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For those who focus on liberation from the worldly life, it is not much of a consideration to understand the exact details of the vital nature. If they can find a way to eliminate or reduce its action overall, so that they can concentrate on the process of liberation, that is considered ... Views: 661
We all know how the Corona pandemic took the entire world in its grasp. The infection hasn’t yet gone entirely, and different countries around the world are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates. But if there is one thing common among the 186 countries across the world, ... Views: 661
There is considerable confusion about the various terms used to describe the spiritual quest and the reality of our individual existence. Sri Aurobindo distinguishes and defines the different aspects or elements and their role in spiritual practice. There is additional confusion around the term ... Views: 660
According to the science of karma, what counts the most is one’s inner intentions. Based on these intentions, good or bad karma get bound. And once, any karma is bound, it is bound to catch you. In next birth, one’s actions shall take place in line with the intentions made now, and accordingly, ... Views: 659
The aspiration and goal of seekers from time immemorial is the Eternal, which represents a status outside of the normal functioning of body-life-mind, that is, outside our normal experience. Through achievement of samadhi, the consciousness enters into the experience of pure existence, ... Views: 658
If we examine the nature of love as we see it in human society, there is a considerable amount of expectation, as well as ‘bargaining’, in our expressions of love. We tend to expect that the object of our love will reciprocate and return a measure of love, or some other concrete manifestation of ... Views: 657
Sri Aurobindo explores the methods of converting work into ‘karma yoga’ with several additional ways to approach this. The development of an inner ‘witness consciousness’, the purusha which is separate from the outer active nature, prakriti, is an intermediate stage beyond those which involve ... Views: 655
Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929, died April 4, 1968, was the most visible American civil rights leader from 1955 until his assassination. He furthered civil rights through nonviolence, motivated by his Christian beliefs and the peaceful activism of Mahatma Gandhi. We suspect this ... Views: 654
The universe is a work being continually perfected; though unseen, it is justice, compassion in action. Those who resist and resent what comes their way—who fight with its unending waves that rock their contrived sense of reality—are actually the ones who live without real choice.
They must ... Views: 653
The Bhagavad Gita devotes considerable focus to the operation of the three gunas, qualities of the action of the nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. The Gita indicates that all actions are modified and controlled by the action of the gunas. This includes the practice of spiritual sadhana. Rajas ... Views: 653
An interior designing institute is one of the best ways to go for in-depth knowledge of interior design and the application of interior designing principles in a business environment. Most interior designing institutes offer courses from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Students ... Views: 653
For most people, everything that takes place in the mind is simply mental activity. Psychology as a science in the West has only, in recent years, begun to appreciate there are different types of intelligence that, presumably, arise from different sources. The discussion of “left brain” and ... Views: 653
When an action takes place in the world, it has a number of effects both in the world, and in the psychology of the individual carrying out the action. Each action creates a formation, a rhythm, or a solid result that tends to perpetuate and repeat itself on an ongoing basis. Thus, the more we ... Views: 651
When the seeker becomes aware of the need for consecration and the aspiration awakens within him, he can become very impatient with the obstacles put up by the ego as it works to maintain and enhance its position. After all, the ego has developed over long periods of time as a stage toward ... Views: 651
Umrah is the lovely Sunnah of our Prophet (PBUH) and it is commended to perform Umrah to invigorate the Muslim's faith in Allah, Prophet PBUH, and day of judgment. In Umrah, the pilgrim will visit Kaaba, places in Makkah, and Ziarat in Madinah at entirely sensible rates. Our organization is a ... Views: 651
An individual has a peak spiritual experience, or something unusual takes place in his inner life about which he has no prior knowledge or understanding. This creates an impulse to speak of the experience to other people. There can be a number of motivations for talking about an inner experience ... Views: 648
We see something with our eyes or hear something with our ears and we believe that we know that it is an external reality, which we all perceive and can agree upon. We put in a separate category those things that we perceive through forms of knowing that do not depend on sense perception, and ... Views: 647
The paradigm that has ruled Western psychology has focused on treating the individual as a discrete entity, separate and apart from everyone else, and independent of his environment. Pressure may be exerted by societal influences, economic influences or family relationships and expectations, but ... Views: 645
