Music – Indian and European THE difference is both in regard to the source and the ex­pression and in an inverse way. In European music a very high – spiritual – inspiration is a rare thing. The psychic source also is very rare. But if at all, it is a very high spiritual source, or otherwise it is the vital that is the source. The expression is always there, apart from some exceptions naturally, but it is almost always vital, because the source is very often purely vital. At times, as I said, it comes from high above, then it is really marvellous. At times, more rarely, it is psychic: something of it was there in the religious music, but it is not frequent. Indian

Value of Gymnastics – Mental or Other INTELLECTUAL activity is a kind of gymnastics. What is the value of physical gymnastics? It develops the muscles, makes them strong, supple and agile. But simply to develop them, to make them grow as much as possible or to take delight in a mere muscle-bound body is not the ideal; it rather frustrates the very object of gymnastics. The object is to develop, strengthen, shape all the limbs of the body and organise and harmonise them into a beautiful and capable whole. A particular exercise is not to be indulged in for its own sake: all the energy of the body turned to that alone and the whole attention devoted to that one thing. An ex

The Steps of the Soul THE human individual is a very complex being: he is com-posed of innumerable elements, each one of which is an independent entity and has almost a personality. Not only so, the most contradictory elements are housed together. If there is a particular quality or capacity present, the very opposite of it, annulling it, as it were, will be also found along with it and embracing it.. I have seen a man brave, courageous, heroic to the extreme, flinching from no danger, facing unperturbed the utmost peril, the bravest of the brave, truly; and yet I have seen the same man cowering in abject terror, like the last of poltroons, in the presence of certain c

-122_Music- it^s origine and nature.htm Music – Its Origin and Nature MUISIC, you must remember, like any other art, is a means for expressing something-some idea, some feeling, some emotion, a certain aspiration and so on. There is even a domain where all these movements exist and from where they are brought down under a musical form. A good composer with some inspiration would produce good music; he is then called a good musician. A bad musician can have also a good inspira­tion, he can receive something from the higher domain, but possessing no musical capacity, he would produce only what is very commonplace, very ordinary and uninteresting. How­ever, if you go beyond, precisely over to this plac

When Imperfection is Greater Than Perfection A PERFECTED consciousness is attained in the highest status of being, when it is full of light and delight, peace and purity, one with the Divine Consciousness. Such a Consciousness, when it comes down upon earth in its original unmixed clarity, lives as a foreign element and has no real contact with the world; it can have only a very indirect influence upon men and things. If the perfect, the Divine Consciousness has to be truly effective, has to change human and world nature, it must put on partially at least that nature; it must share in the imperfection of ignorance so that it can show how that impe

INDEX Aditi, 46 Africa, 272, 323 Agni,44, 52, 120, 151 Ahriman, 46, 110 Ahura Mazda, 46 Alexander, 56-7 Allies, the, 66 America, 133,214,421 Aniruddha, 44, 207-8 Apollo, 47 Ardhanarishwara, 84 Arjuna,9, 14,76-8,93, 112n., 116, 161 Arnold, Matthew, 92, 119 Aryaman, 208 Asia, 272 Asura, 19,45-6,80,98, 162,208-9,226, 253, 334, 349, 379 Axis Powers, the, 66 BABYLON, 199 Bach, 393,424,427 Ba1arama, 44, 207-8 Bankim (Chandra Chatterjee), 21 Beatrice, 203 Beethoven, 393-5, 424 Bengal, 21 Bergson, 143 Berkeley, 137 Bhaga,208 Bible, the, 100, 127, 152, 186, 192,397 Bois de Fontaineb1eu, 287 Book of the Dead, 1

How to Wait "IF you know how to wait, you gain time". Usually, when you are about to do a thing, the impulse is to rush towards it and rush it through; between the idea and the execution you do not want to leave any gap. You are in a haste to see the thing done. You do not care to pause and look about you, view and weigh the conditions and circumstances, think out the best way of working towards the goal. The result of the hustle is failure, very often dead failure. You have to begin over again. You may even have to begin over and over again if you do not learn the lesson given. Evidently, you lose time, lose energy and lose your success. On the contrary, what you have to d

The Symbolic Ignorance How can there be dark spots in the light of the full consciousness (the Mother's consciousness)? The darkness is only relative and depends upon the degree or status of conscious-ness. At the outset, on lower and narrower ranges, the light is dim and hedged in: it is surrounded by a much greater and denser area of darkness. As the consciousness grows, that is to say, manifests itself, as it rises and widens, the obscurity too recedes more and more and slowly fades away. This consciousness is not personal, but something impersonal. In other words, it holds within itself the universe including especially the earth. And earth is a dark object; it is

Sri Aurobindo and his 'School' A CONSIDERABLE amount of vague misunderstanding and misapprehension seems to exist in the minds of a certain section of our people as to what Sri Aurobindo is doing in his retirement at Pondicherry. On the other hand, a very precise exposition, an exact formula of what he is not doing has been curiously furnished by a well-known patriot in his indictment of what he chooses to call the "Pondicherry School" of contemplation. But he has arrived at this formula by "openly and fearlessly" affirming what does not exist; for the things that Sri Aurobindo is accused of doing are just the things that he is not doing. In the first plac

Mater Dolorosa SUFFERING, Distress and Death today hold the earth in thrall. And yet can there be any other issue in temporal life? That seems to be the ineluctable fate for mankind. Ages ago it was declared, the wages of sin is death. Doubters ask, however, if sinners alone suffered, one would not perhaps mind; but along with sinners why should innocents, nay even the virtuous, pass under the axe? What sins indeed babes commit? Are the sins of the fathers truly visited upon coming generations? A queer arrangement, to say the least, if there is a wise and just and benevolent God! Yes, how many honest people, people who strive to live piously, honestly and honourably, accordi