Self Improvement Site
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
Self Knowledge Articles
We are currently looking for an Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to "Self Knowledge". If you have expertise in Self Knowledge and your own website and/or product for this topic, please review this form for complete details. The Official Guide Position is part of our Premium Placement Package
- 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: 93 - Faithfulness to the Light and the Divine Call - by Submitted on Jun 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople have an inner ‘commentary’ and ‘sound track’ going on virtually constantly in their heads. The ‘sound track’ may be a piece of music they heard which keeps repeating in their minds, what is colloquially called an ‘ear worm’. It may also be something of far less enjoyment such as a ...
Views: 92 - The Radiating Power of an Inner Transformative Force - by Submitted on Apr 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere are many methods that have been tried to shift ideas, thoughts, motives and actions in the world. Some of these methods involve subtle, or not so subtle, use of various forms of propagandizing, proselytizing, sermonizing, or dominating others through use of covert or overt force, including ...
Views: 92 - Addressing the Divergence Between the Inner Being and the External Nature - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyComplete sincerity, inwardly and outwardly, is something that does not generally happen overnight. There are too many habits, instncts and trained responses that control the way the external nature responds to expect that the mental, vital and physical elements of the being will not only accept ...
Views: 91 - Understanding the Masks, False Fronts and Deceptive Appearances We Present to the World and to Ourselves - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is relatively easy to recognise that we are putting up a false front in our dealings with society. We greet people with a smile while in our minds, we may be having an opposite feeling about the person. We flatter people to get ahead in society, knowing that the flattery is not based on ...
Views: 91 - Aspiration, Desire and the Action of the Divine Force - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyAspiration is frequently confused with a form of vital desire that ‘wants’ some kind of spiritual development, experience or result. Aspiration, however, originates in the psychic being, while desire stems from the vital being. The characteristics of the two are therefore dramatically different ...
Views: 90 - Coming Face to Face With, and Overcoming the Failures, Limitations and Sins of One's Past Life in the Spiritual Quest - by Submitted on May 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen an individual takes up the spiritual quest, he tends to accept certain principles of action which, by definition, contradict the values, principles and life-actions of his past experience. In many cases this causes a considerable amount of doubt and concern as he tries to overlay his ...
Views: 90 - Facing One’s Difficulties - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to place him between the two armies ready to engage in a civil war, with massive numbers of troops on each side, so that he could view the scene before the actual fighting started. At that moment he was struck by the magnitude of what was about to ...
Views: 90 - Integral Surrender to the Divine - by Submitted on Jul 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe tend to live under the illusion that we are one being and that what we think or feel represents ‘who we are’. We accept the idea that we are dedicated to a spiritual path, or we accept the sense of devotion that we feel as representing our surrender to the Divine Will. Yet, we have different ...
Views: 90 - Shifting the Standpoint of Consciousness Beyond the Action of the Three Gunas - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe three Gunas of Nature control the actions and reactions of the external nature and the response to the dualities that present themselves in Nature. As long as we remain fixated at the level of the surface personality, we remain subject to this action of the Gunas. The question then ...
Views: 90 - The Way to Help Others - by Submitted on Apr 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is a characteristic trait of the human ego-personality that we easily see faults and issues in others and in external circumstances, that we fail to see within ourselves. But how do we recognise something outside if we have no way to relate to it, if we do not produce the vibrational pattern ...
Views: 90 - Creating Harmony and Understanding Requires a Change of Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 04, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe mental consciousness believes, first of all, that the particular viewpoint held by an individual is ‘correct’ and that other viewpoints are ‘wrong’. The vital nature wants to assert itself and gain dominance. The limited and linear framework of the normal human consciousness ensures that ...
Views: 89 - Difficulties Provide the Possibility of Progress - by Submitted on May 14, 2025 from santosh krinskyIf we examine the times and phases of our lives, we find that when things seem to be going smoothly forward and we feel great, we want to enjoy and appreciate the good times. We thus tend to slacken our efforts so that we can get the most out of the positive energies we are experiencing. This is ...
