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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- Reading as a Spiritual Practice and Its Limitations - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhile Sri Aurobindo created an enormous body of written materials regarding the integral yoga, the development of the next phase of consciousness growth in the earth-evolution, he also clearly recognized that there are limits to how much reading can aid the spiritual seeker. He made a clear ...
Views: 486 - Intellectual Understanding and Understanding in the Consciousness - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyThose who find their basis primarily in the mind tend to believe that their intellectual understanding of something represents something real and definitive and that their “knowing” means they “know” something. This is however, not quite accurate. For instance, one can read books and “know” ...
Views: 401 - Reading, Mental Development and Spiritual Growth - by Submitted on Mar 24, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is a general bias in our society that holds that someone who has a developed mentality, and who is ‘well-read’ is smarter or more intelligent than those who cannot read or who have limited reading capacity. Yet it must be recognised that intelligence cannot be measured, as is done in the ...
Views: 453 - The Needed Balance of Spiritual Development and Mental Development - by Submitted on Mar 23, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere has been a long-standing debate between those who believe in the power of mental development, under the rubric of ‘science’ and those who believe in the power of faith and spiritual aspiration, under the general terminology of ‘religion’. A similar debate rages between the position of ...
Views: 407 - Art as a Dedicated Expression of the Divine - by Submitted on Mar 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe object of creative expression through art is of primary importance to the spiritual seeker. As long as art is used as a way to enhance the vital ego, achieve recognition, fame, wealth, it has little, if any, value for spiritual practice. These objectives, in and of themselves, are part of ...
Views: 522 - Gaining the Support of the Vital Being for the Sadhana Through the Joy of Creative Activity - by Submitted on Mar 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyOne of the issues that every spiritual seeker eventually faces is what to do about the vital nature. The vital being is an essential element of life on earth. Normally however it is distracted with its needs and desires, the seeking for pleasure and enjoyment, the avoidance of pain and ...
Views: 380 - Art and Literature in the Service of Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Mar 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhile they are not a substitute for spiritual sadhana, art, music and literature nevertheless have a role to play, both as a means to access and express the inner aspiration and as a way to bring to the external being some of the force of the spiritual development taking place internally. Those ...
Views: 452 - Sadhana Is the Core Focus — Mental and Emotional Practices Are Secondary - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2022 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo makes a clear distinction between development of the mind and the heart through various intellectual or artistic pursuits, or through music or devotional activities, and the practice of Sadhana, which is the primary need and focus for the spiritual aspirant. While any of these ...
Views: 450 - Art and Intellectual Development Are Not Essentially Spiritual Pursuits - by Submitted on Mar 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe tend to confuse artistic and various intellectual pursuits as somehow being spiritual accomplishments. These are, however, developments of the higher emotional and mental spheres to a great degree, except when they are channeling energies of the lower vital levels of our being, which, in ...
Views: 471 - Yogic View of Beauty - by Submitted on Mar 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe are trained to appreciate external beauty of form, whether in life or in art. This training internalizes cultural preferences. Thus, the ideal of beauty changes depending on which culture is providing the cultural background and which time-frame encompasses the judgment term. Based on ...
Views: 500 - The Divine Nature of Beauty: an Expression of Ananda in Manifestation - by Submitted on Mar 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe are predisposed, through cultural habit, to see beauty in an outward form. Those who look a bit deeper warn us that ‘beauty is only skin-deep’, and that outward forms of beauty may hide inward blemishes. The essence of deception is to create the appearance of outward beauty while hiding ...
Views: 403 - The Objective of Spiritual Effort Is a Change of Consciousness, Not a Large Following - by Submitted on Mar 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe generally try to measure the importance of a particular religion or path by the number of adherents it boasts. Hundreds of millions of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and many tens of millions in other major religious denominations, are impressive numbers for our external mental awareness that ...
Views: 480 - Spirituality Transcends All Religions - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2022 from santosh krinskyMany people confuse spirituality and religion and then try to associate various spiritual paths with specific religious traditions. Spirituality, however, is not based in the beliefs, practices, or customary folkways of any religion. Spirituality seeks for direct experience of the greater ...
