Stead and Maskelyne   THE VEXED question of spirit communication has become a subject of permanent public controversy in England So much that is of the utmost importance to our views of the world, religion, science, life, philosophy, is crucially interested in the decision of this question, that no fresh proof or disproof, establishment or refutation of the genuineness and significance of spirit communications can go disregarded But no discussion of the question which proceeds merely on first principles can be of any value It is a matter of evidence, of the value of the evidence and of the meaning of the evidence If the ascertained facts are in

'Essays in Philosophy and Yoga' by Sri Aurobindo - Page1 of 50 Section II   The Lines of Karma     The Foundation   THE IDEA of Karma has behind it two ideas that are its constituent factors, a law of Nature, of the energy or action of Nature, and a soul that lives under that law, puts out action into that energy and gets from it a return in accordance and measure with the character of its own activities And here certain considerations have at once intervened which it will not do to ignore This putting out of action and its return cannot have anything more than a mechanical importance, it cannot have a mental, moral and

Part Five   From the Bulletin of Physical Education   1949 ­ 1950     The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth     Message   I TAKE the opportunity of the publication of this issue of the "Bulletin d'Education Physique" of the Ashram to give my blessings to the Journal and the Association —JSASA (Jeunesse Sportive de l'Ashram de Sri Aurobindo) In doing so I  would like to dwell for a while on the deeper raison d'être of such Associations and especially the need and utility for the nation of a widespread organisation of them and such

'Essays in Philosophy and Yoga' by Sri Aurobindo - Page1 of 50 The Conservative Mind and Eastern Progress   THE ARRIVAL of a new radical idea in the minds of men is the sign of a great coming change in human life and society; it may be combated, the reaction of the old idea may triumph for a time, but the struggle never leaves either the thoughts and sentiments or the habits and institutions of the society as they were when it commenced Whether it knows it or not, it has gone forward and the change is irretrievable Either new forms replace the old institutions or the old while preserving the aspect of continuity have profoundly changed within, or else the

'Essays in Philosophy and Yoga' by Sri Aurobindo - Page1 of 50 The Process of Evolution   THE END of a stage of evolution is usually marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of the evolution It is a principle of Nature that in order to get rid of any powerful tendency or deep-seated association in humanity, whether in the mass or in the individual, it has first to be exhausted by bhoga or enjoyment, afterwards to be dominated and weakened by nigraha or control and, finally, ˙ when it is weak, to be got rid of by samyama, rejection or self˙ dissociation The difference between nigraha and samyama is that in the first process there is a violent struggle to put down, co

Karma, Will and Consequence   WILL, KARMA and consequence are the three steps of the Energy which moves the universe But Karma and consequence are only the outcome of will or even its forms; will gives them their value and without it they would be nothing, nothing at least to man the thinking and growing soul and nothing, it may be hazarded, to the Spirit of which he is a flame and power as well as a creature The thing we first see or imagine we see, when we look at the outward mechanism of the universe, is energy and its works, action and consequence But by itself and without the light of an inhabiting will this working is only a huge soulless mechanism, a loud rattling o

Karmayoga   WE HAVE spoken of Karmayoga as the application of Vedanta and Yoga to life To many who take their knowledge of Hinduism second-hand this may seem a doubtful definition It is ordinarily supposed by "practical" minds that Vedanta as a guide to life and Yoga as a method of spiritual communion are dangerous things which lead men away from action to abstraction We leave aside those who regard all such beliefs as mysticism, self-delusion or imposture; but even those who reverence and believe in the high things of Hinduism have the impression that one must remove oneself from a full human activity in order to live the spiritual life Yet the spiritual life finds its mo

The Inconscient   THE FIRST or superficial view which the observing mind takes on any object of knowledge is always an illusory view; all science, all true knowledge comes by going behind the superficies and discovering the inner truth and the hidden law It is not that the thing itself is illusory, but that it is not what it superficially appears to be; nor is it that the operations and functionings we observe on the surface do not take place, but that we cannot find their real motive-power, process, relations by the simple study of them as they offer themselves to the observing senses. In the realm of physical science this is obvious enough

The Three Purushas   THE GREATEST of all the philosophical problems which human thought has struggled to solve, is the exact nature and relation to us of the conscious Intelligence in the phenomenal existence around The idealist denies the phenomenal existence, the materialist denies the conscious Intelligence To the former, phenomenon is a passing shadow on the luminous calm of the single universal Spirit: to the latter, intelligence is a temporary result of the motions of Matter The idealist can give no satisfactory explanation of the existence of the shadow; he admits that it is inexplicable, a thing that is and yet is not: the materialist can

'Essays in Philosophy and Yoga' by Sri Aurobindo - Page1 of 50 Arguments to The Life Divine     Chapter XIX   Life   ARGUMENT   Mind as a final action of Supermind is a creative and not only a perceptive power; in fact, material force itself being only a Will in things working darkly as the expression of subconscious Mind, Mind is the immediate creator of the material universe But the real creator is Supermind; for wherever there is Mind conscious or subconscious, there must be Supermind regulating from behind the veil its activities and educing from them their truth of inevitable r