NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL MAN   The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga   In the Katha Upanishad there occurs one of those powerful and pregnant phrases, containing a world of meaning in a point of verbal space, with which the Upanishads are thickly sown. Yogo hi prabhavapyayau. For Yoga is the beginning & ending of things. In the Puranas the meaning of the phrase is underlined & developed. By Yoga God made the world, by Yoga He will draw it into Himself in the end. But not only the original creation & final dissolution of the universe, all great changes of things, creations, evolutions, destr

Section Five   1927 and after    The Law of the Way   First be sure of the call and of thy soul's answer. For if the call is not true, not the touch of God's powers or the voice of his messengers, but the lure of thy ego, the end of thy endeavour will be a poor spiritual fiasco or else a deep disaster. And if not the soul's fervour, but only the mind's assent or interest replies to the divine summons or only the lower life's desire clutches at some side attraction of the fruits of Yoga-power or Yoga-pleasure or only a transient emotion leaps like an unsteady flame mov

Where We Stand in Literature   [Draft A]   Where we stand, not only in literature, but in all things, is at or near a great turning point in which the thoughts and forms of East and West, both in an immense ferment of change, are working upon each other to produce something great, unforeseeable and unprecedented. From the less worldwide viewpoint which most nearly concerns us in this country, we may say, that we find ourselves in a great hour of rebirth of the ancient soul of India. The momentous issues of this hour are producing their inevitable upheaval, change and effort at creation in the whole na

Man and Superman   Man and the Evolutionary Process   46   Man is a transitional being, he is not final. He is a middle term of the evolution, not its end, crown or consummating masterpiece.   47   Man is not final, he is a transitional being. Beyond him awaits formation the diviner race, the superman.   48   God is the beginning, middle and end of all things; but in the beginning He is concealed, in the middle partly and progressively manifest, i

Sachchidananda   The Vedanta, that solemn affirmation of the ultimate truths beyond which no human thinking has ever proceeded or can proceed, looking deep into the last recesses where existence takes refuge from the scrutiny of the Mind, affirms there as the beginning and the end of all possible description of the infinite Knowable-Unknowable three terms, Being, Comprehension and Delight. They are the initial & final trinity of existence. From them all phenomena proceed, to them all phenomena seek to return. This personality envisaged as myself, has come out of infinite being, lives in infinite being; emmeshed in the limitations of form

The Evolution of Consciousness   All life here is a stage or a circumstance in an unfolding progressive evolution of a Spirit that has involved itself in Matter and is labouring to manifest itself in that reluctant substance. This is the whole secret of earthly existence. But the key of that secret is not to be found in life itself or in the body; its hieroglyph is not in embryo or organism,—for these are only a physical means or base: the one significant mystery of this universe is the appearance and growth of consciousness in the vast mute unintelligence of Matter. The escape of Consciousness out of an a

Life in Baroda, 1893 - 1906   The Swaying Sensation     I was standing on a scaffolding which was swinging to and fro. At one point I saw the walls nearby swinging like a pendulum. I understood the reason, but the sight of swinging walls was so vivid that I put my hand on the wall nearby to convince myself that it was not moving yet the "eye-mind" refused to accept the evidence of the "touch-mind"!   But what was it due to? The sense of swinging of the scaffolding communicating itself to the walls as it were in the impression upon some brain centre? After travelling long in a boat I had once or twice the swaying sense of it

On His Published Prose Writings   Publication Plans, 1927   There is no intention of withdrawing support. The small book The Mother was given to Rameshwar because it was necessary to bring it out without delay and the A.P.H. [Arya Publishing House] was already occupied with the Essays on the Gita which it had not been able to bring to completion. It was hoped that Rameshwar's joining the A.P.H. would unite all interests, but since you have not been able to agree together, it will be necessary to give him something from time to time as the long-standing connection with him cannot be broken —  there being no reason for giving him up any more t

Writing for Publication   Unwillingness to Write for Newspapers and Magazines   If I allow the Orient to publish something yet unpublished by me, I lose my defence against demands from outside which is that I have ceased to contribute to magazines, newspapers et hoc genus omne and have made it indeed a rule not to do so. Therefore —   *   I am afraid X is asking from me a thing psychologically impossible. You know that I have forbidden myself to write anything for publication for some time past and some time to come —  I am self-debarred from press, platform and public. Even if it were otherwise, it would be impossible under present

The Ashram and Its Atmosphere   The Ashram Precincts   X told me that Y has said that there is a very strong circle of Mother's protection around the main Ashram house, and a less strong one in the other houses.   It is not the house, it is the inner nearness that matters. What is true is that there is a strong force going out from here and it is naturally strongest at the centre. But how it affects there, depends on how one receives it. If it is received with simple trust, faith, openness, confidence, then it works as a complete protection. But it can so work too at a distance. 16 January 1933