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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- Is Inner Spiritual Growth Possible While Engaging with the External World? - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we look at the spiritual and religious traditions of the world, we find that a recurring theme is the need of the true seeker to disassociate himself from the outer life of the world. This is done to focus the attention on the spiritual quest and to avoid the distractions, disruptions and ...
Views: 579 - Is It Realistic to Expect Instant Transformation of Human Nature? - by Submitted on Jan 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe live in a time where we expect everything to happen instantly. We want to take a pill and achieve ‘instant enlightenment’. Life is speeding up with enhancements to communications, travel, and devices that make us react faster every day. Life itself seems to have speeded up and days disappear ...
Views: 530 - Is It Sleep, Or Is It Samadhi? - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhen the consciousness moves inward, away from the awareness of the external reality, it is frequently interpreted as ‘sleep’ by those who experience it for the first time. The reason they believe it is sleep is due to a lack of communication between that inward state of consciousness and the ...
Views: 66 - Is It the Soul or the Vital Being We Perceive? - by Submitted on Jan 01, 2024 from santosh krinskyMost people are rooted in the vital consciousness, and thus respond to the vibrations that occur within the vital realm. Unless they have contact with their soul or at least clear influence by the psychic being on the external parts of the being, they are virtually unable to recognise the action ...
Views: 322 - Is Spiritual Force Real? - by Submitted on Jul 21, 2024 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo once told about an incident that helped spark his interest in yoga-force. His brother was very ill. A wandering yogi came by and when he learned on that illness, asked for a glass of water which he then proceeded to infuse with mantas. The illness was quickly overcome once Sri ...
Views: 335 - Is the Mental Consciousness an Aid or an Obstacle for the Spiritual Seeker? - by Submitted on Aug 03, 2023 from santosh krinskyEvery level of consciousness is limited by the frame within which it operates, as well as by the mechanism of its action within that frame. In its own field of action, with its own native operation, the mind can be a powerful tool and aid to the individual. Yet, when it tries to assert for ...
Views: 424 - is there a solution to the Israel/Palestine Problem? - by Submitted on Oct 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyis there a solution to the Israel/Palestine Problem? There is so much history and so much hatred built up. Acts of overt terrorism, including attacks on civilian targets, women, children, etc. are not justifable. The Israelis righfully point out that they have a right to defend themselves, ...
Views: 559 - Is There Any Certitude About the Supramental Manifestation Actually Taking Place? - by Submitted on Mar 27, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe mind of the modern day wants to analyze facts and draw conclusions based on those facts. For centuries, the movement has been away from reliance on belief and faith to a reliance on facts and rational analysis. One need only look at the history of the rise of Western science and the disputes ...
Views: 684 - 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: 150 - Issues in the Establishment of Equanimity and Peace in the Being - by Submitted on Feb 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe have long-established instincts that harken back to the animal kingdom, in what we may call the “fight or flight” response. This instinct is deeply embedded and lies at the root of one of the biggest obstacles to achieving calm and peace in the being. Every impulse we receive from outside ...
Views: 685 - Issues in Understanding the Mechanism of Sleep and Dreams - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe spend a large percentage of our lives in the realm of sleep, and the dreams that accompany the sleep state. We have very little actual knowledge of what takes place during our period of sleep, although scientists do extensive studies on the electrical activity in the brain during sleep and ...
Views: 575 - Jivatman and Psychic Being - by Submitted on Mar 21, 2026 from santosh krinskySpiritual seekers have differing affinities and capacities from which they begin their conscious spiritual focus. Some of them take up the seeking for the Self, the Jivatman, with liberation from the illusion of the external world and its temptations as a primary objective. They practice Jnana ...
Views: 45 - Judging Others - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe surface being, under the influence of the vital ego, loves to criticize others and ‘gossip’ about them. This is a method of ‘puffing up’ or inflating the ego by dragging down others. It also wastes considerable time and energy by focusing on what are for the most part superficial things in a ...
Views: 702 - Just Because We Cannot Observe It Directly, Does Not Mean Spiritual Force Does Not Exist - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2024 from santosh krinskyA devotee reported several incidents that appeared to be the result of spiritual force. The first occurred in early 1973 in Los Angeles. He attended a talk by Udar Pinto of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and afterwards joined his party for dinner, at which there was extensive discussion. Udar told the ...
Views: 289 - 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: 141 - Key Differences Between Human and Animal Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhat 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: 209 - Kindling and Increasing the Psychic Fire - by Submitted on Dec 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe flame of aspiration is the force that powers spiritual growth. Many people believe that the association of a fire or flame with the psychological stance is purely some kind of poetic device, without any underlying reality. Yet, human experience shows us that various modes of emotion, for ...
Views: 477 - Knowledge … and Wisdom - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs we go through school and acquire knowledge, knowledge of facts, knowledge of ideas, knowledge of principles, knowledge of methodologies, knowledge of trained skills, we gain in our ability to act in the world and succeed in our external life. We learn how to employ the faculty of reasoning ...
