How to laugh with the Lord (28-10-09) Shame has admirable results and both in aesthetics and in morality we could ill spare it; but for all that it is a badge of weakness and the proof of ignorance. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 83) How to laugh with the Lord Virtue has always spent its time eliminating whatever it found bad in life, and if all the virtues of the various countries of the world had been put together, very few things would remain in existence. Virtue claims to seek perfection, but perfection is a totality. So the two movements contradict each other. A virtue that eliminates, reduces, fixes limits, and a perfection that accepts everything, rejects nothing but

The psychic entity within, that we are (25-11-09) Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 299) The psychic entity within, that we are This conception of the Person and Personality, if accepted, must modify at the same time our current ideas about the immortality of the soul; for, normally, when we insist on the soul's undying existence, what is meant is the survival after death of a definite unchanging personality which was and will always remain the same throughout eternity. It is the very imperfect superficial “I” of the moment, evidently regarded by Nature as a temporary form and not worth preservation, for which we demand this s

Depends on Personal effort Experience and Power of the Guide (02-12-09) God had opened my eyes; for I saw the nobility of the vulgar, the attractiveness of the repellent, the perfection of the maimed and the beauty of the hideous. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 21) Depends on Personal effort Experience and Power of the Guide By this Yoga we not only seek the Infinite, but we call upon the Infinite to unfold himself in human life. Therefore the Shastra of our Yoga must provide for an infinite liberty in the receptive human soul. A free adaptability in the manner and the type of the individual's acceptance of the Universal and Transcendent into himself is the right condition for the

THE DIVINE WORKING IN THE UNIVERSE (20-05-09) Fling not thy alms abroad everywhere in an ostentation of charity; understand & love where thou helpest. Let thy soul grow within thee. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorisms 190), THE DIVINE WORKING IN THE UNIVERSE At every minute the universe is created in its totality and in each of its parts. No two combinations, no two movements in the universe are similar; nothing is reproduced exactly. There are analogies, there are similarities, there are families, families of movements that can be called families of vibrations, but there are no two things that are identical, neither in time nor in space. Nothing is repeated, otherwise there would

Certitudes (11-11-09) The supernatural is that the nature of which we have not attained or do not yet know, or the means of which we have not yet conquered. The common taste for miracles is the sign that man's ascent is not yet finished. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 84) Certitudes* IN THE deep there is a greater deep, in the heights a greater height. Sooner shall man arrive at the borders of infinity than at the fullness of his own being. For that being is infinity, is God. I aspire to infinite force, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss. Can I attain it ? Yes, but the nature of infinity is that it has no end. Say not therefore that I attain it. I become it. Only so can man att

What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.   Sri Aurobindo.        (Thoughts and Aphorism 10)   Depression: Two Causes Depression may come from two causes: either from a want of vital satisfaction or from a considerable nervous fatigue in the body. Depression arising from physical fatigue is set right fairly easily: one has but to take rest. One goes to bed and sleeps until one feels well again, or else one rests, dreams, lies down. The want of vital satisfaction is pretty easily produced and usually one must face it with one’s reason, must ferret out the cause of

Knowledge and Devotion (05-07-09) Knowledge and Devotion   1) …Mortal mind is bewildered by its ignorant reliance upon veils and appearances; it sees only the outward human body, human mind, human way of living and catches no liberating glimpse of the Divinity who is lodged in the creature. It ignores the divinity within itself and cannot see it in other men, and even though the Divine manifest himself in humanity as Avatar and Vibhuti, it is still blind and ignores or despises the veiled Godhead, avajānanti mām˙ mùdhā mānusīm˙ tanum āsritam. ….. 2) To the soul that thus knows, adores, offers up all its workings in a great self-surrender of its being to the Eternal, God is all and

The True Spiritual Life (09-09-09) Rather hang thyself than belong to the horde of successful imitators. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 337 ) The True Spiritual Life The true spiritual life begins when one is in communion with the Divine in the psychic, when one is conscious of the divine Presence in the psychic and in constant communion with the psychic. Then the spiritual life begins, not before. When one is united with one’s psychic being and conscious of the divine Presence, and receives the impulses for one’s action from this divine Presence, and when the will has become a conscious collaborator with the divine Will that is the starting-point. Before that, one may be an asp

Becoming Conscious in Sleep – Sadhana in Sleep (02-08-09) Becoming Conscious in Sleep – Sadhana in Sleep People's ideas of sound sleep are absolutely erroneous. What they call sound sleep is merely a plunge of the outer consciousness into a complete subconscience. They call that a dreamless sleep; but it is only a state in which the surface sleep consciousness which is a subtle prolongation of the outer still left active in sleep itself is unable to record the dreams and transmit them to the physical mind. As a matter of fact the whole sleep is full of dreams. It is only during the brief time in which one is in the Brahmaloka that the dreams cease. Sri Aurobindo SABCL 24, Page 1485 Wh

Immortality (05-08-09) Love of God, charity towards men is the first step towards perfect wisdom. Sri Aurobindo (484−Thoughts and Aphorisms) Immortality …Immortality is a life without beginning or end, without birth or death, which is altogether independent of the body. It is the life of the Self, the essential being of each individual, and it is not separate from the universal Self. And this essential being has a sense of oneness with the universal Self; it is in fact a personified, individualised expression of the universal Self and has neither beginning nor end, neither life nor death, it exists eternally and that is what is immortal. When we are fully conscious of this Self we particip