The hidden forces of life is another selection by A.S. Dalal. Here Sri Aurobindo and The Mother discuss universal forces that can be accessed if one knows how. There are also discussions on astrology, karma, forces within the individual, and occult forces, as well as on hidden worlds, evolutionary forces, and helpful spiritual forces.
It is certainly a book worth studying.
A few quotes:
'The only free will in the world is the one divine will, of which nature is the executrix.' [p.21]
'As the evolution proceeds, nature begins slowly and tentatively to manifest our occult parts.' [p.46]
'The forces and beings of the vital world have a great influence on human beings.'[p.142]
Showing posts with label Sri Aurobindo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Aurobindo. Show all posts
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Sri Aurobindo--Growing Within
Growing Within by A.S.Dalal
This is another in the series on Sri Aurobindo by A. S. Dalal. Quoting from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the book points out that the individual first has to develop, the ego has to be fully formed. An evolution of consciousness takes place, as life develops from matter, from mineral, to plant, to animals and finally human beings. Mind develops in humans, and this is the beginning of higher development and growth. After the separate ego has been established, the next step is to transcend it. Sri Aurobindo writes, 'It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself.' The limits vanish, as one increasingly becomes a part of cosmic consciousness.
There is a lot more in this book that is worth reading and studying.
This is another in the series on Sri Aurobindo by A. S. Dalal. Quoting from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the book points out that the individual first has to develop, the ego has to be fully formed. An evolution of consciousness takes place, as life develops from matter, from mineral, to plant, to animals and finally human beings. Mind develops in humans, and this is the beginning of higher development and growth. After the separate ego has been established, the next step is to transcend it. Sri Aurobindo writes, 'It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself.' The limits vanish, as one increasingly becomes a part of cosmic consciousness.
There is a lot more in this book that is worth reading and studying.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Books reveal the person behind them
'Everything is contained potentially', said The Mother [p.93,the Powers Within] and went on to say that if one read a book by Sri Aurobindo, one could attain much more than what was in the book, as it was a representation of the person who wrote it, of all the knowledge of the person.
This must be true of every book one reads.
This must be true of every book one reads.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Sri Aurobindo--Powers Within
Powers Within, by A.S. DALAL
Sri Aurobindo has great ideas, but is quite difficult to comprehend, which is probably why he is not commonly quoted. His ideas certainly deserve to be better known.
A series of books by A.S. Dalal have helped in making him more accessible. In all the books A.S. takes up a topic, searches through Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's voluminous writings, and puts together passages on that topic. Quotes from Sri Aurobindo are complemented by the Mother's simpler explanations.
This book has a lot to offer, and deserves to be studied. It looks at latent powers, and how they can be developed and used.
'Mind can suspend or change earth's concrete law', says Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo has great ideas, but is quite difficult to comprehend, which is probably why he is not commonly quoted. His ideas certainly deserve to be better known.
A series of books by A.S. Dalal have helped in making him more accessible. In all the books A.S. takes up a topic, searches through Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's voluminous writings, and puts together passages on that topic. Quotes from Sri Aurobindo are complemented by the Mother's simpler explanations.
This book has a lot to offer, and deserves to be studied. It looks at latent powers, and how they can be developed and used.
'Mind can suspend or change earth's concrete law', says Sri Aurobindo.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Sri Aurobindo
[I am reducing the number of blogs I have; this post was earlier in another blog]
Sri Aurobindo ( Aurobindo Ghose) was born at Kolkata (Calcutta) in India on 15 August 1872, but at the age of seven, was sent to England to study. Returning to India as a young man in 1893, he worked for some time in the state of Baroda, but gradually got involved in the Freedom Movement against the British, who ruled most of India at this time. He had already begun certain Yoga practices, and when in prison for his actions in the struggle for freedom (1908), he received a divine revelation. He left British India and entered the small territory of Pondicherry in south India, which was then under the French. Here he could not be pursued by British authorities, and giving up politics he founded an ashram, and developed his own philosophy.
His basic philosophy is what he called Integral Yoga. The aim of this, according to him, is ‘to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the divine Ananda (bliss).’ He did not prescribe any fixed method for this, but suggest various ways to make oneself receptive and open to receive the divine, including surrender and devotion, meditation, and the watching of one’s actions.
The divine has to be brought down into the whole being, including the cells of the body.
