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- Understanding God's Ambivalence - by Submitted on Dec 14, 2012 from Mark KellyIt’s not easy being God in that He is all we want to be in and of ourselves, yet what we feel we can’t be without His assistance. Consequently, He is cure and crutch, Love and Judgment, and the all-powerful Light whose inaction makes possible the Dark. God’s ambivalence is deeply troubling – ...
Views: 3210 - Understanding Human Nature - by Submitted on Jul 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyAt some point in life, virtually every individual has an experience which is extremely disappointing and painful, due to a perceived betrayal or undue negative reaction from another person. A great part of human interaction is driven by reactions of jealousy, envy, lust, greed, fear, anger or, ...
Views: 521 - Understanding Planes of Existence or Planes of Consciousness - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe reflect on the evolution of consciousness, how Life evolves out of Matter and Mind evolves out of Life in Matter. Nothing can evolve that has not been previously involved, just as a tree can develop out of an acorn, because the genetic coding is 'involved' in that seed and under the proper ...
Views: 419 - Understanding Psychic and Soul In Their Deepest and Original Sense - by Submitted on Mar 08, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe English language leaves a lot of room for confusion, simply because terminology tends to be imprecise, inexact, or vague. The issue is made even more difficult because, particularly in the West, there is very little understanding of the vast field of consciousness, the various planes and ...
Views: 38 - Understanding Societal Expectations and Their Impact on the Individual and His Development - by Submitted on Dec 09, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe generally fail to recognise how much we tend to take on the coloration of the thoughts and feelings of those around us. Just as a chameleon will adapt its body color to blend into its physical environment, we tend to adapt our ideas, opinions, and feelings to match up with those with whom we ...
Views: 348 - Understanding the Action of the Subconscient - by Submitted on Mar 30, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe field of psychology in the West has developed over the last couple of centuries with a focus on the influence of the subconscious levels on our external lives, fixating on trauma, past events and their effect on the way we respond to circumstances in our lives. This has led to techniques ...
Views: 323 - Understanding the Causes and Prevention of Illness - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere are many ideas about the causes of illness, as well as ways to prevent or cure illness. In the West, the prevalent idea is related to what may be called the “germ invasion” theory, namely, that illness is caused by specific physical ‘germs’ (bacteria or viruses) which invade and overpower ...
Views: 560 - Understanding the Complexity and Risks of Dealing with the Power of Thought Forms - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere is a famous story in the Mahabharata which has a profound meaning when it comes to the application of any power of action in the world, including the power to create thought formations. One of the protagonists in the great war that was fought at Kurukshetra was Arjuna. He was the greatest ...
Views: 280 - Understanding the Concept of Wideness in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on May 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe Vedic Rishis spoke of Satyam, Ritam, Brihat, ‘the truth, the right, the vast’. These represent psychological states into which the yogic practitioner can enter in order to embody the truth of the Brahman. The vast consciousness takes us out of the human egoistic standpoint into an awareness, ...
Views: 566 - Understanding the Concept of Wideness in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on May 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe Vedic Rishis spoke of Satyam, Ritam, Brihat, ‘the truth, the right, the vast’. These represent psychological states into which the yogic practitioner can enter in order to embody the truth of the Brahman. The vast consciousness takes us out of the human egoistic standpoint into an awareness, ...
Views: 535 - Understanding the Consciousness of the Body - by Submitted on Jul 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect on how many actions or operations of the physical body take place without our mental intervention, it becomes clear that the body has its own highly developed, and essential, form of consciousness that operates independently of the mind. One common example is widely experienced. An ...
Views: 428 - Understanding the Cycles and Phases of Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Nov 14, 2022 from santosh krinskySeveral days ago a seeker raised a question, rephrased here: “I read Sri Aurobindo’s writings regularly and for a time they stay active within me, but then, it falls away and I feel blank inside. Am I losing the benefit of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, and if so, how can I ensure that it stays ...
