... are in a hurry to do something, step back for a while... Always keep your peace, resist all temptation to lose it. Never decide anything without stepping back, never speak a word without stepping back, never throw yourself into action without stepping back." (Ibid., p. 160) One other important point needs to be mentioned here: the sadhaka has to develop at the same time the sense of proportion... called "stepping back". In practice it comes to never acting or reacting on the spur of the moment whenever one is confronted with any event, situation or circumstance. Rather, one must learn how to allow a sufficient time interval between the stimulus received at any moment and the response to it to be offered by him. One must acquire the capacity of going deep within, of 'stepping back' into oneself... preventing yourself from falling and advancing more quickly. "And both are absolutely necessary." (Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3, pp. 202-03) Page 20 3. "Stepping Back" Vigilance will make the sadhaka aware of the situation facing him. But that is not enough. For, after being aware, how one is going to evaluate the situation and decide on his course ...
... his anger, finding no support or response, will vanish. Always keep your peace, resist all temptation to lose it. Never decide anything without stepping back, never speak a word without stepping back, never throw yourself into action without stepping back. All that belongs to the ordinary world is impermanent and fugitive, so there is nothing in it worth getting upset about. What is lasting, eternal... Stepping Back Most of you live on the surface of your being, exposed to the touch of external influences. You live almost projected, as it were, outside your own body, and when you meet some unpleasant being similarly projected you get upset. The whole trouble arises out of your not being accustomed to stepping back. You must always step back into yourself—learn ...
... his anger, finding no support or response, will vanish. Always keep your peace, resist all temptation to lose it. Never decide anything without stepping back, never speak a word without stepping back, never throw yourself into action without stepping back. All that belongs to the ordinary world is impermanent and fugitive, so there is nothing in it worth getting upset about. What is lasting, eternal... difficulties almost entirely. Source Stepping Back Most of you live on the surface of your being, exposed to the touch of external influences. You live almost projected, as it were, outside your own body, and when you meet some unpleasant being similarly projected you get upset. The whole trouble arises out of your not being accustomed to stepping back. You must always step back into yourself—learn ...
... his anger, finding no support or response, will vanish. Always keep your peace, resist all temptation to lose it.' Never decide anything without stepping back, never speak a word without stepping back, never throw yourself into action without stepping back. All that belongs to the ordinary world is impermanent and fugitive, so Page 83 there is nothing in it worth getting upset about... Truth STEPPING BACK Most of you live on the surface of your being, exposed to the touch of external influences. You live almost projected as it were, outside your own body, and when you meet some unpleasant being similarly projected you get upset. The whole trouble arises out of your not being accustomed to stepping back. You must always step back into yourself—learn ...
... awareness of awareness. First there is identification with sense objects and thoughts—there is self-identification. Then there is the stepping back and there is the witnessing quality with reference to sense objects, thoughts, emotions. Then there is a stepping back, and theta is an awareness of awareness itself. So, first, the delusional stage, then the beginning of the arising of Presence, and then... thought processes are linked to form. But then comes a time when they find that even though their life improves, they still experience highs and lows, ups and downs. And then the next step is stepping back from thought altogether, transcending the polarities of thought, no longer being trapped in the polarities, or thinking that through changing your thought processes you can arrive at a state of ...
... true rhythm, the seeker will feel something living deep within him, in the background of his being, like a little muffled vibration; at any time, all it will take is a slight inner movement of stepping back to regain the vibration of silence, in a second. He will realize it is always there, like a bluish depth in the background; he will discover he can refresh himself in it whenever he chooses, relax... are merely carried away like a straw. We might be able to guess what the supramental experience is by going back to the first experiences of the beginning of yoga. Indeed, we had noticed that by stepping back in our consciousness, by a slight movement of withdrawal, we entered an expanse of silence behind, as if a portion of our being were forever gazing upon a great white North. Turmoil, suffering, ...
... sought to be infused into it. The emotions no less than the thinking processes have to remain unruffled. There is another point to be noted. Equanimity is gained in two ways. First, by a stepping back into some tranquil Vast that is ever there behind our throbbing human smallness. Secondly, by catching all hurtful disturbing touches from the common world upon our heart before they pierce the ...
... in the right way at the right time? " Try to detach yourself from the situation so that the personal heat may not dictate the course of action. This amounts to what the Mother has called "stepping back" for a moment. A sudden silence will be felt and out of it a guidance will emerge. Lift this guidance towards the Mother and let the consecrated decision go out into the world. The movement may ...
... the new genetic discoveries. We read about “epigenetics gaining the upper hand,” and “the revolution in biology.” “What is happening at present is a readjustment of our vision, a kind of salutary stepping back towards the beginnings of genetics before it became synonymous with DNA.” And we are informed that, in December 2007, the geneticist Anne Plessis has organized Les Masterales , a series of lectures ...
... stand back, remain detached in the midst of the passionate turmoil that you are able to see the process with a knowing eye. So knowledge in the ordinary state of being is to be obtained rather by stepping back from a phenomenon, to watch it without becoming identified with it. But the Page 31 divine consciousness identifies itself with its object and knows it thoroughly, because it ...
... obstacle in Thy work. The Mother How best to serve Thee Every morning may our thought rise fervently towards Thee, asking Thee how we can manifest and serve Thee best. The Mother Stepping back Even if you are in a hurry to do something, step back for a while and you will discover to your surprise how much sooner and with what greater success your work can be done. The Mother ...
... put it like that...." To use words: every point contains the Consciousness of Infinity and Eternity—these are words, nothing but words. But the possibility of this experience is there. It is like stepping back out of space.... It might be amusing to say that even stone, even... oh, water certainly, fire certainly, has the power of Consciousness—the original—all the words that come are stupid—essential ...
... concrete fact. ( silence ) And with a sort of prescience I see that only the body can know—that's the extraordinary thing! ( silence ) And when the body makes this movement ( gesture of stepping back from physical appearances )—what to call it? This movement of fusion (is it 'fusion'?), of no longer being a separate body, of being the Divine—there is something which.... There is a sort of a ...
... poor little earth, which I always see as a tiny thing adrift in the universe. So what is it?... ( silence ) I can have that experience at any moment whatsoever: one second of concentration, stepping back from action, and it's Bliss. And when I don't step back, then it's something like an eternal omnipotence geared to action and entirely upheld and englobed by... That. This power geared to action ...
... movements and all that being dumped on you; and it's dumped and dumped and dumped—you are almost stoned to death with all that. You begin to stiffen, you get tense; then, immediately ( gesture of stepping back ): "O Lord...." You stay quiet, take a little step back ( gesture of offering ): "It's up to you." But you can't imagine, it's wonderful! Immediately there comes—clear, simple, effortlessly, ...
... vital vision of things, of what's "important" or "interesting" and what isn't. That didn't exist. But now that the cells are becoming conscious, they seem to step back ( Mother makes a gesture of stepping back ): they look at themselves, they begin to watch themselves act, and they very much wonder, "What's the use of all this?" And then, an aspiration: "How? How should things truly be? What's our function ...
... see that my attitudes have changed? Or if my interest wanes and something I read or something you speak of in class awakens an urge in me in another direction—such as remembering the New World, stepping back, controlling my thoughts, etc.—should I drop what I’m working on now and take up the new direction? The best is to keep all these aspirations living in your heart simultaneously, ready in ...
... seems to punctuate each step or each movement, maybe a hundred times a day, as if it were the back and forth from the cage to something else, the marvellous opening and then the recoil—perhaps the stepping back in order to have the strength to jump even farther? We do not understand our difficulties at all, they are always our springboard! Generally, it comes like that, that discomfort; so, immediately ...
... being of man are moved by forces not under his own control and that he can become an instrument in the hands of Energies of a cosmic character without knowing the origin of his actions. It is by stepping back from the physical surface into his inner being and subliminal consciousness that he becomes directly aware of them and is able to know directly and deal with their action upon him. He grows aware ...
... stand back, remain detached in the midst of the passionate turmoil that you are able to see the process with a knowing eye. So knowledge in the ordinary state of being is to be obtained rather by stepping back from a phenomenon, to watch it without becoming identified with it. But the divine consciousness identifies itself with its object and knows it thoroughly, because it always becomes one with the ...
... but still a simultaneity of thinking and conscious direction of the mind's action can be achieved partially when the thought does not engross, entirely when the thinker acquires the faculty of stepping back into the mental self and standing apart there from the mental energy. Instead of being absorbed in the thought with at most a vague feeling of the process of thinking, we can see the process by ...
... the body,—and a constant living on the inner and higher planes of the mind and the spirit. For the heightening of our consciousness into its spiritual principle is effectuated by an ascent and a stepping back inward—both these movements are essential—out of our transient life from moment to moment into the eternal life of our immortal consciousness; but with it there comes also a widening of our range ...
