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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- The Action of Divine Grace - by Submitted on Apr 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe difference between our human understanding and effort, and the action of Divine Grace, is the standpoint from which the result flows. The human ego standpoint tries to evaluate everything in reference to itself at the center, and thus, looks to “my effort”, “my results”, “my progress” and ...
Views: 566 - Controlling the Ego in Ordinary Life and in Yoga - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn the normal life of an individual in society, the ego is important, although it’s actions must be managed to permit people to find ways to work together and achieve results. Wherever we turn, we can see the benefits of keeping the ego in check and subordinating the individual’s role within a ...
Views: 565 - Understanding and Avoiding the Lures and Dangers of the Vital Worlds - by Submitted on Aug 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe importance of preparation of the nature for the spiritual quest, the development of a solid and unshakable aspiration and devotion, and growth of both an understanding and the ability to distinguish what one is seeing and experiencing, cannot be overstated. As the seeker moves into the inner ...
Views: 565 - 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: 564 - The Development of the Human Being and the Transcendence of the Human Being: Personal Growth and Inner Growth Defined - by Submitted on Nov 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyPersonal growth and inner growth, the enhancement of the human being and its capabilities and the transcendence of the human being to develop a being awake and active with a new level of consciousness, are not in conflict with one another. The human being must develop to a certain degree to ...
Views: 563 - 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: 563 - What Is Meant By the Concept of Mental Health? - by Submitted on Apr 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor the most part, Western psychology is focused on treating what is considered ‘abnormal’ in order to help an individual fit into society and act ‘normally’. Much focus is put on external causes of various forms of disturbance and how the individual can adjust, adapt or respond to those ...
Views: 563 - Distinguishing Between the Qualities of Quiet, Calm, Peace and Silence in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on May 13, 2021 from santosh krinskyNear the top of the “wish list” for most spiritual aspirants is achieving “peace”. This is generally understood however in a very personal sense to alleviate the turmoil, dissention and conflict that invariably arises in our normal circumstances living in the world. It is rarely appreciated ...
Views: 562 - Distinguishing Various Types of Symbolic Visions - by Submitted on Aug 20, 2021 from santosh krinskyAs the seeker interacts more with the inner levels of consciousness, there are often various types of visions and symbols which are perceived. These visions, however, are not all from the same source, and do not all carry the same weight or significance. It is another element of the research and ...
Views: 562 - The Forms of Divine Love - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are two primary manifestations of Divine Love experienced and reported by seekers and devotees around the world, irrespective of particular religious or philosophical backgrounds. The first is a focus on the personal manifestation of the Divine, which brings the seeker to an extremely ...
Views: 562 - The Process of Establishing Equality in the Being - by Submitted on May 23, 2021 from santosh krinskyAs Sri Aurobindo has indicated, the practice of yoga is a science of applied psychology. The normal and habitual patterns of response that we exhibit need to be both understood and modified, energies redirected, and new forces allowed to intervene and exert their influence in our lives. ...
Views: 561 - Sleep, Rest and Consciousness - by Submitted on Jan 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyWestern scientists describe the various stages of sleep. Yet they are looking at sleep from outside and do not know how to correlate the stages with the movement of consciousness during sleep. They recite facts based on observation and brain wave activity and pronounce that one is experiencing ...
Views: 559 - Spiritual Experience and Psychoanalysis - by Submitted on Nov 14, 2021 from santosh krinskyHumanity has a tendency to try to judge everything by its existing level of perception and knowledge. Thus, for most of human existence, people ‘knew’ that the sun rotated around the earth and that the earth was the center of the universe around which everything else moved and upon which ...
Views: 559 - The Nature and Action of Faith in the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on May 06, 2021 from santosh krinskyOne of the great reported examples of faith in the spiritual path is the inspiring story of Tibet’s great yogi, Milarepa. Briefly, his family was cheated out of their inheritance when his father died, and put into a condition of extreme suffering. He left to learn Black Magic to take his revenge ...
Views: 559 - 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: 559 - 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: 558 - The Three Transformations of Consciousness in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo provides a detailed explanation of what he describes as the “triple transformation”. The first two, the psychic and spiritual transformations, are well-known steps in the spiritual journey and thus, for a good portion of the way, the traditional paths of yoga ...
Views: 558 - Understanding the Witness Consciousness — the Separation of Purusha and Prakriti - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe tend to identify with the perceptions, sensations, desires, feelings and thoughts we experience and through the ego-consciousness, we take ownership of them and believe that they are what makes up our unique individuality. When we sit quietly, and turn our attention away from the outer world, ...
Views: 558 - Three Necessary Conditions to Receive and Act Under the Impulsion of the Divine Force - by Submitted on May 31, 2021 from santosh krinskyAs long as we identify with the individual ego-personality, we remain bound to the limits of the body-life-mind complex. The action of the Divine Force under such conditions is necessarily diffused and diluted. The energy is mixed with the much more fragmentary and limited goals and objectives ...
Views: 557 - 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: 556 - Personal Effort and Surrender in the Sadhana of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe “either/or” limitations of the mental processes leads us generally to believe that spiritual progress either comes with individual effort, or alternatively, through ‘surrender’ of the ego and letting the Divine, or the Guru, bring about the progress. Thus, there are individuals who undertake ...
Views: 554 - Man: the Being Who Worries - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyAnxiety arises when we extrapolate from a current circumstance or event to what we anticipate, imagine or speculate will follow. Some of this speculation is logical, following what we know of the method of Nature and the rollout of events through Time, although there is no absolute certainty ...
