Self Improvement Site
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
Spiritual Growth Articles
Agustina Thorgilsson is The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to "Spiritual Growth". You can find complete information on Agustina Thorgilsson and her products by visiting www.lifenavigation.com.
- Basic Overview of the Vital Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe life force brings mobility and increased responsiveness compared to the physical being. It operates primarily under the impulsion of attraction and repulsion. The predominant quality or Guna is Rajas, which brings energy, action, and progress, while at the same time, its deformations can ...
Views: 142 - Yogic Psychology - by Submitted on Feb 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyWestern psychology is still a relatively young science, and it necessarily does not have the complete picture of all the complex interactions that take place within our being. By starting to look inwards, and starting to deal with the powers of mind, will, emotion, nervous impulses and ...
Views: 142 - Key Differences Between Human and Animal Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhat makes the human consciousness different from the animal consciousness? A primary factor is the possibility that a human being has for detaching himself from total involvement in the external life, and along with that, the opportunity for evolutionary growth. Dr. Dalal observes: “The ...
Views: 152 - The Value and Importance of Looking from Within - by Submitted on Feb 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyExternal impressions, sensations, impulsions, events all traverse the nervous pathways from the sense organs to the mind, which tends to react to these sensations and thereby remains in a constant state of disturbance. In the modern world, with our addiction to social media, mobile phones, ...
Views: 155 - Introduction to Looking from Within: A Seeker’s Guide to Attitudes for Mastery and Inner Growth - by Submitted on Feb 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyHow do we look at our lives? Do we find any meaning or purpose in living? Or are we just here to live a material existence, enjoy ourselves as much as possible, try to avoid suffering and eventually die without much pain? Many people do not take the opportunity to shift their perspective on ...
Views: 140 - Powers Within: Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe tend to overlook, or underestimate, the powers inherent in our human existence, the powers of the body, the powers of the vital nature, the powers of the mind, the powers of the psychic being, and the power of the spirit. Some of these powers are manifest but not fully understood, explored or ...
Views: 144 - The Supreme Power That Creates, Manifests, Sustains and Guides the Universal Creation - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe go through our daily lives, busy ourselves with earning a living, supporting our families, maintaining our bodies, entertaining ourselves, arguing, fighting, gossiping, and following up on hobbies or passions we are engaged in. We close ourselves into a narrow and limited existence and feel ...
Views: 145 - The Best Way to Help Others and Help the World - by Submitted on Feb 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we want to help alleviate the suffering in the world, or help solve the general concerns, or the more specific individual needs and wants, we come up with an endless number of ideas about ‘how to help’. From an outward perspective these may be highly valuable and useful activities. ...
Views: 155 - The Power of the Spiritual Consciousness Is Needed to Overcome the Limitations of the Mental Approach to Existence - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs the mental consciousness awakens, particularly if there is an influence coming from the psychic being or from the spiritual planes pressing down on the mental being, we become aware of virtually endless problems, issues, difficulties, imbalances, disharmonies and outright conflicts in the ...
Views: 154 - A Reversal of Consciousness Accompanies the Seeker’s Focus on Spiritual Growth - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe read or hear about the accounts of individuals who had some kind of experience, either dramatically uplifting, or severely traumatic, who awaken to a spiritual purpose in their lives which changes the entire direction and focus of what takes place for them afterwards when compared with their ...
Views: 143 - Transcending the Fear of the Unlimited Spiritual Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyA relatively frequent occurrence for the spiritual aspirant is to reach the boundary wall of consciousness and get a glimpse or experience of the spiritual consciousness without limits. This experience, when it comes, may raise up tremendous fear in the individual and he reacts, almost ...
Views: 146 - The Reality of Being Born Into the Spirit - by Submitted on Feb 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople commonly believe that espousing a particular religion or religious doctrine, reading scriptural texts, singing devotional songs, practicing yoga, or meditation or any of the numerous other practices often called ‘spiritual’ makes them spiritual. While these practices may help to turn ...
