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- The Psychic Being Brings Cheerful Focus to the Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Aug 01, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn his novel Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens exposes us to a character who is perpetually cheerful, Mark Tapley. We meet him in a comfortable situation working at an inn, with a warm relationship with the proprietor of the inn, with whom he is in love (and who is in love with him). He ...
Views: 153 - Spiritual Awakening: Moving Away From Disillusionment to Finding Meaning in Life - by Submitted on Jul 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs we grow and experience life, there may come a time when we become disillusioned. We may feel like there is no meaning or significance to what we do. We feel like we are running in a hamster wheel, or on a treadmill, always striving to earn money to survive and maybe have a bit of enjoyment. ...
Views: 143 - The Sunlit Path in the Yogic Endeavour - by Submitted on Jul 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we see deeply religious or spiritual people, we expect to see people who are serious, reserved and who carry an air of distance from the things of the world. This expectation has been so deeply embedded in the human psyche that we almost unconsciously take up this attitude when we tread the ...
Views: 150 - Unflagging Perseverance and Persistence Is Required for the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyAthletes undergo extensive training routines, logging many thousands of hours with, in many cases, tough physical conditioning and practice, in order to achieve their goals for physical development and to be able to participate in a competitive sporting event. Many who are not athletes undertake ...
Views: 143 - Overcoming Doubt and Fear of Failure in the Yogic Sadhana Through the Shift from the Ego-Standpoint to the Divine Standpoint - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe seem to be always second guessing ourselves. Are we doing the sadhana in the right way? Is there another method or technique i should be employing? Why am I not seeing the results I expect and desire? Am I even cut out for doing sadhana? Maybe this was all just a big mistake and I should get ...
Views: 160 - Sustaining the Yogic Endeavour in the Unique Challenges Posed by the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jul 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyFor those individuals called to take up the integral yoga, there is a unique opportunity and a unique set of concerns that arise. Those paths of yoga which aim at liberation have their own difficulties. It is not simple to escape the lures of the external life, or even to undertake ...
Views: 153 - Spiritual Development Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyA devotee by the name of Satyakama Jabala approached a respected Guru, in a story related in the Chhandogya Upanishad. He asked for teachings so he could achieve realisation on the spiritual path. The teacher asked him his name and family background, to which the young seeker replied that he did ...
Views: 163 - The Need for Patience and Perseverance - by Submitted on Jul 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyScientists tell us that human beings diverged from chimpanzees somewhere between 4 and 8 million years ago. Somewhere around 2 million years ago, the line of development that led to human beings appeared and our current formation, Homo sapiens came on the scenes around 300,000 years ago. Each ...
Views: 152 - Faith and Courage Represent the True Attitude For Facing Life and for Spiritual Progress - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2025 from santosh krinskyOne of the qualities that Swami Vivekananda emphasized as ‘fearlessness’. We may wonder why courage and fearlessness are such important elements in living our lives, if we live a relatively ‘safe’ external life and don’t engage in extremely risky behaviour. We may also wonder why they are ...
Views: 159 - The Individual Action Needed to Implement the Spiritual Path in One’s Life - by Submitted on Jul 18, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature wants to continue its old ways and achieve fulfillment of its desires. It is also very effective at finding ways to convince the mind to carry out its impulses and desires. When an individual takes up the spiritual path, the vital being does not get discouraged, it simply tries ...
Views: 161 - Focusing One’s Attention on the Forces One Wants to Manifest - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe human being receives vibrations from the universe. They are either accepted and allowed to act upon the individual, or rejected at some level of the being, with minimal impact other than the pressure on the sheath or aura that feels the vibration. If the vibration is accepted, it can not ...
Views: 158 - Overcoming the Distracting Force of Vital Desire to Find and Live the Truth of One’s Life - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2025 from santosh krinskyWind is a metaphor for the vital force. The vital being is moved by desire. When we covet or desire something, we are tossed about as by a great gust of wind. This is the normal state for most people, and they just get tossed about from one focus to another trying to achieve what is held before ...
