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ARTArticleThe Promise of a Greater Psychology Integrating Knowledge of the Whole With Understanding of the PartsThe Greek philosopher Plato, after deep consideration, reached the conclusion that some higher principle was real, which he called ‘Forms” or ‘Ideas’, and that the physical reality we see and experience is the result, not the cause. This concept is in consonance with the Vedic understanding. Even the Christian Bible notes that ‘In the beginning was the Word’. All of these approaches (and many more from around the world and across numerous traditional religious, philosophical and spiritual directions) make it clear that the physical world is a derivative phenomenon of the higher Source.ARTArticleThe Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution IntroductionThere is considerable confusion about the nature of the soul. A sizable portion of humanity denies the existence of the soul, while another segment of humanity reduces its ‘value’ below that of material possessions and outward satisfactions. The ego-personality, bound up in the actions and reactions of the mind, life and body, has little time to consider the implications of the soul, its existence, its purpose, its action and its significance for our growth and development.ARTArticleThe Psychic Being Brings Cheerful Focus to the Spiritual SadhanaIn 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 recognises that this cheerful attitude may be conditioned by his favourable circumstances and posits that he will only know the steadfastness and character of himself and his cheerful responses to life if he can maintain that attitude in difficult circumstances.ARTArticleThe Psychic Being Carries the Essence of the Soul’s Experience from Life to LifeWe tend to look at things through the standpoint of the exte
al physical being, the body, life and mind with which we identify. From this standpoint we treat the soul as something that we need to search for, if we even acknowledge the existence of the soul, and as something secondary to and therefore less important than the goals we set for ourselves to live and enjoy the exte
al life. Few are those individuals who look at things differently and see the soul as the primary controller and driver of our lives, and the exte
al activities as secondary and subordinate to the soul’s intention.rARTArticleThe Psychic Being Senses the Divine Presence and GuidanceEverything we experience is sensed or felt by some developed capacity or part of the being. Vibrations that occur within the ranges of the electro-magnetic spectrum that human beings can perceive are identified as light, colors, sound, etc. We have senses of taste, touch and smell, similarly tuned to specific ranges of perception. The sensation occurs, the vibration moves through the nerve channels to the appropriate location in our being and is then interpreted, so that we say that we can see, taste, touch, hear or smell something. There are additional senses that work more subtly.ARTArticleThe Purusha, the Master of the Nature, Sanctions, Upholds, Directs and Changes the NatureWe are not destined to be the puppet or plaything of the exte
al Nature, Prakriti, through the working of the 3 Gunas or qualities of Nature. When we shift our standpoint to that of the Divine, when we recognise our Oneness with the creative Force, we can participate in the ordering and the ‘ordaining’ of the divine manifestation. We may be immersed in the play of Prakriti. When we shift to the standpoint of the Purusha, the witness consciousness, we begin by observing.ARTArticleThe Quality of Rajas and Its Impact on the Spiritual SadhanaThe 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 is the Guna that prods the vital nature and can raise up desire as a motive force. Desire in the sadhak can take the form of an attempt to attain spiritual experiences or realisations, with an emphasis on doing it quickly and successfully, from the standpoint of the ego-personality.ARTArticleThe Radiating Power of an Inner Transformative ForceThere are many methods that have been tried to shift ideas, thoughts, motives and actions in the world. Some of these methods involve subtle, or not so subtle, use of various forms of propagandizing, proselytizing, sermonizing, or dominating others through use of covert or overt force, including brute physical force, vital force, economic force or mental force. There are also those who harness what we may call a religious force or a patriotic force or a force of ‘belonging’ to a particular group, at a broader level.ARTArticleThe Right Attitude Turns Difficulties Into Opportunities for the Spiritual AspirantParticularly (but not exclusively) in the beginning of the spiritual sadhana, the seeker has to find a way to navigate through the countless obstacles, resistances and difficulties that arise as he tries to transition from a focus on the exte
al responses of the ego-personality and the embedded habits, instincts and trained responses that make up what he experiences on a day to day basis, to a new standpoint that can cut through the inevitable confusion and keep him focused on his spiritual practice.ARTArticleThe Role of Medicines for the Spiritual Aspirant in the Cure of IllnessesThe spiritual aspirant practicing the integral yoga devotes his efforts to coming into contact with the Divine Force, being receptive to its influence and action, and bringing it down to transform the action of the mind, life and body. Once this force is completely assimilated into the physical cells of the body, it can do away with the vibratory response we know as illness, according to the intensive work done by the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, who spent years working on opening the physical substance to the higher force.ARTArticleThe Role of the Physical Body in the Spiritual SadhanaA human birth is considered to be an important and valuable step in the growth of the soul and in the evolutionary development of consciousness in furtherance of the divine manifestation. It is not to be wasted. The traditions of India indicate that even the gods, who are static beings, would have to take birth in the body in order to evolve, change, transform and develop.ARTArticleThe Seasons of Your Heart: Coping with the HolidaysAs we approach the holidays we look forward to a time of joy and happiness, to lightness and warmth. It's a season of fond memories, great anticipation … and much planning. And whereas this yearning and anticipation is quite understandable, it can also be a bit of a trap.