Every language has its limitations, particularly surrounding areas of development that were not central to the people who developed and utilized that language. This makes it difficult to translate concepts that are self-evident in one language easily or effectively into another language. This ... Views: 644
In the normal life of an individual in society, the ego is important, although it’s actions must be managed to permit people to find ways to work together and achieve results. Wherever we turn, we can see the benefits of keeping the ego in check and subordinating the individual’s role within a ... Views: 643
For most people there is never a moment of silence in the mind. A constant churning of thoughts, ideas, desires, plans, wishes, concerns, feelings, emotions, perceptions, and needs keeps mental activity of one sort or another always going. We seem to actually fear the silence, so if the inner ... Views: 643
Personal growth and inner growth, the enhancement of the human being and its capabilities and the transcendence of the human being to develop a being awake and active with a new level of consciousness, are not in conflict with one another. The human being must develop to a certain degree to ... Views: 642
After intensive mental awakening, vital experiences of spiritual significance, and the emotional uplift and fervour of devotion, there comes a period when the work shifts to the physical mind and framework, and change, that seemed to be so close and real, now seems to be illusory and just about ... Views: 642
The mental intellect receives impulses through the senses, organises them, and trues to determine what is true based on that. It then builds hypotheses, theories and ideation around its assortment of perceptions, memory, and experience based on various principles of symbolic logic that it has ... Views: 640
The vital nature has an innate drive towards fulfillment and satisfaction of desire. Since most individuals are oriented towards the outer life, the fulfillment comes through attaining desirable objects of the vital focus. This can be accumulation of wealth, it can be family, fame or achievement ... Views: 638
Humanity has a tendency to try to judge everything by its existing level of perception and knowledge. Thus, for most of human existence, people ‘knew’ that the sun rotated around the earth and that the earth was the center of the universe around which everything else moved and upon which ... Views: 638
Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist, is remembered as one of the greatest physicists of all time. Einstein created the theory of relativity and made important contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics. Below we list examples of his words of wisdom.
“A man's ethical ... Views: 637
“What goes around comes around” and “karma” both basically indicate that there is a factor in existence that rewards good deeds and punishes bad deeds. But do we really see that things work this way? Is there some divine entity sitting up in the clouds, watching our good and bad actions, and ... Views: 636
In the ordinary life in the world, the action of vital desire, and the attempt to fulfill the desires is accepted to such a degree that it is not even consciously noted or treated as anything other than ‘human nature’. Society sets certain customary restraints or limits in order to build a civil ... Views: 636
Near the top of the “wish list” for most spiritual aspirants is achieving “peace”. This is generally understood however in a very personal sense to alleviate the turmoil, dissention and conflict that invariably arises in our normal circumstances living in the world. It is rarely appreciated ... Views: 635
When we first met, I told my husband I was very adaptable. I didn’t realize the price of being a chameleon until I started recovery and my journey of individuation. By then I was dead inside. I’d spent years adapting to abuse and belittling that I’d absorbed. I was detached from my feelings and ... Views: 635
Western scientists describe the various stages of sleep. Yet they are looking at sleep from outside and do not know how to correlate the stages with the movement of consciousness during sleep. They recite facts based on observation and brain wave activity and pronounce that one is experiencing ... Views: 635
One of the most frequent concerns raised by people generally is their inability to get a good night’s sleep. Insomnia, as well as restless sleep, seems to be a widespread concern. Among practitioners of yoga, the concern goes even farther, in that they desire to convert sleep into a luminous, ... Views: 634
The Supreme Divine is “One without a second”. Yet we can still make mental distinctions between the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual aspects of the Divine, as that is the nature of the mental consciousness, and we can focus on one or another of these aspects without forgetting the ... Views: 634
The sexual impulse and energy is one of the basic primary drives in Nature and is widespread in the animal kingdom, although there are instances of asexual reproduction. The drive is so powerful that it can drive beings to extreme lengths, even killing off rivals, or fighting to maintain ... Views: 634
Most of the world’s population believes in the concept of guardian angels in some way or another; everyone has at least one invisible spiritual helper looking out for his or her best interests. You can make the most of your guardian angels by following the advice below.