Views: 553 - The Role of the Emotions in the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2021 from santosh krinskyEmotions tend to be hard to deal with. Spiritual seekers recognise that emotions can disrupt the focus and lead the seeker into undesirable vital entanglements. Many spiritual paths counsel cutting off the emotional outlets and renouncing the life in the world. They ask the seeker to abandon ...
Views: 553 - 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: 551 - Human Motives and Divine Motives in Action - by Submitted on May 26, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere is a difference between action undertaken with the usual motives in the normal course of human life, and actions undertaken by the spiritual seeker attempting to achieve spiritual growth and realisation of the Divine. The outer form of action, in and of itself, does not make an action ...
Views: 550 - The Source and Origin of Desire and the Mechanism of Its Action in the Being - by Submitted on Dec 26, 2021 from santosh krinskyAn individual experiences a craving, an urge, a desire and automatically tries to fulfill it through some action. If it is hunger or thirst, the individual wants to eat or drink. If it is a more complex desire, something that cannot simply be accomplished, the mind is brought into the picture to ...
Views: 550 - The Mother: Supreme Nature That Manifests All Existence - by Submitted on Apr 15, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe Supreme Divine is “One without a second”. Yet we can still make mental distinctions between the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual aspects of the Divine, as that is the nature of the mental consciousness, and we can focus on one or another of these aspects without forgetting the ...
Views: 549 - The Price of the Transformation of the Earth-Consciousness - by Submitted on Nov 09, 2021 from santosh krinskyOnce the yogic sadhana moves to the physical consciousness, it runs into the nature of the physical and material world that predominates in the quality of Tamas, with its characteristics of darkness, sloth, indolence and dullness, inertia and slowness to change. In the physical world itself, ...
Views: 549 - 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: 548 - Changing Outer Actions Is an Essential Aspect of Inner Development - by Submitted on Jan 25, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen 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: 548 - Human Love and Divine Love - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyHow do we understand the term ‘love’ in the context of spiritual sadhana? We bring to the term a large number of impressions, ideas, and conceptions based on our cultural background, educational upbringing and socialization in our society. We have no direct experience, for the most part, of ...
Views: 548 - The Elements of the Psychic Transformation - by Submitted on Sep 05, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe first of the three major transformations of consciousness that Sri Aurobindo describes as required to actually effect the needed change in human nature, is the psychic transformation. With this transformation, the soul comes forward, takes control of the mind, life and body and turns them ...
Views: 548 - Developing and Expressing the Flame of Divine Love While Avoiding the Misappropriation of the Energy for Lower Vital Gratification - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2021 from santosh krinskySuppression of the vital being and the emotions is often prescribed by those following a spiritual or religious discipline, due to the mixed nature of the expression that occurs in an untransformed and unpurified vital being. It is also true that there have been a number of cases, including high ...
Views: 547 - Developing Receptivity to the Action of the Higher Force for Transformation of the Nature - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe turn our attention and focus normally to the needs of the body, the desires and ambitions of the vital being, the impact of perceptions and the thought processes of our minds. Even when we take up a spiritual path, we try to find a practice that may involve the body, the life-energy and / or ...
Views: 547 - Occult Powers and the Secret Knowledge - by Submitted on Aug 15, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are many who seek after various powers, and study occultism and mysticism with the purpose of achieving unique ‘super powers’. Traditional practices of yoga, while acknowledging that certain powers may result from the practices, make it clear that they are not the object and, indeed, ...
Views: 547 - The Difference Between Static and Dynamic Meditation - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen 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: 547 - 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: 547 - Becoming Conscious and Effecting Change in the Nature - by Submitted on May 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor the most part, we react to things without considering the source of the impression that sparks the reaction, the process of the reaction or the manner in which the impression is converted into a response. These things simply “happen” and we tend to accept them as ‘human nature’ or, in some ...
Views: 546 - Save the Oceans to Save the Planet, Part 4: Tough Choices to Achieve Real Solutions - by Submitted on Apr 05, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are numerous vested interests, spanning the entire globe, which make the issues surrounding the degradation of the ocean and the ability of the planet to sustain human life and civilization, virtually impossible to resolve from our normal perspectives. Any change that seems necessary or ...
Views: 546 - 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: 546 - 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: 545 - 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: 545 - 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: 545 - 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: 545 - How to Sleep Well - by Submitted on May 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyOne of the most frequent concerns raised by people generally is their inability to get a good night’s sleep. Insomnia, as well as restless sleep, seems to be a widespread concern. Among practitioners of yoga, the concern goes even farther, in that they desire to convert sleep into a luminous, ...
Views: 544 - Integral Yoga: Answering the Call - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor many, the idea of Yoga is physical postures and breathing techniques, to attain fitness and flexibility. This is not the whole story, however. Hatha Yoga, which has been popularized world-wide over the last 50 years or so, is one element of the much larger understanding of Yoga which we find ...
Views: 544 - Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice — Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Apr 02, 2022 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo took up yoga, not for individual salvation or to abandon the life of the world, but to aid in transforming life, for action in the world. He developed a deep background and understanding of the major lines of thought and development of the West, including his studies of Greek and ...
Views: 544 - 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: 544 - Comparing Current General State of Human Consciousness With More Evolved States, Part 7 Separative Ego Versus Universal, Transpersonal Awareness - by Submitted on Nov 03, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe default standpoint for almost the entire human race is that of the ego. There are tribal societies that try to reduce the predominance of the ego through a collective mindset, but even in such societies, pride, rivalry for dominance, and other forms of ego persist. In the West, a premium is ...
Views: 543 - Dynamic Meditation - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn 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: 543