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ARTArticleThe Need to Maintain Balance Between Waking, Dream and Sleep ConsciousnessThe operation of the Gunas of nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas is noticeable in the spiritual quest as in everything else. The result is that when something new or exciting occurs, it tends to provoke the rising of Rajas and an attempt to grasp and enhance the ego-gratification of the event. Rajas however has its limitations and eventually there is a reaction that either brings on the rise of Tamas, in the forms of ignorance, darkness or inaction; or, if balanced, it can bring the rise of Sattwa.ARTArticleThe Need to Master the Sex Impulse for the Sadhak of the Integral YogaReligious and spiritual paths throughout the world have recognised the need to gain control over the sex impulse. Similarly societies have recognised that in many cases the sex impulse can create disruption in the orderly processes of the society. Traditionally, certain mores or rules of conduct have arisen around the expression of sexual energy. In some cases, sex is considered ‘sinful’ and is a cause for guilt and shame to arise. In other cases, society uses subtle manipulation to increase the focus on the sexual energy and thereby distract people from other and higher pursuits.ARTArticleThe Need to Overcome Fear in the Realisation of the AtmanIn the exte al world, fear plays a role that can both hinder progress, and protect from impulsive or rash action that would result in injury, loss or death. If fear is excessive, it paralyzes the individual into inaction. If it is insufficient, he may rush into circumstances far beyond his expectation and suffer the consequences. Fear is like a tripwire and a defensive wall. Depending on how sensitively it has been set, we determine the limits of our exte al life beyond which we do not go.ARTArticleThe Need to Overcome the Subconscious State of SleepNormally when we sleep, the body goes into a state of tamas and with it, the consciousness loses the thread of the progress of the preceding day. While the progress is not ‘lost’ in the long run, it does mean that we tend to have to re-establish what was done previously time and again. Something similar is said to happen in rebirth, that the being, no matter how advanced, has at least some remedial work to do to get back to the final stage prior to passing from one body to the next.ARTArticleThe Need to Shift the Consciousness Beyond the EgoThe ego-consciousness has its evolutionary purpose. The distinction of the individual from the mass of existence led to the ability to move beyond the instinctual and habitual patterns of the species. With this consciousness, variation and innovation became more easily possible. Observation from an individual standpoint allowed comparison, evaluation and the competitive urge to develop, and thereby set in motion the entire range of action we see in our civilisation today.ARTArticleThe Needed Balance of Spiritual Development and Mental DevelopmentThere has been a long-standing debate between those who believe in the power of mental development, under the rubric of ‘science’ and those who believe in the power of faith and spiritual aspiration, under the general terminology of ‘religion’. A similar debate rages between the position of academia and the paths of spiritual yoga. We prize high mental intelligence, particularly when it is focused on making our life in the material world more comfortable or rewarding.ARTArticleThe Objective of Spiritual Effort Is a Change of Consciousness, Not a Large FollowingWe generally try to measure the importance of a particular religion or path by the number of adherents it boasts. Hundreds of millions of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and many tens of millions in other major religious denominations, are impressive numbers for our exte al mental awareness that measures and analyzes. Sri Aurobindo points out, however, that the mass quantity of nominal adherents means little, if anything, when it comes to the question of the evolutionary development of consciousness on the planet.ARTArticleThe One Thing That Should Never Be DoneAfter intensive mental awakening, vital experiences of spiritual significance, and the emotional uplift and fervour of devotion, there comes a period when the work shifts to the physical mind and framework, and change, that seemed to be so close and real, now seems to be illusory and just about impossible. A sense of emptiness, of uselessness, of wasted time and effort overwhelms the mind and the being is caught up in what seems to be an utterly ordinary life devoid of any deeper meaning or significance.ARTArticleThe Origin of JoyThere is a difference between ‘joy’ and ‘enjoyment’. Enjoyment is a more or less passive state, such as when we enjoy some form of entertainment. Joy, on the other hand, is an active status, which rises spontaneously through involvement and action. If we observe children, we see that they experience a true state of joy when they are able to ‘do’ something, whether it is learning how to jump for the first time, or helping their mother in some activity, or simply running, playing and experiencing