Vigilance (23-05-12) Some say Krishna never lived, he is a myth. They mean on earth; for if Brindavun existed nowhere, the Bhagwat could not have been written. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-38) Vigilance Vigilance is the way that leads to immortality (or Nirvana).Negligence is the way that leads to death. Those who are vigilant do not die. Those who are negligent are dead already. In these texts the word Nirvana is not used in the sense of annihilation, as you see, but in the sense of an eternal existence in opposition to life and death, as we know them in the present earthly existence, and which are contrary to each other: life contrary to death, death contrary to life. It is

The Psychic Being (06-05-12) The Psychic Being ………. In the spiritual knowledge of self there are three steps of its self-achievement which are at the same time three parts of the one knowledge. The first is the discovery of the soul, not the outer soul of thought and emotion and desire, but the secret psychic entity, the divine element within us. When that becomes dominant over the nature, when we are consciously the soul and when mind, life and body take their true place as its instruments, we are aware of a guide within that knows the truth, the good, the true delight and beauty of existence, controls heart and intellect by its luminous law and leads our life and being towards spiritual c

A Desire Of Higher Kind (03-10-12) Genius discovers a system; average talent stereotypes it till it is shattered by fresh genius. It is dangerous for an army to be led by veterans; for on the other side God may place Napoleon. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-77) A Desire Of Higher Kind When a child is full of desires, if one could give him a desire of a higher kind… if one could awaken in him the desire to know, the desire to learn, the desire to become a remarkable person…in this way, begin with that. As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things. Or even, from the material point of view, the desire to do something difficult

To progress in Yoga (29-02-12) Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge, it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-2)   To progress in Yoga Yoga means union with the Divine and the union is effected through offering—it is founded on the offering of yourself to the Divine. In the beginning you start by making this offering in a general way, as though once for all; you say, “I am the servant of the Divine; my life is given absolutely to the Divine; all my efforts are for the realisation of the Divine Life.” But that is only the first step; for this is not s

An Exceptional Hour (28-03-12) When I had the dividing reason, I shrank from many things; after I had lost it in sight, I hunted through the world for the ugly and the repellent, but I could no longer find them. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-20) An Exceptional Hour People sleep, they forget, they take life easy – they forget, forget all the time…. But if we could remember…. That we are at an exceptional hour, a unique time, that we have this immense good fortune, this invaluable privilege of being present at the birth of a new world, we could easily get rid of everything that impedes and hinders our progress. So, the most important thing, it seems, is to remember this fa

To See Oneself as One Is (04-01-12) Ravana's mind thought it was hungering after universal sovereignty and victory over Rama; but the aim his soul kept its vision fixed upon all the time was to get back to its heaven as soon as possible & be again God's menial. Therefore, as the shortest way, it hurled itself against God in a furious clasp of enmity Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-509)   To See Oneself as One Is It is no use at all hiding things and pushing them behind, like this, and imagining they are not there because one has put a veil in front. It is much better to see oneself as one is- provided one is ready to give up this way of being. If you come allowing all the bad mo

 Difficulties in Work-Sadhana Through Work (19-08-12)  Difficulties in Work-Sadhana Through Work ……… … Yes, obviously, that is one great utility of work that it tests the nature and puts the sadhak in front of the defects of his outer being which might otherwise escape him. For the sadhak outward struggles, troubles, calamities are only a means of surmounting ego and rajasic desire and attaining to complete surrender. So long as one insists on success, one is doing the work partly at least for the ego; difficulties and outward failures come to warn one that it is so and to bring complete equality. This does not mean that the power of victory is not to be acquired, but it is not success i

Someone Who Knows Very Little (27-06-12) When I was asleep in the Ignorance, I came to a place of meditation full of holy men and I found their company wearisome and the place a prison; when I awoke, God took me to a prison and turned it into a place of meditation and His trysting-ground. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-47) Someone Who Knows Very Little   It is not necessarily someone with experience who is most advanced. He lacks an element of simplicity, modesty, and the plasticity that comes from the fact that one is not yet totally developed. As one grows, something crystallises in the head; it gets more and more fixed and unless you try very hard you finish by becomi

Religion: Not Divine But Human (14-11-12) The word of Scripture is infallible; it is in the interpretation the heart and reason put upon the Scripture that error has her portion. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-99) Religion: Not Divine But Human Religion belongs to the higher mind of humanity. It is the effort of man’s higher mind to approach, as far as it lies in its power, something beyond it, something to which humanity gives the name God or Spirit or Truth or Faith or Knowledge or the Infinite, some kind of Absolute, which the human mind cannot reach and yet tries to reach. Religion may be divine in its ultimate origin; in its actual nature it is not divine but human…. T

The Object of Integral Yoga (07-02-12) O Aristophanes of the universe, thou who watchest thy world and laughest sweetly to thyself, wilt thou not let me too see with divine eyes and share in thy worldwide laughters? Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-505) The Object of Integral Yoga THE object of the yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine's sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine. Its object is not to be a great yogi or a Superman (although that may come) or to grab at the Divine for the sake of the ego's