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- Inner Attitudes Towards Life, Towards Oneself and Others, Towards Work and Towards Difficulties - by Submitted on Feb 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe 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: 121 - One’s Attitude to Events Affects the Impact of the Event - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe 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: 121 - Praise, Criticism and Comparing Oneself With Others - by Submitted on Mar 27, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature generally craves praise and becomes upset with criticism. This habit has been increased by the rise of social media with the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ that appear on various posts, videos and blogs. People work hard to increase their ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ and make that almost an ...
Views: 121 - 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: 119 - Becoming Aware of Our Faults Is the First Step Toward Overcoming Them - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is difficult for an individual to see his own shortcomings or faults. Many times we see them reflected in others and we externalise them to such a degree that we take exception to the other person, not recognising that we are seeing our own faults displayed in front of us. If we have a ...
Views: 119 - Dealing With the Reactive Impulses of the Vital Nature of the External Personality - by Submitted on May 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe tend to be reactive by nature. Something occurs and we immediately capture the vibration and respond to it. Thus we have outbursts of anger when we are frustrated or feel insecure, or when something gets in the way of some idea, intention or movement we want to undertake. An example of this ...
Views: 119 - The Challenge of Changing Human Nature - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyThose 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: 119 - Understanding the Higher Guidance That Directs Our Actions Towards Our Spiritual Destiny - by Submitted on Mar 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we rely on our surface impressions, which are very much based on and influenced by our background, family, society and the values inculcated into us by those relationships, we only are able to truly understand a fraction of what is actually occurring, and generally this is conditioned by ...
Views: 118 - The Process for Gaining Equality in the Face of Outer Circumstances - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe question of how to achieve the status of inner equality to all outward circumstances is one that occupies the attention of spiritual seekers everywhere. In his book Bases of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo devotes the first chapter to the questions of achieving calm, peace and equality, as these are ...
Views: 117 - How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 4 - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is only in still waters that we can see our reflection. Swami Vivekananda in his lectures on Raja Yoga, describes the mind-stuff (chitta), and how impressions, desires, observations and thoughts all disturb the stillness of the mind-stuff. He also describes methods of bringing it to a status ...
Views: 116 - Restraining the Response to the Impulses Attractive to the Vital Nature Is the First Step Towards Mastery - by Submitted on May 18, 2025 from santosh krinskyA lesson in control of impulses was described by Homer in The Odyssey. The protagonist, Odysseus is on his ship trying to return home after the Trojan War. He approaches an area that was home to the Sirens, whose alluring voices would lure sailors to their death as the ships crashed among the ...
Views: 116 - Addressing the Tendency to Overlook One’s Defects - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature in particular has a strong hold over the mentality. It uses this hold to find ways for the mind to justify various things that the vital desires. In many cases this occurs through a process of deflection and in others through a process of development of excuses and ...
Views: 115 - Developing a Strong Power of Knowledge and Will To Manage and Control the Vital Nature - by Submitted on May 18, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhile a reaction may seem to be taking place instantaneously, it is always conditioned by prior acts or events, the chain of cause and effect, dependent origination or the law of karma, however one wants to term it. By adopting the standpoint of the witness consciousness, observing the external ...
Views: 115 - Distinguishing an Attitude of Equality From One of Indifference - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe mental framework frequently wants to find an “either/or” option rather than looking at the nuance needed to resolve multiple views of pending questions. Thus, when we are asked to consider achieving a poise of equality in the face of provocation of any sort, positive or negative, we will ...
Views: 115 - The Change in Standpoint That Puts the Seeker in Harmony With the Divine and its Intention in the Universal Manifestation - by Submitted on Mar 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe frequently hear people complaining about how they are locked into and trapped in the lives they are leading. They feel like there is nothing they can do and nothing can change it. This was exemplified in a motion picture called ‘Groundhog Day’ which told the story of an individual who ...
Views: 115 - The Human Power of Discontentedness Helps Open the Door to the Inner Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 22, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe 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: 115 - The Need for Patience and Perseverance - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn today’s modern societies, people expect instant results. They want things to be fast and easy. They respond to ads claiming they can lose weight easily in a few days’ time. They want deliveries from stores to be overnight, if not ‘same day’. They would prefer to receive their enlightenment ...
Views: 115 - The Power of a Quiet Mind - by Submitted on Jun 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyModern civilization puts a premium on the mental process. We educate our children with a focus on the mind. We want them to learn verbal skills, reading skills, logical skills and measure them on their abilities in these areas with various forms of standardized tests by which we then classify ...
Views: 115 - The Yoga of Nature, Spiritual Sadhana and the Transformation of Action Into a Conscious Expression of the Divine Will - by Submitted on Apr 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyAll life, our entire existence, whether we are actively involved in a conscious spiritual discipline, or living a ‘normal’ life in the world following the demands of our needs, desires, relationships and ambitions, etc. is a field of growth, experience and develop. We respond to opportunities, ...
