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ARTArticleThe Nature and Action of the Intuitive MindWhen we generally consider the idea of intuition, we look at some ‘gut feeling’ we may have, or some quick certainty we have about a certain situation and call that ‘intuition’.ARTArticleThe Nature and Action of the Overmind Gradation of ConsciousnessIn the Kena Upanishad, the various gods Agni, Vayu and Indra each are confronted by the Supreme and asked to use their utmost power to destroy what was presented before them. They each failed as their power was insufficient to meet the force of the Supreme. Indra eventually discovered that there was a higher truth than what he and the other gods were able to manifest. We see in our world today, a multitude of gods, whether they are anthropomorphized nature gods, or gods related to a particular people or belief system.ARTArticleThe Nature and Action of the Physical MindIndividuals who are primarily rooted in the function of the physical mind have a difficulty in accepting the reality of anything that goes outside their ability to sense and perceive. These individuals will frequently deny the existence of the soul because it cannot be seen, measured or recognised by them. They follow the general tenet “seeing is believing”, although in today’s world, that concept is quickly losing any validity, even for the physical mind, with the advent of complex situations, as well as photoshop and AI imaging.ARTArticleThe Nature and Action of the Psychic Being and the Inner Mental, Inner Vital and Inner Physical BeingsConfusion about the spiritual being and the psychic being is not the only source of misunderstanding about the source of inspirations, feelings, and thoughts that arise as the individual shifts away from exclusive focus on the surface exte
al being and begins to gain experience of the inner being. It becomes necessary then to recognize that the mind, the life and the body have not only an exte
al, surface action, but also have an inner or subtle action .ARTArticleThe Nature and Role of the SoulMuch of the confusion about the nature and action of the soul, the psychic being in man, is due to the loose and varied way the terms are thrown around in everyday parlance. We have ‘soul food’ and ‘soul mates’. We treat the soul as the seat of morality. At the same time, soul is used to identify some indistinct spiritual principle that underlies life and its significance for the individual being. Religions speak to us of the mortal peril to our soul for entering into activities they (variously) define as sinful.ARTArticleThe Nature of the Illumined MindThe aspiring yogic practitioner starts from the basis of the normal human egoistic standpoint of the mind-life-body complex. The process and method of perception, thought, logic, analysis, classification and labeling, reasoning, understanding and implementation in action is quite well-defined and is characteristic of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Mind. As previously noted, there are gradations of consciousness above the mental level.ARTArticleThe Nature of the Reversal of Consciousness Cannot Be Fully Grasped by the Ordinary Human Exte
alized ConsciousnessIf we reflect for a moment that a being who does not have a highly developed abstract mental capacity, perhaps a fish or a honeybee, or even a cat or dog, is unable to truly appreciate and understand the functioning of the higher reasoning and logical capabilities that human beings consider to be their exclusive province.ARTArticleThe Nature of the SubconsciousMost of the impressions we receive on a day to day basis go unremarked by our conscious awareness, but are nevertheless received and stored away in our subconscious levels. These impressions may rise to the surface during dreams, or be triggered by certain sensations, events or circumstances, without us actually recognizing where they are coming from. In particular, it is known that the sense of smell can trigger memories and feelings that come from some past experience. But it goes much further than just triggering of memories that have been encapsulated and stored.ARTArticleThe Necessity of a Reversal of Consciousness for Living the Spiritual LifeWhether we describe it as a ‘shift of standpoint’ or a ‘reversal of consciousness’, it is an essential turning point in the development of a spiritual life that the individual adjust both his focus and his interpretation of the life experience to conform, not with the outer view on the surface which is immersed in family, enjoyment, work, and organization of the outer life, but with an inner view that sees the deeper purpose of life and the oneness of the entire creation that develops according to the designs of the Divine rather than from some standpoint of satisfaction of the individual ego-ARTArticleThe Need for Patience, Persistence and Continuity in the Attempt to Change or Transform Human NatureHuman beings generally have little patience or endurance. Particularly in today’s world, where we expect “immediate” gratification, we want something to get done quickly, easily and permanently. If we work on a particular issue we notice in our being, we want to see results and not have to continually revisit the same issue time and again. While we hold such expectations, they do not work out in actual fact, and this leads to frustrated expectations, and eventually recoils into despair, hopelessness and depression.ARTArticleThe Need to Gain Control Over the Action of the Vital Mind and Its FunctionEveryone has had the experience, at some time or another, of imagining themselves doing something extraordinary, or at least fulfilling some dream about how their lives could develop or turn out. It may be a fantasy about winning a lottery, or gaining fame or recognition, or finding the right person to marry and raise a family with, or advancement in a career, or making some discovery, or achieving some feat of skill, or carrying out some act of heroism, etc.ARTArticleThe Need to Integrate the Realisations of the Yoga of Knowledge With the Exte
