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Consciousness and Awareness Articles
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- The Nature and Experience of Cosmic Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 06, 2021 from santosh krinskyWithout experience, it is difficult to comprehend the difference between the normal human ego-consciousness and the cosmic consciousness. Those who have had the experience try to disclose the type and quality of their experience, but using human words that relate to our normal body-life-mind way ...
Views: 594 - What Is Cosmic Consciousness? - by Submitted on Aug 05, 2021 from santosh krinskyOur normal human consciousness revolves around the standpoint and awareness of our ego-personality. We look at things from our own viewpoint, and determine our relation to everything that takes place based on how we perceive these things to impact the ego. We tend to treat the universal creation ...
Views: 619 - 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: 664 - Distinguishing the Realisation of the Atman and the Higher Planes of Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 03, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen an individual begins the spiritual quest, there can be considerable confusion about different directions, objectives and methods of attainment. In many cases, divergent goals are lumped together, while in other instances, there can be confusion about the sequence of the steps. Sri Aurobindo ...
Views: 615 - The Need to Overcome Fear in the Realisation of the Atman - by Submitted on Aug 02, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn the external world, fear plays a role that can both hinder progress, and protect from impulsive or rash action that would result in injury, loss or death. If fear is excessive, it paralyzes the individual into inaction. If it is insufficient, he may rush into circumstances far beyond his ...
Views: 577 - What is the Atman? How Do We Experience the Self? - by Submitted on Aug 01, 2021 from santosh krinskyAs long as we are enmeshed in the ego-life, it is essentially impossible to conceive of the status or existence of the Atman. We relate to the physical world, we relate to other individuals as if we are just this limited human existence and being, we perceive and react to everything from our own ...
Views: 623 - The Self — the Atman and Individual Liberation - by Submitted on Jul 31, 2021 from santosh krinskyOne of the primary objectives of traditional paths of yoga has been the liberation from the bondage of the world of illusion, the phantasmagoria of the creation and the individual’s fixation on success and failure, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, happiness and despair that occurs as a result ...
Views: 676 - Understanding the Inner Being - by Submitted on Jul 30, 2021 from santosh krinskyAs long as we remain on the surface of our being, and rely entirely on the physical senses and the nervous system of the vital being and the mental processes focused on these outer sensations, actions and phenomena, the inner depths of our being remain hidden from us, occult, and not quite ...
Views: 599 - The Emergence of the Witness Purusha - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe recognition of the separation of the Purusha, the inner witness consciousness and the Prakriti, the active nature that operates in the mind, life and body, is an important step in the practice of yoga, whether for total abandonment of the outer world and liberation of the being, or as an ...
Views: 621 - The Transitional Stage of Shifting from the Outer Surface Consciousness to the Inner Consciousness - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2021 from santosh krinskyAt a certain stage of spiritual development, seekers tend to go through a phase where the world, its actions, objects, goals and results seem to be an illusion. The philosophical path of Mayavada resulted from just such an insight and experience. The seeker sees that everything is transitory and ...
Views: 508 - Understanding the Witness Consciousness — the Separation of Purusha and Prakriti - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe tend to identify with the perceptions, sensations, desires, feelings and thoughts we experience and through the ego-consciousness, we take ownership of them and believe that they are what makes up our unique individuality. When we sit quietly, and turn our attention away from the outer world, ...
Views: 628 - The Need to Open and Bring Forward the Inner Psychic Being - by Submitted on Jul 26, 2021 from santosh krinskyHumanity has tried countless ways to solve the existential questions and crises that we face living in the world around us and interacting with all other beings who share the space with us. Religion, law, social development, economic development, technology, and others have each had their chance ...
Views: 569 - Spiritual Experiences Are Real - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor the individual who has a spiritual experience, one of the most notable characteristics is the absolute and incontrovertible ‘reality’ of the experience. Yet, people who live primarily in the surface consciousness tend to treat such experiences, when related, as somehow less real or even ...
