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- The Vital Nature and Its Role in Ordinary Life and Spiritual Life - by Submitted on Oct 26, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn the ordinary life in the world, the action of vital desire, and the attempt to fulfill the desires is accepted to such a degree that it is not even consciously noted or treated as anything other than ‘human nature’. Society sets certain customary restraints or limits in order to build a civil ...
Views: 515 - Understanding the Moods of the Vital Consciousness - by Submitted on Oct 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen we are busy fulfilling our desires or ambitions, we notice that the vital energy is generally plentiful and positive, we forget about fatigue and want to carry on with exuberance. This is the normal status of the vital energy carrying out its habitual functions in human life and society. ...
Views: 427 - The Vital Is Attached to Suffering - by Submitted on Oct 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe frequently hear people saying that this world is a world of opposites and one cannot have joy without sorrow, pleasure without pain. This is accepted basically as an axiom for living in the world. And it is true, that for virtually everyone there is a mixture of positive and negative vital ...
Views: 397 - Understanding Vital Dissatisfaction and Withdrawal of Energy - by Submitted on Oct 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are times when we feel a total lack of inspiration and energy. Dullness pervades, there is no initiative or interest in anything. These times come in the ordinary day to day life, but they are covered up with distractions, entertainment, intoxication, and vital forms of enjoyment. The ...
Views: 459 - Addressing the Difficulties of the Transformation of the Vital Nature - by Submitted on Oct 22, 2021 from santosh krinskyTo effectuate a total transformation of the mind-life-body and its action in the world, it is necessary for the seeker to address and solve the issue of the vital being, its desires, and the ego-standpoint that it fosters and maintains. Methods that essentially try to fight with the vital ...
Views: 473 - Transformation of the Vital Nature of Man: Background and Introduction - by Submitted on Oct 21, 2021 from santosh krinskyA primary characteristic of human life on earth at this time is the power of the vital force in shaping not just our day-to-day responses to life situations, but to also impact our mental processes, such that for most people, the mind is under the control of the vital and its desires and ...
Views: 426 - Dealing with the Physical Mind in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2021 from santosh krinskyPractitioners of spiritual and religious disciplines inevitably are confronted with the habits and expectations of the physical mind in day to day life. There is a constant pressure to provide regular meals that suit the taste of the individual, comfortable surroundings to support the day to day ...
Views: 456 - The Role, Nature and Action of the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Oct 19, 2021 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect on the amount of time and focus we give to organizing and living our external physical lives, dealing with food, shelter, clothing, comforts of various sorts, entertainment, travel, family and friends, it becomes clear that a considerable part, indeed the greatest part, of our time ...
Views: 420 - Understanding the Role, Nature and Action of the Vital Mind - by Submitted on Oct 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe vital mind is the dominant process for most people in the world today who live an external life and work toward some form of fulfillment, success, progress or development in their lives and in their relations to family, friends, community and their society. Very few, comparatively, are those ...
Views: 458 - The Need for Silence of the Thinking Mind for the Spiritual Transformation - by Submitted on Oct 17, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor most people, the mind is always active with an internal commentary or dialogue running as people react to situations or try to solve various issues. As the mind is trained to undertake intellectual processes, it follows a process of logic and organisation that is used to understand and act ...
Views: 401 - The Intellect Does Not Have Direct Knowledge - by Submitted on Oct 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe mental intellect receives impulses through the senses, organises them, and trues to determine what is true based on that. It then builds hypotheses, theories and ideation around its assortment of perceptions, memory, and experience based on various principles of symbolic logic that it has ...
Views: 509 - The Transformation of the Mind - by Submitted on Oct 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyit is typical of the mental intelligence to believe that reading and remembering something implies that we have realised the truth of what we have read. Those who have taken the time to reflect on this make it clear that ‘reading a book about swimming’ does not mean one knows how to swim! ...
Views: 470 - The Limitations of the Thinking Mind - by Submitted on Oct 14, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe development of the mental consciousness has brought about enormous changes for life on earth, and as the foremost species utilizing the mental consciousness, humanity has taken the mind to limits never before considered as possible. Advances in logic, science, philosophy, psychology, ...
