or needs not to do is relevant here or of any value. I may add that transformation is not the central object of other paths as it is of this Yoga—only so much purification and change is demanded by them ...
... world's religions in an impartial acceptance of everything in them exactly as it is. A broad-minded view of the function and utility of all spiritual and religious motives, a willingness to let different human beings accept different creeds and guides and paths according to their natures — this is the obvious intention. Again, look at the declaration that the worship of Krishna and the Vaishnava... student or practitioner of the Integral Yoga should avoid "all sectarianism, all fanaticism". He should avoid them because he casts from himself the "exclusive tendency" and takes the essence of all spiritual paths and impregnates it with the new Aurobindonian revelation, making that essence yield the secret truth in it that tends towards integrality. But, if we admit this, then we imply integrality to be... and in thirty years of search and inner creation when I could have hastened home safely to my goal in an easy canter over paths already blazed out, laid down, perfectly mapped, mac-adamised, made secure and public. Our yoga is not a retreading of old walks, but a spiritual adventure." Page 76 ...
... bhāsā = language; siddhi = perfection, accomplishment. 5 Smarta Shruti; Smarta: derived from smriti = memory. Slmili: spiritual hearing. Among several main spiritual paths—Saivism, Vaishnavism, etc.— Smartism also is another traditional yogic path followed by many Hindus. A Smarta, a traditionalist, takes the line of Knowledge— jfiana yoga —to achieve liberation, moksha. Page... ancient type of Yoga practised certainly in India, practised probably in ancient Greece, Asia Minor & Egypt in prehistoric times." For those who cared to follow "the clue I have myself received, the path and its principal turnings," the signposts were clearly indicated. It was 12 December 1938. Sri Aurobindo was lying in his bed after the knee accident. He was explaining about different types of... erudition ... the original sense of the words, the lines, the allusions, the clue to the structure of the thought had been long lost or obscured; nor was there in the erudite that intuition or that spiritual experience which might have partly recovered the lost secret," wrote Sri Aurobindo in the Secret of the Veda. A tongue unintelligible to us may be correctly understood once a clue has been found ...
... The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter VIII Bhakti Yoga and Vaishnavism The Vaishnava Theory and Sadhana They [ the Vaishnavas ] accept the world as a Lila, but the true Lila is elsewhere in the eternal Brindavan. All the religions... in my Yoga all vital movements must come under the control of the psychic and of the spiritual calm, knowledge and peace. If they conflict with the psychic or the spiritual control, they upset the balance and prevent the forming of the base of transformation. Page 466 If unbalance is good for other paths, that is the business of those who follow them. It does not suit mine. Everybody... as well as the Divine Truth and its reign here means for those who accept it the straight and thornless path on which there is no wall or obstacle of which the ancient Rishis saw the far-off promise. The dark path is there and there are many who make like the Christians a gospel of spiritual suffering; many hold it to be the unavoidable price of victory. It may be so under certain circumstances ...
... viewpoint, methods of spiritual practice may be seen as approaches that use as leverage one or more of the three basic functions of the human psyche—-thinking, feeling, and willing—for the purposes of transforming ordinary consciousness into a higher or spiritual consciousness. From this point of view, spiritual disciplines may be broadly classified into three paths: the Path of Knowledge (Jnana Yoga)... Bhakti the highest place and regards it as the swiftest path. The kinship between Eckhart's teaching about the witnessing Presence and the process of the Sankhya—a path of knowledge— may seem surprising in view of Eckhart's de-emphasis on the role of knowledge or "information" in a spiritual teaching. But the knowledge aimed at in the Path of Knowledge is not an intellectual understanding. The... Reality; prayer (as ordinarily understood), worship, and adoration imply a duality, and are therefore inconsistent with the nondualist view. Sri Aurobindo's yoga, which integrates the various spiritual paths, employs all their methods in essence, without regarding any method, whether pertaining to knowledge, devotion, or works, as indispensable. Page 115 Work, bhakri 82 and meditation ...