... the Divine is required — a constant habit of what I would summarise as: "Remember and offer." As a background to this movement there would be an attempt at detachment from one's common self, a stepping back from its immediate reactions and, as a result, a wide equanimity, a Page 190 deep peace. The formula of "Remember and offer" would take the whole of one's life, outer no less than ...
... can keep that constantly in the background of one's consciousness, there's no further need to take off anywhere ( ethereal gesture towards the heights ): all you have to do is this ( gesture of stepping back ), and there it is. And it is the root cure of disorder. It is anti-disorder. That's how you can cure somebody, if he's able to receive it. It's the antidote to disorder, the perfect antidote ...
... with the lights off and listen to the Mother's music, and dream..." The presence around your head is the two hands of Sri Aurobindo on either side of it, blessing you in response to your stepping back at will and offering yourself to the Mother. Sri Aurobindo has blessed me like that. It was a way of his when he saw that one had moved close to the Mother in one's heart. You have also ...
... ." To make sentences: each point contains the Consciousness of the Infinite and of Eternity (these are words, nothing but words). But the possibility of the experience is there. It's a sort of stepping back outside space.... We could say for fun that even the stone, even...—oh, certainly water, certainly fire—has the power of Consciousness: the original (all the words that come are idiotic!), essential ...
... such basic attitudes and practices have been excellently delineated in the opening two chapters of the book. Some of these inner practices are couched in the Mother's mantra-like maxims, such as "stepping back" and "remember and offer", for which the daily life affords constant reminders and countless opportunities for their application. Many people, even among spiritual aspirants, fail to understand ...
... can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something more— Oneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance ...
... can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something more—Oneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance ...
... can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something more – Oneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance ...
... going to Prosperity because P is not always pleasant to deal with, is to give an undue importance to his person. I thought I had explained that to you already. Now get out of your own feeling, step back into a more objective view of things and imagine that somebody—rightly or wrongly—thinks that you have ill-treated him and declares: "Now I will no more take food from the D. R." What would you say ...
... 8.1.58 Yesterday I grasped what She wanted from me. For two days already I felt from time to time as if a mountain or huge waves were coming on me and pushing me back. She wants me to step back this time, as completely as I can - and to make room for Her. And I feel how foolish it is to push oneself into a place which God wants to occupy. But I grasped it with my heart rather ...
... wrote the message in English . This talk was seen and corrected by the Mother. The Mother's talk calls to my mind her message: To have a glimpse of the Truth, one must take at least one step back in one's consciousness, enter a little more deeply into one's being and try to perceive the play of forces behind the appearance, and the Divine Presence behind the play of forces . The Mother... and Answers (1929 - 1931): Niraya (Hell) Here are Sri Aurobindo's words which are quite apt: To look into ourselves and see and enter into ourselves and live within us is the first necessary step for the transformation of our nature and for the divine life . Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Divine Life ...
... other. So many thoughts have been invading me—hence my gloomy, cheerless and pessimistic attitude, I think. At such a time many tempting thoughts lure me to set the wheel back—but it is clear that I shall never step back. I must go on. It is a formation of a hostile character that is wandering about the Asram and taking hold of one after another telling them that they are not fit and won't ...
... is a limitation that has to be overcome. There is no question of welcoming destruction, but of learning the lesson it gives. I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire. The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine. 6 May 1971 ...
... never, never judge on appearances and that all the judgments you make from outward circumstances are always, necessarily false judgments. To have a glimpse of the Truth, one must take at least one step back in one's consciousness, enter a little more deeply into one's being and try to perceive the play of forces behind the appearances and the divine Presence behind the play of forces. 25 July 1958 ...
... the point where even a vibration of pain is stopped, it doesn't exist any more. But when you leave this state, back it comes again. It gets cured only when you persist for some time; otherwise the two might continue to coexist. The most superficial way of putting it is: "to take a step back." But it's not that, of course. And it isn't the same as "going within" when you want to find your psychic... collecting one's thoughts. It's part concentration, part interiorization, and both together—like drawing back, but without movement. After a while, it becomes almost automatic; I do it hundreds of times a day. It's difficult to describe, because the description makes it too concrete. But it's a drawing back, an interiorization—a self-gathering . But all those words seem dense, heavy; too material, too... something violent, just a slightly uneasy sensation in the throat), I do this ( gesture of drawing back ) for one second, and it's finished. Or I am speaking to someone and the right word doesn't come automatically: I just have to do this ( same gesture ), and there it is. It works for everything. It puts things back in order. And that's what you have in your meditations. Only ( laughing ), you won't be ...
... entered the room wearing some kind of religious headdress, I can't say what, and intending to be very arrogant. He went past me stiffly, and suddenly what do I see but the man do his pranam . 2 He stepped back, took off his hat and did his pranam. And stayed that way for nearly a quarter of an hour. And it was interesting, his response was interesting. Then he started talking to me (someone translated—he... is up, it can't last forever!" (He had already been there for more than fifteen minutes.) And suddenly I see him stiffen, put his thing back on his head, and go. He's the only man who gave me that sensation in my whole life. And it seems that when he went back there, in B.'s state, he told everyone he had never seen such a thing! That people could trust I was really the Mother! That's the effect... gardens when suddenly I felt something pulling at me—and none too gently! I turned around and saw a tall man, standing and staring at me. So (I didn't know who he was, no one had told me), I stared back and simply "answered" his impudence! And pfft! it just fell off. I was surprised. Later (I had not yet been told who he was), he asked to see me. When he entered the room, I felt... I felt a solid being ...
... and the outer man. I don't know the outer X, I have been very careful not to enter into contact with him! But from the first day I sensed a gap. It's odd! No, it's the old tradition—you step back from Nature and Nature does whatever she wants. It doesn't concern you, you have no responsibility, 'you are not that.' It's the old idea. Sri Aurobindo was completely against it. Somewhere he... down from above into everything and doesn't move. But that in itself is... very difficult for the body to have, very difficult: something is always vibrating and moving. It's as if it put everything back in order, but nothing is moved. Yesterday, when I was in that immobility, suddenly I felt something obliging me to turn my head. I didn't turn my head, but the consciousness turned ( gesture to the... are inside, isn't there?! Sri Aurobindo didn't accept this tradition at all. For instance, X is completely caught up in all his family affairs; he said to Amrita, 'In August the girls will go back home to their husbands, the boy will be at college, and I'll be able to live tranquilly.' But there will be something else! There is always something else, naturally! Anyway, it doesn't matter—I ...
... succeeded in convincing Charu-da (it must have taken quite a lot of convincing) that the man was a V.I.P. — in fact it was the chief minister of Madras State (now Tamil Nadu) — Mr. Kamaraj. Charu-da stepped back and Kamaraj being what he was, all humility and understanding (I gathered so from a book on Kamaraj), smiled and entered the Play Ground and took his seat. It made a very interesting, if not... passage in the Play Ground. It was with some effort that it was grown there, on a slope, to prevent erosion of the Ground. To keep it green, effective and beautiful there was a strict rule: “DO NOT STEP ON THE GRASS.” But rules very few like, and understanding, obey them. The others have to be coaxed to obey. Charu-da had a busy time on this score. Some of the boys, just to tease him, would run right... right up to the edge and jump and cross over. This kept Charu-da on the red alert. He was a bit puzzled — was this jumping over within the law or not? Once in a way, someone blundered — he/she did step on the grass — by chance, by a studied chance, or plain ignorance, whatever the case, for Charu-da it made no difference. He would pick up his dhoti and give chase. I hate to think what could have been ...
... I don't know if you've seen these.... ( Mother hands Satprem several sheets of paper ) "I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire. "The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine." That's for... You know that America has quietly started giving economic aid to Pakistan again. Then.... They're doing it quietly, discreetly, but they're doing it. 1 Their intention is to put Pakistan back on her feet. Why, then it's over! Yes, everything has to be started over. They're mad!—They're all mad, mad, mad.... ( silence ) In other words, they missed the first chance; 2 ...
... constantly keep good will and love in your heart and let them pour out on all with tranquillity and equality. 16.12.1966 * I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire. The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine. 6.5.1971* ... differences combine to constitute the essential and eternal Unity. 4.5.1969* * To establish in Auroville the harmonious atmosphere which, by definition, ought to reign there, the first step is for each one to look within himself for the cause of friction and misunderstanding. For these causes are always on both sides and before demanding anything from others, each one should ...
... more immediately effective: it is to step back from the unpurified physical mind, which is the home of doubt and despondency, and try to take one's stand in the inner consciousness. Those who have practised the technique of self-withdrawal—it is a primary, fundamental technique in the Integral Yoga— will find it very helpful in such cases. As soon as they step back, they can breathe freely in an atmosphere... an innate contempt for anything that is abstract, imaginative or visionary—anything, indeed, that is removed from its all too narrow orbit of perception. Lift it as much as you can, it will gravitate back to its normal level and spin round its cherished or accustomed objects of sense. It has a settled distrust of the supra- physical realities of existence, and seeks its heaven in the possession and enjoyment... of things. It doubts not only what is of uncertain validity, but even what it has known to be true; it questions even its cherished convictions. There are many typical instances of promising men held back again and again from higher spiritual experiences by the besetting doubts of their physical mind; or, having once had those experiences, forgetting, minimising or denying them altogether afterwards ...