Views: 148 - The Role of the Soul - by Submitted on Feb 01, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we read in the Puranas of India, we find that there are a host of beings who are essentially non-evolutionary, static beings. They may be gods, demons or animals, or occupy any number of other positions in the scale of the manifested existence. An interesting note, however, is that if they ...
Views: 147 - What is the Role of the Spirit? - by Submitted on Jan 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople are always asking about the difference between spirituality and religion, as well as the difference between the mind and the spirit. The term ‘spirit’ has been used in so many different ways and contexts, that it is hard to comprehend exactly what is meant by it. When ‘spiritual ...
Views: 166 - Intuition and the Need for Self-Surrender - by Submitted on Jan 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe get an intimation of what we should do, how we should respond to a situation. Then all the excuses and justifications and ‘needs’ and temporizing begin, and we find that there are good reasons why we should not do exactly, in the precise way, that the inner guidance tells us something should ...
Views: 204 - To Become a Conscious Instrument of the Divine Action - by Submitted on Jan 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna, at some length, the process of the universal manifestation and how individuals are essentially driven by their nature in relation to the larger forces of the manifestation itself to act in certain ways. For most of these individuals, the ...
Views: 174 - The Power of the Soul in Relation to the Other Parts of the Being - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe development of the human being takes place in several successive stages and as individuals mature they begin to manifest and express the powers of the nature as they successively come to the fore. Not every individual develops and expresses all the powers fully in a particular lifetime. For ...
Views: 157 - The Power of the Psychic Being to Guide the Direction and Focus of One’s Life - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we look back on our lives, with the benefit of hindsight, we frequently can identify a change in direction that took an individual from a normal path of societal acceptance, career, marriage, family, social interactions and entertainment, to a life that is dedicated to some cause or purpose ...
Views: 151 - Understanding Adverse Forces and the Evolutionary Response to Their Action - by Submitted on Jan 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyHow easy it is, and how comforting, to look at someone who opposes us, or who is creating some form of havoc in the world at large and simply label that individual as pure evil, as a Rakshasa, an Asura, a Demon, or some other form of hostile being. And yet, those individuals are actually part of ...
Views: 162 - The Universality of the Spiritual Presence in All Existence - by Submitted on Jan 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe are educated and habituated to focus on our differences. We see different gender, different class, different racial characteristics, different religious backgrounds, different temperaments, different interests and focus, different value sets, different philosophies of life and living, ...
Views: 162 - The Soul As the True Central Being - by Submitted on Jan 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the West, the existence of the soul has been mainly perceived either as a matter of religious belief or scientific skepticism, neither necessarily based in actual experience. At one point, scientists decided that if the belief that the soul departs at the time of death is to be considered as ...
Views: 162 - Wise words from Blaise Pascal - by Submitted on Jan 13, 2025 from Scott & Stephen PetulloBlaise Pascal (June 19th,1623 – August 19th,1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, writer, philosopher, child prodigy, and inventor of the mechanical calculator. His earliest mathematical work was on projective geometry at the age of 16. He also heavily influenced the development of modern ...
Views: 183 - The Mind, the Spirit and the Deeper Knowledge and Power That Can Know and Master the Universal Creation - by Submitted on Jan 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe can observe all around us, the steps the mental force is taking to take charge of both physical and vital nature. While much of this takes place through the development of technological tools, it is nevertheless an achievement of the mind that makes these things possible. We may debate the ...
Views: 171 - The Role of the Mind in the Search for Ultimate Truth - by Submitted on Jan 04, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs mental beings we tend to believe that the mind is able to determine the truth of things. We soon learn, however, that there are many issues that prevent the mind from actually ascertaining truth in any ultimate form. We rely on the perceptions of our senses, but those senses can be misled. ...
Views: 182 - The Development, Powers and Limits of the Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Jan 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe human being consists of multiple levels of consciousness which interact with and impact one another and which, from an evolutionary standpoint, represent a consistent trend of increasing power and subtlety of the consciousness. The consciousness of the body, the physical consciousness is the ...