“The angels as the ... Views: 633
An individual experiences a craving, an urge, a desire and automatically tries to fulfill it through some action. If it is hunger or thirst, the individual wants to eat or drink. If it is a more complex desire, something that cannot simply be accomplished, the mind is brought into the picture to ... Views: 633
Dr. Dalal identifies other manifestations of the physical mind which can present issues for an individual. Everyone has had the experience, at some point or another, of thoughts that keep revolving around in the brain, and no matter how much one tries, they continue to crop up and recur. We chew ... Views: 632
There is a difference between action undertaken with the usual motives in the normal course of human life, and actions undertaken by the spiritual seeker attempting to achieve spiritual growth and realisation of the Divine. The outer form of action, in and of itself, does not make an action ... Views: 632
Spiritual experience and progress can be confusing. In many cases the seeker is misled or misunderstands what is actually taking place, and the significance of it. Spiritual paths generally recommend the seeker find an experienced guide, or Guru, among other reasons, to help mitigate confusion ... Views: 631
As Sri Aurobindo has indicated, the practice of yoga is a science of applied psychology. The normal and habitual patterns of response that we exhibit need to be both understood and modified, energies redirected, and new forces allowed to intervene and exert their influence in our lives. ... Views: 630
The question of ‘hostile forces’ is one that generally needs a certain amount of reflection. In the West, the major religious denominations frequently speak of the devil, the fallen angels, Satan, and other beings to which they attribute a malignant power that pressures human beings to commit ... Views: 630
Faith, as described by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, is not a dogmatic acceptance of a system of ideas or ‘articles of faith’; rather, it is a form of knowledge that arises from deeper within, from the soul and its connection with the universe, which provides a certainty that goes beyond the ... Views: 629
Those who take up the spiritual quest face numerous difficulties along the way. Old habits and ways of seeing and acting are suddenly challenged, while at the same time energies long subdued or depressed may arise as the various chakras begin to open and pour out their energy. The various parts ... Views: 629
Why do men have crystal ball readings? It often depends on how seriously a person takes their life. Some can be very laid back and leave it to luck to sort out their aspirations and problems - of course, those are usually the ones whose life never improves and gets worse or stays bad and ... Views: 629
Most people, embedded in the physical body and its consciousness, find it difficult, if not impossible, to accept or validate the reality of the out of body experience. At the same time, there are countless anecdotes of people who have an out of body experience, or the related ‘near death ... Views: 628
Finding and holding the right balance between the inner life and the outer action is one of the constant difficulties facing the seeker. In the ordinary human life, focus on the outer world and its demands takes precedence and there is little or no emphasis on an inner life. During this phase, ... Views: 627
There is an impulse to share something that we find valuable in our own lives. This impulse is oftentimes harnessed by religious organizations or spiritual groups to become a method of proselytizing and conversion, and in some cases, it can become a situation filled with pressure on the ... Views: 626
The focus on attacks by hostile forces, and difficulties faced, easily engages the ego-personality in a form of vanity. It strengthens the hold of the ego, rather than loosening attachment to open the way for the shift to the divine standpoint. When it takes a rajasic form, the ego glorifies in ... Views: 626
In today’s world, depression is a widespread malady that affects people throughout the world. In many cases, pharmaceutical drugs are known to have potential ‘side effects’ that can cause depression, thoughts of suicide, or other dark moods that inhibit the ability of the individual to function ... Views: 625