... tell you that―they don't understand much further than that―they tell you, "Why do you want to try and change the world? The world will always be what it is and remain what it is, you have only to step back, to detach yourself, to watch it as a witness watches something which doesn't concern him―and leave it alone." That was my first contact with the Gita in Paris. I met an Indian who was a great Gita... Only, when you do this, you never remedy anything in the outer movement, it remains what it is, but it no longer affects you. We have said this already I don't know how many times: it is only a first step, it helps you not to feel much troubled by things. But things remain as they are―indefinitely. It is a negative state. Is this what Sri Aurobindo speaks about when he says: "the separative aspect... from the truth. This habit of wanting to compel others to think as you do, has always seemed very strange to me; this is what I call "the propagandist spirit", and it goes very far. You can go one step further and want people to do what you do, feel as you feel, and then it becomes a frightful uniformity. In Japan I met Tolstoy's son who was going round the world for "the good of mankind's great ...
... knowledge; very often he himself makes a request for such tests. As he is not pressed by the necessity of catching up with others, he likes to make his progress secure. Not seldom, a student asks to step back to a previous chapter to fill up a gap in his knowledge. The student's note-books are a permanent testimony of the work he has done. No other test or examination is required. 8. In our... everything to learn in this respect. 7. If the teacher is not lax and negligent, the system allows a constant control of the work of each student. Besides the self-testing which is done at every step, the student receives at the end of each section or chapter a testing-sheet, the purpose of which is to confirm that he has assimilated and mastered the subject. Normally the student accepts readily ...
... example, today. We have described man, especially, modern man as homo fabricus; but that is a particular aspect of application of homo intellectualis. And it is a sign and warning that he must step back and look for a new connotation of his consciousness in order to go forward and continue to exist. If, as we have said in the beginning, man is capable of a durable youthfulness, by his very nature... the end lands into a blind alley or cul-de-sac. This, as I have said, is perhaps the original or secret cause of decline and fall of many individual races and nations. But on the whole mankind steps back, it seems, just at, the danger point and escapes the final catastrophe. A new vein of consciousness awakes in man and gives him a new power of self-adjustment. From Imperial Egypt to, say, modern France ...
... heads for her purpose in order to organise the whole; all the lines of the work, all the details were arranged by her and the heads trained to observe her methods and it was only afterwards that she stepped back and let the whole thing go on on her lines but with a watchful eye always. The heads are carrying out her policy and instructions and report everything to her and she often modifies what they do ...
... example, today. We have described man, especially, modern man as homo fabricus; but that is a particular aspect of application of homo intellectualis. And it is a sign and warning that he must step back and look for a new connotation of his consciousness in order to go forward and continue to exist. If, as we have said in the beginning, man is capable of a durable youthfulness, by his very nature... the end lands into a blind alley or cul-de-sac. This, as I have said, is perhaps the original or secret cause of decline and fall of many individual races and nations. But on the whole mankind steps back, it seems, just at the danger point and escapes the final catastrophe. A new vein of consciousness awakes in man and gives him a new power of self-adjustment. From Imperial Egypt to, say, modern France ...
... may begin anywhere at all, at any stage whatever and in any condition. One can always begin. Only, in some cases it takes a very long time. For the mixture is such that with every step forward one takes half a step back. But there is no reason for this. Fundamentally, as it is the true raison d'être of life and of individual existence to become aware of the Divine, that may emerge anywhere at all... life and, I must tell you, prevented him from drinking in future. But still, at the time he had the revelation of the divine Presence, he was in an intoxicated state. I don't think—here again we fall back into the same things—I don't think the Divine is a moralist. It is man who is a moralist, not the Divine. If it happens that, just then, at that moment, there is a concurrence of events and perhaps ...
... Not for the moment. There's nothing, it's like a no-man's-land. You're no longer on this side and.... ... And you aren't yet on the other. Yes, that's it. So the tendency is always to step back and go within. But that's not the way! It's a natural movement, but I clearly see that it's false. Both were there this morning. Obviously a great, great deal of stability and inner calm is... vision of things—the SAME things—has become very, very different. Very different. When you read these Talks to me it's exactly as though I were listening to someone else saying things—I am transported back into a different person's consciousness. But at least it's accessible, while now.... At that time, I had the sense of a "higher way of living": I used to make a distinction between different ways... believed them too "personal"), Mother mentioned this as one of the main reasons for encouraging his tantric discipline. He even set out for the Himalayas, like a knight of yore, with the idea of bringing back to Mother the secrets of transformation; and Mother indicated to him the spot where one of her former bodies lay in a Himalayan cave, petrified by a mineral spring. But the secret of the new species ...
... second time? why? man of ill star, 'Facing the sunless dead and this joyless region? 'Stand from the fosse, leave me my bloody bever 'For soothsay'. And I stepped back, And he strong with the blood, said then: 'Odysseus 'Shalt return through spiteful Neptune, over dark seas, 'Lose all companions'. Is this really a parable ...
... Then many things disappear. For instance, depression is one of these things, Page 33 discontentment, revolt, fatigue, depression, all these difficulties. And if one makes it a habit to step back, as we say, in one's consciousness and see on the screen of one's psychic consciousness—see all the circumstances, all the events, all the ideas, all the knowledge, everything—at that moment one sees... reality which is not yet manifested but will manifest. And this summit of consciousness is never the last, for what has been attained one day, what seemed to be the final consciousness will be only a step so that the next day, in the next period, the next age, there may manifest something which was beyond and not then ready to manifest, not on the point of being manifested. How can depressions be... those who have done that, at the last minute, have received a sort of intimation that they had to return to the world and do their work. It is as though they reached the door and—"Ah! No, no, not yet—go back and work. When the world is ready, then this will be all right." Indeed this attitude of flight in the face of difficulty is a supreme selfishness. You are told, "Do this, and then, when all the ...
... People are complex, we must know how to sort out their intricacies. This can be best done when we stand aloof without getting wrapped up in ourselves. Page 270 You write: "The more I step back, the more things I can laugh at. What does that mean? Logically, then, the Divine must be laughing at the entire universe. What is the significance of this entertainment? Surely the Divine does not ...
... It is necessary [ in order to be constantly aware of the psychic ] to accustom oneself to do things from within, not to let the consciousness be thrown outward. If it is thrown outward, then to step back inwardly and regard the action or movement from within. Of course there must be the habit of self-offering too or turning all to the Divine. It [ the psychic being ] has to be surrendered ... long as it consents to the Ignorance. For that is a general consent which implies that the Prakriti gambols about with the Purusha and does pretty well what she likes with him. When he wants to get back his mastery, make the theoretical practical, he needs a lot of tapasya to do it. The psychic has always been veiled, consenting to the play of mind, physical and vital, experiencing everything through... inertia and crass fidelity to old habit, and when they have done, the general Nature comes in and says, "What, you are going to get free from me so easily? Not if I know it," and it besieges and throws back the old nature on you again and again as long as it can. You should never listen to these suggestions of unfitness or anything else that denies the possibility of progress and fulfilment. Whatever ...
... reason or ground for us to interact or counteract). Manoranjan was also known to many of us and one Governor at least for his thunderous snoring! The sound waves could make one falter in his steps, or step back, if caught unawares. It was so when we came round the corner from Playground, Saint Louis Street, on to Dupleix Street (Nehru Street) where he resided (behind Raj Nivas). The story goes that one of... Alas! time has taken its toll. There are very few of them today to complement our ranks. Today’s story is of one of the elders (not the oldest) of the Ganguli’s — Manoranjan Ganguli. But I cast back a little more into the past, before Manoranjan. The patriarch was Nolini Behari Ganguli who probably never came here (Ashram). I have only seen his photograph. He looked a big and dignified man. He... had her own plans. She pulled on Her loving reins and stopped them. She simply said “No, you need not go. Stay here”! They were unprepared, but made do happily with what they had. Only Manoranjan went back to fulfil some contracts with the army (he manufactured small arms — knives, kukhris etc.). Niranjan and another brother Sudhiranjan used to visit often but did not live here. One brother Chittaranjan ...
... even that you must choose. If you accept without question what has been given you by Chance, you can never be sure whether it is good or bad for you, whether it is the true thing for your life. Step back from all that forms your natural environment or inheritance, made up and forced upon you by Nature's blind mechanical process; draw within and look quietly and dispassionately at things. Appraise... to be made in the same way into a set and organised religion. It is often said that, if Jesus came back, he would not be able to recognise what he taught in the forms that have been imposed on it, and if Buddha were to come back and see what has been made of his teaching, he would immediately run back discouraged to Nirvana! All religions have each the same story to tell. The occasion for its birth... you must do it in all completeness; you must not leave bits of yourself tied here and there. You may object that it is not easy to cut away altogether from one's moorings. But have you never looked back and observed the changes that have taken place in you in the course of a few years? When you do that, almost always you ask yourself how it was that you could have felt in the way you felt and acted ...