Views: 447 - Immortality in this Body is Not the Transformation Sought by the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Oct 13, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe “fountain of youth”, the elixir of immortality, attaining eternal life… these are various ways the aspiration of humanity has found expression for the conquest of death. Some who take up the integral Yoga latch on to the eventual idea of the supramental transformation leading to immortality ...
Views: 482 - Spiritual Experiences and Transformation of the Nature - by Submitted on Oct 13, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature is always interested in, even fixated on, the idea of having dramatic ‘spiritual experiences’. These experiences can open the eyes of the seeker to a wider reality, and can help reorient the direction of the life, sometimes in unusual or unexpected ways. There are many instances ...
Views: 556 - Death, the Conquest of Death, and the Supramental Transformation - by Submitted on Oct 11, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn his lectures on Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda points out clearly that chasing after powers or siddhis as they are called, is not the aim of the yoga and can be a distraction from the primary goal. They may come, but should not be sought after or made a primary determinant of the yogic process ...
Views: 538 - The Four Steps of the Supramental Transformation - by Submitted on Oct 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe full manifestation of the supramental consciousness in the world is the objective of the integral Yoga. This does not mean, however, that such a radical change in earthly life is expected to come about quickly or without any preliminary steps to be taken. In terms of the evolutionary ...
Views: 499 - The Supramental Evolutionary Development Engages With, Rather Than Renounces, Life in the World - by Submitted on Oct 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyMuch of the history of spirituality in the world is focused on achieving an inner, or subjective, realisation, and avoids addressing the outer life to any great degree. Most paths try to simplify the outer life. The intention is to avoid distractions that can take one away from the immense ...
Views: 465 - Conditions for Preparation for the Supramental Change, Part 1 - by Submitted on Oct 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe practice of the integral Yoga does not rely on prowess of physical postures (asanas) or breathing techniques (pranayama) or external rituals or practices. It is focused on creating the right internal ‘landscape’ in the psychology in order to achieve specific psychological asanas, so to ...
Views: 576 - Conditions for Preparation for the Supramental Change, Part 2 - by Submitted on Oct 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyOnce the psychic being is in front and directing the aspiration, focus and receptivity of the being to the action of the Divine Force, it is necessary to maintain the correct psychological posture, which implies not allowing either rajasic or tamasic energies to dominate the effort, avoiding ...
Views: 575 - The Supermind and the Transformation of the Physical Body - by Submitted on Oct 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyWith the advent of the supramental evolutionary principle in the physical world, certain expectations arise as to the physical body and its capacities. Supramental consciousness, infused into the very cells of the body, clearly would make the body more adaptable, more powerful and more able to ...
Views: 494 - The Supramental Force and the Quest for the Conquest of Disease, Decay and Death - by Submitted on Oct 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda describes the ability of various yoga practitioners to extend the capacities of the body far beyond what we consider to be normal, including prolonging the life span dramatically. One example he described was of Babaji, a yogi who ...
Views: 454 - Spiritual Realisation Is Not the Same as Supramental Transformation - by Submitted on Oct 04, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe supramental transformation involves the manifestation in the world of the next stage of consciousness beyond the mental level. Just as the evolution of mind brought about enormous changes in life on earth, the evolution of supermind will have a transformative effect on all existence, on the ...
Views: 472 - The Differences Between Spiritual Realisation and Supramental Transformation - by Submitted on Oct 04, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe goal of traditional spiritual paths is mainly to achieve individual liberation or realisation of the Self, although some, such as Mahayana Buddhism, add an element of self-giving in action by having the realised soul, the Bodhisattva, renounce full liberation until such time as all other ...
Views: 456 - The Play of the Gunas in the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Oct 02, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe Bhagavad Gita places considerable emphasis on the need to understand the play of the Gunas, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, in all things. Yogic practice is not exempted from this play. Each of the Gunas has a specific set of characteristics, and they are not stable. The Gunas are always in motion. ...
