The Aim Of Life An Exploration Isha Upanishad Introduction As one hears of the Upanishads, a distinctive image arises in the mind of a quest leading to the hermitages of teachers who have practised austerities and disciplines of various kinds and have realised in experience the highest states one can conceive of The age of the Upanishads is considered to be a kind of culmination of a seeking that was recorded in the Vedas. It is a great mystery how, at a time when a large section of humanity was still living in a half-awakened consciousness primarily concerned with physical well- being, there grew a small nucleus of illumined tea

-17_Life^s Phiosophy.htm Life's Philosophy Introduction Among the great leaders of India's renaissance, Jawaharlal Nehru stands out prominently. He was born at Allahabad on November 14, 1889. He was educated at home until the age of sixteen by English governesses and tutors. In 1905, he went to Harrow, one of England's leading schools, where he studied for two years. His housemaster described him as "a very nice boy, quiet and very refined. He was not demonstrative but one felt there was great strength of character. " From Harrow, Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took an honours degree in natural science. His letters to his father from England reflect his deep interes

Search For Utter Transcendence Introduction The Upanishad describes Reality as Sat, Being; but it also speaks of asat, Non- being, as the Ultimate from which Being appeared. This nothing, this Nihil, is seen as a "something" which is beyond positive comprehension. Just as pure Being is the affirmation of the Ultimate as the free base of all cosmic existence, so Non-being is the contrary affirmation of the Ultimate s freedom from all cosmic existence. Non- being permits Being as Silence permits activity. It is necessary to grapple with these concepts if we are to understand the message of the Buddha. It has been said that the Buddha rejected the

Search for Excellence and Perfection Introduction More than a century before Galileo, one man succeeded in overcoming the age-old distinction between the contemplative and active life, between science and craft, through a unique synthesis of scientific investigation and artistic expression. For his work in which he employed physical experimentation, mathematics and reason, he has been called the first modern engineer. He anticipated many inventions which would be realised only much later, such as the airplane, the submarine, the parachute, the armoured car. But the fact that he broke entirely with the medieval Aristotelian tr

King Narasimha (Mahabalipuram), photo O. Barot, Auroville Pursuit of Goodness (A Selection from Nitishatakam of Bhartrihari) Introduction Harmony, balance and equilibrium marked the ethos of Indian culture in ancient times, and indeed in varying degrees throughout the long and continuous history of India. From time to time, we see India returning to the theme of synthesis, and in every succeeding age the new synthesis assimilated larger and larger numbers of component elements. It is true that there have been pursuits of exclusive claims and counterclaims, there have also been trenchant oppositions between various schools of thought,

Ill (a) The Vedic Yoga and its synthesis was not lost, in spite of an increasing tendency towards ritualism and development of an emphasis on Karmakanda, reflected so prominently in the Brahmanas. The luminous seed of the Veda continued to sprout, and we find in the Upanishads a fresh stir of yogic search and reconfirmation of Vedic methods and Vedic realisations, even new formulations, deeper subtilisation and clearer elaboration. In respect of the element of jnana Yoga, there came to be even a culmination, justifying the tradition which regards Upanishads as Jnanakanda and as Vedanta, the crown of the Veda. It is true that in the later Upanishads there is an over- e

Pre content This book is addressed to all young people who, I urge, will study and respond to the following message of Sri Aurobindo: "It is the young who must be the builders of the new world, —not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic communism of the West as India's future ideal, nor those who are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation of life by the spirit, but all those who are free in mind and heart to accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present but to the future. T

Significance of Indian Yoga (An Overview) I A momentous feature of Indian culture is characterised by a powerful, current of three affirmations. There is, first, the affirmation that the truths of the physical and supra- physical realities can be best grasped, known and possessed by us through faculties which lie above the ranges of physical senses and rational intelligence. Secondly, it is affirmed that these faculties can be developed by pursuit of assured methods resulting from the principles, powers and processes that govern the experiences and realisations of the highest possible objects of knowledge. And, finally, there is the affirmation that science, philosophy

APPENDIX Significance of The Veda in The Context of Indian Religion And Spirituality The four Vedas (Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda) are samhitas, collections or compilations of selections made by Veda Vyasa. There was evidently at that time a larger body of compositions, and since they spoke of the old and new Rishis1 and of 'fathers' (pitarah), it may safely be inferred that there was at that time a tradition of generations of Rishis. Presumably there was a pre-Vedic tradition too, since the Vedic compositions included in the four Vedas indicate a high level of development of poetic quality and spiritual experience, which can come about only through a

II (a) 6When and how Yoga began to grow and develop is not known. But when we come to the Veda,' the most ancient extant composition of the world, we find in it quite a developed system, self-conscious and self-assured, of human psychology and of the methods and processes by which the psychological operations can be subtilised, recombined and heightened or else newer and higher operations can be generated and made active for their highest possible effectivity. Goals are known and fixed, and the path to reach those goals has been hewed and commonly known among the Rishis. Veda even declares that the Path was discovered by the human forefathers, pitaro manushyah. Ac