... lose the contact. Then many things disappear. For instance, depression is one of these things, discontentment, revolt, fatigue, depression, all these difficulties. And if one makes it a habit to step back, as we say, in one's consciousness and see on the screen of one's psychic consciousness—see all the circumstances, all the events, all the ideas, all the knowledge, everything—at that moment one sees... inner silent Being proceeds a rejection of all that is to be rejected, an acceptance only of what can be kept and transformed, an inmost Will to perfection or a call to the Divine Power to do at each step what is necessary for the change of the Nature. It can also open mind, life and body to the inmost psychic entity and its guiding influence or its direct guidance. In most cases these two methods emerge... natural and easy to follow. Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered, the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - II: Seeking the Divine One can concentrate in any of the three centres which is easiest to the sadhak or gives most result. The power of ...
... careful to keep the 'sense of the Unmanifest' sufficiently present so that the various things—the elements, the cells and all that—have time to adapt. The sense of the Unmanifest, or in other words, to step back into the Unmanifest. 6 This is what all those who have had experiences have done; they always believed that there was no possibility of adaptation, so they left their bodies and went off. ... that's how it must have happened: it was the part embodied in Sri Aurobindo (the part of the Supreme that was embodied in Sri Aurobindo for its manifestation) that had the experience. This is what joined back with the Origin and caused the experience—I was well aware of it. And that is probably why its transcription through English words would have been easier than through French words (for at these moments ...
... be done; the vibration comes, meets a response, and goes back—and this is going on every minute, all the time. A sort of assurance and confirmation came last night with that experience. But we must be patient. And we mustn't think that we've reached the goal—we're still far from it! There is always the joy of the first step, the first step on the path: "Ah, what a lovely path!" ( Mother laughs... × On March 11, Mother again stressed: "The feeling has remained constant, and not only at night but in daytime: as soon as I step back a little, I feel it's there—the thing is there, it hasn't budged." ... of life that's found in those animals was coming back into the human consciousness and, probably, into the human form, BUT with all that has been brought by the evolution of Mind (a painful enough detour), and transformed into the light of a higher certitude and a higher peace. And, you know, it wasn't a thing that came, diminished and came back again, it wasn't like that. It was... an immensity ...
... mortar. A seesaw-like apparatus made of a beam (wood) with a vertically downward round wooden pestle fixed at one end, — was the new machinery. The seesaw went up and thumped down as a man/woman stepped back or forward on it. The pestle descended into the cistern with the seesaw’s movement and pulped the paper. The pulp was taken across the road and made into paper. No rollers or hydraulic presses were... solving my problem?” He went back to HMP, handed the keys of the place to the watchmen and walked away. Kiran-da of many skills worked his way South, Trichy, Dindigul, Coimbatore etc. He took contracts from police for dyeing, and some other works and carried on for some time. He was used to hard times and hard work, but somewhere a dissatisfaction lurked. He was drawn back to this place — his Home.... House Maintenance Dept. on Aurobindo Street. That is where I saw it in 1945. Sailenda had left the job by then. He had gone on to become a teacher in our school. Sudhirda (Sirkar — Mona’s father) had stepped in. (Sudhirda cannot be dealt with so easily or offhand in this article. He is too great from all our points of view. Suffice it to say that he was a close collaborator of Sri Aurobindo and more, His ...
... a state of having stepped back in the Vast throbbing behind us?" There is no single way to meditate. I believe that the alternatives you have mentioned have figured in some letter or other of mine in the past. Whatever comes naturally to one is the right mode at any particular time. At this moment my meditative mood may be summarised as follows: I feel myself stationed at the back of my heart in a wideness... he or she seemed to grow distant. "How will the division in me heal? What would be the mechanism of the healing?" - this question of yours gets an answer which is a little complex. The first step is to take your stand as firmly as you can in the part you want to regard as your normal self. The sense of identity must not waver. A detachment has to be practised from the less normal, less Yogic... the old "I" to the new Aurobindonian "me". You are right in deciding not to compare yourself with anyone, superior or inferior. The tendency to pat ourselves on Page 119 the back when we find someone below our self-assessment or to hang our jaw down face to face with a person evidently better-gifted - this tendency is natural and proves helpful at times, but on the whole it ...
... and quietness that it must be done. It is ignorance to believe that you must run from morning to night and labour at all sorts of futile things in order to do something for the world. Once you step back from these whirling forces into quiet regions, you see how great is the illusion! Humanity appears to you like a mass of blind creatures rushing about without knowing what they do or why they do it... persists so long as it is necessary for your development; but as soon as you are capable of passing into a higher condition, you begin to see that you are an instrument of the one consciousness; you take a step upward and you rise to a higher conscious level. Do hostile forces attack one on the mental plane as they do in the vital world? Page 60 It is difficult to give a precise answer without... understand each other. The ideal condition for a conversation is when the minds are so well attuned that the words are only a support for a spontaneous mutual understanding and you need not explain at each step what you utter. This is the advantage when you talk always with the same persons; an attuned harmony is established between their minds and the significance of the things spoken penetrates them at once ...
... want to say something to someone: my old way is an expression of what comes from above (it is luminous enough, but ADAPTED)... but then there's that sensation of inadequacy—it won't do. All right. I step back and something else comes; and what comes, I must admit... it's enough to drive people crazy! It's so MUCH SOMETHING ELSE! I wrote a letter like that yesterday; I took a piece of paper and wrote... this or that life was a particular yogic formation of the Page 222 vital being—in other words something immortal. 2 And when I came this time, as soon as I took up the yoga, they came back again from all sides, they were waiting. Some were simply waiting, others were working (they led their own independent lives) and they all gathered together again. That's how I got those memories. One ...
... brings a light into your being and a lightness in your body, making you a magical presence all the more. Now let me come down to earth. When D'Annunzio was introduced to Eleonara Duse, he stepped back a little and looking at her exclaimed: "Splendid! Magnificent! D'Annun-zian!" Then he said: "Madame, how do you do?" Having uttered my little panegyric on you, I'll deal with your request whether... hills with a clean finely appointed cottage nestling among them make one content and happy to spend one's days in such a setting and keep away from physically poor and noisy Pondicherry. The urge to go back to the Ashram which is located in this town gets extremely weakened Page 197 and one is apt to lose touch with what is at present the soul's material home. One inclines to lose sight ...
... ourselves to something far higher, that takes us as it were to the very doorsteps of the Divine. In another talk, the Mother advises us, when we are in trouble, "to learn to go deep within" or "to step back into yourself". 27 In a later talk, scientific knowledge is differentiated from yogic (or spiritual) knowledge. Contrasting Shankara's rnāyāvāda with Sri Aurobindo's world-view, the Mother... caprice is bad, and to suppress them altogether is equally bad. What then? - What you should do is to throw the doors of your being wide open to the Divine. The moment you conceal something, you step straight into Falsehood. The least suppression on your part pulls you immediately down into unconsciousness. 6 The crux of the problem is to rise from the lower human (or still lower bestial)... a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers. 32 Avatar after avatar has added rung upon rung to the Ladder of consciousness, and the step that is being added now is the Supramental. But the whole aim of the Integral Yoga is both to reach the Supramental and join this summit to the bottom, thereby bringing about a total change and t ...
... we must achieve it in an equilibrium between the inside and the outside. 30 August 1945 * Page 65 I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire. The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine. * ... no reason for existence in the functions of Nature when the need to create in that way will no longer exist. Therefore, the capacity of entering into relation with the joy of life will rise by one step or will be oriented differently. But what the ancient spiritual aspirants had sought on principle-sexual negation-is an absurd thing, because this must be only for those who have gone beyond this stage... world of conflict, suffering, difficulty, strain; it is made of it. It has not yet changed, it will take some time before changing. And for each one there is a possibility of getting out. If you lean back on the presence of the Supreme Grace, that is the only way out. That I have been telling you since two or three days, like that constantly. Now? 11 May 1967 * ...
... Impartial Indifference: This sadhana bases itself on the application of the discriminating intelligence of the sadhaka. In the formulation of the Mother, the principle of sadhana adopted here is: Step back and watch." The sadhaka learns by and by how to place every impact of life in the wider perspective of eternity of Time and infinity of Space. This sort of detached vision will reduce the value and... 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. Hence are the following recommendatory words of Sri Aurobindo: "The very first necessity for spiritual perfection... pleasurable, defeat and success, honour and disgrace, good repute and ill-repute, good fortune and evil fortune . For in all happenings we shall see the will of the Master of all works and results and a step in the evolving expression of the Divine... . 'Thus supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things with an equal calm...' (The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 211-13) ...