He believed in the evolution of the human life and mind towards an ultimate spirituality and an increasing universality. The light and power of the spirit, also called by him, the ‘Supermind’, presiding over human evolution could transform human consciousness and remould life on earth. He was joined in his ashram in 1920 by ‘The Mother’, a Frenchwoman named Mirra Richard. While the Mother ran the ashram, Aurobindo remained in seclusion, reading, studying ancient texts and writing.
His philosophical works include The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, TheIntegral Yoga, the epic Savitri, a poem with 24,000 lines and several other works, as well as commentaries on all the major ancient texts.
In these works he questioned many traditional concepts of Indian philopsophy, including the commonly accepted views of the world as Maya or illusion, and of Karma. He believed that the world is a real manifestation of the divine, and should not be seen as unreal. The concept of karma implies that all aspects of existence depend on the workings of universal energy. However, it is not a simple law of reward and punishment as is commonly perceived, but something extremely complex.
He stated that no religion revealed the whole Truth. He said, ‘ The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy.’ Though he had made a deep study of Hindu texts, as he developed his philosophy, he ceased to identify with Hinduism. He wrote, ‘The Ashram has nothing to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion, are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future’.
After his death in 1950, the Mother continued to run the ashram and later set up Auroville, an international city near the ashram.
Sri Aurobindo ( Aurobindo Ghose) was born at Kolkata (Calcutta) in India on 15 August 1872, but at the age of seven, was sent to England to study. Returning to India as a young man in 1893, he worked for some time in the state of Baroda, but gradually got involved in the Freedom Movement against the British, who ruled most of India at this time. He had already begun certain Yoga practices, and when in prison for his actions in the struggle for freedom (1908), he received a divine revelation. He left British India and entered the small territory of Pondicherry in south India, which was then under the French. Here he could not be pursued by British authorities, and giving up politics he founded an ashram, and developed his own philosophy.
His basic philosophy is what he called Integral Yoga. The aim of this, according to him, is ‘to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the divine Ananda (bliss).’ He did not prescribe any fixed method for this, but suggest various ways to make oneself receptive and open to receive the divine, including surrender and devotion, meditation, and the watching of one’s actions.
The divine has to be brought down into the whole being, including the cells of the body.
He believed in the evolution of the human life and mind towards an ultimate spirituality and an increasing universality. The light and power of the spirit, also called by him, the ‘Supermind’, presiding over human evolution could transform human consciousness and remould life on earth. He was joined in his ashram in 1920 by ‘The Mother’, a Frenchwoman named Mirra Richard. While the Mother ran the ashram, Aurobindo remained in seclusion, reading, studying ancient texts and writing.
His philosophical works include The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, TheIntegral Yoga, the epic Savitri, a poem with 24,000 lines and several other works, as well as commentaries on all the major ancient texts.
In these works he questioned many traditional concepts of Indian philopsophy, including the commonly accepted views of the world as Maya or illusion, and of Karma. He believed that the world is a real manifestation of the divine, and should not be seen as unreal. The concept of karma implies that all aspects of existence depend on the workings of universal energy. However, it is not a simple law of reward and punishment as is commonly perceived, but something extremely complex.
He stated that no religion revealed the whole Truth. He said, ‘ The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy.’ Though he had made a deep study of Hindu texts, as he developed his philosophy, he ceased to identify with Hinduism. He wrote, ‘The Ashram has nothing to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion, are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future’.
After his death in 1950, the Mother continued to run the ashram and later set up Auroville, an international city near the ashram.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Sri Aurobindo
(first published 2003)
Concepts such as the One Reality, Maya and Karma have permeated Indian consciousness. Indians, no matter what their class, caste, or religion are familiar with these terms, which date back to the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra and Shankara. Since then, there have been numerous refinements and analyses of these concepts, and notable among those who provided a fresh view of these ideas, is Sri Aurobindo.
Born in Kolkata on 15 August 1872, Aurobindo Ghose was a philosopher, poet and mystic. He was educated mainly in England and after his return to India in 1892 and took up various administrative and teaching posts and then began to seriously study Yoga. Between 1905 and 1908, he was one of the main nationalist leaders of the extremist school. Imprisoned in 1908, he experienced a ‘divine revelation’, and two years later when there was again a threat of imprisonment, escaped from British India to the French territory of Pondicherry (now Puducherry) where he started an ashram. He was joined in his ashram in 1920 by ‘The Mother’, a Frenchwoman named Mirra Richard, who took over the running of the ashram, while Aurobindo devoted himself to reading, studying ancient texts, and writing philosophical works including The Life Divine, Integral Yoga, the epic Savitri , a poem of 24,000 lines, as well as commentaries on The Bhagavad Gita, the major Upanishads, and other texts.
