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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- Aligning Education With the Future - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2024 from santosh krinskySome years ago, some parents in the USA had an interesting conversation with their local elementary school administrator. They were concerned about the type of education their children would receive so they set up a meeting to interview the administrator, with the idea that they were prepared to ...
Views: 83 - Aligning the External Nature With the Inner Spiritual Aspiration - by Submitted on Apr 18, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople espousing their philosophy of how to act in the world are often confronted by a disconnect between their statements and their own actions. They frequently tell children, for instance, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ If we assume that the person is not simply motivated by pure self-interest ...
Views: 2 - All Knowledge Is Within, Awaiting the Time and Circumstance to Manifest in Our External Being - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe ancient Greek philosopher Plato described the method of teaching utilized by Socrates, known today as the “Socratic method”. Socrates understood that education was not the process of stuffing knowledge into an individual, but rather, as the root of the word ‘education’ implies, a drawing out ...
Views: 366 - All Problems Can Be Solved Through the Power of Concentration - by Submitted on Sep 30, 2024 from santosh krinskyIn the yoga sutras of Patanjali, the power of concentration is extolled. In particular, the one-pointed concentration on any particular object unites the seeker with the object such that they become one. At that point, all of the secrets of the object are delivered up to the person undertaking ...
Views: 105 - Alleviating the Greater Part of Human Suffering - by Submitted on Sep 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyIn the opening chapter of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo sets forth the proposition that “… all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony.” We can see the reality of this statement both in the way we respond internally to circumstances, events and our reactions to them, as well ...
Views: 379 - An Accident Avoided - by Submitted on May 05, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe Mother advises us that we are generally not aware of the action of all the subtle forces and how they interact to cause circumstances that occur in the external world. She further notes that with awareness, many accidents could be avoided. This reminds us of an incident reported some time ...
Views: 173 - An Exercise to Become Conscious of One’s Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 14, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe Taittiriya Upanishad presents a methodology or practice to gain direct knowledge of the Eternal. The seeker is asked to practice tapasya, variously translated as concentration in thought, or concentration of force by Sri Aurobindo. Tapasya cannot be easily or completely understood through ...
Views: 214 - An Exercise to Experience the Nature of Consciousness - by Submitted on Sep 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe quest to understand the nature of consciousness, and “who am I?” spans back through the past history of mankind. Some of the exercises undertaken by the ancient sages remain relevant into the current day, as the Mother illustrates in her example below, which derives i its original form from ...
Views: 377 - An Exercise to Overcome the Mental Bias to Facilitate the Ability to “Know Thyself” - by Submitted on Sep 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyOnce we recognise that we cannot trust the mental faculty to keep the vital desire-soul in check, the question arises as to how it is then possible to truly examine the underlying motives and wellsprings of our thoughts, feelings and actions without falling victim to the kind of bias that the ...
Views: 416 - An Expanding Consciousness Recognises the Inherent Oneness and Mutuality of All Existence - by Submitted on Dec 10, 2024 from santosh krinskyAn Expanding Consciousness Recognises the Inherent Oneness and Mutuality of All Existence Posted on December 9, 2024 When we identify with the ego personality, we view the world as being separate and apart from ourselves, and we look at other beings as either competition for resources or ...
Views: 87 - An Integral Repose — the Ideal State of Sleep - by Submitted on May 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyUsually when most people go to sleep, they simply ‘let it happen’. This carries with it all of the mental, emotional, vital-nervous, and physical energy pent up in the being at the time, into the sleep state. Add to this mix the state of fatigue that prevails, and it can lead to restless, or ...
Views: 433 - An Integral Yoga involves Knowledge, Devotion, Works and Self-Perfection - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe integral yoga takes as its goal something far different than most of the individual yogic paths. The goal here is not liberation from the world, dissolution of the individual, or renunciation of action. Rather, the integral yoga calls for the liberation of the nature and the transformation ...
Views: 471 - An Inward Concentration Is Necessary for the Seeker of Knowledge - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe ability to concentrate the mind allows us to function in the world in a coherent manner and to create results in whatever field the concentration takes up. Without concentration, the mind would jump from one perception, one impression, one idea to another randomly and instantaneously as new ...
Views: 360 - An Overview of the Intermediate Zone and Ways the Seeker Can Safely Maneuver Through It - by Submitted on Apr 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs the seeker begins to shift the consciousness inward, he becomes aware of forces, powers, and realms that are the native venues for our physical, vital and mental energies and activities, as well as existing in and by their own form of reality and under rules that do not necessarily match up ...
Views: 321 - Anger and Depression - by Submitted on Apr 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyDepression and anger represent two types of response to a vital impulse or desire which has been thwarted, or to external pressures which try to overwhelm the individual. When we understand the action of the 3 gunas, or qualities of nature, sattwa, rajas and tamas, it is easy to see that when ...
