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ARTArticleSigns of Entering the Spiritual PathMost children focus on their need for food, emotional comfort and play, which is a means of gaining knowledge and power of action for them. As they move into later stages of life, they can get fixated on attaining good grades in school, making friends, hobbies and sports. As they reach puberty, thoughts and focus may turn to relations with the opposite sex, along with determining an academic or a career path. Then comes generally a time in life when an individual may be focused on career, a home, accumulation of weatlh, and family life. Some wind up seeking after power or influence.ARTArticleSincerity Is the Only Protection in the Development of the Spiritual LifeIf we consider what the most important quality is for progress in spiritual growth, we generally come up with a number of different ideas, including devotion, strong mind or will, faith, dedication, aspiration. We rarely name ‘sincerity’ as the quality most required. Yet, the Mother stresses the importance of this generally under-rated quality. Without sincerity, all the other qualities tend to fail at some point.
A disciple asks: “What is the fundamental virtue to be cultivated in order to prepare for the spiritual life?”ARTArticleSo-Called ‘Spiritual’ Experiences and True Spiritual DevelopmentWe tend to associate experiences of various unusual powers as either evidence of high mental development or perhaps spiritual development. Most of what gets mooted about, however, may be seen as experiences of entering into various occult vital planes and bringing back the experience from those realms into the waking or the dream state of the individual. This does not actually require that the individual be someone with either extraordinary mental capacities or spiritual opening.ARTArticleSpiritual Progress Requires Non-Attachment to Specific Spiritual ExperiencesThe exte
al being wants to have a stable basis by which it can understand and act in the world. The tools that support this stable basis include habit, fixed tendencies, instincts, education, memory and even the way the mental processes work, comparing new impulses of the senses to past memory to create pattern recognition and fixed lines of action. Psychologists have even concluded that neural pathways are built that, through repetition, lead the understanding down well-wo
ways of understanding and acting, and which tend to solidify the life into predictable responses.ARTArticleSpiritual Realisation Goes Beyond All ScripturesWe live in a dynamic, evolving universe, not one that is static and unchanging. All teachings of the past, therefore, have their limitations. In his Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo reminds us that all scriptures have both a temporal element, specific to their time and their circumstances, and an ete
al element which speaks to the principles or truths of existence and are not limited by immediate societal ideas or norms.ARTArticleSpiritual Realisations and ExperiencesSpiritual Realisations and Experiencesr
Posted on April 1, 2023rARTArticleSpirituality: What It Is Not, and What It isWe frequently hear people speaking about spirituality. They indicate ‘I consider myself to be spiritual, not religious.’ Beyond that distinction, however, when one asks what they mean by ‘spirituality’ there is a wide range of responses that make it clear that spirituality is mostly something vague and somewhat amorphous. Sri Aurobindo provides a very clear, brief overview of what spirituality is (and what it is not).ARTArticleStages and Forms of Meditation and Contemplation (Dhyana)There is considerable confusion about what exactly meditation is. This is compounded by the fact that there are numerous different techniques that are taught as meditation, ranging from practices that are called ‘mindfulness’ to those that include detailed visualisations Sri Aurobindo provides an overview of various practices that fall under the concept of dhyana, which is not precisely translated as ‘meditation’.ARTArticleStages of the Development of Peace in the BeingWith all the complexity surrounding the reactions we have to impressions and pressures we receive from the world, it is important to both understand the seed causes of our reactions and find a way to systematically gain control over these reactions. One of the techniques recommended by Sri Aurobindo is to develop the standpoint of the witness observing the nature. The witness can then work to view what takes place in the surface nature as if it is happening outside oneself.ARTArticleSteps Toward Achieving a Calm MindEverything comes to the seeker based on his ability to tune his focus and maintain that focus in an unwavering manner over time. Sri Aurobindo, in his book The Mother, sets forth the methodology as “aspiration, rejection, surrender”. Aspiration is the will from the depth of the being to achieve the divine connection. This represents the tuning of the consciousness. Rejection is the process whereby the focus remains fixed on the intended result, eliminating all distractions and static.ARTArticleSWAMI RAMANANDA GURUJI ASTROLOGER HIS HIGHNESSIndian astrologers are very famous and popular in the world for their astrology, they make a mark in different countries with their astrology knowledge , the Indian astrology gives you the information about Vedic astrology they have a good prediction and well know of moon signs, they are responsible to give you all the answer of the question by analyzing your horoscope and guide you right path of your life, they can tell you better for your new home, new business, person life , sickness, any negativity around you, and etc.ARTArticleThe Advent of Inner Experiences and the Unpurified Vital Nature; or Be Careful What You Wish For, Because You May Get It!The ego-personality, particularly the vital ego, feeds upon feelings of being special, having new and exciting experiences that are not part of the ordinary exte