Views: 155 - What Actually Is Spirituality? - by Submitted on Jul 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe speak of ‘spirituality’ and we have a conception in our minds about what it actually is. We vaguely sense that it encompasses a devotion and focus on something other than our daily external life and relationships. Many people state that they are ‘spiritual, not religious’. We sometimes ...
Views: 148 - Understanding the Respective Roles of Personal Effort and Divine Grace in the Transformation of Human Nature - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is one thing to adopt, in one’s mind, the idea that since the Divine is doing the work, we need simply accept the idea and let things take their course. It is an entirely different thing if we actually want to accomplish the transformation needed to bring about a change in human nature based ...
Views: 164 - Individual Strength, the Power of Sincerity and the Action of the Divine Grace - by Submitted on Jul 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyParticularly in the West, historically, but more and more a world-wide phenomenon in the modern era, there is a strong bias toward the idea that one needs to be a “self-made man”, implying that it is through individual strength and accomplishment that one can accomplish anything. This bias is ...
Views: 145 - Understanding the Yogic Process and Its Developments Through the Action of Time - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe frequently overlook the element of time in any inner review of progress toward spiritual fulfillment, surrender to the Divine, or any other aspect of our spiritual path. We want and expect instant results, and thus, when we once take up spiritual practice, we want it to be immediately ...
Views: 158 - Integral Surrender to the Divine - by Submitted on Jul 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe tend to live under the illusion that we are one being and that what we think or feel represents ‘who we are’. We accept the idea that we are dedicated to a spiritual path, or we accept the sense of devotion that we feel as representing our surrender to the Divine Will. Yet, we have different ...
Views: 159 - Spiritual Progress: Personal Effort or Surrender to the Divine Grace - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe see in the legends about great yogic practitioners and their struggles to achieve the spiritual results, a variety of approaches. Two major approaches have been categorised as the “baby monkey” and the “baby cat” approach. The differentiation involves the way the individual participates in ...
Views: 138 - Distinguishing Truth from Falsehood Requires Separation from the Vital Desire-Soul and Its Impulsions - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyDuring the 1980’s there were a number of scams carried out by US mail. An individual would receive a letter purporting to come from some high official in another country who had access to a large amount of money and needed a ‘partner’ to help take the funds out of the country and invest them in ...
Views: 152 - How to Recognise the Divine Will - by Submitted on Jul 04, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe get prompted inwardly to do somethng. In some cases, we have conflicting impulses or reactions. We wonder how to distinguish the Divine Will from all of the other drives, motives, forces, and options that confront us. Add to this the complications of the vital nature, in i ts attempts to ...
Views: 158 - Establishing the Psychic Being as the Central Organizing Principle and Overcoming the Dominion of the Vital Nature and the External Being - by Submitted on Jul 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs long as we identify ourselves with our external personality, the body-life-mind complex we inhabit and project into the world, we are subject to the responses, reactions and motivations that they express, based on the developments of the entire past evolutionary history of consciousness on ...
Views: 161 - Wielding the Torch of Perfect Sincerity — the Way of Realisation on the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2025 from santosh krinskySome years ago, there was a movie coming out of Hollywood that was based on the premise that someone was ‘cursed’ with having to tell the truth at all times. The premise was developed as a comedy with the idea that rather than using flattering terms or avoiding any harsh statements, the ...
Views: 147 - Understanding the Masks, False Fronts and Deceptive Appearances We Present to the World and to Ourselves - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is relatively easy to recognise that we are putting up a false front in our dealings with society. We greet people with a smile while in our minds, we may be having an opposite feeling about the person. We flatter people to get ahead in society, knowing that the flattery is not based on ...
Views: 160 - Addressing the Divergence Between the Inner Being and the External Nature - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyComplete sincerity, inwardly and outwardly, is something that does not generally happen overnight. There are too many habits, instncts and trained responses that control the way the external nature responds to expect that the mental, vital and physical elements of the being will not only accept ...
Views: 162 - Sincerity and Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyFor most people, the concept of ‘sincerity’ is connected with how they relate to other people, in an open, natural and honest way, without duplicity or hypocrisy. The idea that sincerity can relate to oneself and one’s inner life is something that spiritual aspirants grapple with. Sincerity is ...