Views: 513 - Understanding the Defense Mechanism of Projection - by Submitted on Apr 12, 2022 from santosh krinskyDue to what we may call ‘observational bias’ we tend to attribute intention and motive to others that we ourselves have internally and project our internal response onto the other party, without knowing exactly what the cause of their action may be from their standpoint. Some of this is due to ...
Views: 580 - Understanding the Defense Mechanism of Rationalization - by Submitted on Apr 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe can clearly see the influence of the vital on the mind when we understand the lengths to which the mind will go to justify satisfaction of the needs, desires or actions of the vital nature. The defense mechanism of ‘rationalization’ is a clear example. We understand, intellectually, that ...
Views: 595 - Understanding the Difference Between Psychic and Spiritual - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyEvery 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 - Understanding the Differences Between the Vital Desire Soul and the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Mar 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe can observe, in our own lives and in the lives of various individuals we see on the ‘world stage’, the difference between those who are driven primarily by the impulses of the external vital nature and the ego-personality, and those who have made contact with the inner being and has developed ...
Views: 168 - Understanding the Existence of and Interaction With the Higher Ranges of Consciousness Above the Mind - by Submitted on Sep 08, 2023 from santosh krinskyJust as all energy operates along a spectrum of vibration from shorter wavelength to longer wavelength, and this spectrum can be perceived within certain limited ranges based on the capacity of our sense instruments (or tools we develop to extend our range of perception), so also consciousness ...
Views: 368 - Understanding the External Medium of Communication and the Inner Force Within the Communication - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere are hidden forces, vibrational patterns that move between people that remain unseen, but have their effect, similar to the way that we do not observe electricity, but we do observe its effects. These vibrational patterns operate without any overt, external medium, simply through ...
Views: 310 - Understanding the Higher Guidance That Directs Our Actions Towards Our Spiritual Destiny - by Submitted on Mar 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we rely on our surface impressions, which are very much based on and influenced by our background, family, society and the values inculcated into us by those relationships, we only are able to truly understand a fraction of what is actually occurring, and generally this is conditioned by ...
Views: 159 - Understanding the Higher Guidance That Directs Our Actions Towards Our Spiritual Destiny - by Submitted on Mar 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we rely on our surface impressions, which are very much based on and influenced by our background, family, society and the values inculcated into us by those relationships, we only are able to truly understand a fraction of what is actually occurring, and generally this is conditioned by ...
Views: 169 - Understanding the Influence of the Subconscient on Our Conscious Experience - by Submitted on Feb 01, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhile we tend to believe that our consciousness is centered in the region of the brain, or in some cases, the heart, there is really a much broader framework for consciousness. There are different forms that consciousness takes. These forms vibrate at different frequencies and are then taken up ...
Views: 65 - 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 - Understanding the Issues of Mastery Over Vibrations Inwardly and in the External World - by Submitted on Nov 24, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe try to control or dominate other people generally through various methods. It is customary in many cultures to subject children to strict discipline and education so that they do things the way the parents or educators like, or they get subjected to some kind of punishment, whether it be ...
Views: 265 - Understanding the Larger Being of Man and the Process of Transformation of the Subconscious - by Submitted on Nov 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyWestern psychoanalysis focused on a specific segment of the overall human psychological makeup, an area that deals with vestigial instincts and suppressed desires and urges. Obviously any opening and examination of this aspect is fraught with both concerns and dangers for the individual seeking ...
Views: 569 - Understanding the Limitations of the Mechanical Mind - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyAt a very basic, rudimentary level, less developed in the evolutionary scale than the physical mind, lies what is termed the ‘mechanical mind’. This level relies heavily on programmed repetition. It is programmed to have a simple instruction set, to repeat continuously whatever ‘sets off’ its ...
Views: 575 - Understanding the Limitations of the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Jun 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe are used to superimposing our higher intellectual control on the physical mind and its operations. The physical mind still acts, but we generally limit its application through this process. At the same time, however, we do not consciously pay attention to its action or the impact of that ...