Views: 402 - Latent Occult Powers Are Being Recognized and Acknowledged - by Submitted on Aug 22, 2024 from santosh krinskyOur attitude to the development of what many call “psychic powers” is ambivalent, at best. Our popular culture is awash with movies, books, television programs and any number of healers, psychics, and occult practitioners plying their trade in our society. At the same time, while these themes ...
Views: 308 - 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: 167 - Liberating the Consciousness from Imprisonment in the Physical Body - by Submitted on Dec 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we reflect on our normal state of conscious awareness, we recognise a primary seat of awareness in the mind, while also finding that we respond to impulses that originate in the other chakras, subtle energy centres, from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. Yogic science has long ...
Views: 92 - Liberation and Self-Perfection: Adherence to the Divine Intention in the Universal Manifestation - by Submitted on Sep 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyMuch of the historical context of spirituality has been centered around the idea of individual realisation and liberation. The disciplines, practices and methods have been geared towards the individual achieving some form of release from what is recognised to be the ‘illusion’ of the external ...
Views: 119 - 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: 144 - Liberation from Illusion and the Transformation of Life - by Submitted on Apr 01, 2026 from santosh krinskyThere is a long history of spiritual aspirants seeking liberation from what they come to perceive as the illusion of life in the world. It is a signal experience when the individual awakens to the apparent unreality, the transitory nature of the external life, and the seemingly meaningless ...
Views: 41 - Liberation Should Precede the Attainment of the Cosmic Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe ego-personality actually can be a form of protection for the unprepared soul in the world, as it limits the range and power of action. If a person breaks out of the framework provided by the small ego-personality, and comes into contact with and active conscious interaction with the larger ...
Views: 675 - Light and Shadow - by Submitted on Mar 23, 2023 from santosh krinskyYin and Yang, dualities that are inextricably intertwined with one another, that continue to play into one another and which contain an element of the opposite quality within themselves. We live in a world characterized by duality and when we examine closely we find that we cannot have light ...
Views: 496 - Lights and Sounds Can Indicate Opening to Inner or Subtler Planes of Existence - by Submitted on Aug 21, 2021 from santosh krinskyEverything that exists in the universe has an energy signature or frequency which is manifested by light, colour and sound, whether perceived by our limited sense capabilities or outside their range. As the seeker begins to shift awareness inwards, he is no longer totally reliant on the external ...
Views: 655 - Listening and Heeding the Voice of the Soul - by Submitted on Jan 05, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe voice of reason, the urging of desire, the warning of what we call the conscience, all of these are aspects of the inner dialogue that takes place within the individual as he determines his direction and his response to life situations. None of these are, however, the voice of the soul. How ...
Views: 371 - Living in the Consciousness of the Eternal Provides an Answer to Our Hurried and Dissatisfied Existence - by Submitted on Jul 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is a strong human potential movement that counsels ‘mindfulness’ by living in the present, and not worrying about or identifying with the past, and not imaging or creating images about the future in one’s mind. This movement has an underlying truth associated with it, as dwelling on either ...
Views: 496 - Living Within: Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Oct 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyLiving Within: The Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth, compliled by Dr. A.S. Dalal, is an eminently practical handbook for understanding and addressing the complexity of our psychological makeup. Modern-day civilisation creates enormous pressures for individuals, while at the same ...
Views: 510 - Looking from Within — Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Sep 12, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere is a deeply embedded aspiration wtihin humanity to discover some purpoe or significance to our lives, and to the very existence of the creation within which we live and act. Our training and education, from our earliest childhood, is fixated on achieving our standing within the external ...
Views: 124 - Major Subdivisions of the Primary Parts of the Being - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe more one examines the play of awareness and activity internally, the more one begins to recognise the subtle interactions that take place between the various parts of the being. There are not clear borderlines but rather influences and actions that are based primarily in one part of the ...
Views: 543 - Making Best Use of Our Limited Time - by Submitted on Oct 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen we reflect on the time we have in our lifetime and how we utilize it, we find that after we calculate time spent in sleeping, eating, bathing, growth in childhood, earning a living, exercising, we have a very limited amount of what may be called “free time” available to us. In a culture and ...
Views: 519 - Making Progress Unconsciously - by Submitted on Jan 28, 2024 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo describes in The Synthesis of Yoga, the long, slow process of evolution that occurs in nature, long before human beings become conscious of this process. He indicates that through the conscious participation of the spiritual aspirant, this process can be made conscious and speeded ...
Views: 369 - Making the Vital Being an Instrument of the Divine Shakti - by Submitted on Oct 27, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe idea of changing the basic way that human beings respond to circumstances is one that has been considered to be a virtually hopeless task. Long human experience has provided the impression that our vital nature is fixed and, while we can perhaps soften it around the edges, it is basically ...