al Life of the SeekerSome spiritual seekers follow the path of knowledge, utilizing deep meditation in a trance-state called Samadhi, to put aside all interaction with the exte
al world and focus intensely on the unification with the Supreme Truth, and liberation from the life of the body. Their goal is thus for a status outside the world of life and action. For these seekers, the world is an illusion that needs to be overcome so as to provide them an ‘exit ramp’ from the world. These individuals ‘de facto’ do not accept the manifested creation as having any real and substantive purpose or goal, and they seek simARTArticleThe Need to Keep the Temple CleanThe body-life-mind complex is the nexus and the container for the divine force in manifestation. The force, when it descends into the conscious awareness of the devotee, requires that the instrument be stable, pure and ready to receive and transmit the force without diminution or distortion. Contrary forces, forces that are disruptive to this stable basis, act to diminish the action of the divine force.ARTArticleThe Need to Organize and Arrange the Actions of the Exte
al Being Around the Aspiration of the Psychic BeingTo transform the life into one of spiritual focus and purpose, the various parts of the being need to be organized and ordered systematically to match the aspiration with the outward action. The thoughts, emotions, feelings, responses should be both coherent and arranged to present an harmonious relationship between the aspiration and the action. It does not help one if the aspiration is for one thing, but the mind, life or body chooses a different objective!ARTArticleThe Need to Overcome the Tendencies to Self-Deception and Self-Justification in the NatureThere is the aspiration and dedication that the seeker recognises and treats as his true identity. Then there are all the thoughts, motives and actions that undermine or contradict in some manner that aspiration and dedication. Many people fail to recognise that this contradiction exists, as they have a built in mechanism in the mind and the vital to find excuses or to justify it. The vital is especially powerful in its ability to influence the mind and the mind is able to create justifications based on the vital self-interest that is pressuring it.ARTArticleThe Obstacles to Exercising the WillWhatever experience an individual has in life, there come moments when he determines that he needs to exercise his will-power. it may be related to overcoming habits of laziness or procrastination, or overcoming a form of addiction, undertaking a diet to manage his weight, restraining the uncontrolled vital impulses, developing certain new directions for his study or mental development, or developing a program to develop his physical body,âWhatever form this takes, he inevitably comes face to face with the obstacles that arise in terms of inner sense of weakness, conflicting priorities, contraARTArticleThe Outer Mental, Vital and Physical Consciousness of the Exte
al BeingModern-day Western psychological researchers are finding that certain portions of the brain are related to higher cognitive functions, logic, reasoning, extrapolation, imagination, projection, analysis and classification while some parts are in charge of the purely mechanical control of things like bodily functions, some are repositories of memory, some are receptors of impulses from the various senses, some control motor functions and other parts are involved in language capabilities, artistic ability, music ability, etc.ARTArticleThe Path to the Attainment of Integral Self-KnowledgeIn The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes at some length what he calls ‘the refusal of the ascetic’. This refusal is caused by the focus on the attainment of the Supreme by disregarding or even eliminating the relationship of the seeker to the life of the exte
al world and society. He eschews all objectives or goals that do not lead directly to the Supreme. In so doing, he necessarily treats the material world, the vital powers and the mind as a form of distraction, an illusion, or at best, of being of lesser importance.ARTArticleThe Phenomenon of the ‘Evil Persona’We are ingrained with the notion that we own both the positive and negative qualities we can identify within ourselves. We work to enhance those we consider positive, and we struggle to overcome those that we view as negative. Through the practice of separating out the witness consciousness from the active outer nature, we gain a certain amount of objectivity about these qualities but nevertheless, to the extent we accept them as our own we provide them a basis for their continued attachment to ourselves.ARTArticleThe Physical Consciousness: Abandon or Transform?Through long habit, spiritual seekers tend to look at the question of how to attain spiritual liberation involving abandonment of the exte