Views: 89 - How to Recognise the Divine Will - by Submitted on Jul 04, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe get prompted inwardly to do somethng. In some cases, we have conflicting impulses or reactions. We wonder how to distinguish the Divine Will from all of the other drives, motives, forces, and options that confront us. Add to this the complications of the vital nature, in i ts attempts to ...
Views: 89 - Overcoming Suffering and Changing the Future of Our Karma - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyMany people believe that there is some kind of inexorable law of reward and punishment being doled out by God or some other all-powerful, all-observant being. In the West children are taught this lesson through the myth of Santa Claus, when they are encouraged to be “good” because Santa Claus is ...
Views: 89 - Resisting and Overcoming the Negative Universal Forces That Try to Control Our Reactions - by Submitted on May 22, 2025 from santosh krinskyAll consciousness, all energy, all material substance is essential one, although it takes different forms in the external surface consciousness. Vibrational patterns move across the universal creation and forms respond to them if they are able to vibrate within the range of the vibrations. Human ...
Views: 89 - Sincerity and Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyFor most people, the concept of ‘sincerity’ is connected with how they relate to other people, in an open, natural and honest way, without duplicity or hypocrisy. The idea that sincerity can relate to oneself and one’s inner life is something that spiritual aspirants grapple with. Sincerity is ...
Views: 89 - The Action of the Three Gunas in Relation to the Assimilation of the Spiritual Force - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe 3 Gunas, qualities of Nature, are active in all beings, including those who are undertaking an active process of spiritual development. The physical being is very much subject to the action of Tamas, generally, because of its dense and somewhat inert material characteristics. It thus may ...
Views: 89 - The Most Helpful Attitude for Spiritual Progress - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature, in particular, is addicted to ‘drama’. It seeks attention and excitement. An added complication is that in modern society, with our fixation on all types of electronic stimulation, internet, mobile phones, radio, television, cinema, along with neon signs, blaring ads and ...
Views: 89 - Transitioning From Mental Consciousness to Spiritual Consciousness While Controlling the Vital Nature - by Submitted on May 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe mind provides a filter to manage and control the vital forces to a certain degree. While it is not perfect, without it, an individual can become subject to whatever vital energy is active and rising up within him. At the same time, the mind acts as a limitation on the ability of the ...
Views: 89 - Let Endurance Be Your Watchword in the Yogic Endeavour - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2025 from santosh krinskySuccessful people, in whatever field, tend to highlight their ability to keep going. They indicate that no matter how many times one falls, one must get up, or in the local vernacular, ‘keep on keeping on’. Reactiveness, an inability to hold one’s peace under provocation, is considered to be a ...
Views: 88 - Observing, Controlling and Transforming the Forces That Create our Vital and Mental Actions - by Submitted on Apr 12, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe physical body and the sense of separateness that it creates for us acts both as a limitation and as a protection from the action of the energies and forces that are constantly moving in the universal creation and setting up vibrational patterns to which we may respond. The physical body ...
Views: 88 - Spiritual Development Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyA devotee by the name of Satyakama Jabala approached a respected Guru, in a story related in the Chhandogya Upanishad. He asked for teachings so he could achieve realisation on the spiritual path. The teacher asked him his name and family background, to which the young seeker replied that he did ...
Views: 88 - Focusing One’s Attention on the Forces One Wants to Manifest - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe human being receives vibrations from the universe. They are either accepted and allowed to act upon the individual, or rejected at some level of the being, with minimal impact other than the pressure on the sheath or aura that feels the vibration. If the vibration is accepted, it can not ...
Views: 87 - The Law of Attraction and its Application to Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is interesting that people are willing to believe the ‘secret’ of the law of attraction, spend time, energy and money trying to learn it, for the purpose of manifesting wealth, enjoyment and the powers available in the world, but they do not tend to apply the principle behind this ‘law of ...
