The Silence behind Life (21-03-12) When I had the dividing reason, I shrank from many things; after I had lost it in sight, I hunted through the world for the ugly and the repellent, but I could no longer find them. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-20) The Silence behind Life There is a silence behind life as well as within it and it is only in this more secret, sustaining silence that we can hear clearly the voice of God. In the noise of the world we hear only altered & disturbed echoes of it; for the Voice comes always who else speaks to us on our journey? -but the gods of the heart, the gods of the mind, the gods of desire, the gods of sense take up the divine

What Are We Seeking in Life And the Key for It (16-09-12) What Are We Seeking in Life And the Key for It     THE earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation,—for it survives the longest periods of scepticism and returns after every banishment,—is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analys

Illness and Yoga (05-03-12) Illness and Yoga What are physical ailments? Are they attacks by the hostile forces from outside? There are two factors that have to be considered in the matter. There is what comes from outside and there is what comes from your inner condition. Your inner condition becomes a cause of illness when there is a resistance or revolt in it or when there is some part in you that does not respond to the protection; or even there may be something there that almost willingly and willfully calls in the adverse forces. It is enough if there is a slight movement of this kind in you; the hostile forces are at once upon you and their attack takes often the form of illness. B

The Propagandist Spirit (28-11-12)  In all the lakhs of ochre-clad Sannyasins, how many are perfect ? It is the few attainments and the many approximations that justify an ideal. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-104)   The Propagandist Spirit If you arrive at the conception of the world as the expression of the Divine in all His complexity, then the necessity for complexity and diversity has to be recognised, and it becomes impossible for you to want to make others think and feel as you do. Each one should have his own way of thinking, feeling and reaction; why do you want others to do as you do and be like you? And even granting that your truth is greater than theirs,... th

Keep Faith (15-08-12) God is great, says the Mahomedan. Yes, He is so great that He can afford to be weak, whenever that too is necessary. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-53) Keep Faith [We must have] faith that always what is the best happens. We may for the moment not consider it as the best because we are ignorant and also blind, because we do not see the consequence of things and what will happen later. But we must keep the faith that it is like that, if we rely on the Divine, if we give Him the full charge of ourselves, if we let Him decide everything for us, well, we must know that it is always what is best for us which happens. This is an absolute fact. To the extent to whi

The Yoga of the Intelligent Will and Desires (May 2012) The Yoga of the Intelligent Will and Desires ……… It is not an external asceticism, the physical renunciation of the objects of sense that I am teaching, suggests Krishna immediately to avoid a misunderstanding which is likely at once to arise. Not the renunciation of the Sankhyas or the austerities of the rigid ascetic with his fasts, his maceration of the body, his attempt to abstain even from food; that is not the self-discipline or the abstinence which I mean, for I speak of an inner withdrawal, a renunciation of desire. The embodied soul, having a body, has to support it normally by food for its normal physical action; by abstentio

Yogic Equality --- What Equality Means (17-06-12) Yogic Equality --- What Equality Means December 5, 1912 IN Peace and Silence the Eternal manifests: allow nothing to disturb you and the Eternal will manifest; have perfect equality in face of all and the Eternal will be there......Yes, we should not put too much intensity, too much effort into our seeking for Thee; the effort and intensity become a veil in front of Thee: we must not desire to see Thee, for that is still a mental agitation which obscures Thy Eternal Presence; it is in the most complete Peace, Serenity and Equality that all is Thou even as Thou art all, and the least vibration in this perfectly pure and calm atmosphere is an o

How to grow in Equality (15-07-12) How to grow in Equality …….. The first business of the sadhaka is to see whether he has the perfect equality, how far he has gone in this direction or else where is the flaw, and to exercise steadily his will on his nature or invite the will of the Purusha to get rid of the defect and its causes. There are four things that he must have; first, equality in the most concrete practical sense of the word, samatā, freedom from mental, vital, physical preferences, an even acceptance of all God's workings within and around him; secondly, a firm peace and absence of all disturbance and trouble, śānti; thirdly, a positive inner spiritual happiness and spiritual ease

The Yoga of the Intelligent Will and Desires (May 2012) The Yoga of the Intelligent Will and Desires ……… It is not an external asceticism, the physical renunciation of the objects of sense that I am teaching, suggests Krishna immediately to avoid a misunderstanding which is likely at once to arise. Not the renunciation of the Sankhyas or the austerities of the rigid ascetic with his fasts, his maceration of the body, his attempt to abstain even from food; that is not the self-discipline or the abstinence which I mean, for I speak of an inner withdrawal, a renunciation of desire. The embodied soul, having a body, has to support it normally by food for its normal physical action; by abstentio

Forget Thyself (04-11-12) Forget Thyself If thou wouldst a little loosen the vast chain, Draw back from the world that the Idea has made, Thy mind's selection from the Infinite, Thy senses' gloss on the Infinitesimal's dance, Then shalt thou know how the great bondage came. Banish all thought from thee and be God's void. Then shalt thou uncover the Unknowable And the Superconscient conscious grow on thy tops; Infinity's vision through thy gaze shall pierce, Thou shalt look into the eyes of the Unknown; Find the hid Truth in things seen null and false, Behind things known discover Mystery's rear. Thou shalt be one with God's bare reality And the miraculous world he has become And the d