Views: 605 - Spiritual Experiences Are Real - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor the individual who has a spiritual experience, one of the most notable characteristics is the absolute and incontrovertible ‘reality’ of the experience. Yet, people who live primarily in the surface consciousness tend to treat such experiences, when related, as somehow less real or even ...
Views: 584 - Understanding and Bridging the Gap Between the Outer Surface Existence and the Inner Being - by Submitted on Jul 24, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe Upanishads describe an aspect of reality that is generally blocked from the external awareness of the body-life-mind complex. The Isha Upanishad states: “The face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid; that do thou remove, O Fosterer, for the law of the Truth, for sight.” (Isha ...
Views: 558 - Results of Spiritual Development in the Consciousness - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2021 from santosh krinskyJust as we cannot see electricity, but we can observe its results, or we cannot see the mental process objectively (although one can indeed observe thoughts processing internally), but we can see its impact in the world, so with the spiritual development, which is more subtle than the mental ...
Views: 584 - Experience and Signs of Spiritual Development in the Consciousness - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen we experience something in the physical body, it is a sensation that carries a nervous impulse to the brain, which interprets whether it is cold or hot, dry or wet, painful or pleasurable, etc. Similarly, vital reactions and emotions are experienced through the release of various hormones ...
Views: 588 - Becoming Aware of the Inner Being and Taking Up the Spiritual Life - by Submitted on Jul 21, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor most people, their lives are focused on their external relationships, their own individual self-satisfaction and their ability to manipulate their social and environmental reality to achieve objectives set by their ego-personality. Many do not have any meaningful relationship to any inner ...
Views: 605 - A Change of the Outer Nature Requires First a Change in the Inner Being - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe physical body (actually the entire material world) is subject to habits, and change tends to come slowly. Our being, however, is made up of a series of sheaths which progress from the subtle to the gross physical and thus, any attempt to make a change to the more outward sheaths, the ...
Views: 684 - Perception of the Divine Force Through the Inner Being - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen we flip a light switch, we have faith that there is electricity flowing through the wires and the lights will turn on. We do not actually know or perceive the electricity, but we can see its effects in operation. Similarly, our surface being may see effects of the Divine Force at work in ...
Views: 538 - The Nature and Forms of Spiritual Experience - by Submitted on Jul 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyHow do we distinguish what is an actual spiritual experience? We have an inherent bias towards believing and accepting perceptions and reactions to outer stimuli, the objects of the senses, and the reactions that arise inwardly from those stimuli. When it comes to an inner feeling or experience, ...
Views: 541 - Spiritual Experiences and Spiritual Realisations - by Submitted on Jul 17, 2021 from santosh krinskyOur vital nature crazes ‘excitement’ and to gather ‘experiences’. It is no different for the spiritual aspirant than for the rest of humanity in this regard. Spiritual experiences tend to be extraordinary in the sense that they go beyond the everyday perceptions or sensations and tend to have a ...
Views: 541 - The Knowledge of the Mystics - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyWe generally rely on the information provided by our senses to understand the world we live in. This information, however, is subject to misperception and misinterpretation, leading us to vastly distort the truth of what we ‘know’. For countless years, most of humanity believed that the sun ...
Views: 654 - What Is Spirituality? - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2021 from santosh krinskySurveys done of young people today indicate a strong movement to reduce the role of the mainstream organised religions with people claiming to be “spiritual” not “religious”. What is spirituality and how does it differ from being religious? Religions tend to focus on a fixed belief system and ...
Views: 587 - An Integral Yoga involves Knowledge, Devotion, Works and Self-Perfection - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe integral yoga takes as its goal something far different than most of the individual yogic paths. The goal here is not liberation from the world, dissolution of the individual, or renunciation of action. Rather, the integral yoga calls for the liberation of the nature and the transformation ...