Views: 506 - Anxiety and Fear - by Submitted on Apr 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyAnxiety and fear are constant companions in life for animals, as well as for human beings. Becoming food for a predator is an existential fear that stalks the animal kingdom, but it is not just this fear that human beings engage in. There is fear of failure, fear of being humiliated, fear of ...
Views: 528 - Applying Knowledge Criteria Appropriate to Each Domain According to Its Own Law of Nature - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe frequently try to ‘know’ things based on a particular capacity of our being; however, this may not always be the correct way to appreciate and understand what is actually taking place. Trying to understand music, for instance, by applying the logical intellect and trying to parse the sounds, ...
Views: 155 - Applying the Power of Concentration to Develop Efficiency of Time of Accomplishment of Any Task - by Submitted on Oct 04, 2024 from santosh krinskyOne of the key elements of Raja Yoga, based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is the practice of samyama, which is a one-pointed concentration that is so complete that it merges subject, object and the process of knowing into one unified whole. By this practice, one knows everything about the ...
Views: 116 - Applying the Scientific Method to the Understanding of the Yoga-Force - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2024 from santosh krinskyHow do we determine whether there is any such thing as a ‘yoga-force’? Some treat it as a form of self-delusion, some as hypnotic suggestion, some as some form of ‘placebo effect’ of the mind, some as simply the action of other forces that we simply define as ‘yoga-force’ without any objective ...
Views: 159 - Applying the “Hundredth Monkey” Phenomenon - by Submitted on Mar 30, 2023 from santosh krinsky“The liberation of the individual soul is therefore the keynote of the definite divine action; it is the primary divine necessity and the pivot on which all else turns.” This is the first step but what must also be recognized is that as individuals here and there achieve new states of ...
Views: 389 - Approaching the Transition from Human Love to Divine Love - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere has been a strong impulse among many spiritual or religious traditions to reject all manifestations of human love as flawed and imperfect expressions of what love is intended to be in the Divine viewpoint. It is of course evident that most of what passes for love in the world has its ...
Views: 502 - Are Our Thoughts Our Own? - by Submitted on Dec 02, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe normal mental process begins relatively simply. We hear something and accept it in our minds, and eventually we repeat the thought to others and thus, a thought-form moves through the mental atmosphere and touches many minds. Teilhard de Chardin referred to the mental force permeating the ...
Views: 220 - Are There Really Vampires? — the Reality and Nature of Vampirism - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe popular imagination about the existence and characteristics of vampires has developed from the famous novel by Bram Stoker, Dracula. From that book we get the picture of beings that survive many hundreds of years, who are shapeshifters , and who drink the blood of their victims, preferably ...
Views: 178 - 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 - 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 - 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 - As We Become Aware of the Extent of the Challenges, We Come Nearer to the Solutions Required - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the preceding page, a passage from The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo was cited. The Mother is commenting on her impressions while reading that passage. The challenges involved in changing the awareness and consciousness radically enough to recognise that the apparent primacy of the ...
Views: 30 - 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 - Aspiration and Prayer - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyMany people confuse aspiration with prayer. They are however, actually two different things, and while they may support one another when they align, it is not necessary that aspiration lead to prayer. Aspiration refers to the inner state of consciousness that arises from the psychic being in a ...
Views: 360 - Aspiration and the Witness Consciousness - by Submitted on Nov 18, 2024 from santosh krinskyWhen spiritual seekers attempt to implement the technique of the separation of Purusha and Prakriti, they generally go through a stage where they try to utilize the mind to observe. The mind, however, is not the instrument for the actual shift to the standpoint of the Purusha; in fact, the mind ...
Views: 92 - Aspiration, Faith and Realisation - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyAspiration in terms of the yogic process is a tuning of the consciousness towards the spiritual reality, and thereby shifting the focus away from the ego-personality to the divine. The aspiration directs the attention, but must be followed up with an attitude of receptivity so that the response, ...
Views: 492 - Aspiration, Spiritual Experience, and the Response of the Divine Force - by Submitted on May 03, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo concisely outlines the processes and steps of the integral yoga. The progress is based on a two-fold collaboration between the individual Soul and the divine Force, brought about through a tuning process for the human individual through what is called ...
Views: 529 - Aspiration: the Desire of the Soul for the Divine - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2021 from santosh krinskySome people interpret the need to eliminate desire as becoming essentially cold and unmoved by anything. They even treat desire for the Divine realisation as something to eventually be eliminated. The subtlety and narrowness of the path makes it easy to stray in one direction or the other, and ...
Views: 595 - Astrology: Destiny, Possibility, or Irrelevancy? - by Submitted on Mar 06, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere are those who treat astrology as a science, those who believe that our fate is determined by the “stars” and also those who believe that astrology is a pseudo-science with no real basis in anything that can meaningfully either control our destiny or even signify events in our lives. How ...
