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In recent years there has been a lot of focus on what is called the ‘law of attraction’. It has been mainly used to act as some kind of a ‘wish-fulfilling action’ that one undertakes by focusing on specific affirmations or visualizing results which then are ‘attracted’ to your focus and create ... Views: 1
In 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: 2
Those individuals who take up the practice of yoga for the purpose of transformation of the nature and the development of wider and higher states of consciousness inevitably find that the influence of the physical and vital basis upon which human life is based represents one of the greatest, if ... Views: 2
It is difficult to both understand and appreciate the apparent regression from spiritual heights to a world in which the physical being and material focus reigns supreme and predominates in the entire world to an overwhelming degree. It is likely that the intellectual and then the spiritual ... Views: 2
The veterinary profession is often praised for the crucial role it plays in the health and well-being of pets, but it is also well-known for its demanding and high-stress environment. Long hours, emotional strain, and the constant pressure of caring for animals in distress can take a significant ... Views: 4
We do not usually recognise or appreciate how much influence our environment, our surroundings, the society we live in, the customs and life-ways of that social system impact what we think about, how we focus our attention and what we do with our lives. The Mother puts this also into the process ... Views: 3
Western civilisation has a distinct bias in favor of what we may call a materialistic viewpoint. Money, possessions, status and power based on monetary power, a drive to own ever newer possessions, and the need to try to increase our enjoyment and satisfaction of life through these factors leads ... Views: 3
We can observe, in our own lives and in the lives of various individuals we see on the ‘world stage’, the difference between those who are driven primarily by the impulses of the external vital nature and the ego-personality, and those who have made contact with the inner being and has developed ... Views: 4
We live in the world without fully appreciating or understanding it. This is not something new that we are experiencing, but a statement of what we may call the ‘human condition’. The Rishis of the Rig Veda faced these same issues. In the Hymn of Creation, Mandala X, Sukta 129, Verses 6 and 7 ... Views: 5
The development of existentialism as a philosophical viewpoint on human existence in the world took place primarily during the 19th and 20th centuries. it focused on the apparent lack of meaning in the universe and thus, human significance had to be developed from an individual standpoint of ... Views: 5
The Mother provides another example of the need for insight and flexibility to address changing circumstances. Most people want to have a fixed routine provided for them. ‘Do this, and you will achieve that.’ This process, while comforting to the mental consciousness that normally functions ... Views: 6
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks how one can identify a realised soul. His question indicates there should be some outward sign that can be observed. Sri Krishna, however, demurs and indicates it is not by any specific outward action or formation that such a soul can be recognised. Everything ... Views: 7
The mental consciousness tends to look at things with a linear perspective. It expects things to systematically roll out in a continuous, directed stream. It becomes upset and disoriented when what appears to be a settled result gets suddenly disrupted or upset by new circumstances, forces or ... Views: 6
Most people have very little, if any, real control over circumstances that arise in their lives. They are born into a family, a community, a society, a religious background, an ethnic background, an economic system, an educational system and a raft of customs, traditions, habits and lifeways ... Views: 7
All sensations carry signals through the nervous system to the brain, which then can interpret the signal. The signal may be more or less intense. It may be interpreted as pain or pleasure. Intensity of the sensation has something to do with the experience and its interpretation. There is a ... Views: 7
We tend to evaluate events or circumstances based on their relation to our personal identification with the external ego-personality, and our prevalent idea about ourselves at that point in time. In retrospect, we frequently find that those things which we considered to be ‘bad’ were actually ... Views: 8
The mind, with its need to correlate facts, gather evidence and develop proofs, finds it difficult, if not impossible, to credit ideas that seem to fall outside the logical reason based on the mind’s limited understanding of the oneness of the universal creation. The mind sets up certain ‘rules’ ... Views: 8
Many people believe that once they become adherents of a particular religion or spiritual tradition, they need no longer make an effort. The idea that someone else is “taking charge” and taking on the burden of one’s life is particularly enticing for people. They frequently then accept that ... Views: 10
The drive in the human individual to find out who he is, what he is here for, and how he can grow and become what he is intended to be in the creation sets him apart from the animal. Even in the midst of an almost complete immersion in the external life and its lures, somewhere deep inside, the ... Views: 9
We have previously explored the attitudes of the external, outer being in relation to these various issues. This is the opportunity to compare that view with the attitude of the inner being. At a certain point in an individual’s journey the development takes him beyond his initial fixation with ... Views: 12
At some point in life, the individual becomes aware that the former methods of reacting to circumstances and events are not only counter-productive, but actually harmful to their own health and well-being and the successful resolution of the situation. Struggling and striving, fighting and ... Views: 11
Beyond the stage of “flight or fight” we see in panic and the eventual recoil into inertia, where we see the initial reactions of instinct at play, the stage of ‘striving’ begins to harness energy of response by the vital being, albeit still very much under the influence and control of the power ... Views: 13
Both panic and inertia are responses to situations that arise in the life of individuals. They come about when something new or unexpected comes forward to challenge the individual. In the case of panic, there is clearly a perception of danger, and the rising of fear in the being. This drives ... Views: 17
Understanding the operation of the three Gunas, or qualities of Nature, is an important part of understanding yogic psychology. The Bhagavad Gita devotes considerable effort to describing the Gunas and their functionality. For most people, however, translating things like reactions, responses, ... Views: 17
The 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: 14
The 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: 16
Western psychology is still a relatively young science, and it necessarily does not have the complete picture of all the complex interactions that take place within our being. By starting to look inwards, and starting to deal with the powers of mind, will, emotion, nervous impulses and ... Views: 15
What makes the human consciousness different from the animal consciousness? A primary factor is the possibility that a human being has for detaching himself from total involvement in the external life, and along with that, the opportunity for evolutionary growth.
