Inconscience (02-11-08) Inconscience One has the feeling that unless something like a miracle happens, in the sense in which man understands miracles, well, it will take many centuries. But did you ever expect that it would not take time? Yes, evidently. But I never thought - I never thought it could come quickly. First of all, one has only to try, as I do, on one's own body, see the difference between matter as it is, the constitution as it is, and then...what one may conceive of a divine existence - that is to say, divine, which is not at every second tied to the obscurity of a half inconscient matter...How long will it take? How long has it

CONTACTING THAT (28-05-08) It is noble to pardon thine own injurers, but not so noble to pardon wrongs done to others. Nevertheless pardon these too, but when needful, calmly avenge. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 290) CONTACTING THAT There is an entire line of philosophers and people who have replaced the notion of God by the notion of an impersonal Absolute or by a notion of Truth or a notion of justice or even by a notion of progress – of something eternally progressive; but for one who has within him the capacity of identifying himself with that, what has been said about it hasn’t much importance. Sometimes one may read a whole book of philoso

THE DIVINE WILL IS UNMISTAKABLE (23-07-08) Men say & think “For my country!” “For humanity!” “For the world!” but they really mean “ For myself seen in my country!” “For myself seen in humanity!” “For myself imaged to my fancy as the world!” That may be an enlargement, but it is not liberation. To be at large & to be in a large prison are not one condition of freedom. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 178) THE DIVINE WILL IS UNMISTAKABLE How are we to know, you will ask, when it is the Divine Will that makes us act? The Divine Will is not difficult to recognise. It is unmistakable. You can know it without being very far on the path. Only you mus

The Divine Personality (11-06-08) When I live in Krishna, then ego & self-interest vanish and only God himself can qualify my love bottomless & illimitable. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 489) The Divine Personality ….We may think, feel and say that God is Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Power, Love, Delight, Beauty; we may see him as a universal force or as a universal consciousness. But this is only the abstract way of experience. As we ourselves are not merely a number of qualities or powers or a psychological quantity, but a being, a person who so expresses his nature, so is the Divine a Person, a conscious Being who thus expresses his nature to u

Break down the Barriers (25-06-08) This erring race of human beings dreams always of perfecting their environment by the machinery of government and society; but it is only by the perfection of the soul within that the outer environment can be perfected. What thou art within, that outside thee thou shalt enjoy; no machinery can rescue thee from the law of thy being. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 343) Break down the Barriers. …. The starting point is to seek in yourself that which is independent of the body and the circumstances of life, which is not born of the mental formation that you have been given, the language you speak, the habits and cus

CREATE YOUR OWN ATMOSPHERE (09-07-08) What is the use of only being? I say to thee, Become, for therefore wast thou established as a man in this world of matter. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 370) CREATE YOUR OWN ATMOSPHERE Instead of reading any odd thing and chatting and doing anything whatever, if you read only what helps you to follow the path, if you act only in conformity with what can lead you to the divine realisation, if you abolish in yourself all desires and impulses turned towards external things, if you calm your mental being, appease your vital being, if you shut yourself against suggestions coming from outside and become immune to th

Progress means Manifestation (15-10-08) The most robust and healthy race left on earth were the African savages; but how long can they so remain after their physical consciousness has been contaminated by the mental aberrations of the civilised?   Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 392)   Progress means Manifestation …The physical world has not learnt how to progress indefinitely; it arrives at a certain point, then it is either tired of progressing or is not capable of progressing in the present constitution, but in any case it stops progressing and after a time decomposes. Those who lead a purely physical life reach a kind of summit, then they slid

CONTACTING THAT (18-06-08) All disease is a means towards some new joy of health, all evil & pain a tuning of Nature for some more intense bliss & good, all death an opening on widest immortality. Why and how this should be so, is God's secret which only the soul purified of egoism can penetrate. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 135) CONTACTING THAT There is only one thing that’s important: that is a sincere and persistent will [to identify oneself with that], for these things don’t happen in a twinkling. So one must persevere.When someone feels that he is not advancing, he must not get discouraged; he must try to find out what it is in the nature th

Inconscience (21-12-08) Inconscience Sri Aurobindo says, “leading in the end to a supreme divine self-discovery”. The divine discovery is the discovery of the Divine in oneself. So man, that is, the mental being—for what we call man is a physical body with a mental being within, a mental being manifested in a body, a physical body—so the mental being has incarnated and become man in order to find within himself the divine Being, the divine Presence. Why? Are you asking why? It’s a funny way of going about it! (Laughter) I don’t know if he is going to explain it here, I don’t remember now, but one thing is certain, that this marvellous thing, the divine

“Spirit of Doubt” is Insatiable and Unappeasable (19-11-08) To the soul that has hold of the highest beatitude, life cannot be an evil or a sorrowful illusion; rather all life becomes the rippling love and laughter of a divine Lover & Playfellow. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorism 467) “Spirit of Doubt” is Insatiable and Unappeasable …. Yoga is not a field for intellectual argument or dissertation. It is not by the exercise of the logical or the debating mind that one can arrive at a true understanding of yoga or follow it. A doubting spirit, “honest doubt” and the claim that the intellect shall be satisfied and be made the judge on every point is all very w