Expecting great joy and not finding it, we may become all the more disheartened. Seeing warmth around us yet not experiencing it ourselves, we may find ourselves feeling a bit separated.ARTArticleThe Secret of Success in Spiritual Sadhana Is to Maintain the Aspiration and Focus and Never Give UpFailure turns out to be the stepping stone to success. We tend to become obsessed with being ‘perfect’ in the spiritual sadhana. We identify things we should be thinking, things we should be doing, ways we should be acting and responding to situations, and create for ourselves a set of rules or guidelines that we believe act as the markers of our success in the sadhana.ARTArticleThe Separation of Purusha and Prakriti: The Soul and the Exte
al BeingMost people identify themselves with their exte
al being, their body-life-mind complex. They assign a name to that being and they answer to that name. They are totally immersed in the needs, wants, and directions that that exte
al being is taking. When they awaken to a deeper spiritual urge, they talk about “finding the soul” as if the soul is an element of that exte
al being.ARTArticleThe Sequence of Elimination of Unwanted Vital MovementsThe spiritual seeker is so close to the movements and reactions of the mind, life and body, in most circumstances, that he can easily become confused or conce
ed about the process, timing and steps of the desired changes to responses of the exte
al nature. It is frequently noted that it is easier to see the difficulties and the solutions for others than for oneself.ARTArticleThe Sex Impulse, the Subconscient and the Spiritual PracticeThe waking consciousness takes notice of only a very small fraction of all of the impressions that reach the senses. Not all impressions are direct sense impressions, as some impinge directly on the aura or on the mental substance without involving the 5 exte
al senses. Of those directly noted, only a small percentage are actually accepted consciously and acted upon. While we do not generally take cognizance of them, these impressions are captured and held in the subconscient being.ARTArticleThe Sex-Impulse and the Spiritual SadhanaIn his book, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo describes sex as one of the three forces, “power, wealth, sex — that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them.”ARTArticleThe Shift to the Standpoint of the Observer of the Exte
al NatureThe Purusha, the witness consciousness, resides in each of us. Why then do we have to seek for liberation? If we examine our psychological standpoint, we can see that we tend to identify with, to become, the exte
al ego-personality that we have assumed. It is as if we put on a suit of clothes, a costume, and in so doing we become what that suit of clothes or costume represents, and we forget, for the time being, the person inside the costume.ARTArticleThe Sometimes Fortunate Nature of MisfortuneOne of the core principles of spiritual growth is the development of ‘equality’ in the sense of accepting whatever comes into one’s life with equanimity. This does not mean that the proper standpoint excludes action against injustice or oppression; rather, that one recognises that sometimes the forces that come in the form of obstruction, harmful intentions or interference are there to galvanize one into action and progress.ARTArticleThe Soul and the Evolutionary Nature of the Psychic BeingA seed contains the entire genetic code from which the exte
al form, energetic capacity and mental abilities of a living being develop. It can be seen as the most concentrated form of that being, a form that nevertheless has the capacity, through time, of manifesting a physical form, a vital form, and eventually a mental form. Each of these layers take the shape and carry out the energy and direction of the seed from which they developed.ARTArticleThe Soul and the Psychic BeingIn his poem Savitri, Sri Aurobindo provides imagery to describe the nature and role of the soul, and the significance of the psychic being hidden deep within, carrying our human experience and human life to its eventual fulfillment.
