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If the goal of the spiritual seeker is to attain liberation or realisation, the vital nature can be, for the most part, disregarded. For an integral yoga that has transformation of life through the implementation of the next phase of the evolutionary cycle, such a direction cannot be accepted. ... Views: 548
Sri Aurobindo considers yoga to be, in a certain sense, applied psychology. The review and understanding of one’s own actions and deeper motives and motivations is essential if one is going to overcome the limitations and habits of the lower nature and eventually receive and manifest new ways of ... Views: 558
In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo explores the boundaries of the Ignorance and a framework for attaining knowledge. He describes at some length, the ‘circumconscient’ influence on what we believe are our own internal actions and reactions. We view ourselves through the ego-consciousness and ... Views: 511
In ancient Greek mythology, there is the tale of the 12 labours of Hercules, one of which was cleaning out the Augean stables. He needed to accomplish this task in one day, but there were so many cattle that it was considered an impossible task. And every day the mess was renewed after the ... Views: 582
Every individual has all the long-established vital movements embedded deep in the nature. When the force of the yoga begins to open up the various energy centers, particularly the vital centers, these movements are stirred and use the opportunity to capitalize on the new energy and try to ... Views: 495
The idea of changing the basic way that human beings respond to circumstances is one that has been considered to be a virtually hopeless task. Long human experience has provided the impression that our vital nature is fixed and, while we can perhaps soften it around the edges, it is basically ... Views: 522
In the ordinary life in the world, the action of vital desire, and the attempt to fulfill the desires is accepted to such a degree that it is not even consciously noted or treated as anything other than ‘human nature’. Society sets certain customary restraints or limits in order to build a civil ... Views: 630
Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929, died April 4, 1968, was the most visible American civil rights leader from 1955 until his assassination. He furthered civil rights through nonviolence, motivated by his Christian beliefs and the peaceful activism of Mahatma Gandhi. We suspect this ... Views: 646
Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929, died April 4, 1968, was the most visible American civil rights leader from 1955 until his assassination. He furthered civil rights through nonviolence, motivated by his Christian beliefs and the peaceful activism of Mahatma Gandhi. We suspect this ... Views: 675
When we are busy fulfilling our desires or ambitions, we notice that the vital energy is generally plentiful and positive, we forget about fatigue and want to carry on with exuberance. This is the normal status of the vital energy carrying out its habitual functions in human life and society. ... Views: 528
We frequently hear people saying that this world is a world of opposites and one cannot have joy without sorrow, pleasure without pain. This is accepted basically as an axiom for living in the world. And it is true, that for virtually everyone there is a mixture of positive and negative vital ... Views: 495
There are times when we feel a total lack of inspiration and energy. Dullness pervades, there is no initiative or interest in anything. These times come in the ordinary day to day life, but they are covered up with distractions, entertainment, intoxication, and vital forms of enjoyment. The ... Views: 563
To effectuate a total transformation of the mind-life-body and its action in the world, it is necessary for the seeker to address and solve the issue of the vital being, its desires, and the ego-standpoint that it fosters and maintains.
Methods that essentially try to fight with the vital ... Views: 596
Every society in the world praises the value of love. Love takes us beyond self-centeredness and motivates us to connect meaningfully with another.
Yet, too often, the secular ideal of love emphasizes being loved, or at least receiving love in reciprocation for the love one gives.
