To Grieve or not to Grieve "I can understand the shock your wife's catastrophic death must have been to you. But you are now a seeker and sadhak of the Truth and must set your mind to rise above the normal reactions of the human being and see things in a larger greater light. Regard your lost wife as a soul that was progressing through the vicissitudes of the life of Ignorance—like all others here; in that progress things happen that seem unfortunate to the human mind and a sudden accidental or violent death cutting short prematurely this always brief spell of 9. Sri Aurobindo: The Upanishads, Isha Upanishad, Verse 2. terrestrial experience we ca

Abortion Abortion is another sensitive subject with certain religions at Page-229 least. It hinges upon this singular issue that abortion is akin to taking life. But what when the choice is to be made between saving the mother's life or the foetus? To say that abortion is unjustified under all circumstances and is sinful may lead to an act of a greater ignorance. Also, what about the emotional and other preparedness of the parents to receive the child? Is it better to necessarily bring the child to life and then condemn him to a worse fate? And what if one had the precise vision about the child and the entry of the soul? The tales of yore are full of such ex

Appendix III The Shroud of Death Young Deaths Nothing hurts our human sensibilities and belief in a just and fair world as the death of a young one. While it is easier to accept death when one has lived an average lifespan, it is very difficult to accept an untimely death, with the sudden shattering of all hopes and dreams. Did a cruel god devise all this just to inflict pain? Is there a contrary power that mars the all-loving Creator's Work? Is it some ghost of a bygone karma returning from the land of the dead? Is it just to make us painfully aware as if through a shock, the transience and impermanence of earthly life? How to take it all and still

The Changing of Our Robes The soul in us is immortal. It is the body that dies. This is the ancient fundamental truth that each one of us has to rediscover in our own way. When the scales of ignorance fall away from our eyes, the first thing we discover is the eternity and immortality of the divine element in us. This is the true immortality, the immortality of the soul in us. We discover that we are not the body that perishes but the soul that death cannot slay. Weapons cannot cleave or wound it; fire cannot burn it; water cannot wet it, nor the wind dry it. In short, it is independent, free and above the material circumstances of the body. Death, to t

Pranayama and Brahmacharya Pranayama and Brahmacharya: In ancient India, material existence and physical processes were seen as conterminous with the subtler ones. Thus the physical breath was seen as a means not only of bringing in oxygen but also and simultaneously as a vehicle to draw the vital-force or prana (also called 'chi' in Japanese). The heart was not only an organ necessary to pump blood but also a physical means to circulate the prana within the body. It may be noted that prana in this context refers to the fuel or energy used by the body and the mind for their diverse processes. If we compare the body to an engine then prana is the fuel u

A Dream (A story that deals with the subtlety of the karmic law in a manner that would make it comprehensible even to a child. Karmic law is not 1. The Mother: CWM, Vol. 5 ,pp.377-79. Page-165 so much about outer rewards and outer punishments for outer deeds but more about the state of our consciousness and its effect upon our being. Original by Sri Aurobindo in Bengali. Translation from Bengali by Arindam Basu.) A poor man sat in his dark room and thought of his miserable plight and of the wrongs and injustices in the kingdom of God. Overcome by abhiman2 he spoke thus: "People give the excuse of the Law of Karma to save the good name of God. If my pres

The Inner Dimension of Death From an inner and occult point of view therefore death seems to encompass at least three distinct stages. To understand this we need to take a look at what holds the different organs of the body together in a smooth and harmonious functioning. Though the organs appear as separate and distinct entities, they are linked both anatomically as well as physiologically, mainly through the nerves, blood, glands and the lymphatic's. Each is a specialised group of cells, yet they do not work in isolation but with a fine, intricate, delicate as well as complex balance that would beat the orderliness of a megalopolis. Where does this

Preface Death, in one of its conceptions, leads us from mansion to mansion in our journey from this mortal world of darkness to the doorsteps of the sphere of deathless Light. But it leads us blindfolded, so to say, and little do we remember of the worlds beyond that are hidden to our mist-laden eyes. Little do we remember of the journey through the Night of death when we return to the grey light of our earthly days again. Our birth, in the conception of a mystic poet, is a sleep and a forgetting. And rightly so, since we remember not the physical womb that delivers us to see the light of our mortal days and feel the struggle of our mortal life. Nor do we remember our sp

Role of Rituals Role of Rituals: As to rituals, we have already seen the view of traditional therapies based on the materialist model of man. From a deeper point of view the rituals had their origin in a subtle truth. It is this that those upon earth can help the onward journey of the departed. The occult basis is that after departure the soul lingers for a time in the earth atmosphere. Its prolonged nearness to the physical and vital worlds delays its onward journey and therefore keeps the soul bound to the vital sheaths, which is a source of continued suffering even after death. In the shradha ceremony of the Hindus, the whole occult rites and the mantras point t

Death, Dying and Beyond Contents Pre-Content Life and Death Preface Behind the Iron Mask - Introduction WHAT IS DEATH? Death - The Annihilator of Time's Works Death - A Partner in the Game of Life The Two Faces of Death The Scientific View of Death The Inner Dimension of Death The Tragedy of Inner Death The Pervertors of Life and Death Appendix to Chapter I Stopping the Heartbeat - Fact or Fiction THE WHY OF DEATH Death - The Paradox of Life Death - The Hooded Mask of Life Death - The