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- Overcoming the Distracting Force of Vital Desire to Find and Live the Truth of One’s Life - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2025 from santosh krinskyWind is a metaphor for the vital force. The vital being is moved by desire. When we covet or desire something, we are tossed about as by a great gust of wind. This is the normal state for most people, and they just get tossed about from one focus to another trying to achieve what is held before ...
Views: 89 - Overcoming the Force of Desire - by Submitted on Aug 17, 2025 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect on the course of human life, it is easy to determine that we fixate upon different things at different stages of life. As a child, our desires tend to be centered around physical and vital satisfactions. We may desire a specific food, or a specific toy, or a specific form of ...
Views: 89 - 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: 89 - The Need for Patience and Perseverance - by Submitted on Jul 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyScientists tell us that human beings diverged from chimpanzees somewhere between 4 and 8 million years ago. Somewhere around 2 million years ago, the line of development that led to human beings appeared and our current formation, Homo sapiens came on the scenes around 300,000 years ago. Each ...
Views: 89 - To Be Conscious - by Submitted on Aug 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we reflect upon what we really know about our existence, our lives, our purpose, the forces at work in the world and in us, the influences to which we are being subjected constantly, and the way we respond to these influences without conscious awareness, it becomes clear that we act out of ...
Views: 89 - 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: 88 - Unflagging Perseverance and Persistence Is Required for the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyAthletes undergo extensive training routines, logging many thousands of hours with, in many cases, tough physical conditioning and practice, in order to achieve their goals for physical development and to be able to participate in a competitive sporting event. Many who are not athletes undertake ...
Views: 88 - Consciousness and Self-Mastery - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs noted, to be conscious is a broadly applicable term, not just to one’s own body-life-mind complex but to all factors in the universal creation, the flow of time, the development of circumstances, the relations between the individual and the society, world, environment and universal forces. A ...
Views: 87 - The Complex Nature of Our Being Impacts Our Ability to Change and Transform Our Lives - by Submitted on May 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyThose who identify with their mental being tend to believe that if they think in a certain way, that they have succeeded in embodying that. They will take the thought for the accomplishment without necessarily recognising that their physical actions, their vital energies and even aspects of ...
Views: 87 - The Difference Between Suppression and Self-Control of the Force of Vital Desire - by Submitted on Aug 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen it comes to the question of control, rejection and mastery over the vital nature and its desires, there is considerable confusion. For the most part this confusion is caused by a lack of clear definition between the different modes of observation, response and action that the seeker can ...
Views: 87 - The Sunlit Path in the Yogic Endeavour - by Submitted on Jul 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we see deeply religious or spiritual people, we expect to see people who are serious, reserved and who carry an air of distance from the things of the world. This expectation has been so deeply embedded in the human psyche that we almost unconsciously take up this attitude when we tread the ...
Views: 87 - What Actually Is Spirituality? - by Submitted on Jul 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe speak of ‘spirituality’ and we have a conception in our minds about what it actually is. We vaguely sense that it encompasses a devotion and focus on something other than our daily external life and relationships. Many people state that they are ‘spiritual, not religious’. We sometimes ...
Views: 87 - Consciousness Exists in Matter and Responds to Caring Good Will - by Submitted on May 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we look at existence from the point of view of our material consciousness, we tend to treat material things as ‘inanimate objects’ without consciousness. We attribute to plants, and then to animals, increasing levels of conscious awareness and with the advent of the mental consciousness, we ...
Views: 86 - Isolation, Introspection, Introversion and the Witness Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyA young person, around 20 years of age, reported an experience he had while visiting a beer hall in Munich, Germany with some friends and acquaintances. As could be expected, there was a lot of noise, clinking of glasses, singing, laughing, story-telling among his friends, as well as generally ...
Views: 86 - Liberation From and Mastery of the External Nature of Man - by Submitted on Aug 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyMany religious and spiritual traditions focus on the idea of ‘liberation’ from bondage to the illusion of the external world and its enticements and attractions. In some cases, this takes the form of a vow of austerity and a focus on achieving redemption and access to heaven after one dies. In ...
