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- 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: 0 - The Psychic Being and the Process of Rebirth Provide the Basis for a Real Purpose and Meaning in Life - by Submitted on Mar 20, 2026 from santosh krinskyHumanity has grappled with finding a meaning and purpose to life since time immemorial. We ask ourselves, why have we been born? Is there a meaning to life? What are we here to do? Is life simply about acquiring wealth, status, power and creating offspring? Is there anything else that acts as ...
Views: 1 - The Witness and the Nature: Purusha and Prakriti - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhen we take the time to observe our own internal process, we can very quickly become aware of a part of the being that is able to observe and monitor thoughts and impulses that run through the mental space. Many paths of awareness, such as Raja Yoga, and mindfulness training, teach us how to ...
Views: 2 - Ghosts, Vital Formations and the After Death Experience - by Submitted on Mar 18, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe Taittiriya Upanishad describes the process of departure of the soul from an embodiment in the world: “The Spirit who is here in a man and the Spirit who is there in the Sun, it is one Spirit and there is no other. He who knoweth this, when he hath gone away from this world, passeth to this ...
Views: 3 - The Soul Exists in All Living Beings - by Submitted on Mar 17, 2026 from santosh krinskyWe frequently mistake the development of the external form as representing the state of the soul. In human beings, this often takes the form of assigning worth or status based on education, race, social position within the societal hierarchy, wealth or positions of power. None of these things, ...
Views: 4 - Distinguishing Soul from Vital Being - by Submitted on Mar 16, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe lack of experience and recognition of the action of the soul makes it difficult for most people to understand the reality of the soul. For this reason, people tend to confuse the true soul with the vital soul of desire, which Sri Aurobindo calls the ‘desire-soul’. This is an expression of ...
Views: 5 - The Soul and the Evolutionary Nature of the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Mar 16, 2026 from santosh krinskyA seed contains the entire genetic code from which the external form, energetic capacity and mental abilities of a living being develop. It can be seen as the most concentrated form of that being, a form that nevertheless has the capacity, through time, of manifesting a physical form, a vital ...
Views: 5 - The Evolution of the Psychic Being Across Innumerable Lifetimes - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2026 from santosh krinskyThere is considerable confusion about the concept of rebirth and the development and growth of the psychic being across multiple lifetimes. Popular imagination has it that the same individual personality is reborn, and that under certain circumstances, past lives can be identified and recalled. ...
Views: 7 - Evolutionary Beings and Static Typal Beings in the Universal Manifestation - by Submitted on Mar 13, 2026 from santosh krinskyAs with many words in the English language, the word soul has various nuanced meanings as Sri Aurobindo explains. English as a very fluid language can at times be very imprecise in this way. This, however, is just one of the issues Sri Aurobindo takes up here in the citation below. One very ...
Views: 7 - Distinguishing Psychic Experience from Occult or Abnormal Experience - by Submitted on Mar 12, 2026 from santosh krinskyHow does one distinguish between psychic experience, as defined by Sri Aurobindo, as soul experiences, from the vast array of experiences that occur on the mental or vital planes that have been called ‘psychic’ phenomena? Once one has the clue about the different parts of the being and their ...
Views: 9 - The Soul, the Psychic Being, Is the Element That Makes the Divine Force Conscious for the External Being - by Submitted on Mar 11, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe soul, the psychic being, is a portion of the Divine that resides deep within. For most people, who are living in the surface consciousness primarily, the existence of the soul is a question mark, if they think about it at all. As we grow and face life’s challenges, however, we may begin to ...
Views: 10 - Resurrecting the Ancient Knowledge of the Various Planes and Parts of the Being - by Submitted on Mar 11, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn the Kena Upanishad, the powers of the physical plane, the vital plane and the mental plane all believe they are predominant and can wield their power to achieve whatever they want. These powers are embodied in the form of Agni on the physical plane, Vayu on the vital plane and Indra on the ...