Views: 536 - Making the Vital Into a Willing Collaborator in the Transformation of Life - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2023 from santosh krinskyAfter all the attempts to bring the vital being under some kind of control, it may seem like it is an impossible task! The vital has its fixed habits of fulfillment and satisfaction and tends generally to want to continue its normal modes of action. It is, however, not a thankless task and there ...
Views: 383 - 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: 663 - Managing Work and People Without Harshness and a Domineering Approach - by Submitted on Apr 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere is an apocryphal story involving the Mother, a sadhak and a bullock. The sadhak complained that the bullock was being obstinate and not cooperating. The Mother asked the sadhak to bring the bullock so she could observe it. After doing so, she indicated there was nothing wrong with the ...
Views: 227 - Marriage and Spiritual Life in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jan 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyIn many religious traditions it is customary to expect the dedicated aspirant to forego not only sexual relations, but also worldly entanglements. In the Catholic religious tradition, nuns are considered to be ‘brides of Christ’ and as such, do not enter into the state of marriage. In the Hindu ...
Views: 547 - Mastering the Power of Concentration - by Submitted on Oct 05, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere are any number of ways to develop concentration. Concentration is also developed progressively, such that the power to concentrate increases with practice and continued use. In their writings, both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother describe a number of ways to develop the power of ...
Views: 287 - Mastery Beyond Asceticism and Indulgence - by Submitted on Dec 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyHuman beings have a tendency to move from one extreme to the other, like a pendulum swing. When we are faced with a particular concern we want to resolve, we apply this tendency. When it comes therefore to the force of desire and the attraction of material objects, we either become attached to ...
Views: 86 - Mastery of Vital Impulses Requires Change of Focus and Management of the Energy Flow - by Submitted on Jan 19, 2026 from santosh krinskyIt is obvious. If a system is set up to carry out vital demands, desires and wants, and it is provided more energy, it will simply expand its ability to achieve those desires. That is the reason that undertaking practices that increase the vital force, without first ensuring that the focus and ...
Views: 75 - Matter, Subtle Matter, the Causative Level and the Ability of Mind-Power or Vital Power to Create, Modify, Influence and Dissolve Material Forms - by Submitted on May 29, 2024 from santosh krinskyMatter, Subtle Matter, the Causative Level and the Ability of Mind-Power or Vital Power to Create, Modify, Influence and Dissolve Material Forms Posted on May 30, 2024 We tend to look at things from the standpoint of the material formation it has taken. If we look deeper however, we see that ...
Views: 335 - Medicine, and Beyond, in the Treatment of Bodily Illness - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyIt is easy, in fact, quite normal, for an individual to turn toward medical treatments once an illness presents itself. The mind-set of the entire society is based on the idea that illness must be defeated and that medicine, through its long history, has increasingly gained powers and tools to ...
Views: 740 - Medicine, Faith and the Healing Process - by Submitted on Oct 16, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere are a number of examples that lead to the conclusion that it is not medicine alone that cures the patient. A young man reported his own experience. He was visiting India in the early 1970’s and was afflicted by a severe case of amoebic dysentery while there, to the point that he was in ...
Views: 307 - Medicine, Immune System Action, Faith Healing and Overcoming Illnesses - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyHow do medicines work? What exactly do they do in the body? How do we explain the effect of placebos, which are involved in a reasonably large percentage of cures? What about cases of spontaneous remission of disease? Is it possible to recover from “antibiotic resistant” bacterial diseases? Can ...
Views: 800 - Memory of Past Life Experiences - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2024 from santosh krinskyFor most people, the trauma associated with the death of the body and the corresponding dissolution of the vital and mental being that formed within the life of that individual, means that there is no realistic way for any memory of past lives to remain intact and carry forward. The psychic ...
Views: 373 - Mental and Vital Formations and Habits of Acceptance Which Create Obstacles for the Soul’s Victory - by Submitted on May 31, 2022 from santosh krinskyEvery part of our being has certain habitual patterns of responding to, accepting and dealing with forces and vibrations that enter into them. These habitual patterns for the most part lock in the old ways of seeing and acting, and it takes a change in standpoint from the mental-vital-physical ...
Views: 582 - Mental Consciousness Cannot Directly Comprehend Spiritual Forces at Work - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2024 from santosh krinskyIn order to know something, we need to utilize the tools and methods appropriate to whatever form or energetic action we are trying to know. Those things which rely on emotion, for instance, cannot be fully understood by the logical intellect. Similarly, the strict step by step process of ...
Views: 326 - Mental Formations and Their Application - by Submitted on Sep 04, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere is an occult tradition that a practitioner of certain arts can create a formation, send it out to act upon another individual, and thereby succeed in achieving his objective with that other person. The stories mostly revolve around sending forces to harm another individual, and they point ...
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