Views: 582 - Understanding the Limiting Frames of Our Existence and the Process for Breaking Free of the Bonds of those Frames - by Submitted on Dec 07, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs long as we live within a certain frame of understanding, we cannot truly understand who or what we are, or why we do what we do, as we are bound by the limitations of that frame. Thus, as we are born in a particular culture, or a particular society, or a particular religious persuasion, or ...
Views: 342 - Understanding the Masks, False Fronts and Deceptive Appearances We Present to the World and to Ourselves - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is relatively easy to recognise that we are putting up a false front in our dealings with society. We greet people with a smile while in our minds, we may be having an opposite feeling about the person. We flatter people to get ahead in society, knowing that the flattery is not based on ...
Views: 144 - Understanding the Meaning of Vital Formations and Beings That Arise During Meditation - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2024 from santosh krinskyWhen people take up the practice of meditation, they generally do not know much about it. They follow a set of guidelines on ‘how to meditate’ and just let things happen. The result is very much dependent, then, on their state of conscious awareness, and their focus of attention. Meditation is ...
Views: 347 - Understanding the Mechanism of the External Nature and the Way to Overcome Its Limitations - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs the seeker attempts to follow a spiritual path, he frequently finds that he struggles with old habits, desires, feelings, cravings, emotions and ideas. He believes these are part of ‘who he is’ and he thus cannot find a way to overcome them, In some cases, he is deeply attached to some of ...
Views: 381 - Understanding the Moods of the Vital Consciousness - by Submitted on Oct 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen we are busy fulfilling our desires or ambitions, we notice that the vital energy is generally plentiful and positive, we forget about fatigue and want to carry on with exuberance. This is the normal status of the vital energy carrying out its habitual functions in human life and society. ...
Views: 534 - Understanding the Multiple Personalities Within the Being - by Submitted on Nov 20, 2023 from santosh krinskyWestern 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 - Understanding the Nature of Fear and Its Effects on the Being - by Submitted on Jun 27, 2022 from santosh krinskyWherever we focus attention, we create a direct relationship with the object of that attention. It may be through aspiration towards a higher consciousness, devotion to an ideal or through love for a revered guide or teacher; or it may be through the reaction of fear about some person, event or ...
Views: 772 - Understanding the Nature of Love - by Submitted on Oct 16, 2018 from Maetreyii Ma NolanLove is a many-faceted topic. There is love between people, love for nature, love for animals and plants and love for the Divine. What is important in all of these different experiences of love is that you love purely. To know infinite love, you need not live up to anyone’s expectations but only ...
Views: 1437 - Understanding the Need and Limitations for Rules and Guidelines in Social Interactions and Activity in the World - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2021 from santosh krinskyFinding 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 - Understanding the Path of Devotion, Bhakti Yoga - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2023 from santosh krinskyDevotion is not something measured externally by how an individual sings, dances, prays or manifests various signs such as ‘speaking in tongues’, although any one of these activities may indeed be expressions of a deep inner devotion. The measure of devotion is one that reflects the internal ...
Views: 471 - Understanding the Physical Body in its Gross and Subtle Aspects - by Submitted on Jul 07, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen a particular power of consciousness is intended to participate in the evolution in the external world, it utilizes the physical body as the foundation or anchor of its action. This fixes its action in the world, while at the same time, imposes limits on the power due to the watering-down ...
Views: 414 - Understanding the Physical Mind and the Process of Change - by Submitted on Aug 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere is in Nature, a conservative force that resists change. There is a benefit inasmuch as it ensures that life does not devolve into chaos, and there is a further benefit that it forces the change-process to become much more solid and effective in order to eventually bring out the intended ...