Views: 195 - Attaining Certainty About the Actuality of the Reversal of Consciousness - by Submitted on May 24, 2023 from santosh krinskySeekers wonder how they can be sure that the true shift of consciousness to the divine standpoint, or even a soul-centric standpoint has occurred. The status is so ‘real’ that it permits no doubt whatsoever. When one combines this sense of reality with the way in which one reacts totally ...
Views: 318 - Attaining Free Will By Overcoming the Sense of Individual Separation in the Manifestation and Our Bondage to the Cause and Effect Trajectory That Creates Our Present Opportunities and Choices - by Submitted on Dec 12, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs the mental being develops and we begin to experience the sense of separation from the other beings who are part of the creation, we also begin to have a sense that we have “free will” and make our own independent choices. To a great degree, this sense is misplaced, insofar as our current ...
Views: 204 - Attaining Peace in the Being - by Submitted on Oct 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyA central key to attaining peace lies in achieving the poise of non-attachment. Non-attachment is sometimes confused with avoidance of action, or some kind of renunciation. But non-attachment can develop even among those who are active in the world. King Janaka was known as being non-attached ...
Views: 365 - Attitude and the Law of Attraction - by Submitted on Oct 26, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe ‘law of attraction’ has been seen as something of a ‘wish-fulfilling gem’, where we can think about something and focus on it, and thereby draw it to us. The reality of the law of attraction is not so dramatic as to cause riches, fame and other desired results to manifest for us somewhat ...
Views: 117 - Automatic Writing, Ouija Boards, the Planchette and Communication With People After Their Death - by Submitted on Jun 21, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe see a proliferation of people who claim to act as intermediaries through a process of seance, or use of a Ouija board or planchette, to communicate with individuals who have passed away. The interest in this area goes through periods of peaks and troughs, but continually captures the popular ...
Views: 151 - 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 - Avoiding Dangers of Opening to the Vital Planes - by Submitted on Aug 31, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen the protective walls of the surface being give way as the seeker enters the inner planes, access to the vital planes may occur, with all of the beings, powers and forces at work there having suddenly direct interchange with the seeker. Sometimes these forces are intimidating, sometimes, ...
Views: 591 - Avoiding Self-Deception While Developing the Power of Intuition - by Submitted on Jan 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen a seeker begins to explore the inner realms and undertakes what Sri Aurobindo describes in his epic poem, Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, as an ‘adventure of consciousness and joy’, he is confronted with numerous unfamiliar circumstances, powers, forces, and pressures that are not all ...
Views: 57 - Awakening and Transformation of the Subconscious Must Precede Change at the Inconscient Levels of Existence - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe inconscient level is a substratum for the broader manifestation and is not tied to any particular individual. Before anything can be done to effectively wake up and energize the inconscient, the task of the spiritual seeker is to bring down the light and consciousness through all the higher ...
Views: 254 - Awakening of the Chakras Opens Up Undreamed Potential in Our Being - by Submitted on Nov 10, 2024 from santosh krinskyIf we run a small current through a wire to a light bulb, but below the capacity of the bulb, it will light up, although it may flicker. If we increase the current the light bulb brightens and the illumination becomes constant. If we put too much current through the bulb, we may start a fire or ...
Views: 86 - Awakening the Kundalini Energy From Below or From Above - by Submitted on Nov 07, 2024 from santosh krinskyTraditional paths of yoga describe the various chakras, or subtle energy centers, that act as collecting and disseminating points for various specific vibrational patterns related to the action of that specific chakra. Certain paths, such as various Tantric disciplines as well as the well-known ...
Views: 112 - Balancing the Spiritual Practice Between Positive Focus and Addressing Faults and Weaknesses - by Submitted on Mar 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere is a tendency among human beings to react with extremes. Something is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘black’ or ‘white’, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. This occurs due to the linear nature of the mental consciousness aided by a vital nature that wants to assert itself by being ‘right’. For the ...
Views: 14 - Basic Overview of the Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe mental consciousness evolved subsequent to the emergence of the physical consciousness and the vital consciousness. It appears in rudimentary forms in various animals, and advances to a much higher state of activity and power in the higher primates, including human beings, as well as ...
Views: 39 - Basic Overview of the Vital Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe life force brings mobility and increased responsiveness compared to the physical being. It operates primarily under the impulsion of attraction and repulsion. The predominant quality or Guna is Rajas, which brings energy, action, and progress, while at the same time, its deformations can ...
Views: 40 - Becoming Aware of and Distinguishing the Source of Vibrations Impacting our Lives - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2024 from santosh krinskyOur consciousness tends to be so fluid and so mixed that it is difficult, if not practically impossible, to distinguish what represents our own internal process and what is coming to us from outside, from our interaction with others, from environmental influences. None of these things remains ...
Views: 187 - Becoming Aware of Consciousness Independent of the Body, Life and Mind - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhat is consciousness? How can we understand consciousness separate from what we believe to be ourselves, the body, vital force and mental framework that we identify with? Philosophers, scientists and religious leaders have all tried to develop a definition of “consciousness”. Rene Descartes ...
Views: 391