Views: 587 - Religion, Fanaticism and Divine Truth - by Submitted on Mar 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyAdherents of virtually all religious traditions want to believe that their own religion is the one “true” religion, and all others are false, mistaken or imperfect. This belief reinforces their own faith and thus, enhances the satisfaction of the vital ego. In some cases, however, this belief ...
Views: 511 - The Guru and the Disciple in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Mar 12, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf one looks at traditional paths of yogic practice in India, or similar practices around the world, regardless of the religious or spiritual background, one finds that the relationship between Guru and disciple is of supreme importance and consideration, and there is a specific lineage that ...
Views: 427 - The Guru: the Guide for the Spiritual Practice and Realisation - by Submitted on Mar 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is one subject that leads to tremendous confusion on the part of a spiritual seeker, particularly in the modern world where there is such an emphasis on individuality, and mental development and a strong emphasis on independence and self-reliance. That is the topic of the “guru”. The term ...
Views: 520 - Avatars and Vibhutis Focus Their Attention and Action on the Work to Be Done - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe mind creates a number of illusions and misconceptions about Avatars and Vibhutis. Many of these ideas assume, wrongly, that a conscious manifestation of the Divine in the world must be likewise all-knowing and all-powerful, and they thus attribute miraculous powers and actions to those who ...
Views: 449 - The Role and Nature of Avatars and Vibhutis - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe long, slow and steady evolutionary progression in the world occasionally reaches a point where a focused, concentrated action can move it along, prepare the advent of the next stage, and set some new directions in motion. These special efforts generally are associated with a specific person ...
Views: 430 - The Embodiment of the Conscious Divine Exceeds the Ability of the Habitual Mind to Understand and Judge the Event - by Submitted on Mar 08, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe Western mind-set, based in analysis and categorization, works to fragment and divide everything into discreet and distinct classifications and categories. Therefore, when it sees any element of Nature, or any being in existence, it wants to treat it as a separate and separated existence. It ...
Views: 438 - How to Recognise the Manifestation of the Divine Presence in the Human Individual - by Submitted on Mar 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyHow do we recognise the Divine manifesting through an individual human being? Arjuna poses a similar question in the Bhagavad Gita, when he asks how to recognise the enlightened man. How does he walk, how does he dress, what does he eat, how does he act? Sri Krishna reminds Arjuna that the ...
Views: 460 - Rebirth and the Individual - by Submitted on Mar 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyHow do we imagine our past, or future, existences? What about past life regression therapy? Is there a reality to the experience and if so, what does it mean to us? Many who believe in a future reincarnation have no conception of any past lifetime at all. They accept the reality of their current ...
Views: 440 - The Soul’s Journey Through Life, Death and Rebirth - by Submitted on Mar 05, 2022 from santosh krinskyOne level of the deep ignorance within which we live and act is our bondage to the specific individual life, personality and situation that we inhabit. We are generally unaware of anything prior to our birth or which occurs after our death. Some even take the view that there is no “meaning” and ...
Views: 465 - The Mechanism of the Soul’s Evolutionary Development Through Death and Rebirth - by Submitted on Mar 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe human being is actually composed of a number of “sheaths” as described in the Taittiriya Upanishad. The outer form is the physical sheath. Informing the physical sheath with energy and responsiveness is the vital sheath. More subtle than the vital sheath is the mental sheath that provides ...
Views: 417 - The Action of Karma and the Nature of Suffering - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2022 from santosh krinsky“What goes around comes around” and “karma” both basically indicate that there is a factor in existence that rewards good deeds and punishes bad deeds. But do we really see that things work this way? Is there some divine entity sitting up in the clouds, watching our good and bad actions, and ...
Views: 515 - Evolution of Consciousness, Rebirth and Overcoming Suffering - by Submitted on Mar 02, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere are many ideas about rebirth, how it works, and the relationship of suffering to an individual’s life and, through operation of karma, potential future lifetimes. Much of this is based on an underlying implicit assumption that the self-awareness that an individual holds in this lifetime ...