... contact. Then many things disappear. For instance, depression is one of these things, discontent- ment, revolt, fatigue, depression, all these difficulties. And if one makes it a habit to .step back, as we say, in one's consciousness and see on the screen of one's psy- chic consciousness — see all the circumstances, all the events, all the ideas, all the knowledge, everything — at... being in the evolution of consciousness lies in the fact that the psychic being is "a projection of the divine Consciousness into Matter to awaken Matter out of its inertia so that it takes the path back to the Divine." (p. 11) 3. Mind is generally regarded as the characteristic feature which distinguishes the human being from the animal. But a more salient characteristic distinguishing the human... else, they start shouting.... While most of the time it is just the very circumstance which was most favourable for their inner development.... And when you are a little awake and look back, if you are in the least sincere, you say: 'Ah! It wasn't I who was right—it was Nature or the divine Grace or my psychic being who did it.' " 5 As the psychic being grows more and ...
... poise and generosity waiting to be realised in forms that are superlative by being the absolute reverse of these deficiencies. How are the superlative forms to be reached? The first thing to do is to step back for a moment when the troublesome movements occur so that their headlong course is broken. Then offer them to the Mother, while exercising some control over them. It is because of the offering act... any protective step needs to be taken, take it without the least upset or resentment. Your equipoise should remain unbroken. Absence of emotional reaction does not necessarily imply inertia or inefficiency in you. Emotion is not the sole motive-power. Man's characteristic in general is the intelligent will. And the intelligent will makes a dispassionate inquiry before taking whatever step may be required ...
... her head and looked up, before stepping to his side, what was not the terror of Damayanti to find that there, sealed side by side on different thrones, all equally splendid, all equally noble, were no less than five Nalas, .and she had no means of distinguishing him whom she would choose? The Princess looked and tried to choose. Then she hesitated, and stepped back. Then she tried again, but ... sword lying a step or two away, unsheathed. Seizing this, he cut the veil in half, and then, throwing the sword away, he turned and left Damayanti, in her sleep, alone. Yet again and again, his heart failing him, did the King of the Nishadas return to the hut to look once more, and yet once more, at his sleeping wife. "Dragged away," says the chronicler, "by Kali, but drawn back by love," it seemed... shadow and his fading garlands; the stains of dust and sweat; his standing on the ground, and his human eyes. And no sooner did Damayanti thus perceive the difference between him and the gods than she stepped forward eagerly to fulfil her troth.* Stooping shyly, she caught in her left hand the hem of Nala's garment, and then raising herself proudly, she threw round his neck a wreath of beautiful flowers ...
... that the heralds of a new development on that planet always have been violently countered in the name of the past. That something is taking place now is undeniable by anyone able to take a step back from the events in recent history and to examine them with an unprejudiced eye. This has never happened before: the growing unification of humanity; a staggering increase of the global population;... Mother forcefully. 19 In the second place: “In Nature there are no errors”, wrote Sri Aurobindo, “but only the deliberate measure of her paces traced and retraced in a prefigured rhythm, of which each step has a meaning and its place in the action and reaction of her spiritual advance.” To Sri Aurobindo “Nature” was always the great Executrix of the divine Will in its manifestation, and as such the divine... is intended and man is to be its medium, it will only be a few especially evolved human beings who will form the new type and move towards the new life; that once done, the rest of humanity will sink back from a spiritual aspiration no longer necessary for Nature’s purpose and remain quiescent in its normal status. It can equally be reasoned that the human gradation must be preserved if there is really ...
... lose the contact. Then many things disappear. For instance, depression is one of these things, discontentment, revolt, fatigue, depression, all these difficulties. And if one makes it a habit to step back, as we say, in one's consciousness and see on the screen of one's psychic consciousness — see all the circumstances, all the events, all the ideas, all the knowledge, everything — at that moment one... it is the being which returns to its ordinary consciousness!... It is difficult for it to remain at its highest. One slides down, falls back. Only, the second time the discovery is easier. And each time the road is easier until one no longer falls back. 47 * Once the psychic has come to the front, can it withdraw again ? Yes. Generally one has a series of experiences... influence, one part or another.... Exactly what happens is that one touches these things, has experiences, and then it gets veiled, and one wonders, "How is it that I touched my soul and now have fallen back into this state of ignorance and inconscience!" But that's because one had not touched one's soul, one had touched those parts of the being which are under the influence of the soul and manifest something ...
... in this medley, and determine with a clear insight what his vital is driving at at that juncture and why. A perfunctory superficial observation may not yield the desired result. The sadhaka has to step back, withdraw inward and cast his searching gaze from there. Sri Aurobindo has spoken about the beneficial results of this psychological exercise in these words: "But when one goes inside..., we... interest in view; and don't be so silly as to lay the axe on your own feet under the blind surge of a moment's passion; etc." Page 294 Sixth Step: Along with this persistent effort at persuading the vital to come back to the right track, the sadhaka will try to apply his strong and enlightened mental will in a steady manner. And in order to make this will really powerful and effective... of peace and strength and bliss..." (The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 167) Ninth Step: This is not in its nature actually the last step coming at the end of the series. Rather, this should be the constant accompaniment of the sadhaka' s sadhana throughout the entire period of his sadhana-life. This step represents the sending up to the Divine Mother a sincere and steady prayer spontaneously ...
... dissolve Time's work, Cast off thy mind, step back from form and name. Annul thyself that only God may be.' Thus spoke the mighty and uplifting Voice, And Savitri heard; she bowed her head and mused Plunging her deep regard into herself In her soul's privacy in the silent Night. Aloof and standing back detached and calm, A witness of the drama... mind and life; She was no more a Person in a world, She had escaped into infinity. ⁂ Only some last annulment now remained, Annihilation's vague indefinable step" Page 122 ... world, exceeds the materialised mental plane, sees the reality of the spiritual; and then the will of the individual Purusha unifying itself with this poise of knowledge rejects the lower and draws back to the supreme plane, dwells there, loses mind and body, sheds life from it and merges itself in the supreme Purusha, is delivered from individual existence." 1 But a deeper and higher spiritual ...
... ascending evolutionary movement and prepare for the divine life upon earth is the life-goal set before the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga. So we are not entitled to follow the escapist tendency and step back from the world-process by declaring with the traditional ascetics that sarvam duhkham vivekinah, that is, everything in life is an occasion of suffering for those who have their eyes opened. We... bitter ugliness and cruelty of earth, the insufficiency of heaven, the aimlessness of the repetition of births in the body." (p. 675) The spirit and practice of utter renunciation is but a small step from this sense of vanity and uselessness. But we who follow the Page 66 path of the Integral Yoga cannot accept this pessimistic view of the world nor for that matter can we approve... detachment and desirelessness. If that is secured, an outer renunciation becomes otiose; and if that is not acquired, no amount of external renunciation will help the sadhaka to take even a single step on the path of advancement of the spiritual consciousness. 'We have to renounce all in order to gain AW: that is the ultimate verdict of all the Yogis and mystics through all the ages. In ...
... do not see how cosmic rays can explain the origination of matter; it is like Sir Oliver Lodge's explanation of life on earth that it comes from another planet; it only pushes the problem one step farther back—for how do the cosmic rays come into existence? But it is a fact that Agni is the basis of forms as the Sankhya pointed out long ago, i.e. the fiery principle in its three powers radiant, electric... enabling the materialisation of a new thing called water; what that new thing really is is quite another matter. In fact there are different planes of substance, gross, subtle and more subtle going back to what is called causal ( kāraṇa ) substance. What is more gross can be reduced to the subtle state and the subtle brought into the gross state; that accounts for dematerialisation and materialisation ...
... and he loses all sense of perspective making him incapable of judging properly and coming to the right decision. So, each time he is under some sly attack of a temptation, the sadhaka should step back in his consciousness from the pressing present appearance, place himself in imagination in the background of eternity and infinity, judge from there all the passing vanities life and be totally convinced... obvious that all these stages mentioned in the passage just quoted are far beyond the reach of us, the novice sadhakas of the Path. We have to start from where we are and what we are and proceed step by step in our unslackening sadhana of the replacement of personal desire-will by the divine Will. In fact, there are, broadly speaking, five rungs in this ascent of the Page 235 ... Yes, there are justifiable reasons why the Mother should scold us for the feebleness of our will; we should be ashamed on that account. But ashamed or not, the fact remains that almost at every step of our sadhana-life we give repeated proofs of easily succumbing under pressure. But why should it be so? All of us have consciously and deliberately chosen the path of spirituality. We know ...
