It seems that people fall into two camps. Either they believe in a personal form of divinity, God, or savior, or they don’t. For those that do not believe in a personal form of the Divine, there is a belief in some impersonal machinery of unknown origin or purpose. These two however need not be ... Views: 301
Whatever the predominant aspect of the individual nature, the spiritual aspiration seizes upon that as the leading power to carry the sadhana forward. Nevertheless, at some point, it is important to recognize both the value and the necessity of the other aspects for what is after all an integral ... Views: 251
We tend to be carried away by the external focus in the work we are doing, and thus, the presence of mind needed to remember and offer is set in the background of our awareness. If we reflect on the state of consciousness we experience when focused on some external work, we soon find that we can ... Views: 269
There is no clear line of demarcation between the 3 major paths of yoga that are based in the primary aspects of development, the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of devotion and the yoga of works. As they proceed down their somewhat different paths, they must necessarily gain aspects of and bring ... Views: 324
There are numerous activities we undertake in our lives that engage us with more, or less, interest. Some we treat as purely mechanical, some we detest but do them because we ‘have’ to. Some elicit very positive and focused interest from us and we tend to like those activities. Our vital nature ... Views: 281
It is a constant complaint that we have to take on boring, distasteful, mechanical or otherwise unpleasant jobs in order to survive. Then we create a bifurcation in our minds between “work time” and “personal time” or “sadhana” (if we happen to be practicing any form of yoga). We thus spend a ... Views: 253
Humanity has relied on social action, technology, and education as pillars of advancement and the development of humanity. Yet if we examine things closely we find that we are still driven primarily by the forces of ego and desire, even when they cloak themselves in a veneer of altruism or ... Views: 274
The vital nature has an innate drive towards fulfillment and satisfaction of desire. Since most individuals are oriented towards the outer life, the fulfillment comes through attaining desirable objects of the vital focus. This can be accumulation of wealth, it can be family, fame or achievement ... Views: 367
When we delve into the yoga of works, the Bhagavad Gita immediately comes to mind as a primary text. The Gita explores the questions of what constitutes a yogic attitude in action and compares it to the normal standpoint about work. The major difference lies in the inner standpoint and attitude ... Views: 296
It is a common conception, and a tempting one, to expect that by taking up a certain type of charitable work, or even service to support a particular religion or spiritual path, one is practicing a form of karma yoga. All of these things may have enormous benefit in the outer world, and may ... Views: 405
In an ancient Upanishadic tale, a youth approached a sage requesting to become a disciple and achieve spiritual realisation. The sage indicated that he should take two cattle into the forest, and when they numbered 1000 he should return and would undertake to teach the youth. The young man made ... Views: 387
The vital nature of man is a core existential element of our existence. In the past, those who took up serious spiritual practice frequently recognised both the power of the vital and the difficulty of bringing it under some kind of managed and focused control, and thus, they attempted to ... Views: 398
The mind seems always to be busy, and we seem to have a constant inner commentary about sensations, perceptions, memories, anticipated activities, hopes and dreams, and worries about situations we need to address. Then there are the drives and cravings such as hunger, thirst, or sensations of ... Views: 384
The power of concentration is well-known. It is a power that we utilize daily to accomplish the various tasks set before us, or to achieve some goal that we have set for ourselves. In yoga, also, the power of concentration is required. The focus and intention behind the concentration is the ... Views: 394
If we observe the mental status that takes place at times when we focus on achieving some objective or other, taking a test, working on a project, running a race, playing music, or creating some work of art, for example, we see that the attention is focused intensely on the task at hand, and ... Views: 411
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna poses the question to Sri Krishna as to how one can know the spiritual man, how does he walk, how does he speak, how does he act… Spiritual practitioners pose similar types of questions about meditation, as to what is the right form of meditation, how does one site, ... Views: 388