Views: 593 - The Needed Engagement That Enlivens the Outer Forms of Worship - by Submitted on Jul 13, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe inner life-force behind any action is more important than the outer form which it takes. Japa and Mantra can become habitual and repetitive, and if that happens, the outer shelf remains, but there is nothing alive within. Such japa sadhana has little value. The living energy needed is either ...
Views: 537 - Secrets for the Successful Use of Japa or Mantra for Spiritual Realisation and Daily Life - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are tales of devotees reciting various mantras millions of times in order to achieve some boon or result in their spiritual progress. The mantra, or the recitation of a name of God, is the sound-body of the form or deity and thus, the theory goes, continued repetition of that name or sound ...
Views: 561 - OM, the Mantra and the Use of Mantra in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 11, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe ancient Mandukya Upanishad describes OM in considerable detail as the sound-body of the Universe: “OM is this imperishable Word, OM is the Universe, and this is the exposition of OM. The past, the present and the future, all that was, all that is, all that will be, is OM. Likewise all else ...
Views: 588 - External Forms of Worship and Spiritual Growth in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyPractitioners of mainstream religions are very familiar with ritual worship. Much of the activity of religion is scripted around a set formula of external worship that has developed from perhaps an initial experience or, over time, as a result of habitual action. The intended purpose of this ...
Views: 556 - The Principle Behind Mantra and Japa - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyEverything we experience is based on vibrations that impinge upon us and bring about a response in the substance of our being. All matter is created by energy, which consists of vibratory waves. All energy is created by consciousness, which provides the specific impulse of vibration to be ...
Views: 585 - Your Unlimited Unchanging Essence - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2021 from Maetreyii Ma NolanEvery living being loves their life. Everyone wants to be happy. The deer in the field wants to be happy. The wolf, the coyote wants to be happy. The plants, the trees want to be happy. And human beings want to be happy, want to feel that life is sweet. And it is a burden that even the wise ...
Views: 678 - Developing and Expressing the Flame of Divine Love While Avoiding the Misappropriation of the Energy for Lower Vital Gratification - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2021 from santosh krinskySuppression of the vital being and the emotions is often prescribed by those following a spiritual or religious discipline, due to the mixed nature of the expression that occurs in an untransformed and unpurified vital being. It is also true that there have been a number of cases, including high ...
Views: 624 - The Role of the Emotions in the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2021 from santosh krinskyEmotions tend to be hard to deal with. Spiritual seekers recognise that emotions can disrupt the focus and lead the seeker into undesirable vital entanglements. Many spiritual paths counsel cutting off the emotional outlets and renouncing the life in the world. They ask the seeker to abandon ...
Views: 631 - Which Comes First — Devotion or Spiritual Experience? - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2021 from santosh krinskyHow does an individual come to devotion to the Divine? There are well-known instances that involve some kind of key experience of the Divine, such as the story of Saul on the road to Damascus, or even extreme cases such as Dannion Brinkley who was struck by lightning, declared clinically dead ...
Views: 566 - God’s Grace or God’s Duty - by Submitted on Jul 04, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe devotee may begin the process of devotional surrender to the Divine with a form of bargaining, expecting a recompense from God for the efforts made to express the devotion. Thus, people pray and expect an answer to their prayers, or they carry out devotional exercises and expect God to ...
Views: 583 - The Devotee and the Yoga of Devotion, Part 1 - by Submitted on Jul 03, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhich comes first, the experience of the Divine Presence or the aspiration to bask in the Presence? This question arose in a dialogue between a disciple and Sri Aurobindo and led to an extensive response from Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo describes the attitude, motive and dedication of a devotee ...
Views: 628 - The Nature of Bhakti — the Yoga of Devotion - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe path of devotion relies on the heart, not the mind. The seeker who is rooted in his mental process undergoes substantial efforts to achieve spiritual realisation, but may find that the ego-consciousness asserts itself as an arrogant pride of accomplishment, knowledge or understanding. As ...