... could pass freely from one to the other at will, come and go from the great look to the small one and live simultaneously in two worlds or two beings. And it was like the key of liberty. Just a small step back and everything widens, unifies, takes distances and depths of time—it is the great royalty outside everything; then a slight dip and everything condenses here or there, as a play, and if one lets... burst at last and I were going to lay my forehead in the sun, open my hands and give back that flame for ever. Björn pulled me. We turned into an inner corridor. Then we entered into a vast chant which resounded everywhere like bronze and swept into a maze of corridors and sculptured pillars surging back to strike again the high walls and fill everything with a full-toned flow, as powerful... characters rolled into one, a multiplicity of stories in one, as if one were moving in several lives at the same time, several world strata—one single gesture contains thousands of gestures, a single step crosses many lives, one is like a living symbol; and behind, or around or above, one is that something which looks—which looks eternally,—the actor and the witness, the image and he who looks at the ...
... that it may look a little bigger. But it is like that. And so long as it is like that, you are a million miles away from the true consciousness. When you are unable immediately, instantaneously to step back, put yourself in the place of the other person, understand why he has this feeling, have a glimpse of your own weakness, compare the two and come to the conclusion: "Well, it is that, that's the true... quite sincere, you know. Not to know one's fault is always the sign of an insincerity somewhere. And generally, it is hidden in the vital. When the vital consents to collaborate (which is already a big step), when it decides that it too is going to work, to devote all its effort and all its energy to accomplish the work, even then there is underneath, well hidden somewhere, a sort of—how shall we call... know all the secrets of the formation of matter, for example. They have already invented a very fine way of destroying themselves. We shall see what is going to happen. But this is just a very small step; it happens particularly here ( pointing to the head ), with very relative material results. How should one practise this consciousness? You must establish this will to be conscious constantly ...
... movement then is to step back and look at it, to separate yourself from your thoughts so that the movement of the consciousness and that of thought may not be confused. Thus when we say that one must observe one's thoughts, do not believe that it is so simple; it is the first step. I suggest that this evening in our meditation we take up this first exercise which consists in standing back from one's thought... Thought-control is the third step of our mental discipline. Once the enlightened judge of our consciousness has distinguished between useful and harmful thoughts, the inner guard will come and allow to pass only approved thoughts, strictly refusing admission to all undesirable elements. With a commanding gesture the guard will refuse entry to every bad thought and push it back as far as possible. It... the evil that one does, and to be conscious of the evil that one does is already a first step towards not doing it any more. Generally, people are altogether blind to the ugliness of their own actions. They do wrong through ignorance, through unconsciousness, through smallness, through that sort of doubling back on oneself which comes from unconsciousness and ignorance, that obscure instinct of se ...
... live only in the service of the Divine, that is the ideal and the shortest way to acquire the true Consciousness. 27 April 1971 I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire. The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine. 6 May 1971 ... for a collective effort so that it may be realised in the terms of an integral human perfection. The Ashram founded and built by the Mother was the first step towards the accomplishment of this goal. The project of Auroville is the next step, more exterior, which seeks to widen the base of this attempt to establish harmony between soul and body, spirit and nature, heaven and earth, in the collective... combine to constitute the essential and eternal Unity. 4 May 1969 To Aurovilians To establish in Auroville the harmonious atmosphere which, by definition, ought to reign there, the first step is for each one to look within himself for the cause of friction and misunderstanding. For these causes are always on both sides and before demanding anything from others, each one should first ...
... which misses its aim at the ear and is not evident, still less convincing, though it may exist incommunicably somewhere in the mind of the writer. That indeed is the general modernistic tendency—to step back to the level of prose, sometimes to the colloquial level, both in language and in sound movement; the tendency, the aim even, is to throw away the intensities of poetic rhythm and poetic language... mathematical measure determinable by the eye of the reader; it is the weight or lightness of the syllable, the slowed down or unencumbered rapid passage of the voice, the pressure or slightness of its step in passing that makes the difference, and of that the ear alone can be the true judge or arbiter. In any case it is only the internal consonants that matter; for it is doubtful whether initial consonants... opening,— Page 349 Even when he loosens into a laxity nearer to prose, the compact quantitative movement, though much less high-strung, is still there,— It is only when he lies back or lolls indolently content with spreading himself out in a democratic averageness of rhythm that the intensity of poetic movement fades out; but the free quantitative movement is there even then, though ...
... seek after 28.Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, pp. 111-12. 29. Savitri, Book II, Canto X, p. 252. 30. The Life Divine, p. 67. Page 136 true knowledge: we must step back from the arena of conceptual thought and rely instead more and more on revelatory vision and luminous insight. 31 But since this inner illumination is in the nature of things progressive and the... and these become in the sequel so many starting-points for chains of philosophical argumentation. The reader feels no longer the necessity of going back directly to the source for the proper comprehension of the ideas encountered. Instead, he falls back again and again upon the 'materialised' terms which, because of their vicarious 'thingness', impart a false sense of clarity and solidity to the de... without the use of the physical eye..." 8 Thus, with the progressive widening and heightening and deepening of consciousness, ever new vistas of light open up before the ascending soul and every step of advance on this 'path of the Gods' (devay ā na) brings in a new ascension of sight, and this process continues till we reach the highest sight, par ā d ṛ k, the all-embracing, all-relating and ...
... yet perfect for the sadhaka and he is apt to encounter many difficulties on the way and many a type of suffering is apt to trouble him again and again. In that case, the sadhaka should stop and step back, be vigilant and watchful, search his consciousness, find out the flaws and foibles, and restore the well-being of his faith. But a ticklish question may confound the sadhaka at this point:... unfold His plan in full before the sadhaka's vision; He may indicate only one step at a time, the step that is immediately called for. The surrendered sadhaka should not hesitate to take that step even if the rest of the future course of action remains shrouded in deep darkness. If he confidently follows the step-by-step guidance of the Divine, he will be amazed to discover in no time how the supremely... essential factors: sincerity, surrender and faith. It goes without saying that a basic sincerity is the very sine qua non of all true sadhana; without it the sadhaka cannot take even a single small step on the Path. He will stagnate on the spot for ever and for ever. So let us not waste here our time and space by stressing the obvious. Next comes surrender. And it is precisely what is the subject-matter ...
... not, he is given a work-sheet of the supplementary type, suited to his deficiencies. If he answers to the testing questions of this supplementary work-sheet, he moves forward: otherwise he has to step back a little and make his knowledge more secure. Thus we have already five types of work-sheets: didactic, heuristic, mixed, testing, supplementary. These names are not given to make a show, but... an example (a theorem of mathematics, for instance), or a description (history and geography) or a set of rules (grammar), etc. Each detailed step of the didactic text must be so drafted that the student understands it readily. After each step questions are put which he must answer - by a word or a short sentence - easy questions which we may call (mind) focussing questions. Their function... . Free composition can be resorted to, i.e., a subject chosen entirely by the student.' 2. Mathematics: Here also the work-sheet is of the didactic type. In this subject especially each step of the reasoning should be so unmistakably clear that the normal student who has reached this point can follow it without help. The usual text-books are too condensed; the work-sheet has to be more ...
... less a real self-exceeding. For this reason an essential movement of the Yoga is to draw back from the outward ego sense by which we are identified with the action of mind, life and body and live Page 124 inwardly in the soul. The liberation from an externalised ego sense is the first step towards the soul's freedom and mastery. The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 606-07 .... necessary for the operations of the surface individuality and are effective and justified by their effects; they are therefore real to its finite reason and finite self-experience: but once we step back from the finite consciousness into the consciousness of the essential and infinite, from the apparent to the true Person, the finite or the individual still exists but as being and power and m... detaching himself from all identification with mind, life and body, he can get back from his ego to the consciousness of the true Individual, the Jivatman, who is the real possessor of mind, life and body. Looking back from this Individual to that of which it is the representative and conscious figure, he can get back to the transcendent consciousness of pure Self, absolute Existence or absolute ...
... thought that a finer Latin rhythm would be got from the words by completely breaking up Sri Aurobindo's order he could go even to the length of rearranging them in such a manner that a step-by-step translation back into English might read: Kingfisher some eternal pool the sudden I to a darkling flashing caught for eye. What would be gibberish in English might be marvellous literature ...
... is sheer folly to wrestle with desire in its own field, where it is almost invincible by any human effort, and constantly fed and fortified by its own universal energy. What we have to do is to step back from the lower vital which is a part of the un-universal Nature, abounding with all sorts of desires, cravings, lusts, hungers, etc., and take our stand on our true being. Once we learn how to stand... the false, the divine from the undivine, you are to act strictly up to your knowledge; that is to say, resolutely reject one and accept the other. The duality will present itself at every step and at every step you will have to make your choice. You will have to be patient and persistent and vigilant,—'sleepless’, as the adepts say; you must always refuse to give any chance to the undivine against... evolving into its godhead. It is only when we can say a categoric "No" to all its solicitations, and turn integrally to the Divine to know and realise His Will and nothing but His Will, at every step and moment of our life, that desire is finally conquered and the divine Will installed as the undisputed sovereign of our nature. It is then only that we can be said to have free will, for it is ...
