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Sri Aurobindo describes the long, slow process of development of the universal manifestation. There is an evolution of consciousness which takes place over time spanning many millennia, and which does not involve the conscious participation of the individual. At a certain point in time, when the ... Views: 405
Most of the impressions we receive on a day to day basis go unremarked by our conscious awareness, but are nevertheless received and stored away in our subconscious levels. These impressions may rise to the surface during dreams, or be triggered by certain sensations, events or circumstances, ... Views: 405
The mental, vital and physical levels of consciousness are fundamentally limited by their basis in division and fragmentation. They see and categorize their understanding in a way that emphasizes the separateness of the forces at work and the consequences. This makes it impossible to understand ... Views: 405
It is often said that ‘you can’t change human nature’. One of the major obstacles turns out to be the seeds of all past habits, actions, behaviors, reactions and instincts that reside in the subconscious levels of the being. An individual may spend his life culturing his mind, his emotions and ... Views: 403
We struggle with finding meaning in our lives. There is so much strife, so much confusion, so many issues that threaten our very existence as a species. We view enormous changes to the environment, the ever-dwindling supply of fresh water, the imminent collapse of the ocean fisheries, ... Views: 403
The primary functionality of the mind is to organize and classify, breaking down and fragmenting the reality into component parts. We see this easily in the classification systems for flora and fauna, in our detailed review of the genetic structure of life, gene sequencing, and in our ability to ... Views: 403
The confusion about the soul is pervasive at virtually every level of our being. Sri Aurobindo identifies what he calls the ‘desire soul’ which is a formation of the vital being, living on the surface of the consciousness and seeking gratification of desires for the external being. The amalgam ... Views: 402
We tend to live with an illusion of the separateness of our individual being from all others. We treat the physical body as a distinct, self-standing unit that is free and independent, has its own integrity and is essentially isolated in its separateness. This however is not quite the actuality ... Views: 401
Individuals who are primarily rooted in the function of the physical mind have a difficulty in accepting the reality of anything that goes outside their ability to sense and perceive. These individuals will frequently deny the existence of the soul because it cannot be seen, measured or ... Views: 401
Benefits of MVP in Software Development and Cost. Benefits of MVP Development. Cost to Build an MVP. What are the drawbacks of MVP development
MVP in Software Development Cost and Advantages. With technology disrupting every sector, businesses have been switching toward software development, ... Views: 400
The physical mind, which responds to the external objects of the senses and the impact of those external objects, has strict limits within which it can either perceive or understand what it is perceiving. The reality of our existence, however, reaches far beyond the boundaries of response that ... Views: 400
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother make a distinction between the ‘desire soul’ of the vital nature and the ‘true soul’ which expresses the inmost being that is a direct spark of the Divine. They differ in their focus, orientation, and basis of action. The desire soul incorporates the drives of the ... Views: 400
Our ability to perceive is limited both by the scale within which we are able to perceive, as well as the operation of the “all or nothing” phenomenon. Thus, events are occurring, activities are underway at wavelengths below those we can perceive, and above those we can perceive. At some point, ... Views: 399
Most people are not directly aware of their soul, although it is frequently talked about. There seems to be much confusion. Western scientists have tried to determine the existence of the soul like they would measure particular chemical elements within the body. They weigh the body immediately ... Views: 399
One of the most confusing issues for the spiritual seeker is the ‘care and feeding’ of the vital nature. We shift from one extreme to the other in our view of how to bring it under control, for it is virtually uniformly recognised that for spiritual development, the vital nature must be ... Views: 398
We are conscious and aware of forces and energies that operate within a certain specified range. Anything that falls outside that range, whether above or below, remains unseen and unknown to us, even if the forces operative in those superior or inferior ranges impact our thoughts, feelings, ... Views: 398
The awareness of the Soul is a very big thing!
Once one attains the awareness of the Soul, the ultimate liberation is not far away. Ultimate liberation means liberation from the vicious cycle of birth and death.
But since infinite lifetimes, one has not had the awareness of the Soul.
The ... Views: 397
Through long habit, spiritual seekers tend to look at the question of how to attain spiritual liberation involving abandonment of the external life in the world. Not only spiritual seekers raise this question in some form or another. Anyone involved in aesthetic, mental, artistic, or emotional ... Views: 397
A frequently mentioned method in the practice of the integral yoga is the separation of the Witness Consciousness from the Nature (Purusha and Prakriti). This separation allows the seeker to recognise the surface consciousness, the play of body, life and mind based in the ego-sense as separate ... Views: 397
It has been famously stated that we cannot understand the system within which we are acting until we can shift our view to a standpoint outside that frame. As long as we are immersed within any particular system or standpoint, we are locked into the viewpoint and understanding embedded within ... Views: 397
It is not easy for most people to distinguish vital responses such as feelings or emotions from the true expression of the psychic being within them. This is primarily due to the fact that just about everyone bases themselves in the external surface being. We see this confusion when people see ... Views: 396
“All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit. It is this that must be the method of our ... Views: 396
For those who live their lives on the surface, focused on fulfillment of their external lives, desires and their ego-personality, there is generally no direct knowledge of the existence of the soul. They may accept the idea of a soul without a clear sense of what that implies or means. Or they ... Views: 396
We frequently allow our mental process and the limitations of language to create confusion within ourselves. The mind’s primary capacities involve fragmentation and classification; thus, we identify different aspects, parts, beings, roles, events and treat them as separate and distinct from one ... Views: 395
The spiritual seeker invariably hears, repeated constantly, the requirement to overcome the ego and find his true Self. The Self is one with the Divine and shares the divine consciousness, knowledge and impetus to action. The ego, which anchors the sense of a separate and distinct individuality, ... Views: 394
There is another aspect of mind that holds the habits, instincts and trained responses in place. This is what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother call the ‘mechanical mind’. There are uses and benefits to this mind, but it is one of the most rudimentary actions of mind, which arose to provide a ... Views: 394
Each individual is rooted primarily in one of the major component aspects of our human individuality. Some are clearly rooted in the physical and their thoughts, actions and needs are those called for by the physical being. The vast majority of people are moved by their vital being, and are ... Views: 394
The study of human history is one of externalities generally. We memorize dates of important events and try to lay the responsibility for certain subsequent actions at the door of those events. To hear historians tell it, the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand was the trigger that set off ... Views: 393
When the vital nature is involved, which individual has the power to control its impulsions and demands and keep it focused on the higher aims of life? The vital nature is a powerful and essential component of life on earth. It animates material nature and functions through the force of desire. ... Views: 393
The normal process of mental reception brings in numerous thought-forms, based on the receptivity of the individual and the wideness of his sources of information and mental energy. For those who have not systematically developed a process for organising the mind, these thought-froms have no ... Views: 392
As 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: 392
Human beings generally have little patience or endurance. Particularly in today’s world, where we expect “immediate” gratification, we want something to get done quickly, easily and permanently. If we work on a particular issue we notice in our being, we want to see results and not have to ... Views: 392
Principally, only when Self-Realization has been attained, one can move towards Moksh!