Dr. Dalal observes: “The ... Views: 20
External impressions, sensations, impulsions, events all traverse the nervous pathways from the sense organs to the mind, which tends to react to these sensations and thereby remains in a constant state of disturbance. In the modern world, with our addiction to social media, mobile phones, ... Views: 19
How do we look at our lives? Do we find any meaning or purpose in living? Or are we just here to live a material existence, enjoy ourselves as much as possible, try to avoid suffering and eventually die without much pain?
Many people do not take the opportunity to shift their perspective on ... Views: 22
We tend to overlook, or underestimate, the powers inherent in our human existence, the powers of the body, the powers of the vital nature, the powers of the mind, the powers of the psychic being, and the power of the spirit. Some of these powers are manifest but not fully understood, explored or ... Views: 19
We go through our daily lives, busy ourselves with earning a living, supporting our families, maintaining our bodies, entertaining ourselves, arguing, fighting, gossiping, and following up on hobbies or passions we are engaged in. We close ourselves into a narrow and limited existence and feel ... Views: 19
When we want to help alleviate the suffering in the world, or help solve the general concerns, or the more specific individual needs and wants, we come up with an endless number of ideas about ‘how to help’. From an outward perspective these may be highly valuable and useful activities. ... Views: 23
As the mental consciousness awakens, particularly if there is an influence coming from the psychic being or from the spiritual planes pressing down on the mental being, we become aware of virtually endless problems, issues, difficulties, imbalances, disharmonies and outright conflicts in the ... Views: 27
We read or hear about the accounts of individuals who had some kind of experience, either dramatically uplifting, or severely traumatic, who awaken to a spiritual purpose in their lives which changes the entire direction and focus of what takes place for them afterwards when compared with their ... Views: 23
A relatively frequent occurrence for the spiritual aspirant is to reach the boundary wall of consciousness and get a glimpse or experience of the spiritual consciousness without limits. This experience, when it comes, may raise up tremendous fear in the individual and he reacts, almost ... Views: 24
People commonly believe that espousing a particular religion or religious doctrine, reading scriptural texts, singing devotional songs, practicing yoga, or meditation or any of the numerous other practices often called ‘spiritual’ makes them spiritual. While these practices may help to turn ... Views: 25
When we read in the Puranas of India, we find that there are a host of beings who are essentially non-evolutionary, static beings. They may be gods, demons or animals, or occupy any number of other positions in the scale of the manifested existence. An interesting note, however, is that if they ... Views: 25
People are always asking about the difference between spirituality and religion, as well as the difference between the mind and the spirit. The term ‘spirit’ has been used in so many different ways and contexts, that it is hard to comprehend exactly what is meant by it. When ‘spiritual ... Views: 26
A major concern for those who are desirous of shifting from the mental to the intuitional consciousness definitely lies in the transition, how that is going to work, what the role of the mind, if any, is in this transition and how the consciousness will function as it shifts to reliance on the ... Views: 27
We get an intimation of what we should do, how we should respond to a situation. Then all the excuses and justifications and ‘needs’ and temporizing begin, and we find that there are good reasons why we should not do exactly, in the precise way, that the inner guidance tells us something should ... Views: 26
When 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: 29
Those who wish to develop and utilize the power of intuition in their own lives have to address their active mental process, so as to open up the receptivity to the higher intuitive force, and allow it to modify the action of the mentality itself. There is a parable out of the teachings of Jesus ... Views: 33
We occasionally meet people who seem to be highly intuitive. With very few facts, and with a very fast response time, they seem to understand and decide things successfully that we are struggling to deal with, and for which we need considerably more time. In some cases, there may be the ... Views: 29
We frequently hear people say that they had a “gut feeling” that something was not right when they went to a certain place. In fact, most of us have had similar feelings from time to time. We don’t have any externally perceptible facts to base this feeling on. It just ‘is’. The same thing ... Views: 29
In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna, at some length, the process of the universal manifestation and how individuals are essentially driven by their nature in relation to the larger forces of the manifestation itself to act in certain ways. For most of these individuals, the ... Views: 32
The development of the human being takes place in several successive stages and as individuals mature they begin to manifest and express the powers of the nature as they successively come to the fore. Not every individual develops and expresses all the powers fully in a particular lifetime. For ... Views: 34
When we look back on our lives, with the benefit of hindsight, we frequently can identify a change in direction that took an individual from a normal path of societal acceptance, career, marriage, family, social interactions and entertainment, to a life that is dedicated to some cause or purpose ... Views: 35
How easy it is, and how comforting, to look at someone who opposes us, or who is creating some form of havoc in the world at large and simply label that individual as pure evil, as a Rakshasa, an Asura, a Demon, or some other form of hostile being. And yet, those individuals are actually part of ... Views: 34
We are educated and habituated to focus on our differences. We see different gender, different class, different racial characteristics, different religious backgrounds, different temperaments, different interests and focus, different value sets, different philosophies of life and living, ... Views: 32