... anguish. Aswapati moves through it with his spirit's alert flame. II: 6 The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life Stepping into the wider Life, Aswapati notices her attempt to seize the boundless in birth. Thus she would claim back her heavenly state she had lost long ago. She made this creation of many hues but missed the True. Yet she moves on towards the far-off Light... Mind. Death offers several gifts to Savitri, — excepting Satyavan's life. In this deadlock finally she would be the loser and the Siddhi of her Shakti Yoga would not be achieved. Hence she must step back and in her house of meditation kindle a fire to perform the Primordial Sacrifice, Adi Yajna. She sees that there the Yajna is being performed by the Lord of the Creation and his golden Spouse and... There Aswapati felt that his body was licked by the hostile Power and he suffered fear. But this had to Page – 56 be borne. He endures and with his bare spirit masters her. The stepping of the Incarnate into the worlds of Night is a wonderful thing that can happen to her and in it is her opportunity to change. II: 8 The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and ...
... was lengthened by continually having to stop and sometimes to step back. I am sure I was right to start with a programme to increase the blood supply to the hips. In fact, in all cases where healing and repair have to be carried out, such a programme would be advisable — except when the part concerned is inflamed. With the next step, the removal of the calcified tissue, I was lucky. I am still... believe that we have the conscious ability to affect them. But we also know that, without intending to, we can produce very serious effects on the body's well-being by repressions, sometimes going way back into childhood years, and other mental influences which, working, so to speak, behind the scenes and through the subconscious mind, eventually come out into the open as serious psychological or physical... I had been fairly used to that and I felt it was important to see whether a scavenging programme could handle the difficulty. Four days later I stopped the programme of withholding nutrient and sat back to think again. The next record I have is of an improvement on July 20th. The inflammation had subsided and the pain had gone. However I didn't think it wise to restart the starving out programme ...
... heads for her purpose in order to organise the whole; all the lines of the work, all the details were arranged by her and the heads trained to observe her methods and it was only afterwards that she stepped back and let the whole thing go on on her lines but with a watchful eye always. The heads are carrying out her policy and instructions and report everything to her and she often modifies what they do... any perception of an Existent, Conscient, Blissful. It leads therefore to Nirvana. In the integral knowledge the realisation of the Self and of the impersonal Sachchidananda is only a step though a very important step or part of the integral knowledge. It is a beginning, not an end of the highest realisation. It is said that normally one passes from the impersonal to the personal aspect... sadhana? Going away was necessary, because staying here he was moved always to do sadhana and sadhana had come for him to mean this occultism. He could not get back to the right track without getting back to the normal mind and living in the ordinary consciousness so as to begin with a blank page. This he failed to do here. It is not for vital satisfaction that he goes ...
... conceptions regarding work, etc., etc. And it is always better to look for the cause of the disharmony, in order to correct it, in oneself rather than in the other or others.”² If we learn to step back and look within, instead of fretting and worrying, each time there is an opposition or confusion in the outer circumstances of our life, we gain not only in endurance and equality, which are the... noble it may be, but by an unflagging aspiration for union with the Divine through an increasing conformity to His self-manifesting Will. At each step of our journey, "the duality will present itself"—whether to do this or to do that—and at each step we have to make a choice, surrenderingly and irrevocably. It is only the sincerity —absolute and integral sincerity—of our aspiration and the answering... soul then the doer ? Some schools of dynamic Yoga will reply in the affirmative. They will say that the liberated soul, detached from and superior to Nature, does the Yogic action. Others may go a step further and assert that the liberated individual, the Jivanmukta, living in the Divine, can be said to be the doer, in the sense that he is the channel of the divine Will, but, really speaking, it ...
... we twist an ankle on the stairway. We fall back into a sort of arduous effort, as if we were constantly pushing against a wall. So we stop for a moment, call back the silence, take one step back, rekindle that fire of need, which is really like a cry for air, and everything suddenly lightens, eases up, relaxes – the wall is gone. We have stepped back into the vastness, recaptured the rhythm, the... this functioning is still unsure. We are constantly snatched back by the old machinery, the habit of mulling over thoughts, judging, deducing, calculating, and immediately it is as if a veil fell, a screen came between the quiet clarity behind and the arduous whirlwind here: communications are jammed. Again we have to take a step back and find the comfortable expanse – and it is irritating, un... activity, every movement, every dark alley of the body, as in the past on the boulevards outside, and he gains ground step by step, cell by cell. He lights the fire of need – need for truth, need for light, need for space – in every one of those infinitesimal fortresses and pushes back ever farther the line of unconsciousness. Illnesses befall him, his strength declines, 49 death smirks for an instant ...
... the wolf”, but simply “This tearer”, ayaṁ vṛkaḥ . The question remains, why the word vṛkaḥ more than another suggested the idea of tearing. The Sanscrit language carries us one step back, but not yet to the final step, by showing us that it is not the formed word vṛkaḥ with which we have to deal, but the word vṛc , that root of which vṛka is only one of several outgrowths. For the second obsession... natural law proceeding almost precisely as Nature proceeds in the physical world to form a vegetable or an animal genus & its species. We have taken one step in the perception of the laws that govern the origin & growth of language; but this step is nothing or little unless we can find an equal regularity, an equal reign of fixed process on the psychological side, in the determining of the relation... only when we go back to the early tongues and find, for instance, that the Sanscrit word for wolf means radically “tearing” that we get a glimpse of one Page 559 law at least of the development of language. Again in modern speech we have fixed parts of speech; noun, adjective, verb, adverb are to us different words even when their forms are the same. Only when we go back to the earlier tongues ...
... Sudhir who can endure by adopting a “don’t care” attitude. I have seen many who have desperately fought with bombs and pistols, but none was so courageous as Sudhir. I never saw him step back. Anyone would shrink back out of natural fear when bombs exploded before him, but Sudhir would not even blink. He did not seem to have a trace of fear in his consciousness. That is why he came out of all the difficult... Nolini-da, told this to the Mother, She replied, “Why does Sudhir think of death? He will come back cured and live long. It is I who am sending him to Delhi for an operation. I assure him that I will stay with him always during the operation. I will be with the doctor. Tell him not to worry. He will come back freed from his disease, reinvigorated, rejuvenated.” Receiving this assurance from the Mother... melodious voice was singing, “O my comrade, can you not hold the helm of the boat?” Sudhir was entranced. Slowly the voice grew louder as the singer approached Sudhir’s cottage. Sudhir opened his door and stepped out into the moonlit forest. A towering Kapalik — a Tantrik devotee — appeared in the clearing. Spotting Sudhir, he asked, “O Brahmin, will you give me something to eat?” Sudhir was astonished. “How ...
... this is because Japan has assimilated Western Science and organization and even in many respects excelled its teachers; India has failed in this all-important task of assimilation. If we go a step farther back and insist on asking why this is so, we shall be told it is because Japan has "reformed" herself and got rid of ideas & institutions unsuited to modern times; while India clings obstinately to... one inch of earth without noble resistance & warlike struggle. He saw Sita face exile, hardship, privation & danger in the eagerness of wifely love & duty, Savitri rescue by her devotion her husband back from the visible grip of death. These were the classical Indian types. These were the Page 1096 ideals into the mould of which the minds of men & women were trained to grow. The sense-conquering... revolution; the new is ready to set the whole country in turmoil for the sake of an idea. The old bent the knee to Caesar and presented him a list of grievances; the new leaves his presence or dragged back to it, stands erect and defies him in the midst of his legions. Page 1106 The initial condition of recovering our liberty meant a peril and a gigantic struggle from the very possibility ...
... and stands back from Nature, that is the first step to the soul's freedom; for it becomes detached, and it is possible then to know Nature and her processes and in all independence, since we are no longer involved in her works, to accept or not to accept, to make the sanction no longer automatic but free and effective; we can choose what she shall do or not do in us, or we can stand back altogether... creations, but secretly the consent of the Being must be there at every step to make this possible. There is an evident truth in this perception of things; it is what we see happening everywhere in us and around us; it is a truth of the universe and must answer to a fundamental truth-aspect of the Absolute. But when we step back from the outer dynamic appearances of things, not into a witness Silence... all things, we see him doing everything in his own sovereignty as the creator and ruler of his own manifestation; or, if he stands back and allows freedom of action to the forces of Nature and her creatures, his sovereignty is still innate in the permission, at every step his tacit sanction, "Let it be so", tathāstu , is there implicit; for otherwise nothing could be done or happen. Being and its C ...