Sri Aurobindo writes: "But since she knows the toil of mind and lifer
As a mother feels and shares her children's lives,
She puts forth a small portion of herself,
A being no bigger than the thumb of manr
Into a hidden region of the heartr
To face the pang and to forget the bliss,
To share the suffering and endure earth's woundsrARTArticleThe Soul, the Psychic Being, Is the Element That Makes the Divine Force Conscious for the Exte
al BeingThe soul, the psychic being, is a portion of the Divine that resides deep within. For most people, who are living in the surface consciousness primarily, the existence of the soul is a question mark, if they think about it at all. As we grow and face life’s challenges, however, we may begin to wonder about why we are alive, what we are here to do, and how we came to live within a certain society, certain culture, certain family, under certain circumstances.ARTArticleThe Soul’s Aspiration for Adherence to the Divine Will in ManifestationThe most direct way to align oneself with the Divine Will is to treat the soul, the psychic being, as the standpoint from which the being takes its stance. This is not a mental analysis, a desire of the vital or a physical need or impulsion; rather it takes the form of an aspiration, a prayer, a consecration which recognises the Divine as the focus, driver and director of all one’s actions.ARTArticleThe Spirit of the Yoga of WorksWhile we live and act from the standpoint of the individual ego-personality, we measure and respond to everything based on how it impacts us personally and directly, and judge things based on that impact. This leads us to treat as positive, those events and interactions that satisfy our desires, meet our physical needs, or support our ambitions. Conversely, those things which create obstacles to what we desire, or which undermine our ambitions, or create physical or vital difficulties as we navigate our way through our lives, we treat as negative events.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Aspirant Marches to the Beat of a Different Drummer Than Those Who Focus on the Exte
al LifeThe spiritual aspirant necessarily has to change the way things have been historically and habitually done in the world if he is to make progress and move beyond the limitations imposed by the body-life-mind complex and all the traditions, rituals, habits, fixed ideas and vital-emotional responses that make up the current state of human life and society.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Aspirant’s Opening to the Action of the Spiritual ForceThere are many things in the world that we cannot directly observe with our senses, yet which we otherwise believe to be real, based on the noticeable and palpable effects they have. We cannot ‘see’ gravity, but we feel its effects. Similarly, we cannot ‘see’ electricity, but we not only can experience the effects, but we have learned how to channel it, amplify it and reduce its force to manageable levels for our intended uses. Radioactivity similarly is unseen but able to be measured and its effects recognised in the changes that occur within the individual subjected to it.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Consciousness Brings a Vast Peace as a Foundation for the Transformation of the NatureThe mind cannot adequately create, imagine, describe or image the experience of the descent of peace and vastness that takes hold of the being and superimposes itself over the activities of the mind, life and body. Until one has the actual experience, therefore, nothing specific can be said about it. When an individual has this experience, there is a strong pressure on the body-life-mind complex and if it is not adequately prepared to ‘hold’ the energy, there is always an attempt to explain it, describe it, or get insight about it.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Seeker and the Challenges of Spiritual Growth and DevelopmentPeople 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 represent the majority of spiritual seekers.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Seeker and the Material WorldOne of the habits that has built up over many millennia among spiritual practitioners is the ingrained idea that Matter and Spirit are essentially irreconcilable and that in order to pursue the spiritual life one must be willing to give up and abandon the material life. Material life and a focus on it is seen as a distraction from the one-pointed effort needed to achieve spiritual liberation. The focus has been placed on the concept “One without a second”, to illustrate the need for focus.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Seeker Can Change the Normal Human Focus on Food to a More Balanced Perspective That Supports His Focus on SadhanaIn the ordinary life in society, food plays an especially important and high profile role. We treat food as a centerpiece of our various celebrations, as rewards, as comfort when we are under stress and as something we consumer out of boredom or inattention. Food taste, food preparation, food choices all become major topics of consideration and discussion.