In these works, Aurobindo, a profound thinker, presented his philosophy and ideas. His basic assumption was that life is still evoving, and a human being is not the highest stage of evolution – a higher being will one day emerge. The light and power of the spirit, called by him, the ‘Supermind’, presiding over human evolution, would transform human consciousness and remould life on earth.
To Aurobindo, there is One Reality, but there are also individual souls. The world is not Maya or an illusion, but real, and needs to be perfected through the spiritual and material evolution of every living being. On karma, Sri Aurobindo challenges the popular concept of a divine accounting system which extends through the successive lives of a person. Instead, he dwells on the nature of cosmic energy, which incorporating all the complexities of one’s inner and outer life, takes one in a particular direction, depending on one’s inclinations and stage of lif. Karma is thus linked with the process of evolution. Growth requires experiences of different kinds, both pleasurable and painful, and Aurobindo says, “the soul may of itself accept or choose poverty, misfortune and suffering as helpful to its growth, stimulants of a rapid development, and reject riches and prosperity and success as dangerous and conducive to a relaxation of spiritual effort... Cosmic existence is not a vast administrative system of universal justice with a cosmic law of recompense and retribution.” Instead it is a movement of the energy of nature, which provides, within the cycle of rebirth, whatever is needed for the next step in its evolution.
Sri Aurobindo died in 1950. His works need to be better known, as he provides a vision of a different world, a perfect creation, which will arise when each individual evolves. For him, there is no nirvana or moksha, providing an escape from sorrow and impermanence, but rather the material world made immortal, through the descent of the divine spirit.
Concepts such as the One Reality, Maya and Karma have permeated Indian consciousness. Indians, no matter what their class, caste, or religion are familiar with these terms, which date back to the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra and Shankara. Since then, there have been numerous refinements and analyses of these concepts, and notable among those who provided a fresh view of these ideas, is Sri Aurobindo.
Born in Kolkata on 15 August 1872, Aurobindo Ghose was a philosopher, poet and mystic. He was educated mainly in England and after his return to India in 1892 and took up various administrative and teaching posts and then began to seriously study Yoga. Between 1905 and 1908, he was one of the main nationalist leaders of the extremist school. Imprisoned in 1908, he experienced a ‘divine revelation’, and two years later when there was again a threat of imprisonment, escaped from British India to the French territory of Pondicherry (now Puducherry) where he started an ashram. He was joined in his ashram in 1920 by ‘The Mother’, a Frenchwoman named Mirra Richard, who took over the running of the ashram, while Aurobindo devoted himself to reading, studying ancient texts, and writing philosophical works including The Life Divine, Integral Yoga, the epic Savitri , a poem of 24,000 lines, as well as commentaries on The Bhagavad Gita, the major Upanishads, and other texts.
In these works, Aurobindo, a profound thinker, presented his philosophy and ideas. His basic assumption was that life is still evoving, and a human being is not the highest stage of evolution – a higher being will one day emerge. The light and power of the spirit, called by him, the ‘Supermind’, presiding over human evolution, would transform human consciousness and remould life on earth.
To Aurobindo, there is One Reality, but there are also individual souls. The world is not Maya or an illusion, but real, and needs to be perfected through the spiritual and material evolution of every living being. On karma, Sri Aurobindo challenges the popular concept of a divine accounting system which extends through the successive lives of a person. Instead, he dwells on the nature of cosmic energy, which incorporating all the complexities of one’s inner and outer life, takes one in a particular direction, depending on one’s inclinations and stage of lif. Karma is thus linked with the process of evolution. Growth requires experiences of different kinds, both pleasurable and painful, and Aurobindo says, “the soul may of itself accept or choose poverty, misfortune and suffering as helpful to its growth, stimulants of a rapid development, and reject riches and prosperity and success as dangerous and conducive to a relaxation of spiritual effort... Cosmic existence is not a vast administrative system of universal justice with a cosmic law of recompense and retribution.” Instead it is a movement of the energy of nature, which provides, within the cycle of rebirth, whatever is needed for the next step in its evolution.
Sri Aurobindo died in 1950. His works need to be better known, as he provides a vision of a different world, a perfect creation, which will arise when each individual evolves. For him, there is no nirvana or moksha, providing an escape from sorrow and impermanence, but rather the material world made immortal, through the descent of the divine spirit.
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