The Divine Birth and Divine Works THE WORK for which the Avatar descends has like his birth a double sense and a double form. It has an outward side of the divine force acting upon the external world in order to maintain there and to reshape the divine law by which the Godward effort of humanity is kept from decisive retrogression and instead decisively carried forward in spite of the rule of action and reaction, the rhythm of advance and relapse by which Nature proceeds. …….. The Avatar does not descend merely for a great outward action, as the pragmatic sense in humanity is too often tempted to suppose. Action and event have no value in themselves, but only take their value from t

Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga (05-05-10) When I pine at misfortune and call it evil, or am jealous and disappointed, then I know that there is awake in me again the eternal fool. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms25) Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga THE spiritual life (adhyātma-jīvana), the religious life (dharma-jīvana) and the ordinary human life of which morality is a part are three quite different things and one must know which one desires and not confuse the three together. The ordinary life is that of the average human consciousness separated from its own true self and from the Divine and led by the common habits of the mind, life and body which are the laws of

The Sunlit Path (17-04-10) Who can bear Kali rushing into the system in her fierce force and burning godhead? Only the man whom Krishna already possesses. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms216) The Sunlit Path …. …The sunlit path can be followed by those who are able to practice surrender, first a central surrender and afterwards a more complete self-giving in all the parts of the being. If they can achieve and preserve the attitude of the central surrender, if they can rely wholly on the Divine and accept cheerfully whatever comes to them from the Divine, then their path becomes sunlit and may even be straightforward and easy. They will not escape all difficulties, no seeker can,

Transformation of the Mind (29-09-10) Shrink not from the Dionysian cry & rapture within thee, but see that thou be not a straw upon those billows. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms 286) Transformation of the Mind …… The intellect of most men is extremely imperfect, ill-trained, half-developed – therefore in most the conclusions of the intellect are hasty, ill-founded and erroneous or, if right, right more by chance than by merit or right working. The conclusions are formed without knowing the facts or the correct or sufficient data, merely by a rapid inference and the process by which it comes from the premisses to the conclusions is usually illogical or faulty – the process

The Supramental Evolution (07-04-10) Vedanta realised is the only practicable basis for a communistic society. It is the kingdom of the saints dreamed of by Christianity, Islam and Puranic Hinduism. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms323) The Supramental Evolution THERE have been times when the seeking for spiritual attainment was, at least in certain civilisations, more intense and widespread than now or rather than it has been in the world in general during the past few centuries. For now the curve seems to be the beginning of a new turn of seeking which takes its start from what was achieved in the past and projects itself towards a greater future. But always, even in the age of the

Yoga: Effected Through Offering (31-03-10) When thou hast the command, care only to fulfil it. The rest is God's will and arrangement which men call chance and luck and fortune. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 263) Yoga: Effected Through Offering Yoga means union with the Divine, and the union is effected through offering- it is founded on the offering of yourself to the Divine… This is what you have to do to carry out your general offering in detailed offerings. Live constantly in the presence of the Divine; live in the feeling that it is this presence which moves you and is doing everything you do. Offer all your movements to it, not only every mental action, every thought an

Aspiration and Receptivity (03-03-10) The self-torture of the old monks & penitents was perverse & stupid; yet was there a secret soul of knowledge behind their perversities. Sri Aurobindo ( Thoughts and Aphorisms497)   Aspiration and Receptivity   You can be at once in the state of aspiration, of willing, which calls down something- exactly the will to open oneself and receive, and the aspiration which calls down the force you want to receive- and at the same time be in that state of complete inner stillness which allows full penetration, for it is in this immobility that one can be penetrated, that one becomes permeable by the Force… One can be like that, like a great flame rising

Concentrate on What You Want to Be (01.01.2014) God within is leading us always aright even when we are in the bonds of the ignorance; but then, though the goal is sure, it is attained by circlings & deviations.   Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms – 167)   Concentrate on What You Want to Be   Lest you get discouraged by your own faults, the Dhammapada gives you this solacing image: the purest lily can spring out of a heap of rubbish by the wayside. That is to say, there is nothing so rotten that it cannot give birth to the purest realisation.   Wh

Fear: A lack of trust (22.01.2014) Animal man is the obscure starting-point, the present natural man the varied & tangled mid-road but supernatural man the luminous & transcendent goal of our human journey.   Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms – 203)   Fear: A lack of trust   Why does one feel afraid?   I suppose it is because one is egoistic. There are three reasons. First, an excessive concern about one’s security. Next, what one does not know always gives an uneasy feeling which is translated in the consciousness by fear. And above all, one

To know what Love is (15.01.2014) Mankind has used two powerful weapons to destroy its own powers and enjoyment, wrong indulgence and wrong abstinence.   Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms – 378)   To know what Love is   If one wants to know what love is, one must love the Divine. Then there is a chance of knowing what love is. I have said that one grows into the likeness of what one loves. So if one loves the Divine, gradually, through this effort of love, one grows more and more like the Divine, and then one can be identified with the divine love and know what it is, otherw