Transformation of the Mind (20-10-13) Transformation of the Mind   There is no reason why one should not receive through the thinking mind, as one receives through the vital, the emotional and the body. The thinking mind is as capable of receiving as these are, and, since it has to be transformed as well as the rest, it must be trained to receive, otherwise no transformation of it could take place. It is the ordinary unenlightened activity of the intellect that is an obstacle to spiritual experience, just as the ordinary unregenerated activity of the vital or the obscure stupidly obstructive consciousness of the body is an obstacle. What the sadhak has to be specially warned against in

The Knot of the Ego - I (04-09-13) To fear God really is to remove oneself to a distance from Him, but to fear Him in play gives an edge to utter delightfulness. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms - 413)   The Knot of the Ego - I Sweet Mother, how can we cut the knot of the ego? How to cut it? Take a sword and strike it (laughter), when one becomes conscious of it. For usually one is not; we think it quite normal, what happens to us; and in fact it is very normal but we think it quite good also. So to begin with one must have a great clear-sightedness to become aware that one is enclosed in all these knots which hold one in bondage. And then, when one is aware that there's s

One’s Own Way of Thinking (20-11-13) All speech and action comes prepared out of the eternal Silence. Sri Aurobindo   (Thoughts and Aphorisms – 276)   One’s Own Way of Thinking   One needs years of very attentive, very careful, very reasonable, very coherent work, organisation, selection, construction, in order to succeed simply in forming, oh, simply this little thing, one's own way of thinking!   One believes he has his own way of thinking. Not at all. It depends totally upon the people one speaks with or the books he has read or on the mood he is in. It depends also on whether you have a g

Planes and Parts of The Being Men do not know themselves and have not learned to distinguish the different parts of their being; for these are usually lumped together by them as mind, because it is through a mentalised perception and understanding that they know or feel them; therefore they do not understand their own states and actions, or, if at all, then only on the surface. It is part of the foundation of yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge. We are composed of many parts each of which contributes something to the total movement of

I was much plagued by Satan, until I found that it was God who was tempting me; then the anguish of him passed out of my soul for ever. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms - 458)   One Chooses To Be Weak It is a choice between your will and accepting submission. There is always a moment when one can decide. …For ordinary things, as for example, giving way before an impulse or refusing it…. One has plenty of time before him, one certainly has several minutes. And it is a choice between weak submission and a controlling will. And if the will is clear, if it is based on truth, if truly it obeys the truth and is clear, it always has the power to refus

A Call For The Path-(01-01-13) Knowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found out something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting; Wisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty silence. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-111)     A Call For The Path The question you are to answer is this: Do you want the Yoga for the sake of the Divine? Is the Divine the supreme fact of your life, so much so that it is simply impossible for you to do without it? Do you feel that your very raison d’être is the Divine and without it there is no meaning in your existence? If so, then only can it be said that you have a call for the Path. This is

Shock and Indignation (17.07.13) If when thou sittest alone, still & voiceless on the mountaintop, thou canst perceive the revolutions thou art conducting, then hast thou the divine vision and art freed from appearances. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms - 120) Shock and Indignation You may very well be shocked by certain things, not for personal reasons, but precisely in your goodwill and eagerness to serve the Divine, when you see people behaving badly, being selfish, unfaithful and treacherous. There is a stage where you have overcome these things and no longer allow them to manifest in yourself, but to the extent that you are linked to the ordinary consciousness, the ordinary po

Past lives & Psychic Being (15.12.2013) Past lives & Psychic Being   Can it be said in justification of one’s past that whatever has happened in one’s life had to happen?   Obviously, what has happened had to happen; it would not have been, if it had not been intended. Even the mistakes that we have committed and the adversities that fell upon us had to be, because there was some necessity in them, some utility for our lives. But in truth these things cannot be explained mentally and should not be. For all that happened was necessary, not for any mental reason, but to lead us to something beyond what the mind imagin

Yoga: Not for Appreciation (28-08-13) Private dispute should always be avoided; but shrink not from the public battle; yet even there appreciate the strength of thy adversary. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms - 300) Yoga: Not for Appreciation If you truly want to follow the path and practice yoga, you must not do it for appreciation or honour, you must do it because it is an imperative need of your being, because you cannot be happy in any other way. Whether people appreciate you or do not appreciate you, it is of absolutely no importance. You may tell yourself beforehand that the farther you are from ordinary men, foreign to the ordinary mode of being, the less people will appre

THE ORIGIN AND THE MASTER – CLUE (3rd March 2013) THE ORIGIN AND THE MASTER – CLUE “Awakened to the meaning of my heart That to know love and oneness is to live And this the magic of our golden change, Is all the truth I know or seek…….”       (from Savitri page 724 ) If we want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a landmark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life. Each individual should build up this mental synthesis according to his own tendencies and affinities and aspirations. But if we want it