Views: 86 - The Psychic Being Brings Cheerful Focus to the Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Aug 01, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn his novel Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens exposes us to a character who is perpetually cheerful, Mark Tapley. We meet him in a comfortable situation working at an inn, with a warm relationship with the proprietor of the inn, with whom he is in love (and who is in love with him). He ...
Views: 86 - Divine Realisation and the Uplifting and Perfection of Life in the World - by Submitted on Aug 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe ancient sages of India, as we see in some of the texts that have come down to us through the course of time, understood the balance between the internal and the external, between individual liberation and a balanced activity in the world. They recognised the individual role as part of the ...
Views: 85 - How to Deal With the Feeling of Unfitness for Spiritual Progress When It Arises in the Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is perhaps a virtually universal experience. An individual takes up a spiritual practice, and for a time, particularly when Sattwa is in the forefront, he has unique insights, experiences and a sense of progress. At some point, however, these experiences tend to recede and the individual is ...
Views: 85 - Individual Strength, the Power of Sincerity and the Action of the Divine Grace - by Submitted on Jul 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyParticularly in the West, historically, but more and more a world-wide phenomenon in the modern era, there is a strong bias toward the idea that one needs to be a “self-made man”, implying that it is through individual strength and accomplishment that one can accomplish anything. This bias is ...
Views: 85 - Spiritual Awakening: Moving Away From Disillusionment to Finding Meaning in Life - by Submitted on Jul 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs we grow and experience life, there may come a time when we become disillusioned. We may feel like there is no meaning or significance to what we do. We feel like we are running in a hamster wheel, or on a treadmill, always striving to earn money to survive and maybe have a bit of enjoyment. ...
Views: 85 - The Spiritual Seeker and the Challenges of Spiritual Growth and Development - by Submitted on May 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople believe generally that taking up the spiritual life involves a form of escapism from the daily obstacles, difficulties and pressures of living an active life in society. Some people in fact take up the spiritual path as an escape, but that is neither the primary motivation nor does it ...
Views: 85 - Changing Human Nature Rather Than Abandoning the External Life - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyOur mental process tends to take us to extremes. We want simple answers, without a lot of nuance. Thus, when we seek spiritual liberation, we tend to take the concept of renunciation or rejection to mean that we abandon the external life to focus on our spiritual pursuits. If our vital nature ...
Views: 84 - Indulgence of Desire Does Not Lead to Rejection - by Submitted on Aug 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect on how we learn, how we gain skills, we find that one of the key elements is repetition. We train our muscles through repetition of an exercise regimen. We train our minds through repetition and we train our responses through repetition. At some point we embed the results of the ...
Views: 84 - The Nature and Power of Peace - by Submitted on Aug 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the context of yogic psychology, peace is not the absence of disturbance, just as in the external world, peace is not the absence of war. We generally define peace as a negative attribute. As the seeker gains depth of experience, however, it becomes clear that peace is ultimately a very ...
Views: 84 - The Shift to the Standpoint of the Observer of the External Nature - by Submitted on Aug 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe Purusha, the witness consciousness, resides in each of us. Why then do we have to seek for liberation? If we examine our psychological standpoint, we can see that we tend to identify with, to become, the external ego-personality that we have assumed. It is as if we put on a suit of clothes, ...
Views: 84 - Depression and Spiritual Progress - by Submitted on May 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe are all subject to the action of the three Gunas or qualties of Nature. They are always shifting. As they shift, our outlook, mood, physical responsiveness, vital energy and mental framework all undergo corresponding changes. None of the three Gunas remains constantly in the forefront, so ...
Views: 83 - Keep Hold On Your Aspiration Through All Difficulties and Circumstances - by Submitted on May 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe flame of aspiration is the force that keeps the sadhak moving forward in his spiritual practice, regardless of the forces that threaten or oppose that progress, whether from outside or which rise up internally. Everyone goes through changes of mood and energy as the three Gunas fluctuate. ...
