The author reminds us that it is the errors of an egoistic and self-divided creation that are the central practical concern of every human being striving to fulfil the purpose of his life on earth. The errors are inevitable; indeed, they are the means of fulfilment, the fertiliser by which the seed of the spirit is made to grow and fructify on the plane of human life.
Sacrifice and Egoism – PART I Read More »
The author writes that sacrifice is commonly thought of as leaving the participant worse off than he was – except for the anticipation of any calculated reward or quid pro quo. Or it may be associated with atonement or punishment for wrongs done. Nothing, of course, could be farther from the intention or effect of the sacrifice which is to be performed by the Spirit of Man if he is to achieve his true destiny.
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The last 2 verses of Isha Upanishad are Rishi’s powerful invocations to Gods Surya and Agni who alone can uplift him and open still higher vistas of Light and Power leading to the final goal of Immortality while still living on earth for a full span of life.
Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad – Part 6 Read More »
Explaining verses 15 and 16, which invoke the Sun God, the author illustrates the close relationship that exists between the Upanishads and the Veda.
Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad – Part 5 Read More »
Sri Aurobindo summarises the essence of verses 9-14 of Isha Upanishad in ‘The Life Divine’: “Through Avidya, the Multiplicity, lies our path out of the transitional egoistic self-expression in which death and suffering predominate; through Vidya consenting with Avidya by the perfect sense of oneness even in that multiplicity, we enjoy integrally the immortality and the beatitude. By attaining to the Unborn beyond all becoming we are liberated from this lower birth and death; by accepting the Becoming freely as the Divine, we invade mortality with the immortal beatitude and become luminous centres of its conscious self-expression in humanity.”
Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad – Part 4 Read More »
In this part 3 of our ongoing series, the focus is on verses 6-8 of Isha Upanishad. We are reminded that it is the Brahman that is the origin, the end and the container of the things; creating, he indwells the forms of his manifestation, enjoys variously his thousand abodes. He is the One, the same everywhere. And if each individual formation behaves and acts as if it is a separate entity, different from others, it is because it is clouded in its outer consciousness, it has temporarily lost touch with the unifying knowledge and consciousness at its back—that which sustains it as well as it does all the rest in a common extension.
Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad – Part 3 Read More »
In this part, the author focuses on the first 4 verses of Isha Upanishad. He reminds that this Upanishad addresses itself to the question of world-existence, the problem of harmonising human life and activity with the Reality of Immutable Brahman. The solution it finds is one of the most remarkable found by the ancient Indian mind.
Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad – Part 2 Read More »
In this six-part series, we present an essay by M.P. Pandit which summarises some of Sri Aurobindo’s commentaries on the Isha Upanishad. The first introductory part highlights Sri Aurobindo’s comments on translating the Upanishads, and the errors made by Max Muller and other Indologists who fail to capture the spirit of the scripture because they lack the inner vision of the Truth expressed in scripture.
Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad – 1 Read More »
The author speaks of the inner light that illumines the aspirant’s path, and emphasises the value of sincerity, openness and an inner discernment.
Volume 1, Issue 10Author: Kishor Gandhi Destruction: The First Condition of Progress Now that the Supramental Truth which will create a New Age in human evolution is increasingly pressing to manifest in the external life of the world, the question naturally arises as to how it will deal with those elements in the life and
Will the New Creation be Preceded by Destruction? (Part 1) Read More »
Volume 1, Issue 10Author: Kishor Gandhi CONTINUED FROM PART 1 True Meaning of the Destroyer Aspect of the Divine This Gita’s conception of God as the Time-Spirit in the aspect of the Destroyer should not be identified with the crude Semitic religious idea of God as a stern and wrathful almighty Creator and Judge who
Will the New Creation be Preceded by Destruction? (Part 2) Read More »
Volume 1, Issue 10Author: Kishor Gandhi CONTINUED FROM PART 2 The Two Choices Before Humanity These are the two alternatives facing humanity from which it will have to make its choice. The Mother has drawn our pointed attention to this choice in a recent message: “The Future of the Earth depends on a Change of
Will the New Creation be Preceded by Destruction? (Part 3) Read More »
Volume 1, Issue 10Author: Kishor Gandhi CONTINUED FROM PART 3 Furthering the Evolutionary Transition Therefore whether at the present moment the manifestation of the supramental Truth will or will not be preceded by destruction will depend upon the choice that humanity makes. It may, however, be argued that ultimately it is not the human choice
Will the New Creation be Preceded by Destruction? (Part 4) Read More »
Volume 1, Issue 9Author: Rishabhchand INTRODUCTION All spiritual greatness is a surpassing of the normal human consciousness and an embrace of the universal and transcendent. It is a growing out of the ego-moulds and a discovery of one’s true being in the Infinite and Eternal. The essential characteristic of its feeling in regard to the
Sri Aurobindo’s Love for Man and Earth -1 Read More »
Sri Aurobindo’s love of man and earth is a love of God in man and earth, or rather of God as man and earth. That he did not develop it but was born with it, will be amply illustrated and confirmed by his writings, prose and poetical. No greater lover of man has ever been born, – of the entire being of man, and not only of his soul; and no greater prophet of man’s divine destiny.
Sri Aurobindo’s Love for Man and Earth – 2 Read More »
A dizzy height of lyrical magnificence is reached in the ‘Rose of God’, the crest-jewel of Sri Aurobindo’s shorter mystical poems, the iridescent Mantra of supra-mental transformation. His love of man and earth attains here a depth and concentrated intensity of expression which makes the poem at once an invocation and a revelation, a prayer, a prophecy and a promise.
Sri Aurobindo’s Love for Man and Earth – 3 Read More »
Sri Aurobindo’s love for man and earth is not humanism, idealistic or realistic; it is not an outcome of an emotional or imaginative idealism, nor an overflow from the widened heart of Spirit-touched sainthood. It is more than compassion and more than even the spiritual emotion born of inner identity. It is a beatific blossom of a complete and constant identification with the Divine who is everywhere, in Matter and Life as much as in the silent Spirit; and it is this union and identification that makes Sri Aurobindo declare in the inspired strain of the Vedic Rishis, “Matter is Brahman”
Sri Aurobindo’s Love for Man and Earth – 4 Read More »
In this part, the author emphasises that only a decisive turn to spiritualise all life can be the true basis of a spiritual nationalism. He reminds that this decisive and all-encompassing turn of spiritual evolution is India’s true mission and role for the future of humanity.
The Psychology of Indian Nationalism -13 Read More »
The author highlights the triple basis of a spiritual turn of the society if that is the future destiny of humanity and nations. This is – Divine, Freedom and Unity. The significance of individual freedom is brought to light because individual indeed is the basis of evolution of consciousness.
The Psychology of Indian Nationalism -14 Read More »
In this concluding part of the 15-part series, the author summarises the inner evolution of Indian national consciousness of which the political idea of nationalism is only a small part. He reminds us that the future course of Indian nationhood lies in spiritualising all the outer aims and activities including science, art, literature, politics and socio-economic organisation.
The Psychology of Indian Nationalism – 15 Read More »