When an individual sits for meditation, does he come out of the meditation changed in some way? … or is meditation something like a state of ‘statis’ where time goes by, but nothing happens? Is the individual taking a ‘time out’ from life but not moving the purpose and focus of the life forward? ... Views: 387
For someone beginning with meditation, every aspect of the process raises a question. One of these questions relates to the body. The eventual goal is to attain a state whereby meditation can occur regardless of what the body is doing or how it is positioned. However, this is not usually the way ... Views: 352
If we shift to the standpoint of the observer of the mind, we will notice that as conditions vary, the ‘mind-stuff’ (citta) takes on different characteristics based on our state of reactivity and interaction with perceptions, feelings, events or external circumstances. We may consider an image ... Views: 319
There is considerable confusion about what exactly meditation is. This is compounded by the fact that there are numerous different techniques that are taught as meditation, ranging from practices that are called ‘mindfulness’ to those that include detailed visualisations Sri Aurobindo provides ... Views: 285
When an individual awakens to the inner need for significance and meaning in life, he generally takes up one or more methods to try to understand the purpose of his life. Religious worship and belief systems tend to be quite external in their nature, trying to find a relationship between the ... Views: 287
it is a frequent inquiry: ‘Tell us what technique we should use to reach the spiritual goal?” Many ask what specific technique Sri Aurobindo or the Mother recommends for everyone to follow. They point out that other paths of spirituality offer specific actions one must undertake to succeed. ... Views: 287
There are a number of proven methods for achieving peace and silence in the mind. Some are more arduous than others. The more one works at it, the more inward pressure one asserts to try to achieve this status, the greater the intrusions that force themselves on the mind. This is the result of a ... Views: 332
We live in a world that prizes action and that continually impinges upon us with various information feeds and input from all directions. Quiet and stillness, the ability to remain calm without agitation or upset, the ability to achieve true peace in the mind, in the vital and nervous being and ... Views: 301
In today’s world we are confronted by politicians and business leaders who act aggressively, beat their chests, berate others, bully and otherwise exhibit behavior that proclaims “might is right” and therefore, due to their financial power or physical strength, they have the right to control ... Views: 305
There can be no permanent settlement of peace in the mind if the vital nature has not also attained quiet and peace. Many people take this as a reason to abandon active life and involvement in society and the world-at-large; yet, this is not a solution. The vital nature is very much driven by ... Views: 287
Everything comes to the seeker based on his ability to tune his focus and maintain that focus in an unwavering manner over time. Sri Aurobindo, in his book The Mother, sets forth the methodology as “aspiration, rejection, surrender”. Aspiration is the will from the depth of the being to achieve ... Views: 319
Attaining a deep inner peace in the being is a process that can begin wherever an individual current is in their inner life. For someone just starting out, there is no expectation of some sudden miraculous silencing of the mind (although of course, it is possible). Rather, the initial attempts ... Views: 297
If we remain constantly in active motion and react to all the sense impressions and pressures that impinge upon us from the outer world, it is difficult to achieve a status of calm or peace. One of the values of sitting regularly for a time of quiet reflection, meditation or concentration is ... Views: 306
Ordinarily, when we reflect on addressing impurities in the nature, whether in the mind, the emotions, the vital nature or the physical body, we tend to fixate upon the weakness or limitation we have identified and work to directly control, change or suppress it. This is what may be termed a ... Views: 295
Given the reactive nature of the external being, the mind, the vital, the physical body, there is generally a lack of peace and we are driven from one response to another as circumstances, events, sense impressions, etc. impinge upon us. Development of an awareness that is separated from this ... Views: 306
With all the complexity surrounding the reactions we have to impressions and pressures we receive from the world, it is important to both understand the seed causes of our reactions and find a way to systematically gain control over these reactions. One of the techniques recommended by Sri ... Views: 279
We have long-established instincts that harken back to the animal kingdom, in what we may call the “fight or flight” response. This instinct is deeply embedded and lies at the root of one of the biggest obstacles to achieving calm and peace in the being. Every impulse we receive from outside ... Views: 358