Views: 157 - The Spiritual Seeker Needs to Live Within His Own Spiritual Atmosphere Not Dependent on Outer Circumstances - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen an individual takes up spiritual practice, he naturally will try to find a space that is calm and quiet to aid his contemplation, aspiration or devotion. The hustle and bustle of the external life is distracting to the concentration and all of the noise, and all of the pressures of that ...
Views: 226 - The Nature of True Aspiration - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyRestlessness, impatience and disturbance of the vital nature are signs of weakness in the vital, an inability to hold the energy that is available to the vital. A strong vital nature will have the ability to remain calm and hold the energy without spilling it. For the spiritual seeker, there ...
Views: 161 - The Quality of Rajas and Its Impact on the Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe quality of Rajas, when it predominates in the action of the individual seeking spiritual growth, can have quite disruptive effects. A certain amount of focus and energy is required for any spiritual endeavour, to be sure, but there is a fine line between too little energy and too much. Rajas ...
Views: 159 - Aspiration, Desire and the Action of the Divine Force - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyAspiration is frequently confused with a form of vital desire that ‘wants’ some kind of spiritual development, experience or result. Aspiration, however, originates in the psychic being, while desire stems from the vital being. The characteristics of the two are therefore dramatically different ...
Views: 160 - Shifting the Standpoint of Consciousness Beyond the Action of the Three Gunas - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe three Gunas of Nature control the actions and reactions of the external nature and the response to the dualities that present themselves in Nature. As long as we remain fixated at the level of the surface personality, we remain subject to this action of the Gunas. The question then ...
Views: 162 - The Most Helpful Attitude for Spiritual Progress - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe vital nature, in particular, is addicted to ‘drama’. It seeks attention and excitement. An added complication is that in modern society, with our fixation on all types of electronic stimulation, internet, mobile phones, radio, television, cinema, along with neon signs, blaring ads and ...
Views: 152 - Overcoming Suffering and Changing the Future of Our Karma - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyMany people believe that there is some kind of inexorable law of reward and punishment being doled out by God or some other all-powerful, all-observant being. In the West children are taught this lesson through the myth of Santa Claus, when they are encouraged to be “good” because Santa Claus is ...
Views: 153 - Exceeding the Limits Set By Our Minds to Harness Powers of Health and Fitness - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe generally remain locked within the framework of our past training and experience. We create walls around ourselves that circumscribe what we believe we can accomplish, what we can do, what is ‘real’ and what is possible. As long as we remain primarily fixated on the past, we limit our ...
Views: 195 - Causes and Prevention or Elimination of Illness - by Submitted on Jun 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe physical body has an ingrained response, for most people, to vibrations that precipitate illnesses. The vector carrying that vibration (whether one calls it ‘germs’, ‘bacteria’, ‘virus’, or ‘suggestion’) strikes the protective vital envelope, or aura, surrounding the body. If it finds an ...
Views: 183 - The Action of the Three Gunas in Relation to the Assimilation of the Spiritual Force - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe 3 Gunas, qualities of Nature, are active in all beings, including those who are undertaking an active process of spiritual development. The physical being is very much subject to the action of Tamas, generally, because of its dense and somewhat inert material characteristics. It thus may ...
Views: 163 - Periods of Apparent Emptiness or Dryness in the Spiritual Practice - by Submitted on Jun 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the external life we are trained to desire visible signs of forward movement, progress, constant development. We believe if we are not moving forward, then we must be retrogressing. We value action over quiet times. When we are relieved from action, such as during a vacation, or at the stage ...
Views: 158 - The Power of a Quiet Mind - by Submitted on Jun 09, 2025 from santosh krinskyModern civilization puts a premium on the mental process. We educate our children with a focus on the mind. We want them to learn verbal skills, reading skills, logical skills and measure them on their abilities in these areas with various forms of standardized tests by which we then classify ...