Views: 114 - The Need for the Persistence of Faith to Succeed in the Yogic Endeavour - by Submitted on Jul 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe often do not recognise that there are different parts of our being that may be at different stages in terms of the spiritual focus, the dedication, the faith and the commitment. Thus, when our mind gets distracted or concerned, or when our vital nature goes off in another direction, we may ...
Views: 112 - The Parable of the Mote and the Beam and Its Relevance for the Spiritual Seeker - by Submitted on Apr 01, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe spiritual seeker often finds that he can see weaknesses and faults in others. If he fails to recognise that his reaction may be due to harboring those faults and weaknesses within himself, he can take an attitude of hostility toward the other person who is exhibiting those things. He may try ...
Views: 112 - Causes and Prevention or Elimination of Illness - by Submitted on Jun 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe physical body has an ingrained response, for most people, to vibrations that precipitate illnesses. The vector carrying that vibration (whether one calls it ‘germs’, ‘bacteria’, ‘virus’, or ‘suggestion’) strikes the protective vital envelope, or aura, surrounding the body. If it finds an ...
Views: 111 - The Faith That Every Sadhak Must Have to Support Him Through Every Obstacle or Setback - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we travel on a major highway, we do not doubt or question that the destination at the end of that road is where we will eventually end up. We may need to face various difficulties along the way. There may be stops for food or fuel, there may be automobile breakdowns and needed repairs, ...
Views: 111 - Weakness of Limitation or the Power of Omnipotence Depends on the Status of Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we are feeling weak or limited, we become unhappy, we react with frustration and are discontented with our lot. We feel in many cases oppressed by circumstances. We can become depressed if things are not going the way we expect or want them to go. We can become angry with ourselves, with ...
Views: 111 - A Positive Focus Is More Productive Than a Negative Fixation for Spiritual Growth - by Submitted on Mar 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe go wherever we focus our attention. If we focus our attention on difficulties, we wallow in those difficulties. If we focus our attention on growth and development, then we draw to ourselves those opportunities that support that growth. There are examples. Certain traditions make the rooting ...
Views: 109 - External Interactions Provide the Seeker a Mirror to His Inner Characteristics and Traits - by Submitted on Apr 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhat we see in others in many cases is a mirror to what we contain within ourselves. We understand what is taking place because we are able to receive the vibration and internalize it and translate it into something that resonates in our being. In Western psychology there is a concept called ...
Views: 109 - How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 2 - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyOne reason we do not have a sense of our purpose or role in the world, generally, is that we do not examine deeply our inner predilections or the trajectory of our lives. We interpret our lives based on external criteria and motives without appreciating that there is another driving force behind ...
Views: 109 - Humility and Self-Confidence - by Submitted on Mar 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe play of the three Gunas is active at all times in the life we live here. We may believe that the aspiration, or an act of consecration overcomes this play, but if we examine closely we can see that, in actuality, even the quality of our sadhana, our spiritual effort, is very much controlled ...
Views: 109 - Receiving Spiritual Shocks and Trials With Humility Through a Shift of Standpoint Away from the Ego-Consciousness - by Submitted on May 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe way we respond to setbacks or difficulties is conditioned by how deeply we are embedded in the ego-consciousness. The individual ego judges everything from its own very limited viewpoint. What it interprets as a negative result or as an obstacle may actually be part of the larger process of ...
Views: 109 - The Excuses We Make to Justify Indulgence - by Submitted on May 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe make resolutions to change certain behaviours. Our minds are made up. We are certain that we can make the needed change. Many people make ‘new year’s resolutions’ to change something, perhaps to lose weight, to discontinue some habit, to avoid expressing anger, or some other intention we ...
Views: 108 - Understanding Faith and Its Role in Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere is a long history of debate about what we believe and how we know what we know. Science and religion have historically taken opposite positions in this debate. Science takes the view that the mind must be able to ascertain objective facts, and draw conclusions based on them. This includes ...
Views: 108 - A True Measure of Faith - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen an individual takes up the spiritual path, he normally starts by desiring peace, knowledge, power or some kind of solace or comfort. But what if he actually is faced with an unending series of obstacles, challenges, threats, and various forms of physical, vital or mental suffering? In such ...
Views: 107 - Achieving Confidence About the Spiritual Path and the Spiritual Destiny - by Submitted on Jul 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we see things from the viewpoint of our ego-personality, with our limited life-span, and our insecurities based on the limitations of our knowledge and power we frequently experience bouts of anxiety or at least uncertainty about the reality of what we are doing, about the truth of the ...
Views: 107 - The Difference Between Trust and Faith - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyTrust is frequently built on the basis of experience. We gain trust by confirmation of a particular development or response from our interactions. Trust is thus primarily based in the mental process. Through a process that develops credibility, an individual gains trust in the action and ...
Views: 107 - Gaining Perspective On Our Desires and Focus Within the Grand Canvas of Time and Space - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe spend most of our lives fixated on the external life we are living, including our internal reactions to that life, such as our feelings, desires, sense impressions, thoughts, ideas, motivations and physical comforts and discomforts (among other things). We focus on earning our livelihood, ...