Views: 87 - The Nature of True Aspiration - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyRestlessness, impatience and disturbance of the vital nature are signs of weakness in the vital, an inability to hold the energy that is available to the vital. A strong vital nature will have the ability to remain calm and hold the energy without spilling it. For the spiritual seeker, there ...
Views: 87 - The Need to Employ the Searchlight on Every Aspect of One’s Being - by Submitted on May 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn its essence, yoga is a form of applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is attempting to redirect the focus, the responses and the reactions of the being, in many cases having to overcome deeply rooted and embedded instincts, habits, and trained responses, as well as the forces of desire, ...
Views: 87 - The Quality of Rajas and Its Impact on the Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe quality of Rajas, when it predominates in the action of the individual seeking spiritual growth, can have quite disruptive effects. A certain amount of focus and energy is required for any spiritual endeavour, to be sure, but there is a fine line between too little energy and too much. Rajas ...
Views: 87 - What is the power of positivity like? Why think positive in life? - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2025 from Dada BhagwanWhy should we think positive in life? Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says, “Positive line is on the side of God and negative line is on the side of devil-evil.” The One whose mind has become permanently positive is Himself God. The Self (Soul) is towards positive and intellect is towards negative. ...
Views: 87 - Addressing Obstacles, Difficulties and Resistances That Arise for the Spiritual Seeker - by Submitted on May 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyTraditionally spiritual paths have developed guidelines and practices that are applied to everyone as set practices. Thus, some people wind up learning particular forms of meditation or concentration, devotion, or dedicated work, or they practice specific forms of hatha yoga, pranayama or other ...
Views: 86 - Overthinking causes unhappiness. How do you stay occupied to avoid negative thoughts? - by Submitted on Jul 21, 2025 from Dada BhagwanOverthinking means thinking about something for too long and making it into a problem.... problem because generally, overthinking happens around negative thoughts, negative emotions, negative imaginations and negative assumptions. Mind is indulged into multiple things that don’t help you think ...
Views: 86 - Periods of Apparent Emptiness or Dryness in the Spiritual Practice - by Submitted on Jun 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the external life we are trained to desire visible signs of forward movement, progress, constant development. We believe if we are not moving forward, then we must be retrogressing. We value action over quiet times. When we are relieved from action, such as during a vacation, or at the stage ...
Views: 86 - The Inner Being Determines the Formations of the Outer Existence - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe tend to work from the outer to the inner consciousness. We treat the external world as more real and dominant to determine our physical body, our vital nature and our mental development. There is of course a certain amount of truth to this view, inasmuch as the outer and the inner are two ...
Views: 86 - Understanding the Yogic Process and Its Developments Through the Action of Time - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe frequently overlook the element of time in any inner review of progress toward spiritual fulfillment, surrender to the Divine, or any other aspect of our spiritual path. We want and expect instant results, and thus, when we once take up spiritual practice, we want it to be immediately ...
Views: 86 - Developing a Power to Perceive and Understand Ourselves and Our World By Minimizing the Distortions and Biases That Are Inherent in Our Human Instrumentation and Process - by Submitted on Aug 12, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhenever we try to understand something, we are met with various types of inherent biases that skew the determinations we make. Not only are our senses, our perceptions and our thoughts subject to various forms of filtering, but they are also skewed by our past experience, the fact that our ...
Views: 85 - Distinguishing Truth from Falsehood Requires Separation from the Vital Desire-Soul and Its Impulsions - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyDuring the 1980’s there were a number of scams carried out by US mail. An individual would receive a letter purporting to come from some high official in another country who had access to a large amount of money and needed a ‘partner’ to help take the funds out of the country and invest them in ...
Views: 85 - Overcoming Fatigue and Lack of Energy Through Receptivity to the Higher Planes of Consciousness - by Submitted on May 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople who reside in communities adjacent to the beach regularly see visitors stretched out on the sand, ostensibly sleeping while ‘working on their tan’, in some cases for the entire stay of a vacation. When asked, these people indicate that they are taking a well-earned vacation and just want ...