In ... Views: 675
A primary characteristic of human life on earth at this time is the power of the vital force in shaping not just our day-to-day responses to life situations, but to also impact our mental processes, such that for most people, the mind is under the control of the vital and its desires and ... Views: 536
Practitioners of spiritual and religious disciplines inevitably are confronted with the habits and expectations of the physical mind in day to day life. There is a constant pressure to provide regular meals that suit the taste of the individual, comfortable surroundings to support the day to day ... Views: 558
If we reflect on the amount of time and focus we give to organizing and living our external physical lives, dealing with food, shelter, clothing, comforts of various sorts, entertainment, travel, family and friends, it becomes clear that a considerable part, indeed the greatest part, of our time ... Views: 530
The vital mind is the dominant process for most people in the world today who live an external life and work toward some form of fulfillment, success, progress or development in their lives and in their relations to family, friends, community and their society. Very few, comparatively, are those ... Views: 573
For most people, the mind is always active with an internal commentary or dialogue running as people react to situations or try to solve various issues. As the mind is trained to undertake intellectual processes, it follows a process of logic and organisation that is used to understand and act ... Views: 503
The mental intellect receives impulses through the senses, organises them, and trues to determine what is true based on that. It then builds hypotheses, theories and ideation around its assortment of perceptions, memory, and experience based on various principles of symbolic logic that it has ... Views: 632
it is typical of the mental intelligence to believe that reading and remembering something implies that we have realised the truth of what we have read. Those who have taken the time to reflect on this make it clear that ‘reading a book about swimming’ does not mean one knows how to swim! ... Views: 571
Hemp has become a popular source of oil recently despite the many doubts most people have regarding it. Cannabis sativa cultivars, the botanical class hemp belongs to, are grown specifically for medicinal and industrial uses. Hemp seeds, in particular, are used for many different things like ... Views: 601
The development of the mental consciousness has brought about enormous changes for life on earth, and as the foremost species utilizing the mental consciousness, humanity has taken the mind to limits never before considered as possible. Advances in logic, science, philosophy, psychology, ... Views: 557
The Bhagavad Gita places considerable emphasis on the need to understand the play of the Gunas, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, in all things. Yogic practice is not exempted from this play. Each of the Gunas has a specific set of characteristics, and they are not stable. The Gunas are always in motion. ... Views: 546
The vital nature craves excitement and signs of progress. It feels like time spent reflecting, relaxing, or contemplating may be ‘wasted time’. This is similar to the mindset that sees a vacant piece of land, with just plants, flowers and trees on it as ‘wasted’ as it has not been ‘developed’. ... Views: 515
There is a physical sensation that often accompanies the descent of the higher Force into the being. Some people relate this as a type of pressure in the head. Some experience headaches initially. Some find their being shaking to some degree as the nervous system absorbs and distributes the ... Views: 597
The traditional paths of yoga have as a defining experience the rising of the energy from the lower chakras to the higher centres. Western psychology proposes that the creative force, that leads to art, as well as intellectual achievement comes through a process that is called ‘sublimation’ of ... Views: 496
For the majority of individuals who live on the surface of their being, the energy they experience, the thoughts, emotions, feelings, perceptions are simply the working of the machinery, with no understanding about the process or source of this energetic action in their lives. For those who have ... Views: 528
Spiritual practices that focus on liberation from the nature attempt to achieve that liberation through abandonment of the external life and a one-pointed concentration on the spiritual consciousness. The integral Yoga has an additional goal of bringing the higher spiritual forces and knowledge, ... Views: 596
The experience and descent of a higher consciousness is not a matter of philosophical argument but one of psycho-physical effects seen and noted by the individual, as well as palpable impacts in the basis of knowledge, action and implementation in the outer world. The seeker actually can feel ... Views: 535
While the integral Yoga does not depend on the techniques or methods of the traditional yogic paths, Sri Aurobindo has identified several processes that can be of great help in some cases. They help the seeker achieve a state of separation from the outer ego-personality and vital desire-soul, to ... Views: 522
The integral Yoga does not depend, as many yogic paths do, on physical asanas or breathing techniques, nor on chanting of mantras, nor singing and dancing in ecstatic states of trance, nor deep philosophical inquiry or strict mental techniques. Nor does it depend on austerity or any kind of ... Views: 516