Views: 106 - How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 1 - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyDannion Brinkley told the story in his book Saved By the Light. He was a mercenary, a hired killer. He was struck by lightning. He was pronounced clinically dead. He returned to life. He knew, at that moment, that he was ‘sent back’ to accomplish a task, a mission. He left behind his prior life ...
Views: 106 - Is Every Man Capable of ‘Sinful Behavior” Under Certain Circumstances? - by Submitted on Apr 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyCultured and educated people often believe that they could not stoop to certain actions or be guilty of certain motives in their actions, or simply react to circumstances in a way other than that of their predominant mental view of themselves. They may look down on those who appear to them to be ...
Views: 106 - The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 2 - by Submitted on May 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyMost people simply “live” their lives and carry out whatever feeling, mood or impetus may be impacting them at the moment. They “become” that movement, whether it is happiness and joy, hunger, anger, ennui, fatigue, or some concentrated state of mind, etc. Their awareness, their conscious ...
Views: 106 - The Vigilance Needed to Ensure That Sattwic Calm, Peaceful Focus Does Not Get Distracted Through the Rise of Rajasic or Tamasic Reactions in the Being - by Submitted on Aug 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere is a dynamic that frequently occurs when an individual starts to actively take up the yogic path. At a certain stage of development, the need to bring peace into the being, and the need for a calm, quiet energy to support the practice of meditation may take center stage. At that point, the ...
Views: 106 - Understanding and Persevering Through the Darkness and the Delays in the Process of Spiritual Realisation - by Submitted on May 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we are confronted with difficulties, we employ several different types of responses, mainly depending on instinct, habit, training and the play of the three Gunas, the qualities of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. Sometimes we respond with more effort, sometimes we lapse into depression and ...
Views: 106 - Facing Difficulties and Transforming Them at Their Source Is the Path of Integral Yoga - by Submitted on May 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere are implications for anyone accepting the mission to work toward the evolutionary change of human nature, speeded up by the yogic process. We think we should somehow have amazing spiritual experiences, and live in a world of peace, sunshine and joy. The reality is likely to be far ...
Views: 105 - Establishing the Psychic Being as the Central Organizing Principle and Overcoming the Dominion of the Vital Nature and the External Being - by Submitted on Jul 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs long as we identify ourselves with our external personality, the body-life-mind complex we inhabit and project into the world, we are subject to the responses, reactions and motivations that they express, based on the developments of the entire past evolutionary history of consciousness on ...
Views: 104 - Understanding the Respective Roles of Personal Effort and Divine Grace in the Transformation of Human Nature - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is one thing to adopt, in one’s mind, the idea that since the Divine is doing the work, we need simply accept the idea and let things take their course. It is an entirely different thing if we actually want to accomplish the transformation needed to bring about a change in human nature based ...
Views: 104 - Overcoming the Tendency to Rehash Past Work or Worry About Future Work - by Submitted on May 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe spent a considerable amount of our time rehashing events and actions that are past, analyzing them, worrying about whether we have done things correctly or not, and reflecting on how we might deal with similar events in the future in a better way. We recount what happened during our day to ...
Views: 103 - The Need for a Sleepless Vigilance in the Yogic Sadhana - by Submitted on Aug 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyVirtually everyone has had the experience, at some point or another of finally overcoming a particularly difficult internal issue, whether it is the force of desire, or not responding with anger to things that do not go as anticipated, or any number of other activities that take place in the ...
Views: 103 - The Spiritual Aspirant Marches to the Beat of a Different Drummer Than Those Who Focus on the External Life - by Submitted on May 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe spiritual aspirant necessarily has to change the way things have been historically and habitually done in the world if he is to make progress and move beyond the limitations imposed by the body-life-mind complex and all the traditions, rituals, habits, fixed ideas and vital-emotional ...
Views: 103 - Difficulties Are Blessings If We Know How to Face Them - by Submitted on May 12, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhether we term it divine Will, synchronicity, coherence, quantum entanglement, cause and effect, dependent origination, karma, or the law of attraction (or any other terminology), there remains a truth that the specific time, place and circumstance we occupy in the world is due to a stream of ...
Views: 102 - Inner Peace Is the Foundation and Basis for Spiritual Growth - by Submitted on Jun 27, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen the spiritual seeker begins to recognise all of the difficulties and obstacles in his own external being, and understands the need to reduce and remove these obstacles if there is to be any permanent and major progress, he may begin by struggling with the desires, the movements that arise, ...
Views: 102 - The Status of Consciousness Where One Can See Things as They Are - by Submitted on Apr 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs long as an individual is rooted in his own ego-standpoint, he sees and interprets things from that standpoint and cannot, by definition, ‘see things as they are’ in the wider creation. There is the famous story of 5 different observers of a traffic accident, each one observing from a ...
Views: 102 - The Greatest Help a Spiritual Seeker Can Give to Others - by Submitted on Apr 17, 2025 from santosh krinskyModern day civilization emphasizes some kind of external 'result' that can be measured. Most frequently this is tied to a monetary value, but the world also appreciates and honors, in some cases, those who do humanitarian work, those who lead countries or fight wars, those who create new ...
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