Religion: Not Divine But Human (12-09-12) The sign of dawning Knowledge is to feel that as yet I know little or nothing, and yet, if I could only know my knowledge, I already possess everything. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-72) 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 div

Work as Part of the Yoga (02-09-12) Work as Part of the Yoga   …Work is part of the Yoga and it gives the best opportunity for calling down the Presence, the Light and the Power into the vital and its activities; it increases also the field and the opportunity of surrender… Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol 25, pages 200-201 …Yoga through work is the easiest and most effective way to enter into the stream of this Sadhana. Sri Aurobindo, SABCL vol 25, page 207 The only work that spiritually purifies is that which is done without personal motives, without desire for fame or public recognition or worldly greatness, without insistence on one's own mental motives or vital lusts and demand

What is one to do to prepare oneself for the Yoga? (01-02-12) In our sorrowful age, almost withered by the excessive domination of the intellect, nothing can be at once more necessary and more precious than Divine Love. In former times there was a noble form of asseveration for souls compact merely of force and action, “As surely as God liveth.” But for our modern needs another asseveration would suit better, “As surely as God loveth.” Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-503) What is one to do to prepare oneself for the Yoga? To be conscious, first of all. We are conscious of only an insignificant portion of our being; for the most part we are unconscious.It is this unconsciousness

Sri Aurobindo and Religion (21-11-12) Vivekananda, exalting Sannyasa, has said that in all Indian history there is only one Janaka. Not so, for Janaka is not the name of a single individual, but a dynasty of self-ruling kings and the triumph-cry of an ideal. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-103) Sri Aurobindo and Religion You only have to read all that Sri Aurobindo has written to know that it is impossible to base a religion on his works, because he presents each problem, each question in all its aspects, showing the truth contained in each way of seeing things, and he explains that in order to attain the Truth you must realise a synthesis which goes beyond all mental notions

The Greatest Obstacle: Hypocrisy (18-04-12) God is a great and cruel Torturer because He loves. You do not understand this, because you have not seen and played with Krishna. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-28)   The Greatest Obstacle: Hypocrisy Now I am addressing parents and teachers, for it is very important to teach children that it is absolutely useless to ‘look’ as if they were good, to ‘look’ as if they were obedient, to ‘look’ as if they were studying well, etc. Very often, the course parents and teachers adopt with their children is to encourage them to ‘look as if’. It often happens that if a child spontaneously confesses his mistake, he is given a scolding. This is one of th

 Kalidasa says in a daring image that the snowrocks of Kailasa are Shiva's loud world-laughters piled up in utter whiteness and pureness on the mountain-tops. It is true;and when their image falls on the heart, then the world's cares melt away like the clouds below into their real nothingness. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-506) Difficult to stop Meditation Is not an increasing effort of meditation needed and is it not true that the more hours you meditate the greater progress you make? The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress. It is a proof of your progress when you no longer have to make an effort to meditate. Then

Perfect Sincerity(25-01-12) Neither do thou inflict pain, O man, on thy fellow; God alone has the right to inflict pain; or those have it whom He has commissioned. But deem not fanatically, as did Torquemada, that thou art one of these. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-503)   Perfect Sincerity   Do you know what perfect sincerity is?... Never to try to deceive oneself, never let any part of the being try to find out a way of convincing the others, never to explain favourably what one does in order to have an excuse for what one wants to do, never to close one’s eyes when something is unpleasant, never to let anything pass, telling oneself, “That is not important, next time

Your belief and Others’ Beliefs (22-08-12) Sin is that which was once in its place, persisting now it is out of place; there is no other sinfulness. Sri Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-66) Your belief and Others’ Beliefs To think that your knowledge is the only true one, that your belief is the only true one and that others’ beliefs are not true, is to do precisely what is done by all sects and religions…. The contact which you have had with the truth of things, your personal contact – a contact which is more or less clear, profound, vast, pure – may have given you, as an individual, an interesting, perhaps even a decisive experience; but although this contact may have given y

The Psychic Mirror (11-07-12) To feel and love the God of beauty and good in the ugly and the evil, and still yearn in utter love to heal it of its ugliness and its evil, this is real virtue and morality. Sri Aurobindo (Thoughts and Aphorisms-50) The Psychic Mirror This is life. One stumbles and falls on the first occasion. One tells oneself: “Oh! One can’t always be so serious,” and when the other part returns, once again, one repents bitterly: “I was a fool, I have wasted my time, now I must begin again.”... There is but one remedy: that signpost must always be there, a mirror well placed in one’s feelings, impulses, all one’s sensations. One sees them in this mirror. There are some

FEAR IS AN IMPURITY (23-04-08) To love God, excluding the world, is to give Him an intense but imperfect adoration. Sri Aurobindo. (Thoughts and Aphorism 450) FEAR IS AN IMPURITY Fear is an impurity, one of the greatest impurities, one of those which come most directly from the anti-divine forces which want to destroy the divine action on earth; and the first duty of those who really want to do yoga is to eliminate from their consciousness, with all the might, all the sincerity, all the endurance of which they are capable, even the shadow of a fear. To walk on the path, one must be dauntless, and never indulge in that petty, small, feeble, nasty shrinking bac