... y necessary for the operations of the surface individuality and are effective and justified by their effects; they are therefore real to its finite reason and finite self-experience: but once we step back from the finite consciousness into the consciousness of the essential and infinite, from the apparent to the true Person, the finite or the individual still exists but as being and power and manifestation... authentic and final character. It is open to the intellect which has once arrived at the conviction of the unreality of all other things, to take a farther step and deny the reality of Self and of all existence. The Buddhists took this last step and refused reality to the Self on the ground that it was as much as the rest a construction of the mind; they cut not only God but the eternal Self and impersonal... exceeding and elimination of all other possible but lesser experiences is, as a step towards the Absolute, admissible. A supreme experience which affirms and includes the truth of all spiritual experience, gives to each its own absolute, integralises all knowledge and experience in a supreme reality, might be the one step farther that is at once a largest illuminating and transforming Truth of all things ...
... Unknown which are the beginning of his higher knowledge. Reason only comes in afterwards to see what profit it can have of the shining harvest." 40 For essentially true knowledge we have to step back from the arena of conceptual thought and rely instead more and more on revelatory vision and luminous insight. For "There is a deeper seeing from within And when we have left these small... acquire when we rise from the purlieus of conceptive and ratiocinative mind. "But here in this greater Thought there is no need of a seeking and self-critical ratiocination, no logical motion step by step towards a conclusion, no mechanism of express or implied deductions and inferences, no building or deliberate concatenation of idea with idea in order to arrive at an ordered sum or outcome of... they try to arrange them in words and phrases. But when you have lived these experiences and when you have perceived this fall, this descending line between experience and expression, you see at each step the profound reality of the experience receding, fading away into the background instead of being in front and dominating the whole being. It recedes slowly and what remains outside is only a kind of ...
... do not see how cosmic rays can explain the origination of Matter; it is like Sir Oliver Lodge's explanation of life on earth that it comes from another planet; it only pushes the problem one step farther back—for how do the cosmic rays come into existence? But it is a fact that Agni is the basis of forms as the Sankhya pointed out long ago, i.e. the fiery principle in its three powers radiant, electric... as wide as it can be. Yoga, however, is scientific to this extent that it proceeds by subjective experiment and bases all its findings on experience; mental intuitions are admitted only as a first step and are not considered as realisation—they must be confirmed by being translated into and justified by experience. As to the value of the experience itself, it is doubted by the physical mind because... the one Person of which it is an obscure outcome. If one insists on one's own ideas and reasonings, the greater Light and Knowledge cannot come or else is marred and obstructed in the coming at every step by a lower interference; if one insists on one's own desires and fancies, that great luminous Will and Force cannot act in its own true power—for you ask it to be the servant of your desires; if one ...
... lose the contact. Then many things disappear. For instance, depression is one of these things, discontentment, revolt, fatigue, depression, all these difficulties. And if one makes it a habit to step back, as we say, in one's consciousness and see on the screen of one's psychic consciousness — see all the circumstances, all the events, all the ideas, all the knowledge, everything — at that moment one... circumstance, goes from one body to another, then it still remembers. That's generally when it comes back in the same family, or in neighbors. The departed soul retains the memory of its past experiences only in their essence, not in their form of detail. It is only if the soul brings back some past personality or personalities as part of its present manifestation that it is likely to remember... Or Heaven descend into earth's mortal state. But for such vast spiritual change to be, Out of the mystic cavern in man's heart The heavenly Psyche must put off her veil And step into common nature's crowded rooms And stand uncovered in that nature's front And rule its thoughts and fill the body and life. It is necessary to understand clearly the difference ...
... is – because I touched it.... What a fuss they make over it! They make a big fuss over nothing. (short silence) All right, it may be useful for a humanity sunk in matter. It's very good to step back a little, to pierce through all those layers of conditioning and emerge into a little bit of silence and all that.... That part is good; it's nothing to reject or sneer at. But it's like, you know... be, the less we really communicate. Actually, the real purpose of science is not to have invented all those "gadgets"; it isn't to have produced superjets. Its REAL CONTRIBUTION (if one could step back and have a bird's-eye view of history) is to have woven such a dense and tight network among all the parts of the globe, all the groups of humanity, to have created such a unity, Page 112 ... which they may not have solved in a previous life, and which now comes back. Well, better solve the accident now or it will come again. Page 204 The actual sense of reincarnation is that of a progress in the development of consciousness. Difficulties come to us not as accidents, but to FORCE us to take one more step forward. Not to overwhelm us, but to FORCE us to walk. If we could ...
... was coming to the tent at that moment, and saw him come out, and saw him march away in that large fashion, indeed it was fine and beautiful to see. But when I got to the tent door I stopped and stepped back, grieved and shocked, for I heard Joan crying, as I mistakenly, thought—crying as if she could not contain nor endure the anguish of her soul, crying as if she would die. But it was not so, she... will die rather. I will surrender to the Maid of Orleans alone, and to no other.' And so he did; and was courteously and honourably used by her. His two brothers retreated, fighting step by step, toward the bridge, we pressing their despairing forces and cutting them Page 81 down by scores. Arrived on the bridge, the slaughter still continued. Alexander de la Pole was pushed... messenger himself had not come back. So now she sent her two heralds with a new letter warning the English to raise the siege and requiring them to restore that missing messenger. The heralds came back without him. All they brought was notice from the English to Joan that they would presently catch her and burn her if she did not clear out now while she had a chance, and 'go back to her proper trade of minding ...
... so answered David's knock. "Are you the doctor?" She asked anxiously. Dad asked, "Is someone ill?" "It's Ma", the child said, moving back so they could come in. A voice called from the bedroom. "Whoever it is, come here." David stepped back, abandoning leadership. He looked about while Dad went into the bedroom. There was no furniture except a rusty stove and a packing case.... outhouse, his back leaning against a post and his legs sprawling in front of him. She drew near gingerly and craining her neck forward asked, "Isn't it time you went to school, young master?" Then, after an expectant pause, "The mistress sent me round to remind you." Ram maintained a glum silence, taking no notice of her. Nrityakali, taking her courage in both hands, ventured another step forward and... referee dashed into the end zone, signaling a touchdown. Walking back from the end zone with the ball, Glenn found his mind spinning. This was unbelievable! Only he alone, of all the people there, seemed to realize that the touchdown was no good. When he'd leaped over Page 604 Phipps, the slap on his heel had made him step just an inch or two out of bounds. But it seemed that no one had ...
... not on the people—there is no need to speak to them or pay any attention to them. 21 July 1936 O Mother, I want to become aware that You are watching over me at every moment. Take one step back from the surface consciousness, enter just a little inside yourself, and you will become aware of it. 24 July 1936 Does the universal Justice prevent us from rising above the universe when... material plane. They are connected with the material plane through the sense-organs (sight, hearing, etc.). 8 April 1935 How can one conquer the subconscious? By entering into it step by step, through attentive observation, with the light of the consciousness. Why am I on earth in ignorance and obscurity? The mind cannot answer these questions nor understand the true reply. ... is nothing impossible about a prompt conversion; the difficult thing is to make it last." It gets converted for a moment and then falls back again? Yes. The mind suddenly sees clearly and is converted, but then it is attacked again by obscurity and falls back into its old habits. How can the conversion of the ordinary mind be made lasting? Persist in bringing it into contact with the light ...
... means doing other things that are pressing to be done! As for the other affair, you must not expect it all at once as there is something still to be ____________________ 1. In French: "to step back the better to leap forward." Page 159 done to make it presentable and it depends on my finding the time. But anyhow time will be made for both. January 31,1932 ... was not something merely vital-human; in its essence, though not in its form, it was very much the first step in the transformation, which we ask of the sadhaks, to make their love psychic and use the vital not for its own sake, but as an expression of the soul's realisation. It is the first step and perhaps for some it may be sufficient, for we are not asking everybody to become supramental; but for... Page 234 when this kind of step is taken; it is hard enough to get it to admit the more immediately needed control of its major impulses (sex, etc.) without coercing it in "small" things also,—at least those it feels to be small. If at any time the vital feels the need or feels this to be the natural way to a deeper soul intimacy, then the step will be of great use. To reject doubts ...
... adjacent room, which was very dark. There was a door over there, through which I hoped to step out unnoticed. This door was wedged shut by an old, small round table that I pushed aside. Then I turned the knob and at that moment, I felt another hand turning this same knob from the outside. I stepped back, flattened against the wall, while the door was opening. I was hidden by the panel. Someone... gratitude toward Mother. How She holds us by the hand, or rather in Her arms. We are resting together on Mother’s bosom. At the beginning of November 1975 Page 120 As I was stepping out of my room to go for my usual walk in the canyons, I met Sir C.P.N. Singh in the garden ... sent by Indira Gandhi to see what was happening at the Ashram. He is Indira’s confidant and close... this water, countless beasts were struggling, huge cockroaches, as big as tortoises. It echoes a vision of Mother’s in ’57 or ’58, when she saw Pondicherry being engulfed, then years later, herself stepping out of a deep cave where She had remained throughout all this flood and trying to speak French to people who understood nothing of this strange language.... 92 Obviously, time’s dimensions are ...
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