Views: 185 - 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: 174 - Educating and Uplifting the Vital Nature: Part 3 Methods and Techniques - by Submitted on Dec 31, 2024 from santosh krinskyOne of the prevalent ideas about managing the vital nature has been the idea that punishment in some form or other is beneficial. Spanking of children, for example has been a common method of ‘educating’ them. It is a form of conditioning that administers a negative consequence to a specific ...
Views: 191 - Educating and Uplifting the Vital Nature: Part 2 Concepts and Principles of Action - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2024 from santosh krinskyGaining the cooperation of the vital nature is an important step in the transformation of our existence, including the upliftment of the physical nature. Once we have begun the process of observation of the vital nature, its habits and its predilections, we can begin to implement various ...
Views: 182 - Educating and Uplifting the Vital Nature: Part 1 Understanding the Issues - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2024 from santosh krinskyWhen we recognize the difficulties of managing the energy of the vital nature, and its long habits of how it finds fulfillment and satisfaction, we can appreciate that there are no ‘simple’ solutions available. The vital, when it is cooperative with the mind and the psychic being, is an ...
Views: 183 - The Vital Nature Can Go On Strike When It Does Not Get What It Wants - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2024 from santosh krinskyMost people have had the experience. An individual has a dispute with a friend, a relative, a spouse. No resolution takes place. An attempt to convince or control the other person is met with resistance. There may be aggression or threats of violence. Or a period of silent avoidance may result. ...
Views: 184 - The Vital Nature: Desire and the Reaction to Failure in Obtaining the Object of Desire - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature is closely tied to the operation of desire. Whether it is a desire for recognition, for money, for sex, for achievement of some sort, for acceptance or comfort, the vital nature activates its energy to reach out and grab some result it believes will satisfy that desire. At the ...
Views: 208 - Power Is to be Transformed, Not Rejected, in Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Dec 26, 2024 from santosh krinskyPower is disconcerting. Humanity is attracted to it, while at the same time, it fears raw power. It is often said “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What is then to be done with our vital nature that expresses power and provides the motive force for our lives? Those ...
Views: 179 - The Divine Shakti in Its Various Forms - by Submitted on Dec 25, 2024 from santosh krinskyWhen we recognise that the world is an actual manifestation of the Divine, we can begin to appreciate the Divine in all things that we experience, all things that we see, all that we hear, all that we feel or touch or smell. The Divine manifests through his power, Shakti, which takes various ...
Views: 190 - Adaptation of the Body to Support the Manifestation of a New Power of Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 24, 2024 from santosh krinskyIn his Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda details a number of events he witnessed or experienced personally whereby a spiritual master was able to materialize his form and communicate with the disciple from a great distance; and where various yogis were able to perform acts of ...
Views: 184 - The Potential for Transformation of the Human Body - by Submitted on Dec 23, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe can look at the idea of a transformation of the body from several viewpoints. One viewpoint accepts the basic current structure and function of the body and simply enhances, protects, extends the life and capacity, or removes limitations and failures to which the body is currently prone. Many ...
Views: 200 - The Body Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe tend to take for granted the innate consciousness and capacities of the body. Much of what takes place in the body is done by systems that are far more complex, and far more subtle, than anything the mind can actively control. In fact, we find that frequently, when the mind intervenes, or the ...
Views: 178 - Harnessing the Body’s Innate Powers for the Transformation of Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe tend to overlook or disregard the capacity of the body and its ‘body consciousness’ to aid in the spiritual quest. Each element of the being, the mind, the vital nature, and the body, has its own consciousness and capacity for response. Each element also can either be an aid or an obstacle to ...
Views: 187 - Aligning Education With the Future - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2024 from santosh krinskySome years ago, some parents in the USA had an interesting conversation with their local elementary school administrator. They were concerned about the type of education their children would receive so they set up a meeting to interview the administrator, with the idea that they were prepared to ...