Views: 83 - Understanding Desire and the Absence of Desire - by Submitted on Aug 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen seekers take up the spiritual path, they try to follow the guideline to reject desire. They will frequently say “I don’t desire anything”. In many cases, however, this is an obfuscation by the vital nature manipulating the mind to accept something which is not entirely accurate. Let’s break ...
Views: 83 - A Balanced Perspective About Food and the Physical Body - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen the great yogi of Tibet, Milarepa, was eventually given the teachings by his Guru, Marpa, he was sent to practice intense meditation. When Marpa sent him to his meditation retreat, he gave him a scroll of information with the instruction that he should open it at the time when it was an ...
Views: 80 - Balancing Detachment, Indifference and Caretaking of the Body - by Submitted on Aug 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we hear that we must cultivate detachment and indifference to the physical body as the instrument of our external interactions in the world, we tend to immediately jump to the idea that we must renounce everything and simply let the body do whatever happens without any care or concern for ...
Views: 80 - Finding the Inner Balance of Non-Attachment While Living in the World - by Submitted on Aug 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn his epic poem, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo writes: “He who would save himself lives bare and calm; He who would save the race must share its pain: Renunciation of the world, avoidance of interacting with the objects, actions, events and needs of the external life, is ...
Views: 80 - The Individual Sadhak and His Relation to the Movement of Universal Forces - by Submitted on May 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyForces that operate in the world are not necessarily ‘hostile’ even if their effect on any particular individual appears to be extremely negative. These forces operate on a large scale to carry out their own role and fulfillment, without specific regard to who may be impacted. When an earthquake ...
Views: 80 - The Mental Purusha: the Witness Awareness of the Mind - by Submitted on Aug 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs the seeker attempts to achieve the separation of the witness consciousness from the external nature of the being (which is comprised of the body, the vital being and the mind), the first phase is generally the separation of the mental awareness from the body. This brings forth the awareness ...
Views: 80 - Understanding and Managing the Subconscious Part of the Being - by Submitted on Aug 22, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe idea that significant events or forces can take place within us during sleep or in the twilight range between sleep and waking is something that has been part of human understanding for thousands of years. In particular, dreams, a particular form of the sleep state where the consciousness is ...
Views: 80 - Detachment, Liberation and Mastery - by Submitted on Aug 14, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe question of detachment, renunciation, is frequently interpreted as one of avoidance and a rejection of the external life in the world. It most often turns to austerity. If one follows this line of approach to its logical conclusion, the only solution is to renounce all action, renounce all ...
Views: 79 - The Power of Rejection in Gaining Mastery Over the Nature - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyOperant conditioning is a phenomenon identified in Western psychology by B.F. Skinner. His experiments showed that by the results of carrying out specific actions, they can either be encouraged, through positive reinforcement, or discouraged through negative reinforcement. One of the principles ...
Views: 79 - The Bliss of Non-Possession - by Submitted on Aug 27, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the Taittiriya Upanishad, there is an interesting chapter often referred to as the "calculus of bliss". It starts from the measure of one human being who has everything, health, strength, all human opportunities fully available to him. That is the measure of "human bliss". The recitation goes ...
Views: 78 - The Purusha, the Master of the Nature, Sanctions, Upholds, Directs and Changes the Nature - by Submitted on Sep 01, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe are not destined to be the puppet or plaything of the external Nature, Prakriti, through the working of the 3 Gunas or qualities of Nature. When we shift our standpoint to that of the Divine, when we recognise our Oneness with the creative Force, we can participate in the ordering and the ...
Views: 78 - Understanding and Addressing Desire, Hunger and Food - by Submitted on Sep 02, 2025 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter One, Section Two, Verse 1: “Formerly there was nothing here; this was concealed by Death — by Hunger, for it is Hunger that is Death. That created mind, and he said, ‘Let me have substance.’ He moved about working and as he worked the ...
