The Means of Realisation   Vedanta is merely an intellectual assent, without Yoga. The verbal revelation of the true relations between the One and the Many, the intellectual acceptance of the revelation and the dogmatic acknowledgement of the relations do not lead us beyond metaphysics, and there is no human pursuit more barren and frivolous than metaphysics practised merely as an intellectual pastime, a play with words & thoughts, when there is no intention of fulfilling thought in life or of moulding our inner state and outer activity by the knowledge which we have intellectually accepted. It is only by Yoga that the fulfilment and moulding of our

Section Four   Incomplete Commentaries on the Kena Upanishad   Circa 1912 ­ 1914     Kena Upanishad   An Incomplete Commentary   Foreword   As the Isha Upanishad is concerned with the problem of God & the world and consequently with the harmonising of spirituality & ordinary human action, so the Kena is occupied with the problem of God & the Soul and the harmonising of our personal activity with the movement of infinite energy & the supremacy of the universal Will. We are not here in this universe as independent existences. It is evident

The Brihad Aranyak Upanishad   Chapter One: Section I     1. Dawn is the head1 of the horse sacrificial.2 The sun is his eye,3 his breath is the wind, his wide open mouth is Fire, the master might universal, Time is the self of the horse sacrificial.4 Heaven is his back & the midworld his belly, earth is his footing,—the regions are his flanks & the lesser regions their ribs, the seasons his members, the months & the half months are their joints, the days & nights are his standing place, the stars his bones & the sky is the flesh of his body. The strands are the food in his belly, the rivers are his veins, his l

Three Fragments of Commentary   The first two words of the Kena, like the first two words of the Isha, concentrate into a single phrase the subject of the Upanishad and settle its bounds & its spirit. By whom is our separate mental existence governed? Who is its Lord & ruler? Who sends forth the mind—kena preshitam, who guides it so that it falls in its ranging on a particular object and not another (kena patati)? The mind is our centre; in the mind our personal existence is enthroned. Manomayah pranasariraneta pratisthito 'nne, a mental guide and leader of the life & body has been established in matter, and we suppose & feel ourselves to be

A Fragmentary Chapter for a Work on Vedanta   [.....] Each of the great authoritative Upanishads has its own peculiar character and determined province as well as the common starting point of thought and supreme truth in the light of which all their knowledge has to be understood. The unity of universal existence in the transcendental Being who alone is manifested here or elsewhere forms their common possession & standpoint. All thought & experience here rest upon this great enigma of a multiplicity that when questioned resolves itself to a unity of sum, of nature & of being, of a unity that when observed seems to be a mere sum

Sadananda's Essence of Vedanta   INVOCATION   To the Absolute     1. I take refuge with Him who is sheer Existence, Intelligence and Bliss, impartible, beyond the purview of speech and mind, the Self in whom the whole Universe exists—may my desire & purpose attain fulfilment.   To the Masters     2. After homage to the Masters who in deed as well as word delight in the One without second and from whom the seemings of duality have passed away, I will declare the Essence of Vedanta according to my intellectual capacity.   PRELIMINARY STATEMENT  

'Kena and Other Upanishads' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 50 The Kaivalya Upanishad     OM. Aswalayana to the Lord Parameshthi came and said, Teach me, Lord, the highest knowledge of Brahman, the secret knowledge ever followed by the saints, how the wise man swiftly putting from him all evil goeth to the Purusha who is higher than the highest.   Commentary   The Lord Parameshthi is Brahma—not the Creator Hiranyagarbha, but the soul who in this kalpa has climbed up to be the instrument of Creation, the first in time of the Gods, the Pitamaha or original & general Prajapati, the Pitamaha, because all the fathers or special Prajapa

Section Five   Incomplete Translations of Two Vedantic Texts   Circa 1900 ­ 1902     The Karikas of Gaudapada   The Karikas of Gaudapada are a body of authoritative verse maxims and reasonings setting forth in a brief and closely-argued manual the position of the extreme Monistic school of Vedanta philosophy. The monumental aphorisms of the Vedantasutra are meant rather for the master than the learner. Gaudapada's clear, brief and businesslike verses are of a wider utility; they presuppose only an elementary knowledge of philosophic terminology and the general trend of Monis

'Kena and Other Upanishads' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 50 Mundaka Upanishad Mundaka Upanishad   CHAPTER ONE: SECTION I     1. Brahma first of the Gods was born, the creator of all, the world's protector; he to Atharvan, his eldest son, declared the God-knowledge in which all sciences have their foundation.     2. The God-knowledge by Brahma declared to Atharvan, Atharvan of old declared to Angir;

Notes on the Chhandogya Upanishad   First Adhyaya     OM is the syllable (the Imperishable One); one should follow after it as the upward Song (movement); for with OM one sings (goes) upwards; of which this is the analytical explanation. So, literally translated in its double meaning, both its exoteric, physical and symbolic sense and its esoteric symbolised reality, runs the initial sentence of the Upanishad. These opening lines or passages of the Vedanta are always of great importance; they are always so designed as to suggest or even sum up, if not all that comes afterwards, yet the centra