Views: 598 - The Nature of Divine Love - by Submitted on Jul 01, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere is an apocryphal tale in the Mahabharata which illustrates the nature of Divine Love and the devotion of the seeker. Narad, the divine sage, came across a yogi who was practicing austerities. The yogi took the opportunity to ask how long before he would achieve liberation. When Narada told ...
Views: 572 - The Impersonal Divine and the Personal Divine - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn our typical linear thought process we tend to fixate on either the Impersonal aspect of the Divine, or the Personal aspect, and we treat them as either mutually exclusive or in competition with each other, with some adherents favoring one and some the other. In reality, both aspects are part ...
Views: 621 - The Forms of Divine Love - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are two primary manifestations of Divine Love experienced and reported by seekers and devotees around the world, irrespective of particular religious or philosophical backgrounds. The first is a focus on the personal manifestation of the Divine, which brings the seeker to an extremely ...
Views: 645 - Approaching the Transition from Human Love to Divine Love - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere has been a strong impulse among many spiritual or religious traditions to reject all manifestations of human love as flawed and imperfect expressions of what love is intended to be in the Divine viewpoint. It is of course evident that most of what passes for love in the world has its ...
Views: 614 - Human Love and Divine Love - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2021 from santosh krinskyHow do we understand the term ‘love’ in the context of spiritual sadhana? We bring to the term a large number of impressions, ideas, and conceptions based on our cultural background, educational upbringing and socialization in our society. We have no direct experience, for the most part, of ...
Views: 635 - Helpful Tips About the Practice of Meditation - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe 3 gunas of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas are active in all things, even in the approach we take to the practice of meditation. Understanding these modes and the specific types of energy they each represent can aid us in tuning the meditation practice for ultimate positive results. Tamas ...
Views: 726 - Distinguishing the Location of the Conscious Awareness from the Object of Meditation - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyIt is a somewhat frequent occurrence that the instruction to meditate on the space behind the heart, or between the eyebrows is taken to be the meditation itself. There is a difference between where one “seats” one’s consciousness during meditation and the object of the meditation. Sri Aurobindo ...
Views: 748 - Practical Tips Regarding Meditation - by Submitted on Jun 24, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe first point that should be considered is why one wants to meditate and what the expected result should be. This is important because it helps set the internal expectation and helps thereby in understanding the different aspects, both internal and external, that can influence the result. ...
Views: 713 - Samadhi, the Yogic Trance, and the Waking Realisation - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe yogic trance, samadhi, is considered a goal for the spiritual seeker, providing access to the realisation of spiritual Oneness. In the integral yoga, however, dropping of the outer life and activity and entering into a trance state is not the end goal. The consciousness that is experienced ...
Views: 724 - Samadhi and the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jun 22, 2021 from santosh krinskyTraditional paths of yoga, and in particular the yoga practice organised and codified by Patanjali, hold Samadhi as an ultimate state of consciousness that puts the seeker into a state of superconscious reality that effectively links him to the Divine reality and purpose of existence. Swami ...
Views: 795 - Concentration in the Mental Centre to Achieve the Realisation of the Divine Presence in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jun 21, 2021 from santosh krinskyTraditional yogic disciplines advise the seeker to concentrate between the eyebrows, chanting OM and focusing on the Divine Will. Sri Aurobindo notes this practice, and develops it to provide access to the higher ranges of consciousness above the mental level. The Isha Upanishad notes that there ...
Views: 759 - Concentration in the Heart Centre to Achieve the Realisation of the Divine Presence in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2021 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo describes two main areas of concentration within the being, the heart centre and the head. For most people, the concentration in the heart centre turns out to be the safest and easiest to achieve realisation. Yoga, to be effective, must move beyond either a purely mental exercise ...
Views: 736 - The Process of Concentration in Yoga, Part 2 - by Submitted on Jun 19, 2021 from santosh krinskyConcentration of various sorts is a part of yogic development generally. In most cases, particular paths recommend very specific forms of concentration, whether it be visualisation, recitation of mantras, or specific devotional exercises. The integral yoga also utilizes concentration, but does ...
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