life actively.ARTArticleThe Play of the Gunas in the Spiritual PathThe Bhagavad Gita places considerable emphasis on the need to understand the play of the Gunas, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, in all things. Yogic practice is not exempted from this play. Each of the Gunas has a specific set of characteristics, and they are not stable. The Gunas are always in motion. Doubt, fear, darkness, lack of effort, despondency or depression, all are signs of the predominance of Tamas. Ambition, energetic action, desire, grasping are all signs of the action of Rajas. Light, balance, harmony and understanding, steady, calm effort are the signs of Sattwa.ARTArticleThe Potential Impact of Positive or Negative Thoughts on Another IndividualThought has power. Power, however, has its conditions of action. A ‘passing’ thought running through the mind, disappearing as quickly as it enters, does not have the same impact as a concentrated and persistent focus coupled with the gathering of emotional or vital force to accentuate its impact. Similarly, a thought generated more or less mechanically has much less impact overall than one that involves the attention and support of the being.ARTArticleThe Power of Detachment to Effect Transformational Change in the NatureThere is a vast difference between a mental acknowledgement of a concept or idea, and the actual realisation that underlies that concept. It is not an infrequent occurrence for a spiritual aspirant to hold a mental belief that is, nevertheless, not a full realisation. Spiritual realisation is not an “idea” but a palpable experience that is what Sri Aurobindo calls a ‘knowledge by identity’. When Peace is mentioned, it is not some theoretical status but an actual overwhelming sense of peace that fills the being.ARTArticleThe Predominant Characteristic of Physical Consciousness: Tamas or InertiaAn understanding of the three gunas, or qualities of Nature, is extremely helpful in gaining an understanding of the responses to exte al stimuli, events, people and circumstances. The gunas are sattwa, with a predominant quality of light and harmony, rajas with a predominant quality of movement and action of desire, and tamas, with a predominant quality of inertia or darkness. In general, one of these qualities tend to predominate, even though they remain at all times in flux and adjustment. Different aspects of the Nature tend to take on the cast of the predominant guna.ARTArticleThe Price of the Transformation of the Earth-ConsciousnessOnce the yogic sadhana moves to the physical consciousness, it runs into the nature of the physical and material world that predominates in the quality of Tamas, with its characteristics of darkness, sloth, indolence and dullness, inertia and slowness to change.ARTArticleThe Process of Attaining Peace, Silence, Knowledge and Other Powers of the RealisationWe like to think that we succeed through strenuous effort. Our ego-personality and vital nature thrive on the idea that we are the masters of our own fate, through dint of the efforts we make. We tend to picture ourselves as originating the ideas and drives that move us into action. We believe that we are exercising free will by making decisions and move forward with the sense of personal accomplishment.ARTArticleThe Process of Bringing About Change at the Subconscious Level of Our BeingAnyone who has taken up the practice of meditation is familiar with the attempt to quiet the mind and not pay attention to thoughts that arise during the process, letting them drift through without being followed or amplified in any way. One quickly realises during the process that we tend to get ‘caught up’ in the thoughts and catch ourselves following them and have to bring ourselves back to the process of the meditation.ARTArticleThe Process of Sleep and its Transformation in the Practice of YogaIf we examine the sleep state, we can identify different phases of ‘normal’ sleep patterns for human beings in general. Starting from the waking state where we are conscious of the sights, and sounds of the outside world, as well as the thoughts and emotions and nervous impulses, feelings and pains of the physical body, we ultimately drift off, either quickly or slowly, into a state where these exte al perceptions and sensations recede and we enter the true sleep state.ARTArticleThe Psychic Being — the Nature of the Soul.When we try to understand what is meant by the term ‘soul’ we run up against a confusing mix of ideas about what the soul actually is. Similarly, the use of the term ‘psychic’ has its own issues with confused interpretation.ARTArticleThe Qualities of Food and Spiritual PracticeWhen people take up spiritual practices, they are exposed to many different ideas about the proper diet. With the idea that ‘you are what you eat’, there is a long list of foods that are considered suitable for spiritual practitioners to eat, what are called in the ancient traditions of India, ‘sattwic’ foods. Foods that are considered rajasic, or tamasic are to be avoided. This has led to some very strict dietary regiments which pick out certain foods as helpful and others as detrimental to spiritual growth.ARTArticleThe Real Definition of KarmaMore