Views: 437 - Sri Aurobindo’s View of the Supramental Transformation - by Submitted on Oct 02, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe spiritual landscape is vast, and there are innumerable objectives and paths that can be taken. Sri Aurobindo describes briefly his approach to spiritual growth and its relation to the process of an evolution of consciousness in the earth-nature to incorporate what he calls the supramental ...
Views: 441 - The Need for Time to Assimilate the Descent of the Divine Force - by Submitted on Sep 30, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature craves excitement and signs of progress. It feels like time spent reflecting, relaxing, or contemplating may be ‘wasted time’. This is similar to the mindset that sees a vacant piece of land, with just plants, flowers and trees on it as ‘wasted’ as it has not been ‘developed’. ...
Views: 413 - Addressing the Experience of the Dark Night of the Soul - by Submitted on Sep 30, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are periods in the life of virtually every spiritual seeker or religious practitioner when the active experience seems to withdraw and the individual is thrown back into a world and a life that seems empty, meaningless, dark and obscure, and the presence of the Divine is not felt any ...
Views: 554 - Understanding and Addressing Resistance in the Lower Being to the Descent of the Divine Force - by Submitted on Sep 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere is a physical sensation that often accompanies the descent of the higher Force into the being. Some people relate this as a type of pressure in the head. Some experience headaches initially. Some find their being shaking to some degree as the nervous system absorbs and distributes the ...
Views: 494 - The Experience of the Descent of the Higher Consciousness Into the Mind, Life and Body - by Submitted on Sep 27, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe traditional paths of yoga have as a defining experience the rising of the energy from the lower chakras to the higher centres. Western psychology proposes that the creative force, that leads to art, as well as intellectual achievement comes through a process that is called ‘sublimation’ of ...
Views: 394 - Effects of the Descent of the Higher Consciousness Into the Body - by Submitted on Sep 27, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe observe the effects of training and conditioning the body to reach its peak of efficiency and perfection in action. The mind, the vital ambition, both play into the ability to bring the body to a state where it can undertake to achieve things that most people cannot even imagine. Recently in ...
Views: 572 - The Kundalini, the Tantra and the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Sep 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe opening and activation of the subtle energy centres described in the Tantras and known generally as Kundalini Yoga, differs from the practices of integral Yoga as to process, but not necessarily as to the end result. In both cases, the subtle centres, or chakras, are opened and energy is ...
Views: 509 - The Need for the Descent of Peace Into the Being - by Submitted on Sep 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe see in tales of various spiritual paths of the past, and present, that even a slight opening to the divine Power, Knowledge or Ananda can lead to severe disruptions in the individual being. There are stories of people dancing with ecstasy when they cannot hold the force coming down, as well ...
Views: 499 - The Yoga-Shakti Active in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Sep 23, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor the majority of individuals who live on the surface of their being, the energy they experience, the thoughts, emotions, feelings, perceptions are simply the working of the machinery, with no understanding about the process or source of this energetic action in their lives. For those who have ...
Views: 415 - Ascent of Consciousness and the Descent of the Higher Consciousness Into Mind-Life-Body - by Submitted on Sep 22, 2021 from santosh krinskySpiritual practices that focus on liberation from the nature attempt to achieve that liberation through abandonment of the external life and a one-pointed concentration on the spiritual consciousness. The integral Yoga has an additional goal of bringing the higher spiritual forces and knowledge, ...
Views: 481 - The Experience of the New Higher and Wider Consciousness - by Submitted on Sep 22, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe experience and descent of a higher consciousness is not a matter of philosophical argument but one of psycho-physical effects seen and noted by the individual, as well as palpable impacts in the basis of knowledge, action and implementation in the outer world. The seeker actually can feel ...
Views: 423 - The Need for the Guidance of the Guru - by Submitted on Sep 20, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe snares of the desire-soul of the vital nature are often subtle and can easily overpower the mind. Thus, motivations that represent the gratification of the ego are frequently justified by the mental processes and thus, can continue even when the seeker believes that he is carrying out the ...
Views: 442 - Two Processes of Traditional Yogic Paths That Can Aid the Sadhana of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Sep 19, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhile the integral Yoga does not depend on the techniques or methods of the traditional yogic paths, Sri Aurobindo has identified several processes that can be of great help in some cases. They help the seeker achieve a state of separation from the outer ego-personality and vital desire-soul, to ...