Views: 180 - The Law of Attraction and its Application to Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is interesting that people are willing to believe the ‘secret’ of the law of attraction, spend time, energy and money trying to learn it, for the purpose of manifesting wealth, enjoyment and the powers available in the world, but they do not tend to apply the principle behind this ‘law of ...
Views: 163 - Freeing Oneself From Responsibility for Oneself By Reliance on the Divine - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere was a young man who happened to be living at the same place during the 1970’s, who got into his head the idea that the Divine was watching out for him so he could not come to any harm. He walked out into traffic on a busy road and with cars honking and braking, he survived without a ...
Views: 167 - Gaining Perspective On Our Desires and Focus Within the Grand Canvas of Time and Space - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe spend most of our lives fixated on the external life we are living, including our internal reactions to that life, such as our feelings, desires, sense impressions, thoughts, ideas, motivations and physical comforts and discomforts (among other things). We focus on earning our livelihood, ...
Views: 168 - Dealing with Anxiety and Worry - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyMany people express the idea that simply living life without any form of planning or care about organizing one’s activities is the ideal ‘worry-free’ way of living. This conflates reasonable planning in the outer life with the internal process of worrying. Worrying is basically an inability ...
Views: 230 - Facing One’s Difficulties - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to place him between the two armies ready to engage in a civil war, with massive numbers of troops on each side, so that he could view the scene before the actual fighting started. At that moment he was struck by the magnitude of what was about to ...
Views: 158 - Faithfulness to the Light and the Divine Call - by Submitted on Jun 03, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople have an inner ‘commentary’ and ‘sound track’ going on virtually constantly in their heads. The ‘sound track’ may be a piece of music they heard which keeps repeating in their minds, what is colloquially called an ‘ear worm’. It may also be something of far less enjoyment such as a ...
Views: 165 - Aligning the Inner Being With the Psychic Aspiration Overcomes the Pressure of Despondency and Depression in the Course of the Spiritual Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyTaking the right attitude when feelings of failure or depression arise in the course of the spiritual practice is essential to navigate through these moods with the least disruption. Sri Aurobindo implies that the standpoint should be in the separate witness consciousness, which he distinguishes ...
Views: 150 - How to Deal With the Feeling of Unfitness for Spiritual Progress When It Arises in the Sadhana - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is perhaps a virtually universal experience. An individual takes up a spiritual practice, and for a time, particularly when Sattwa is in the forefront, he has unique insights, experiences and a sense of progress. At some point, however, these experiences tend to recede and the individual is ...
Views: 142 - Depression and Spiritual Progress - by Submitted on May 31, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe are all subject to the action of the three Gunas or qualties of Nature. They are always shifting. As they shift, our outlook, mood, physical responsiveness, vital energy and mental framework all undergo corresponding changes. None of the three Gunas remains constantly in the forefront, so ...
Views: 150 - Keep Hold On Your Aspiration Through All Difficulties and Circumstances - by Submitted on May 30, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe flame of aspiration is the force that keeps the sadhak moving forward in his spiritual practice, regardless of the forces that threaten or oppose that progress, whether from outside or which rise up internally. Everyone goes through changes of mood and energy as the three Gunas fluctuate. ...
Views: 144 - The Spiritual Seeker and the Challenges of Spiritual Growth and Development - by Submitted on May 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyPeople believe generally that taking up the spiritual life involves a form of escapism from the daily obstacles, difficulties and pressures of living an active life in society. Some people in fact take up the spiritual path as an escape, but that is neither the primary motivation nor does it ...
Views: 146 - The Individual Sadhak and His Relation to the Movement of Universal Forces - by Submitted on May 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyForces that operate in the world are not necessarily ‘hostile’ even if their effect on any particular individual appears to be extremely negative. These forces operate on a large scale to carry out their own role and fulfillment, without specific regard to who may be impacted. When an earthquake ...
Views: 141 - Overcoming the Obstruction of Universal Adverse Forces - by Submitted on May 26, 2025 from santosh krinskyMost people are skeptical about the concept of conscious universal forces. Even if they profess a belief in God, angels, demons, and other unseen powerful beings, they tend to reject the idea when it comes down to actual influence in their own actions, reactions and responses. There is an ...
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