Views: 192 - Encouraging the Dreams of Children - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe could say that it is almost a universal experience. A child expresses some sentiment, some idea about what he or she would like to do, something that soars beyond the mundane daily existence, something that makes things better, increases the beauty and harmony of life, cherishes life, and ...
Views: 173 - The Power of Silence of the Mind - by Submitted on Dec 16, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe are habituated, particularly in the modern world, to the mind constantly interacting with its environment, with sensations, with media and with ideas. We are also addicted to the activity, the energy, of the mind’s engagement and when the mind is not engaged somehow, we either sleep, or seek ...
Views: 202 - True Strength Resides in Quietude - by Submitted on Dec 16, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe tend to equate strength with outward expressions whether it be through physical power, emotional pressure, bullying, or the use of mental will force to achieve one’s intended results. We talk about “strong man” dictators who, in particular, use threats, bullying and police power to pressure ...
Views: 173 - Stages of the Non-Reactive State of Being - by Submitted on Dec 14, 2024 from santosh krinskyMost people do not reflect on the state of their inner being. They tend to live on the surface and respond or react to whatever happens to come their way. They become happy or unhappy based on how circumstances impact them. They are essentially under the control of external events or happenings ...
Views: 198 - An Expanding Consciousness Recognises the Inherent Oneness and Mutuality of All Existence - by Submitted on Dec 10, 2024 from santosh krinskyAn Expanding Consciousness Recognises the Inherent Oneness and Mutuality of All Existence Posted on December 9, 2024 When we identify with the ego personality, we view the world as being separate and apart from ourselves, and we look at other beings as either competition for resources or ...
Views: 190 - How to Know God - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe Taittiriya Upanishad speaks of the unified field of the conscious universe: “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.” [Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmanandavalli, Chapter 8, translated by Sri Aurobindo in The ...
Views: 196 - “Simply Watch the Fish” - by Submitted on Dec 07, 2024 from santosh krinskyFor most people, the experience of losing the sense of the ego is unplanned, fleeting and even, unappreciated as it occurs. They simply shift their identification elsewhere without recognising what exactly is taking place with respect to the seat and focus of their conscious awareness. For the ...
Views: 171 - Immersion of the Individual in the Experience of Theatrical Performances - by Submitted on Dec 06, 2024 from santosh krinskyWith the rise of modern technology in the field of film-making, we find an immersive experience in movie theaters engulfs the viewer deeply in the action. This includes high resolution images, 3D technology, giant wide screens, comfortable seating and surround sound. The viewer of such films is ...
Views: 192 - Reading As a Method of Entering into a Wider and Deeper Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 05, 2024 from santosh krinskyA teenager was observed as she was deeply absorbed in reading the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. This novel spans some 1000 pages and encompasses themes of deep and abiding interest, but does so in a captivating story line. It so happened that this teenager was ...
Views: 178 - How to Gain a True Understanding of Another Person’s Viewpoint - by Submitted on Dec 04, 2024 from santosh krinskyWhen we are met with ideas or understanding propounded by others that we do not agree with we tend to create a mental barrier as a defense and then develop our mental arguments to contradict or overturn the proposed ideas. There is very little, if any, true understanding that comes out of such ...
Views: 191 - A Technique to Shift to Another Domain of Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2024 from santosh krinskyIt is a well-recognised phenomena that when an individual focuses his concentration down to a single point, and fixes it there long enough, he suddenly can shift to a new domain of consciousness, and everything becomes wide, clear and known from that new standpoint. There is a yogic practice ...
Views: 202 - The Best Way of Widening One’s Thought - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2024 from santosh krinskyIf we observe carefully our interactions with others, we may note that when another person is describing or explaining something, our minds are eager to jump in, express a different point of view, or simply remain fixed in our own ideas and mindset; in other words, ‘hearing’ without ‘listening’. ...
Views: 192