Views: 526 - Evolution of Consciousness and the Need for Rebirth as a Mechanism of that Evolution - by Submitted on Mar 01, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe observe an outer fact of existence, but we do not see the motive force behind it, nor the intention behind the motive force. Thus, Darwin identified an evolution of species, and researchers have identified families of species, development of specific characteristics within those families and ...
Views: 441 - The Cure for Inner Loneliness - by Submitted on Feb 28, 2022 from santosh krinskyHuman beings are social animals, and they crave contact and relationship with others. Modern society has broken or weakened many of the links that formerly brought people together, including the nuclear and extended family, and tight-knit communities where people socialized and interacted with ...
Views: 523 - The Need to Shift the Consciousness Beyond the Ego - by Submitted on Feb 27, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe ego-consciousness has its evolutionary purpose. The distinction of the individual from the mass of existence led to the ability to move beyond the instinctual and habitual patterns of the species. With this consciousness, variation and innovation became more easily possible. Observation from ...
Views: 463 - The Potential Impact of Positive or Negative Thoughts on Another Individual - by Submitted on Feb 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyThought has power. Power, however, has its conditions of action. A ‘passing’ thought running through the mind, disappearing as quickly as it enters, does not have the same impact as a concentrated and persistent focus coupled with the gathering of emotional or vital force to accentuate its ...
Views: 689 - Judging Others - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe surface being, under the influence of the vital ego, loves to criticize others and ‘gossip’ about them. This is a method of ‘puffing up’ or inflating the ego by dragging down others. It also wastes considerable time and energy by focusing on what are for the most part superficial things in a ...
Views: 555 - Developing Harmonious Relationships with Close Family, Friends and Associates - by Submitted on Feb 24, 2022 from santosh krinskyEven among those closest to one another, there remain differences of habit and temperament. Issues of personal grooming, dietary choices, choices in music or other media interactions, time commitments, interactions about caring for the common shared space all work to create minor daily ...
Views: 475 - Two Methods for Achieving Equality of Feelings with Others - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhat causes an individual to ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ someone they meet. Some obvious reasons include similarities or differences in temperament, responses to situations, idea-sets, lifestyle, and, based on acculturation, accidental characteristics such as religion, social standing, career, or ...
Views: 452 - Speak Truth, Not Falsehood - by Submitted on Feb 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyTruth. This term is subjected to considerable interpretation in today’s world. Some say that there is no such thing as ‘truth’ and that ‘truth is relative’. Some hold that what one person understands as ‘truth’, seen from a different perspective, is falsehood. Some indicate that ‘today’s truth ...
Views: 419 - Speaking About One’s Spiritual Experiences - by Submitted on Feb 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyAn individual has a peak spiritual experience, or something unusual takes place in his inner life about which he has no prior knowledge or understanding. This creates an impulse to speak of the experience to other people. There can be a number of motivations for talking about an inner experience ...
Views: 520 - Six Recommendations for Speech and Social Relationships - by Submitted on Feb 20, 2022 from santosh krinskySpeech not only can affect one’s own energy, but it can also affect one’s relationship with others and the dynamics of a social relationship and a community. For the most part, people tend to speak whatever comes to them without a great deal (if any) reflection. This practice however can have ...
Views: 470 - Observing and Controlling One’s Speech - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2022 from santosh krinskyMauna Sadhana, the discipline of silence, can be a very powerful way to gain insight into the impulse to speech and the control of speech. We frequently speak without filtering what we have to say. The idea comes into our mind and before we know it, it is making its way out in the form of ...
Views: 406 - The Circumstances and Need of a Temporary Withdrawal and Quiet of the Being - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere are occasions where the practice of silence and a temporary withdrawal from the hustle and bustle of the outer life, to the degree feasible, becomes a necessary part of the sadhana for the practitioner of yoga. Yoga is, by definition, a change of consciousness, and it involves an inward ...
