53
results found in
213 ms
Page 1
of 6
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/Upanishadic Symbolism.htm
Upanishadic Symbolism
A certain rationalistic critic divides the Upanishadic symbols
into three categories—those that are rational and can be
easily understood by the mind; those that are not understood
by the mind and yet do not go against reason, having nothing
inherently irrational in them and may be simply called non-rational, those that seem to be quite irrational, for they go
frankly against all canons of logic and common sense. As an
example of the last, the irrational type, the critic cites a story
from the Chhandogya, which may be rendered thus:
There was an aspirant, a student who was seeking after
knowledge. One day there appeared to him a white dog. So
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/The Moral and the Spiritual .htm
The Moral and the Spiritual
Is there anything essentially wrong, evil in its very being
and nature? Some religious traditions say, there is: Satan is
such a thing, Ahriman is such a thing, and what else is maya
or mard?
However that may be, the sense of something essentially
wrong is the fount and origin of the moral sense. The moral
sense stems from and lives on the sense of sin and guilt.
The sense of sin is the fundamental inspiration behind some
religious disciplines, even the sense of something irrevocably
bad or something irreparable; for that gives a stronger impetus, a more dynamic urge to the spur of the religious consciousness. The sense of s
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/Brahmacharya.htm
Brahmacharya
BRAHMACHARYA means the storage of energy in the body and
its sublimation. The energy in view is mainly physico-vital
energy, the vital energy based upon and imbedded in the
physical body. Brahmacharya naturally meant a strict observance of certain rules and regulations involving a strenuous
discipline.
Brahmacharya was the very basis of education in ancient
India: indeed, it was the basic education upon which Indian
culture, Indian civilization, Indian life was based and built
up. Without it there was no entry into the business of life.
Modern education means storage of information, knowledge
of things—as much knowledge of as many things as it is
possible f
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/The Basis of Unify.htm
The Basis of Unify
A MODERN society or people cannot have religion, that is
to
say, credal religion, as the basis of its organized collective life. It was mediaeval society and people that were organized on
that line. Indeed mediaevalism means nothing more—and
nothing less —than that. But whatever the need and justification in the past, the principle is an anachronism under modern
conditions. It was needed, perhaps, to keep alive a truth which
goes into the very roots of human life and its deepest aspiration; and it was needed also for a dynamic application of that
truth on a larger scale and in smaller details, on the mass of
mankind and in its day to day life. That wa
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/The Mystery of the Five Senses.htm
The Mystery of the Five Senses
THE senses are the doors opening out on the external world
for the consciousness to act and range abroad. That is the usual outward
movement which is generally so much condemned by spiritual seekers. The doors and windows of the
senses, whatever they are, all openings should be closed, shut
up, hermetically sealed. One should then return within
away from them, if one is to come into contact with the true
consciousness, the true reality. Even the Gita says, the conscious
being is seated in tranquillity within, closing all the nine
gates of the city, himself doing nothing nor causing anything
to be done.
Well, that is one way
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/Sri Aurobindo.htm
Sri Aurobindo
I
From a certain standpoint Sri Aurobindo's message is very
simple, almost self-evident. The sum and substance of all he
says is that man is growing and has to grow in consciousness
till he reaches the complete and perfect consciousness, not only
in his individual but in his collective, that is to say, social life.
In fact, the growth of consciousness is the supreme secret of
life, the master key to earthly evolution.
Sri Aurobindo believes in evolution. Creation, according to
him, has, a purpose and man moves to a goal. That is nothing
else than the unfolding of consciousness. Originally all was
Matter, only dead Matter. At a certain stage out of Matter
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/The Beautiful in the Upanishads.htm
The Beautiful in the Upanishads
WHEN the Rigveda says
idam srestham jyotisam jyotih agat
citrah praketo ajanista vibhva
Lo! the supreme Light of lights is come, a varied
awakening is born, wide manifest
rusadvasta rusati swetyagat
araigu krisna sadananyasyah
The white Mother comes reddening with the ruddy
child; the dark Mother opens wide her chambers,
the feeling and the expression of the beautiful raise no
questioning; they are authentic as well as evident. All will
recognise at once that we have here beautiful things said in a
beautiful way. No less authentic however is the sense of the
beautiful that underlies these Upa
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/Lines of the Descent of Consciousness.htm
Lines of the Descent of Consciousness
The world has been created by a descent of consciousness; it maintains itself, it proceeds and develops through a series
of descents. In fact, creation itself is a descent, the first and
original one, the descent of the supreme Reality into Matter
and as Matter. The supreme Reality—the fount and origin
of things and even that which is beyond—although essentially
something absolute, indescribable, ineffable, indeterminable,
has been, for purposes of the human understanding, signalised
as a triune entity of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. That
is to say, first of all, it is, it exists always and for ever—invaria
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/Education is Organisation.htm
Education is Organisation
EDUCATION is organisation. Mind's education means organisation of mental faculties. Organisation naturally involves
development. The faculties in the normal and natural state
are an undeveloped disorganised lot, a confused mass,—unformed, ill-formed ideas, notions, thoughts, form a jumble.
They have no purpose, no direction, no common impulse or
end, each runs in its own way. The mind's faculties such for
example as attention, memory, discrimination, reasoning,
cogent thinking have to be clear and efficient and learn how
to work harmoniously for a common objective. In the process
and for that purpose they have to be developed, that is to say
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Nolini Kanta Gupta/English/Evolution and the Earthly Destiny/The Philosopher as an Artist.htm
The Philosopher as an Artist
and Philosophy as an Art
I WONDER why Philosophy has never been considered as a
variety of Art. Philosophy is admired for the depth and height
of its substance, for its endeavour to discover the ultimate Truth,
for its one-pointed adherence to the supremely Real; but
precisely because it does so it is set in opposition to Art which
is reputed as the domain of the ideal, the imaginative or the
fictitious. Indeed it is the antagonism between the two that has
always been emphasised and upheld as an axiomatic truth and
an indisputable fact. Of course, old Milton (he was young,
however, when he wrote these lines) says that philosophy is
d