al life in the world. Not only spiritual seekers raise this question in some form or another. Anyone involved in aesthetic, mental, artistic, or emotional or vital pursuits eventually tries to find ways to overcome the limits and restraints of the physical, material consciousness.ARTArticleThe Physical Mind and the Power of DoubtThe physical mind, which responds to the exte
al objects of the senses and the impact of those exte
al objects, has strict limits within which it can either perceive or understand what it is perceiving. The reality of our existence, however, reaches far beyond the boundaries of response that bracket the action of the physical mind. Due to its nature and limitations, the physical mind responds with doubt and skepticism to anything that falls outside its range.ARTArticleThe Power of Enthusiasm Represents the Action of the Mystic Flame of Aspiration Working in the Exte
al BeingThe Rishis of the Rig Veda focused, first and foremost, on kindling the mystic fire as the key to the reception and utilization of higher powers of consciousness. The altar for this flame is in the secret heart of the being, deep within, behind the physical organ, where the psychic being is primarily seated.ARTArticleThe Power of the Evolved Soul to Tread the Spiritual PathWe frequently hear people speak about the ‘law of attraction’. In most cases, they treat this as some kind of method or ‘trick’ to attract wealth, fame or other objects of desire to them, through use of a sort of mental focus or vital magnetism effect. The true ‘law of attraction’ however is much more subtle and not focused on the gratification of the exte
al being and its desires, but based on the way that an evolved soul is able to link to the higher divine purpose and intention and organise the entire being around the dictates of that higher purpose.ARTArticleThe Power of the SubconsciousWestern psychology has developed with the basis that the subconscious mind is extremely powerful and can determine actions and reactions of individuals that overcome the conscious intentions of those individuals. Events, circumstances, perceptions, and corresponding fears, hopes and excitement, deep-seated emotions, all wind up in the subconscient, ‘out of sight and out of mind’ so to speak.ARTArticleThe Process for Reviewing the Origin and Impact of One’s Thoughts, Feelings and ActionsOnce we acknowledge the ability of the vital desire nature to influence and manipulate the mind in its judgment process, biasing the interpretation and understanding of the motives behind the actions, it is incumbent on those who aspire to spiritual growth to find a way to root out this inherent bias towards self-justificaiton.
The Mother provides a sure and straightforward method to accomplish this task.ARTArticleThe Process of Bringing Harmony and Unification to the Being Centred Around the Spiritual PurposeAs long as an individual lives ‘aimlessly’, without recognising a higher purpose in life, there is no way to appreciate and measure the actions of the exte
al nature with respect to any variance from that aim or purpose. The aim or purpose comes with the identification with the soul, the psychic being, which is connected to the divine spiritual being that is One and which is manifesting in the universal creation through all the individual points of reference that we consider to be individual beings.ARTArticleThe Process of the Integral Yoga to Achieve Liberation from and Transformation of the Exte
al Surface NatureIf it were only simple! The integral yoga holds out the goal of not just attaining liberation from the exte
al surface nature, but also transforming that nature under the impulsion and intention of the divine intention in the universal creation.ARTArticleThe Progressive Nature of Increasing ConsciousnessAs the seeker becomes more and more conscious he may experience reflections of his past actions which, in retrospect, were incorrect, inaccurate or false. This frequently brings feelings of regret and soul-searching. This is however an over-reaction to an increasing sense of awareness. It is good to appreciate, through the examination of past actions, those that were supportive of the aspiration and those that were not, particularly if this review helps refine the judgment of the seeker to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.ARTArticleThe Progressive Nature of Increasing ConsciousnessAs the seeker becomes more and more conscious he may experience reflections of his past actions which, in retrospect, were incorrect, inaccurate or false. This frequently brings feelings of regret and soul-searching. This is however an over-reaction to an increasing sense of awareness. It is good to appreciate, through the examination of past actions, those that were supportive of the aspiration and those that were not, particularly if this review helps refine the judgment of the seeker to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.ARTArticleThe Psychic Being and the Evolutionary Principle in Earthly LifeThere are certain beings that occupy specific positions in the hierarchy of consciousness, who inhabit specific planes with a specific define role in the creation. These are essentially ‘static’ beings as they do not ‘evolve’. It is commonly held that, on the contrary, the evolutionary principle is embedded in the earth consciousness. Those beings that aspire to evolve and develop, not remain ‘static’ take birth on the earth.