Views: 78 - The Cycles and Causes of Recurring Difficulties in Relation to Spiritual Development and Progress - by Submitted on Aug 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is a limitation of our normal mental mode of understanding that we do not tend to take into account the impact of time and the cyclical nature of development. We expect things to move in a straight line. We expect progress to be continuous and in a single direction. When we overcome a ...
Views: 77 - We Tend to Take Ourselves Too Seriously - by Submitted on Aug 02, 2025 from santosh krinskySeriously, we get all wound up about things that have no real significance in the larger picture of life. Whether it is someone cutting in front of us in a queue or on the road, or whether someone says something about us which we do not like, we tend to get revved up and stew on what happened. ...
Views: 76 - Embracing the Quietude and the Silence of the Mind - by Submitted on Sep 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn Western society, people are inculcated, from early childhood,in the idea that they need to be active in order to succeed in the world. The outlook is extremely focused on an outward perspective. The body, life-force and mind have to be trained and harnessed into action. Time not spent in ...
Views: 75 - Facing and Overcoming the Dangers of an Opening to Forces of the Vital Plane Without Sufficient Foundation in Peace and Calm in the Being - by Submitted on Oct 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere are sound reasons to establish calm, peace and equality in the being as the foundation for the spiritual practice. When an individual takes up some form of concentrated practice, tapasya, it can lead to the uprising of powerful energies, as well as an influx of thoughts, emotions, feelings ...
Views: 75 - Minimizing the Rajasic or Tamasic Effect of Food on the Consciousness - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyA popular proverb in recent years is ‘you are what you eat’. There is certainly an element of deeper truth in this expression. All material substance holds vibratory patterns. Rocks absorb heat and radiate it back afterwards for hours. Water absorbs thought vibrations as shown by Masaru Emoto in ...
Views: 75 - The Separation of Purusha and Prakriti: The Soul and the External Being - by Submitted on Aug 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyMost people identify themselves with their external being, their body-life-mind complex. They assign a name to that being and they answer to that name. They are totally immersed in the needs, wants, and directions that that external being is taking. When they awaken to a deeper spiritual urge, ...
Views: 75 - A Quiet Mind or a Silent Mind - by Submitted on Sep 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyA relatively small number of people attend to the quality or texture of the mind. People tend to identify with the sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts and reactions that ‘take over’ the mind stuff. We become angry and identify with that movement so closely that we do not normally observe ...
Views: 74 - Spiritual Experiences and the Foundation of Peace and Aspiration Needed As Their Basis - by Submitted on Sep 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature is enamoured of experiences that are new and different, ‘exciting’, unusual. This is the allure of the vision quest, fasting, and the use of entheogenic substances to bring forth experiences, visions, contact with alternative states of conscious awareness, and alternative ...
Views: 74 - The Initial Liberation of the Mental Being from Servitude to the Physical Body - by Submitted on Aug 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe can learn much from the quite commonly related phenomenon called the ‘out of body’ experience. Many people have had such an experience where they resided in their awareness outside the body, in some cases from above the body and from that vantage point could observe the body as different and ...
Views: 74 - The One Essential Thing in Spiritual Development is an Inward Focus of the Awareness on the Divine Presence - by Submitted on Sep 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, v. 54, Arjuna asks Sri Krishna how to recognise the enlightened man. Sri Aurobindo translates: “What is the sign of the man in Samadhi whose intelligence is firmly fixed in wisdom? How does the sage of settled understanding speak, how sit, how walk?” Sri ...
Views: 74 - The Process of Establishing the True Foundation for the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Sep 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyEstablishing peace and quietness in the being is not a matter of intellectual determination; rather, it is a concrete experience that comes with the action of the Force that descends into the being from higher ranges of consciousness. Many believe that it is a matter of disciplining oneself not ...
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