Views: 416 - The Two Most Important Actions for Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Sep 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe integral Yoga does not depend, as many yogic paths do, on physical asanas or breathing techniques, nor on chanting of mantras, nor singing and dancing in ecstatic states of trance, nor deep philosophical inquiry or strict mental techniques. Nor does it depend on austerity or any kind of ...
Views: 418 - The Action of the Divine Force As It Descends Into the Being - by Submitted on Sep 17, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn the classic methods known as Kundalini Yoga, and more generally in traditional yogic practices that seek to open and energize the subtle energy centers, or chakras, the experience is described as one of the energy starting at the lower chakra center, the Muladhara, and then rising up until it ...
Views: 445 - The Static and Dynamic Aspects of the Higher Spiritual Self - by Submitted on Sep 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen the seeker initially passes the limits imposed by the body-life-mind complex and the ego personality, the experience can be one that is totally disorienting, raising fear and a shrinking back within the limits of the outer being. This is the experience of the boundary where the ego must ...
Views: 479 - The Divine Consciousness - by Submitted on Sep 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe Divine Consciousness encompasses both a vast peace which can fill the being and bring the seeker to a realisation that all the external life details, about which so much worry and fretting take place, are relatively inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. When the peace descends, the ...
Views: 471 - The Emergence of the True Soul and Its Influence on Our Lives - by Submitted on Sep 14, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen they were asked how they develop their most inspired concepts or inventions, noted personalities such as Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla made it clear that it is not through some laborious process of thought, but through an inspiration, a vision, a process of understanding that is outside ...
Views: 455 - The Surface Personality Is Not the Real Self of Our Existence - by Submitted on Sep 13, 2021 from santosh krinskyDevelopment in our world of existence takes place in a sequential manner, systematically developing the physical framework, the body, and then manifesting the vital, life-force and developing its powers, adding in thereafter the mental layer and subsequently, we see the signs that further stages ...
Views: 445 - The Process of Attaining Peace, Silence, Knowledge and Other Powers of the Realisation - by Submitted on Sep 12, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe like to think that we succeed through strenuous effort. Our ego-personality and vital nature thrive on the idea that we are the masters of our own fate, through dint of the efforts we make. We tend to picture ourselves as originating the ideas and drives that move us into action. We believe ...
Views: 460 - What Does Sri Aurobindo Mean by Transformation of the Nature? - by Submitted on Sep 11, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn setting forth a goal of transformation of the nature through the advent of the spiritual consciousness and the supramental level, Sri Aurobindo goes beyond the goals of other traditional spiritual paths which have ‘liberation’ as the goal. He describes the impact of each new manifestation of ...
Views: 465 - Distinguishing the Psychic Transformation from the Spiritual Transformation - by Submitted on Sep 10, 2021 from santosh krinskySpiritual experience and progress can be confusing. In many cases the seeker is misled or misunderstands what is actually taking place, and the significance of it. Spiritual paths generally recommend the seeker find an experienced guide, or Guru, among other reasons, to help mitigate confusion ...
Views: 527 - The Transition to the Soul’s Guidance of Mind, Life and Body - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2021 from santosh krinskyWith the development of the mental being in evolution, we can observe the central leadership role that the mind plays in dealing with the vital and physical levels of our existence. The mental being, however, is limited by its strict framework and sequential process, and thus, is something like ...
Views: 422 - The Emergence of the Psychic Being, the True Soul - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2021 from santosh krinskyEach new evolutionary stage of consciousness takes place within the framework of the previously evolved stages and over a course of time as adaptation of that framework must occur to ‘prepare the ground’ for the new action of consciousness. For example, physical matter, rock, ocean, volcanic ...
Views: 496 - Conditions for Emergence of the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2021 from santosh krinskyMost people associate yoga with a series of physical exercises and breathing routines. Yoga, however, is more than such physical activities, although they can help to regulate energy flow and enhance stability and provide benefits to the body, life energy and mind. Sri Aurobindo has more broadly ...
Views: 479