... have the key to the door he opened! His yoga is integral because, instead of confining the quest to the spiritual heights, he has told us repeatedly that our body too must participate and we must bring the Spiritual Truth down into our body and our life. The path of ascent and all the other paths, the other planes of consciousness, are part of an integral development—for those who have the time and... have made a purely devotional and "mystical" thing out of it. As for "the spiritual," that includes all the planes of consciousness above the ordinary mind. It is the path of ascent. And that is where I repeatedly and emphatically, and from experience, say that those great Experiences, which have to be turned into spiritual summits, are part of the mental bubble (including the overmind): they are the... letter from an enthusiastic reader of "On the Way to Supermanhood": "Until the year of grace 1969 [the descent of the New Consciousness], all philosophies, all religions, all isms, all spiritual paths were only the refined products of the 'mental circle' [according to 'Supermanhood']. All experiences were merely on 'the higher planes of the mind.' Those 'peaks of the Spirit' are but 'self-paroxysms ...
... about the practice of his system of Yoga. The letters have been arranged in three parts dealing with these broad subject areas: 1. The Path of the Integral Yoga 2. The Synthetic Method of the Integral Yoga 3. The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The letters in this volume have been selected from the extensive correspondence Sri Aurobindo carried on with his disciples and others... persons for special reasons. Disciples in the Ashram wrote to Sri Aurobindo on loose sheets or Page 515 sent him the notebooks in which they kept diaries as a record of their spiritual endeavour and a means of communicating with him. These notebooks and loose sheets reached Sri Aurobindo via an internal "post" once or twice a day. Letters from outside which his secretary thought ...
... and force with the Universal. The ecstasy of the pure being absolute and one with the Transcendent. Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Works 138 All spiritual paths lead to a higher consciousness and union with the Divine and among the many paths one of the greatest is the Page 348 Way of Works: it is as great as the Way of Bhakti or the Way of Knowledge. Do not imagine that works... es that are, whosoever is enamoured of the divine greatnesses that shall be, whosoever has any glimpse of the Supreme within him or above him or around him let him hear the call, let him follow the path. The way is difficult, the labour heavy and arduous and long, but its reward is habitation in an unimaginable glory, a fathomless felicity, a happy and endless vastness. Find the Guide secret within... in it, to last in identity and not lose ourselves in identity with the supreme Existence. 135 It is possible for the reason, the thinker in us to rest and cease satisfied in this sole spiritual experience and to discard all others on the ground that they are in the end illusory or of a minor phenomenal significance. The logical mind drives naturally towards a pursuit of the abstract, towards ...
... New Society PART I THE WORLD WAR The World War ITS INNER BEARINGS This is a war to which even spiritual seekers can hardly remain indifferent with impunity. There are spiritual paths, however, that ask to render unto God what is God's and unto Satan what belongs to Satan; in other words, spirituality is kept apart from what is called worldliness... drawbacks and lapses, it will surmount all dangers and obstacles and become unconquerable. This is what the spiritual seeker means by saying that the Divine Grace can make the lame leap across the mountain. Page 15 India's destiny today bangs in the balance; it lies in the choice of her path. A great opportunity is offered to India's soul, a mighty auspicious moment is come, if she can... it triumphant, a new soul and a new body, and we make the path straight for the Lord. We have to recognise clearly and unequivocally that victory on one side will mean that the path of the Divine—of progress and evolution and fulfilment—will remain open, become wider and smoother and safer; but if the victory is on the other side, the path will be closed perhaps for ever, at least for many Page ...
... ns and spiritual paths. I was born into Buddhism, baptized into Christianity, initiated in Hindu Tantra, instructed in Sufism, and guided through all these experiences by the Supreme Shakti we call the Mother. What I have learned from all these paths is that each approach leads to a particular inner experience, and that each experience contributes to a more total, complex and rich spiritual realization... these spiritual paths have helped me to understand Sri Aurobindo’s yoga in greater depth. Buddhism leads to the silent mind, Christianity to devotion, Islamic Sufism to the science of the heart and Hindu Tantra to the effective manifestation of the Divine’s Will upon the earth, i.e. the Shakti. In a symbolic manner, these disciplines also encompass all the levels necessary for a total spiritual attainment... of what everything is aiming at. The one thing that was always very clear from the beginning was that an inner guidance and grace were continually present, protecting and showing me the path to greater spiritual growth. This I attribute to the Mother. And I feel that the inner growth of these years provided the basis for what was to come in later years, particularly regarding the work at the Matrimandir ...