than 2000 years ago, the concept of karma was clearly defined in Buddhist teachings and Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata: Karma is inextricably linked to reinca ation and a person’s actions dictate the circumstances in his future lives. The concept is straightforward without much ambiguity.ARTArticleThe Real Definition of KarmaMore than 2000 years ago, the concept of karma was clearly defined in Buddhist teachings and Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata: Karma is inextricably linked to reinca ation and a person’s actions dictate the circumstances in his future lives. The concept is straightforward without much ambiguity.ARTArticleThe Real Definition of KarmaMore than 2000 years ago, the concept of karma was clearly defined in Buddhist teachings and Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata: Karma is inextricably linked to reinca ation and a person’s actions dictate the circumstances in his future lives. The concept is straightforward without much ambiguity.ARTArticleThe Risks and Difficulties of Eliminating Lower Drives Through Purposeful Indulgence, Part 1The idea of overcoming lower drives and desires of the vital, or that stem from the physical or the subconscient, through indulgence in a purposeful way is an enticing one, particularly to the vital nature, which can use this excuse to convince the mind to fulfill the myriad of powerful desires that are still active in the being.ARTArticleThe Risks and Difficulties of Eliminating Lower Drives Through Purposeful Indulgence, Part 2Dealing with deeply embedded drives of the subconscient and the lower vital through raising them up and indulging in them not only contains risks that one may fall into a deeper pattern of habitual response, but also can be a pretext for the vital enjoyment of the action with a veneer to disguise it to the mind for what it really is. The vital is extremely able in its attempt to convince the mind that indulgence is acceptable for one reason or another.ARTArticleThe Role and Nature of Avatars and VibhutisThe long, slow and steady evolutionary progression in the world occasionally reaches a point where a focused, concentrated action can move it along, prepare the advent of the next stage, and set some new directions in motion. These special efforts generally are associated with a specific person who stands as the representative of the change. For those who are conscious of their role as representatives of the Divine Intention, the name ‘Avatar’ has been used.ARTArticleThe Role and Rationale for the Existence of Hostile ForcesThe argument has been going on forever: “why does God permit evil to exist?” and “if the Divine constitutes everything, where do the hostile forces come from?” John Milton, in his Paradise Lost, posited ‘fallen angels’ who were thrown out of heaven as the cause of evil in the human world. Goethe, in Faust, provided the idea of a wager betwee God and the devil as bringing about the issues, tests and pressures that a seeker after knowledge and spiritual understanding must face.ARTArticleThe Role of Medicine in Treating Illness for the Practitioner of YogaThe spiritual seeker often is confronted with a situation that seems to pit faith against medical science. The debate between religion and science goes back millennia and this is one small part of that larger debate. Those who are dedicated practitioners are asked to face all difficulties with faith in the Divine intervention protecting and supporting them. Therefore, they are asked to call upon the Divine when they face physical illness or challenges. For many this means they should not use medicine, consult doctors or take precautions such as immunizations against virulent diseases.ARTArticleThe Role of Sex in the Integral YogaWhen Sri Aurobindo states “all life is yoga”, he is speaking generally about the long, slow ‘yoga of nature’ which is taking place in the universe, leading to ever-greater stages of consciousness manifesting and transforming, successively, the previously manifested planes of awareness. This enormous process implies that all life is, indeed, part of that process and thus ‘all life is yoga’.ARTArticleThe Role of the Inner Standpoint in Overcoming Depression and Ambition in the Practice of YogaMany people, not just those who practice yoga, experience times when they feel like their lives are meaningless, they are helpless to change, and the round of daily life, with its little wants and needs, and fulfillment of desires, is empty and distasteful. They experience in some cases a sense of what is known in yogic terminology as vairagya, renunciation, even if it is for them a fleeting emotion.ARTArticleThe Role of the Psychic Being in the Integral YogaIn order to both observe and manage the actions and reactions of the mind, life and body, it is necessary to achieve a standpoint outside of their action. Sri Aurobindo identifies the psychic being as the separate entity, what may be called the ‘soul’, as the consciousness capable of this separation and control. It is important to avoid the confusion engendered by the confused understanding of the term ‘psychic’ in the West.

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