Views: 85 - Overcoming Doubt and Fear of Failure in the Yogic Sadhana Through the Shift from the Ego-Standpoint to the Divine Standpoint - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe seem to be always second guessing ourselves. Are we doing the sadhana in the right way? Is there another method or technique i should be employing? Why am I not seeing the results I expect and desire? Am I even cut out for doing sadhana? Maybe this was all just a big mistake and I should get ...
Views: 84 - Overcoming the Obstruction of Universal Adverse Forces - by Submitted on May 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyMost people are skeptical about the concept of conscious universal forces. Even if they profess a belief in God, angels, demons, and other unseen powerful beings, they tend to reject the idea when it comes down to actual influence in their own actions, reactions and responses. There is an ...
Views: 84 - Sustaining the Yogic Endeavour in the Unique Challenges Posed by the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyFor those individuals called to take up the integral yoga, there is a unique opportunity and a unique set of concerns that arise. Those paths of yoga which aim at liberation have their own difficulties. It is not simple to escape the lures of the external life, or even to undertake ...
Views: 84 - The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 1 - by Submitted on May 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs long as we set our standpoint in the external surface consciousness, we do not have the leverage nor the tools to easily remove an embedded reaction. We tend to take steps to suppress rather than expunge the unwanted energy. This may take the form of an ascetic denial, or an avoidance of ...
Views: 84 - Wielding the Torch of Perfect Sincerity — the Way of Realisation on the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2025 from santosh krinskySome years ago, there was a movie coming out of Hollywood that was based on the premise that someone was ‘cursed’ with having to tell the truth at all times. The premise was developed as a comedy with the idea that rather than using flattering terms or avoiding any harsh statements, the ...
Views: 84 - 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: 83 - Faith and Courage Represent the True Attitude For Facing Life and for Spiritual Progress - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyOne of the qualities that Swami Vivekananda emphasized as ‘fearlessness’. We may wonder why courage and fearlessness are such important elements in living our lives, if we live a relatively ‘safe’ external life and don’t engage in extremely risky behaviour. We may also wonder why they are ...
Views: 83 - The Experience of the Witness Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe standpoint of the witness consciousness, separated from the external being, is not something that is acquired through thinking or the exercise of will-power based in the mind. Many people have developed approaches or systems to not react to outer circumstances, such as stoicism, various ...
Views: 83 - What does it mean if your mind is always stuck in the past or future? Are you enlightened yet? - by Submitted on Aug 05, 2025 from Dada BhagwanIf you find yourself constantly worrying about past events or possible future outcomes, it indicates that you have not yet achieved enlightenment. https://dbf.adalaj.org/pB8I1Au3 One who is enlightened lives in the present moment, without any attachment to the past nor any concern for the ...
Views: 83 - Development from Witness of the Nature to Master of the Nature - by Submitted on Aug 09, 2025 from santosh krinskySankhya philosophy, also referenced in the Bhagavad Gita and certain Upanishads with respect to its understanding of the respective roles of the Purusha, the witness consciousness and Prakriti, the active nature, provides a guiding light for those seeking liberation from bondage to the external ...
Views: 82 - Freeing Oneself From Responsibility for Oneself By Reliance on the Divine - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere was a young man who happened to be living at the same place during the 1970’s, who got into his head the idea that the Divine was watching out for him so he could not come to any harm. He walked out into traffic on a busy road and with cars honking and braking, he survived without a ...
Views: 82 - Spiritual Progress: Personal Effort or Surrender to the Divine Grace - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe see in the legends about great yogic practitioners and their struggles to achieve the spiritual results, a variety of approaches. Two major approaches have been categorised as the “baby monkey” and the “baby cat” approach. The differentiation involves the way the individual participates in ...
Views: 82 - The Individual Action Needed to Implement the Spiritual Path in One’s Life - by Submitted on Jul 18, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature wants to continue its old ways and achieve fulfillment of its desires. It is also very effective at finding ways to convince the mind to carry out its impulses and desires. When an individual takes up the spiritual path, the vital being does not get discouraged, it simply tries ...
Views: 82