Views: 10 - The Psychic Being Carries the Essence of the Soul’s Experience from Life to Life - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2026 from santosh krinskyWe tend to look at things through the standpoint of the external physical being, the body, life and mind with which we identify. From this standpoint we treat the soul as something that we need to search for, if we even acknowledge the existence of the soul, and as something secondary to and ...
Views: 11 - If the world is an illusion meant to be transcended, why does it exist at all? - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2026 from Dada BhagwanTo answer your question, let’s study the following words of Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an Enlightened being, very carefully. He says: “This puzzle has come about on its own, governed by the laws of science. I am telling you that this world is run only by Scientific Circumstantial Evidences. In ...
Views: 12 - 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: 11 - A Deeper Meaning to Our Existence - by Submitted on Mar 07, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhat if the life we lead is not our true purpose on earth? What if there is more to our existence than the daily round that we carry out, day after day, year after year, changing only the external trappings and specific activities, but falling into a similar groove regardless? How many of us ...
Views: 13 - 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: 14 - The Soul and the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Mar 05, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn his poem Savitri, Sri Aurobindo provides imagery to describe the nature and role of the soul, and the significance of the psychic being hidden deep within, carrying our human experience and human life to its eventual fulfillment. Sri Aurobindo writes: "But since she knows the toil of mind ...
Views: 15 - The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution Introduction - by Submitted on Mar 04, 2026 from santosh krinskyThere is considerable confusion about the nature of the soul. A sizable portion of humanity denies the existence of the soul, while another segment of humanity reduces its ‘value’ below that of material possessions and outward satisfactions. The ego-personality, bound up in the actions and ...
Views: 13 - Srimad Bhagavatam - by Submitted on Mar 04, 2026 from juliana foleyHow Srimad Bhagavatam Guides Daily Spiritual Living In the modern world, people often search for meaning, balance, and inner peace while navigating the pressures of daily life. Many struggle to find guidance that goes beyond temporary solutions and touches the deeper aspects of human ...
Views: 16 - Bases of Yoga: Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn various places, Sri Aurobindo has noted that yoga is applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is confronted by all of the instincts, habits, trained responses and reactions of human nature and is asked to address and change these in order to uplift the human being to the next stage of the ...
Views: 16 - Addressing Physical Fatigue Experienced by the Spiritual Seeker - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2026 from santosh krinskyMany paths of spiritual practice disregard the needs of the physical body as being irrelevant, distracting, or obstructive to their spiritual development. This has not always been the case. The ancient Greek culture focused on a ‘sound mind in a sound body’ as an ideal. The ancient Vedic ...
Views: 21 - 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: 23 - The Lack of Transcription or Bridges of Consciousness Prevents Awareness of the Waking Consciousness of Experiences of Deep Sleep and Other Alternative States of Awareness - by Submitted on Feb 22, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhere does the consciousness go when we are deep asleep? Numerous reports tell us that it can go out to other planes or realms, or down into subconscious levels, or up into superconscious levels. When we awaken from sleep, we generally are unable to describe what we did during sleep or where we ...
Views: 25 - Transforming the Character Of Sleep - by Submitted on Feb 21, 2026 from santosh krinskyGiving the body the rest and recuperative time it needs, the spiritual aspirant still has to deal with the effects of what is normally a descent into a more tamasic status that can have its impacts on the waking consciousness. If we wake up tired, groggy or cloudy, we have not only not fully ...
Views: 25 - Transforming Sleep, Not Suppressing It - by Submitted on Feb 20, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna: “Verily this Yoga is not for him who eats too much or sleeps too much, even as it is not for him who gives up sleep and food, O Arjuna.” (Bhagavad Gita and Its Message, tr. by Sri Aurobindo, Ch. 6, V. 16) It is interesting to note that one of ...