Views: 407 - Understanding the Quality of Sincerity in the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on May 10, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe general definition of sincerity as understood in society is the quality of unifying one’s intention with one’s words or actions. This definition is a good starting point for understanding sincerity in the yogic sense. The major difference between the two is the level of inward review and ...
Views: 568 - Understanding the Relationship of Various Parts and Planes of the Being to Our Current External Mental, Vital and Physical Consciousness - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2023 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo frequently describes going inward to discover the deepest inner being, the psychic being, or soul, as one way to come into contact with the truth of one’s existence and unify one’s being with the Divine. This is a way to overcome the artificial wall of separation that we set up ...
Views: 409 - Understanding the Respective Roles of Personal Effort and Divine Grace in the Transformation of Human Nature - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is one thing to adopt, in one’s mind, the idea that since the Divine is doing the work, we need simply accept the idea and let things take their course. It is an entirely different thing if we actually want to accomplish the transformation needed to bring about a change in human nature based ...
Views: 149 - Understanding the Role, Nature and Action of the Vital Mind - by Submitted on Oct 18, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe vital mind is the dominant process for most people in the world today who live an external life and work toward some form of fulfillment, success, progress or development in their lives and in their relations to family, friends, community and their society. Very few, comparatively, are those ...
Views: 581 - Understanding the Separate Aspects of Being That Make Up the Human Individual’s Personality - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2023 from santosh krinskyMost people look at what they consider to be their personality in a very simple and straightforward manner. The mixture of ideas, thought-process, emotional responses, vital reactions, desires and physical needs and cravings is simply ‘who they are’. When they conclude that something needs to ...
Views: 425 - Understanding the Stage of Development of the Vital Man - by Submitted on Jan 01, 2025 from santosh krinskyHuman beings are not all at the same stage of evolutionary development. We can see this clearly when we observe the different interests, ways of responding and directions that people take as they grow and begin to participate in the life of the society and the world at large. We see some people ...
Views: 212 - Understanding the Stage of Striving and the Role of Instincts in Response to External Events - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyBeyond the stage of “flight or fight” we see in panic and the eventual recoil into inertia, where we see the initial reactions of instinct at play, the stage of ‘striving’ begins to harness energy of response by the vital being, albeit still very much under the influence and control of the power ...
Views: 181 - Understanding the Stages of Coping and Mastery in Response to External Events - by Submitted on Feb 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyAt some point in life, the individual becomes aware that the former methods of reacting to circumstances and events are not only counter-productive, but actually harmful to their own health and well-being and the successful resolution of the situation. Struggling and striving, fighting and ...
Views: 172 - Understanding the Stages of Panic and Inertia That Arise When Facing Difficulties and Obstacles in Life - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2025 from santosh krinskyBoth panic and inertia are responses to situations that arise in the life of individuals. They come about when something new or unexpected comes forward to challenge the individual. In the case of panic, there is clearly a perception of danger, and the rising of fear in the being. This drives ...
Views: 191 - Understanding the Terminology in Sri Aurobindo’s Use of the Words ‘Soul’ and ‘Psychic’ - by Submitted on Mar 06, 2026 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo’s use of the terms ‘soul’ and ‘psychic’ started out with the common usage of the time, but as his work developed, he determined it was best to create a more precise terminology than was commonly in use. In order to appreciate the nuances involved and follow along with the central ...
Views: 38 - Understanding the Transmission of Our Vital Inheritance - by Submitted on Nov 28, 2023 from santosh krinskyFew are those individuals who were conceived through a consecrated and conscious act of prayer and dedication by the parents. Those individuals are blessed with the opportunity to live a life of dedication and devotion. Most people, however, are conceived without much thought or consideration ...
Views: 384 - Understanding the Various Aspects of Mental Activity - by Submitted on Jul 31, 2023 from santosh krinskyWestern medical researchers have invested a considerable amount of time and attention on gaining an understanding of the way the brain functions, mapping the regions of the brain responsible for various types of activities, and monitoring the function of neurotransmitter chemicals and nervous ...
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