DREAMS DREAMS are an index to the mystery of life. "Movies" from the unknown caves and hinterlands of our being, they flit past us in our sleep, announcing, if we have ears to hear, that there are more things in life than meet the human eye, and realms and realities that elude the grasp of the rational mind. Though many of their patterns appear to us rather chaotic or fantastic, there are some which are manifest marvels of symmetry and beauty. They have inspired many an exquisite artistic creation and exercised the thought and speculation of many a poet and philosopher and psychologist. There are again some dreams which, whether simple or symbolical, possess a prophetic character

THE SOUL OR THE PSYCHIC (I) IF we probe deep into our nature, we cannot fail to discover that behind the unceasing flux of its constituent elements there is a constant thirst for infinity and eternity. This thirst can be detected even in the very grain of the elements themselves. It is this secret thirst or yearning that is the source of hope which sustains us even in the midst of our worst trials. Our instinctive fear of death is an inverted hope of immortality. Our desires strain after an infinity of satisfaction. We covet a particular thing or a particular enjoyment, and when that is obtained, our desires, instead of ceasing, fully satisfied, increase in int

MANIFESTATION Contemplation and Action THE combination of Mary and Martha, of contemplation and devoted action, has been held to be the most progressive and catholic ideal of spiritual life. Contemplation by the exclusion of action is a creed narrow in its outlook, and, more often than not, results in a disastrous neglect of the very basis and meaning of life, because it generally leads to an illusionist interpretation of existence. On the other hand, action to the exclusion of contemplation is a senseless splashing and paddling in the shallows of life, such as modern humanity displays. It is a race without a goal, a frantic scramble for power or fame or position or th

YOGIC ACTION* THERE are four attitudes possible towards action in spiritual life, and all of them have important bearings on life. The first is an attitude of rejection; the second, of qualified rejection; the third of ethical acceptance, and the fourth, of divine utilization. These are the fundamental attitudes, which not only colour spiritual life in their distinctive ways, but also condition its course and consummation. The first attitude is of sheer rejection of all action, so far as that is practicable in life. It pertains to the exclusive way of abstractive knowledge or love, which proceeds by a categoric renunciation of all secular relations, obligations an

SINCERITY WE have seen what the Mother means by aspiration. Another basic element of the spiritual way taught by her is sincerity, which she regards not only as a basic element, but as the leaven of all basic and essential elements of spiritual life. If there is one thing that can open all closed doors and lead straight to the highest spiritual achievements, it is sincerity and if there is one thing without which no substantial progress can ever be made and nothing abiding achieved, it is sincerity. A sincere aspiration, a sincere faith, a sincere prayer, a sincere endeavour, can never go in vain. Whatever the difficulties of the path, however long and arduous the journey,

THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION AND THE DIVINE LIFE BEFORE we proceed to note the identity existing between Sri Aurobindo's views on the Divine Manifestation and the Divine Life and those of the Mother before her meeting with Sri Aurobindo, we had better be clear about what Sri Aurobindo understands by Manifestation and the Divine Life. There are two important elements which give a distinctive character to the above terms and mark them out as the most creative concepts in spiritual philosophy. The first is the evolutionary and the second the collective element. Manifestation is, according to Sri Aurobindo, the very purpose and goal of evolu

ASCETICISM IN its simple and moderate form, asceticism is a self- imposed mortification or privation for the discipline and control of the lower nature. When the animal in man refuses to be tamed or quieted, but opposes his inner quest and living by an obstinate insistence on the satisfaction of its base appetites, a curb or brake is put upon it by his will. The objects of desire are renounced, so that the outer obsession may cease and the being may be free to discover its inmost truth and live in it. Asceticism in this sober form can be, in many individual cases, an unimpeachable, perhaps indispensable, preliminary to spiritual discipline, and those who decry or deride it are ei

SELF-SURRENDER THE Upanishadic dictum of enjoyment by renunciation-- tyaktena bhuñjīthā—is the basic motor principle of all evolutionary existence. Every step forward in evolution, from the primal outburst of life from the blind darkness of Matter to the luminous infinity and immortality of the superconscient Spirit, is taken, consciously or unconsciously, by renunciation or surrender. Take, for instance, the first emergence of life. How does it happen ? Something in the dumb bosom of Matter wearies of the unrelieved inertia and obscurity in which it lies buried, and pants for light and a free flow of life. The dull sleep in darkness is renounced, so that there may be a l

PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATION SRI Aurobindo insists so much on physical transformation, because without it the spiritual achievements of the human soul cannot be manifested in earthly life, individual and collective. It has been possible up to now to purify the mind and the heart to a certain extent and even to discipline and regulate (more by suppression or repression than otherwise) the life-parts of man, but the physical nature has been left almost unreclaimed. Its customary habits and tendencies, its crude appetites and impulses, its mechanical reactions and responses to outward impacts have always been the disgust and despair of even the greatest of spiritual

THE HUMAN BODY No part of the psycho-physical organism of man has been more misunderstood and mishandled than the body. Either it has been unduly coddled and cossetted, and its coarse demands and pleasures inordinately indulged, or a severe asceticism has ridden rough-shod over it, denying even its elementary need and depressing or damaging its motor powers. Man's dealing with his body has usually swung between these two ignorant extremes, and it is only in rare individual cases that it has been able to strike a balance and steer a middle course. And even this balance has been a rather poor and precarious makeshift, there being always an unsuspected disproportion or a wrong