... incarnation of the Supramental Ishwara-Shakti, they could carry us most swiftly forward. On so complex a path as the Integral Yoga we could hardly have advanced without their light and love. And, suiting the path's complexity, they were beings of an immense versatility. Combined with towering spiritual attainment, Sri Aurobindo brought a rare genius in political thought, philosophical ideation, poetic... stance in its practitioners. One is never allowed to remain entrenched in this or that high experience. A pressure is put to grow on every side and dare fresh flights into the Unknown. In other spiritual paths one is content to be a Jnani (Knower), a Bhakta (Devotee) or a Karmayogi (Doer of Divine Works). Here one is called upon to be all of them together — and something enormously extra. No wonder... Our Light and Delight 16 Spiritual Life in the Mother's Light In the spiritual life, even more than in other fields since the possibilities and the pitfalls are greater here, a proper assessment of oneself is salutary and helpful. Two generations ago Tagore said that although India was lying in the dust the very dust in which she lay ...
... Reminiscences I THE WORLD WAR (1939-1945)* ITS INNER BEARINGS This is a war to which even spiritual seekers can hardly remain indifferent with impunity. There are spiritual paths, however, that ask to render unto God what is God's and unto Satan what belongs to Satan; in other words, spirituality is kept apart from what is called ... its drawbacks and lapses, it will surmount all dangers and obstacles and become unconquerable. This is what the spiritual seeker means by saying that the Divine Grace can make the lame leap across the mountain. India's destiny today hangs in the balance; it lies in the choice of her path. A great opportunity is offered to India's soul, a mighty auspicious moment is come, if she can choose. If... it triumphant, a new soul and a new body and we make the path straight for the Lord. We have to recognise clearly and unequivocally that victory on one side will mean that the path of the Divine—of progress and evolution and fulfilment—will remain open, become wider and smoother and safer; but if the victory is on the other side, the path will be closed perhaps for ever, at least for many ages ...
... Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 1 The World War ITS INNER BEARINGS THIS is a war to which even spiritual seekers can hardly remain indifferent with impunity. There are spiritual paths, however, that ask to render unto God what is God's and unto Satan what belongs to Satan; in other words, spirituality is kept apart from what is called worldliness... Page 74 and lapses, it will surmount all dangers and obstacles and become unconquerable. This – is what the spiritual seeker means by saying that the Divine Grace can make the lame leap across the mountain. India's destiny today hangs in the balance; it lies in the choice of her path. A great opportunity is offered to India's soul, a mighty auspicious moment is come, if she can choose... it triumphant, a new soul and a new body, and we make the path straight for the Lord. We have to recognise clearly and unequivocally that victory on' one side will mean that the path of the Divine – of progress and evolution and fulfilment – will remain open, become wider and smoother and safer; but if the victory is on the other side, the path will be closed perhaps for ever, at least for many ages ...
... relentless spiritual battle into the lion's den itself and score victory there. And this hazardous procedure cannot but necessitate the acquisition of samat ā or equality as the most basic armour of the sadhaka. Without this indispensable attainment the seeker is likely to be bruised and battered at every second step of the Way and may even be completely pushed out from the chosen Path of his sadhana... sadhana is to maintain an attitude of perfect calm and equanimity under all circumstances. The Mother was once asked: "Is there any sign which indicates that one is ready for the path, especially if one has no spiritual teacher?" This is Page 248 how the Mother answered this very important question: "Yes, the most important indication is a perfect equality of sou in all... sadhaka cannot progress on the path of sadhana. For "a perfect equality of our spirit and nature is a means by which we can move back from the troubled and ignorant outer consciousness into the inner kingdom of heaven...." (The Synthesis of Yoga , p. 672) So the sadhaka is faced ! with a dilemma: Without attaining equality, one cannot acquire perfect spiritual equality; but at the same time; ...