During the process of Self-Realization:
The deluding demerit karmas covering our Soul get destroyed.
The separation between the body and the Soul takes place.
The understanding of ‘I am the pure Soul’ ... Views: 391
The external being wants to have a stable basis by which it can understand and act in the world. The tools that support this stable basis include habit, fixed tendencies, instincts, education, memory and even the way the mental processes work, comparing new impulses of the senses to past memory ... Views: 391
When we observe the nerves and their role in our actions, we see that they carry vital sensations within a physical frame to connect our senses and responses to external pressures to the brain, and then, carry impulses back to the organs of action. Most people do not recognise the essential role ... Views: 391
Much of the activity in our lives is governed by the force of habits, whether ingrained in the genetic and species memory as ‘instinctive’ behavior, or built into the structure and function of the anatomy and physiology of our bodies, or developed through various forms of conditioning of our ... Views: 390
The soul is a portion of the Divine specifically detailed to each individual being that is created as part of the universal manifestation. The soul develops the inmost being, the psychic being, through lifetimes of experience. This psychic being grows, matures and transitions through birth and ... Views: 390
When we begin to observe ourselves, the thoughts we entertain, the emotions we express, the feelings we have and accept, the physical reactions that occur within ourselves, it soon becomes clear that we are more ‘reactive’ than ‘active’. We respond to energies, vibrations, pressures from outside ... Views: 390
Western psychologists have identified extreme cases of what they call ‘multiple personality disorder’. This is when an individual has divergent personalities that take over the frontal being and manifest themselves in different ways, in most cases suppressing the others to such a degree that the ... Views: 390
The Taittiriya Upanishad describes a series of planes or sheathes that are ever more subtle, with the outermost sheath being the physical being, and then the vital sheath and the mental sheath, which makes up our ordinary human existence. Each of these sheaths are connected to a plane of ... Views: 389
For most people, there is a tremendous barrier of skepticism about things that they cannot see or experience for themselves, There is also a good deal of ignorance about how things actually work in the world, which can lead to misconceptions and a tendency toward gullibility when someone appears ... Views: 388
As human beings live primarily in the external consciousness on the surface of the being, their experience of existence is centred around and focused on the body, life-force and mind. They do not generally see nor recognise the true soul deep behind the surface, and they see the coming and going ... Views: 388
When a seeker has an unusual experience, when the consciousness shifts to a different standpoint, when new forms of understanding, inspiration, and response suddenly arise, there can be a feeling of intense disorientation, concern, fear or anxiety. ‘What is happening to me?’ Given the ... Views: 387
Human awareness can be compared to an iceberg on the physical plane. The iceberg appears small and insignificant above the surface of the ocean, yet it is massive below the surface, as was found out by the ‘unsinkable’ cruise ship, the Titanic during its maiden voyage. Similarly, the awareness ... Views: 387
There are tales in the Puranas that indicate that even the Gods, if they want to evolve and develop, must take birth on earth in a human incarnation. If we look broadly at the evolution of consciousness from the gross material, to the vital, to the vital-mental and eventually to the mental ... Views: 387
Philosophers, scientists and religious leaders argue about the existence of the soul. Some say the soul does not exist. Some scientists have tried to conduct measurements by weighing the person immediately before and after death to determine if any difference in weight, representing the soul, ... Views: 386
Most people who take up spiritual practices are deeply involved in some kind of regular practice and, as with everything else in the normal life, they look for signs and signals that show they are making progress in their chosen path of development. An experience comes, some new revelatory ... Views: 385
Confusion about the spiritual being and the psychic being is not the only source of misunderstanding about the source of inspirations, feelings, and thoughts that arise as the individual shifts away from exclusive focus on the surface external being and begins to gain experience of the inner ... Views: 385
Most people live their lives centered around the ego-personality and the external life. Their focus and actions are based in the needs, desires and gratifications that are put up by the body, the vital life-energy and the mind. They do not have a conscious relationship with the soul or the most ... Views: 384
What to do about spiritual experiences when they come? When we have a revelation of some sort, when we hear a communication that provides us insight or guidance, how are we to know whether it is truthful or misleading? Can we determine the source of the clairvoyant or clairaudient communication ... Views: 384