al consciousness. Spiritual seekers are allured by tales of meeting spiritual beings on subtle planes, traveling without the physical body through astral planes, obtaining guidance from masters who speak to one in one’s own head, or being shown visions that make the seeker believe he is specially chosen for particular lines of action or leadership.ARTArticleThe Aspiration Must Be Kept Alive and ConstantChanging human nature is a process of time and effort and is therefore subject to periods of waxing and waning of effort. Human beings tend to relax and enjoy their lives when all things are going well. Thus, it is primarily in times of difficulty and stress when we remember to focus on the need to aspire and concentrate. There are also periods of dullness, with nothing actively engaging the attention, periods of boredom, periods of ennui, periods of lassitude. Perhaps even to a greater extent than during periods of enjoyment, the focus is absent during these dull times.ARTArticleThe Attempt to Develop Tolerance and Understanding to Avoid QuarrellingWhen one begins to consider how the faults we find in others are those to which we ourselves are susceptible, and that we see them through the focus and affinity that we have to them, as the synchronicity of the universe brings forward to us those very things that we are naturally attracting, it becomes clear that these events become an opportunity for inner work to change oneself. By doing this, we overcome the urge to castigate others or upbraid them for the very behaviour that we ourselves remain capable of doing.ARTArticleThe Beginning of Liberation from the Limitations of the Mental ConsciousnessAs long as the mental consciousness remains insulated within its own range of awareness, it believes it has a power of knowledge and action that can be made practically infallible. Even when its shortcomings are made patently obvious, it believes that an improvement in its processes, or the input of new facts available to it now or in the future, will lead to the desired result. It thus believes itself to be self-sufficient and thus, is self-satisfied. It has not cause to look outside of its own functionality to resolve any pending conce
s.ARTArticleThe Benefit of Obstacles and Difficulties for the Development of Conscious AwarenessIt is a quality of human nature. When things are going well, we are happy and contented, we tend not to make extraordinary efforts or focus on change. We feel like things are where they should be in our lives, and we move into ‘enjoyment mode’ rather than ‘change mode’. In some cases, we believe that things going well is some kind of karmic reward for our good behaviour and, thus, we try to justify the enjoyment and the lack of effort.ARTArticleThe Bhagavad Gita and the Path of Karma YogaWhen we delve into the yoga of works, the Bhagavad Gita immediately comes to mind as a primary text. The Gita explores the questions of what constitutes a yogic attitude in action and compares it to the normal standpoint about work. The major difference lies in the inner standpoint and attitude taken by the person undertaking the action. Many people try to judge things by the type of work undertaken. Charity, philanthropy, altruistic work appear to be ‘yogic’ in their minds. Feed the hungry, care for the sick, these are examples of things that ordinarily fall under the rubric ‘karma yoga’.ARTArticleThe Call to the Spiritual PathIf we look at the individual life as separate from the rest of the creation, and claim that it starts at birth and ends at death, there seems to be no rationale or meaning for that life, nor can we explain the evolutionary progression of awareness, understanding, growth, and development that we see before us.ARTArticleThe Complementary Aspects of Aspiration and PrayerJust as there is a debate between science and religion, there is a corollary argument that encompasses aspiration versus prayer. Aspiration for growth, development, knowledge, progress, expansion is acceptable to those in the “science” camp. Prayer is relegated by these individuals to the “religion” camp. Similarly, those who believe ardently in the power of prayer do not fully believe in the efficacy of an inner aspiration alone. The relation of these two powers, however, is not so simply delineated, nor can either one be dismissed out of hand. They can, indeed, complement one another.ARTArticleThe Complex Make-Up of the Human PersonalitiesWe tend to look on ourselves as being of a specific nature and having a specific personality. We see main lines of understanding, of reaction, and of action and look upon these as ‘who we are’. If we take a closer look, however, we soon begin to see that we are not as simple and homogeneous as it first seemed. A multitude of different forces, energies, levels of consciousness all find their place in the human individual and make us much more complex and difficult to categorize than we believe.ARTArticleThe Complexity and Difficulty of Achieving Complete Sincerity in the Spiritual PathSincerity is not as simple as believing in and meaning what we say to others. This is what we ordinarily consider to be sincerity. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have a much more far-reaching idea of sincerity relating to the practice of yoga in the furtherance of spiritual growth. Sincerity represents the coherence of the entire being around the central focus of the spiritual practice, such that our thoughts, emotions, vital impulses and physical responses all adhere to and support this focus.ARTArticleThe Concept of Spiritual Purity in the Integral YogaFor most people, purity is connected with a moral precept, and for most, this has eventually been related to the question of sexual relations. The question of chastity, and withholding of sexual activity until the socially sanctioned relationship of marriage has been put in place, holds a central place in most cultural ideas of ‘purity’. The requirement of chastity, outside of the context of membership in a religious order, has mostly been placed on women, and it has been a force of social domination of women by men, who are not bound to the same rule in normal society.ARTArticleThe Connection to the Psychic Being Minimizes the Dangers of the Intermediate ZoneThe process of the yogic sadhana inevitably begins to shift the consciousness inward and upward, and exposes the seeker to powers, forces and energies that are not easily seen or understood from the standpoint of the exte
al mind and life. Thus, there is what we may call a natural opening to the mental, vital and subtle physical planes that surround and press upon the exte
al manifestation of the universe.ARTArticleThe Day and Night of the Vedic MysticsHowever much we try, we find that we cannot constantly and consistently hold onto any particular focus of concentration, emotional state, mood or feeling for an extended period of time. The constant action of the 3 Gunas cycles us through periods of light and darkness, action and inaction, excitement and despondency, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. The dualities we recognise as inextricably tied together in our lives are the result of the changing action of the Gunas.ARTArticleThe Development of the Human Being and the Transcendence of the Human Being: Personal Growth and Inner Growth DefinedPersonal growth and inner growth, the enhancement of the human being and its capabilities and the transcendence of the human being to develop a being awake and active with a new level of consciousness, are not in conflict with one another. The human being must develop to a certain degree to truly effectuate the necessities for transcendence. At the same time, in the integral yoga, where the purpose is not abandonment of life, but the transformation of life, the two processes actually go hand in hand and complement one another.ARTArticleThe Development of the Psychic BeingWe can identify a systematic evolution of consciousness in the exte
al world. Life evolves out of Matter, Mind out of Life. We do not, however, thereby determine either a significance or purpose to this evolution nor any causative factors that involve mind and life into matter such that they can eventually manifest out. We also do not disce
thereby any purpose for our individual life and conscious awareness and our aspiration for growth, development and increase of knowledge.ARTArticleThe Development of the Spiritual Focus Over TimeWe tend to measure success or failure in terms of specific results we see in our relatively short, individual lifetime, based on our preconceived or societally sanctioned ideas about what constitutes success or failure. When it comes to progress in spiritual development, however, this is not necessarily either the correct judgment term (time frame within which something can be evaluated), nor the correct criteria for deciding what constitutes success.ARTArticleThe Difference Between Static and Dynamic MeditationWhen an individual sits for meditation, does he come out of the meditation changed in some way? … or is meditation something like a state of ‘statis’ where time goes by, but nothing happens? Is the individual taking a ‘time out’ from life but not moving the purpose and focus of the life forward?ARTArticleThe Divine Grace By Any Other Name…It is human nature to want to categorize and pigeon-hole what happens and make developments fit into definitions of our choosing. This same thing occurs when we look at openings of the spiritual nature and the development of or transformation of consciousness. Not only do we want to define and categorize, but we want to overlay our own preferred view and methods onto other people and use that template to try to understand and judge others, their spiritual practice and their inner development.ARTArticleThe Essence of Karma Yoga — the Yoga of WorksHumanity has relied on social action, technology, and education as pillars of advancement and the development of humanity. Yet if we examine things closely we find that we are still driven primarily by the forces of ego and desire, even when they cloak themselves in a veneer of altruism or philanthropy.