How do we typically respond to the situations that we meet in the world? We want to fulfill our desires, have our wishes and ideas carried out, and have a modicum of control in our lives. When things do not go as we wish, we become frustrated, angry, resentful or otherwise upset. On the other ... Views: 308
There is considerable confusion about meditation and concentration. They are, however, not quite the same. Achieving a meditative state inwardly can aid in the development of concentration. Certain forms of meditation utilize techniques that lead to concentration. Yet meditation can be calm, ... Views: 346
Sri Aurobindo describes the first step to move from a mental seeking to a living spiritual experience as “the practice of concentration of your consciousness within yourself.” We ask what this means exactly. Some observation of our mental state discloses what we normally consider to be ... Views: 280
Every major accomplishment in human life involves some form of concentration. We live in a modern world that systematically distracts and disperses the mind, thus making it more difficult to achieve a state of concentration. Cell phones, internet surfing, music, flashing lights, entertainment, ... Views: 296
The 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: 303
Consider briefly that you have a television set that receives all the available channels, but you cannot tune the set, so that all picture and sound from the entire frequency range come in at the same time and mix up with each other, along with the static that occurs between various station ... Views: 283
When an action takes place in the world, it has a number of effects both in the world, and in the psychology of the individual carrying out the action. Each action creates a formation, a rhythm, or a solid result that tends to perpetuate and repeat itself on an ongoing basis. Thus, the more we ... Views: 392
With careful observation we can understand that an individual’s greatest weaknesses and difficulties represent the opportunity and specific need for progress for spiritual growth. Each individual faces his own unique challenges. In many cases, the confluence of the soul’s pressure, the outer ... Views: 293
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that certain individuals, by virtue of their innate status as superior beings, could not be bound by social rules or morality or ethics. While the implication may be understood to apply to those who have evolved beyond the ‘need’ for such contextual social rules, the ... Views: 292
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna poses the question to Sri Krishna as to how to identify the realised soul, asking how does he act, how does he speak, etc. Sri Krishna responds that it is not through outer action that one can identify the liberated individual, as this is something that can only be ... Views: 276
For most people, purity is connected with a moral precept, and for most, this has eventually been related to the question of sexual relations. The question of chastity, and withholding of sexual activity until the socially sanctioned relationship of marriage has been put in place, holds a ... Views: 296
The vital nature revels in having extraordinary experiences that arise as a result of spiritual practice or some type of opening to other planes of being. These experiences support the ego, making the individual feel special, uniquely qualified and selected for spiritual progress, and they are ... Views: 280
In the context of the practice of yoga, purification is not the enforcement of some kind of moral code or precepts. This is a common perception based on religious tenets that have abounded through the ages that set forth a moral code and try to both control the actions of people and judge them ... Views: 282
Patanjali’s Raja Yoga outlines a series of steps or stages in the development of that particular path. The first two are Yama and Niyama, which outline certain purification actions to prepare the practitioner for the later activities and experiences in the yogic practice. These two ‘limbs’, ... Views: 323
For many people, the religious life or the spiritual path is considered to be extremely serious and cheerfulness is considered to be some kind of frivolity, not becoming to the serious nature of the endeavour. They make spiritual practice into a harsh discipline and struggle with difficulties ... Views: 330
In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna teaches Arjuna that he has the right to action, but not to attachment to the fruits of the action, i.e. the results. In our world today we are fixated on the destination, not the ‘journey’ and we measure everything by the immediate results we obtain. This ... Views: 274
Sri Krishna taught Arjuna the lessons of the Bhagavad Gita on a battlefield. The setting is an important aspect of the teaching itself. The inner growth is not dependent on outer events or circumstances. Conditions will always be ‘imperfect’ if not absolutely terrible! Sri Aurobindo and the ... Views: 276