Views: 26 - Symbolic Dreams - by Submitted on Feb 20, 2026 from santosh krinskySymbolic dreams are common and in many cases, similar thematic elements show up for most people. These dreams attempt to raise up from the subconscious levels some underlying need, concern, fear, or persistent issue that remains unresolved in the external life. Sigmund Freud, in his work on The ...
Views: 25 - The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of… - by Submitted on Feb 20, 2026 from santosh krinskyOnce we break out of the limitations set by Western psychologists, such as Freud, in our attempt to understand the nature of dreams, we can explore the much wider and more nuanced potential causes, triggers, images and significances of dreams. We find it hard to appreciate that there are ...
Views: 25 - Dreams and Their Significance - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2026 from santosh krinskyWestern psychology has taken a very narrow, and therefore quite inadequate, view of the nature of dreams. There are several primary ways dreams are analyzed in the West. The first is the purely mechanical structuring of dreams as a chaotic processing of ‘undigested’ residues of the observations, ...
Views: 25 - Sleep, Dream, Waking Consciousness, Self-Awareness and Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe physical consciousness is the primary seat of the Guna of Tamas in the being, in general, and thus, when the waking consciousness of the mental and vital levels is in abeyance during sleep, there is a natural tendency for the tamasic energy to come forward for a time. One of the first ...
Views: 26 - The Promise of a Greater Psychology Integrating Knowledge of the Whole With Understanding of the Parts - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe Greek philosopher Plato, after deep consideration, reached the conclusion that some higher principle was real, which he called ‘Forms” or ‘Ideas’, and that the physical reality we see and experience is the result, not the cause. This concept is in consonance with the Vedic understanding. ...
Views: 30 - Sleep and Sadhana - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhat happens when we sleep? Where does the consciousness go? For most people, sleep is a blank state. We have little awareness of what goes on during sleep, except for times when we are having a dream in a state near enough to the waking state that we actually remember details from the dream. We ...
Views: 29 - The Practice of Attempted Elimination of Unwanted Vital Movements Through Purposeful Indulgence, Part 2 - by Submitted on Feb 13, 2026 from santosh krinskyAn individual dedicated some years to study and spiritual development. He gathered a small group of young people around him and took on the role of a teacher. He had obviously studied the texts and spent some time practicing them. He gained an aura of charisma for the young people who came under ...
Views: 34 - The Practice of Attempted Elimination of Unwanted Vital Movements Through Purposeful Indulgence, Part 1 - by Submitted on Feb 12, 2026 from santosh krinskyThere is a theory, current in various spiritual paths, as well as in various attempts to overcome certain unwanted behaviours in the ordinary life, that by purposeful indulgence, through ‘experience’ (anubhava), the individual can overcome the undesired impulse, craving or desire. The idea is ...
Views: 35 - Psychoanalysis and the Practice of Yoga, Part 2 - by Submitted on Feb 11, 2026 from santosh krinskyFreud made a breakthrough for the development of Western psychology that finally recognised that the human being responds to situations and circumstances, not solely on the superficial, transactional level, but also from suppressed, subliminal and subconscient activities that actually have a ...
Views: 31 - Psychoanalysis and the Practice of Yoga, Part 1 - by Submitted on Feb 10, 2026 from santosh krinskyA narrow focus of extreme specialisation is a major cause of inaccurate assessment and therefore, inappropriate decisions and action. This is, however, a symptom of our modern-day fixation on mental analysis rather than on an approach that integrates the various parts into a coordinated whole, ...
Views: 32 - Vigilant Awareness Is Needed to Manage the Energies That Arise in the Lower Regions of the Being - by Submitted on Feb 09, 2026 from santosh krinskyMost people respond to life as it comes to them and react according to the energy that they are able to receive and process in some form or another. They remain immersed in the external personality. They become the fear, the anger, the hunger, the thirst, the craving, the pleasure, the pain, the ...