Views: 432 - Speech and the Practice of Yoga - by Submitted on Feb 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyHuman beings are talkative creatures. The power of speech, the power of language is one of the most highly developed areas of difference from most other species on the planet (there are other beings that have speech, but to date we have not found them to have the complexity and breadth of ...
Views: 554 - Helping Others in the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is an impulse to share something that we find valuable in our own lives. This impulse is oftentimes harnessed by religious organizations or spiritual groups to become a method of proselytizing and conversion, and in some cases, it can become a situation filled with pressure on the ...
Views: 503 - Is Inner Spiritual Growth Possible While Engaging with the External World? - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we look at the spiritual and religious traditions of the world, we find that a recurring theme is the need of the true seeker to disassociate himself from the outer life of the world. This is done to focus the attention on the spiritual quest and to avoid the distractions, disruptions and ...
Views: 448 - Psychic Self-Defense - by Submitted on Feb 14, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe true test of spiritual equanimity and balance is how one responds to adverse circumstances. It is relatively easy to be calm and peaceful when there is no external pressure and one is surrounded by a quiet and nourishing environment. It is quite another to remain focused, balanced and equal ...
Views: 471 - The Greek Temperament and the Roman Temperament in the Practice of Yoga - by Submitted on Feb 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe observe some individuals who have an obvious connection to the life-energy and who have a sensitivity and responsiveness to life that allows them to experience the fullness of life. We also observe individuals who appear more restrained, self-contained, and less subject to the life around ...
Views: 463 - Spiritual Sadhana Varies by Individual Based on Temperament and Situation of the Sadhak - by Submitted on Feb 12, 2022 from santosh krinskyNot everyone can achieve spiritual progress using exactly the same methods or disciplines. The “one size fits all” approach tried by many religious or spiritual communities of the past only works if their members are all basically similar in temperament and their spiritual development. We have ...
Views: 429 - Addressing Vital Interchange in the Context of Spiritual Practice - by Submitted on Feb 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe normal human viewpoint in today’s world is one of separate individuality. We believe, based on that viewpoint, that we are free and independent and make our own choices exercising our free will. In actuality, however, this is not quite true. All relationships in society involve subtle vital ...
Views: 482 - The Focus on Spiritual Development or Attachment to Family Life: the Choice for the Spiritual Aspirant - by Submitted on Feb 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyFrom childhood we are acculturated with the idea of family and family life as a primary function and goal of our existence. This becomes a habit in our vital being and in our minds. At some point, through some seminal experience or through a growing inner conviction, certain individuals become ...
Views: 424 - Spirituality and Family Life - by Submitted on Feb 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor spiritual and religious aspirants, there has always been a pressure to give up the focus on family life due to the inherent distraction that a family creates for the seeker. Whether the seeker takes vows and enters a monastery or cloister, or leaves family behind to follow a particular ...
Views: 701 - Psychic Love Surpasses Human Love - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe unique dynamics of living in a spiritual or religious community make it especially important to understand the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) distractions that can arise when the long habitual reactions of the vital nature, as well as the strong cultural pressures, developed over ...
Views: 446 - Beyond Human Love — Psychic Love, Universal Love and Love for the Divine - by Submitted on Feb 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe seek for love, we look for it in our relationships, we search for it in a ‘soul mate’, but in the end, we can recognise that human love is limited and uncertain. There are examples of love that spans a lifetime, possibly multiple lifetimes, and there are countless tales of idealised love that ...
Views: 466 - Friendship and Affection — Human and Divine - by Submitted on Feb 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyHuman relationships are subject to eventual disappointment in almost all cases. Friendship and affection are generally based in the ego and its gratification and at some point, the needs and goals of the individuals may diverge, they may be separated due to distance, illness or death, or there ...
Views: 448 - Friendship, Affection and the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2022 from santosh krinskyAs we experience relationships in the world, whether family, friend or significant others, we begin to appreciate how complex, demanding and ‘messy’ they are. To cultivate and support relationships takes time, effort and understanding. When we don’t agree 100% with someone, we find that even ...
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