... is required. Such an embodiment — this time a complete, double-poled Avatar — were the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. To bring about the new evolutionary gradation, they had to go down all previous spiritual paths to the end and then advance Into the unknown. This was their Yoga, their sadhana : building the bridge between the present and the future. In order to bring the supramental Unity-Consciousness... often tell bow intimately both their personalities had melted into each other and how concretely Sri Aurobindo was present in her. She had undoubtedly seen the full scope of Sri Aurobindo’s masterly spiritual manoeuvre, as well as of the task which rested now completely on her shoulders in so far as the physical sadhana on Earth was concerned. She must also have seen that his voluntary confrontation... It is seldom admitted that Sri Aurobindo has nowhere proposed a yogic system or a fixed framework of his philosophy. The Arya was not intended to divulge a system but to explicate mentally his spiritual discoveries — discoveries which Sri Aurobindo considered important, fertile and even revolutionary enough to share with humanity. Sri Aurobindo’s first works contain errors, one of them being that ...
... the Supreme Master's presence suffuse every attitude of mine? Does the presence of the Divine Mother manifest itself in all my relationships with fellow-creatures?" Since the goals of the old spiritual paths are regarded as no more than stepping-stones in the Integral Yoga, the drive of a perpetual seeking in which God is no fixed paradise But truth beyond great truth leaves... series. The inspiration from the Intuition got latched on to this more •familiar, even if intrinsically rare, region and brought forth a pure intuitivised snatch from it, no less fine as sheer spiritual poetry than the charmed outbreak from the in-world he had tapped earlier, but constituting a poetic pre-existence different from the one Page 135 which that in-world had yielded in ...
... Pondicherry (1910-1950) Letters on Himself and the Ashram The Supramental Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths Indian Systems and the Cabbala I do not think exact correlations can always be traced between one system of spiritual and occult knowledge and another. All deal with the same material, but there are differences of stand point, differences of view-range... the Veda and many other instances can be given. Why should the past be the limit of spiritual experience? 19 December 1934 Is it a fact that some ancient sages and Rishis have taken birth here in order to help your work? If so, it is not a fact of much importance. 27 October 1935 Vedanta and Other Paths of Self-Realisation The following doubt came to me: "Is not the realisation of... differences of opinion—for so he would regard them—are of no importance,—it is the opportunity for a spiritual approach to the Divine Reality that they are looking for and all that opens the way commands their respect. So, to lay emphasis on a difference with regard to the doctrine or the exact course of the Path followed might in his idea be a sign of a sectarian spirit. All ways lead to the Divine; the ...
... can and ought to believe and follow one’s own path without condemning or looking down on others for having beliefs different from those one thinks or sees to be the best or the largest in truth. The spiritual field is many-sided and full of complexities and there is room for an immense variety of experiences. Besides, all mental egoism — and spiritual egoism — has to be surmounted and this sense of... began writing her Prières et Méditations , her spiritual diary, which in its present form comprises only a fraction of the original entries. As young Aurobindo had journeyed from East to West to receive a thorough Western education, so Mirra later travelled from West to East; their union and collaboration resulted in an intimate global synthesis. And the path both followed led them to the discovery of... even unconsciously? Is not the Rule of St Benedict, for instance, essentially a discipline of God-realization contained in the practical regulation of a monastic community? And there are the spiritual paths of so many saints and mystics who have been the fine flower of their age and culture. This is why Anne Bancroft could write in The Luminous Vision, her book about six medieval mystics: ‘The ...
... this gap is at the basis of spiritual paths like Buddhism and Advaita, as it is the cause of the Western view which puts God, the angels and the saints in heaven, and suffering humanity on earth, in “the valley of tears”. According to the first view the world is unreal, according to the second view it is worthless and inexplicable. The principal aim of both kinds of spiritual or religious endeavour, in... × “Occult” is what is invisible, “spiritual” is what belongs to the realms above our rational consciousness. Therefore all that is spiritual is necessarily occult, but all that is occult is not necessarily spiritual – far from it, for it may belong to or emanate from realms much lower than rational consciousness. ... countries where men think, there is now in various forms that idea and that hope, – and our aim has been [in the Arya ] to search for the spiritual, religious and other truth which can enlighten and guide the race in this movement and endeavour. The spiritual experience and the general truths on which such an attempt could be based , were already present to us, otherwise we should have had no right ...