In the classic methods known as Kundalini Yoga, and more generally in traditional yogic practices that seek to open and energize the subtle energy centers, or chakras, the experience is described as one of the energy starting at the lower chakra center, the Muladhara, and then rising up until it ... Views: 568
When they were asked how they develop their most inspired concepts or inventions, noted personalities such as Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla made it clear that it is not through some laborious process of thought, but through an inspiration, a vision, a process of understanding that is outside ... Views: 567
Development in our world of existence takes place in a sequential manner, systematically developing the physical framework, the body, and then manifesting the vital, life-force and developing its powers, adding in thereafter the mental layer and subsequently, we see the signs that further stages ... Views: 558
In setting forth a goal of transformation of the nature through the advent of the spiritual consciousness and the supramental level, Sri Aurobindo goes beyond the goals of other traditional spiritual paths which have ‘liberation’ as the goal. He describes the impact of each new manifestation of ... Views: 581
Spiritual experience and progress can be confusing. In many cases the seeker is misled or misunderstands what is actually taking place, and the significance of it. Spiritual paths generally recommend the seeker find an experienced guide, or Guru, among other reasons, to help mitigate confusion ... Views: 625
With the development of the mental being in evolution, we can observe the central leadership role that the mind plays in dealing with the vital and physical levels of our existence. The mental being, however, is limited by its strict framework and sequential process, and thus, is something like ... Views: 525
Each new evolutionary stage of consciousness takes place within the framework of the previously evolved stages and over a course of time as adaptation of that framework must occur to ‘prepare the ground’ for the new action of consciousness. For example, physical matter, rock, ocean, volcanic ... Views: 616
Most people associate yoga with a series of physical exercises and breathing routines. Yoga, however, is more than such physical activities, although they can help to regulate energy flow and enhance stability and provide benefits to the body, life energy and mind. Sri Aurobindo has more broadly ... Views: 602
If human nature can be changed, it has to be at the place where motives and impulsions affect the understanding and the action. The sadhana thus entails a review of the wellsprings of thought and action, and a refusal of the drives and motives of the desire soul of the vital nature. Many times ... Views: 566
It’s safe to say that most us wrestle with some kind of frustration on a daily basis. This kind of dissatisfaction can be with ourselves, over what we can or can’t get done—or with others, who may deny us our wish or otherwise disappoint our expectations. Accordingly, we can feel as though we ... Views: 701
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Goodness, stand by! Is it accurate to say that ... Views: 490
It is a well-known occurrence. We have a wonderful experience in meditation and come back filled with light, a feeling of joy or bliss, an open heart and a sense of realisation. Then we go out to act in the world and all the old impulses arise, the feelings of desire, the drive of control, ... Views: 657
Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist, is remembered as one of the greatest physicists of all time. Einstein created the theory of relativity and made important contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics. Below we list examples of his words of wisdom.
“A man's ethical ... Views: 633
Most people, embedded in the physical body and its consciousness, find it difficult, if not impossible, to accept or validate the reality of the out of body experience. At the same time, there are countless anecdotes of people who have an out of body experience, or the related ‘near death ... Views: 619
The operation of the Gunas of nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas is noticeable in the spiritual quest as in everything else. The result is that when something new or exciting occurs, it tends to provoke the rising of Rajas and an attempt to grasp and enhance the ego-gratification of the event. ... Views: 569
Dreams have kept researchers awake for the entire history of mankind. Where do dreams come from? Of what substance are they made? What significance do they have? The ancient Greek culture had oracles who interpreted dreams. The Old Testament of the Bible recounts the rise of Joseph in the land ... Views: 597
During daytime, we see the sun, the atmosphere and the world around us, and our thoughts and activities, for the most part, are focused on the life of the world. At night, we see the vast ranges of space and the myriad of stars, and can thereby recognise that our world is a small part of a much ... Views: 551
We spend a large percentage of our lives in the realm of sleep, and the dreams that accompany the sleep state. We have very little actual knowledge of what takes place during our period of sleep, although scientists do extensive studies on the electrical activity in the brain during sleep and ... Views: 557