Views: 31 - The Awakening of the Yoga-Shakti in the Inner Being - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe chakras are subtle energy centers, not physical centers in the body, although they generally correspond to various physical capacities ranged along the external body. They essentially act as vibrational ‘receptors’ and transmitters of energies. When they are closed or very much shut down, ...
Views: 35 - Addressing the Opening of the Lower Vital Being - by Submitted on Feb 07, 2026 from santosh krinskyEvery part of the being eventually has to open and become receptive to the higher spiritual forces. This will lead to changes in the way these aspects of the external being respond and function. This is a progressive process over time. If the lower vital parts of the being get a surge of energy ...
Views: 34 - The Light Is Needed to Clear the Subconscient of Undesired Responses - by Submitted on Feb 06, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn the Rig Veda, there is a legend about a cave of the Panis which Sri Aurobindo has explained as a description of how the subconscient captures and holds the higher divine Light and encloses it away in the darkness. The illumined mind and the higher powers of awareness break open this ...
Views: 36 - Training the Subconscient to Respond to the Higher Spiritual Will - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2026 from santosh krinskyAs the seeker begins to observe the movements of the external nature closely, he can identify certain repetitive patterns of response, including impulses to stimuli of various sorts, cravings, desires, fears, frustrations, anger, and attraction. All of these are for the most part virtually ...
Views: 36 - Heredity, Predispositions from Past Lives and the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn his play Hamlet, William Shakespeare has the protagonist proclaim “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Particularly in the West, anything that references the possibility of past lives, inherited memories or capacities, or experiences, ...
Views: 40 - The Procedure for Elimination of Unwanted Movements in the Being - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2026 from santosh krinskyMedical researchers tell us that bacteria that can cause various disease conditions are always present in our environment, to some degree, including within our bodies. Yet for the most part, we do not become ill or remain ill all the time. The bacteria may be in a diffused or weak form, or our ...
Views: 37 - Universal Forces and Their Impact on the Individual and Means of Protection From Their Action - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2026 from santosh krinskyWe are constantly being inundated by forces active in the world. These forces may be physical, such as the radiation from the sun, radioactivity from the earth, the power of wind, waves, gravitational influences, etc. They may also be vital forces that provoke sympathetic vibrations within us ...
Views: 38 - The Universal, the Individual and the Evolution of Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2026 from santosh krinskyWe see the world from the individual standpoint and place ourselves at the center of it. We believe we originate the thoughts, feelings, emotions and responses we give. This, however, is very much the illusion of the ego-sense. Consider that for the longest time, human beings believed that ...
Views: 37 - The Subconscious, the Subliminal and the Superconscious Influence on Our External Lives - by Submitted on Feb 01, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhen we are focused on our external being, we tend not to recognise that forces unseen actually not only impact how and what we perceive, understand, and respond to impressions and pressures, but actually very much define who we believe we are. There are forces that are subconscient to our ...
Views: 39 - The Nature of the Subconscient - by Submitted on Jan 30, 2026 from santosh krinskyC.G. Jung described what he called the ‘collective unconscious’, a repository of archetypal images and experiences that are universal to humanity. Sigmund Freud explored the subconscious realms of the individual and how they impacted the lives and responses of those individuals. The ...
Views: 41 - 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: 40 - Changing or Eliminating a Habit of the Physical Consciousness - by Submitted on Jan 28, 2026 from santosh krinskyThe physical consciousness is very much driven by habit, routine and fixed response patterns. We can observe this in our eating routines, our sleep routines, and other habitual actions. The mind and the vital can influence the physical consciousness through programming routines or habits into ...
Views: 40 - The Need for Patience and Perseverance to Bring About Evolutionary Change of Consciousness - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2026 from santosh krinskyIt is essential for the spiritual seeker to maintain his view of the long-term objectives and the time frames of the evolution of consciousness in Nature, in order for him to avoid becoming overly anxious about specific setbacks or delays in completing transforming the external physical ...
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