... or rather renounced as an aim in itself, but possessed as the play of God. A selfless and transcendent perfection in the divine existence is the goal in this path of Yoga. 145 There are many Yogas, many spiritual disciplines, paths towards liberation and perfection, Godward ways of the spirit. Each has its separate aim, its peculiar approach to the One Reality, its separate method, its helpful... and governs and enjoys the universe[.] 160 The supramental Yoga is a path of integral seeking of the Divine by which all that we are is in the end liberated out of the Ignorance and its undivine formations into a truth beyond the Mind, a truth not only of highest spiritual status but of a dynamic spiritual self-manifestation in the universe. The object of this Yoga is not to liberate... A highest aspect of the infinite Reality is the supracosmic Absolute, unthinkable, ineffable, without relation to the universe. There is a path of Yoga that [ sentence not completed ] 152 The heart of the integral Yoga is in a triple spiritual endeavour. It is a realisation of the Divine, of all the Divine by our whole being and through all the parts of our being. It includes a discovery ...
... task is the mastery of the way evolution has produced our extremely complex being. This effort itself is already so daunting, especially in the nether vital and material regions, that several spiritual paths have limited their exploration to the more accessible regions of the soul and the mind. Practitioners of the individual inner exploration are not welcome in the body of the established religious... apprehended during a mystical experience.” (John Horgan 61 ) “The fundamental truth of spiritual experience is one, its consciousness is one,” writes Sri Aurobindo, “everywhere it follows the same general lines and tendencies of awakening and growth into spiritual being, for these are the imperatives of the spiritual consciousness. But also there are, based on those imperatives, numberless possibilities... the earth-consciousness into some beatific Beyond,” wrote Sri Aurobindo. “The religious life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue. The spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of the consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousness in which ...
... ’ to the Divine. (We have seen that he himself practised this surrender from the moment he engaged on the path of his spiritual discovery with V.B. Lele in Baroda, and whoever reads the Mother’s Prayers and Meditations will find it on practically every page.) A total surrender by a spiritual aspirant is not without danger, for he will, because of his inner choice and commitment, at once become the... no longer be of any use. It seems to me that what I considered as results were nothing more than a preparation. I feel as if I have done nothing yet, as though I have not lived the spiritual life, only entered the path that leads to it. It seems to me that I know nothing, that I am incapable of formulating anything, that all experience is yet to begin. It is as if I were stripped of my entire past... soon understood that this harassing, aggressive outer world was the true terrain of the new yoga, not the undisturbed, holy heights of meditation and withdrawal as recommended in the traditional spiritual paths. The volume of activity undertaken by the Richards in the first months of their stay in Pondicherry is impressive. They had arrived on 29 March and the elections were to be held on 26 April ...
... realise the Divine”. “To follow the path of spiritual experience”, she said, “one must have within oneself a ‘spiritual being,’ 32 one must be ‘twice born’, as it is said. For if one does not have a spiritual being within which is at least at the point of becoming self-aware, one may try to imitate these [spiritual] experiences, but it will only be a crude imitation or hypocrisy, it will not be... braveness is often looked at askance, but this betrays an ignorance of what spiritual transformation actually means. Most people come to the yoga for quietude and peace, for release from the stressful burden that living in an earthly body means. Their intention is justified and praiseworthy, and the established spiritual paths are meant to provide just that. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the... the scope and the difficulty of their avataric sadhana, nor scarcely do their followers. They repeatedly said that their labour would make the path easier or possible for those following them, but “easier” does not mean “easy”. The difficulty of the path makes us understand why those who want to follow it have to be called to it. It is not an aim one can set oneself by a simple mental decision; ...
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